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ADHD: 5-HTP melts have been a miracle for one of my adopted kids

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ADHD and 5-HTP

A mom in my community responded to an ADHD blog sharing how 5-HTP melts have been a miracle for one of her adopted children – after one week! 5-HTP is not where I typically start with ADHD so I quizzed her to get more details and then went looking for the research to understand the mechanisms. This blog shares her rationale for using 5-HTP, the truly wonderful results her son experienced, some of the research and some possible serotonin/dopamine mechanisms. This is what she posted:

5-HTP melts have been a miracle for one of my adopted kids. He had lots of trauma and off the charts ADHD. 5-HTP is better than methylphenidate (Ritalin) and we are now weaning off the non-stimulants.

Just 80mg 5-HTP in the morning is all he needs. He was super ADHD, he had a para (teacher’s aide) in public school for years to keep him on track and this year at a school for ADHD the teachers were complaining that he was never on task.

Now after a week it has changed his life. I am so thankful for the anxiety summit. Thank you Trudy

This is truly wonderful to hear! I responded saying how thrilled I was to hear the impact it was having and asked why this mom decided to try 5-HTP? This amino acid, which is a serotonin precursor, is not typically my first choice for alleviating ADHD symptoms. I consider low GABA (and using GABA) or low catecholamines (and using tyrosine), together with dietary changes, blood sugar control, and assessing for low zinc, low iron and low omega-3s – as a starting point.

I wanted to know if he had low serotonin symptoms such as the worry, ruminating, and obsessive type of anxiety which could have possibly been driving the ADHD symptoms? Were there any other symptoms that were a clue that low serotonin may be a factor: insomnia (with fatigue the next day impacting focus) or sugar cravings in the afternoon/evening (causing blood sugar swings affecting focus and mood)?

Why she used 5-HTP and which low serotonin symptoms he had

This was her response about why she used 5-HTP and which low serotonin symptoms he had:

We have tried all the amino acids over the years. I tried 5-HTP this time because SSRIs were the only class of medication he has not tried. I thought maybe it was worth a try and I also found this study: Comparative study of efficacy of 1-5-hydroxytryptophan and fluoxetine in patients presenting with first depressive episode (where the therapeutic efficacy of 5-HTP was considered as equal to that of the SSRI fluoxetine).

As for cravings or insomnia: he is a kid who loves sugar so I’m not sure if it’s a craving or typical. He takes 0.3mg of melatonin each night because guanfacine, the non-stimulant, prevents the production of melatonin.

She also mentioned that she has followed me for years and that DPA, an endorphin-boosting amino acid, works for her. She is a dietitian and shares my handouts and blog posts with her clients, so she clearly felt comfortable experimenting with the amino acids with her son.

5-HTP products and dosing

I also asked which product they were using and how she landed at 80mg. She wanted a fast-acting supplement that would dissolve in his mouth and purchased Natrol 5-HTP:

They are 100mg but we are breaking off a little because he was falling asleep in class.

I reminded her that 5-HTP (or tryptophan) is typically best used late afternoon and evening so if someone is falling asleep in the day I’d switch to bedtime dosing.  If he needs it during the day for the ADHD symptoms then reducing the dose is the smart thing to do.

I love the sublingual/melt aspect of this product for quick results and because children do so well with a product that tastes pleasant.

However, I do not recommend this particular product because of very mixed ingredients information online. I have not seen the bottle of the actual product used but some of the online information states the product is gluten-free and soy-free and yet other information states it does contains gluten and soy. In some places they state it contains sucralose and an artificial flavor and in other places you see xylitol and natural flavor. This is all rather concerning. I’ll update this section as soon as I can confirm.

What does this mean for this mom? Now that she has figured out that 5-HTP helps her son, it’s best to find a better quality product so as not to cause other problems.

