If you’re taking drugs to lower your cholesterol levels (e.g., statins) and are feeling a bit down in the dumps, you should know that drug-induced low cholesterol has been linked with symptoms of depression. Quitting a smoking habit can also bring on depression. Both cholesterol-lowering drugs and smoking cessation affect serotonin levels.
Do you need to be told that coffee can cause anxiety? Coffee is a drug and should be treated as such. Among other things, it stimulates the production of adrenaline, one of the hormones secreted by the adrenal glands to help us in extreme emergency situations. Our adrenals evolved to give our early ancestors the extra strength and alertness needed to escape a saber tooth tiger attack, but we don’t often need that much adrenaline these days. Like sugar, coffee constantly stimulates the production of adrenaline, putting excessive wear and tear on the adrenal glands. And let’s not forget that green tea and black tea contain caffeine, and even decaf still contains some caffeine. If you’re sensitive to caffeine, it can keep you awake at night even if you haven’t had any since noon. For those suffering from insomnia, nonstimulating herbal teas such as chamomile or mint are your best bet in the evening. If you need a boost in the afternoon, try a cup of ginseng tea.
More than a couple of alcoholic drinks a day can cause enough ongoing stress to all systems of the body to bring on depression. Then you have a couple more drinks to banish the depression, and you’re in a vicious cycle. Like most things, alcohol in small amounts can be beneficial and in large amounts detrimental. You may escape temporarily from your problems, but excess alcohol is more likely to keep you up at night than put you to sleep. Alcohol also robs your body of many nutrients.
Researchers are discovering that what you eat has a lot to do with how you feel. In a study of 275 people suffering from many different conditions, including fatigue, insomnia, and depression, elimination of allergenic foods resulted in significant improvement, with relief of nearly all symptoms. This is another reason to be moderate about your consumption of refined sugars, white flour, caffeine, and chocolate.
Exercise Is Your Cure-All
Exercise is one of the best sleep aids around. Does this mean you need to get up in the middle of the night and run around the block? Not at all. The point is that if you’ve taken a brisk walk or have had some other kind of exercise during the day, you’ll sleep better and wake up more refreshed.
When we are depressed, we tend to want to stop moving. When we are anxious, we tend to move unproductively, fidgeting or pacing. If you’ve slowed down to a crawl and can’t seem to get your engines started, or if you can’t sit still or can’t sleep, try some exercise. Several studies have demonstrated that a moderately intense workout, enough to get your heart pounding and your body hot and sweaty, has as strong an anti-depressant effect as an SSRI.
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy: Change the Way You Think to Heal from Anxiety and Depression
Research has demonstrated that brain chemistry can actually be altered by a kind of therapy called cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). CBT is based on the understanding that in an otherwise healthy brain, thought patterns create and perpetuate states of anxiety and depression. These thought patterns can change brain biochemistry in negative ways, and changing those patterns can change it for the better.
CBT is based on the idea that our thoughts, not external events, are what create our feelings and behaviors. One person can handle the worst adversity and maintain his or her optimism and zest for life, while another person can be devastated by the smallest problem—or as is the case for many depressed or anxious people, can make up problems, and then let those problems sink them like the Titanic. These two people think differently. CBT helps the latter person think more like the former.
A CBT therapist can effect big changes in a person’s life in only a few months—on average, the length of therapy is 16 sessions. Rather than the traditional “talk therapy” relationship, CBT resembles a teacher-student relationship, complete with homework!
For more information, go to the website of the National Association of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapists, nacbt.org/whatiscbt.htm. This site is for psychologists, but it has a lot of great information that is easy to understand.
Let the Sun Shine In
Depressed people are often depleted of vitamin D, the “sunshine vitamin.” Lack of vitamin D is linked to seasonal depression, where people get down in the dumps during the dark, short days of winter. Simply getting out into some direct sun (without sunscreen) for 15 to 30 minutes leads to a boost in vitamin D levels.
