Depression and Healing: A Story of a Cowgirl and Her Cowboy

Depression and healing ... those are two words that don't belong in the same sentence because when you are depressed, you can't heal.

How do I know this? Because I'm a cowgirl and I just watched my cowboy (hubby) go through a bout of depression after a long illness.

And you know what?

As long as he was depressed, he stayed ill.

Like I said, depression and healing don't go together.

The Story of Depression and Healing, Part I
The first part of this story is about a cowboy who had a mild stroke. After spending a night in the hospital, he came home loaded to the hilt with prescriptions he didn't want to take. His doctor finally convinced him to take a statin medication to lower his cholesterol in hopes of preventing another stroke.

The cowboy (hubby) took the statin for a few days, and then suffered major side effects. His muscles twitched by themselves, plus it caused a major flare-up of his irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). For a month, he could not recover from these side effects, including constipation, cramping, bloating, gas ... basically ick! For a month, he was completely depressed. No amount of holistic healing worked, and he sure wasn't willing to go back to the doctor for more medication.

If he were a horse, he would be operating from his sympathetic, or "fight or flight," mechanism. He was totally depressed. He had the blue meanies. Everything sucked!

So part one of this story is all about depression. The healing happens in part two, so read on!

The Story of Healing, Part II
In this part of the story the cowgirl (yours truly) gets really really tired of watching her cowboy walk around in a blue funk. She's tried everything she can think of in terms of holistic healing for humans, but to no avail.

So she gets this brilliant idea to start treating him like a horse. She calls up her holistic horse vet who is treating a horse with similar symptoms. She asks for the "recipe" being used on the horse, which is a combination of herbs and homeopathics.

Fabulous. Back at the ranch, she pulls out Nux Vomica 6c and the herbal combination called Eleviv. She doses the cowboy every 2 hours with Nux plus 2 capsules of a mood food. She does this religiously, ignoring his complaints.

Amazingly, by the end of the first day, the cowboy is feeling more upbeat, more hopeful. His symptoms are still there but he doesn't feel as uncomfortable. By the end of the second day, his symptoms have improved by 30%, and he's definitely much happier. By the end of the week, his bowels are working normally again, his muscles are no longer twitching like crazy, and he has returned to his usual sunny disposition.

The cowgirl is stunned by this rapid progress after a month a depression. She does more research and discovers that IBS is caused by a problem in communication between the brain and gut. When the gut digests food, it sends signals to the brain, which the brain interprets as pain. So then the brain begins to interpret any digestive process as a painful process, which tends to shut down digestion, causing cramping and all the other side effects.

It turn out that cowboys with this condition don't have enough serotonin in their brains. The herbal supplement Eleviv helps the brain produce more serotonin, which alleviates the symptoms not only of IBS, but also of depression. Serotonin is one of the hormones produced during "runner's high," and who can be depressed when they have the equivalent of runner's high?

So the cowgirl and cowboy remain amazed at the cowboy's rapid recovery, and file away all the information they have learned in case they need to use it on each other or the horses.

Hmmm ... it really gives one food for thought, doesn't it?

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Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pagedooley/2811155478/

Healthy Skin Care for Zen Cowgirls and Other Outdoor Types

Wind, sun, dirt, horse poop, cold, heat, and dirty sweaty clothes. These are all things that cowgirls (and cowboys) deal with on a regular basis. And aside from the horse poop, it's what most people who love the outdoors are exposed to as well. Ask any of them whether wind, sun, or other outdoor conditions bother them, and they'll probably say "no."

Unfortunately, the result of all of this outdoor exposure is usually less than pretty. You know what I'm talking about: leather face. People who stay outside tend to show that exposure on their skin, and especially on their faces. Signs of exposure include:

- inflammation and spots
- wrinkles
- dark or light spots
- toughened skin
- irregular pigmentation

So what's a cowgirl or cowboy to do?

What Really Happens When Skin is Exposed to Weather
My mother always told me to wear a hat and sunscreen during the summer, so I knew that sun exposure was bad for my skin. But I didn't know why, and I started hearing some news snippets that implied sunscreen was actually bad for my skin. This was not good news, so I decided to do some research to find out what actually happens to skin when it's exposed to outdoor weather conditions.

Here's what I discovered. A lot of skin damage is caused by exposure to UV rays from the sun. Add to that the burning effect of wind and the pore-clogging effect of dirt, and you get the leather-face look. Specifically, sun exposure by itself can do quite a bit of damage. Check these out.

Irregular Pigmentation, Inflammation, and Spots
Freckles, spots, and inflammation are usually the result of your skin protecting itself by darkening the pigmentation. It does this by produces melanin, a dark brown pigment. Unfortunately, exposure to the sun can cause an uneven increase in melanin, which can cause freckles and irregular pigmentation. In extreme cases, these spots become liver spots, which darken in the summer and often become lighter in the winter. Sun exposure can also result in the permanent dilation of the small blood vessels in your skin, giving you a patchy "red" look that's not pretty!

