Archives for August 2017

Toxoplasma gondii: schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, OCD and unresolved anxiety?

August 14, 2017 By Trudy Scott 17 Comments

Toxoplasma gondii is a microscopic parasite that infects cats and can be found in the soil – research shows it may be a factor in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and OCD in susceptible individuals. Could toxoplasma gondii could be one of the root causes of unresolved anxiety? I believe so and feel it’s under-rated.

This is the one of the parasitic infections I cover in an interview I did on The Parasite Summit.

Here are a few snippets from my interview:

A single-celled parasite called Toxoplasma gondii causes a disease known as toxoplasmosis.

Toxoplasma gondii is a microscopic parasite that infects cats and can be found in the soil. The infection can be acquired by ingesting contaminated food or water, by handling contaminated cat litter, or by transmission from mother-to-child.

According to the CDC – as of Mar 1, 2017 – in the United States it is estimated that 11% of the population 6 years and older have been infected with Toxoplasma. In various places throughout the world, it has been shown that up to 95% of some populations have been infected with Toxoplasma.

I love cats and have always been a cat person and pets are wonderful companions helping many of us humans recovering from PTSD and trauma – but we always need to dig deeper:

some individuals don’t respond as well to dietary changes, brain chemical balancing and addressing other biochemical/nutritional factors
I’m always looking for root possible causes. I’ve identified 70+ causes of anxiety and one of them is parasites
any parasite could be a factor – it causes stress and inflammation in the body, and we may see high cortisol leading to increased anxiety, insomnia and inflammation
could toxoplasma gondii could be one of the root causes of unresolved anxiety? I believe so and feel it’s under-rated – and believe we’ll be hearing more about it as more research comes out

I discuss this review paper published this year: Is Toxoplasma gondii a Trigger of Bipolar Disorder?

The association between T. gondii and schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder is one of the most studied links between one pathogen and a psychiatric disorder.

However, growing emerging evidence has also documented an association between latent toxoplasmosis and the risk of [bipolar disorder] and suicidal/aggressive behaviors. T. gondii infection, as previously suggested for schizophrenia, may contribute to the onset and the progressive course of the disease interacting with genetic hereditary predisposing factors, as well as affecting neurotransmitter systems and immune responses, which have recently been shown to be closely linked to the pathogenesis of BD and its medical comorbidities.

The link between this parasite and psychiatric disorders could be also explained by its ability to influence neurotransmitter pathways. Indeed, T. gondii has been shown to increase dopamine levels, as well as to modulate serotonin, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and glutamate signaling.

With the impacts on neurotransmitters it’s clear how this parasite could directly trigger anxiety, panic attacks, fears, worry and even OCD. I cover this and more (malaria and malaria medications too) in my interview and book.

Parasites may be silently impacting your health and they’re FAR MORE COMMON than you think! Parasites aren’t just found in third-world countries, millions are already infected in industrialized countries and parasites could be silently hampering your health. Fortunately, with awareness and appropriate care, parasites can be prevented and treated, once detected.

If you’re struggling with any of the following, it may be worth looking into parasites:

Gastrointestinal: pain/cramps, excess gas, bloating, constipation/diarrhea
Infertility and hormone disorders
Skin issues: acne, itching, rashes
Mental health: depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, OCD, schizophrenia
Challenges with autoimmune disease recovery (Toxoplasma gondii may also be a factor in Hashimoto’s thyroiditis)

Please share feedback and ask questions in the comments below.

Time magazine: ketamine is NOT the solution for treatment resistant depression!

August 11, 2017 By Trudy Scott 25 Comments

Seen at LAX airport en route back to Australia – this cover of Time magazine:

The Anti Antidepressant. Depression affects 16 million Americans. One third don’t respond to treatment. A surprising new drug may change that.

It’s scary to think that ketamine and ketamine-like drugs are being considered the solution to “treatment resistant depression”. I’ve never liked this term and in my opinion, what it really means is that the root cause of the depression has not been found. To me it looks like the mainstream medical mental health community is desperate!

It really is time to get all the well-researched nutritional psychiatry approaches to the forefront! They do work! The timing of this article is even more interesting since I was returning from the first international meeting of the International Society for Nutritional Psychiatry Research in Bethesda, MD.

