Anxiety and Depression

Depression

Anyone can feel sad, moody or low at times, but some people experience these feelings intensely, for long periods of time (weeks, months or even years) and sometimes without any apparent reason. Depression is more than just a low mood – it’s a serious condition that affects your physical and mental health.

Biochemical imbalances can contribute to Depression. Research suggests that depression doesn’t spring from simply having too much or too little of certain brain chemicals. There are many possible causes of depression, including faulty mood regulation by the brain, genetic vulnerability, stressful life events, medications, and medical problems. It’s believed that several of these forces may compound to trigger depression.

Anxiety

When we talk about anxiety, your life experiences, emotions, and stress can actually change your neurotransmitters, just as neurotransmitters can affect your mood and anxiety. Anxiety is a psychological, physiological, and behavioural state induced by a threat to well-being or survival, either actual or potential. It is characterized by increased arousal, expectancy, autonomic and neuroendocrine activation, and specific behaviour patterns.

The biochemistry of anxiety is complex and vast and nearly every type of neurotransmitter and hormone can play some role in anxiety, as can anything that reduces blood flow to the brain (like dehydration). Anxiety, in many ways, is simply your body’s reaction to brain stress.

Chemicals are involved in conditions such as anxiety and depression, but it is not a simple matter of one chemical being too low and another too high. Rather, many chemicals are involved, working both inside and outside nerve cells. There are millions, even billions, of chemical reactions that make up the dynamic system that is responsible for your mood, perceptions, and how you experience life.

Research on the Pyrrole in Urine Test is demonstrating that changes in bile flow, as measured in this test, can be strongly associated with anxiety. This helps target treatment.

With this level of complexity, you can see how two people might have similar symptoms of depression or anxiety, but the problem on the inside, and therefore what treatments will work best, may be entirely different.

Researchers have learned much about the biology of conditions such as anxiety and depression. They’ve identified genes that make individuals more vulnerable to low moods and influence how an individual responds to drug therapy. Ongoing research into these discoveries will lead to better, more individualized treatment options. And while researchers know more now than ever before about how the brain regulates mood, their understanding of the biology of depression is far from complete.

Anxiety and Depression are often diagnosed based on a patient’s symptoms, using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5).

Bio Balance Health trains medical doctors to identify the biochemical changes associated with depression and anxiety symptoms through testing the patient’s biochemistry and biomarkers of oxidative stress. Individualised therapy used in conjunction with current mental health options has shown to improve outcomes for patients.

BBH trained doctors are not just treating the symptoms, they are looking for the underlying, contributing, biochemical causes. Addressing underlying biochemical imbalances can help a patient return to optimal health. By understanding there are underlying biochemical issues that may contribute to symptoms, helps to take the stigma away from a mental health diagnosis, and gives hope.

Nutrients can assist with balancing the biochemistry. Nutrients can help to enhance, and in some cases, may reduce the need for medication.

Research also shows there are differences in the chemistry of mental health sufferers. It is essential doctors understand these differences as incorrect use of medication and/or nutrients may increase the patient’s symptoms.

We train doctors to use these skills.

We have trained many doctors to use these skills and their results populate our training and our research. Their results also inspire the team at Bio Balance Health to drive research and training. To satisfy patient demand we need more doctors trained to use these skills. Trained doctors are already heavily booked making it difficult for patients to find care.

• Bio Balance Health supported research has demonstrated the combination of symptoms list, and the testing of certain biomarkers and biochemistry can improve the understanding of biochemical changes which aggravate the Bipolar state.

• Understanding of the underlying biochemistry allows us to plan research projects to isolate the variations in biochemistry between the opposing states of depression and mania.

• Research to verify the usefulness of testing to provide measures which may point to underlying chemistry which can be repaired, and which can indicate if the treatment is helping, is a core activity of Bio Balance Health.

Much of our work is pre-publication. See these references which illustrate our research.

BBH are currently working with QUT on a research project looking at depression.
Our research is self-funded. If you wish to increase and/or speed up our projects please donate……..