Secrets of Serotonin, Revised Edition: The Natural Hormone That Curbs Food and Alcohol Cravings, Reduces Pain, and Elevates Your Mood (Lynn Sonberg Books) - Softcover

Hart, Carol

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312375123 ISBN 13: 9780312375126

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin, 2008

Synopsis

DRAMATICALLY IMPROVE YOUR MOOD, ENERGY LEVELS, AND MORE!

Serotonin has a powerful effect on the brain: enough and you feel great; too little and you may binge on food and alcohol, get a migraine, suffer from insomnia, or become depressed. In fact, millions of people take prescription antidepressants every day to compensate for their low serotonin levels, without knowing that changes in diet and lifestyle may be all they need to improve their mood.
This revised and updated edition features the latest research on serotonin, including:
*The link between yo-yo dieting and serotonin deficiencies
*How serotonin is connected to eating disorders
*Why migraines and depression are far more common among women than men
*Serotonin's role in relieving irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia, and other chronic pain conditions
The complete eating and activity program in Secrets of Serotonin will guide you toward relatively simple changes in your eating and sleep habits, bright light exposure, and activity level that will boost serotonin naturally and have an enormous benefit for your overall health and well-being.

CAROL HART, PH.D., is a respected biomedical writer, editor, and researcher. She is the author of Good Food Tastes Good: An Argument for Trusting Your Senses and Ignoring the Nutritionists and co-author of Traditional Chinese Medicine: The A-Z Guide to Natural Healing from the Orient. She lives in Pennsylvania.

About this title

About the Author:

Carol Hart, Ph.D., is a respected biomedical writer, editor, and researcher. She is co-author of Natural Healing with Chinese Medicine.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

Excerpt
Low moods, low energy, headaches, upset stomach, sleep problems, overeating, heavy drinking... we all have our patterns for responding to the stress and strain of busy schedules and lives. One person may be creative, energetic, and productive for much of the year, yet sag through most of the winter, overeating and oversleeping, like a hibernating bear or a dormant plant. Another may have daily ebbs of energy and mood that can be relieved with a fast-food fix. Someone else may cope well with work and family pressures throughout the week, then get blinding migraines as soon as the weekend comes around.
For most, these mood and energy swings and stress-response patterns aren’t disabling or disturbing enough to send us to a doctor or counselor for help. We may see them as inevitable, as just the way we are. Or as an inescapable by-product of high-pressure jobs and family responsibilities. In fact, these chronic, stress-induced problems can be minimized or even eliminated by relatively simple changes in how you eat, exercise, and organize your day.
Have you ever noticed how often these common complaints seem to be linked? A low or anxious mood is almost always accompanied by changes in eating and sleeping patterns. Stress or changes in your eating and sleeping schedule can trigger a headache. Sometimes it isn’t stress but the calendar, the weather, or the time of day that brings a sudden shift in energy, spirits, and motivation. Vast numbers of people hit their lows in the early morning or late afternoon, on cloudy days, during much of the winter, or, for women, during premenstrual days.
Although stress, weather, and season can all bring on a low mood, a headache, or an eating binge, the ultimate cause is internal and chemical. An essential natural substance called serotonin is one of the body’s most powerful modulators of mood, appetite, sleep, and pain awareness. It is produced in the brains and nervous systems of humans and animals from specific nutrients in the foods we eat. Avoidable fluctuations in its availability to the brain can bring on depression, anxiety, binge eating, insomnia, headaches, and a host of other common everyday problems.
Many mood-enhancing drugs, from the antidepressant Prozac to the abused drug Ecstasy (MDMA), achieve their effects by increasing the brain’s supply of serotonin. You can take nutrition and lifestyle steps to enhance your serotonin supply without drugs to get your mood, appetite, energy, and headache problems under control. You don’t need to run ten miles a day or live on raw vegetables and skim milk. This is not a case of “the cure is worse than the disease.” You can learn how to ward off your mood and energy lows by scheduling your meals and snacks and choosing mood-enhancing foods. Relaxing, low-impact exercise (for example, walking or cycling) can also help control or avoid stress reactions, such as anxiety and binge eating.
Interested? Read on! The first step is understanding why moods go up and down, and why negative moods so often bring on troubling changes in your sleeping and eating habits.Copyright © 1996, 2008 by Lynn Sonberg Book Associates.
All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0312375123
• ISBN 13: 9780312375126
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288