Healthy brain moods
Author Phil Wade ©
Depression can be caused by brain inflammation, according to Dr Adrian Lopresti at the functional medicine conference at Sofitel Brisbane Central in June, 2016. Danielle Fairbrother also reported research showing that specific areas in the brain may physically alter with inflammation. Diet, lifestyle and herbal medicine may improve mental health by reducing inflammation. Let me explain… You see … Dr Adrian Lopresti found that inflammation reduces the actual size of your hippocampus (happiness centre) and over-develops the amygdala (fear and worry centre). And that you can reverse this. So you see? It’s not your fault. How do you reduce brain inflammation? It is a three-stage process: give specific herbs, reduce brain irritants in your food and supplement with the deficient nutrients as well as specific bacteria (microbiota) that have been sanitised out of our environment. Ask your pharmacist/naturopath who can explain that your over-refined and sometimes contaminated food sources these days may be contributers that may be reversed.
Your brain can become exhausted by over-work like any organ in your body. When this happens, it may run low on the nutrient that is required to keep nerve impulses flowing.
So, too little nutrient can result in insufficient chemical neuro-transmitters being produced in the nerve ending. These chemicals are responsible for relaying a nerve impulse from one nerve to the next. Symptomatic of under-production of neuro-transmitters is sleepless and anxiety.Teenagers are particularly susceptible to this combination. Why? Because the rapid growth that they experience may itself tend to exhaust vital nutrient reserves.
The gap that is called a synapse. A negative charge is created by nutrients and chemicals that your cells manufacture or store (just like a battery) and the neurotransmitters themselves are made from other chemicals and nutrients. This system of transferring impulses is called the “all or nothing” system. There are no half measures – it either happens or it doesn’t. And it will only happen if all the elements that are described above line up in abundance.
How else can things go wrong?
You need to know that impulses can also be interrupted if the cell wall of the neurone is compromised, if the “pump” enzymes (that are needed to create the negative charge) are exhausted by over-work and under-nutrition. Also, like any other cell types, neurones need a steady production of ATP (self-generated energy) from glucose. Finally, this glucose needs to be able to enter the neurone from your bloodstream. Ability to do so is decided by the cell wall’s sensitivity to insulin and this ensures that – glucose can enter the cell so that it can produce sufficient ATP.
So, healthy neurones need all the above things to occur.
That means to you that your diet needs to have sufficient of the correct nutrient. I could give you a list of the brain’s individual nutritional requirements but if I did they would be identical to those of every other cell in your body. The differences lie in a few individual nutrients that these specialised cells use up in greater quantity.
What’s different about the brain?
Not only that but also your brain is composed of about 120 different types of neurones – and each different type produces within its wall a different type of neurotransmitter. Remember that I said that one of the roles of a neurone is to pass on information? Well, this is achieved by means of this chemical. Specific ‘starter’ nutrients that neurones need for fuel include: vitamins, minerals, certain fats, plant nutrients like antioxidant bioflavonoids, and particular proteins and sugars. In other words, a healthy diet. Now, these days, diets need supplementation to become healthy.
How can we put things right?
So, rather than tell you to run off and buy a dozen or so different vitamins, we have compounded in our lab a special “brain food” vitamin complex. If you take a little every day, if your brain needs some assistance, before long it should be able to manufacture your own neurotransmitters again. And along with that, should come much lessened bouts of depression.
What else can go wrong?
The other things can still go wrong with your brain also, of course. You might have defective myelin sheath (often caused by over-exposure to organic solvents like alcohol, petroleum fumes and paint fumes etc) or you may have indulged in social drugs like ‘speed’ (ecstasy, amphetamines, cocaine etc) or cannabis, heroin – the list goes on.
In the case of drugs, your brain is over-stimulated and needs to shut down for a while to recover, and that may lead to a rebound state of reduced or depressed activity. Of course, repeated, frequent exposure to stimulant drugs may lead to ever longer recovery periods of reduced activity, leading to the perceived need for another dose of the drug in an attempt to stimulate bore brain activity, leading to further rebound mood lowering.
In the case of solvents, the brain’s insulating layer (myelin sheath) may need building.
In all cases, specific nutritional supplementation may complement beautifully whatever other course of action you might choose to employ.
Teaming up the above initiatives with health coaching can not only help make your brain normal again but also have you feeling full of zest and vitality.
Hypoglycaemia can cause depression also.
Before I finish, I should explain what I meant about glucose availability. You see, glucose is normally carried in your bloodstream at a specific concentration, or level. If your blood glucose level drops – or if your cell wall cannot assimilate glucose for any reason – then your cells become starved of glucose. Then that neurone can only produce limited energy or ATP. This will happen in a very common condition called hypoglycaemia. The bottom line is that this can be a major cause of mood swings but it is a condition that may be identified and corrected in the vast majority of cases by restoring cell nutrients that insulin signalling requires. it need not cause you major health problems indefinitely. So please follow the link to see what that’s all about.
And cheers for now.
Phil