Reading Can Help Ease Symptoms of Depression

Reading can help ease the symptoms of depression, according to multiple studies.

Many a bookworm will tell you that curling up with a paperback is a salve for the mind. And it seems scientists agree — with research suggesting reading can ease depression.

While it is not a cure, experts believe it is effective and could reduce the reliance on antidepressants in some cases. GPs in England dished out a record 64.7 million antidepressant prescriptions in 2016 for patients suffering with depression, anxiety and panic attacks. Read more

Feeling Down? Try a Tuna Sandwich

Eating tuna fish was found to reduce the risk of depression by 25% - but only if you are a woman.

The secret to happiness could lie in something as simple as a tuna sandwich or cod and chips.

Eating fish can keep the blues at bay, according to a new study – but only in women.

Researchers discovered that having seafood on the menu at least twice a week reduces the risk of depression among females by 25 per cent.

However, for men, fish had no protective effect. Read more

A Glass of Wine a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

Drinking up to seven glasses of wine a week cuts the risk developing depression by more than a third.

A few glasses of wine each week could ward off depression, according to a new study.

Spanish scientists have found that drinking moderate amounts of alcohol, particularly wine, can be linked with a lower risk of depression.

Those who consumed two to seven small glasses of wine weekly were 32 per cent less likely to suffer from depression compared with people who never drank alcohol. Read more

Can Your Diet Cause Depression?

Margaret Durst reveals the cause of the carb cravings that sabotage your health and wellness.

Serotonin is the brain chemical that makes us feel happy and content. It also helps us sleep soundly at night. When we eat a wholesome meal, the body is notified through the release of serotonin that we are well fed, helping us feel content and satisfied. A lack of serotonin causes depression, anxiety, insomnia and food cravings. From a nutritional standpoint, a lack of serotonin is frequently a result of food reactions. Read more

7 Top Natural Remedies

Edward Group reveals the top seven natural remedies for depression.

The experience of emotional and psychological depression has been noted and subjected to various explanations since the dawn of recorded history and quite probably before. The current model, which reduces all depression to a deficiency in serotonin, seems as overly simplistic and inadequate as those before it. This is to say, at least in part, that depression is a complex and age-old illness with a storied history of treatment. There are a number of herbs that have been used successfully to help relieve symptoms of depression, and thoughtful consideration of various root causes of psychological malaise can serve to steer one toward appropriate improvement

Recent studies have reinforced the potential efficacy of a number of traditional herbal aids for depression. Read more

Two All-Natural Supplements for Depression

Antidepressant drugs are dangerous and often do not work. However, depression is a real illness. What is the alternative to pharmaceutical drugs? Two all-natural supplements can work wonders for depression, says John McKiernan.

When most people believe they are experiencing symptoms of depression the first thing they do is run to the doctors office, hoping to be prescribed a pharmaceutical that will magically cure all of their symptoms and make them happy again. Similarly, many doctors are quick to write prescriptions for anti-depressants while neglecting to find the actual root cause of the depression symptoms.

The fact is that many people do not respond well to prescribed antidepressants and many others do not respond at all. Read more

3 Natural Ways to Avoid the Winter Blues

Winter, especially if you live in a cold climate, is often a time when people feel "blue" or get depressed. Your choices are not putting up with it or taking drugs - legal or illegal. Natural remedies can help you avoid winter depression.

If you live in the upper reaches of the Northern Hemisphere, winter can often mean a seemingly interminable period of cold weather and short days. For many, the lack of sunshine, combined with life stress factors, can lead to depression.

Often people fail to recognize depression for what it is, treating it as a weakness or personality flaw rather than an illness. A "suck it up and get on with it" attitude often keeps people from labeling themselves as depressed, but this approach is counterproductive; failing to treat the disease only prolongs it.

Some of the signs of depression include: difficulty concentrating; persistent sadness or anxiety; inability to experience ordinary pleasure and enjoyment; irritability; change in appetite; ongoing fatigue and feelings of hopelessness. Learn how to cope with dark days naturally, without recourse to pharmaceutical anti-depressants which can cause serious side-effects ranging from nausea to reduced sex drive. Read more

Herbal Plant Remedies: Rosemary for Depression

Rosemary is an herb for stress that rekindles energy and lightens the spirit when brewed into a tea twice a day. Use Rosemary to reduce stress and anxiety with tips from a nutraceutical supervisor in this free video on herbal remedies.

