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Archives for March 2016

Low cholesterol, tryptophan & methylation on Hormones – A Women’s Wellness Summit

By Trudy Scott 12 Comments

women's wellness summit

Just sending you a quick reminder about the upcoming summit.

You’ll learn why you don’t have to accept anxiety, depression, mood swings, headaches, constant fatigue or dramatic periods, and how to find answers from some amazing women’s health experts!

Join me and educate yourself online and no cost from April 11-18, 2016 on Hormones: A Women’s Wellness Summit.

(you can register here https://qt247.isrefer.com/go/WWH16reg/trudyscottcn/)

Understanding your hormones may sound like an impossible mission, but it’s really not. As we learn to incorporate healthier choices into our lives, we feel better. And, as women, when we feel better, we can do anything! And as I like to say we deserve to feel our absolute best all the time!

Join health coach and acupuncturist Bridgit Danner, LAc, FDNP, and the 30+ health and wellness experts she has gathered to teach you how to keep your body in sync with your life.

Even if you’re not a woman, tune in to learn more so you can understand the women in your life – your mom, your sisters, your wife, your girlfriend, your daughter. Or share this information with the women in your life. You may even pick up some ideas for yourself, for example most of my interview is applicable for men too.

women's wellness summit

Here is a snippet about the importance of cholesterol from my interview which airs on day 3: Balance Brain Chemistry to End Anxiety

A lot of people talk about concerns with high cholesterol, but if you’ve got very low cholesterol, you don’t have the raw material to make your hormones. That’s going to affect your mood. There’s actually research showing that very low cholesterol, a total cholesterol below 150 can make you more prone to mood problems and actually increase your risk for suicide.

If I see a woman with very low total cholesterol, the first thing I think about is absorption, as you just said. Have they got a gall bladder? Maybe they haven’t got enough bile production. Have they got damage to the gut, so they’re not able to absorb the nutrients that they’re eating? And when we add in extra healthy fats, and if you’re already doing that, then I would say look at the digestive component and see if that’s a factor. I’ve seen many women with hormonal issues just get their total cholesterol up, and their hormones start to balance a lot better, which is pretty amazing.

I also talk about how to figure out how much of the amino acids you may need and how to do a trial. In this snippet I’m talking about tryptophan for the low serotonin, worry-in-your-head kind of anxiety:

once you start on the tryptophan, for example, and the starting dose for tryptophan is 500mg. You start on that and you see how much did it improve? Wow, it went from an 8 or 9 out of 10 to a 6 out of ten. But I could definitely see some improvement. So after a few days, increase it. Go from 500mg to 1,000mg, twice a day. Yes, it improved 2 more notches, great. We’re making some gains, here. Then another few days later, or maybe a week later, add another one: 1,500mg, twice a day. Wow, now I’m feeling great. This is the dosage you stay on for a while until you feel like you don’t need it anymore.

If you increase it to the 1,500mg, for example, and you didn’t get any added benefits, then you would just go back to the lower dose. So it’s very individualized, it’s very targeted, meaning it’s targeted to your unique needs. Not everyone needs the amino acids. But if you score high on the questionnaire, and you do a trial and you benefit, then you know you need them. And then you just increase until you get the point of no more benefits.

And here is a snippet from Dr. Jill Carnahan’s interview – What’s the Big Deal About Methylation?:

we generally don’t treat methylation by itself. We treat it in the context of the patient. I’ll say that over and over again today because I think what I see in the internet and what I see with responses to my blog articles and things are patients saying, “Give me a protocol. I got this defect. What do I do?” It’s so important for patients to realize that just because you have a genetic defect, it does not cause disease. It’s genetics plus environment.

What is methylation? Basically, methylation is a process that’s involved in cellular repair. That repairs your DNA and RNA. All the time, we’re getting toxic insults to our body, chemicals and environmental things, foods even, and they can damage our DNA and RNA. Methylation is one of the processes that actually repairs those things so we don’t develop things like cancer.

Number two would be helping to create neurotransmitters. This is basically involved in our thinking, our mood, our concentration, our focus, our drive, and things like sleep, and ability to have just happiness and joy [and no anxiety]. People who have methylation issues will often have trouble with neurotransmitters.

Number one, repair DNA and RNA. Number two would be create neurotransmitters. Number three/number four would be detoxification, very involved in detoxification. Your processes to basically take care of toxic chemicals. Then, also, for immune system function which is related to the detoxification process.

