Archives for October 2016

Anxiety and the adrenals: low zinc and high copper

October 31, 2016 By Trudy Scott 22 Comments

two-girls

Anxiety, feelings of constant overwhelm and fatigue, plus insomnia, sugar cravings, the inability to control blood sugar, lack of mental clarity… these symptoms can be due to adrenal issues and this condition is brutally disruptive. And yes, you can suffer from all of the above at once!

In just a few weeks, from November 7-12, my colleague and good friend, NY Times bestselling author Dr. Alan Christianson will be hosting The Adrenal Reset Summit. It’s co-hosted by nutritionist Evan Brand.

I cover the Adrenals and Anxiety in my interview with Dr. Christianson and a few of the aspects we cover are low zinc and high copper.

Here is a snippet from me about zinc:

zinc is very underrated as being a nutrient that is commonly deficient and certainly when it comes to anxiety, it’s a huge factor. We have the zinc-copper imbalance and when we’ve got very high copper levels and low zinc levels, we may feel more anxious. But zinc is really, really important for so many things. I just mentioned serotonin, it’s really important as a cofactor for making serotonin and the other neurotransmitters like GABA which is a calming neurotransmitter.

It’s really, really important for adrenal function as well. There was actually a really nice paper that was published in December 2015 [Effects of Physical Activity on Trace Elements and Depression Related Biomarkers in Children and Adolescents], looking at children and adolescents and found that children and adolescents with lower levels of zinc also had low serotonin, they had high copper levels, and they also had lower cortisol levels, and sometimes, they had high cortisol levels. So, it varies but they definitely have issues with their cortisol levels and that’s obviously going to be a big factor when it comes to how they’re able to handle stress, what their mood levels are going to be like, what their cognitive function is going to be like, and everything else. So, zinc is a really important thing. It’s not talked about a lot and it’s something that is definitely a big factor.

I didn’t share this specific information during the interview but here are some of the results from the above study:

Older children, especially girls, had higher levels of depression. Participants with moderate and severe depression had significantly lower physical activity, serotonin, and zinc levels, zinc/copper ratios, and significantly higher copper and cortisol levels.

Physically active boys showed significantly lower depressive scores and improvement in cortisol, serotonin, copper, and zinc concentrations compared to girls of sedentary life style.

A little later in the interview Dr. Christianson shares what happened to him when he was inadvertently exposed to high levels of copper:

This is a brief insight I won’t go too far into but there was a period of time I was studying with a Vedic practitioner and there were these various rituals that I had to do. One of them was involving putting liquids in these containers and drinking and doing [some of these] meditations. The historical vessels [that] were used were copper-based and I got pretty toxic at one point. I had these horrible leg cramps. I really lost my capacity for exercise. It was very dramatic. I had a hard time climbing stairs and odd mood changes and odd twitches and what not. I finally realized that was the culprit and yeah, I did mega doses of zinc which I normally would not have tolerated well but I did fine with during that time and recovered from that. So, those are a real thing! (laughs)

I hope you can join us for the summit! The line-up is excellent. Here are a few of the many excellent speakers and their topics:

Chris Kresser, M.S., L.Ac – Is Adrenal Fatigue Real?
Steph Gadreau, CHNP – Perfectionism and Adrenals
Aviva Romm, MD – Adrenal Adaptogens
Ben Lynch, ND – Adrenals and Methylation
Wendy Myers, FDN, CHHC – Heavy Metal Toxicity
Dan Kalish, DC – Adrenal Neurotransmitter Connection
JJ Virgin, CNS, CHFS – Preventing Adrenal Burnout
Julia Ross, MA – Neurotransmitters and the Food Mood Connection

You can register here https://uo178.isrefer.com/go/arsScott/trudyscottcn/

Breast cancer: DCIS, thermography, estrogen, toxins, glutathione and anxiety

October 28, 2016 By Trudy Scott 3 Comments

breast-exam

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month so I’ve gathered some wonderful information and resources for you about DCIS, thermography, prevention by addressing estrogen dominance, avoiding endocrine disruptors and environmental pollutants and finally how to boost glutathione for detoxification support.

