If you suffer from a depressed mood, PMS, or constant ups and downs in your emotions, conventional doctors will most likely give you an antidepressant. Learn about how to cure a mood imbalance using the natural approach.
Antidepressants
usually don’t have any better effect than a placebo, according to numerous
double-blind randomized controlled trials (the gold standard in pharmaceutical
research). There is also a growing amount of evidence stating that
antidepressants may even increase your risk of becoming suicidal.
Pharmaceutical products that are prescribed like candy by many doctors today
directly affect your brain’s neurotransmitters (usually serotonin), regardless
of whether a lack of serotonin was indeed the underlying cause of your mood
imbalance (new research has shown that low serotonin is NOT, in fact, the cause
of depression). Because of the way antidepressants change your brain’s
biochemistry, they can cause your mood imbalance to actually get worse. (This
is why using an antidepressant could make you feel suicidal.)
Chinese Medicine and
Functional Medicine take a natural approach towards balancing mood. Before any
treatment is given, the underlying cause is determined. One patient with
symptoms of depression may have a totally different biological cause of that
depression than the next patient with symptoms of depression. Therefore, there
is not one “herb for depression” or “supplement for depression.” When you get acupuncture in Del Mar, CA, your practitioner realizes that you are an individual
-- not a disease or symptom -- and you therefore deserve an individualized
treatment.
There are a variety of
Chinese herbal formulas that are used for mood imbalances, depending on the
underlying cause of the mood imbalance in the individual patient. Likewise, in
functional medicine, there are a variety of methods of treatment. Your
practitioner may want to test your levels of sex hormones such as estrogen,
progesterone, and testosterone, as well as your neurotransmitters such as
serotonin and dopamine. Because we have artificial light at night, and often
sleep next to a fluorescent lit alarm clock (or even get fewer than 8 hours of
sleep on a regular basis), it’s highly common for natural circadian rhythms to
be disrupted. This stresses the adrenal glands, and subsequently the adrenal hormones
such as cortisol and DHEA. That adrenal stress is frequently a cause of mood
imbalances -- especially those involving anxiety or the feeling of being “wired
and tired.”
Acupuncture in La Jolla, CA works to
restore balance to the adrenal glands, neurotransmitters, and circadian rhythm.
Finally, you should
not ignore nutrition when you’re suffering from mood imbalances. Low
cholesterol and a diet low in cholesterol and saturated fat is associated with
depression, suicide, bipolar disorder, and mood swings. This runs contrary to
the dietary advice that was prevalent throughout the 1970’s, 80’s, and 90’s.
This is also the time period in which obesity doubled, and overweight rose from
a mere 10% of the population to nearly 70% of the population in the United
States. Eating egg yolks, butter, tallow, bacon, cod liver oil, and plenty of
small, fatty fish and seafood gives your body the fuel it needs to produce
hormones and neurotransmitters in the proper amounts.
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