September 2016 - Page 2 of 2 - everywomanover29

erin-matlock-talk-suicide

Earlier this week when Erin Matlock shared her “Changing Fate” video from the Superhero You live event she said this:

This is hands down the most personal and most difficult talk I’ve ever given. In it I read from my own suicide note.

Please help us send this video out into the world so that people who are suffering alone can see that they are so very not alone.

I was very moved to share this video and since it’s National Suicide Prevention Week and World Suicide Prevention Day, September 10th, I’ve added to her wonderful message by sharing some powerful nutritional resources too.

You can WATCH the entire 16 minute video from the SuperheroYou live event VIA THIS LINK on the SuperheroYou facebook page. This is what Superhero You founder Jim Kwik shared when posting the video:

If you feel broken, alone, or unhappy, this might be the most important video you watch today.

Most of us think suicide is something that happens to strangers – not to people we know. But someone dies by suicide every 40 seconds. That’s 15,385 people this week and 800,000 people this year. If you have 1,000 Facebook friends, 60 of them have thought about suicide in the past year.

Erin Matlock knows this struggle well. She battled major depression for 15 years and had 4 escalating attempts on her own life. Today, Erin is a mental health advocate and founder of the Brain Summit, an online platform where experts present the latest tools and techniques to upgrade your brain. In the video, Erin shares how neuroscience helped her during this time, the challenges that even the happiest-seeming people might face, and what you can do if you (or someone you love) might be struggling.

Erin also talks about Cynthia Pasquella’s struggles with depression and saying “my brain is trying to murder me.” Here is her powerful blog where she bravely and openly shares: Let’s Talk About Depression – Because Most People Won’t And It’s Killing Us

Here is the resource list Erin shares:

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (United States 24 hour hotline)
1-800-273-TALK

Samaritans (United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland 24 hour hotline)
116 123 (UK) and 116 123 (ROI)

Beyond Blue (Australia 24 hour hotline and resources)
1300 22 4636

To Write Love On Her Arms
A nonprofit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury, and suicide.

Mind
A UK charity with an extensive collection of information about mental health.

HeadsTogether
A UK Mental Health Awareness Campaign spearheaded by The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry.

PsychologyToday Therapist Directory
Find Help From A licensed Therapist In Your Area

EEG Info Neurofeedback Provider Directory
Find a qualified clinician in your area

Advanced Brain Technologies Provider Directory
Music Listening Therapy

Fisher Wallace Stimulator
FDA approved device for the treatment of depression and anxiety. Stimulates the brain to produce serotonin while lowering cortisol.

You can find more wonderful resources from Erin on the Brain Pages and her website

In addition to the above resources Erin has so kindly shared I’d like to share some powerful and effective nutritional resources too. Just like anxiety, depression often has a biochemical and nutritional component and getting to the root cause of these imbalances and deficiencies can often completely eliminate the depression and suicidal thinking.

I hear this from Anxiety Summit attendees all the time:

Why has no-one told me that food and nutrients could have such an impact on my anxiety and panic attacks?

The same could be said for depression and suicidal thinking.

I also hear this from many in my community:

My anxiety (or depression) is SO severe there is no way that diet and nutrients could make a difference!

This is not true and I encourage you to have an open mind about this. We now have much research and so many integrative practitioners and nutritionists doing this work and seeing incredible results. My colleague (and prior Anxiety Summit guest expert) Dr. Josh Friedman is one such practitioner and he has a wealth of information on his facebook page Integrative Depression Solutions. Here is just one example of a post:

nutrienta-and-mental-illness

The article was published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry: What if nutrients could treat mental illness? and it starts with this sentence:

We are at a tipping point in psychiatry. With few psychiatric drugs on the horizon and long-term studies suggesting medication may do more harm than good, it is time to revisit the very old idea that nutrition can have a positive effect on mental health.

You can hear more about this topic in Julia Rucklidge’s TEDX talk: The surprisingly dramatic role of nutrition in mental health and read more about nutritional medicine in modern psychiatry from the International Society for Nutritional Psychiatry Research/ISNPR, and it’s founder Felice Jacka.

Here are some other nutritional resources for depression. Don’t let the word anxiety deter you – for some people anxiety is their biggest issue, for other it’s depression and the same underlying causes can be factors in both conditions.

60+ Nutritional & Biochemical Causes of Anxiety, a check-list to rule out possible underlying causes

The Anxiety Summit, an online event I host, now in its 4^th season and called “a bouquet of hope”

The Depression Sessions, an online event hosted by Sean Croxton

The Mental Wellness Summit, an online event hosted by Dr. John Dempster and Ross McKenzie

The Medicinal Supplements Summit, co-hosted by Wendy Myers, airs next week (I cover both anxiety and depression in my interview)

The Brain Summit, hosted by Erin earlier this year. I was fortunate enough to get to know Erin earlier this year, both as a speaker (I talked about grass-fed red meat and tryptophan) and by listening to her interview many wonderful brain experts like Alex Doman (who talked about music therapy for vagus nerve rehab).

