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JJ Virgin inspires on The Unleash Your Greatness Summit

By Trudy Scott Leave a Comment

unleash-your-greatness-jj-virgin

JJ Virgin, author of The Virgin Diet, The Sugar Impact Diet and the forthcoming book The Miracle Mindset inspires and motivates and changes lives. She is one incredibly gutsy woman, a true leader in the nutrition world and her interview on the upcoming Unleash your Greatness Summit being hosted by Lewis Howes, is not to be missed!

Here are some snippets from her inspiring and heart-warming interview where she talks about her son’s awful hit and run accident, his brain and heart surgery, coma and long recovery – and how she was able to finish and launch her book in the midst of all this!

She shares so much wisdom during this interview. The first one is asking for help:

one of the important lessons that I learned early on…I have always disliked asking for help. And I don’t think I am alone. I think most of us don’t like to ask for help, right. But the morning of the accident, standing in the ICU, I realized that most of my friends in the world are doctors, and not just any doctors, the biggest, best doctors around. And if they weren’t my direct friend, then they were friends with the ones. So I was like first off, if I don’t know them directly, I know their closest friends who do. So I’m going to work my network big time. I go, but I need help. There’s no way I can do this one on my own, especially with this book launch

Another one is pulling from everything that you have learned:

I think too much we play it safe. And then when something like this happens, you have no clue how to handle it. I looked at this whole thing, and I was like all right. I’m going to pull in from all of my lessons learned. And I’m going to go for it and do it. And I think it’s one thing if you lose your job, but when it’s your kid? It’s your kid. You’re going to do it. You’re going to do whatever it takes to save your child.

And this one – celebrating every small win:

I would look for any small win I could celebrate. His eyelash fluttered, or his pinkie. The first day in the hospital when they told me, “Oh, he’s in a deep coma. And we don’t know if he’ll ever come out,” I was holding his hand. And I said something about his girlfriend loving him. And he grabbed my fingers, squeezed them, lifted my hand up. And I’m like he’s in there. He’s so in there. So you find those things. There is a gift in every single thing that happens out there. It all depends on how you look at something, right. It’s all perspective. I think we’re never better than when we’re challenged.

She also shares many of the practical aspects of how she helped her son Grant recover from this traumatic brain injury (with the help and advice of trusted friends and colleagues) :

  • very high doses of fish oil (10g and then 20g/day)
  • no Ensure but salmon and kale instead
  • progesterone cream (for reducing inflammation and healing the brain)
  • essential oils and acupressure
  • probiotics and probiotic yogurt
  • amino acid therapy to help with muscle loss
  • vitamin D and much more

He is now doing incredibly well considering what he went through!

JJ also shared how she got her sleep, ate well and continued to exercise so she could be the best she could be. This is such an important point for care-givers!

Catch this and other inspiring interviews on The Unleash Your Greatness Summit! which runs from November 16-23, 2015

unleash-your-greatness

Discover the 8 secret principles of greatness to transform your life! The 28 expert speakers will reveal how to overcome adversity, find success and chart a new life path!

Each day will focus on one of the eight following principles of greatness:

  • Create a Vision
  • Turn Adversity Into Advantage
  • Cultivate a Champion’s Mindset
  • Develop Hustle, Master Your Body
  • Practice Positive Habits
  • Build a Winning Team
  • Be of Service to Others           

The Unleash Your Greatness Summit was created to bring to life the eight principles of greatness that Lewis Howes reveals in his book, The School of Greatness: A Real-World Guide to Living Bigger, Loving Deeper, and Leaving a Legacy.

Anyone who is looking to change their life for the better will benefit from this summit, as the principles apply across all facets of life – from career to family to health and beyond – and we all have the capacity within us to be great.

Although this summit is a little different from some of the other summit’s I share, many of topics intrigue me so I figure they’ll intrigue you too!

I’m really looking to some of the interviews on how to turn adversity into advantage (JJ Virgin’s story is such an inspiring one and I can’t wait for her new book) and the principle of being of service to others.

