Melatonin: A Natural Supplement That Helps Improve your Sleep.

Melatonin is a hormonal supplement that assists. It can be taken very safely along most medications including anti-depressants.

Melatonin is the hormone of sleep, and therefore when taken 30 minutes before bed it can help you get to sleep faster, and help you stay asleep. In some countries you need a prescription for it through your doctor, but in other countries like the USA you can buy it at health shops/pharmacies.

What’s the Dose?

The standard dosage range is 0.3-3 mg. To begin with, start with only a small amount of melatonin. More is not always better. Only increase the dose if it’s not helping you enough.

Melatonin has Other Benefits

Melatonin gives your body extra benefits over about it helping your sleep. Melatonin is known as a powerful anti-aging supplement. One of the reasons for this is that it is a strong antioxidant, and helps optimize levels of sex hormones in the body (keeping you young).

Melatonin also fights cancer in many different ways. It’s antioxidant function is just one way that it fights cancer. It helps balance the estrogen hormone in the body, and therefore ladies supplementing with this hormone helps prevent breast cancer. High doses of melatonin (much higher than you take for sleep) are currently being used for the treatment of cancer, with great promise.

Here’s a melatonin product that I trust.

All the best

Janelle

Dr Janelle Sinclair

Clinical Biochemist

Sleep & Depression: Is there a solution that will help both?

I was asked whether there was something that would help someone sleep better & help with the depression at the same time.

I know that there will be many of you out there, that will be asking the same question. I hope this will help you out- to get a better night sleep & a rosier day. So here’s my thoughts on that.

Is there anything that can cause poor sleep & depression?

There are a few physical causes for depression that can also lead to bad sleep.

1. Hormonal imbalances: A progesterone deficiency as well as menopause can lead to poor sleep. Progesterone is a hormone, and it has calming properties. Therefore if you don’t have enough progesterone, it can affect your sleep as well as contribute to feelings of anxiety and depression.
2. Adrenal imbalances: Your adrenal glands make hormones that wake you up in the morning and give you alertness. If your adrenals aren’t working properly, it can lead to fatigue & depression during the day (low adrenal hormones), but keep you from falling asleep at night (because there’s too many adrenal hormones for this time of the day).
3. High Histamine  (under methylation): Histamine is a neurotransmitter (as well as being involved in allergies). This neurotransmitter gives you alertness, and keeps you awake. If you’ve got high levels of histamine it can stop you from getting enough sleep.

In my free report & my book I discuss these physical causes for depression, and how to treat them naturally. And remember when you treat these causes for depression, it will help the depression lift, as well as give you a better night sleep. For more information check them out at www.breakingfreefromdepression.com/ebook and www.breakingfreefromdepression.com/free-report.

In my next blog, I’ll discuss a natural supplement that may be used alongside antidepressants that can help with sleep.

Talk to you again soon.

All the best.

Janelle

Dr Janelle Sinclair

Clinical Biochemist

So let’s get to the chase.

You’re wanting to know what doses to take aren’t you? Well here it is. I’ve based these recommendations on the latest research.

Adult Omega 3 Dosage Recommendations for depression:

• 1000-2000mg EPA daily AND
• 500-1500mg DHA daily

Don’t do it wrong!

There’s some things that you should note about taking omega 3 for depression.

1) The fish oil needs to be high quality. Don’t just find one in the bargain bin; you’ll want to check that they have been tested for heavy metals & pesticides (and that they don’t have any in them!)

2) You’ll want to buy concentrated fish oil. Most standard fish oil capsules have about 100-200 mg of EPA in them. This means that you’ll have to take 10 capsules PER DAY to get the right dose. You may want to consider getting high quality, highly concentrated liquid fish oil. It means you’ll only have to take 1 teaspoon per day. Now that’s much easier than taking 10 capsules!

3) Some people think that the DHA component of fish oil (It’s a specific form of omega 3) would be most helpful for depression. DHA is found in higher concentrations in the brain in comparison to EPA. But the research says at the moment that it is the EPA form of omega 3 that is most useful for depression. DHA on its own doesn’t help. So when you do buy and take your fish oil omega 3, make sure it has MORE EPA in it than DHA (in a similar ratio to my dosage suggestions above).

Many people ask me what’s a good brand of fish oil? What can we trust?

To make it easy for you today, I’ve provided a link to a product that I like below.

Talk to you again soon.

All the best

Janelle

Dr Janelle Sinclair

Clinical Biochemist

Omega Fatty Acids
Omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids cannot be made or stored in the body, and are therefore described as essential fatty acids (EFAs.) That is it is essential that we supply these valuable nutrients to the body through our diet, otherwise the body will go without.

2 Main Functions of Omega Fatty Acids:

• To serve as a building block (a structural molecule) for the outside membrane of all cells including the nerve cells in the brain.
• To produce chemicals which regulate the immune system and inflammatory processes.

It probably comes as no surprise that imbalances of these fatty acids can lead to neurological, immune, and inflammatory conditions.

Omega 3 & 6 Deficiencies and Mental Health

Omega 3 and/or 6 deficiencies are related not only to depression, but other mental health illnesses such as autism, Alzheimer’s disease, conduct disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, ADHD, as well as postnatal depression.

It’s been shown that omega 3 supplementation (and sometimes omega 6) can help in the treatment of depression, including bipolar depression.

What Next?

Over the next couple of weeks I’ll review a few studies on omega 3 supplementation and mental health. Then we’ll discuss optimal doses of omega 3 supplementation in depression in both adults and children. If you’d rather get started on omega 3 supplementation right away, click on the following link, download a copy of my book and break free from depression.

But What There’s More…

Omega 3 deficiencies are only one cause of depression. To help you find out about the other physical causes of depression I’ve written a report that discusses which ones may be the root cause of your depression. You can get a copy of it here.

That’s it for today, but I’ll be back with further helpful and life changing information soon.

All the best

Janelle
Dr Janelle Sinclair

To get a copy of Dr Sinclair’s book “Breaking Free: Exposing the biochemical causes of your depression” follow this link.