How to Cure Depression Herbally

Herbalist Robert Linde demonstrates how to make a tea using St. John's Wort and other ingredients to help treat your depression.

How to Treat Depression the Natural Way

Zero zip, zest, zeal? Even mild depression takes a toll on your whole body, but it's fixable, says Margaret Durst.

Zip, zest, and zeal are signs of health. If you feel that you are lacking these on a regular basis, you may be depressed. Many people do not believe in depression; however, it is one of the most common health problems in the United States affecting an estimated 17 million Americans each year.

Depression is a whole-body condition that affects the body, nervous system, moods, thoughts and behavior. It affects the way you eat and sleep, the way you feel about yourself and the way you react to and think about the people and things around you.

Symptoms of depression include chronic fatigue, sleep disturbances, changes in appetite, difficulty concentrating or making decisions, headaches, backaches, digestive disorders, restlessness, irritability, quickness to anger, loss of interest or pleasure in hobbies, work or social life, and feelings of worthlessness or inadequacy. Read more

Herbal Treatments for Anxiety

Although it's normal to feel anxious from time to time, if you feel anxious without reason and if these worries persist and affect your day-to-day life, you may have generalized anxiety disorder. Herbal treatments may offer direct relief from anxious feelings.

When faced with a perceived threat, your body undergoes biochemical changes that trigger feelings of anxiety. The symptoms of anxiety include, but are not limited to: restlessness, obsessive thoughts, trembling, difficulty breathing, sweating, faintness and muscle tension. The Gale Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine reports that unwarranted anxiety may be the result of a past trauma, stress, a phobia, substance abuse, an overactive nervous system or an underlying disease. Some herbs may help in the treatment of anxiety, but consult your doctor before discontinuing current medications/therapies or beginning new ones. Read more

Feeling Low? Banish the Blues the Natural Way

Feeling low? Banish the blues with mood-enhancing foods that will give you a lift and keep you healthy.

It’s the season of mists, mellow fruitfulness — and comfort food. But try to resist — or, at least, don’t go for the traditional, stodgy, fat-laden offerings. Research published last week in the British Journal of Psychiatry (BJP) showed that people who ate a Mediterranean-style diet (fruit, vegetables, pulses, cereals and olive oil) were 30 per cent less likely to get depressed than those whose diet was laden with processed and high-fat foods. And since the No 1 rule for keeping your mood on an even keel is to eat regularly during the day, you can take comfort from the fact that the research doesn’t advocate starving yourself.

Just the simple task of eating the right breakfast after a night’s fast will boost not only mood, but also memory, learning power and concentration, probably by increasing production of the nerve transmitter acetylcholine. The key is to stay off fast-release carbohydrates such as croissants with jam, cereal bars, muffins, sugary cereals and sweet drinks. These are digested rapidly, giving your blood glucose an exaggerated spike, which is swiftly followed by a low.

Instead, opt for slow-release glucose found in foods such as sugar-free muesli with berries, porridge or sourdough toast with peanut butter — choices that are more likely to keep moods level by delivering a stable and steady flow of energy to the brain and by keeping you feeling full for the morning ahead. Read more

Low-Fat Dieting Can Lead to Depression

Not everyone is aware that the "scientific consensus" that fat is bad for you was wrong. Some people - particularly women - are still trying to lose weight by limiting fats, which leads to mood problems like depression.

The subject of dietary fat is always one of controversy - fat is good, fat is bad. Eat this fat, not that fat. And it always seems that information is changing and new opinions contradict the old. So what is true? Most people still assume that when it comes down to it, the less fat the better. It's literally a sad misconception, since research is showing low-fat diets are behind mood problems like depression. Read more

How to Keep Depression from Affecting Your Relationships

Depression doesn't just affected the depressed person. It also affects the people around them. Psychotherapist Christine Webber suggests some ways to keep depression from affecting your relationships.

What is likely to happen if your partner has depression?

Depressed people usually feel withdrawn. They don't feel they can raise enough energy to pursue their normal routine, do things with the family or even notice when their partners are being attentive.

