Ameet Aggarwal, ND

Natural Approaches for Mental Health

Aired On: Jan 23, 2026

Show Notes

1.7 billion people worldwide suffer from mental illness.  Only 44 % of adults with mental health issues receive treatment, and less than 20 % of children needing mental health treatment receive it.  Depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide with 350 million cases.  At any time, 17 % in US are depressed.  Other than pain from arthritis, depression most disabling

Dr. Ameet discusses simple steps for recovery with natal remedies for conditions such as anxiety, depression, stress and burnout which have lasting results.

Ameet Aggarwal, ND Biography

Voted as one of the Top 43 therapists in the world, 5-times bestselling author, naturopath and psychotherapist Dr. Ameet Aggarwal, ND is one of the only naturopathic doctors who combines naturopathic medicine, functional medicine, homeopathy, gestalt psychotherapy, EMDR, family constellations and A CourseIn Miracles.   He focuses on healing the physical and emotional root causes of illness and mental health issues to help with anxiety, depression, chronic illness, weight loss, childhood trauma and ancestral trauma.   He easily helps you with gut health, liver detox, adrenal fatigue, depression, anxiety, mood, skin, hormones, inflammation, health and sexual issues using supplements, nutrition, healthy foods, natural medicine, holistic therapies & emotional healing.

Free videos on gut health, liver detox, mental health, releasing emotional blocks, adrenal fatigue and trauma can be found on https://drameet.com

VA Natural Approaches to Mental Health with Ameet Aggarwal, ND Summary

Website: Drameet.com

Background

1.7 billion people worldwide suffer from mental illness. Only 44 % of adults with mental health issues receive treatment, and less than 20 % of children needing mental health treatment receive treatment.  Depression is the leading   cause of disability worldwide with 350 million cases at any one time.     Other than pain from arthritis, depression is the most disabling disease.  Mental health rates in different countries vary.  The rates of mental illness in the US are 19.2 % whereas in Japan the rate for mental illness is   6.2 %

His healing paradigm

  • He addresses the root causes of depression, anxiety and mental health issues by looking at how the body affects the mind, and how to deal with /heal trauma.
  • For a person with depression, Dr Aggarwal looks at gut health, the liver, the nervous system, and adrenal function followed by releasing negative emotions from trauma (both childhood trauma and ancestral trauma)
    • Family constellation therapy is one tool.
  • Then when body is healed, he looks at personal belief systems and their source.
  • Then he might use supplements to help with residual symptoms
    • Eg inositol choline for OCD symptoms
    • Other supplements that can help with depression include iron, zinc, copper,  vitamin B 12, folate, vitamin B 6
    • Helping with anxiety include  magnesium, vitamin B 3, B 12, HCl, treating clostridia, NAC, vitamin B9, NAC, nutritional lithium, GABA, L theanine, ashwagandha exercise and yoga  
  • He will also look at belief systems. What beliefs do they have about themselves where did these beliefs come from?

Naturopathy 

  • Includes
    • training in medical sciences, anatomy, physiology, radiology, pharmacology 
    • integrating holistic therapies so root causes can be treated using homeopathy,  acupuncture, herbal medicine, diet, body work chiropractic, etc.
    • doing no harm and treating the root cause
  • symptoms are not the problem: symptoms are a gift from the body signalling that things are out of balance
    • for example
      • Headaches: consider  food sensitivities. liver stagnation, hormonal imbalance and emotional trauma.
      •  For acne, look at whole person, how is skin? Gut, feces, and  mood

Unhealed trauma, chronic inflammation, chronic stress leads to burning out the nervous system and   adrenal glands leading to a cortisol imbalance.  This in turn leads to an imbalance in  neurotransmitters  such as  low serotonin, dopamine and GABA .These imbalances can lead to depression and anxiety as well

  • GABA for anxiety
  • 5HtP for depression and insomnia
  • Melatonin for sleep

Discussing looking at the root cause, he discusses treating  the gut, liver adrenals and addressing  emotional trauma

Gut

  • gut is the intestine tube with lining that over time gets damaged by inflammatory foods, antibiotic
  • junk food leads to a leaky gut. Toxins leak into the body leading to chronic conditions such as asthma, arthritis
  • the gut  is kept healthy by good bacteria and good food by good bacteria in the gut.  
  • Over time, the gut lining can be killed off through antibiotic use, poor diet, excessive medications, excessive alcohol, inflammatory food such as gluten and dairy. This damage can result in holes in the intestinal lining which is known as leaky gut syndrome. With leaky gut syndrome, toxins leak into the body causing inflammation everywhere. This can be a leading cause of asthma, arthritis, and chronic conditions
    • body needs to produce cortisol to manage the inflammation. 
    • Stress causes you to produce more cortisol as well
    • Cortisol imbalance also causes suppression of neuro transmitters 
  • Inflammation also goes to the liver, creating more toxins in the body. Liver has to process all these toxins such as pesticides, chemicals, by products of body’s metabolism, including one’s own hormones. Over time liver becomes stagnant (liver chi)
  • later he can test for health of gut lining, inflammation markers, food sensitivity tests. These tests are expensive so he starts with healing the gut.
  • mental health
    • with regard to mental illness, most of the neurotransmitters (which affect mental health) are made in the gut
      • serotonin and dopamine helps one feel good 
      • GABA helps with anxiety and may help with sleep
    • Cortisol imbalance (caused by stress and inflammation) causes suppression of neuro transmitters 
    • Killing off the good bacteria with chemicals, pesticides,  he claims, is one of the root causes of mental health issues

