Archives for April 2016

Integrative Medicine Approach to Pediatric Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Anxiety

April 29, 2016 By Trudy Scott 18 Comments

pediatric-ocd-anxiety

Gluten was found to be the cause of a childhood case of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). In this case report, published in January this year: Integrative Medicine Approach to Pediatric Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Anxiety, the authors state

This case study is the first reported case of OCD associated with non-celiac gluten sensitivity.

Pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is prevalent in 1% to 2% of the population. Emerging studies have correlated non-celiac gluten sensitivity with psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia, depression, mania, and anxiety.

The 7-year-old boy was treated at an integrative medicine practice in the United States and experienced these results on a gluten-free diet together with other integrative medicine modalities:

marked reduction of OCD symptoms and anxiety along with marked improvement of social behavior and school work

The authors conclude the following and recommend further research:

The patient’s rapid response without side effects behooves the medical research community to further investigate the association of non-celiac gluten sensitivity and pediatric OCD.

These are truly amazing results and I always recommend that anyone with any mental health condition needs to consider the effects of gluten. I have all my clients go gluten-free for this very reason. Even if you don’t have a diagnosis of OCD, going gluten-free frequently helps with the obsessive thinking, ruminating thoughts, negative self-talk, anxiety and worry.

Of course, this approach or this approach alone, may not work with everyone with OCD (severe or mild) since the root cause can be multi-faceted.

Other approaches for OCD could also include (with or without a gluten-free diet, although I’d err on the side of caution and always remove gluten):

Addressing low serotonin with 5-HTP or tryptophan. Inositol is also very helpful for obsessive thoughts and/or behaviors. I blogged about a success story here: Anxiety and OCD: Inositol instead of tryptophan or 5-HTP?
Addressing nutritional deficiencies using a multi-vitamin and -mineral combination. In this study, an 8-year-old boy with OCD and explosive rage issues benefited from this approach. In this case study, an 18-year-old who had not benefited much from CBT, saw mood stabilization, anxiety reduction, and obsessions in remission after just 8 weeks on the multi-vitamin and -mineral combination. His symptoms retuned when he stopped taking it and improved when he added it back.
Addressing pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with streptococcal infections (or PANDAS) and pediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric syndrome (PANS) which can cause OCD type behaviors, bed-wetting, tics, night-time fears, separation anxiety, learning regression, and handwriting disabilities.

Please share if you’ve found benefits from any of the above approaches for OCD, obsessive thinking or anxiety.

Music Therapy for Vagus Nerve rehab: on the Brain Summit

April 25, 2016 By Trudy Scott 9 Comments

Just a quick reminder that the Brain Summit airs May 2nd to 6th.

Here is a snippet from the interview with Alex Doman: Using Music to Rewire Your Brain. Alex is CEO of Advanced Brain Technologies, the third generation of a family of pioneers in the field of human brain development, co-founder of Sleep Genius, author of the best-selling book, Healing at the Speed of Sound and co-creator of The Listening Program, a sound therapy program.

alex-dorman

It’s a fascinating topic that I didn’t know much about until I heard this interview. Alex shares some of the basics of sound and sound therapy:

Sound affects us on a myriad of levels, from lower brain centers to the higher brain centers. So bottom-up and top-down processing, emotional regulation, moods. So it has a swath of impact on us as human beings, and, you know, the music that’s in our personal playlist we use, you know, to self-regulate, and, as you said, maybe an up-tempo piece for our cardio; a slow tempo, very calm piece when we’re in a stress state; maybe some baroque music to help focus us.

And the principles of using music and sound for self-regulation, there are a few components, right? One is frequency, which you mentioned, which is a big area of focus for us. Different sound frequencies have a different impact on our functions and performance, right? So we’ve learned that low-frequency sounds have a very calming effect on the nervous system. They have an effect on our motor functions within the brain; fine and gross motor skills, our sense of body and space, our left-right awareness, our coordinated movements, and our vestibular functions, primarily. Whereas, the mid-frequencies are very focusing, as opposed to the low frequencies being grounded, and they are more related to our communication with one another, our ability to receive and express language, both orally and through written communication. And then these high frequencies, which are rather magical, in a way, that are very stimulating and tap into our intuition, our beliefs, our creativity. And actually, in the brain, there’s more neural area for the high frequencies than any other range of sound frequencies.

So we are working with sound and the components of frequency to affect different functions within our lives — from the low to the mid to the high frequencies—in very specific ways, but then there are other features, like the tempo, the pace of the music, right? Slow tempos will entrain our body rhythms and brain waves to lower states, and fast tempos will activate us. So, in way, you can think of high frequencies like sonic caffeine that I have here in my cup, to get me activated, and the low frequencies might be like taking a lavender essential oil to help kind of calm our nervous system. So they affect us across a great range.

