Depression

Eggs are ok, even the yolk!

October 17, 2014 By Trudy Scott 12 Comments

eggs and spinach

We’re seeing more and more research showing that eggs are ok and can be part of a healthy diet. It’s about time! Myself and my fellow nutritionists/integrative doctors have been saying this for years. I even say “yes, you can eat the yolk” on the back of my business card.

Here is some of the recent research:

An article on Webmd, Egg-Rich Diet Not Harmful in Type 2 Diabetes discusses the results of a new study to be published later this month. The findings were presented at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes 2014 Meeting last month by Nicholas Fuller, PhD, from the Boden Institute Clinical Trials Unit, University of Sydney, Australia

The findings suggest that eating two eggs per day, 6 days a week can be a safe part of a healthy diet for people with type 2 (that’s 12 eggs a week – yeah!)

Eggs don’t have a bad effect on cholesterol levels in people with type 2 diabetes.

…those in the high-egg group showed a trend toward HDL improvement

Researchers also found that eating an egg-rich diet for 3 months was linked to better appetite control, and may also provide a greater sense of feeling full.

The high-egg group also reported more enjoyment of foods, less boredom, and more satisfaction with the diet (I really like this finding!)

A paper published last month in the British Journal of Nutrition : “Cholesterol and egg intakes and the risk of type 2 diabetes: The Japan Public Health Center-based Prospective Study“ found that:

higher intake of cholesterol or eggs may not be associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes in Japanese populations

This interesting animal study “Orally administered whole egg demonstrates antidepressant-like effects in the forced swimming test on rats” published in August:

demonstrated that whole-egg treatment exerts an antidepressant-like effect

It is suggested that whole egg may be an excellent food for preventing and alleviating the conditions of major depression

Skipping breakfast can increase depression, anxiety and stress levels and eggs can be part of a healthy breakfast. This May 2014 paper “A cross-sectional investigation of depressive, anxiety, and stress symptoms and health-behavior participation in Australian university students” found that:

For males, depressive symptoms were associated with skipping breakfast and poor sleep quality.

For females, depressive symptoms were associated with skipping breakfast, inadequate vigorous physical activity, and short or long sleep hours.

You don’t want to skip breakfast – ever! Low blood sugar can result in anxiety, mood swings, irritability and feeling easily overwhelmed, so it’s really important to get a good start to the day with good quality protein like eggs. Here is a simply yet delicious Egg Muffin recipe from Make It Paleo: Over 200 Grain-Free Recipes for Any Occasion.

We’re going to be talking more about the health and mood benefits of eggs (and animal protein) during season 2 of The Anxiety Summit. It runs from Nov 3-16 and you’ll learn about this and many other nutritional and natural solutions for anxiety, panic attacks, OCD and social anxiety. We’ll cover the research and practical solutions too.

Hot Tips for Boosting Your Mood: ‘nothing can eat me’ & find your minimums

September 11, 2014 By Trudy Scott 5 Comments

Depression is big news. Even celebrities are coming out to talk about their dark night of the soul. Authorities are framing it as a disease and something that cannot be helped, but simply managed and medicated. Think about it – depression is on track to be the most prevalent disease in the world.

What if depression is simply an experience of the gap between who you are now, and who you are meant to be?

Join me, and over 20 other experts in the fields of medicine, consciousness and transformation, in coming together to share what it takes truly heal depression.

My friend and colleague Dr. Teray Garchitorena Kunishi has created the “Deeply Happy Expert Series: Heal Depression, Conquer Fear, and Finally Fulfill Your Potential.” It’s a 21 day event that features an incredible range of information, inspiration and immediately useful strategies for healing depression.

Here are a few of the topics:

The secret to figuring out what you are really meant to do
Can supplements replace antidepressants?
How to eliminate anxiety and emotional eating – with amino acids (this is my talk of course)
Your genetics, how they affect your mood, and what to do about it
How to turn your energy ON when you don’t feel ON
What it takes to heal relationship in crisis

This expert series is a roadmap for banishing fear, healing your body, and finally fulfilling all your incredible potential. It’s totally FREE, and when you sign up, you’ll receive instant access to these powerful conversations.

