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Food, Mood and Women's Health – Be your healthiest, look and feel great!

Archives for March 2015

Oxytocin and social anxiety, pyroluria and depression?

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A 2014 paper published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research looked at how variations in the oxytocin receptor gene is associated with increased risk for anxiety, stress and depression in individuals with a history of exposure to early life stress. Here are some excerpts from this paper:

Oxytocin is a neuropeptide that is involved in the regulation of mood, anxiety and social biology.

Genetic variation in the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) has been implicated in anxiety, depression and related stress phenotypes.

In this study, we examined genotypes in 653 individuals and tested whether SNP variation in OXTR correlates with severity of features of self-reported experience on the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS), and whether this correlation is enhanced when early life trauma is taken into account.

The study found a significant effect of several oxytocin receptor genes (OXTR genotypes) on anxiety, stress and depression scores. They concluded that:

These results support the hypothesis that the oxytocin system plays a role in the pathophysiology of mood and anxiety disorders.

In this 2015 paper published in Neuropsychopharmacology, they looked at “Oxytocin modulation of amygdala functional connectivity to fearful faces in generalized social anxiety disorder” and found that oxytocin lessened anxiety by dampening amygdala reactivity to threat in individuals with generalized social anxiety disorder.

Results indicated that in individuals with generalized social anxiety disorder:

Oxytocin enhanced functional connectivity between the amygdala and the bilateral insula and middle cingulate/dorsal anterior cingulate gyrus during the processing of fearful faces

These findings suggest that [oxytocin] may have broad pro-social implications such as enhancing the integration and modulation of social responses.

We know that low serotonin can cause anxiety, worry and depression and research shows there are interactions between oxytocin and serotonin levels. So if you don’t respond to serotonin support (tryptophan or 5-HTP or light therapy), maybe boosting oxytocin is a possible solution?  Or maybe supporting serotonin will boost oxytocin? 

What is also really interesting to me is that zinc is needed for binding oxytocin to its receptor so I wonder about the oxytocin connection to pyroluria, a social anxiety condition where higher amounts of zinc and vitamin B6 are needed. I wonder if adding oxytocin to the mix or boosting it would help even more?  Or if optimizing zinc use and absorption would help promote oxytocin?

Have you had your oxytocin levels tested? Have you used oxytocin with good results and did it help your social anxiety/pyroluria and/or depression?  Have you done anything else to boost your oxytocin levels?

 

3rd Annual Scattergood Foundation Innovation Award

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scattergood-award

I’m excited to share that I’m one of the nominees for the 3rd Annual Scattergood Foundation Innovation Award sponsored by the Scattergood Foundation (a non-profit Advancing Innovative Strategies for Change in Behavioral Health) and The Kennedy Forum (a non-profit founded by Patrick Kennedy to advance mental health treatment/prevention and reduce stigma).

Here is the link to my nomination http://scattergoodfoundation.org/innovideas/anxiety-summit

I have a favor to ask you. I’d really love your comments please!

The commenting and judging period ends 3/27/2015 and I’d so appreciate comments on the above link. If you attended either of the Anxiety Summits please share what you loved about them and how they helped you. Even if you didn’t hear any of my Anxiety Summit interviews, a comment about how food and nutrients have helped your anxiety/depression or your patient’s or client’s anxiety/depression would be wonderful!

The prize is $25,000 which I’ll use for future summit scholarships and to help a non-profit run a summit. For me, the real prize is the exposure and bigger impact I can have. I see this as a wonderful opportunity to get the powerful food-mood message out in an even bigger way so more people can be helped. Thanks so much!  

PS. And do check out other nominees – there are so many people doing great work in the field of mental health!

 

Hugs for stress, public speaking, heart health and immunity

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hugs

New research published in Psychological Science shows that hugging helps us fight infection better and helps us feel more socially connected:

Using a sample of 404 healthy adults, we examined the roles of perceived social support and received hugs in buffering against interpersonal stress-induced susceptibility to infectious disease.

…participants were exposed to a virus that causes a common cold and were monitored in quarantine to assess infection and illness signs. Perceived support protected against the rise in infection risk associated with increasing frequency of conflict.

