With seemingly relentless bad news from around the globe, many people nowadays are experiencing overwhelm and associated poor mental health.
Although you can’t influence what happens in the wider world, you can control how your body reacts to these events. Your mind and your body are intrinsically linked. This gives you the power to harness your body to positively impact your mental health.
In support of World Mental Health Day, read on to discover how your diet and lifestyle can significantly affect your mental health.
Smartphones and social media now mean many people are bombarded by news around-the-clock. In contrast, previous generations needed to consciously pick up a newspaper or switch on the radio to learn the news. This modern constant exposure and doomscrolling can leave you feeling anxious, guilty, and helpless.
When you read a bad news story, chemical changes occur in your body. If your brain perceives you are under some sort of threat, stress hormones rise, creating changes to help you escape the stress. If these hormones remain elevated long-term, however, their effects will impact your digestion, immune system, and boost chronic, damaging inflammation.
Gut Health
An information superhighway connects your gut and your brain, with each influencing the other. The microbes in your gut produce an array of chemicals affecting mood and brain communication.
An unbalanced microbiome is linked with poor emotional health 1, whereas a healthy gut ecosystem promotes positive mood.
Hormone Balance
Hormones are your body’s messengers, and when they’re out of balance, this can negatively affect mental health. Hormones and brain chemistry are closely linked.
Inflammation
Elevated inflammation – the kind that rumbles on behind the scenes – is a factor in all chronic diseases, mental health disorders included 2.
However, the underlying causes of mental health issues are often complex. They can include immune dysregulation, nutritional deficiencies, blood sugar imbalances, and even infection.
Mindfulness, meditation, deep breathing exercises, or taking time out in nature can reduce your body’s negative reaction to stress and promote self-awareness. These lifestyle behaviours mimic how your body reacts when it feels safe and so will mitigate the fight/flight reaction. These techniques are powerful: your thoughts and feelings can actually change how your brain neurones connect with one another.
All too often, sleep is considered a luxury. However, the link between quality sleep and optimal mental health is well-established, with poor sleep negatively affecting mental wellness.
If you’re experiencing low mood, sleep is often one of the first things to suffer. Therefore, you might benefit from adopting some simple strategies to improve your sleep quality. These may include avoiding caffeine after midday, banning screen time for a few hours before bed, and establishing a regular bedtime.
Moving is crucial for optimal mental health – your brain benefits from a workout, too 3. It doesn’t need to be strenuous exercise. If you habitually scroll for 20 minutes after you wake up, try replacing this with 20 minutes of yoga. Find a way to move more that you enjoy and commit to doing it regularly.
Your body needs good nutrition to maintain optimal mental health, build brain cells and manufacture neurotransmitters, allowing brain cells to communicate. Studies have found greater consumption of processed foods is linked with a higher risk of mental health disorders. On the other hand, eating more plant-based foods is associated with better mental health, happiness, and satisfaction 4. Plant foods contain fibre to feed a healthy gut microbiome, essential for optimal mood.
Particularly important nutrients for good mood include omega 3 oils, B complex vitamins, zinc, vitamin D, and magnesium.
Herbs including St John’s wort, passionflower, ashwagandha, and lemon balm have been traditionally used to support mental wellbeing. These herbs are best used under the guidance of a practitioner.
Mental health is a crucial part of your wellbeing, equally as important as looking after your physical health. In fact, it’s impossible to separate out physical and mental health since both interact with each other. Fortunately, functional medicine regards your body as a whole, interconnected machine.
In addition, we look to correct the root causes of mental health issues. Although medication can be helpful, it does not address what’s causing poor mental health in the first place. Because so many factors can influence mental health, correcting the root causes can offer hope for lasting positive effects, as well as preventing a deterioration in mental health over time.
A detailed case history will delve into your symptoms and health goals, accompanied, if appropriate, by functional testing. This can reveal whether your gut health, hormone balance, or nutrient status may be impacting your mental health.
Start your journey to optimal mental health today by booking a Discovery Call.
Do you need help with your mental health. Having a functional medicine practitioner review your lifestyle could be the answer. Speak to one of our practitioners by booking a FREE discovery call to see if Functional Medicine is for you.
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