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International Society for Nutritional Psychiatry Research: 2017 conference

By Trudy Scott Leave a Comment

This is the first major international meeting of the International Society for Nutritional Psychiatry Research and will be held July 30 – August 2, in Bethesda, MD, USA. The conference will comprise:

  • Plenary presentations from leading international researchers
  • State of the art symposia and free oral presentations from researchers and clinicians
  • Multidisciplinary workshops for psychiatrists, psychologists, dietitians, nutritionists and other health professionals
  • An exciting social program

This meeting will reflect the broad spectrum of research, from the sub-cellular to translation and implementation science. There will also be a strong focus on basic science and the biological processes and factors that underpin the links between diet, nutrition and mental health, including the brain-gut-microbe axis, immunology and metabolic processes and molecular science. The program will cater to the interests of researchers and clinicians from the fields of public health, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity and dietetics, as well as psychiatry and psychology.

I’m excited to have the opportunity to hear and meet so many amazing food/nutrient and mental health researchers, many of whom I’ve referenced in my book and shared on my blog and in presentations:

  • Food mood /microbiome researcher, Professor Felice Jacka, President, International Society for Nutritional Psychiatry Research
  • Microbiome researcher, Professor John F. Cryan
  • Micronutrient researcher, Julia Rucklidge
  • Sugar and trans fats researcher, Professor Almudena Sánchez-Villegas, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
  • Nutraceuticals researcher, Professor Jerome Sarris;
  • Hypoglycemia/anxiety researcher, Monique Aucoin ND and so many more!

I’ve been accepted to do a rapid fire presentation on gluten-free/Paleo diet for anxiety and will also be presenting a poster on GABA/amino acids for anxiety. What an honor!

You can find the program information here.

This is a conference for health professionals but I’m pleased to announce that the Sunday sessions are OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

More information and registration for INSPR 2017 here.

Triggers and tests from Dr. Tom O’Bryan on Interpreting Your Genetics Summit

By Trudy Scott 2 Comments

I’m really excited about the upcoming Interpreting Your Genetics Summit which runs August 21-28, 2017.

Summit host, James Maskell of Evolution of Medicine, has gathered world-renowned leaders from genetics, genomics and functional medicine. These pioneering experts are on the front lines interpreting data to create improved health in patients around the globe. Learn how to translate your health data to better understand:

  • Your predisposition for diseases and how to minimize manifestation.
  • Genetic health traits your children are likely to inherit.
  • Whether your medications and supplements are right for you.
  • How to unlock previously unsolved health challenges.
  • And more!

Tom O’Bryan, author of The Autoimmune Fix and creator of the docuseries Betrayal: The Autoimmune Secret They’re Not Telling You sets the stage for the summit in his brilliant interview by explaining that simply because you have a genetic defect or polymorphism doesn’t mean you’re going to get that disease:

It means that you’re vulnerable to a particular disease. “Mrs. Patient, if you pull at a chain, it always breaks at the weakest link. Always. It’s going to be at one end, the middle, the other end. It’s your heart, your brain, your liver, your kidneys. Wherever your genetic weak link is. And where’s your weak link? Whatever your genes are. Whatever the deck of cards you’ve been dealt in life, that’s the weak link in your chain.”

So when you have that basic understanding, the first thing that comes up is stop pulling on the chain so much, right. And then, the link won’t break. And how do you stop pulling on the chain? Reduce the inflammation, reduce the activation of your immune system, which is what turns on the genes.

James summarizes this concept perfectly:

So what I hear you saying is that whatever your genetic test comes back, you want to be minimizing the pull on the chain. And you want to be minimizing and repairing the holes in your gut to make sure that you don’t end up with a broken-chain situation, which would be an autoimmune disease, which could manifest anywhere depending on your genetic makeup.

Tom O’Bryan discusses some common environmental triggers that will “pull on the chain” in great detail, and how they lead to genes being turned on and hence causing disease: food quality, wheat, dairy sugar, glyphosate, plastic and air quality. He also covers the APOE4 genes that increase your risk for Alzheimer’s disease and shares this scary fact about kids in Mexico City:

what they have found is that every child that they checked in Mexico City has evidence of early Alzheimer’s. Every child! Let me say that again. Every child that they check has evidence of early Alzheimer’s.