A similar stress-buffering effect emerged for hugging… Among infected participants, greater perceived support and more-frequent hugs each predicted less-severe illness signs.

These data suggest that hugging may effectively convey social support.

Research in Behavioral Medicine also shows that that hand-holding and a 20 second hug among co-habiting partners, helped with the stressful effects of public speaking:

In response to a public speaking task, individuals receiving prestress partner contact demonstrated lower systolic BP diastolic BP, and heart rate increases compared with the no contact group.

The effects of warm contact were comparable for men and women and were greater for African Americans compared with Caucasians.

These findings suggest that affectionate relationships with a supportive partner may contribute to lower reactivity to stressful life events and may partially mediate the benefit of marital support on better cardiovascular health.

You can read more about hugs and the 5 Love Languages on this recent blog I recently wrote. I shared how Physical Touch is my top love language and how I’ll take (and give) a big hug or spend quality time with Brad or my mom or sister or niece before a gift any day!

The great thing about hugs is you get one when you give one! Have you given someone a hug today?

 

The Hormone Secret and progesterone for anxiety

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Dr Tami Meraglia, MD, is the author of  The Hormone Secret. I had an advance review copy and read it on the plane coming back from San Diego and it’s fabulous!

Read on below for a wonderful sample snippet from the book:

Did you know that you have a natural anti-anxiety hormone?

Women have a hormone that is produced in the ovaries and the adrenal glands that is like Valium bathing the female mind.  It helps reduce anxiety and is known as the peaceful hormone.  It also helps us sleep soundly through the entire night.

What is this amazing hormone?  Progesterone.

Progesterone acts on the gamma amino butyric (GABA) receptors in the brain (the same receptors sleeping pills, anti-anxiety medication and even alcohols act upon), producing a calming effect.  GABA is the primary inhibitory transmitter in the brain.  If you wake between 2am and 4 am wide awake, you likely have a progesterone deficiency.

Progesterone also affects the elasticity of our skin, memory, is anti-inflammatory, is a natural diuretic and helps normalize blood sugar.  It also stimulates that cells that make new bone called osteoblasts.

Unfortunately progesterone leaves our bodies first and leaves us quickly.  You can have a low progesterone level as early as your late 20’s!  Many women think that their increased irritability, loss of enjoyment of life and trouble sleeping if from their 24/7 lifestyle but it is likely more often due to a progesterone deficiency

Here are 7 common symptoms associated with low progesterone:

  1. Anxiety
  2. Waking at night
  3. Fibrocystic breasts
  4. PMS
  5. Bone loss
  6. Low libido
  7. Infertility or irregular periods.

Here are 3 simple and natural things you can do to help your own body produce more progesterone:

  • Vitamin C.   A dose of 750-1000 mg has been shown in studies to raise progesterone in women.
  • Selenium.  200-400 mcg/day was shown to boost production of progesterone in an Italian study.
  • The spices turmeric, thyme and oregano are also useful for raising progesterone.  Use in cooking whenever you can.

Topical progesterone is also available over-the-counter.

If you find that it takes a bit more energy to keep your cool or that you are no longer sleeping through the night I encourage you to look to progesterone as a way to help.

I love Dr. Tami’s famous quote: “Remember, fine is a four-letter word.  You deserve to feel FABULOUS!”   I could not agree more – we all deserve to feel our absolute best all the time!

I do want to mention that we do differ in our food recommendations. I’m a Paleo eater myself and am recommending this more and more to my clients.   But I absolutely LOVE the hormone information in this book!  Just wait until you read about testosterone too – yes! And natural ways to boost your own production! And/or how to use small amounts for women!  It’s very different from what you typically hear.

 

The Diabetes World Summit and the anxiety-diabetes connection

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diabetes-summit

The Diabetes World Summit (ONLINE) from March 23-30, 2015!

The mission of The Diabetes World Summit is to change lives. This incredible, online event has the potential to improve the health of tens of thousands with diabetes or pre-diabetes!

387 million people in the world have diabetes, and nearly half of them don’t know it. In the United States alone, type 2 diabetes is the 7th leading cause of death. The statistics are alarming, especially when we’ve proven that type 2 can be prevented and reversed!

