natural treatment for herpes disease disease

well, welcome everyone, this is dr. nikolashedberg, and tonight we’re going to be talking about herbal medicines for depression. a largenumber of americans are taking antidepressants or some kind of medication for depression.i believe it’s getting close to about 50 percent of the population. so it’s a bigissue, and i just want to shed some light on some of the causes of depression. we’lltalk about some of the herbs that can work well for depression. i’ll have some differentnutritional and exercise strategies, so i think you’ll get some good ideas tonightabout what’s best if you’re suffering from mild to moderate depression. okay, so i’m going to talk for a littlebit, and once we’re done, and even during

the presentation, you can type your questioninto the chat window and click send so i can see that, and i’ll be able to answer yourquestion. okay, so of course the first thing we alwaysdo is we talk about the causes; any condition we’re talking about we want to focus onwhat’s actually causing the condition. and depression isn’t really the main thing thatwe’re looking at. chronic inflammation; it’s interesting because the scientificliterature is filled with papers connecting inflammation to all kinds of psychiatric disorders,especially depression. but the treatment really doesn’t focus on inflammation, even thoughthe literature is filled with that as a causative factor.

genetics of course, that can be things likedefects in enzymes that metabolize and break down neurotransmitters like serotonin anddopamine. amino acid deficiency, like tryptophan, which is the precursor to serotonin, and tyrosine,which is the precursor to dopamine. hypothyroidism, one of the really big ones with depression,probably one of the most overlooked aspects of course. lack of exercise, various environmentaltoxins, adrenal imbalances and then gut inflammation. what happens in the gut usually happens inthe brain, so if the gut is inflamed, the brain will be inflamed as well. so if you tuned into my herbal medicines forfatigue webinar, you’ll see some overlap. it’s interesting, because a lot of the herbalmedicines for fatigue actually work quite

well for depression as well. so ashwagandha,also known as indian ginseng, is a pretty good mood elevator, it can help with depression.one of the reasons is because it enhances the conversion of inactive t4 into activet3, and we know that hypothyroidism can be connected with active depression. so a lotof other positives here: helps the body deal with stress, increased strength and stamina,improves memory, it is an aphrodisiac, can provide deep and restful sleep, it is an antioxidant,enhances the immune system. if you have a reaction to nightshades, which are like tomatoes,eggplant and potatoes, then use caution with ashwagandha. and about 500-2000 milligramsa day is a good dose. so rhodiola, we also talked about in the fatiguewebinar. a lot of the same properties as ashwagandha,

and we’ll talk about siberian ginseng herein a minute, but rhodiola will increase serotonin levels in the brain, and one of the commonimbalances in depression is low serotonin levels. so serotonin is kind of that feel-goodneurotransmitter. it’s really what makes you enjoy things, like the taste of your food,just events or activities that you like, just the feeling of enjoyment comes from serotonin,so when serotonin’s low, people get very blue, they get depressed, they don’t reallylike things as much as they used to, so it’s really important to get those levels up. rhodiolacan help that. it will also improve dopamine levels, and dopamine is also kind of a feel-goodneurotransmitter, so when you accomplish something and you’re recognized for that accomplishment,that good feeling that you have inside is

dopamine, and so imbalances in dopamine andserotonin can lead to depression and other issues like anxiety, sleep problems and thingslike that. so rhodiola has a lot of great properties here that you can see, about 200milligrams two to three times a day works really well to improve your energy levels,you stamina, it helps you adapt to stress. it’ll also help your mood. and then eleutherococcus, also known as siberianginseng, this was also in our fatigue webinar. now, specifically eleuthero is an antidepressantbecause it has properties that inhibit monoamine oxidase. and that’s an enzyme that breaksdown neurotransmitters in the brain, so it inhibits the metabolism of serotonin, so youhave more serotonin sitting in the receptor,

