Is anger affecting your relationship right now? Are you prone to tantrum as a child? Is fear or anxiety ruining your life? Do you have nightmare on regular basis or suffered panic attacks in the middle of the night?
Our mood problems are increasing so fast, that by 2020, it will likely to outrank AIDS, accidents and violence as primary causes of early death and disability. It is clear that our moods are deteriorating at unprecedented rates. What isn't so clear is why. Why are we forced to turn more and more to medicine for solace?
We shouldn't have to live with these kind of distorted moods on regular basis. When our brain's emotional equipment needs tune-up, we tend to get clues such as not sleeping well, unable to concentrate at work, worry too much and lose enthusiasm. Some people might also start depending on chocolate and wine for relief.
There are 22 kinds of amino acids in high protein foods such as chicken, fish, beef, eggs and cheese. They are the building blocks of protein. Each amino acids has their own special duty to perform, but only a few of them provides fuel to the brain's four mood engines. The lower the access to amino fuel, you will develop more of these false moods. Imagine a car with four different engines. Each engine needs fuel to perform in optimal condition and this theory applies the same with our brain function. How do we know when to fill up the fuel? How do we know if we are running too low? Which amino brain fuel do we need? Where do we get them? How long do we need them?
The four emotion generators are called seratonin, catecholamines, GABA and endorphins. Each of these four neurotransmitters has different effect on your mood, depending the availability of the particular amino fuel. You will generally feel positive and happy if your brain are well-stocked key neurotransmitters level are high. If your brain dropped too low in these chemicals, you will develop a set of defective moods as below.
Seratonin - Negative, Obsessive, impatience, edginess, worried, low self-esteem, irritable, sleepless, low in confidence.
Catecholamines - Fatigue (mentally), unable to focus or concentrate, lethargic.
GABA - stressed, overhelmed.
Endorphins - Overly sensitive to hurt, tend to cry when reading romance novels or movie.
All four of these key neurotransmitters are responsible to provide us the 'feel-good' or 'sunny day' kinda feelings. But, protein is not all we need to make these happy-positive feeling happen. We need good supply of vitamins and minerals from sources such as fresh fruits and vegetables. Apart from that, we also need the right type of fats to make this magic happen. Then there is this junk food factor, invading our grocery outlets in every supermarket and hypermarket available in town. These bad mood foods, stripped off the vital nutrient needed to make your brain's neurotransmitters. Among the lists are white bread, pasta, cookies, sugary cereals and snacks, hydrogenated fats, caffeine, alcohol and artificial sweeteners.
Lifestyle also shares the blame for the epidemic of brain's imbalance neurotransmitters. Too much stress can deplete the brain's neurotransmitters. Stress management is very important to our body, and I've said this to tons of my friends and colleagues many times of the destruction effect which can impact our health.
Seratonin deficiency is by far, the most common mood problem. It is our primary defense against depression and anxiety. Seratonin deficiency is a factor to many unrelated psychological and physical symptoms ranging from insomnia to irritability and PMS and muscle pain. Many have tried anti-depressant drugs such as Prozac to provide relief but why not consume food which is high in seratonin such as turkey, beef and cheese? Your production of seratonin can be disrupted if you are pregnant or lack of sunlight exposure. Yes, pregnant ladies, do take note as it is one of the factor which contribute to mood swing during pregnancy. Extreme stress can also dry up the pool of this vital brain chemicals. Low calorie diets or skipped meals, can quickly reduce seratonin making supplies. So for those woman out there, if you are reading this right now, DO NOT skip meals for the sake of weight lost purpose! I will talk about 'weight lost' in my coming post and this applies to both men and women. Eat beef, pork,dairy products, chicken, cheese, eggs. You need comprehensive high protein foods to enable production of this brain chemical. But we do have a problem with these animals when it comes the food they eat. Commercial animals are fed with mostly corn and food with low seratonin, instead of natural(non pesticides)grass and plants. Thus, these fattens up the animals and results in low seratonin production.
If you are a vegetarian, you are at greater risk of developing malnutrition in seratonin production. Stimulant such as caffeine is the seratonin enemy, diet pills and coffee are some of the examples. Fast foods is also one of the major contributers to lack of vitamins and minerals that assist in production of seratonin.
There is one way which we all can boost our seratonin production without consuming any food! Sunlight! Yes, by exposing to bright sunlight for a short period of time, that can boost the seratonin chemicals in the brain. It would be great to expose to bright sunlight daily for 15-30 mins in order to boost the depleted seratonin levels in the brain. Also, please bear in mind that seratonin levels tend to be the lowest during night time.
In addition to affecting your emotions, low seratonin can also affect your physical body. Below are the physical symptoms which are the most common:
- gut and heart problems
- sleep problems
- pain conditions
- cravings for carbohydrates and alcohol
Do you know that 90-95% of seratonin production is in the gut? Digestive tensions such as constipation will dissolve once seratonin levels are raised. Meanwhile, the heart is also partly seratonin dependant, where anger and fear are closely associated with heart disease.
Lots of people are suffering from Fibromyalgia, TMJ and migraines. These are the pain conditions experienced by people who are low in seratonin. Seratonin has a powerful muscle-relaxing affect to the body as well.
I will provide more details about the rest of the neurotransmitters as well as continuation of seratonin in part 3.
To be continued....
Great read
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