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Archives for January 2018

Broken Brain: Anxiety, depression and medication side-effects

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Dr. Mark Hyman, MD, host of the 8-part Broken Brain docuseries, makes this bold statement which is supported by the 58 experts in the docuseries:

What if I told you that the cure for brain disorders and a better brain is OUTSIDE the brain?  

Dr. Hyla Cass, integrative psychiatrist, and author of 8 Weeks to Vibrant Health, and The Addicted Brain, shares some of the side effects of antidepressant medications in her interview in Episode 5 – Anxiety and Depression:

  • some people start to imagine they are getting messages to do harm to themselves; one woman she worked with had weird thoughts of hurting someone
  • some people lose joy and are flat and experience sexual side-effects – this can affect relationships
  • weight gain of 10-20-30 pounds is not uncommon

Dr. Cass also mentions the side-effect called akathisia where it feels like you are crawling out of your skin. This is described in Drug-Induced Akathisia as follows:

Akathisia consists of subjective inner restlessness, such as awareness of the inability to remain seated, restless legs, fidgetiness, and the desire to move constantly, and of objective increased motor phenomena, such as body rocking, shifting from foot to foot, stamping in place, crossing and uncrossing legs, pacing around.

In this paper, Akathisia: overlooked at a cost

It is a recognized side effect of antipsychotic and antiemetic [or anti-nausea] drugs but may also be caused by other widely prescribed drugs such as antidepressants.

As Dr. Hyman states the cure for brain disorders is OUTSIDE the brain, and Dr. Cass reinforces this sharing that we have ability to heal ourselves when given the right materials and when we get to the root cause.

She recommends a nutritional approach using targeted and specific nutrients based on each person’s unique need. Here are some of the many root caused she looks into and addresses:

  • a B12 and other B vitamin deficiencies
  • MTHFR defects
  • hormonal imbalances
  • low levels of neurotransmitters

Dr. Cass also discusses sensible medication withdrawal approaches and much more.

I’m a big fan of Dr. Cass and her interview is one of my favorite interviews in the series. She is both a colleague and good friend – here we are in LA in November when I had the opportunity to interview Dr. Hyman.

Here’s a list of ALL the episodes. Each one is available during the replay period:

  1. The Broken Brain Epidemic / Dr. Hyman’s Story
  2. Gut Brain Connection: Getting to The Root of a Broken Brain
  3. Losing Your Mind (Alzheimer’s, Dementia, MS, and more)
  4. ADHD and Autism
  5. Depression & Anxiety
  6. Traumatic Brain Injury: Accidents, Sports, and more
  7. 7 Steps to An UltraMind (Part 1)
  8. 7 Steps to An UltraMind (Part 2)

You can watch the entire 8-part Broken Brain docuseries by clicking here

All episodes will be aired until midnight on Sunday (9pm PST/ 11:59pm EST).

Keep in mind that what you’re seeing in episode 5 is a short section of Dr. Cass’ full interview. You can get access to her entire interview (video and transcript) and those of the other 58 speakers when you upgrade/purchase the series.

If you are considering purchasing the series now is the time to do it because prices will go up by 50% once it ends. As Dr. Hyman says: “Own Broken Brain and own your future.”  

Enjoy!

I wake in the middle of the night with a jolt of fear, feelings of dread or feeling depressed

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Waking in the night feeling anxious and with a jolt of fear, having a panic attack, experiencing feelings of impending doom, with a pounding heart and even feeling depressed is a common issue I see with clients and it’s a common question that I’m often asked on my blog and on Facebook.

Here is a typical question you may relate to:

I usually wake between 5-6 am and have this overwhelming feeling of dread and start thinking of all the things I have to get done. And then I can’t fall back asleep. What is this?

Or this one:

Does anyone have severe depression when waking up in the middle of the night, but never during the day or before falling asleep. It doesn’t go away until after I’m fully awake and upright in the morning.

Low serotonin?

Serotonin is known to dip later in the day and at night and we know low serotonin can cause depression and insomnia/waking in the night, so my first thought would be to assess for low serotonin and address this if it is the case. I use the questionnaire and trial method.

