Men, have you had a testosterone level done? If you haven't, get one. Are you twenty, make sure you get one. If you don't have a holistic health care provider, get one. I have given you several links in my main page of professionals to contact, who do phone consults. Often these hormonal tests are saliva based, ordered by the health care provider, shipped to your home, you ship it back. Then send the results to the holistic health care provider and he/she calls you with the results.
Why is your testosterone level so important? It's more than sex, it's happiness versus depression. Who wants to be depressed.
I know I have talked about this before, but I am going to do it again. Just like women have varying levels of various hormones at different ages, so do men. And this is an important thing to remember, and only holistic health care providers seem to acknowledge it, what may have been normal for the average man at 40 is not a normal decline to a man, who say, was very athletic in his prime at 21. This is important! If you were very athletic at 20,say playing college ball, and are now 45, and depressed yet your testosterone level looks normal, tell your holistic doctor. What is normal for the average joe, is not normal for you!
And honey, I want you happy. Sex can be a byproduct of the happy, but let's work on happy and correct testosterone level for you, OK?
Showing posts with label depression. Show all posts
Showing posts with label depression. Show all posts
Monday, October 27, 2008
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Journals and Diarys
Keep a journal. Call it a diary or whatever you want, but keep one.
I just rad an article in Yahoo about the oldest man in the world. This is part of what it said:
Tanabe, recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest living male last year, eats mostly vegetables and believes the key to longevity is not drinking alcohol.
The former civil servant lives with his son, drinks milk every day and has no major illnesses, although he now writes in his diary only once or twice a month. He used to write on a daily basis.
Tanabe credits his long life to not drinking alcohol. But nowhere does he or the article credit that writing in his diary every day.
Let me tell you what a diary or a journal is. It is a a story of your life. If you keep writing in your journal/diary, you keep your story going. You don't want it to end. At least your life is interesting to YOU! And you are the most important person to please.
Even Rick Warren, minister and author of THE PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE, says to keep a journal. Why? So that you learn lifes' lessons, God's lessons, quicker. You don't have to keep relearning things over and over and over. Who wants to do that?
When I keep a journal, it has been an invaluable source of learning about my life. You record not only the things that have happened, but your feelings as well. Try it.
When I don't keep a journal, when I get out of the habit, and it is a habit, my life simply isn't as rich. And that is not depressed.
If you are depressed,or going through a new stress, for sure start a journal. When I am depressed, or starting a new stress, keeping a journal gives me a feeling of power. At absolute worst, I become an observer of my life. I become rather interested in finding out how it turns out.
I have said this a bunch of times before, if you are depressed, especially if you are going through grief, get a dog and start a journal. It is that simple. Get a therapist too, get massages, get spiritual counseling, but allow it all to work quicker for you by having a dog that accepts you unconditionally, and a journal that allows you to be an active observer of your life.
Good Luck!
I just rad an article in Yahoo about the oldest man in the world. This is part of what it said:
Tanabe, recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest living male last year, eats mostly vegetables and believes the key to longevity is not drinking alcohol.
The former civil servant lives with his son, drinks milk every day and has no major illnesses, although he now writes in his diary only once or twice a month. He used to write on a daily basis.
Tanabe credits his long life to not drinking alcohol. But nowhere does he or the article credit that writing in his diary every day.
Let me tell you what a diary or a journal is. It is a a story of your life. If you keep writing in your journal/diary, you keep your story going. You don't want it to end. At least your life is interesting to YOU! And you are the most important person to please.
Even Rick Warren, minister and author of THE PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE, says to keep a journal. Why? So that you learn lifes' lessons, God's lessons, quicker. You don't have to keep relearning things over and over and over. Who wants to do that?
When I keep a journal, it has been an invaluable source of learning about my life. You record not only the things that have happened, but your feelings as well. Try it.
When I don't keep a journal, when I get out of the habit, and it is a habit, my life simply isn't as rich. And that is not depressed.
If you are depressed,or going through a new stress, for sure start a journal. When I am depressed, or starting a new stress, keeping a journal gives me a feeling of power. At absolute worst, I become an observer of my life. I become rather interested in finding out how it turns out.
I have said this a bunch of times before, if you are depressed, especially if you are going through grief, get a dog and start a journal. It is that simple. Get a therapist too, get massages, get spiritual counseling, but allow it all to work quicker for you by having a dog that accepts you unconditionally, and a journal that allows you to be an active observer of your life.
