Two leading causes of emotional unrest and mental breakdown are mental depression and hysteria. Where chemotherapy was once used exclusively to treat them, now doctors are beginning to use nutritional therapy. To understand how proper nutrition can help us meet the emotional challenges of daily living, we need to understand the nature of these two distressing conditions:

(1) Mental Depression.

Known as "the blues" or "hanging on", this is a melancholy and downcast mood. When extreme and prolonged, it may lead to more serious disorders. Typical emotional symptoms include fear, anxiety, worry, indecision, pessimism, brooding and unwillingness to co-operate.

Involutional melancholia is a form of mental depression seen in late middle-age, more commonly in women than in men, and appears to have some relationship with the change in the endocrine pattern that follows the middle years. Here is where proper nutrition may help to boost endocrine substances and maintain a healthful glandular balance.

To a certain extent, depression is also a psychosomatic illness. When a depressed person comes to the doctor and says he aches here or there, he is constipated, he can't taste his food, he may not be imagining it. Many emotionally depressed people do have endocrine and neuromuscular or autonomic system dysfunctions.

During emotional depression there is a major functional disruption of the autonomic nerves, the adrenal, the thyroid, which upsets the homeostasis (body balance) of the organism. Prolonged depression may lead to tissue depletion, forms of arthritis and ulcers. To tell the individual "it's all in your mind" is to do him a disservice. These days many doctors are seeking nutritional means to help restore body homeostasis and ease depression.

Hysteria.

Usually regarded as a "neurosis", this emotional disruption is often marked by shouting, gesticulating, wild weeping and other similar behaviour. Often a temper tantrum is a good example of hysteria. The hysterical person often converts his emotional conflicts into physical symptoms.

Because of prolonged stress and neurological abuse, hysteria can lead to visual disturbances, hearing defects, paralysis, choking, convulsions, pains and fever. A number of doctors have found that corrective food programs with emphasis on certain vitamins, minerals, proteins can help boost resistance to stress and ease the problem. Let's see what has been reported:

A Doctor's Plan For "Mind Food".

Dr. George A. Wilson spent over 40 years in practice, testing some thousands of patients who were victims of depression and hysteria and who had physical ailments induced by the emotional upsets. He believes that a delicate acid-alkaline balance is necessary to boost healthful metabolism and to feed the body the nutrients that then work to feed the mind.

Writing in A New Slant to Diet, Dr. Wilson reports that

(1) the more alkaline in the digestive system, the more nervous the person is; (2) the more acid, the more he is able to digest nutrients and be able to fight problems of stress. He feels that a balance — which he terms "bio-electric force" — would help the body withstand tensions and strains and help heal emotional disorders. Dr. Wilson lists six stress-tension disorders that disturb the acid balance and lead to alkalinity. Furthermore, such stresses destroy the body supply of Vitamin C — ascorbic acid — needed by the adrenal glands to help boost emotional health. The key to better health, Dr. Wilson believes, is to avoid these six stress-tension situations: shocks, keen disappointments, intense emotional upsets, excess fear and worry, overwork and inadequate rest. Dr. Wilson also notes that most people have:

(1) More acid in the afternoon, more alkaline in early morning.
(2) More acid in summer, more alkaline in winter.
(3) More acid during exercise, more alkaline during rest.
(4) More alkaline when chilled, tired, chronically sick or at the onset of illness.

To boost the acid-reserves in the early morning, in winter, during prolonged rest and during the onset of an illness, Dr. Wilson suggests taking a "tonic" of one tablespoon of apple cider vinegar and honey in a glass of water at those times. He also recommends it when a person feels tired, irritable, has cold hands and feet (often a symptom of choked-up, tension-induced poor circulation); for aches and stiffness, and digestive upset.

Also, any fresh fruit juice will provide a good supply of vital nutrients as well as the acid needed to maintain a proper balance. Needless to say, Dr. Wilson's tonic should get your own doctor's okay before you take it. There may be some other reason for your symptoms. Dr. Wilson further suggests eating properly balanced meals to help stabilise metabolism. He suggests the reduction or elimination of starches and sweets, and he offers this program to his patients:

(1) Meat once a day. Other proteins were acceptable at other meals.
(2) One slice of whole-grain, unbleached bread daily.
(3) Select vegetables whose leaves are exposed to the sun's rays. Examples: alfalfa, celery (stalks and leaves), dandelion greens, endive, kale, mustard greens, turnip leaves, watercress, parsley, asparagus, red-beet leaves and carrot leaves.
(4) Eat fruit between meals rather than with meals. Dr. Wilson's theory: fruits do not necessarily energise but they do cleanse and are important between meals to help prepare the digestive system for the next meal. (Note: Other findings indicate that natural fruit sugar helps promote energy, but Dr. Wilson feels that in combination with other foods, the energising effect is somewhat abated.)