There are two chewable products in my online supplement store that come close to this product:

  • Serotrex Chewable: Two chewables contain 200mg theanine and 60mg 5-HTP. This could be used in the day or at night.
  • Designs for Health Insomnitol Chewables: Two chewables contain 10mg vitamin B6, 500mg inositol, 200mg theanine, 100mg 5-HTP and 3mg melatonin. This would need to be used at night instead.

Both of these contain theanine. Research shows that theanine reduces anxiety and improves cognition via “improvements in verbal fluency (especially letter fluency) and improvements in executive function (planning, multi-tasking etc).”

The research on 5-HTP and tryptophan for ADHD

This paper, The effects of 5-hydroxytryptophan on attention and central serotonin neurochemistry in the rhesus macaque, shares that

Individuals with depression and anxiety typically experience impaired executive function and emotional cognition, symptoms that are generally studied by examining disruptions in attention.

This study used 5-HTP as an intramuscular injection, rather than using it orally but the authors did report the following:

Our findings provide unique causal and mechanistic evidence suggesting that enhancing central serotonergic function results in categorically distinct changes in fundamental cognitive operations such as attention.

This paper, Does serotonin deficit mediate susceptibility to ADHD? summarizes the role of serotonin in ADHD, the interplay with dopamine and the use of oral tryptophan (a serotonin precursor similar to 5-HTP):

  • A chronic deficit of serotonin at the synapse may trigger symptoms of childhood ADHD (developmentally inappropriate levels of hyperactivity, impulsivity and inattention).
  • Studies from animal models of ADHD indicate intimate interplay between serotonin and dopaminergic neurotransmission.
  • Selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs)…as non-stimulant drugs acting on the serotonin system are … clinically effective.
  • Oral administration of l-tryptophan, the amino acid precursor of serotonin, significantly alleviates ADHD symptoms.
  • Serotoninergic gene variants are associated with increased risk of ADHD.

I appreciate this mom for giving me permission to share here on the blog so we can inspire hope (and I wish for more and more improvements for this young boy):

My son is a 10-year old RAD (reactive attachment disorder) kid that was meth exposed and adopted at 3 years old. 5-HTP has worked so well. He has not thrown a fit in a month. Before fits were a daily occurrence. This might give hope to other parents.

Have you found that 5-HTP (or tryptophan) helps/helped you or your child with ADHD symptoms? If yes, do you feel the ADHD was caused in part because of anxiety and/or fear and/or feeling inadequate and/or perfectionism and/or poor sleep (all signs of low serotonin)? Or were the main symptoms poor focus, low energy, low motivation and depression caused by low catecholamines/low dopamine? Or a mixture of both?

If you’re a practitioner working with children or adults with ADHD, have you had good results with 5-HTP or tryptophan?

Please do share in the comments below.

Christmas tree phenols as a trigger for anger, meltdowns, anxiety, hyperactivity, insomnia, aggression, self-injury and autistic symptoms?

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christmastree phenols and anxiety

Are you aware that the aromatic oils that give pine trees their wonderful smell are phenols and that these phenols may be a trigger for anger and meltdowns, anxiety, hyperactivity, irritability insomnia, self-injurious behavior, digestive issues and autistic symptoms (such as stimming, swinging and hand-flapping)? All this can be caused by an indoor Christmas tree in susceptible individuals.

My colleague Julie Matthews writes about this here: Avoiding Holiday Havoc: Healthy solutions to avoid meltdowns and keep the holidays happy

“When phenols are not able to be broken-down and detoxified by a process called sulfation, which is low in many children with autism and ADHD”, they can cause these symptoms and also red cheeks and ears. She shares that “phenolic compounds come in many forms including artificial petroleum-based food additives, and salicylates (a type of phenol) found in plants and foods like strawberries and spices, as well as pine trees.”

