Tired All The Time? The Reasons Might Surprise You

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Being tired all the time can be attributed to over scheduling and hectic lifestyles, however, there may be more serious reasons for chronic fatigue.

Check with your physician to see if you may be suffering from one of these five surprising reasons for chronic fatigue.

Curing The Winter Blahs With Food

Beating the Winter blues can be as simple as getting to your local fish market and stocking up on Omega-3 rich foods like salmon and nuts!

Research has begun to reveal how mindful eaters can choose their fuel to help achieve or maintain a desired mental state. The food you eat can also brighten your winter. Our moods are linked to the production or use of certain brain chemicals, and scientists have identified many of the natural chemicals in foods that change the way we feel. That’s right, you can eat certain foods in order to beat the winter blues. Food influences neurotransmitters by attaching to brain cells and changing the way they behave. This opens pathways to those cells, so that other mood-altering chemicals can come through the gates and attach themselves to brain cells.

Read more to find the kinds of foods to shake your winter moods.

Mental Depression Rises During Economic Recession

This iconic photo speaks volumes and still resonates today.

Rates of depression on the rise during the current financial recession.

More Americans commit suicide each year than die in motor vehicle accidents. Every year, more than 500,000 people attempt to take their own lives in the US and 30,000 of those attempts are successful. Of course correlation and causation aren’t the same thing, but there seems to be strong evidence that those who are being most hurt in the current economic crisis are killing themselves in ever greater numbers.

There is free help and counseling for those struggling with depression.

The Mental State of America

1 in 5 American adults is on some kind of mood altering drug.

Antidepressants are the psychiatric medications used to treat mood disorders that are defined by having depressive symptoms.

The most widely used antidepressants are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), a class of drugs that includes medications such as Prozac (fluoxetine), Paxil (paroxetine), Zoloft (sertraline) and Lexapro (escitalopram). Less used, but a popular alternative to SSRIs are serotonin–norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs); some of the commonly used medications in this drug class include Effexor (venlafaxine) and Cymbalta (duloxetine).

Women 45 and older are the most frequent users of anti-depressants.

Older Women Can Fight Depression With a 1,2 Punch

Two major factors to help older women overcome depression.

Less time watching television and more physical activity are the best cures for depression.

The women who exercised the most were about 20 percent less likely to exhibit the signs of depression. However, their risk of depression increased the more hours they spent watching TV each week.

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