Registration details here https://xh265.isrefer.com/go/summitreg/tlsug/

 

The Antianxiety Food Solution book index

By Trudy Scott 10 Comments

antianxiety-food-solution-index

I’m SO excited! I finally have an index in my book The Antianxiety Food Solution! The index is the first place I go to when I buy a book so this means a lot to me and I know it’s going to be a big help to you, my reader!

It’s crazy that it wasn’t in there in the first place (my publisher said it wasn’t in the budget) so I just kept asking and we finally added one in this latest printing.

It’s my birthday today and what a great birthday present for me! I also get to give you something on my birthday – a PDF copy of the index if you already have my book.   You can download a copy of the index here.

If you don’t yet have a copy of my book (or would like to buy another one with an index) you can do so on Amazon here or via my website (this will be a signed copy).

If you do already have a copy of my book and have gotten value from it I would love to ask you a favor. Will you please write a review on Amazon? I’d so appreciate it.

Here is the very first review I received:

Dealing with Depression, Anxiety, Stress, Insomnia? This book is for you!

I cried my way thru this book ~ out of JOY~ for finally finding a very helpful book! I have been on a journey for 10 years trying to navigate issues with depression, stress, anxiety, insomnia and other fun things. I’ve been to doctors, psychologists and counselors. I’ve been put on medication which after many years of that left me suicidal, overweight, depressed and very angry. It is VERY frustrating trying to navigate doctors, testing and information out there that could help you. This summer I read several books that addressed depression from a dietary and nutrition standpoint. This one was the best in my opinion. It’s not too long, easy to read and understand, and well organized. And it agreed with several things I had read in other books ~ such as the use of amino acids, vitamins and issues with gluten and sugar to address depression, etc. There’s many good ‘life stories’ in it too which help you relate. Thanks Trudy Scott!

And here is one of the recent Amazon reviews (I edited out the Dr. Trudy Scott part!):

This book changed my life. I heard Trudy Scott during an interview on the Underground Wellness with Sean Croxton, and her revelations about the connection between what we ingest and how our minds work was riveting. I bought the book immediately, and it was the best $15 I ever spent. Not only have I been able to stop taking an antidepressant and sleep medication, but I now have hope I can truly balance my own biochemistry. It is really a shame most doctors do not study nutrition, for if they did I suspect we would have a much healthier population. Thank goodness Trudy has been successful in her research and her ability to disseminate her findings. If you have any issues with anxiety, depression or insomnia, I highly recommend you read this book.

You can watch a snippet of my Sean Croxton interview here – it was a great interview as was the entire Depression Sessions series of interviews.  

I hope you find the index helpful! And I would love to hear back from you on how my book has helped you – either here in the comments or via an Amazon review. Feel free to post your questions too.

Glutamine for blood sugar stability, calming and gut healing

By Trudy Scott 31 Comments

Glutamine powder by DFH: 3/4 of a teaspoon = 3g, so 1/6 of a teaspoon = 500mg
Glutamine powder by DFH: 3/4 of a teaspoon = 3g, so 1/6 of a teaspoon = 500mg

If you’ve been following me for awhile, worked with me, read my book The Antianxiety Food Solution, or listened in on The Anxiety Summit, you’ll be aware that I use glutamine with clients to help with blood sugar control while we’re figuring out diet/breakfast/adrenal health and the carbohydrate/sugar cravings associated with low blood sugar. Opened on to the tongue or taken in powder form glutamine is super-effective for stopping that intense desire for something sweet if it’s related to low blood sugar.

Integrative psychiatrist Dr. Hyla Cass and Julia Ross, MA both recommend glutamine for addiction and carb cravings, as well as for blood sugar control. During a past Anxiety Summit, Dr. Cass shared how to break free of addictions. And Julia Ross, a pioneer in the use of individual amino acids talked about glutamine and other amino acids for eliminating anxiety.

My clients also find benefits as far as healing the leaky gut and glutamine is recommended by many respected integrative practitioners for this purpose: Dr. Josh Axe, Dr. Amy Myers, author of The Autoimmune Solution , and Dr. David Perlmutter, author Grain Brain during his interview with Dr Tom O’ Bryan on The Gluten Summit.  Steven Wright also writes about leaky gut and glutamine on the SCD lifestyle blog, as does fermentationist Summer Bock.

