Binge eating, not eating, heavily sleeping - we do what we can when we are trying to feed challenging emotions. If you are feeling excessive fatigue, hopelessness, or have lost interest or pleasure in your life, you may be experiencing depression. You’re not alone. According to the CDC, 1 in 10 Americans are depressed.

Anti-depressants have become so common that one in eight Americans has used Prozac or its generic counterpart for at least one episode of depression. Yet a recent re-analysis of past research on antidepressants concluded that three-fourths of the improvements credited to them could be attributed to an active placebo effect, changes in lifestyle, or simply the passage of time.

While it is sometimes vital to use an antidepressant, there are other treatment options to consider. We have become so addicted to an instant coffee approach to healing that we’ve forgotten that circumstances other than clinical depression can bring on unhappiness. My goal today is to show you ways to monitor and treat depression, without automatically resorting to medication. 

How many times have you thought if you could just eat enough chocolate you'd feel better? It's natural to look to food as remedy for one's emotional turbulence. In fact, your instinct is correct. But sometimes we crave the wrong food for our body's balance. Our diet is the first thing to look at in any health challenge. High quality protein, whole grains, and vegetables will feed our system what it needs to feel good. You want to redirect the impulse for comfort food towards food that will actually help you feel better. Just a few days of making sure that you have protein at every meal, not skiping meals, and eating breakfast will make a huge difference in how you feel.

Recent research shows that Vitamin D deficiency is linked to depression in a similar way that omega fatty acid deficiency is, so you should make sure you have enough Vitamin D and Omega Fatty Acids.

Acupuncture has been reported to successfully cure depression in more than 75 percent of patients treated. It works by balancing your energy to flow more smoothly in your body. When your energy is balanced everything works better including your mood.

Where is your depression coming from? Hormonal shifts such as menopause, "man"opause, adrenal insufficiency, and thyroid disorder, also contribute to depression. Many women and men I've seen get depressed during hormonal life shifts. Symptoms improve when menopausal hormones have been balanced. Each hormone can be supported with natural treatments if you know what your imbalance is.

We can now measure chemicals produced in your brain using a simple urine test. Serotonin, dopamine, GABA, and epinephrine are a just a few of the neurotransmitters that affect our energy levels, mood, and behavior. Each of these chemicals can be raised naturally with either amino acid supplements such as 5HTP or L.phenylalanine, or herbs such as rodiola, mucuna puriens, and holy basil. 

When all else isn’t working, sometimes you really do need to take a medication. I always look at medication in the same way I look at other modalities, its just part of the continuum of finding balance. I recommend that you seek a good psychiatrist who is familiar with nutritional support as well as medication and begin with a low dose of whatever medication is being recommended. Stay in touch with your psychiatrist, or your integrative doctor, report how you feel, what side effects if any, and listen to your body. You will know if it’s helping within a month of taking it.

Don’t overlook the healing qualities of touch and fun: massage, vacations, romps in the park, helping someone in need, and daily hugs. Recent research shows that a minimum of four hugs a day are needed for emotional balance. 

 Western medicine says that allergies result from an imbalance in the immune system due to an overreaction to the stimuli of pollens, dust, fungi, and other airborne irritants. In the system of Chinese medicine, allergies result from a combination of imbalances in the body. Each person may require different treatment. A surprising area of imbalance with allergies for some may be connected to hormones. If you’ve had a lot of stress in your life, your hormones may not be in balance. When they are out of balance, you may begin reacting negatively to any number of stimuli in your environment. This is also why allegies might get worse with menopause.

 Researchers from the European Centre for Environment & Human Health, along with several Australian institutions found that children living in areas with lower levels of sunlight are twice as likely to develop food allergies, compared to those in areas with higher UV. Clearly there is more than an immune system overreaction at play.

 Natural treatments can alleviate the severity of allergies and even prevent them from coming on. Using acupuncture and Chinese herbs several months or even a few weeks before allergy season arrives will prevent symptoms and possibly cure your allergies. Conventional allergy medications might help symptoms as well, but they tend to have more side effects and  don't solve the problem. 