If you tend to get down in the dumps every winter and feel better in the spring, you may have seasonal affective disorder (SAD), and you may want to try light therapy, where you spend two hours a day in a room lit at 80 times the brightness of indoor lighting. This can help adjust your hormonal rhythms in a way that boosts mood. You can gain very quick relief with light therapy if you have SAD. If you think this might be for you, check your local health food store for a source of full-spectrum lighting. That being said, the ideal solution is still to get outside and get some sunshine every day.
Track Down Your Sleep Robber
Many over-the-counter painkillers, cold and allergy remedies, and appetite suppressants contain caffeine and other substances that can cause insomnia. Some examples of drugs that contain caffeine are Anacin, Extra Strength Excedrin, Bayer Select Maximum, Midol, and Vanquish. Herbal products with zippy names and energy-boosting claims may be nothing more than concentrated caffeine or guarana, a South American herb that contains high levels of caffeine.
Allergy and cold medicines may contain synthetic variations of ephedrine, such as pseudoephedrine (Sudafed), which can keep you awake. The over-the-counter asthma drugs, Bronkaid and Primatene for example, that contain stimulants such as ephedrine and epinephrine can make sleeping difficult.
The cortisones, such as prednisone, can also cause sleeplessness. The heart drugs propranolol, furosemide, and lovastatin may cause insomnia, as can too high a dose of thyroid medication such as Synthroid. Ironically, many of the antidepressants cause insomnia, which can cause depression due to lack of sleep!
Unfortunately, if one of these medications is keeping you awake at night, your physician is most likely to write you a prescription for a sleeping pill. In nearly all cases, that is the worst possible thing you can do for insomnia. Sleeping pills cause either dependence or outright addiction very quickly, tend to lose their effectiveness over time, and have a rebound effect if you stop, causing worse insomnia than ever. They also tend to suppress your dream or REM sleep, sometimes resulting in severe mental disturbances and psychoses if used over a long period of time. If someone hands you a prescription for a sleeping pill, think twice before using it.
If you’re having trouble sleeping and you are taking any type of medication, including over-the-counter drugs, read the label or package insert to find out if it can cause insomnia, restlessness, or irritability.
Don’t drink a lot of fluids before bed. If prostate problems are keeping you up with repeated bathroom trips, try the herb saw palmetto.
If you like to watch TV at night before you go to sleep, choose nonviolent, upbeat shows. When you’re sleepy, your unconscious is particularly susceptible to suggestion. Violence and mayhem can show up in disturbing dreams that leave you feeling less rested in the morning. If you need a non-TV bedtime ritual, try reading (again, nothing too upsetting or violent) or a warm bath (not hot—that can be stimulating).
When you know that the next day is going to be busy or you have something coming up that you are tense about, make sure you are prepared. Sit down and make a list of things you need to remember, look at your schedule, and organize the day on paper. If you are going to an important meeting, you can visualize it coming out well (you don’t need to visualize the whole thing, just the happy ending). That way you won’t be worrying about it as you’re trying to sleep.
Should you eat right before you go to sleep? Some people say it gives them nigh
tmares, and others say it helps them sleep better. This is very individual and depends on your blood sugar, your digestion, and your metabolism. However, if you do eat before bed, stick to simple, complex-carbohydrate-rich foods like a piece of toast, a bowl of cereal (without added sugar), fruit (bananas work well), or crackers (low salt). Avoid white sugar, spicy foods, and foods high in protein and fat—they can keep you awake, and fat is harder to digest.
Things That Go Bump in The Night
For those of us who travel a lot, live in a noisy neighborhood, have neighbors with a barking dog, or have a spouse who snores, noise can be a real sleep inhibitor. Some primitive part of us is on guard at night, ready to wake us up if something is wrong. Unfortunately, this guard isn’t always discriminating about what noises it deems important enough to wake up for.