Good Luck!
Monday, July 28, 2008
Depression: Pharmaceutical Treatment Kickbacks
Hum.... this whole article was found in the New York Times online. It is titled Psychiatric Group Faces Scrutiny over Drug Industry Ties by Benedict Covey and Gardiner Harris.
If you are really having problems with depression, pharmaceuticals and psychiatrists, you are going to read all of this article. If not, you will skim. I will highlight the main sentences in each paragraph for the skimmers and redden the take home thoughts that really popped out at me. And in lavender, are my own personal comments because gee whiz, it is so obvious, and I have so much fun doing it. And while you wait to find a psychiatrist who doesn't take kickbacks in order to prescribe you a depression pharmaceutical that may or may not work, find a psychiatrist like Dr. Mahesh Dave that also practices acupuncture for depression and has great success with it. Try everything else that has worked for others which I have written about in other articles, including arctic cod liver oil, twice daily, one tablespoon adults, one teaspoon kids. ...including balancing your blood sugar with increased protein and far less simple sugars... including exercise.... including ...well, just check 'em. Here is the article:
It seemed an ideal marriage, a scientific partnership that would attack mental illness from all sides. Psychiatrists would bring to the union their expertise and clinical experience, drug makers would provide their products and the money to run rigorous studies, and patients would get better medications, faster.
But now the profession itself is under attack in Congress, accused of allowing this relationship to become too cozy. After a series of stinging investigations of individual doctors’ arrangements with drug makers, Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, is demanding that the American Psychiatric Association, the field’s premier professional organization, give an accounting of its financing.
The association is the voice of establishment psychiatry, publishing the field’s major journals and its standard diagnostic manual.
“I have come to understand that money from the pharmaceutical industry can shape the practices of nonprofit organizations that purport to be independent in their viewpoints and actions,” Mr. Grassley said Thursday in a letter to the association.
In 2006, the latest year for which numbers are available, the drug industry accounted for about 30 percent of the association’s $62.5 million in financing. About half of that money went to drug advertisements in psychiatric journals and exhibits at the annual meeting, and the other half to sponsor fellowships, conferences and industry symposiums at the annual meeting.
This weekend in Chicago, the psychiatry association’s board will meet behind closed doors, in part to discuss how to respond to the increasingly intense scrutiny and questions about conflicts of interest.
“With every new revelation, our credibility with patients has been damaged, and we have to protect that first and foremost,” said Dr. Steven S. Sharfstein, a former president of the association and now president of the Sheppard Pratt Health System in Baltimore. “I think we need to review all arrangements between doctors and industry and be very clear about what constitutes a conflict of interest and what does not.”
One of the doctors named by Mr. Grassley is the association’s president-elect, Dr. Alan F. Schatzberg of Stanford, whose $4.8 million stock holdings in a drug development company raised the senator’s concern. In a telephone interview, Dr. Schatzberg said he had fully complied with Stanford’s rigorous disclosure policies and federal guidelines that pertained to his research.
Blocking or constraining researchers from trying to bring medications to market “will mean less opportunities to help patients with severe illnesses,” Dr. Schatzberg said, adding, “Drugs that are helpful may not be developed by big pharmaceutical companies, for a variety of reasons, and we need some degree of communication between academia and industry” to expand options for patients.
HUM, WITH 4.5 MILLION IN A COMPANY'S STOCK I WOULD TRY TO COVER UP OW MANURE WITH PERFUME AND TRY TO MAKE IT SMELL GOOD TOO.
Commercial arrangements are rampant throughout medicine. In the past two decades, drug and device makers have paid tens of thousands of doctors and researchers of all specialties. Worried that this money could taint doctors’ research plans or clinical judgment, government agencies, medical journals and universities have been forced to look more closely at deal details.
In psychiatry, Mr. Grassley has found an orchard of low-hanging fruit. As a group, psychiatrists earn less in base salary than any other specialists, according to a nationwide survey by the Medical Group Management Association. In 2007, median compensation for psychiatrists was $198,653, less than half of the $464,420 earned by diagnostic radiologists and barely more than the $190,547 earned by doctors practicing internal medicine.
But many psychiatrists supplement this income with consulting arrangements with drug makers, traveling the country to give dinner talks about drugs to other doctors for fees generally ranging from $750 to $3,500 per event, for instance.