Liver

Liver is master controller of most processes in the body including hormones 

  • Stagnant liver leads to hormone imbalance. Often leading to estrogen excess and progesterone excess leading to anxiety and depression. (an excess of estrogen goes down the toxic 4OH pathway which has serious adverse health consequences) 
  • Symptoms can include gas, bloating, anxiety, breast tenderness.  (He states these might be caused by liver stagnation, but I believe that various genes can predispose us to this. Which will in turn cause more toxic chemicals delivered to the liver)
  • When progesterone is low, GABA is low explaing why people with low progesterone produce more anxiety, insomnia and tearfulness
  • Liver produces bile which helps with digestion.  An impaired liver produces less bile leading to more gas and indigestion, and constipation
    • Bile helps with digestion helping to kill off the bad bacteria leading to a. worsening of the gut bacteria balance called dysbiosis causing more gut damage
  • Most people have a sluggish liver, gas, bloating, toxicity symptoms, inflammation
  • Liver is highly connected to chronic inflammation
  • Look at mood and morning fatigue
    • Tongue purplish hue
    • Pulse tight. Wirey pulse 
    • Wake up between a1 am and 3 am
    • Difficulties in digesting foods
  • Any digestive issues indicate gut and liver issues
  • Hormonal symptoms: PMS, fibroids, breast tenderness , clotting during menstruation 

Adrenal system

  • In charge of stress response fight or flight response🡪 stimulating adrenals to make cortisol, adrenalin, etc
  • When stressed go to fight  or freeze response
  • Over time or if have unhealed trauma in the nervous systems, this primes the nervous system to be alert, anxious, or frozen using a lot of energy
  • With chronic stress and unhealed trauma, adrenal glands get exhausted
  • Inflammation from leaky gut also stresses the adrenals to make cortisol

HEALING APPROACHES

Gut remedies

  • Probiotics, vitamin D, certain amino acids, omega3 and omega 6 to balance inflammation
  • Avoid inflammatory foods

Detoxifying liver

  • Herbs:  milk thistle (helps with the first two phases of liver detox), dandelion, bitter foods (arugula, dandelion root), cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli
    • important for phase 2 of liver detoxification, )
  • Homeopathy stimulates cells at a very deep level to start draining

Adrenal Healing,

  • Vitamins B, vitamin C, zinc, rhodiola, ashwagandha, and homeopathic remedies to release stress and trauma (phosphoric acid, kali phosphoricum), 

Emotional healing exercises to release trauma

  • Acknowledging vulnerabilities and pain and get out of fight -fight state, then don’t use as many nutrients or throw off so many chemicals. Ser da GABA come more into balance

Healing emotions 

  • Uses somatic experience and family constellation therapy (healing ancestral trauma
  • Uses combination of Gestalt, EMDR, somatic experience, family constellations
  • Using gestalt, somatic, EMDR, family constellation, and homeopathy, he helps people release stored trauma from their nervous systems
    • Homeopathy discharges the stored negative energy and balances vital forces. Also uses Bach flower remedies

EMDR to help healing

  • Think about trauma, its emotions, physical sensations, negative thoughts had about self during trauma, 
  • Then follow finger with eyes (or bilateral tapping left and right on collar bone or thighs)
  • Called bilateral stimulation
    • When doing this while thinking about the trauma frontal cortex starts safely processing what is (emotionally) stored limbic brain

Family Constellation Therapy

  • Developed by Burt Hellinger; looks at orders of love 
  • All family members have to be included, including miscarried children
  • Look at hierarchy e.g., child trying to protect abused mother, becomes like a parent
    • In healing seek permission from abused parent to reconnect with the abusing parent
  • Third order of love is balancing giving and taking
  • Includes forgiveness sentences such as “I am sorry that this occurred between you and me.”
    • Forgiving implies blame and a hierarchy of the forgiver being above those that are forgiven.

Vitamin D

  • Sufficient vitamin D stimulates the TPH 2 enzyme pathway which increases serotonin
  • Low in vitamin D stimulates enzyme pathway TPH 1 which can create inflammation in the gut

Advice

  • Forgive yourself
  • Give permission to feel vulnerabilities in a healing way
  • affirmations
    • “It is safe for me to feel _____ from time to time”
    • Affirmation forces the issue.  Using the words “from time to time   
    • Affirmations are best when attaching an emotion
    • “I want to feel happy,” gets one in touch with what is blocking
    • Can be more specific when creating safety, “I want to feel happy in my bedroom where I feel safe.”