 Western herbs, homeopathy and some basic nutritional supplements also can alleviate symptoms of allergies. Many natural products actually work the better than some antihistamines work, by stabilizing your immune system so it doesn't react. 

 According to Chinese medicine each season is associated with a major organ that is more sensitive to imbalance during that time of year. Springtime is the season of the liver. Amongst other functions, the liver rules the smooth flow of energy in the body, deals with stress, and regulates the menstrual cycles. It is sensitive to wind and rules the emotion of anger.

 Over the years of working with Allergies and Chinese medicine, I’ve observed that people tend to be somewhat irritable in springtime, especially on windy days. Sneezing is called rebellious qi, where the energy of the lungs is going in the wrong direction. This is usually provoked when wind stirs up the liver energy. In my experience I have many clients who find it hard to live in our high paced, modern lives. We’ve forgotten that we were once much more connected to our earth and our environment. Perhaps allergies are a way of rebelling.

 Grief like most painful emotions is one that we don’t deal with well in our modern culture. Everything is moving so fast that we barely give ourselves time to process before we have to be back at work or dealing with daily life. Because we don’t acknowledge how we feel, our feelings become unconscious and leak out in unexpected ways. They can cause serious consequences such as losing your job, sleep disorders, weight gain or loss, or more serious physical illnesses.

 Not all grief is due to the death of a loved one. Candy came to me a few years ago with chronic sinus infections. She had been on antibiotics almost every two months for two years. Tired of taking them, she wanted a new solution. Somehow she felt that her answers were not in having sinus surgery. In the initial interview, I learned that her husband had left her two and a half years ago for another woman. She was devastated by the loss and had not felt well since. She hadn’t made the link between her sinus problems and the grief of her loss.

 We often assume that we need to get over grief quickly so we repress our pain. Sometimes we can be grieving and not even know it. If you’ve ever tried to go on in your normal life while ignoring your pain, you may notice that your carpeted emotions began to sabotage your life.

 I like the Jewish tradition, of “sitting Shiva”. When a relative dies, the ritual requires a week long mourning period of sitting quietly after the funeral. Sitting Shiva allows you to take time out of your life to really be with your emotions and your family. By acknowledging your emotions, you don’t have to let them come out in unconscious ways.

 After a trauma, allow your emotions time to be, without judgment. Create your own sitting Shivas to deal with pain. I recommend spending as little 30- 60 minutes each day allowing yourself to grieve or feel whatever emotion you’re processing. It’s not about indulging but about paying attention to what is really going on. If you create the time for your emotions, it will give you a chance to function normally at other times of your day.

 Elizabeth Kubler-Ross famously wrote about the five stages of grief. Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally acceptance are emotions that arise as we deal with the loss of our loved one or another equally big trauma. Eventually we all have to arrive at acceptance but we can’t do that if we don’t know that we have grief.

 After a series of acupuncture treatments for PTSD, Mary’s ovarian cyst went away. A few months after treatment she came back to my office and told me that she was able to begin going in new directions in her life including a new diet/exercise program and a new career.

 We all have our hard times in life, no matter how they came about. Ultimately our goal is healing and acceptance.

I feel like spring-time is a time for cleaning inside and out.

I invite you to join me on a ten day long spring cleanse, starting March 15^th to tidy up our insides as much as our homes. Stay tuned for my updates and feel free to post yours as well.

 There are 5 main components to this cleanse: 1) Green drinks, 2) fiber and intestinal cleansing, 3) Lots of vegetables - 50% of your food, 4) Yoga or qi gong moves every morning, and 5) the Forgiveness meditation. While doing this cleanse, I would recommend that you stop dairy, sugar, gluten containing foods, and alcohol. If you have caffeine, I would suggest tea rather than coffee, with no milk or sugar in it.