I always start with tryptophan, but may switch to 5-HTP if that’s not working as expected as some people do better on one versus the other. We add melatonin if the tryptophan or 5-HTP isn’t quite enough to help with the waking.

There are many possible causes of low serotonin so over the course of the next few months these will be addressed too, on a case by case basis. Some of the causes in include: a poor diet, low stomach acid, malabsorption, low zinc, low B6, low iron, low magnesium, dysbiosis and/or parasites and/or candida, the birth control pill, MTHFR defects (with this defect expressing) etc.

Low GABA?

Low GABA levels may be a factor too as this can contribute to insomnia and waking, especially when there is physical tension. New research reports GABA’s involvement in unwanted thoughts and it’s a common factor in my community and clients. Again, I use the questionnaire and trial method to find the ideal amount of GABA for each person.

High cortisol?

High cortisol in the night can also be a factor and I suspect this when someone says they wake with a jolt of fear or feels what they describe as an adrenalin rush. Saliva testing can confirm cortisol levels and Seriphos is the best product I’ve found to lower high cortisol. Addressing low blood sugar and finding the root cause of the adrenal issues are also key. General adrenal support with B vitamins and adaptogenic herbs are often needed too.

Hormone imbalances and/or PMS?

Here is another typical question you may relate to:

I’ve had the worst week regards 3am panic attacks, lurid dreams and wake up aching. It always feels like the end of the world and yet I get up and stagger out to do my morning routines and all is right with the world (apart from physical aches and pains). I have often had bouts of this. It’s a week to go until my period.

If the anxiety or panic attacks are cyclical and tied to your menstrual cycle I will still start with a trial of tryptophan which has been shown to help PMS, tension, depression and mood swings. Serotonin support also helps with fibromyalgia-type aches and pains.

A trial of GABA is often needed too and can help with alleviating the panic attacks, waking and some of the aches. Other factors like a gluten sensitivities, adrenal issues and high oxalates may also play a role in physical aches.

Lurid dreams clues me into the possibility of low vitamin B6, which is an important co-factor for making both GABA and serotonin, as well as being important for alleviating PMS symptoms and the social anxiety condition called pyroluria. The pyroluria protocol, with vitamin B6, zinc and evening primrose oil, helps both the social anxiety as well as PMS symptoms and insomnia.

Address the basics

You may be looking for the perfect supplement to help and while the amino acids come pretty close to being that, it goes without saying that you want to always address the basics. This means making sure you are eating a real whole food diet with quality animal protein and getting that animal protein at breakfast in order to balance blood sugar. The following needs to be eliminated too: caffeine, gluten and sugar. Some individuals do even better on a ketogenic diet.

Looking at sleep hygiene factors fall under the basics too: a dark, cool and quiet room, no PC or iPhone late at night, no iPhone or other EMF sources close by, sunlight exposure in the early morning etc.

And we mustn’t forget stress reduction, exercise and nature.

Address other bigger issues

Medication side-effects must always be considered. Here are a few examples:

Hashimoto’s thyroiditis must also always be considered especially when there are fluctuations in mood, anxiety and sleep. These fluctuations in mood and anxiety can happen at any time of the day and not necessarily in the night.

If the insomnia and middle of the night anxiety and depression persists we continue to dig and look at dietary histamine and oxalate issues, SIBO, parasites and other digestive issues.

If we are still not seeing results then a referral for Lyme disease, mold, sleep apnea and heavy metals may be needed.

