The nutritionally depleted wasteland we call the Standard American Diet is causing widespread nutritional deficiencies, along with an epidemic of anxiety and depression. The solution is simple, and it’s NOT more Prozac. Instead, simply eating a diet high in fish, meat, fruits and vegetables, and low in processed foods and added sugar, can help you feel dramatically better. To make this easier, low cost nutritional and herbal support can also give people their lives back, without the toxicity of psychiatric medications.

Here are the key ones, which I take myself each day to turbocharge energy and optimize health, while also leaving me being a calm, happy soul:

1. B vitamins and folate. These are critical for proper brain function. Research has shown that supplementing with vitamin B1 improved mood, likely by increasing a brain neurotransmitter called acetylcholine. It also decreases anxiety. A side benefit? Improving memory at the same time. Vitamin B1 deficiency was also shown to worsen learning disorders in young children, and increase aggressive behavior to the point where some had to enter a mental hospital. This problem resolved with vitamin B1 supplementation. Vitamin B2 has been associated with decreasing risk of postpartum depression, while also decreasing migraine frequency by an astounding 69 percent! B12 and folic acid have also been shown to be helpful for depression. Ignore the RDAs, which I call Ridiculous Dietary Allowances, and instead take a 50 mg B complex each day. Make sure that some of folic acid is in a form called 5MTHF.
2. Magnesium is critical in hundreds of reactions in the body, and deficiency is present in the majority of Americans. Low magnesium will put you on a hair trigger for anxiety, as well as for pain. Take 200 mg a day.
3. NAC, which our bodies use to make the critical antioxidant called glutathione, has been shown to be helpful in a wide array of psychological problems. For day-to-day supplementation, I recommend 250 mg.
4. Vitamin D* deficiency is associated with many autoimmune problems as well as with depression. As this is the “sunshine vitamin,” the insane advice to avoid sunshine has triggered an epidemic of vitamin D deficiency. Take 1000 units daily. To make this simple and low-cost, all of the above can be found for about $.60 a day in a single drink called the Energy Revitalization System by Enzymatic Therapy. Another key cause of depression and anxiety is deficiency of omega-3 fish oils. Unfortunately, it takes seven large capsules a day of most forms to get the proper therapeutic effect. A simpler low-cost solution? A special form of pure omega-3’s that have been vectorized (which is another way of saying that they remain bioidentical) can be found in a product called Vectomega by Terry Naturally. One a day replaces seven fish oil pills.
5. Got depression? Repeated studies have shown that a special highly absorbed form of curcumin called CuraMed (also by Terry Naturally) 750 mg 2x day was more effective than antidepressants in head on studies. In addition, instead of the side effects of the medications, curcumin is associated with side benefits, including less pain, optimizing immunity to decrease cancer risk, and likely lower risk of Alzheimer’s.
6. For anxiety, it is not necessary to be addicted to Xanax. A special herbal called AnxioCalm, two twice a day, was shown to be as effective at restoring calm as the Valium family medications after six weeks of use. With no addiction or side effects.

This simple regimen can leave you feeling fantastic, at lowcost. Give it six weeks to see the full effect. It can also safely be combined with mood medications. It’s easy to feel calm and happy—naturally!

*Editor’s Note: We strongly recommend you visit GrassrootsHealth.net to learn more about Vitamin D, its importance, how to determine what dosage is right for you, and most of all, why it is so darn important you have sufficient levels of Vitamin D. Did you know serum levels greater than 40 ng/ml are associated with > 65% lower risk of cancer?¹ Or that serum levels of 40-60 ng/ml may provide a significant reduction in breast cancer risk? Or lower risk for type 2 diabetes, colorectal cancer and much, much more.

GrassrootsHealth is a nonprofit public health research organization dedicated to moving public health messages regarding vitamin D from research into practice. It has a panel of 48 senior vitamin D researchers from around the world contributing to its operations. GrassrootsHealth is currently running the D*action field trial to solve the vitamin D deficiency epidemic worldwide. Under the D*action umbrella, there are also targeted programs for breast cancer prevention and a ‘Protect Our Children NOW!’ program to stop vitamin D deficiency where it starts, in utero.

End Notes:

1. Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Concentrations ≥40 ng/ml Are Associated with >65% Lower Cancer Risk: Pooled Analysis of Randomized Trial and Prospective Cohort Study

The post The Food—Mood Connection appeared first on Total Health Magazine.

At no time is this missing information more needed than today, when we read alarming headlines about Avian Flus or H1N1, alleged pandemics that were supposedly going to match or surpass the death rates of the Great Flu Epidemic of 1918.

