By: Valerie Balandra ARNP, BC

Your adrenal glands are two tiny pyramid-shaped pieces of tissue situated right above each kidney. Their job is to produce and release, when appropriate, certain regulatory hormones and chemical messengers.

Adrenaline is manufactured in the interior of the adrenal gland, called the adrenal medulla. Cortisol, the other chemical from the adrenal gland, is made in the exterior portion of the gland, called the adrenal cortex. The cort...
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Fight Depression Using Amino Acid Therapy

Major depression is a serious medical illness affecting 9.9 million American adults, or approximately 5 percent of the adult population in a given year. Unlike normal emotional experiences of sadness, loss, or passing mood states, major depression is persistent and can significantly interfere with an individual's thoughts, behavior, mood, activity, and physical health. Depression is typically treated...
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Medical Journal: Autism Rates Decline as Mercury Removed from Childhood Vaccines

Independent Analysis Refutes Institute of Medicine Claims of "No Relationship," While Mercury Still Used in Flu & Other Vaccines

TUCSON, AZ -- A new study shows that autism may be linked after all to the use of mercury in childhood vaccines, despite government's previous claims to the contrary.

An article in the March 10, 2006 issue of the...
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Depression is a medical illness that involves your thoughts, mood, and body. It affects the way a person eats and sleeps, the way one feels about oneself, and the way one thinks about things.

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Buff and Brainy

Exercising the body can benefit the mind
Christen Brownlee

This is part one of a two-part series on lifestyle and brain fitness. Part II: "Eat Smart," is available at http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20060304/bob8.asp.

Anyone who frequents the local gym has probably noticed a cyclical pattern to attendance. Workout king...
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Can a Neurotransmitter Imbalance be causing your mood problems?

By Valerie Balandra ARNP, BC

Neurotransmitters are powerful chemicals that regulate numerous physical and emotional processes such as cognitive and mental performance, emotional states and pain response. Virtually all functions in life are controlled by neurotransmitters.

Interactions between neurotransmitters, hormones, and the brain chemicals ...
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Creative Responses to Stress:
A holistic approach
by Jay Busemeyer

Stress can be seen as positive or negative. Challenges can be stressful yet growth producing! With too little stress we may become bored with life. As our daily stress increases, it becomes very important to learn how to manage stress to remain healthy and to reach our true potential. In this presentation we will examine the physical, psychological and spiritual factors in stress managemen...
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Eat Smart

Foods may affect the brain as well as the body
Christen Brownlee

At family dinner tables around the globe, prodding mothers have dished out the same refrain for decades: "Eat your fish," they say. "It's brain food!" For children picking at crusty fish sticks or blobs of pink poached salmon, the statement raises suspicions. But the message is turning out to be more than just an attempt to get children to ...
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OpEdNews.com
Is It Really Anxiety Disorder?
by Kenneth W. Thomas, RN
April 4, 2006

"Doctor, I don't sleep well. I feel nervous for no reason. My hands
tremble and my palms sweat at times. Sometimes I feel like my heart
beats too hard or is skipping a beat. It scares me. I get moody;
sometimes I'm depressed. I can't seem to concentrate at work.
What's wrong with me?"

Depending on which kind of doctor he's t...
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The Mental Health Risks of Adolescent Cannabis Use
Wayne Hall

Wayne Hall is Professor of Public Health Policy at the School of Population Health, University of Queensland, Herston, Australia. E-mail: w.hall@sph.uq.edu.au

Competing Interests: The author declares that he has no competing interests.

Published: January 24, 2006

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0030039

Copyright: © 2006 Wayne Hall. This ...
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Major depression is a serious medical illness affecting 10 to 14 million adults. It involves disturbances in mood, concentration, sleep, activity level, interests, appetite, and social behavior. Depression can develop in anyone, regardless of race, culture, social class, age, or gender. Many people suffering from depression are not aware that there are natural remedies for depression that are a safe and effective alternative to psychiatric med...
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Neurotransmitters are the chemical messengers of the nervous system, essential for relaying signals within the brain and communicating with all organ systems of the body.

A neurotransmitter imbalance is an underlying cause f...
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Nutritional Deficiency: Symptoms & Recommendations For 24 Common Nutritional Deficiencies
By: B. SixWise

When the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion compiled their Healthy Eating Index for 1999-2000, they found only a slight reason to smile. Ten percent of the population had a good diet.

This was based on 10 aspects including how many servings of fruits, vegetables and meat were being consumed, along with...
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Preventing Pharmaceutical-Induced Nutritional Deficiencies
By Frederic Vagnini, MD, and Barry Fox, PhD
 
 
While pharmaceuticals have lifesaving benefits, many of these medications can have serious side effects, ranging from cardiac arrest to suicide.

Millions of Americans suffer from an almost completely ignored epidemic of drug-induced nutrient depletion that can cause grave health problems. Perhaps 30% of pharmaceutical side effects are the d...
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Psychiatric Drugs On The Couch
Matthew Herper, 04.03.06, 10:00 AM ET

New York -
A pair of giant, U.S. government-funded studies could drive changes in psychiatry that could slash sales of some of the world's biggest drug companies.

The clinical trials are part of a $140 million effort by the National Institute of Mental Health to compare the most common treatments for schizophrenia and depression. Already, both trials had shown that most patients didn'...
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Thirteen tips for a great nights sleep

By Blake Graham, BSc (Honours), AACNEM

If you find yourself tossing and turning every night or you are waking up before the birds you may want to try this list of recommendations for overcoming insomnia and achieving a great nights sleep. Insomnia is caused by a vast array of physical and emotional components so no one of these recommendations helps everyone. Overcoming stubborn...
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Urinary Neurotransmitter Testing: Myths and Misconceptions

The validity of urinary neurotransmitter measurements.
By Gottfried Kellermann, PhD

Background

Many diseases are associated with specific chemical alterations; these alterations are commonly called biomarkers and are routinely used to determine if a medical event or process will occur, is occurring, or has occurred. While they may be indirect, the interest in identifying chemical measurements that can be used as biomarkers is very high. T...
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Visualization - Fighting Phobias and Anxiety

Author: Thomas Chant

Exposure therapy often put fear into the heart of any one who as a simple phobia or agoraphobia, but does it have to be terrible?

Sure, you have to actually face what you fear, the apparent cause of all your discomfort, panic and anxiety, but isn't that what you have always wanted? To be able to go out and face it like a "normal person"? More importantly, are you doing e...
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Title: The Simplest Weight Loss Tips No One Follows!

Author: Will Brink

Article:

I have a Cheez-It problem. You're not listening, I really have a Cheez-It problem! I have never met a Cheez-It I didn't like.* Some people can't resist chocolate or ice cream, some people it's pizza or some other food or sweet. While I enjoy all of those foods on occasion, Cheez-It's are the food equivalent of crack cocaine for me.