Lead food mood researcher Professor Felice Jacka presented her SMILES paper where dietary changes from a junk food diet to a real whole foods diet reduced depression in 30% of the participants.

Microbiome researcher Professor John Cryan discussed the gut brain connection. This paper: Recent developments in understanding the role of the gut microbiota in brain health and disease, was published just last week:

recent preclinical and clinical evidence suggest that targeting the microbiota through prebiotic, probiotic, or dietary interventions may be an effective “psychobiotic” strategy for treating symptoms in mood, neurodevelopmental disorders, and neurodegenerative diseases

And research on sulforaphane for psychosis, and depression and anxiety was presented: Sulforaphane produces antidepressant- and anxiolytic-like effects in adult mice

these findings demonstrated that SFN [sulforaphane] has antidepressant- and anxiolytic-like activities in stressed mice model of depression, which likely occurs by inhibiting the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and inflammatory response to stress. These data support further exploration for developing SFN [sulforaphane] as a novel agent to treat depression and anxiety disorders.

I presented on the benefits of a gluten-free/grain free/Paleo diet for certain individuals for depression and anxiety, and did a poster presentation on GABA for eliminating anxiety.

As you can see from the TIME Magazine article the only approaches that have been considered (and have failed) are medications in various different combinations:

Every week, when Ian Hanley sits down with his therapist, he goes through a list of depression treatments he’s been researching online. The best-known treatments at the top of the list–half a dozen antidepressants and known combinations of those drugs–are all crossed out….

Most diagnoses do not come with 20-plus medicines approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat it–and yet with depression, more options don’t always mean better outcomes. Ever since the first antidepressants were introduced 60 years ago, doctors have had patients like Hanley–people who don’t seem to get better even after they’ve worked their way through the lengthy list of available drugs. About 30% of all people with depression don’t respond adequately to the available treatments. That’s a dismal failure rate for a class of drugs designed to improve a person’s basic ability to function.

According to this article in Time magazine:

The biggest development has been the rediscovery of a promising, yet fraught, drug called ketamine. It’s best known as a psychedelic club drug that makes people hallucinate, but it may also have the ability to ease depression–and fast. In a race to shape the next generation of antidepressants, Johnson & Johnson and Allergan are fast-tracking new medicines inspired by ketamine.

I encourage you to read the entire article and take note of the following: the side-effects seen with medications over the years and the fact that doctors “don’t know the consequences and potential side effects of taking tiny doses of ketamine over and over again”; “she tried nearly everything” (you’ll read this in all the articles advocating for ketamine but unfortunately they are only referring to medications); the ketamine effects are temporary and cost $15,000 per year (and are not covered by insurance); and ketamine “is thought to stimulate an opioid receptor in the brain” and is already known to be addictive.

When I shared this image and article on my Facebook page I discovered that is a pretty divided topic with a number of people feeling really strongly about the fact that this approach needs to be researched further and considered. I acknowledge their concern for the individuals who have not found a solution for their depression. BUT my question is this: have all the dietary and nutritional approaches been considered and looked into with these people who have not responded to antidepressants?

I strongly believe that ketamine is NOT the solution and that nutritional psychiatry is!

Have you used this ketamine approach personally or with patients?

Would you consider using ketamine personally if the antidepressants didn’t work for you? Or would you be more willing to work with a functional medicine or functional nutrition practitioner to find your true root causes and address them with diet, nutrients and a functional medicine approach?

Mitomics – genetics of the mitochondria and food based antioxidants like curcumin

August 7, 2017 By Trudy Scott 2 Comments

Dr. David Haase, a functional medicine doctor and a leader in the field of genetics and genomics, covers mitomics in this very interesting interview on the upcoming Interpreting Your Genetics Summit which runs August 21-28, 2017.

Mitomics is the genetics of the mitochondria themselves. The mitochondria have their own set of genes. And that’s often given a lot of importance because we get our mitochondria from our mothers and therefore we inherit this genome from the mother and we get our mother’s energy per se.

