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Drastic reduction in intrusive thoughts, anxiety and fears (and better sleep) with GABA, tryptophan, 5-HTP and the pyroluria protocol

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intrusive thoughts reduction

It’s not uncommon for an adult woman to have had intrusive thoughts her entire life and not even recognize that they are connected to her anxiety levels. She is often unaware that there is anything she can do to actually ease her anxiety and reduce the bad thoughts (such as fearing horrible things happening to her husband and children). Enter the amino acids: GABA, tryptophan, 5-HTP and the pyroluria protocol (zinc, vitamin B6 and evening primrose oil). They can do all of this and more. Kimberly shared her own experience and success on a blog post about intrusive thoughts and these specific nutrients. Here is her story in her own words:

Oh my goodness, I’m realizing after reading this, that intrusive thoughts are something I’ve had my entire life. As a child, this manifested in thoughts of what might happen to my one stable parent when we were apart. More recently, I feared horrible things happening to my husband or children. Like the author of the original blog wrote, these intrusive thoughts reflect a greater anxiety. But I didn’t realize this until I began experimenting with your protocols.

I first tried GABA when I felt extremely anxious, but not on a regular basis. Next, I added the pyroluria protocol, which did bring some relief to the intrusive thoughts. Fast forward to today, when I also take 5-HTP, tryptophan and GABA regularly and have noticed a drastic reduction in those thoughts/fears. It’s like a miracle.

My fear level is maybe 15% of what it used to be, if that.

I also find that I can use extra GABA at night if I wake up and can’t shut off my mind. It works like a charm to help me get back to sleep. What a blessing to have these amino acids.

I’m a calmer, more serene person than I’ve ever been, without (for the most part) the crippling, irrational fears I used to experience. Thank you, as always, Trudy. You are also a tremendous blessing.

I thanked her for sharing and said how glad I was that she is connecting more and more dots. It’s very common to suddenly realize you’ve had these intrusive thoughts your entire life. With her  amazing results, combining all the above nutrients she is a poster child for this approach that I use with my clients. I’m thrilled for her miracle outcome and so very happy for her.

I’m sharing her story here as a new blog so I can provide her with some additional approaches to explore and so you can see how these amino acids and other nutrients have worked for someone else (and get your own insights.) I’m also sharing my feedback on how she approached things.

Additional approaches to her to explore: adjusting what is working for her now

Her fear level is maybe 15% of what it used to be but ideally we want to improve on that by fine-tuning what she is doing and capitalize on what is working. Know this – it’s not unreasonable to expect that to get to zero!

If we were working together this is what I’d suggest (assuming she hasn’t already done this):

  • Review the low GABA and low serotonin questionnaires and adjust the GABA and/or tryptophan/5-HTP based on any symptoms that remain with a score above zero.
  • After that, if there are still some troubling low serotonin symptoms experiment with different doses and timings of tryptophan and 5-HTP – some people do better on one vs the other
  • Also, if there are still some troubling low GABA symptoms, experiment with a few different GABA products. I’ve had folks try up to 5 different products before they find the perfect one for their needs
  • If she can see the social anxiety and other pyroluria signs remain, we’d adjust zinc, vitamin B6 (and possibly add P5P) and evening primrose oil.

With all of the above, I’d have her do one change at a time and carefully document everything in her food-mood log.

Identifying if the remaining fear/intrusive thoughts are more pronounced in the second half of her cycle

It may simply be a matter of identifying if the remaining fear/intrusive thoughts are more pronounced in the second half of her cycle i.e. after ovulation. As I shared on the blog, one study showed that “women in the ‘early luteal’ phase… had more than three times as many intrusive thoughts.”

She may need to adjust the amino acids up during this period and it may be that over the next 2 months she sees these symptoms resolve with her current approach, as her hormones become balanced. It’s typical to see this in 2-3 months.

My feedback on her approach

Here is my feedback on how she did things and why I love her approach:

  • She experimented with GABA some of the time – as needed – based on what she was learning from me from blogs, my book and interviews.
  • She made one change at a time, adding the pyroluria protocol next
  • Then she added tryptophan and 5-HTP (hopefully one at a time)
  • And then her use of the amino acids became regular. This last aspect of consistency is a needle mover for so many of my clients.
  • She now tweaks things and takes extra GABA at night if needed. This may be needed after a tough day or if you’ve been glutened or exposed to insecticides.