Dr. Carnahan shares how our neurotransmitters are affected by methylation and how this impacts anxiety and depression:

The biopterin pathway is part of the methylation cycle. It actually comes from the folic acid metabolism cycle. If that isn’t running properly, this is where you make phenylalanine which is a precursor for tyrosine, tyrosine which is a precursor of dopamine, and tryptophan which is a precursor of 5-HTP.

You can also catch these great speakers on day 3 with myself and Dr. Carnahan:

  • Keesha Ewers – Common Causes of a Low Sex Drive
  • Jen Wittman – How to Have a Thyroid-Loving Lifestyle
  • Amy Medling – How to be a PCOS Diva

Other summit speakers cover the adrenals, low testosterone in women, PMS and missed periods, endometriosis, how to have gorgeous skin, fertility, pregnancy and post-partum, perimenopause, your hunger hormones, toxins in your food, bio-identical hormones, cell phone dangers and much much more.

I hope you join us online from April 11-18, 2016 on Hormones: A Women’s Wellness Summit

You can register here https://qt247.isrefer.com/go/WWH16reg/trudyscottcn/

Dr. Josh Axe’s New Book “Eat Dirt”

By Trudy Scott 5 Comments

eat-dirt

I had the great pleasure of interviewing Dr. Josh Axe earlier this week. We talked about the gut and eating dirt!

The title of his great new book is: Eat Dirt: Why Leaky Gut May Be the Root Cause of Your Health Problems and 5 Surprising Steps to Cure It

We covered the following in our interview:

  • What is leaky gut and what causes it?
  • The 5 gut types and how to figure out your gut type
  • What does it really mean to eat dirt?
  • What are the best foods for a healthy gut?
  • What are the best supplements and herbs for a healthy gut?
  • And of course how does stress and anxiety play into all of this?

Hippocrates is famous for saying “All disease begins in the gut” and this book lays out the exact steps to take to begin healing the gut.

We started off discussing leaky gut, what it is and what causes it and the conditions that we see when someone has leaky gut. Here is an excerpt from the book:

Upon their initial visit, approximately 80 percent of my patients present with some level of leaky gut syndrome. They come to my clinic experiencing problems ranging from gallbladder issues to thyroid disease, psoriasis or eczema, migraine headaches, insulin resistance, and even stubborn weight gain. Many are amazed to learn that their condition may share the same origin as colitis, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and Crohn’s disease. And they’re downright stunned when I tell them that some degree of leaky gut is present in every autoimmune disease, including lupus, multiple sclerosis (MS), and type 1 diabetes.

According to research conducted on both animal and human subjects and published in journals such as Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology and Gut, leaky gut syndrome (or increased intestinal permeability) has been linked to the following symptoms and conditions: ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) Alzheimer’s disease, Anxiety and depression, ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), Autism, Candida and yeast overgrowth, Celiac disease and nonceliac gluten sensitivity, Chronic fatigue syndrome, Crohn’s disease, Fibromyalgia, Gas, bloating, and digestive pain, Hashimoto’s disease, Irritable bowel syndrome.

Here is one of the many great diagrams from the book: How Leaky Gut Develops

leaky-gut
From Eat Dirt by Josh Axe

 

And here are the 5 gut types that we talked about. They are covered in great detail in the book, together with an eating, supplement and lifestyle plan for each one:

  • Candida gut, directly related to yeast overgrowth and being overweight, which affects more than 68 percent of all American adults.
  • Stressed gut, in which chronic stress weakens your adrenal glands, kidneys, and thyroid, and can cause hormone imbalances, fatigue, and thyroid disease.
  • Immune gut, which afflicts the 15 million people who suffer from food allergies 4 and the 1.6 million with inflammatory bowel disease, as well as the 50 million adults with autoimmune disease.
  • Gastric gut, caused by small intestinal bacteria overgrowth (SIBO) and acid reflux, which afflicts 60 percent of all adults—half of whom struggle on a weekly basis.
  • Toxic gut, which can result in gallbladder disease, skin conditions, and chronic liver issues that cause thirty million people great pain every year.

Here is the link to the audio

 

I received an advance review copy and it’s a great book! I highly recommend it, especially if leaky gut and gut health is an issue for you, and if also you’re new to this concept.

