In fact, I remember feeling quite depressed at one stage over 10 years ago while giving daily treatm

If you, like so many people I see, suffer with tiredness, fatigue or sleep problems, hawaii online travel coffee hawaii online travel is unfortunately one of your biggest enemies. You see, caffeine found in both tea and coffee, but in greater amounts in coffee, is a stimulant. It stimulates your adrenal glands to produce stress hormones which prepare your body for fight or flight. One of the effects of higher stress hormones is that your liver releases glucose hawaii online travel (sugar) into your blood which is why you have more energy, but only temporarily.
Unfortunately one of the long term effects of your adrenals having to continually produce stress hormones including cortisol hawaii online travel is that they can become hawaii online travel depleted or 'exhausted'. If you keep having stimulants like caffeine (which is also found in the popular 'energy' drinks) once your adrenals are already depleted it's like flogging a dead horse! It's a downhill spiral - you only make the problem worse as you deplete your adrenals even further and your fatigue also worsens.
Other devastating hormonal effects resulting from a high cortisol level are interference with your blood sugar control which can lead to weight problems, diabetes and cardiovascular disease, interference with your thyroid hormones and with the balance between your oestrogens and progesterone, since progesterone gets used up to make cortisol.
It's this last imbalance that is responsible hawaii online travel for many of the premenstrual and even menopausal symptoms you may be experiencing. If you're peri- or postmenopausal and experience hot flushes you definitely want to avoid coffee as it's a known trigger for hot flushes. Why? Well in a nutshell, hot flushes result from a low oestrogen level. Around menopause your main source of oestrogen is from a male hormone made by your adrenal glands which gets converted mainly by your fat cells into oestrogen. If however, your adrenals are too busy making cortisol due to stress or stimulants like caffeine, your level of that male hormone drops and consequently so does your oestrogen level.
Not to mention the effect of caffeine on your sleep and other aspects of your health. So if you are unable to get to sleep, feel agitated or "wired" or have high blood pressure you need to seriously think about quitting or reducing your intake to 1 or less cups a day and together with treatment to restore your depleted adrenals, you'll be pleasantly surprised at how much better hawaii online travel you are able to function and sleep!
Sound like it's all too hard? Well believe me, till about 9 months hawaii online travel before starting to study naturopathy I used to drink a couple of cups of coffee a day and really thought I needed it to get me going in the morning. Occasionally if I didn't hawaii online travel have it, I'd end up with a nasty headache. hawaii online travel It would also keep me awake all night if I had it after about 2pm. Then one day I realised it was making me more agitated and exacerbating my already hawaii online travel strong blood sugar fluctuations and I quit. I never missed it and though I still enjoy the aroma, I'm never tempted to have it anymore and would much rather have a cup of peppermint or other herbal tea.
If you'd like to quit I definitely don't suggest you go 'cold turkey' or you may end up with a nasty headache and possibly even a migraine. Reduce your intake slowly, say by half a cup every few days and that way you should be free of your addiction hawaii online travel without severe withdrawal symptoms. Try some of the myriad of herbal teas available today but do get organic hawaii online travel brands to avoid pesticide hawaii online travel contamination.
Well this week is Mental Health Week which has inspired me to write a little about how you can improve your mental health naturally. It seems that depression is becoming increasingly common hawaii online travel amongst people of all ages and anxiety is one of the most common complaints I see in my clients.
I was just reading an article in today's paper about a woman in her late twenties with depression who was unable to find any support groups for people her age, despite many others her age suffering with the condition. And, just last week one of my clients who is in her mid-thirties was telling me that she was shocked to find out recently at a gathering with friends that she was the only one in the group of 12 that wasn't on an antidepressant! She's married to a doctor, but said she'd much rather hawaii online travel find the cause of her problems than use drugs!
If you are suffering with low moods, anxiety or depression, you'll be pleased to discover that a deficiency of antidepressants hawaii online travel is not your problem! Now I'm not saying these drugs don't have their place for some cases of anxiety or depression, but there is plenty you can do before resorting to them and there are many things you can do to prevent these problems in the first place. Remember, these drugs are not without side-effects including gut upset, weight gain, sexual dysfunction and more. Very often it takes some trial and error to find one that works for you and while it may take away the lows it may also cause you to feel very flat.
