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Archives for November 2014

The Anxiety Summit – Hidden causes of anxiety: Drugs, illness, light and balance

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Sharon Heller, PhD author of Anxiety: Hidden Causes was interviewed on the Anxiety Summit by host of the Anxiety Summit, Trudy Scott, Food Mood Expert and Nutritionist, author of The Antianxiety Food Solution.

Hidden causes of anxiety: Drugs, illness, light and balance

  • How anxiety is often misdiagnosed as psychological when it’s primary cause is physical
  • Why such misdiagnoses happen
  • Physical causes of anxiety: thyroid disorders, diabetes, Cushing’s Syndrome, adrenal exhaustion
  • Common heart conditions that can cause anxiety: mitral valve prolapse and high blood pressure.
  • Infections and anxiety: Lyme disease, PANDAs
  • Over-the counter drugs that cause anxiety: lidocaine, birth control pills and more
  • Space-related phobias: Vestibular/balance and the inner ear
  • Anxiety and photosensitivity

Here are some snippets from our interview:

I think my experience is very, very common, where people are in a state of distress, they’re anxious, they’re fatigued, they’re not feeling well, and doctors don’t diagnose what their problem is. And therefore, they’re told that their problem is all in their head and put on psychotropic medication, when indeed, as it turns out, they may have some physical problem that’s causing their symptoms.

Say someone has panic attacks, which is not uncommon, and particularly, panic attacks that come out of the blue out of nowhere. All of a sudden, you know, one day you get a panic attack. Okay, a wave of panic overcomes you, your heart races, your pulse throbs, the world spins, you can hardly catch your breath, you feel as if you’re dying, you feel this horrible profound dread, even as if you’re losing your mind. So what do you do? You assume it’s psychological, so you go see a psychiatrist and they diagnose you with panic disorder, and they give you psychotropic medication, and usually these drugs do do what they’re designed to do, and they do alleviate the panic, and so you think, okay, it’s psychological.

But, you know, first of all, it may not disappear or it may come back but not as strong, because actually lots of physical conditions can cause the same symptoms and that includes hypoglycemia or low blood sugar.

Sharon shared how Superman actress Margot Kidder has bipolar and now uses amino acids. Here is the article on the Safe Harbor/Alternative Mental Health site

Here are links to Sharon’s books (I have read and highly recommend the first two)

Anxiety: Hidden Causes: Why your anxiety may not be “all in your head” but from something physical

Too Loud, Too Bright, Too Fast, Too Tight, What To Do If You Are Sensory Defensive in an Over-Stimulating World

Uptight and Off Center, How Sensory Processing Disorder Throws Adults Off Balance and How to Create Stability.

If you are not already registered for the Anxiety Summit you can get live access to the speakers of the day here www.theAnxietySummit.com

The Anxiety Summit – Treating Anxiety in an Integrative Medicine Practice

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Rebecca Robb, PsyD clinical psychologist, co-founder of an integrative health care practice, Integrative Primary Care Associates, was interviewed by host of the Anxiety Summit, Trudy Scott, Food Mood Expert and Nutritionist, author of The Antianxiety Food Solution.

Treating Anxiety in an Integrative Medicine Practice

  • What is integrated medicine
  • What are the complexities of building an integrated medical practice
  • Incorporating neuro-nutrition/amino acids into a psychotherapy practice
  • Case studies using neuro-nutrition/amino acids and psychotherapy for anxiety, depression, panic attacks, family dysfunction, chronic pain, gut distress

Rebecca Robb incorporates neuro nutrition into her psychotherapy practice. This is what she says about neuro nutrition:

From my standpoint, for me, I think I use those words to describe the way in which I use supplements, specifically amino acids although I’m starting to use lithium orotate, and vitamins and supplements, vitamins and omega-3’s, that kind of thing. How I use those supplements and how I use dietary change and adjustment to affect mental health issues or to tweak mental health issues. That’s what I mean by neuro-nutrition.

I will tell you any therapist can describe to you, and I can go on and on, about what it’s like, for example, to be sitting with somebody who’s quite anxious and spending your time on deep breathing exercises and the kind of tools that I have traditionally been offered as a psychologist, and yet here’s this other tool where we can calm the patient’s body. Once they can get more of their physical symptoms under control, the level that we can go at in a psychotherapy realm is very exciting.

People come in to see a therapist and then kind of push you away because it’s too scary to deal with grief, it’s too scary to deal with the hard stuff, they’re afraid to become more depressed or more anxious or more – but when we can get the physiological symptoms more under control, we can go to really deep places and make wonderful progress from the psychological standpoint. I do it, so that I can do my work better; that’s why I’m so attracted to it. I watched people be able to grow more than I could ever imagine them growing with us just using the traditional tools of psychotherapy.