I will add that the sequence could have been varied and still have had a similar successful outcome, for example, amino acid consistency from day 1 and then adding the pyroluria protocol (this is what I typically do with clients).

However, it’s my goal to empower women like Kimberly to take charge, learn, make changes, listen to their bodies, learn some more and adjust to see further improvements. It makes me immensely happy when I hear that she is a calmer, more serene person than she’s ever been. I feel confident that she’ll be able to get to zero intrusive thoughts with the tips I shared above.

She may or may not also need to consider other possible root causes of intrusive thoughts: low magnesium, low iron, diet (a low carb/high fat intrusive thoughts case study) and gluten issues.

Psychiatric medication discontinuation syndrome, Lyme disease, mold toxicity, heavy metals, toxins, infections, TBI and trauma can also be factors with intrusive thoughts and anxiety, but with her huge improvement I’d suspect these root causes are unlikely for her.

Resources if you are new to using the amino acids and pyroluria supplements

If you are new to using GABA or tryptophan/5-HTP as a supplement, here is the Amino Acids Mood Questionnaire from The Antianxiety Food Solution (you can see all the low GABA and low serotonin symptoms).

If you suspect low levels of any of the neurotransmitters and do not yet have my book, The Antianxiety Food Solution – How the Foods You Eat Can Help You Calm Your Anxious Mind, Improve Your Mood, and End Cravings, I highly recommend getting it and reading it before jumping in and using amino acids on your own so you are knowledgeable. And be sure to share it with the team you or your loved one is working with.

There is an entire chapter on the amino acids and they are discussed throughout the book in the sections on gut health, blood sugar control, sugar cravings, self-medicating with alcohol and more.

My book also has an entire chapter on pyroluria (with the protocol and questionnaire). The questionnaire is on the blog too, together with many other related posts (simply search for pyroluria).

The book doesn’t include product names (per the publisher’s request) so this blog, The Antianxiety Food Solution Amino Acid and Pyroluria Supplements, lists the amino acids that I use with my individual clients and those in my group programs.

If, after reading this blog and my book, you don’t feel comfortable figuring things out on your own (i.e. doing the symptoms questionnaire and respective amino acids trials), a good place to get help is the GABA Quickstart Program. This is a paid online/virtual group program where you get my guidance and community support.

If you are a practitioner, join us in The Balancing Neurotransmitters: the Fundamentals program. This is also a paid online/virtual program with an opportunity to interact with me and other practitioners who are also using the amino acids.

Do you experience intrusive thoughts or did you have them in the past? Feel free to describe them if you feel comfortable doing so.

And did you think you’d be able to reduce the horrible intrusive thoughts with a nutritional approach?

What helped reduce them for you? If you used a similar approach, how did it look for you?

If you’re a practitioner, have you found this approach to help reduce intrusive thoughts and ease anxiety in your clients/patients?

If you have questions please share them here too.

The role of functional neurology, the cerebellum and brain balance exercises for anxiety, depression, social communication, ADHD and obsessions

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Here are some snippets from a fascinating interview sharing cutting edge information on functional neurology and the cerebellum on the Autism, ADHD and Sensory Processing Disorder Summit

Dr. Peter Scire, DC covers: How to Induce Neuroplastic Change in Your Teenager and Make it Fun. He shares how brain hemisphere imbalances and misfiring can be assessed and corrected with very specific exercises to induce neuroplastic change (in both children and even adults). 

I want to bring attention to, really what Schmahmann calls the cerebellum cognitive affective syndrome, so CCAS. It’s been in the literature now for 20 years. And now he’s developed a way to actually do a checklist and to look at these different aspects. But ultimately what he’s saying is that the cerebellum networks have huge relationships to your cognition of executive functions: like working memory, linguistics (your ability to generate language and to actually comprehend language), your affect, so your mood and your emotional stability. Being able to not only generate emotions, but also be able to receive emotions.

