Many women are looking for more natural ways to fight depression and fatigue because they are the most unresolved common symptoms of hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s disease even when on a treatment.
There are at least 59 physical causes of depression known to date. The success of treatments largely depends on the addressing the cause of depression and correcting the underlying imbalance.
Today I would like to share with you 4 most common causes of depression in thyroid patients and how to customize the treatment for depression based on the what is causing it.
But first, I would like to share one little known fact about depression and the thyroid:
Did you know that both Synthroid (T4-only thyroid medication) and antidepressants are on the list of the top 2 most prescribed drugs?
The problem is that unfortunately many people who have depression and thyroid problems don’t respond well to these drugs and continue to have unresolved symptoms.
It is getting more and more clear for the modern medicine that the treatment model when a single drug is used to treat single symptom is failing and doesn’t bring desired satisfactory results for the patients with depression.
So, what are the alternatives? Are there ways to fight depression and fatigue naturally?
There are certain key mechanisms that impact brain health that must be under control in order to deal with depression. In order to overcome depression the first important point to understand is that depression itself is not really caused by a single neurotransmitter deficiency or an antidepressant deficiency.
Depression occurs when an particular area of the brain called the frontal cortex and the anterior cingulate gyrus are not functioning properly. There are many reasons why this could happen:
- A neurotransmitter problem that involves serotonin, dopamine, gaba and acetylcholine
- Lack of circulation to the center of the brain
- Blood sugar issues
- Hormonal imbalances
This means that when it comes to depression there is no a single treatment that always works for depression because there are many different factors that may cause the area of the brain associated with mood to malfunction.
Determining the cause of depression is the first step of a successful treatment and establishing natural ways to fight depression and fatigue.
3 Natural Ways To Fight Depression And Fatigue
1.One of the most common causes of depression is actually blood sugar fluctuations.
When you have a meal you should have a rise of glucose but your glucose levels should remain stable throughout the day. This means that people who experience blood sugar spikes where they get shaky, lightheaded, irritable or crave sugar and crash after meals, have a high probability to develop depression and fatigue.
These abnormal blood sugar spikes throw off your brain chemicals, create neurotransmitters imbalance, have profound impacts on hormones and affect how your body uses certain amino acids that cross into the brain to make neurotransmitters.
The bad news is that blood sugar issues are one of the most overlooked key factors in depression and fatigue treatment.
The good news is that when a person can actually stabilize their blood sugar, avoid the afternoon crashes, sugar cravings and fatigue after meals it will have a profound impact on their mood. Often depression is resolved just from that simple lifestyle change.
2.Did you know that poor circulation is a major cause of depression in many people with low thyroid?
Many people with hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s have cold hands and cold feet as a result of low metabolism and low thyroid function. This means that they have decreased circulation not only to their extremities but also to their brain.
When your hands and feet are cold it strongly suggests that the circulation throughout your body is impaired and this is one of indicators that you probably have lack of circulation to your brain as well.
The blood flow to the brain allows to carry all necessary neurotransmitters, hormones and other key nutrients you need for your brain that impact your mood. This process can be significantly impaired by poor blood circulation.
If you have cold hands and cold feet and your hand and feet get warm when you engage in some physical activities or exercise, you may also notice that your mood changes for better and you start to see a direct correlation between your mood and temperature of your extremities.
If your mood improves as your hand and feet get warmer there is a high probability that your depression is actually due to poor circulation caused by low thyroid and low metabolism.
3.Evidence mounts that leaky gut syndrome can influence mood and cause depression.
Recent research has shown that leaky gut syndrome or what is also called increased intestinal permeability is one of the major contributing factors to depression and fatigue in low thyroid patients, especially those who have autoimmune Hashimoto’s disease.
Leaky gut is a condition where chronic inflammation causes tight junctions of the intestines to open up and allow food particles to cross the intestinal barrier. This mechanism of intestinal permeability creates chemicals in the gut that impact brain chemicals and its function and lead to depression.
There is a direct connection between intestinal health, digestion of proteins and food and their impact on mood. This means that if you’re suffering from depression and you have noticed that you get bloated, have gas or your joints hurt when you eat certain foods you may want to explore if there is any correlation between what you eat and how you feel.
With depression common foods that can affect your mood and cause other symptoms are wheat and milk. If you get exposed to those food proteins and notice that your body starts to hurt, you get bloated and your depression gets worse then your cause of depression and fatigue may really in fact be increased intestinal permeability or leaky gut syndrome.
In fact, a major area of research on depression is now called the cytokine model of depression. Cytokine are a messenger proteins that are released by your immune cells. During periods of raging inflammation your immune cells have an increased flux of cytokine.
If you have joint pain or chronic bloating or just bad inflammation flare up, for example a nasal inflammation, an underlying autoimmune disease or an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) all those mechanisms create this increased load of inflammatory cytokines in your body.
Recent research studies confirmed that these inflammatory cytokines can cause depression. When they are released throughout the body they cross the blood-brain barrier and decrease the decrease nerve conduction in the brain. As a result, when this happens in areas of the brain associate with mood such as the frontal cortex and the anterior cingulate gyrus a person becomes depressed.
Conventional medical approach suggest to use antidepressants for the majority of people with diagnosed depression. However, in many cases the key component to using natural ways to fight depression and fatigue is not an antidepressant but an anti-inflammatory diet and lifestyle protocol.
To sum it up, if you are suffering from depression it is really important that you understand that there are many mechanisms and factors that can cause depression. If you suffer from depression and fatigue and typical antidepressants and thyroid drugs don’t improve your mood, it is critical to find out what mechanism is driving your depression.
It is important to pay attention to any of symptoms such as energy and mood shifts throughout the day, energy crash in the afternoon and sugar cravings throughout the day that cause your blood sugar instability because they can be your major causes of depression.
If you have cold hands and feet all the time you may have poor blood circulation as your cause of depression.
If you are always bloated after you eat then you may have intestinal permeability as your cause of depression.
If your joints hurt, you have a chronic inflammatory condition or an autoimmune disease your inflammatory response may be the cause of your depression.
To improve your mood using natural ways to fight depression and fatigue you need to identify the mechanism of your depression first and only then look into how to treat it.
If you are interested in learning more about how to improve your brain function and overcome depression and fatigue with a natural approach that includes nutrition and lifestyle modifications and addressing your low thyroid problems at the same time, check out this FREE presentation or read here.
P.S. To get my FREE ebook Effective Hypothyroidism Treatment: How NOT To Miss The Key Part To Your Thyroid Puzzle click here
