The Awesome Foursome and Glasses Off!
THE FOURSOME
A combination of four items will help enormously with anxiety and depression:
calcium
vitamin B complex
fish oil
St. John's Wort herb
The first three are always safe. Fish oil is a food. Calcium is a mineral and B is a vitamin. Simply take the recommended allowance.
FISH OIL FOR THE BRAIN
Fish oil needs to be of good quality, and that means, unfortunately, that it is not the cheapest item on the agenda. It is best to have a product that has heavy metals scrubbed off and vitamin E included in the oil capsule. The vitamin E acts as anti oxidant in the reactive fish oil. Fish oil, highly poly unsaturated, eases the work of the neurons and neurotransmitters.
Fats are a huge topic and a complete set of articles will be devoted to it. The reason is not only that fats are so interesting but also because the wrong fats are everywhere in the supermarket, with terrible consequences for the body. You need to know your way around fats. Once you only buy the correct fats in the supermarket, the supermarket will put these on the shelf more. A shop is customer driven; you are powerful to get it right.
CALCIUM FOR THE BRAIN
Calcium also works on the neurons, helps neurotransmitters. It plays a big role in getting nutrients in the cell as well, important to beat depression, which is to an extent a deficiency disease, especially of B vitamins.
B VITAMINS FOR THE BRAIN
B vitamins help digestion of incoming information in the brain, so that what comes along can be dealt with without too much fuss. In other words, they, like fish oil and calcium, also help neurons and neurotransmitters function better. B's also help digestion of incoming food in gut, so it ensures nutrients are not just eaten but also get a chance to find their correct place in the body. Especially the B's for the brain. You may like to note the parallel of B vitamins not only in digesting incoming information in the brain, but also in digesting incoming food into the small intestine. There are many such mental/physical parallels to be found.
ST. JOHN'S WORT FOR THE BRAIN
St. John's Wort (SJW), the only herb in the foursome, needs to be approached with a little more caution. The reason is that the herb's calming action will increase the effect of anti depressants. It will be as if a larger dose of anti depressants were taken. This, of course, is not safe. If you are on anti depressants, SJW and the anti depressant both need to be adjusted to your needs. For that a visit is needed to naturopath and doctor. At the request of the naturopath, the doctor can reduce the anti depressant, starting with a slight reduction, in conjunction with a more moderate dose of the herb.
Besides its stimulating effect on anti depressants, SJW displays in some people another side effect, on the skin. The skin's sensitivity to light can increase a little, in other words, some people become more easily sun burnt.*
However, this is the total extent of SJW's known side effects. (Please note also that SJW should not be used during pregnancy, as is the case with most herbs, unless prescribed). A thorough comparison is warranted between the side effects of SJW and those of anti depressant drugs. Especially when the use may be long term!
* Despite increased sensitivity of the skin in some people, due to taking SJW, do not forget the dose of sunlight required to make vitamin D in the skin. Plan the sunbath a little more carefully, with shorter more frequent sittings at less sunny moments. D stands for Daylight vitamin. We are self-sufficient here; we can make it ourselves, which is a gift! Vitamin D is needed to draw calcium, one of the foursome, through the gut wall into the body. Vitamin D is absolutely needed for this. Calcium deficiency results otherwise.
If it is impossible to expose yourself partly (22 % of skin is a good start) to the great outdoors, Vitamin D must be taken as a supplement, which is never as good as the real thing.
Glasses off, so that all elements of the light spectrum, the whole rainbow, will bathe the part of the body normally under glass. Before 11 and after 4, of course. You've got other things to do!