Ductal carcinoma in situ/DCIS: many don’t even consider this cancer

My good friend and fellow nutritionist Robin Nielsen recently posted about this on Facebook and because it was so beautifully said, I asked if I could share it:

A neighbor just told me this morning that she had a double mastectomy in early August due to cancer, stage 0. And then she told me it was “Ductal carcinoma in situ”. I know many women who have reversed this by changing their diet and lifestyle. This is a touchy subject for many, but it breaks my heart to see women removing their breasts when there’s a chance they don’t have to.

If you are in the thick of this right now, trying to decide what to do, do your research. Get lots of opinions from integrative practitioners. Many don’t even consider this cancer.

And if you’ve had this done yourself, you made the right choice. Because whatever we decide for ourselves is right. Sending love out to all women who have had to make this decision.

I asked Robin to share one of her articles and here it is: What You Need to Know About Your Beautiful Breasts and Breast Cancer. These factors have a big impact on our beautiful breasts:

The food you eat: inflammatory vs. anti-inflammatory
The quality and quantity of sleep
The toxins you’re exposed to: environmental, body care and household products, poor quality foods, toxic people, toxic habits and more
Your perception of stress and our ability to manage the stress in our lives
Your thoughts
And other lifestyle factors like exercise, relationships, your sense of community, etc.
How you deal with your emotions – your ability to express yourself
Your body’s nutrient status – especially Vitamin D3
Your ability to restore, nourish and love yourself, i.e. learning how to receive
The bras you wear – studies have shown that wearing a bra that’s too tight can restrict vital blood flow and can contribute to toxin build-up in your lymphatic system

Thermography for early detection and accurate test results

A thermogram image (from http://earlybreastscreen.com/)

Here are The Best Breast Cancer Screening Tests – 6 Reasons Why I Recommend Thermography from Dr. Christiane Northrup, M.D.’s blog:

Good for young, dense breasts and implants. Younger breasts tend to be denser. Thermography doesn’t identify fibrocystic tissue, breast implants, or scars as needing further investigation.
Detect cell changes in arm pit area. The arm pit area is an area that mammography isn’t always good at screening.
Great additional test. Thermography can be used as an additional test to help women and their care teams make more informed treatment decisions.
It Doesn’t Hurt. The pressure of a mammogram machine is equivalent to putting a 50-pound weight on your breast, which can be quite painful for most women.
No radiation. Another reason the United States Preventative Services Task Force reversed its aggressive mammogram guidelines was because of the exposure to radiation. It’s well known that excessive doses of radiation can increase your risk of cancer. It’s ironic that the test women are using for prevention may be causing the very problem they’re trying to avoid in the first place! And this doesn’t even touch on the harm done to the body from unnecessary biopsies, lumpectomies, mastectomies, chemotherapy, radiation treatment, and so forth.
Thermography is very safe. Thermography is even safe for pregnant and nursing women! It’s merely an image of the heat of your body.

Estrogen dominance as a cause of breast cancer and how to prevent it by eating for hormonal balance

Magdalena Wszelaki, founder of Hormones Balance, shares some signs of estrogen dominance as the leading cause of breast cancer: Breast Lumps? Thyroid Nodules? Horrendous PMS? Endometriosis? In her wonderful article: The Breast Cancer and Estrogen Link | 15 Ways to Prevent and Manage Breast Cancer Naturally, she covers how to move from fear to empowerment and prevention by eating for hormonal balance. The article covers estrogen dominance in detail addressing:

Most Breast Cancers are not Genetic
How Breast Cancer Forms and Multiplies
How Estrogen Feeds Cancer
Signs of Estrogen Dominance (ED)
Not All Estrogens Are Bad

But the big takeaway is that as Magdalena says:

You have more power over your risk of breast cancer than you think. There are many steps you can take to protect yourself. Each one of them has other positive domino effects for your hormonal balance and overall health.

