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Powerful Depression Pearls for Practitioners

Hi!

According to a survey released by the American Psychiatric Association, “More than one-third of Americans say the pandemic is having a ‘serious impact’ on their mental health.”

How could it not? As savvy practitioners, we know the pandemic goes way beyond the physical. We are looking for the hallmarks in our clients – keeping the lines of communication open, asking about anxiety, encouraging social connections, and gauging mindset and mood.

It’s never been more important for us as practitioners to have the tools we need to support our client population in this time of high stress and unease.

Are you confident in your knowledge of depression, as seen through the functional medicine lens?

Although you may already be a savvy practitioner, I am certain you will learn something new in this video. You’ll walk away with pages of notes and practical pearls you can use in your practice right away.

Here are some of the things we’ll be discussing:

  • Of course, our modern lifestyle is at the root of much depression.  But do you know which factors matter most? 
  • Depression is not a deficiency of ______________.  So why do we keep acting like it Is?  
  • Disease begins in the Gut.  Again! But find out why even progressive views of the gut – brain axis aren’t telling the whole story.
  • What’s food got to do with it?  Ha!  Everything. Do you know which specific, missing or imbalanced nutrients are often at play?
  • Interconnectedness rules.  Do you know the most common below-the-neck imbalances that directly promote depression?
  • Hormone havoc.  What are the most common hormonal imbalances that can naturally perpetuate feelings of depression?
  • The body follows the mind?  Or the mind follows the body?  Yes! But in ways that may surprise you.

Thank you very much for joining in the fun and learning!

With warmth, love, and gratitude to you for sharing your gifts with so many –

Please share your thoughts (please be thorough) in the “Ask a Question” area below about what inspired you in this presentation before Midnight ET tonight – to enter the drawing to win a FREE Deep Dive Clinical Course (a $297 value)! Include what type of practitioner you are, so that we can all see your unique perspective.

* No need to enter a comment more than once. Comments will not be published instantly; they will first be checked by the moderators before appearing below.

 

P.S.  If you are passionate about transforming healthcare through the power of functional medicine, we encourage you to learn more about our training program here.

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Helen
Helen

Thank you for this, fantastic summary. Love the ‘if you don’t know where to start, start in the gut’ – it’s something I tell clients all the time – because once diet and lifestyle factors are at a good level – the gut (dysbiosis, poor digestion &absorption) can affect so much in our general and mental health. If this is not addressed – we end up trying to make adjustments that will be continuously ‘undone’ by poor gut function. And yes, the basics, always go back to the basics, water, sleep, exercise, stress reduction 🙂

Would love to join your course soon! I am a mental health nurse focusing on integrative medicine for mental health – this was perfect!

Jaclyn Taylor
Jaclyn Taylor

Thank you, Tracy! You so clearly described how to explain to clients “the okay-ness” of not feeling great all the time. I am a NP and I see clients all the time requesting antidepressants because the have “just felt down recently” . I now have a very useful script about leaning into those feelings and opening up to the wisdom that can be extruded. Brilliant!

AXM
AXM

E learning works and these Facebook lives are awesome. I was wrestling with what to write but a little more info on how the olfactory nerves impact depression would be nice. The smell of baked goods make me, and other men, feel good. The info on magnesium glycinate and other forms of magnesium for depression (taurate, threonate) was a great freebie.

SAFM Team
Admin
SAFM Team
Reply to  AXM

Thanks for joining us! Indeed, we are affected by aromas on many levels. There is some evidence that depression reduces our ability to smell. And to your point, certain aromas can trigger a variety of emotional responses both generally and with our regard to our prior life associations. Vanilla and cinnamon have even been shown to relieve depression in mice e.g. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3660925/ and https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5569441/ . These references may be of interest to you too: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5977071/ and https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5241490/ .

Amanda Douma
Amanda Douma

Really enjoyed this. As a Nurse Practitioner often seeing patients for the first time to discuss anxiety and depression and utilizing ssri as first line agent this was eye opening. Good to know not everyone has seratonin problem and ssri could be making things worse long term.

Jamie Ellis
Jamie Ellis

Thank you Tracy! I am a chiropractor in the UK and am nearly complete with my training with IFM at the moment, and came across SAFM when you did your live video for practitioners in relation to the current pandemic! So inspirational to listen to so much useful content, thank you! Especially found the info about ssri’s interesting and how they can create such a slippary slope for patients long term.. Do you find that us an important consideration for Parkinsons due to the effects of up regulated mao on dopamine as well?

SAFM Team
Admin
SAFM Team
Reply to  Jamie Ellis

You are very welcome; thanks for joining us! Yes, I would be concerned in that scenario too – also the other way around, in consideration of what type of MAO (A or B) antagonists might be used for drug management. There is some evidence that SSRIs may aggravate motor symptoms in patients with Parkinson’s disease, but study results are varied and, again, depend on if/what drugs are involved (as well, I’m sure, by many other factors not within the scope of the studies). I find the more recent research into he notion of depression being a “prodromal” stage of PD fascinating… and perhaps an excellent example of the concept of “depression” being a symptom of other inflammatory disease.
These may be of interest to you:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3213739/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S217358081830021X
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5067815/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2701616/

Asya Ruseva
Asya Ruseva

Hello, I’m a holistic health coach, and I totally enjoyed the webinar! Thank you so much! I ‘ve been researching the causes of mental illnesses for the last couple of years and this webinar summarized nicely all possible causes. LOVE IT! One thing that was new to me, I never heard about it before was that insufficient water intake may cause depression.

Shonna Vaughan
Shonna Vaughan

Hello and thank you for yesterdays FB Live on depression. I signed a new client on Saturday and his main health concern is depression so this talk was valuable and timely. I hope I haven’t missed the opportunity to be in the drawing for the free class giveaway. The pearl that importance of B6 along with the fact that B vitamins should be added “low and slow” ie. low dose and every other day. This was a new information for me.

Tez
Tez

The most impressive and practical, as well releasing part for me was a gratitude exercise and practice. Will carry on with this from today. 3 things as 3 pillars of light in the darkness of reflection of this super noisy and consuming world around us. Thank you for bringing beautiful relation of super connected and interdependent body functionality, complexity beauty and wholeness. Amin.

Sharon Strahan
Sharon Strahan

Sorry I didn’t get in, in time – watching on catch up this morning in the UK. The functional medicine approach to mental illness is a special interest topic of mine. I am bipolar 2 (and have suffered depression, anxiety, mood swings since puberty). Functional medicine / nutritional therapy has been key for getting me on an even keel without medication.

I really liked learning about the various forms of magnesium that could be used (actually I liked learning about everything! 🙂 )

I would like to have the link to the archived post on “downstream effects of SSRI use” – I’ve had a bit of a look myself and can’t easily see it please.

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