Treating Depression Naturally without Pharmaceutical Drug… Depression is a disorder involving the whole body including the nervous system, moods, thoughts, and behavior.
It presents a potential threat affecting your eating, sleeping, thinking, feeling habits, and your interaction with people around you. It can last for, weeks, months, or even years.
The symptoms of depression as mentioned in our previous article Depression are many and varied 
including chronic fatigue, sleep disturbances, changes in appetite, headaches, backaches, digestive disorders, restlessness, irritability, anger, loss of interest or pleasure in activities previously enjoyed, and feelings of worthlessness and inadequacy. Many of these symptoms are common with more than 150 million adults around the world. The most common treatment doctor’s prescribe for this disorder is antidepressant medications.
There are three major classes of antidepressants: tricyclics, MAOIs, and SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors). The most common treatment for depression is an SSRI. Serotonin is a brain chemical which is closely linked to mood. Brain chemicals, called neurotransmitters, regulate our behavior. The neurotransmitters most commonly associated with mood are dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine. SSRI’s manipulate the way the body uses serotonin, in an effort to conserve serotonin stores in the body, thus optimizing its calming effects.
Till the 90’s, antidepressants were considered a cure-all for the rapidly increasing incidence of depression. Unfortunately, they don’t work in the majority of cases (latest figures indicate a 70% failure rate) in the USA alone, and that have been linked to suicide, violence, psychosis, abnormal bleeding and brain tumors. Additionally, researchers have now discovered that insufficient serotonin may not be the only reason for depression. Too much cortisol, a stress-related hormone, may also play a role.
Depression may be triggered by tension, stress, a traumatic life event, chemical imbalances in the brain, thyroid disorders, upset stomach, headache, nutritional deficiencies, poor diet, the consumption of sugar, mononucleosis, lack of exercise, endometriosis, or any serious physical disorder, Food allergies and hypoglycemia. If depression is a secondary symptom of a more serious underlying problem, taking an antidepressant only serves to mask symptoms and create more dysfunction.
Prescription drugs DO NOT CURE ANYTHING! They only treat symptoms and do not address the underlying
cause of an illness. Drugs cannot create neurotransmitters, but can only manipulate what is already available. And if there is an underlying problem such as low thyroid function, female hormone imbalance, hypoglycemia, adrenal exhaustion, candidiasis, food allergies, inadequate nutrition, or any of a host of other ailments, it will not address those either.
What’s worse, according to the World Health Organization, these drugs ARE addictive and do produce withdrawal, contrary to what most doctors may claim.
If drugs are not the answer, what is? It is imperative to try to establish the source of the depression, whether there is an underlying physical condition(s) present. Engage the services of a natural practitioner who is willing to look at disorders of the endocrine system (hormone imbalance), food allergies, or chemical imbalance from a nutritional (not drug) standpoint. Tracking your depressive episodes is very useful, correlating eating habits and how you feel, most depressed people are allergic. Analyze your life, looking for emotional and mental reasons, problems that can be resolved by changing your outlook, relationships, or approach to life’s challenges. Physical and emotional issues are often intertwined.
Mind, body and soul are inseparable. Any healing discipline that treats one and not the other is an incomplete approach and more likely to fail.
Start healing process by optimizing your body nutrition. Your body operates on a system of chemical language, the communication that is carried on at a cellular level. This chemical language involves neurotransmitters and hormones. The level of neurotransmitters and hormones in our body is controlled by what we eat and assimilate. If we do not get the building blocks from our diet to produce adequate levels of neurotransmitters and hormones, communication begins to break down and we experience disease. Our body’s chemistry holds the key to the way we feel, and our chemistry consume. For example, eating complex carbohydrates raises the level of tryptophan, a precursor to serotonin. Complex carbohydrates include whole grains, vegetables, peas and beans. High protein foods, such as salmon and turkey, promote the production of dopamine and norepinephrine, and contain the added benefit of essential fatty acids, both important nutrients contributing to mental alertness.
Body cells do not require toxic chemical compounds. Drugs block metabolic reactions, but nutrients facilitate metabolic reactions. Every tissue in the body is affected by nutrition. Under conditions of poor nutrition, organs begin to break down and become dysfunctional. The brain is no different.
Since the 1970’s, orthomolecular therapists and doctors have been using amino acid therapy to treat depression. Amino acids are the building blocks of protein and are used by the body to make neurotransmitters and hormones. Vitamins and minerals are also needed as co-factors. Specific amino acids used to treat depression include L-tyrosine, taurine, L-phenylalanine, glutamine, glycine, GABA, and 5-HTP, with B-6, magnesium and zinc as co-factors.
There is a definite link between serotonin deficiency and depression. Multiple vitamins and minerals are absolutely essential, with the B-vitamins, zinc, calcium and magnesium being especially important.
NOTE – Withdrawal can often be more dangerous than continuing on a medication. If you are currently on an antidepressant, you need to consult with a health care professional that can help gradually (e.g. every15 day time span) reduce your dose. These drugs alter brain chemistry and upon withdrawal can cause severe and even life threatening reactions.
There are several excellent choices in vitamins, minerals, amino acids and other supplements for optimal brain function.
Amino Acids – Vitamins –
Minerals –
Essential Fatty Acids – Lecithin –
A combination of GABA, glycine, & taurine with herbs and co-factors to support relaxation and a balanced mood –
A combination of Taurine, L-Phenylalanine, & tyrosine with herbs, co-factors, and antioxidants to support mental clarity and a positive mood state –
NAD – B-3 (niacin) supplement. Regarded as one of the most effective nutrients in elevating mood and overcoming moderate depression –
SAMe – may support nervous system function by increasing the synthesis and recycling of certain neurotransmitters. SAMe is believed to positively effect a number of neurotransmitters, including serotonin, dopamine, noradrenaline and norepinephrine
Liver cleansing may also help with depression. The liver must break down all the bi-products of metabolism. Faulty liver function can contribute to depression.
Antidepressants work by preventing neurons in the brain from importing certain chemicals, such as dopamine and serotonin, which are used to pass messages from cell to cell. The route by which these chemicals are imported depends on passageways in the outer membrane of the cells called transporter proteins, and it is on these passageways that the antidepressants exert their influence.
We hope that the information above brings enlightenment to you and help you ease your pain.
Having said that, we endeavor to bring additional enlightenment and support in treating depression by combining what modern medical science and what ancient spiritual philosophy and traditions have provided to human behavior improvement.
At paradetect we believe in attending to MIND, BODY AND SOUL in any treatment related to human behavior, after all, better health for all is our goal.
Adam El Masri
