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Discover How Magnesium Helps to Support a Calm and Clear Mind

The AHA! Team — Fri, 24 Jan 2025 08:06:12 +0000

Sara Middleton via NaturalHealth365 – Are you or someone you love one of the 300+ million people living with an anxiety disorder? If you are, we don’t blame you for being frustrated by conventional treatment options. Anti-anxiety drugs and antidepressants come with unpleasant side effects like weight gain, fatigue, and restlessness. So, if you’ve wondered if you’ll ever find a natural solution for your mental health trouble, you may want to start with magnesium. A 2024 study published in Current Pharmaceutical Design examined magnesium’s mental health benefits, focusing on its effects on anxiety. The researchers found that magnesium plays a crucial role in easing anxious thoughts and feelings by participating in key enzymatic reactions that stabilize neurotransmitters and aid in their release. In an earlier study, a team of researchers conducted a randomized controlled trial on the effects of magnesium supplementation for depression. Let’s take a look at what these scientists found. Magnesium supplementation improves quality of life in people with anxiety, study reveals In their study, the researchers recruited 126 adults from an outpatient clinic and randomly assigned them to a control group or a group that received magnesium supplements. After 6 weeks, the researchers discovered that daily magnesium supplementation improved depression and quality of life. “Similar effects,” the authors say in their conclusion, “were observed regardless of age, gender, baseline severity of depression, baseline magnesium level, or use of antidepressant treatments.” Incredibly, these positive effects were seen within as little as two weeks. Compare this to antidepressants, which typically take up to 2 to 3 months to start having any impact – if at all, since they don’t work for everyone. It’s not hard to imagine how magnesium may prove to be an effective natural solution for anxiety. For one thing, this essential mineral is involved in hundreds of physiological processes within the body – including those involving hormone function and regulation. Plus, other studies indicate that magnesium deficiencies are associated with an increased risk for depression, so it makes sense that by correcting a deficiency, a person may resolve or drastically improve their depressive or anxious symptoms. Amazingly, at least 50 percent of all Americans are magnesium deficient anyway! It’s time that more doctors and psychiatrists talk to their patients about natural options for their mental health issues, in addition to or even instead of toxic and conventional medications. Here’s how much magnesium you need and where to get it in your diet The authors of this study gave the experimental group 248 mg of magnesium per day in an over-the-counter supplement form. This is actually a conservative amount, at least according to the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Dietary Supplements. Generally, men and women are recommended to consume around 400 to 420 mg and 310 to 320 mg daily (respectively). Magnesium is safe and well-tolerated, but if you take too much too quickly, you may experience things like stomach upset and diarrhea. So, introduce your natural supplement slowly, and in the meantime, be sure to consume magnesium-rich foods like organic avocados, nuts and seeds, salmon, legumes, and dark chocolate. Sources for this article include: NIH.gov Dr-Rath.com NIH.gov ADAA.org Everydayhealth.com Healthline.com Verywellmind.com Healthline.com To read the original article click here.

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Elevated Stress Hormones Linked to Higher Risk of High Blood Pressure and Heart Events