With all these benefits, my clients love this amino acid!

Here is very encouraging feedback from one of the participants in the Amazing Aminos for Anxiety group program:

I started the glutamine trial low and slow. I have been taking 500mg three times a day AM AFT & BED for the past 4 days. I am celiac and have irritable bowel as well. The 2-3x a day diarrhea I have been experiencing has completely stopped! Blood sugar feels stable – not hungry and not craving. Psychologically, I’m feeling more resilient i.e., calmer and more positive on a daily basis. I am surprised that glutamine has helped so much 🙂  My gut is healing and my mental health has improved markedly through this trial.

She confirmed that adding the glutamine was the only change she made. She is already gluten-free and her diet doesn’t include any grains, legumes or lactose etc. She also avoids other foods to which she has had reactions.

I was so thrilled with these fabulous results and this was my feedback:

These are fabulous results – so happy for you! If you feel you could get added benefits i.e. if these symptoms (low blood sugar, hunger, craving, resilience) are not all 0s (with 10 being the worst on a scale of 1 to 10) then I’d consider bumping up the glutamine to 1000mg 3 x day to see if you get added benefits. If you don’t see added benefits then you can go back down.

It’s very common to get good results like this so I’d like to share another example. I met Nicole at the NTA conference and she shared how she suffers from low blood sugar issues:

I get irritable, I get shaky and I get to the point that if I don’t get food NOW I think I’m going to hurt something!

She did a trial of 500mg glutamine and in under 5 minutes she went from that frantic feeling to a very calm feeling:

I’m ok. I feel happy, I feel calm, I feel I can make it longer without needing food right away. I’m impressed at how well that worked for me.

You can read more about low blood sugar and watch Nicole’s video feedback here.

Of course there is research supporting the many benefits that glutamine has for gut health. Here are some excerpts from the abstract of a 2015 paper titled: Glutamine and intestinal barrier function.

glutamine has been reported to enhance intestinal and whole-body growth, to promote enterocyte proliferation and survival, and to regulate intestinal barrier function in injury, infection, weaning stress, and other catabolic conditions

glutamine stimulates growth of the small intestinal mucosa in young animals and also enhances ion transport by the gut in neonates and adults

as a functional amino acid with multiple key physiological roles, glutamine holds great promise in protecting the gut from atrophy and injury under various stress conditions in mammals and other animals.

And this 2015 paper titled: Oral supplementation with L-glutamine alters gut microbiota of obese and overweight adults found that adults supplemented with 30g of glutamine a day for just 14 days had a change in gut bacteria:

Oral supplementation with [glutamine], for a short time, altered the composition of the gut microbiota in overweight and obese humans reducing the Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes ratio, which resembled weight loss programs already seen in the literature.

In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial that was conducted in children aged two months to nine years from the urban shanty compound community of Fortaleza, Brazil, it was found that:

Glutamine and all combined nutrients (glutamine, vitamin A, and zinc) improved the intestinal barrier function in these children

When it comes to cravings, addiction and appetite we have this research supporting the use of glutamine:

I do want to end by saying there are some possible concerns with cancer supplementation and be sure to check with your oncologist if you are currently undergoing treatment. I write about these concerns here – Glutamine supplementation: cancer concerns and benefits.

Have you successfully used glutamine for helping with low blood sugar control, reducing carb or other cravings/addictions, and healing your leaky gut?

 

Western diet is associated with a smaller left hippocampus and anxiety

By Trudy Scott Leave a Comment

western-diet

A new food and mental health study has been published in the international BMC Medicine journal: Western diet is associated with a smaller hippocampus: a longitudinal investigation. The lead author is Associate Professor Felice Jacka from Deacon University in Australia.

Here is the conclusion of the study: 

Lower intakes of nutrient-dense foods and higher intakes of unhealthy foods are each independently associated with smaller left hippocampal volume. To our knowledge, this is the first human study to demonstrate associations between diet and hippocampal volume concordant with data previously observed in animal models.

