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Paleo and grain free diets: anxiety and depression success stories

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I recently reached out to my community to hear your diet-depression or diet-anxiety success stories in anticipation of the new SMILES diet depression trial, published last month and which I covered in a blog post last week. In that post I promised to share some real-life success stories on how diet changed people’s lives for the better!

I also shared that everyone who responded with success stories was following a more “evolved” diet than those who participated in the SMILES trial (the first randomized controlled diet depression study where ONE THIRD of the dietary intervention group saw improvements in their depression symptoms by switching from processed/junk food to real food with no specific dietary restrictions!).

What do I mean by a more evolved diet? Each of them was eating a real foods or traditional non-processed diet that was gluten-free, mostly or all grain-free and various permutations of the Paleo or cave-main diet.

The anxiety and depression success stories

Alice from Cape Town shared this about banting, a Paleo-type dietary approach that does include dairy products and has been popularized in South Africa by Professor Tim Noakes:

Three days after I stopped eating grains, my chronic depression lifted and has never returned (it’s three years later now). I had been a vegetarian most of my life, discovered in my early 50s that I was gluten intolerant, went off grains, started banting (Cape Town craze!) and have never felt better. Gut, mood, bones, energy, skin … all better!

Andrea shared this about her diet-mood results, also with a grain-free and high fat diet:

I happened upon a fat loss diet that had me cut out grains, most dairy, and sugar while focusing on mostly meat, fish, fats from nature such as butter, olive, and coconut oils. Nuts, seeds, and legumes were allowed too. These rules made it so I had to avoid processed foods. There was one day a week of eating anything.

Within 6 weeks I was shocked that I got much much more than fat loss. My depression, anxiety, mood swings, sleep issues and all but one pesky health symptom was left disappeared. I was stronger, faster, and felt energy I never remember having.

Holly shared how she healed severe depression and anxiety by changing her diet:

Over the course of a year and a half, I was given 10 different psychiatric diagnoses and cycled through 10 different medications. I discovered the healing power of diet completely by accident, and it changed my life. I now live with no diagnoses and no symptoms.

I started with the Whole30 (strict paleo), then went paleo, dabbled with a ketogenic approach, and now I eat a modified paleo diet, with some rice and goat dairy.

Krysti shared how diet reduced her severe mood swings and panic attacks:

I was dx with bipolar at 18 years old. Suffered panic attacks and the random severe mood swings that made absolutely no sense. I was sad for days to weeks only to be followed with unrealistic overly-exuberant highs where I had the energy of a toddler on sugar and the signature grandiose thoughts that I could simultaneously fly and conquer the world and do all the things! For a day. Then the next day felt numb. And resorted back to “cutting” just to feel something. I never cut for attention. In fact not even my closest friends knew I did it. It was for me and I hid it.

…my oldest sister introduced me to Paleo. I was soon dx celiac, cut out grains and have been med and *mostly* mood swing/manic free ever since. No panic attacks. I have never felt more emotionally stable. Even through the death of my youngest sister and big life events, my emotions have been that of a normal person. Explicable. Expected. Level. No extremes.

You can read their entire inspiring diet-depression stories and other ones in the comments on this blog.

Thanks to Alice, Andrea, Holly and Krysti for sharing your wonderful and very hopeful stories! It warms my heart and I know it inspires my community!  

And here is my story again:

For me it was anxiety and panic attacks that resolved when I made dietary and other nutritional and lifestyle changes.   I had been eating a vegetarian diet for a few years and I suspect the non-organic/GMO processed soy products (soy milk, soy yogurt, soy “butter” etc) were a big issue for me and damaged my gut.  When I added back quality animal protein (grass-fed red meat, wild fish, pastured eggs and chicken), switched to organic produce, added healthy fats and removed gluten my mood improved dramatically.  Now I eat a combination of a Paleo/SCD /low FODMAPS/low oxalate diet. 

During the severe anxiety and panic attacks I also needed additional support in the way of the targeted amino acids GABA (this was a life-saver and stopped the panic attacks in a few days) and tryptophan, plus zinc, vitamin B6, evening primrose oil, a good multi and B complex and adrenal support.  I still continue with some of these basic nutrients today.

My health issues have been complex as I’ve also had to deal with heavy metals, poor gut health and much more so I had what I call “a perfect storm” and yet diet has had such a huge impact for me!

