Improving Your Serotonin Levels for Better Health
By Chris Brown
Serotonin, the natural chemical known best as a mood stabilizer, is essential for mental and physical well-being. In addition to its mood regulating abilities, serotonin plays vital roles in digestion, healing, blood clotting, and bone health. When levels drop below the normal range (101-283 nanograms per milliliter) for extended periods, health issues start to arise including:
- Depression
- Low libido
- Trouble sleeping
- Bowel movement problems
- Brain fog and poor memory
- Dementia
If you start experiencing the symptoms of low serotonin (especially depression), diagnosing the life factors exacerbating your deficiency can help you to overcome its drag upon your life.
Ways to Conquer Low Serotonin
While genetics play a major role in serotonin levels, you still can nudge yourself into a healthy state of serotonin with a few lifestyle changes. Serotonin deficiency occurs when the body either doesn't produce enough serotonin or the system regulating and processing the chemical is dysfunctional. Experimenting with ways of strengthening your serotonin system can help you overcome a natural predisposition for low serotonin.
- B6 supplementation - A study out of Arizona State University found that taking B6 vitamins reduced depressive symptoms by 20 percent over the 12-week study period. This supplementation works by affecting the tryptophan-serotonin pathway, essentially increasing the amount of circulating serotonin.
- Get your outdoor suntan on - Natural light's effects upon mood are well documented and this is at least partially due to its ability to encourage serotonin synthesis.
- Consume foods rich in tryptophan - Tryptophan converts to serotonin in the brain, so pairing tryptophan-heavy foods with carbohydrates can jumpstart your body's levels.
- Exercise - Similar to dietary changes, aerobic exercise induces the body's release of tryptophan, which then gets converted into serotonin.
- Go on anti-depressant medication - Many common anti-depressants, like serotonin reuptake inhibiters (SSRIs), work by partially blocking the body's ability to breakdown serotonin, causing the chemical to concentrate in higher levels in the blood. Typically, the depression decreases with the increased serotonin concentration.
- Be in a better mood - While it may seem like you're putting the happiness before the serotonin, bettering your mental health and outlook circularly reinforces higher serotonin levels. Focusing on raising your emotional state through therapy, meditation, or even long walks in nature can help eliminate problems with low serotonin.
- Visit a chiropractor - Spinal manipulation improves brain-body communication which maximizes the efficiency of the entire nervous system, including the processing and production of serotonin.
Low serotonin can send your life into a negative well of worsening outlooks and depression. Identifying and managing lifestyle contributors to low serotonin can bring your levels back up and grant you a more fulfilled, happier existence.
To learn more about your health, wellness and fitness, see your local chiropractor at The Joint Chiropractic in Winter Garden, Fla.