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Food, Mood and Women's Health – Be your healthiest, look and feel great!

Social anxiety caused by pyroluria: oxytocin, the vagus nerve, pectus excavatum and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome

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social anxiety pyroluria

Pyroluria is associated with a type of anxiety characterized by social anxiety, avoidance of crowds, a feeling of inner tension, and bouts of depression. If you have pyroluria you may experience varying degrees of anxiety or fear, often starting in childhood, and you usually manage to cover it up and push through. You may build your life around one person, become more of a loner over time, have difficulty handling stress or change, and have heightened anxiety symptoms when under more stress.

It’s not well-recognized in the medical profession and has long been considered a genetic condition. More recently some practitioners have been proposing that it may be triggered by environmental toxins and that it’s not only genetic. Either way, symptoms can start to resolve within a week when low levels of zinc and vitamin B6, together with some other nutrients are addressed. Stress management is key. This can be emotional stress and the stress of toxin exposure, infections like Lyme disease, mold toxicity and even low blood sugar and gluten issues.

We would typically not connect social anxiety/pyroluria with low oxytocin, vagus nerve function or connective tissue disorders but if you read on you’ll see there are some interesting connections.

Oxytocin, social anxiety and zinc

Research has found that oxytocin levels correlate strongly with levels of social anxiety. A paper published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research looked at how variations in the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene is associated with an increased risk of anxiety, stress and depression in individuals with a history of exposure to early life stress. Supporting low levels of oxytocin can ease the threats of social interactions.

What is interesting is that zinc, a key nutrient for pyroluria, is needed for binding oxytocin to its receptor. You can read more about all this here: Oxytocin, social anxiety, pyroluria and autism

Sociability improves vagus nerve function and thriving at home alone

Increased sociability helps improve vagus nerve function. It’s all good and well to recommend getting out and hanging out with more people but if you have pyroluria it’s really challenging. It’s also hard work, very stressful and the added stress makes your pyroluria symptoms worse so it becomes a vicious cycle.

You can read all about this here: Increased sociability improves vagus nerve function: the role of social anxiety, pyroluria and low zinc. There is an updated section on social isolation during coronavirus and how some people are thriving being home alone.

Pectus excavatum and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome

Pectus excavatum is an indentation in the chest wall and is related to problems with connective tissue. When it comes to pyroluria and pectus excavatum, this is what we see in common: social anxiety and depression, low zinc and low vitamin B6, dental crowding and sometimes Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS). I write more about this here: Pectus excavatum and pyroluria: is there a connection?.

I’ve written an entire blog on Joint hypermobility / Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and pyroluria. Anxiety, depression, attention deficit (and hyperactivity) disorder, autism spectrum disorders, and obsessive-compulsive personality disorders are all common with EDS. Many folks with EDS report better less social anxiety, improved mood and often improved physical symptoms/reduced pain on the pyroluria protocol of zinc, vitamin B6, evening primrose oil and a good copper-free multi.

Resources for you

Please do share if you have pyroluria or score high on the questionnaire and have seen improvements in your social anxiety and any physical symptoms.

Depression, anxiety and intergenerational trauma due to racism in the Black community

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anxiety in black community

I feel sickened by George Floyd’s death and the police brutality we all witnessed. I stand by Black Lives Matter and an end to racism, social injustice and inequalities. In the light of current events in the USA and around the world, today’s article highlights the prevalence of mental health in the Black community, the biological impacts of trauma, racism and intergenerational trauma, some reasons why mental health services are not being used, the impacts of racism on physical health and some resources geared to Black mental health.

In this recent article by Columbia University Department of Psychiatry, Addressing Mental Health in the Black Community, we learn the following:

Research suggests that the adult Black community is 20% more likely to experience serious mental health problems, such as Major Depressive Disorder or Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

Additionally, Black emerging adults (ages 18-25) also experience higher rates of mental health problems and lower rates of mental health service utilization compared to White emerging adults, and older Black adults.

What shocked me was reading this statistic: “the Black community comprises approximately 40% of the homeless population, 50% of the prison population, and 45% of children in the foster care system.” All of this puts the Black community is at more risk for mental health issues.

The article also highlights the biological impacts of trauma“through enslavement, oppression, colonialism, racism, and segregation” and shares that “intergenerational trauma may be passed down biologically from one generation to the next.”

Some of the factors that may lead to mental health services not being used amongst the Black community are lack of trust, lack of finances and fear:

Lack of trust in the medical system due to historical abuses of Black people in the guise of health care, less access to adequate insurance, culturally responsive mental health providers, financial burden, and past history with discrimination in the mental health system.

I encourage you to read the entire article at this link.

This paper, Transgenerational Consequences of Racial Discrimination for African American Health goes further into the intergenerational effects of racism on both psychological and physical health: immune health, heart health, obesity, diabetes and so on. The paper concludes as follows:

without addressing the harmful consequences of racial discrimination, improving the health of African Americans as well as other marginalized groups, will remain inadequately addressed.

This inspiring quote is from Nelson Mandela from his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom  (1994) and no-one says it better than him. It is a message of hope!

Nelson Mandela Quote
from the Nelson Mandela facebook page

Here are some resources geared specifically to Black mental health

With regards to nutritional support for anxiety, depression and PTSD, everything that I write about in terms of nutritional psychiatry applies. My book, The Antianxiety Food Solution, covers the foundations of diet and how to use amino acids. This recent blog, The psychological trauma of coronavirus – nutritional support for doctors, nurses and their loved ones could easily be adapted to be: The psychological trauma of racism – nutritional support for the Black Community.

I am very aware that when it comes to working with a functional medicine practitioner or a nutritionist, and purchasing supplements/doing special diets may be a major stumbling block for many Blacks with financial hardships. This needs to become the standard of care so everyone has access to resources like these.

Until then finding access to real whole foods is a powerful first step.  In the SMILES diet depression trial,  the first randomized controlled diet depression study, ONE THIRD of the dietary intervention group saw improvements in their depression and anxiety symptoms. This was simply by switching from processed/junk food to real food with no specific dietary restrictions.