We discussed the amino acid questionnaire created by Julia Ross, author of the The Mood Cure. Here is the link to the blog from my talk: Targeted individual amino acids for eliminating anxiety: practical applications. You can get a copy of the questionnaire from here and read up more information on GABA.  I am a big fan of GABA and find it to be very effective.

Rebecca has found phenibut (and Kavinace – a combo product that contains phenibut) to be more effective than GABA with her patients.  This is one of the case studies that has me concerned about phenibut: Phenibut dependence 

We present a case of a patient who used phenibut to self-medicate anxiety, insomnia and cravings for alcohol. While phenibut was helpful initially, the patient developed dependence including tolerance, significant withdrawal symptoms within 3-4 h of last use and failure to fulfil his roles at work and at home.

Rebecca mentioned two books: the book that covers a paleo style diet Practical Paleo: A Customized Approach to Health and a Whole-Foods Lifestyle by Diane Sanfilippo and The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter–And How to Make the Most of Them Now by Meg Jay, a guide for 20-somethings.

If you are not already registered for the Anxiety Summit you can get live access to the speakers of the day here www.theAnxietySummit.com

The Anxiety Summit – How Changing My Breakfast Cut My Anxiety in Half

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Angela Savitri, OTR/L, Freedom from Chronic Stress Coach was interviewed by host of the Anxiety Summit, Trudy Scott, Food Mood Expert and Nutritionist, author of The Antianxiety Food Solution.

How Changing My Breakfast Cut My Anxiety in Half

  • How amino acids helped (5-HTP, and GABA)
  • How yoga and mindfulness meditation helped her anxiety
  • The research supporting yoga and mindfulness meditation for anxiety
  • How changing to a 90% whole foods diet helped her anxiety
  • What the biggest game-changer was for her anxiety?

It warmed my heart when I read this in a recent newsletter that Angela sent to her community. I contacted her right away and asked if she would come and share this on the summit and she said yes!

If you’ve been part of this community for a while, you’ve heard some of my personal struggles with anxiety.

When Lexapro, Buspar, and Doral were not helping, I sought alternatives.

I got some relief with taking amino acids, 5-HTP, and GABA.

I found some relief in yoga and mindfulness meditation.

I found some relief from eating a 90% whole foods diet.

I received the most relief from eating animal protein within one hour of waking.

Seriously…my anxiety went from a daily 6 to a 2 with this one nutrition adjustment.

And I learned it from Trudy!

This is going back to basics! This is simple and yet so powerful!

Here is a great blog post from Angela: 5 Tips to Avoid Depression and Anxiety

And an audio gift from Angela 3 Secrets to Self-Care Without Feeling Guilty

If you are not already registered for the Anxiety Summit you can get live access to the speakers of the day here www.theAnxietySummit.com

The Anxiety Summit – The power of music for mood and inspiration

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AMMA JO, singer/songwriter and entrepreneur was interviewed by host of the Anxiety Summit, Trudy Scott, Food Mood Expert and Nutritionist, author of The Antianxiety Food Solution.

The power of music for mood and inspiration

  • Why music is inspiring and uplifting
  • Coming together to create the ‘Top of the World” song
  • A big food change she made

This is the lovely blog post we mentioned in the interview: Smile, help someone, dance/sing, say positive things

GET UP AND MOVE! Honey, sometimes, when I’m feeling down, I just GET ON UP and DANCE. Let’s not make things complicated. Get up and get moving! Put your favorite song on my friend! Put on some Beyonce or Gaga or U2 or put on some Elvis! Put some MUSIC on and get moving. There’s something about music and something about moving your body that seems to cut through emotions. I know it sounds simple, but try it! Works for me 🙂

We came together to create a special song for you! Here is a video clip of Amma Jo introducing and singing a few lines from the new “Top of the World” song

This is what Amma Jo said about Top of the World:

This TOP OF THE WORLD song is soothing and also empowering. The song is really about adopting a holistic mindset. From the power of good food to feeling great to feeling at peace, this song is a great way to start any day! When you really look at the words, you’ll see that the song itself is actually a positive affirmation set to music! The content was really created using the concepts and messages that Trudy uses in her programs.

Here are some the lyrics to the song  (get all of them from this link) and be sure to get a copy of the actual song from the speaker gift page (under my introduction) – to inspire you and give you hope!  and to simply enjoy!

