Jeanne Bangston, a chiropractor at Millennium Medical (formerly Bradley Bangston) in St. Petersburg, is overcoming a ten-year battle with depression and weight gain. Both conditions were exacerbated by some very stressful life events including her parents dying – her father had Alzheimer’s, her mother cancer. What finally caused a turnaround for Jeanne is all about chemicals…in our brains.

Here is what goes on in our brains: In handling stress, the brain uses large quantities of chemicals called neurotransmitters, which you can think of as chemical messengers that transmit thought from one cell to the next (hence, the mind-body connection). How we experience emotion and how we feel is determined by certain neurotransmitters, and big problems occur when we experience neurotransmitter deficiencies.

There are three main causes for neurotransmitter irregularities: 1) genetic, that is, a person’s genetic makeup is responsible for low, high or balanced levels of transmitters from birth; 2) stress: any type of stress such as lack of sleep, health challenges, or everyday mental/emotional battles, will deplete “feel good” transmitters. Eventually, the amount of stress we endure causes the brain to run out of these chemicals; and 3) diet: it is nearly impossible to supply the amino acids that our brains manufacture transmitters from in our modern diets.

When our brain runs out of these transmitters or when different chemical levels decrease or increase, we experience things like anger, lack of sleep, irritability, anxiety, depression, and a constant release of adrenaline that causes high blood pressure, heart disease, gastrointestinal disease and many other problems. This is why studies indicate that stress contributes to as many as 80 percent of all major illnesses, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, endocrine and metabolic disease, skin disorders and many infectious ailments.

            Traditionally, medications have been prescribed to treat neurotransmitter deficiencies, such as anti-depressants to treat depression. But now the

DNA molecule has been broken down, with the resulting discovery that natural methods can be used to supply the necessary amino acids in the correct balance. Thanks to these advances, Jeanne, who has long promoted the use of natural, alternative modalities when possible, has found a way to treat this chemical problem by using an all-natural product.

Since being treated for very low serotonin and norepinephrine levels, Jeanne has lost weight, has more energy, sleeps better, and says her depression is lifting. “One of the reasons people gain weight is their serotonin levels are depleted. Then you crave carbohydrates, you crave caffeine … you do all these things to keep your motor running and your mood lifted. The first change I noticed was more energy and better sleep,” Jeanne says.

“Most of all, I enjoy what I do again.”