This is the power of nutritional psychiatry:

Although the growth in scientific research related to nutrition in psychiatry may be recent, it is now at a stage where it can no longer be ignored. In light of this, we aim to provide a platform to move towards a new integrated paradigm in psychiatry whereby nutritional considerations (both educational and prescriptive) can be considered “mainstream”.

The International Society for Nutritional Psychiatry Research/ISNPR made the above statement via a letter published in 2015 in World Psychiatry, the official journal of the World Psychiatric Association –   “International Society for Nutritional Psychiatry Research consensus position statement: nutritional medicine in modern psychiatry.” You can read more about this here.

This recent paper, Nutritional Psychiatry: Towards Improving Mental Health by What You Eat, further adds to the discussion, providing an “overview of the emerging field of nutritional psychiatry, exploring the scientific evidence exemplifying the importance of a well-balanced diet for mental health.”

I recently heard integrative psychiatrist Dr. Kelly Brogan, share this on The Trauma and MindBody Super Conference:“it’s best to address trauma when your nervous system has physiologically improved.” She always starts with addressing physiology: diet, gluten issues, the gut and microbiome, blood sugar stability, micronutrient deficiencies such as low B12, low thyroid and other contributing physiological root causes.

By incorporating nutritional psychiatry and functional medicine approaches we can provide additional healing support for the depression, anxiety, current trauma and intergenerational trauma caused by racism and inequalities.

Updates 7/7/20:

The above SMILES Diet Depression study doesn’t mention race. There are, however, many studies that didn’t make it into the blog because I felt compelled to publish something quickly.

 Here are some of them:

China, Ghana, India, Mexico, the Russian Federation, and South Africa…examine the relationship between demographic and lifestyle characteristics and depression….. Increased fruit and vegetable intake appeared to co-occur with significantly lower rates of depression, suggesting diet as a modifiable factor for addressing depression burden.

Among overweight/obese women, improvement in health-related quality of life related to physical health, a significant decrease in depressive score, and a reduction in waist circumference were noted.

I am not an authority on Black mental health, racism or intergenerational trauma. As I look into the research, read articles and listen to podcasts, I acknowledge that I’ve been learning a great deal. And I know I still have much to learn.

I am, however, an authority on food and using a nutritional approach for anxiety. Real whole nutrient-dense food is the foundation and always will be – for every single human regardless of race.  We do, however, need more programs and studies that are specific for people of color. 

This needs to be a public health initiative where we also address the food security issues. According to this paper, Food Insecurity and Maternal Mental Health Among African American Single Mothers Living With HIV/AIDS in the Alabama Black Belt, “Food insecurity places low-income African American women at risk of depression.”  This is one of many similar such studies.  

Together with this we need to address racism. This paper, Experiences of Racial and Ethnic Discrimination Are Associated with Food Insecurity and Poor Health, sums up with this:

Public health interventions intended to improve food security and health may be only partially effective without simultaneously addressing racism and discrimination

If you have information on non-profit organizations, community gardens, community kitchens and other resources for supporting Black communities when it comes to nutritional supplements, food insecurity and food deserts, and eating real foods please share in the comments.

For now check out and be inspired by Ron Finley, the Gangsta Gardener – and his amazing community garden and gardening masterclasses: 

Ron envisions a world where gardening is gangsta, where cool kids know their nutrition and where communities embrace the act of growing, knowing and sharing the best of the earth’s fresh-grown food. 

Determined to change South Central Los Angeles from food desert to food forest, he wants his actions to be educational, inspiring, and nutritious. He wants kids to grow up with the option of healthy food, instead of fried, fattening staples. He wants to sweep up and transform his street, his hood, the city of LA and communities everywhere.

Please also share your experiences supporting mental health in Black communities. And if you’ve been subject to racism and felt the mental and physical effects please share too. We’re here to support you and learn how we can do better.

Dr. Datis Kharrazian’s GABA Challenge for a leaky blood brain barrier is a theory and we still have much to learn

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gaba challenge theory

I highly respect Dr. Datis Kharrazian and his work and had the pleasure of interviewing him last November on the Anxiety Summit 5: Gut-Brain Axis. During our preparations I asked if we could talk about his GABA challenge for a leaky blood brain barrier and he graciously agreed.

I wanted to address this topic in our interview because two of the most common questions I get asked are these:

  • “How can GABA work if it can’t cross the blood brain barrier?” and
  • “If GABA works does this mean I have a leaky blood brain barrier?”

We had such a great conversation on the topic I’ve decided to pull this part of the transcript into a blog so I can share it here with you and use the blog link to share it more widely as I’m asked these questions on social media and elsewhere.

You will learn how Dr. Kharrazian came up with the GABA Challenge, what his thoughts are today, his reservations with GABA and my excellent results with low doses of sublingual GABA. I also share some links to success stories, some of the research and how to figure out if GABA is for you.

Here it is, word for word.

Trudy: So while we’re talking about the leaky blood brain barrier, I want to just talk briefly about GABA and the GABA challenge that you have proposed as a tool for testing for a leaky blood brain barrier. And as you know, I use GABA extensively with clients with the low GABA physical type of anxiety.

I’ve always been a huge fan of you and your work but we do have a professional difference of opinion in this area. And I’ve never actually been a proponent of using the GABA challenge, and I’ve been pretty vocal about it. So I’m really glad that we had a discussion about this in the Facebook group of your neuroinflammation training, and you shared some insights because I was asking some questions about this.

I’d love you to just share some of what we talked about in that discussion. Because if we don’t talk about it, my community is going to say, “Hey, why didn’t you talk to Dr. Kharrazian about this?”

Dr. Kharrazian: Sure, no problem. I don’t think we have this big a disagreement. I think we just have different ways of looking at what’s out there and what we are observing as people working with people, patients who have anxiety.

So ultimately, we have a bunch of theory right now and a bunch of potential models, but we don’t have any clear studies to show what’s really happening. So, one of the things that I proposed in my book before… you understand, I was working with brain patients for over 20 years now….before we had S100 B readily available for many years, it was only in research; you couldn’t get it from conventional labs, even though research was showing it. And the blood brain permeability test was not available either. These have really become more available the past five years and prior to that, we didn’t really have a great test to evaluate if the blood brain barrier was breached.