Here’s a sleeping tip that can work wonders: if there’s a sound that’s been waking you up at night, such as a barking dog, sirens, or garbage trucks, have a little conversation with the “part” of you that’s waking up. Thank it for being attentive enough to wake you up, and explain that this particular sound is not a sign of danger. Tell it that it doesn’t need to wake you up for this specific sound and that it’s perfectly safe to keep on sleeping. It may seem strange, but try it—it works!
When all else fails, earplugs can be a real gift. Get the soft foam type at your local drugstore. White-noise machines that make pleasant, repetitive sounds such as the babbling of a brook or the crashing of ocean waves can help drown out more intrusive sounds. Sleep masks are also available to remove sleep disturbances caused by light.
Melatonin
The hormone melatonin is secreted in tiny amounts from the pineal gland at the base of the brain. As each day draws to an end and darkness falls, melatonin gives us the hormonal signal that it’s time to rest for the night. Because we live in a culture that stays up long into the night, with lights blazing, our pineal glands can get a little confused. Night-shift work, newborn babies, and crazy schedules also disrupt our natural circa-dian rhythms, and quality of sleep suffers.
Melatonin production in the brain is important to a good night’s sleep. As we age, our pineal gland secretes less melatonin, and we tend to have more trouble going to sleep and sleeping through the night. Fortunately, thanks to the miracles of modern science, you can buy supplemental melatonin to help you get back into a pattern of deep, rejuvenating sleep.
It’s best to take melatonin at least eight hours before you want to wake up, or you may experience some mild grogginess in the morning. Other than that, melatonin has repeatedly been shown to be completely free of side effects when used as directed and is nonaddictive.
Since it regulates sleep-wake cycles, melatonin can also be very useful for banishing jet lag by adjusting circadian rhythms to match your geographic location. You do this simply by taking melatonin about an hour before you want to sleep in your new location. It will give your brain the message that it’s time to sleep, regardless of what time zone you’re in. One or two nights of melatonin should put you back on the right track.
As for the claims that melatonin is an anti-aging drug, we need to be cautious in making the leap from extending lifespan in a particular strain of mice to extending lifespan in humans. In some studies, mice that were given melatonin lived 20 percent longer, but other strains of mice in other studies died sooner. Some younger mice given melatonin developed cancer. Melatonin in high doses suppresses sex hormones. And how much can we presume about supplemental melatonin based on studies of nocturnal rodents?
Melatonin can also work very well for older people who are having trouble sleeping, but be aware that we simply don’t know the long-term effects of using melatonin every night. Anytime we take a hormone in higher doses than the body would naturally produce, we’re asking for an imbalance.
If you are over the age of 65 and your melatonin levels have dropped so far that you can’t sleep at night, and you have eliminated other possible causes of your insomnia, taking 0.5 to 2 mg at night is tantamount to correcting a deficiency. It is also perfectly safe to take melatonin for an occasional bout of insomnia. Melatonin is a natural hormone, so when it is used occasionally, your body should have no trouble excreting any excess. If you need melatonin, it only takes a very small dose to help you sleep better. If low melatonin levels aren’t your problem, even a big dose won’t make any difference.
The melatonin sold in health food stores is manufactured but has the exact same molecular structure as the melatonin made by the body. Sublingual forms of melatonin are more expensive but act more quickly. Look for a reputable brand that states on the label that it is pharmaceutical grade melatonin. Take melatonin tablets about one hour before you want to go to sleep, and the sublingual tablets half an hour before you want to go to sleep.
Some drugs, including NSAIDs (e.g., aspirin, ibuprofen, acetaminophen), interfere with the brain’s production of melatonin. In fact, just one dose of normal aspirin can cut your melatonin production by as much as 75 percent. If you’re taking these drugs, take the last dose after dinner.
Other drugs that can interfere with melatonin production in the brain include the benzodiazepines such as Valium and Xanax, caffeine, alcohol, cold medicines, diuretics, beta-blockers, calcium channel blockers, stimulants such as diet pills, and corticosteroids such as prednisone.