In the above blog, Julie shares this story about a client with a 10-year old son with autism. He severely regressed during the holidays and it was because of the Christmas tree. This is what the mom shared:

During the Holidays our son regressed severely.  He became anxious, aggressive, and self-abusive. He cried and had tantrums regularly throughout the day. He couldn’t sleep anymore and was up for hours at a time, night after night. He was hand-flapping like crazy.  We have a swing in the house for him and he now wanted to swing all day long, constantly, and do nothing else. He lost eye contact and he stopped responding to his name.

Once the Christmas tree was removed the improvements were dramatic:

The next day, he was much calmer. He seemed to have “exhaled.” Within 48 hours, our son was completely back to normal.

I shared Julie’s blog on my Facebook page and a father in my community shared a similar experience about his autistic son’s severe reactions to phenols:

Yes! My autistic son who is sensitive to phenols, would completely meltdown during the holidays. We thought it was just the change in routine and his environment, but quite by accident we discovered fragrances seemed to make him worse. We got rid of the fragrances and holiday tree/decor and the improvement in our son was dramatic! We now realize it was the phenols.

My son’s reaction to phenols/fragrances are bright red cheeks/ears, dark under eye circles, headaches, inappropriate manic laughter, aggression/self injurious behavior, marathon meltdowns/screaming, incontinence, insomnia/less than 3 hrs sleep a night, bumpy rashes, GI issues/diarrhea, excessive sensory stimming (hand flapping, lip licking, running around and body slamming into things.) During the holidays, the intensity of these reactions shot through the roof.

They found out by chance that it was the Christmas tree that was causing his son’s issues each year. It started when he was a toddler and they figured it was the stress and changes of the holidays that was the issue. One year they didn’t put up a tree and they could not believe the difference. It was then they made the connection and learned more about phenols and made the necessary changes.

By reducing phenols in his diet and environment, and giving him Epsom Salt baths and enzymes (No-Fenol), most of the above symptoms were significantly reduced.

I suspect there are many families who are seeing similar meltdowns and have no idea it could be the Christmas tree. Keep in mind that the reactions may not be as severe as these two cases I’ve shared here. If you are seeing any increase in anxiety, irritability, sleep problems, digestive issues or other unusual behavior changes in your child, keep an open mind that it may be more than just the holiday changes.

Julie’s advice is this:

  • Since so many children with autism and ADHD react to salicylates/phenols – in her nutrition practice she finds an overwhelming majority react negatively – she suggests a cautious approach to holiday decorating for all families of a child with autism or ADHD. Simply avoid the pine Christmas tree.
  • If you are unsure about their sensitivity to salicylates/phenols you might ask yourself if your child is often hyper, irritable, or has red cheeks, and other common salicylate symptoms, or whether they crave salicylate-rich foods such as berries, grapes, apples, and ketchup. If so, explore salicylates further.

I encourage you to read Julie’s blog to gain a better understanding of salicylates and phenols. If you are a practitioner and want to learn more about low salicylates/phenols and other special diets her practitioner training is excellent.

I appreciate this mom and dad for sharing their experiences with their sons so we can all learn and help other families. I also so appreciate Julie’s expertise in this area and really look forward to digging further into the research and picking her brain so I can share more.

Could your holiday anxiety and/or insomnia be phenol issues too?

Julie works with children with autism and ADHD but as someone who works primarily with adults with anxiety, I’m going to be exploring sensitivity to salicylates/phenols further. Julie recently shared this with me: “if you start looking you’ll probably see a lot of your clients with anxiety have phenol issues.”

If you also notice any increase in anxiety, anger, irritability, sleep problems, digestive issues or other unusual behavior changes, keep an open mind that it may be more than just the holiday stress or winter blues/winter anxiety. It may well be phenol issues too.

Serotonin connection to phenol issues

I’ll be blogging more about this and the fascinating serotonin connection to phenol issues. You may have noticed that many of the symptoms these 2 boys experienced sound a lot like either low serotonin or high serotonin (both of which can occur in autism).  Serotonin is an endogenous phenol compound and this phenol issue is likely causing high serotonin.