Wrinkles and Tough-Looking Skin
Sun exposure can also cause wrinkles and toughen the skin. UV radiation breaks down the skin's collagen and elastin-fibers, which make up the deep-layer of skin that gives it strength and flexibility. When your skin loses its collagen and elastin, you end up with loose skin, wrinkles, and skin creases. That's enough to prematurely age any cowgirl or cowboy.

How You Can Fix the Effects of Sun Exposure
So what's a cowgirl to do? After all, we can't avoid the weather most of the time since horses, cows, and pigs demand to be fed. There's actually quite a bit you can do as a part of a healthy skin care regimen, even if you can't avoid being exposed to the weather. Here are three simple strategies you can use.

1. Cover Up: Wear hats and long sleeved shirts whenever possible. Boots and jeans are taken for granted!

2. Avoid Most Sunscreens: It turns out that most sunscreens are worse for your skin than weather exposure. Read my article about that here or go to Skin Deep, a cosmetic database that tells consumers which products are least and most healthy for their skin, to find out more.

3. Use Healthy Skin Care Antioxidants: According to Skin Deep, using certain antioxidant skin care products is the best way to alleviate the effects of weather exposure.

My most recent discovery is a line of skincare products that truly reverses the effects of weather exposure on my skin and has a great rating from Skin Deep. Read about it here.

A final word of advice from one cowgirl to another: be smart. Summer means sun, lots of it, and being outdoors early in the morning and later in the evening works well. One cutting trainer I know of in Texas rides his horses from midnight to 5 a.m. It reduces weather exposure for both him and his horses. While not everyone can do this because not everyone has a lit riding arena, just about every cowgirl can be smarter about healthy skin care.

Don't you think?

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Photo credit: Bruceys Neck

Sunscreen More Dangerous Than Sunburn? Confused Cowgirl Wonders ...

Being a cowgirl, I have always been quite careful to protect my face from the ravages of the sun. I almost always wear a hat, and have always slathered sunscreen on my face religiously. Sunscreen was my shield against that "wrinkled paper bag" look that most mature cowgirls get after a while.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) now tells me that I've been doing more damage to my body with sunscreen than I would just letting my face burn in the sun. What a bummer. It turns out that the culprit is a little chemical called oxybenzone, a key ingredient in these beauty products sold in the U.S.:

- over 600 sunscreen lotions
- 172 facial moisturizers
-111 lip balms
- 81 different types of lipstick

How Does Oxybenzone Harm Us?
CDC studies reveal that oxybenzone, also known as benzophenone-3, causes all kinds of problems, including low birth weight, cellular damage, hormonal imbalances, and allergic reactions to the sun.

Oxybenzone and Skin Damage
While oxybenzone is supposed to be one of the primary ingredients in sunscreen that protects your skin, it's actually one of the chemicals that damages your skin the most. The CDC identified this chemical as the most likely to cause allergic reactions triggered by exposure to the sun. Even worse, when exposed to sunlight, oxybenzone forms free radical chemicals that may be linked to cell damage. Finally, oxybenzone easily penetrates the skin, and helps other chemicals more easily penetrate the skin as well. Can you say skin damage?

Oxybenzone and Gender-Benders
In addition to wreaking havoc on the skin, according to the CDC, studies indicate that oxybenzone can affect the estrogenic, androgenic, and adrenal hormone systems in the body. For men, this chemical may cause a drop in testosterone as well.

Worse Than Oxybenzone
As if oxybenzone isn't enough, the list of damaging chemicals in sunscreen contains more than a single item. Other toxic ingredients in sunscreen include:

• Benzophenones (dixoybenzone, oxybenzone)
• PABA and PABA esters (ethyl dihydroxy propyl PAB, glyceryl PABA)
• p-aminobenzoic acid padimate O or Octyl dimethyl PABA)
• Cinnamates (cinoxate, ethylhexyl, p-methoxycinnamate)
• Salicylates (ethylhexyl salicylate, homosalate, octyl salicylate)
• Digalloyl trioleate
• Menthyl anthranilate

What Now?
The good news is that there are sunscreen lotions out there that are fairly chemical-free and actually work. Check out products by Soleo and Marie Veronique Organics. In addition, you can always undo damage to your skin from sun exposure with the use of antioxidant skincare products. XanGo's Glimpse skincare line is an excellent way to undo years of skin damage. You might also consider some down-home farm remedies, such as witch hazel, aloe vera gel, and diluted essential oils such as lavender and chamomile.

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Photo Credit: Cowboy Hat