My checklist

My checklist when I start when working with someone with issues similar to the above. This will be tweaked based on each person’s own biochemistry and where they are in terms of diet, supplements and lifestyle:

  • Low serotonin? Do a tryptophan or 5-HTP trial
  • Low melatonin? If tryptophan or 5-HTP trial isn’t quite enough then add melatonin
  • Low GABA? Do a GABA trial
  • Low blood sugar? Add quality protein at breakfast, plus glutamine
  • High cortisol? Support the adrenals and use Seriphos or something else to lower the high cortisol
  • PMS/sex hormone imbalances or Hashimoto’s? Address with diet, nutrients and hormone support as needed
  • Low magnesium, low zinc, low B6, low iron? Assess for these deficiencies and address them
  • Gut health issues like leaky gut, dysbiosis, candida, parasites, SIBO? Address these issues
  • Histamine, oxalate or other dietary issues? Address these issues
  • Medication side-effects? Figure out which one is an issue and work with the doctor to taper if needed and address why the medication was initially prescribed.
  • If the issue persists – a referral for Lyme disease, mold, sleep apnea and/or heavy metals

As you can see there are many overlaps with some of the 60+ root causes of anxiety.

Here is additional information on tryptophan for low serotonin, GABA for low GABA and glutamine for low blood sugar, plus the list of supplements I use with clients.

As always, if the amino acids are new to you, review the precautions and be smart about using them. My book The Antianxiety Food Solution (Amazon affiliate link) has an entire chapter on the amino acids, plus chapters on diet, gut health, caffeine, blood sugar and more.

We’d love to hear which of the above approaches have helped with your insomnia and waking with a jolt of fear or dread or pounding heart.  

Mercury detox: NBMI as a safe and non-toxic heavy metal chelator

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Mercury toxicity is a big issue when it comes to anxiety and a host of other health issues. Detoxification of mercury can be a complex process and is often controversial. Professor Boyd Haley’s interview on the Heavy Metals Summit (airs online Jan 29 to Feb 5, 2018) addresses all this so well and shares some cutting-edge information. I was really quite blown away with this interview and highly recommend tuning in.  

Effective Mercury Detoxification Strategies is covered by Professor Haley, a researcher I have been following for years. He is interviewed by one of the summit hosts, Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt who asks brilliant questions. Be prepared for deep questions and some pretty technical feedback.

Professor Haley shares this about mercury amalgams in the mouth and iron that is displaced:

mercury vapor can penetrate any part of the body it wants. Mercury would rather be in fatty tissues, and that makes the brain a prime target. Plus, you can take it in through the axonal nerves… from the nasal cavity up into the brain. And if you breathe it, it gets into the body and it travels, basically penetrating every cell or any membrane.

When mercury is converted from Hg0 [elemental mercury] to Hg2+ [inorganic mercury] it displaces iron from iron sulfur centers in the brain. And that iron is now free, and iron is a very potent oxidative stress inducer…that’s associated with Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological illnesses [such as anxiety].

He talks about the synergistic effect of aluminum and mercury, and offers that the DMPS challenge test does show mercury body burden but isn’t good enough for reducing body burden, and that both DMPS and DMSA can make some people sicker and affect their kidneys. This has always been one of my concerns with this approach. I shared how I reacted badly to DMPS in my anxiety summit interview with Dr. John Dempster.

Professor Haley then shares how he set out to find a safe and non-toxic heavy metal chelator that would cross the blood-brain barrier, get inside the cells and bind the mercury. The compound was initially sold as an antioxidant (as OSR), is now called NBMI and is in phase 2 clinical trials:

It was sold for a long time, and called OSR, Oxidative Stress Relief. And now, it’s called NBMI…it takes a carboxybenzoate which is found in berries and couples to the carboxyl groups cystamine which is cysteine without the carboxyl group. And when you do that, you neutralize both of the charges, and you make an uncharged compound that has two sulfurs off two arms that can surround a mercury atom or any atom of any size.

And that compound is what we’re working on today. We’re now going into phase two studies. When we gave it to humans in a phase one study, the safety and pharmacokinetics, it was 60-80% absorbed into the blood. And we didn’t have one single adverse effect reported. It is the same thing we had when we sold it as a dietary antioxidant – this compound not only does it bind mercury, it is a very potent oxygen-radical scavenger, just like glutathione.

As of now this compound is only available in Switzerland and chelates any metal that binds sulfur – like mercury, lead, iron, cadmium, copper – all of which can increase anxiety when levels are high.