 1) Green Drink Recipe: Make a green drink every morning, using a blender, vitamixer, or other superblender. Take a small apple, 1/2 banana, some blueberries, strawberries, or raspberries and add 3-4 leaves of chard, spinach (a handfull in this case) or kale, and dandelion leaves, a piece of ginger (depending on your taste), a tablespoon of chia seeds or ground flax seeds, a tablespoon of sunflower seeds or 3 walnuts, and 1/2 a lemon. Pour water over the top, and some ice if you like, blend until everything is liquefied. Pour into mason jar. Drink a glass for breakfast and then sip it all day. Another option for a green drink is using Organic Raw Protein Powder from Garden of life, greens powder from Garden of life, water, blueberries, a handful of spinach or chard, and a date.

 2) Options for fiber and intestinal cleansing: The easiest is to buy Yerba Prima all fiber capsules, beginning on the first day of the cleanse. Take 2 capsules twice a day, then increase to 3 the next day. 4 the day after that. On the 5th day of the cleanse, begin taking bentonite clay - 1 tablespoon twice a day, with lots of water. You will only do this for 3 days. Drink plenty of water with all this fiber. If you want to use liver cleansing herbs, Amazon herbs makes a product I like, Fiberzon, which has herbs for cleansing in it. You can just use 2 doses of that per day instead of the fiber and bentonite clay. The point of this cleanse is to make it easy for you to do, which will make it more likely that you'll do it.

 3) Diet: 50% vegetables, meaning that all day, everything you eat, half of it should be vegetables. You can steam, bake, boil, stir fry, whatever works for you. You can eat any protein you like, meat, fish, chicken, beans, whatever feels good. Toasted walnuts are another good source of protein/fat that you could have with your breakfast. You can also eat grains. Fruits are okay but I would only have them in the green drink for this diet.

The Dieting Don’t List: Don't eat any white foods at all - ie bread, sugar, milk, dairy, cheese, even bananas aren't great. Do not skip meals. Have at least 3 meals a day. You can have the green drink for a snack or you can have some veggies and protein for a snack.

 4) Yoga or qi gong moves in the AM: Practice moving your body in a gentle way. You can take a class or find a dvd that has some poses. Or, if you know some yoga, practice what you know and make it your routine. You should do some form of slower movement for 20 minutes a day. If you decide to do some cardio, try to go outside and take walks. Be more reflective in your exercising this week. If you know the sun salutation, you can do it 12 times a day for the week.

 5) The Forgiveness meditation: The liver is the organ that is most active in spring time. It has to do with the emotions of anger and frustration. The best way to heal anger is to find that place of forgiveness inside of ourselves. In the 5 elements system, the liver leads to the heart, which represents the emotion of joy. To find joy, you need to find forgiveness. For our cleanse, since we are focusing on the liver, I would like to have everyone do 5 minutes a day of forgiveness meditation.

         Propel your mind, body, and spirit forward with this great experiment. Even if you can’t do every component, or last for a full week….

 When we feel rushed for time, we often think we can’t do the things that will help us take care of ourselves. Of course time stress is one of the things that throws us off and increases our overall sensation of stress. Making it harder for us to feel well. It becomes a vicious circle. So many people I see tell me that they don’t have time to eat well or exercise regularly because they’re just too busy.

 In the world of financial advisors, you are often advised to “pay yourself first”. It means to give money to yourself before you give it to others. The standard advice is to take 10% of your income off the top in order to create a savings account. In my experience, time management works much like money management; you have to give yourself time first.

 In that light, today I’m suggesting some time management tips so that you will be able to take care of your health, which will in turn help you feel less stressed. As with money management, you need to set aside time in each day to take care of yourself. As you review your plans for any given day, or better yet, the week. Look at your schedule and find time for exercise and healthy eating. Put those times down in your calendar, in ink. Don’t let anything else interrupt that part of your schedule.

 If you have to get up a half hour earlier to do half an hour of exercise, do that and get the exercise out of the way for the day. I usually have to get up earlier to get my writing in or I won’t do it.

 Other suggestions for time management include:

Evaluate how you’re spending your time – keep a diary for three days of everything you do, including time for shower, brushing your teeth, getting ready for bed, cooking your meals, and sitting in front of the TV. At the end of those three days, see how you’re spending you time and evaluate to see if you’re getting what you want out of your days. Perhaps a half hour less TV might give you the time you need to do everything.

