9 Nutrients for Anxiety
About 20% of the American population struggles with anxiety and it is the most common psychiatric disorder. Anxiety is this feeling of fear, worry, or unease. It can be tied to something specific like something stressing us out, or we can feel generalized feelings of anxiety. Anxiety can be a symptom of stress or something that happens as a result of stress.
We can see it show up in the body related to nutrient deficiencies, neurotransmitter imbalances, and hormone imbalances. Think of anxiety as a signal from your body that something is out of balance and needs to be regulated better.
We often think of anxiety as something mental or emotional tied to things going on in our lives or things we have gone through and carry with us – and that is absolutely true. Though, we can end up in this loop where this manifests in the body as a stress response and has a cascading effect on throwing our hormones out of balance, and burning through our nutrients.
While nutrients will not make anxiety just “go away” or solve everything difficult we’re going through, what nutrition can do is help us have a stronger foundation to then be able to handle the things going on in our life a little bit easier.
Source: NIH
Here are 9 nutrients for anxiety and how they can help:
1. Magnesium
Across the nation, about 68% of Americans are found to consume less than the recommended daily intake of magnesium, many of these cases go unrecognized in clinical medicine because levels are rarely evaluated. Magnesium plays a crucial role in the production of your hormones and can help to balance the stress response as one of the nutrients for anxiety. Magnesium is a mineral responsible for over 300 metabolic reactions within the body. In addition, you can think of magnesium as our calming and relaxing mineral. It helps to loosen tight muscles, maintain the health of our muscle tissue, including the heart – the most important muscle, prevent migraine headaches, balance blood sugar, and ease anxiety due to its role in our stress response. The effect on anxiety is due to our brain’s sensitivity to magnesium, specifically the limbic–hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenocortical axis. This is the part of the brain that controls our emotions and our stress response. Magnesium can also reduce the release of adrenocorticotropic hormone from the pituitary gland in the brain, and this hormone controls the production of cortisol in your adrenal glands. By consuming magnesium you decrease the internal stress response which aids in anxiety prevention. Food sources include avocado, dark chocolate, nuts, edamame, spinach, lentils.
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2. Omega-3
Omega-3s are a type of essential fatty acid. Essential means we must get it from food because our body won’t make it itself. Omega 3s are forms of healthy polyunsaturated fats. There are 3 main types of omega-3s: DHA, EPA, and ALA. The usable form that the body needs is DHA and EPA – the best food sources are fish like salmon, mackerel, trout, and sardines. Microalgae is really the only good plant-based source of DHA/EPA, which can be found in supplemental form.
While we hear about omega-3s in nuts and seeds like chia seeds, flaxseeds, and walnuts, this is the ALA form of omega 3s. ALA is not readily used in the body as is, it must be first converted into DHA and EPA but this conversion percentage is very low, about 10%, so it is more beneficial to consume omega 3s in the DHA and EPA form.
From a correlational standpoint, countries with higher daily intakes of omega 3s have a lower incidence of mood disorders like bipolar, depression, and anxiety. This makes sense with the mechanisms of omega 3s because the brain is enriched with omega 3 consumption by increasing optimal neurotransmitter production like serotonin and dopamine, two of our feel-good mood chemicals. Omega 3s are one of the nutrients for anxiety because in a 12-week study of medical students who took omega 3s daily, they found up to a 20% decrease in anxiety symptoms compared to a placebo group. Another mechanism of omega 3s is that they have powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties that aid in reducing free radicals in the body. Free radicals are highly reactive compounds that cause internal damage and inflammation in the body. If free radicals are maintained in the body for extended periods of time this can cause anxiety because the body is under chronic internal stress.
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3. Vitamin B6
Vitamin B6 is another one of the nutrients for anxiety. Vitamin B6 is one of our essential water-soluble vitamins, and it plays a crucial role in brain development, cognitive function, and mood chemical production so it makes sense that if we are low or not getting enough through the food we can experience an internal stress response that will cause anxiety. B6 can also help to balance estrogen and progesterone levels and adrenal function, which regulates cortisol, our stress hormone. Homocysteine is an amino acid produced when proteins are broken down, but at elevated levels, it is called hyperhomocysteinemia which is damaging. These high levels are not good for the body because it can degrade the arterial lining. Evidence shows that 30% of depressed patients have elevated homocysteine levels, and b vitamins especially B6 aids in reducing them. Additionally, vitamin B6 has very beneficial effects on hormone levels because it aids in estrogen metabolism. When there is too much estrogen in the blood this causes estrogen dominance, which when prolonged can cause stress, fatigue, inflammation, and anxiety. Food sources of vitamin B6 include pinto beans, bananas, potatoes, oats, tuna, turkey, pistachios, and salmon.