A new beginning, a brand new day
All of my fears are gone away
I feel so calm, so free, so whole
Right now, I’m feeling on top of the world

Enjoy listening to Amma Jo singing on stage at Ali Brown’s SHINE event (this is where I first heard her sing) – No Stopping Me Now!

Get your own copy of ‘Finally Free’ an amazing and inspiring song about stepping into a brand new season by AMMA JO

If you are not already registered for the Anxiety Summit you can get live access to the speakers of the day here www.theAnxietySummit.com

The Anxiety Summit – Tapering off psychiatric drugs so they don’t ruin your life

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Dr. Jonathan ProuskyQuote_Anxiety2

Dr. Jonathan Prousky, MSc, ND, editor of the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine and author of Anxiety: Orthomolecular Diagnosis and Treatment was interviewed by host of the Anxiety Summit, Trudy Scott, Food Mood Expert and Nutritionist, author of The Antianxiety Food Solution.

Tapering off psychiatric drugs so they don’t ruin your life

  • The process of reducing or discontinuing psychotropic medications
  • Difficulties patients have in overcoming pharmacological dependence
  • Reactions when someone discontinues SSRIs and benzodiazapines
  • Tapering approach, duration and improving outcomes
  • The importance of diet and lifestyle
  • Melatonin and niacinamide during benzodiazepine withdrawal
  • Using Neurapas Balance, rhodiola and GABA during a taper protocol
  • A tapering schedule case report

Here are a few snippets from our interview:

prescribed psychiatric drugs…. They are not like any other medication. These drugs are not disease-modifying agents, so they’re not like taking a drug for diabetes. These drugs are psychoactive.

That’s exactly how they work. They influence, basically, how one thinks, feels and behaves and, of course, physiology and, as a result, their effects are highly, highly unpredictable and what I constantly see in my own practice is how doctors are failing our patients and not really discussing all of what is necessary when prescribing these drugs because these drugs tend to have some significant effects. and I don’t consider any of the effects of these psychoactive drug’s effects and they can be either positive, negative or neutral

I think what’s important for people to realize is there’s no specific clinical manifestation that would be appropriate for all patients that are on SSRI drugs, whether that’s something like Paxil or Prozac or Celexa. It doesn’t matter. There’s no one manifestation that all patients coming off those drugs are going to experience. Essentially, because these drugs have very, I would say, unpredictable psychoactive effects then, when somebody is coming off of them, the effects from tapering are also rather unpredictable. So, people can experience either regression of their symptoms that brought them to a physician in the first place and one of the reasons why they were prescribed the drug in the first place, so patients can certainly regress and start having a return of their previous symptoms. Patients can have incredible sleep issues where they just cannot sleep, and they literally are feeling so concerned and they start worrying about not being able to fall asleep even before they sleep because it becomes such an issue.

Patients can feel very restless and they can get an inner restlessness that sometimes can drive them, literally almost like, as if, they’re going crazy, it’s called agathusia. There’s like this inner restlessness that torments people. Sometimes that can even happen as they taper down. Sometimes people can develop some weird, neurological manifestations whether it’s ticks or just strange or abnormal body movements, which we call dyskinesias. Patients can start having the sweats or feelings of derealization where they don’t feel grounded in reality.

They can have brain zaps where their brain just feels like it’s being zapped or as if someone’s electrocuting them. They can feel their whole body shaking and sort of becoming very jittery or even they can have cold sweats and shiver a lot. Essentially, there’s not a manifestation that you and I couldn’t think of that couldn’t happen to somebody coming off of these drugs because, as I said, they’re so unpredictable.

During the interview we discussed a number of papers written by Dr. Prousky. Here is a link to his publications.

Here is the Harm Reduction Guide to Coming Off Psychiatric Drugs by Will Hall

Dr. Prousky discussed this paper about pharmaGABA: Relaxation and immunity enhancement effects of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) administration in humans.

GABA could work effectively as a natural relaxant and its effects could be seen within 1 hour of its administration to induce relaxation and diminish anxiety.

I talked more about GABA in my interview: Targeted individual amino acids for eliminating anxiety: practical applications

Dr. Prousky shared a case study of an SSRI and rhodiola taken together leading to tachyarrhythmia: Herbal medicine–sets the heart racing!

