It’s estimated that over 80 million Americans have been infected with Covid-19.  Of those, a shocking number have suffered long-term effects.  Some of the most common and lasting symptoms of Covid are psychological — depression, anxiety, mood disorders, even psychosis. 

So if you’ve had Covid but still don’t feel you’re recovered mentally, you are not alone.  You should also know these problems are not “in your head” — there are almost certainly physical factors involved, and you may be able to help your own recovery.

The latest data

According to startling new research published in The Lancet, as many as one third of all Covid sufferers develop Covid-related depression, anxiety or other neuropsychiatric conditions within six months of contracting the virus. The study analyzed post-Covid health records of over 230,000 women and men to reach these findings.

Researchers tried to explain why mental health issues are a “long Covid” symptom for so many, and in doing so, stumbled upon another intriguing discovery: depression and anxiety appear to develop regardless of whether the case of Covid was mild or severe.  

This is important because it means that it’s more than the lingering damage from a severe infection. If it were, we would expect that the more severe your Covid symptoms, the higher your risk for depression would be — but it isn’t, so what’s going on? 

There is lots of evidence that Covid creates a range of neurological problems, including inflammation that may cause changes in the brain. But we also know that Covid — whether mild or severe — can trigger a torrent of troubling emotions, from worry about job loss to guilt over infecting family members to shame over the need to quarantine to the sheer loneliness of prolonged isolation. 

Conventional medicine tends to pick apart our health into distinct issues.  But that’s not how our bodies work. Our thoughts and our biology are woven together. So almost certainly, it’s the interplay between these “social” and “organic” factors that determines our mental health post-Covid. And really, this understanding is good news, because you can do something about factors within your control, especially the ones that involve your own thoughts and perceptions. 

Are you feeling down even after you’ve recovered from the virus? Don’t blame yourself, or think it’s all in your head — but don’t feel helpless either.  When you act on the factors you can control, you help yourself heal.  Here are some steps to try:

Reframe your perspective

Catastrophic thinking is a learned cognitive bias in which our brains start to select and highlight facts that confirm a certain fear, and ignore those that contradict it. Most of us have done a lot of catastrophic thinking in the past year and all this anxiety, worry and “doom scrolling” hasn’t helped anyone’s mental health. 

The next time you notice yourself dwelling on catastrophic thinking, try consciously challenging your negative thoughts. When you’re  “catastrophizing,” you might start out with a thought such as, “I feel bad today.” This thought may then expand to, “It’s only going to get worse,” or “I’ll never get better.” 

As you notice these thoughts, step in and literally say out loud, “Stop!” or “No more!” Next, use deep breathing, positive affirmations, meditation, journaling and other stress relief techniques to help you let go of irrational fears and refocus your thoughts. Over time, these techniques will make it easier and easier to restore perspective. 

In her book, The Work, author and healer Byron Katie wrote powerfully about how this process of remaining alert to and questioning stressful thoughts changed her entire outlook on life: “I discovered that when I believed my thoughts I suffered, but when I didn’t believe them I didn’t suffer, and that this is true for every human being. Freedom is as simple as that. I found that suffering is optional. I found a joy within me that has never disappeared, not for a single moment. That joy is in everyone, always.”

All of this isn’t to diminish the very real suffering that’s happened during Covid. The practice of reframing your perspective is meant to help you make sure you’re not carrying an even heavier burden — a habit of thought that blocks your healing. 

Support your stress response 

When you are under chronic stress, the constant tripping off of the body’s fight-or-flight response can create adrenal hormone imbalances and lowered thyroid function, leading to problems with mood regulation. 

When thyroid function slows during stress, triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4) hormone levels fall. If they fall low enough, you can enter into a state of hypothyroidism (low thyroid). Symptoms of low thyroid include fatigue and depression. 

In your recovery from Covid, you want to make sure that you are supporting your adrenal glands and thyroid so that stress-related issues don’t contribute to your depression risk. You can take our free Hormonal imbalance quiz to learn more about stress-related hormonal symptoms you may be experiencing. 

Covid depression — a sign you need more Vitamin D 

Research has consistently shown a link between Vitamin D deficiency and depression, including a 2013 meta-analysis that found that, statistically, people with low Vitamin D status were at much greater risk for depression.

Most adults in the US have suboptimal or deficient levels of Vitamin D, especially now after the long winter months and before the sun is direct enough to start producing Vitamin D in the skin. 

Fortunately, you can easily do something about Vitamin D deficiency, starting with daily supplementation with a good Vitamin D supplement. Plus, Vitamin D comes with the big bonus of strengthening your immune function — that’s why the data shows healthy levels even reduce the risk of severe Covid in the first place.

Natural antidepressants 

In my work with women, I have found that a combination approach to lifting symptoms of depression generally offers better symptom resolution and long-term results than any one single thing. In addition to steps I’ve outlined above, other natural holistic approaches to mood support include:

• Talk therapy or counseling
• Body work methods, such as craniosacral therapy (CST), osteopathic manipulative therapy (OMT), therapeutic massage
• Acupuncture
• Targeted amino acid support, such as SAM-e or GABA
• Diet changes to reduce excess sugar
• Other nutritional supplements like a high quality multivitamin and omega-3 fatty acids
• Full-spectrum light therapy

Meeting with an integrative or alternative health care practitioner can be a great way to put together a plan to meet your individual mental and physical needs as you recover from Covid.

Covid depression: stay focused on your well-being 

Mental health self-care is something we can all benefit from, whether we’ve had the virus or not. This has been a difficult year, and even as the pandemic wanes, we all still need to take the best care of ourselves possible.

Whenever you can, practice even a few minutes of self-care. It really helps! 

The post A lasting side effect of Covid? For many, it’s depression appeared first on Women's Health Network.

Back in 2007, Oprah Winfrey created a huge controversy when she invited a medical doctor on her talk show to argue that low thyroid in women may be the result of unexpressed emotions. For the many millions of women with hypothyroidism in America, the idea that their disorder could be a byproduct of repressed anger was a true wake up call. But conventional medicine had the opposite reaction, and its backlash was immediate and intense. Mainstream media decried this theory as quackery and called for Oprah to stop peddling “bad medicine.”

We’re now a dozen years out from this controversy, and a lot of thyroid research has happened since then. It’s amazing to look at the science today and then look back at that infamous episode on Oprah because…you know what?

Oprah was right. And everyone should know why.

