Healthy Living: 'Look after yourself mind, body & spirit' - Eva Hill Hamilton
The weeks leading up to Christmas can be challenging, but you might find this year particularly stressful – whether it is your business that has been affected, or worried about your loved ones not being able to make it home. While some people are able to sail over even these heightened times, you might be one of those who struggle and need extra help.
There are many reasons why someone may suffer from depression or anxiety, and although you might think the issue is within the mind, in many cases the origin is organic and rooted in other areas in the body– i.e. there are basic metabolic pathways that are out of sync for some reason. A growing body of evidence points to constant low-grade inflammation as the culprit of many problems related to the brain.
If you know that you are what you eat, or rather what you absorb, it is logical that nutritional deficiencies due to poor diet or digestive disorders may play a role or even make an existing condition worse. Often poor appetite or overeating is found alongside mental health conditions, with a lack of interest in making good nutritious meals and so confounding them even further.
Your brain needs its basic building blocks and the neurons to work optimally need many co-factors, which are nutrients from our food. Therefore, you need a huge variety of amino acids (protein), vitamins, minerals and fatty acids, so what’s in your diet - or what’s missing for that matter, can indeed affect your mood.
The B vitamins in particular are important to create your calming – wellbeing neurotransmitters called serotonin and GABA. Calcium and magnesium are minerals that play an important part at the nerve synapses and help you to feel relaxed.
Choline, a nutrient found in egg yolk, is also a major part of our neurotransmitters. Zinc is essential for nerve impulse transmitting and digestive enzyme production so you can get the raw materials of the neurotransmitters from food. Essential fatty acids, especially the omega 3’s are crucial for nerve health and to reduce inflammation.
Your gut health – the balance of the microbes living there has a huge impact on your mood. The digestive and nervous systems come from the same primordial tissue - some experts now call our gut the second brain.
There are as many receptor sites and neurotransmitters in your digestive tract than in your brain. Growing evidence shows that the bacteria living in your gut communicate with the brain and affect how you respond to stress or perceive the world.
Diverse plant foods and probiotics may create a more balanced microbiome.
While your body has an effect on your mind, your mind also has a huge effect on your body; negative thoughts, pessimism and suppressed feelings can make you feel physically sick.
Remember; “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.”
So make time to connect and nourish your spirit with daily prayer and meditation.