Study participants were Australian adults aged 60-64.   The results of the study, show that an unhealthy “Western” diet is associated with a smaller left hippocampus and a healthier “prudent”, nutrient-dense diet is associated with a larger left hippocampus.

The unhealthy “Western” diet was:

characterized by the consumption of roast meat, sausages, hamburgers, steak, chips, crisps and soft drinks

and the healthy “prudent”, nutrient-dense diet was:

characterized by the consumption of fresh vegetables, salad, fruit and grilled fish

This study has importance for cognition and mental health, both depression and very possibly anxiety too:

extensive evidence from animal studies points to the importance of the hippocampus in the association between diet and mental and cognitive health

The hippocampus is a brain structure associated with both learning and memory, as well as mood regulation, and is specifically implicated in depression

The study does group high sugar and high saturated fat together, and unfortunately the healthy diet excludes good quality red meat which is surprising considering previous research and conversations with Dr. Jacka about the benefits of good quality red meat and mental health:

In our study, out of every single dietary food grouping that I looked at including vegetables, fruits, salads, beans, etc the strongest correlate of mental health was red meat intake [grass-fed red meat of course]

Consistently, women who have less than the recommended intake of red meat seem to be in an increased risk for common mental disorders [like anxiety and depression] and bipolar disorder.

It will be wonderful to see follow-up research looking at the effect of quality grass-fed red meat on hippocampus size.  

Drew Ramsey, MD, an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City, described the study as “exciting” in an interview on Medscape Medical News:

It’s the first time that a dietary pattern has been linked to specific changes in the brain. We’ve known for a long time that there’s a correlation between dietary pattern and the risk of a number of brain illnesses, like depression and dementia, and the mechanism behind this, we believe, involves neuroplastic processes of how food affects brain growth. This is the first study that’s really shown that quite conclusively.

Dr. Ramsey is the author of The Happiness Diet, and co-founder of National Kale Day. His mission is to educate America on eating healthier and I’ll second what he said about this study:

nutrition should be incorporated into mental health clinical practice.

How wonderful is it to hear a statement like this from a psychiatrist!?

You can read the complete study here.

What does all this mean for you? Eat real whole nutrient-dense food and ditch the junk food and processed food. Your brain will be happy and so will you be!

If you’re a mental health practitioner, start talking to your clients and patients about what they’re eating, ask them what they had for breakfast and share this research.

 

How to Use Food to Rebalance Your Hormones

By Trudy Scott 22 Comments

hormone-balancing

It’s just around the corner so here’s your friendly reminder if you haven’t already signed up to attend this free webinar/live online workshop called: How to Use Food to Rebalance Your Hormones 

If you have already signed up – I know you’ll enjoy it!

This webinar is being hosted by my friend and colleague, Magdalena Wszelaki, founder of Hormones Balance.

Here is how she introduces herself:

I’m a certified nutrition coach, speaker, educator and chef with a long history of my own hormonal challenges which resulted from a highly stressful life in advertising – starting from Graves’ and Hashimoto’s Disease (autoimmune conditions causing thyroid failure) to adrenal fatigue and estrogen dominance. Today I’m in full remission, live a symptoms-free, awesome life and I want to show you how to achieve the same. Food was instrumental in my own recovery. My mission is to help you figure out what food your body craves or rejects as there is no one diet or protocol that works for all. Knowing your body will be your fast-track to balanced hormones and to the person you want to be.

You may remember our great interviews on last season of The Anxiety Summit! She was a hit, is a wealth of knowledge and very hands-on when it comes to food for hormone balancing! I really love what she offers (and her cute accent)!

Here is a great image from Cooking for Balance showing you just how much caffeine is in your drink!

cooking-for-balance

Magdalena shares many ways on how caffeine impacts our hormones. Here are just two of them (and both can make anxiety worse):

Exhausts the adrenals

Coffee stimulates the adrenals to release more cortisol, our stress hormone; this is partly why we experience a wonderful but temporary and unsustainable burst of energy.

What many of us don’t realize is that our tired adrenals are often the cause of unexplained weight gain, sleeping problems, feeling emotionally fragile, depression, anxiety and fatigue. Drinking coffee while experiencing adrenal fatigue is only adding fuel to the fire.