The biology of anger

Conventional medical thinking on the thyroid and emotions has always been a one-way street: If your thyroid is underactive, it will make you depressed or cause mood swings. If it’s overactive, it can make you anxious, angry or manic. But none of the body’s systems are one-way streets. If a poorly functioning thyroid causes negative emotions, then why can’t negative emotions impair the thyroid? Well, we now have the evidence to explain how this can occur.

Let’s start by looking at what anger does to the body. At the most basic level, anger is a threat response — the “fight” in fight-or-flight. The experience of anger is associated in part with the chemistry of stress hormones— cortisol, norepinephrine, and epinephrine (which most of us know as adrenaline).

Cortisol is the most important of these to thyroid function. It’s long been known that cortisol can influence thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) in that excess cortisol can suppress TSH — which in turn causes the thyroid to produce less of its key hormones. Chronic cortisol release from ongoing stress can also tip the scales toward autoimmune thyroid disease.

That burst of cortisol shouldn’t impact thyroid function under normal circumstances, because bursts of stress hormones should be short-lived.

But in the modern world, we’re constantly “under threat” from a barrage of sources, especially conflicts and demands that seem to never go away and problems that can’t be solved — so our fight-or-flight response is almost constantly turned on.

Since there’s no respite from this stress, suppression of thyroid function becomes more and more likely too. And this “fight” response does more than just suppress the thyroid’s hormone output. It can also trigger an immune response — which can do damage to the thyroid itself

Ever feel like your life is spiraling downward? Sometimes your thyroid feels that way too! To understand why, we have to learn about an agent called IL-6.

How do IL-6 and inflammation affect thyroid and immune function

One of the more intriguing findings of recent research is the relationship of the cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6) to stress — and specifically to anger. IL-6 is one of two key markers of chronic, low-grade inflammation (the other being C-reactive protein, or CRP) that is so often found in illnesses such as heart disease, cancer, and autoimmune disorders.

Scientists have known for some time that IL-6 tends to increase when we’re under stress. Among other things, IL-6 boosts cortisol production, so that only makes sense. But a recent study found that among adults over age 50 with chronic disease, those who reported higher feelings of anger and frustration also had higher levels of IL-6 — but not those who said they experienced sadness rather than anger.

If you feel like you’re falling down a rabbit hole, you’re right. Cytokines are part of our immune response, and a key dimension of thyroid disorders is autoimmune dysfunction. Here’s how this works. Another function of IL-6 is to keep in check regulatory T cells (or “Tregs”) while promoting another type of immune cell called T helper 17 cells (Th17). The Tregs help the body recognize its own tissues versus pathogens. The Th17 cells help protect the body against pathogens, but they have also been implicated in autoimmunity. So, if the body is producing too much IL-6, it means there’s an immune system imbalance — one that allows Th17 cells to increase while Tregs are suppressed. This sets the stage for an autoimmune disorder.

When the immune system is fighting itself…

The relationship between IL-6 and autoimmune thyroid disease seems like a chicken-and-egg question — does thyroid disease develop because of the increase in IL-6, or does the increase in IL-6 occur because of thyroid disease? In reality, it could be both at the same time. (Remember that two-way street?) But knowing that anger boosts IL-6 production, and that IL-6 predisposes the body to attack its own cells, makes it hard to ignore that anger may have a profound effect on the way hormones and immune responses in the body interact with the thyroid.

Keep in mind that not all thyroid imbalances are autoimmune-related. We know, for instance, that having too little iodine or selenium in your diet — two key nutrients for the thyroid —is also a common cause of low thyroid function (hypothyroidism), and one that’s easy to fix. It may be a question of where you are on a spectrum. When autoimmunity is involved, thyroid imbalances in women can be at opposite ends of the spectrum —Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (autoimmune hypothyroidism) or Graves’ disease (autoimmune hyperthyroidism) — and in both disorders, higher-than-normal levels of IL-6 are usually present.

Anger is an unhealthy thing to swallow

But we started this conversation talking about repressed anger. What does repression have to do with it?

Many Eastern energy healing systems consider the thyroid to be the seat of the throat chakra, important for creativity and self-expression — your “voice,” in both the literal and emotional senses. It is no surprise to practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine that a hoarse voice is one of the key symptoms of thyroid dysfunction! So, what happens when you are angry but stop yourself from expressing or experiencing it? “Swallowing your anger” is a metaphor for what you experience when you don’t express your angry feelings, but in a very real sense it’s like taking a poison pill — because where are you stuffing all that emotion? Down your throat, past the center of your self-expression, and right down into your gut — which not-too-coincidentally is the command center of your immune system. If you’ve ever had a roiling stomach after “biting your tongue” in an argument, you’ve felt the effects of repressed anger. Perhaps some of these other experiences will sound familiar:

• Clenching or tightening of the jaw and throat
• “Cold” feeling in your chest or stomach
• Swallowing hard to maintain control
• Shortness of breath or a feeling of breathlessness

These are all physiologic stress responses as well as responses to anger.

There are many situations where it’s not appropriate to cut loose, and instead we have to “keep a lid on it” until it’s OK to “vent” — but that’s not what we’re talking about here. Repression of anger is when you continually refrain from stating how you feel. Unfortunately, many women have never learned healthy ways to express or cope with strong emotions like anger or grief. We might either “stuff” or “wallow in” these negative emotions, when what our body and mind and spirit need is for us to process them. Or we might simply have poor communication skills — “dumping” all over well-meaning friends and then feeling bad about it later, which encourages us to avoid expressing ourselves at all.

Either way, if we don’t process these emotions in a healthy way — acknowledge the feelings, understand where they came from, and either resolve them with communication or release them if communication isn’t possible — they can contribute to the chronic stress and inflammation that produce thyroid trouble.