In an effort to work with what’s out there, what we could do, one of the things that I was doing was doing a test that we called the GABA challenge test. It was really based on the lactulose mannitol test. So the lactulose mannitol test is a well-established test in gastroenterology where they measure leaky gut. So, in that test what the person does is they consume a monosaccharide and a disaccharide, lactulose and mannitol. Lactulose is a disaccharide, it’s very large, and mannitol is very small. And if mannitol doesn’t get absorbed, then there’s a malabsorption issue. And if lactose, which is very large; that should not get through the tight junctions of the gut, gets absorbed in a post urine test, after they drink it, then it shows they have leaky gut. So the whole premise of when you find particle sizes too large to cross, can be a clue to an indication of permeability.

So the GABA challenge that I write about in my book, Why Isn’t My Brain Working? (my Amazon link) was really a way for us to have patients consume GABA. If you look at the molecular weight of GABA, the Dalton size, it’s several hundred Daltons. Several hundred Daltons cannot cross the blood brain barrier. So the concept was, well if someone is taking GABA and they have an effect, then there’s a potential for it to cross the blood brain barrier. And it was kind of following the theory of the lactulose mannitol test. So there’s patients out there who take GABA and nothing happens and some patients take it and go, “It was amazing. Best thing ever. It finally helped me sleep,” or, “Helped reduce anxiety for me.” So, one of the theories was that maybe for some of these people, their blood brain barrier is breached.

Now I know we talked and there is actually the possibility of other pathways that can impact GABA, maybe directly to the gut itself, through the vagus, so I don’t discount those possibilities because we still don’t know. I mean, ultimately, there’d have to be a study designed where they look at it. And it would have to be an animal study, there’s no way you can get an IRB for human studies to check if it’s crossing the brain. It’s some really advanced isotope tracing techniques and I just don’t think the level of dyes they would have to consume to look at the gut and the brain is peripheral and separate… it wouldn’t be possible. So the real answer is, we don’t know.

For me, I still am always suspicious if someone takes GABA and they have a reaction. I always want to go and check the blood brain barrier. And it’s not 100%, I mean, I can tell you without question, there’s people who take GABA, you do a blood brain barrier test, they feel benefit from it, but their blood brain barrier doesn’t have any markers to show permeability.

So it’s not hard for me to consider the possibility that there’s some exogenous pathways too. But at the same time, it’s also really hard to look at the molecular weight of GABA and look at what can cross a healthy blood brain barrier. This Dalton size, we’re talking nanoparticles to a huge, huge particle. So I don’t know but I think we’ll just have to see what happens. And ultimately, if you feel better with GABA, that’s great. If it’s not harmful to you, and if you feel like taking it, that’s great.

I like to also use things like Valerian root, passion flower, and hops because those compounds cross the blood brain barrier. They cross the blood brain barrier and they bind to GABA receptors.

So, the other thing too with actually using GABA you always have the potential for your neurotransmitter receptor sites to down regulate. And this is seen all the time too, patients take GABA and they feel great and then they have to increase their dose and they don’t get the effect as they first did. And they increase the dose and finally, they just don’t get much of an effect from it. And that’s potentially due to receptor site down regulation, which is not as common if you take agonists like Valerian root or passion flower, or hops. These things bind to GABA receptors. So I did a review in my book, where I went over all the literature of the different GABA compounds, which have been published in the literature.

But I’m not going to deny the possibility that there is a potential exogenous source but I also can’t let go the possibility that the blood brain barrier is permeable. So I’m still waiting.

Trudy: Yes, I think it’s great because the fact that you write about that and you taught about that, and you teach about it. It got me looking into the research further and it got me more curious; and it’s good, it’s good to have a healthy discussion and a healthy debate, and be open to possibilities. I’m very open to having my mind changed if something comes up.

I just see GABA works so well with my clients and we use very, very small amounts. I know with your GABA challenge, it’s… what is the amount, its 1,500 milligrams, I think or 1,500 to 2,000? So I’ll start my clients on 125 milligrams of GABA sublingually and get results. I have not noticed the effect that they need more and more, and more. So that’s interesting that you say that. But yeah, it’s good, I’m glad that we’ve had this discussion.

And the other thing that you did say in the online discussion, you said, if someone has a response to taking oral GABA, in other words, taking a GABA supplement does help them, you would want to test for the blood brain barrier permeability, just to see what’s going on. And I like that you say we can track. I’ve actually been in discussions with Cyrex and said, “Hey, why don’t we monitor people who are doing the Cyrex test and have a response to GABA, either therapeutically for the anxiety or with your challenge?” We may start to see some patterns, which I think would be very interesting.

Dr. Kharrazian: Yes, the best we can do with the data in that scenario is just the correlation statistical analysis. But it still wouldn’t answer it.

Trudy: No, I know. But maybe that will trigger someone to want to do a study. So, the good news is we’re seeing more and more research on GABA in the literature. So, it’s exciting. Well, thank you for discussing that with me.

You can read more from our very enlightening interview here: Fix the Brain to Fix the Gut. Dr Kharrazian covers the impact of brain injury and impaired vagal activity (as well as motility and breakdown of the blood brain barrier), how to activate your neurons, using polyphenols for neuroinflammation and butyrate for leaky gut/brain.

These blogs have additional information on GABA and some of the many possible mechanisms:

Here are some blogs with feedback from folks who have benefited from using sublingual GABA for dental anxiety, ADHD/focus issues and Lyme anxiety:

The best way for you to figure out if you will benefit from GABA is to use the trial method. Do the low GABA questionnaire and do a trial of GABA (used sublingually), starting low and increasing until you find the right amount to ease anxiety and improve sleep. You can find the GABA products I recommend on my supplements blog.

Please do share if you’ve benefited from using GABA or if you use it with success with your clients or patients.

Coronavirus and vitamin C for immune support: new pain or more severe pain due to oxalate issues?

