Frontline Health
Troy Duell with Centurion is providing you with health information and guests to elevate your health and help make your life better. Centurion is a pharmaceutical company that chooses to put people over profits and allow science to dictate what products we bring to market. Our goal is to provide products that you can both afford and are beneficial to your health. It doesn't matter how good a product is if you can't afford it. This podcast will provide you with the best health information possible through sharing studies and current data. We will also interview the leading health experts across the country. We will share sides of the story you may not have heard. Our promise to you is to source all of the information we share with you and speak the truth. We hope this truth is used by you and your loved ones to elevate your health and life.
Frontline Health
#092 - Five Powerful Ingredients for Mental Wellness
The quest for better mental health doesn't always require a prescription pad. Natural solutions have supported human wellness for millennia, often with scientific backing that rivals modern pharmaceuticals.
Delving into five powerful natural ingredients, this episode reveals how nature provides remarkable support for our mental wellbeing. We explore medicinal mushroom complexes (cordyceps, reishi, shiitake, and lion's mane) that enhance neural growth and regulate stress response. You'll discover how saffron—yes, the expensive spice—has demonstrated effectiveness comparable to certain antidepressants in clinical studies by naturally boosting serotonin and dopamine levels.
The conversation continues with a fascinating look at methylated B vitamins and how they bypass common genetic mutations to directly support brain function. We explain why 5-HTP offers the dual benefit of improving mood during the day while enhancing sleep at night through its role as serotonin's precursor. Finally, we illuminate how phosphatidylserine serves as essential nourishment for brain cells, improving neuronal communication while helping regulate the stress hormone cortisol.
Throughout the episode, we emphasize that these natural ingredients work best as part of a holistic approach to mental wellness that includes proper nutrition, regular exercise, and nurturing relationships. Whether you're dealing with occasional stress, persistent brain fog, or seeking to optimize your mental performance, these evidence-backed natural ingredients offer genuine support without the side effects of many conventional treatments. Remember—health is a whole-person experience encompassing the spiritual, physical, and emotional dimensions of life.
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Today on the Frontline Health Podcast.
Speaker 2:The reason that you want to take that is it is the natural precursor to serotonin. Serotonin is our neurotransmitter. That helps us just feel better overall. So it's a mood enhancer and our body actually makes 5-HTP from tryptophan, but supplementation just helps us boost those levels even more directly and allows us to develop the serotonin a little bit easier if we're having a low serotonin levels.
Speaker 1:Hi everyone and welcome to a special edition of the Frontline Health Podcast by Centurion, our founder and CEO, and we're honoring Mental Health Awareness Month by digging into something practical five of our favorite natural ingredients that can help support mental well-being.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is probably one of the most important conversations we could have. I mean, mental health, as you well know, affects just about everything that we can do. It affects our relationships, it affects our physical health, as we've talked about, and it really just affects our day-to-day life, whether we show up to work and how effective we are, or school or whatever it may be. But the good news is there are some natural ways that we can help support our brain and mood.
Speaker 1:So let's jump right in Troy. What is number one on our list?
Speaker 2:So number one on the list is the mushroom complex. Specifically, we're talking about the medicinal kind, not the kind that you find on your pizza. So that's the cordyceps, the reishi, shiitake and lion's mane, and these are typically adaptogens, or what we like to call neurosupporters. So what do these mushrooms actually do? They do all kinds of different things. So lion's mane in particular supports nerve growth factor, which helps your brain build and repair neurons. We know throughout the day that we're going to lose a certain number of neurons and we need to regenerate those and rebuild them, and so we know that this is going to be great for memory, focus and mental clarity. The reishi and cordyceps in particular help balance kind of that stress response and really work on cortisol and kind of keeping that regulated. And then the final one, with shiitake. We know it helps support our immune health and also has some anti-inflammatory properties which we know inflammation can have a big impact on our mental health.
Speaker 1:So this isn't just about energy, it's about mental resilience.