Keep a daily schedule – this should include your workout and eating times, and other things that have to be done

Prioritize your tasks – make sure you have time for the most important things you need to do by setting them in order of priority.

Delegate what you can – if you have things you can delegate to someone else, do that.

Take the time you need to do a good job – when you have an important job, make sure that you give it enough time to make sure you do it well.

Break large tasks into smaller chunks of time – if you have a big job, schedule it into your days in smaller amounts of time.

Take a break when you need it – if you know that you need breaks, schedule them into your day. Schedule some breaks where you step away from your tasks and take deep breaths, look outside, or even stretch so that you can continue your work in a better way.

 When you allow yourself the time to relax, your day will flow more smoothly and you will actually feel like you’re getting more done. My mom used to joke about expanding time when we were driving somewhere and we were late. She’d say “lets expand time now so that we’ll get there.” Oddly enough, it always worked; we’d end up being on time for our appointments without her having to drive faster! Of course that didn't stop her from speeding anyway.

 According to the Sacramento Bee, “The Northern Sierra Nevada, a region critical to statewide water supplies, experienced its third driest December since record keeping began in 1920.” While Californians recognize this year's dry winter season, many can’t help but to mourn the sights of the much needed recent showers.

 How many of you find the weather getting to you at this time of year? Generally I love the winter weather, but endless gray skies begin to get to my usually sunny nature.

 SAD (seasonal affective disorder) affects many people. People become more tired, cranky, moody and unhappy than usual due to the lack of sun in their lives. Symptoms of SAD include sleepiness, depression, overeating and carbohydrate cravings, lack of sociability, loss of libido, and mood changes. It is natural for most people to have some of these symptoms in winter, being that we respond to nature. The diagnosis of SAD occurs when the depression becomes so severe that a person has a hard time functioning.

 SAD is due to the lack of sunlight during the day and even though we are having an unusually sunny winter, it is also the length of daylight hours that affect our mood. Many people – 85 percent – respond to treatment of SAD using a light box. The duration of recommended usage per day varies depending on the strength of light from the box. A 10,000 lux box available for $169 only needs to be used a half-hour per day, whereas a 2,500 lux box requires four hours of exposure. It should be used daily and is usually effective within 3-4 days. You can sit in front of it and do any normal activity such as reading or writing or working at your desk.

 There are other treatments for SAD. One of the best mood elevators is doing fun things with your favorite people. In addition, exercising keeps your energy up and increases circulating endorphins that are good for the mood. In terms of nutrition, a low carbohydrate diet helps the blood sugar remain steady, preventing ups and downs.

 People who get severely depressed sometimes need antidepressants to get them through the season. If that is the case, it is best to begin medications in the autumn before symptoms get really bad. Drugs like Prozac, Wellbutrin, and Effexor tend to help people be more alert and active.

 If you are against using these kinds of medications there are many herbs and supplements that can help support the mood. If you have a doctor who understands how to use herbs, you can get a supplement that is personalized to your particular symptoms. 5 HTP, SAM-e, St John’s Wort, Shizandra and B-vitamins are among just a few. An Ayurvedic herb called “holy basil” is remarkably effective at calming the adrenal glands and anxiety without a drug effect.

 Winter is a wonderful time to focus on your inner self and do things that you wouldn’t do at other times of the year. Invest in your happiness and take time to do things that you love this season. Or, if you feel so inclined, just hibernate!

 When I was a young physician and began making money for the first time in my life, someone came up to me and said that it was time for me to have a “financial plan”. Ooooh! I had no idea at the time what that meant. Of course, that same person quickly began to educate me, being a financial planner.

 As most of you know, a financial plan is a system of making sure that your money is working for you so you can begin to make more than you need for immediate survival. Within that framework of taking care of your finances, you are often encouraged to invest in large insurance policies that will cover you “just in case”.  Often the “just in case” is a bad thing that happens to your health. But no one ever talks to you about having a plan for your health.