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coronavirus pain vitamin c

I have concerns regarding the use of high doses of oral vitamin C for boosting immunity – for a subset of susceptible individuals who have dietary oxalate issues. This is directly related to the many recommendations that have been and are being made in relation to the coronavirus pandemic, but it applies beyond the pandemic for anyone who has dietary oxalate issues.  My concerns relate to high doses of vitamin C making existing pain symptoms worse or even causing new pain symptoms in someone who is not aware they may have oxalate problems. This may include joint pain, vulvodynia, bladder pain, painful urination, eye pain, headaches, foot pain, stomach pain, general body pain, deep bone pain etc. All this can manifest as fatigue, irritability, anxiety, low mood and insomnia.

I’ve been promising to blog about this topic for over a month and have gathered enough information for a short book! I figured a good place to start is to share feedback I’ve received so far and ask for your feedback so we can learn and heal, educate and inform others going through this, as well as offer insights to researchers and doctors who are not aware of this issue (and sometimes say “based on biology it’s not possible”).

In the coming weeks, if there is enough interest, I’ll share additional information on mechanisms, what the research says and what the research says is not possible, labs, types of oxalate issues (there are many), the possible causes (there are also many) and long-term impacts beyond pain (for the thyroid, mitochondria, heart and more), the solutions, additional resources and  feedback from experts (of which there are very few – as of now I’ve been reading everything published by Susan Owens, Julie Matthews, Great Plains Labs and research published by kidney specialists).

Until then I’m humbly asking for your feedback. If you have no idea what oxalates are or are taking vitamin C with no issues, then please don’t worry. Things will become clearer as you read this blog and read follow-on blogs. I feel it’s really important to get this initial blog out rather than waiting until I have everything written up perfectly.

I’ve also been hearing feedback from folks who have now recovered from coronavirus or are still recovering, with many reporting lingering pain and fatigue. I am concerned some of that pain may be related to high doses of oral vitamin C or IV (intravenous) vitamin C leading to oxalate issues they may not be aware of.

My request to you – please share your vitamin C oxalate story

This is what I posted on facebook and I’ll simply share it again here: I’m looking for oxalate vitamin C stories to share with folks who don’t believe or are not aware that high dose vitamin C causes issues for those with dietary oxalate issues.

1) What symptoms do you experience?

2) How quickly do you notice symptoms after taking vitamin C?

3) What form of C have you tried? (ascorbic acid or Ester C or whole food sources of C like camu camu/amla/goji berry/acerola cherry/rosehips/kakadu plum/acai berry/ maqui berry or liposomal or something else). Please also share the brand and source of vitamin C if you know

4) How much vitamin C do you use and is this more than you usually take or are you/were you taking this for the first time?

5) How long did it take to get back to normal/no pain/no symptoms once you stopped taking vitamin C?

NOTE – ONLY VITAMIN C: for questions 2) through 5) – in order to be sure the new symptoms are due to vitamin C and not something else – the addition of vitamin C must be the only change made and then stopping vitamin C must also be the only change made. I have clients keep a log too and repeat the “test” if they are not sure. This can be likened to a gluten elimination trial but in reverse. Repeating the “test”also depends on the symptom severity.

6) Does/did anything help to counter the adverse effects (like calcium citrate, vitamin B6, NAC, MSM, biotin, bile support, Epsom salts baths or anything else)?

7) How long have oxalates been an issue for you and are you eating low oxalate? Or is this all new to you?

8) Would you equate the effects of vitamin C to eating high oxalate foods like spinach, raspberries, nuts and seeds, kiwi fruit, figs, turmeric, chocolate, wheat, white potato, soy, beets etc (less severe/same symptoms/more severe)?

I’m also adding these new questions based on some of the research I’ve been doing:

9) Are you aware of any kidney issues and if you get regular blood work done do you track and take note of your estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate (eGFR)?  What have you observed in terms of values? (In case eGFR is new to you it measures how well your kidneys filter the wastes from your blood and is the best overall measure of kidney function. It helps determine if you have any kidney damage.)  Have you ever been told you have kidney issues and have other kidney lab markers out of range?

10) What are your results on the Great Plains Lab organic acids test (OAT) for the following: Oxalic acid, Glycolic acid (glycolate), Glyceric acid (glycerate), Arabinose (a yeast/candida marker) Ascorbic acid (ascorbate, vitamin C), Pyridoxic acid (marker of vitamin B6 status), Furandicarboxylic acid and hydroxy-methylfuroic acid (markers for fungi such as Aspergillus), and markers of bacterial imbalance?

11) Do you have pyroluria (based on a urine test) or have more than 15 symptoms from the the pyroluria questionnaire and/or are susceptible to low vitamin B6 (poor dream recall and/or nightmares) and low zinc (and therefore high copper)?

12) How do you score on symptoms of low serotonin, low GABA, low endorphins and low catecholamines? (here is that questionnaire). Is your anxiety, low mood, cravings or sleep worse when you are dealing with your other oxalate symptoms/pain?

13) Do you have any genetic markers that indicate a susceptibility for oxalate issues?

14) Do you have celiac disease, gluten sensitivity, leaky gut, liver issues, gall stones, no gallbladder, poor bile production, fat malabsorption, mold toxicity issues, low pancreatic enzymes, candida, high iron/ferritin?

15) What are your results on a mold toxicity test such as the Great Plains MycoTOX profile? and/or do you live in a moldy home/worked in a moldy environment or have in the recent past?

16) What are you results on a stool test (and which stool test)?

17) Do you have high mercury, high lead or high levels of other metals?

18) What is your vitamin D level (now if you happen to know it and/or typical levels in the past) and did you start to take extra vitamin D during this pandemic too? If you are taking extra vitamin D how much extra? And does your vitamin D supplement also contain vitamin K1 and vitamin K2?

19) Do you have any other out-of-range (functional levels) markers on blood work or other lab tests?

I will come back and add references and the rationale for posing these questions.

Also, feel free to comment with a nickname to keep your health information private.

Josefin’s story: painful “fat tissue” around elbows, knees and hips, and an irritated bladder

I share some of the Facebook feedback below, but first, here are Josefin’s comments on my coronavirus blog. Josefin thanked me for not ignoring the oxalate problems that might come with higher doses of vitamin C, saying she has “experienced them first-hand and it is not something to take lightly.”