While data on industry consulting arrangements are sparse, state officials in Vermont reported that in the 2007 fiscal year, drug makers gave more money to psychiatrists than to doctors in any other specialty. Eleven psychiatrists in the state received an average of $56,944 each. Data from Minnesota, among the few other states to collect such information, show a similar trend.
In both states, individual psychiatrists are not top earners, but consulting arrangements are so common that their total tops all others. The worry is that this money may subtly alter psychiatrists’ choices of which drugs to prescribe.
DUH.
An analysis of Minnesota data by The New York Times last year found that on average, psychiatrists who received at least $5,000 from makers of newer-generation antipsychotic drugs appear to have written three times as many prescriptions to children for the drugs as psychiatrists who received less money or none. The drugs are not approved for most uses in children, who appear to be especially susceptible to the side effects, including rapid weight gain.
HUM WHATEVER HAPPENED TO FIRST DO NO HARM??? PROMISED UPON GRADUATION, FORGOTTEN UPON THE CLEARING OF THE FIRST CHECK FROM THE PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANY INTO THE BANK ACCOUNT, HUH?
Senator Grassley’s investigations have not only detailed how lucrative those arrangements can be but have also shown that some top psychiatrists failed to report all their earnings as required.
After The Times reported on such an arrangement involving Dr. Melissa P. DelBello of the University of Cincinnati, Mr. Grassley asked the university to provide her income disclosure forms and asked AstraZeneca, the maker of the antipsychotic Seroquel, to reveal how much it paid her.
In scientific publications, Dr. DelBello has reported working for eight drug makers and told university officials that from 2005 to 2007 she earned about $100,000 in outside income, according to Mr. Grassley.
But AstraZeneca told Mr. Grassley it paid her more than $238,000 in that period. AstraZeneca sent some of its payments through MSZ Associates, an Ohio corporation Dr. DelBello established for “personal financial purposes.”
OH MY, CAN WE SAY LIAR AND COVERUP? AND REMEMBER, WE GO TO PSYCHIATRISTS TO HELP STEER US THROUGH LIFE INCLUDING OH SO MANY MORAL CHALLENGES, HUH?
The University of Cincinnati agreed to monitor those payments more closely.
POOR BABIES, DIDN'T HAVE MUCH OF A CHOICE, DID THEY?
In early June, the senator reported to Congress that Dr. Joseph Biederman, a renowned child psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School, and a colleague, Dr. Timothy E. Wilens, had reported to university officials earning several hundred thousand dollars apiece in consulting fees from drug makers from 2000 to 2007 when in fact they had earned at least $1.6 million each.
Another member of the Harvard group, Dr. Thomas Spencer, reported earning at least $1 million after being pressed by Mr. Grassley’s investigators. The Harvard psychiatrists said they took conflict-of-interest policies seriously and had abided by disclosure rules.
WELL, OF COURSE THEY DID. WHAT ELSE WERE THEY GOING TO SAY, OH MY WE GOT CAUGHT?
In late June, after Mr. Grassley singled out Dr. Schatzberg, Stanford disputed some of the numbers in the report and has denied that Dr. Schatzberg violated any research rules devised to police such conflicts.
In an interview on Wednesday, Dr. Nada L. Stotland, president of the psychiatric association, said the group had studied Mr. Grassley’s letter and Stanford’s response and agreed with Stanford. Dr. Schatzberg will take over as president of the association as planned, she said.
“The larger issue here is that there’s a revolution going on” in how medicine handles industry money, said Dr. Stotland, a psychiatrist at Rush Medical College in Chicago. “That’s good, that’s what we need, and I believe we’ve been on the cutting edge of that revolution in many ways.”
Dr. Stotland said that the association began reviewing the income it received from pharmaceutical companies last March, to identify potential conflicts. Doctors and academic researchers generally worked at arm’s length from industry until the early 1980s, when Congress passed the Bayh-Dole Act. This legislation encouraged closer collaboration between researchers and industry to bring products to market more quickly. The act helped foster the growth of the biotech industry, and soon professors and universities were busy obtaining patents and building relationships with industry.
Some psychiatrists have long argued that consulting with a company — to help design a rigorous drug trial, for instance — benefits patients, as long as the researcher has no financial stake in the product and is not paid to speak about the drug to other doctors, like a traveling pitchman.
Others say industry and academic researchers are now so deeply intertwined that exposing doctors’ private arrangements only stokes suspicion without correcting the real problem: bias.