But when you step back a little bit, you recognize that the genetics of the mitochondria are not just nuclear. It’s not just thirty-seven genes that hang out in the mitochondria, but rather, there is over a thousand genes that are in the nucleus that control the proteins or make proteins and influence the mitochondria at great levels. I’ve used a company called Courtagen who do whole mitome analysis. And in individuals with chronic fatigue syndrome or bizarre multi-system dysfunction, this is instrumental in giving a new plan of action to address.

He shares the story of a patient who had had chronic pain, fatigue and irritable bowel syndrome (a mitochondrial symptom)

She had tachycardia, palpitations, some dizziness. And so we actually did a whole mitome analysis on her and we found that she had a uniqueness in something called the TRAP1 related disease. I think it’s clever because the acronym is T1RED.

And this TRAP actually codes for a protein, which is a chaperone to the mitochondria and it’s involved in antioxidant defenses. And what’s been shown is that individuals with this TRAP1 related disease will be queasy, they’ll have pain and they’ll be fatigued and highly aggressive.

But when we found that she had this heterozygote for this particular abnormality – and it was associated with her having a lot of oxidative stress and elevation of hydroxyguanidine, which is a marker of genetic damage and oxidative damage, and elevations in her CK [creatine kinase], which was a marker of muscle injury. We went into this very intense antioxidant program with a lot of food-based antioxidants: sulforaphane, curcumin, resveratrol, CoQ10 and alpha-lipoic acid.

We went after this as aggressively as I think I’ve ever gone after this in a single patient with doses that are in excess of what I would typically use. And she had a remarkable recovery.

I share this snippet because with the tachycardia (an abnormally fast resting heart rate of at least 100 beats per minute) and palpitations, you may think it’s anxiety with a root cause such as low GABA or low serotonin or high cortisol or even Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, when in fact these symptoms are caused by mitochondrial TRAP-1 related disease.

I hope you can join us on Interpreting Your Genetics Summit, August 21-28, 2017. You can register here.

Here are some other reasons to attend:

once you register you’ll have immediate access to these interviews: Epigenetic Mastery for Everyone from Andrea Nakayama, CNC, CNE; The Current State of Genetics from Jeffrey Bland, PhD; and Your Genetics and Autoimmune Diseases with Dr. Tom O’Bryan, DC, CCN.
my digital ebook is available to you if you choose to purchase the series: Anxiety, Benzodiazepines and Your Genetics
as part of the lead up to the event, summit host, James Maskell will even be doing three of his own genetic tests and getting them interpreted by speakers from the summit

James Maskell has gathered world-renowned leaders from genetics, genomics and functional medicine and this promises to be a cutting-edge online event. These pioneering experts are on the front lines interpreting genetic data!

Hope to “see you” on the summit.

UPDATE August 11: I just went to the site and see this message today “Courtagen has closed its diagnostic laboratory and will no longer be accepting samples.”

They have a link to this press release of July 18 so it’s a brand new change: “Courtagen Life Sciences Inc. announced today that the company will be shifting the core focus of its business to medicinal cannabis genetics and testing. As the company reorients its business to respond to the growing opportunities in the medicinal cannabis industry, the company has made the decision to wind down its diagnostic neurology testing division.”

GABA: an amino acid supplement for neurotransmitter support and anxiety relief

August 4, 2017 By Trudy Scott 44 Comments

I recently attended the first international meeting of International Society for Nutritional Psychiatry Research and was honored and thrilled to present my poster – GABA: an amino acid supplement for neurotransmitter support and anxiety relief

Because you were not able to be there, here are the contents of my poster word for word.

GABA overview

GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) is a calming neurotransmitter. Low levels of GABA are associated with anxiety, agitation, stress, panic attacks and poor sleep, with sufficient GABA levels providing feelings of calm and relaxation (1).

GABA is also an amino acid and is available in supplement form. Earlier GABA research suggests that taken orally, it cannot cross the blood-brain barrier and enter the brain in amounts substantial enough to have a calming effect.

However, there is now much clinical evidence indicating that supplemental GABA (especially in a sublingual form), can ease anxiety symptoms (2, 3). There is also more recent evidence to support the effectiveness of oral GABA as a supplement for neurotransmitter support and anxiety relief.

