From the Desk of Carolyn Dean MD ND
It seems that most people these days are Stressed and not just a little stressed but Stressed to the Max. It makes me think that a large part of society is headed for Total Body Meltdown. I coined this term to take into account the overload on the adrenals, thyroid, and sex hormones that weaken the immune system and leave a person feeling like they’ve been run over by a truck.
I know magnesium is extremely important for alleviating stress and I’ll tell you the reasons why, but I’ll also bring in the B vitamins, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, and Omega-3 fatty acids and the role they play, especially when it comes to Total Body Meltdown.
Stress for any reason – physical, mental, emotional, traumatic, environmental – all cause magnesium deficiency. Prolonged psychological stress raises adrenaline, the stress hormone, which depletes magnesium.
The Adrenals
Adrenal fatigue follows after a time of chronic stress, anxiety, and panic attacks and it seems to be occurring in epidemic proportions. Adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cortisol (elevated in chronic stress) deplete magnesium. Stress causes excess elimination of magnesium through the urine, further compounding magnesium deficiency. Stress is such an overworked word, but we all suffer physical, emotional, and mental stress every day, and every bit of it drains magnesium. Adrenal exhaustion symptoms include anxiety, depression, muscle weakness, fatigue, eye twitches, insomnia, anorexia, apathy, apprehension, poor memory, confusion, anger, nervousness, and rapid pulse.
The Evolution of Anxiety
How do we graduate from being a calm person in control of our nervous system to an anxious, fearful individual? I think it’s due to a gradual but chronic decrease in magnesium reserves. When the body is stressed – and it can be for a dozen different reasons, our magnesium reserves dump this crucial mineral into our blood stream, and we immediately become one of those people blessed with the ability to cope. We are both calm and alert. Our friends and relatives think it’s just who we are but it’s really how much magnesium we have in reserve.
If the stress continues and we don’t rest or replace our magnesium between episodes, our magnesium stores become depleted. Then, when you are faced with the next stressor, your stress hormones (adrenalin and cortisol) don’t activate your magnesium reserves with a calming effect. Instead, adrenalin revs up your heart rate, elevates your blood pressure, and tenses your muscles in a fight or flight reaction.
Millions of people try unsuccessfully to cope with their problems or medicate their stress with overeating, cigarettes, alcohol, street drugs, and other addictive behaviors to suppress their pain. We are a nation suffering a 32 percent incidence of anxiety, depression, and drug problems. Instead of treating stress reactions properly with magnesium, each year millions of people are introduced to the merry-go-round of psychiatric drugs and psychological counseling for symptoms that may in fact be rooted in magnesium deficiency.
You’re stressed out, not sleeping, tense, and irritable and you don’t know that simply taking a good magnesium supplement could pull you out of that downward spiral. All these symptoms are interwoven as you can see from the following cases of people who fortunately discovered that much of their suffering was due to magnesium deficiency.
The Thyroid
It’s not just magnesium deficiency but a deficiency of a total of nine minerals that plunge the thyroid into a hypo state. The missing eight are iodine, selenium, zinc, molybdenum, boron, copper, chromium, manganese.
A weak thyroid will put extra stress on the adrenals and the sex hormones, which means the thyroid needs a picometer multi mineral combination that allows it to make its own thyroid hormones and takes the pressure off the adrenals.
Sex Hormones
Similarly with progesterone, estrogen, and testosterone, they rely on nutrient building blocks for their production. Cholesterol is the scaffold on which sex hormones are produced. However, if someone is taking a statin drug, cholesterol is reduced, which greatly diminishes sex hormone production. Magnesium is a cholesterol regulator helping to produce cholesterol when needed and reducing it when there is too much.
Toxicity
We live in a very toxic environment that challenges our immune system and our liver’s detoxification pathways to keep up. Antioxidant nutrients are used up in these pathways – B vitamins, selenium, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, glutathione and its precursors. Reduction in the B vitamins and Vitamin C can have an impact on the nervous system.
Yeast overgrowth can cause the elevation of yeast toxins in the body. One of the toxins is alcohol that can adversely affect a person’s mental and emotional health. The treatment includes Sacchromyces bourlardii, humic/fulvic acid, and picometer silver.
The Nutrients
I’ve mentioned several nutrients already, but let’s not forget Vitamin D, which is necessary for brain development, brain function and mood regulation. Omega-3 fatty acids have a similar profile to Vitamin D, and they help build cell membranes and affect the function of cell receptors.
The message is that your moods and emotions don’t just land on you willy-nilly. They are impacted by the nutrients you get in your food (which may be very little) and the dietary supplements you take.
Carolyn Dean MD ND
The Doctor of the Future