When I asked Julie about this she shared this with me: “Yes, serotonin and dopamine are phenolic. And sulfation is important for the inactivation of dopamine and serotonin. So poor sulfation can lead to neurotransmitter imbalances.”

Using collagen to lower high serotonin?

I’ve blogged about how collagen can lower serotonin in susceptible folks and increase anxiety. It is also used by some folks to lower their high serotonin and make them calm. Misty reports using collagen ‘therapeutically’:

I use it to reduce tryptophan because I have a tendency toward high serotonin. I have suffered my entire life with ADD, tics as a child, grinding teeth, general anxiety, lack of motivation and later, IBS. In my 53 years I’ve never been as calm as I am now.

I don’t know if Misty has a phenol issue but I’m going to be exploring if collagen or gelatin could possibly be used to help lower the high serotonin and ease some of these severe phenol reactions quickly, in conjunction with other approaches like avoiding the foods and environmental exposures, enzymes and other nutrients, and Epsom salt baths.

Christmas tree syndrome, mold issues and toxic plastic trees

I hate to spoil the Christmas fun but here are a few other things to consider:

  • Christmas tree syndrome is also a real issue for many individuals
  • My friend and Enviornmental Toxins expert Lara Adler shares how mold from a real tree made her and her cat really sick “Within a few days of getting the tree, I broke out in a full-body rash that required a 10-day run of prednisone. I didn’t think it was the tree at first (it could have been something else), but then my cat, who was already dealing with GI inflammation and a gut issue developed asthma! Out of nowhere! She also ended up on prednisone. I got rid of the tree and both our symptoms never came back.”
  • She also shares some issues with plastic trees: they are often made from toxic PVC (polyvinyl chloride) with “softeners like lead and/or phthalates”, and often treated with endocrine-disrupting flame retardant chemicals. More about this on Lara’s blog here.

Have you observed a salicylate/phenol reaction with your child or client/patient? What about a less severe reaction with your child or with you personally?

Have the following helped you: avoiding the foods and environmental exposures like a Christmas tree, using enzymes like No-Fenol and other nutrients, and Epsom salt baths? In the midst of a very severe reaction has collagen or gelatin helped reduce symptoms quickly?

What about mold issues or allergies with a Christmas tree?

Feel free to post your questions here on the blog too.

ADHD and psychiatric meds in children/teens on the rise, and benzodiazepine use increases mortality in adults (including suicide)

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meds teens children

Registration for my Anxiety Summit 6: Toxins/Meds/Infections is now open and in the spirit of continuing to share valuable snippets leading up to the summit, here goes for today.

(If you’ve already registered I do hope you find these snippets of value and they help you figure out more about which interviews to tune into first. If you’re only hearing about the summit for the first time, you can register here)

Today I want to highlight some aspects from two of the interviews on psychiatric medications.

In the interview Psychiatric Medications in Children and Teens with Dr. Nicole Beurkens, we discuss these results from a 2019 paper:

  • Our study indicates that the rate of presentation to child and adolescent psychiatry outpatient clinics is increasing, and rates of diagnosis and initiation of psychiatry drugs are high among the presented children.
  • The prevalence of ADHD shows an increase in males and females in our country, and psychiatric polypharmacy has reached significant rates.

Polypharmacy means concurrent use of multiple medications by a patient. The fact that psychiatric polypharmacy is increasing in children and adolescents is most concerning. There are safer solutions that address the root causes of ADHD, anxiety and depression.

