Causes of Mental/Emotional Dis-ease: Depression, Anxiety, and Stress

While the mental emotional and spiritual can create disease, the opposite is also true.  There are physical situations that can create diseases of mental or emotional problems.  Heavy metals such as lead, arsenic, or mercury are well known for this.  Remember the Mad Hatter that got mercury poisoning from the making of felt hats.

Environmental toxins such as the pesticide DDT (see blog) mimics estrogen and can play hormone havoc.  The pharmaceutical product of the pre -1950’s diethylstilbesterol (DES), a synthetic estrogen, was given to mothers to aide in a healthier baby.  The female offspring receiving the drug in the first trimester suffered from a rare form of cancer, infertility, and an increased incident of lesbian or bisexual orientation.  Any health problem can bring on anxiety and depression.  These horrors of the past are not currently taught in medical or pharmacy schools so we will likely repeat these errors.

Steroids such as prednisone or food allergies that increase cortisol can lower the working threshold of neurotransmitters in the brain, which can contribute to panic attacks, emotional instability, and attention deficit.

Today, a common drug therapy (proton pump inhibitors) that prevents the stomach from creating acid for digestion is a potential setup for such brain problems.  Acid is needed to breakdown protein into small enough components to be absorbed and to create many of our brain chemicals, known as neurotransmitters.  Most of our neurotransmitters are created in the gut. 

Neurotransmitters control nerve conduction and are either excitatory or inhibitory. They either speed up nerve conduction or slow it down.  Epinephrine or adrenaline, known to be the “fight or flight” neurotransmitter is excitatory.  Serotonin and GABA are examples of inhibitory neurotransmitters.  Serotonin is associated with depression and GABA is associated with anxiety.

Common antidepressants allow the serotonin to remain available longer hence increasing the excretion in the urine, therefore actually contributing to its depletion.  Some targeted amino acid (protein) therapy works to help build such neurotransmitters.    This provides the building blocks (precursors) for the body to make it’s own neurotransmitters.  Natural Creations product Inhibitory Neurotransmitter is a helpful intervention for depression.

Gaba is another neurotransmitter that may be viewed as the brains natural tranquilizer.   The supplement approach is Gaba Calm which can be helpful in anxiety, panic attacks and sleep.   HPA Calm is helpful for high stress anxiety related to elevated cortisol and racing thoughts. 

Stay Well

Impulse Buying- Natural Insanity

My interest in the Tennessee Walking Horse and field trialing led me to the National Tennessee Walking Horse Celebration.  My horse trainer friend, Earl and I made the seven-hour trip to Shelbyville, TN.  We joined another trainer and started going from barn to barn to look at horses for sale.  I had no interest in buying but the trainers were shopping for clients.  This was a great equine education for me. 

We then went to a horse auction.  Earl told me I should really consider buying one as there were some quality horses going cheap.  He pointed out a nice stallion.  My response: I am not buying a horse this week, I don’t want a show horse, and I certainly do not want a stallion.  While he was outside talking to a client, a jet-black performance horse strolled in the arena.  He immediately caught my eye.  His conformation and graceful movement was a sight to behold.  It only took 3 seconds, and one quick look at his breeding to start bidding.  The energy in the auction had risen, and I lost my mind for the looks and movement of a fine stallion performance horse.  When Earl came back in, I said, “Earl, I am about to buy this horse.”  He took one look and shook his head with a hardy yes.  The lady refused to sell for the bid price and we struck a deal in the parking lot.  Later, Earl also purchased a horse for his client.

This was completely out of character for me.  What just happened?  When I called my wife to give her the “good” news, she did not believe me.  Especially when I told her the details of my selection.  Her shocked response was, “You are never going to Tennessee with Earl again”.  Ok, great, I can blame Earl.  Actually, honesty is the best policy; I just told her I lost my mind.  I guess I could have told her better a horse than another woman but I am positive that would not have helped.  Since I did not bring a trailer, I hired a wrangler to take him to a barn for boarding.  Earl and I drove back to Statesville that night arriving at 2AM, hooked up the trailer and drove back to Shelbyville early the same morning and came back the same day.

Just to recap, I had repeatedly told Earl the three things I would not do in buying a horse.  With only visual stimulus, the neurotransmitters in my brain changed so dramatically that I lost my mind in that moment and went against everything I had said.  This was a compensatory brain chemistry melee of the first order.   If I could bottle that brain chemistry, I could either rule the world or completely destroy it.  Well, maybe not as I did not control myself.  I weathered the fallout of my purchase decision with my wife, and I still have no buyer’s remorse.  It was actually a fine selection of a great horse that has performed and produced excellent offspring.  I am not sure what the remedy is for this but I do know that I should stay away from the horse auction.

Natural Emotional Memory

                                                      Scent Point at Six Months Old

A dog’s instinct is to chase.  Another instinct is to pause before pouncing on their prey.   Pointing dogs find game by scent and have a more developed instinct to pause, hence, pointing out the location of the game.  These pointing dogs are then trained to maintain the point until the game bird is flushed and shot.  When Rikki, my German Shorthaired Pointer, is on point, she is almost mesmerized.  If you look at her eyes, she appears to be in a trance like state as she stands statuesque never blinking or moving.  This trance is certainly an emotional experience with the reward of powerfully positive brain chemistry (neurotransmitters).

When she was pregnant, my older friend suggested that I put her on point saying it would help the offspring later.  While I did not entirely believe it would make any difference, it certainly could not hurt.  Much to my amazement the puppies demonstrated an unusually strong pointing instinct without training.  They would stand point and not give chase as previous litters.  Is this purely genetic or did the puppies experience the emotions of the mother in the womb making it more likely for them to respond in the same way? 

This example opens many possible questions.  Could the emotional experiences of the mother be “imprinted” on the offspring?  The concept of cellular memory has been studied in many life forms including yeast, worms, and mice.  There are many theories as to how such memory works.  We are a culmination of all the life experiences of the past.  In some ways our brain is hard wired to seek out and experience the same thoughts, feelings, or emotions that we have always experienced.  Changing these patterns is the frontier of medicine.

EVOX