Getting off medications

Lead researcher Professor Felice Jacka was quoted in an ABC article saying this in response to the SMILES trial:

people suffering from depression should not replace therapy and drug treatments with the Mediterranean diet.

Based on my experience working with clients and feedback I receive on the blog, finding the ideal diet and addressing all nutritional deficiencies often allows my clients to work with their doctors on eliminating all their depression and antianxiety medications. Other medications also go by the wayside: pain meds, high blood pressure meds, allergy meds, reflux meds etc.

What is Paleo?

I had the pleasure of hearing Australian Chef Pete Evans at an all-day Sydney event earlier this year, in celebration of the launch of his new book The Complete Gut Health Cookbook, with co-author Dr. Helen Padarin. He is a big time Paleo advocate and this is what he said on stage at the start of his presentation and wonderful day of cooking demos:

Paleo is basically a meat and 3 vegetables – it’s that simple!

To expand on this a bit…this means quality animal proteins like grass-fed red meat, wild fish, pastured eggs and chickens, organic vegetables (typically lower carb) and fruit, soaked nuts (if tolerated), bone broths, fermented vegetables and broths, and health fats like coconut and avocado. Many in the Paleo community say no to dairy and butter but I do find that some of my clients do fine with small amounts and some people do better with fermented dairy like kefir and yogurt or goat/sheep and even camel milk rather than cow’s milk.

I also got to meet both Pete and Helen at the book signing – they are both wonderful and very down-to-earth!

Meeting the famous (and very down-to-earth) Chef Pete Evans at the book signing

Can you imagine my surprise when Pete invited me on to stage to welcome me to Australia and share a bit about my work with diet and anxiety!?

Here is a 5 minute clip of me on stage with Pete and Helen where we talk about:

  • How what we eat has a direct impact on our brains and how we feel
  • How our gut bacteria make some of our brain chemicals like serotonin and GABA when we consume fermented foods [and other foods rich in amino acids and organic produce]
  • The term “psychobiotics” coined by Dr. Ted Dinan ie. good bacteria that improve our mood
  • Kelly Brogan’s wonderful work around depression and diet and medication tapering, and her great book A Mind of Your Own
  • How quickly can diet lead to anxiety and depression symptoms improving and allowing you to get off medications? …biochemical individuality, diet alone, addressing gut health, adding fermented foods, addressing low zinc and other root causes, looking at gene defects
  • Real food, liver, rooibos tea, herbs
  • My story of anxiety and panic attacks and changing from a vegetarian diet to a modified Paleo diet
  • The Anxiety Summit and my book The Antianxiety Food Solution as resources

 

As you’ve read with these success stories and heard me say on Pete’s stage, many people can do it with diet alone (even if their anxiety is very severe), many need additional nutritional support, and many need the targeted individual amino acids to get immediate relief from their anxiety or depression while they are looking for all their root causes. Many also need the amino acids to break their gluten and sugar addictions. But making the dietary changes are the foundation!

Stay tuned for more about Pete Evans, some of his recipes and gut healing protocols and the unfortunate grilling he’s been getting in the Australian media for advocating a Paleo diet! In the meantime, I will say that all his books come highly recommended!

In case you’re wondering about the research on the Paleo diet, while we don’t have a study that’s looking directly at anxiety and depression, we do have these papers on the overall benefits of a Paleolithic diet:

And in this paper co-authored by Professor Felice Jacka – Nutritional psychiatry research: an emerging discipline and its intersection with global urbanization, environmental challenges and the evolutionary mismatch, they mention

a potential evolutionary mismatch between our ancestral past (Paleolithic, Neolithic) and the contemporary nutritional environment.

We do, of course, have many studies supporting a diet-mood connection:

And Professor Felice Jacka shared this during our interview on The Anxiety Summit: The Research – Food to prevent and treat anxiety and depression? 

One of the hypotheses that I had during the Ph.D. was that increased intake of animal foods would be toxic and would be associated with more mental disorders.

This did not turn out to be the case: In our study, out of every single dietary food grouping that I looked at including vegetables, fruits, salads, beans, etc the strongest correlate of mental health was red meat intake [grass-fed red meat of course.]