If you preorder before it launches you can get $300 in bonus material. Here is the link for making your purchase and getting those bonuses:
https://ju127.isrefer.com/go/edr/trudyscottcn/

Launch date is next Tuesday March 29th so be sure you get it and your bonus material before then. Happy reading!

Benzodiazepines: informed consent? Your support is needed

By Trudy Scott 20 Comments

Benzodiazepine Bill

If you’ve been following me for a while you know how opposed I am to the long-term use of benzodiazepines. These medications are only intended to be prescribed for no longer than 2 weeks at the most. But I really do think they should not be prescribed at all.

I was very pleased when Alison Page reached out to me asking if I’d share what’s happening in Massachusetts. It’s a proposed bill that would require informed consent for benzodiazepine use: Call To Action: Massachusetts Bill H4062 for Informed Benzodiazepine Use is Official

I’ve blogged extensively about benzodiazepine dangers and mention them when I present at conferences and on summits. Here are a selection of blog posts:

The Massachusetts Bill H4062 is calling for written informed consent from the doctor stating the risks of taking this class of drugs. Here are the Specifics of the bill:

Anyone receiving a benzodiazepine prescription will receive written informed consent from their doctor stating the risks of taking this class of drugs. The consent form will ensure that patient’s understand that benzodiazepines and sleep aids can lead to physical dependence, and in some cases, addiction. The informed consent form will also specify that this drug can, in some cases, cause an injury to the nervous system and dangerous and/or disabling withdrawal reaction. The consent form will also specify that long-term use is contraindicated.

Benzodiazepine prescriptions will be written on brightly colored paper to ensure that patients know that they are receiving a potentially harmful substance that could lead to physiological dependence or addiction.

No patient will be taken off benzodiazepines or sleep aids without their full consent. No patient will be “cold turkeyed” off their prescription. For patient’s choosing to come off, a safe taper schedule will be implemented.

Drug labels will indicate that long-term use is contraindicated.

If you would like to help this bill pass and gain momentum, Alison shares how you can reach out to Massachusetts state senators and representatives. They are also asking you to share your personal stories of benzodiazepine harm. These stories will be presented as evidence to the Joint Committee as they decide whether or not the bill moves forward. All the details on how to do this can be found here.

These are good initial steps to create awareness for both anxious individuals, and doctors who are not aware of the terrible effects so many suffer.

We certainly appreciate the efforts of people like Alison, who is a benzodiazepine survivor herself. She took prescribed benzodiazepines off and on for 16 months and was rapidly tapered off. She ended up with a severe central nervous system injury which has taken years to recover from. As a result of her experience, Alison is now an activist on behalf of psychiatric survivors and works to raise awareness about the dangers of psychiatric drugs and treatment methods.

One of her wonderful projects is the creation of an art book entitled Healing from Psychiatry: An Artist’s Perspective. She has close to 50 contributors from all over the world who have suffered or are suffering as a result of psychiatric treatments and medications.

Update 3/28/16:

Geraldine Burns worked closely with Representative Paul McMurtry to have this first of a kind bill filed in the United States.  This bill was filed in Massachussetts on February 24, 2016, and it received the official bill number H.4062 – An Act Relative to Benzodiazepines and Non-Benzodiazepine Hypnotics.

Geraldine shared this information about her pioneering work in helping to get the word out about the potential dangers of benzodiazepines: 

In 1999 I started the first Internet support group for people wishing to withdraw from tranquilizers or already off and having problems.  This was the first group of its kind and before it closed had closes to 4,000 members internationally.  The group was started to offer 24 hour/7 days a week support to people who have been made ill by prescription medications, to learn about symptoms of withdrawal, learn about tapering methods, and natural methods of healing.

She is dedicated to the responsible and informed use of addictive prescription drugs: Education, Advocacy, Research and Support.  And she was instrumental in having Professor C. Heather Ashton, Professor Emeritus from the University of Newcastle write her manual “Benzodiazepines: How They Work and How to Withdraw” also known as The Ashton Manual.  This manual has now been translated into 11 other languages and can be found online at www.benzo.org.uk

In 2006, Geraldine launched the website BenzoBookReview  after she was given the rights by eleven internationally known authors of books that had been written on the subject of tranquilizers of which some were no longer being published.  She worked to have some of them revised and updated so they could bring the most up-to-date information on tranquilizers and sleeping pills to the public. 