How to reclaim your voice and improve your health

But the beautiful thing is, it’s never too late to learn better, healthier ways to manage your emotions and develop coping strategies for emotional triggers. Some ways to get started might be:

• Take a time out. It’s hard to manage strong emotions in the moment. If you can make an opportunity to step aside, maybe go for a short walk, or even just go to the kitchen or bathroom and drink a glass of water before addressing the situation that makes you angry, it takes the pressure off to respond immediately and gives you time to employ other strategies to stay calm and identify and resolve the problem that’s causing your anger.
• Practice deep breathing. The next time you’re feeling irritated or angry, try to remember to stop and take a few deep breaths. Deep breathing slows the heart rate, reduces blood pressure, and relaxes the muscles — in short, it is an easy way to alter the physiological responses you have under stress and help to quickly reduce the stress response. If you can make deep breathing a regular practice, so much the better — because you’ll be primed to do it when you’re triggered to anger.
• Commit to honesty—and speak up. Sometimes the first step to managing your anger is acknowledging it exists out loud. It’s OK to say to someone, “What you just said (or did) makes me feel angry” or “Please give me a minute, I’m really annoyed right now, and I need a minute to sort it out.” Then, like I said before—step away and breathe! Doing so will make it easier for you to say in a calm and nonthreatening way how you’re feeling, so you don’t have to hold it in, but you also don’t have to fear exploding at someone who doesn’t deserve it.
• Learn to recognize your anger. For a lot of us, we’ve become so used to our unhealthy anger-related habits that we hardly even know when we’re angry anymore — instead, we think we’re sad, or nervous, or anxious (anything but angry, if we’ve been taught that anger isn’t something we’re “supposed” to feel). If this resonates with you, take some time alone, or with a therapist or close friend who can give you honest but gentle feedback, to contemplate how this emotion manifests in you. What triggers anger in you, and how do you react to it in the moment? Are you someone who flies off the handle at the slightest obstacle, or are you a “stuffer” who goes expressionless or gets depressed when she’s frustrated? It can be important to understand what makes you angry, and how you react to it, before you can learn strategies to release it.
• Dig deeper. The steps above are strategies for managing surges of anger in the moment in ways that don’t repress the emotion. But so many of us have kept the lid bolted down for so many years that we hardly even realize how much anger we’ve repressed. Think about all that the #MeToo movement has brought to light. The learning there is not just about the prevalence of sexual abuse, it’s about women being heard and believed. The health issues we face from repressed anger stem from our inability to both release and process the emotion. If you have issues in your past or present that contribute to a longstanding emotional history of depression, anxiety, or resentment, it’s not healthy to continually ignore or downplay those issues.

We don’t agree with Oprah on everything, but on this topic she really was showing women the future of how to understand the multitude of factors that can affect the thyroid.

The truth is, facing your emotions may be painful, and learning how to let the anger go if you’ve held onto it for a long time can feel difficult. For some people, it may take months or even years of work with a professional therapist — but the rewards of good health (and a healthier thyroid) are worth it!

Is your thyroid function at risk? Take our free Thyroid Health Quiz and get the answers you need.

The post Turns out Oprah was right — repressed anger really can lead to low thyroid appeared first on Women's Health Network.

It’s always exciting when a compound from the world of natural medicine suddenlymakes a breakthrough into mainstream acceptance and use. And right now, that momenthas arrived for CBD, a substance found naturally in hemp.CBD oil — technically known as Cannabidiol — is a hot topic at the moment.

Lots of health claims are made for it, and studies by the score are underway tosubstantiate them. But the earliest claims were that CBD oil helped relieve anxiety— and without side effects.I actually first learned about CBD oil from patients of mine. They were convinced it had helped them dial back stress and anxiety.

So I’ve spent time reviewing themost recent studies. And their experiences are corroborated by a growing body ofscientific research.

What is CBD? Let’s clear things up.

CBD is a type of cannabinoid, a plant chemical found in hemp.I know what you’re thinking! So let me clear this up right away: yes, CBD is derivedfrom hemp, but no, it does NOT make you “high.” It’s true that hemp is the cousinof marijuana, and marijuana contains THC, which is psychoactive. But hemp is thepoor cousin: it has nearly zero THC; that’s why its main prior use was to make rope.Naturally, CBD that is derived from hemp also has nearly zero THC. Some manufacturerseven certify their CBD oil has no THC whatsoever…more on that later.

CBD was first identified and extracted in 1940. It wasn’t until decades later, however,that researchers discovered the body’s endocannabinoid system (ECS), a series ofsignaling receptors that help regulate mood, immune-system responses (very importantin the inflammatory cascade), sleep, pain and more. CBD and other cannabinoids interactwith ECS receptors, influencing messages sent to the nervous system, organs andcells.

How CBD works for anxiety and stress relief

We have a lot to learn about how CBD acts in the body, particularly how it may workto reduce stress and anxiety. But from what is known, the CBD molecule works ina number of different ways to restore calm:

• • CBD helps regulate and balance brain activity inthe amygdala and prefrontal cortex — two parts of the brain involved in anxiety.
  • CBD interacts with receptors that regulate serotonin,helping to make more of the mood-regulating chemical available for the body to use— naturally!

• CBD stimulates the renewal and growth of brain cells(neurogenesis) in the hippocampus, a part of the brain associated withemotions, motivation and memory. Chronic stress and severe depression can causethe hippocampus to shrink. As research has shown, CBD and other cannabinoid activitymay protect the hippocampus from the damaging effects of prolonged depression andstress — and possibly reverse them.
• CBD seems to provide specific help for people dealing withsocial anxiety. A Brazilian study of adults with social anxiety found thatafter consuming CBD, participants reported feeling less anxious — often significantlyso. This was backed up by brain scans that showed cerebral blood flow patterns consistentwith an anti-anxiety effect.

Another study corroborated this finding that CBD helps with social anxiety. CBDhelped sufferers deal with a simulated public speaking test. Those who took CBDbefore getting up to speak reported feeling less anxious and more comfortable. Inaddition to these self-reported benefits, objective indicators of anxiety — likeheart rate and blood pressure — also responded favorably to CBD use.Obviously we can’t say that CBD oil is a panacea for anxiety – there’s no such thing.There are many forms of anxiety, some very serious, and the CBD studies are early-stage.But the initial results are encouraging, especially given the apparent safety andrelative lack of side effects.

Yes, so far the adverse side effects appear minimal

Some studies have reported mild side effects when using CBD, such as diarrhea. Therates of such side effects are low and they seem to readily resolve once CBD usageis stopped. Of course, we always recommend that anyone regularly using any overthe counter supplement or medication keep their doctor informed, and stop usingit immediately if side effects develop.

Be forewarned — how you choose your CBD may be the critical factor

You’ve probably seen CBD show up at your health food store as a CBD oil supplementor in CBD oil-infused chocolates and other edibles. But not all CBD oils are thesame — far from it! There’s a lot you need to know before you jump in and get started.