4. Vitamin B12
Vitamin B12 is another one of the nutrients for anxiety. Vitamin B12 is another one of the most common deficiencies in America with about 50% of the population being deficient. Similar to B6, B12 has many functions in numerous metabolic reactions in the body. A study found that B12 deficient mice had increased anxiety and learning deficits compared to the control group. This is due to a similar mechanism in vitamin B6, where B12 influences the clearance of homocysteine in the blood. Additionally, increased urination and defecation are common symptoms in those struggling with anxiety, and the mice who were B12 deficient were found to have increased urination and defecation compared to the control. Food sources of B12 include soymilk, swiss cheese, eggs, turkey, beef, and oysters.
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5. Zinc
Zinc is an essential trace mineral we get from food and is one of the nutrients for anxiety. It helps to grow and repair tissues, supports the immune system, and is required for the function of enzymes.
If we are low in an essential nutrient like zinc, our body will send us signals, as symptoms, that something is wrong, one of these signals can be anxiety.
GABA is one of our mood chemicals that play a crucial role in preventing anxiety. Its primary job is to help reduce the sensitivity of your nervous system to stress, meaning that with optimal levels you will not have an increased stress response to minor inconveniences. In addition to this, it aids in reducing anxiety by providing a calming effect. Zinc is shown to be one of the nutrients for anxiety because it is correlated with regulating proper GABA and glutamate levels.
Glutamate is another neurotransmitter that controls the connection and signaling between nerve cells, which has effects on the nervous system and anxiety. Zinc also has anti-inflammatory properties that aid the body in reducing oxidative stress from inflammation. Food sources of zinc include oysters, yogurt, pumpkin seeds, lamb, chickpeas, hemp seeds, spinach, and cashews.
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6. Iron
Iron is another important trace mineral as one of the nutrients for anxiety. Iron's most well-known function is the production of red blood cells and oxygenating the blood. In addition to that, iron is highly impactful on cognitive function and anxiety. The basal ganglia is an area of the brain where iron is specifically concentrated and is highly impacted by GABA and dopamine, two of our calming and feel-good neurotransmitters. Due to this, deficiency in iron can cause a downstream effect on stress and anxiety. Anemia, which is an extreme and prolonged case of iron deficiency is shown to have an increased incidence of anxiety.
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7. Protein
Protein is one of the macro nutrients for anxiety. Protein gets broken down into amino acids which are the building blocks for our tissues, hormones, and neurotransmitters. Serotonin, one of the feel-good neurotransmitters is produced by the essential amino acid tryptophan. Tryptophan gets converted into 5-HTP which then results in serotonin production. After just a one week trial, a study found that participants who consumed a tryptophan source of protein in addition to a carbohydrate source had the most benefit in reducing anxiety symptoms. Food sources of tryptophan include chicken, eggs, fish, peanuts, tofu, pumpkin, and sesame seeds.
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8. Vitamin D
Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin and is one of the nutrients for anxiety. For those who do not live in sunny climates, vitamin D deficiency is more common because the most bioavailable source of vitamin D is through the sun. Vitamin D is not very abundant in food sources, so supplementing is the best option if you don’t have a sunny climate. Vitamin D aids in reducing anxiety because of its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. It also has neurotrophic factors which are small proteins that aid in the brain functioning by regulating neurons. This connection is made because the part of the brain called the hypothalamus among others were found to have high levels of vitamin D receptors, which are areas where vitamin D is supposed to be supplied and activated. Studies have found that high levels of anxiety were associated with lower vitamin D levels.
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9. Calcium
Calcium is the last one of the nutrients for anxiety. Calcium is a major mineral that plays a strong role in building up bone mass and decreasing the degradation of bones. Additionally, calcium is noted as one of the nutrients for anxiety because of its connection with the internal stress response. Calcium has an influential impact on the brain’s limbic system which houses our emotions and feelings. There are nine forms of Adenylyl cyclases (Ac), which are enzymes that activate signaling in the brain, some benefit the brain and some do not. Data support that calcium ions regulate Ac5 which has antidepressant antianxiety effects when supported.
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