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. Really, what we're talking about is stress protection and kind of putting ourselves in the best possible light to take on any stressors that we may have.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it really is interesting that taking a supplement can actually help you with that kind of thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean it goes back to what we always talk about, the diet part. So supplements really just your diet. It's just. We can't get usually all those components without going to a supplement in our diets, so it's a little bit harder to do it that way.
Speaker 1:All right number two on our list kind of surprised me the first time I heard it. Saffron, isn't that just a fancy spice Troy?
Speaker 2:It is, and there's some great rice with saffron in it that I've had, but it has actually been studied clinically for enhancing mood In particular. We know there are several studies that showed saffron was just as effective as some low-dose antidepressants for people with mild to moderate depression. We also know that it's been effective in helping people with ADHD, so it's been huge across that realm.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that is huge. So how does it work?
Speaker 2:It works really by increasing the serotonin and dopamine levels in the brain. It's also, we know, a very powerful antioxidant which is going to help protect those brain cells from being damaged.
Speaker 1:And if there's something like this, that's natural that can be so effective as you even mentioned before, as effective in some cases, as low-dose antidepressants for people with mild depression. Why do you think, in your opinion, more clinicians don't turn to natural support like saffron rather than antidepressants?
Speaker 2:I think a lot of it has to do with just this psyche of it can't be that easy that we have this tendency to believe that it's got to go through all these studies in order to work. But we know that when you've got thousands of years of history of people using different things different ingredients, spices, foods, whatever to treat conditions, I think we really have to look at that and go all right. There's probably some truth to what's going on and if we step back and look at a lot of these even prescription products that are out there that we consider to be more science-based, a lot of them were derived from plants or they were derived from other things that we've seen through history.
Speaker 2:And for whatever reason, we forget that those are derived from plants and we decide that, well, it's a spice, it's something else. It can't be that great for me. I've got to go to a doctor, and a doctor more than likely feels like they have to prescribe something, or maybe they just aren't that effective at their job.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's been fascinating to me as we've talked about several different things on this podcast Shilajit, theoflavins, longjack, all of these things that are exactly the type of thing that you're describing. They've been used for thousands of years by people who have found benefit in them. I think people would be surprised to know how many studies there are that are out there on these ingredients. So I think maybe it's just that these clinicians they might not even know about these studies because they're not. As you said, it kind of goes against the traditional not traditional, but the Western way of looking at medicine.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean things. If you look at the history of our medical practice in the United States, there was a lot more use of items like that before 1920. And then, once the FDA was brought around, they started bringing in the science piece. There was a lot less use of it and I think some of it was just this idea that we can create something better than what nature may have. But I think, always understanding that it all has to start somewhere and more than likely it's starting with nature, and then you're able to kind of help take the good out of the natural piece and take out the bad, and that's that's hopefully what people are going to find when they take some of these supplements and other things like that number three on our list is a little bit more technical methylated b vitamins.
Speaker 1:We covered this at length in a recent episode. That was all about methylation. But why does the methylated part matter?
Speaker 2:It is huge. So there are three particular ones that we know help when it comes to mental health B6, b12, and folate. And really what we're talking about when we say methylated is we want something that's bioavailable, that the body can use in its form. If you go to, say, one of those big pharmacies and you get some B vitamin off the shelf, typically it's going to be just your synthetic form that your body may or may not be able to break down, and that's based on whether you have an MTHFR gene mutation, which we've talked on different podcasts about that gene mutation, which we've talked on different podcasts about that. But all that we mean by MTHFR gene mutation is there is a gene in our bodies that's an enzyme that gets changed to where you can't break it down break down folic acid as effectively and turn it into folate, or you may not be able to break it down at all. So either one of those things are not good and we need to have that bioavailable form in order to bypass that gene mutation.
Speaker 1:So for someone who's feeling foggy, tired or anxious, could this be a game changer for them.
Speaker 2:No doubt it depends on why they're foggy, tired or anxious. But if there is that component of MTHFR in there, absolutely. But regardless of whether they have MTHFR or not, we know that the B vitamins are essential in helping support and develop neurotransmitter production, your stress response and even your sleep cycles.
