Dietary and Lifestyle Recommendations

Consume Adequate Amounts of Calcium and Protein During stressful times, body protein is broken down to provide the body with energy. Over an extended period, this can lead to a loss of muscle. Another nutrient lost from the body during stress is calcium. This can be extremely serious, as it weakens the bones and increases the risk of osteoporosis . Strategy To safeguard your body's supply of these nutrients with­out compromising its health, make sure that you get plenty of foods containing these nutrients . Ideally, you should eat two portions of protein-rich foods and 1,000 milligrams (one gram) of calcium daily. Getting this much dietary calcium from foods is difficult, however, so an acceptable alternative is to take a calcium supplement. Five hundred milligrams of calcium should be taken twice daily in the form of 1,250 milligrams of calcium carbonate, at mid morning and just before bedtime. Try ptophan is useful in treating depression when it is taken by someone who is experiencing carbohydrate craving. It is believed that such cravings are caused by inadequate levels of serotonin in the brain. A carbohydrate-rich, low-protein meal increases brain serotonin levels because such a meal reduces the blood levels of most amino acids (the building blocks of protein), but not of tryptophan. Tryp tophan competes with many of the other amino acids for a place on the transport mechanism that gives entry into the brain. After a high­carbohydrate meal, tryptophan has less competition and so brain levels rise. This serves to increase brain serotonin levels as well.

Though the increases produced by eating a high-carbohydrate meal only are small, taking a tryptophan supplement greatly increases relative brain levels. Protein-rich meals have, of course, the opposite effect, decreasing both tryptophan and serotonin levels. Strategy If you are suffering from depression and also find yourself craving carbohydrates, try eating a diet in which no more than 10 to 15 percent of your total calories come from protein sources . If this doesn't seem to have much of an effect, a daily supplement of 1,000 to 3,000 milligrams of tryptophan per day might be the answer. It should be taken in three equal doses and consumed after meals. The effects of tryptophan last only a few hours, and so repeated doses are necessary. Taking the supplement after meals will prevent the nausea some people experience as a side effect. Obviously, the lower the dosage the better, and so you should experiment within the dosage range in order to see at which level you get concrete results. Never take more than 3,000 milligrams (three grams) of tryptophan a day without a doctor's supervision.

If your depression is severe, and if drug treatment and psychotherapy don't seem to be working, your doctor may suggest ECT. Also learn about some natural herbal supplements for depression treatment.