A Mind of Your Own: The Truth About Depression and How Women Can Heal Their Bodies to Reclaim Their Lives

by Kelly Brogan

Deficiency is traditionally defined as being below 150 to 200 pg/mL (picogram/milliliter), but you want to be above 600 pg/mL.

Homocysteine and methylmalonic acid As I mentioned above, this is a more accurate and more sensitive method of screening for vitamin B12 deficiency,

Hs-CRP (High-Sensitive C-Reactive Protein)

protein is a protein the liver makes when there are general inflammatory messengers in the body. It can be measured with an hs-CRP test. You want to be between 0.00 and 1.0 mg/L.

Fasting Glucose/Insulin/HbA1C (Hemoglobin A1C) The purpose of these tests is to check blood sugar control. The HgA1C test is the most accurate

You want your values to be between 4.8 and 5.2 percent (note anemia and dehydration

Fasting glucose is a onetime snapshot in the fasting state, of course, but should ideally be 70 to 85 mg/dl with a fasting insulin below 6 μIU/ml.

Vitamin D

Salivary Cortisol

Stool PCR Testing

This type of test evaluates your gastrointestinal function and can detect imbalances in your gut microbiota, the presence of parasites, absorption issues, and gut inflammation.

THE TEST CHECKLIST The following list of tests should be ordered by your doctor:

Ideally before the thirty days to establish your baseline: Thyroid function tests: TSH, free T4, free T3, reverse T3, thyroid peroxidase antibodies, and thyroglobulin antibodies The MTHFR genetic test Vitamin B12 levels in blood Homocysteine levels in blood Hs-CRP (high-sensitive C-reactive protein) in blood Fasting glucose/insulin/HbA1C (hemoglobin A1C) Vitamin D levels via 25OH and 1,25

Core Basics: B Vitamins, Minerals, Fatty Acids, Glandulars, and Digestive Enzymes

These vitamins help the body convert food into fuel and metabolize fats

and protein. They are needed for healthy skin, hair, eyes, and liver and they help the adrenal glands and nervous system function properly. All eight B vitamins are water-soluble, so the body cannot store them. While gut bacteria help produce most of them, supplementing would help to ensure we meet our needs.

Minerals Magnesium, zinc, iodine, and selenium are essential to the body’s

Magnesium deficiency, for example, is found in 80 percent of depressed individuals, and may play a strong role in anxiety by disrupting the body’s HPA axis (the

MAGNESIUM Typical dosages range from 150 to 800 milligrams a day. In patients with more prominent anxiety, insomnia, and premenstrual symptoms I focus on doses higher than 300 milligrams a day. I usually recommend magnesium glycinate over other types, unless there is a problem with constipation; magnesium citrate and magnesium oxide provide a nice laxative side benefit. ZINC This essential “resiliency” mineral plays a part in controlling the brain and body’s response to stress; in fact, three hundred or

Zinc deficiency has been shown to lead to symptoms of depression, ADHD, difficulties with learning and memory, seizures, aggression, and

Optimal zinc dosage is 15 to 30 milligrams a day, and zinc gluconate is an optimal

IODINE Iodine plays a critical role in the formation of thyroid hormone. Soil depletion and exposure to chemicals that interfere with iodine incorporation in the

Iodine can be obtained through uncontaminated sea vegetables, eggs, and supplementation in the 200 microgram to 3 milligram range. I recommend starting with a supplement that contains Atlantic kelp.

SELENIUM

Selenium is a mineral essential for replenishing glutathione, a master an...

Typical dosage of selenium is 100 to 200 μg a day. Selenium is ideal for anxious and depressive individuals who also have low thyroid function and/or low T3 levels.

Fatty acids Fatty acids are essential to the structure and function of cell membranes. Without them, cells would simply fall apart. Cellular membranes are lipid envelopes that encase and protect the internal workings of cells. There are more than 100 trillion cells in the human body, all with the same basic membrane structure, even for the neurons of our brain that carry all of our messages to and fro.

membrane is essential for the production of energy in the mitochondria, for without the double membrane structure there is no storage space for the separation of an electrical charge—no way of conducting chemical reactions to create energy. The volume of cellular membrane in the body is mind-boggling. The liver alone has more than 300,...

From my personal research and clinical work with patients, I’ve found that the best way to obtain supplemental fatty acids is to focus on natural fats and take supplements that add more omega-3 and o...

EVENING PRIMROSE OIL Extracted from the seeds of its namesake wildflower, evening primrose offers a rich source of omega-6 fatty acids, specifically the anti-inflammatory omega-6 gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), which is hard to come by in the

Look for high-quality oil certified as organic, and start with 500 milligrams twice daily.

COD LIVER OIL

Aim for a supplement with at least 2500 IUs of vitamin A and 250 IUs of vitamin D per teaspoon.13

ADRENAL AND HYPOTHALAMUS GLANDULARS

They have recently been making a comeback, thanks to new science showing their positive effects on damaged tissues and organs by exposing the tissues to growth factors that influence the body’s capacity for self-repair and regeneration. Because glandulars contain a complex array of enzymes, vitamins, fatty acids, amino acids,

minerals, and neurotransmitters and a host of nutrients in addition to the tissues within the gland, they are difficult to study in a standardized way. On the other hand, this also makes them a food, and one that we are increasingly finding to be far more beneficial to our physiology than the sum of its parts can convey.

Adrenals must come from

pastured animals. Begin with one twice daily of each. Hypothalamus is a calming glandular that begins to repair the communication between the brain and glands. Take one to four for agitation and acute anxiety along with one twice daily. Over time, you will need less.

DIGESTIVE ENZYMES If your body doesn’t generate enough digestive enzymes,

can’t break down your food, so even if you’re eating well, you aren’t absorbing all that good nutrition.

You’ll also put excess burden on the available enzymes being used to digest your food, taking them away from their other role o...

There are a variety of digestive enzymes on the market.

Look for ones that come from plant sources and contain a mix of enzymes, including proteases (which break down proteins), lipases (which break down fats), and amylase (which breaks down carbohydrates). Some formulas include a variety of each type of enzyme operating at different pH ranges so that they will work with every individual and various food combinations. Dr. Nicholas Gonzalez

into the management of chronic disease and advised supplementing with extremely high quality pancreas glandulars, which is my preferred way of complementing plant-based enzymes for digestive support. Take one to three high-quality digestive ...

Additional Supplements to Consider SAMe

L-THEANINE

RHODIOLA Rhodiola rosea, sometimes called Arctic root or golden root, is an adaptogenic herb—it acts in nonspecific ways to increase resistance to stress without disrupting normal biological functions. Evidence

So go ahead and try some: start with 100 milligrams once a day for a week and then increase the dosage by 100 milligrams every week, up to 400 milligrams a day. And seek products that contain

CURCUMIN I’ve written a lot about curcumin—what I’ve called the wonder drug that works—in my blog posts. The medical literature exploring the efficacy of curcumin—the most active polyphenol in the Indian spice turmeric—continues to explode, with

PROBIOTICS