Beyond Medication: What Your Doctor Isn’t Telling You about Depression and Anxie

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Beyond Medication:

What Your Doctor Isn’t Telling You about Depression and Anxiety

http://www.jigsawhealth.com/articles/beyond-medication.html

 

 

An estimated 60 million Americans suffer from an anxiety disorder or a

depressive disorder, and in some cases both. That’s roughly the equivalent of

every

man, woman and child living in California, New York and New Jersey combined.

 

We live at a frenzied pace, work long hours, eat unhealthy fast or

convenience foods, breathe in environmental pollutants, and deal with financial

and

familial pressures. So it’s not hard to understand why so many are affected.

 

Fortunately, expensive prescription medications with harmful side-effects are

not the only way to combat feelings of depression or anxiety. Though it’s

unlikely you will ever hear that from your doctor.

 

What is Anxiety Disorder?

 

Anxiety is a normal reaction to stress. It helps us deal with a tense

situation in the office, study harder for an exam, or keep focused on an

important

speech. In general, it helps us cope and is perfectly natural. But when anxiety

becomes an excessive, irrational dread of everyday situations, it becomes a

disabling disorder.

 

Anxiety disorders, according to the National Institute for Mental Health

(NIMH), are the most common forms of mental illness. These disorders include

generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder

(OCD),

post-traumatic stress disorder, and phobias. And while both sexes are equally

affected by OCD and social phobia, women are more prone to anxiety and panic

disorders.

 

What is Depressive Disorder?

 

A depressive disorder is an illness that involves the body, mood, and

thoughts. It affects the way you eat and sleep, the way you feel about yourself,

and

the way you think. A depressive disorder is not the same as a passing blue

mood. It is not a sign of personal weakness or a condition that can be willed or

wished away. People with a depressive illness cannot merely " pull themselves

together " and get better. Without treatment, symptoms can last for weeks,

months, or years. Appropriate treatment, however, can help most people who

suffer

from depression.

 

Both stress and depression can impact your health in other, more serious ways

including eating disorders, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension,

sexual disorders, osteoporosis, immunity, and sleep disorders.

 

Conventional Methods of Treatment

 

Total sales of pharmaceuticals that treat depression and anxiety are in the

billions of dollars. Antidepressants—like Zoloft®, Paxil®, and

Prozac®—may

provide immediate relief, particularly for more severe forms of mental illness,

but there’s been no evidence that these drugs prevent depression and anxiety.

Antidepressants also carry some potentially serious side effects. Long-term use

is controversial and withdrawing from them can be as difficult as the

disorder itself.

 

A Holistic Approach to Combating Depression and Anxiety

 

Recovering from depression and anxiety requires an integrated approach

including dietary and lifestyle changes. Using pharmaceuticals, as prescribed by

your doctor, to ease your symptoms is a personal choice. However, as we

discussed

above, rarely do conventional medications address or solve the root cause of

the problem, they only ease the symptoms. Ask yourself, whose best interest is

served when you are forced to rely on a continual prescription of expensive

pharmaceutical drugs? A thriving industry that spends billions of dollars each

year wooing doctors? Or you, one of the millions of suffering people forced

to fill the pockets of the pharmaceutical companies with your hard earned

money, just to feel better?

 

A much better solution is to find the root of the problem and work to regain

your mental and emotional well-being.

 

The role of serotonin

 

Serotonin (known chemically as 5-hydroxytryptamine, or 5-HTP) is a

neurotransmitter that regulates multiple functions of the central nervous system

including anger, aggression, mood, sleep, sexuality, and appetite. Low levels

of

serotonin have been associated with several disorders, namely increases in

aggressive and angry behaviors, clinical depression, obsessive-compulsive

disorder

(OCD), migraines, irritable bowel syndrome, tinnitus, fibromyalgia, bipolar

disorder, and anxiety disorders.

 

 

Maintaining healthy levels of serotonin

 

The food you eat has the potential to temporarily raise or lower your

serotonin levels. That's why the ingredients of a meal can have an impact on the

way

you feel after you eat it. To understand this relationship you need to know a

little more about an amino acid called tryptophan (pronounced trip-toe-fan).

