I’m heading to the 32nd Annual Conference of Anxiety Disorders Association of America . It’s on from April 12 – 15, 2012 at the Crystal Gateway Marriott, Arlington, Virginia.
The theme is: Integrating Mind-Body Connections: Advancing Science, Informing Practice for Anxiety and Related Disorders and you can find conference details here
I’m thrilled that I’ve been accepted to do a poster presentation on food/nutrients and anxiety – Food and Mood: Case Study of Woman with Anxiety. It will cover real whole food, including grass-fed red meat; neurotransmitters and amino acids GABA and 5-HTP; the mineral zinc; the omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids; vitamin D; the mood impacts of gluten and more. All supporting research will be provided.
The amazing thing is that this woman, a client of mine, was able to completely eliminate her anxiety and panic attacks, PMS and carb cravings using dietary and lifestyle changes only.
I look forward to sharing this information and my book The Antianxiety Food Solution with attendees.
One of the newest food mood studies I’ll be sharing is one by Davison and Kaplan, titled Nutrient Intakes Are Correlated With Overall Psychiatric Functioning in Adults With Mood Disorders. It was recently published in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry.
They looked at Canadian adults with mood disorders. Intake of carbs, fiber, total fat, linoleic acid, riboflavin, niacin, folate, vitamin B6, B12, pantothenic acid, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, iron, magnesium and zinc were measured and higher levels of nutrients equated to better mental health.
Dr Kaplan, PhD was quoted as saying: “Doctors should consider counseling their patients to eat unprocessed, natural, healthy foods and refer them to a nutrition professional if specialized dietary consultation is needed.”
Here are some other interesting poster sessions I plan to visit:
- Evaluation of Oral Zinc Sulfate Effect on Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: A
Randomized Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial - Dietary Supplements for Anxiety Disorders: A Systematic Review
There are also some very interesting sessions that I look forward to attending:
- Integrating Complementary and Alternative Medicine Into the Treatment of Anxiety and Related Disorders
- Exercise for Mood and Anxiety
- Adding Biofeedback to a Mental Health Practice
- The Ethics of Psychology in the Media: Print, Internet, and TV
- Anxiety and Gastrointestinal Distress Across the Lifespan
- Benzodiazepine Use
All in all it should be a great three days of sharing, learning and networking at the ADAA 2012 conference and then a day of leisure in Washington DC before I head to Wisconsin for 3 days of Food-mood-anxiety workshops . I’m going to need that day of leisure!
I’ll be sharing what I learn on future blog posts and have plans to share my new beautiful 3ft x 5 ft poster too (created by my wonderful assistant Mika Howard) . And of course, I’ll take plenty of photos too.
