Herbal News Magazine
All About Herbal Medicine, Alternative Health News and Natural Supplements
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Feb 3
We’re picking up where we left off, on something I feel is a very important topic which affects millions of lives every day across the globe. I’m talking about depression, and the havoc it can play on lives when it sneaks in so insidiously as it often does and ruins chances of happiness and contentment.
We’re continuing our talk about natural antidepressants, of which there are a great many to choose from today – lucky for us! There are several herbs that have some degree of effect on the human mood and the brain chemicals that dictate the human mood.
We talked about sceletium last time, now we’re going to talk about a few others.
St. Johns Wort – this one is probably the most well known of the natural antidepressants. It has the effect of raising the level of mood as well as promoting a sense of well being and calmness since it can also work to reduce anxiety, which is often associated with depression.
You do have to be careful with this one. You cannot take it if you are already on an SSRI drug, and there is some evidence that it may reduce the effectiveness of the birth control pill in women. So just use caution. You can start your dose off small if you are not in one of these risk groups, and gradually work it up to whatever works for you.
I have taken this one for long periods of time with good results, and have not had any negative side effects. The next one I’m going to go over though, I did experience some negative side effects and recommend you research this one before even trying.
SAM-e – this is short for the long name of this supplement which is S -Adenosyl methionine. This is a nutrient that is already made by and present in the human body, but the levels of it decline with age. I tried this supplement for some mild mood depression years ago and did not like the way it made me feel. It gave me a pounding headache and increased my anxiety ten fold and made me feel as if I were going mad and I was just out of my head the whole time, and that was on the lowest dosage available, so I never tried it again.
It can be a great way to lift mood for some people, you just really need to watch your dosage of it and make sure you constantly monitor how you feel with various dosages. For my money, St. Johns Wort has been the most consistent natural antidepressant for me.
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Tagged as: anxiety, best natural antidepressants, brain, chemicals, depression, herbal, mood, natural, natural antidepressant, relief, remedies, sam-e, st johns wort -
Jan 31
When it comes to fighting depression, there are really a lot of medications out there vying for our attention. However, most of the pharmaceutical options that are on the table come with quite staggering side effects. Also, they can often lead to a lifetime of prescribed medication taking since they are difficult to ween off of.
Not that some herbs can’t be the same way, but at least you don’t have to get a prescription for them and you also don’t have to worry about trying so many of them and spending a lot of money before you find one that works. It is estimated that the average depression case takes up to three antidepressant medications before they find one that works, so keeping the cost down, and taking something natural is something that eases a lot of people’s minds.
Let’s face it, we all struggle with blue moods once in a while. It doesn’t meant we all need to go on Prozac! So let’s get on with the subject of this post, which is all about the options out there in herbal medicine that exist for helping to treat mild depression, anxiety and blue moods, all of which pretty much go hand in hand.
Herbal remedies for Depression – the Natural Antidepressant
1.) Sceletium Tortuosm – This one is relatively new to a lot of people here in the US, but it’s been around a while. Like the uber popular diet aid hoodia gordonii, it is a succulent plant that is found in South Africa. It can be chewed, brewed, ground up and basically done any way you want it. It is available in capsule form as a ground up powder as well, but it’s still relatively hard to find here in the US last time I checked. I’m sure that’s about to change once news catches on about it.
This herb is a pretty potent natural antidepressant and mood brightener. It can also boost clarity and mindfulness while also improving overall mood. Those are all traits that we want to improve in ourselves, so it’s a great way to get a sort of three in one supplement.
It works as a natural SSRI (Seratonin Reuptake Inhibitor), so it helps to increase the amount of serotonin circulating in the blood, which is the feel good chemical that we can be deficient in. Deficiency of this chemical can lead to bulimia and depression.
It also helps dopamine to circulate more efficiently and affects the natural chemicals that help this one to work together in harmony with all the other hormones and chemicals that make you feel good, productive, and happy. A noted potential side effect is headache in some people.
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Tagged as: antidepressant, best natural antidepressants, enhancer, herbal, improve mood, mood, natural, natural antidepressant, naturally, remedy -
Jan 18
We talked last time about stress and how everyone has to deal with it in their own special way. I wanted to talk about another very important aspect of stress. That is, that even though it seems that it would always be destructive, it is actually needed to an extent to push us to new levels and heights in our lives.
The greatest achievers in our history had to overcome many obstacles. They came out ahead though. It is essential that we go through various levels of stress to learn something new, do something that scares us, or be in situations that make us uncomfortable. That is how we grow – how we evolve.
Avoidance of all potentially stressful situations and responsibilities will actually increase fears and anxieties. If attitude, itself, doesn’t get you through in controlling your anxiety, it is time to look at either herbal solutions or, if it is severe, seek professional medical help.
Certain cases, such as panic attacks or ongoing depression with a loss of interest in things you used to enjoy call for professional guidance. Severe anxiety and depression, as a response to stress, can affect all parts of your body, physically, and your mind, emotionally.