Once he started talking about stress, burnout and the vagus nerve, I was even more fascinated and really intrigued:

What’s happening is our stress resilience is getting lower and lower and lower. So what’s interesting is noise is a big contributor to that. But sound is also the antidote. So there was some research that was done in Europe a few years ago with child care workers that experienced burnout symptoms to the magnitude that many would qualify for a depression diagnosis.

So the investigators wanted to research the impact of Music Listening Therapy with a special mode of stimulation that would impact the vagus nerve and the autonomic nervous system with more impact—and we’ll probably talk about bone conduction later—and to use one of our protocols to see if, in fact, symptoms of burnout would be lessened in response to that intervention, compared to the standard care, that standard care being visits to a psychotherapist for these workers.

So they did a controlled study, and one group saw the therapist and one group, their therapist was themselves using sound as the input and to help heal and change their state. And what was miraculous is that those that did the listening had statistically significant improvements going from stress burnout to normal stress resilience, and those getting talk therapy made very little change. They stayed kind of stuck in their pattern of stress response. So it’s really a testament to the power of the right sound done in a very specific manner, right? This isn’t haphazard; this is a very focused, structured program to create a massive change to a very big issue that many of us face.

Later on in the interview, there is more discussion about the vagus nerve. If you’ve been following my blogging recently you’ll be aware of the issues I had with my voice and the breathing and humming work I did for my vagus nerve rehabilitation. Now I have a much better understanding of why it helped so much!

And what’s interesting is the vagus nerve, which is a cranial nerve, has enervations within the ear, meaning connections, inner connections within the ear. So when we hear or experience sound, that sound carries along the vagus nerve. So it connects our central nervous system and our autonomic nervous system; that’s the main bridge, the main connector that happens. And it’s very important for emotional regulation; it’s the center of emotional regulation.

And what we’ve found with Music Listening Therapy, the observations are that it helps with that homeostatic state, that balance of acceleration when we need it and deceleration in the brake when we need it. So that we can have improved stress resilience and better emotional regulation

Erin Matlock is founder of Brain Summit, a mental health advocate and popular speaker. After overcoming a crippling battle with severe depression, she went on to create an online community where she openly shares her search for a better brain.

During this interview she shares how much this music therapy helped her to feel joyful and more connected:

erin-matlock

I’d spent four weeks in the high frequency range, and that produced a joy. And I have never described myself as joyful, not since I was a little child, because of the history of depression. And I can’t remember – and I know I wrote about that – a time when I walked around saying, “I feel joy,” for no reason, none at all.

And then the other part was the connection. And this part was interesting. As an introvert, as someone who has always felt very out of place, like I was born in the wrong time, I used to describe myself like that saying, “alone in a crowded room.” That was me. And to feel connected — not to any particular person, just in a general sense— for me it was spiritual; it’s not that way for everyone else. I don’t know where that connection comes from, but it was something that my brain wasn’t giving me before. And that came directly as a result of this training.

Overall it is a fascinating interview and one I know you’ll want to hear! I look forward to checking out other interviews and hope you’ll join me on the Brain Summit. Erin interviews 25 global experts who present cutting edge information on brain health, mental health, peak performance, neurotechnology, nutrition and much more.

You can register here: http://www.brainsummit.com?orid=45505&opid=12

Anxiety, ADHD, autism and insomnia: how a weighted blanket helps

April 22, 2016 By Trudy Scott 20 Comments

anxiety-weighted-blanket

I shared this article on facebook recently: Sleeping With Weighted Blankets Helps Insomnia And Anxiety

Traditionally, weighted blankets are used as part of occupational therapy for children experiencing sensory disorders, anxiety, stress or issues related to autism. ‘In psychiatric care, weighted blankets are one of our most powerful tools for helping people who are anxious, upset, and possibly on the verge of losing control,’ says Karen Moore, OTR/L, an occupational therapist in Franconia, N.H.

The response was so positive I promised I would share some blog posts with more information, so here we are. The first is to share some additional information and stories from people who have seen results or heard positive things about their use.

A 2008 study published in Occupational Therapy in Mental Health, observed the effects of a 30lb weighted blanket in a sample of 32 adults: Exploring the Safety and Therapeutic Effects of Deep Pressure Stimulation Using a Weighted Blanket. These results were observed

63% reported lower anxiety after use
78% preferred the weighted blanket as a calming modality

When I shared the article I asked a few questions. The first one: Have you used weighted blankets personally, or with children or recommended them to patients/clients?

