Is your Mood Type contributing to your Mental Health?

Your nutrition and regular lifestyle habits might be contributing to your mental health. According to Julia Ross, author of “The Mood Cure,”; what your body absorbs through your internal and external environment significantly contributes to how you respond physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.

Vitamin D deficiency can cause“SAD,”; Seasonal Affective Disorder. Thus, a lack of sunshine can severely impact a person’s mood and energy. This inhibits the absorption of other nutrients, such as calcium and magnesium. This causes anxiety, depression, insomnia, anger and chronic fatigue.

Exposure to pollution, smoking, exhaust fumes, and city factories exposes our bodies, minds and spirits to heavy metals, depleting our bodies of vital nutrients needed to support healthy brain chemistry.

Our society runs on a “fight or flight” response due to our heavy demand to work a 9–5 government sitting job, lacking activity, sleep, maintaining social status, and home life. This contributes to chronic stress and depletes our bodies of more vitamins and minerals, essential for brain stability. No surprise that we cannot find time to see the happiness and joy around us.

Much of these exposures to environmental toxins contribute to our society having at least one of these four types of mood “types,” potentially being the primary trigger to the high rise in our Mental Health illnesses today.

Type 1. Under a Dark Cloud

Do you often feel worried or anxious? Perhaps seeing the glass half empty, as opposed to half full? Do you find yourself with low self-esteem and self-confidence? Do you experience emotions of irritability, anger, impatience, restlessness, and obsessive or repetitive thought patterns? Can these thought patterns contribute to your inability to sleep at night and your cravings for sweets and starches? Does the winter come, and you instantly feel a low blow? It's as if your whole world has flipped upside down, and you have no energy or motivation to continue your regular routines. If you find relief in the above symptoms through exercise or have been abusing antidepressant drugs, you may be experiencing a deficiency in serotonin.

Serotonin is our happy chemical that keeps our emotions stable — allowing us to feel content, generous and at peace. It’s recommended to balance the good and bad bacteria in your gut and body with a high-potency probiotic, as 95% serotonin is produced in the digestive tract. Copious studies show the correlation between healthy gut bacteria and mood. Increasing your food intake, including eggs, turkey, pineapples, tofu, and countless nuts and seeds, which are high in serotonin, is recommended.

Type 2. Suffering from the Blahs

Are you low on physical and mental energy? Do you often feel tired, lack motivation and enthusiasm and find that even the thought of getting in your car to drive yourself to the gym is too much of a mountain to climb? Perhaps even completing the slightest task seems daunting as you nod off, unable to focus or concentrate. Do you need more than 8 hours of sleep? Even when you sleep 10 hours, do you still have trouble getting up in the morning? Perhaps you often feel chilled and cold and need to stimulate yourself with caffeine or other “users”: chocolate, diet pills or cocaine. These are common symptoms of numberless “fight or flight” individuals with overburdened adrenal glands. They have run their thyroids to the ground with overcirculation of the stimulating hormone Adrenalin. The thyroid has given up, unable to produce hormones such as adrenaline and noradrenaline. This contributes to proper thermogenesis and energy in the body.

I worked with assorted individuals with addictions and mental health imbalances. I suggested reducing or eliminating coffee/ caffeine, sugar and all stimulants. These are the main factors in restoring the balance of the thyroid gland. These stimulants exclude the brain's natural conversion from amino acid L-tyrosine to L-dopamine to Catecholamines (Nor-adrenalin and Adrenaline). It gives the brain an instant shot of adrenaline, depleting the body of much-needed L-tyrosine for future stress responses. In that sense, the cycle begins. The more L-tyrosine we finish through instant gratifying adrenaline stimulants, the more we need those stimulants to act in our regular routines. Nonetheless, this contributes to more factors, such as blood sugar imbalances, hypertension and pre-hormonal changes.

Type 3. Overwhelmed by Stress

Do you often feel overworked, pressured, uptight, tense or stiff? Do you have trouble relaxing and need a massage more often than usual? Are you frustrated or agitated under stress? Do you feel weak or perhaps overwhelmed and burdened? You cannot seem to get everything done. Your brain is, in fact, not producing enough GABA due to a lack of amino acids, Taurine and Glycine in the body. GABA is a brain neurotransmitter responsible for reducing stress and allowing us to feel calm, still and relaxed. It’s our natural tranquillizer. It increases with melatonin, which induces a sleepy feeling at nightfall.

Taurine is an amino acid that converts to the neurotransmitter GABA in the brain. This amino acid can be discovered in certain foods, affecting individuals with a strict vegan or vegetarian diet. This amino acid contributes to muscle function, bile salt formation and lowering blood pressure and cholesterol. It’s located solely on animal foods. These foods include fish, seafood, meat, and poultry. Individuals who practice veganism and vegetarianism should consist of Taurine supplementation. This will not increase the risk of further imbalances in the future. Be mindful and choose organic, antibiotic-free animal products. This reduces the development of carcinogens in the body and the environmental impact.

Type 4. Too Sensitive to Life’s Pain

Do you consider yourself, or do others think you to be sensitive? Do you find yourself tearing up readily during movies and TV commercials, and you cannot express your emotions without tearing up instantly? Do you avoid dealing with painful issues, block your feelings, or allow love to come through? Perhaps you find yourself struggling to let go and move on from losses. Do you work with separation and situations that need grieving? Have you been through much pain and suffered physical, emotional, mental or spiritual trauma? Do you crave pleasure, comfort, reward, enjoyment, or numbing from treats like chocolate, bread, wine, romance novels, marijuana, tobacco, or lattes?

You may be lacking some much-needed endorphins. Endorphins are hormones released by the pituitary gland to relieve pain and induce pleasure and euphoria.

There are ways to increase naturally boosting endorphins in the body. Keep your brain happy under balance with these tips below:

1. Exercise is a natural endorphin booster. “Runner high is linked to natural endorphin production.” 2. Get enough protein to produce serotonin, and avoid processed foods. 3. Amino acid-rich foods include nuts, beans, lentils, peas and sprouted grains. 4. Laugh more! Laughter releases endorphins. 5. Spend time in nature and the sun. Sunshine has Vitamin D, which helps boost your mood.

References:

The Mood Cure by Julia Ross

Optimum Nutrition for the Mind by Patrick Holford

STRESS AND HEALTH: Psychological, Behavioral, and Biological Determinants by Neil Schneiderman, Gail Ironson, and Scott D. Siegel

The Effects of Stress on Physical Activity and Exercise by Matthew A. Stults-Kolehmainen and Rajita Sinha