Take time out daily for relaxation - this is so important! Meditation, tai chi, yoga, walking, having a relaxing bath or massage or listening to some relaxing music are some of the best ways to relax. Stress is one of the biggest causes of anxiety and depression, partly because it interferes with your brain biochemistry
Exercise regularly - exercise "burns up" stress hormones and helps you cope better with your stress as well as increasing your endorphins - natural feel-good chemicals. Aim for 3 - 5 sessions hawaii online travel of 30 - 45 minutes a week or if you can manage it, daily is even better.
Get 8-9 hours sleep a night - sleep deprivation is a stress and can therefore lead to depression. You can't expect your brain to function optimally if you constantly deprive it of the down time needed to process the day's information and recuperate
Eat a good amount of quality protein with each meal and snack - proteins provide amino acids needed hawaii online travel for making your neurotransmitters (brain chemicals) and hence good moods. They also help to stabilise your blood sugar levels which affects your mood. Good sources of proteins include organic red meats, chicken, fish (not farmed), unroasted hawaii online travel nuts, seeds and legumes (red kidney, Borlotti and Canellini and other beans, lentils and chick peas), soft cheeses especially cottage cheese and organic eggs
Make sure to eat 3 - 5 fatty fish meals a week or take adequate amounts of a quality fish oil supplement (no, 1 or 2 capsules is not enough if you are suffering with depression). Research has shown many people with depression are deficient in omega 3 fatty acids but have high levels of omega 6 fatty acids which are found in most vegetable oils used today
Get adequate hawaii online travel vitamin B12 - if you are vegetarian you may be deficient in vitamin B12 needed for healthy brain function, so you should either be having spirulina regularly or taking a B12 supplement - if not, get your level checked by your GP
Get adequate B vitamins, zinc and magnesium hawaii online travel - these are all nutrients that become depleted with stress. Zinc is also very low in Australian soils so many people are deficient in this vital mineral. Not all vitamin and mineral supplements are created equal so how do you know what to get? Unless you've studied nutrition, you don't! Many on the market today contain poor quality minerals which are not well absorbed, very low doses of vitamins or minerals or allergenic and other fillers which may also interfere with digestion and absorption, so get professional advice to save yourself money and start feeling better faster
Get your thyroid function checked - low levels of thyroid hormones are an often overlooked cause of depression. If you suffer with depression, cold hands and feet, feel the cold more than others, have dry skin, coarse, brittle hair and feel fatigued all the time, you may have low thyroid hormones. Ask your doctor to do a full thyroid function test including T3 and reverse T3 (you may need to pay for T3 and will definitely have to pay for reverse T3 yourself as it is not covered by Medicare). If you are unable to do this, I am able to request these
Get your hormones checked - salivary hormone testing is great for revealing steroid hormone imbalances hawaii online travel that may be contributing to depression - imbalances with oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone particularly can contribute to depression and stress is once again a major contributor
If you are using contraceptive drugs be aware that these deplete you of many nutrients including B vitamins like folic acid required for healthy moods as well causing depletion of the hormones progesterone and testosterone . A safe alternative method hawaii online travel of contraception is the sympto-thermal method
Natural Antidepressants - the fabulous herb St John's Wort can help with both anxiety and depression but you need to get the best quality as some on the market just don't cut it - get professional advice! There are also some other wonderful natural hawaii online travel antidepressant nutrients but these need to be professionally prescribed
When I first started my previous career as a radiation hawaii online travel therapist in the late 70's I mainly saw women in their late fifties through to those in their seventies and sometimes eighties with breast cancer. However over 20 years I noticed a big shift as I was seeing many women in their forties and fifties and more often in their thirties with the occasional ones in their twenties.
In fact, I remember feeling quite depressed at one stage over 10 years ago while giving daily treatment to 6 women in their early thirties, all with young children and who were undergoing aggressive treatment for their aggressive breast tumours. Since then, celebrities Belinda Emmett, Kylie Minogue and Jane McGrath have all brought our attention to the fact that breast cancer isn't just a disease affecting older women.
However I had already started asking myself and the doctors I worked with, "What is going on?" - why were we seeing so many more young people with cancer, but especially breast cancer? I never got any satisfactory answers except "we think it