Here is what we cover in this interview:

  • Increasing ADHD, anti-anxiety, SSRI and antipsychotic meds and discontinuation syndrome
  • Disparities in BIPOC communities;
  • Psychiatric side effects of acne, constipation and asthma medications
  • Nutritional psychiatry/targeted nutrients/gut, sleep, movement, screen time and play

nicole beurkens interview

In the interview SSRIs, Benzodiazepines, Alcohol and Amino acids with Dr. Hyla Cass, she shares how benzodiazepines (a class of antianxiety medications that include Xanax, Ativan, Valium and others) are:

  • strongly associated with all cause mortality, including suicide (even when used for short durations of treatment
  • the cause of many accidents even if taken the previous day

Here is what we cover in this interview:

  • SSRI and benzodiazepine side-effects
  • Discontinuation syndrome, pre-taper protocols and tapering
  • The harmful effects of alcohol and the impacts on sleep
  • The dangers of combining alcohol with benzodiazepines, and the risks of antabuse (commonly used in alcohol addiction treatment plans)
  • GABA, tryptophan, 5-HTP, glutamine, DPA, CBD and key nutrient co-factors for medication taper, alcohol addiction, carb cravings and anxiety

hyla cass interview

Dr. Nicole Beurkens’ interview is focused on children and adolescents, and Dr. Hyla Cass’ interview is focused on adults but both are invaluable resources if you want to learn more about psychiatric medications, discontinuation syndrome, tapering and addressing the root-causes with nutritional other non-medication solutions.

Other related medication interviews of interest would be:

  • GABA and Tryptophan vs Meds for Hormone Balance – one of my 3 interviews (I also cover the birth control pill and more about using the amino acids)
  • Benzodiazepines: Short-Term Benefits, Long-Term Harms – Catherine M. Pittman, PhD, HSPP
  • 5-HTP: Anxiety, Depression, Insomnia and Liver Protection – Michael Murray, ND (he shares studies comparing 5-HTP to SSRIs)
  • Neuropsychiatric Toxicity from Fluoroquinolone Antibiotics – Lisa Bloomquist
  • Your Brain on Food: Anxiety, OCD and PTSD – Uma Naidoo, MD, PCP (she also shares studies comparing psychiatric meds to NAC and inositol)

In case you missed the first few emails about the summit … as you know, anxiety can be related to your daily life experiences BUT it can also be triggered by:

  • foods you eat and what you drink (like wheat, oxalates, alcohol and more)
  • environmental toxins (like lead, plastics, fragrances, insecticides, fluoride and more)
  • many types of medications (like the benzos/SSRIs, birth control pill, acne medication, fluoroquinolone antibiotics and more) and/or
  • chronic infections (like Lyme disease, PANDAS, parasites, candida and more).

Once you identify the root causes and understand anxiety’s mechanisms you can support the liver/gallbladder, detox, address infections, implement targeted and supportive solutions, and get relief!

This is my 6th Anxiety Summit, featuring all new topics and the latest research related to anxiety and toxins, medications and infections.

anxiety summit 6

Over the course of the next 6 weeks you’ll be seeing frequent emails from me with snippets and highlights from various interviews – like this one. I do hope you continue to enjoy them and get excited about the summit! Please do share if you know someone who has anxiety!

You’ve heard me say the Anxiety Summit has been called “a bouquet of hope!”  My wish for you is that this summit is your bouquet of hope!

I hope you’ll join me and these incredible speakers, be enlightened and find YOUR solutions!

Here’s to no more anxiety and you feeling on top of the world again!

Register here

 

If you’re already familiar with some of this information and practice some of this already please share how it’s helped you. That way we can all learn.

If you’d like to ask a question, please post in the comments below.

I’d also love to hear from you once you’ve listened to this interview. Please do come back and comment about some of the highlights of this interview and what changes you plan to make.

Even if you already receive my newsletters and signed up some time ago to be notified about the upcoming Anxiety Summit 6, you will still need to register at the new link here, because Health Talks Online is doing the production and backend work for me.

If you don’t register you won’t get access to the daily summit emails with all the interviews.

You will however, continue to get these emails from me.

This is my 6th Anxiety Summit and it is all new content!

