Tag Archives: anxiety


Posted by in podcast, wellness

Podcast #335:
The Serotonin Myth?

UW RADIO #336-8

Guest: Dr. Kelly Brogan, MD

I’m waaaaaaaay behind…

I posted this episode maybe six weeks ago, before I took some time off. In this Instant Classic, licensed psychiatrist Dr. Kelly Brogan states a compelling case for why Depression is NOT a Serotonin Deficiency.

Discover what she calls the “flawed logic” in our current understanding of how antidepressants work. And, learn what the science really says about these drugs.

Here are my notes:

3:03 – How the monoamine hypothesis of depression got started and why its logic is flawed.

7:23 – What is a normal brain anyway? How serotonin levels may or may not be a factor in depression.

10:39 – Antidepressant adaptation: what happens to your brain and your body when you take (or stop taking!) an antidepressant.

15:29 – What the studies REALLY say about antidepressant medications and the profound power of placebo.

22:45 – Does time heal all? How treatment could be turning some problems into big ones, when “doing nothing” might be the best treatment of all, and why Dr. Brogan does not prescribe medications to her patients.

30:32 – How one major study showed antidepressant medications might not work the way we think they do and why nobody is talking about it.

35:37 – Could the effects of antidepressants really just be anti-inflammatory? All about the cytokine theory of depression and sickness syndrome.

39:42 – Specific inflammation markers you can test for (with optimal ranges!)

42:44 – Dr. Brogan’s best tips for reducing inflammation with food and lifestyle changes. Plus, real life patient stories of how they work.

50:38 What the cytokine model of depression means for Big Pharma … and for the people taking their medications.

Dig it!

Sean


Posted by in podcast, wellness

Podcast #334:
Insomnia, Brain Fog, and The Depression Connection.

datis kharrazian

Guest: Dr. Datis Kharrazian, DHSc, DC, MNeuroSc

I’ve been waiting three months to post this.

Whenever I have the privilege of sitting down to interview Dr. Datis Kharrazian, he never fails to leave me with that “mind-blown” kind of feeling.

I mean, really, how smart can one person be?

So to kick off this week’s “Early Bird” Depression Sessions festivities, here’s Dr. Kharrazian’s full-length interview on How to Figure Out What’s Causing Your Depression.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

* Why there’s more to correcting mood disorders than just boosting neurotransmitter levels with amino acid supplements. A lot more!

* Why traumatic brain injuries often show up as depression … years down the road.

* How chronic gut inflammation can cause brain inflammation, leading to depression.

* What the “other symptoms” presenting with depression — anxiety, insomnia, blood sugar problems, and brain fog — can reveal about its cause.


Posted by in podcast, wellness

Podcast #333:
The Depression Sessions Preview Show!

Depression Sessions Preview Show

Guests: The Depression Sessions Experts

I’m all kinds of giddy. Are you?

Our Depression Sessions pre-launch festivities officially kick off next Monday morning.

That’s when I start posting early bird, full-length sessions along with those fancy buttons for downloading the videos, audio files, and transcripts (for FREE!).

I’m still undecided on which early bird sessions I’ll be posting, but voting is well underway on the Facebook page.

On today’s episode of the podcast, my special guest is none other than … me!

I share and comment on 14 of my favorite clips from your Depression Sessions presenters, including:


Posted by in podcast, wellness

Is Your Low-Fat Diet Making You Depressed & Anxious?

Fat makes me happy.

If you haven’t noticed, the low-fat era has not only coincided with a tremendous surge in obesity and diabetes, but also depression, anxiety, and addiction.

Seldom do we consider that the root cause of our mood issues is literally on our plates.

Or NOT on our plates.

On Monday, I blogged about the fact that 99.99% of our genes were formed before the Agricultural Revolution (just 10,000 years ago). Despite advancements in technology and our personal opinions regarding what we should be eating, we’re still genetically hardwired like hunter-gatherers.

We are hunter-gatherers.

Although we have no written or eyewitness accounts of the mental and emotional state of cavemen and women, we can look at the works of Weston A. Price and Vilhjalmur Stefansson, PhD to draw some conclusions as to the role of diet in mental health. In the case of Stefansson, a Canadian explorer and anthropologist, the Eskimos he studied and lived with were “the happiest people in the world”. Not only were they happy, but they were also extremely healthy, free of cancer, heart disease, and the diseases of civilization.

The Eskimo diet consisted of 80% animal fat. In fact, they warned Stefansson of the dangers of eating lean meat. They said it would make him sick, just as it making us sick.

I have long believed that in order to be healthy and happy, we must do as healthy and happy people do. Weston Price found that the native people he studied and lived with consumed ten times more fat-soluble vitamins and four times more minerals than we consume. These primitive people had no need for jails or mental institutions. Similar to Stefansson, Price consistently found that with adequate fats and nutrients came not only superior health, but also a pleasing, cheerful disposition.

We can learn a lot from “primitives”.