10 Tips: Boost Serotonin Levels Naturally & Feel Happier

Millions are Diagnosed with depression every year,  and it is time we begin feeling happier without relying on medication.

As defined by psychologists, a person has a major depressive episode when he or she has symptoms of major depressive disorder, including depressed mood or feelings of emptiness, hopelessness or irritability, that last for two weeks or more.  And, according to the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) found that the number of people diagnosed with depression has increased by 450% since 1987. It is often recommended that we start taking a medication to reduce symptoms. However, medication often comes with sometimes dangerous side-effects. Here are some simple ways to feel happier without needing to take a pill.

1. Get enough vitamin B6 – foods like spinach, turnip greens, garlic, cauliflower, mustard greens, celery, fish (especially tuna, halibut, salmon, cod and snapper), poultry (chicken and turkey) and lean beef tenderloin.

2. Eat brain boosting seed grains instead of wheat. This includes: Amaranth, buckwheat, millet and quinoa are seeds with grain-like taste and properties. These are healthy, high-protein carbohydrates and small amounts of the right carbohydrates are critical to boosting serotonin.

Not only improve mood, you will Sleep better too. A nice dose of serotonin in the early evening will help you sleep better at night.

These grain-like seeds also provide important B vitamins. As just mentioned B vitamins play a critical role in brain health and in the manufacture of all your neurotransmitters including serotonin.Vitamins B1 (thiamine), B2 (riboflavin) and B6 (pyridoxine) as well as vitamin D, folic acid and selenium plus calcium, and magnesium are needed to make serotonin.

For protein meals: focus on digestion and food combining – Eating foods that are high in protein – and specifically have a higher percentage of tryptophan (like turkey, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds), will provide much needed tryptophan, the precursor to serotonin. But beware: because research shows that eating protein with carbohydrates actually works against your ability to make serotonin.

Good to know: Plant based protein helps to create more serotonin than animal protein does.

To boost your mood and immunity naturally, protein and probiotics – is the delicious natural answer!

3. Include fermented foods and drinks in your diet – Fermented foods and drinks greatly assist in digestion and assimilation of all the important nutrients you need for serotonin. Additionally, they boost the nutrients in your food by at least a hundred fold.

4. Get massages and other forms of body work – We’ve heard about the healing power of touch, but now research backs it up! A study conducted by the Touch Research Institutes at the University of Miami School of Medicine shows that massage increases serotonin by 28% and decreases cortisol (the stress hormone) by 31%.

5. Have fun in the sun. Early morning sunlight is more intense and this can boost your body’s production of melatonin in the evening. Serotonin converts to melatonin for a great night’s sleep. Getting outside for a 20-minute walk in the early morning sunlight can boost your mood and improve your sleep!

6. Remove toxins from your life that interfere with brain health. Eat foods like dandelion and citrus fruit to help detox daily.

7. Reduce Stress – prolonged physical or emotional stress produce adrenaline and cortisol, which interfere with serotonin. Shifting your lifestyle and adding more relaxation into your week can make a huge difference. Focus on Emotional Healing – Reducing stress and focusing on spending more time relaxing is a first step to boosting serotonin. You can take this even further by taking action in key areas to remove negative emotions like fear, guilt and anger. Meditate & do yoga!

8. Exercise. A comprehensive review of the relation between exercise and mood concluded that antidepressant and anxiolytic effects have been clearly demonstrated. In the United Kingdom the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, which works on behalf of the National Health Service and makes recommendations on treatments according to the best available evidence, has published a guide on the treatment of depression.

9. Eliminate processed sugar (or at least drastically reduce it) – If you have low serotonin, you may have intense cravings for sugar. This is your body’s way of trying to increase serotonin because eating sugar produces insulin, which helps tryptophan go into your brain. However, too much sugar can eventually cause addiction to sugar, insulin resistance, hypoglycemia and type 2 diabetes.

Instead, satisfy your sweet tooth in a healthy way with pure maple syrup, coconut sugar or pure honey.

10. Give more hugs, love more and fear less.

To learn more about how to treat depression, anxiety, and ADHD more naturally, my book Healing without Hurting can teach you how.

10 Tips: Boost Serotonin Levels Naturally & Feel Happier

5 Proven Ways You Can Be Happier In 2017

While 2016 was a tough year for many, 2017 provides an opportunity for people to expand their horizons and find true happiness. Happiness can come from so many places. You should not be afraid to experiment in order to challenge yourself. Keeping a keen eye out for different opportunities that may arise for happiness is vital in discovering what makes you happy. These top five proven ways to be happier aim to make 2017 a fantastic year to smile and enjoy the world around you. So stamp out sadness, grab a friend, and create yourself a happy lifestyle.