Speaker 1:So number four on our list is an ingredient called 5-HTP. This one gets a lot of attention when we're talking about mood and sleep, but what's going on with this ingredient 5-HTP? This one gets a lot of attention when we're talking about mood and sleep, but what's going on with this ingredient 5-HTP?
Speaker 2:Great question, 5-htp. The reason that you want to take that is it is the natural precursor to serotonin. Serotonin is our neurotransmitter. That helps us just feel better overall. So it's a mood enhancer and our body actually makes 5-HTP from tryptophan. But supplementation just helps us boost those levels even more directly and allows us to develop the serotonin a little bit easier if we're having a low serotonin levels.
Speaker 1:Yeah and these. So I know these two benefits probably go hand in hand. But this supports mood and sleep too, is what you're saying.
Speaker 2:That's right, because serotonin actually converts into melatonin at night, so you get the two for one effect.
Speaker 1:Better mood during the day, better sleep at night. Gotta love that it's not a bad thing, Any word of caution that you have with this ingredient.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think one of those that you would probably naturally think if somebody's already on an SSRI. From SSRI we mean any selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, which means that you're going to have more serotonin in your body so it could actually create a greater level of serotonin than you want and may cause some mania. So you want to be careful if you're already on an SSRI or antidepressant in order to just manage that and make sure you don't go into a manic type state.
Speaker 1:And last but not least, on our list is an ingredient that we all know and love from a recent episode phosphatidylserine. We covered this at length in a recent podcast. Soatidylserine we covered this at length in a recent podcast, so definitely feel free to go back and listen to that one, but I feel like this one has flown under the radar a good bit.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I think it always has, but it really shouldn't. We know that phosphatidylserine again, we talked about it on the recent podcast. It is a phospholipid, which is a fat that's actually the key part of your brain. So when you're taking in those omega fats, it's one of two that are very, very key to our memory and cognitive health. But phosphatidylserine in particular is one that you want to jump on. We know that it helps improve that communication between brain cells, it's going to help support memory and it's going to help regulate cortisol, which is that stress hormone.
Speaker 1:So it's like nourishment for the brain, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And it's super helpful if maybe you're dealing with brain fog, burnout or even some high stress environment. So it's a great thing to kind of pull in. And, you know, as an added benefit, we know that a lot of our listeners are talking about exercise recovery or recovering from their exercise. This will also help you recover quicker, which we know is connected to mental performance as well, because if you've worked out hard, there's typically that mental drag that goes on and this will help with that recovery as well.
Speaker 1:All right, let's recap our top five ingredients for mental wellness. Number one we've got mushroom complex for brain clarity and stress resilience. Number two saffron for mood elevation and antioxidant support. Number three methylated B vitamins for energy, mood and brain function. Number four 5-HTP for serotonin support, mood and sleep. And then number five, phosphatidylserine for brain structure, focus and cortisol control.
Speaker 2:And I think it's always good to remind us that none of these are going to be magic pills. It's always good to combine this with a plan and a healthy lifestyle. So make sure you're eating right, make sure you're exercising, make sure you're getting your diet correct, and then have good, strong relationships around you to help support that mental health.
Speaker 1:Absolutely At Centurion. We believe that health is a whole person experience. It's spiritual, it's physical and it's emotional. So if you're struggling, don't do it alone. Talk to someone, get support. And if supplements can be a part of your journey, be sure that you use them wisely.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Couldn't have said it better.
Speaker 1:Thanks for joining us today. If this episode encouraged you or helped you learn something new, be sure to share it with a friend and don't forget to subscribe. And if you're struggling with mental health, we'd be honored to pray for you as a staff here at Centurion Health. So please do not hesitate to reach out. This has been the Frontline Health Podcast. Go out and take ownership of your health today, because you are your best health advocate. We'll see you next time. If you enjoyed what you heard today on the podcast, please consider leaving us a review. We would love to hear your feedback and connect with you further. You can also follow us on Instagram X, tiktok and YouTube, and for safe, effective and affordable health and wellness products made in the USA, visit wwwcenturionhealth.
Speaker 2:Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time.