One out of five people in US have experienced some kind of depression at one point in their live. Some of the signs to watch out for are:

• Poor appetite or extreme increase in appetite
• Insomnia or hypersomnia
• Agitation or opposite, just want to laying around
• Loss of interest in things that normally would bring us pleasure (like loss of sex drive)
• Fatigue
• Feelings of worthlessness, like inappropriate guilt over things you should not feel guilty about
• Recurring thought of death or suicide

If any listed symptoms last a month or longer, it is a good indication that you might be suffering from a depression.

I was able to look up several types of Depression. For an example, Reactive Depression is a side effect to normal external life situations like finances, marital troubles or/and death of a loved one.

On the other hand, Endogenous Depression is caused by a chemical, nutritional or hormonal changes and imbalances within ourselves. In those cases, there’s no obvious event triggers to blame, in per say.

Now, Drug Induced Depression can be caused by medication like anti-hypertensive meds, oral contraceptives, nicotine, caffeine, beta blockers and more.

The reason I care so much about this topic is because not only had I suffered from depression myself, but also had a family member who did and even took Prozac for a short period of time to battle with the condition. Needless to say, there was not much of an improvement due to the medication, which prompted me to research more information about this drug and alternative solutions.

(To see the complete video on psychiatry click here)

When an American Research found out that Prozac was going to come out of patent, they wanted to know if there was going to be a new drug hitting the market. And of course, there was: Prozac R.

Now, in order to produce a new drug, the company must declare what the improvements will be. In the US Patent Application for the Prozac R it states that it “will not cause the suicidal thoughts and feelings which are associated with an existing drug.” (Food Matters)

This is exactly the thing they were denying that was going on for over 10 years now! And if you really think about it, how can putting drugs in our body suppose to make us feel better anyway? So with these scary conclusions, I wanted to find alternative, holistic, natural and nutritional based solutions.

Majority of you probably heard about Alcoholic Anonymous before. But what you might not know is that the founder of an AA, Bill Williams, also suffered from a sever depression. Per Dr. Abram Hoffer’s suggestion, he took 1,000 milligrams of Niacin (Vitamin B3) three times a day. To his surprise, that was the end of his depression.

Bill W. then suggested to people who were alcoholics to do the same and consequently, majority who took Niacin had great improvements.

With those results Bill Williams wanted Alcoholic Anonymous to use Niacin and vitamin therapy in addition to other steps of recovery. However, AA, which by that time has been taking over by medical profession, has rejected his request and never implemented neither Niacin nor vitamin therapy.

According to Journal of American Medical Association, about 106,000 of Americans die each year from pharmaceutical drugs. Those are normal, expected side effects from properly proscribed medications taken by people who took them as directed. And those numbers do not include overdosing or miss uses.

That means that in 23 years there have been 2,438,000 deaths from pharmaceutical drugs, when in the same period of time there has been only 10 allegedly dead from vitamins; and not even one death per year on average from Niacin!

                            “When in doubt, use nutrition first.”                                                                                                  ~Roger Williams

Personally I am a huge believer in taking vitamins for prevention and curing illnesses. For an example Vitamin C not only a mood elevator, but also an anti-viral, anti-histamine and a blood sugar regulator.

The deficiency of one vitamin in your body can cause many illnesses; thus, one can be a cure for so many. “There’s only about two dozen neutrinos, and yet in your body there are countless thousands of chemical reactions. So, obviously, with anything that is vitamin medicated we can expect that one vitamin is going to be involved in multiple reactions. This is true with the minerals as well.” (Food Matters)

So, by nourishing our body, we allow it to activate its own healing mechanism; how cool is that?! So, then why not try a different approach?

Take cashews for an example. Two handfuls of these delicious nuts will give you a therapeutic equivalent of prescription doze of Prozac. Avocados also contain high levels of Vitamin B6 and Folic Acid, which stimulate the production of Serotonin.

Please understand that it is OK to be depressed. Moreover, if you are malnourished, you should be depressed! In my opinion, adding Niacin and other vitamins to your diet can help enable your body to fix itself. Tell me, what do you think?

Sources:

Documentary about Psychiatry

Lecture about Depression

Documentary film Food Matters. I highly recommend it to everyone. You can find it on Netflix or simply visit their website.

Extended interview with Dr. Andrew Saul on Niacin

Interesting info