Currently she is being filmed for the documentary As Prescribed  which is a film project about benzodiazepine dependency and discontinuation syndrome. Here is a snippet about this documentary that is being produced by Holly Hardman:

There is a formidable health epidemic in our midst. Its sufferers tend to be “good patients” following doctor’s orders. Perhaps their doctors prescribed Ativan, Xanax, Valium, or Klonopin – common names for a class of anxiolytic drugs known as benzodiazepines. Perhaps the drug was given to calm nerves, promote sleep, balance moods, or just to make life a little easier. Too often these good patients begin to experience strange symptoms and develop mysterious illnesses that plague them for years, upending their lives. Too often they are told that the drugs could not be their problem. By following personal stories and investigating growing medical evidence, As Prescribed questions the prescribing practices and consequences of these popular, not-so-innocent drugs.

We appreciate Geraldine and Alison and everyone involved with this bill, and all the advocates like Holly and others who are working so tirelessly to create awareness.

Please do share your story with benzodiazepines too.  The more who hear this information, the more can be helped.   And please share this blog if you care and know of anyone using these medications and looking for help, and to folks who may be considering these medications or may be prescribed them in the future.  

Update 3/29/16:

The Massachusetts Benzo Bill H4062: Informed consent for benzodiazepines and non benzodiazepine hypnotics  was just scheduled to be heard by the Joint Committee on Mental Health and Substance Abuse on Monday, April 4th.  The committee will then decide whether the bill moves forward to the house and senate, goes to study, or is denied.

If the bill “goes to study” it is essentially dead in the water until the next legislative session, and in that case, the bill often dies. It is important that we rally around the bill to make sure it passes during this session.

The bill will ensure that patients get informed consent about the potential dangers of benzos, if they are already on the drug, they will have the choice of whether or not to come off, and if they do choose to come off, a safe slow taper will be implemented. The bill specifies that it is the patient who decides whether or not they would like to come off their benzodiazepine.

What Can you do to Help?

  1. Attend the public hearing and testify on Monday, April 4th, 2016 at 1:00pm in Hearing Room A-1 at the Massachusetts State House 
  2. E-mail your support of this bill. It is most important that the committee hears from Massachusetts residents, but anyone from around the world is welcome to write in support of Bill H4062. 

Please see the comment from Alison Page below (on 3/28/16).  She shares all the details on the above 2 steps: how to testify and who and what to email.

Update: 4/8/16

Alison emailed me with an update about the hearing for Bill H4062: Informed consent for benzodiazepines and non-benzodiazepine hypnotics. The hearing took place on Monday, April 4 at 1PM at the Massachusetts State House in Boston, MA.

She shared a new blog link with all the updates.  This is an overview of what will be happening next:

The committee hearing the testimonies will be reviewing all of the written testimonies of the people unable to attend the hearing, and will then decide whether or not the bill moves forward to the House and Senate. The discussion, parts of which you can watch in the video below, clarified some important points in the legislation and gave survivors an opportunity to tell their stories.

Alison also shares some additional background about the bill and benzodiazepines, and a detailed account of what happened at the hearing (same link as above).

geraldine burns MA benzodiazepine hearing april 2016
Geraldine Burns, benzodiazepines survivor who brought the “benzo bill” to representative McMurtry’s attention, speaks about her journey through long-term benzodiazepine use, the subsequent injury it caused to her nervous system, and the many years it took to recover once she was off the drug (used with permission: Alison Page)

Alison also shares her personal experiences too and how emotional and yet cathartic it was to be there to testify:

There were a lot of tears at the hearing. The personal testimonies from survivors and caretakers were poignant, honest, vulnerable, and moving. This is the first time that the “benzo community” has had the opportunity to openly tell their stories in a platform that could influence legislation so that other people will not get harmed by prescribed benzodiazepines.

I was so proud to be there and witness the courage, camaraderie, resilience, advocacy, and vulnerability of fellow survivors. This is the first time I have met these people, who I’ve talked to online for years, and who I consider dear friends. This is the first time I have visited Boston since coming off benzodiazepines several years ago, so it was a personal victory, as well.

Testifying was cathartic, both for the individuals and for the “benzo community” as a whole. This legislation is our chance to be heard. As one survivor said, through tears, to the committee, “Do not let my suffering be in vain. I beg you to pass this bill.”