Here are some gems from Jen Louden’s interview on “Navigating Your Truer Life”

“When I’m freaking out – I take a deep breath and say ‘nothing can eat me’”
“We imagine we’re in physical danger and this hijacks our nervous system and then we beat ourselves up for not calming down”
Jen shared how she has dealt with her own depression by addressing hormonal imbalances and addressing it with food changes. She is very sensitive to certain foods, sugar and alcohol and had to “be ok with it without feeling broken because I couldn’t go out and have a glass of wine or eat bread.”
I love her discussion on making a list of “minimums” ie the minimum you need in order to be happy and sane. For her it is getting 7 hours of sleep a night and needing time alone. She shared how “I used to feel so guilty about this but now I can track this and can plan time alone if I need to.” Jen ended by saying: we have to each figure out our own minimums and “if we don’t have our minimums it’s like the wheels have fallen off the bus and you’re still trying to go 200 miles an hour.” Beautiful!

Here are some gems from Dr. Hyla Cass’ interview on “Can Supplements Replace Prozac?”

People will say to me “I have a real depression and supplements wouldn’t work”. But I say “when you deal with the root cause of the depression you can get a better result that throwing Prozac, Celexa or Zoloft at it”
Cass shared some of the many side-effects of anti-depressants: iatrogenic/doctor-caused addiction, insomnia, hypersomnia, headaches, nausea, stomach upsets, sexual dysfunction, more depression and more anxiety, weight gain and insulin resistance, tardive dyskinesia (involuntary movements), homicide and suicide
She shared some of the many root causes of depression and anxiety: adrenal or thyroid issues, a nutrient deficiency like an iron deficiency anemia or low B12, gut infection/dysbiosis, heavy metal toxicity, brain chemical imbalances.
I just love this comment Dr. Cass shared: “let’s use natural products first, let’s use nature, we are part of nature and nature is what is going to heal us first.”
And then shared some great information about the adrenals and how to support them with adaptogens

I hope you join me and the other great speakers in the “Deeply Happy Series”

https://www.secureinfossl.com/affProgram/Deeply-Happy-Summit-Affiliate-Program/88280

The Anxiety Summit: Eliminating Anxiety – Amino Acid Therapy and Adrenal Balancing

June 20, 2014 By Trudy Scott 39 Comments

This is day 5 of the Anxiety Summit season 1. Julia Ross, MFT, pioneer in the field of Amino Acid Therapy and the author of best sellers The Mood Cure and The Diet Cure, is interviewed by host of the Anxiety Summit, Trudy Scott, Food Mood Expert and Nutritionist, author of The Antianxiety Food Solution.

Eliminating Anxiety: Amino Acid Therapy and Adrenal Balancing

the role of low serotonin and low GABA in anxiety
when to use tryptophan versus 5-HTP
the effectiveness of oral GABA supplements
how to assess for neurotransmitter deficiencies and the ineffectiveness of urinary neurotransmitter testing
the adrenals and excess cortisol: how to correct this cause of anxiety
the issues with using benzodiazapines and SSRIs for anxiety

Here are some great gems from my interview with Julia:

On a scale of zero to ten, zero is not an unrealistic goal when it comes to anxiety. It’s really the human potential and GABA and tryptophan give us access to it

Amino acids are really our only hope for quickly reversing the epidemics not only of anxiety, but of depression, compulsive eating, and obesity

We see these low serotonin symptoms disappear in front of us when we administer capsules of one of the two forms of serotonin fuel, either the amino acid tryptophan or the amino acid 5-hydroxy tryptophan

with GABA there’s a whole body relaxing element, as well as an anxiety-relieving, stress-relieving element

if you or someone that you’re working with is dependent on these kind of drugs [benzodiazapines] to get any kind of decent sleep at night, then you can be pretty sure that cortisol levels are too high

Julia talked about how when it comes to funding drug research to treat depression, schizophrenia, anxiety, and other psychiatric disorders, the global pharmaceutical industry prefers to invest its research dollars in cancer, metabolism, autoimmunity, and other disease areas. Here is a link to the article she referred to : Psychiatric Drug Development

We discussed how to assess for neurotransmitter deficiencies and the ineffectiveness of urinary neurotransmitter testing. This is the 2012 study Julia mentioned: Correlation of serotonin levels in CSF, platelets, plasma, and urine

This method of measuring serotonin levels in platelets results in a very strong correlation with levels in CSF (cerebrospinal fluid)

I highly recommend Julia’s wonderful books The Mood Cure: The 4-Step Program to Take Charge of Your Emotions and The Diet Cure: The 8-Step Program to Rebalance Your Body Chemistry and End Food Cravings, Weight Gain, and Mood Swings – Naturally

Be sure to listen to Meme Grant’s success story on Sunday June 22. She shares how she used amino acids to end her anxiety, panic attacks, insomnia and emotional eating. Tryptophan and GABA made a world of difference for her.