Consistently, women who have less than the recommended intake of red meat seem to be in an increased risk for common mental disorders [like anxiety and depression] and bipolar disorder.

She was referring to the results of her Ph.D. paper that was published in the American Journal of Psychiatry in 2010: “Association of Western and Traditional Diets with Depression and Anxiety in Women.”

Have you changed your diet to a Paleo way of eating and observed a reduction or elimination of anxiety or depression? Was a dietary change enough or did you need to address brain chemical imbalances and other nutritional deficiencies too?

If you’re a practitioner, have you seen results like this with your clients or patients?

 

GABA, toxins, hormones, autoimmunity – encore of The Diabetes Summit

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Brain Mowll is host of the 4th season of the Diabetes Summit and here are all the speakers and topics in the encore replay line-up (including yours truly).

TRUDY SCOTT, CN: Understanding Anxiety: The Connection to Diabetes

  • Learn about the link between diabetes, anxiety, and depression
  • Understanding the root imbalances underlying anxiety
  • Natural solutions and supplemental support for anxiety 

We may need to look at low serotonin as well because we’ve got two kinds of anxiety when it comes to neurotransmitters, the low GABA, which is the physical anxiety, and the low serotonin, which is more the ruminating thoughts, the worry in the head, the reprocessing, the negative self-talk. So we often have low GABA, and we often have low serotonin as well. And both of those have a corresponding amino acid that helps to raise it. With low GABA we use GABA. With low serotonin we use tryptophan or 5-HTP. And we’re going talk about that one in a second. But the interesting thing is I was really excited to see that there’s some really new research on how GABA has some pretty promising benefits in terms of diabetes support as well.

Read some additional snippets from my interview: Diabetes, anxiety and GABA

 

RAZI BERRY: Using Naturopathic Principles to Prevent Diabetes

  • Learning from Razi’s health experience and journey
  • How toxins in our environment can disrupt metabolism
  • Natural solutions to improve blood sugar and overall health

Read some snippets from her interview here: Anxiety, phenibut, toxins and cold showers for detoxification

 

ANNA CABECA, DO: Creating Hormone Balance to Optimize Metabolic Health

  • The keys to balancing hormones to burn fat and control sugar
  • Understanding the connection between menopause and metabolism
  • How to optimize hormone levels

Dr Cabeca shares this about the ketogenic diet (for women), going keto-crazy and being like a witch when eating too low-carb:

…if you’re working on a ketogenic diet and lifestyle, check to see your urine. And you’re most likely acidic. But now, get that pH up into an alkaline range, and you’ll see your neurotransmitters will balance. You’ll feel calmer. You’ll sleep better. You’ll start to melt fat away which is huge. And that made all the difference in the world, combing those two.

Read some additional snippets from her interview: Menopause: insulin, cortisol, and oxytocin (an interview with Dr. Anna Cabeca)

 

TOM O’BRYAN: Autoimmune Disease and the Connection To Diabetes

  • Understanding what drives autoimmune disease
  • Exploring various toxins that inundate our lives
  • How to balance the immune response to allow proper healing

 

SAYER JI: What the Evidence Reveals About Reversing Diabetes

  • What the peer reviewed, medical literature shows
  • The best natural strategies to reverse diabetes
  • The role of supplements and helpful nutrients

 

BJ HARDICK: Sugar, Detox, and The Brain: Natural Strategies For Healing

  • Understanding damaging foods and how to remove them
  • How to properly structure a detoxification program
  • Type 3 diabetes and how dysglycemia effects the brain

 

SACHIN PATEL: A New Model for Medicine, Diabetes, and Blood Sugar Health

  • Re-evaluating the healthcare model and redefining our roles
  • How to be empowered to control your health as a patient
  • A new model for caring for the body and optimizing health

This aspect of why we eat is seldom addressed and it’s profound:

When you are living a life that is on purpose – that requires you to be eating healthy because you’re going to do whatever it takes to eliminate things that are going to impact that purpose.