 

Your body can't make serotonin without the help of tryptophan. If you were to

eat pure tryptophan, it would be absorbed into the blood stream through the

digestive tract, flow into the brain, metabolize into a form (5-HTP) that would

allow it to cross the blood-brain barrier and stimulate the production of

serotonin.

 

Unfortunately, eating foods with tryptophan does not significantly increase

serotonin levels. Here’s why: Tryptophan requires the use of a transport

molecule to cross the blood-brain barrier. Unfortunately, several other amino

acids

" compete " for this same transport molecule. The presence of these competing

amino acids (tyrosine, phenylalanine, valine, leucine and isoleucine) can, and

do, inhibit the transportation of tryptophan into your brain. According to some

estimates, as little as one percent of the tryptophan in your diet actually

crosses the blood-brain barrier.

 

Enter 5-HTP

 

5-Hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) is a metabolite of tryptophan that naturally

increases production of serotonin in your body. Unlike tryptophan, which

competes

with other amino acids to get to the brain, 5-HTP is absorbed directly into

the brain. In other words, you get all the great benefits of tryptophan that are

associated with increasing your serotonin levels but with far smaller and

more effective doses.

 

5-HTP is found in trace amounts within some foods, such as, turkey and

cheese. However, it is most commonly sold as an over-the-counter therapeutic

supplement, which is typically derived from the seeds of the Griffonia

simplicifolia,

a West African medicinal plant.

 

5-HTP behaves much like the antidepressants often prescribed for generalized

forms of depression and anxiety without the potentially harmful side-effects.

It may help you to manage stress more effectively, improve your quality of

sleep, overcome depression and anxiety, maintain mental and emotional well-being

and even lose weight. It can be used alone or, in some cases, as a supplement

to a pharmaceutical regimen. At the bottom of this article you will find

scientific research supporting the use of 5-HTP.

 

While pharmaceutical therapies may help those with more serious and

clinically-diagnosed mental health issues, holistic alternatives may be just as

therapeutic for anxiety disorders and depressive disorders. Plus, you’ll avoid

the

need for pharmaceutical therapies that can have serious side effects and

long-term use issues. You may also use a healthy diet, exercise, and supplement

regimen to improve symptoms of anxiety and depression.

 

Warning: Always check with your doctor prior to taking 5-HTP with any

anti-depressant drugs.

 

Additional Alternative Options for Anxiety and Depression

 

Tryptophan.

One of the essential amino acids, tryptophan is a precursor to serotonin.

But, unlike 5-HTP, tryptophan is abundantly available in diet through protein

foods. However, it must first be converted to 5-HTP, which is then converted to

serotonin. While 70% of 5-HTP actually gets converted to serotonin that number

drops off drastically for tryptophan: just 5% is converted to serotonin.

 

Melatonin.

A pineal hormone that regulates the circadian rhythm, melatonin may be

closely linked to mood. After all, melatonin is normally released in higher

amounts

at night and lower amounts in the morning to coincide with the sleep-wake

cycle. Changes in this pattern have been found in those with seasonal affective

disorder (SAD), bulimia, schizophrenia, panic disorder, and OCD.16

 

In patients with major depression, successful treatment with antidepressants

also included melatonin, and in women with bulimia or neuralgia in addition to

fibromyalgia, melatonin replacement reduced pain, sleeping disorders and

depression.17

 

Other researchers have found that melatonin may help reduce anxiety.18,19

 

B-vitamins.

The B-vitamins have been the subject of a number of studies because B-vitamin

deficiencies can sometimes mimic symptoms of depression and anxiety. For

example, pyroxidine (vitamin B-6) helps convert tryptophan to serotonin and a

deficiency in this important vitamin can result in lowered levels of serotonin.

 

Similarly, cobalamin (vitamin B-12) deficiency may also be linked to

depression and mood disorders. Duke University researchers found that bereaved

men who

were cobalamin deficient reported increased overall levels of distress,

depression, anxiety, and confusion.20 And in research done by the National

Institute on Aging, elderly patients with cobalamin deficiency are two times

more

likely to be severely depressed than non-deficient patients.21

 

Folate levels have also been shown to be low in depressed individuals. A

Cochrane Database System review of trials involving folate and antidepressants

concluded that folate may be useful in supplementing other treatments for

depression.22

 

And inositol, which affects cell membrane health and nerve transmission, may

help ease anxiety. Researchers have found 18 g per day reduced the number of

panic attacks just as well as the use of the pharmaceutical fluvoxamine.23

 

Essential fatty acids (EFAs).

