During an acute stress response, your body undergoes chemical changes known as the flight-or-fight response.
Unfortunately, some of those same life-saving chemical reactions used to protect you from danger may also be triggered as a coping response to perceived societal dangers, which makes it difficult for your body to turn off the stress response.
One potential trigger to chronic stress response is suboptimal levels of vitamin D, magnesium, and omega-3 fatty acids — luckily there is something we can do about that.
Vitamin D Improves Symptoms of Depression and Anxiety
Vitamin D, otherwise known as the sunshine vitamin, is really a hormone produced by your body after exposure to UVB rays from the sun. This important vitamin plays a significant role in several health conditions in your body. Deficiency in childhood may increase your risk of high blood pressure, and deficiency in adulthood may increase your risk of cancer and all-cause mortality.
In an evaluation of the relationship between vitamin D and animal neuronal cells, one research team found vitamin D maintains the extracellular mood-regulating neurotransmitter serotonin in the brain, which may explain the role it plays in neuropsychiatric disorders.
How Much Vitamin D Do You Need?
Data published in the Archives of Internal Medicine show 75% of American adults and teens are deficient when a sufficiency level of 30 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL) is used. The only way to accurately measure how much vitamin D you need is to have your levels tested, preferably twice a year.
According to Vitamin D Council standards, you are aiming for a level between 60 and 80 ng/mL, with 40 ng/mL being the lowest cutoff for sufficiency. In fact, new research in 2018 showed that the optimal levels for cancer prevention are between 60 and 80.
Magnesium Helps Regulate Neurological Function and Mood
Magnesium is the fourth most abundant mineral in your body, playing an important role in the health of nearly every one of your cells. A magnesium deficiency can have a wide range of consequences including constipation, muscle spasms, migraines, and high blood pressure.
Sufficient amounts of magnesium can reduce your risk for heart disease, high blood pressure and migraines as well as help you sleep better and enjoy greater mental and physical relaxation.
Researchers have found a deficiency in magnesium is associated with the experience of subjective anxiety, and that supplementation may help mediate those symptoms. In a systematic review of research, scientists found existing evidence magnesium is beneficial on subjective anxiety in those who are vulnerable to the condition.
As with vitamin D, many Americans are deficient in magnesium, and often unaware of it. Some statistics report the deficiency numbers may be as high as 75% of adult and teenage Americans. Unfortunately, your body uses more magnesium while you’re under stress, so a deficiency can create a vicious cycle.
You can counteract this by eating magnesium-rich foods such as Brazil nuts, cashews, dark leafy greens like spinach and swiss chard, avocados and seeds. During particularly stressful times of the year you may want to consider using a supplement, as many of the world’s growing soils have become severely depleted.
There is no simple routine blood test to determine your magnesium level so it may be best to get a magnesium red blood cell test to give you a reasonable estimate while tracking and evaluating your symptoms.
Your body requires magnesium for hundreds of biochemical reactions each day. Magnesium also plays a role as a catalyst for serotonin.
Neuroprotective Activity of Omega-3 May Help Anxiety
Your body requires dietary fat to keep your skin, hair and neurological system healthy. Fat helps you absorb certain vitamins and insulates your body to keep you warm. Although it’s harmful to eat too much of one or not enough of other types, without healthy fat your body doesn’t work properly.
Polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs) are essential, meaning you must eat them since your body doesn’t make them. The two main types are omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. Although both are essential, it’s also crucial to good health that you eat them in the right ratio.
After fat tissue, the brain has the highest concentration of fat. Also called lipids, omega-6 and omega-3 PUFAs are well represented in the brain. In one literature review, scientists focused on addressing the question of the impact PUFAs have on anxiety and depression, an area of nutritional neuroscience.
The researchers found evidence to support that a low intake of omega-3 fatty acid is associated with depression and anxiety, including studies of subjects diagnosed with depression or anxiety who presented with low levels of omega-3 and high levels of omega-6.
Using an omega-3 index, a measurement of omega-3 on your red blood cells, researchers have been able to identify a range that may reduce your risk of heart disease. The reduction in the inflammatory response associated with higher levels of omega-3 may also reduce symptoms of asthma and reduce your risk of Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and depression. And most recently, the discovery that the SARS Cov-19 virus is more threatening in a body with high inflammation, adding omega 3’s is even more important.
Vitamin D, Vitamin K-2, Magnesium and Omega-3 Work Together
Your body is a complex organism that relies on what you eat to function at its best. Without a well-balanced intake of vitamins, minerals, fats and other nutrients, your body doesn’t have the tools it needs to function, and disease may result. But, none of these essential nutrients works in a vacuum. In other words, many of them need others to perform their jobs.
For optimal functioning, you’ll want to ensure you get vitamin D3, vitamin K2 MK-7, magnesium, and omega-3 fatty acids to protect your brain health and prevent depression and anxiety. GrassrootsHealth is offering a dual test kit to measure your omega-3 and vitamin D3 levels. Participation in this project is giving researchers the opportunity to learn how these two nutrients function together.
The authors of two studies identified interactions between vitamin D and magnesium. The results reveal that low magnesium levels negatively impact your ability to use vitamin D, even when you have adequate levels in your body. By simply consuming optimal amounts of magnesium, you could lower your risk of vitamin D deficiency, thus reducing your dependency on vitamin D supplements.
Vitamin K is a fat-soluble vitamin with a significant influence on your health. Vitamin K2 works in tandem with vitamin D and magnesium to impact bone and heart health. While it is not integral to boosting your mood, if you are taking a vitamin D3 supplement, it’s necessary to include vitamin K2 to reduce the potential for atherosclerosis.
Vitamin D helps improve bone development by increasing your absorption of calcium while vitamin K2 directs the calcium into your skeleton, preventing it from being deposited in the arteries.
Take Your Vitamin D With Magnesium and K2
It is strongly recommended to take magnesium and K2 concomitant with oral vitamin D. Data from nearly 3,000 individuals reveal you need 244% more oral vitamin D if you’re not also taking magnesium and vitamin K2.
What this means in practical terms is that if you take all three supplements in combination, you need far less oral vitamin D in order to achieve a healthy vitamin D level.
Analysis by Dr. Joseph Mercola
(original article published on Mercola.com)