The content is research-based and practical, and is geared to anxious individuals who are health-savvy and to practitioners who work with anxious individuals.

If you are totally new to functional medicine and nutritional solutions for anxiety, you will still learn so much so just take in what you can and know you’ll get all this eventually.

Anxiety, depression and ADHD: air pollution and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHS) on The Anxiety Summit 6

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anxiety depression adhd anxiety summit 6

Dr. Carolyn Ledowsky is one of my guest experts on The Anxiety Summit 6: Toxins/Meds/Infections
and our topic is Anxiety and Genetic Susceptibility to Environmental Toxins. Here is some of what we cover in our interview:  

  • Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons/PAHs (air pollution/smoke) and organophosphates
  • Moth balls, candles, xenobiotics, coffee, make-up, perfume and cosmetics
  • Role of CYP1A1, CYP2B, CYP1B1, SOD, GSTM and PON1 polymorphisms

carolyn ledowsky as6

We discuss very common sources of pollution – polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) – and how certain gene polymorphisms can make us more susceptible leading to increased anxiety, depression and cognitive issues.

If you’re new to the term polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), according to the EPA they “are a class of chemicals that occur naturally in coal, crude oil, and gasoline. They also are produced when coal, oil, gas, wood, garbage, and tobacco are burned.”

This essentially means that PAHs are all around us: traffic pollution, forest fires, wood burning in your home, coal burning power plants, cigarette smoke, second hand smoke, dust and more!

We discuss one study that reports how prenatal exposure to pollution can impact the ability of children when it comes to learning and make them more anxious and depressed:

  • Children of nonsmoking African-American and Dominican women in New York City were followed from in utero to 6–7 years.
  • The paper mentions urban air pollutants from fossil fuel burning and other combustion sources stating the results suggest an adverse impact of prenatal PAH exposure on child behavior that could impact cognitive development and ability to learn.
  • Anxiety, depression, and attention problems, which were associated with PAH exposure have been shown to affect subsequent academic performance.
  • The authors conclude that prenatal exposure to environmental PAH at levels encountered in the air of New York City may influence child behavior.

There are other similar studies reporting these issues in other age groups and other communities too, supporting the fact that PAHs/air pollution is more than a respiratory issue.

It contributes directly to mental health problems – anxiety, depression and ADHD – and needs to be considered as part of the solution.

—>> Find your anxiety solutions when you attend this complimentary, online event!!

We go deep into other sources of toxins and pollutants. And then look at the CYP enzymes (needed to process PAHs), and PON1 (needed to process organophosphates/pesticides) and what it means when we have polymorphisms i.e. a genetic susceptibility and what to do.

This interview is one of the registration gifts so you can listen to it right away as soon as you register (there will also be a complimentary transcript made available as soon as it’s completed.)

carolyn-ledowsky-as6-interview

Here is a little about the summit… as you know, anxiety can be related to your daily life experiences BUT it can also be triggered by:

  • foods you eat and what you drink (like wheat, oxalates, alcohol and more)
  • environmental toxins (like lead, plastics, fragrances, insecticides, fluoride and more)
  • many types of medications (like the birth control pill, acne medication, fluoroquinolone antibiotics and more) and/or
  • chronic infections (like Lyme disease, PANDAS, parasites, candida and more).

Once you identify the root causes and understand anxiety’s mechanisms you can support the liver/gallbladder, detox, address infections, implement targeted and supportive solutions, and get relief!

WHY ATTEND?

This is my 6th Anxiety Summit, featuring all new topics and the latest research related to anxiety and toxins, medications and infections.

I’ve also experienced many of these health challenges myself – lead and mercury toxicity, gluten issues and candida – and I’m currently dealing with chronic Lyme disease and dietary oxalate issues. You’ll hear some of my healing journey and my solutions in a few interviews too.

anxiety summit 6

WHAT SETS THIS ONLINE EVENT APART?