We report the case of a young previously healthy woman who had a significant tachyarrhythmia whilst taking a combination of escitalopram and the over the counter herbal medicine Rhodiola. Escitalopram, a SSRI, increases serotonin levels in the brain by selectively inhibiting re-uptake of serotonin. It is metabolised by the cytochrome P450 (CYP) isoenzymes CYP2C19, CYP2D6 and CYP3A4. Rhodiola also increases serotonin levels by inhibiting monoamine oxidase. It is a potent inhibitor of CYP3A4 and P-Glycoprotein. Consequently both agents taken by a patient can augment serotonin levels.

Dr. Prousky discussed the risks of SSRIs during pregnancy and shared this paper: The risks of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor use in infertile women: a review of the impact on fertility, pregnancy, neonatal health and beyond

Antidepressant use during pregnancy is associated with increased risks of miscarriage, birth defects, preterm birth, newborn behavioral syndrome, persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn and possible longer term neurobehavioral effects.

Dr. Prousky is the editor of the Journal of Orthomolecular medicine.

The CSOM/Canadian Society for Orthomolecular Medicine holds an annual conference in Toronto and you can learn more here. The 2015 conference will be April 24-26.

If you are not already registered for the Anxiety Summit you can get live access to the speakers of the day here www.theAnxietySummit.com

The Anxiety Summit – Anxiety: Biochemical and genetic predispositions

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Dr. Benjamin Lynch, ND Researcher/writer/speaker on MTHFR and methylation defects, was interviewed by host of the Anxiety Summit, Trudy Scott, Food Mood Expert and Nutritionist, author of The Antianxiety Food Solution.

Anxiety: Biochemical and genetic predispositions – COMT, GAD & MAOA                                                                                         

  • MTHFR, methylation, SAMe and anxiety (and other health effects)
  • Good forms of folate
  • How too much folate can raise norepinephrine and cause anxiety
  • COMT genetic polymorphisms and anxiety: estrogens, xenoestrogens and sulfur
  • MAOA genetic polymorphisms and anxiety: tyramines and histamine
  • GAD genetic polymorphisms and anxiety: MSG, glutamates and GABA
  • How to test for and interpret these genetic polymorphisms?
  • Three top recommendations to reduce anxiety

Here are a few snippets from our interview:

MTHFR helps produce the body’s most active form of folate. So when you eat your uncooked leafy greens or your steamed leafy greens, you are getting ample amounts of methylfolate, which is great. But if you’re eating your dried cereal, your energy bars, your energy drinks or taking your prenatal vitamins and you think you’re doing a great thing and all of these things have this synthetic folic acid, then that is a big problem, because folic acid is absolutely synthetic and that folic acid has to be transformed into the most active form of folate, which is methylfolate because that’s what your body uses. It doesn’t use folic acid. You think folic acid is actually useful for things like neural tube defects, but it’s not; it actually has to be transformed. And so MTHFR contributes the last most important step for that to happen.

Methylfolate, along with vitamin B12, and the protein that you eat help make one of the most important compounds called SAMe. So when you eat your protein and your methylfolate levels are adequate, then you are able to make your neurotransmitters. And if you are unable to make neurotransmitters or eliminate them, you’re going to have symptoms of anxiety, depression, bipolar disorders, schizophrenic episodes, manic episodes, and so on.

The GAD enzyme helps get rid of glutamate and turns that into our docile calming GABA neurotransmitter. It needs magnesium and vitamin B6 to function.

One gene that’s very common in the population that’s also kind of messed up is COMT. COMT is a gene which does multiple, multiple things, but one of which is helps break down dopamine. The other one, it helps break down estrogen.

Another one for anxiety is MAOA, so that’s monoamine oxidase. Histamine is very related to anxiety, and that’s tied in because of the MAOA enzyme, so reducing your histamine-containing foods is a big one.

We mentioned that we’d share some links to MTHFR blog posts on Dr. Lynch’s site.  Here is one – MTHFR A1298C Mutation: Some Information on A1298C MTHFR Mutations and MTHFR C677T Mutation: Basic Protocol

We didn’t mention specific studies during the interview but here are a few:

Dr. Lynch discussed the 23andme genetic testing and said this:

Genetic testing should be an empowering thing for you. You know it’s access to knowledge that can really be beneficial to you, if it’s utilized properly.

Here are links for 23andme  (my affiliate link) for doing the genetic testing, and Geneticgenie.com  and MTHFRsupport.com for getting the reports.

Here is information about Dr Lynch’s part 1 and part 2 practitioner training (which is very heavily referenced): Methylation & Clinical Nutrigenomics

Dr. Lynch has a free download: folate video presentation along with a pathway planner

If you are not already registered for the Anxiety Summit you can get live access to the speakers of the day here www.theAnxietySummit.com