The most important issues are how the CBD is sourced and extracted. Look for CBDthat comes from organic hemp and uses a CO2 extraction process. (Some makers usebutane or solvents, which are cheaper extraction agents — but not something youwant in your body!)Some forms of CBD may contain trace amounts of THC — well under 1% — but that may be a concern, especially if you have a job that requires drug testing. The best manufacturersuse an extraction process that leaves even those trace amounts behind. Look forCBD labeled THC-free with certified test results available to back up this claim.Keep in mind that reputable brands are extremely transparent about how their CBDproduct is made —and what it contains.As I’ve seen, and maybe as you’ve heard from your friends or experienced for yourself,CBD’s ability to relieve stress and anxiety can sometimes feel like nothing shortof a miracle.I like to think of it this way — in our stressed-out world where it often feelslike anti-anxiety prescription medications are the only answer, it’s nice to knowthat nature has given us a way to access blissful calm.

If you’re suffering from everyday anxiety,read ourarticle on three steps to calm anxiety and feel more peaceful.

The post CBD oil for anxiety relief – does it really work? appeared first on Women's Health Network.

Racing thoughts can take over when you’re trying to get to sleep, struggling to focus, or hovering on the brink of an anxiety attack. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to quiet everything down and even turn off the panic? Turns out you have a built-in calming system that can help you feel less on-edge.

Why your mind races

Anxiety is the little monster that sets off racing thoughts. You can become anxious about almost anything, even if it starts small. Whether it’s the undone tasks on your to-do list, a pending confrontation with a co-worker, or a sick kid, your mind is prone to fixating on any issue that’s unresolved — especially at night when you’ve stopped running around.

Once anxiety gets a toehold, your thoughts will begin to race — often in repetitive, circular patterns that feel familiar — reasoning away your galloping thoughts feels impossible because you’re stuck in those very patterns. You may even feel additional symptoms like sweating, nausea, shallow breathing, or shaking — all signs of the “fight or flight” response.

While everyone worries about something now and then, middle-aged women tend to have more anxiety than they used to. Many studies connect anxiety, serotonin and hormone status, especially when a woman’s estrogen is fluctuating.

A lot of women seek help with their hormones in midlife, whether it’s with natural hormonal-balancing methods, or even hormone treatments. But there’s more to racing thoughts than shifting hormones.

Family and life changes, financial worries, and fears about aging can instantly position you to become more anxious, even about little things. And even though you’re focused on real-life circumstances, physical contributors, such as low blood sugar or caffeine in your system, can also intensify anxious ruminations, making situations feel worse than they are.

When it’s so hard to convince yourself to be calm

If you’re like most women, when your mind is anxiously racing, you’re probably mostly focused either on the past (regrets) or on the future (anticipating bad outcomes). Where you are least focused is on the present moment, which ironically is the place where you can feel the safest.

I’ve often thought of the human brain as a pessimistic chatterbox. It’s wired for survival so it naturally stays on the lookout for danger. While that’s good in many ways, the brain’s thought process can benefit from being reined in and reassured in moments of high stress.

There are some effective physical methods you can use to break the cycle of anxiety and feel better.

Calming techniques that can stop racing thoughts

Because racing thoughts result partly from getting stuck in your brain, it helps in those anxious moments to reconnect with your body and the physical world. Plant both of your feet on the ground. Take slow, deep breaths as you tune into your breathing, sensations in your body, and the earth beneath your feet.

The physical mechanism you’ll be activating is the parasympathetic nervous system. It’s the healing and relaxation half of your autonomic nervous system. The other half is the sympathetic nervous system, which drives that “fight or flight” response. By using a bilateral approach to activate the parasympathetic half, you can down-regulate the sympathetic half — and calm your racing thoughts.

These easy techniques can help slow down your racing thoughts. They’ve been used successfully by people with PTSD who are learning to deal with disturbing thoughts and memories, and can be quite powerful.

See which one works best for you.

1. The butterfly hug for bilateral stimulation

Cross your arms over your chest, with hands pointing toward your neck (not your arms) and with your longest fingers touching each collarbone. Breathe slowly, with eyes closed or partially closed and looking at the tip of your nose. Flap one hand like a butterfly wing against your chest, then the other. Keep going, alternating hands rhythmically for 2-3 minutes. Your hands may naturally go faster or slower at some points, but just keep going and don’t try to control your thoughts.

2. Kundalini meditation for emotional balance (Sunia Antar)

Drink a glass of water to begin. Then, sit up straight, but not rigidly, on the floor with your legs crossed. Add a little pillow or rolled towel under each knee to make yourself comfortable. Cross your arms across your chest with your hands firmly in your armpits, palms pressing into your ribcage and thumbs pointing up. Scrunch your shoulders up toward your ears as you gently tilt your chin toward your chest lengthening the back of your neck without cramping it (known as “neck lock”). Close your eyes and take long, deep breaths for 3-11 minutes.

You hold the power to calm yourself

Negative ruminations tend to escalate as long as your anxiety stays high so each thought feels worse than the previous one. In addition to using these physical techniques, you can also help guide your brain to take the momentum out of your racing thoughts.

Ask yourself:

• Is what I’m imagining really true?
• Do I have real evidence to back up my worries?
• Is there another way of looking at this situation?

Just like the physical methods above, performing mental reality checks takes practice — and some trial and error — when you’re in the middle of being worried.

Knowing how to bring your mind back from the edge when it’s freaking out is a skill you can use to get through the day more peacefully and to rest more easily at night. But once you learn how to do it, you’ll have something you can count on when you need it most.

See more about how to calm anxiety so you feel less stressed and more peaceful.

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Whether you call it the winter blues, blahs or doldrums, it’s natural for us to slow down as the temps drop. But since we don’t have the option to hibernate, what can we do?

Here are our top ideas – straight from our winter experts in Maine!

1. Warm up with seasonal foods. At this time of year, your body needs warming foods that are easier for your digestive system. Fill up the slow cooker with root vegetables or try our simple soup recipe below.

Yum! Pumpkin ginger soup recipe

½ onion
1 tbsp. minced fresh ginger
1 16-ounce can organic pumpkin
4 cans broth or water
Pinch of cinnamon

Sauté onion with ginger and a sprinkling of cinnamon.

Add pumpkin and broth or water and simmer 20 minutes. Blend if desired and serve with yogurt.

2. Create a special winter ritual you love. For me, winter is “bath season.” I love taking a warm bath, but not in the heat and humidity of summer when I could be out swimming. I save this treat for when the temperatures drop.