GABA mechanisms and the blood brain barrier

The blood brain barrier is more dynamic than assumed in the past:

… and some passage of solutes can occur by transcytosis, carrier-mediated transport, or simple diffusion of hydrophobic substances (4)

Neurotransmitters as food supplements – the effects of GABA on brain and behavior:

We suggest that any veridical effects of GABA food supplements on brain and cognition might be exerted through blood brain barrier passage or, more indirectly, via an effect on the enteric nervous system. (5)

Client feedback on GABA’s calming effects

I have taken Xanax in the past for panic attacks. My functional medicine doctor suggested [GABA]. I was amazed how it works just like Xanax – instant calm feeling within 10 mins of taking 2 capsules. I use them as needed when I am having heightened stress and anxiety.

[GABA] helps lower my overall anxious feeling all day (anxiety for no reason).

I usually take [GABA] at night when I know I need it, to quiet my mind and relax my body so I can sleep better.”

I did something I thought I would never be able to do – I drove further than I have in over 5 years (not solo yet), which gives me a lot of hope of regaining my independence. I’ve had no panic attacks and so many improvements since I started taking the amino acids. I take the GABA before I’m in any of the situations (like driving) that might trigger anxiety and its working! I couldn’t be happier!

[GABA] changed my life in minutes! I take it every day now. No more hopelessness! (6)

Effective forms of GABA

The author has found the following to be effective:

125mg of GABA combined with 25 mg tyrosine, 50mg glycine, 20 mg taurine, as a sublingual lozenge – this is the most effective form the author uses with clients
300mg GABA, 150mg l-theanine – a capsule opened and used sublingually is more effective than swallowed
200mg PharmaGABA chewable – this form is preferred by some individuals

Dosages of the above are determined via a trial with the client and individualized to their unique needs and biochemistry.

If GABA is low, the client knows within 5 -10 minutes if the GABA supplement is helping to reduce anxiety symptoms, provided the trial is done with a sublingual form.

GABA is frequently used with other nutrient support and always in addition to dietary changes.

Phenibut is not used by the author due to concerns about dependence, tolerance and withdrawal. (7)

Conclusion

The ISNPR (International Society for Nutritional Psychiatry Research) consensus position statement on nutritional medicine in modern psychiatry, supports dietary modification and recognizes the need for nutrient-based support that may include amino acids. (8)

GABA is clinically effective for anxiety, and new theories have been suggested with regards to the mechanism of action. However, we still have much to learn about the behavioral effects of supplemental GABA for neurotransmitter support and anxiety relief. (5)

References

Lydiard, R. B. 2003. The role of GABA in anxiety disorders. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 64(3):21-27.
Ross, J. 2004. The Mood Cure: The 4-Step Program to Take Charge of Your Emotions – Today. New York: Penguin.
Scott, T. 2011. The Antianxiety Food Solution: How the Foods You Eat Can Help You Calm Your Anxious Mind, Improve Your Mood, and End Cravings. Oakland: New Harbinger
Steenbergen, L. et al. 2015. γ-Aminobutyric acid (GABA) administration improves action selection processes: a randomised controlled trial. Scientific Reports. 5: 12770.
Boonstra, E. et al. 2015. Neurotransmitters as food supplements: the effects of GABA on brain and behavior. Frontiers in Psychology. 6:1520.
GABA, the calming amino acid: products and results (accessed July, 25, 2017)
Samokhvalov, A. V. et al. 2013. Phenibut dependence. BMJ Case Reports. doi: 10.1136/bcr-2012-008381.
Sarris, J. et al. 2015. International Society for Nutritional Psychiatry Research consensus position statement: nutritional medicine in modern psychiatry. World Psychiatry. DOI: 10. 1002/wps.20223

It was very encouraging to see the interest in my poster and this topic of GABA for anxiety! I shared how I use GABA with a number of psychiatrists, some dietitians, a psychiatric nurse practitioner, a number of researchers, and a number of nutritionists and health coaches.

I’m really pleased to have had the opportunity to meet so many amazing researchers and hope to be able to collaborate on research.

Please let me know if you have questions and do share if you use GABA personally or use it with clients/patients.