Even the smallest amount of light at night can inhibit the production of melatonin. After sundown, keep artificial lighting gentle. Once it’s time to sleep, be sure your bedroom is completely dark, with drapes or blinds drawn to block out streetlights and passing headlights if necessary. Even light as dim as the glowing display of a digital clock has been found to adversely affect melatonin production, so turn your clock away or cover it with a cloth.
Valerian
Sometimes at the end of a long day, we’re “tired but wired.” The body is telling us it’s time to sleep, but the mind is keeping us awake. When that happens, you can try taking a dropperful of valerian tincture in water, which should send you to dreamland within 30 minutes. Valerian (Valeriana officinalis L.) is a plant that has been used for thousands of years as a folk remedy for “nervous stomach” and as a sedative. Valerian has few, if any, side effects and is not habit-forming. Valerian can be taken as a tincture (a fluid extract of the herb suspended in alcohol or glycerine) or in capsule form. If you can, get the fresh root tincture. Valerian can make some people weepy when taken for more than a few nights in a row. This is a rare side effect, but well-known among herbalists.
Natural Remedies for Stress
There are many, many positive ways to cope with stress. One of them is to try a form of meditation that focuses on becoming aware of the mind and of your “self-talk” as well as on breathing and chanting techniques that can help focus the mind. If you are unconsciously saying negative things to yourself all day long, it can be more than enough to keep you up at night! Many forms of meditation will assist you in replacing that destructive self-talk with something more positive.
Another way to cope with stress is to talk to a trained therapist. Just talking out loud about a problem to another human who is willing to listen attentively can be enough to begin the emotional healing process. Often, when we talk about our problems out loud, resolutions begin to appear. And by the way, if you don’t like your therapist, don’t blame yourself—find another one. As in any relationship, the chemistry has to be good for healing to occur.
One technique that can be helpful when stress levels are high is to ask yourself, “What is one action step I can take to reduce my stress levels?” That might simply mean taking a walk in a beautiful place or getting two key things done on your to-do list. Sometimes it’s just a matter of getting to bed earlier, spending relaxing time with loved ones, or reducing commitments. For some it may be a hot bath or a meal at a favorite restaurant.
Stress causes a variety of biochemical imbalances in the body. The following herbs and supplements may be helpful in managing stress.
Panax Ginseng and Ashwagandha
Ginseng is used to remedy all sorts of ailments in Chinese medicine. Try 150 mg of standardized extract three times a day to relieve anxiety. See an acupuncturist if you would like some help with herbal prescriptions for anxiety or other problems. Ashwagandha is an Ayurvedic herbal medicine; try 500 mg three times a day.
Calcium and Magnesium
Sometimes insomnia or anxiety can be caused by “universal” muscle tension, where it feels as if every muscle in your body is tense. People with this type of tension tend to get muscle cramps at night. When your grandmother gave you a glass of milk before bedtime, she was wisely giving you a dose of calcium to relax your muscles and ease you into sleep. Magnesium regulates calcium uptake by cells, so take a magnesium and calcium combination for the greatest effect. You can try a combination of 600 mg calcium and 300 mg magnesium before bed.
Treating Depression Naturally
Before getting into specific methods for treating depression naturally, let’s first ask whether being down in the dumps or anxious for a few days now and then is cause for medication. We human beings are emotional creatures, and we naturally have our up times and our down times. Our down times can also be the universe’s way of pointing out to us that something needs fixing. If we push ourselves back up with a pill without treating the cause, pretty soon we’ll be depressed or anxious regardless of what we’re taking.
If you’re going through a down cycle, be sure to take time for yourself to be reflective about your life. Is there something in your relationship with yourself or someone else that needs healing? Do you have activities in your life that are important and meaningful to you? Have you been getting enough sleep? Are you taking a prescription drug that can cause anxiety or depression? How’s your diet? Have you tried an elimination diet to find out if you’re allergic to anything? All of these can be factors in anxiety and depression, as are major life changes such as children leaving home, divorce, major illness, and the death of a loved one.
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