and so that’s how it works as an antidepressant.a lot of similar properties to rhodiola and ashwagandha. you can do the russian protocol,which is a tincture from herb form, one teaspoon three times a day, or in the capsule, andthat can work really well. you can take eleuthero, ashwagandha, and rhodiolain combination, or you can take them individually. so here’s a new one, st. john’s wort,also known as hypericum perforatum, and st. john’s wort, probably the most popular naturalanti-depressant remedy that you’ve heard of. so a cochran systematic review in 2008found that st. john’s wort was found to be just as effective as anti-depressant medicationfor mild to moderate depression. so, some good research there, it’s highly effective.it’s actually also anti-viral, more specifically

for the herpes viruses, so it can work wellfor herpes infections. st. john’s wort also promotes relaxation, so it may help with sleep.it can work well as a capsule or a tincture. you definitely don’t want to combine st.john’s wort with antidepressant medication, that’s definitely a major contraindication.so you want to do approximately 900 milligrams a day. usually it’ll come in about 300 milligramcapsules, 0.3 percent hypericum standardized extract, so that’s about the milligram doseand the percent standardization you want to see. st. john’s wort. some people will noticea difference right away, but sometimes you have to take it for a while, like up to fourto six weeks for it to really start to kick in, but very safe, very effective, just don’tcombine it with medication.

okay, let’s talk about maca, or peruvianmaca. it is known as peruvian ginseng. so you’re probably seeing some commonalitieshere in the ginseng family, because ashwagandha is indian ginseng, eleuthero is siberian ginseng,and now we have peruvian ginseng. and so in the journal menopause in 2008, they did findit effective for anxiety and depression in post-menopausal women. another study in thebmc complementary and alternative medicine 2006, they also found it beneficial for depressionin everyone who took it, so that’s men and women of all ages, and maca’s also beenknown to improve memory, stamina, energy, so again you’re seeing some commonalitieswith the other ginsengs. menstrual problems, menopausal symptoms, and maca is extremelypopular to increase sex drive, improve libido,

it can also help with erectile dysfunction,and it will increase sex drive in both men and women. and it will also enhance functionin men. it doesn’t work for everybody, some people it works really well, as will all herbs,some will work well and some won’t. but maca, about 1500 milligrams, up to 3000 aday is a good rule of thumb for maca, also known as peruvian ginseng. so those were kind of the main herbs. we talkedabout the adaptogens that we went over in the fatigue webinar, and then we talked aboutst. john’s wort and maca. i just want to go over just a few bonus ideas for you. the first is omega-3 fatty acids from fishoil. there's a lot of studies on fish oil,

it has a lot of wonderful health benefits,and one of them is that it does work quite well on depression and enhancing mood. andfish oil can be taken in capsules. i prefer the triglyceride form, i use a high potencytriglyceride form from moss nutrition. it’s called epadhahp select, so that’s a highpotency epa and dha, which are both omega-3 fatty acids. okay, same, also known as s-adenosyl methionine.this is just a really interesting compound. it can help support the liver, it can helpwith joint pain, but it’s highly effective for improving mood, so very very beneficialfor brain function and improving mood. most people who take it, they’ll notice relativelyquickly and improvement in their mood overall.

folic acid. it’s important to get testedfor what we call mthfr, the methyl tetra hydro folate reductase, it’s a genetic polymorphism.if you have it, it means you have difficulty metabolizing folic acid, so you have to takethe methylated form of folate. it usually comes in the form of a 5 mthf, 5 methyl tetrahydro folate, and so basically the methylated folate is already activated, so it doesn’tmatter if you’re able to activate folic acid or not, if you take the methylated form,because it’s already activated for you. so, if you’ve tried a lot of different things,if you’ve tried the herbs, you’ve tried the dietary changes, you’ve tried exercise,and you’ve tried supplementation, it’s worth getting the mthfr test, because takingmethylated folate can really turn some people