 Why not have a plan for your health? Doesn’t it make sense to figure out what your health needs might be and to take care of them so that you don’t need to worry about illness? Most people think that their health insurance is their health plan, but it isn’t really. Health insurance covers you when you are sick with something and allows for you to have tests that will be paid by insurance, only if you have evidence that you need those tests.

Our insurance culture is designed around waiting for us to get a serious illness. It doesn’t cover planning for us to remain healthy so that we can do what we want for as long as we like.

 I propose that everyone should have a Health Plan, which involves an understanding of what health means to you, and a plan for sustaining your health. It should be reviewed annually, and acted upon with the intention of being able to enjoy your favorite activities and have fun as much as possible.

 A good health plan should involve a review of your lifestyle, including how you eat, sleep, work, exercise, attitudes, and whether you are enjoying your life, a physical exam, and a discussion of your desires for your health. Together you and your practitioner should then create a plan for how you will achieve your desires for health in the coming year.

I love this time of year for so many reasons. The music, the parties, dressing up, sharing meals with friends, and focusing on sharing time with my closest friends. It wasn’t always one of my favorite holidays. I would be anxiously figuring out what gifts to get for everyone on my list, trying to create an impressive meal for whoever was coming over, and during my years as an Emergency Doctor, often I’d be working in the ER seeing drunk, unhappy people.

I could always count on someone in my family having a fight or getting upset about something. Rarely did I experience a Christmas where things were peaceful without drama and people got and gave gifts that they loved.

Somehow I decided that Christmas gifts should mean something special at a young age. It shouldn’t just be about buying expensive gifts for people that you didn’t care about. Every year, I spent a lot of energy thinking about what gifts I would give to my friends and family, in order to make sure they were happy. My way of doing that was to make something. One year I made quilts, another I knit sweaters. Every year, I had some hobby that I inflicted on my friends and family, thinking because I’d made it myself, it should be special. I remember the year that I made my mom a big orange red and yellow quilt for her bed. The look on her face told me that she didn’t love it, but she was pretending to. She had bought me a brown leather purse that I just hated, and pretended that I loved. The whole event had an emptiness that was painful to experience.

20 years ago, I decided that I didn’t want to have unhappy stressful Christmas times any more. I wanted to enjoy myself as much as possible and bring joy to those around me. I set about trying to figure out how to do that. I called my friends and family and asked them if it would be all right with them if I didn’t do presents this year. They all agreed it would be fine. That was the first year I felt somewhat relaxed during the holidays. I had no expectations, no worries about whether someone would like their gifts or not and I didn’t have to worry about acting like I enjoyed whatever things someone else gave me.

Since then, as the holidays approach, I’ve had a conversation with whoever was going to be participating about how we want to spend our time this year. Do we want to do gifts, where do we want to go, who do we want to be with. We never do gifts, which removes a lot of stress from the occasion. For years, we did a holiday party at my office every December, starting the season out in the mood. I hadn’t done that for a few years and decided to start doing them again this year. It really put me in the mood for the holidays. 

I want to invite you to have a different holiday season this year. Even if you decide you want to do gifts and big feasts, think about changing the focus of the holiday to make it more about the love and friendship in your life. Find special ways to enjoy the people you love. Sit down with everyone who will be involved in the holidays and have a discussion. How do you all want to spend the days? Do you want to share the same meal you usually do? Whose house will it be at? If there’s a lot of travel involved, do you want to save the travel for another time of year, when its easier? Ask each other how you can create the most love, fun, joy, and pleasure during this special time of year.

We often take our daily stress out on the people who are closest to us for any number of reasons. We might be angry about something else. Old childhood patterns play a role in making us see our partners according to a bygone experience rather than how they really are.

Perhaps we think that dumping on our loved ones is natural or okay to do because that’s what we learned as children. We create more problems when we do. He may not act on it right away but eventually the man I saw in the store will release his anger. Abuse increases stress in the home. Suppressing our feelings brings health problems later. This man might later have heart disease and never know that it had to do with his suppressed anger.

