Is Serotonin Involved In Digestion?
What are neurotransmitters and what do they do? They can help to regulate many functions of the body, but most can't name 4 specific neurotransmitters. This is unfortunate because a healthy gut can work together with neurotransmitters to produce happiness or naturally produce those happy feelings normally sought after through the taking of pharmaceutical drugs.
If the term psychobiotic is new to you, I encourage you to listen to several of my previous blogs or podcasts to get caught up. In a nutshell, I touched on how certain gut bacteria can help arrange neurotransmitters in our brain to be naturally produced.
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Sunlight Exposure And Depression
Does sunlight help with depression? Many enjoy being outside but does it have medical benefits? There is sunlight and depression research to be explored.
Understanding how our mental state can be negatively affected by many things is the first step in addressing depression and anxiety. But are there more natural approaches to addressing it other than medications, pills, or prescriptions? Although these are the default, there are several other methods that have been used for hundreds of centuries. 
How To Increase Serotonin And Dopamine Naturally
What does dopamine and serotonin do in the brain? More specifically, what does serotonin do as it relates to our sleep, hunger, and happiness levels?
Serotonin is a neurochemical that helps regulate sleep, hunger levels, mediate moods, and actually controls your ability to feel pain. Roughly 95% of the serotonin is created and your gut. Your gut is lined with 100 million nerve cells called neurons, so it seems plausible that your gut not only helps digestion, but guides emotion. 
Being Around Animals Means Less Gut Stress
Have you ever thought about if our immune system improves with being around animals? A large percentage of people have pets or live around animals daily so is it too far fetched to think animals can help our digestion?
So it might be possible knowing how our relationship with the land can actually make contributions to having a more healthy gut and microbiome. Now, living inside a region where it might be rural or personal homestead might be peaceful and quiet, however, the actual cause why human beings choose to dwell in rural areas for better health might be that they can actually handle stress better than their city-dwelling compadres. 
3 Ways To Include Spiritual Health Into Your Day
Everyone is looking for spirituality and a sense of purpose, no matter how they classify it. When it comes to our health, a large component of that is the importance of spiritual health and wellbeing.
I believe one of the strongest pillars (and most important from a mental standpoint) is the third of four pillars of holistic health, and that's being spiritually strong. Now, the spiritual pillar, it's such a personal piece of overall wellness, and everybody tends to define it differently. I look at spirituality as a sense of purpose or direction or meaning, without which values can slip by the wayside. This is done through meditation, prayer, or other activities that foster a connection in nature or to a higher power, and not necessarily about a specific religion or belief system. 
Don't Be Reactive About Your Health
Are there any healthy lifestyle changes you should follow to lose weight? Weight loss and mental health require you to think about how to be proactive about your health This encompasses healthy lifestyle changes surrounding food.
Are you making the necessary healthy lifestyle changes in order to improve your digestion and gut health? If you believe you are, the next logical question should be whether you are being proactive or reactive when it comes to improving your digestion. 
Affecting People Around You
Do you think your attitude affects those around you? Is your positivity or negativity affecting those around you. Most people don't realize how contagious your behavior is to those you meet.
Most people have heard the phrase, "You Are What You Eat". But I believe it's much more apropos to say, "You Eat What You Are." What you "spit out" is certainly more important to those people around you than what you put in. ⠀ ⠀ Your words and your actions based on those words should be what counts, not necessarily that you have good thoughts and ideas about doing them. Look at it this way. I'm sure you know plenty of people who are in the fitness/nutrition/health industry that profess and live a "healthy" life, yet gossip, talk s*^t, are rude, inconsiderate, and selfish. But have you ever taken a step back and thought about those people that may regularly have fast food addictions or a weight problem or struggling with their health, yet bring light and kindness and goodness into your life?⠀ 
How To Deal With Cheat Meals?
Recently, I had a lengthy discussion about foods and how many people, especially in the fitness industry, use certain kinds of foods as rewards for doing something “good” for their body. You know the routine... “if I do 30 minutes on the cardio machine, then I can have that drink/get that dessert/order those onion rings instead of veggies. It got fairly heated because I attempted to dispel that idea altogether.⠀
It's important to note that there is a correlation between your gut and essentially every other function in our bodies. Most people associate it will “feeling bad”, but there is more and more evidence pointing to the relationship between gut health and mental health. But let's look at this more in-depth. To read more or listen to or download the podcast, follow the link. |