She shares how to rotate seeds into your diet to balance hormone levels, how to increase cruciferous vegetables like kale, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage and how to love your liver. Here are some of Magdalena’s tips for supporting your liver which she calls the “Estrogen Detox Ally”:

A sluggish liver does not carry out its important job of filtering toxins, chemical byproducts and hormonal metabolites from your body. This can leave you with high circulating levels of the dangerous estrogen metabolites. For Breast Protection:

Add bitters in the form of dandelion leaves and root, burdock, chicory root, parsley, radicchio or bitters in tincture form. They stimulate bile production which then helps “flush out” estrogen and other steroid hormones.

Add fiber, my favorite being 2 tablespoons of freshly ground golden flax seed. Fiber promotes good bowel movement which is essential in carrying out the toxic estrogens. Chronic constipation can contribute to the re-absorption of antagonistic estrogens back to the blood stream.

Add one tablespoon of apple cider vinegar or half a lemon to a glass of warm water and drink it before breakfast in the morning. This helps stimulate the gallbladder to release the bile which is instrumental in “flushing out” estrogen.

Be sure to read the entire article here to read more about gut health, red meat, wine, toxins, inflammation, exercise, smoking, the birth control pill (I also covered this and FAM in a recent blog on the connection to subsequent SSRI use), sleep and finally stress and cuddling!

If you want to learn more I encourage you to check out Magdalena’s no-cost “How to Use Food To Rebalance Your Hormones” Online Workshop.

Avoiding endocrine disruptors and environmental pollutants

My friend and colleague Dr. Heather Paulson is the author of the soon to be released Textbook of Naturopathic Oncology. She is board certified in naturopathic oncology providing expert cancer care while creating a plan that restores health. She integrates her specialization in cancer and her love of nutrition, herbs, homeopathy, counseling, traditional healing, and current research to support you during your cancer journey and for cancer prevention. Dr. Paulson shares this about avoiding endocrine disruptors and environmental pollutants:

Endocrine disruptors are things in our environment that influence our hormonal system. You have probably heard about how plastics have been causing young boys to have feminine breasts. This plastic phenomenon is due to plastic disrupting the endocrine (or hormonal) system in boys. But the endocrine effects of environmental pollutants impacts both men and women. Some of the most common endocrine disruptors you are coming on contact with include plastic, pesticides, fragrances, beauty products, and cleaning products. Eliminating these from your personal environment is a critical piece of cancer prevention that is often missed.

She created this quiz How Toxic Is Your Home to help you see how well you are doing with endocrine disruptors. You can also find several checklists on her website to help you eliminate the necessary chemicals from your kitchen, yard, bedroom, and bathroom.

Boost glutathione levels to support the body’s detoxification channels

green-asparagus

And finally, my friend and colleague (and fellow South African) Kirsten Nussgruber shares the importance of reducing the toxic burden. When faced with the biggest challenge of her life – being diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer twice within a short three year period – Kirsten was forced to completely reevaluate what she believed was already a healthy lifestyle and now advocate for:

Eating clean and real food
Applying clean cosmetics and skin care products
And supporting the body’s detoxification channels

Kirsten shares the role of glutathione and ways to support body’s detoxification channels by boosting glutathione levels, often called your master detoxifier.

In its role as detoxifier it plays a crucial role in helping the body bind and get rid of many environmental toxins such as herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, insecticides, solvents, dyes, plastics, detergents and nitrosamines often found in processed foods.

Glutathione is also known to be cancer-preventing and has been found deficient in cancer patients. It can strengthen natural killer cells, a part of your immune system you want to have ready for action at all times!

In her blog post, she covers glutathione supplementation and shares a list of whole foods that boost glutathione production:
asparagus, acornsquash, avocados, broccoli, cabbage, cantaloupe, garlic, grapefruit, leeks, okra, onions, oranges, peaches, potatoes, spinach, strawberries, tomatoes, walnuts, watermelon, and zucchini.