Action steps to keep the momentum going:

  • Continue to send your stories
  • Reach out to Massachusetts representatives, senators, and governors and ask them to vote yes on this bill
  • Start talking about this and sharing stories in other states
  • Follow updates and “calls to action” for Bill H4062 on the new Benzodiazepines Bill Facebook page

Thanks to everyone who went to testify! 

And thank you if you  commented here, shared this post and sent in your story.

If you have questions for Alison or Geraldine or me you can post them in the comments below.

 

Vagus nerve rehab with GABA, breathing, humming, gargling and key nutrients

By Trudy Scott 248 Comments

vegas nerve rehab

I’ve got an issue going on with my vagus nerve at the moment and the throat spasms have been affecting my voice and ability to speak for any length of time. It’s also causing this persistent dry cough, despite not feeling sick or having any respiratory symptoms. It’s much worse later in the day and gets particularly bad after about 30 minutes of talking.

I’ve been working with the very talented PT/nutritionist Joe Tatta for the last week and I am seeing much improvement already. I’m also learning so much on vagus nerve rehab.

Joe is a Musculoskeletal Pain Expert and you may recall our wonderful interview on the last Anxiety Summit on pain and anxiety.

Let me give you some of the back story. Just over a week ago I posted this message in a private facebook group of integrative practitioners/colleagues:

I’d love some help for me please. I have this ongoing spasmodic dry cough that starts as soon as I talk and gets worse later in the day. As you can imagine it’s affecting my day to day meetings, seeing clients and doing interviews, not to mention being highly irritating!

I don’t feel sick at all and have no congestion. It started after my NYC trip and a really frightening flight over the Colorado mountains!

We had the most awful turbulence and it felt like wings on the plane were going to break. People were screaming and the parents behind us were reassuring their kids saying it’s ok, it’s just like a roller coaster ride. I was sitting next to a 6’4’’ young man who had just completed training in the Coast Guard. He was also terrified and said they had taught him how to survive a boat going down but not how to survive a plane going down.

I believe my immune system got suppressed big time! The day after I got home I got the flu for the first time in 30+ years and I felt pretty grim for a day and then recovered nicely over the next 4-5 days. The flu was over 10 days ago but this stupid cough continues!

One night I could not sleep due to the coughing and decided to try and relax my airways with GABA. I know how effective GABA is for stiff and tense muscles so why not try it for the throat spasms I was having? I am now able to have a reasonable conversation for say 15-30 mins if I take 500mg GABA opened on to my tongue. Viola! a new use for GABA – pretty cool!

I must be low in GABA because I’m able to take upwards of 5 (and sometime more) doses of 500mg a day and not feel too wiped out. That’s a lot of GABA for me – 125mg to 250mg used to be enough for the anxiety I once experienced! I did have a bit of my old early morning waking with anxiety (that I used to have in my late 30s) that week of the flu but that’s now gone.

I’m also using a homeopathic called Boiron Drosera. I’ve never had asthma and don’t have much experience with it but from what I’m reading it sounds like the“cough-variant” of asthma!?

I’m asking here because I’m intrigued by this whole scary flight/depressed immunity/GABA for the spasms thing and wonder if anyone here has any insights?

Joe Tatta responded in about 30 minutes with this message:

Sounds like you have a vagus nerve problem. Potentially loss of parasympathetics. You can read some in this article but there is much more…

Here is the article he shared: Arnold’s nerve cough reflex: evidence for chronic cough as a sensory vagal neuropathy

Arnold’s nerve ear-cough reflex is recognised to occur uncommonly in patients with chronic cough. In these patients, mechanical stimulation of the external auditory meatus can activate the auricular branch of the vagus nerve (Arnold’s nerve) and evoke reflex cough. This is an example of hypersensitivity of vagal afferent nerves, and there is now an increasing recognition that many cases of refractory or idiopathic cough may be due to a sensory neuropathy of the vagus nerve.

The paper presents two cases where the cough was successfully treated with gabapentin. Gabapentin (also known as Neurontin) affects GABA levels and this why I get such great results with GABA.

Gabapentin is drug that is primarily used to treat seizures and neuropathic pain. It is also used for restless leg syndrome and hot flashes, and off-label for anxiety, insomnia, fibromyalgia and bipolar disorder. I’d love to see GABA being studied and used for these conditions especially because gabapentin can cause withdrawal syndrome: Withdrawal symptoms after gabapentin discontinuation and an increased risk of suicidal thoughts.

