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If you’ve been suffering from extreme anxiety that comes on suddenly and doesn’t cause any real physical effects afterwards, then you’ll want to be asking, “What are panic attacks and is this what I have, too?”

A panic attack (also known as an anxiety attack) is an episode where fear surges through your mind and body. You will feel a combination of mental and physical symptoms that can last anywhere from a few minutes to an hour before easing.
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In severe cases, the person thinks they’re having a heart attack and dying. That’s because the adrenaline is coursing through your veins and causing your body to amp up its blood supply – so you feel a pounding of your heart, flushed skin, and other physical symptoms.

People who get panic attacks frequently and have them over a long period of time may have panic disorder. This is a real medical condition – it’s not something you just get over or lighten up about.

Because this type of ailment interrupts your lifestyle, paralyzing you with fear, it’s important to know what your treatment options are so that you can stop the dizziness, nausea, headaches, chest pain and tightness in your throat (among other symptoms).

A panic attack might strike without warning at any time – when you’re home alone eating breakfast, when you’re in the middle of carpool, at work in a meeting, or even while relaxing at a movie theater.

After an anxiety attack subsides, you might feel like it’s taken its toll on you. That’s normal. But the worst part is – wondering when this ailment will creep back into your life. It’s unusual for someone to simply have one panic attack and then never have one again unless it’s specific to one stressful situation that goes away.

While there’s no scientific evidence of what causes a panic attack, scientists believe it’s a combination of genes, mental focus and stress levels. Genetically, most panic attack sufferers are young women. But that doesn’t mean older or younger women (and males) aren’t afflicted, either – because they are. There might be a family history of anxiety attacks that contributes to your situation.

Unfortunately, the turmoil that a panic attack leaves in its wake can lead to more serious medical problems, such as depression and suicidal thoughts. Depression has been linked to many diseases, so it’s important that once you ask the question, “What are panic attacks,” you find the answer you need and a solution that helps you prevent this from getting out of hand.

I purposely kept this article back, until we’d learned more about how to combat Anxiety and Panic Attacks. To have written this first could have quite understandably been met with the re-action;

“Well, so what? What now? All this sounds very frightening. What do we do if we suffer one of these attacks?”

By explaining it now, we’ve learned how to handle these horrors and may now sit back and see what used to cause our misery. It isn’t too surprising to learn that Panic Attacks are caused by high Anxiety. Well, that’s fine, but what’s Anxiety?

It’s one of the most basic of human emotions, a most unpleasant sensation, but not dangerous by itself. The last two words are important. ‘By itself.’

There is this awful temptation to try to defeat Anxiety by drinking, or worse still, taking legal or illegal drugs.

It is true that properly prescribed medications can help a lot, in the short term especially, but of course there’s the awful risk of dependency. Alcohol and illegal drugs are a whole different matter. If you’re suffering Anxiety and you awake with a hangover, what you considered to be a problem the day before, is now a monumental event. At worst, thoughts of suicide may well be prevalent, so the caveat to all this is three words; don’t self medicate.

The definition of anxiety is as follows:

A state of apprehension or fear resulting from the anticipation of a real or imagined threat, event or situation.

Unless there’s something pretty exceptional about us, we all become anxious sometime in our lives, whether or not we suffer from a condition of Anxiety. In a perfectly balanced mind, one not affected by the symptoms, the person may receive bad and/or upsetting news and become anxious. This is perfectly normal. With a person of this nature, he or she will experience initial anxiety, then worry to a greater of lesser extent, depending on the trigger.

The person who suffers the condition on a regular basis, probably with occasional Panic Attacks thrown in, will be terrified by the experience and suffer symptoms such as blurred vision, dizziness, tingling and feelings of breathlessness.

When people don’t understand these sensations, hence the timing of this article, they think either that they’re ill or that a serious mental condition has overtaken them. The feeling of loss of control grips them and they become really frightened.

Could one of the root causes of Panic Attacks be the fight or flight response, and is there a connection between this and the sensations you experience during and after an attack?

We’ll answer these questions a bit later.

A panic attack is normally thought of as an out-of-control or extreme bout of anxiety. Anxiety and panic are emotions with corresponding bio-chemical reactions in the brain. Nutritional deficiencies or imbalances in the brain can contribute to susceptibility to and severity of panic attacks. While not necessarily a cure-all, vitamins and nutritional supplements can thus play a positive, even critical role in improving the brain’s ability to function properly in regards to anxiety and panic.