I also love the analogy of the right fuel in the car but driving in the wrong direction (like hating your job or not having a purpose):

When you are living a life that is on purpose – that requires you to be eating healthy because you’re going to do whatever it takes to eliminate things that are going to impact that purpose

 

NIKI GRATRIX: The Mind-Body Connection to Metabolic Health

  • How to tap into your internal abundance of energy
  • Understand ACE (adverse childhood events) score and how childhood events impact health
  • Natural techniques and strategies to let go of limits

 

PETER OSBORNE: The Autoimmune Connection to Blood Sugar and Diabetes

  • The connection between autoimmune and blood sugar
  • How to test and treat autoimmune disease effectively
  • Natural solutions to reduce inflammation and heal the body

 

MICHAEL MURRAY, ND: The Four Types of Blood Sugar Problems in Diabetes

  • Understanding a natural medicine approach to diabetes
  • Dr. Murray’s four types of blood sugar problems
  • Natural strategies to address the specific blood sugar issues

 

JOEL KAHN, MD: A Plant-Based Approach to Heart Health and Blood Sugar Health 

  • Sorting through the confusion about dietary strategies
  • Understanding the importance of plant-based foods
  • Key nutrients and supplements for heart health

I’d like to add that while I respect Dr. Kahn’s cardiology diet expertise, I am an advocate of quality animal protein and have found that many people with anxiety and depression typically don’t do very well on a vegan diet. His discussion was professional and very respectful and I do wholeheartedly agree with this:

I think whether grass fed beef, free range, omega 3 rich eggs are healthy or not, and that’s probably not possible to solve that question completely, the data’s here, there, or frankly there’s not enough data, just always add these organic brightly colored fruits and vegetables to whatever you’re eating

He also acknowledged Dr. Hyman’s coining of the term, the Pegan diet, which combines the best of a Paleo and vegan diet saying

It’s a useful term. It’s another way to say eat a very clean, very vegetable rich diet with a little wiggle room [i.e. the addition of quality animal protein]

We really do need a study comparing a real foods diet with feedlot meat and farmed fish – with a real foods diet with grass-fed meat and wild fish!

Here is the link to register for the Diabetes Summit if this is the first you’re hearing about it. You can still sign up to listen!

Enjoy these encore day replays!

SMILES diet depression trial: reduced depression and anxiety

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The SMILES trial, A randomised controlled trial of dietary improvement for adults with major depression was recently published BMC Medicine. It is the first randomized controlled trial to test whether dietary improvement can actually treat depression. Yes, we’re using dietary improvement and treat in the same sentence!

The objective was to determine if “structured dietary support, focusing on improving diet quality using a modified Mediterranean diet model” would have an impact on mood. The outcome is very exciting:

‘SMILES’ was a 12-week, parallel-group, single blind, randomised controlled trial of an adjunctive dietary intervention in the treatment of moderate to severe depression. The intervention consisted of seven individual nutritional consulting sessions delivered by a clinical dietician. The control condition comprised a social support protocol to the same visit schedule and length.

The results indicate that dietary improvement may provide an efficacious and accessible treatment strategy for the management of this highly prevalent mental disorder, the benefits of which could extend to the management of common co-morbidities.

These encouraging results were seen in participants who switched from a junk food diet to a real foods diet. Of the 67 who were enrolled in the study, the majority were using some form of therapy: psychotherapy and medications combined or psychotherapy only or medication only. There were 31 in the diet support group and 25 in the social support control group. Participants had to have been eating this diet in order to be accepted into the study:

a poor (low) intake of dietary fibre, lean proteins and fruit and vegetables, and a high intake of sweets, processed meats and salty snacks.

The dietary approach followed by participants in the study intervention group was the ‘ModiMedDiet’ which is based on the Australian Dietary guidelines and the Dietary Guidelines for Adults in Greece.

The primary focus was on increasing diet quality by supporting the consumption of the following 12 key food groups (recommended servings in brackets): whole grains (5–8 servings per day); vegetables (6 per day); fruit (3 per day), legumes (3–4 per week); low-fat and unsweetened dairy foods (2–3 per day); raw and unsalted nuts (1 per day); fish (at least 2 per week); lean red meats (3–4 per week), chicken (2–3 per week); eggs (up to 6 per week); and olive oil (3 tablespoons per day), whilst reducing intake of ‘extras’ foods, such as sweets, refined cereals, fried food, fast-food, processed meats and sugary drinks (no more than 3 per week). Red or white wine consumption beyond 2 standard drinks per day and all other alcohol (e.g. spirits, beer) were included within the ‘extras’ food group. Individuals were advised to select red wine preferably and only drink with meals.

