Mental health issues had been a taboo subject for a long time but this totally changed during the emergence of Covid-19 pandemic. There was a high surge of people calling the mental health helpline during the time as anxiety and depression was on the peak of doom. It has opened eyes for many that mental health issues are so much more than what is known in psychiatric wards and everyone is at risk of having mental health problems. As much as medicine helps mental disorder patients, most medicine will take time to work maximal in the body. It is also common for most patients to have a hard time to get the effective medicine by the first drug prescribed as different drugs work differently in variety doses for everyone and trial and error seem a normal phenomenon along the drug course. Thus, reaching help during psychology therapy and maintaining physical health helps patients to improve their symptoms rapidly.
“We are what we eat”, is a known quote emphasising how important it is for humans to have a balanced, healthy meal as what we eat creates who we are. An anxiety disorder is often linked with depression or vice versa since both of the disorders share almost the same changes in brain chemistry. Common symptoms are fatigue, feeling restlessness, inability to concentrate, sleepless nights and somatic symptoms such as chest pain, headache, dizziness, abdominal pain and nausea for no apparent medical reason. In this article, we will be focusing on taurine and how much is needed to help with anxiety.
Taurine is mostly known in energy drinks as numerous brands promote how much it helps to improve hydration level among athletes and provide energy which in return improves athlete’s performance. However, taurine function is beyond that. It is an amino acid that exists abundantly in cells almost throughout the body. Scientists have discovered taurine function to maintain integrity of the brain, heart and muscle. Some sources for high taurine are scallops, tuna and tilapia with each of 100 grams serving contains more than 800 milligrams of taurine. The amount of taurine recommended for anxiety symptoms are 500 mg to 2 grams per day. This can be obtained easily by supplements especially when the food intake is not sufficient.
How does taurine actually help with anxiety? Taurine is known to be important for brain development and protecting the brain cell from damages. Low level of taurine is associated with anxiety and depressive patients. As defined in psychiatry, mental disorder is caused by imbalanced chemicals in the brain. Hence, taurine helps to correct the imbalanced chemical and reduce severity of the symptoms.
A study done in 2021 shows how the level of taurine is higher among those who regularly exercise versus those untrained as taurine available in the muscle corresponds to level of fitness. The exercise comprises several fitness courses such as muscle training, running, endurance exercise, aerobic exercise and swimming. Muscle sore also greatly reduces when taurine level is high. Since we know taurine helps with anxiety, it is advised for anxiety patients to try immersing themselves in an active lifestyle by doing exercises in order to achieve a good level of taurine. Exercises also benefit the patient in reducing the anxiety symptoms by producing more endorphins that helps the body to feel more relaxed and distracting them from thoughts causing them to feel anxious.
It can be concluded that taurine treatment greatly benefits anxiety patients. Treating them is so much more than what is offered by psychologists and psychiatrists. A holistic approach is needed to treat anxiety