Dealing with Depression

Recent studies have shown that imbalances in serotonin levels trigger depression. Doctors often treat patients with serotonin reuptake inhibitors (eg. Prozac) because these medications can help to regulate serotonin levels.

It is the role that serotonin plays in depression that perhaps is of most interest. People with depression have measurable 'imbalances' in the brain's neurotransmitters; low levels of serotonin are believed to play a critical role.

If an episode of depression causes a change in your serotonin level, this can have an effect on your pain threshold too. Because serotonin helps keep 'pain gates' closed, a lack of it can make you feel more pain.

Serotonin also helps with sleep, which explains the sleep disturbance encountered by those with depression.

This also explains why people can get such immediate relief from drugs - serotonin is so strongly involved in sleep regulation, pain perception and mood that an increase can have a huge effect. The danger of course, is becoming dependent on drugs instead of tackling the root cause of the depression.

Research indicates that the best way to elevate serotonin levels is to stimulate the body to produce more serotonin.

Serotonin is one of dozens of neurotransmitters and is found in body tissues including the brain, blood, and the mucous membranes lining the stomach and digestive tract.

In the past decade, research studies of serotonin have found that it plays an essential role in the regulation of sleep, appetite, temperature, blood vessel tone, secretion of certain hormones and in the perception of pain, thereby affecting a wide range of conditions, such as migraine headaches, depression and sleep disturbances.

There is a way to stimulate the brain to produce more serotonin without side effects. It is self regulating, inexpensive and perfectly safe.