The dietary composition of the ModiMedDiet was as follows: protein 18% of total energy; fat 40%; carbohydrates 37%; alcohol 2%; fibre/other 3%.

Here are the reasons I’m excited about this research:

  • It’s the first randomized controlled diet depression study and ONE THIRD of the dietary intervention group saw improvements in their depression symptoms.  This was just diet alone and switching from processed/junk food to real food with no specific dietary restrictions!
  • Participants also reported improvements in anxiety symptoms.
  • The authors even addressed the cost factor, stating it was more affordable to eat this way ($112 per week vs $138 per week).
  • The authors address the fact that the dietary intervention group was able to make these dietary changes “despite the fatigue and lack of motivation” that we so commonly see with depression.
  • I’m optimistic about it paving the way for making dietary approaches part of the standard of treatment for mental health conditions. The paper suggests the addition of “clinical dieticians to multidisciplinary mental health teams.”  I’d like to add that these dieticians, together with nutritionists and health coaches would need to be well versed in functional medicine approaches.
  • According to an article on ABC, one participant continued the Mediterranean diet after finishing the study and is now doing a diploma in health science. How inspiring is this? When we get results like this we want to share them with everyone!  

These are very encouraging results and we applaud the positive results of this SMILES study which are truly groundbreaking.

Let’s also be aware of where we are headed with future research and how we can improve on the trial diet.  The researchers conclude with this comment about future research:

The scaling up of interventions and identification of the pathways that mediate the impact of dietary improvement on depressive illness are also key imperatives

Professor Jacka recently shared this paper on how personalized dietary interventions successfully lower post-meal glucose i.e. how certain foods can affect two people quite differently because of our unique gut bacteria. She said that she wants to do a similar personalized nutrition study for depression if they are successful in obtaining NHMRC funding.

Here are some questions I’ve been asked about this SMILES trial (and I’m sharing here in case you have similar questions):

  • why did only one-third of the study intervention group see improvements?
  • why was wheat and other grains included?
  • why was low fat dairy and lean meats emphasized?
  • why was there no mention of grass-fed meat, wild fish, healthy fats like butter and coconut oil, pastured eggs or chickens or quality organic fruits and vegetables?

The ideal dietary approach for anxiety, depression and any health condition is always one that high quality, is personalized and takes into account biochemical individuality. With the removal of gluten, grains and the inclusion of the other dietary changes mentioned above, plus addressing all nutritional imbalances I expect we will see more than one-third of the dietary group experiencing improvements in depression in future trials.  

I truly appreciate the work of Professor Felice Jacka and her team and look forward to seeing more studies like the SMILES trial, using a personalized approach and quality foods that include grass-fed red meat and wild fish, plus pastured eggs or chickens, and healthy fats; and organic produce as a baseline. 

And then future trials that also look at the impacts of these dietary changes on anxiety and depression: gluten and/or grain removal;  removal of high histamine foods and high oxalate foods;  a low FODMAPs diet; the specific carbohydrate diet/SCD; a Paleo diet and so on – all based on biochemical individuality. We know these diets works in clinical practice and now we just need the research to back this up.  In part 2 of the blog, I share some incredibly inspiring diet-depression and diet-anxiety Paleo success stories.

In summary:

  • a simple change like switching from junk to real food can have a major impact on your depression and anxiety – ONE THIRD of the dietary intervention group saw improvements in their depression symptoms and many also saw reduced anxiety. This is profound! 
  • you may need to make additional dietary changes (gluten-free, grain-free, low FODMAPs i.e. avoiding or adding certain foods based on your biochemical individuality) and always add healthy fats and focus on quality
  • you may also need to address brain chemical imbalances with amino acids supplements, address gut health, adrenal issues, low zinc, low vitamin B6, low vitamin D etc. too

Are you encouraged by this research?

And have you made similar dietary changes to those done in the SMILES trial and seen a reduction in your anxiety and depression?

Have you removed gluten or grains and made additional dietary changes, and added supplements and seen even more benefits?

Note: to avoid confusion I’ve used the Australia spelling of “randomised” and “fibre” in the quoted sections and the US spelling “randomized” elsewhere in the blog.

