5 Natural Ways to Beat Depression

Depression is a common mental condition which affects more than 300 million people worldwide. According to the Centers for Disease Control, more than one in 20 Americans suffers from depression.

Natural health expert Joseph Mercola describes depression as “unrepaired emotional short-circuiting.” Depression is much more than feeling blue every once in a while. Dr. Mercola believes that being depressed can cause far more profound negative health consequences than all the denatured food and toxins you’re exposed to on a daily basis.

“SIGECAPS” is a set of diagnostic criteria used to assess depression and stands for sleep, interest, guilt, energy, concentration, appetite, psychomotor and suicide. If four or more of these items are a concern, it strongly suggests major clinical depression, Mercola explains.

Doctors usually recommend antidepressants to fight depression but studies show that a placebo may produce better results. Besides being mostly ineffective, antidepressant drugs come with a slew of harmful side effects, which include an increased risk of diabetes, problems with your immune system, suicidal thoughts and feelings and violent behavior, stillbirths, brittle bones, stroke, and even death.

A person suffering from depression needs help that antidepressant drugs cannot provide. Fortunately, there are effective ways of dealing with this condition that do not involve popping any pills.
Here are Dr. Mercola’s five tips to naturally beat depression:

1.Do Some Emotional Housekeeping
Look at depression not as an illness but as a sign that your body and your life are out of balance, and that you need to regain that balance. A key way of doing this is by addressing negative emotions that may be buried beneath your level of awareness. Dr. Mercola’s recommended method of emotional cleansing is the Meridian Tapping Technique (MTT), a form of psychological acupressure.

2.Regular Exercise
Sweat it out because regular exercise is one of the “secret weapons” to beating depression. Physical activity helps normalize your insulin levels while boosting the levels of endorphins or “feel good” hormones in your brain. Studies also show that exercise can increase the number of cells in a region of your brain called the hippocampus. In times of depression, there are fewer of those cells in the hippocampus.

3.Improve Your Diet
Food has an immense impact on your body and your brain. Eating whole foods will best support your mental and physical health. Avoid grains and sugar to help normalize your insulin and leptin levels, which is another important aspect of depression. Sugar causes chronic inflammation which can wreak havoc on your brain and suppresses a key growth hormone called BDNF (brain derived neurotrophic factor), which promotes healthy brain neurons and plays a crucial role in memory. BDNF levels are critically low in depressed people.

4.Boost Your Diet with Omega-3 Fats
Dr. Mercola believes that taking a high-quality, animal-based omega-3 fat like krill oil may be the single most important nutrient for optimal brain function, thereby helping prevent depression.
Your brain is highly dependent on DHA, an omega-3 fatty acid found in fish and krill oil. Low DHA levels have been linked to Alzheimer’s disease, depression, memory loss, and schizophrenia.

5.Get Enough Vitamin D
Go outdoors to get some sun to produce vitamin D, which is great for improving your mood. A study found that those with the lowest levels of vitamin D were 11 times more prone to depression than those who received adequate vitamin D. If you can’t get vitamin D from sun exposure, use a safe tanning bed or take a high-quality vitamin D3 supplement.

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Tags: anti-depressant, depression, mental health