The feedback I received was amazing! Lynn shared this magic blanket comment for ADHD and anxiety:

Someone close to me got one for her foster child, who suffers from emotional dysregulation, ADHD, and anxiety. It works like magic– in fact the child calls it his “magic blanket.”

She also shared this about her younger brother who is autistic and mute:

When we were young children, he would suffer terrible insomnia and agitation whenever there was a full moon. My older brother and I would take turns sleeping with him on full moon nights because that comforted him somewhat. We figured out as small children that we could get him to calm down and go to sleep by draping one leg and one arm across him. I think it was the heaviness and pressure of our limbs that settled his anxiety. Our parents could not do it, I suppose because their limbs were too large. So when I learned about Temple Grandin’s solution [more on that below], it made sense to me. Interesting, hmm

Phaedra commented saying some of us like to sleep with heavy blankets even in the summer and said this:

Deep pressure is calming and nurturing. Helps us get into our bodies and stimulates our proprioception (awareness of our body in space). I use weighted yoga bags filled with sand. Simply placing one across the chest or anywhere else on the body can be calming.

Diane shared that she used to write for a company called Mosaic Weighted Blankets and one of her jobs was to interview customers as testimonials:

I can’t tell you how blown away I was with my first few interviews. Parents of kids having autism, Asperger’s, special needs kids, kids having night terrors…it truly brought them (kids and the entire family) great peace and an ability to sleep through the night, almost immediately in many cases.

Adults also gained benefits, especially relating to issues with PTSD and restless legs syndrome.

The weight is part of the reason it provides calming…the pellets also provided something for the kids to touch/manipulate while they were trying to go to sleep. Mosaic’s blog should still have a lot of good articles on the benefits and how it is also used by occupational therapists. They can be on the expensive side if you compare it to a blanket, but if you compare it to the need for less medications and such it could be a very viable option.

There are many companies as well as sites showing how to make them yourself, just be sure you are focusing on the “pressure” effect and not the “heavy”…these blankets are not the same as just throwing 6 thick blankets on someone.

She also shared this article she wrote: Sensory Processing Disorder Treatment, Mosaic Weighted Blankets

Tara lives in the UK and uses a medium weight duvet/comforter and has two very useful tricks/tips to hopefully get similar benefits if you don’t have access to a weighted blanket:

GREAT thread, everyone! Thanks so much! I find deep pressure *very* soothing. I don’t have a weighted blanket, but we do sleep with a 10.5 tog duvet [spring/autumn weight comforter – tog is a British measure of warmth pretty much year-round. (Ah, the “joy” of living in the UK. Not!)

That said, here are two other tricks: 1) if your climate allows (i.e. it’s not too hot), make yourself a *full* hot water bottle and tuck your feet *under* it. This will put some weight/pressure on your body and will feel comforting. (I’m thinking this could even be done with cold water if it’s too hot where you live.)

And 2) if you don’t have a weighted blanket, but find yourself struggling with insomnia, lie on your side and tuck your arms between your legs (so that your arms are “sandwiched” between your legs and the gravity of the leg on top presses onto your arms). It’s not the same as having the full weight of something on you, but you will be creating a bit of deep pressure all the same. I’m not an OT (I wish I were!) but if you think about what the best thing to do with a small baby is – swaddle it!!! A weighted blanket makes total sense! It’s calming to our nervous system because it “contains” us (but not in an oppressive, limiting way).

I have not verified if these two trick/tips do in fact work the same way but it makes sense that they would so feel free to share if you’ve found they work for you. I personally love the hot water bottle feeling and have always done this for as long as I can remember. I will also often start off sleeping in the arms-sandwiched position and then end up in arms folded position, sort of hugging myself. I had no idea why except that it just feels good.

Tara mentioned also Temple Grandin’s deep pressure squeeze machine.

Temple Grandin (one of my heroes!) actually made her own deep pressure “machine” when she was little – she intuitively knew that it would help and soothe her. I’m not saying that anyone here is on the spectrum, but I have a hunch – tell me where I’m wrong – that a whole bunch of us have super “highly tuned” nervous systems! Thanks so much for all you do, Trudy and thanks to everyone in this group/community/village!

Based on the response this facebook post generated many of us have super “highly tuned” nervous systems, myself included!

Many years ago I had read about device in her book: Thinking in Pictures, My Life with Autism many years ago. She is a fascinating woman and it’s a great read! I see there is now an updated version.

thinking-in-pictures

Here is a little more about her: Temple Grandin PhD is an American professor of animal science at Colorado State University, world-renowned autism spokesperson and consultant to the livestock industry on animal behavior. On her website it states that she is now the most accomplished and well-known adult with autism in the world.

