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The Anxiety Summit – Psychoneuroimmunology, the new psychiatry

By Trudy Scott 9 Comments

Kelly Brogan

Dr. Kelly Brogan, MD. Holistic women’s health psychiatry was interviewed by host of the Anxiety Summit, Trudy Scott, Food Mood Expert and Nutritionist, author of The Antianxiety Food Solution.

Psychoneuroimmunology, the new psychiatry

  • The role of inflammation in anxiety and depression
  • Hormones and where the endocrine system fits in
  • Where inflammation comes from
  • What a healthy microbiome looks like
  • Natural lifestyle interventions to reverse symptoms and favorite nutraceuticals
  • Why psychiatrists don’t know about this

Here are some snippets from our interview:

What psychoneuroimmunology refers to is essentially the inherent inter-connectedness between multiple systems. So, it’s about no longer looking at psychiatry as a head up phenomenon, which at best can result in limited outcomes and at worst, can be quite dangerous. And what psychoneuroimmunology implies is that there is a relationship between neurology – so, between brain science – and the immune system. It is sometimes called psychoneuroendocrinology – it also sort of ropes in the gut and the endocrine system with the implication being that you cannot treat one without knowledge about the others. So, I think it’s very exciting and really is a term that embodies functional medicine, or naturopathy at its best.

What many are speaking about is something called the cytokine model, which has been around since 1991, the first paper hypothesizing about this model. So, it’s been a growing literature for some time. And what it refers to is essentially it looks at depression or anxiety, for example, as this non-specific sort of fever that tells us actually very little about what’s causing the body to react, but tells us that there’s is an expression of imbalance and that the body is working to recalibrate. So, there’s some sort of stressor or triggers or assault and the compensatory response on the part of the body is what we are seeing as these psychiatric symptoms.

Cytokines in the blood, or inflammatory messengers, such as CRP, IL-1, IL-6, and TNF-alpha are predictive and linearly related to depression and anxiety, especially in women.

Here is Dr. Brogan’s wonderful blog post on the topic of Psychoneuroimmunology, the new Psychiatry

What is driving this inflammation? How does it get kicked off? And how does it induce depression? With the limited clinical applications and revelations that came with the completion of the Human Genome Project in 2002, we have begun to focus on where we have outsourced our physiologic functions.

The microbiome has become an important consideration, and particularly, the gut, which houses at least 10 times as many human cells as there are in our bodies, and 150 times as many genes as are in our genome. These microbes control many vital operations and are responsible for synthesis of neuroactive and nutritional compounds, for immune modulation, and for inflammatory signaling.

Here is one of the studies on how traditional diets can impact the microbiome: Intestinal microbiota, probiotics and mental health: from Metchnikoff to modern advances: Part II – contemporary contextual research

researchers reported less potentially pathogenic bacteria, yet a far greater degree of biodiversity and microbial richness in rural Africans living a traditional lifestyle and consuming traditional high fiber foods

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

The Anxiety Summit – Microbes in the gut and psychobiotics as a potential treatment for anxiety and depression

By Trudy Scott 20 Comments

Dr_Ted_Dinan_Anxiety2

Dr. Ted Dinan, MD, PhD. Professor of Psychiatry at University College Cork was interviewed  by host of the Anxiety Summit, Trudy Scott, Food Mood Expert and Nutritionist, author of The Antianxiety Food Solution.

Microbes in the gut and psychobiotics as a potential treatment for anxiety and depression

  • Varied ways in which anxiety presents
  • Anxiety as a co-morbid condition e.g. irritable bowel syndrome
  • Microbes in the gut and the influence on emotional activity
  • Non-pharmacological approaches to treating anxiety
  • Psychobiotics as a potential treatment and the newest research in this area

Here are some snippets from our interview

Now the brain-gut axis is an axis that we learned more about over the decade or 2, how does the brain communicate with the gut, how does the gut communicate with the brain, and the view of irritable bowel syndrome is that it is as I say a brain axis disorder, an exceedingly common disorder, up to at least 50 percent and some studies suggest much higher rates in terms of the presence of psychiatric symptoms in patients with irritable bowel syndrome. The general view is that at least 50 percent of patients with irritable bowel syndrome have a coexistent or comorbid depression or anxiety.

We’re gradually I think learning more about the pathology underlying irritable bowel syndrome and we and others have published a number of studies show that for instance patients with irritable bowel syndrome have high levels of cytokines. Now cytokines are chemicals that are produced by the immune system and there are certain cytokines that are caused pro-inflammatory. They give rise to inflammation or are the product of inflammation. And certainly there is now good evidence that many patients with irritable bowel syndrome do have very high levels of these pro-inflammatory molecules in their blood stream. The molecules would be molecules like interleukin 6 and CNF-alpha.