“Having everyone stand up like a Boy Scout and make a pledge isn’t going to quell suspicion,” said Dr. Donald Klein, an emeritus professor at Columbia, who has consulted with drug makers himself. “The only hope to rule out bias is to have open access to all data that’s produced in studies and know that there are people checking it” who are not on that company’s payroll.
Studies have shown that researchers who are paid by a company are more likely to report positive findings when evaluating that company’s drugs. The private deals can directly affect patient care, said Dr. William Niederhut, a psychiatrist in private practice in Denver who receives no industry money.
Dr. Niederhut said company-sponsored doctors had spread the word that new and expensive drugs were better in treating bipolar disorder than lithium, the cheaper old standby treatment.
“It’s a sales pitch, and now it’s looking like a whole lot of people would have done better if they’d started on lithium in the first place,” Dr. Niederhut said in a telephone interview. “The profession absolutely has to come clean on these industry deals, and soon.”
Tighter rules, stronger statements and more debate may not make much difference, if Mr. Grassley’s findings are any guide. Universities have rules requiring that faculty members disclose their outside income so that conflicts of interest in research or patient care can be managed. But some of the psychiatrists named in the investigations apparently ignored the rules.
“I think we may be coming to a point where hospitals and medical schools have to get serious about sanctioning,” said Dr. Paul S. Appelbaum, director of the division of psychiatry, medicine and the law at Columbia. “You can suspend doctors’ privileges, or suspend their right to treat patients; both have a huge impact on income and career. But if you’re serious about these disclosure policies, you have to be willing to back them up.”
If you are really having problems with depression, pharmaceuticals and psychiatrists, you are going to read all of this article. If not, you will skim. I will highlight the main sentences in each paragraph for the skimmers and redden the take home thoughts that really popped out at me. And in lavender, are my own personal comments because gee whiz, it is so obvious, and I have so much fun doing it. And while you wait to find a psychiatrist who doesn't take kickbacks in order to prescribe you a depression pharmaceutical that may or may not work, find a psychiatrist like Dr. Mahesh Dave that also practices acupuncture for depression and has great success with it. Try everything else that has worked for others which I have written about in other articles, including arctic cod liver oil, twice daily, one tablespoon adults, one teaspoon kids. ...including balancing your blood sugar with increased protein and far less simple sugars... including exercise.... including ...well, just check 'em. Here is the article:
It seemed an ideal marriage, a scientific partnership that would attack mental illness from all sides. Psychiatrists would bring to the union their expertise and clinical experience, drug makers would provide their products and the money to run rigorous studies, and patients would get better medications, faster.
But now the profession itself is under attack in Congress, accused of allowing this relationship to become too cozy. After a series of stinging investigations of individual doctors’ arrangements with drug makers, Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, is demanding that the American Psychiatric Association, the field’s premier professional organization, give an accounting of its financing.
The association is the voice of establishment psychiatry, publishing the field’s major journals and its standard diagnostic manual.
“I have come to understand that money from the pharmaceutical industry can shape the practices of nonprofit organizations that purport to be independent in their viewpoints and actions,” Mr. Grassley said Thursday in a letter to the association.
In 2006, the latest year for which numbers are available, the drug industry accounted for about 30 percent of the association’s $62.5 million in financing. About half of that money went to drug advertisements in psychiatric journals and exhibits at the annual meeting, and the other half to sponsor fellowships, conferences and industry symposiums at the annual meeting.
This weekend in Chicago, the psychiatry association’s board will meet behind closed doors, in part to discuss how to respond to the increasingly intense scrutiny and questions about conflicts of interest.
“With every new revelation, our credibility with patients has been damaged, and we have to protect that first and foremost,” said Dr. Steven S. Sharfstein, a former president of the association and now president of the Sheppard Pratt Health System in Baltimore. “I think we need to review all arrangements between doctors and industry and be very clear about what constitutes a conflict of interest and what does not.”
One of the doctors named by Mr. Grassley is the association’s president-elect, Dr. Alan F. Schatzberg of Stanford, whose $4.8 million stock holdings in a drug development company raised the senator’s concern. In a telephone interview, Dr. Schatzberg said he had fully complied with Stanford’s rigorous disclosure policies and federal guidelines that pertained to his research.