Don’t be driven by fear and anxiety

As I said in my 2013 Breast Cancer Awareness blog: don’t be driven by fear and anxiety, instead use these wonderful resources as tools so you can be proactive and prevent breast cancer.

If you do get to a place where the anxiety and fear becomes overwhelming, don’t forget about the targeted individual amino acids like GABA and tryptophan for eliminating the anxiety and worry, obsessive thinking, negative self-talk, insomnia and overwhelm.

Here’s to beautiful healthy breasts for you and every woman!

Zonulin and leaky gut on the Thyroid Connection Summit

October 24, 2016 By Trudy Scott Leave a Comment

One of the speakers on the Thyroid Connection Summit is Alessio Fasano, MD and a leading Harvard scientist. He addresses the “Latest Research on Leaky Gut” and shares about zonulin. Dr. Fasano and his team actually discovered zonulin.

Dr. Myers asks him to share the role that zonulin plays in leaky gut:

This is one of many topics being covered on the summit. A few of my other favorites are:

Aristo Vojdani, PhD, MSc, MT: Predictive Antibodies, Leaky Gut and Toxins
Raphael Kellman, MD: Your Microbiome and Thyroid
David Perlmutter, MD: The Gut-Brain-Thyroid Connection
Izabella Wentz, PharmD, FASCP: Infections As a Root Cause of Your Thyroid Dysfunction
Sydney Baker, MD: How Parasites Can Rebalance Your Immune System (yes, you read that correctly – his discussion on helminth therapy or “little dudes” is fascinating!)
Ritchie Shoemaker, MD: Toxic Mold and Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS)

Tune into this online event if you have Graves’, Hashimoto’s, hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism, cancer, nodules, cysts, are post-I-131 radiation or are post-thyroidectomy, or if your doctor says your labs are normal, yet you still have symptoms.

Congrats to Dr. Myers on the release of her new book The Thyroid Connection, which is a companion to the summit content

You can register for the summit here: https://qt247.isrefer.com/go/THY16reg/trudyscottcn/

And purchase at the summit special price here: https://qt247.isrefer.com/go/THY16order/trudyscottcn/

I’m not a speaker on this summit but I’m sharing this resource because thyroid health is so key when it comes to anxiety and depression. And many of the topics on this summit have relevance for anxiety: like genetics, gut health, toxins, stress and more. Enjoy!

The pill and other hormonal contraception: depression, anxiety and FAM

October 21, 2016 By Trudy Scott 9 Comments

homonal-contraception

Women taking the contraceptive pill and other hormonal contraception are more likely to be depressed. These are the findings from a Danish study published in JAMA Psychiatry and reported in an article on PubMed Health.

This was a large prospective cohort study which aimed to investigate whether using hormonal contraception is associated with the future use of antidepressants and a diagnosis of depression.

More than 1 million women aged 15 to 34, with no prior history of depression, were included in the study [and followed for 13 years].

The researchers compared users of hormonal contraception with non-users and found users were more likely to be prescribed antidepressants and diagnosed with depression.

This study found that those women who used the pill were 23% more likely to use antidepressants.

And here are the connections between antidepressant use and these other birth control methods (categorized by estrogen type and dose, progesterone type and the method of contraception):

progestogen-only pill – 34% more likely to use antidepressants
levonorgestrel intrauterine system (IUS) – 40% more likely to use antidepressants
vaginal ring (etonogestrel) – 60% more likely to use antidepressants
contraceptive patch (norgestrolmin) – 100% more likely to use antidepressants

The study authors state this:

it’s important to note this study is not able to prove that the contraceptive methods are responsible for the depression, only to find possible links to investigate further.

The researchers don’t advise that women should stop using their contraception, just that further studies are needed. If this association is found to be true, depression may have to be added as a possible side effect of hormonal contraception.

My fellow nutritionist Karla Maree says this: ‘we’re going to need black box warnings on these medications” and I agree. It’s disappointing that the researchers say further studies are needed.

Dr. Daniel Amen sees the association in his practice and shared this about birth control pills when I interviewed him during season 3 of the Anxiety Summit.