3. Catch some morning sun. Getting outside for a quick 10-15 minute walk in the morning is one of the most effective ways to combat the winter blues, and depending on where you live, get your body a little Vitamin D. If this is not a possibility then the next best option is to get a light box, which mimics outdoor light. Use it in the morning for 30 minutes.

4. Load up on zinc. Nothing gets me down more than balloon head and the sniffles. When I feel like the cold or flu is trying to catch me, I add more zinc to my diet with supplements or foods like wheat germ, oysters and liver. If you take high doses of zinc (such as 75 mg) within 24 hours of being exposed to a cold, you can beat it faster.

5. Get cozy with your puppy. I always feel happier and cozier sleeping with my dog nearby. But for years I kept my furry friend out of the bedroom because I was worried it would affect my sleep quality. Fortunately new research shows a dog in the bedroom isn’t disruptive to sleep (although having one in your bed can be). No word on a cat study yet, but I volunteer to be part of it!

Finally, I recommend you go with the flow and don’t beat yourself up if you aren’t feeling as motivated or as peppy as you do in the summer months. Often, the blahs are temporary. But if you think your ongoing winter blues may actually be something more serious – such as seasonal affective disorder (SAD) – see how a natural approach can help you.

The post 5 ways to fight the winter blues appeared first on Women's Health Network.

I get anxious — a lot.

But I’ve also got a secret weapon against anxiety, and it really helps. Since we all get anxious at times about something, you should know that my anti-anxiety trick is something everyone has with them at all times of the day, 24/7: it’s your breathing.

Your breathing is regulated by your autonomic nervous system so you don’t have to think about it to stay alive. But you can change your breath with breathwork! Learning how to take full, deep breaths from your abdomen can slow your heartbeat and stabilize your blood pressure, helping you feel calmer in just a few seconds. Breathing like this sends a “relaxation message” to your adrenal system to help prevent your fight-or-flight response from kicking in.

How your breath flips the switch

I’m amazed how many people know about the benefits of deep breathing without being able to actually do it. Maybe you’re one of them!

We live in a shallow-breathing society. We pull in our stomachs to look thinner. We hold our breath when we’re nervous, concentrating or exercising hard. And we breathe through our mouths too much. Mouth-breathing messes with the oxygen your body gets through inhaling.

Breathing through your mouth also doesn’t use your full lung capacity, which is a key element for activating that natural relaxation response. (You do have one, I promise.)

7 little steps to learn deep belly breathing

You can learn to do deep belly breathing in a way that will become more and more natural as you practice. And the fact is, you will have to practice if you ever hope to make deep breathing an easy habit.

So if you can do it for five breaths, then you can do it for five minutes. Here’s how to get started with breathwork:

1. Set aside 5-10 minutes in a quiet, comfortable spot.
2. Sit up straight (but not rigid) or lie down if you prefer. Put one hand on your belly and breathe normally for about a minute.
3. Now take in one long, slow, deep breath through your nose, feeling your stomach rise with the inhale — and then exhale through your nose, letting your belly fall as your lungs empty out.
4. Then repeat and count the seconds as you inhale for 4 seconds, pause for a split second at the top of your breath and exhale, counting for 4 seconds.
5. Now set a timer for 30 seconds and do it all again. The first time you do it, you might be surprised at how hard this kind of breathing can be and especially by how easy it is to be distracted.
6. Your mind will drift and you’ll forget what you’re doing. Then you’ll be back to your regular breathing. Be patient and nice to yourself, and simply start over as many times as you need to.
7. Gradually increase the length on your timer. After a few sessions, go for 2 minutes, then 3 minutes, then 4 minutes, etc. If 4 minutes seems like forever, go back to step 3.

Here’s another deep breathing technique…

Lots of people concentrate better on their breathing with their eyes closed, but I like to keep mine open. I focus on one tiny thing, like a spot on the floor a few feet in front of me because I find it helps direct my attention to the breathing itself. I keep my eyes on that spot and every time my mind wanders, I just come back to focusing on my breath.

It’s absolutely essential that you breathe in and out almost exclusively through your nose. You certainly can start your practice session with a few “cleansing” breaths, inhaling through your nose and exhaling out your mouth. After that, seal your lips and use your nostrils exclusively.

For many people, this kind of breathing is as hard as learning a new language. You may feel incredibly self-conscious at first but keep going — I promise the payoff is that good. So take a few deep breaths and get back to your life! You can read more about deep breathing with our article Take time to breathe for your health.

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By WHN editorial team

Of course you are! But take a moment to really notice how you’re breathing. Are you holding your breath a lot? Are your breaths shallow or rapid? Are you breathing through your nose, or your mouth?

Because deep breathing can help you relax and feel calmer, it can make you feel better when you’re stressed or anxious. When we checked in recently with one of our customers, she told us that when she had tried it, she ended up feeling out of breath and light-headed. She wanted help.

Here’s what our Wellness Coach told her:

A good way to get started is to sit up straight but not rigid, or lie down comfortably.Put one hand on your belly and just breathe normally for about a minute. Now, take a long, slow, deep breath in through your nose, feeling your stomach rise with the inhale — and then exhale through your nose, letting your belly fall as your lungs empty out. Aim to inhale for 3 seconds with a slight pause at the top of your breath and then exhale for 3 seconds. Continue this pattern for a couple of minutes. After a few sessions, gradually go for 5 minutes, 10 minutes, etc. Closing your eyes can help you focus more on keeping the pattern going.

Learning how to “surrender” to this breathing practice can take a little time. Notice if you feel resistant to letting go (very common at first) and try not to rush through these few moments you’ve set aside.

It’s very important to breathe mostly through your nose — that keeps you from hyperventilating and feeling dizzy. After you get the hang of it, try a few powerful exhales through your mouth about halfway through your session — still inhaling through your nose.These “cleansing breaths” release tension, stress, fatigue — and anxiety.

Be patient and kind to yourself. Simply start over if you get distracted and start breathing too quickly. Deep breathing, like most worthwhile activities, takes a little practice.

* Information presented here is not intended to cure, diagnose, prevent or treat any health concerns or condition, nor is it to serve as a substitute professional medical care.

The post Easing anxiety with deep breathing appeared first on Women's Health Network.

In this article

• Actions speak loudest, but feelings speak first
• Negative love and our family patterns
• We are what we’ve learned — but we can change that!