Joe offered to meet with me via skype and I learned that the neuro-rehab is key. I’ve been doing breathing exercises and humming every hour on the hour for the last week i.e. about 10 times a day. When I hum it’s the “happy birthday” song and I have to think of a specific birthday. I hum and smile and think about my baby sister’s 7th birthday party 37 years ago. I had just come back from Australia and I have such great memories of it! We chatted about it at the weekend and had a good laugh.

I continue to use the GABA as needed, and am also taking GPC (GlyceroPhosphoCholine) and Acetyl-L-carnitine, both of which are acetylcholine precursors for nerve rehabilitation.

Because I’ve had so many questions about what is going on with me and what I’m doing, I have decided to start this blog post and I’ll continue to add to it. I’ve been documenting what has been happening as I go through this rehab because I’m finding it so fascinating.

Stay tuned for all the details:

  • More on the vagus nerve and why it’s so important
  • Why the very scary plane ride triggered this issue I’m having
  • How GABA works to stop the spasms in 5-10 seconds (I have a video to share)
  • Exactly what exercises I’m doing for the rehab and why you need to build up and not do gargling exercises on day one
  • More details about the nutrients: GPC and acetyl-l-carnitine
  • And an interview with Joe Tatta to share his expertise (I’m the patient/client here and am in learning mode)

I wouldn’t suggest trying any of this yourself until I share more because from what I’ve learned so far, you need to slowly built up to certain of the exercises.

Updates April 1, 2016:

Here is the first video (taken March 16, 2016) where I share the story of the scary plane ride and my flu and the start of the throat spasms.  You can hear how my voice sounds and how quickly 500mg GABA relaxes the spasms in my throat/neck.  I share what I learned from Joe Tatta about it being connected the vagus nerve.

Here is the second video (also taken March 16, 2016) where I demonstrate the 3-6-6 second breathing exercise and the happy birthday song humming exercise. I have to think of an actual birthday. I hum and think of my baby sister’s birthday (you can see those photos above).  Be warned, I am what I call “musically challenged!”

Here is the third video (taken late evening March 16, 2016) where you can hear how bad my voice and throat gets later in the day.

Here is the video taken at Heavenly ski resort on March 27, 2016.  You can see me doing my humming exercises in between skiing on this beautiful mountain and how I needed GABA after a strenuous ski run.  And I summarize what has been working for me so far.  I hope you enjoy the stunning scenery too!  I feel so fortunate that we can hop in the car and visit such an amazing place like this on the weekend! It’s about 90 minutes up the hill from where we live.

And here is the final video in this series (taken yesterday March 31, 2016). I demonstrate the exercises I am currently doing: 3-6-6 second breathing, humming (which has improved), the yawning and the tongue massage of the roof of my mouth.  I also talk about GPC and acetyl-l-carnitine.

You can probably see and hear that I am much improved and have not needed much GABA for the last two days now.  In the last week I have interviewed Dr. Josh Axe for his “Eat Dirt” book and Dr. Kelly Brogan for her “A Mind of Your Own” book.  And Dr. David Brady has interviewed me for his Fibrofix Summit and Dr. Eric Zielinski interviewed me for his Essential Oils Summit.  For each interview I did my exercises right beforehand and took 500mg GABA half way through the interview and had immediate relief.

GABA for vagus nerve
I had 2 x 500mg GABA on hand for my interviews – opened and ready to use!

Update: April 8, 2016

I continue to improve and have not needed GABA for 4 days and only have a very mild hint of the throat feeling late evening.

Two days ago I added an essential oil called Parasympathetic. It contains clove and lemon and I’ll share more in a future post.  Right now I can share that I used too much the first day and had the very dry mouth I experienced with too much GPC and acetyl-l-carnitine.

Update: April 22, 2016

A quick update to let you know that my dry spasmodic cough has completely gone.  I  have not had any symptoms for a week and I have stopped the vagus nerve rehab exercises, GPC,  acetyl-l-carnitine, the essential oil called Parasympathetic and GABA.

Additional resources when you are new to using GABAand other amino acids as supplements

As always, I use the symptoms questionnaire to figure out if low serotonin or low GABA or other neurotransmitter imbalances may be an issue.