Dr. Wilson also warns his nervous and tense patients NOT to eat a heavy meal at night. This leads to tossing and turning and prolonged emotional stress. The doctor may well be on the threshold of healing mental depression and hysteria through corrective nutrition. At any rate, he reports being able to "emotionally strengthen" hundreds of patients with his natural foods program.

How Magnesium Helps Ease Nervous Tremors.

The mineral magnesium has been hailed as a "nerve food" by leading physicians. A team of doctors reported to the Journal of the American Medical Association on its emotion-healing power. Here are some of its reported benefits.

Magnesium therapy soothed such emotion-based problems as irritability, anxiety, muscle weakness, unsteady gait, staggering, vertigo-twitching, numbness, and cramps in hands and feet. It was also suggested for anyone feeling depression, or hysteria, or some other related emotional upsets coming on, as a soothing and all-natural relaxer.

Food sources of magnesium include green leafy vegetables, liver, meat, eggs, whole grain products. Blackstrap molasses and whole wheat products like wheat germ are other good sources. According to Mildred S. Seelig, M.D., in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, patients with emotional disorders who need magnesium should have this minimum intake: 385 milligrams daily for a 140-lb. woman; 500 milligrams daily for a 185-lb. man. Says Dr. Seelig: "The diet should be supplemented with magnesium at least until equilibrium is noted and then possibly reduced to meet the body need." Correct dosage, of course, is up to the physician.

That magnesium therapy can work is pointed up in the case of a 68-year-old man, who, following an abdominal operation, suddenly became irrational, noisy, wildly restless, confused and combative. His case, reported in the American Journal of Internal Medicine (1955), describes how he experienced hallucinations, was depressed and also-showed symptoms of hysteria. His brain and heart pattern were abnormal.

Vitamins, dextrose, potassium and calcium were prescribed without much help. Then the doctors gave him magnesium and calcium. In 18 hours, after he received the magnesium prescription, the man was rational, oriented and reported to be completely free of neuro-muscular disorder. In three days, he was up and around.

Calcium To Calm The Nervous System.

Researcher Catharyn Elwood in Feel Like a Million, lauds the use of calcium to help calm the nervous system. She explains:

"Without calcium, in solution in the blood, the nerves cannot send messages. The nerves become tense. They cannot relax. In children, this shows in unpleasant dispositions, temper tantrums and easy, fretful crying. In serious deficiencies, the muscles twitch, have spasms and even convulsions. In adults, they show calcium deficiencies with nervous habits such as finger tapping and tensing of the foot, or swinging it when the leg is crossed. They are impatient and snap at their loved ones when they really want to be patient and kind. They are easily annoyed, jump at slight noises and often are grouchy. They become restless and cannot sit still very long. They usually suffer from insomnia." Dairy products, turnip and mustard greens, collards, kale, broccoli are natural food sources of calcium. Calcium tablets are available. Catharyn Elwood suggests: "For nerves to relax and to send your impulses, you need calcium. No calcium can be absorbed unless phosphorus and Vitamin D are also on the job. See that you get at least two grams of calcium and never less than one hour of sunbathing or 800 to 4000 units of Vitamin D daily. Use a safe, raw milk and unrefined vegetable oils."

She also recommends magnesium, Vitamins B1 and B6 as mineral-vitamin emotion "soothers": "Vitamin BI is the most important nerve relaxer of all the B-complex vitamins ... Lack of Vitamin B1 indirectly starves the nerves, for their one and only food is sugar. Sugar comes from completely digesting carbohydrates, which is impossible if B1 is lacking ... Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) is gaining fame as another important member of the family for calm and steady nerves."

The "Nerve-Building Vitamin".

To meet the challenge of emotional stress with proper nutrition, doctors have found that one nutrient — Vitamin B12 — has an amazing power to insulate the nervous system against emotional upset. A deficiency of Vitamin B12 may adversely affect the nervous system, writes J. MacDonald Holmes, M.D. in Medical News (4:67). Dr. Holmes makes note of the fact that Vitamin B12 helps to maintain the integrity of the "myalin sheath", the fat like substance which forms a protective insulating sleeve around delicate nerve fibres. A deficiency can cause such emotional symptoms as tingling sensations in the limbs, numbness, shooting pains and feelings of hot and cold. The limbs feel stiff and weak, and sensations of touch, pain and temperature are blunted.