Wednesday, March 3, 2010

timestranscript.com - Take a mind-body approach to treating depression, anxiety | Dr. Martin Gleixner - Breaking News, New Brunswick, Canada

Dr. Martin Gleixner

Depression and anxiety are common mood disorders affecting many Canadians.

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It can be debilitating, but it is treatable.

"Stop feeling sorry for yourself," "Calm down," "Try to relax," "Get out more," or "Get over it," are common pieces of advice that only contribute to making the person feel even more helpless.

A January 2010 report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, involving nearly 800 patients, examined the effectiveness of two commonly prescribed antidepressants, paroxetine (Paxil) and imipramine. This study found the drugs produced benefits only slightly greater than a placebo in patients with mild to moderate depression. Treatment alternatives without drug side-effects are therefore warranted.

Naturopathic care includes a medical assessment and diagnosis evaluation, including the interpretation of laboratory results. Treatments includes nutritional and exercise suggestions, the use of specific vitamins or minerals in medicinal doses as well individualized herbal or homeopathic combinations to address underlying functional or pathological imbalances.

Equally important is a mind-body approach that includes the integration of counselling practices and relaxation and stress management techniques.

Is it as simple as using natural remedies such as St. John's Wort or vitamin B12 commonly used to treat mood disorders? Although these remedies can be helpful, for a more deep acting and long-lasting effect it is important to consider a whole-body approach.

Whether it's seratonin (or other neurotransmitter) imbalances in the brain, hormone deficiencies, or inflammation in the body, the key is to first understand and address your own unique medical predispositions that are contributing to depression and anxiety.

In previous articles, I used the bucket analogy to explain detoxification and how one can prevent unpleasant symptoms after smoking cessation (see www.monctonnaturopathic.com for previous columns).

This same concept is also very useful to help us understand the underlying causes of mood changes.

Let me review this analogy again. Let's think of our body as a bucket (see embedded figure). Generally we are born in a state of health; our bucket is empty. As we go through life, a number of factors can interfere with our health. Perhaps it's a lack of sleep or exercise, a stressful job, pushing oneself too hard, feeling exhausted, excessive worrying or poor dietary choices that can contribute to increasing the level in our bucket. The level in our bucket represents our health status. Declining health comes with rising levels, an indication that the body is out of balance.

We are also exposed to a great number of toxins during the course of our lifetime. Our lung, kidneys, digestive tract, and liver can normally remove most toxins on a daily basis, but sometimes these detox mechanisms become inefficient or overwhelmed.

In addition, key systems in the body (such as the nervous or hormonal systems) can become imbalanced which can put the 'squeeze' on the bucket thereby significantly contributing to raising the level in the bucket. Deficient or inappropriate secretions of neurotransmitters or hormones are very important factors involved in both anxiety and depression.

Eventually, our bucket can overfill, leading to changes in our mood as well as other symptoms such as insomnia, fatigue, skin reactions, muscle aches and pains, and unexplained weight gain (or loss).

So what can one do to address an overfilled bucket? We don't want to put a lid on the bucket by suppressing symptoms. Such quick fixes or band-aid solutions rarely work for the long-term and do not enhance overall health status. Rather, a more long-lasting way to improve our mood is to address all aspects that are causing our bucket to overfill…

timestranscript.com - Take a mind-body approach to treating depression, anxiety | Dr. Martin Gleixner - Breaking News, New Brunswick, Canada

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