Blocking or constraining researchers from trying to bring medications to market “will mean less opportunities to help patients with severe illnesses,” Dr. Schatzberg said, adding, “Drugs that are helpful may not be developed by big pharmaceutical companies, for a variety of reasons, and we need some degree of communication between academia and industry” to expand options for patients.
HUM, WITH 4.5 MILLION IN A COMPANY'S STOCK I WOULD TRY TO COVER UP OW MANURE WITH PERFUME AND TRY TO MAKE IT SMELL GOOD TOO.
Commercial arrangements are rampant throughout medicine. In the past two decades, drug and device makers have paid tens of thousands of doctors and researchers of all specialties. Worried that this money could taint doctors’ research plans or clinical judgment, government agencies, medical journals and universities have been forced to look more closely at deal details.
In psychiatry, Mr. Grassley has found an orchard of low-hanging fruit. As a group, psychiatrists earn less in base salary than any other specialists, according to a nationwide survey by the Medical Group Management Association. In 2007, median compensation for psychiatrists was $198,653, less than half of the $464,420 earned by diagnostic radiologists and barely more than the $190,547 earned by doctors practicing internal medicine.
But many psychiatrists supplement this income with consulting arrangements with drug makers, traveling the country to give dinner talks about drugs to other doctors for fees generally ranging from $750 to $3,500 per event, for instance.
While data on industry consulting arrangements are sparse, state officials in Vermont reported that in the 2007 fiscal year, drug makers gave more money to psychiatrists than to doctors in any other specialty. Eleven psychiatrists in the state received an average of $56,944 each. Data from Minnesota, among the few other states to collect such information, show a similar trend.
In both states, individual psychiatrists are not top earners, but consulting arrangements are so common that their total tops all others. The worry is that this money may subtly alter psychiatrists’ choices of which drugs to prescribe.
DUH.
An analysis of Minnesota data by The New York Times last year found that on average, psychiatrists who received at least $5,000 from makers of newer-generation antipsychotic drugs appear to have written three times as many prescriptions to children for the drugs as psychiatrists who received less money or none. The drugs are not approved for most uses in children, who appear to be especially susceptible to the side effects, including rapid weight gain.
HUM WHATEVER HAPPENED TO FIRST DO NO HARM??? PROMISED UPON GRADUATION, FORGOTTEN UPON THE CLEARING OF THE FIRST CHECK FROM THE PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANY INTO THE BANK ACCOUNT, HUH?
Senator Grassley’s investigations have not only detailed how lucrative those arrangements can be but have also shown that some top psychiatrists failed to report all their earnings as required.
After The Times reported on such an arrangement involving Dr. Melissa P. DelBello of the University of Cincinnati, Mr. Grassley asked the university to provide her income disclosure forms and asked AstraZeneca, the maker of the antipsychotic Seroquel, to reveal how much it paid her.
In scientific publications, Dr. DelBello has reported working for eight drug makers and told university officials that from 2005 to 2007 she earned about $100,000 in outside income, according to Mr. Grassley.
But AstraZeneca told Mr. Grassley it paid her more than $238,000 in that period. AstraZeneca sent some of its payments through MSZ Associates, an Ohio corporation Dr. DelBello established for “personal financial purposes.”
OH MY, CAN WE SAY LIAR AND COVERUP? AND REMEMBER, WE GO TO PSYCHIATRISTS TO HELP STEER US THROUGH LIFE INCLUDING OH SO MANY MORAL CHALLENGES, HUH?
The University of Cincinnati agreed to monitor those payments more closely.
POOR BABIES, DIDN'T HAVE MUCH OF A CHOICE, DID THEY?
In early June, the senator reported to Congress that Dr. Joseph Biederman, a renowned child psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School, and a colleague, Dr. Timothy E. Wilens, had reported to university officials earning several hundred thousand dollars apiece in consulting fees from drug makers from 2000 to 2007 when in fact they had earned at least $1.6 million each.
Another member of the Harvard group, Dr. Thomas Spencer, reported earning at least $1 million after being pressed by Mr. Grassley’s investigators. The Harvard psychiatrists said they took conflict-of-interest policies seriously and had abided by disclosure rules.
WELL, OF COURSE THEY DID. WHAT ELSE WERE THEY GOING TO SAY, OH MY WE GOT CAUGHT?
In late June, after Mr. Grassley singled out Dr. Schatzberg, Stanford disputed some of the numbers in the report and has denied that Dr. Schatzberg violated any research rules devised to police such conflicts.
