Natural Treatments for Depression

Written by Samantha Gluck

online conference transcript

Syd Baumel, our guest and author of Dealing With Depression Naturally, joined us to discuss natural remedies for treating depression, stress, and PMS, from vitamins and herbs (such as St. John's Wort, Gingko, and more) to maintaining a healthy diet, and exercise.

To find out more about natural treatments for depression, read the transcript below.

David Roberts is the HealthyPlace.com moderator.

The people in blue are audience members.

David: Good Evening. I'm David Roberts. I'm the moderator for tonight's conference. I want to welcome everyone to HealthyPlace.com.

(note: see What is Depression?)

Our topic tonight is "Dealing With Depression Naturally." Our guest is Syd Baumel, author of a book by the same name. Mr. Baumel wrote Dealing With Depression Naturally after researching and using alternative therapies to treat his own depression. It covers many alternatives to treating depression, most of which employ readily obtainable vitamins and herbs, or feature cognitive therapy or exercise programs.

Mr. Baumel maintains that there are natural antidepressant therapies which can restore emotional health, from vitamins and dietary adjustments to visualization exercises and sleep therapy. Good evening, Syd, and welcome to HealthyPlace.com. To start with maybe you can tell us a bit about yourself and your history of depression?

Syd Baumel: Well, the depression bug first bit me in my teens about 30 years ago. It hit me like a ton of bricks. It took until my mid-twenties for me to find some lasting solutions - first drugs, then natural treatments, which I continue to use as needed to this day.

David: What lead you to start exploring natural remedies for depression?

Syd Baumel: I'm just one of those people who is drawn to natural approaches to solving problems. Ironically, the effectiveness of drugs helped me try harder to find natural chemical help.

David: What do you mean by that?

Syd Baumel: In my case, an amino acid called phenylalanine, which is a precursor to a few mood regulating neurochemicals, made the most dramatic and lasting difference.

David: If the pharmaceutical medications were effective, why would you turn to natural treatments?

Syd Baumel: They had very obvious and varyingly unpleasant side effects. Also, there was and always is the concern that a "xenobiotic" (foreign to the body) chemical could do harm if used chronically.

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David: There is one thing I'd like you to clarify for everyone here. When you talk about "natural treatments," what exactly are you referring to?

Syd Baumel: It's a very wide spectrum that excludes artificial/human-made drugs and includes such things as diet, exercise, meditation, psychotherapy, herbs, and preventative/therapeutic lifestyle changes, such as identifying and avoiding depressing toxic chemicals.

I better clarify that I'm not against "unnatural; antidepressants" in addition to the natural approaches.

David: Yes, in fact, I believe you mention that some of the natural treatments can be used in addition to taking pharmaceutical antidepressants.

Syd Baumel: And only a few of them - notably the natural chemical ones, including herbs - need to be taken with much caution when combining with drugs.

David: Before we get into the herbs and other substances, I'd like you to talk about how diet and exercise can impact a person's level of depression.

Syd Baumel: Exercise is the easiest one to answer, because there has been such a huge amount of research. Basically, it says that being physically active and being depressed are very largely mutually incompatible.

David: And so how much exercise is recommended?

Syd Baumel: Early research suggested that a typical aerobic conditioning regime - around 20 or 30 minutes of fairly intense aerobic exercise three times a week - would usually be very helpful. In the last decade or so, just as more moderate physical activity has been linked to better health in general, evidence that it too can be anti-depressive has begun to appear.

There also has been a parallel thread of research suggesting that non-aerobic exercise - especially of the weight-training type, but also perhaps things like yoga and tai chi - can work too.

David: And what about diet and depression?

Syd Baumel: There the research is mostly indirect. For example, study after study has found that depressed people tend to be deficient - mildly or severely - in nutrients known to be key to good mental health. Some research has gone further, suggesting that some of these vitamins and minerals can be therapeutic for depression.