#1 Surround Yourself With Nature

Nature is a meditative distraction that purposefully takes you out of the stressful situation of a busy job or even the ongoing struggles of living with a family. Going for a nature walk allows you to soak in the warm rays from the sun, cool air from the sky, and sounds from the animals and environment around you. Keeping a calm and open mind is what nature walks are all about. Nature presents a unique and one-of-a-kind opportunity to meditate and simply let go of all the worries that you may harbor within yourself.

#2 Volunteer at a Local Nonprofit

One of the best ways to increase your happiness in 2017 is to volunteer. Volunteering is an extremely rewarding experience for all parties involved. By helping others not only are you giving someone the services or help they need to make it in live, but you are also giving yourself the gratification of making a difference in the world. Helping through volunteering is one of the easiest ways to make an impact and increase your overall happiness in 2017. Don’t hesitate to go online, flip through a magazine, or ask a friend where you could possibly be needed!

#3 Spend More Time With Friends and Family

It should come as no surprise but the people around us make us happy. We tend to keep friends that put smiles on our faces, challenge us intellectually, or are just good all around company to keep. Spending more time with family and friends in 2017 is a surefire way to stay happy. Not only will you have fun in the things you do with your friends, but you will also experience a distraction from any negativity that might be manifesting itself throughout your life. Plus, if your time with friends and family includes playing air hockey or other games, then you get the positive mental health boost that gaming offers.

#4 Try to Think Optimistically

Try to create an optimistic frame of mind. Thinking like an optimist is a great way to avoid negativity and thus allow yourself to be much happier in daily life. By trying to eschew negativity and pessimism you are embracing the idea that things might actually be ok or even get better. Optimism is fundamentally a solid thought process to adopt for those who struggle with the idea of being happy. There might be bumps in the road, but there is a rainbow on the other side you just need to keep your head up and think about the future and what it may yield!

#5 Get Better Sleep

A proper sleep schedule is perhaps the best way to ensure that you will be happier in 2017. Getting on a good sleep schedule can seem like a hard and daunting task, but with effort and time, you indeed will find yourself living a much happier life if you simply get more sleep. Those who get sleep can think clearly, don’t get sick as easy, and are able to spend more time doing the things in which they love. We highly suggest and recommend spending time trying to arrange your lifestyle so that you are on a proper schedule.

With the previous tips, you will be ready to improve your life in 2017 and start living happier! Don’t stop there. However, there are many ways in which to increase your happiness. Try reading and investigating further and never be afraid to try new things!

Sources:

5 Proven Ways You Can Be Happier In 2017

"People are nicer to each other when they move more slowly": how to create happier cities

When Charles Montgomery first started talking about urban happiness, people laughed at him. As his colleague Omar Dominguez explains, “happiness is kind of an out-there concept for some people”.

Montgomery and Dominguez work at Happy City, a Canadian organisation named after Montgomery’s 2013 book, which makes the case for retrofitting cities for happiness and argues that streets, parks, shopping centres, housing estates – indeed most urban infrastructure – can be designed to make people feel happier, behave better and be kinder.

“If we give a damn about human wellbeing in cities, we need to study the emotional effects of spaces and systems,” says Montgomery. “We need to use evidence to help fix the horrific mistakes we’ve made over the last century.”

To beat the sceptics, the team at Happy City gathers evidence from psychology, neuroscience, public health and behavioural economics. They know that hospital patients who can see trees through their bedside windows heal faster than those who only see brick walls. They know that commuters at rush hour suffer more anxiety than fighter pilots or riot police facing angry mobs. They even know that the friendliest front gardens are precisely 10.6ft deep.

And they conduct their own research, particularly around Montgomery’s theory that the most important ingredient for human happiness is social connection. An experiment in Seattle found that passersby are four times more likely to help lost tourists on lively streets filled with lots of small shops than on pristine, but essentially characterless, blocks, where people tend to move more quickly.

“We think the kindness effect was a result of velocity,” says Montgomery. “People are nicer to each other when they move more slowly and have time to make eye contact.”