In an interview on Wednesday, Dr. Nada L. Stotland, president of the psychiatric association, said the group had studied Mr. Grassley’s letter and Stanford’s response and agreed with Stanford. Dr. Schatzberg will take over as president of the association as planned, she said.
“The larger issue here is that there’s a revolution going on” in how medicine handles industry money, said Dr. Stotland, a psychiatrist at Rush Medical College in Chicago. “That’s good, that’s what we need, and I believe we’ve been on the cutting edge of that revolution in many ways.”
Dr. Stotland said that the association began reviewing the income it received from pharmaceutical companies last March, to identify potential conflicts. Doctors and academic researchers generally worked at arm’s length from industry until the early 1980s, when Congress passed the Bayh-Dole Act. This legislation encouraged closer collaboration between researchers and industry to bring products to market more quickly. The act helped foster the growth of the biotech industry, and soon professors and universities were busy obtaining patents and building relationships with industry.
Some psychiatrists have long argued that consulting with a company — to help design a rigorous drug trial, for instance — benefits patients, as long as the researcher has no financial stake in the product and is not paid to speak about the drug to other doctors, like a traveling pitchman.
Others say industry and academic researchers are now so deeply intertwined that exposing doctors’ private arrangements only stokes suspicion without correcting the real problem: bias.
“Having everyone stand up like a Boy Scout and make a pledge isn’t going to quell suspicion,” said Dr. Donald Klein, an emeritus professor at Columbia, who has consulted with drug makers himself. “The only hope to rule out bias is to have open access to all data that’s produced in studies and know that there are people checking it” who are not on that company’s payroll.
Studies have shown that researchers who are paid by a company are more likely to report positive findings when evaluating that company’s drugs. The private deals can directly affect patient care, said Dr. William Niederhut, a psychiatrist in private practice in Denver who receives no industry money.
Dr. Niederhut said company-sponsored doctors had spread the word that new and expensive drugs were better in treating bipolar disorder than lithium, the cheaper old standby treatment.
“It’s a sales pitch, and now it’s looking like a whole lot of people would have done better if they’d started on lithium in the first place,” Dr. Niederhut said in a telephone interview. “The profession absolutely has to come clean on these industry deals, and soon.”
Tighter rules, stronger statements and more debate may not make much difference, if Mr. Grassley’s findings are any guide. Universities have rules requiring that faculty members disclose their outside income so that conflicts of interest in research or patient care can be managed. But some of the psychiatrists named in the investigations apparently ignored the rules.
“I think we may be coming to a point where hospitals and medical schools have to get serious about sanctioning,” said Dr. Paul S. Appelbaum, director of the division of psychiatry, medicine and the law at Columbia. “You can suspend doctors’ privileges, or suspend their right to treat patients; both have a huge impact on income and career. But if you’re serious about these disclosure policies, you have to be willing to back them up.”
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Depression: Rhodiola
I adore Rhodiola. I take it three times a day to control my blood sugar. Without it, I have hypoglycemia. With it, I do not. It is that simple.
I first started taking Rhodiola seven years ago. At the time I took it for problems I had sleeping. At that time I was told Rhodiola had been used in Russia for centuries before the fall of the Soviet Union. It had been used for mild depression, sleeplessness and panic attacks. And we were just finding out about it.
Since that time, we have found out that it helps so much more, including hormone regulation of all sorts. This includes our sex hormones. I myself use a combination of Rhodiola and ambrotose to regulate my female hormones. A the right amounts of each, I don't even need my compounded hormone cream any longer..... and I don't even have ovaries!
It makes sense that Rhodiola is working to help your pituitary and your hypothalamus doesn't it? I am sure there is literature out there, and I will find if for you.
Now, back to our topic of today, depression. If you go back and read my blog on Dr. Barry Sears Zone diet, then you know that a regulated sugar level in your blood can help control a variety of things including mild depression, just like my friends' story told us. So perhaps this is why Rhodiola cures mild depression so often in people?
We are finding out more and more that low blood sugar can also cause not just mild depression but sleeplessness and panic attacks. If you suffer from any of these, in particular if you have mild hypoglycemia also, try Rhodiola. What can it hurt you? About $25 for ten day supply (three capsules a day--New Chapter brand) and you may get the answers you need in that amount of time. If it works, what a small price for such a HUGE blessing!
Good Luck! Hang in there! I believe in you!!!
