Mental Health Issues
Did you know that your diet and lifestyle can have a significant impact on your mental health? |
No, well that's not surprising, most people wouldn't give it a second thought. But in fact it's true. You've heard the saying "You are what you eat"? Well, it applies to your brain just as much as to the rest of your body; perhaps more so because your brain is one of the most sensitive organs in your body.
Fascinating fact: if you ignore the water in it, 60% of your brain is made of the omega-3 essential fatty acid DHA. That's an awful lot of DHA - you'd need to eat about 4kg of mackerel to get that much.
A number of different mental health conditions may be caused or exacerbated by poor nutrition. It follows then that improving nutritional status may be helpful in treating these conditions.
Some of the conditions where nutritional therapy has been found to be helpful include:
- Insomnia
- Depression
- Manic depression (bipolar disorder)
- Anxiety
- Autism
- Schizophrenia
- Dyslexia and dyspraxia
- Attention deficit disorder (ADD and ADHD)
Nutritional protocols may also be helpful in the treatment of age-related disorders, such as memory decline, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinsons disease.
We mustn't forget stress either. Your body's ability to cope with stress doesn't just depend on how "tough" you are - it also requires an array of important micronutrients (vitamins and minerals). Whether or not you get these in your diet may actually make a different to just how stressed you feel in response to everyday events.
When it comes to conditions such as depression and anxiety we are not saying that improving your nutrition is all you need to do. However, nutritional therapy, combined with counselling or psychotherapy may prove to be a much more powerful treatment option than either of these 'psychological' disciplines alone.
If you, or someone you know, suffers from a mental health problem then get in touch to find out what nutritional therapy can do for you.
