Learn about brain health and nootropics to boost brain function
“You are not your chemical inheritance”, according to Adriana Ayales NYC herbalist behind Anima Mundi. But fo r those of us struggling with anxiety and depression, it might not seem that way — especially if being treated by the kind of doctor who doles out meds like Halloween candy. If you’ve been told, “you’re just hard-wired this way,” Ayales is offering a different perspective.
Pointing to new science on the ever-changing state of our brains, Adriana urges us to become more active in the way we approach stress, including her top five herbs for anxiety and depression…
Many of us have been taught that depression is the result of a genetic chemical imbalance. And while there is certainly a genetic component to depression, and, yes, neurotransmitters like serotonin do play a role in mood, depression actually has many potential root causes. Our mind, body and soul experience constant renewal and transcendence. In fact, so much so, that the latest discoveries within neuroplasticity teach us that our brain literally rewires itself daily. The brain is constantly ‘rewiring’ itself at every time scale—from hundreds of milliseconds, to minutes, hours, days, weeks and so on.
For decades, the prevailing dogma on neuroscience was that the adult brain is essentially hardwired, fixed in form and immutable so that by the time we reach adulthood we are pretty much stuck with what we have. And yes, you can very much de-accelerate development if a constant state of negativity and destructive emotions are allowed to prevail the internal atmosphere and trigger degeneration. But, I’m here to tell you good news.
You’re not your chemical inheritance. You’re not confined to the destiny of your genes, or the end result of stress, trauma, depression, chronic unhappiness, etc. You might not be who you think who you are. The latest research supports the notion that we have a natural ability to change the brain and body by thought alone. Because you can make thought more real than anything else, you can change who you are from brain cell to gene.
Dr. Joe Dispenza says, “We can turn on anxiety, stress and depression by thought alone. The hormones of stress fired for long periods of time, push the genetic buttons that create disease. And no organism can tolerate living in emergency mode for extended periods of time. The longterm effects of firing the hormones of stress such as anger, aggression, depression, anxiety, fear, unworthiness, guilt, shame, (etc) dysregulate and downregulate genes to create disease and imbalance. That means then your habitual thoughts and feelings can make you sick.” All About Anti-Depressants + Placebos
According to a study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, approximately one in six Americans take anti-depressants. This means that more than 30 million Americans are gobbling Prozac, Zoloft, Celexa, Elavil, Norpramin, Luvox, Paxil, Wellbutrin and other antidepressant psychiatric drugs like candy. This drug use accounts for billions of dollars in pharmaceutical sales annually (14.11 U.S. billion just in antidepressants alone in 2017).
Yet according to a landmark study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, antidepressant medications work—as well as placebos and not more. In other words, people in depression studies who are given sugar pills instead of antidepressant drugs do as well as the group who gets the drugs.
There is serious disheartening news about these drugs that need to be considered before they’re taken. Many people opt to taking antidepressant medications instead of changing the circumstances and habits that might be fueling the depression. There are a significant amount of studies demonstrating how depression can indeed be healed faster with meditation, herbs, diet, lifestyle choices and more, than the actual anti-depressant itself.
If you look at placebo studies, about 83% of the people in a double-triple blind placebo study, respond just as well as the anti-depressants. You can do functional scans at the brain before and after, and after 6-8 weeks after intake, you can see the change significantly. This means the brain is creating its own pharmacy of chemicals equal to the chemical they were taking. The chemistry of the brain has been proven to chance by thought alone.
FACTORS THAT May TRIGGER DEPRESSION:
+ inflammation
+ hormonal Imbalance
+ nutrient deficiencies
+ stress (physical, emotional, biological, spiritual, etc.)
+ thyroid dysfunction Key Tools To Beating Depression With Medicinal Herbs
The foods that you eat and the substances that you choose to put in your body have a massive effect on your mood and on your emotional state and are often the key to reversing depression with herbs and diet. Like mentioned above, the psycho-emotional mindsets are quite necessary to set the foundation for change, coupled with nutritional and medicinal assets, are powerful duo’s to create the necessary transformation .
By the end of this article you will have a base roadmap to the most well researched herbs and some food suggestions to include in your diet to beat depression, which you should be eating daily to make sure your body has everything it needs to produce abundant neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine, GABA, acetylcholine and how to use the autonomic nervous system to your advantage to tap deep into subconscious programming—all of which are huge players in your mood. We’ll also review some of the foods that make contribute to depressive tendencies that you can avoid to stop sabotaging your progress. Top 5 Herbs To Boost Your Mood
If you are looking for a quick fix, the herbs mentioned below can grant you noticeable effects . And although these herbs and foods can give you an instant mood lift, you don’t want to build your home on a shaky foundation. Also, be aware that if you’re taking anti-depressants some of the herbs mentioned below cannot be coupled with them. Please inform yourself first before self-diagnosing.
ST. JOHNS WORT – MIRACULOUS GOLDEN FLOWER
Backed by extensive scientific research especially from Germany where some 3 million prescriptions for hypericum and almost 66 million doses of hypericum preparations are consumed annually, this ancient botanical, the favorite of herbalists of present […]
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