If you suspect low levels of any of the neurotransmitters and do not yet have my book, The Antianxiety Food Solution – How the Foods You Eat Can Help You Calm Your Anxious Mind, Improve Your Mood, and End Cravings, I highly recommend getting it and reading it before jumping in and using amino acids on your own so you are knowledgeable. And be sure to share it with the practitioner/health team you or your loved one is working with.

There is an entire chapter on the amino acids and they are discussed throughout the book in the sections on gut health, gluten, blood sugar control (this is covered in an entire chapter too), sugar cravings, anxiety and mood issues.

The book doesn’t include product names (per the publisher’s request) so this blog, The Antianxiety Food Solution Amino Acid and Pyroluria Supplements, lists the amino acids that I use with my individual clients and those in my group programs.

If, after reading this blog and my book, you don’t feel comfortable figuring things out on your own (i.e. doing the symptoms questionnaire and respective amino acids trials), a good place to get help is the GABA QuickStart Program (if you have low GABA symptoms). This is a paid online/virtual group program where you get my guidance and community support.

If you are a practitioner, join us in The Balancing Neurotransmitters: the Fundamentals program. This is also a paid online/virtual program with an opportunity to interact with me and other practitioners who are also using the amino acids.

Wrapping up and your feedback

I so appreciate all the caring and concerned comments, feedback and ideas for me!  And boy, am I grateful for Joe and his expertise!

I will still be interviewing Joe so he can share the theory and address questions so please post questions you may have.

If any of this resonates with you or if you have any other questions I’d love to hear back from you.

Please post them in the comments section below.

Chronic Lyme Disease Summit – anxiety, pyroluria & more

By Trudy Scott 6 Comments

The Chronic Lyme Disease Summit runs from April 4th to 11th so I’m sharing some additional information for you.

chronic-lyme-disease-summit-y

The response to this summit, hosted by Dr. Jay Davidson, is out of this world already. Lyme disease is much more talked about than most realize and more people are affected by Lyme disease each year than breast cancer!

Many people with chronic Lyme disease have chronic anxiety too and the focus of my interview is how to use targeted individual amino acids GABA and tryptophan to top up low levels of GABA and serotonin while the Lyme is being addressed.

This gives Lyme sufferers resolution from much of the anxiety (if not all) right away and they don’t need to resort to meds like benzodiazepines or anti-depressants (like the women in the study below). There is also a big connection between Lyme disease and pyroluria and I cover this too.

Here is one study that shows that Lyme-anxiety is very real and that panic attacks may actually be trigged by the Lyme disease:

A paper published in the Journal of Psychiatric Practice in 2000: Panic attacks may reveal previously unsuspected chronic disseminated lyme disease

describes the histories of three patients with panic-like episodes that turned out to be related to underlying, previously unsuspected tick-borne diseases.

Each woman experienced symptoms that are not usual in panic disorder but are typical of neurological Lyme disease, including exquisite sensitivity to light, touch, and sounds, joint pain often in combination with cognitive changes including mental fogginess and loss of recent memory, and some degree of bizarre, shifting, and often excruciating neurological pain. Because these symptoms are atypical of primary panic disorder, they were very helpful in alerting the clinician to suspect an underlying physical illness.

In each case, the results of testing revealed positive hallmarks of disseminated Lyme and other tick-borne diseases [ including Lyme borreliosis caused by the spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, babesiosis, and ehrlichiosis.] Since beginning treatment with intensive doses of appropriate antimicrobial medications for their tick-borne infections, all three patients have become free of panic attacks.

Treatment of their infections by a specialist in Lyme disease allowed one of the women to discontinue anti-anxiety medication completely and another to reduce the dose of medication to occasional use only. The third patient is no longer anxious but her depression is resolving more slowly despite the ongoing use of an antidepressant. Two of the patients have also needed ongoing medication for pain and other symptoms of late-stage, neurological Lyme disease

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One of my favorite presentations at the 2015 IMMH/Integrative Medicine for Mental Health conference was Dr. Suruchi Chandra’s Neuropsychiatric Lyme Disease talk. She shared that:

Lyme disease is one of the fastest growing infectious diseases in the United States. It can remain dormant for years and then later mimic a number of psychiatric illnesses, including anxiety disorders, mood disturbances, psychosis, and autism-like behaviors. It can be further complicated by the presence of co-infections.