Here is Julia’s Townsend article on Urinary Neurotransmitter Testing

~~If you are not already registered for the Anxiety Summit you can get live access to the speakers of the day here www.theAnxietySummit.com~~

UPDATE: season 1 summit concluded on Tues 6/24/14 – If you’d like to be on the notification list for future summits just sign up here www.theAnxietySummit.com

Missed this interview or can’t listen live? Or want this and the other great interviews for your learning library? Purchase the MP3s or MP3s + transcripts here and listen when it suits you

Using Essential Oils to Survive and Thrive with Anxiety and Depression

July 5, 2013 By Trudy Scott 13 Comments

Essential oils can be a powerful addition to help relieve your anxiety, stress, depression and other mood disorders. There is much research supporting the use of aromatherapy as we can see from this summary in a 2013 paper:

“Molecular medical research on aromatherapy has been steadily increasing for use as an adjuvant therapy in managing psychiatric disorders and to examine its therapeutic mechanisms. Most studies, as well as clinically applied experience, have indicated that various essential oils, such as lavender, lemon and bergamot can help to relieve stress, anxiety, depression and other mood disorders. Most notably, inhalation of essential oils can communicate signals to the olfactory system and stimulate the brain to exert neurotransmitters (e.g. serotonin and dopamine) thereby further regulating mood.”

Today, I’m sharing a guest post on how to use essential oils, written by AnnaLaura Brown:

As anyone who suffers from anxiety and depression knows, it’s really hard on your life and can make it difficult to live a normal life. The drugs that are often prescribed can help but in many cases they don’t completely fix the problem and the side effects can make your health and the rest of your life even worse. So what can you do? While there are a variety of available options, essential oils have been proven to be a great natural solution. Essential oils are extracted from plants and because they are not a synthetic drug they have virtually no side effects. That said as with all products that are a form of medicine if you are currently taking drugs, then you want to talk with your doctor before you begin using essential oils.

Here are some tips to help you survive and thrive with anxiety and depression while using essential oils.

If you are not on drugs now, don’t start using them and begin using essential oils instead.
If you are on drugs now, talk with your doctor about your desire to gradually stop using them and work out a program to get off them over time and to begin using essential oils.
Start slowly by trying one essential oil at a time. Identify your biggest health problem that you suffer with as a result of your anxiety and depression. For example, if you have problems sleeping, then you should start by using an oil that will help you sleep better. The best oil for this is lavender.
Keep using that same oil for at least 2 weeks before you try another one.
Take the time to do some research and to learn about different essential oils and how they are used for anxiety, depression and to help with moods. For example, citrus oils such as lemon, and orange can help uplift the moods of a lot of people. There are several books written on using oils for moods so you can probably find one with a lot of details at your local library or bookstore.
Experiment with different ways of using oils. The most common ways that people use them are by either rubbing a few drops on the bottoms of your feet or your wrists, or by putting a few drops with some water into a diffuser or humidifier. You will want to try both ways and see which way works the best for you.
Work on improving other aspects of your life so that you can live a more balanced life overall.
Keep small amounts of the oils with you at all times so that if you start to feel depressed or anxious you can rub a little bit or smell the bottle to get some relief.

AnnaLaura Brown is passionate about helping others discover the power of essential oils for health and wellness. She personally discovered the oils while suffering from asthma and was able to get rid of her inhalers and use essential oils instead. In the past 2 years she has helped lots of people discover the power of essential oils for a variety of health and wellness uses. Grab your free copy of her report 50 ways to use essential oils at Health and Wealth with Oils.

Smile and laugh to de-stress, calm down and boost your mood

June 14, 2013 By Trudy Scott 15 Comments

laughter

My biggest stress-relief and mood-boosting tip is to smile and laugh! It is one of the many things I encourage my clients to do! And I personally love a good comedy and opportunity to smile and laugh! I almost feel like I need my “fix” of laughter by the end of the day. It really relaxes me, boosts my mood and helps me sleep better.