One method that we often suggest to women seeking a way to address emotional issues is the Hoffman Quadrinity Process. It can transform the lives of women who are “stuck” on emotional issues. This program helps people integrate the four essential aspects of their being: emotions, intellect, spirit, and physical body. A 2006 study done at the University of California Davis has found that participants in the Hoffman Process have done as well or better than those using other interventions in significantly reducing depression, anxiety, interpersonal sensitivity, or obsessive-compulsive symptoms, especially in the long term. This study also found significant, lasting increases in emotional intelligence, forgiveness, spirituality, energy, and vitality.

We asked the Hoffman Institute’s President, Raz Ingrasci, to summarize what the Process teaches so that women can get a better idea of what it offers for better emotional health.

What you do is influenced by how you feel

The old saw that “actions speak louder than words” is very true, but it’s only half the equation. Our actions are mostly guided by how we feel — in other words, though actions might be loudest, emotions always speak first, and they guide our actions far more than our intellect. Indeed, the emotional brain reacts at lightning speed compared to the intellectual brain. Raz suggests that we think back to the last time we felt humiliated, upset, angry, or insulted. “It takes only a millisecond,” he says, “to put us into a state of paralysis. We’re reeling, trying to come up with words to use in conversation, but we’re struck dumb.” And it’s minutes or even hours before we can articulate that feeling to someone else or even ourselves.

From the experience with 70,000+ who have attended the Hoffman Process, Raz estimates that about 80% of human behavior stems from our emotional brains, which can confuse us when we react in ways that we know, intellectually, are counterproductive. Raz suggests that one way around this dilemma is to learn to identify our emotions more readily. As he explains, “The naming of an emotion takes place in the intellectual brain, though the feeling itself exists in the emotional brain. When it is named, those two spheres are connected and you feel more whole.”

When we recognize the power of our emotions and give them due regard, our lives can improve dramatically. As Raz says, “There’s an old axiom, ’What you can feel, you can heal.’ The best way to begin dealing with an unwanted emotion is to allow yourself to experience it.” Burying our emotions only means they will arise again at another time in different circumstances, but always inconveniently. To tap into the power of emotions, Raz suggests, “the best strategy is to become aware of your feelings and move with them, allowing your body to experience your sensations and emotions.” This is how we work through problems and eventually heal. If your emotional states are overpowering or frightening to you or others, seek professional help.

Negative love and our family patterns

Once we can name our feelings, the next step is to figure out where they originated; where did I learn that feeling? We tend to reproduce the behaviors we learned from our parents as a way of earning their approval, attention, and love. Bob Hoffman, creator of the Hoffman Process, called this the Negative Love Syndrome because these behaviors are rooted in the experience of not getting enough love.

These behavior patterns play out in our adult lives as well. Many of us end up seeking relationships that are similar to what we saw in our parents because this is how we learned about love. How often have you, or one of your friends, lamented not only that you “married your father” but that you’re “becoming your mother”? There are good reasons why they (or you) might feel an echo of your parents in your own behavior — your parents were the people who formed your perception of how an adult behaves and what adult relationships should look like. And they, in turn, were formed by their own parents. These patterns and perceptions, whether positive or negative, can continue from generation to generation virtually unexamined.

The Hoffman Process is focused on helping you to be your true self, not the “mask” you create to meet your parents’ and society’s expectations. In order to find our authentic selves, we have to examine where our emotions and motivations stem from.

Our childhood influences our adult relationships

As children, we learn from our parents and caregivers. When a child has a negative experience with a parent, he or she typically assumes the blame for it. If a parent ignores, dismisses, or rejects a child—whether because the parent was preoccupied with work, or didn’t know how to address their feelings, or simply was out of sorts that day—the child assumes he or she was somehow “bad” or unworthy of love. This childhood feeling of being unlovable becomes an internal state and persists into adulthood. This is the underlying source the negative love syndrome.

The responses we develop as children to try to elicit the love we needed from our parents often imitate the very behaviors that made us feel so unworthy. As Bob Hoffman noted, “our unconscious reasons for adopting negative behavior patterns from our parents are:

• the hope that they will love us if we are like them.
• to vindictively punish our parents by reflecting their negativity back to them.
• to punish ourselves for feeling unworthy and unlovable.

Such unexamined negative love strategies persist into adulthood, causing us difficulties in our adult relationships and even affecting our physical health.

We may feel disheartened when we realize just how young we started learning our negative emotions and behavior patterns, but we can take comfort in the fact that these are learned behaviors, which we can transform with time and practice. As children we had no choice, but as adults we can choose to heal. This is the goal of the Hoffman Process for emotional healing.

“From a human doing to a human being“

Most of us simply react or do as we’ve been shown in any given situation. In his book, The Hoffman Process, Tim Laurence talks about transitioning from a human doing to a human being. The Hoffman Process helps to unwind this programmed behavior by examining all parts of the self — emotions, intellect, spirit and body — along with the patterns we have developed, so we can choose what to keep and what to change, thereby empowering us to have a more free, open, loving, spontaneous experience of life.

Though most of us have been conditioned otherwise, our emotional health deserves a place on our “to-do lists,” and it’s time we start paying attention. Women deserve to take the time and space to reflect on the negative patterns you’ve always imagined are simply a part of “who you are.” The Hoffman Institute has developed dozens of tools to help work through negative patterns and provide positive alternatives.

If you’d like to learn more about tapping into the full range of your emotional expression, visit the Hoffman Institute website. The impressive results of the UC Davis research study on the Hoffman Process can be found on their site as well.

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Identifying postpartum depression, or PPD, is not always simple. There are many situations in which women develop symptoms of depression after giving birth, but we can make two main distinctions:

1. A woman is mildly depressed or highly stressed before she has her baby, and after delivery, the hormonal fluctuations of childbirth and the stress of caring for a newborn push her over the edge into full-blown depression. This is not technically PPD. This is an episode of depression that was present or imminent before the baby’s birth and continues afterward.

2. A mother’s moods are relatively stable and upbeat prior to giving birth but spiral downward afterwards — often within a matter of days but sometimes over the course of months. In this case, the depression is very clearly connected to postpartum hormone fluctuations.

The exact number of women who experience true postpartum depression is hard to know. Many women hide their negative feelings both before and after giving birth, and fatigue, sleep problems, pain, inflammation, and other postpartum issues can blur the boundary line with depression. An estimated 70–85% of mothers report mild “baby blues” within the first few weeks of birth, while just 10–20% experience the longer-lasting, deeper PPD. A very few women develop the severest form of postpartum psychiatric illness, known as postpartum psychosis when the mother loses touch with reality and can deliberately or inadvertently harm herself or her child.