around very, very quickly. 5htp, also knownas 5-hydroxytryptophan. and so 5htp is a precursor to serotonin. the pathway starts with tryptophan,and the tryptophan is converted to 5htp, and then 5htp is converted to serotonin, and thenserotonin is converted to melatonin, so you have to have b6 to properly metabolize 5htp,so if you take a lot of 5htp and you’re not taking b6, you’ll actually deplete yourbody of b6, and that’s not a good thing, so they need to be taken together. and vitaminb6 is also a good supplement for depression, and that’s because it’s involved in thispathway, so it’s involved in converting 5htp into serotonin. and then magnesium, probably one of the mostoverlooked antidepressants, but with such

a large population of people in america whoare magnesium deficient, if everyone got their magnesium levels up, there’d probably bea lot less depression, a lot less mood disorders. magnesium also just kind of calms down andrelaxes the nervous system and the muscles, so it just helps everything kind of calm downor relax, but it can help with mood, if your mood is low. so we have people do p.h. testing,and if their p.h. is very acidic, then we supplement with magnesium glycinate, and potassiumbicarbonate, to get their p.h. more alkaline. so of course, with any condition, you wantto identify the underlying cause, and we mentioned some of those in the beginning. is it hypothyroidism?is it chronic inflammation? is it a genetic defect in folate metabolism? is the digestivesystem inflamed because of gluten or other

food sensitivities, or because of infections,etcetera etcetera. so we want to find the underlying cause first, because taking theseremedies, it’s really not fixing the problem. these are just band-aids. they’re good ashelpful short-term solutions, but they’re really not long-term solutions. a study out of duke university, this was many,many years ago, i think back in the nineties, they compared exercise to antidepressant medication,and it was just as good. so exercise. as mentioned before, you definitely don’t want to combinethese with antidepressant medication. they can interfere with that, because some of theseare quite powerful, they work so well that if you combine them with medication that cancause problems. talk to your doctor about

trying any of these remedies, and there’sa whole book written about the connection between hypothyroidism and depression, sothere’s a strong connection there, and since thyroid is very, very often overlooked, ormisdiagnosed, because the diagnosis is just based on a blood test, looking at tsh, thyroidstimulating hormone, many people with hypothyroidism are just overlooked and depression is a consequenceof that. so just kind of a simple way to see if yourthyroid’s really functioning well is the basil body temperature test, and i have aguide on how to do that on my patient resources section of the website. it’s a nice explanationof how to do it and a chart, and so look at your chart over about a week or two. if it’sconsistently low, then your thyroid is probably

low and needs support, or if you see a lotof peaks and valleys, a lot of ups and downs, ups and downs, and it’s low, then the adrenalglands are probably the primary cause of the thyroid imbalance. that’s just kind of alittle trick that you can look at on your own, because some people’s thyroid issuesare related to adrenal dysfunction and not the thyroid gland. okay, so i just want toopen it up for questions. if anyone has a question, all you have to do is type yourquestion into the chat window, and i can answer that. and we’ll just wait a minute for those toqueue up, but we may not have any questions tonight. this webinar is being recorded, soit will be up on the website drhedberg.com,

and it will also be put up on youtube. okay,here’s our first question. “how does hypothyroidism cause depression?” it’s a really goodquestion. so, number one, thyroid hormone controls themetabolism of neurotransmitters in the brain, so we can trace this all the way back to aminoacid metabolism, because thyroid hormone, basically what it’s doing is it gets intoyour cells, and then it controls metabolism of sugar and fatty acids and amino acids,so it’s like the core of everything. so if you have say a protein deficiency, or you’reunable to metabolize protein well, then you may have some amino acid deficiencies, liketryptophan, or tyrosine, and then that will lead to low serotonin or low dopamine, whichcan lead to depression. and that’s kind

of the main thing is we’re looking at aminoacid metabolism as the core issue with hypothyroidism. okay, so if you have another question justtype that into the question box of the chat window, and i can go ahead and answer that.okay. it doesn’t look like we have any more questions, so if you feel i did a good job,if you’d like to view this webinar again, like i said, it will be recorded and put upon drhedberg.com and youtube, so look for that. thanks for joining us everyone, andwe’ll see you at our next webinar. take care.