A Mind of Your Own: The Truth about Depression and How Women Can Heal Their Bodies to Reclaim Their Lives, the wonderful best-selling book by Dr. Kelly Brogan

The Mood Cure: The 4-Step Program to Take Charge of Your Emotions–Today, the excellent book my mentor, Julia Ross

The Antianxiety Food Solution: How the Foods You Eat Can Help You Calm Your Anxious Mind, Improve Your Mood, and End Cravings, my book on anxiety

There is hope and just know there is an answer for you! Start by talking about how you feel, ask for help and work with someone to help you find your underlying cause and solution.

I know Erin’s courage and wisdom will get more people starting the conversation about suicide. And as she so wisely says:

talk about suicide, don’t gloss over it and don’t flinch!

I’d like to challenge you to be a superhero and talk to at least three people about suicide in the next week, whether you’re the one having suicidal thoughts or whether you’re the one concerned about a loved one or friend who may be having suicidal thoughts. Don’t gloss over it and don’t flinch!

chick-gut-mulfunction

A press release published by Cornell University shares research that has found that zinc deficiency alters gut bacteria makeup and function:

The researchers used broiler chickens in the study, partly due to their omnivorous appetites – which allowed the researchers to feed them purified diets – and because of their fatty acids and genetic similarities to humans.

There is a great diagram in the actual study: Chronic Zinc Deficiency Alters Chick Gut Microbiota Composition and Function. It explains the proposed mechanisms by which a zinc-deficient gut microbiome may perpetuate a zinc-deficient state.

zinc-chick-diagram

Figure 8. Schematic diagram depicting proposed mechanisms by which a Zn [zinc] deficient gut microbiome may worsen a Zn deficient phenotype. Zn deficiency (1), caused by insufficient dietary Zn (2), induces a decrease in gut microbial diversity (3), and an outgrowth of bacteria particularly suited to low Zn conditions, leading to dysbiosis [3A–C]. Lack of dietary Zn also leads to alterations in the functional capacity of the microflora (4), causing multiple effects including decreased expression of pathways related to mineral (i.e., Zn) absorption (4A) and carbohydrate digestion and fermentation (4B). A decrease in the latter pathway may also cause a depression in the production of SCFAs [short chain fatty acids] (5), compounds responsible for improving the bioavailability of Zn. Altogether, these microbial effects may decrease Zn absorbability (6A) and disturb GI health (6B), thereby perpetuating a Zn deficient state. Red arrows and orange–lined boxes denote observations of this study, and dashed arrows and black–lined boxes describe published findings.

The above is shared here under the Creative Commons Attribution License and can be found here: Reed, S.; Neuman, H.; Moscovich, S.; Glahn, R.P.; Koren, O.; Tako, E. Chronic Zinc Deficiency Alters Chick Gut Microbiota Composition and Function. Nutrients 2015, 7, 9768-9784.

Zinc status is notoriously difficult to assess so I am fascinated by the findings of this Cornell University study suggesting

a simple new way to test for zinc deficiency by analyzing a patient’s fecal sample and seeing if the profile of gut bacteria matches the makeup one would expect in a zinc-deficient individual.

The authors suggest that with additional research this zinc stool test could become a noninvasive biomarker for zinc deficiency.

Zinc deficiency is common, affecting 25 percent of the world’s population, especially in the developing world.

Zinc deficiency plays a major role in anxiety and depression. Here is a recent paper on the connection between low serum zinc, high CRP (a marker of inflammation) and pre- and post-natal anxiety and depression: Lower Serum Zinc and Higher CRP Strongly Predict Prenatal Depression and Physio-somatic Symptoms, Which All Together Predict Postnatal Depressive Symptoms.

New research, soon to be published by the Journal of Neuroscience by researchers at the University of Auckland, shows the importance of zinc in autism. The study looks at how zinc can affect brain cell communication that is altered at the cellular level.

The researchers suggest this research may have applications for psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia (and presumably anxiety and depression too).

I feel that we have an under-recognized opportunity to have a bigger impact on mental and physical health if we take zinc deficiency more seriously.

Have you had your zinc status assessed and do you supplement accordingly?

If you’re a practitioner, do you regularly check the zinc status of all your patients/clients?

Archives for September 2016

Erin Matlock: talk about suicide, don’t gloss over it and don’t flinch!

Zinc deficiency alters chick gut bacteria makeup and function