How Come They're Happy and I'm Not? (3 page)

Studies have shown that when people have a daily dose of at least 1,000 mg of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), from fish oil, it helps them maintain a positive mood as well as good overall health.

The best fish oil available is the triglyceride form (you can find this written on the label). Because fats and oils can carry many environmental toxins, it's important to make sure fish oil is molecularly distilled (it should also say this on the label) and comes from a reputable company. I do not recommend buying fish oil from a large chain store. Always check the expiration date.

Fish oil can be taken as a gel cap or a liquid. Liquid fish oil should be kept in the refrigerator after opening. If you have stomach trouble—and many patients with low mood do—or you find the fish oil makes you burp uncomfortably or gives you reflux, look for an enteric-coated version, which does not cause this discomfort. People taking anticoagulant medications (sometimes referred to as blood thinners) should check with their doctor before taking fish oil. If you're allergic to fish or vegan, you may want to try a vegetable-based essential fatty acid like algae oil, flax oil, or combined omega-3 oils including primrose or sesame. Vegetable oils are typically not as potent, but they're better than not taking any healthy oils.

Known as the happy vitamin, vitamin D acts like a hormone in the body and has important effects on mood. The list of blood tests I suggested in step 2 includes one for 25(OH) vitamin D level, which is a specific form of vitamin D in the body. It's best to check your D level first if you can and then to decide on the optimal dose of vitamin D. If you cannot check your vitamin D levels anytime soon and want to start feeling better, simply take 4,000 IU a day of
the form vitamin D
₃
. If your levels are low, it should help give them a boost. Take vitamin D
₃
with food for best absorption.

We will talk more about all these supplements as well as other nutrients in
chapter 5
.

Exercise is a powerful antidepressant. The problem is that when you don't feel good, it's hard to motivate yourself to get out there. For now, do the best you can to exercise for twenty-five minutes every day, and we'll talk more about motivation in
chapter 6
.

The best form of exercise includes being outdoors with sunlight and trees, which can also boost mood. Jogging, walking, and tai qi are all wonderful. If you have physical limitations, you can try swimming or other gentle movement. A few of my patients who can't walk or move their legs use a tabletop pedal exerciser to move their upper body.

We will discuss exercise further in
chapter 3
. For now, try your best to do something every day. Anything you can do will be very helpful.

Certain foods have powerful mood-enhancing properties. If you are not already eating these “happy foods,” try adding them to your daily diet:

• Water: It is necessary to get proper amino acids into the brain. Drink sixty ounces a day, with one big glass first thing in the day.
  
• Raw nuts and seeds: Eat a total of one cup of these throughout the day. Good choices are almonds, walnuts, sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds. Try not to eat roasted nuts.
  
• Fish: Eat fish three times a week. Wild salmon or rainbow trout are great choices. Canned sardines or anchovies are good if you cannot find fresh fish or do not have the urge to cook it.
  
• Green vegetables: Eat one every day. A cup of broccoli or spinach is a great choice. If you do not cook, eat two ribs of celery.
  
• Fruit: Eat one fruit every day.
  

There are many other healthy foods that are excellent for the brain and your mood. These will be discussed further in
chapter 3
.

Sleep has a profound impact on mood. You should sleep seven to eight hours per night. If you are not sleeping enough, do your best to go to bed earlier in the evening, preferably before midnight. If you are sleeping too much, try your best to create a schedule with a time to go to bed and then set an alarm with gentle, happy music to get you up in the morning. An ideal sleep schedule would be going to bed by ten or eleven p.m. and waking up by six or seven a.m. If you have a hard time falling asleep, try to keep your room dark at night and avoid the TV, computer, or texting at least a half hour before bed.

Sleeping too much or too little can be challenging when you are depressed. More about sleep is in
chapter 3
.

Certain nutritional supplements have been shown in clinical research to be helpful while you are taking antidepressant medications. In many cases, taking these supplements helped people when the medication alone was not effective. The following short list can be easily and safely added to your regimen:

• Folic acid: 15 mg per day. This B-related vitamin has been shown to help people who didn't respond with just medication. The most effective form of folic acid is L-methyl tetrahydrofolate and is superior to the more common folic acid form.
  
• B
  ₁₂
  : 1 mg per day (or the bottle might say 1,000 mcg, which is an equal dose). Studies have shown that higher blood levels of
  this vitamin help people respond to medication better. Methylcobalamin is the best form of B
  ₁₂
  .
  
• Zinc: 25 mg per day. Zinc levels are often low in people with depression, and taking zinc has been shown to help raise mood in people who are already using medication.
  

All the above nutrients can be taken with food.

I have seen the preceding seven simple steps help many patients like you feel much better in a matter of weeks. My hope is that these will help you feel better soon, and that you will read the rest of this book to learn more about your particular body and how to keep yourself even happier and healthier in the long term. You deserve to feel good and to enjoy life—and you can!

Positivity, yes. Have you had your plus sign today?

—P
RINCE

Okay, great. You have already read
chapter 2
and have started working on some of the quick suggestions for feeling good. You should congratulate yourself for making a commitment to feeling better. Believe it or not, making that commitment to yourself and acting on it may be the hardest step in the process. Because you have read this far, it's clear you are past that one difficult step. Remember, you do not have to read this book cover to cover. Continue reading as it feels right, and do not worry about skipping chapters and taking only what you need.

