7 Natural Remedies for Depression
Everyone gets sad from time to time; life is complicated and sometimes difficult. Chronic depression is another story, a debilitating condition that can go on for months and even years.
Psychoneuroimmunology is the study of the mind’s influence on the immune system and health in general. Mental health affects the body’s health and vice versa. It then makes sense that to address anxiety or depression, we must expand the view of treatment to employ a holistic approach.
1. Heal Your Gut
“The digestive system is endowed with its own, local nervous system, referred to as the enteric nervous system (ENS). Given the varied functions of small intestine, its ENS has developed individualized characteristics relating to motility, secretion, digestion, and inflammation. The ENS regulates the major enteric processes such as immune response, detecting nutrients, motility, microvascular circulation, intestinal barrier function, and epithelial secretion of fluids, ions, and bioactive peptides.” (6)
ENS (“the second brain”) is part of the peripheral nervous system that is of course connected to the central nervous system, which includes the brain. More and more research is finding the intricate and inextricable connections between gastrointestinal wellness and mood.
Gut bacterial imbalance, inflammation, irritable bowel syndrome, leaky gut, and other digestive system conditions affect mood, feelings of anxiety, and depression. Gut microbes dictate the ability to handle stress early in life. (7) Inversely, psychological stressors affect gut microbiota. (8)
Probiotics can restore digestive health and in the process, relieve stress, anxiety, and depression.