Note also that stress tends to deplete the body of nutrients, or the diet may be nutritionally imbalanced or fail to deliver adequate amounts of a particular nutrient needed to maintain brain function in handling anxiety.

Vitamins and supplements helpful for panic attack follow, not necessarily in the order of importance. As always, if you are taking pharmaceutical drugs to control panic and anxiety or depression, consult your doctor in regards to possible negative effects of combining the drugs with specific nutrition.

1) B-vitamins function best when there are enough of each kind present, hence the prevalence of multi-B supplement products. B vitamins are essential in many metabolic reactions in the body, some notably in nerve cell functioning. Vitamin B-6 or pyridoxine is known to have a calming effect on mood. Inositol (B 8 ) and niacinamide — the latter being an amide of niacin (B 3) and not to be confused with it — are useful for enhancing GABA functions in the brain.

2) GABA or Gamma-aminobutyric acid is an amino acid which inhibits or decelerates nerve firings from the limbic to the cortex portions of the brain. During panic attacks, the limbic system, and amygdala in particular, signal the cortex rapidly and relentlessly. GABA supplementation, especially with inositol and niacinamide, help slow down the reaction. GABA is found throughout the central nervous system.

3) Vitamin C is found in high concentrations in the adrenal glands (on top of the kidneys). The body’s need for Vitamin C increases under stress. Known for having a tranquilizing effect in higher doses, perhaps because it (with glutamine) helps reduce the production of cortisol, one of the hormone the body produces in reaction to stress.

4) Magnesium supplements, taken in balance with calcium, helps reduce muscle tension and spasm. Magnesium can lower blood pressure and is useful in proper nerve function and the body’s use of B vitamins and vitamin C.

5) Taurine is an amino acid with a similar effect to GABA. Useful for epileptic and spastic conditions.

6) Tryptophan is the amino acid found in Turkey meat which helps you feel drowsy. Niacinamide helps with the production of tryptophan, which is known to help with insomnia if one’s anxiety disorder is accompanied by sleep problems. Tryptophan is used in the production of serotonin, a neurotransmitter used in regulating mood. Some persons exhibiting obsessive-compulsive behaviors showed improvement after supplementing with tryptophan. 5-HTP or 5-hydroxytryptophan is an intermediate step in producing serotonin from tryptophan. It is also available in supplement form and has been known to reduce symptoms of anxiety.

7) Tyrosine or L-tyrosine is an amino acid used in the production of neurotransmitters such as dopamine and epinephrine useful in controlling anxiety and depression. Dopamine has a tranquilizing effect. Tyrosine should not be take when patients are on MAO inhibitor drugs.

If a natural anxiety treatment such as the above can be found to remedy anxiety and panic attack disorders, they may be preferred to the negative side effects common among drugs.

Are you looking for natural panic attack remedies?

There are powerful herbal remedies that can help you deal with panic attacks; some herbs have been shown to be as strong as prescribed medications. Some beneficial herbs that serve as natural remedies for panic attacks include:

• Chamomile
• St. John’s Wort

Chamomile

Chamomile is an herb that works as a natural relaxant: this is due to the antispasmodic agents within the herb which help your muscles to relax. The herb contains apigenin, and Chamomile has been previously tested on animals with results that reveal that it acts on brain receptors associated with anxiety. The herb is not addictive and can be consumed three times a day in the form of a tea. You can use three to four tablespoons of the herb in dried form to make a cup of tea.

St. John’s Wort

St. John’s Wort has been recognized as one of the most powerful herbal anxiety remedies. In the past, this herb was often utilized to treat nervous conditions. Presently, this herb is used to deal with issues related to depression and Seasonal Affect Disorder.

The herb has a variety of chemicals including flavonoids, hyperforin, and hypericin which work together in order to generate more norepinephirine, dopamine, and serotonin in your brain.

This herb can be consumed daily to deal with panic related conditions; you can take 300 milligrams three times each day to help improve nervous feelings, to improve your mood, and to help you relax. You will want to use a supplement that contains, at minimum,.03 percent hypericin.

What Can You Do Next To Rid Yourself Of Anxiety and Panic?

The good news is that there are a few tried natural and tested programs and treatments out there that have been scientifically proven to work. However, there are also a few that are all hype and that you should steer well clear of.