She writes about her squeeze machine and how it helped her anxiety and oversensitivity to touch here: Calming Effects of Deep Touch Pressure in Patients with Autistic Disorder, College Students, and Animals

I will describe here a deep touch pressure device (“squeeze machine”) that I developed to help me overcome problems of oversensitivity to touch, and that allays my nervousness. Reactions of other people to the squeeze machine, including children with autistic disorder and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are also reported.

When I posted this on facebook I also asked: “Do you have a source you can recommend -organic cotton cloth, non-plastic beads?”

I received some great resources but none that use organic cotton cloth and non-plastic beads. Some companies use stones and/or glass beads and one company has the option to send in your own fabric so you could buy your own organic cotton.

I just feel that with sensitive individuals, having organic cotton and beads that are not plastic is the best option, especially since many of you will spend quite a bit of time under these blankets or wrapped in them.

I appreciate having the opportunity to share all the great facebook comments here. Thanks if you contributed to the discussion!. If you’d like to see all the responses here is link to the facebook post. Join us on facebook and be part of future discussions. We have a lot of fun and some healthy and sometimes heated debates too!

Stay tuned for part 2 where I will share resources for buying a weighted blanket. I’ll also share more of the research on how these weighted blankets work, resources for making one plus how to know what weight is best for you.

If you’ve used a weighted blanket for anxiety, stress reduction, ADHD or insomnia please do share how you liked it and how it helped you. Have you used one personally, or with children or recommended them to patients/clients?

If you have a resource that offers organic cotton cloth with non-plastic beads please do share it.

You’ve got the Magic – a song by Robin Nielsen

April 15, 2016 By Trudy Scott 1 Comment

youve-got-magic-robin

My dear friend and Certified Clinical Nutritionist, Robin Nielsen wrote and sings this inspiring and uplifting song – it’s just beautiful and so much fun! She shares:

This song and music video is for you. Inspired by Tina Maze, the beautiful 2014 Winter Olympic Gold Medalist who made a music video about her journey to Gold, Marianne Williamson’s poem “Our Deepest Fear”, and all of my beautiful clients over the years, I wrote this delicious song with my sons, Nick and Duncan Nielsen to inspire women to tap back into their own magic, and shine no matter what their age.

Robin has helped “thousands of women of all ages regain their health and get the twinkle back in their eyes” and she has a lovely message for us:

“You’ve Got the Magic” was written and produced for all of us. It’s time to ask for what we want and discover the beautiful goddess within. Enjoy this fabulous life no matter what, and let your inner light shine bright as an inspiration to everyone. I invite you to rekindle your magic and open all the “love letters” that come your way everyday.

Wishing you joy, grace, beauty and lots of pleasure. Please share with every beautiful woman you know.

Enjoy the uplifting song and the really fun video! I keep watching it and smile the whole way through. I’m also so in awe of someone being able to sing and produce a song and video like this! Wow!

We have been friends since I first became a nutritionist and met when we both volunteered to do speaker support at the National Association of Nutrition Professionals /NANP (www.nanp.org) conference. We were later invited to serve on the board of directors and Robin went on the become President of the board, while I served as VP (and later as President).

During production of the video, Robin reached out to her friends and colleagues asking for a short video clip of us having fun and enjoying life. I sent in a clip and I’m actually featured in the video. How fun! See if you can spot me!?

You can get the song on iTunes or Amazon and grab the lyrics here.

One Hidden Hormone-Disrupting Ingredient to Avoid: on Hormones – A Women’s Wellness Summit

April 11, 2016 By Trudy Scott 12 Comments

It starts today so I’m just sending you a quick reminder about Hormones – A Women’s Wellness Summit. Join me, Bridgit Danner, LAc, and the 30+ health and wellness experts and educate yourself online and no cost from April 11-18.

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

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.

Here is the speaker/topic line-up for today/day 1:

My interview is Balance Brain Chemistry to End Anxiety and airs on day 3. I talk about the importance of cholesterol and how to figure out how much of the amino acids you may need and how to do a trial. Dr. Jill Carnahan’s interview is also on day 3: What’s the Big Deal About Methylation? You can read snippets from our interviews here.

Here are a few snippets from Lara Adler’s informative interview (which airs on day 6): One Hidden Hormone-Disrupting Ingredient to Avoid

…there are a lot of chemicals that research is showing can have really dramatic impacts on our health. And not just women’s health issues and endocrine disruption, which we’ll get into, but everything from cancers and heart disease and metabolic diseases, as I mentioned earlier, to autism and learning disabilities, behavioral problems, infertility, thyroid problems. Basically, every single health struggle that people have, there is some connection to environmental toxins.