Why? Because the air pollution is so bad. And you breathe that stuff in. It goes into your lungs. And just like leaky gut, you get leaky lungs. And this particulate matter goes right through the lungs, into the bloodstream, straight up to the brain, activating your immune system to fight this stuff. Tears the lining of the blood-brain barrier.

And he shares one of his favorite tests for determining if damage is being done to the brain:

8-hydroxy-2′- Deoxyguanosine… a measure of the DNA residue from damaged brain cells or damaged nerve cells, mostly in the brain. So you just do a simple urine test. And if your 8-hydroxy is up, you’re killing off brain cells. And that makes you say, “Well, why?” [this is the DNA Oxidative Damage Assay from Doctor’s Data]

And this one to look at antibodies to the blood-brain barrier:

You have a simple type of lining on your brain that stops molecules from getting in the brain that shouldn’t be here. So you want to look for antibodies… to S100B. There’s a panel of antibodies that you could look for to see, “Is my brain on fire right now,” because if you have elevated antibodies, your brain is on fire. You’re killing off brain cells.

This interview sets the stage for the rest of the summit! I can’t wait to learn from these amazing speakers on this very relevant and cutting-edge topic.

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

Once you register you’ll have access to this interview and 2 others (Epigenetic Mastery for Everyone from Andrea Nakayama, CNC, CNE and The Current State of Genetics from Jeffrey Bland, PhD) right away.

Hope to “see you” on the summit!

Vitamin C, autoimmunity, food sensitivities & visual processing: Chronic Headache & Migraine Summit

By Trudy Scott 5 Comments

Guest post by Erin Knight, FDN-P

Did you know that nearly 60% of migraineurs report suffering from anxiety as well? I didn’t. That was one of many surprising things I discovered interviewing functional medicine experts and clinicians with decades of experience helping people overcome their headaches and migraines at the root cause for the Chronic Headache and Migraine Summit.

As much as the high correlation between migraines and anxiety surprised me, I could quickly see some reasons for the connection. People with frequent headaches report that managing life around headaches and missing out on things places an incredible strain on relationships and career that is nearly as bad as the physical pain. In other words, the mental agony of being sidelined by severe headaches is worse than the pain itself and contributes to the stress we carry around each day. But I don’t have to tell you that.

Is this meal going to cause a headache today? Am I going to be able to make it to my daughter’s choir concert? Is my boss going to pass me up for that project because I’ve been out with migraines so many days this year? If you are like me, these questions are always top of mind – creating a vicious circle between worrying – headaches – and more stress.

While it may seem quite obvious that there is this worrying and fear that migraineurs carry around with them each day, you may be surprised to learn from the experts speaking on the summit that there are many underlying root causes that can lead to both anxiety and headaches at a biological level. Some of these include:

  • Poor absorption of nutrients such as magnesium
  • Leaky gut and inflammation in the digestive tract that impacts the production of neurotransmitters like serotonin and hormones like estrogen
  • Emotional trauma in childhood (which is linked to a staggering increase in chronic conditions such migraines, autoimmune diseases, obesity and chronic fatigue

The good news is that there are real solutions to improve your health at a foundational level that can drastically improve or even resolve both headaches/migraines and anxiety at the root cause.

The experts in the Chronic Headache and Migraine Summit talk both about what has helped their clients recover their health as well as natural, simple ways to reduce the pain and intensity of headaches quickly and at home so you can go on with your life.

If you know you experience headaches due to weather changes, sinus stuffiness, neck tension, classic migraine or monthly hormonal changes – there are different relief techniques to employ for each. For example, Jay Davidson  highlights 3 tricks for clearing pressure out of your head when you feel a thunderstorm headache coming on – and they work in minutes! My favorite is to dab frankincense essential oil with your fingertips along the hairline in your neck. I can feel drainage start immediately with this simple technique!

If you think you’ve tried it all and been through the gamut of herbal and homeopathic remedies – I promise you will learn something that surprises you and makes a difference in your journey.