These are things that we thought for a long time were at the higher center of the brain, more of the frontal lobe specifically….. But again, the more that we’re looking at the neuro anatomy through neuroimaging, we’re able to really say, guess what? There are certain pockets of the cerebellum that specifically drive these networks.

He talks about the 3 major parts of the cerebellum, 10 subparts and how 5 of these subparts actually deal with non-motor aspects (i.e. mood and emotions, ADHD etc.). It’s this latter aspect – the non-moto aspects – that is not recognized in mainstream neurology and that forms the some of the central aspects of functional neurology: 

What we know about the cerebellum is that we have three major parts to it, and then there’s actually like 10 sub parts to it. And these 10 sub parts to it have different connections and when you look at the 10 sub parts, the first 5 have to do with more sensory motor aspects of the cerebellum. And then really the other 10 or so, give or take, are really dealing with non-motor aspects.

We have areas from the cortex that speak back to the cerebellum. We call them cerebral cerebellum loops. And then we have cerebellum back to the cerebrum. It kind of makes this bio directional system. Now it’s a little bit more complicated than that. There are other parts of the motor center, the basal ganglia and these other parts in the limbic system and stuff like that. But from a simple standpoint, for most of our attendees that understand brain gut access, just think about it in that sense. Cerebellum … brain, cerebellum, cerebellum back to the brain, okay?

And so we can have dysfunction in those systems. But again, most of the clinical model has always been looking at brain to cerebellum, not cerebellum back to the brain. And I think in my experience over the last 15 plus years, most of the work in functional neurology has actually been centered around, even chiropractic per se has been centered around cerebellum to brain, but we now are even getting more specific with our therapeutic entities.

Dr. Scire discusses the under-recognized relationships between the cerebellum networks and ADHD, social communication, mood, and emotional aspects, relationships, obsessions, compulsions, anxiety and depression: 

Again, when you look at the different phases of his work, you want to look at executive function – the whole ADHD population. You look at the linguistic processing. Obviously, we know language and social communication for autism spectrum disorders. Looking at spatial cognition so visual spatial information, visual memory aspects. Then you can begin to look at not only mood, and emotional aspects, but also relationships, obsessions, compulsions, anxiety and depression.

All this continuum of symptomatology can be traced back to the cerebellum. I agree with Doctor Melillo on this hemisphere communication model. But at the same time, in my opinion, I think that we can take it one step further and even get into the specifics of starting with these networks in the cerebellum. It starts out with this very specific examination to say okay, I want to look at motor functions of the cerebellum and I also want to look at non-motor functions of the cerebellum. And then my therapeutic entity is going to be based on that.

You can watch the video snippet of the above here

Dr. Scire shares the research published by Dr. Schmahmann. In this paper, The neuropsychiatry of the cerebellum – insights from the clinic they discuss the behaviors that they witnessed and that were described by patients and families:

distractibility and hyperactivity, impulsiveness, disinhibition, anxiety, ritualistic and stereotypical behaviors, illogical thought and lack of empathy, as well as aggression and irritability. Ruminative and obsessive behaviors, dysphoria and depression, tactile defensiveness and sensory overload, apathy, childlike behavior, and inability to appreciate social boundaries and assign ulterior motives were also evident.

He also recommends Dr. Robert Melillo’s book: Disconnected Kids: The Groundbreaking Brain Balance Program for Children with Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia, and Other Neurological Disorders (my Amazon link). I’ve skimmed it and will be doing a review –the functional neurology information is brilliant. I’d love to see the dietary information expanded upon.

In this interview you will learn…

  • What the latest research says about the role of the cerebellum in cognition and motor planning [and the role it also plays in anxiety, depression and ADHD]
  • What to look for when assessing cerebellar function.
  • How the cerebellum impacts executive function.
  • How to rehabilitate the brain and the importance of movement.
  • How to treat young adults with neurological disorders.
  • How what may seem to be “simple” exercises you can do at home with your child can have a major impact on their cognitive function.

I also had the pleasure of speaking on a panel with Dr. Scire and Dr. Leila Masson last week – you can watch this here. We discuss some of the above and a great deal more

Facebook Live Panel with Tara Hunkin, Dr Leila Masson, Dr. Peter Scire DC, and Trudy Scott.