I asked her to share what happens when she eats medium and high oxalate foods (like spinach, nuts, kiwi fruit, chocolate etc). She shared this:

I gradually decreased my oxalate content in food as recommended in the TLO-group. During that year I experienced periods with a lot of the typical dumping-signs like sandy stools, pain in body and especially in joints and muscles, sand in eyes, bladder pain, peeing a lot, cravings for oxalate foods and a temporary relief in the dumping symptoms when I ate some higher oxalate foods.

I also realized that the painful “fat tissue” that I had all over the body (but mainly around elbows, knees and hips) for 10 years was really deposited oxalates with mostly fluid around it, since I lost it more and more while I dumped and had more pain there also when I dumped. Now the deposits are all gone.

I did want to know if the adverse symptoms she experienced with vitamin C were the same as when eating foods high in oxalates, and she confirmed they were:

Many of the symptoms of dumping were the same as I had previously experienced a few days to weeks after trying to do bowel flushes with vitamin C.

Josefin has been on a low oxalate diet for 3 years and has found the most vitamin C she can tolerate is 200-250mg of vitamin C per day. More about that in her own words:

Now after being on a low oxalate diet for 3 years (carnivore the last year) I have tried taking vitamin C very many times and come to the conclusion that about 200-250 mg per day is what I can take. If I take more I will get a gradual increase of that painful fat-tissue that will start after a few days to weeks depending on how much vitamin C I take. I will also get more of a flu feeling and irritated bladder.

When I stop taking the vitamin C I will within a day or two get all my typical dumping symptoms and they will continue for days to weeks depending on how much I have taken. Symptoms severity also depends on how much I have been taking.

It turns out she gets similar reactions with various forms of vitamin C: “ascorbic acid, calcium ascorbate, multimineral buffered ascorbate and also liposomal vitamin C from Quicksilver Scientific”.

Syd’s story: cystitis, along with a crashed brain

Syd shared this on the Facebook post:

I get symptoms from taking high dose Vitamin C within about 45 minutes. It shows up as cystitis, mostly, along with a crashed brain.

She did confirm that when taking vitamin C (possibly the ascorbic acid form) the symptoms mimic her symptoms when eating high oxalate foods. She also wants to try liposomal vitamin C and camu camu to figure out if she gets the same reactions:

I have the very same response to high oxalate foods. I used to think it was a bladder infection, but I tested four times and every time the test was negative. I’m having a response at the moment. I (stupidly) started eating protein bars that have nuts in them and after eating about four of them across several days, I have the cystitis symptoms.

I’m staring at some liposomal Vit C in the fridge that I’ve been wanting to try at a low dose. Same with some camu camu. I need the cystitis symptoms to abate first.

Virginia, Cathi and Melissa and their pain stories

Virginia also offered feedback on Facebook on her experiences with vitamin C, and again they are similar to when she eats high oxalate foods:

I took a pack of Vit C 1000mg (ascorbic acid) at night last week, next morning I noticed oxalate dumping. Took calcium citrate and it was gone within a day and yes the reaction is similar to eating high oxalate foods

On another Facebook thread my question got Cathi wondering if vitamin C was a factor in her worsening arthritis:

Hmmmmmm this has me thinking. I started Vitamin C crystals 1000mg a day – small spoonful in water. It is sour and not awful. Then, a couple of months ago the arthritis deposits in my right hand fingers got much worse and my right wrist has given me so much grief I have had to reduce my yoga. And I got a weird cyst or something on the inside of my right wrist. I wonder…. Gonna stop it and see if it makes a difference!!! Thank you as I was totally stumped and I hope this is the answer!!!!

On this same thread, Melissa shared that noticed severe joint and muscle pain within 2 or 3 days of starting vitamin C:

When the COVID stuff started, I started taking vitamin C as a preventative measure to keep my immune system strong. Within two or three days, I had system joint and muscle pain everywhere. I could hardly move! I stopped the vitamin C and it cleared up in 3 or 4 days. I’ve never had kidney stones, but my brother has, so maybe it’s a genetic predisposition? I do have a history of on & off systemic joint pain since my early 20’s.

I never thought I had oxalate issues but now I’m wondering if it might be related to my random systemic joint pain. 

I was taking between 1,000 to 3,000 mg per day. The label says Solaray timed release vitamin c (ascorbic acid), acerola cherry and rose hips.

Thanks to these folks, everyone who has already contributed on other blogs, all the Facebook feedback (and to you if you provide feedback today).

My hesitation – I don’t have all the answers and we are in the midst of a pandemic where vitamin C is so important

I planned to include this in part 2 but I’m adding this section now because a few hours after publication there are already so many comments and questions. I did hesitate about publishing this blog when I don’t have all the answers and because we’re in the midst of a pandemic where vitamin C has been shown to be very important.

There is plenty of research on the benefits of vitamin C and it’s widely used with much success during serious illness and for sepsis. This paper, An Update on Current Therapeutic Drugs Treating COVID-19, published just last month, discusses vitamin C (ascorbic acid) as a supporting agent, playing a role as a potent antioxidant, with benefits for immune health and as an antiviral against flu viruses.

It also discusses an IV vitamin C coronavirus trial and high dosages currently being used in various hospitals for this virus. The authors do also say “no major side effects” which is what we are typically told about vitamin C.

The Orthomolecular Medicine News Service have issued a number of valuable press releases on vitamin C specific to coronavirus but they are steadfast in their conviction that there are no issues with vitamin C, saying it doesn’t cause kidney stones.

For the majority (I think) there will be no major side-effects but for those with oxalate issues high doses of vitamin C are clearly problematic.

One caveat is that there may be a place for short-term high-dose use during a healing crisis, even for someone with dietary oxalate issues. Unfortunately I don’t have an answer for this aspect yet and I’m hoping a vitamin C expert will contribute to the discussion or I’ll discover some research about this.

And let’s not forget this study published in 1994, The clinical effects of vitamin C supplementation in elderly hospitalised patients with acute respiratory infections, where 200mg of supplemental vitamin C per day resulted in an 80% decrease in deaths among severely ill, hospitalized respiratory disease patients.