To move to a more global scale, it is interesting to look at the happiest people in the world: according to a 2010 Gallup Poll of 140 countries, Denmark, Finland, and the Netherlands were the happiest countries. The poll asked about personal sense of wellbeing and life satisfaction. While wealth had a role, it seemed that money was clearly not the greatest factor, for countries like New Zealand, with limited money per person, still scored in the top ten. Also, other research from the
British Medical Journal
already showed that even as people tend to make more money, they do not necessarily become any happier.

This Gallup Poll went on to explain that community networks (such as church groups, social organizations, and volunteering communities) as well as family and regular social interaction affected people's happiness. Another important factor was the balance between work and life, specifically avoiding overworking. It reminds me of the adage “Americans live to work, while Europeans work to live.” Well, Europe dominated the top of the list, while the United States did not even crack the top ten (it was number twelve). This information tells us we have control over the greatest factors of our own happiness: social interaction and balanced work.

You might ask, “Well, if I weren't depressed, then I could get up and work on social interaction.” This is the reason we need to start dealing with your individual physiology too. This book is founded on the idea of trusting in the innate ability of the body to heal itself—the Latin term for this is
vis medicatrix naturae
. Most of my patients with depression come in to my office truly believing that their body cannot heal and that they are stuck in an irreversible pattern. I want you to know that this feeling is just that—a feeling—and it's not true. Happy people eventually understand that feeling is not correct and that their body and mind can feel good again.

Take note of when you get a paper cut—even though the skin is separated, and possibly cut down to the point where blood is released, the body still knows how to fix that—whether you believe it or not. It takes time, and it requires nutrients and blood flow to bring the damaged area what it needs to patch up the wounded vessels and tissue, and eventually heal the skin. Your mood is not much different. With depression, the body is in a difficult pattern. With the right support, your body knows how to fix this.

Are people who do not have depression simply lucky? Maybe . . . but my clinical experience tells me that you can also create a fair bit of your own luck by giving your body the things it needs to heal.

This chapter starts you on that process by recommending and explaining the food, exercise, sleep, and spiritual and emotional ideas that can catalyze your body's ability to rebalance.

While it sounds simple, the food we eat and the beverages we take in play a major role in our long-term emotional and physical wellbeing. While some people do not see food as medicine, I would like you to consider diet one of your strongest allies for feeling great in the long term.

Hippocrates said, “Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food.” Like many wise adages, this one holds true today, although in the last hundred or so years, we have lost sight of what healthy food is. In fact, in the interest of getting healthier, we have mistakenly turned to harmful foods and eating practices.

So how can food help improve your mood and your brain? Healthy food

• Contains information the body needs to balance by turning on the healthy genes and turning off the unhealthy ones
  
• Gives the body the nutrients and cofactors it needs to make the right chemicals and neurotransmitters for a happy mood
  
• Lowers inflammation in the body, improving your mood
  
• Balances blood sugar, making you less susceptible to mood problems
  
• Allows the intestines to release toxins that hinder nervous system function
  

So which foods are truly helpful?

A healthy body and mind require plenty of water. One of my sage naturopathic teachers, Dr. Bill Mitchell, used to say, “When someone has a difficult condition and they aren't drinking enough water, tell them to take an herb in the form of a pill—any gentle herb, and tell them they need to drink it with a big glass of water three times a day—in most cases, their condition will improve quickly.” This slightly devious and well-meant suggestion may be right on target for depression.

The human brain is 78 percent water. When we do not have enough water, middle brain areas (called the hypothalamus, limbic, and somatosensory areas) overactivate, creating a stress response and causing low mood.

Low Water → Thirst → Stress Activation → Low Mood

Water is needed for the amino acid tryptophan to be transported to the brain. Tryptophan is converted to serotonin, an important neurotransmitter that allows us to enjoy good mood, remain hopeful and optimistic, keep patient, and help us think things through. Proper serotonin levels also help us avoid sweet and carbohydrate cravings. These cravings are responsible for overeating.

How much water should you be drinking? The general rule is to drink one ounce for every two pounds you weigh every day. So, if you weigh 120 pounds, it's reasonable to drink around sixty ounces (almost two quarts). A person who weights two hundred pounds can drink about ninety to one hundred ounces.

If you do not enjoy the taste of plain water, you can drink herbal teas. Hibiscus tea is naturally sweet and helps balance blood fats. Chamomile tea is calming if you are also feeling anxious. Many of my patients enjoy herbal berry teas and add a little honey. Some of my patients use stevia, which is an herb that has a sweet taste but is actually beneficial for balancing blood sugar. Avoid adding sugar or imitation sweeteners. Drink fluids at room temperature or on the warm side—in Chinese medicine, cold fluids are believed to “put out the belly fire” and shut down digestion. We will learn in
chapter 4
that healthy and robust digestion is a key to long-term good mood.

Now that we have discussed the importance of water, let's talk about that solid matter we ingest on a daily basis: food.

Food is the source of protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, and minerals that your body uses to repair, build, detoxify, and energize. Your body knows how to fix problems, but it needs the
right stuff to do it. You can think of food as information: the way a computer needs good information in its programming to run properly, your body gets its good information from the food you eat.

It's likely that if you suffer from depressive symptoms, your body is lacking the nutrients and information it needs to keep you healthy. Nutrient deficiencies are found to be very common in depressed patients. For example, it's known that low magnesium in your body can lead to depression by increasing inflammation in the body and the brain. Magnesium deficiency occurs in about 80 percent of people who have depression and is easily remedied by drinking mineral water or eating Swiss chard, molasses, or pumpkin seeds. More about magnesium, one of my all-time-favorite nutrients, is in
chapter 5
.