It was a really long process but these are the underlying health issues we found that cause my depression symptoms. While these things played a huge part, they are not the only factors that contributed to my depression tendencies. To see the whole picture, be sure to check out What Helped me Emotionally and What Helped Me Spiritually pages as well!
Main Health Issues Discovered:
- Imbalanced Hormones— this showed itself in
PMDD and Low Temperature Syndrome (Reverse T3 Thyroid Condition) - Poor nutrition and vitamin deficiency— this showed itself in: Hypoglycemia, low Vitamin D, low EFA, EHA
Treatment I received for Imbalanced Hormones:
- For PMDD: Getting hormones tested (my provider did a 24 urine collection test) and taking Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy estriol and progesterone (creams).
- For Low Temperature Syndrome: Getting a thyroid test (this is not in the normal thyroid test that is given) & taking T3. Also, NOT doing hard workouts that put more stress on the body but exercises that are gentler like walking and TTAPP.
Treatment I received for poor Nutrition and Vitamin Deficiency:
Possible Cause: For most of my adolescent and adult life I have bordered on having an eating disorder. This was shown by excessive working out and skipping meals to control weight. I will be posting more about that story so look for future posts!
- For Hypoglycemia-regulating blood sugar through eating low carb, no sugar (the ONLY way I’ve been able to do this is through the Trim Healthy Mama way of eating.) For more information, I’d love for you to check out my blog post about how we figured out the connection between hypoglycemia and my depression.
- For Low Vitamin D– I now take 10,000 IU’s of Vitamin D for 5 days out of the week. (Side note for Alaskans: My health provider said that every Alaskan should be taking 5,000 IU’s year round!) I use the Vitamin D from Costco that comes in 5,000 IU tablets
- For Low EHA: I take 2-4 fish oil pills a day, as directed by my practitioner
Other Issues that have been directly affected by health:
Seasonal Affective Disorder– every spring is a struggle. Awareness helps. Sitting in front of a “happy” light and taking Vitamin D year round
Panic Attacks-cutting out caffeine! I noticed a direct correlation between caffeine consumption (even half caff) and panic attacks.