Medical Questions » Mental Health Questions » Question No. 1559
| Question: | I' m prone to anxiety attacks. Which natural remedies can help? |
| Answer: | If you are deficient in B vitamins or magnesium, this can leave your nervous system more hyped up. As a result, you can overreact to stress and find it harder to relax and to sleep. The easiest way to test this is to take a B complex supplement and 300mg of magnesium every day. Another possible factor is your blood sugar. If you crave sweet foods or stimulants such as tea, coffee, chocolate or cigarettes, you may have poor blood sugar control. Again, this can lead to overreactions to stressful situations. The solution here is to eat wholefoods and enough protein to balance out your carbohydrates, which will have a stabilizing effect on your blood sugar levels. This means ensuring you have a handful of seeds with fruit, hummus with oatcakes, torn or chicken with rice or potatoes and so on. Supplementing 200mcg of chromium can help, too.
With the recent ban on off-the-shelf kava kava, the most effective anti-anxiety herb, you need to look elsewhere for remedies. GABA is one. Anxiety arises when the body overproduces the stress hormone adrenalin. The body' s own antidote to this is GABA, an amino -acid. You can buy GABA in healthfood stores: take 500mg or l.OOOmg when you are feeling anxious. However, don' t overdo it -5,000mg will make most people nauseated. Another amino acid, taurine, has a similar effect. The best available herbal remedies are hops, passion flower and valerian. Valerian is the strongest, although be aware that it also makes you sleepy. Combinations of these herbs and amino acids are most effective for relieving anxiety.
It is vital to get to the root of what' s making you anxious. A reputable counselor or therapist can help. Or consider taking up yoga, t' ai chi or meditation to help you respond more calmly to life' s inevitable stresses. |
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