Here is the quote from Dr. Dinan’s article that was co-written with Dr. John Cryan and called Psychobiotics: How Gut Bacteria Mess with Your Mind

In the 20th century the major focus of microbiological research was on finding ways to kill microbes by antibiotics. This century the focus has changed somewhat with the recognition of the health benefits of bacteria, not just from an immunity perspective but from a mental health one.

Here is some of Dr. Dinan’s research:

Do interactions between stress and immune responses lead to symptom exacerbations in irritable bowel syndrome?

co-morbidity with mood disorders such as depression and anxiety is common in IBS

Psychobiotics: a novel class of psychotropic.

Here, we define a psychobiotic as a live organism that, when ingested in adequate amounts, produces a health benefit in patients suffering from psychiatric illness. As a class of probiotic, these bacteria are capable of producing and delivering neuroactive substances such as gamma-aminobutyric acid and serotonin, which act on the brain-gut axis. Preclinical evaluation in rodents suggests that certain psychobiotics possess antidepressant or anxiolytic activity. Effects may be mediated via the vagus nerve, spinal cord, or neuroendocrine systems. So far, psychobiotics have been most extensively studied in a liaison psychiatric setting in patients with irritable bowel syndrome, where positive benefits have been reported for a number of organisms including Bifidobacterium infantis. Evidence is emerging of benefits in alleviating symptoms of depression and in chronic fatigue syndrome. Such benefits may be related to the anti-inflammatory actions of certain psychobiotics and a capacity to reduce hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity. Results from large scale placebo-controlled studies are awaited.

This is the recent resistance training anxiety study I mentioned: The anxiolytic effects of resistance exercise

This research has shown that resistance training at a low-to-moderate intensity (<70% 1 repetition maximum) produces the most reliable and robust decreases in anxiety.

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

The Anxiety Summit – Gluten’s impact on the inflamed brain: reducing anxiety and depression

By Trudy Scott 32 Comments

Tom

Dr. Tom O’Bryan, DC host of ‘The Gluten Summit – A Grain of Truth’ is interviewed  by host of the Anxiety Summit, Trudy Scott, Food Mood Expert and Nutritionist, author of The Antianxiety Food Solution.

Gluten’s impact on the inflamed brain: reducing anxiety and depression

  • Terminology and why it’s not called gluten intolerance but sensitivity
  • Is gluten sensitivity just a fad and the recent FODMAPs research
  • The multitude of diseases and symptoms caused by gluten sensitivity
  • Gluten sensitivity as a contributing factor to psychiatric manifestations/anxiety/depression and new 2014 research from Italy
  • Suicide rates in kids with celiac disease (even when they quit gluten), and kids celiac camps
  • The conundrum with testing
  • Doing an elimination and then challenge?
  • Can anyone eat wheat or should we all be gluten-free

One of my favorite quotes in my anxiety food talks is this one from a 2012 paper by Jackson and Fasano called Neurologic and psychiatric manifestations of celiac disease and gluten sensitivity

gluten sensitivity remains undertreated and underrecognized as a contributing factor to psychiatric and neurologic manifestations.

Here are some snippets from our interview:

73% of kids with celiac disease have social phobia, 63% still have social phobia on a gluten-free diet. You have to also heal the gut and address nutritional deficiencies

No human on the planet can digest gluten! Whether or not it causes symptoms like anxiety or depression or arthritis why eat anything that would cause inflammation!

He shares recent research published in BMC Medicine. The study looking at Italians with non-celiac gluten sensitivity, found that 68% of participants felt “a lack of well-being” and 39% experienced anxiety. In the large majority of patients, the time lapse between gluten ingestion and the appearance of symptoms varied from a few hours to 1 day.

No human on the planet can digest gluten! Whether or not it causes symptoms” like anxiety or depression or arthritis “why eat anything that would cause inflammation”

The gluten-FODMAPs discussion and non-celiac gluten sensitivity is a fad:

Dr. O’Bryan summed it up like this:

it took two studies to do this but it appears to be the FODMAPs in the wheat that cause the GI complaints (the bloating, the gas, the abdominal pain) but it’s the proteins that cause symptoms in the brain and other parts of the body

I write about gluten often. Here are some additional links for you:

Last year Dr. O’Bryan hosted the fantastic Gluten Summit and you can grab a copy of one of the interviews here: Dr. Marsh’s Gluten Summit interview: Why the Early Stages of Celiac Disease Must be Taken Seriously

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

The Anxiety Summit – Sugar Impact Diet with JJ Virgin

By Trudy Scott 12 Comments

JJ Virgin, CNS Celebrity Nutrition & Fitness Expert, author The Virgin Diet and the new Sugar Impact Diet  was interviewed on the Anxiety Summit by host of the Anxiety Summit, Trudy Scott, Food Mood Expert and Nutritionist, author of The Antianxiety Food Solution.

