I’m back from 2 weeks in the USA, first attending the Mindshare Summit (a collaborative community of like-minded practitioners) and then speaking at the IMMH/Integrative Medicine for Mental Health Conference – my favorite mental health conference – on “GABA for Anxiety, Insomnia, ADHD, Autism and Addictions: Research and Practical Applications.”
Last week I shared a blog on one of the new studies in my presentation: how a combination of GABA and theanine improves sleep and reduces anxiety. Today I’m sharing some other highlights from my presentation: benzodiazepines are not the solution, some new 2019 research on the far-reaching benefits of GABA, and the role of GABA in ADHD.
It was great to meet so many of you from my community and to make new connections! I’m thrilled there is so much interest in using the individual amino acids for anxiety and insomnia, and for those with ADHD, autism and addictions.
It was also wonderful to get the support of my colleagues at my booth, for my talk, and to hang out with them, laugh and eat good food. There was plenty of sardines, sauerkraut and grass-fed beef in the place we all shared!
Pictured here, on the left is is Annie and Julie; on the right is Elissa, Jessica and Dr. Zendi
Let me share a little about these wonderful practitioners who are doing life-changing work:
- Julie Matthews, is the author of Nourishing Hope for Autism (my Amazon link), co-author of a new study, Nutritional and Dietary Intervention for Autism Spectrum Disorder and creator/founder of the Bioindividual Nutrition Institute, offering practitioner training on special diets and bioindividual nutrition. Julie also presented at IMMH this year: “Effective Nutrition and Diet Intervention for Autism Spectrum Disorder: Newly Published Research.”
- Elissa Arnheim is a health coach and a certified fermentationist. She is the creator of “Healthy Gut Happy Child”, “8 Days to Freedom from Picky Eating!” and the “Gut Health Mamas” group coaching programs.
- Jessica Sherman’s work is all about raising resilient healthy kids and she teaches about nutrition for the brain, mood, behavior and better overall health. She is the author of Raising Resilience: Take the Stress out of Feeding Your Family and Love Your Life.
- Zendi Molderhauer, works with children, adolescents and young adults, integrating her conventional medical background in pediatrics and psychiatry with more natural, holistic, and functional healing modalities.
Once the conference was over, we also got to lie on the warm sand chatting about what we had just learned, walk along the beach, jump for joy and play, and even have a quick swim in the ocean (it was chilly but invigorating).
Has GABA helped you with your anxiety, insomnia or addictions (carbs or alcohol or even drugs)? Do you have a child with autism or ADHD and have they benefited from GABA?
Do you have questions about using GABA for anxiety, insomnia, autism, ADHD and addictions?
If you’re a practitioner and want to learn more about how to incorporate GABA and the other targeted individual amino acids (tryptophan/5-HTP, DPA, glutamine and tyrosine) into your work to help your clients/patients with anxiety/insomnia/addictions/ADHD/autism, I invite you to check out my online practitioner training here: Balancing Neurotransmitters – The Fundamentals.
And be sure to save the date for IMMH 2020: August 20-23 in Chicago!
Aren’t you sweet for the mention, Trudy! It was an absolute pleasure to help out, hang out and collaborate. One thing confirmed for me while helping at your booth is that practitioners and the public alike are HUNGRY for more holistic tools to improve how we all feel and function. The paradigm of western medicine that has kept the brain and the body separate for centuries is now evolving. It’s a slow process but more and more people are starting to “get” that everything about us and our health is integrated and that diet and lifestyle play a significant role. I look forward to learning more together as we push this new paradigm forward!
Jess
Yes it was very clear that the practitioners attending IMMH were “HUNGRY for more holistic tools to improve how we all feel and function” and it was exciting and rewarding to be able to offer them resources for their patients/clients.
One of the reasons I love IMMH is that they invite excellent speakers so we all get to learn and stay current on the newest research, protocols and dietary/lifestyle approaches so we can continue to push this new paradigm forward.
Thanks again for being part of this with the work you do with families and children, and for helping me at IMMH this year!
I loved hanging out, laughing, eating good food together and recording silly phone reminders (ha ha!)
GABA has been helping me tremendously for my anxiety! it took a few days to a week to figure out amounts and which kind of GABA i liked. all source naturals brand, began with just GABA and then tried the losenges, and just am really liking the theanine serene. was taking just 125, but with the serene i liked 1 tablet chewed (250mg) waking and mid morning. i also added 5HTP both times which really seemed to take me to an even better place. finally got the LIDKE tryptophan for afternoon and bedtime and am sleeping thru most of the night, but still wake at 4ish, but can get back to sleep. taking 1 complete and 3 regular tryptophan at bedtime. (one less in afternoon.) can i hope to sleep thru the night? already have a mouthful of tryptophan with 4! BTW, how long do you need to hold it in the mouth? and when is it safe to take vitamin C so not to negate the effects? thank you so very very much for giving me my happiness back! love, karen!
Karen
This is wonderful to hear all the benefits you are experiencing as it relates to your anxiety and sleep. Thanks for sharing!
Holding the amino acids for 1-2 minutes seems to be enough for most of my clients. And I have them take vitamin C with meals and the amino acids between meals (and away from protein)
I have a 39 yr old special needs (Cornelia De Lange Syndrome)daughter who has severe anxiety and has become nearly home bound (panic attacks in the car). I read your book and have tried to research and apply alternative, more holistic approaches to her mental/ physical health issues. Over the past two years I tapered her off of anti anxiety meds that she’d been on for over a decade.
Knowing that she’s supposed to have high protein breakfast ( I read your book) I’ve been giving her the garden of life raw organic protein shake for breakfast every morning along with a tablespoon of MCT oil, vitamin D3 drops, a garden of life B complex, P5P, Vit C. (500 mg). I’m SO CONFUSED! Are you saying that Vitamin C and protein negate the effects of the aminos? There’s a whole list of aminos included in the protein shake (including including 200 mg of tryptophan and 830 of tyrosine)! Prior to her shake I’ve been giving her a chewable GABA Calm. Lunchtime she takes a 130mg 5HTP. In between lunch and dinner I often give 200 mg of L theanine. I’ve also purchased Lidtke L- Tryptophan Chewables. I’ve added 30 mg of Zinc at lunch. We’ve noticed many improvements in her behavior but still can’t get past the Agoraphobia like issues. After seeing this latest blog I’m wondering if it has something to do with timing (protein and vitamin C too close to aminos). WHY would Garden of Life have included aminos in with their protein shake if this is the case? I really trusted that brand and suspect that many others do the same. I feel like I’ve armed myself with alot of the right tools just not exactly sure when to use them. I appreciate and value your input.
Kathy
Well done for making all those changes for your daughter. This is a really great question and I have plenty of thoughts to share but first please share a link to the protein powder. Also how soon before the protein shake does she take the GABA Calm? And with all this what behavior improvements have you noticed? Please also tell me about the agoraphobia and how she scores on the low GABA and low serotonin sections of the questionnaire?