people who suffer from depression would get great benefits from metabolically innocuous, natural anti-depressants. Many of the older psychotrophic drugs( tricyclic antidepressants) are also known to cause weight gain.
The Atkins Approach to Depression
Serotonin drugs are effective because this natural neurotransmitter helps the brain function, relieves depression and relaxes the mind. But the drugs work by blocking the body ' s normal ability to destroy serotonin once it has been created. Blocking agents block other normal chemical functions as well, resulting in such unwanted side effects as diminished sex drive and performance, dry mouth and constipation, to say nothing of slowed metabolism, which, of course, can stall weight loss.
The safe way to build up the serotonin level is to enable the body to manufacture its own serotonin by taking the immediate precursor to serotonin. This natural substance does not block a reaction, but simply enables a reaction to take place. The precursor to serotonin is a chemical called tryptophan; its immediate precursor is 5-hydroxy tryptophan, a popular vitanutrient available in health food stores.
Other natural substances for depression include N-acetyl tyrosine, S-adenosyl methionine( SAMe), St. John ' s Wort, acetyl L-carnitine, phosphatidyl serine and most of the B complex vitamins. These supplements relieve anxiety, as do inositol, GABA( gamma amino butyric acid), kava kava and valerian.
It would be inappropriate to go into full detail about how to determine dosages to replace antidepressant pharmaceuticals with safe, effective natural substances. It takes considerable experience to individualize the dosage and combination of therapies. But do know that you can get off anti-depressant pharmaceuticals with the help of a complementary physician experienced in managing depression and anxiety.
DO DIABETICS NEED INSULIN AND OTHER DRUGS?
A large number of diabetics are overweight because they put out too much insulin. As you might imagine, nothing would be more inappropriate than to give insulin to these overweight diabetics, who already put out excessive insulin and have elevated blood sugar resulting from insulin resistance, rather than lack of insulin.
Are you a Type II diabetic taking insulin, or one of the oral drugs called sulfonylureas, which work by increasing your insulin levels? And do you seem to be metabolically resistant to weight loss? Then chances are a hundred to one that you are a diabetic who is simply a victim of a poor assumption on the part of your physician. My approach with those already diagnosed diabetics on oral medications and / or insulin who come to me is to determine if they can produce insulin on their own.
Here ' s how you find out if the insulin you are taking is necessary or not: Have your doctor run a test of insulin levels( as well as glucose levels) both before and ninety minutes after a typical low-fat / high-carbohydrate breakfast( including perhaps a blueberry muffin, cereal with skim milk and eight-ounce glass of orange juice). Make sure you take no long-acting insulin after 6 P. M. the evening before and no diabetes medications of any kind the morning of the test until after the second blood sample is drawn.( The blood drawn after eating or after drinking a glucose solution is called a post-prandial reading.)
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