Change Your Brain Every Day - Natural Ways to Beat Anxiety, Panic Attacks and Depression

Episode Date: November 21, 2016

Too often physicians reach for their prescription pads when there are natural, safer alternatives for treating anxiety, panic attacks and depression. This episode will share the natural treatments we use at Amen Clinics.

Hi, I'm Donnie Osmond, and welcome to The Brain Warrior's Way, hosted by my friends Daniel and Tana Amon. Now, in this podcast, you're going to learn that the war for your health is one between your ears. That's right. If you're ready to be sharper and have better memory, mood, energy, and focus, well then stay with us. Here are Daniel and Tana Amon.

Hi, everyone. Today, we're going to talk about natural ways to beat anxiety, panic attacks, and depression. This is one of my favorite topics. So many people who come to Amen Clinics, they don't want to take medicine. Right. They're on medication because they went to their family doctor and said, I'm not sleeping, anxious and sad. And they left with two or three different medications. And now they don't like how they feel. So just to make it clear, we're not anti medication, not by any stretch. But we want to make sure we're giving you all the tools that we can for you to feel your best and have natural treatments as well. So at one

point when I was really sick, I was on nine medications, but about half of those were to manage the side effects of other medications. And no one wants to do that because it makes you feel miserable. So let's talk about what you can do on a natural front. Well, and I always think when I was in medical school, my professors used to always say, first do no harm. Right. Use the least toxic, most effective treatments. And in head-to-head studies with antidepressants, exercise equally effective to Zoloft after 12 weeks. After 10 months, exercise was more effective. And it was Hippocrates that said, I mean, so long ago,

that if you feel bad, go for a walk. And if you still feel bad, go for another walk. So, you know, that tells you something. So, sunshine has also been associated with feeling better, with feeling happier, having eight servings, up to eight servings of fruits and vegetables a day. There's a linear correlation between the number of fruits and vegetables you have a day and how happy you feel. So exercise, the right diet, just like we talk about the Brain Warriors Way diet.

Another head-to-head study, omega-3 fatty acids, fish oil versus Prozac for depression. 51% of the people in this study on Prozac were improved at two months. 57% of the people on omega-3 fatty acids. In addition, not learning how to not believe every stupid thought you have. Coming up in a podcast, we're going to talk about overcoming negativity and killing the ants. But learning how to manage your mind head-to-head with antidepressants has shown the technical term is cognitive behavior therapy or CBT can be equally effective. So in my mind, if I'm sad, go for a walk.

And then another one, omega-3 fatty acids, more fruits and vegetables, and not believing every stupid thought. So we actually have an example, a live example of this right now with someone that we are working with who's very close to us, who is honestly, well, probably not one of the most extreme cases you've seen, but one of the most extreme cases

that I've dealt with up close, where we are working very closely with this person and was just, it's so many things that needed to to be corrected let's put it that way to make her life optimal and was I mean extreme trauma numbers important numbers were about the worst that you could imagine just everything was sort of backwards and not right history of you know trauma head injury drug abuse on and on and and not exercising, overweight, obese, like all these things going on. And within one month of doing all the things we're talking about right now, so eating the way that

we're talking about in Brain Warriors way, all of a sudden exercising, getting some, you know, mostly walking, some simple supplements, and meditation. And all of a sudden, and we taught her how to not believe every stupid thought she has. And within a month, the change is radical. I mean, radical from where she was one month ago to where she is today in not only her negativity, but her energy, her happiness, her ability to deal with problems, her memory and focus are unbelievably improved. So it's just so important to get some of these basic things down. And it makes me wonder why. And people say, well, how can natural treatments be so effective compared to medication? And I don't know, maybe this is me just wishful thinking, but I think that so many people are depleted in some of these things because we

haven't taken care of ourselves for so long that really what we're doing is giving our body what it's needed all along. Am I right on that? Well, absolutely. And just something as simple as a really high quality multiple vitamin with good doses of vitamin D, vitamin C, B6, B12, and folate along with zinc can make a huge difference if you're depleted. Right, it's not voodoo. And according to the Mayo Clinic, 97% of the population is missing one of the major four pillars of health. So either their diet exercise is not right or they're smoking and drinking. And 80% of the population is low in

magnesium so and if you're anxious and you have muscle twitches magnesium can help so much it's one of the most simple cheapest natural things to do to help with so the point i'm making is that this isn't voodoo it's really about giving your body what it was meant to have that we have depleted for so long. Right when you breathe in, your belly goes out. Just like a baby. If you watch a baby breathe or a puppy breathe, they breathe almost exclusively with their belly. Something really simple. You're starting to have a panic attack. I want you to take 10 deep breaths.

And when you take a big breath, hold it for two seconds at the top when you breathe in, and then take twice as long to breathe out. On BrainFit Life, we actually have a game. There are 30 games on BrainFit Life and one of them is called My Calm Beat. And it's just drop dead simple. As the lungs fill up, breathe in. As they go out, breathe out.

I mean, how simple is that? Do it 10 times. That can actually break a panic attack. Magnesium is great for anxiety, as is GABA and L-theanine. If you're struggling with sadness, SAMe can be really helpful, especially if you take it with betaine. Or if you tend to be a worrier and you loop on negative thoughts, saffron or 5-HTP can be really helpful. And isn't it true that if your vitamin D is low, you're more likely to be depressed? Much more likely to be depressed. And then a brand new study about sunshine and its impact on mood. So go out during the day and get some sunshine. All of you should know your vitamin D level and we think it should be optimal. So normal is between 30 and 100.

We think you should be between 50 and 100. And I like to keep mine about 80. So just some tips on natural things you can do to bust up depression and help yourself with anxiety and panic attacks. And one of my favorite things to do is teach people this meditation called loving kindness meditation, where you first do it toward yourself. So you repeat phrases like, may I be happy? May I be healthy? May I be at peace? And do that five or 10 times and then do it to someone you're thankful for. Like I do it for Tana or Chloe or my mom or dad, you know, may you be happy. May you be healthy. May may you be at peace and then someone you are neutral on and then someone you don't like and that's that's actually the most challenging but the most powerful part of it the most healing right because forgiveness is very powerful so you know

so somebody maybe who's attacked me or my work may you be happy may you be healthy may you be at peace and then to the whole world. And they found that people who did this meditation have more gray matter in their brain, that their stress markers are lower, their inflammation markers are lower, their headaches are lower, their symptoms of anxiety, depression, and PTSD are lower. So meditation can be really helpful. And then one of the treatments we do at Amen Clinics is something called transcranial magnetic stimulation. So we use powerful magnets to usually stimulate the left front side of your brain if you're sad or calm the right side of your brain if you tend to be anxious. So there are lots of natural ways to support your mood and healthy relaxation.

And that's what we want to share with you today. Thank you so much. Stay with us. Amen. Thanks for listening to today's show, The Brain Warrior's Way. Why don't you head over to brainwarriorswaypodcast.com. That's brainwarriorswaypodcast.com, where Daniel and Tana have a gift for you just for subscribing to the show. And when you post your review on iTunes, you'll be entered into a drawing where you can win a VIP visit to one of the Amen Clinics. I'm

Donnie Osmond, and I invite you to step up your brain game by joining us in the next episode.