I learned so much from his interview and our panel discussion and will be delving into this aspect of functional neurology in order to add this element for clients who need this support beyond nutrition and functional medicine.

If you’re new to my work and the targeted individual amino acids be sure to catch my interview: Self-care strategies for parents that are stressed out, anxious and depressed – without using medications.

Using the targeted individual amino acids (such as tryptophan, GABA and DPA) provides quick relief from anxiety and overwhelm, giving my clients hope from day one.  And then we start to dig deeper for other root causes which can often take some time.

In this interview my focus was for stress and overwhelm support for parents but the use of amino acids is very applicable to children (and was the topic I covered in my interview in the first season).

You can watch a video snippet of me sharing more about the amino acids here

As I learn more I expect to find that the amino acids used in conjunction with functional neurology is going to provide more comprehensive results for many individuals who also have cerebellum dysfunctions.

This event brings together 30+ of the leading doctors, nutritionists, and researchers working to help parents by sharing the latest information and strategies for achieving recovery for children with Autism, ADHD and Sensory Processing Disorder.

If you have (or a loved one has) anxiety, depression, OCD,  social anxiety, anger issues and other behavioral symptoms this event is one I highly recommend. Alzheimer’s disease, dementia and Parkinson’s disease are also covered in Dr. Scire’s interview.  This information has a wider application than autism, Asperger’s syndrome, ADHD and SPD and you will learn a great deal.

If you’ve benefited from functional neurology and these brain balancing exercises please do share in the comments. Feel free to post questions too.

Integrative Medicine Approach to Pediatric Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Anxiety

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pediatric-ocd-anxiety

Gluten was found to be the cause of a childhood case of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). In this case report, published in January this year: Integrative Medicine Approach to Pediatric Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Anxiety, the authors state

This case study is the first reported case of OCD associated with non-celiac gluten sensitivity.

Pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is prevalent in 1% to 2% of the population. Emerging studies have correlated non-celiac gluten sensitivity with psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia, depression, mania, and anxiety.

The 7-year-old boy was treated at an integrative medicine practice in the United States and experienced these results on a gluten-free diet together with other integrative medicine modalities:

marked reduction of OCD symptoms and anxiety along with marked improvement of social behavior and school work

The authors conclude the following and recommend further research:

The patient’s rapid response without side effects behooves the medical research community to further investigate the association of non-celiac gluten sensitivity and pediatric OCD.

These are truly amazing results and I always recommend that anyone with any mental health condition needs to consider the effects of gluten. I have all my clients go gluten-free for this very reason. Even if you don’t have a diagnosis of OCD, going gluten-free frequently helps with the obsessive thinking, ruminating thoughts, negative self-talk, anxiety and worry.

Of course, this approach or this approach alone, may not work with everyone with OCD (severe or mild) since the root cause can be multi-faceted.

Other approaches for OCD could also include (with or without a gluten-free diet, although I’d err on the side of caution and always remove gluten):

Please share if you’ve found benefits from any of the above approaches for OCD, obsessive thinking or anxiety.

Anxiety and OCD: Inositol instead of tryptophan or 5-HTP?

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inositol for anxiety and OCD
DFH Inositol powder – it’s pleasant-tasting and 1 teaspoon is about 3g

Have you used inositol for anxiety and OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) or even obsessive thinking or behaviors? Have you used it alone or with tryptophan or 5-HTP? I’d like to share an interesting discussion on a recent blog I wrote: Amino acids for anxiety – which ones and for how long? to illustrate how we are all unique and how some nutrients work well and some not so well.

I received this question on the blog regarding the use of amino acids tryptophan or 5-HTP and OCD/anxiety:

I was wondering if this will help with OCD? I did not see any mention of OCD in your articles. Do you feel it can be treated the same way you would treat other anxieties? I was told that since I take serotonin medication that I should not take 5-HTP because it may cause too much serotonin. What are your thoughts?