Dr. Klinghardt has been using it with success and feels Professor Haley deserves the Nobel Prize for his work! This is so promising because as you’ll hear in Dr. Klinghardt’s interview: Biophysics of Heavy Metal Detox (don’t miss this one either) heavy metal toxicity is at the root of most illnesses:

I found over the years that decreasing the body burden off metals, especially aluminum, lead, and mercury – if you can get that down – there is a point when we have been effective where all the vitality comes back.

I am so excited to share more as I learn more.

A good complement to the above two interviews is co-host, Dr. Christine Shaffer’s interview on Metal Allergies and Detoxing the Brain, where she shares much of what makes a detox successful. The discussion on how to get the brain’s glymphatic system working well is fascinating: sleep, melatonin (liposomal) and even GABA (also liposomal), looking at the vagus nerve and much more.

Wendy Myers, Christine Schaffner, ND, and Dietrich Klinghardt, MD, PhD, have spent the last few months gathering the right experts, information and protocols to help you understand the danger of heavy metals like copper, mercury, lead, cadmium and others, and what to do about them.


Every day, they help their patients regain health, in some part through heavy metal detoxification. People with incorrect diagnoses of multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, anxiety and depression, insomnia, or thyroid issues, just to name a few, have found relief through innovative and individualized protocols to reduce the burden of heavy metals.

Register here to join them on The Heavy Metals Summit January 29 – February 5, 2018.

See you on the summit! I’ve learned so much already and I know you will too!

GI MAP stool testing: DNA and antibiotic resistance genes

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Dr. Ben Lynch interviews Dr. David Brady’s on the Dirty Genes Summit (Jan 22 through Jan 29) and they cover stool testing and antibiotic resistance genes.

The section on antibiotic resistance genes is part of the discussion about the stool testing that Dr. Brady recommends: the GI Map test by Diagnostic Solutions Lab, a PCR/DNA test he helped to develop.

Before they get to the antibiotic resistance genes discussion, Dr. Brady shares more about this 2-year old test and why he has found it superior to other stool testing, sharing that it’s more comprehensive than what the gastroenterologist would do, plus the fact that other functional stool tests rely on culture technologies which has the limitation that you can only test bugs that you can grow. He shares that:

More than 95% of bugs in the gut can’t be grown on a petri dish. They are anaerobes or they are very difficult to culture.

He also discusses the process of testing for sensitivities to herbs (in some of the other stool tests) i.e. what herb will kill what bug, sharing that this is a flawed method:

While dropping specific prescriptive antibiotics on a culture has been methodically worked out to correlate with a certain dose of that antibiotic orally, it’s never been done for herbs and volatile oils.

Dr. Brady does discuss one other major advantage of the GI MAP test:

We look for antibiotic resistance genes, both phenotype and genotype of the microbiotia and looking through the genetic signatures of antibiotic resistance. So if you’re going to use a prescriptive antibiotic, we can tell you if the microbiotia of the patient harbors the genes for resistance to sulfonamide or fluoroquinolones or some others.

I see great value in this beyond finding a solution for addressing the pathogens. This is because we know antibiotics have side-effects and some like the fluroquinolones can actually cause anxiety, depression, insomnia, panic attacks, clouded thinking, depersonalization, suicidal thoughts, psychosis, nightmares, and impaired memory. We cover this in detail in the Anxiety Summit interview with Lisa Bloomquist, fluoroquinolone toxicity patient advocate: Antibiotic Induced Anxiety – How Fluoroquinolone Antibiotics Induce Psychiatric Illness Symptoms

When it comes to genetics work and testing, dr. Brady endorses Dr. Peter D’Adamo, Opus23 and Dr. Ben Lynch, recognizing the importance of science and looking at the clinical presentation of the patient rather than individual SNPs.  I would have loved hearing some examples of what he means by this.  

All in all, this is a fascinating interview and well worth listening to!

Register for the Dirty Genes Summit here – to hear this entire interview and learn from Dr. Ben Lynch and the other experts he interviews.

Hope you can join in!

Please post questions and comments below.

Smart pills: sensors, copper, silicon and EMFs in medications?