Low serotonin anxiety and sugar addiction: my interview on the Sweet Freedom Summit

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It’s not common knowledge that brain chemical or neurotransmitter imbalances can cause sugar cravings as well as anxiety and depression. But there certainly is a big connection between stress eating, comfort eating, emotional eating and low levels of the brain chemicals serotonin, GABA and endorphins. There is a growing body of research supporting this connection.

Sharing this sugar craving-brain chemical connection and bringing it back to my expertise in anxiety and stress is something I don’t get to do often enough. So when I heard about the Sweet Freedom Summit that Sherry Strong was hosting, I immediately reached out to her and shared this brain chemical imbalance/addiction/mood topic in the hope she’d invite me to speak.

I was thrilled when she said she’d love to interview me and then doubly thrilled when she said our interview was SO good (I really enjoyed it too!) she’s decided to offer it as a gift to EVERYONE who signs up for the summit! Wow!

The Sweet Freedom Summit runs April 10-17 and I’m giving you a sneak peek to some of my interview today.

Sherry starts the sugar cravings/emotional eating/addiction discussion by asking what the connection is to brain chemistry imbalances and what evidence do we have that this is happening? Here are a few snippets from my response:

Say we’ve got a brain chemical deficiency of low serotonin, we are going to crave sugar and carbs in the afternoon and evening. And we will also have the low serotonin symptoms which are depression, the worry type of anxiety, the ruminating thoughts, the worry, the fear (these are the symptoms I experienced in my late 30s – I was also a chocoholic)

So you have this emotional aspect and the sugar cravings aspect when you’ve got these brain chemical imbalances.

And I just want to share something with you. This is a study done in 2002. And I’m going to just read a quote from this. The title is Evidence that Intermittent, Excessive Sugar Intake Causes Endogenous Opioid Dependence.

They’re saying that sugar can be as addicting as opioids and drugs. The goal of the study was to determine whether withdrawal from sugar can cause symptoms similar to opioid dependence. We’ve been hearing in the news how opioid drugs like OxyContin can cause dependence and we can have severe withdrawal symptoms.  

What they’re saying is palatable food stimulates systems in the body that are implicated in drug addiction. And they felt that intermittent, excessive sugar intake might create a dependency and you get these withdrawal signs.

So they are saying that withdrawal from sugar is very similar to withdrawal from something like morphine or nicotine. And this is interesting because we know how addicting drugs can be. And we don’t realize that sugar can be as addicting.

Sherry had me repeat this statement to really bring the message home: 

Brain chemical imbalances, such as low serotonin, can cause mood problems, depression or anxiety or obsessive tendencies. And they can cause addictions, be it to street drugs, be it prescription drugs, or be it to sugar or some kind of carbohydrate. And we need to take them all as seriously as each other.

Do you resonate with any of the above? Maybe the example I shared will be closer to reality for you:

Just think about the obsessive nature we have when we’re craving something. We’ll binge eat a box of cookies. And then we may even rush out and buy a second box to replace the box that we binge-ate to replace it before someone sees that we’ve eaten the first box. That sounds like the behavior of a drug addict to me!

We also cover the low GABA type of stress eating that we see with anxiety and low endorphins comfort/reward eating where you really LOVE certain foods (think a big bowl of ice-cream) – and which targeted individual amino acids to use for each brain chemical imbalance. This all means NO willpower is required and zero feelings of deprivation! Really! (and you get a mood boost too)

I hope you can join us at the online no-cost event – simply click here to register today. It runs April 10-17 and when you register you’ll get immediate access to my interview and some other cool sign up gifs. Please share with family and friends who you know can benefit from this information!

Two decades ago, your host, Sherry Strong, was completely addicted to sugar. She was obese, sick and depressed to the point of wanting to die. All of that changed when she removed sugar from her diet.

If you are struggling to give up sugar, are an emotional eater or stress-eater or even if you simply indulge periodically – whether a health professional, busy mom, athlete or career-driven person – this event can help you, finally, improve your health, your life, your mood and end those sugar cravings and addictions!

Got questions or feedback? Please share them in the blog comments below.

 

Anxiety, phenibut, toxins and cold showers for detoxification

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Anxiety, phenibut, toxins, cold showers for detox and more. All of this and more is being covered on the upcoming online Diabetes Summit.