“The Sugar Impact Diet” and stress/anxiety
– The role stress and anxiety play in sugar addiction
– Why sugar is a drug and what it’s doing to our health and mood
– Why all sugar is not created equal and where it hides
– Why fructose is worse than glucose
– Can we eat natural sugars, fruit, honey and agave
– The dangers of artificial sweeteners
– Signs of high sugar impact and how the sugar impact diet works
– Why snacking may not be a good thing

Here is a snippet from our interview:

When you look at it, sugar is as addictive as cocaine. It’s more addictive than morphine. Connecticut College did a study where they looked at morphine and Oreos with rats and they both lit up the same pleasure centers/reward centers in the brain. The only difference was when the rats were given a choice between morphine and Oreos; they picked the Oreos because they were more pleasurable. Maybe it’s because with the Oreos you got a little trifecta because when you look at it what’s the worst thing? So sugar lights up the reward center and then you’ve got gluten and dairy, opiates, you know, caseomorphins and gluteomorphins and so just an opiate load to you when you look at something like cereal and milk, right, with all the sugar, gluten and dairy. So clearly you’ve got a drug and the more of it you eat the more of it you want.

stress and anxiety make you crave more sugar, you’re hungrier overall and then tired so you want things that are quick, energetic pick-me-ups and have unstable blood sugar. It’s like this trifecta of bad for setting you up for going after sugar

Here is one of the sugar-is-like-a-drug studies from 2013 – Sugar addiction: pushing the drug-sugar analogy to the limit.

research has revealed that sugar and sweet reward can not only substitute to addictive drugs, like cocaine, but can even be more rewarding and attractive.

The biological robustness in the neural substrates of sugar and sweet reward may be sufficient to explain why many people can have difficultly to control the consumption of foods high in sugar when continuously exposed to them.

And the rat oreo study/faculty research concluded with this:

Even though we associate significant health hazards in taking drugs like cocaine and morphine, high-fat/ high-sugar foods may present even more of a danger because of their accessibility and affordability

sugar impactJJ’s new book Sugar Impact Diet launches November 4th – be sure to grab your copy to learn how you can lower your sugar impact today!

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

The Anxiety Summit – The latest food and nutrient research on anxiety, music and more

By Trudy Scott 37 Comments

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A very very big welcome to The Anxiety Summit, season 2, day 1!! We’re going to share expert interviews on nutritional approaches for eliminating anxiety, social anxiety, panic attacks and OCD.

This is what you’ll learn in the Anxiety Summit – how you can eliminate: 

  • full blown anxiety, panic attacks, social anxiety, OCD, phobias
  • constant low grade fear, feelings of dread, the racing heart, the busy mind you can’t switch off and the ruminating thoughts
  • the constant worry, perfectionism, procrastination, the who-am-I-to-do-this or imposter syndrome

The first talk is: “The latest food and nutrient research on anxiety, music and more” and airs live on Monday November 3rd from 9am PST for a 24 hour window.

Trudy Scott, Food Mood Expert, is the host the Anxiety Summit, and author of The Antianxiety Food Solution.

  • Why The Anxiety Summit
  • New research on food and nutrients for reducing anxiety and depression
  • Why changing our diets and addressing nutritional deficiencies is so important
  • Music for mood and some inspiration for you
  • Gems from each of the upcoming speakers

A recent paper in BMC Psychiatry titled “Lessons from obesity prevention for the prevention of mental disorders” proposes that

common mental disorders like anxiety and depression “should be considered as a form of non-communicable disease,” like obesity “preventable through the modification of lifestyle behaviors, particularly diet” and exercise.

One of the authors of the above study, Dr. Felice Jacka, a well-known food and mood researcher, co-authored another 2014 paper “Nutritional psychiatry research: an emerging discipline and its intersection with global urbanization, environmental challenges and the evolutionary mismatch”  that stated:

“the clear message is that in the midst of a looming global epidemic” of mental health disorders, “we ignore nutrition at our peril.”

If you joined us in June during season 1, you’ll recall Dr. Jacka shared The Research – Food to prevent and treat anxiety and depression?  She shared:

We’ve now seen data from right around the world right across every continent and across age ranges, showing that diet really does matter to the prevalence and incidence of depression and anxiety.

