Embrace the Sparkle #8 - You Are What You Eat

Eating right is not only good for your waistline, it's great for treating BiPolar Disorder. I'm reading a new book called "The Natural Medicine Guide to BiPolar Disorder" I was able to pick it up for only 2.50 on Paperbackswap.com.

I read to really great bits last night which really made me sit back and think. First, one of the main side effects from aspartame is depression. Apparently Aspartame alters amino acid ratios and blocks serotonin production. Articles can be found all over Google related to this topic. One link states that Aspartame is toxic to humans.

The next part I read was related to vitamins. There are several mood related effects to having vitamin deficiencies.



Ascorbic Acid - Vitamin C - Being deficient can result in depression, hysteria, confusion, lassitude and hypochondriasis

Biotin - Being deficient can result in depression, extreme lassitude and somnolence.

Folic Acid - Being deficient can result in depression, apathy, insomnia, irritability, forgetfulness, delirium, dementia and psychosis.

Vitamin B1 (Thiamin) - Being deficient can result in depression, apathy, anxiety, irritability, memory loss, personality changes, emotional instability.

Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin) - Being deficient can result in depression, insomnia, mental sluggishness.

Vitamin B3 (Niacin/Niacinamide) - Being deficient can result in depression, mania, anxiety, apathy, hyper-irritablity, emotional instability, memory and concentration problems.

Vitamin B5 (Pantothenic acid) - Being deficient can result in depression, restlessness, irritability, fatigue and quarrelsomeness

Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine) - Being deficient can result in depression, irritability, nervousness, insomnia, poor dream recall.

Vitamin B12 (Cobalamin) - Being deficient can result in depression, mood swings, irritability, confusion, memory loss, hallucinations, delusions, paranoia and psychotic states.

Source - Depression & Natural Medicine: A Nutritional Approach to Depression and Mood Swings.


Learning about vitamins is an eye opening experience. For example, I spent 5 years taking Fibromyalgia medicines. Pain killers and seizure medicines. Each of those medicines caused other issues, like edema for example, which then I had to take a water pill for, which then stripped out all my potassium so I had to take another pill to fix that. Pretty soon, most of my prescriptions for treating the side effects of other medicines. I was extremely surprised to learn that removing preservatives from my diet and increasing my Vitamin D and Magnesium would take away the pain. I have been off meds and Fibro pain free for over a year.

Hippocrates said it and it still holds true... Let they food be thy medicine and as always,



Embrace the Sparkle.