4 Effective Mental Health Tools
For a long time it’s been a foreign thought to consider things like your gut and your nutrient status for your mental health but it is now becoming more recognised and proving to be very successful.
If you are able to consider some of the following solutions I would HIGHLY encourage you to as they will empower you to take control of your health and the ‘side effects’ are only beneficial e.g. better energy, more balanced hormones and a happy gut. You could consider these as stand alone tools or use them alongside your current treatment plan.
There are 4 key considerations I would recommend:
Food Intolerances
Your Microbiome
Nutrient Deficiency / Sufficiency
Exercise
Food Intolerances
A food intolerance exists due to the food stimulating an immune response. We know that any immune response drives inflammation and this is the basis around why food reactions can contribute to poor mental health. The inflammatory response can become systemic, potentially affecting many areas of the body. For some people this may present as joint pain, for others migraines and for others inflammation in the brain which can lead to depressive/anxious symptoms.
The two key foods I see clinically being the most problematic here are gluten and dairy. You may be thinking - well I don’t have any gut symptoms as such and so how could these be a factor for me? Your symptom might be depression/anxiety and not actually showing up in the gut. However, if you do also have gut symptoms it would be even more reason to trial an elimination period from these foods.
I would suggest going without each of these food groups for a month to really get a good feel on whether they are affecting you or not.
Sugar and caffeine?
While these two ‘foods’ aren’t necessarily ‘food intolerances’ I would be missing out a key contributing factor if I didn’t mention them! Both foods are addictive - driving dopamine responses and a false / short term ‘high’. It’s when this high ends and your mood/energy comes crashing down that your mood will suffer. Long-term use and over use of both of these foods is certainly a contributing factor to poor and fluctuating mental health - particularly anxiety - that I see all the time in my practice.
In this instance you may not need to completely cut these foods out but rather limit your intake in order to see a positive change e.g. reducing from 3 coffees a day to 1.
2. Your Microbiome
Your microbiome consists of the 40 trillion microbes that live within your gut (largely your large intestine) and play an important role in many areas of your health. This should represent a ‘healthy thriving forest’ with a diverse range of species that form a healthy eco-system.
In the case of depression we see a breakdown in this ecosystem whereby there are increased levels of unfriendly/dysbiotic bacteria and lower levels of beneficial bacteria. These dysbiotic bacteria are known to produce a substance called lipopolysaccharide (LPS) which contributes to the inflammatory physiology of depression. Additionally, LPS interferes with serotonin binding in the brain and blocks dopamine binding → two key neurotransmitters involved in depression.
In the case of beneficial microbes there seems to be an overall benefit to having a good diverse array of beneficial bacteria but there are specific strains such as bifidobacterium longum that are particularly important and is considered a psychobiotic.
Longum is known to reduce perceived stress, reduce cortisol output and has been shown to change brain activity during social stressors.
What can you do?
Run a comprehensive stool test to assess your microbiome
Supplement with a broad spectrum probiotic and/or purely a high dose of bifido longum (get in touch if you would like to explore this)
Follow the dietary/lifestyle recommendations in this blog
3. Nutrient Deficiencies
Here we can consider both nutrient deficiencies and nutrient sufficiency. While we don’t want you to be deficient, we actually want you to have an optimal level of a nutrient - particularly if it’s a therapeutic approach for depression or anxiety - as opposed to just not being deficient.
I would consider ALL nutrients important for your overall health and therefore your mental health but we can focus on a few key nutrients that are going to be particularly effective for your mental health.
Key considerations for both depression and anxiety:
Vitamin D
B12
B9
B6
Magnesium
Omega-3’s / Fish oil
Zinc
You can test your level of many of these nutrients via a blood test. If you do this I would recommend having a close look at the reference range on the blood test and ensuring you aren’t on the cusp of deficiency but are toward the higher end of the range. When I analyse bloods I look at slightly different reference ranges which are based on optimal levels as opposed to adequate ranges or ranges to prevent deficiency.
Julia Rucklidge is a clinical psychologist who runs the Mental Health and Nutrition Research lab at Canterbury University. Her research has been instrumental at demonstrating the effects of nutritional interventions for mental illness - both in regards to nutritional supplementation but also just improving diet to involve more whole foods and less ultra processed foods. Her TEDx on this topic is very insightful and can be viewed here.
If you are unsure where to start I would consider using a multivitamin/mineral supplement to ensure you are covering all your bases - of course alongside prioritising a healthy whole foods diet. But, I understand in the short-term a supplement can be an easy and realistic intervention to allow you to be in a better mental state to make more lifestyle changes.
4. Exercise
Exercise is a well known tool to support mental health. A recent review encompassing 128,199 participants showed that physical activity was 1.5x more effective than counseling or some of the leading medications. Specifically, it showed that interventions of 12 weeks or less were the most effective. All types of exercise showed a beneficial effect but shorter higher intensity forms of exercise seemed to be the most beneficial.
If this is something you haven’t considered, make a realistic plan to get your body moving! A few things to think about:
Do what you enjoy - you're more likely to stick with this. For example, instead of pumping weights at the gym perhaps you’d enjoy a game of tennis? Hiking? Biking with friends?
Start small! Even a 30 min walk per day is going to be beneficial.
Make a plan that is realistic and achievable - perhaps start with 3 exercise sessions per week?
Sing out if you have questions in the comments below or reach out via email (hello@phenonutrition.com) if you would like to explore anything in this blog further.
Grace xx