Unfortunately, they drop serotonin levels. You’ve got to ask yourself why are 23 percent of women between the ages of 20 and 60 taking antidepressants. In large part, it’s the birth-control pills that are changing the hormones in their brain, the neurotransmitters in their brain. All of a sudden, they’re more anxious and they’re more depressed.

Birth control pills also can drop magnesium. Magnesium is a natural calmer to nerve cells. They literally can change things.

We know the pill can also deplete vitamin B6 and folate, and can raise copper levels so these are likely some of the additional reasons we see mood changes in women taking them.

You may have noticed that Dr. Amen mentions 23 percent in our interview – which was actually done in May 2015. He is referring to a 2011 report released by the National Center for Health Statistics:

the rate of antidepressant use in this country among teens and adults (people ages 12 and older) increased by almost 400% between 1988–1994 and 2005–2008.
23% of women in their 40s and 50s take antidepressants, a higher percentage than any other group (by age or sex)
women are 2½ times more likely to be taking an antidepressant than men

Is this related to hormonal birth control? Very likely! I’m not in favor of any of these hormonal birth control methods and know from experience that they often cause both depression and anxiety in my clients but seeing these percentages is still shocking!

It’s quite strange how many of my clients don’t think of birth control as having side-effects or being as “bad” as other medications. This was certainly the case for me. I’ve very seldom taken medications in my life but I did use the pill and then an IUD for a short while, and initially I didn’t give either a second thought. But I’m sure they were part of the perfect storm that contributed to my anxiety and panic attacks in my late 30s. I was prescribed an antidepressant at this time but chose not to take it, instead searching for nutritional solutions.

During my search for answers, I read tons of books and one book has had a huge impact on me: Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler. It offered a powerful non-hormonal option for birth control: the Fertility Awareness Method or FAM and gave me so much insight about my body and hormones. It’s also something I now share with my clients. It deserves an entire review so stay tuned. For now, you can check out an overview on her website.

My version of the book was published in 1995 and Toni now has a new revised 2015 edition: Taking Charge of Your Fertility, 20th Anniversary Edition: The Definitive Guide to Natural Birth Control, Pregnancy Achievement, and Reproductive Health.

What about you? Do you consider birth control more acceptable than other medications? Are you or were you on birth control and an antidepressant? And do you/did you feel that the birth control affected your mood and contributed to your depression or anxiety?

Or did it improve your symptoms (some women do report a better mood)?

Have you considered or used FAM as an alternative method of birth control? (or pregnancy achievement?)

Have you been offered birth control because of heavy periods or PMS? There are better ways to deal with this and one approach would be to address low serotonin levels with tryptophan.

If you’re in menopause and have no need for this information, please pass it on to your daughters and grand-daughters, nieces, sisters and girlfriends.

The Thyroid Connection Summit with Dr. Amy Myers

October 17, 2016 By Trudy Scott Leave a Comment

The Thyroid Connection Summit runs October 24-31 and addresses Graves’, Hashimoto’s, hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism, cancer, nodules, cysts, are post-I-131 radiation or are post-thyroidectomy, or if your doctor says your labs are normal, yet you still have symptoms.

This event will help you:

Work with your doctor to get the right diagnosis/treatment
Address the root causes of thyroid dysfunction
Implement healthy dietary and lifestyle changes
Reclaim your health and vitality and more!

Tens of millions worldwide have some form of thyroid dysfunction, and 60% don’t know they have it or how it occurred. Dr. Amy Myers has identified 5 environmental factors that are the root cause of all thyroid dysfunction: diet, leaky gut, toxins, infections and stress. Every one of these is a piece of the pie — for some, one piece may be bigger — but all play a role to some degree.

Each day of The Thyroid Connection Summit will focus on a different root cause, with the first two days dedicated to understanding your thyroid and the worldwide thyroid epidemic.