AHA Publisher — Wed, 15 Sep 2021 07:00:32 +0000

American Heart Association (AHA) via Newswise – DALLAS, Sept. 13, 2021 — Adults with normal blood pressure and high levels of stress hormones were more likely to develop high blood pressure and experience cardiovascular events compared to those who had lower stress hormone levels, according to new research published today in Hypertension, an American Heart Association journal. Studies have shown that cumulative exposure to daily stressors and exposure to traumatic stress can increase cardiovascular disease risk. A growing body of research refers to the mind-heart-body connection, which suggests a person’s mind can positively or negatively affect cardiovascular health, cardiovascular risk factors and risk for cardiovascular disease events, as well as cardiovascular prognosis over time. “The stress hormones norepinephrine, epinephrine, dopamine and cortisol can increase with stress from life events, work, relationships, finances and more. And we confirmed that stress is a key factor contributing to the risk of hypertension and cardiovascular events,” said study author Kosuke Inoue, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of social epidemiology at Kyoto University in Kyoto, Japan. Inoue also is affiliated with the department of epidemiology at the Fielding School of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles. “Previous research focused on the relationship between stress hormone levels and hypertension or cardiovascular events in patients with existing hypertension. However, studies looking at adults without hypertension were lacking,” Inoue said. “It is important to examine the impact of stress on adults in the general population because it provides new information about whether routine measurement of stress hormones needs to be considered to prevent hypertension and CVD events.” Study subjects were part of the MESA Stress 1 study, a substudy of the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA), a large study of atherosclerosis risk factors among more than 6,000 men and women from six U.S. communities. As part of MESA exams 3 and 4 (conducted between July 2004 and October 2006), white, Black and Hispanic participants with normal blood pressure from the New York and Los Angeles sites were invited to participate in the substudy MESA Stress 1. In this substudy, researchers analyzed levels of norepinephrine, epinephrine, dopamine and cortisol – hormones that respond to stress levels. Hormone levels were measured in a 12-hour overnight urine test. The substudy included 412 adults ages 48 to 87 years. About half were female, 54% were Hispanic, 22% were Black and 24% were white. Participants were followed for three more visits (between September 2005 and June 2018) for development of hypertension and cardiovascular events such as chest pain, the need for an artery-opening procedure, or having a heart attack or stroke. Norepinephrine, epinephrine and dopamine are molecules known as catecholamines that maintain stability throughout the autonomic nervous system—the system that regulates involuntary body functions such as heart rate, blood pressure and breathing. Cortisol is a steroid hormone released when one experiences stress and is regulated by the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, which modulates stress response. “Although all of these hormones are produced in the adrenal gland, they have different roles and mechanisms to influence the cardiovascular system, so it is important to study their relationship with hypertension and cardiovascular events, individually,” Inoue said. Their analysis of the relationship between stress hormones and development of atherosclerosis found: Over a median of 6.5-year follow-up period, every time the levels of the four stress hormones doubled was associated with a 21-31% increase in the risk of developing hypertension. During a median of 11.2-years of follow-up, there was a 90% increased risk of cardiovascular events with each doubling of cortisol levels. There was no association between cardiovascular events and catecholamines. “It is challenging to study psychosocial stress since it is personal, and its impact varies for each individual. In this research, we used a noninvasive measure — a single urine test — to determine whether such stress might help identify people in need of additional screening to prevent hypertension and possibly cardiovascular events,” Inoue said. “The next key research question is whether and in which populations increased testing of stress hormones could be helpful. Currently, these hormones are measured only when hypertension with an underlying cause or other related diseases are suspected. However, if additional screening could help prevent hypertension and cardiovascular events, we may want to measure these hormone levels more frequently.” A limitation of the study is that it did not include people who had hypertension at the study’s start, which would have resulted in a larger study population. Another limitation is that researchers measured stress hormones via a urine test only, and no other tests for stress hormone measurement were used. To read the original article click here.

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Surprising Reasons You May Be Anxious + How to Use the Neurocycle to Manage & Reduce Anxiety

AHA Publisher — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 07:00:33 +0000