…unfortunately, the most common endocrine disruptor is in thousands and thousands of products. And that is disguised under the word fragrance. And so fragrance is a catch-all word. Like there’s anywhere between, I think, it’s up to…It’s either 300 or 3,000 ingredients that can make up the word fragrance.

So labeling laws don’t require companies to disclose what that fragrance ingredients are because it sometimes a trade secret.

…if you can smell a product, if it has a fragrance, then those are fragrance molecules that you are inhaling into your body.

And interestingly, inhalation is the fastest way for something to enter your bloodstream is through inhalation, aside from injection..This is why this is one of my first stops in having people make shifts – is let’s look at fragrance first.

Here are the other days 6 speakers/topics:

I hope you can join us online on Hormones: A Women’s Wellness Summit

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

PS. Please share with other women who may be looking for this type of information.

Lyme Disease – my anxiety GABA interview, ACEs and replay reminders

April 10, 2016 By Trudy Scott 8 Comments

Just a quick reminder that today is the last day of new interviews for the Chronic Lyme Disease Summit and tomorrow you get a full day of replays of ALL the interviews.

Here is the line-up for today, day 7:

My interview airs today: Tryptophan and GABA to ease the Anxiety and Panic Attacks

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.

You can read a bit more about some of the research I discuss here:
https://www.everywomanover29.com/blog/chronic-lyme-disease-summit-anxiety-pyroluria/

Here is a snippet from The Role of Stress & Emotional Trauma with Lyme Disease, a fascinating interview with Niki Gratrix (we’ve met and I love the work she is doing in this area of ACEs):

…stress and emotional trauma have a primary effect on your biology. So emotional trauma in childhood, if you like, your biography becomes your biology. And emotional trauma in childhood, unfortunately time does not heal, it conceals. And the body will remember the trauma. And so to 20, 30 years down the line, you’re going to start to have physical expression of illness due to the unresolved trauma.

So ACEs, which are these adverse childhood experiences, they were first studied in the mid-1990s by the CDC and Kaiser Permanente.

And they looked first at 17,500 adults. And they were looking at the health statistics over a lifetime and correlated them with the number of ACEs that they had. When we talk about ACEs, what do we mean? In the context of that study, they were looking at physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, physical and emotional neglect. They were looking at parents separating or divorce, domestic violence or mental illness in the family, substance abuse, and someone in the family being incarcerated.

So as a child, if you experienced one or more of those ACEs, these were some of the statistics. First of all, 67% of all adults said they’d had at least one ACE. And of 67%, 80% of those had 4 or more ACEs. And essentially, if you have a high level of ACEs, this was correlated with a dramatic increase in the risk of 7 out 10 leading causes of death in the U.S. so if you have four or more ACEs, your relative risk of things like cancer is twice as high, hepatitis 2.5 times as high, depression 4.5 times as high, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease 2.5 times higher, and suicide 12 times more likely to commit suicide with 4 ACEs in childhood. If you have 8 or more ACEs, you have triple the risk of lung cancer and 3.5 times the risk of getting heart disease.

But there’s also a very interesting later study done on 15,500 people by the same researchers, which was the CDC and Kaiser Permanente, just specifically looking at autoimmune disorders. And what they found, again, dramatic statistics. Two or more ACEs, you’re 100% more likely to be diagnosed with rheumatic diseases.

…

How that’s translated in the brain is it’s a chronic fear response that is constantly there. And the brain responds by actually increasing the number of neurons in the brain that react to fear and stress. The amygdala expands. It becomes more activated. That will translate through the hypothalamus, through the HPA axis, the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis, and that will translate, also impacting the immune system.

…

there’s many experts in the Lyme field who acknowledge that this emotional trauma is a primary impact. And I happen to know Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt’s work very well, very familiar with his work and having interviewed him on my summit, he has his, I think it’s called the “Klinghardt axiom,” which is for each amount of bacterial infection in the body, there will be an equal amount of unresolved toxicity. And for each amount of unresolved toxicity, there will be an equal amount of unresolved emotional trauma. So these things all go hand-in-hand. And they need a multifactorial approach, if that makes sense.

If you are not yet registered you can do so here and catch interviews today and the replays on Monday:
https://qt247.isrefer.com/go/LYME16reg/trudyscottcn

And a reminder if you are considering purchasing the series for later listening and learning, the process will increase when then summit ends. Here is that purchase link:
https://qt247.isrefer.com/go/LYME16order/trudyscottcn/

PS. Tomorrow you get a full day of replays of ALL the interviews so enjoy the rest of the summit!