Here is an overview of what Dr. Myers and other summit experts cover about testing:

And some of the shortcomings of conventional testing and approaches:

thyroid-connection-3

I’m not a speaker on this summit but I’m sharing this resource because thyroid health is so key when it comes to anxiety and depression. And many of the topics on this summit have relevance for anxiety, like genetics, gut health, toxins and more. I’m so thrilled there is an entire day devoted to stress!

You can register for the summit here (and feel free to share with family and friends)

And pre-purchase the summit at the special price here

Congrats too, to Dr. Myers on the release of her new book The Thyroid Connection, which is a companion to the summit content.

The Thyroid connection

CBD from organic hemp: for anxiety and benzodiazepine tapering

October 14, 2016 By Trudy Scott 119 Comments

Cannabidiol (CBD) from industrial organic hemp works on the endocannabiod system which Dr. Blair calls the master controller. I heard Dr. Blair speak on the recent Detox project and he shares the myriad of health benefits he sees in his patients: reduced anxiety and pain, healing of the gut, detoxification support, improved absorption of nutrients (via effects on tight junctions), improved contractions in the gut, improved sleep, reduced inflammation, reduced IBS symptoms (less constipation or diarrhea) and it even modulates cortisol (high or low).

Dr. Blair and connected by phone after his interview and I’ll be interviewing him as soon as I get settled in Australia (so please post your questions in the comments section below).

Since the interview and because my previous blog generated so much interest, I’m here to share some additional information that I have learned since his interview. Because of the work I do with clients with anxiety I am always looking for new resources and I must say I am very excited to learn about CBD from organic hemp.

I posed some questions for Dr. Blair because he briefly mentioned medication tapering and he kindly addressed them for me. These were actually some questions I asked on the Detox Summit blog but for ease of reading I’ll share them in interview style here:

Trudy: Dr. Blair, I’d love to hear if you’ve had success using the Elixinol with individuals tapering from benzodiazepines? And do you find that those that have a really difficult time tapering i.e. many withdrawal symptoms, need much lower amounts?

I currently use GABA, tryptophan, niacinamide and other nutrients with much success but I am always looking for additional options to make it even easier for my clients.

Dr. Blair: Trudy, I have. The taper has been much faster without the typical agitation and systemic symptoms. With CBD as protection I encourage a more rapid decrease in dose. It seems that some typical withdrawal symptoms may be mediated by specific neurotransmitters. CBD “turns down the volume” in some of these cases with it’s homeostatic effects.

Trudy: When doing a benzo taper do you have your patient use the CBD for a certain time period before starting the taper (like a month)?

Dr. Blair: Two weeks should be sufficient.

Trudy: You say “Now, it doesn’t work in everybody, but the rate of positive responses is on the order of 75 percent.” In general, who have you found it not to work for, or is it very variable?

Dr. Blair: I have not found any consistency in the failures. But, in some cases I don’t think the CBD has failed but the patient will not recognize the improvements they have had. Recently, I dosed a gentleman with arthritis of his hands. After 5 minutes he said his pain was almost gone. Then he said, the relief could have been from anything. It’s almost as if these people do not want to have improvement or relief. Or, the withdrawal of pain is so subtle they don’t recognize the CBD as the active agent.

Trudy: Many of the research papers on the benefits of CBD refer to cannabis sativa/marijuana – do we know that CBD has similar benefits whether it’s from hemp or marijuana? How much actual hemp CBD research is there?

Dr. Blair: There are 1570+ papers in pubmed on CBD. Hemp vs marijuana – there is no question that whole plant extracts are the most effective therapeutic sources but there are impediments in that THC is generally illegal or highly controlled. Secondly, it’s difficult to know how much CBD is actually in any marijuana product, and what other chemicals are present. Each crop has different content.

CBD from industrial hemp is cleanly extracted and pooled in large batches for some consistency in concentrations of key active CBD. In my experience CBD alone, or with very, very low THC (<0.3%=industrial hemp) has been very effective for 75% of individuals with major conditions.

Trudy: Just to confirm, how much THC is there in CBD oil from organic hemp?