I first started taking Rhodiola seven years ago. At the time I took it for problems I had sleeping. At that time I was told Rhodiola had been used in Russia for centuries before the fall of the Soviet Union. It had been used for mild depression, sleeplessness and panic attacks. And we were just finding out about it.
Since that time, we have found out that it helps so much more, including hormone regulation of all sorts. This includes our sex hormones. I myself use a combination of Rhodiola and ambrotose to regulate my female hormones. A the right amounts of each, I don't even need my compounded hormone cream any longer..... and I don't even have ovaries!
It makes sense that Rhodiola is working to help your pituitary and your hypothalamus doesn't it? I am sure there is literature out there, and I will find if for you.
Now, back to our topic of today, depression. If you go back and read my blog on Dr. Barry Sears Zone diet, then you know that a regulated sugar level in your blood can help control a variety of things including mild depression, just like my friends' story told us. So perhaps this is why Rhodiola cures mild depression so often in people?
We are finding out more and more that low blood sugar can also cause not just mild depression but sleeplessness and panic attacks. If you suffer from any of these, in particular if you have mild hypoglycemia also, try Rhodiola. What can it hurt you? About $25 for ten day supply (three capsules a day--New Chapter brand) and you may get the answers you need in that amount of time. If it works, what a small price for such a HUGE blessing!
Good Luck! Hang in there! I believe in you!!!
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Depression: Routines and Flylady
If you have never checked out Flylady, do so. http://www.flylady.net This miraculous, wonderful woman helps all of us with routines. It helps you if you are depressed, have ADD or ADHD, or just can't seem to keep your home and personal life as organized as you would like.
When you and your home function, you feel better. It is that simple. You feel in control of you destiny. Remember that last blog. The 4th tip to happy people was to control your destiny. This is especially important if you have been laid off, are newly retired, chronically sick and/or bedridden.
I have read testimonials from people using her site, that involve all levels of depression from mild, overwhelmed to the serious, schizophrenic. Controlling your destiny through daily routines helps all levels of depression. If you are depressed, try it!
I believe in you! Don't give up!
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Depressed? Arctic Cod Liver Oil
So far the blogs on depression have included getting a dog, simply spelled God, in reverse and it can save your sanity; how maintaining a correct sugar level throughout the day through eating in the Zone and cure mild depression and how arctic cod liver oil can help ADD and bipolar symptoms. Today, I am here to tell you to, once again, use Arctic cod liver oil, and for depression.
This does not mean that you don't try other things, including acupuncture or phramaceuticals, or talk therapy, whatever. Arctic cod liver oil may work alone to alleviate your depression or it may not. But for sure, it will work synergistically with everything else. Your neurons need the right kind of fatty acids (arctic cod liver oil) to fire right. This is a direct quote from Dr. Daniel Amen, page 262, third paragraph, second sentence, HEALING ADD, "Without high levels of omega-3 fatty acids, the nerve cell membranes are less fluid, possibly causing nerve cells to react sluggishly or misfire."
Can we say brain fog (sluggishly)? And not get yourself to do what you want to do when you want to do it, from controlling anger to controlling unhappiness (misfire)?
He continues, in the same paragraph, sentences three and four, and this is very important so pay attention, because for years I didn't: "Population based studies in various countries (including the US) have indicated that decreased consumption of omega-3 fatty acids correlates with increased rates of depression. Well-intentioned advice to lower cholesterol levels tends to harm the balance of fatty acids (especially the essential omega-3, DHA) in the body."
In short: as we eat less fish and other good fats, we have become more depressed.
For years I went with virtually NO fat thinking it was the best thing for myself. I fed my children virtually no fat as well, both in utero and as children. I know countless women who have done exactly this. And then we wonder why we have such a high rate of ADD and depression amongst our youth now. We can't do the guilt trip for something we didn't know. We can simply correct our lives now, and let the rest of the world know how important fatty acids are and that the best form to get them in quickly, to build up the amount you need to have, is in arctic cod liver oil.
Dr. Amen continues, on page 263, "Recent studies have suggested that lowering levels of plasma cholesterol too much increases the risk of suicide, homicide and depression."
Folks, I know depression. I was raised by a alcoholic, probably bi-polar, perhaps multi personality mother who every morning, as she stood in front of the mirror putting on her make up to go to work, letting me sit on the bed and listen and talk to her, tell me that "life isn't worth living, and the only thing that makes it worth living is you." (meaning me).
