More than 80% of people with depression are not being treated.
While life inevitably brings great joys and challenges, and learned skills can help us regulate our mood, it’s also true that our body’s health can directly affect our mental state.
In fact, many factors elevate our mood — or suppress it. What’s going on, and what can we do to stack the odds in our favor?
SYMPTOMS OF MOOD DISRUPTION
It’s often when we combine multiple approaches that we reach true, sustainable success.
MOOD:
Rating Influence
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MOOD:
Discussion
1
Influence on mood:
10
The restorative powers of sleep are unrivaled — including for mood.
To be your best, happiest self — there’s nothing better or more important than getting deep, restorative sleep.
However, the number of hours per night is only one part of the equation. The timing of those hours matters, too.
A sleep schedule from 10pm to 6am will make you feel infinitely better than getting those same hours from 1am to 9am. There’s no comparison between the two, really.
Therefore, to optimize sleep, we need to optimize our circadian rhythm — not just the hours we sleep.
And to optimize our mood — our brain chemistry needs to be optimized by excellent sleep.
Your relationships, performance, and overall satisfaction with life all get a boost from dependable, consistent, and sustainable rest.
Show Study:
Sleep deprivation can exacerbate pre-existing mood disturbances, such as anger, depression, and anxiety, and can lead to confusion, fatigue, and lack of vigor. Even just one sleepless night correlates with these changes in function.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6122651/
2
Influence on mood:
10
The gut actually controls your mind — to a large degree.
The microbes in your gut tell you what foods to crave.
It turns out that the microbes in our gut deeply affect the hormones that impact our brain chemistry. These microbes directly influence your emotions and your mood, too, by releasing neurotransmitters that travel straight to the brain, influencing its function. Dopamine, serotonin, and cortisol are produced by the gut and the microbes that live there.
When gut health is particularly poor, the gut can begin to affect the mind in troubling ways.
Without awareness of this fact, we won’t know the correlation between the gut and the mind. We might think something is “wrong” with us.
Now, imagine this: you eat a nice, large meal — and have zero digestive issues afterward. No bloating, no discomfort. After eating a meal, your food simply disappears, supplying your body with warmth, blood flow, physical energy, and calm mental strength.
When food does not digest well, do we have rock-solid mental balance? Do we feel very social? Do we sleep well?
The more we learn about the gut, the more we realize: To protect the mind, take extra care of the gut.
Show Study:
The alterations in the human gut microbiota composition have also been linked to a variety of neuropsychiatric disorders, including mood disorders, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), schizophrenia and Parkinson’s disease
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6389720/
3
Influence on mood:
10
Good light raises dopamine in the brain.
Imbalanced frequencies of light have the ability to elevate your cortisol — the hormone of stress.
Did you know that light can also lower blood pressure, relieve an allergic reaction, and boost dopamine in the brain?
The light that hits your skin and your eyes directly influences how your brain works. Take simple steps to improve the quality of your light exposure each day.
Show Study:
Among depressed participants, a dose-response relationship was found between sunlight exposure and cognitive function, with lower levels of sunlight associated with impaired cognitive status.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2728098/
4
Influence on mood:
8
Good nutrition can improve your mood.
Unfortunately, bad nutrition can make your mood worse.
Imbalanced diets, poor digestion, and chronic illness commonly result in nutritional deficiencies. High stress can lower nutrient supply to the body further.
Improving these factors can directly upgrade nutrient supply to the body.
Unfortunately, unwise supplementation can result in imbalance nutrient ratios in the body.
On the other hand, smart nutrient supplementation, along with a balanced diet and improved gut health, can greatly increase nutrients supplied to the body — directly improving your daily energy, mental strength, and mood.
5
Influence on mood:
8
One of the single greatest mood-enhancers available.
However, for the severely hypothyroid person, intense exercise can actually cause serious blood sugar crashes and make your mood even worse.
Figuring out how to move for the recovery of your health will give you the same benefits for your mood and outlook as regular exercise does for healthy folks.
Show Study:
We show that the three most consistent cognitive/behavioral effects of a single bout of exercise in humans are improved executive functions, enhanced mood states, and decreased stress levels
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5928534/
6
Influence on mood:
7
Pay attention to the buildings you’re in, their locations, air quality, EMF around you, and the people you spend time with.
Mold exposure can also make you angry and confused.
Strong EMF can make you irritable and shaky — it directly affects blood sugar levels.
Artificial perfumes can absolutely impact one’s mood.
Even noise levels related to depression and anxiety.
Work to create a safe place for yourself to heal and recover.
7
Influence on mood:
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Chronic mold exposure can make you feel quite unstable.
It is commonly reported that prolonged mold exposure can make you think you’re absolutely losing your mind.
Mold exposure can directly cause hypothyroidism and can result in depression and even irritability. Read Jessie’s story about a friend struggling with depression that was linked to his apartment.
Additionally, the body’s response to mold is increased inflammation, high cortisol, and plummeting blood sugar.
Nightly insomnia and unrestful sleep only make matters worse.
WHO interviewers visited households in eight European cities and asked residents about depressive symptoms, such as problems sleeping and decreased appetite.
Show Study:
Approximately 40% of the people lived in visibly damp, moldy households, and overall their risk for depression averaged 34–44% higher than that for residents who lived in mold free home, with moderate exposure associated with the highest increase in risk.
https://web.archive.org/web/20180103073139/https://moldsafesolutions.com/mold-depression/
8
Influence on mood:
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(if applicable)
Depression, irritability, and apathy are hallmarks of hypothyroidism.
If you’re just feeling sluggish overall, and the problem persists, there’s a chance your thyroid is underperforming.
Why is it underperforming? Many reasons, potentially: the circadian rhythm, gut health, meal timing, or toxicity in your environment (such as mold).
Other signs of hypothyroidism include:
- cold body temperature
- poor sleep
- poor digestion
- fatigue
- mood instability
Your mood can be a reliable symptom that alerts you that you’ve “gone hypo.”
Show Study:
Hypothyroid states are associated with both functional and structural brain alterations also seen in patients with major depression.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3155109/