Starting Monday March 20th

I’m really pleased to be a speaker on this summit this year. I cover the anxiety diabetes connection. Anxiety is very common in diabetes – some research shows it’s as high as 25%, and women with diabetes are twice as likely to be affected with anxiety and depression. I also cover how and how GABA helps reduce physical anxiety AND how new research shows GABA is also a promising treatment for diabetes!

Dr. Mowll asked me about using phenibut instead of GABA:

I’ve seen a number of papers that talk about tolerance. I’ve talked to practitioners who’ve said they’ll rotate. They’ll have people be on Phenibut for five days, two days off. And I’ve seen some really scary drug forums where people are using Phenibut as a sort of mood enhancing and performance enhancing drug. They are using very high doses and there are protocols on how to safely taper off Phenibut.

So when I see things like that it concerns me. I’ve had a handful of people, who’ve had some pretty bad side effects from Phenibut. So with someone who’s going through anxiety I just don’t want to add anything else into the mix that may cause problems.

The concern is it does seem to work really well for anxiety and sleep, so that’s why I think a lot of practitioners are drawn to using it. And it may be that they’re not recommending the GABA/ Gamma Amino Butyric Acid sublingually. And they may not be doing a trial to find the optimal dose [so that’s why they are not seeing the results they’d hope to see]. So I would steer clear of phenibut.

We also cover the following (all relevant if you have diabetes AND if you don’t have diabetes):

  • doing a GABA trial and the blood brain barrier controversy
  • benzodiazepine tapers and nutritional support during a taper
  • rooibos tea for metabolic support and adrenal health

On day 2 of the summit, Razi Berry shares this about the toxins in our environment and the impacts they have on our health:

Out of the 80,000 chemicals that we have in our world, we have barely studied any of them. A couple presidents ago, the Environment Protection Agency was supposed to study the first 300 of these 80,000 chemicals. And so far they’ve only studied one, which is BPA. And BPA is all around us

She had to get rid of the toxins in her environment to help her fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue.

I had to stop using the body sprays that I love from Bath and Body, and the perfumes

I got rid of everything fragrant. And I didn’t use essential oils at first either because you still want to use them judiciously and in the right way. So I switched to everything unscented. And I found a lot about beeswax candles. Beeswax candles are so not only beautiful, and they have this honey like scent to them, but they actually neutralize odors and toxins in the air. They don’t just cover it up. So you actually can clean the air by burning beeswax candles. For centuries churches could not burn tallow or paraffin. They could only burn beeswax.

She covers tons of other everyday toxins we are exposed to and how we can safely avoid them. And then importantly, how we can detoxify from these toxins. One approach she covers is hot and cold showers or hydrotherapy (very powerful and very easy to do at home):

Hydrotherapy is a really old technique. It became really popular in the last turn of the century, the late 1800s, early 1900s. And it’s this use of water and/or temperature to help prime your body to get rid of toxins.

So one of the ways that you can do hydrotherapy at home is through what’s called a constitutional hydrotherapy shower. And it’s basically taking a hot and cold shower where you alternate. You start with the water as hot as you possibly can handle it. And you do that for like 12 seconds. Then you turn it to as cold as you can take it.

And the first switch from hot to cold is the most important because it really creates this pump in your lymphatic system, the hot, cold, hot, cold, and really helps to move toxins through your body so it can be eliminated by your kidneys, by your liver, through your respiration.

As you can see there’s plenty to learn from these experts!

Here are just a few of the topics being covered (general topics and applicable if you have diabetes):

  • How food allergens can trigger blood sugar problems, and how to detoxify the body safely
  • Understanding the stress continuum and how children trauma, adverse life events, and daily stressors can lead to diabetes (all of this is applicable to any health condition)
  • Natural strategies to balance blood sugar including new supplement recommendations, essential oils, and using food as medicine
  • Breaking down various eating strategies including the ketogenic diet (vegan diets and raw food diets are also addressed but I must add that I don’t endorse this way of eating if you do have anxiety)
  • Menopause and blood sugar issues (insulin, cortisol and oxytocin)
  • How to get your sleep right to balance insulin and blood sugar

And some topics taking a deeper diver into very specific diabetes areas (if you have type 1 or type 2 diabetes):

  • Developing a deeper understanding of peripheral neuropathy – how to test for it and how to treat it, naturally and effectively
  • Important strategies for those dealing with type 1 diabetes in themselves or a child 
  • Autoimmunity and diabetes

I hope you’ll join us to learn from these experts on the online Diabetes Summit.  My friend and diabetes expert, Dr. Brian Mowll, is hosting this life-changing event for the fourth year, and this year’s event looks amazing.

