The foods you eat have a huge impact on the way you feel every day, but taking supplements can help boost your mood too. Dr. Christiane Northrup recently wrote a great article on the Huffington Post about the limitations of antidepressant medications, and gave her suggestions for a natural approach to boosting your mood and relieving symptoms of depression. I really enjoyed the article and wanted to share it with you. In addition to regular exercise and therapeutic care (if necessary), two mood-boosting supplements you can take are fish oil and 5-HTP.
Fish oil – Dr. Northrup says the healthy omega-3 fats in fish oil can help “support the serotonin system, may help reduce stress and lower your risk of all kinds of mental illness.” Fish oil also “helps reestablish and expand the “roadway” that the serotonin has to travel over.”
5-HTP – This safe and natural supplement helps your body regulate mood, appetite, and sleep. Dr. Northrup says 5-HTP “can increase serotonin production and help the body utilize it.”
I currently take both of these supplements and based on my experience, I generally feel better when I take them than when I don’t. I have a client who struggles with depression, and he is now taking 5-HTP supplements in tandem with a calcium-magnesium supplement, and he is having good results too. He says that ever since he started taking 5-HTP, he’s been feeling happier (he also takes fish oil and a multivitamin). It’s hard to know if any supplements may be giving you a placebo effect, as Dr. Northrup explains in her article, but we’re both happy for him to be feeling great and taking something natural instead of a prescription medication.
You can read more about the research behind these supplements in Dr. Northrup’s article here. Remember to talk to your doctor before you decide to take any supplements to make sure they’re right for you, especially if you’re already taking antidepressant medications.
See also my previous blog posts:
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Thanks for sharing this article Laurel,..i got an idea on supplements. In addition there are supplements that are working and others are not.
Interesting read from HuffPo, thanks. I’ve also read that St. John’s Wort is thought to help relieve symptoms of depression, although it’s more commonly taken for that purpose in certain European countries (esp. Germany).
Thanks for the information. Ever since I started taking MoodBoost Drink I feel better. This week I’ll buy some Fish oil capsules to get more omega 3s as I also need to get some of those.
If food supplements are on your mind try, chlorophyll, flaxseed oil that can be got in the encapsulated as well as liquid form and of course Alfa- Alfa tablets. These options help to boost the haemoglobin level in your blood. You will feel more energetic due to the energy boost got from consuming these. Also they are totally natural, extracted from plants so there are no side effects.
i have been looking for a quality multi vitamin for awhile now and came across the Dr Max Powers MultiVitamin. I am a huge fan of Dr. Max and it just made sense to buy his multi vitamin. Since taking it i definitely notice an improvement in my wellbeing, my mood, attitude, body’s functioning, and i even feel more rested. Check it out if your looking for a great multi. And the size isn’t bad. How are you going to cram all these things into anything smaller?!? Just swallow already!
I’ve used these supplements, along with vitamin C, and vitamin D, with several of my clients with a lot of success.