Learn how to reduce depression, anxiety and stress with this one underlooked secret!
Stress causes people to feel depressed, anxious, tired and overweight. Truth be told the cause of these problems is a lack of a steady supply of glucose to the brain. Read this to start feeling better today!
Researchers have found that under stress, your brain needs to fuel itself with serotonin that make us feel happy and energetic. If the brain lacks this chemical, consistently, over a long period of time, we will feel lack of energy, physical energy to do things or good humor. If you have depression, anxiety, or just feel exhausted after work, you are suffering from a chemical deficiency in serotonin.
The truth is that one in four Americans suffer from an insulin imbalance which will lead to a condition called “metabolic syndrome (elevated blood pressure, a high blood sugar level, excess body fat around the waist and abnormal cholesterol levels occurring together), increasing your risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Don’t have all of this yet? Well, anyone feeling anxious, depressed, fatigued and stressed usually have high fluctuations in blood sugar levels.
Your brain is the most dependent part of your body to glucose, or sugar. Your brain needs sugar for the brain to create energy called ATP. This happens during the conversion of tryptophan into serotonin. That energy is derived from the sugars in our food in the form of glucose.
When the brain does not have enough energy, and especially over many years, a depletion of serotonin is the result. With a depletion of serotonin, our brains cannot respond to pleasurable events and the result is depression. Mainstream medicine and psychology often fail to help people with this type of depression, because they have no proper explanation as to what causes depression.
If a person has fluctuations in the level of glucose in their blood over time, they are vulnerable to having low levels of the brain chemicals called neurotransmitters, which control mood, energy levels, memory and pain. This is the cause of depression, anxiety, panic attacks, migraine headaches and some researchers say, even dementia.
What are some solutions you can do today to reverse this trend?
Clearing up depression, anxiety, high stress and migraine headaches using acupuncture, herbal medicine and dietary changes is very successful, but it takes a commitment of time and energy. Here is a simple protocol:
- Get acupuncture: Acupuncture pushes the body’s button to reset your “relaxation” response by stimulating the body to release its own neurotransmitters and endorphins which produce serotonin, the one thing you are chronically lacking.
- Eat in a way that keeps a constant, but slow flow of glucose to your blood. This means starting with a protein-rich breakfast and a snack every two to three hours with protein in it. There aren’t many protein snacks (nuts, eggs, meat, beans, seaweed, protein shake) but we all get used to eating these. Don’t finish meals with a sugar-rich dessert. And, do not eat simple carbohydrates, like bread, baked goods, bagels, etc. between meals. These products will make your blood sugar spike like crazy.
You might say, hey, didn’t you say we need more sugar? So why can’t I eat sugary foods. This makes sense, but eating more sugar when you are already in this state tends to overload and wreck havok to the insulin, so it actually worsens the blood sugar levels. Eating protein with a meal is actually more able to regulate glucose better so you don’t get such spikes..
3. Take supplements and herbal medicines that fix the chemical pathways that are broken to restore insulin sensitivity.
Start with Chromium picolinate at lunch and at dinner time, as well as a B vitamin’s done in the morning or noon time to help regulate blood sugar and stress.
When my patients do these things for a few months, most of the brain chemistry imbalances described above slowly disappear.
When brain chemistry deficits are the result of blood sugar fluctuations, the problem is not cleared up quickly. Blood sugar levels need to be maintained for the brain to produce the neurotransmitters and then it takes time for those chemicals to reach normal levels again. Most patients start to see improvement in two to four weeks, but don’t feel normal again for months.
If nothing is done to correct insulin resistance, the result is often Type II diabetes. This is the most severe form of insulin resistance, at its most severe the body loses the ability to produce insulin and the patient is dependent on insulin shots for the rest of their life. And that result is one we should all be inspired to avoid.
Want more help? Call or email me to help you through this. I am never too busy to help you at the Integrative acupuncture center located in Ridgewood, New Jersey. Pick up the phone and call 201-444-7150. Let me help you craft a tailored plan to help you reverse this today.