The Mood Cure: Take Charge of Your Emotions in 24 Hours Using Food and Supplements. Julia Ross
your Mood Cure: you know which false mood type (or types) you are. Having this crucial information will allow you to move on to step two, “Eliminating the Four Most Common Mood Imbalances.” There you will discover what is causing you to have a particular set of false moods and what you can do about it. At the bottom of each part of the questionnaire, next to your score, you’ll find the page number of the chapter that will tell you more about your symptoms and all about the solutions to that particular mood type’s problem. For example, if you find yourself checking off symptoms in part 1, “Are You Under a Dark Cloud?” you’ll turn to chapter 3, “Lifting the Dark Cloud.” Each chapter ends with “Action Steps” that summarize all its suggestions, to make them easy to follow.
If you recognize significant symptoms in two, three, or all four parts of the questionnaire, you’ll read each of the corresponding chapters. If your score is under the cut-off number in any part of the questionnaire and the symptoms you do identify with are significant, look over the relevant chapter to explore further.
Next you’ll move on to step three, “Creating Your Nutritherapy Master Plan.” There you’ll learn about the good-mood foods that will become the heart of your diet and about how to avoid the bad-mood foods. I’ll make it easy for you by providing simple and tasty menus and recipes.
Step three also features a master supplement plan that will provide you with several key pieces of your Mood Cure. First, it describes the basic vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients that I want you to make a permanent part of your life. Second, it warns you of anything that might make it unwise for you to take a particular supplement. Finally, it provides a master list of all the special repair supplements recommended in each chapter of the book. You’ll copy this list and check off just the items you’ll be using for your own supplement plan. Then you’ll take your list to the store, get your supplies, start taking your supplements, eat your good-mood foods, and watch your false moods slip away.
As you work through steps two and three of The Mood Cure, you may find that you have other mood-related troubles beyond the big four and a mood-poor diet. Step four, “Getting Help with Special Mood Repair Projects,” provides the answers if you have questions about sleep difficulties, addiction problems, or alternatives to antidepressant medications.
The Mood Cure concludes with five tool kits. The “Resource Tool Kit” will help you locate all the products and services described in the book. The next three tool kits give you the detailed, technical advice you’ll need in order to deal with any hormonal imbalances that may be holding up the mood repair process. Finally, the “Food Craving Tool Kit” will outline effective options if “emotional eating” is a particular problem for you.
When Are You Cured?
You should start feeling cured in the first week as your nutritherapy program begins to take hold. At some point, in a few weeks or months, depending on your unique biochemical needs, your repair process will be complete. You will have corrected the underlying imbalances that had produced your false moods in the first place. After that, you’ll be able to travel on your own true emotional power, so you’ll stop taking the special repair supplements and continue to feel just as good without them. All you’ll need to do to maintain your new sense of well-being and prevent a relapse into false moods after that will be to keep eating lots of good-mood food and taking a few basic nutrient supplements.
I wish you a very smooth and rapid shedding of your false moods and the enjoyment of discovering your true emotional self!
CHAPTER 3 Lifting the Dark Cloud
Eliminating the Depression and Anxiety Caused by Inadequate Serotonin
Serotonin deficiency is far and away the most common mood problem we see at our clinic. Serotonin starvation is a virtual epidemic in the United States, inflicting its unique brand of dark cloud misery on people of all ages, sexes, and walks of life. One researcher estimates that more than 80 percent of adults in the United States suffer from this deficiency.1
The reason that serotonin is so emotionally vital is that it is our primary defense against both depression and anxiety. Serotonin deficiency is a factor in many seemingly unrelated psychological and physical symptoms, ranging from panic and irritability to insomnia, PMS, and muscle pain. Some “dark cloud” types have only a few of the possible deficiency symptoms, but many have almost all of them. Yet they tend to function well, typically getting more done, because of their tendency toward perfectionism, than other, less mood-impaired people. As a result, they often assume that they’re just stuck with some unfortunate but indelible personality quirks and try to work around them. Some try serotonin-boosting drugs, like Prozac, with mixed results, and resign themselves to a somewhat better, but still limited emotional life.
Let’s take a close look at the mechanics of this mood type. You already know from the questionnaire in chapter 1 that your brain contains four different emotional zones. Its serotonin quadrant needs to be brimming with molecules at all times. When it is, your brain can cheerfully fire away with this ready fuel supply, transmitting positive feelings and thoughts. If not, these happy reactions are blocked. But that does not simply leave you feeling emotionally blank. A decrease in serotonin can produce the reverse of every warm, happy feeling that adequate serotonin would normally allow you to experience: instead of seeing your glass as half-full, you see it as half-empty. Instead of feeling proud of your accomplishments, all you can think of is what you haven’t accomplished. Instead of a sound sleep, you get insomnia. Instead of enjoying your family members, you’re irritated by them. Instead of peace, you have anxiety. Instead of looking forward to life, you may regard it with dread and even have thoughts of suicide.
Precious serotonin is synthesized in your body from tryptophan, an amino acid (protein building block) found in foods like turkey, beef, and cheese. Tryptophan first converts into a substance called 5-HTP (5-hydroxytryptophan), which then converts directly into serotonin. This crucial three-step process can be short-circuited by a number of things. For example, if there isn’t enough tryptophan in your diet—a problem for many of us—your body can’t manufacture enough 5-HTP or serotonin to keep you happy. Or your natural production of serotonin may be inhibited by chemicals in your food such as caffeine, alcohol, or the artificial sweetener aspartame. Your serotonin production can even be disrupted if you are pregnant or not getting enough sunlight or exercise. Bouts of extreme stress can also dry up your pool of this emotionally vital brain chemical. Finally, you may have inherited a genetic tendency to underproduce serotonin, one that can be aggravated by all of the above.
No matter what the cause of your drop in serotonin, it does not mean that you are doomed to languish in this particular mood pit for the rest of your life. Even the saggiest serotonin levels can be quickly elevated, allowing you to experience the full range of emotion that nature intended for you. Later in the chapter I’ll be telling you all about the nutrient repair strategies that can lift your dark cloud and bring out your emotional sun in less than a day. First, though, I’d like to tell you more about why your cloud is dark and about how it feels to live under the influence of serotonin deficiency.
WHY ARE YOU SEROTONIN STARVED?
Are You Eating a Pro-Serotonin Diet?
Serotonin, like everything else in your body, is made out of the foods you eat. You really can’t feel “right” if you don’t provide your emotion-producing sites with plenty of the specific fuels they need. Low-calorie diets and skipped meals, for example, can quickly reduce vital serotonin-making supplies.
Where You Might Have Lost Your Serotonin