Worsens PMS and lumpy breasts

It’s well-established that coffee contributes to estrogen dominance, which can mean one of two things: we either have too much estrogen in relation to progesterone, or we have an imbalance in the estrogen metabolites (some are protective and some are dangerous).

PMS, lumpy breasts, heavy periods, cellulite and even breast cancer (which is an estrogenic cancer) can be symptoms of estrogen dominance.

You can read the entire guest post from Magdalena here: 12 Ways Coffee Impacts Your Hormones

At the end of the webinar she’ll be sharing more about her upcoming Cooking for Balance online cooking program that helps women rebalance their hormones with food.

It will air Saturday October 24th (at 10am PST, 1pm EST). Seats are limited and Magdalena tells me they get snapped up quickly.

Here is the registration page: https://xa202.isrefer.com/go/CFB/trudys/

 

Tryptophan and 5-HTP combination for anxiety and sleep: when to use

By Trudy Scott 22 Comments

amazing aminos for anxiety

Here is a great question that came in from one of the attendees of the live Amazing Aminos for Anxiety program that I hosted earlier this year.   This attendee is asking when to use a combination of tryptophan and 5-HTP for anxiety and sleep, and concerns about high cortisol when wanting to use 5-HTP:

The book says “for symptoms that occur earlier in the day, 50-150 mg of 5-HTP on waking and midmorning” but it also cautions about taking 5-HTP if one has severe insomnia (which I do) as it can raise cortisol. Is it okay to take tryptophan upon waking and mid-morning? I’m assuming the reason for holding off until late afternoon is to avoid daytime drowsiness, but am wondering if this is where the tyrosine may come in? (At the end of the program)

I started getting good results at 500 mg tryptophan. Sometimes I needed more so I doubled the dose to 1000 mg. Sometimes I got better results than others. It’s possible I may need to take more than that – the book says to take up to 1500 mg. Is consistency key (as opposed to PRN/as needed) when taking tryptophan, in the same way that one has to build up a blood level of serotonin when taking an SSRI? I also wanted to mention that prior to coming off my SSRI, my mood was fine

She is referring to my book The Antianxiety Food Solution and she had been taking these amino acids before starting the group program with me. Her goals were to address her insomnia, the anxiety and the depression. The tryptophan she had been taking was not the Lidtke tryptophan, which is the brand I recommend.

You can listen to the 4 minute snippet of this question and my answer here:

 

Before using any amino acids be sure to check the Amino Acid Precautions and work with your doctor if needed.

And a friendly reminder for you …. we are offering $100 off each of the 3 options of The Amazing Aminos for Anxiety homestudy programs. This offer expires today, Monday October 19th at 9pm PST midnight EST  (previous emails said 9pm EST – sorry about that)

This is a powerful home study program that results in you feeling

  • less stressed and overwhelmed, and happier
  • more energetic and focused
  • sleeping through the night
  • and no longer suffering from emotional eating/stress eating!

I walk you through, one week at a time, how to use five of the top individual amino acid supplements (tryptophan/5-HTP, GABA, glutamine, DPA/Endorphigen and tyrosine) to help you eliminate anxiety, social anxiety and panic attacks. We also cover pyroluria, other key nutrients, diet and lifestyle changes.

There are 3 program options available:

  1. Basic: Homestudy if you’re a DIY person

     OR

  1. Plus: Homestudy + 2 Q and A Live with Trudy (if you need some guidance and will have questions you can opt for this one)

     OR

  1. Premium: Homestudy + 4 Q and A live with Trudy (if you need some guidance and will have questions) + private Facebook group for group discussions and interactions.

All 3 options include access to Questions and Answers from the previous program so you get to learn from others. Options 2 and 3 include the LIVE Question and Answer sessions i.e. you can ask your own questions (option 3 also includes the facebook support).

For #3 Premium program, we will also be closing the cart and not taking new registrations until January next year

You can check out the 3 program options and register here https://www.everywomanover29.com/aminosforanxietyhs/

Got questions about the program or tryptophan and 5-HTP? Feel free to ask them below and read some of the commonly asked questions on this blog post