At the Project for Public Space conference in Vancouver from 12 to 15 September 2016, Happy City will host walking tours of the city. Participants will be hooked up to sensors that measure their physiological arousal, enabling scientists to test people’s physical and emotional responses to their surroundings, as they walk through community gardens or down dark alleys.

‘An explosion of interest’

But the real problem is that this kind of evidence rarely makes it outside academia. With one foot in research and another in urban planning, Happy City tries to bridge the gap between them. It is a consultancy, advising local governments, developers and any other organisations that have control over how cities grow, including the World Health Organisation.

Montgomery says he’s seen an “explosion of interest in the field” of happiness and urban planning over the past three years – and not just from Scandinavian countries. “I’m especially thrilled to see that property developers are embracing the wellbeing agenda,” he says.

Happy City has helped British Land, the UK’s largest real estate investment trust, to weave wellbeing principles into its new development practices.

“But we’re seeing an awakening in other parts of the world, too,” says Montgomery, referring to Ahura Builders, which invited Happy City to hack the designs for a community of 8,000 people in Punawale, India. “Our happiness interventions included breaking up imposing superblocks, investing in quiet streets that are safe and friendly for pedestrians and creating a village heart to which residents could walk and shop.”

Another project was based in Mexico City. Chaotic, crowded and with high levels of crime, it’s an unusual setting for the happiness agenda. But in the autumn of 2014 the local government’s innovation unit commissioned Happy City to do a three-day “happiness audit” of Colonia Doctores, a poor neighbourhood in the south-west of the city.

Dominguez, Happy City’s director of operations and sustainability, gathered together public officials, city planners, architects and – most importantly – local residents. On the first day they discussed key principles that influence wellbeing, such as access to nature and the ability to have positive social interactions on a daily basis.

“One of the key concerns in Mexico is safety. What people do when they’re concerned about their safety is to fortify,” says Dominguez. “Actually, one of the best things you can do is generate a sense of trust and calm.”

On the second day the group toured Colonia Doctores, applying the principles to physical aspects of the neighbourhood and on the third they presented their findings. Recommendations included opening a new museum and pedestrianising an area outside the local wrestling arena, turning it into a cultural corridor around Mexican wrestling. “That sense of community is good for their wellbeing,” says Dominguez.

‘Happiness is good for the bottom line’

One thing the Happy City team is really passionate about is making the business case for happiness. “Building healthier, happier places is not more expensive. In fact, these places save society money in the long run,” says Montgomery.

He can, of course, point to the proof. People who are socially connected are more resilient and more productive at work. Cities that encourage social interaction foster greater levels of creativity and trust, both of which correlate with GDP growth.

There’s an app that analyses the cost to society of commuting: driving to work incurs costs you might not think of, such as infrastructure, accidents, pollution, congestion and lost productivity due to ill health. Cycling, meanwhile, offers savings to the healthcare system and improved productivity from exercise – making that bike lane look like a great investment, Montgomery says.

The private sector also has a lot to gain from from designing workplaces where employees can be more productive, or shopping centres that encourage loyalty from customers and businesses. Some developers understand that places that promote health and happiness are also good for their bottom line, says Montgomery.

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"People are nicer to each other when they move more slowly": how to create happier cities

Homeopathy awareness can make the planet a healthier, happier place | Michael Marshall

Planet Homeopathy Awareness Week – the yearly promotional campaign organised by homeopaths about the world – kicked off on Thursday. This yr, rather than disregard it, moan about it or condemn it, scientists and sceptics alike should join in.

This may appear relatively perverse – particularly given the comprehensive evisceration of homeopathy earlier this week at the hands of the Australian National Overall health and Medical Analysis Council, which concluded “there is no trustworthy proof that homeopathy is effective”. Yet what homeopaths are in search of – consideration and awareness – is precisely what they ought to steer clear of. As any person who has explained the baffling approach of homeopathic dilution to an incredulous colleague will attest, raising awareness of homeopathy is by far the quickest way to dispel any belief in it.

With this in thoughts, the Great Contemplating Society (a charity that promotes rational considering) has launched its personal homeopathy awareness week website: homeopathyawarenessweek.org. The internet site highlights twelve points that homeopaths appear surprisingly unwilling to make individuals conscious of, like examples of exactly where homeopathy has critically harmed sufferers.

Apologists for homeopathy will argue that due to the fact the tablets include nothing at all but sugar, they can’t be harmful. Although their chemistry may be exact, their conclusion definitely is not. For example, there is the situation of Penelope Dingle, a bowel cancer patient in Australia who followed the tips of her homeopath husband, and as a consequence suffered a agonizing and unnecessary death.