What sets this apart from other events on toxins and infections is being able to make the many connections to GABA (the main calming neurotransmitter) and serotonin (a happy and calming neurotransmitter) AND how to use  the amino acids GABA and tryptophan to ease your anxiety right away while you are dealing with the other underlying root causes – which take longer to address.

You will see this woven into each of the expert interviews (just like this one with Dr. Schaffner) and also addressed in detail in my 3 interviews where I do a deep dive into specific applications.

For example, in my toxins interview, I share how GABA reverses fluoride-induced anxiety and hypothyroidism, and how tryptophan and vitamin C ease anxiety symptoms associated with lead toxicity  (I’ll be sharing more about this in the future so stay tuned….)

Over the course of the next 6 weeks you’ll be seeing frequent emails from me with snippets and highlights from various interviews – like this one. I do hope you continue to enjoy them and get excited about the summit! Please do share if you know someone who has anxiety!

You’ve heard me say the Anxiety Summit has been called “a bouquet of hope!”  My wish for you is that this summit is your bouquet of hope!

I hope you’ll join me and these incredible speakers, be enlightened and find YOUR solutions!

Here’s to no more anxiety and you feeling on top of the world again!

Register here

 

If you’re already familiar with some of this information and practice some of this already please share how it’s helped you. That way we can all learn.

If you’d like to ask a question, please post in the comments below.

I’d also love to hear from you once you’ve listened to this interview. Please do come back and comment about some of the highlights of this interview and what changes you plan to make.

Even if you already receive my newsletters and signed up some time ago to be notified about the upcoming Anxiety Summit 6, you will still need to register at the new link here, because Health Talks Online is doing the production and backend work for me.

If you don’t register you won’t get access to the daily summit emails with all the interviews.

You will however, continue to get these emails from me.

This is my 6th Anxiety Summit and it is all new content!

The content is research-based and practical, and is geared to anxious individuals who are health-savvy and to practitioners who work with anxious individuals.

If you are totally new to functional medicine and nutritional solutions for anxiety, you will still learn so much so just take in what you can and know you’ll get all this eventually.

This Is Your Brain on Food by Uma Naidoo, MD (video interview and review)

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brain on food

Dr. Uma Naidoo has a wonderful new book called This Is Your Brain on Food: An Indispensable Guide to the Surprising Foods that Fight Depression, Anxiety, PTSD, OCD, ADHD, and More (my Amazon link)

Her big bold message is this “Until we solve nutritional problems, no amount of medication and psychotherapy is going to be able to stem the tide of mental issues in our society.”  This is something I wholeheartedly agree with!

I had the wonderful opportunity to interview Dr. Naidoo and we talked about the benefits of fermented foods and social anxiety, vitamin D and anxiety, dietary sources of polyphenols for ADHD and much more:

51 women with type 2 diabetes and vitamin D deficiency were randomly allocated to receive one oral pearl of 50,000 IU vitamin D3 (26 women) or a placebo (25 women) fortnightly for 16 weeks

Anxiety score changes were significantly lower in vitamin D group than the controls

Dietary polyphenols… have antioxidant capacities as well as immunoregulatory effects and, therefore, appear appropriate in ADHD therapy.

  • Dr. Naidoo recommends these sources of polyphenols: berries and other fruit, vegetables, extra virgin olive oil.
  • I’m fascinated by the fact that polyphenols “act as a low-dose toxin that trains the body to mount an immune response in a process called hormesis” (there are many geeky gems like this in the book)
  • Dr. Naidoo shares the story of her 36 year old patient with severe anxiety. He was a binge eater and also had a history of alcohol abuse. Vitamin B1 (250mg) was every effective for him…“In animal studies, thiamine appears to reduce stress-like responses because it protects the hippocampus”
  • We talk about chamomile tea and how it helps with sleep. There are some cautions if you’re on a blood thinner prescription or going to have surgery. Pregnant women should also avoid it.
  • Dr. Naidoo shares a delicious Golden Milk recipe with tips on how to use turmeric (one her favorite spices and inspired by her grandmother’s cooking) with black pepper. You’ll find this in the recipes section.
  • Dr Naidoo also shares one of her favorite comfort foods – a yummy lentil soup recipe called dal in south Indian cuisines. It’s a great source of fiber, plant-based protein and is very affordable. And really healthy when cooked with vegetables and spices like mustard seeds, ginger, garlic and turmeric. She shares a tip to improve the flavors – making tadka (listen to the interview below, enjoy and be inspired!)