Dr. Brian Mowll, The Diabetes Coach™, created The Diabetes World Summit to share the expertise of the world’s leaders in natural diabetes care to help you regain blood sugar control, live the highest quality life and even reverse type 2 and pre-diabetes. The 40 powerful, expert sessions at The Diabetes World Summit will benefit anyone with type 1 or type 2 diabetes, pre-diabetes, metabolic syndrome, as well as those who want to avoid blood sugar problems and achieve optimal health.

You may wonder: what is the connection between anxiety/depression and diabetes? In this study: Frequency of depression and anxiety in patients attending a diabetes clinic, they found “almost 50% of patients were found to have anxiety and depression.” The study concludes with this: “There is a high incidence of depression and anxiety in patients with chronic type-2 diabetes and clinicians must screen regularly for better care of these patients.”

Register now at the following link: https://vj173.isrefer.com/go/summitreg/trudyscottcn/

 

Should I use 5-HTP for a 5 year old boy who has been “glutened”?

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boy-eating-sandwich

This is a great question that was posted on my blog by Margaret Floyd, author of Eat Naked, a great book on clean eating. Here is a review I did awhile back.

The question (which she gave me permission to share on a blog):

A close friend of mine has a little 5yr old boy who is celiac. Since his Dx, he’s doing much better but they’re struggling to get it out of his diet 100% – he keeps getting “glutened” as she calls it by well-meaning but uneducated parents of his friends, his chess coach, etc. and he’s VERY sensitive to even the slightest exposure. He takes a good 3-4 weeks to recover psychologically every time he’s exposed.

She recently started supplementing him with the supplement SeroPlus (maybe you know it?) which has 5HTP in it. She gave it to him last week when he got “glutened” and noticed his temperament was SO much better than usual. So she’s kept him on it But she’s worried about him developing a dependence on supplemental serotonin in this way.

My instinct is that he won’t develop a dependence because she’s giving him the precursor, and this is so important while his body and specifically, gut, heals. But I wanted to ask you since you’re the pro in these matters. What’s your experience been?

This is a really great question so I decided it was worth sharing with a bigger audience via a blog and my ezine. Here is my response:

I’ve not used Seroplus but it looks good and the positive result is always a good thing! You’re right and I agree, I don’t see dependence as being an issue – we know gluten issues can lead to low serotonin so his continued consumption of gluten may be continually depleting his levels, plus his gut needs to heal.

One issue longer term may be that his gluten exposure may very likely have impacted his adrenals and 5-HTP can raise cortisol which won’t be good if his cortisol is high. This is why in adults I use tryptophan unless I know cortisol results. In kids I always only use tryptophan since it’s closer to food. And I do like to use an individual amino acid versus a combo product as it’s easier to increase and/or decrease just the amino acid. And mom may need to reduce the amount as his gut heals and his serotonin levels come up so you don’t get a reverse effect (too much of any amino can do this).

One more thing to consider is methylation and SNPs – detox is compromised with the MTHFR polymorphisms and this product has 500mcg of folate (the good form!) which may be contributing to his good temperament too. Also if he does have either of the MTHFR mutations it may end up being too much folate if he is given more capsules (hence the benefit of individual amino acids and even individual folate).

I’m sure they are doing all they can to prevent this but would like to suggest this in case…I’d also suggest a card with information on how deadly gluten is to this little guy and really making a point to educate everyone he’s going to be in contact with. I’m sure he’s also old enough to ask smart questions as I’m sure he’s well aware of the effects. It just breaks my heart to hear he keeps getting “glutened”!

Keeping a supply of dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPP-IV) on hand is also recommended.  DPP-IV specifically breaks down gluten.

I hope this helps you when thinking about whether to use 5-HTP or tryptophan and to understand more about gluten and methylation.

Here is the original blog post which was from my interview on The Anxiety Summit: Targeted individual amino acids for eliminating anxiety: practical applications

And here is the Amino Acids Mood Questionnaire from my book The Antianxiety Food Solution.

Do check out all the fantastic questions on these blogs AND all my answers. I respond to every single question posted on my blog so feel free to post one at any time.