To understand why our government ramps up for these anticipated pandemics, you need to know how much they are involved in the drug business and the creation of laws that sanction the use of our tax dollars to make new drugs. Once developed, these drugs are then handed over to the drug industry to sell worldwide, and officials at all federal agencies, including the State Department, are required to do what they can to make these drugs a commercial success. consequently, the possibility that there might be an epidemic, or even worse a “pandemic” (that is, a situation in which more potential sick people would need drugs) provides yet another opportunity to develop and promote drug products for sale worldwide.

While millions of Americans worry about what will happen if such pandemics reach our shores, we thought we’d set the record straight on what actually happened during the 1918 epidemic, among chiropractors and homeopaths, two medical groups who have always remained skeptical of modern medicine for good reason. Chiropractor, Dr. Christopher Kent, in his article titled, “Chiropractic and Infectious Disease —a Historical Perspective,” which is posted on www.insightcla.com, provides statistics that show the superiority of chiropractic care during the 1918 flu epidemic. In Davenport, Iowa, 6,116 patients died out of 93,590 treated (a loss of one in fifteen) under modern medical care. Meanwhile, chiropractors at the Palmer School of Chiropractic treated 1,635 cases and lost only one patient. Outside Davenport, chiropractors cared for 4,735 cases with only six deaths, or one death per 866 patients. Meanwhile, in Oklahoma, another bastion of chiropractic activity, out of 3,490 flu patients under chiropractic care, there were only seven deaths.

Homeopaths had similar success, as they always do during any infectious disease outbreak. One of the several most interesting public records about homeopathic superiority in treating the flu was reported in Chicago, where three great mail order houses were located: Montgomery Ward, Sears, Roebuck and Co., and Marshall Field’s. Each of these companies had medical clinics for their thousands of employees. Sears and Marshall Field’s were run by allopathic M.D.s, while Ward’s was run by homeopaths. While Sears and Marshall Field’s lost hundreds of patients, Ward’s only lost one lone patient. One homeopath practicing during the epidemic said that allopaths typically lost 20 to 40 percent of their patients while homeopaths lost only 5 to 6 percent at most.

In New York City, the Commissioner of Health, Royal Copeland, a homeopathic physician, was convinced that most of the deaths reported in the city were from pneumonia, a complication from the flu, because most people did not have indoor heating at the time. As a result, he changed the sanitary code to require landlords to keep heat in their buildings no lower than 68 degrees. Dr. Copeland also noted that among the Jewish population, there were lower death rates. He claimed it was because Jewish mothers were the best in the world. We think it’s because of their famous chicken soup, which is known to be nutritionally rich and usually includes several herbs of medicinal value, none the least of which is garlic.

All natural health practitioners would tell you the same thing about the flu season: Be prepared and build up your immune system; it’s the best defense. On the outside chance we do have some kind of unusual flu outbreak, avian or otherwise, you can use homeopathic flu remedies like Boiron’s oscillococcinum, which is prepared from duck organs because the makers know that flu can have an avian origin. You should also know that each flu season, homeopaths gather information about symptoms from the very first sufferers and establish the most effective protocols for that season’s variety of infection. And they don’t necessarily differentiate between flu-like illness or the actual flu, which is only 10 percent of the aches and sniffles that people suffer each year. They choose from Aconite (for the first signs of a flu), Eupatorium (for break-bone fever), Gelsemium (for worry and hurry), Nux Vomica (for overindulgence), and a dozen more. We personally also use oil of oregano, vitamin C, garlic, and magnesium to defend ourselves and also carefully avoid the flu shot and antibiotics.

What we must always remember is that the key to good health is being informed owners of our own bodies. We have a right to choice in health care, and we must fight for that right of choice and the knowledge and ability to self-medicate with fearlessness and confidence.

Allopathy is only a medical model born of the industrial age, and to suggest the oldest and most used healing arts in the world are secondary to allopathy is not only insulting but inaccurate. Traditional methods of restoring and maintaining maximum health, by virtue of their track record of safety and success, take second place to no other medical model.

Health is not only about the body but also about the mind, emotions, and spirit. Each of us must be prepared to stretch beyond the average health book, which merely substitutes dietary supplements for drugs and doesn’t give us the deep, underlying reasons for the very existence of our current health care crises. There have been well over 100 years of deliberate scheming and manipulations, affecting every aspect of our North American society, to create the false picture of the health care (actually disease care) matrix. Become educated; take responsibility for your own health; and if you must take medication, look into all the risks and all the other options.

Also, understand that power comes from how you spend your money, how you make your lifestyle choices, and how you cast your vote. Become active in the health freedom movement.

The post The History of Influenza appeared first on Total Health Magazine.