5 things I learned about hosting the Chronic Headache and Migraine Summit that might surprise you too:

  • There are many superstar supplements that can help people with different types of migraines beyond the typical riboflavin and magnesium citrate – for example, Vitamin C, different forms of magnesium, 5-HTP or tryptophan, and glutathione.
  • Migraines are being reclassified as an autoimmune disease. One autoimmune disease that frequently leads to migraines (and anxiety and miscarriages) is the clotting disease called Antiphospholipid Syndrome (featured on day 7 in Trudy Scott’s interview)
  • Food sensitivities may be more important than avoiding trigger foods
  • There is a visual processing disorder that affects 15% of the population and is simple to correct.
  • Toxicity from air and water pollution causes different types of chronic headaches and can be easily identified and reversed.

We are so thrilled to be able to offer this first-of-its-kind resource for people who want to stop managing their headaches, stop watching life pass them by from the sidelines and find natural relief options that really work.

Feel free to share something that surprises YOU from the above in the comments below.

Astragalus reduces anxiety, lowers cortisol, boosts immunity and provides neuroprotection

By Trudy Scott 19 Comments

Astragalus is a herb that is well recognized for it’s immune boosting benefits and David Christopher, one of the experts on Immune Defense Summit, shares that it’s his favorite herb for protecting the immune system.

We know the immune system plays a role in anxiety and depression. I’m sure you’ve heard the term psychoneuroimmunology: the study of the interaction between psychological processes and the nervous and immune systems of the human body. So I went searching to see if this herb has any evidence for reducing anxiety and I wasn’t disappointed

It was encouraging to discover very recent research that supports that it has benefits for reducing anxiety and that it offers neuroprotection.

In an animal Alzheimer’s disease study published in 2016, Neuroprotection and anxiety like behavior reduction of Allium hirtifolium and Astragalus hamosus in the Aβ-injected rat it was shown that oral administration of both Allium hirtifolium and Astragalus hamosus decreased anxiety-like behavior.

The results of this study also revealed

potential neuroprotective properties of Allium hirtifolium and Astragalus hamosus as herbal remedies that could play a role in fostering healthy aging and be considered as useful candidates in decreasing Alzheimer’s disease related symptoms.

David doesn’t cover the above this in his interview so I’m sharing this here to provide you with some context on the importance of supporting the immune system beyond colds and flu.

This is what David does say about astragalus in his interview with Immune Defense Summit host Jonathan Landsman:

I think it is the number one herb for protecting the immune system. And the nice thing about astragalus is it’s a tonic. And tonics are substances that will go either way – if you’ve got over-functioning or if you’ve got under-functioning – it will go whatever the body needs. They also call them adaptogens.

Because astragalus is an adaptogen, it is one of many herbs that can be used to support the HPA axis, thereby helping to reduce high cortisol, and hence anxiety via another mechanism. This paper, Effect of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis alterations on glucose and lipid metabolism in diabetic rats, reports that astragalus may improve HPA axis functioning and aid in the treatment of diabetes by lowering blood sugar and high levels of corticosterone (the rat version of cortisol).

David goes on to share that astragalus does a lot of things for the immune system:

It actually increases the interferon which is the chemical message that the immune system uses to communicate between the cells.

One of the things that astragalus does is it stimulates the production of and activity of the macrophage, the part of the immune system that gobbles up impurities, so it’s nonspecific. And it tends to last for a long, long period of time. They’ve done the studies showing that when you take astragalus, it immediately affects your immune system (within six hours). And it’ll last 72 hours. So it’s fast-working and it’ll last a long time.

I can’t think of anything in the medical profession that has as many benefits as astragalus has. Nothing. Astragalus is my favorite herb for the immune system.

David shares more about astragalus and other immune boosting herbs like echinacea (which also happens to help with reducing anxiety) on the Immune Defense Summit which runs July 24-31.

I do hope you can join us to hear from many experts on various topics related to immunity, many of which have a direct connection to anxiety, mood and overall health.

Click here to register

Have you used astragalus with good results? For stress and anxiety? To help lower high cortisol? For immune-boosting? For cognition?