Ideally our home should be a haven from the rest of the world. Whatever stress is going on in our lives, coming home should feel good, and the loved ones we live with should feel like they are supporting us.

 How can you create a haven for yourself? Recognize that whatever your life is like, you made the choice to be there. Find a way to forgive your past. Drop the need to be right. I was eavesdropping in the gym one day when a woman was griping about her husband. She was determined to continue battling with him until he got that she was right. Being right was more important than whatever love she had for him. Rather than getting caught up with being right when you have a conflict, determine that you want to find a solution to the problem together. If you set your mind to finding loving solutions, your behaviors and responses will automatically change.

When you’re having a stressful time in your life, try to see your mate as your ally instead of as the enemy. Try your best not to take it out on him/her even if the stress looks like its related to something he’s doing.  You can become closer because of your willingness not to blame each other if you can wait it out. Your outside stresses can become easier to bear if you remember the love you have. It helps to remember that your mate or children are usually not the cause of your stress. Use them to help you feel better rather than worse. Work at creating friendship in your home.

There are many ways to begin creating your haven. Some friends of mine keep a little box in a central part of their house for love notes. When things are going well, they write nice notes to each other and put them in the box. During hard times they take the notes out and read them to each other.

Try to find something to laugh about together every day-or at least once a week. One man I know takes songs and changes the words to make a silly expression of how he feels about things. He sings them to his wife and makes her laugh. Make a date night at least once a month, preferably more often, try to do something that shows your partner you love and appreciate her.

No matter what is going wrong, there’s always something to be grateful for. We are often told that successful people know how to be grateful. Try practicing gratitude every day even if all you can think of is to be happy that you don’t live in Afghanistan.

As the holidays approach this year, think of something fun and loving to do that’s completely different than the usual annual ritual you have. Not that you have to change your ritual, just add something new, fun, and personal into the mix.

      Even though California is sneaky about its seasons, your system knows they are coming and going. In Chinese medicine, each organ system is ruled by a season: fall rules the lungs, winter the kidneys, spring the liver, and while the heart is influenced by early summer, late summer takes on the spleen and stomach. Each season brings a particular health risk to the organ that it governs.

            With no other organ is this as clear as with the lungs. In fall, kids come together in a crowded classroom, bringing all the viruses they’ve collected over the summer to pass freely among their classmates. The flu season is arriving earlier this year. You can prevent a lot of that right now with your annual fall tune-up.

            If you read this column regularly, you know I’m not a fan of flu shots. Basic good health and preventive measures will protect you against many more illnesses than a single flu shot.  Take your usual preventive vitamins and supplements with extra vitamin C and omega fatty acids such as fish oil to keep you healthy.

            Use specific herbs to help balance the lungs. Astragalus strengthens the lungs and the immune system, and can be used safely for a long time. Even children can use it safely. Start now for early prevention and immune building. Host Defense made by New Chapter is a formula made of sixteen different medicinal mushrooms. You can take it all winter long without harm to your body. I recommend it to people who tend to get sick often in the winter.

            At the first sign of a winter flu or cold, begin to take some herbs. Wellness formula has many herbs you can use to get rid of a cold at the beginning. Several Chinese herbal formulas available over the counter can also help. Yin Qiao is good for flu symptoms. Gan Mao Ling is good for colds with scratchy throat and runny nose. All of these products should be taken several times a day beginning as soon as you feel symptoms. They don’t work if you just take one.

            Hydrogen peroxide is one of my favorite home remedies. I recommend that you make a gargle of hydrogen peroxide diluted either with water or a little mouth wash. Use it as soon as you feel a scratchy throat starting. Gargle with the solution as far back in your throat as you can get it. Hold it there for a minute if you can. Do that up to three times in an hour. You can interrupt the life cycle of the virus or bacteria if you catch it early enough.

             Last but not least, try to keep your stress levels down this season. If you remember to take it easy sometimes, especially when things feel their craziest, you won’t even need to take herbs to keep you from getting sick.