For people with depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, ADHD, psychotic disorders, bulimia, dementia,  or  other psychiatric disorders who prefer not to take medication, don’t improve with medication, can’t tolerate or, only partially benefit from medication, or have bothersome side effects from medication, trying a simple, low-carbohydrate diet is worth a go.

This statement is based on my study of science in combination with my experience with people in the real world.

Low-carbohydrate diets are safe for almost everyone and can lead in many cases to significant improvements in a wide variety of  symptoms. There are many potential benefits. If side effects do occur, they are generally harmless and temporary.

While dietary changes can’t always completely replace medications, they can improve overall health and make good sense as a viable alternative to medication in some cases, or as a complement to conventional care in other cases.

Here are seven reasons to try a low-carb or ketogenic diet for mental health:

1. Reduce inflammation.

High-sugar diets promote excessive, unnecessary inflammation inside the brain, triggering the release of various inflammatory cytokines—tiny SOS signals that recruit first-responder cells to the scene. Inflammation of this type is well established as a root cause of most psychiatric and neurological diseases. Low-carbohydrate diets have been shown to reduce markers of inflammation.

2. Improve blood glucose control.

The higher your blood sugar, the higher your brain sugar . . . each time your blood sugar spikes to unhealthy highs, you’re flooding your brain tissue with excess glucose. There are many ways that high glucose levels are toxic to brain cells, including the formation of sticky, dysfunctional proteins called “Advanced Glycation End products” or AGEs. Low-carbohydrate diets are very effective at lowering blood glucose levels. Protect your precious neurons from glucotoxicity.

3. Lower blood insulin levels.

Persistently or repeatedly high insulin levels can cause the insulin receptors on the surface of the blood-brain barrier to become insulin-resistant, meaning they can become damaged, desensitized, and decrease  in number. With fewer healthy, responsive insulin receptors on the surface of the blood-brain barrier to escort insulin into the brain, insulin levels inside the brain will fall.

Low brain insulin is dangerous, because brain cells require insulin to process glucose and turn it into energy. This sluggish glucose-processing problem is called “cerebral glucose hypometabolism,” and it is a major risk factor for neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Low-carbohydrate diets can be very helpful in lowering blood insulin levels.

4. Boost antioxidant defenses.

High-sugar diets cause excessive, unnecessary oxidative damage. Flooding cells with too much glucose all at once leads to a flood of oxygen free radicals, which are normally mopped up by our own natural, internal antioxidant molecules (such as glutathione).

There extra free radicals wreak havoc in the brain, damaging proteins, lipids, DNA, and other important cell components. They can even damage the blood-brain barrier, allowing unwanted substances from your blood  into the brain. Low-carbohydrate diets naturally help improve your internal antioxidant capacity.

5. Energise mitochondria.

High-sugar diets damage mitochondria, the energy-generating organelles inside brain cells. As a highly metabolically active, electrical organ, the brain is an energy hog, demanding about 20- 25 percent of the body’s energy. Mitochondria must be healthy to provide cells with a steady supply of energy. Low-carbohydrate diets—particularly ketogenic diets—have been shown to improve the health and vitality of mitochondria.

6. Stabilise stress hormones and appetite.

Refined carbohydrates, like sugar, flour, fruit juice, and processed cereals, place your hormones on an invisible, internal roller coaster. Every time your blood sugar and insulin spike to unnaturally high levels, they soon crash back down, triggering the release of stress hormones, including adrenaline.

Adrenaline surges, which can occur four to five hours after consuming too much sugar, can contribute to panicky, “hypoglycemic” symptoms, like anxiety, sweating, irritability, shaking, difficulty concentrating, and carbohydrate cravings. Low-carbohydrate diets help smooth out the highs and lows in blood sugar that lead to hormonal instability in the first place.

7. Raise BDNF levels.

High-sugar diets can reduce levels of an important molecule called Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor. BDNF is a key player in neuroplasticity—in other words, BDNF helps the brain cope with, respond to, and recover from stress. Healthy BDNF levels contribute to resilience—something we all need, as stress is a normal part of life. Low-carbohydrate diets—particularly ketogenic dietshave been shown to raise BDNF levels.

Note: A low-carbohydrate diet is not the only nutritional strategy worth considering; improving overall dietary quality with a whole-foods pre-agricultural diet (aka “paleo-style” diet) or a whole-foods post-agricultural diet (aka “Mediterranean” diet) may be helpful for some, especially for those without a significant degree of insulin resistance. However, neither of these approaches typically lower insulin and blood glucose levels as reliably as low-carbohydrate diets do.

