Beating Depression in Six Simple Steps: Omega-3s

This is the fourth of my seven posts on beating depression without meds.  Share any one of my posts in this series on Pinterest or Facebook, and then let me know you've done so by commenting here on the blog.  Each share is worth one entry, so if you share each of the seven articles on both sites, you'll be entered fourteen times.  On November 8, I will draw the name of one lucky reader out of a hat for the grand prize: a NatureBright Sun Touch Plus therapy lamp!

If you could change your state of mind just by adding a dietary supplement, would you do it? Out of of the six steps outlined in Stephen Ilardi's The Depression Cure, the fish oil component is admittedly the least sexy.  But it's probably the easiest step, and, according the author, might even be the most powerful.

The media hype surrounding Omega-3s has mostly died down, leaving us with one more member of the nutritional pantheon to ignore/feel guilty about--but maybe it's worth remembering, after all. There are two big links between a lack of Omega-3s and depression:  1. Dopamine and serotonin production flag when we don't have a high enough intake of Omega-3s--and this compromises our neurons' ability to transmit and receive messages.  Basically, the brain is made of fat, and a lack of the right kind of fatty acids can cause it to misfire, which causes depression.  2.  A lack of Omega-3s can lead to rampant inflammation, which also is a contributor to depression.

If you hate the idea of swallowing a fish capsule every day, think hard about the alternatives.  You could actually eat fish, which is what our amazingly healthy Japanese friends do.  Two or three servings a day will do the trick.  But make sure it's farm-raised so you don't get a side dish of mercury and other post-industrialist byproducts.  And then there are plant-based oil capsules that work; however the only ones that contain the recommended amounts of DHA and EPA are not only crazy expensive, but they're formulated from algae.  So I don't know if that's going to help you get around the gross factor.

Best to just buck up and swallow that yellow goodness, my friends.  Here's how to start:

• Find a supplement that contains 1000 mg of EPA and 500 mg of DHA.
• Make sure it's "molecularly distilled" or "pharmaceutical grade."  This will save you from the chemicals ingested by fish in the wild and also from the chance that the manufacturers are giving you rancid oil.  Gross!
• You might have the occasional fishy burp.  Never fear!  Keep the pills in the freezer, and the delay in digestion should solve that problem.

It sounds so hard, but it's really so easy.  Way, way easier than slogging through your day at less than full capacity.  Pretend you are your own beloved child and make yourself take your vitamins.  You deserve to feel well.

This is fourth of seven posts on beating depression without meds, based heavily on Stephen S. Ilardi's The Depression Cure: The 6-Step Program to Beating Depression Without Drugs.  I highly recommend you read the whole book to learn how best to implement this revolutionary program.  Come back next week and learn how important sleep is to our mental health.

And just so you know...I'm not getting anything from NatureBright or from the publishers of The Depression Cure.  I just get a kick out of helping others beat depression.  Somehow it makes what I go through worthwhile.  Almost.  :)