My answer was as follows (I’ve added a few links because I like to share the research):

OCD can often be related to low serotonin so yes tryptophan and/or 5-HTP can help and is often very effective. If you take an SSRI then tryptophan and/or 5-HTP should only be taken under a doctor’s supervision and at least 6 hours from the SSRI. I would suggest working with a practitioner who knows the amino acids too. And talk to your doctor about doing a taper if that’s what you’d like to do

The other nutrient that helps with OCD is inositol and this is fine to take with an SSRI. I start my clients on 2g/day and go up to 18g/day. Here is one of the older papers on inositol, showing benefits for depression, panic attacks and OCD and a more recent paper discussing OCD and inositol and other nutrients such as NAC and glycine.

With OCD I’d always also look into past strep infections and PANDAs as this could be a factor too.

One of my blog readers, Tracy, responded to the question with some encouragement (how lovely!) and gave us a great example of how we are all different and there is no one size fits all:  

Chiming in with a bit of encouragement here – a bit late perhaps, but wanted to let you know that my teenage son suffers from OCD and anxiety. A number of years ago I found Trudy’s website while trying to find some natural ways to help him. We tried 5-HTP with good success (it also helped lessen the frequency and intensity of his migraines) but it caused stomach upset with him, even when taken with food, so be aware that it may have this effect on you if you try it. After about 9 months of 5-HTP we kind of “forgot” to give it to him and he continued to feel good.

Once my son started high school he started having more stress in his life and his OCD, anxiety and migraines returned. I started him on inositol about 8 months ago. It has had an even greater effect on the OCD than the 5-HTP (remember everyone is different tho!).

I’d highly recommend you try the inositol since 5HTP/tryptophan is not an option for you at this time. My son has had no side effects from inositol at all. Good luck!!

I was pleased to hear that the 5-HTP helped when Tracy’s son was younger. Some people do have digestive issues with 5-HTP. It’s usually in the first week and then typically resolves. This was obviously not the case with this young man.

I was also thrilled to hear that the inositol is helping so much now and wanted to know how much helps so I asked her. Tracy shared how much her son needs (not much at all) and the symptoms it helps with:

My son takes 500mg (NOW brand) daily in the mornings, usually with breakfast. That amount works well for him most days.

When stress is higher and he starts experiencing “breakthrough anxiety” or obsessions, I have him take another 500mg in the evenings as well, just for a couple days or until the stress has diminished.

I should mention that his OCD tends to be primarily obsessive in nature with very little compulsion. His father was actually diagnosed with mild OCD before I met him and he learned to deal with his through counseling and behavior modification. I read about tryptophan (Julia Ross) and asked him to try it. It works well for him when his anxiety acts up (which interestingly tends to have a seasonal component!) It has been an education living with these two!

You can take up to 18g a day of inositol but I suggest starting with 2g a day and building up as needed.  But as you can see above, even 500mg to 1000mg (which is 1 g – I grew up in South Africa and love the metric system!) may be enough.

I happen to use the DFH Inositol powder (pictured above). It has a pleasant slightly sweet taste and is easy to increase the amount based on how much you find helpful. You can find this on the supplements blog here.

As I mentioned above, tryptophan or 5-HTP can help with anxiety, OCD, obsessive thoughts and behaviors (and panic disorders and depression). Adding inositol is an option when the tryptophan/5-HTP isn’t quite enough, or simply use inositol alone.

I also think inositol makes a great addition for mixing into the nasty tasting tryptophan if you find you get better benefits with the tryptophan capsules opened. I suggest starting with 2g inositol per 500mg tryptophan.

I appreciate Tracy giving me permission to share her son’s success with these nutrients. We can all learn so much from stories like this. If you’ve been using any of the amino acids and/or inositol, I hope this has been helpful for you.

Please share how you’re doing in the comments and feel free to ask additional questions.

If this sounds intriguing and you’d like guidance with using the amino acids and other nutrients like inositol, stay tuned for the launch of The Amazing Aminos for Anxiety homestudy group program. This homestudy group program will provide guidance with using each of the targeted individual amino acids, including nutrients like inositol. You can also add your name in the comments if you’d like to be notified when it launches. You’re also welcome to sign up here to be notified when we have more details about the start date.