Word of caution

People currently taking psychiatric medication (or medication of any kind) or who have a history of serious mental health symptoms, such as suicidal ideation, mania, or psychosis, should not embark on a low-carbohydrate diet without additional information and professional support, as medication levels can be affected, and some symptoms may temporarily worsen during the initial weeks of adaptation.

Take home message 

Most of us have been feeding our brains incorrectly for our entire lives and have no idea how much better we could feel if we ate differently.

A whole-foods, low-carbohydrate diet is a safe and healthy option for most people that can help improve brain metabolism, mental health symptoms, and overall health.

Thank you for reading

The post 7 Reasons To Try A Low Carb Diet appeared first on Sara Pugh Pilates Hypnosis Nervous System Biochemistry Leeds.

As I am a biologist, I am talking about the biological manifestation of depression rather than the psychological side. It is true that some depressions are a result of trauma or childhood experiences. From my experiences, I have found a biological and neurological approach very effective in reducing or eliminating depression.  I’m writing from the point of view of someone or to people who doesn’t want to talk to anyone about it or see a therapist or has tried anti-depressants and they didn’t work or doesn’t want to take ‘shrink’  pills but might consider a different biological approach.

In part depression is somewhat normal as we do have natural ups and downs.  Our bodies have their own biological rhythms and our environment changes with the seasons.  Women have a monthly cycle in which levels of hormones fluctuate and so does mood. Hormones decline with age, but studies show that our agreeability increases with age up to about 65. Therefore we do not necessarily become more miserable as we get older.

As we all know what goes up must come down, so being stressed, wired, drunk or high for an extended period means that eventually you will have to come down and it might be with a crash. Most people also know or have been told by their doctor or ‘google’ that movement or exercise is good for depression, but what do you do if you are active and still depressed. What next?  What other avenues are there to explore?

Like pain depression can be a way for a your brain to say ‘Hey you, you are doing things in life that I don’t like, so I’m going to put a stop to it or make you slow down’.

We tend to be in a better mood in the summer when the weather is better and it is well know that lack of sunlight causes seasonal alteration disorder or (SAD) AKA winter blues. There are plenty of artificial lights but many of the lights for sale aren’t bright enough. Here is what you need  to know. Lumens are a measure of how much light a lamp produces. Lux are a measure of how much light you get. These are not the same, the further away you are from a lamp, the less light you get.

Full daylight is about 100,000 lux, the closer you get to that, the better, some SAD lamps are only 2500 lux which is far too low, a minimum of 10,000 lux is needed.

I mentioned hormones, from experience the first two and the most common to play a role in depression are testosterone and thyroxine, not serotonin. Serotonin is touted as the ‘happy chemical’ but serotonin  is a primitive adaptive stress hormone produced mostly  in the intestine particularly when the gut is stressed, as serotonin in the gut is part of the vomiting response when you eat something your gut decides it want to get rid of. That means that ‘leaky gut’, ‘IBS’, high bacterial endotoxin or just a bad diet can contribute to mood issues Serotonin inhibits the mitochondria and increases cortisol, estrogen, and prolactin. It is well know that cortisol is  involved in mood and high cortisol is linked to certain types of anxiety and depression. So the role serotonin plays in depression is small, if it was just one chemical out of balance then depression would be super easy to fix with drug, but it isn’t so there is more, a lot more.

 Depression can be a result of a gut problem so you may be looking at the wrong body part to fix your depression as it might not be your head that is the issue.

Both men and women need testosterone for a variety of functions in the body and testosterone is known to be a natural anti depressant.

 Low testosterone for both sexes manifests as low mood, or just feeling shit and sensitive.

If you are in your 20s or 30s with low sex hormones or thyroid function then it is important to find out why you are suppressed as the glands which produce these hormones should be functioning well. Estrogens is the environment, drinking water and some foods can affect sex hormones and lower testosterone levels. Any synthetic sex hormone such as contraceptive pill or anabolic steroids can affect sex hormones and we all react differently to these compounds, and some people are more sensitive than others. For example for some unlucky men just one cycle of steroids can shut down their testosterone production forever so they have to be on testosterone replacement for the rest of their lives, the same as a few individuals take one ecstasy tablet and die.

Thyroid hormones are also a player in mood issues  as the thyroid  runs our metabolism.