Equally tragic is the story of Gloria Thomas, a child whose homeopathically handled eczema became so badly contaminated that it led to her death at the age of 9 months. The public ought to also be aware that homeopaths often provide ineffective homeopathic “alternatives” to vaccines that put children at threat of serious disease. You won’t discover these stories on any other homeopathy awareness websites.

It is alarming to note that homeopaths all around the globe are appropriate now claiming to treat a assortment of significant circumstances, this kind of as malaria, AIDS and even the Ebola virus. Indeed, Homeopaths Without Borders – a group of doubtlessly nicely-that means folk – are flying into areas of crisis in the building world carrying suitcases total of homeopathic tablets that contain nothing but sugar. It is not so much Médecins Sans Frontières as Médecins Sans Medicine.

Of course, belief in homeopathy is not merely a curio identified solely on foreign soil – it is effectively represented, for illustration, on the shelves of high street pharmacies in the United kingdom. Boots – the company whose otherwise exceptional reputation made it the target of demonstrations towards homeopathy in 2010 – nonetheless unapologetically stocks homeopathic goods on its shelves in thousands of retailers up and down the nation.

Luckily, there are constructive signs. In 2010, when I first became involved in alternative wellness activism, the NHS funded no fewer than five homeopathic hospitals nowadays all have both closed or faced a severe risk to their existence. Latest figures, obtained via a freedom of information request by the Nightingale Collaboration, demonstrate an encouraging swing away from homeopathy, with prescriptions falling from a substantial of 170,000 per annum in 1996 to just over 10,000 final 12 months.

Clearly, demand is falling. Provide, too, is on shaky ground. When Nelson’s homeopathic pharmacy – sugar pill supplier of option for Boots and Holland &amp Barrett – explored the likelihood of exporting to the US, the resulting FDA inspection reached a startling conclusion. In accordance to the report, the succussion method (the vigorous shaking that apparently activates the “vibrational memory” of water) meant that in a single out of every 6 homeopathic vials observed, the magical drop of homeopathic liquid missed the sugar tablets fully.

“The lively ingredient was rather seen dripping down the outdoors of the vial assembly. [Nelson’s] lacked controls to guarantee that the energetic ingredient is delivered to every bottle.”

In other phrases, 1 in six vials of homeopathic capsules from the greatest supplier of substantial street homeopathy incorporate no homeopathy at all. That no customers seem to be to have observed speaks volumes for the efficacy of homeopathy.

Maybe most surprising and encouraging of all is just how mainstream this discussion has turn into. Homeopathy is now the butt of mainstream comedians’ jokes and Television sketch displays, and homeopaths have grow to be a watchword for anachronistic thinking, overtaking the Flat Earthers. And, judging by the responses on Twitter to our homeopathy awareness web site, these days practically everybody has their very own “homeopathy is ineffective” gag.

So, I say: deliver on higher awareness … but awareness in its truest sense. Awareness that homeopathy has no scientific basis, is a waste of your income and has the prospective for great harm. If we can continue to spread this type of awareness, we’ll consign homeopathy to the historical past books where it belongs.

Michael Marshall is the undertaking director for the Good Considering Society. As vice president of the Merseyside Skeptics Society, he is also one of the organisers of QEDcon, which starts tomorrow. He tweets as @MrMMarsh

Homeopathy awareness can make the planet a healthier, happier place | Michael Marshall

Can the Mediterranean Diet regime Make Us Happier?

Residing on a private Greek island may be out of the cards for most of us, but that doesn’t indicate we can not consume like we’re on a Mediterranean vacation (with out leaving home). Research suggests the Mediterranean diet plan — consisting primarily of fresh fruits and greens, entire grains, beans, nuts and seeds, herbs and spices, and olive oil and supplemented with occasional dairy, poultry, fish, and red wine — doesn’t just advertise a healthful entire body, but can actually make us happier, as well. The diet plan has been touted by organizations like the American Heart Association, the Mayo Clinic, and the Cleveland Clinic as a heart-healthier, cancer-fighting, diabetes-stopping eating program [one]. But can it also boost our mood?