You can register for this online event here.

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Anxiety: when to use GABA and tryptophan and how much to use

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When you have anxiety it can be confusing trying to figure out the root cause. I like to start by assessing for low GABA and low serotonin because when you address these with targeted individual amino acids you typically see results right away and feel hopeful (and now have time to look for other root causes like gluten issues, high cortisol, gut issues, dietary changes etc).

But there may still be some confusion about when to use GABA and when to use tryptophan and how much of each of these amino acids to use.

I’d like to share a question I received on this blog: I am on 5-HTP for anxiety and I am wondering about trying tryptophan instead and my response so you have a clearer understanding of this:

I have started with Source Naturals GABA Calm 125 mg, 2 on awakening and two in mid-afternoon, and 2 GABA Relaxer at bedtime. It has taken some anxiety edge away from me, but I still feel some anxiety on and off, not so severe as before. I used to feel very anxious on awakening. I want to improve more.

Today, I ordered Lidtke L-trytophan 500mg and am expecting to receive it in a week. I plan to take 2 Gaba Calm on awakening and 2 in mid-afternoon, then add one 500mg Trytophan mid-afternoon and one 500 mg trytophan at bed time.

Is this a good plan? Or shall I have 2 GABA Calm on awakening, 2 trytophan mid-afternoon and 2 trytophan at bedtime.

It’s an excellent question and this is my feedback (with some additional information here for this blog post)

Firstly I’m so pleased to hear the GABA products has taken some of the anxiety edge away.

I would expect this when someone has the low GABA type of anxiety and hear this all the time despite the fact I continue to be asked the blood brain barrier question and does GABA really work as a supplement.

There is also no specific formula to be followed because each person is different and when I’m working with someone we’re figuring out what is working and why and adjusting accordingly. If something is working we continue with that until no additional benefits are seen.

Ask yourself what low GABA anxiety symptoms (this is the physical anxiety) have improved with the GABA and how much (rate each one before – out of 10; and what are they now – out of 10).

From your question it sounds like they could improve more – so if we were working together I’d continue to increase GABA before adding something new. I’d do this until the low GABA symptoms are resolved or until no additional benefits are observed.

Remember when it comes to brain chemical imbalances and anxiety we have 3 anxiety types

  1. Low GABA anxiety type (physical anxiety, more stiff and tense muscles)
  2. Low serotonin anxiety type (mental anxiety, ruminations, negative self-talk, worry)
  3. Low blood sugar anxiety type (physical anxiety, but more shaky)

You need to figure out which type of anxiety you are experiencing and address that. It can be different for each person but it’s not uncommon to experience all of the above.

Once that has been done and we have the ideal amount of GABA and no more low GABA anxiety symptoms I’d then check what low serotonin symptoms my client has (these are the busy mind, ruminations type or worry anxiety).

If she does have some of these symptoms, we pick one or two symptoms and do a trial with 1 x 500mg tryptophan opened on to the tongue (or less if she’s super sensitive). She rates the symptoms out of 10 before the tryptophan trial and then after the trial. Depending on how she responds on the trial, we’ll decide if she needs 1 or 2 x 500mg mid-afternoon and evening. The bedtime dose also depends on how bad the insomnia is. We continue to increase as needed based on symptoms until she has no more low serotonin type symptoms or until no additional benefits are observed.

All the while we are starting to make other changes – like diet, eating for blood sugar balance (this and using glutamine helps with the low blood sugar anxiety type), no caffeine, no sugar, looking for high cortisol, no gluten, looking at gut health and for other nutritional deficiencies.

Here are some links to additional resources related to the above:

I’d love to hear your feedback – do you/did you have the low GABA type of anxiety or the low serotonin type of anxiety or the low blood sugar type of anxiety or all three?

And feel free to share the before rating (from 1 to 10) and the after rating (from 1 to 10) once you’re taking the corresponding amino acid.