This topic is near and dear to my heart and folks have oxalate issues now so I decided to go ahead and publish this information. I’m looking for a solution for my community who are already aware they have oxalate issues (many of you have already reached out to me so thank you) and for myself too. I’ll share details of my oxalate story (my pain is in my feet and my eyes) and my vitamin C experiment in a future blog (I used food based vitamin C and 100-200mg/day and it didn’t go well).

As I mentioned above, I’m also concerned there are many people who don’t know they have oxalate issues and may end up with issues because of all the well-meaning vitamin C advice that is being shared during this pandemic.

I may have bitten off more than I can handle with this topic – I’m learning voraciously and it’s like drinking from a fire-hose! But I’m doing what I often do … I learn by teaching and asking for your feedback and questions, and I’m open about the fact that I’m not an expert and don’t have all the answers.

**** Some cautions *****
Please discuss your situation with your doctor and other health practitioners before stopping or reducing vitamin C based on what you’re reading here.

If you are completely new to the topic of oxalates, this is sound advice from Susan Owens on getting started: “work your way gradually into a completely low oxalate diet.” You can learn more on getting started here. Susan runs the Trying Low Oxalate Group (TLO) on facebook and they are extremely helpful.  I will be sharing additional resources/studies/practitioner feedback etc. but this will get you started.

A reminder that pain can have many root causes other than dietary oxalate issues (or in addition to oxalate issues): gluten issues, nightshades, low GABA, low serotonin, low endorphins, Lyme disease (bartonella can cause foot pain), fibromyalgia, low B12, heavy metals, mold toxicity, autoimmune conditions etc.

******************

Feel free to comment below – share your feedback and ask your questions. And do let me know if you’re interested in learning more about this topic and additional blog posts.

If you’re a practitioner who works with individuals with dietary oxalate issues I’d love to hear from you too.

The vagus nerve impacts mood, anxiety, immune response, digestion and heart rate

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vagus nerve impacts

The vagus nerve forms a bi-directional “super-highway” between your brain and the majority of your internal organs. Unless your vagus nerve is in good shape and activates readily when it is supposed to, the communication between your brain and the body will be disrupted.

This modern world can lead to overstimulation of the nervous system and you can become desensitized to chronic stress. Over time, this can lead to low vagal tone, which has been linked to a variety of mental and physical health issues, including chronic inflammation, poor gut function, neurodegeneration, autoimmunity and cancer.

And we know this to be true: you cannot FULLY heal leaky gut, microbiome function or brain issues WITHOUT optimizing your vagus function.

Host of the Mind, Body & The Vagus Nerve Connection Summit, Eva Detko, PhD, MSc, BA (Hons), mIAHT, shares the above wisdom about the vagus nerve. I’ll add this: this overstimulation of the nervous system is especially high right now during this coronavirus pandemic.

In my interview, Balancing Neurotransmitters to Optimize Vagus Function, we start with a review paper that reports how the vagus nerve is intricately connected with anxiety and mood (and immunity).

I share from Vagus Nerve as Modulator of the Brain–Gut Axis in Psychiatric and Inflammatory Disorders:

  • The vagus nerve represents the main component of the parasympathetic nervous system, which oversees a vast array of crucial bodily functions, including control of mood, immune response, digestion, and heart rate.
  • It establishes one of the connections between the brain and the gastrointestinal tract and sends information about the state of the inner organs to the brain via afferent fibers.

The review article goes on to state how the vagus nerve is an attractive tool for treating psychiatric and gastrointestinal disorders: “There is preliminary evidence that vagus nerve stimulation is a promising add-on treatment for treatment-refractory depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and inflammatory bowel disease.”

And as we all know when we hear the term treatment-refractory depression, it means we haven’t got to the root cause of it. It just means that medications haven’t worked for it.

So this allows us to extrapolate and say, well, there’s other lifestyle and dietary, and nutritional approaches that we could use. But they’re saying that stimulating the vagus nerve, activating it, can actually help in this area. And with my work in anxiety, whenever I see depression, I feel like I can replace that with anxiety (because of similar underlying causes). The other thing that they say is that there’s this impact on inflammation: “Treatments that target the vagus nerve increase the vagal tone and inhibit cytokine production.”

And we know that when we’ve got inflammation going on in the body, that’s going to contribute to mood disorders: “Stimulation of vagal efferent fibers in the gut influences neurotransmitters (like serotonin and dopamine, and GABA) that play a crucial role in major psychiatric disorders.”

So the conclusion is that vagal tone is correlated with the capacity to regulate stress responses and can be influenced by breathing. Its increase through meditation and yoga is likely to contribute to resilience, and the mitigation of mood and anxiety symptoms. And we know from other research, and we know from just doing it, that using meditation and yoga is going to affect anxiety levels. We’ve seen research showing that yoga and meditation raises GABA levels, which is one of the neurotransmitters that helps us feel calm.  But now we’re also seeing from the research that good vagal tone has an impact as well.

So it’s really exciting to see that there’s many different ways that we can use to approach someone who does have anxiety issues.

I also talk about a very interesting study that brings the connections between GABA and the vagus nerve together very nicely. As I’m talking I see Eva nodding in agreement as I cover this. I wanted to share this study to add another mechanism as to how GABA may work, given so many people don’t believe it can because of the blood brain barrier.

This was an animal study done in 2011 and it’s titled: Ingestion of Lactobacillus Strain Regulates Emotional Behavior and Central GABA Receptor Expression in a Mouse via the Vagus Nerve. You may have had other people in the summit talking about this. I can see you nodding there. Let me just bring it back to this discussion because I’ve got something to add about this. But what they found is this – Lactobacillus rhamnosus increased GABA in the hippocampus. It reduced cortisol levels, which was caused by the increased stress, and it reduced anxiety and the depression in the animals.

When they severed the vagus nerve in some of the mice in the study they found that these neurochemical and behavioral effects were not found. So as soon as the vagus nerve was severed, the effects of the Lactobacillus rhamnosus, which was increasing GABA levels, was not reducing the anxiety and it was not reducing those cortisone levels.