Of the omega-3 EFAs, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexanoic acid

(DHA) have been extensively studied for use in mental wellness. In fact, a

University of Alaska study found that changing the omega-3 EFA-rich diet of

native

peoples to more processed foods and Western dietary habits not only increased

the rate of cardiovascular disease, obesity, and diabetes, but resulted in an

increase in depression and anxiety.24 And a Harvard Medical School study showed

that a combination of EPA and DHA helped improve symptoms of bipolar

disorder.25

 

But EPA and DHA each has its own link to mental wellness. A research review

concluded that geographic areas with high DHA consumption showed decreased

rates of depression, indicating that using DHA to treat minor depression should

be

considered.26

 

Similarly, EPA can positively impact depression. In one study, patients with

persistent depression—who were taking a standard antidepressant along with

EPA—

showed significant improvement in depressive symptoms.27 Another study found

that EPA was superior to a placebo in diminishing aggression as well as the

severity of depressive symptoms in patients with borderline personality

disorder.28

 

The scientific research supporting 5-HTP

 

5-HTP, a naturally occurring substance that converts to and raises serotonin

levels, has been closely studied as a potential treatment for depression and

anxiety.

 

A 6-week study found equal benefit between using 300 mg of 5-HTP per day vs.

150 mg per day of fluvoxamine, a common antidepressant in the Prozac family.

But 5-HTP caused fewer and less severe side effects than the drug.4

 

Another research review concluded that neurotransmitter precursors, such as

5-HTP, can be helpful in patients with mild or moderate depression.6

 

A Maastricht University study found that 5-HTP significantly reduced the

reaction to the panic challenge in panic disorder patients by regulating

serotonin

levels.7

 

Other Effective Uses for 5-HTP Fibromyalgia.

 

In a controlled trial, 300 mg per day was shown to be effective in reducing

many symptoms of fibromyalgia including pain, morning stiffness, sleep

disturbances, and anxiety.8

 

Migraine and tension headaches.

Some evidence suggests that 5-HTP—at dosages of 400 to 600 mg per day—may

help ease migraines. Lower dosages were found to have little or no effect.

 

In one study, 600 mg of 5-HTP a day reduced the intensity and duration of

migraines as effectively as the drug methysergide.9 Given that previous studies

showed that methysergide was better than placebo, this study provides

meaningful evidence about 5-HTP’s effectiveness. Similar results were seen in

another

study comparing 400 mg of 5-HTP each day with another migraine drug.10

 

Additional evidence suggests that 5-HTP did not significantly reduce the

number of tension headaches, but it did reduce participants' need to use other

pain-relieving medications.11

 

Weight management.

Fenfluramine, one of the combo phen-fen weight loss drugs pulled from the

market a few years ago, was effective because it raised serotonin levels. Given

that 5-HTP also raises serotonin levels, numerous studies have been done to

determine whether it might also be effective for weight management.

 

Four trials studied 5-HTP for weight loss. The first found that participants

given placebo ate 2300 calories per day while those taking 5-HTP (8 mg per

kilogram of body weight) ate only 1,800 and lost over three pounds in just five

weeks.12

 

In a follow-up study, those taking 5-HTP (900 mg per day) lost weight both

when there were no dietary restrictions and when following a prescribed diet

compared to those taking placebo. As in the first study, researchers concluded

that taking 5-HTP led to quicker feelings of fullness.13

 

Similar benefits were seen in a double-blind study of 14 overweight women

given 900 mg of 5-HTP daily.14

 

The final study found that using 5-HTP (750 mg per day) without intentionally

dieting resulted in not only weight loss in those with adult-onset diabetes,

but also a reduction in carbohydrate and fat intake.15

 

 

 

 

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Last Updated: Friday, May 11, 2007

 

 

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