How to support better mood, reduce depression and anxiety.
Did you know you can support better mood, reduce depression and anxiety by making changes to your diet and lifestyle? Diet and lifestyle changes can also have a tremendous impact on ADHD and other mental health issue.
Mental health affects approximately one out of four people. Although it’s a hot topic, the link between diet, low mood, depression, and anxiety is rarely spoken about. Whilst diet may not change the factors that cause depression and anxiety, it can impact on how you cope with it. Diet affects the production of hormones and neurotransmitters which then affect your mood and ability to cope with stress.
How can you reduce depression and anxiety and improve your mood through food?
The neurotransmitter serotonin is critical to helping you balance your mood, cope with anxiety and stress. This is the transmitter that most anti-depressants aim to increase. Serotonin is synthesized from tryptophan, an amino acid found in protein rich foods and good sources include:
- fish,
- walnuts,
- oats,
- pumpkin seeds,
- legumes
- bananas
Tryptophan is then converted into 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) but it requires these co-factors before it can converted:
- iron
- vitamin B3
- folate
Once 5-HTP is available, the co-factors magnesium and B6 are then needed to ensure effective conversion to serotonin.
Other important considerations to support mental health:
Not only is diet important in the provision of co-factors and enzymes, it is also important in maintaining a healthy gut microflora.
Your gut flora produces neurotransmitters, which can have either a negative or beneficial affect on mood and anxiety level through the gut-brain axis. Think about the expressions we use such as having butterflies in the tummy or a knot in the stomach when you feel anxious. This is a clear illustration of the communication between the gut and the brain.
If you have gut flora dysbiosis, IBS or food intolerances this could be a cause in your mental health issues. Gut flora dysbiosis is one of the reasons why so many people with IBS or food intolerances experience depression, anxiety or mental health issues.
How gut inflammation can also make it hard for you to improve your mood and reduce depression and anxiety:
Research shows that if the integrity of your gut lining is compromised then the gut-brain barrier will also be compromised. This means that molecules that should not cross the brain-barrier do cross and trigger neuro-inflammation affecting how you feel and function.
What the research shows:
A fascinating new study has been carried out on mice and clearly shows that gluten for instance causes inflammatory markers in the brain. We are remarkably similar to these little rodents! If it happens in them you can be sure it can happen in you! If you’d like to read the study follow the link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jne.13326
There are plenty of other studies showing the correlation between the gut and the brain. Studies show faecal transplants can reduce anxiety and depression or create a state of depression and anxiety. They also show how specific strains of bacteria found in the microbiome can be correlated with predisposition to anxiety, depression, and low mood.
To read more follow the link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-79538-x
What else make it hard to reduce depression and anxiety and improve mood?
Other factors that contribute to poor mood include blood-sugar imbalance, hormonal imbalance including thyroid issues, nutritional deficiencies, such as essential fatty acids or B12, inflammation and food intolerances.
Daylight and exercise has been shown to improve serotonin production, which may be why people tend to feel better when the sun shines!
Trauma, both physical and emotional, even when experienced during childhood, impacts gut integrity and therefore mental and physical health in adulthood. Likewise, chronic stress as it can affect inflammation and gut integrity.
Research often shows that those diagnosed with clinical depression have a 30% to 50% increase in inflammatory markers caused by over activation of the immune system. Short-term inflammation is a protective factor in immunity – think of a bee sting or a swollen ankle. If the inflammation becomes chronic it will eventually cause havoc on the body and can lead to low levels of serotonin and or dopamine, a neurotransmitter the absence of which can lead you feeling unmotivated and hopeless.
Food intolerance can play a major role in mental health issues.
You don’t need to have gut issues for a food intolerance to be impacting your health. Studies involvin g IgG testing have found allerginc foods to be a factor in depression for some people, as well as being a factor in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The morest common allergenic foods to which study participants react to include eggs, dairy, soya products, seafoodn nuts, mustartd, sesame, celery, sulphur dioxide and sulphites. Gluten is a major allergen as I explain in the blog post: Could My Symptoms Be Caused By Gluten Intolerance?
Could there be a genetic factor to depression and anxiety?
Absolutely! Genetics can be a factor to the predisposition to a higher, and sometimes much higher, risk of depression and anxiety. A simple and inexpensive test can help establish if your anxiety is caused by a condition known as pyroluria, which indicates that you have higher requirements for certain ‘B’ vitamins and zinc. It may be easy to remedy with professional help. Other genes have also been studies for their role in depression, anxiety, low mood, ADHD and other mental health issues.
But you must remember that your genes are your predisposition not your destiny! What really matters is what turns these genes on or off.