The biggest question that I get about GABA is: “How could GABA possibly work if it can’t cross the blood brain barrier?”  Maybe this is one way that is having an impact on anxiety. We know that we’ve got a lot of GABA receptors in our peripheral tissue. We’ve got GABA receptors in our muscles, which probably is the reason why we feel it when we’ve got this physical tension, or we’ve got the spasms. We’ve got GABA receptors in our pancreas. We’ve got GABA receptors in our endocrine system.

But maybe this vagus nerve connection and the fact that when it’s severed we’re not getting those effects, maybe this is another way that GABA is having an impact on anxiety.

Making the vagus nerve connection to serotonin, I share some interesting new research on SSRIs/antidepressants and the vagus nerve: Oral Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors Activate Vagus Nerve Dependent Gut-brain Signalling.

SSRIs like Zoloft or Paxil or Prozac are often prescribed for anxiety, depression, autism and dementia. And there’s a whole host of issues that we have with SSRIs where you’ll have serious withdrawal symptoms in some people.

In the study, the researchers proposed that SSRIs were having an effect on serotonin and it was the vagus nerve that was now communicating to the brain leading to increased serotonin levels. Similar to the GABA study, when they severed the vagus nerve of the mice, they did not see the same benefits from the SSRI.

My thinking is this: could we possibly extrapolate and say the amino acid tryptophan may have similar effects?

We won’t hold our breath for a similar tryptophan study but we can learn from this paper and possible mechanisms.

I also share how I use GABA and tryptophan with clients so if you’re new to using targeted individual amino acids you’ll learn more about this too.

As you know, my work is primarily using the neurotransmitters precursors (such as the amino acids) and using dietary changes, but we don’t want to forget about other approaches like vagus nerve support.

If we can improve vagus function, then we’re going to get even better benefits.

I share some of my favorite vagus nerve exercises. One of them – social interaction – has been challenging lately but cold showers are very do-able.

Let me share some aspects on the importance of social interaction for improving vagal tone.

Research shows that the more social interactions you have, the more it improves vagal tone. And then that improved vagal tone, improves your mood and makes you more social (and has ramifications for so many other areas as you’ll learn on the summit).

However if you have a condition called pyroluria (social anxiety, preferring one-to-one connections rather than being in large groups, not liking small talk, early morning nausea, not really big on animal protein – I go into it in depth during the interview if it’s new to you), getting out and being social can be very challenging when you are forcing yourself and putting on a brave face:

It’s a very stressful situation in doing that, and then it makes your pyroluria worse so your social anxiety gets worse. So when you have pyroluria and you have a stressful situation, you end up dumping high levels of zinc and B6. So it makes things worse.

If you do go out, it’s either very stressful or you just don’t even do it. So my contribution to the discussion is: let’s address pyroluria and that’s going to in turn allow people to get out and socialize without feeling uncomfortable, without feeling awkward, without having to stress, without feeling absolutely exhausted afterwards, and it’s going to help improve vagal tone.

Eva sums up with this important aspect:

What people need to know is that social connection is good for your vagus nerve only if it’s perceived positively by you internally. So if you’re in a situation where you’re forcing yourself to interact with other people, you’re actually not going to have a positive knock-on effect on your vagus nerve because it’s going to be the opposite. You’re going to stimulate the sympathetic nervous system response because you’re there, as you described, completely uncomfortable and basically stress out. So those social connections need to be positive.

Here are some interviews I look forward to tuning into:

  • Niki Gratrix, BA, Dip ION: Connecting the Vagus Nerve, Emotions and Gut Function
  • Ben Lynch, ND: Epigenetics of Chronic Stress
  • Bridgit Danner, LAc, FDNP: How Mold Toxicity Damages Your Nervous System
  • Jay Davidson, DC, PScD: Impact of Infections on Mitochondrial and Vagus Function
  • Kimm Sun, CNM: Impact of Birth Trauma Across Lifetime
  • Eva Detko, PhD, MSc, BA (Hons): Impact of Perfectionism on Heart Rate Variability
  • Misa Hopkins: Vagus Nerve Session of the Day – Vagus Nerve Sound Healing

I don’t go into the immune connection in my interview because it was recorded before the coronavirus pandemic started but keep this in mind as you tune in: you cannot have a well-functioning immune system without a healthy nervous system, and vice-versa!

vagus nerve summit

Click here to join me on The Mind, Body & The Vagus Nerve Connection Summit

This event will provide you with all the information you need to:

  • Understand the vagus nerve’s complexity
  • Know the importance of high vagal tone
  • Measure your vagal tone
  • Recognize symptoms and root causes of vagus nerve dysfunction
  • Optimize gut-brain communication
  • Address emotional trauma and chronic stress
  • Improve your relationships to increase vagal tone
  • Strengthen vagus function with physical approaches

And when you register today, you’ll gain INSTANT access to the following free gifts, including my summit interview video and transcript!

vagus nerve summit bonuses

  • Symptoms and Root Causes of Vagus Nerve Dysfunction Navaz Habib, DC, AFMCP
  • Balancing Neurotransmitters to Optimize Vagus Function Trudy Scott, CN
  • EFT, Polyvagal Theory and the Mind-Body Connection Craig Weiner, DC
  • Vagus Nerve 101 eGuide from Eva Detko, PhD, MSc, BA (Hons), mIAHT

To your continued learning and healing – and good vagus nerve function!

Click here to join me on The Mind, Body & The Vagus Nerve Connection Summit

Coronavirus: new research on vitamin D supplementation possibly improving clinical outcomes

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coronavirus and vitamin d

It’s very encouraging to see research like this being published in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic: Vitamin D Supplementation Could Possibly Improve Clinical Outcomes of Patients Infected with Coronavirus-2019 (COVID-2019)

Serum 25(OH)D level was lowest in critical cases, but highest in mild cases. Serum 25(OH)D levels were statistically significant among clinical outcomes.

The results suggest that an increase in serum 25(OH)D level in the body could either improve clinical outcomes or mitigate worst (severe to critical) outcomes, while a decrease in serum 25(OH)D level in the body could worsen clinical outcomes of COVID-2019 patients.