Dr. Caroline Leaf – In this podcast (episode #286) and blog, I am going to talk about anxiety. I get asked so many questions about anxiety, what it is, and how to manage it that I decided to dedicate a whole podcast to this topic. Here are some examples of the questions I have received: Why do I feel anxious in certain situations and not others? Why does my whole body react (to the point where I feel sick) when I am anxious? Why do some situations result in more anxiety than others? What do I do when I feel constantly anxious around a loved one or work colleague? What do you tell your mind to ward off PTSD-related anxiety when emotionally triggered? Can you give insight into how to control anxiety or being panicked when left alone and how to keep your mind at peace? Is anxiety genetic? Can it be wired in relation to a specific fear? What is hypervigilance? Everyone experiences a level of anxiety from time to time; this is completely normal. Often, there are times in our life where “stuff” really accumulates, and it is okay to be anxious occasionally. However, if left unmanaged, this “stuff” can progress to a point where we feel so overwhelmed with anxiety that our ability to go about daily life is obstructed, especially if it results in debilitating anxiety or a panic attacks. The key word here is “managed”. How we manage anxiety will be based on how we view anxiety. If we just see anxiety as a “disease” or “biochemical medical illness”, it can be pretty scary! This label can lock us in, potentially shaping the way we see ourselves and our capacity, or stigmatizing our biology—some people may view us as inherently lacking control and potentially unstable or even dangerous to ourselves and others. But there is another way to look at anxiety, one that I believe is more hopeful, kinder and less stigmatizing. Anxiety can be seen as a warning signal—a helpful messenger. It is telling us there is something going on in our lives that needs attention because it’s threatening our peace and survival. It’s pointing to the narrative that is related to our anxiety, that is what has happened to make us feel this way, rather than just focusing on a biological root as the cause of the anxiety. Indeed, what we think and experience affects our biology, so of course we will experience anxiety as physical symptoms. The cause isn’t necessarily in the brain, although, of course, physical brain damage or ill-health can affect how we feel and make us anxious. However, if we think the anxiety we are feeling and experiencing is just because we have a damaged brain or body, we can lose hope and a sense of agency, which may make our anxiety worse. We need to remember that the brain is not a preprogrammed body of grey matter. We do not just “dance to our DNA”, as the popular saying goes. Anxiety isn’t just a broken brain or illness waiting to manifest. Anxiety means that we, as thinking beings, are responding intelligently to threats to our existence. When there is a foreboding change in our environment, we experience this change through our mind. The mind is the power mechanism by which we experience life, but it is experimental because it’s always hypothesizing and working things out. This means things can get messy, but that’s okay—the point is to look at the messiness of life and learn how to manage, repair and grow through it. This is mind-management in action, which I discuss in detail in my latest book Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess. The experiences we have are then wired into the brain by the mind. Subsequently, the brain sends signals to all the cells of the body that there is a change in the mind and brain, and, in the case of a negative experience, that change is a threat to our survival. This generates an immune system response, and the entire body responds, including the release of cortisol, homocysteine, prolactin, as well as a biological impact on our telomeres and a change in brainwaves. These responses are communicated back to us through our emotions (anxiety), body (heart palpitations, stomach aches and so on), behaviors (such as panic attacks, withdrawal, or hasty decisions), and perspective, which is a warning signal of this imbalance as a threat to or survival and the desire to restore balance in the brain and body. This is why it is so important to embrace, not suppress, anxiety. We need to acknowledge the abovementioned signals, process what they mean and reconceptualize them – make them work for us instead of against us. When we learn how to do this, we can start to manage, although not necessarily solve, our anxiety. Indeed, sometimes it’s the pure acceptance of the uncertainty of life and the reality of anxiety as a normal part of being human that becomes our reconceptualized understanding—our way of moving forward! Anxiety is a feeling that needs to be understood, not just eradicated. Why? We cannot ignore the connection between our perceptions and our understanding of our experiences to our biology. This link, otherwise known as the mind-brain-body connection, helps us to predict what we need as individual organisms to cope, or to modulate our biochemistry, physiology and our behavior to make sure our body has just enough resources to deal with both acute and chronic life challenges. For example, when we find ourselves in an anxiety-inducing situation, the brain signals the kidneys, telling them that we are going to need a healthy blood supply for the acute situation we find ourselves in. Consequently, the kidneys start pumping in salt water, which constricts the blood vessels and raises our blood pressure. However, if we are on alert every second of the day, especially during a chronic situation, this experience will be wired into the brain repeatedly, which can become a habit if this occurs over 9 weeks (for more on this my book Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess). Essentially, during