Vitamins for Mood & Stress

The ever-increasing complexity of daily life can test your resilience – some days your biggest challenge may be just getting up in the morning to face what the day has to offer. One way you can help improve your outlook is by taking dietary supplements to increase levels of certain vitamins, nutrients, and minerals needed to stay mentally fit and feel good. But there's such a wide array of choices – where to start?

If you need a little help getting into your daily groove, look no further than what you eat and how active – or not – your routine is. Let's start with food. Good nutrition is essential for both mental and physical fitness. If your daily food intake has gaps, dietary supplements can provide increased levels of certain vitamins, nutrients, and minerals needed for staying mentally fit and feeling good. In addition to eating well, you should pay attention to staying active. Good nutrition and exercise are closely linked in balancing your mood, sleeping well, and handling daily stress. Even moderate physical activity such as walking can improve your outlook. And especially, get enough sleep – at least seven to eight hours a night for a normal, healthy adult. Repeatedly missing sleep over time creates a sleep deficit, which can wear away at your mood and decrease your ability to deal with stress

In finding the best solution for your mood and stress area of interest, you'll discover a number of vitamins and dietary supplements that can be extremely beneficial in helping achieve mental fitness. Before taking a vitamin or dietary supplement, it's important to keep these general cautions in mind.

• Certain supplements can interfere with the effectiveness of prescription anti-depressants and birth control pills – check interactions with your healthcare provider.
• Always be sure to follow package instructions for dosages, length of treatment, and other cautions such as allergic reactions.
• If you have any question at all about how mood and stress supplements might interact with any drugs you are taking, don't hesitate to ask your pharmacist or healthcare practitioner.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's newest food guide encourages everyone to make healthier food choices and to get regular exercise. Eating a balanced diet and exercising consistently are important parts of the equation in supporting your frame of mind and ability to deal with daily stress. A well-balanced diet should include fruits and vegetables, whole grains, dairy, and lean protein. If you're vegetarian or vegan, you can get your protein from non-meat sources such as beans, peas, nuts, seeds, and soy products. Follow a balanced diet low in saturated and trans fats, cholesterol, added sugars, salt, and alcohol to effectively lower hypertension and feelings of stress.

The U.S. Department of Health recommends balancing your calorie intake with exercise. Reduce sedentary activities, such as watching television, that keep you in your chair for long periods of time. Regular exercise for at least thirty minutes a day helps maintain muscle tone and adequate cardiovascular function, but it also gives you a positive way to release pent-up energy, and increases the levels of mood-elevating chemicals in your bloodstream.

Down mood

When your mood takes a downturn, especially when there appears to be no cause, it can diminish your quality of life and lower your energy level. Many people experience these moody symptoms, but they shouldn't be confused with clinical depression. Depression is a medical condition that can interfere with normal daily functioning and should be dealt with in consultation with a healthcare professional. By contrast, a simple downturn in mood is temporary, and doesn't get in the way of functioning normally at work, at school, or at play. Even though you may feel at a low ebb, daily routines and responsibilities can still be carried out.

Three common causes for mood downswings have been identified. You've probably heard about them or even experienced their effects. The first is long periods of bad weather, sometimes referred to as "winter blues." Prolonged lack of sunlight during any season can contribute to a general “down” feeling and lack of energy. Second is a short-term deficiency in serotonin or dopamine levels in the brain. These chemicals in the brain are used by nerves to send messages to each other. And a third common cause is a deficiency of B vitamins, which can result in low energy and reduced brain function – both of which can temporarily depress your mood and emotions.

Supplementing the gaps in your daily diet with additional vitamins and minerals can help level out your mood ups and downs. Maintaining healthy brain cells and feeling the benefits of increased energy can have a surprising effect on your mood and ability to cope. B-complex vitamins have been identified as an important part of this support system for healthy brain function.

Enhancing or lifting your emotional outlook can be achieved by increasing the serotonin and dopamine levels in the brain. Taking recommended amounts of the substance SAM-e may increase levels of these chemicals, but remember that SAM-e should not be used in combination with anti-depressants. Another way to possibly increase your body's absorption of serotonin is by taking St. John's Wort. This herb has been shown in some cases to be useful for treating short-term dips in mood and emotions. It should not be used in combination with anti-depressants. A third solution for elevating your mood could be through taking folic acid. We know that the body uses folic acid in the production of serotonin, and an increased ability to produce and absorb serotonin may be useful in lifting the moody blues.