Physical responses to anxiety can include fast heartbeat, excessive sweating, nausea, lightheadedness, shakiness, muscle tension, difficulty breathing naturally and difficulty falling asleep. Of course, these symptoms, if anxiety is chronic, will adversely affect almost every body part physically.
Getting enough sleep, exercising regularly and eating well are positive steps to take in controlling anxiety. Taking measures to boost your confidence, such as mastering a new challenge, can help with self esteem issues that may be at the base of some anxieties.
The reasoning behind my personal choice for my New Year’s resolution is because a dysfunctional response to daily stressors can so adversely affect your body, mind and spirit. As I’m getting older, I can see that things I got “stressed out” about ten years ago are insignificant to me today.
I don’t want to give any more time to excessive anxiety taking over and getting in the way of enjoying my life more. I want to be in a good mood more often than not, and taking control of my stress is a major part of that for me.
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Jan 16
This is part one of a two part article that is about something very important, and near and dear to my heart since I am a born perfectionist in a multitude of ways. Being this way has been a blessing as well as a curse in my life. It has allowed me to achieve a great many of my goals.
However, it has also lead me to be a natural worrier, and I tend to feel out of control and helpless a lot if I can’t 100% control the outcome of a situation. For this reason I’ve taken a lot of precautions to relieve stress in my life.
Monthly massages, yoga practice and herbal supplements for anxiety are a few of them. I also will take to an entire day of doing nothing but slacking off watching television on the rare occasion when I just can’t take the stress any more, and these all work wonders for me.
It’s the nearing the end of January and, if we haven’t already thought about it, it’s time to make New Year’s resolutions. My personal New Year’s resolution may seem unusual or uncommon but it actually makes a lot of sense for many of us. It is to stop stressing so much about the little details and responsibilities of everyday life.
In order to do that, we must realize that stress is a part of everyday life and it is inevitable. We do get to choose, to a large degree, how we respond to stress. My New Year’s resolution is to realize and believe that it will all work out if steps are taken to take care of the stressors, i.e., finances, relationships or work issues.
This is, for me, a valuable New Year’s resolution as the signs and symptoms of a dysfunctional response to stress are many. Anxiety, as a response to stress, is actually functional, up to a certain point.
An example of this would be as a motivator to prepare for a speech or a big test that is coming up. Anxiety that comes out of nowhere and becomes overwhelming can lead to chronic worrying, fear and a constant feeling of unease.
This kind of anxiety will translate into a host of physical and psychological symptoms. Chronic anxiety and fears can lead to an avoidance of daily responsibilities, such as going to work, to school, partaking in social activities or dealing with ongoing bills or home maintenance issues. When anxiety is extreme and constant, it can lead to psychological depression.
Attitude and a faith in yourself and significant others to work through life’s responsibilities and frustrations will help to alleviate chronic anxiety and depression. Attitude can help to rediscover joy and pride in jobs well done. Overcoming frustrations and pitfalls can help you to continue working your way through stressful situations and it can boost your confidence and self esteem.
Hope you enjoyed part I of Taking Control of Your Stressors. Part II will be published shortly.
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Tagged as: anxiety, attitude, chronic anxiety, confidence, control, depression, faith, resolution, self esteem, stress, stress relief, stressors -
Dec 22
There’s a little known fact about going on antidepressants of the medical variety. Many times, a doctor must prescribe as many as three different (or more) medications before the patient finds one that doesn’t either make them feel worse or doesn’t work at all.
This is actually fairly common place. So the notion that you go on any antidepressant, then feel better is really not true at all. In fact, some depression medications can send patients into an even deeper depression, and there are actually warning labes on some to that effect.
Some antidepressants may make patients suicidal, this is why antidepressants are so closely monitored by a physician, so they can make sure the patient is not going down a path of being worse off and contemplating suicide from being on the medication. This surely would defeat the entire purpose.
Antidepressants are still one of the most largely prescribed medications here in the US. This leaves no doubt that depression is one of the biggest mental health issues facing us today. Depression robs us of our enjoyment of life, and this is the very reason we were put on this earth – to help our fellow man and to enjoy life.
It is estimated that up to one fifth of patients on some antidepressants may actually feel worse after taking the medication than they did before they got on it, making monitoring by mental health professionals even more important.
The reason antidepressants can be so tricky to figure out is that they all work on various mechanisms within the human brain, and different chemicals released in order to lift the mood and encourage good thoughts as opposed to bad.
Some may be SSRI’s, which work on seratonin levels, which are responsible for the feelings of joy and happiness, while some work on other “feel good” chemicals or find a segway to make our bodies produce more of them on their own.
There are natural treatments for depression, however, those with major clinical depression usually need professional help and may need more serious medications if they are suffering from clinical depression.
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Tagged as: antidepressants, depression, feel, medical, medications, prescription, professional, seratonin, worse
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