Tune in to the summit to hear more about Lyme and anxiety and the amino acids GABA and tryptophan (and the Lyme-pyroluria connection).

(Please note: I’m not a Lyme disease expert – people seek me out for help with their anxiety and many of them also happen to have Lyme disease. The information we covered in the interview is very powerful for anxiety whether or not Lyme disease is a factor.)

Here are a selection of the many excellent Lyme interviews you’ll hear:

  • Dr. Jay Davidson, DC, PScD: Heavy Metal Detox and Lyme Disease
  • Connie Strasheim: Lyme Disease and Cancer
  • Jack Tips, PhD, CCN: The Gut Microbiome and Lyme disease
  • Shayne Morris, PhD: Biofilm, Bugs and Bacteriophage
  • Bradley Bush, ND: A Lab Test that Actually Works for Detecting Lyme Disease

When you register you get access to 3 talks right away – mine is one of the 3 talks! You can register here:
https://qt247.isrefer.com/go/LYME16reg/trudyscottcn

Depression is a message to stop and figure out our imbalance

By Trudy Scott 12 Comments

Studies have shown that antidepressants are among the most difficult drugs to taper from, more so than alcohol and opiates.

Women experience more than 2x’s the rate of depression as men, regardless of race or ethnic background.

1 in 4 women in 40s and 50s use psychiatric drugs.

Depression is a message. It’s an opportunity for us to stop and figure out what’s causing our imbalance.

Wise words indeed!  As shared by Kelly Brogan MD in her bold new book. She is a trailblazer, is bold and is not afraid to say it like it is – A Mind of Your Own: The Truth about Depression and How Women Can Heal Their Bodies to Reclaim Their Lives.  It is groundbreaking, brave, science-based and offers a truly holistic approach.

Enjoy these excellent quotes from the book! (and the table of contents – see below)

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The table of contents: 

Introduction: Psych—It’s Not All in Your Head

PART I: THE TRUTH ABOUT DEPRESSION

1. Decoding Depression
It’s Not a Disease: What You Don’t Know About This Syndrome and How It Manifests

2. Truth Serum: Coming Clean About the Serotonin Myth
How You’ve Been Misled, Misdiagnosed, and Mistreated

3. The New Biology of Depression
What Gut Microbes and Silent Inflammation Have to Do with Mental Health

4. The Great Psychiatric Pretenders
Two Common, Resolvable Conditions That Can Lead to a Psychiatric Diagnosis

5. Why Body Lotions, Tap Water, and OTC Pain Relievers Should Come with New Warning Labels
Common Exposures and Drugs That Can Lead to Depression

PART 2: NATURAL TREATMENTS FOR WHOLE-BODY WELLNESS

6. Let Food Be Thy Medicine
Nutritional Recommendations to Heal Your Body and Free YourMind (Without Feeling Like You’re on an Impossible Diet)

7. The Power of Meditation, Sleep, and Exercise
Three Simple Lifestyle Habits That Can Enhance Mental Health

8. Clean House
How to Detoxify Your Environment

9. Testing and Supplementing
Supporting the Healing Process

10. 4 Weeks to a Natural High
A 30-Day Plan of Action

Closing Words: Own Your Body and Free Your Mind

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As you know, Dr. Kelly Brogan is one of my heroes in the world of integrative mental health and she truly is:

an ambassador to a new way of experiencing health and well-being.  In this model our health is under OUR control.

If you struggle with depression (or anxiety), you’ll find this book dispels common myths, and gives you the knowledge you need to truly heal.

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The official release was March 15th. The book is already rated #1 on Amazon for Depression — so don’t miss out!  It offers a realistic action plan you can use to heal your body, alleviate inflammation, and feel yourself again without a single prescription!

Get chapter 1 and grab your bonuses here:
http://kellybroganmd.com/amindofyourown/?ref=35

And be sure to sign up for the live Q and A call she’ll be doing (just enter your book receipt).

Trudy Scott (CN), Certified Nutritionist is the founder of www.everywomanover29.com, a thriving nutrition practice with a focus on food, mood and women’s health. Trudy educates women about the amazing healing powers of food and nutrients and helps them find natural solutions for anxiety and other mood problems. Trudy’s goal for all her clients (and all women): “You can be your healthiest, look your best and feel on-top-of-the-world emotionally!”