Natural Mental Health Treatment Perth

Functional Medicine for Anxiety and Depression & OCD

Mental Health is a broad subject that affects most Australians and Perth residents at some point in their life. Depression, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), schizophrenia and paranoia are some of the more common conditions. In addition to these common mental illnesses, many people do not class themselves as having a mental health disorder. However, often they don’t feel great. They don’t feel like themselves or feel the need to withdraw on a regular basis.

From pharmaceutical medications to meditation, there is a range of treatment options. Many pharmaceutical drugs can cause long-term side effects. These are often used long-term instead of treating the underlying cause of the condition.

There are other ways to address these imbalances. Natural mental health treatment has a high success rate and resolve the problem at the root cause, rather than just masking symptoms and continually requiring medications to be increased or added. Correcting brain imbalances and key nutrient imbalances will achieve excellent results without unwanted side effects. Addressing detoxification pathways and underlying body system dysfunctions in areas such as the gut and methylation are also key in resolving long term mental health disorders.

Common Mental Health Conditions

• Depression
• Anxiety
• OCD
• Schizophrenia
• Paranoia

Underlying factors contributing to Anxiety, Depression, OCD and other Mental health conditions

All the mental health conditions and symptoms have strong underlying traits that are apparent when functional medical testing is performed. Six key areas that affect mental health are:

Key Nutrient imbalances

The following are the key nutrient imbalances affecting how our brain is functioning.

• Low B12 (methylcobalamin)
• High copper and low zinc
• Low B6 
• Low SAMe
• Low B3 (nicotinamide)

Neurotransmitters

The following are the neurotransmitters that might go out of balance.

• Excessive dopamine in OCD
• Low serotonin in depression – May be assisted with 5-Hydroxytryptophan (5HTP) 
• Low GABA in anxiety.

Gut Health

Many of the precursors to the production of your neurotransmitters are made in the gut. Poor gut health and digestive disorders create a long term recipe for mental health symptoms.

Methylation

It is a key biochemical process, involved in many processes in the body. This process influences neurotransmitters, detoxification and the production of amino acids and nutrients.

Detoxification pathways

With impaired detoxification pathways, we cannot clear the required amounts of toxins, heavy metals and hormones. These substances then begin to create an environment that contributes negatively to our overall state of mind

Diet and lifestyle

A healthy diet and lifestyle with adequate and quality nutrition, sleep, movement and positive thoughts should never be underestimated. It is  a major contributing factor to the recovery from the symptoms of mental health.

Use of SSRI’s, SNRI’s and other anti-psychotic medications

There are many different classes of pharmaceutical medications used to treat mental health conditions in conventional health care models. Two of the most commonly used are:

• SSRI – Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors
• SNRI – Selective nor-epinephrine reuptake inhibitors

Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI)

SSRIs work on a mechanism that holds what serotonin is available in the synapse for longer. This allows the serotonin to be active for longer periods of time before being recycled.

Basically, serotonin is constantly being cycled in the active space between neurons (synapse) in the brain. Serotonin is active in the synapse for a brief period before being recycled in the brain. It is a continual process and an SSRI will hold the available serotonin in the synapse for longer. This allows the patient to receive the effects of the neurotransmitter for a longer period of time.

However, there can be a number of side effects related to the long term use of antidepressants . (1) 

Selective Nor-epinephrine Reuptake Inhibitors (SNRI)

SNRIs work on the same mechanism, but with nor-epinephrine instead of serotonin. Nor-epinephrine is a hormone and a neurotransmitter playing a part in a person’s mood and concentration. Times of stress releases it. SNRIs are often prescribed with ADD and ADHD, as well as depression.

Functional Medicine and  Mental Health 

Functional Medicine addresses the underlying dysfunctions that contribute to mental illness. Balancing neurochemistry, key nutrients, clearing excess toxic burdens and pathogens in the gut are all part of a functional medicine approach.

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