To keep you better informed of current health trends, Dr. Dan has launched a new podcast at QOLCast.com. QOL is short for “quality of life” – that is what we are after, right? The goal of this new podcast is to help filter out all the noise from the signal when it comes to reporting on health. To find a better level of health, you need to know what works for your physiology, not just what some new article says is good for you. How are you going to know what works for you? You will need to have a better understanding of your own physiology by way of genetic and other lab tests.
At QOLCast.com, Dr. Dan discusses how this works and will give case histories to illustrate the basic concepts he discusses. At the time of this writing, the podcast isn’t available on iTunes, but it might be by the time you read this depending on how long that approval process is taking these days. You can use your browser to access it in the meantime.
In keeping with July’s newsletter topic, the QOLCast.com begins with an expanded discussion of the personal genetic information available from 23andme.com and nutrahacker.com. We go through how to use these websites and then some general ideas about what these results mean. Of course we don’t expect you to understand these results. When you get your results, give us a call and we can set up a time to talk to Dr. Dan or one of our expert staff to understand what this all means to you.
Depression and Neurotransmitters
A common complaint in our modern world is depression, anxiety and/or insomnia. Many factors can play a part, but neurotransmitter imbalance is almost always at play. Trying to manage these neurologic states with willpower might work for awhile but too often the end of that bungee cord tends to snap back.
This is an area where we can get good information from a neurotransmitter profile. For the last 15 years, we have relied on Pharmasan Labs. We find their results consistent and reliable. While we can’t measure serotonin or dopamine levels directly in the brain, we understand now better than ever that the state of neurotransmitters throughout the body and especially the gut reflect what is going on in the brain. With that in mind, we can get a pretty good idea of the body’s ability to maintain a healthy neurotransmitter balance by looking at the spillover from the kidneys into the urine.
Quite often, people who describe a state of depression test low for serotonin and feel better once they get some serotonin support. Serotonin and dopamine tend to inhibit each other, so often we need to support dopamine at the same time.
We read headline news about a person who kills him or herself, sometimes taking others with them. When this happens, many wonder what was going on with their neurotransmitter balance and how much of it was correctable.
We tend to start any neurotransmitter imbalance correction with NeuroScience products. The specific products we recommend depend on the specific case, but over the years we have tended to favor Serene, Balance D, TravaCor and Adrecor with excellent success.
Don’t let depression have the last word. Work with your psychologist or psychiatrist, but also get a neurotransmitter evaluation and see if some basic neurotransmitter support will make the difference for you.