this time the mind is continually sending a response to the brain and body that something scary is going to happen, which can result in hypervigilance if left unmanaged, putting the brain and body into an emergency state. To cope with these feelings, our level of alertness and various bodily activities must respond to this state of being. Using the same example above, this means the brain is continually telling our kidneys that we need more blood supply, so the kidneys are continually pumping in salt water to constrict the blood vessels, which can have negative repercussions, such as high blood pressure, if we do not learn how to manage this response. If we’re constantly living in a high-alert state, the natural mechanisms of the brain and body stay in high alert, which can have all sorts of mental, emotional and physical consequences. Of course, many people suffer from anxiety, and there are manifold reasons why someone may experience anxiety, such as divorce, poverty, racial inequality, bullying, and war. Getting to the root of these reasons is essential when learning how to manage anxiety. There are also a few surprising reasons why we may be experiencing anxiety, such as: 1. Bad digestion: The gut microbiome, which is the world of bacteria living in our digestive system, doesn’t just exist to help us break down food. There is a constant conversation going on between the brain and gut, which also has its own amazing neurons, just like the spinal cord! This relationship is incredibly important when it comes to our mental health, which is both directly and indirectly affected by what we eat. In fact, a growing body of research shows that certain gut bacteria not only influence thought processes and the physical structure of the brain, but also that our thought processes and physical structure of the brain affect our gut bacteria. As I told all my patients in my clinical practice (and anyone who asks me today), what we eat affects how we think, and how we think affects what we eat and how we digest food! So, watch what you eat—try to avoid too much processed food, eating too fast, eating on the go and eating too much, all of which can contribute to increased anxiety levels! 2. Multitasking: When we multitask, we end up with what I call “milkshake thinking”, which is the opposite of mindfulness. Every rapid, incomplete, and poor quality shift of thought makes a “milkshake” with our brain cells and neurochemicals, which is the opposite of how the brain is designed to function. When we consciously try to jump rapidly from one task to another, we essentially cloud our ability to concentrate and think deeply, which impacts our ability to do a task well, leading to unnecessary levels of anxiety in our life. This is why I always recommend choosing to focus on one thing. Where you direct your mind is a choice, one that can affect you in either a positive or negative direction. This is especially the case with multitasking. You can reduce the anxiety that comes from decision fatigue—the feeling of being overwhelmed by the plethora of “would” or “could” choices we all face daily—by choosing, in the moment, to stay focused on a task and disregard less urgent demands. When you do this, you actually build up your mental strength and resilience, which will help you better deal with disappointment, failure and the daily anxieties of life! 3. The search and reward circuit: There is a special circuit in the brain that helps us search for food, comfort, love, relationships, friendships, peace, and so on, called the search and reward circuit. (Much of the research in this area of neuroscience has been done by Peter Sterling.) When we experience these positive experiences, dopamine is released and we can relax until we start the next search. Essentially, we are built to seek out a way of life that rewards us with a dopamine rush—the little searches and little dopamine rushes drive us to seek these rewards, which has a cumulative effect. Often, we are driven by these frequent, small surprises, and if we don’t find them, we can get agitated or anxious. This is especially true if we are in a chronic, unmanaged stress state—we don’t experience this rush as much as we need to, which can make us anxious. 4. Not daydreaming enough: When we don’t give our minds a break and let them just wander and daydream, we can end up feeling really anxious and stressed out. This kind of thinking is not just “nonsense” or “distracted” thinking. When we daydream, we essentially reboot our mind, as talked about in Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess. These moments give your brain a rest and allow it to heal, which increases your clarity of thought and organizes the networks of your brain by balancing alpha activity, helping create an optimal state of relaxation and alertness and bridging the divide between the conscious and nonconscious mind. This, in turn, puts you in a state of peacefulness, readiness, meditation, and beta activity, which is important for processing information, being alert, working through something challenging, focusing, and developing sustained attention. This balanced energy, in turn, increases blood flow to the brain, which helps it function better and helps you deal with mental challenges and manage anxiety. The opposite happens if you don’t take regular thinker moments. Not giving the mind a rest and letting it daydream can reduce blood flow by up to 80 percent in the front of the brain, which can dramatically affect cognitive fluency and the efficient, associative thinking required at home, school or in the workplace. Cumulatively, this can lead to unprocessed thoughts and nightmares, affecting your overall quality of sleep, performance and mental health. To do a thinker moment, simply close your eyes and let your mind wander. Daydream, listen to some music, take a walk outside,...

