It is common for many to worry and frown because of failures or bad news. Sometimes you can’t do without negative emotions. But if despondency becomes a faithful companion for a long time, then experts recommend checking your physical and mental health. In what cases a bad mood is a symptom of serious diseases and whether it is possible to correct the situation with the help of vitamins and microelements – in the material of Izvestia.
Checking stress hormones
General practitioner, holder of the status of “Moscow doctor”, cardiologist Denis Prokofiev notes that in medicine there is no term “bad mood”, but there is a “mood disorder”. The reasons for this condition can be different – depressive disorders, depression with anxiety, apathetic depression.
– Classification is great. The most important thing is to understand what underlies these mood disorders. Several options are possible. First of all, these are problems with hormonal imbalance. It is hormones that affect the vital activity of the body, including the state of mental status, explains Denis Prokofiev.
Therefore, before taking antidepressants, buying alcohol or running to a psychologist, the doctor recommends that you undergo an examination. First of all, check your hormones and take a general blood test. According to the expert, modern medicine allows you to check almost all types of hormones. which are produced in the body. Sometimes even the usual “biochemistry” is enough for this.
“By a blood test, we can even see if the stress hormones — adrenaline, norepinephrine and cortisol — are in order. Their increased titer indicates that a person is in a dangerous situation, since there is a stress factor in his life, says Denis Prokofiev.
The most important thing, according to the cardiologist, is not to miss such conditions when a bad mood is a harbinger of a bad diagnosis. First of all, we are talking about depressive and hypochondriacal syndromes.
– These syndromes are characterized by a typical triad – bad mood, lethargy and drowsiness. But this is not a physiological disorder, but a psychiatric one. Moreover, both syndromes can quickly turn into chronic conditions. And ultimately they lead to very serious psychiatric illnesses with extremely negative consequences, the expert warns.
To prevent serious problems, a comprehensive examination and treatment is necessary, emphasizes Denis Prokofiev. You will need to consult a clinical psychologist and a psychiatrist. At the initial stage, specialists can use the so-called rehabilitation potential in the form of psychotherapy and relief therapy. In particular, patients are shown a halochamber (salt rooms), water-therapeutic measures, as well as massage, which normalizes the vegetative-vascular system.
Bet on food
Denis Prokofiev also draws attention to the fact that often a bad mood is associated with problems of chronic pain syndrome. For example, chronic pain in the lumbar spine or hip and knee joints makes people forget about smiling. A very common cause is insomnia, that is, a violation of falling asleep and poor quality sleep. In any case, it is very important to understand what exactly causes discomfort and understand the situation.
Fatigue and drowsiness, combined with increased food cravings, can be a sign of problems with the thyroid gland, says Tatyana Zaletova, dietitian at the clinical nutrition clinic of the Federal State Budgetary Institution “Federal Research Center for Nutrition and Biotechnology”. If such an unmotivated craving appears, and fatigue and mood swings do not allow you to enjoy life, you should consult a doctor. It makes no sense to attribute everything to some errors in the diet – you should at least take a blood test.
— Every year, we detect thyroid cancer in one patient from among those who come to us with complaints of weight gain, fatigue and bad mood. Friends and relatives say: “Enough to eat everything, cheer up”, but in the end it turns out that the woman has a terrible diagnosis. One a year is a lot! — complains Tatyana Zaletova.
Hypothyroidism can also manifest itself with apathy and a decrease in mood, but such a disease is easier to diagnose. Tearfulness and drowsiness are also characteristic of patients with iron deficiency anemia. This problem is often found in women of reproductive age. Due to the lack of iron, a person can lean on sweets – the body feels that it lacks energy and tries to fill the gap with fast carbohydrates. But this does not solve health problems, but only exacerbates them.
– Iron is a carrier of oxygen, without which we cannot form energy – this is how the chemical processes in the body are arranged. We breathe oxygen in order to get energy from carbohydrates. To put it simply, the body does not understand what is happening and tries to make up for the lack of sweets – this is the easiest way. And the problem is iron deficiency, – continues Tatyana Zaletova.
When, with the help of doctors, patients restore iron deficiency, life again plays with bright colors, well-being is significantly restored, and weight control becomes much easier. The same applies to the vitamin D deficiency common in our regions.
iron trouble
Experts are sure that it is necessary to make up for the lack of vitamins and minerals under the supervision of a doctor, and not rely on unverified information. Especially when it comes to eliminating the deficiency of nutrients. Hepatologist, gastroenterologist, candidate of medical sciences Sergey Vyalov notes that if, for example, anemia is treated with food, then it will take years.
– Under the supervision of a physician, iron tablets are taken from 100 to 300 mg per day. To understand how much this is, let’s see how much of such a microelement is contained in food: beef liver and chicken egg yolk – 7 mg per hundred grams of these products; kidneys – 6 mg per 100 g; meat – from one to three grams per 100 g of product, explains Dr. Vyalov.
Food of plant origin also contains iron, however, it is less absorbed. For example, you can get 6 mg of a valuable trace element from one hundred grams of sunflower seeds. Buckwheat in dry form contains 7 mg per 100 g of this cereal, and soy – 10 per 100 grams.
– But even if you eat the most iron-rich foods, it is still quite problematic to get at least 100 mg per day. It is unlikely that a person will be able to eat one and a half kilograms of liver or 5 kg of meat in a day, the gastroenterologist argues.
However, proper nutrition helps to avoid deficiency of important substances. For example, there are only seven B vitamins, and you can find them in different types of food. So, B1 is found in seeds, peas, soybeans and other legumes, as well as in cereals, nuts, meat and offal. The leaders in the content of vitamin B2 are liver, dairy products, eggs. Vitamin B5 is almost everywhere – whatever food we choose, it certainly has enough vitamin B5.
– Vitamin B6 is abundant in seeds, legumes, fish, nuts, bananas, meat, dairy products and eggs. A considerable amount of it can be obtained from rice, flour, buckwheat. B9 we “extract” from the liver, seeds, nuts, flour foods, herbs, peppers, cabbage. B12 is found in animal products such as liver and meat. Its deficiency often develops in vegetarians, says Sergey Vyalov.
Good sources of magnesium are legumes, seeds, nuts, buckwheat, seaweed, cereals. Zinc, which is important for good spirits and body, is found in cereals, dairy products, meat, and legumes. But vitamin E is easiest to get from vegetable oil, but it can also be obtained from eggs, nuts, seeds, cereals, and dairy products. So relevant for Russians, there is plenty of vitamin D in fatty fish, egg yolk, dairy products, cod liver, as well as in chicken and beef.
There are so many vitamins and microelements that it doesn’t even make sense to remember which foods contain what. It is enough to make your diet varied, then you will begin to receive all the nutrients necessary for the body, and your mood will always be good, – encourages Dr. Vyalov.
In addition to proper, balanced nutrition, a person needs daily exercise and healthy sleep, experts emphasize.