 

It’s a wonderful book that I highly recommend if:

  • you are new to nutritional psychiatry and the power of food
  • you are a seasoned foodie and want to geek out on mechanisms and the science
  • you want to learn about foods and nutrients (all science-based) specifically for depression, anxiety, PTSD, OCD, ADHD and insomnia
  • you are a practitioner and want to learn and share a wonderful book with your patients or clients

I read it cover to cover and picked up so many gems. I also loved reading about her memories of cooking with her Pinetown granny (Pinetown is just outside Durban where we both happened to grow up)!

We do have a few professional differences of opinion that I feel I should mention:

  • I am not in favor of canola oil and I’d switch out the recipes that call for canola oil with olive oil
  • I have a difficult time extrapolating high-fat diets in rat studies to concerns about saturated fat consumption in humans (given the nature of the rat chow in many of these studies)
  • I’m more concerned with portion-size of carbs than I am with portion-size of healthy fats (and typically recommend full-fat coconut milk, and chicken and turkey with skin-on)
  • I find grass-red meat to be beneficial for my clients with anxiety and mood issues
  • Many of my anxious clients cannot tolerate any caffeine and I consider 14 alcoholic drinks a week for men and 7 alcoholic drinks a week for women to be excessive
  • I prefer stove-top and oven cooking to using a microwave.

This is the official book blurb:

Did you know that blueberries can help you cope with the aftereffects of trauma? That salami can cause depression, or that boosting Vitamin D intake can help treat anxiety?

When it comes to diet, most people’s concerns involve weight loss, fitness, cardiac health, and longevity. But what we eat affects more than our bodies; it also affects our brains. And recent studies have shown that diet can have a profound impact on mental health conditions ranging from ADHD to depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, OCD, dementia and beyond.

A triple threat in the food space, Dr. Uma Naidoo is a board-certified psychiatrist, nutrition specialist, and professionally trained chef. In This Is Your Brain on Food, she draws on cutting-edge research to explain the many ways in which food contributes to our mental health, and shows how a sound diet can help treat and prevent a wide range of psychological and cognitive health issues.

Packed with fascinating science, actionable nutritional recommendations, and delicious, brain-healthy recipes, This Is Your Brain on Food is the go-to guide to optimizing your mental health with food.

Uma Naidoo, MD is board-certified psychiatrist (Harvard Medical School), professional chef (Cambridge School of Culinary Arts), and nutrition specialist (Cornell University). She is currently the Director of Nutritional and Lifestyle Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), where she consults on nutritional interventions for the psychiatrically and medically ill; Director of Nutritional Psychiatry at the Massachusetts General Hospital Academy; and has a private practice in Newton, MA. She also teaches at The Cambridge School of Culinary Arts.

Dr. Naidoo speaks frequently at conferences at Harvard, for Goop audiences, the New York City Jewish Community Center (JCC), and Ivy Boston. She blogs for Harvard Health and Psychology Today and completed a unique video cooking series for the MGH Academy which teaches Nutritional Psychiatry using culinary techniques in the kitchen.

You can get your copy of This Is Your Brain on Food here (my Amazon link) and find additional information about Dr. Naidoo here and the book here.

Let us know what you think in the comments below and be sure to leave Dr. Naidoo a review once you read your copy!

Feel free to post your questions here too.

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.