Dark Chocolate might help with depression and anxiety issues

[jvg25]

hi everyone. i haven’t posted here a lot, although i’ve read a lot. i just thought i would offer this information up, for what it’s worth. a few months ago i got into eating some dark chocolate (73%) every evening, because i know it has some beneficial effects on the heart. what i’ve noticed, is that my own issues with depression and anxiety(which were, at times, pretty serious) have lessened noticeably. obviously, i realize this isn’t any sort of scientific data i’m offering here, but i’m feeling a little better about life and i’m not freaking out with anxiety anywhere near as much. i don’t take any antidepressants and i can’t really think of anything else i’m doing differently. anyway, i just thought i’d pass this along. i don’t know if its been suggested already. the nice thing about chocolate is it’s very pleasant to take.

[pax]

chocolate consumption invokes the body’s release of anandamide, an endogenous cannabinoid. so, eating chocolate is a little like a puff of the sweet leaf!

jvg25, you’re from cali, right? cough cough pun definitely intended

[youngbuck21]

People here report adverse affects after eating chocolate but I wonder if they have tried 100% raw chocolate. There are apparently many benefits to it such as this:

Chocolate Better for Your Teeth Than Fluoride - articles.mercola.com/sites/artic … paste.aspx.

[mcibofh]

Raw chocolate is nasty.

@youngbuck21

People here report adverse affects after eating chocolate but I wonder if they have tried 100% raw chocolate. There are apparently many benefits to it such as this:

Chocolate Better for Your Teeth Than Fluoride - articles.mercola.com/sites/artic … paste.aspx.

[BP7667]

LOL if chocolate had any substantial effect I think someone would have noticed by now.

[xptriado]

its the anandamide in cacoa…try eating raw biological cacoa.

anandamide works on CB1 and CB2. Oleamide works on CB1 and you can get that on amazon.com … maybe its helpful
amazon.com/Oleamide-Powder-G … roduct_top

i would like to try it but…how can i get this compound in europe?!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oleamide

Oleamide is an amide of the fatty acid oleic acid. It is an endogenous substance: it occurs naturally in the body of animals. It accumulates in the cerebrospinal fluid during sleep deprivation and induces sleep in animals.[4] It is being studied as a potential medical treatment for mood and sleep disorders, and cannabinoid-regulated depression.[5][6]

The mechanism of action of oleamide’s sleep inducing effects is an area of current research. It is likely that oleamide interacts with multiple neurotransmitter systems.[7] Oleamide is structurally related to the endogenous cannabinoid anandamide, and has the ability to bind to the CB1 receptor as a full agonist.

nature.com/npp/journal/v25/n … 5784a.html

Oleamide is an endogenous fatty acid amide which can be synthesized de novo in the mammalian nervous system, and has been detected in human plasma. It accumulates in the CSF of rats after six hours of sleep deprivation and induces sleep in naive rats and mice. Inhibition of the primary catabolic enzyme of oleamide (fatty acid amide hydrolase) by trifluoromethyl-octadecenone reduces sleep latency and increases total sleep time when given centrally to rats and peripherally to mice. While the mechanism of action of oleamide is unclear, it has been demonstrated to increase the amplitude of currents gated by 5-HT2a, 5HT2c and GABAa receptors. Moreover, the action of oleamide most relevant to sleep induction involves, in part, cannabinergic pathways, as evidenced by the ability of the cannabinoid antagonist SR 141716 to inhibit the hypnotic actions of OA. Nonetheless, enhancement of cannabinergic function may not be the only mechanism by which OA alters sleep, as it can act synergistically with subthreshold doses of triazolam (0.125 μg) to reduce sleep latency. These findings raise the possibility that OA may be representative of a group of compounds which might be developed into clinically-used hypnotics, and are discussed in the context of fatty acid derivatives as modulators of neuronal function.

[youngbuck21]

Yea I’ve been researching similar things. I just purchased this amazon.com/gp/product/B008P2 … UTF8&psc=1

[jamielondon]

Yep, I’m on the cocoa waggon. Only one cup a day because it does contain small amounts of caffeine.

I’ve read about lead contamination in raw cocao so I’m using this brand which is tested for heavy metals:

amazon.co.uk/Bulletproof-Upg … +chocolate

An article on cocoa and benefits to the brain:

scientificamerican.com/artic … he-future/

[numbduck]

I definitely feel bad after chocolate (after several experimentation)… within an hour…

It might have to do with anandamide. Last time I smoke cannabis (pre-fin) I had a major issue (similar to crash symptom) which makes me wonder.

[jamielondon]

The only caution with cocoa is possible lead contamination which would not be good for anyone let alone us lot. Lead is very toxic to the brain and CNS- lotsof literature on cocoa/lead and lead/brain.

I’ve consumed cocoa with abandon- it is addictive. I’m taking a break for a while, raising glutathione levels, and a planning on starting the Andy Cutler chelation protocol.

[jamielondon]

On lead: Calcium prevents absorption and vitamin C increases excretion.

Fasting might be bad.

Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2003;12(4):388-95.
Lead exposure, interactions and toxicity: food for thought.
Ros C, Mwanri L.

Port Pirie Regional Health Service Inc, Port Pirie, South Australia.

The recognition that nutritional status plays a role in altering susceptibility to lead absorption and toxicity has triggered the development of this review. There has been a significant increase worldwide in awareness and concern about the effects of lead on human health and the environment over the last two decades. Both occupational and environmental exposures to lead remain a serious problem in many developing and industrialising countries, as well as in some developed countries. Port Pirie (South Australia) has the world’s largest lead smelter and the surrounding population continues to be exposed to environmental lead. The increased awareness of the detrimental impacts of 100 years of smelting at Port Pirie led in 1984 to the development of the Lead Implementation Program, run by the Environmental Health Centre (EHC), Department of Human Services (DHS). The major focus of the program is to reduce household lead exposure for pregnant women and children below the age of five years. Despite intervention efforts by all stakeholders in Port Pirie, 55% of children less than 4 years old have blood lead levels above the National Health and Medical Research Council (NH&MRC) goal of 10 microg/dl. The Port Pirie Lead Implementation Program includes components on nutrition education aimed at reducing lead absorption and toxicity. However, nutritional intake and nutritional status of Port Pirie residents, in particular children under five years, has not been evaluated. This review focuses on nutrition as a component of intervention in lead toxicity and it discusses the nutritional concerns in relation to lead exposure. Fortunately most food patterns that reduce susceptibility to lead toxicity are consistent with recommendations for a healthy diet. The relationship between nutritional status and lead uptake and toxicity is most clearly established for irregular food intake (i.e. periods of fasting), marginal calcium ingestion and (subtle) iron deficiency.

PMID: 14672861

From longecity forum.

[Jorden]

The only thing that really helped my depression is lactobacillus casei. Just ‘google’ lactobacillus casei and depression and you will find studies that will confirm this. There is something wrong with the serotonin production.