Some people’s depression manifests as just feeling like they can’t be bothered and often they are found to have low thyroid function . As we age, from about 30yrs old, unfortunately there is a decline in all hormone levels, however like most things in life we all respond differently.The thyroid gland can be quite sensitive and there are many ways to upset it. Extreme dieting and over training can suppress the thyroid this is called ‘crashing your metabolism’. Imbalances in sex hormones, particularly high estrogen, poly unsaturated fats (e.g sunflower, canola or peanut oil) and too much fluoride can interfere with thyroid function as well.

It is very easy to get a blood test to see what your thyroid,  testosterone or other hormone levels are like. If you have low levels you  get your own testosterone or thyroxine supplement of which there are many brands and varieties. Some people get hormones  on prescription, while others buy them themselves as they prefer to manage their own medication becasue there is more choice if you buy your own. Triiodothyronine  (T3) which is the active form of thyroxine (T4)  is not available on prescription in the UK, but it is in other countries.

In the same way that you can crash your metabolism, you can crash your brain biochemistry.

This happens by either chronic stress and lack of sleep, which we all know about. Drugs which over stimulate or are just part of  dopamine or serotonin pathways in the brain, if over used can cause ‘depression’, low mood, paranoia or anxiety. The best known of these type of  drugs are cocaine and amphetamines, but amphetamine  has lots of little cousins which are new drugs with similarities to amphetamines. These drusg which interact with dopamine, noradrenalin and serotonin systems in the brain are  available on prescription or in general circulation. Some examples are phentermine which is an appetite suppressant, ‘wakefulness’ drugs like Modafinil  and drugs for ADHD like  Methylphenidate (Ritalin) are used legally and illegally by millions people each year. Even if you might think it serves people right if they mess up their own biochemistry, but some people are prescribed these drugs and other people have their own reasons for using drugs or are just party animals.

In any case if this has happened to you or someone you know there is a compound developed in Russia called Selank which has caused excitement and interest, so is worth looking up. Selank is not only neuroprotective but it also has  anti-anxiety and anti-depressive properties, aids alcohol withdrawal, it can also rebalance the catecholamine system in the brain. Catecholamines are dopamine, serotonin and noradrenaline, so in lay terms Selank can re-balance brain chemistry, including after drug abuse.

I may have said this before, taking drugs and supplements can be dangerous  even if you  know what you are doing, so I am not encouraging this in any way,  but leaving your  hormones unbalanced or your biochemistry in a mess is just as dangerous and it degrades your quality of life.

In terms of neurology for those who have no interest in any kind of supplements what are the initial options for depression?

Low left brain function is often associated with depression.

So how would you go about stimulating the left side of the brain?

• Moving limbs on the RIGHT  side of the body only
• Massage on the RIGHT side of the body only
• Smell into the LEFT nostril
• High pitch sound into the LEFT ear
• Eyes looking LEFT
• Listening to music such as jazz or rap
• Activities involving logic, numbers or sequences.
• Red orange and yellow are considered left brain colours so those coloured tints or lenses in glasses can be useful. Using a red infra red lamp
• 

There are many more neurological exercises for depression, but there is not room the blog post. Also I’ve only touched on the biochemistry as it can get very complicated very quickly as our brains are complicated. We are allowed to have more than one imbalance so there could be
several hormones playing up and some funky neurology going on. When it comes to making changes in your body its a bit like getting an orchestra to play in tune as there are many elements which all need to be in sync and even just one instrument out of tune can affect the whole orchestra.

What is confidence?

This is a word we all know what it means to us, but if asked to describe or explain exactly what  confidence is then it’s not easy summarise in once sentence.  If you look confidence  up in the dictionary there are several definitions.  The definition below matches most closely to  the kind of confidence we are talking about.

A feeling of self-assurance arising from an appreciation of one’s own abilities or qualities

To me this sentence means confidence is about how much  I  believe in myself on a personal level and how good I feel I am at doing something or performing a skill. There isn’t any mention of other people in this it’s all about my view of myself.

This is good as it means I can take ownership of my confidence, I can develop it, train it I can become confident at multiple skills and I have a lot of control over my confidence. The same applies to you! You can easily learn about confidence and about how to improve yours.

The brain and nervous system control everything in the body, which means they play a key role in mood. Confidence is not like blue eyes and is something you are born with, it is a skill, talent, attribute that you can easily improve with the correct training.

If you would like to try my FREE online neuro-hacks confidence building and anxiety reducing program please click here  or on the picture below

Thank you for reading

The post Depression and Confidence – How can I help myself ? appeared first on Sara Pugh Pilates Hypnosis Nervous System Biochemistry Leeds.