Anxiety isn’t just one thing — there are different types, each with its own causes and treatments. In many cases, anxiety can only be treated if you understand the root cause of it. Identifying and addressing the underlying causes to any health problem is essential to achieving long term resolution. This may take time and some effort on your part (e.g. adjusting diet, new lifestyle habits) but if you are serious and committed to improving your health then seeking naturopathic and functional medicine support can help you achieve your goals.
The following information is courtesy of Dr Mercola and is based on an analysis by a Mid-Western Doctor
Overlapping Syndromes
A major challenge in medical diagnosis is that the same disease can create different symptoms in different patients, while completely different diseases can present with fairly similar symptoms. Because of this, it is typically much easier (and profitable) to give therapies that are directed at the symptomatic expressions of disease rather than taking the time to determine exactly what is causing the illness to trigger, and treating the root cause.
As such, one of the most common reasons individuals seek out integrative medicine is due to the fact that the symptomatic management conventional care offers leads to unacceptable outcomes.
The same could be said about depression — rather than there being one type of depression, numerous different things can cause it. This is often quite consequential, as while some types of depression respond well to SSRI antidepressants, others do not, and some become significantly worse with antidepressant therapy.
As such, it is not appropriate to quickly diagnose someone with depression and then prescribe an antidepressant — but this is unfortunately what frequently happens, particularly in 10 minute primary care visits.
In turn, the exact same is true for “anxiety” (which helps to explain why “anxiety” and “depression” remain the two most common psychiatric diagnoses).
Causes of Anxiety
With some types of anxiety (e.g., PTSD anxiety), the cause is fairly straightforward. However, it is far more ambiguous for many others and hence often missed by a rushed clinician. Important causes to be aware of include:
•Mental causes of anxiety — Anxiety, particularly Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), often stems from anticipating a negative future, being fearful of it, and then getting trapped into an overthinking response. Many things in our society encourage this:
◦Overthinking — Our society teaches individuals the solution to the dilemmas we face is to overthink them, rather than encouraging the development of emotional intelligence and emotional coping skills (which I’ve long suspected is due to emotional intelligence increasing one’s immunity to marketing).
Note: GAD individuals with high IQs tend to have a greater degree of worry.12
◦Media influence — Marketing and mass media focus on future expectations, while social media (particularly Facebook and Instagram), target users with distressful content to increase their likelihood of clicking on ads13 (as unhappy people are more likely to make emotional purchases).
◦Inadequate emotional coping — The media has sold the message that we “should never feel bad.” Because of this, a common response individuals will have to an anxiety producing situation is to try to suppress the anxiety (e.g., with a product, pill, alcohol, or illicit drug). Many hence never develop the emotional coping mechanisms necessary to handle stressful situations.
◦Anxiety contagion — Anxiety can spread among people, making it helpful to distance oneself from others who are anxious. Likewise, treating a parent’s anxiety has repeatedly been found to reduce anxiety in their children.14
◦Unrecognized issues — Speech disorders, past trauma, or unconscious phobias can also trigger chronic anxiety.
•Physiologic causes of anxiety — Frequently, while anxiety is treated as a psychiatric illness, there is actually a physical cause of it.
| Autonomic nervous system dysfunction — Excessive sympathetic (fight or flight) activity or deficient parasympathetic (rest and relax) activity can frequently cause anxiety (e.g., this is commonly seen in panic disorders). Treating this imbalance often significantly improves anxiety.
Note: Many of the most commonly prescribed drugs adjust autonomic function and often are no longer needed once a natural approach is utilized to rebalance it. |
| Hormonal imbalances — Abnormal thyroid levels or progesterone levels (particularly in post menopausal women) are common triggers for anxiety and should always be considered when evaluating anxiety. |
| Low blood sugar — Reactive hypoglycemia, which causes frequent blood sugar drops, can trigger sudden sympathetic activation (to raise blood sugar) which thus creates anxiety-like symptoms.
Note: This common condition should be addressed through diet, but instead it frequently ends up being medicated with benzodiazepines. |
| Environmental factors — Many individuals report anxiety relief in low EMF (e.g., Wi-Fi-free) environments. |
| Artificial light and sleep disruption — Blue light and circadian disruptions can irritate the nervous system, worsening anxiety.15 We find reducing blue light exposure is often one of the most helpful things we can do for anxious patients. |
| Medical injuries — Individuals with drug and vaccine injuries often experience increased anxiety, which in many cases appear to arise from heart issues or neurological damage. Likewise, heart conditions or brain injuries can cause anxiety.16 |
When the physiologic causes of anxiety are addressed, rapid improvements are frequently seen.