In other words,  lower levels of vitamin D were associated with more severe symptoms and higher levels were associated with less severe symptoms. The role of vitamin D in immunity has been long understood and is summarized in the paper as follows:

Vitamin  D has  been  proven  to reduce  risk  of  getting a common  cold. It  also  enhances cellular immunity, modulates adaptive  immunity, and  enhances expression  of  antioxidation-related genes.

There are a few aspects I’d like to highlight: it was not a peer-reviewed randomized controlled trial but rather a retrospective study (looking back on past events) submitted as a research letter; it was a small study of 212 cases and they were all confirmed to have SARS-CoV-2 infection.  Vitamin D status was based on serum 25(OH)D levels of “(1) normal -25(OH)D of >30 ng/ml, (2) insufficient-25(OH)D of 21-29ng/ml, and (3) deficient-25(OH)D of < 20 ng/ml,” with tests done every 7 days.

What is astounding to me is that such a small difference in vitamin D levels could have such a dramatic impact on severity of symptoms i.e. from a median of 31.2 ng/ml to 17.1 ng/ml:

  1. mild – mild clinical features without pneumonia diagnosis: serum 25(OH)D level was 31.2 ng/ml
  2. ordinary – confirmed pneumonia with fever and other respiratory symptoms: serum 25(OH)D level was 27.4 ng/ml
  3. severe – hypoxia (at most 93% oxygen saturation) and respiratory distress: serum 25(OH)D level was 21.2 ng/ml
  4. critical – respiratory failure requiring intensive case monitoring: serum 25(OH)D level was 17.1 ng/ml.

The author concludes as follows, recommending randomized controlled trials and large population studies:

… this study provides substantial information to clinicians and health policy-makers. Vitamin D supplementation could possibly improve clinical outcomes of patients infected with COVID-2019. Further research should conduct randomized controlled trials and large population studies to evaluate this recommendation.

I would really like to acknowledge the author, Dr. Mark Apilio, for taking the time to gather this information and submit this research in the midst of the pandemic, so we can all learn and further our knowledge.

I reached out to him to find out more about his interest in vitamin D. I was also curious to find out if vitamin D levels are routinely checked in the Philippines and if vitamin D supplementation recommendations are common practice. I received this feedback:

I am a clinical professor with experience in handling patients with infection. In times like this, academicians in the Philippines are driven to finding therapeutic drugs for Covid-19 or palliative drugs, at least. Also with other experts’ advice, Vit D could be a good topic to research using clinical outcomes of the Covid-19 patients.

Vitamin D supplementation in the Philippines is uncommon since most of the Filipinos believe that they could get Vit D easily because of the sun (country near the equator). However, Vit D test is common for patients with severe respiratory infections for monitoring of status. Based on the table [in the review letter], mean ± SD was used to report serum 25(OH)D level of the cases. I am happy with the results of the study and the support of Vit D advocates like you. I do hope this shall serve as a call for health officials to at least focus on something like this which could impact clinical outcomes of Covid-19 patients.

Keep in mind that low vitamin D is also a factor when it comes to mental health and anxiety. You can read more about this aspect here – Vitamin D: anxiety, depression, sun exposure, supplements and optimal levels. This blog also has additional information about testing and optimal ranges from the Vitamin D Council.

I really like these two Designs for Health products: Vitamin D Synergy which provides Vitamin D3 2000 IU and vitamin K1; and Vitamin D Supreme which provides Vitamin D3 5000 IU and vitamin K1/K2. Both can be purchased via my online supplement store (details on setting up an account here).

Vitamin D is such a simple and yet powerful intervention for immune support and I look forward to randomized controlled trials for coronavirus. In the meantime, it’s one of the many immune-supportive nutrients I plan to continue using and recommending to my clients.

UPDATES 5/1/2020:

I’m sharing some updates to last week’s blog on vitamin D and coronavirus because there is a brand new study with astounding results and some other supporting vitamin D papers.  There is also new research on vitamin K and coronavirus and I’ve added this one too. I did hear back from the author in the Philippines and added his feedback above.

This is the new paper with astounding results. It was a retrospective cohort study: Patterns of COVID-19 Mortality and Vitamin D: An Indonesian Study (and just posted April 26). It had 780 cases with laboratory-confirmed infection of SARS-CoV-2 in Indonesia:

Age, sex, co-morbidity, Vitamin D status, and disease outcome (mortality) were extracted from electronic medical records. The aim was to determine patterns of mortality and associated factors, with a special focus on Vitamin D status. Results revealed that the majority of the death cases were male and older and had pre-existing conditions and below normal Vitamin D serum level.

These are the astounding results:

  • Vitamin D deficient cases (serum 25(OH)D of < 20 ng/ml) were approximately 19.12 times more likely to die from the disease
  • Vitamin D insufficient cases (serum 25(OH)D of 21 – 29 ng/ml) were approximately 12.55 times more likely to die from the disease

This review paper, Evidence that Vitamin D Supplementation Could Reduce Risk of Influenza and COVID-19 Infections and Deaths published earlier in April makes these recommendations about dosages and vitamin D levels to aim for (pending additional research):

To reduce the risk of infection, it is recommended that people at risk of influenza and/or COVID-19 consider taking 10,000 IU/d of vitamin D3 for a few weeks to rapidly raise 25(OH)D concentrations, followed by 5000 IU/d. The goal should be to raise 25(OH)D concentrations above 40-60 ng/mL (100-150 nmol/L). For treatment of people who become infected with COVID-19, higher vitamin D3 doses might be useful. Randomized controlled trials and large population studies should be conducted to evaluate these recommendations.

In this paper (not yet peer-reviewed), Reduced Vitamin K Status as A Potentially Modifiable Prognostic Risk Factor in COVID19, the authors report that vitamin K status – according to Dp-ucMGP levels – was reduced in patients with COVID-19 and related to poor prognosis.”

They state this is due to the fact that “Coagulation is an intricate balance between clot promoting and dissolving processes in which vitamin K plays a well-known role.” They also propose an intervention trial with vitamin K for patients with COVID-19.

Do share if you routinely get your vitamin D levels checked and supplement regularly with vitamin D.  And let us know if you’ve noticed an improved immune system when your vitamin D levels are optimal. If you did get the virus please also let us know how you’ve fared and recovered.