I and thousands of other doctors on the vitalistic side of health care have been telling people that their depression and other mood disorders are coming from their thyroid imbalance.
EVERY cell in your body has a receptor site for thyroid hormone. Most people have heard that the thyroid controls the body’s metabolism. However, when the majority of people think about metabolism, they think about weight loss and gain. They don’t understand that when your metabolism slows, so does your nervous system.
Low levels of brain serotonin (the happy hormone) have been implicated, for decades, in depression and mood issues. If your nervous system conduction slows (slow metabolism), you could have plenty of serotonin in your system, but it won’t be able to circulate easily and hence depression sets in. Here’s an analogy: there might be plenty of water in the hose, but the hose isn’t turned on. Or, what if there’s no water in the hose?
About 90% of the serotinin in our system resides in our gut (specifially the small intestine). When people eat better food, their body can then produce more serotonin, and then their moods elevate. Tryptophan is the metabolic precursor to serotonin and tryptophan is an amino acid. Amino acids are derived by food sources of protein. Many people with mood disorders are simply protein deficient.
In earlier posts, I have talked about iodine and thyroid function. Guess how iodine finds the thyroid gland. It attaches itslef to a moelcule of protein and then the protein carries it to the thyroid.
Be very careful all you vegetarians out there!
That’s why many people’s moods lift after exercise or going for a walk. Circulation isn’t just about blood flow; it’s about the flow of every fluid in our body. The brain has a large amount of water in it (I have read reports of up to 80% of the brain’s mass is water). Water is a conductor for electrcity…right?
Circulation has a lot to do with why people feel better, in many ways, after a good chiropractic adjustment. Their posture changes and when your posture is balanced, your body’s circulation improves.
Mood imbalance? Drink water, eat more protein (or just better in general), and take a walk. Work on reclaiming your health yourself first. Read, read, and read some more. Use the internet (not webmd) and look for other articles and holistic physicians in your area.