•Metabolic causes of anxiety — William Walsh analyzed the blood of 2,800 individuals with depression17 and discovered there were five common metabolic types of depression which each have characteristic symptoms. Walsh’s paradigm is quite useful as:
◦If the metabolic biotype of depression is recognized, it can frequently be safely and permanently treated with natural therapies (e.g., one cause of post-postpartum depression is a copper overload and is preventable).
◦It explains why patients will often have very positive or negative responses to medications (e.g., SSRIs can be helpful for undermethylators but cause severe reactions for overmethylators). Likewise, it helps predict if patients will have an adverse reaction to supplements or other medications.
◦Anxiety often occurs concurrently with depression in these biotypes and hence can be treated (or fully resolved) by treating the biotype.
Nutrition, gut health, circulation and genetic polymorphisms all need to be taken into consideration as all play pertinent roles in overall body as well as mental health.
•Lifestyle causes of anxiety — When there is too much stagnation in the body (particularly in the head), individuals have a tendency to overthink things.
| Physical activity — A meta-analysis found that exercise is 1.5 times more effective18,19 than medication or therapy in reducing mild-to-moderate anxiety and depression.
Note: We believe daily walking is an ideal exercise for mental health, physical health and longevity. |
| Stagnation and illnesses — Chronic viral infections, vaccine injuries, high toxic load, or cancer can create stagnation, leading to anxiety and depression.20,21 |
| Tight clothing — Tight or synthetic clothes can restrict blood and lymphatic flow, creating many health problems including anxiety. Restricted breathing and the positive charges from synthetic fibers can worsen the issue (which then adversely affects the electrical dispersion with fluids like blood and creates significant fluid stagnation). |
| Improving stagnation — Many approaches that improve stagnation in the body improve anxiety (e.g., sexual intercourse, hot bathing, and electrical grounding have been found to decrease anxiety22,23,24). |
| Screen time — Excessive computer and mobile phone use, and blue light can overstimulate the brain, contributing to anxiety. |
| Grounding traditions — Practices from Chinese medicine suggest that anxiety arises from too much energy in the head, emphasizing the need for grounding (e.g., by walking barefoot on natural surfaces). |
Collectively, I believe many health issues arise from modern technology, nutritional depletion, circadian disruptions, and fluid stagnation within our bodies, and that beyond this affecting physical health, it also affects emotional and mental health.
For more information and details on what is provided above, read the full article.
References:
1 National Institute of Mental Health, Any Anxiety Disorder, Accessed February 2025
2 Department of Health & Human Services, December 2010
3 J Psychiatr Res. 2020 Aug 21;130:441–446
4 Harmony Healthcare IT, September 2023
5 Harmony Healthcare IT, September 2022
6 National Institute of Mental Health, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Accessed February 2025
7 National Institute of Mental Health, Panic Disorder, Accessed February 2025
8 Am J Hypertens. 2005 Mar;18(3):417-21
9 National Institute of Mental Health, Social Anxiety Disorder, Accessed February 2025
10 National Institute of Mental Health, Agoraphobia, Accessed February 2025
11 National Institute of Mental Health, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Accessed February 2025
12 Front Evol Neurosci. 2012 Feb 1;3:8
13 The Forgotten Side of Medicine, February 2, 2025
14 J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2019 Mar 7:S0890-8567(19)30173-X
15 Thera Specs, August 31, 2017
16 Cureus. 2022 Aug 13;14(8):e27971
17 Amazon, Nutrient Power: Heal Your Biochemistry and Heal Your Brain
18 British Journal of Sports Medicine 2023;57:1203-1209
19 Medical News Today, March 3, 2023, Treating without medication
20 J Cancer Res Clin Oncol. 2023 Feb 9;149(9):6371–6379
21 Pancreas 47(4):p 363-367, April 2018
22 J Sex Med. 2020 Oct 23;18(1):35–49
23 Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2018 Jun 7;2018:9521086
24 Biomedicines. 2022 Dec 26;11(1):57
25, 26 JAMA Psychiatry. 2020;77(3):265-273. doi: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2019.3986