Overcoming Depression | Dr Sandy Bevacqua

Overcoming Depression

Depression is affecting more than 19million American adults.

SSRI’s and MAOI’s are widespread and may be a lifeline, but can often have considerable side effects.

I want to talk about how depression manifests in the physical body and offer you some advice on how to overcome the symptoms safely and naturally.

What am I feeling?

Depression can have many causes and many symptoms.

Persistent sad mood
Loss of interest or pleasure in activities you would usually enjoy
Increased appetite
Decreased appetite
Oversleeping
Insomnia
Recurrent thoughts of death or suicide

These are just a few potential symptoms of depressive disorder.

Perhaps a particular event like a bereavement, break up or redundancy has left you feeling sad. Feeling sad is an entirely normal reaction to these kinds of events; however, this sadness can set in motion abnormalities inside the body.

And it’s a bit of a vicious circle.

What’s happening?

Sadness can often cause us to crave refined carbs, sugars, and starches.

When we eat these types of foods, our blood sugar sky-rockets, it then crashes. When the crash hits, the body releases high levels of insulin to try and normalize our blood sugar.

This fluctuation can make us feel exhausted, irritable, and upset, not to mention hungry! So, we’re reunited with our familiar cravings, we relent, and the cycle goes on.

Fluctuation in blood sugar affects our body in a whole host of ways:

It can cause nutritional deficiencies as we become less able to absorb vitamins and minerals
It can create an overgrowth of candida yeast in the intestinal tract resulting in inflammation
It can cause us to gain weight… which never helps much with the depression!

But here’s the good news… generally, we can influence what’s going on inside our bodies by altering what we put into them.

What can I do?

Here are some changes and additions you can make to your diet to help beat the blues!

Increase your protein and fiber intake to stabilize your blood sugar. Try brown rice, lentils, beans, fish, eggs, and leafy greens.
Optiflora and garlic can help normalize the bacteria in the intestinal tract and decrease inflammation.
Make sure you’re taking in enough minerals! Often people suffering from depression will be carrying tension in their bodies. Calcium and magnesium can help relax your muscles, relieve anxiety, and promote better sleep.

You’re not alone!

Even with over 19 million American adults diagnosed as suffering from depression this year, it can be a lonely battle.

You may feel as if no one will ever understand and that nothing you do will make a difference, but please trust me!

Making these small changes to your diet will settle at least some of the physical battles taking place and put you in a healthier and stronger position to tackle the emotional ones.