Dr. Deepa Verma is double board-certified in family medicine and integrative holistic medicine. She graduated magna cum laude from The College of NJ and is a graduate of Rutgers Medical School in New Jersey (formerly known as Robert Wood Johnson Medical School). Dr. Verma completed her family medicine residency at Somerset Medical Center and was elected chief resident. She founded Synergistiq Integrative Health, her private practice, in 2013, during a very challenging time in her life. 

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This month, as the new year commenced, Haute Beauty expert Dr. Deepa Verma focuses in on mood and how often one seems to neglect addressing mental health because it is something people are intimitated by. Here’s what she had to say:

Most practitioners shy away from delving into why someone feels depressed or anxious. Instinctively, we just write an Rx for a pharma such as a benzodiazepine or SSRI or maybe refer them off to psychiatry without looking into the root cause.

Mental health is more difficult to address in my professional opinion as compared to physical health because it is somewhat intangible in how we can gauge it. We can measure blood pressure or cholesterol or sugar and tell someone outright they have hypertension or hyperlipidemia or diabetes. But it is not as easy to assess mental health. Furthermore, we make it taboo in our society as well as even other societies and cultures, for patients to truly express how they feel because it is often thought that we cause ourselves to feel a certain way and then are told to snap out of it and that it is just fleeting. This could not be further from the truth.

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I make sure to get a very comprehensive and thorough history from the patient including personal and family and social and nutrition and birth/childhood histories, medical conditions, current medications, stress factors, relationships, etc. Then I perform in-depth lab testing which includes blood work such as thyroid and hormones and micronutrients and even genetic testing. I also do gut health and neurotransmitter and adrenal testing and all these together provide me with a clearer perspective. They are like pieces of a big puzzle I am trying to construct, and I can connect all the pieces to create the bigger picture. Many people are surprised to learn that the gut produces over 80% of serotonin, which is our “happy” hormone. It is shocking to know we have an endocannabinoid system that was created even before our brains developed.

Mental health is not only an imbalance of chemicals and neurotransmitters and hormones, but it also stems from our poor gut health, terrible diet, past experiences which can result in PTSD. I also encourage my patients to get therapy or EMDR while offering a thorough protocol for treatment on my end. Always speak to a knowledgeable physician on how to tackle and address mental health in the proper manner. Mental health affects physical health and vice versa. When your mood is off, it can impact you on many other levels, including emotionally and sexually. Wishing everyone a wonderful and happy start to 2022!