Migraines, anxiety, depression and gluten: on the Chronic Headache & Migraine Summit

By Trudy Scott 5 Comments

The goal of a 2015 Russian study titled Gluten Migraine, was to study the prevalence of migraine among patients with celiac disease and to assess the efficacy of a gluten-free diet in its treatment. There were 200 celiac disease (CD) patients and the

CD group had migraine syndrome four times more often than the control group. The attacks were more frequent in CD patients who were older than 50 years old.

The migraines disappeared in 25% of patients with migraines who were on the gluten free diet and the reduction in the intensity and/or frequency of attacks was observed in 38% of patients.

This is the study conclusion:

We revealed the clear association between migraine syndrome and CD and the high efficacy of gluten FREE diet in the treatment of migraine symptoms.”

I would suspect similar results if you have gluten sensitivity. And here is some gluten-migraine feedback from 4 different women in my community:

  • HUGE decrease in my migraines now that I eat more cleanly. I used to start to get headaches immediately upon eating gluten-y meals
  • I had them frequently from teenage years right up until my Celiac diagnosis in my thirties. Once gluten was gone so were the migraines
  • Stopping gluten stopped my migraines
  • My migraines always came from gluten and dairy

Of course there is also an anxiety-gluten and the depression-gluten connection so getting the gluten out of your diet will help with both anxiety and depression most of the time too.

I talked about all this on The Chronic Headache & Migraine Summit.

The other topic I covered is the autoimmune condition called Antiphospholipid Syndrome (APS) which is one of many possible contributing factors for both migraines and anxiety. Of course, with any autoimmune condition gluten removal is key.

I also cover low serotonin as one possible cause of migraines (and anxiety) and the use of tryptophan (instead of SSRIs). An amino acid like tryptophan or GABA also helps you break the gluten addiction so you don’t have to rely only on willpower!

Have you got questions or comments? Please post in the comment box below.

Dr. Allison Siebecker’s treatment approach: SIBO SOS Summit

By Trudy Scott 10 Comments

The SIBO SOS Summit starts today June 24th and runs to June 28th.

SIBO (Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth) is the #1 leading cause of IBS and other digestive problems and can cause bloating, chronic constipation or diarrhea (or both!!), anxiety, depression, pain and a host of other symptoms.

Shivan Sarna and co-host Dr. Allison Siebecker (a SIBO expert and hero of mine), are bringing some of the foremost experts in the country together to discuss this potentially life altering disease. Over 5 full days of expert interviews Shivan will take a deep dive into the causes, treatment options and expert opinions on everything from diet, to medication you need to know about to regain your optimal health and how to beat SIBO (even if you didn’t know you had it!)

You’ll also meet a host of patients who have lived with SIBO and have learned how to heal themselves… their passionate stories will give you the hope you need.

In her SIBO treatment interview Dr. Siebecker shares the following:

There’s several layers that we can aim our treatments at. I would say the top layer is the symptoms. And of course we want to get somebody feeling symptomatically better as soon as we can. And this is in regards to SIBO, it could apply to other diseases but specifically SIBO. The next layer down would be the bacteria. That’s the actual SIBO, the accumulation of bacteria in the small intestine aiming at eliminating those bacteria. And then the bottom layer would be the underlying cause of the SIBO. And that’s really where most of us probably want to focus our treatment because if we can get rid of the underlying cause well then we can get rid of SIBO and we can cure it, but that isn’t so easy.

I love these 2 tips she shares for the painful bloating:

something that helps a lot is charcoal, activated charcoal because it actually absorbs… gas into its little pockets and chambers inside the charcoal. That can really help people, especially if you’re having pain from the bloating that can really help.

Another thing is you can lie face down on your stomach and it puts the anatomy in a position where it can allow gas to be burped out and you can get some relief that way.

I’ve used the latter face down position but didn’t know about the charcoal tip, which is why I love these summits – I always learn something new!

Dr. Siebecker goes on to share in detail about

  • pharmaceutical antibiotics
  • herbal antibiotics (you would need to add in the allicin/Alimed if you had constipation type of SIBO or high methane)
  • prokinetics like triphala, MotilPro and Iberogast (and some pharmaceutical prokinetics) to assist motility
  • the elemental diet
  • visceral manipulation, massage and acupuncture

She ends with how important stress reduction is and that’s where my work comes in!

I hope you can join us. You can register for SIBO SOS here