This is the ATA blog post I mentioned: Five Ways the New ATA Hypothyroidism Guidelines are Bad for Thyroid Patients

Music has mood benefits. I blogged about this in this Anna Clendening post. Check it out to see the links to the research and hear Anna sing.

Grab your copy of “Top of the World ” song here. This is your own copy of my custom song co-created by me and Amma Jo and sung by the lovely Amma Jo. I want this to be an inspiration for you! And as someone said during the first season: “a bouquet of hope.” Because you deserve to feel on top of the world all the time! Enjoy!

And stay tuned for my interview with Amma Jo later in the summit.

Do you sing or play a musical instrument? How does it make you feel?  Does it help with anxiety, depression, stress?

Have food changes helped your anxiety, depression, stress?

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

The Anxiety Summit – seafood: the ultimate brain and mood food

By Trudy Scott 8 Comments

Trudy Scott, Food Mood Expert, is the host the Anxiety Summit, and author of The Antianxiety Food Solution and she interviews Randy Hartnell, fisherman, owner of Vital Choice. Our topic: “What you need to know about seafood—the ultimate brain and mood food”

  • Purity and contaminants such as mercury and radiation (Fukushima)
  • Research showing the health benefits: anxiety, depression
  • What if you are mercury-toxic and sensitive
  • Farmed vs wild salmon (and other species)
  • What about that fish-y smell
  • The health benefits of fish roe
  • Omega-3s and fish as ‘Brain Food”
  • Omega3-6 balance and testing fatty acid levels

Here you have Randy talking about why fish is the ultimate brain and mood food

Here is one of the Ralston selenium studies: Dietary selenium’s protective effects against methylmercury toxicity.

This is the 2013 PLoS One study we discussed: Dietary patterns, n-3 fatty acids intake from seafood and high levels of anxiety symptoms during pregnancy: findings from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children

The present study provides evidence of a relationship between dietary patterns, fish intake or n-3 PUFA intake from seafood and symptoms of anxiety in pregnancy, and suggests that dietary interventions could be used to reduce high anxiety symptoms during pregnancy.

This 2013 paper in the British Journal of Nutrition called Dietary intake of fish and PUFA, and clinical depressive and anxiety disorders in women states

These are the first observational data to indicate a role for DHA in anxiety disorders

In this 2014 animal study, Fish oil improves anxiety-like, depressive-like and cognitive behaviors in olfactory bulbectomised rats study

fish oil supplementation during critical periods of brain development attenuated anxiety-like and depressive-like behaviors and cognitive dysfunction”

Here is some of our discussion on weighing the concerns of mercury toxicity versus the health benefits (since it’s a topic that comes up a lot).  This is what Randy shared:

Fish has a whole sort of micronutrient spectrum. They’re swimming around out in this rich soup of minerals – vitamins, minerals, micronutrients – and you know, life evolved in the sea. And life has evolved amid background mercury levels forever, right? Because as much as half of it, if not more, comes from underwater volcanic activity and erosion of the land into the ocean. And mercury’s a naturally occurring element. Of course, the problem with a lot of it now is that it comes from fossil fuel burning.

But it’s always been there, and so life has evolved a capacity to deal with a certain amount of it. And you know, I always acknowledge that people are different, and some people process things differently than other people. But really, when you think about it, common sense tells you that life evolved in the sea. Mercury’s always been there, and I know there are studies of Alaskan natives from thousands of years ago, that they’ve recovered hair samples from these Alaskan natives, and there’s mercury in their hair. So it’s not like it’s something new that people are dealing with.

The message I hope people will take away is you’ve got to assess the risk versus the benefit. And virtually every study, or every major study, comes down on the side that benefits vastly outweigh the risks.

Here you have Randy sharing about the quality of fish they source and offer
– I love that he talks about the “golden rule”

During the interviews on mercury (part 1) with Kris Homme, and part 2, she shares her concerns saying that she believes that if you have major mercury exposure because of amalgams, then you might want to reduce fish consumption and especially avoid the bigger fish. She certainly does.

Vital Choice is  very kindly offering us some nice discounts on their products:

15% discount on VitalChoice (wild fish) purchases (use MOODFOOD at checkout – expires 12/31/14)

50% discount on fatty acid testing (use MOODFOODTESTKIT at checkout – expires 12/31/14)

The above discounts have expired but you can check out Vital Choice products here.

I hope you’ll join us on the Anxiety Summit season 2. It runs from Nov 3-16, 2014 and you’ll learn about this and many other nutritional and natural solutions for anxiety, panic attacks, OCD and social anxiety. This is one of many great topics we’ll be sharing.