Yes, of course this did a serious number on my own depression in life. And yes, it made me waaay to responsible for not only my mother, but others' depression as well.
But it also made me incredibly alert, throughout all of my life to what works well, across the board for depression. And the answer again, is arctic cod liver oil.
I know Dr. Amen recommends flax seed oil (linseed oil), probably because kids will like the taste better. But I have to tell you, after years of watching the results in my friends, and acquaintances, use arctic cod liver oil FIRST. People, young and old, get the best results from arctic cod liver oil.
Again, the load dose that seems to get the best results the fastest is one teaspoon, morning and evening, for children, and one tablespoon, morning and evening for adults.
As well, start cutting out all margarine, shortening and most processed foods. These contain bad fatty acids, that are going to clog up no only your heart but your brain as well. That is not the technical answer on how it happens, but it is the pragmatic answer on what the results are.
Remember, butter is better than margarine. And olive oil is better than shortening.
Start keeping around carrot sticks, nuts, fresh fruit and dried fruit to munch on, for yourself, and for your children. Keep cheese sticks around. Keep Zone bars around. My grandchildren love them.
If you dare start telling me about the high cost of these items versus processed foods, I am going to come right out of this computer Internet and bop you one. Which do you want for your life and the life of your children, husband, family, loved ones--a life of depression and obesity--or the exact opposite? What you eat does too matter and is an important part of an overall integral package of health, including body weight and brain function.
Now, I am going to give you some links. If you are depressed, I sure don't want you doing this by your self. This is why I keep on telling you to make sure you have a holistic chiropractor, holistic medical doctor, holistic pharmacist and holistic acupuncturist, ALL in your health care lineup. If you are using pharmaceuticals as well as supplements or herbals for depression, this is where you absolutely have to have a holistic pharmacist and medical doctor because only they know and understand the way each interacts with the others both for good as well as bad.
And if you are within a fifty mile radius of the Bryan/College Station area, contact Dr. Mahesh Dave, a psychiatrist who gets great results with acupuncture for depression and will completely understand the value of arctic cod liver oil as well as be able to any prescribe necessary pharmaceuticals. http://www.brazosdoctors.com/ Remember, what we want is a happy you, in any way we can get it. And quite often, natural and synthetic pharmacueticals work synergistically to create an incredibly happy you. Find the right doctor to help you find the best mix.
Good Luck! I believe in you!
Monday, July 21, 2008
Depression: Cured by Zone Diet
This story is told by a busy woman in her early thirties.
The Zone diet, by Dr. Barry Sears, cured my depression. http://www.drsears.com/ I think I was mildly depressed for all of my life. Not that I thought much of it. I was just sad a lot, and thought everyone was this way. Then I tried the Zone diet to lose a little bit of weight. I needed to fit into a dress for a big occasion. I am such a woman, dieting for a occasion and a dress.
Within a few weeks of being totally on the zone diet, I realized my depression had disappeared! It simply went away! It was then I realized I didn't have to be sad a lot and that everyone wasn't just like me. I realized there was a better way of life. And somehow I made the obvious connection to the zone diet, and have been eating Zone ever since.
The reason the Zone diet works is that it maintains a consistent sugar level in your body. By eating fats, complex carbohydrates and protein in regular intervals, you can stabilize your blood sugar. And stabilized blood sugar allows your entire body to function better, including your brain.
To measure out Zone meals, you can use your hand. I do. The palm of your hand represents the protein you should have at one meal. Your fist represents the complex carbohydrates you should have. And the tip of your thumb is the amount of fat. And you should eat about every three hours.
I am always on the go. I travel a lot, eat out at fancy restaurants several times a week, and I work 60-80 hours a week. As well, I am a vegetarian. Yet, I always find a way to incorporate the Zone diet into my life. I keep zone bars with me at all times, and occasionally cheese sticks. These tide me over when waiting for planes, etc. At restaurants I order off menu, appetizers or salads. Think about it like this: you can still meet friends for drinks, have a piece of cheese with your glass of wine and you are still in the Zone!
And of course, there are perks to the Zone diet. Besides no longer having that mild depression drain my life, my energy level is always consistent, and I never have to diet. NEVER! All my girlfriends are always dieting, and me, I never am. I am simply eating right, all the time.
I highly recommend the Zone diet for everyone. If you are like me and you try it for just a couple of months, you will never want to go back to your old way of eating, ever!
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