My chiropractor suggested that I have him do a nutritional analysis to see what my body is either lacking or too high in. He stated that although my anxiety and depression are because of my PTSD, that nutrition can magnify the symptoms. So on Friday we are going to do a nutritional analysis of my system. Anyone hear of such before or tried it?

Hi Nie,

Diet and nutrition are very important. If you are lacking in any vitamins, or nutrients it can throw your body off. I have a low Vit d count. It contributes to depression, so I have to take Vit D 3 everyday. I also just went through a phase of anxiety, bad depression and some pretty heavy weird thoughts. Found out I had a UTI. A round of Anti biotics and I felt better mentally.... So I think that healthy eating is important. I would go for the test and stuff. It wouldn't hurt, and it might help....

I concur with your chiropractor, though not sure if a chiropractor should be doing it, instead a nutritionist is the best bet. This is exactly what weight loss centres do these days, in that they do blood tests and determine what works with your body vs. against it. Same thing... in that to change your diet, remove certain types of food and introduce others, you will find your general health as a whole will improve, which directly impacts depression and anxiety. Combine this with exercise, and well, you just about control anxiety and depression without the need for medication, let alone if you have learnt how to manage PTSD itself, which incorporates nutrition and exercise anyhow.

I've not had a professional analysis, but I do know that I pay much closer attention to my diet, vitamins, etc. since PTSD and eating better food does help with my symptoms. Throwing exercise into the mix helps a lot, too. I find that if I take better care of myself, physically and emotionally, that even when I do have symptoms come up, I'm able to deal with them better.

I hope this analysis helps you to make yourself healthier.

Lisa

I would recommend to most that they do a search and find nutritional resources which can help themselves change lifestyle eating habits, loose weight which reduces stress upon the body, exercise, etc. Such sites to help could be:

• http://www.nutritionaustralia.org
• http://www.nutrition.gov
• http://www.healthinsite.gov.au
• http://www.ais.org.au/nutrition/

There are plenty more. The Government one's from Australia and the US are good resources that contain Government endorsed sites. The AIS stands for (Australian Institute of Sports), so it is my recommendation.

hi, nie,

A couple of approaches I've found helpful on this topic are:

1.) Taking a suspect food, say, 'chocolate', 'Coca Cola' or something "processed" that I'm having doubts about, and I purposefully consume it to excess for a short while (both quantity and frequency). That's proven to be a pretty surefire way for me to confirm when that's something to either avoid, or, greatly limit in future. [I suffer from sugar withdrawal anxiety, and used to be addicted to Coca Cola, but even excessive chocolate or cookies would trigger it. At least knowing the likely cause, has been helpful in riding out episodes.]

2.) Ignore the country "Food Guides" if you've the energy to do your own research (in Canada & the U.S., the guides are heavily influenced by the meat, dairy and poultry industries), as "30% calories from (animal) fat" (target) is way, way too high a target level (likely to lead to heart disease unless perhaps your activity level's very high), but that level appeared to be the only way those industries could avoid collapsing from people truly starting to 'eat healthy', imo.

Veggies, whole grains, legumes(beans) rule, and meat, dairy and poultry, if you consume those, should be in moderation is my suggestion, almost classed as 'treats' (less so in children, but, where childhood obesity's out of control, some moderation even there is my recommendation). The usual objection I hear is: "We won't get enough protein!" Well, this is where 'combining' foods prudently enters the picture. For example, a hearty meal of brown rice & beans, because of the way the amino acids from each are digested, provide a complete and useable protein source for our bodies, which we'd not receive if we ate them separately.

If we tried to satisfy our protein requirements by eating them separately, we could do it, but, at an enormous calorie cost as we'd need to eat way more of each. Plant proteins are 'incomplete' as individually, plants do not contain the correct ratios of amino acids our bodies need to reform those into animal (human) protein. But, different types of plants have different ratios, and we can take advantage of that, through 'combining'.

A serious side benefit of getting more of your calories from non-flesh sources, is the myriad of vegetation's nutritional components you just don't receive otherwise, along with a generally higher fiber content (= more filling with less calorie cost). In a very real way, aside from their protein content, animal flesh sources of food might well be thought of as 'empty' calories.

Don

ps. Shopping Tip: It's good to have a plan of what you need for good eating before you walk into a grocery store. I figure you don't want to just walk in and fill your cart with what looks pretty and edible, as that's a form of Russian Roulette that you're too likely to lose playing: there's typically 50,000+ products and perhaps only 200 or so of those are especially healthy (and they're mostly stocked around the perimeter in most North American stores' layouts).

I wish I could remember an adage I heard some time ago. The gist of it was "If your grama did not eat it when she was a girl then you should not eat it at all" Or something like that.

But it was referring to all the processed and fast food we consume. additives, color and ,my god, the chemicals in most of the food these days.

Food for thought HA HA I made a funny

But it was referring to the