Triggers for Mania, High Blood Pressure & Viagra-Effect

Mania is defined as a feeling of high agitation, excessive enthusiasm, or a euphoria; a feeling of having a high level of energy, which can induce people to take part in impulsive or risky behaviors. Not exactly what you would like in a weight loss supplement.

Garcinia cambogia, a red or yellowish tamarind fruit, which grows all over southwest India, has become an increasingly popular supplement for encouraging weight loss and preventing the body from storing food as fat. This supplement had not been on psychiatrists’ radar as a possible trigger for behavioral changes until recently. Doctors began to suspect the supplement had this odd effect when they tracked several patients exhibiting the same pronounced symptoms: frenzied speech, hyper-active enthusiasm, inability to sleep, and more. All had been taking garcinia cambogia supplements for several weeks to help curb their appetite and stop weight gain.

Garcinia cambogia’s strange mania side-effect is attributed to its active ingredient hydroxycitric acid, which seems prone to cause ‘serotonin toxicity‘– the dangerous elevation of serotonin levels in the brain. Serotonin is a chemical messenger believed to be calming and to act as a mood stabilizer, but at toxic levels it can even cause seizures. So it is important to fully understand how and why a diet supplement does what it does in the body, i.e. appetite suppression, before unexpected and unwanted side-effects can cause any harm.

Some people will jump on cases that make emergency room doctors take notice and make villains of perfectly good nutritional supplements. We share this research not to promote fear but, instead, as background for people who are experimenting with garcinia cambogia supplements while on antidepressants, or otherwise working to balance their serotonin levels.

Who would imagine that the consumption of potatoes, with their high levels of potassium, would give rise to higher blood pressure? But it is the rise in blood sugars which triggers such a response. Boiled, mashed or baked, too many potatoes in your diet can lead to an 11% greater risk for high blood pressure.

A study compared those who ate four or more servings of potatoes per week with a group who ate only one serving per month. The researchers led by Dr. Lea Borgi, an internist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, looked at more than 20 years of data on more than 187,000 men and women who were enrolled in three long-running studies.

They found that replacing just one serving per week of potatoes with a serving of a non-starchy vegetable, decreased their risk of hypertension by 7%. Not huge but a pretty big impact for just one serving of green veggies each week, don’t you think?

This research is not news to fans of Dr. Hugo Rodier, author of Switching Off Chronic Disease. Dr. Rodier is always encouraging his patients to increase green veggies and limit high glycemic index grains and vegetables like potatoes.

Watermelon’s Phyto-Nutrients May Trigger a Viagra-Like Effect in the Body’s Blood Vessels & May Even Increase Libido!
Watermelon is not only a wonderfully refreshing summer fruit but contains some of the highest levels of lycopene of any type of fresh produce. Lycopene helps the body trigger healthy reactions and has been linked with heart health, bone health, and prostate cancer prevention. Lycopene is also a powerful antioxidant with anti-inflammatory properties. The redder and riper a watermelon, the more nutritious it is, with even the white flesh at the rind being good for you!

Watermelon also contains the bioactive nutrient citrulline, which converts to arginine, an amino acid that helps control blood flow, improves circulation, and so benefits cardiovascular health. Citrulline relaxes blood vessels much like Viagra, and so may even improve problems with erectile dysfunction.

Granted you would have to eat an extraordinary amount of the fruit to experience a Viagra-like effect, but our our little exploration of watermelon is a good reminder for the benefits of supplemental arginine.