Enhancing your mood depends to some extent on how well your central nervous system is functioning. We know that omega-3 fatty acids are needed for good nerve function, and that deficiencies can negatively affect mood, so supplements may be helpful if you don't eat enough cold-water fish or seeds in your daily diet.

Sleep loss

Most adults need seven to eight hours of sleep each night. Anything less – whether it's caused by work, travel, stress, too much caffeine, or a more serious sleep disorder – results in sleep deprivation and fatigue. Sleep loss is cumulative, and even small nightly decreases can add up and disturb daytime functioning. When you're sleep-deprived, you feel mentally foggy, and it's hard to stay on task. Physically, you just want to flop somewhere and not get up. It's like being jet-lagged without making the trip! Sleep deprivation can cause impaired memory, lack of concentration, mood swings, and poor performance at work or school, or any other daily tasks and responsibilities. As you can imagine, it can even be a safety hazard, especially if you're driving or operating machinery.

Sleep Loss and Fatigue solutions are not just about going to bed earlier. Being mentally sharp and focused during the day is important, too. Improving focus and concentration can be part of your mental fitness plan. Many people in Asian countries and also now in Western nations are finding that Panax ginseng gives them that added boost they need to sharpen their ability to concentrate.

Another part of your mental fitness plan is combating mental and physical fatigue that can result when you don't get enough rest or your diet is missing essential nutrients. Getting enough quality sleep time is highly important, but you can also use the recommended dosage of Panax ginseng for an effective boost in sharpening your brain power and feeling more energized. Be sure to get Panax, not Siberian, ginseng because the active ingredients are different.

Mental fitness requires improved and consistent sleep patterns, which a surprising percentage of adults are missing out on. If you don't want to use traditional sleep aids that can leave you feeling groggy the next morning, there are two good alternatives: melatonin and valerian. The herb valerian helps calm the nervous system and lower blood pressure, which has the sedative effect of helping you relax so you can fall asleep. And the best news is that it doesn't give you that fuzzy sleep-aid feeling in the morning.

The quick-release form of melatonin is reported to have the best results in helping regulate sleep cycles by making it easier for you to fall asleep and stay asleep. That's why it has been reported effective in helping people adjust to travel in different time zones, which can cause disrupted sleep cycles. It's your low-tech but effective cure for jet lag!

Stress

At times of stress, your body may use up higher levels of some nutrients, creating a temporary deficiency. To compound the problem, poor eating habits often accompany stressful periods, which means a loss of important vitamins and minerals. Additionally, caffeine, nicotine, and chocolate have all been shown to increase anxiety levels. Low energy levels caused by stress can mean less desire to get healthy exercise. You know the trap: the less you feel like getting up and getting out, the more you deprive your body of beneficial endorphins or brain chemicals released during exercise. Stress can also increase the breakdown of healthy tissues by releasing free radicals into the bloodstream. An excess of free radicals in your body's system can result in illness and premature aging.

Difficulty handling stress can come from many sources, and treating just one symptom, such as sleep deficit, may not be enough. Here are some specific solutions for the most common symptoms of stress. Drops in mood can make it difficult to handle stress. To give your mood a lift, try supplements of SAM-e, a substance that occurs naturally in the body. Deficiencies in SAM-e have been linked to a drop in mood and lowered sense of well-being.

A major contributor to difficulty in handling ordinary day-to-day stress is not getting enough quality sleep. In addition to simply not going to bed early enough, problems with disturbed or interrupted sleep patterns can leave you on edge and fatigued, both mentally and physically. You can improve your sleep patterns and remove sleep deficits by both changing lifestyle habits that prevent enough sleep and by supplementing a balanced diet with valerian. This herb has the sedating effect of relaxing and calming the central nervous system, allowing you to fall asleep easier and wake alert and refreshed.

Speaking of the central nervous system, making sure you have enough B vitamins and calcium in your diet is essential for improving your body's ability to deal with stress. Calcium is good for regulating heartbeat and blood pressure. A calcium deficiency can contribute to the body's inability to handle the demands that stress puts upon it.

Another way to boost your body's ability to handle stress is to protect your immune system. Antioxidant vitamins such as C and E are your best line of defense. They can neutralize the damaging effects on the body's cells caused by free radicals released into the bloodstream during times of stress.