Gardening has been a passion of mine since I was a kid. And because I live in a subtropical climate, I get to garden all year long. I have vibrant hibiscus blossoms the size of dinner plates. And the smell of the jasmine is sweeter than any perfume. But gardening is good for more than the senses. It can actually cure depression writes Dr Al Sears.
Studies have found that a friendly microbe in soil can affect your brain and boost your mood as effectively as Big Pharma’s antidepressants.
Drugs like Prozac, Zoloft and Lexapro claim to ease depression by increasing serotonin in the brain. Having too little serotonin is linked to depression, anxiety and OCD.
But these medications often cause weight gain, dizziness and sexual dysfunction. For some unlucky people, the side effects can be much worse — manic behavior, gastrointestinal bleeding and drug-induced Parkinson’s disease.
The naturally occurring microbe Mycobacterium vaccae also boosts serotonin. But it doesn’t cause scary side effects.
When you dig in the dirt, the bacteria gets directly into your bloodstream, where it bumps up serotonin production.
The depression-busting effects of M. vaccae were accidentally discovered by an oncologist in England. She created a serum from the bacteria and gave it to her lung cancer patients to boost their immune systems. But she noticed another effect instead…
Her patients perked up. They felt happier and more energetic than patients who didn’t get the bacteria.
Further research backs this up.
In a recent study, healthy mice were injected with M. vaccae. They then were placed with a large, aggressive male for 19 days. Compared to untreated mice, the injected mice had less anxiety and fear and behaved in a more positive manner. And the effect lasted up to two weeks.1
And in another study, 12 mice were fed the bacteria and placed in a progressively challenging series of mazes. Compared to controls, the M. vaccae mice completed the course two times as fast — and without any additional anxiety.2
Getting outside and digging in the dirt is a great way to get your serotonin levels up. But if you can’t do that, there are other ways to activate serotonin. Here’s what I recommend to my patients…
3 Easy Ways To Increase Serotonin
1. Eat more tryptophan. Serotonin isn’t found in food. And you can’t take it as a supplement because its molecules are too big to cross the blood-brain barrier. To make serotonin, your body needs a precursor. And one of the best is tryptophan.
Your body takes the tryptophan and converts it into an amino acid called 5-HTP. This is then converted into serotonin. Good sources of tryptophan-rich foods include:
- Organic turkey or duck
- Raw, unprocessed whole milk
- Cage-free eggs
- Pumpkin seeds
- Sunflower seeds
- Cheese
But it’s not easy to get enough tryptophan through food. I suggest supplementing with 500 mg up to three times a day.
2. Supplement with Griffonia simplicifolia. In the heart of West Africa, I discovered the world’s most powerful, absorbable form of 5-HTP. It’s a shrub known as Griffonia simplicifolia. Traditional healers call it “kajya.”
I’ve had great success treating my patients with kajya. I usually start them on a 20 mcg dose, and then gradually increase the dose to between 50-100 mcg, depending on how they’re feeling.
3. Expose yourself to sunlight. There’s a direct relationship between serotonin production and the time you spend in the sun.
In a study of 101 people, researchers found serotonin levels plummeted during dark winter months. But they surged in the summer when people were exposed to sunlight for a significant time.3
That’s because the sun’s UV rays that are absorbed by your skin produce vitamin D, which in turn promote serotonin production.
I tell my patients to sit in the midday sun for 15-20 minutes. Try to expose as much skin as possible.
About
Dr. Al Sears, M.D., travels the world to uncover natural ways to nourish your skin, enhance your beauty, and help you stay younger. His journeys have taken him from the deep jungles of Brazil to the mountains of Peru and Jamaica.
“This information has been provided by Ageless Beauty Secrets. For more information visit www.pureradiance.com.
My husband is 80 years and has been suffering from PD for the past 15 years. Lately he started hallucinating and I didn’t know how to handle the situation. He cannot sleep and tried to find and catch the imaginary people who he thinks are real. he was taken Entacapone with Levodopa, Carbidopa, and Pramipexole and started physical therapy to strengthen muscles. nothing was really working to help his condition.I took him off the Siferol (with the doctor’s knowledge) and started him on parkinson’s herbal formula i ordered from Health Herbal Clinic, his symptoms totally declined over a 5 weeks use of the Parkinsons disease natural herbal formula.i read reviews from other previous patients who used the herbal formula, my husband is now active, he can now go about daily exercise!! his symptoms so much reduced that now I hardly notice them.