Beat the Blues: How can you improve mood and lower anxiety naturally

Do you ever feel like you have a low mood and you’re getting a little bit too anxious? Don’t sleep well. Uh, this is actually a, a subject I cover in my book, upgrade Your Brain and to Cut to the chase. I would say to you, get outdoors exercise. Eat oily fish three times a week. Supplement some Omega-3, also some five HDP, and most importantly, get off all that sugar and carbs. So let’s, um, break that down and actually understand what’s going on in your brain that affects your mood and also your stress. So first of all, there are two sides to a low mood. There’s the black hole, you know, what’s the point? Uh, and that is really related to a neurotransmitter that we all make in the brain called serotonin. And the other half, uh, is to do with losing your motivation. It’s just your get up and go has got up and gone. You know that if you ate better or exercised, you’d, you’d feel better, but there’s just no drive. And that is related to another neurotransmitter called dopamine. And what’s happening, uh, in our culture is we’re being sold happiness, uh, uh, when really the solutions, the Happy Meal, the happy hour and so on, uh, are pleasure, sugar, you know, gives you pleasure, caffeine gives you pleasure, and this is what we’re being sold. So we get more and more dopamine production. And it, it doesn’t actually make you happy. It does the opposite ultimately because it depresses serotonin. Now everything that is made in your brain is made directly from food. And in this case we’re talking about amino acids, which are the constituents of protein. So as you start to get more and more dopamine burnt out, tyrosine is the amino acid from which the brain can kind of reload your capacity for motivation and enthusiasm. And when serotonin gets depressed, uh, which it does, especially by the way, if you’ve been on antidepressants for at least a year, you get very low serotonin. And serotonin is made from tryptophan and specifically in directly from five hydroxy tryptophan or five HTP. And there are now 28 studies on five HTP that show that supplementing it versus placebo gives you a definite mood boost. So that’s why I would recommend that. Now I said, eat oily fish three times a week, supplement omega threes. The omega threes allow all this mood boosting talking to happen in the brain. And there’s 26 studies on Omega-3 supplements, which have shown a clear improvement in mood, in fact, reducing depression by 28%, which is quite remarkable. So that’s a, a really easy and quick win. And the process of turning all these food nutrients and amino acids into the neurotransmitters that make you feel good is dependent on B vitamins and vitamin C and zinc. Magnesium is also involved. Sam e uh, is a supplement which kind of cuts to the chase also very, very excellent, uh, for boosting your mood. So when you have the amino acids and you have the B vitamins and you have the minerals and you have the omegas already, your brain is getting a real upgrade that lean you towards a natural feeling of enthusiasm and, and better mood. But the real long-term mood killer, simply because it depletes that dopamine and depresses serotonin is living endlessly on sugar and carbohydrates. That’s, that’s a real problem. So whatever you do to improve your mood and to reduce anxiety and sleep, it’s very, very important to get your sugar intake under control and eat less carbs in general. Stay away from the white refined, ultra processed ones. Eat whole foods, I mean literally food that you could pull out of a tree or out of the ground. Get your blood sugar under control. Now if sleep particularly is a problem for you from that five HTP, we make serotonin, but we also make melatonin. And melatonin is what you need, uh, to sleep. So if you are struggling with sleep, you can also supplement melatonin and that will help to, you know, to chill you out and give you a good night’s sleep. And lastly, the other reason why people can’t sleep and can’t switch off, um, anxiety is because to go to sleep, you have to get out of an adrenalized state. That’s terribly important. And one of the reasons why tea, which contains caffeine is more relaxing than than coffee is the amino acid. L-theanine. It’s naturally calming. So is magnesium. So having more magnesium, more l-theanine, more five HTP, which makes the melatonin or melatonin itself before you go to bed is fantastic. Or a bath perhaps with Epsom salts in it, and that’s a natural source of magnesium. And switching off the TV and not watching the late night news or horror films, getting your brain into a naturally calm state, dimming the lights, all of this, uh, will help you switch off anxiety and watch out for alcohol. Because very often when you wake up tired and you hit the sugar and you hit the coffee and you spend your day in a state of stress, the natural reflex is to have alcohol. Because alcohol does switch off adrenaline for a while about an hour, which is why you have another drink and another drink and another drink. It actually promotes gaba, which switches off adrenaline, but ultimately depletes gaba. So you wake up a bit more tired, a bit more anxious, and so on. So limit your intake of alcohol, maybe one drink, possibly two, but no more if you are struggling with your mood, your stress, and your sleep. So those are the top tips. Get outdoors exercise. It boosts serotonin, both the exercise and the sunlight. Cut back on sugar, have oily fish three times a week. Supplement the omegas. Consider amino acids, particularly five HTP, um, for your mood. That’s gonna give you a great mood. That’s the way up from down.