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How to Unwire Addiction & Toxic Habits from Our Brains, Why Focusing on “Willpower” is Ineffective and Counterproductive

AHA Publisher — Fri, 09 Oct 2020 07:00:17 +0000

Dr. Caroline Leaf – The human brain is designed to be habitual—this has helped us survive over the centuries. But what happens when we build toxic habits that hold us back? How do we overcome negative thinking patterns that keep us stuck? In this podcast (episode #206) and blog, I speak with social psychologist, bestselling author and podcast host Dr. Amy Johnson about how we can find true and lasting freedom from unwanted habits, how to not be afraid of change, how to build new habits based on insight, not willpower, and how to help someone change without becoming an enabler. As Amy notes in her book, The Little Book of Big Change: The No-Willpower Approach to Breaking Any Habit, a thought is essentially our ability to have an experience. This experience can be either good or bad; what is important it how we react to the experience and take it in. If you are dealing with a recurring issue or addiction and nothing has helped you so far, it is not because you are broken or there is something wrong with you. The solutions you tried could not fix you because you don’t need fixing in the way you think you do. Your brain is like a machine; it is demanding that you do something or act in a certain way because it has been conditioned by your behavior (which often happens unintentionally). It is not something that needs to be fixed; it needs to be shifted and changed by your insight and understanding. You control the process—it does not control you. You are not bound by your past. You are free to be who you want to be; you don’t have to walk around in fear and shame. Indeed, overcoming a bad habit or addiction is not about making something go away or stop. It is about learning how to be free of the urges to act or think in a certain a way, separating yourself from them and observing these desires as an experience, not a necessity. This deep insight will increase your self-compassion, helping you recover, readjust and overcome what you are facing. We need to see our urges as moving, changing experiences that we don’t have to act on or believe. If a thought or desire comes back, this doesn’t mean we are still sick or we have failed; it is just a passing memory. We don’t need to fear it, because we understand that it is a fleeting experience, not an illness or disease. Essentially, where we direct our energy, the brain follows. This becomes a bad thing when we take an experience and make it a part of our own narrative, rather than letting it move through us without latching onto it. The more energy we give this habit, the more room we give it in our mind and life. Overcoming bad habits and addictions means shifting your mental energy away from the thoughts behind these habits—they are slowly dying, even though they may still affect your behavior in some way. The key point is that the habit or addiction no longer owns you. Breaking a bad habit is not about elimination, it is about shifting your energy away from the habit. Where your mind goes, your brain and body follows! When it comes to breaking a bad habit, if you just focus on your willpower, you keep giving the bad habit mental energy by thinking about it constantly, and it stays alive. So, what’s the solution? When you are dealing with a toxic thought or habit, it is tough to do much in the moment, because this is often when we are at our weakest—it almost feels like we have been hijacked by our thinking. It is far more important to focus on the bigger picture and the insights you will gain before and after, which help you move forward. In the moment, the best thing you can do is let go and let the feelings move through you so you can “reset” instead of pushing away or numbing your feelings. When you are calmer, you can start accessing the wisdom of your experiences. If someone you love is battling with an addiction or toxic habit, help them explore this. Be with them as they try to discover who they are and how their experience works. Be present and help them see that they are not broken or ill. Help them gain insight into what their experiences are telling them. Have those deep, hard conversations—this will allow them to tap into their natural wisdom. Don’t see the person as broken or ill; don’t just assume that they are doing this to upset you or make your life difficult. See the truth behind their behavior and know that they are doing what they do to cope; they are in pain and are afraid of facing their experience. This article has been modified. To read the original article click here. For more articles from Dr. Leaf click here.

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