Baby blues, PPD, and hormonal imbalance

When trying to determine whether a mother is suffering standard, short-term baby blues or a bout of PPD, these questions can help:

Identifiers of the baby blues

• Do your emotions seem magnified, with extreme shifts in moodiness, sadness, irritability, or anxiety?
• After delivery, did your emotional symptoms improve within the first two to three postpartum weeks?
• Are your symptoms just bothering you and not interfering with your ability to function and care for your child or children?

Typically, women with more severe symptoms or symptoms lasting longer than two weeks should be screened for PPD. That’s the time for questions like these:

Identifiers of postpartum depression

• Do you have a history of depression, with previous episodes, or did you feel depressed during pregnancy?
• How long have you been feeling this way? Typically, PPD develops gradually over the first three postpartum months, but symptoms can also arise very quickly.
• What are your symptoms like? Symptoms may include depressed mood and anhedonia (the inability to experience anything pleasurable), guilt, insomnia, crying easily, fatigue, appetite disturbance, and recurrent thoughts of death or suicide.
• Do you find yourself overly anxious about yourself and your child? Is this something your friends and family have also observed?
• Do you have ambivalent or negative feelings towards your child?
• Are your emotions interfering with your ability to care for yourself or your child?

When a new mother says she’s depressed, it’s important to determine how she felt before she had the baby. That can be a clue as to whether the depression is a long-standing issue just coming to light, or is a new problem related to hormones. And this is an important distinction because often pre-existing depression will respond to different types of therapy than true PPD.

How a woman feels during pregnancy is also significant. A strong indication of hormone-based PPD is when a new mother with depression tells us that pregnancy was wonderful and she felt better than ever, and then describes a sharp contrast between the euphoria she felt in pregnancy and the lows that came afterward. This is usually a signal that her hormones, particularly progesterone, may be imbalanced.

Any form of depression has both physical and emotional components, and postpartum depression is no exception. Fluctuating hormones heighten your emotions after giving birth, and these fluctuations continue for far longer than four weeks particularly if you breastfeed. This situation is compounded by the fatigue, discomfort, and sleeplessness of the first days and weeks after childbirth. It can feel especially lonely at night, when the new mom is the only one awake to care for the baby. Nights and days as the only provider make this even more difficult for single moms.

If the baby isn’t sleeping well (or at all), has health problems, is premature, or is prone to fussiness, it takes an even greater toll on a new mom. She may already have conflicting emotions about her new role as a mother, particularly if her own mother was distant, absent, or abusive. All of these factors contribute to feeling depressed after giving birth.

The American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders —commonly known as the DSM-IV —classifies postpartum depression as Major Depressive Disorder with Postpartum Onset. The DSM-IV also says that symptoms must appear in the first 4-6 weeks following the birth. Unfortunately many new moms do not experience symptoms until well after this time frame. There is also some recognition of depression that begins during the pregnancy (peripartum-onset), holding over into the postpartum period. Treatment recommendations can include using drugs such as Prozac or other SSRIs that may not be effective for true PPD. Antidepressants often just mask symptoms in women who have issues with hormonal balance.

Treating postpartum depression

There’s plenty of research into standard depression, but less for PPD, which isn’t “just” depression that happens to occur in a new mom. PPD is different from standard depression because the state of women’s bodies and their individual hormonal balance after childbirth are not the same as in non-pregnant women.

When it comes to treatment, most conventional practitioners will approach PPD as if it is standard depression, which may not be effective, leaving aside the fact that drug therapies for depression have unknown effects on nursing babies. There are ways to address the imbalances of PPD naturally and most of these therapies are effective in helping women who have moved past their PPD experiences, but still feel “off” even years after childbirth.

A natural approach

For women with PPD, natural approaches can lead to better mood and hormonal balance. These include:

• Eat well and take either your daily prenatal multivitamin, or another high quality multivitamin like our Essential Nutrients, along with omega-3 essential fatty acids.
• Get as much sleep as you can. It may help to adjust your sleep schedule to match your baby’s and ask the other parent or a helper to take one shift at night, feeding the baby formula or pumped breast milk.
• Ask for help with the baby, and talk to friends and relatives or a health care professional if you feel depressed right away.
• Consider herbal supplements to support hormone balance, such as our Herbal Equilibrium formula. You can also talk to your doctor about bioidentical progesterone therapy, but only if you are no longer breastfeeding,
• Get outside in the sunshine daily, and try to start doing some gentle exercise daily as well. but don’t overdo it while you’re healing.

PPD is usually resolved quickly if you get good nutrition, rest, exercise, emotional support and, if needed, progesterone or drug therapy. The most important factor is letting people know how you’re feeling: ask for help. Don’t become isolated — reach out to friends, family, or social services if you’re overwhelmed by your depressed mood. The people who care about you will want to help.

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In New England as fall moves into winter and the daylight hours shrink, many women say their lives begin to change abruptly. They feel extremely tired, want to sleep and eat more, or feel sad all the time. Of course we all feel a shift as the days shorten. We tend to spend more time inside, eat heartier foods, and slow down a little. But when these changes interfere with your life, a lot more could be going on.

Women are expected to be upbeat and productive throughout the four seasons, but if you suffer from seasonal affective disorder (SAD), this just isn’t possible. No wonder the more casual term for SAD is the “winter blues.” About 5% of the US population experiences SAD symptoms for 40% of the year, but SAD affects women four times more than men. The most likely time for women to first notice symptoms of SAD is during their mid-20s-30s. This is about the same time as they begin to experience changes related to hormone imbalance as PMS and perimenopausal symptoms.

Whether you are diagnosed with SAD or just feel out of sorts during the winter months, you don’t have to feel gloomy every time the temperature begins to drop. Instead you can attack the underlying causes of SAD in many ways — most of which honor your biophysical needs during this time of year. Finding out what SAD really is all about can help you have a happier, healthier winter naturally.

Sadness when the seasons change

Women with SAD have recurring symptoms of major depression with a seasonal onset and subsequent remission as the days start to lengthen again. These symptoms of depression include loss of interest, insomnia, decreased energy, anxiety, poor concentration, fatigue and excessive guilt.

