Feeling Depressed, You Must Be Deficient in Prozac?

by Glen Depke, Traditional Naturopath

I’ve heard this story thousands of times from clients in the past.

You visit your doctor, complaining of some physical symptoms and feeling a bit down and unmotivated.

Your doctor then feels that ordering blood work would uncover some ailment that they can diagnose and treat, but when the results come back everything is in a healthy range and you are told everything is fine.

Yet you explain to your doctor once again that you have physical symptoms and you are feeling unmotivated and a bit down emotionally.

At this point your doctor has the answer for you and takes out the prescription pad. It is now time for Prozac, Zoloft, Celexa, Paxil or any one of the many anti-depressant medications.

Your doctor explains that if you simply take these, you will feel better.

You just have a chemical imbalance…

I would agree with your doctor in one case, you DO have a chemical imbalance.

Yet this imbalance is not a deficiency in Prozac or any other anti-depressant.

The scary thing is the many people buy into this, leading to a “numbed” life on anti-depressants while still never addressing the underlying components. This is the problem with the diagnosis/prescription model.

I am not the holistic guy that bashes the conventional medical system. After all, there is a time and a place.

But addressing your feelings of being down emotionally, feeling unmotivated and dealing with some physical symptoms is typically not the time and the place.

This is typically time to buckle down and take care of yourself.

So what are the most underlying causes that you would be dealing with?

Imbalances in your fundamentals of health, which include:

• Deep breathing
• Proper hydration
• Proper nutrition
• Rejuvenating sleep
• Proper movement
• Healthy sun exposure
• Healthy habits in perceiving and addressing stress

To understand what I am referring to with the bullet points above, I am offering you a FREE copy of my book “Fat, Fatigued and Frustrated?” so you can address these areas personally.

You will absolutely enjoy this easy read and simple to implement steps provided as thousands have before you.

Other functional challenges.

Outside of your fundamentals of health there could be some other common challenges that would be causing your symptoms today.

Stress hormone imbalance

I typically refer to this as adrenal insufficiency. The simple fact is that any stress you have gone through in your life, whether this is mental/emotional, infection, food sensitivity, inflammation and/or toxicity, this will create a negative impact on your adrenal health.

When your adrenals are imbalanced, this can lead to challenges with any of the areas below.

• Pancreas function
• Thyroid function
• Ovary function
• Metabolism of fat and protein
• Regulation of body weight and fat
• Your first layer of defense of your immune system
• Natural detoxification processes
• Pro and anti-inflammatory responses
• Immune regulation
• Cellular energy production
• Blood sugar stability
• Muscular/skeletal health
• Quality of sleep and mood
• Ability to memorize and learn
• Overall brain function

It is amazing the impact that these two tiny little glands, called your adrenal glands, have on your entire body.

Wondering how you adrenals are working right now?

Get your FREE adrenal assessment here.

Gut challenges

You may have challenges with your gut that is driving your symptoms. This could be due to any of the issues below.

• The Standard American Diet (SAD) high in sugar and processed foods
• Poor digestion
• Food sensitivity
• Gut infections such as bad bacteria, parasites and more…
• SIBO which stands for Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth

If any of these areas are challenging you it will be essential to address appropriately to escape your symptoms.

Brain imbalances

Interestingly enough, when you have a gut problem as mentioned above, there is typically also a brain issue because the gut and brain are connected via the Vagus nerve. When you have a gut problem, this can drive a brain issue and when you have a brain problem, this can drive a gut issue.

These systems are interconnected.

The most significant factors that I see with clients struggling with brain imbalances are listed below.

• Poor diet
• Gut infections
• Food sensitivity
• Poor digestion
• Past head trauma
• Poor neurotransmitter production
• Chronic stress

Thankfully you can address every area of brain function naturally and you want to do this this early. Don’t wait for a diagnosis of dementia, neurodegeneration or worse.

Take a FREE assessment here for your neurotransmitter assessment to check on brain functi0n. Any category that you have many 2’s or 3’s checked could be problematic.

Inflammation

Inflammation is generally at the core of any chronic condition you may be dealing with right now. Chronic inflammation leads to:

• Stress hormone imbalance
• Menopause symptoms
• Increased weight
• Unhealthy weight loss
• Detoxification challenges
• Autoimmune responses
• Chemical sensitivity
• Cancer
• Diabetes
• Heart conditions
• Stroke
• As mention earlier, any chronic condition known to man

To address inflammation it is essential to focus on your fundamentals of health, balance your stress hormones as well as uncovering your triggers for inflammation while aggressively, yet naturally, assisting your body in creating a health anti-inflammatory response.

Toxicity

One simple fact here.

We are all toxic!

You are, I am, everybody we know is, on some level.

Heck, there is research showing that there are women in the wilderness areas of Alaska that have PCB’s and chemicals in their breast milk, and they live nowhere near big cities.

The happen to live in the same atmosphere as you and I, thus dealing with toxicity on a daily basis.

Your body is well adapted to deal with toxicity and has avenues to address this and with minor support we can live a relatively low toxicity life.

The challenge though is the simple fact that your body may not be health enough to properly detox and drain, thus leaving you living in your own toxic pool.

Here’s some simple ways to help yourself right now.

• Stay adequately hydrated with filtered water. Approximately one quart of water for every 50 pounds of body weight daily.
• Dry skin brush daily
• Jump on a rebounder daily
• Take Epsom salt baths for 20 minutes once or twice per week
• Visit an infrared sauna if available weekly or bi-weekly
• Sweat

So hopefully you can see that if you are feeling a bit depressed, down emotionally, unmotivated and dealing with some health symptoms, it really is not due to a deficiency in Prozac.

Follow the steps laid out in today’s article, empower yourself and take control of your life and your health!

If you have any comments or questions regarding this article please post this on our Facebook page or on our Twitter page for us to address personally.

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