This can quickly lead to the non-depressed partner feeling that he or she is in the way, unwanted, or unloved. It can be easy to misinterpret the low moods as hostility, or as evidence that the depressed person wants out of the relationship. Read more

Excessive Television for Teens Raises Risk of Depression as Adults

TV isn't just depressing. Excessive television for teens may raise their risk for depression as adults.

Teenagers today are spending more and more time slouched on a couch in front of the electronic box - although nowadays it's rather too flat to really be called a box anymore - called a television. And a recent University of Pittsburg and Harvard Medical School study has found that TV time for teens could elevate their risk of becoming depressed adults. Read more

Cyber Sex Linked to Depression

A new study found a link between cyber sex and depression. The question is do men search for cyber sex because they're depressed or does the search leave them feeling depressed?

Over a quarter of those who seek cyber sex online are depressed.

Researchers surveyed 1,325 American and Australian men, and found the average surfer of online sex and swing sites is well-educated, and spends over 12 hours a week searching for cyber-love.

But their hobby doesn't necessarily make them happy. "We found that 27 percent of (regular cyber sex visitors) were moderate to severely depressed on the standard depression scales," study co-author Marcus Squirrell explained. Read more

Treat Depression with Aromatherapy

Aromatherapy is an alternative theatment that uses the highly concentrated essential oils that are extracted from plants to treat symptoms and assist in the healing process. Green Herbal Remedies explains how aromatherapy can be particularly effective in dealing with stress, depression and stress related disorders.

To feel depression you don`t necessarily have to shut down yourself in a bed room and cut all con-tacts with social world. Depression also means condition in which you feel low with or without any reasoning. May be your day didn`t go that well. May be you have had a long and stressful week. May be you have been getting more moody than your regular self. All these symptoms point out that you are facing depression of varied degrees.

The good news is you can sit home and treat yourself out of depression with aromatherapy. Aromatherapy has showed positive results for depression. Though the root cause cannot be com-pletely treated but you will experience relaxation for mental fatigue. The aroma or the fragrance of various ingredients has a soothing effect on your mind and this will help you fall asleep. Read more

Feeling down? Take a dose of Nature's Prozac

From St John's Wort to a stroll in the park, there are plenty of ways to beat the blues and remain buoyant and healthy.

... There is much that you can do to alleviate milder conditions and prevent them getting worse. Last week it was reported that the supplement St John's Wort is as effective as some antidepressants in lifting mood. “Getting outside, being active and talking are some measures that can be really beneficial,” says Farmer. Read more

Is Ice Cream an Anti-Depressant?

Why do people always eat ice cream when they're depressed? A new study shows that while ice cream may not be an anti-depressant, the brain chemical that motivates you to eat it may be.

Some patients with depression will eat a pint of Ben and Jerry's ice cream at night before they go to bed. They feel comforted -- at least briefly -- by the high-calorie treat. Of course, it doesn't take too many nights of this before the pounds start piling up.

New research published in the journal Nature Neuroscience this month may shed some light on the biological relationship between depression and appetite. While it does not show that Ben and Jerry's is an antidepressant, it does suggest that a brain chemical, that motivates the consumption of the ice cream, may be. Read more

Vaccines, Depression, and Neurodegeneration after Age 50

Vaccines are credited with reducing the rates of infectious illness though improved sanitation and diet undoubtedly played a role as well. Whatever their virtues, vaccines also have drawbacks, which people need to know in order to make an informed decision as to whether to get vaccinated. Below are a few excerpts from an important article about the danger of the overuse of vaccines.

Public health authorities and physician societies are in an all out campaign to have every elderly person vaccinated every year with the flu vaccine as well as a growing number of newer vaccines. When I was practicing neurosurgery, the hospitals had an automatic written order on all older patients' charts mandating a flu vaccine, unless it was countermanded by the physician, which I always did.

[...]

Many elderly report that the flu shot gave them the flu. Proponents of vaccines, retort with a condescending laugh; that it is impossible because the flu vaccine contains killed flu viruses. In truth, what these people are reporting is a prolonged, intense "sickness behavior" response to the vaccine. To the body, it is worse than getting the flu.

[...]

Anxiety is a major problem with depression, and vaccinations will greatly worsen the condition. In fact, vaccination, especially multiple vaccinations, will maintain the brain in a state of inflammation that will be self-perpetuating, because the excess release of glutamate in the brain, as well as glutamate in the diet, will further enhance microglial activation and excitotoxicity. Read more