Dr. Blair: THC in industrial hemp/cannabis is <0.3% but that is the plant and not necessarily the product. Only a batch analysis can tell. Any supplier worth their salt will provide a batch analysis for you to review. But, some CBD products contain much less THC. For example, in Elixinol Liposomes the THC is so low as to be considered undetectable.

THC helps in some cases of epilepsy and probably in cancer but in my experience adverse effects from CBD products come from the small amounts of THC.

Trudy: May I ask what adverse effects you’ve seen? I have concerns about being a factor in the onset of schizophrenia and psychosis, especially in boys under 18 who use marijuana. There are a number of papers published about this. Here is a recent one – Traditional marijuana, high-potency cannabis and synthetic cannabinoids: increasing risk for psychosis. I’ve worked with a few mom moms who say their son’s mental health issues started after they started using marijuana.

Dr. Blair: Adverse effects can include headaches, anxiety, dreams, and lowered blood pressure. Regarding schizophrenia, a close review of the reports indicate many were using skunk product and some were self-medicating for their behavior conditions with the cannabis.

This is the end of the “interview” with Dr. Blair.

I also participated on a panel with other speakers at the recent Integrative Medicine for Mental Health/IMMH conference and when an audience member asked about a patient self-medicating with marijuana, Dr. Bill Code, MS expert, shared much of his expertise, also supporting my new-found knowledge of CBD from hemp.

I do have concerns about CBD from medical marijuana due to the psychoactive THC component and I shared some of my concerns during the panel discussion. We covered some of this in my Anxiety Summit interview with Dr. Hyla Cass: Marijuana and anxiety: Panacea or Pandora’s Box?.

Dr. Code feels some of the psychosis concerns are unwarranted. However, right after the panel ended an ER psychiatric nurse shared how she sees a large number of teenage boys in the ER with symptoms of psychosis whenever they have music festivals in town.

Is it susceptible individuals or the butane or pesticides or mold or a high amount of THC or skunk that is the cause? I don’t know if we have the answer yet and this is why I can endorse CBD from hemp but not marijuana.

I learned even more about CBD from hemp via a company exhibiting at the IMMH conference – CV Sciences, makers of +CBDoil. We spent a good hour talking to Dr. Michael Lewis, advisor to CV Sciences and President and founder of the Brain Health Education and Research Institute, and others from the company, asking a ton of questions. All the answers confirm what I have recently learned from Dr. Blair.

For now, I do feel comfortable sharing what I am learning about CBD from industrial hemp. But I don’t yet have much experience using it with clients. So far this is my experience:

I used some of the +CBDoil cream on my aching feet at the IMMH conference and it helped the pain and gave me a solid night’s sleep (which can be challenging when in a hotel). I did also use 2 sprays (equivalent to 1 mg of CBD) earlier in the afternoon too.
A colleague who tried some at the IMMH conference felt a little spacey
Another colleague at IMMH reported that she felt it was very calming
Feedback from my community on the original CBD blog

I also just heard from a mom that she has had incredible benefits using medical marijuana (with both CBD and THC) with her autistic son so I’ll share more as I learn more.

I’m still looking for an answer to this question: How much actual hemp CBD research is there and I am having a hard timing teasing out if the marijuana CBD research applies to all this, but will get answers. Until I learn more, here is some of the research that pertains to anxiety, panic attacks and depression:

Here are some links for you:

Dr. Blair offers phone consulting via Prohealthadvisor
The Elixinol website and products (these are the products Dr. Blair uses and he is an advisor for the company – use this code for a 10% discount: 10off208)
The +CBDoil product (this is the one I tried at the recent IMMH conference)
The Realm of Caring (a non-profit site that Dr. Blair recommends as a resource for additional information)

With appreciation to Dr. Jay Davidson for inviting Dr. Blair to speak on the Detox Summit and for both of them enlightening us!

And again, thanks to Dr. Blair for an excellent interview and answering so many of our questions!

Please share other questions you have and we’ll get them addressed when we do our interview.

Please also share both positive and negative results with both CBD from hemp and marijuana.