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Can you discuss the new copper and silicon microchip they are starting to use in Abilify and other bipolar and schizophrenia medications? This subject has been in the news.

The above question was posted on a recent blog – Copper toxicity: anxiety, phobias, ADHD on the Heavy Metals Summit

This was new to me and at first glance I didn’t like the sound of copper and a microchip in a medication, so I went looking for information.

Before I share my findings, here is a quick overview of Abilify/Aripiprazole and the FDA-Approved and Off-Label Uses: originally approved for schizophrenia and then approved for bipolar disorder, approved ‘as adjunctive treatment for major depressive disorder’ and also approved for irritability in autism spectrum disorders.

The above article also lists off-label use of Abilify which includes the following: generalized anxiety disorder, social phobia, ADHD, dementia, insomnia, OCD, PTSD, substance abuse and Tourette’s syndrome.

Dr. Mark Hyman actually mentions off-label use of antipsychotics like Abilify in the Broken Brain docuseries. He discusses their use in children:

there’s pushing of medications for off-label use, which means that they’re not approved for those indications. They’re doing this for kids with antipsychotics, and they’re actually being sued. The pharma companies have been held liable for promoting these drugs for off-label uses for kids, which they’re not allowed to do. They get fined billions of dollars, but they don’t care because they’ve made umpteen more billions, and they just see it as a marketing expense.

What are these ‘smart pills’?

This article, ‘smart pill’ can help patients remember their meds explains more about these new smart pills:

Chicago’s Rush University Medical Center has become one of the few health care providers in the United States to use a grain-of-sand-sized sensor that, after being swallowed, can alert patients when they’ve forgotten to take medication.

Developed by Proteus Digital Health, the FDA-approved sensor is made from microscopic quantities of copper and magnesium. Powered by the human body (no batteries or antennas required), the tiny sensor turns on after reaching patients’ stomachs, where it begins sending signals to a Band-Aid-like, Bluetooth-enabled patch worn on the torso. The patch then decodes those signals into meaningful health information and sends it to users and physicians in an app.

Here is the press release about these ‘smart pills’- Otsuka and Proteus® Announce the First U.S. FDA Approval of a Digital Medicine System: Abilify MyCite® (aripiprazole tablets with sensor)

This was approved by the FDA for use in U.S. in 2012. The microchip is actually made of copper, magnesium and silicon, and reacts with stomach juices when swallowed along with the medication. According to the above article:

Once the microchip has done its job, it dissolves and passes out of the body along with other digested food.

However, another article on the introduction of these smart pills into the UK doesn’t seem to reach the same conclusion:

What’s not clear is how long the microchip operates inside the body, and what happens to it once it dies. Is it digested, or is it flushed out into the sewer system wholly intact? And if it’s flushed, what happens to all those millions of chips that wind up in sewage treatment facilities?

Some of my concerns

I have no idea what the long-term implications of this ‘smart pill’ technology will be and would hope patients are being informed now, will be informed in the future, and will have a choice as to whether or not they want to use ‘smart’ medications like this.

Here are some of my initial concerns I’d like to share:

  • the adverse effects of added copper in the body (implications for dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, and anxiety and autism)
  • the adverse health effects of Bluetooth/EMFs for the person ingesting a ‘smart pill’ and for those around them (the new book The Non-Tinfoil Guide to EMFs by Nicolas Pineault is the most current resource for all things related to EMFs)
  • the adverse effects of silicon in the body
  • the harmful environmental impacts once these get into the sewer system
  • the added costs of these medications
  • how quickly we’ll start to see this technology used in more and more medications
  • lack of awareness for the consumer in terms of adverse health impacts and privacy concerns

Without going into the myriad of issues with off-label use of atypical antipsychotics and all the functional medicine and nutritional approaches that can be used to address anxiety (such as tryptophan), social phobia (such as low zinc and low vitamin B6), ADHD (such as gardening or low iron), OCD (such as a gluten-free diet or inositol), insomnia (such as GABA and 5-HTP) and PTSD, we now have the added concerns of what problems these ‘smart pills’ may contribute to.