I was further inspired to make a commitment to laugh each day when I read all the research supporting the many and varied health benefits. Many days I’ll just take a break and engage in spontaneous laughter for no reason at all – just the act of laughing leaves me feeling SO good. I do food-mood presentations around the country and typically end my talks with a laugher session with the audience! It’s a great hit and they leave my talk feeling great!

A 2012 research paper in Physiological Science actually showed that if you smile, you feel less stressed. Also in a 1999 study, “Personality traits such as warmth, calmness, extroversion, and low anxiety were closely related to an attractive smile.”

Laughter falls into a similar category as smiling and is wonderful for improving mood and reducing anxiety and stress and pain. This 2012 paper. showed that laughter “is associated with feelings of wellbeing” and improved mood, likely related to “the release of endorphins.” The release of endorphins also reduced pain levels.

Recent research also shows that the “combination of a laughter and exercise program might have physiological and psychological health benefits for the elderly”. Laughter may also “be an effective strategy to motivate the elderly to participate in physical activity.”

Laughter is actually good for the heart as indicated by the title of a 2009 paper: “The effect of mirthful laughter on the human cardiovascular system.”

Here are some things to make you chuckle: a fun post I did awhile ago about a wonderfully funny and romantic blog called The Musings of a Romantic Comedy Girl and a video of a laughing baby. Enjoy!

And of course, the added bonus: if you eat foods that raise serotonin (like grass-fed read meat and wild fish like salmon), you’ll be happier and more inclined to smile too – and feel even less anxious and less stressed. Tryptophan or 5-HTP will help boost your serotonin levels and are wonderful if you do have low serotonin. You can check for low serotonin levels using this Amino Acids Mood Questionnaire from The Antianxiety Food Solution.

Gluten, leaky gut, LPS, anxiety and Dr. Tom O’Bryan at NANP

May 12, 2013 By Trudy Scott 12 Comments

Spaghetti and Elbow Macaroni

I’m just back from a great few days at THE best nutrition conference – the annual conference of the National Association of Nutrition Professionals http://www.nanp.org/conference/speakers-sessions/

Dr. Tom O’ Bryan, DC, an expert on gluten, presented the following in his very interesting talk:

“One particularly detrimental consequence of increased intestinal permeability” (or leaky gut) caused by gluten sensitivity or celiac disease “is the translocation of bacteria (e.g., E. Coli) and bacterial products (lipopolysaccharides or LPS) also known as endotoxin which creates a proinflammatory environment and increases the oxidative stress burden in the enteric nervous system”
“Even minute doses of microbes within the gastrointestinal tract, levels that do not trigger an immune response, are capable of influencing neurotransmission in the paraventricular hypothalamus, the central nucleus of the amygdala and the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis. All three of these regions are involved in the processing of emotions related to anxiety and mood.”
“It is suggested that patients with” depression “should be checked for leaky gut by means of the IgM and IgA panel used in the present study and accordingly should be treated for leaky gut”.

In summary, gluten sensitivity or celiac disease can lead to leaky gut which can in turn allow endotoxins called lipopolysaccharides/LPS to relocate into the blood stream. This causes inflammation, oxidative damage, neurotransmitter deficiencies and depression and anxiety.

The study above, refers to depression, however, research also shows that LPS plays a role in stress and anxiety too.

Dr. O’Bryan also discussed the role that LPS plays in rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune and musculoskeletal disorders.

Dr. O’Bryan recommends IgG food intolerance testing to identify leaky gut (if you show up with food intolerances to many foods then leaky gut may be an issue) and then to first heal the gut.

These foods will need to be eliminated for at least 3 months and then added back slowly and one at a time. Many people are surprised to find out that they have issues with seemingly healthy foods like salmon, green beans, peas, strawberries, almonds etc. Of course, eliminating gluten goes without saying. This is the approach that I use with my clients and is part of the holistic approach that must be used when someone has any mood or physical health problem.

He also talked about LPS antibody testing from Cyrex labs and I look forward to learning more about this.

It was a really great conference, with locally sourced gluten-free meals included in registration! I am gluten-sensitive and it was such a pleasant change to be able to attend a conference and know that what I’m eating won’t affect me!

All the presentations were recorded and will be available for purchase from NANP next month.