What Can I Do to Boost or Balance My Chemical Messengers?

By Nature’s Sunshine Products Select nutrients can help support and protect your nervous system and may even help facilitate an environment beneficial to brain chemicals and corresponding mood. 5-HTP Power This formula contains 5-hydroxytryptophan (a precursor to the brain chemical serotonin) plus the adaptogenic herbs eleuthero root, ashwagandha root and suma bark, as well as [...]

Chemical Messengers and the Nervous System

by Nature’s Sunshine Products The human brain is the most powerful computer on earth. It operates by relaying electrical signals through a vast network of nerve cells (neurons). Signals travel across the space between neurons, or synapses. Special chemicals called neurotransmitters help relay messages throughout the network.  A variety of important hormones and other substances [...]

Oatstraw

  OATSTRAW by Jyll Renee Botanical name:  Avena Sativa Common name:  Oatstraw, groats, wild oats Habitat:   It is grown primarily in the United States Info:  This herb is a popular alternative to standard western allopathic medicine for a variety of problems including building bones, pain relief, calming, hyperactive children, soothing elderly, fighting anxiety, panic attacks, [...]

Zinc May Ease Female Anger and Depression

by Lee Swanson Daily supplements of zinc may reduce measures of anger and depression in young women. That’s what Japanese researchers found in a current study. A daily supplement of 7 mg of zinc as zinc gluconate was associated with significant decreases in measures of anger-hostility and depression-dejection, scientists from Daigaku Junior College and Seitoku [...]

Depression: Common Causes

 by Jyll Renee, Master Herbologist  Like most chronic conditions and their symptoms, there is not one single cause for depression. Rather, there are several different factors which can contribute to and cause depression. When depression is not a by-product of external events, it is called endogenous, meaning “originating from within.” This kind of depression is [...]

Study Shows St. John’s Wort as Effective as Antidepressant Drug

In the largest randomized, multicenter, double-blind trial to compare St John’s Wort (hypericum perforatum) with a tricyclic antidepressant, the herb was found to be therapeutically equivalent to the drug (imipramine) in treating patients with mild to moderate depression. Actually, the herb outperformed the drug in every clinical test used to measure depression, although the differences [...]

How to Spot Seasonal Affective Disorder—The Wintertime Blues

Discover the symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and some tips for relief.