Excerpt taken from Depression Thirty-year old Kate had been feeling increasingly depressed. She had consulted a
psychiatrist who told her (in an echo of my own case) she had a “chemical imbalance.”
She was prescribed Zoloft and when small doses didn’t help her mood, she was
increased to maximum dose. This high dose upset Kate, who mentioned she felt
uncomfortable taking medication for her sadness at all—but at least the pain in her
heart and the anxiety that made breathing difficult at times had subsided. It was a
secondary, but equally upsetting, problem that had brought her to me. She had gained
25 pounds while on the medication, and the shame about that was starting to be as
painful as the sadness that the Zoloft had improved.
I told Kate that Zoloft is part of a group of drugs called SSRIs, or Selective Serotonin
Reuptake Inhibitors. They are designed to help with low serotonin levels—not by
increasing the amount produced, but by letting the amounts available in the body stick
around longer before inactivated. While they can be very beneficial in cases of moderate
depression to kick start her to a more stable place, they can sometimes mask the real
problem: something in the factory of the gut, where the majority of the serotonin is
produced, has gone awry. Instead of relying forever on an outside source of something
she is designed by nature to make herself, we want to correct whatever obstacles and
lacks are causing her to under produce the neurotransmitter. In addition, I told her that
one of the most common issues I see amongst women her age is a sluggish thyroid
gland, due to mental stress, allergies, and nutritional lacks. This influences both weight
gain and depression. By giving her body a recharge and a “reset” through a cleanse, the
inner serotonin production gest a chance to improve and the thyroid can bounce back
into full action, helping to regulate weight again. Kate ended up doing six weeks of
Clean, because she was feeling so great that she didn’t want to change anything. In total
she lost 30 pounds and she looked better than ever. I worked in conjunction with her
psychiatrist and slowly tapered her off her Zoloft .
When your intestinal environment is damaged and inflamed, there is a slow reduction of
natural serotonin levels, because so much of your serotonin is made in the intestines
under the right conditions. When this happens, it physically changes the way you are
getting signals about what to feel and how to respond to the world. Your experiences of
moods and feelings will change for the worse, shifting to apathy, a dulled anaesthetized
state, or serious lows. This explanation could be seen as a modern scientific
understanding of amma’s torpor of the spirit. Both are caused by toxicity.
As anyone with a more complex understanding of the psyche and the physiology knows,
the picture of depression is far more intricate than this. For one thing, there are many
other neurotransmitters involved that may also be out of balance, whether from
nutritional lacks or subtler imbalances in other parts of the body. Then add to this the
quantum toxins, all the problems of the heart and soul that evades a physical
examination, and it is impossible to say that there is ever a single cause of depression . I
would never have tried to tell Kate if the root of her suffering started in the body (with
low neurotransmitters causing her low spirits) or in the spirit (with her spirit generating
a physical symptom to get her attention). But serotonin levels are something we can
optimize easily just in case, and work with that. Time and time again, I’ve witnessed how
restoring the intestinal integrity reactivates the major serotonin factory in the guts, and
the mental fog, sadness, or distress melt away. This can be the massive first step to
improvement from which real healing in the spirit can start. Frequently, as Kate
experienced, the patient who is already on anti-depressant medication is able to reduce
the dosage and often remove it entirely. (This should always be done while working with
the physician who prescribed them and never on your own.)
Antidepressants, when used consciously, can serve an important purpose. In cases of
moderate or severe depression they can be the “bridge” that helps shift the patient from
a place where they are floundering to a place where they feel some solid ground. Like
any drug, they will need to be neutralized and eliminated by the liver, so they add to the
toxic load. But anti-depressants can be a good tool used while repairing the gut flora
during and after a detox program. Since the brain is ‘plastic,’ meaning it is always
changing and modifying, anti-depressants can help create some new neural pathways
through which your experience of the world gets processed. You are creating a new and
improved memory of what it’s like to feel better over the few months it might take for
your gut flora to get restored and for your second brain to manufacture its own
serotonin, reestablishing the pathways to a happier perception of the world.
Because most antidepressants only work for a while, and have a tolerance effect in many
people after six months to a year, to treat depression without restoring the conditions in
the body is negligent. Often, patients are simply put on higher doses or on second or
third antidepressant. To rely on antidepressants as the only course of action long-term
is like whipping a weak horse into running. He may run, but he will collapse after a
while. Meanwhile the side effects of the medications--from decreased libido, impotence,
insomnia, weight gain or weight loss, to dry mouth and more—can accumulate. (The
most tragic side effect of all is suicide, which is little discussed in the medical world.) If,
however, the patient increases their serotonin naturally, it’s as if we brought a hundred
new horses into the race, letting the weak one go out to pasture and enjoy the grass. Note: Serotonin production is greatly influenced by diet. Like every thing in the body,
serotonin is built with the building blocks we obtain from food. It uses certain amino
acids as building blocks, especially the one known as tryptophan that comes from high-
protein foods. Levels of tryptopohan have hugely declined in the modern diet. When we
ate wild animals that foraged on grasses and other plants, we got more tryptophan in
our diets. Grain-fed animals have much less of it, just like they have less omega-3 fatty
acids. In addition, the natural production of serotonin is inhibited by:
After repairing the damaged intestinal environment, creating a Wellness Plan with a
nutritient balanced diet, and possibly a regime of supplements that include probiotics, is
an important step in sustaining more stable serotonin levesl.
Looking for a structure plan to help you get started on your Wellness Journey? Consider the 21 Day Clean Program Kit
‘Medische noodzaak is een holle kreet’ Onduidelijkheid door interpretaties zorgverzekeraars Het begrip ‘medische noodzaak’ zorgt voor onduidelijkheid in apotheken, wat leidt tot vervelende discussies aan de balie tussen apotheekmedewerkers en patiënten. Bovendien vinden apothekers het onterecht dat zij de financiële gevolgen van die onduidelijkheid dragen. “Het verschil tuss
Effexor XR - Drugs - Pharmaceuticals - S.S.R.I.s - Antidepressants - De. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/25/magazine/25memoir-t.html?ref=m. November 25, 2007 Dr. Drug Rep By DANIEL CARLAT I. Faculty Development On a blustery fall New England day in 2001, a friendly representative from Wyeth Pharmaceuticals cameinto my office in Newburyport, Mass., and made me an offer I found ha