Typically, SAD occurs in the fall and winter, and resolves during the spring and summer. The underlying causes of SAD are not fully understood but are believed to be linked to increased melatonin, circadian phase shifts, dysfunctional serotonin synthesis, and/or genetics. We do know that, like other depressive disorders, it’s rare to have just one event lead to SAD. Instead, there are usually many factors involved.

SAD and Vitamin D

One thing to look at, especially if you suspect you have SAD, is your vitamin D level. You can assess this through a simple blood test, either on your own or through your healthcare practitioner. Many women have vitamin D deficiency, especially if they live in the northern hemisphere. The symptoms associated with low vitamin D — reduced energy, fatigue, depressed mood, and sleep irregularities — look a lot like the symptoms of seasonal affective disorder, leading us to believe this connection is stronger than we thought originally.

Vitamin D is readily manufactured in our bodies when skin is exposed to natural sunlight (UVB radiation). During the winter months, those of us who live at latitudes above 40 degrees north or south don’t receive enough light to make the appropriate conversion to vitamin D. In theory, by exposing ourselves to the sun in summer months, most of us should be capable of storing enough vitamin D to last the winter. However, because modern day life keep us indoors longer and longer, this doesn’t occur in many women.

Pink salmon, sardines and cod liver oil are good sources of vitamin D and in the US, milk is fortified with Vitamin D. However, the amount of vitamin D we get in food is not much compared to the amount we need for optimal wellness. A recent study showed that symptoms of SAD were improved with vitamin D supplementation.

Sleep, light and the changing seasons

A disruption in your natural circadian rhythm can contribute to SAD. Your circadian rhythm is a series of physical and mental behaviors that follows a 24-hour cycle. This internal rhythm is dictated by a tiny nerve cluster in your brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus, or SCN. Under normal conditions, the SCN directs the release of hormones through light exposure. The lack of light in the fall and winter months upsets this essential process, leading to the dysfunctional release of certain hormones.

Melatonin is one of the key hormones involved in circadian rhythm and is responsible for making us sleepy. As the sun goes down, the SCN prompts the pineal gland to release melatonin. Levels peak during the darkest hours of night and decrease with the returning light of dawn.

Early or prolonged release of melatonin can disrupt sleep cycles and cause you to feel like crawling back into bed. You’ll generally stay tired throughout the day. Current literature suggests that patients with SAD have circadian phase delay. This means that when the sun goes down, the release of melatonin is delayed, which pushes the sleep cycle back, leaving you lethargic throughout the day.

Fortunately, light therapy, primarily in the morning, is effective for treating this circadian shift and subsequent symptoms of SAD. Just sitting under a reading lamp won’t do the trick. Instead, you use specific light therapy boxes, or portable, visible light sources found in most home-goods stores. They provide the appropriate light intensity needed — about 10,000 lux. Use a light therapy box in the morning for about 30 minutes (time may vary with specific brands). Most people should notice improvement of symptoms within a week of use, though some cases of SAD may take longer — and not all individuals will respond fully.

Serotonin, the “feel good” neurotransmitter plays a key role in the production of melatonin as well. Serotonin levels fluctuate throughout the seasons, reaching the lowest point during December and January. It is no wonder that we tend to approach SAD treatment in a similar way to major depression.

Keep SAD and the winter blues away — the Women’s Health Network Approach

When November arrives, you don’t have to dread the darker days and colder nights ahead. You can relieve your symptoms of SAD, or even resolve them for good.

There are many natural alternative treatments to try. You may need to adopt each and every one to get lasting results. Yes, this approach requires more than popping a pill, but when used carefully, these methods are safe, and may be more effective and affordable than drugs. If these recommendations seem overwhelming, just try them for two weeks. You can do anything for two weeks!

Natural relief options for SAD

• • Get outside every day: Being outside for as little as 15 minutes a day will expose your body to the sun’s healthful rays, help you produce your own vitamin D and reconnect you with nature. If possible, move your desk or workspace near a window with natural light.
  • Get vitamin D testing and supplement with vitamin D: If you suspect low vitamin D levels, work with your healthcare provider to have your blood levels tested and supplement with vitamin D as needed. Some women may need to take 2000-6000IU per day for several weeks to reach adequate levels. Amounts higher than 2000IU daily should be ordered by a health practitioner because vitamin D is toxic at very high levels. Find out more about vitamin D testing.
  • Enjoy some exercise: Daily exercise is vital to your overall wellbeing if you are sad or depressed. It’s the healthiest way to increase your serotonin levels and you can start small. Try short bursts of intense activity — walking up and down the stairs or skipping rope for 1-3 minutes, four times a day, three times per week. Work up to at least 30 minutes of activity a day, 5 days per week. You can walk, swim, dance, play tag with your kids — the key is to find something you enjoy!
  • Consider phototherapy: Light therapy is an effective treatment for SAD and has no known side effects when used as directed. A light box costs about $100 so it makes sense to try this natural alternative. (Tanning beds are not equivalent to light therapy and their use can actually be dangerous to your health.) Light boxes can emit some UV radiation, so get one with a UV filter or diffusing screen to protect your skin and eyes.
  • Keep a regular schedule: The goal is to establish an internal rhythm that’s in sync with nature. Research has shown that people who work long hours or split shifts have an imbalance in their melatonin cycles, especially if they work at night or have limited access to sunlight. Try to go to bed and get up at the same time every day, and help yourself get at least 6-8 hours of sleep per night.

• Pay attention to what you eat: It’s important to avoid highly processed foods as they can throw our bodies out of balance nutritionally. Stick to whole foods, minimally processed, with little or no artificial ingredients. Often with SAD, your body will crave foods that quickly raise serotonin levels, such as refined carbohydrates and sugars. But these foods only set you on a cycle of ups and downs with negative effects on your mood and weight. Stick to whole grains and complex carbohydrates, and those cravings will go away.
• Take high-quality nutritional supplements: SAD affects the whole body, which means you’ll need to support all of your body’s systems. Modern farming and food processing strip food of its nutritional value, which is why everyone can benefit from taking high-quality vitamin and mineral supplements. Recent research suggests that omega-3 fatty acids can play a key role in treating depression.

The power of healing yourself

At Women’s Health Network, we believe the solution to SAD symptoms lies in treating the whole body as a single unit. Since each body has a unique set of rhythms and experiences, a “one-size-fits-all” diagnosis and treatment protocol won’t apply. SAD can have many root sources at its core, and when you listen to yourself physically, mentally and emotionally, you will find your own true answers.

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