I say let’s be smart about this and rethink these ‘smart pills’ and ideally look for functional medicine and nutritional solutions instead of using antipsychotics off-label.

And even if we look at some of the approved uses of antipsychotic medications, case studies report a nutritional psychiatry approach for this. Dr. Georgia Ede, MD, shares two schizoaffective cases in her article: Low-Carbohydrate Diet Superior to Antipsychotic Medications. These were patients of Dr. Chris Palmer, a psychiatrist from Harvard’s McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts. They both tried a ketogenic diet for weight loss. Here are the results the woman patient experienced:

After four weeks on the diet, her delusions had resolved and she’d lost ten pounds. At four months’ time, she’d lost 30 pounds and her score on a clinical questionnaire called the PANSS (Positive and Negative Symptom Scale), which ranks symptoms on a scale from 30 (best) to 210 (worst), had come down from 107 to 70. 

The male patient experienced similar results with “dramatic” reductions in auditory hallucinations and delusions, as well as better mood and energy. He also lost weight, losing 104 pounds over the course of a year.  As Dr. Ede writes:

These outcomes are truly remarkable: improvement by dozens of points on the PANSS, significant weight loss, and better quality of life. There simply is no psychiatric medication available with the power to accomplish those results.  

And in this instance and others like them we won’t have the ‘smart pill’ issues.

Have you ever been prescribed Abilify or one of the other antipsychotics? And for what symptoms?

Has your doctor ever offered you the ‘smart pill’ option?

Have you worked with clients or patients who have been prescribed these medications?

Thyroid disease: anxiety, panic attacks and seizures on The Broken Brain

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There are things that are commonly misdiagnosed as seizure disorders, panic attacks and anxiety attacks. All of these things can stem from thyroid disease and can be reversed when you get proper thyroid treatment.

~ Izabella Wentz, PharmD, author of Hashimoto’s Protocol

Here are some wise words of wisdom from one of the 57 expert speakers – Dr. Izabella Wentz – sharing about the thyroid-brain connection on Dr. Mark Hyman’s 8 -part Broken Brain docuseries.

As well as anxiety and panic attacks, some other issues with the thyroid are fatigue, brain fog, apathy, irritability, depression, bipolar disorder and psychotic disorders.

With Hashimoto’s encephalopathy there can be gait and balance problems, seizures, delusions and even hallucinations.

Izabella shares her own Hashimoto’s story and how she experienced anxiety, panic attacks, social anxiety and bad brain fog. She said she felt her mind slipping away and how scary it was but also that thyroid problems are fairly resolvable.

Some of the solutions she offers:

  • a paleo or autoimmune paleo diet
  • getting rid of reactive foods
  • including bone broth if tolerated
  • 200-400mcg selenium methionine (it reduces an autoimmune attack on the thyroid by half and also improves anxiety and reduces hair loss)
  • 600mg of thiamine (has been shown to reverse thyroid fatigue in 6 days; she has found the benfotiamine form to be the most helpful)

Save the date for the 8 -part Broken Brain docusersies, hosted by Dr. Mark Hyman – and register here. It airs January 17-25th

(I have just found out that if you watched the series during the pre-launch in October and want to watch it again this time around you do NOT need to sign up again under a new email address. My apologies for the confusion!)

Here’s a list of ALL the episodes, to showcase just some of what you will have access to. Each episode will be available for 24 hours, at no-cost!

  1. The Broken Brain Epidemic / Dr. Hyman’s Story (January 17)
  2. Gut Brain Connection: Getting to The Root of a Broken Brain (January 18)
  3. Losing Your Mind (Alzheimer’s, Dementia, MS, and More) (January 19)
  4. ADHD and Autism (January 20)
  5. Depression & Anxiety (January 21)
  6. Traumatic Brain Injury: Accidents, Sports, and More (January 22)
  7. 7 Steps to An UltraMind (Part 1) (January 23)
  8. 7 Steps to An UltraMind (Part 2) (January 24)

See you there!