The Science

The examine compares how foods from a conventional Mediterranean diet program (exclusively vegetables, fruit, olive oil, legumes, and nuts) influence the all round mood when in contrast to a modern Western diet program hefty in sweets, soda, and quick foods  [2]. The evidence is in the pudding (or the hummus). Participants who ate plenty of fresh fruits and veggies, olive oil, nuts, and legumes were significantly happier than individuals who chowed down on desserts, soda, and rapidly foods. Interestingly, eating red meat and fast food put females in a negative mood, but did not appear to influence the men. It’s well worth noting the researchers did not handle for grain consumption — whether they white, entire-grain, or gluten-free — so we really don’t know how the kind or sum of grains eaten influenced these results.

Can We Trust It?

Maybe. The researchers recruited about 96,000 topics from the Adventist church all around the United States to fill out a questionnaire detailing how often they ate certain meals above the course of one yr. Subjects had been recruited and filled out questionnaires between 2002 and 2006 — every single particular person filled out the foods frequency questionnaire only as soon as. About 20,000 participants were randomly selected from the group to fill out a Constructive and Adverse Influence Routine (PANAS) survey in 2006. Of that variety, 9,255 participants returned the survey and had been incorporated in study’s last benefits. The two surveys had been self-reported, so there is a probability that some responses were biased or untruthful. The solutions look relatively black-and-white, but how reputable are these conclusions?

While the study group was sizeable, it only incorporated a specific group of Americans. The subjects came from all all around the country, but the researchers excluded folks under age 35, smokers, non-Adventists, and any individual of an ethnicity other than black or white. The results could be different in other nations the place foods may be of higher or lower high quality, or in ethnic or religious communities with different lifestyles. In spite of the huge amount of individuals who participated, the study’s main weakness is a lack of diversity.

The Takeaway

Regardless of who the researchers integrated and who they did not, the outcomes demonstrate diet program certainly has an effect on how we really feel. The wholesome fats current in the Mediterranean diet regime may possibly be the important to a great mood. Changes in ranges of BNDF, a protein that controls numerous brain functions, may possibly contribute to psychological issues like schizophrenia and depression. Studies demonstrate consuming food rich in omega-3 fatty acids — located in fish and some nuts — can aid stabilize BNDF amounts [3]. Another review examined this theory on people and identified that participants with depression who stuck to a Mediterranean diet plan had consistently increased ranges of BNDF (the participants with no a history of depression skilled no adjust in BNDF amounts).

Other scientific studies show that fresh fruits, veggies, and a lot of greens are excellent for psychological well being, as well. Polyphenols, compounds discovered in plant-primarily based foods, can positively influence brain cognition [four]. In a nearly ten-yr survey, researchers discovered that higher fruit and vegetable consumption was linked to lower odds of mood issues like depression, distress, and anxiousness [5].

The new review has some limitations, but regardless, the outcomes are another good argument in a prolonged history of analysis advocating a plant-heavy diet regime. So take into account putting down the processed stuff and whipping up some stuffed grape leaves for a more healthy, happier way of life. (Not into grape leaves? Attempt one particular of these meals to enhance your mood!)

Would you try out a Mediterranean diet plan? Tell us your take in the feedback beneath or tweet the author @SophBreene.

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Functions Cited:

1. Mediterranean diet and diabetes prevention: Myth or reality? Kastorini CM, Panagiotakos DB. World Journal of Diabetes. 2010 July 15 1(3):65-67.
   
   
   


2. Intake of Mediterranean food items associated with positive affect and reduced damaging affect. Ford PA, Jaceido-Siegl K, Lee JW, Youngberg W, Tonstad S. Loma Linda University, College of Public Health, Division of Preventive Care, USA. Journal of Pscyhosomatic Study, 2013 February 74(2): 142-eight.
   
   
   


3. Dietary omega-3 fatty acids normalize BDNF ranges, reduce oxidative harm, and counteract finding out disability after traumatic brain damage in rats. Wu A, Ying Z, Gomez-Pinilla F. Division of Pscyhological Science, University of California at Lost Angeles, USA. Journal of Neurotrama, 2004 October 21(10):1457-67.
   
   
   


4. Organic mood meals: the actions of polyphenols towards psychiataric and cognitive disorders. Gomez-Pinilla F, Nguyen TTJ. Dietary Neuroscience. 2012 Could 15(3):127-33.
   
   
   


5. The association amongst fruit and vegetable consumption and mental wholesome issues: Evidence from five waves of a national survey of Canadians. McMartin SE, Jacka FN, Colman I. Department of Epidemiology and Neighborhood Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Preventive Medication. 2013 January 4.
   
   

Can the Mediterranean Diet regime Make Us Happier?