everywomanover29 blog

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

fluoroquinolone

Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Anxiety with Tara Hunkin on The Anxiety Summit 5

By Trudy Scott 2 Comments

mitochondrial dysfunction

Tara Hunkin, NTP, CGP, RWP is one my guest experts on The Anxiety Summit 5: Gut-Brain Axis and our topic is: Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Anxiety. In this interview you’ll learn:

  • The role of mitochondria in the gut, brain and anxiety
  • Causes (such as medications and environmental toxins), testing, and signs and symptoms of mitochondrial dysfunction
  • Healing nutrients: Carnitine, COQ10, folinic acid, meal timing (as well as antioxidants and many other nutrients such as PQQ)

Tara starts with an overview of mitochondria, the energy powerhouses of our bodies and why they are so important in both physical and mental health.

You can hear some of this background information in this short in-person interview we did in San Diego recently.

(Note: The dates for the 2021 Anxiety Summit 5 is November 8-14, 2021)

You’ll also hear Tara share about this new bidirectional relationship that has been identified between anxiety and mitochondrial dysfunction.  One of the papers she is referring to is this 2019 review paper: Anxiety and Brain Mitochondria: A Bidirectional Crosstalk. Here are the highlights:

  • Despite the established link between mitochondrial dysfunction and various psychiatric disorders, the contribution of mitochondria in anxiety disorders has not been extensively addressed.
  • Mitochondria are emerging as modulators of anxiety-related behavior, as evidenced both in animal and human studies.
  • There is a bidirectional link between mitochondria and anxiety. Mitochondrial, energy metabolism, and oxidative stress alterations are observed in high anxiety; conversely, changes in mitochondrial function can lead to heightened anxiety.

Tara shares how important the mitochondria are when it comes to digestion and gut health too:

  • the liver is heavily mitochondrial-dense and is needed to help eliminate toxins we are exposed to (toxins that affect our mitochondria and increase anxiety)
  • the mitochondria are also important when it comes to digestion – the lining of digestive tract (the epithelial cells of the microvilli) contain large numbers of mitochondria

The authors also highlight that “Pharmacological manipulation of mitochondria may be a potential therapeutic approach to relieve high anxiety symptoms.”  One of the objectives of this summit is to highlight non-pharmacological approaches and Tara does exactly this in our interview.

She covers both lifestyle and nutritional approaches for addressing mitochondrial dysfunction (acetyl-l-carnitine, glutathione, antioxidants, coenzyme Q10, folinic acid and many more).

I also mention two other interviews on the summit where we talk about nutrients that also support mitochondrial function: PQQ (pyrroloquinoline quinone) and TUDCA (tauroursodeoxycholic acid).

Be sure to listen to these interviews for more about these two nutrients:

  • Jay Davidson, DC, PScD: Parasites, Anxiety and TUDCA for Your Liver
  • Michael Murray, ND: PQQ for Stress, Sleep, Mitochondria and Gut Health

tara hunkin and trudy scott

We also discuss testing and all the environmental factors that impact the mitochondria including medications such as risperidone/risperdal (and antipsychotic medication), valproic acid (used for seizures), fluoroquinolone antibiotics like Cipro (and others) and also benzodiazepines (the commonly prescribed anti-anxiety medications).

You can listen to each of the interviews (and get transcripts) by purchasing The Anxiety Summit 5: Gut-Brain Axis.

If you’d like to give feedback or ask a question, please post in the comments section. I’d love to hear from you once you’ve listened in.

If you’d like to give feedback or ask a question, please post in the comments section at the bottom.

I’d love to hear from you once you’ve listened in to this interview and the others.

The Anxiety Summit – Antibiotic Induced Anxiety – How Fluoroquinolone Antibiotics Induce Psychiatric Illness Symptoms

By Trudy Scott 60 Comments

Lisa Bloomquist_Anxiety4

Lisa Bloomquist, fluoroquinolone toxicity patient advocate, is interviewed on the Anxiety Summit by host of the Anxiety Summit, Trudy Scott, Food Mood Expert and Nutritionist, author of The Antianxiety Food Solution.

Antibiotic Induced Anxiety – How Fluoroquinolone Antibiotics Induce Psychiatric Illness Symptoms

  • Fluoroquinolone antibiotics and what they are prescribed for
  • Why fluoroquinolones are more dangerous than other antibiotics
  • How they can cause serious psychiatric problems, including anxiety.
  • Ways fluoroquinolones cause psychiatric problems: GABA inhibition, gut destruction, piperazine molecule, mitochondrial destruction, oxidative stress and magnesium depletion.
  • Fluoroquinolone toxicity and fibromyalgia, ME/CFS, autoimmity and thyroid disease
  • Recovery from fluoroquinolone damage

Lisa describes how she was floxed after taking the Cipro antibiotic:

I felt like a bomb had gone off in my body.  My hands and feet swelled up and became incredibly painful.  I went from doing CrossFit to barely being able to walk.  I had big floater going across my eye.   My mouth was extremely dry.  I stopped sweating.  Massive amount of anxiety, just huge amounts of anxiety.  I had other central nervous system problems as well.  Things like I lost my memory and my reading comprehension.  I felt a very profound sense of weakness and fatigue.  And it was just very bizarre.  Like I had gone from being incredibly healthy.  I was very, very healthy prior to taking the Cipro.  And after I took it I felt like I could barely move, I could barely move and I could barely think.  And it was horrible.  It was a really horrible.  It was a very, very hard time in my life.

This is the 2016 paper we discussed: Fluoroquinolone-related neuropsychiatric and mitochondrial toxicity: a collaborative investigation by scientists and members of a social network.

The 3 fluoroquinolone (FQ) antibiotics – ciprofoxacin, levofoxacin, and moxifoxacin – are commonly administered to oncology patients. Although these oral antibiotics are approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treatment of urinary tract infections, acute bacterial sinusitis, or bacterial infection in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, they are commonly prescribed off-label to neutropenic cancer patients for the prevention and treatment of infections associated with febrile neutropenia. New serious FQ-associated safety concerns have been identified through novel collaborations between FQ-treated persons who have developed long-term neuropsychiatric (NP) toxicity, pharmacovigilance experts, and basic scientists.

For the survey, 93 of 94 respondents reported FQ-associated events including anxiety, depression, insomnia, panic attacks, clouded thinking, depersonalization, suicidal thoughts, psychosis, nightmares, and impaired memory beginning within days of FQ initiation or days to months of FQ discontinuation

The authors of the paper recommend: revised product labels describing a new serious adverse drug reaction, levofoxacin-associated long-term disability.

Here is the new FDA Drug Safety Communication: FDA advises restricting fluoroquinolone antibiotic use for certain uncomplicated infections; warns about disabling side effects that can occur together

Here are some of the studies we discussed in the interview:

Here are some additional links that Lisa mentioned:

Here is the link to Hacking Fluoroquinolones – an ebook

And the book Lisa mentioned, written by Kerri Knox: The Fluoroquinolone Toxicity Solution  

If you are not already registered for the Anxiety Summit you can get live access to the speakers of the day here: www.theAnxietySummit.com

Missed this interview or can’t listen live? Or want this and the other great interviews for your learning library? Purchase the MP3s or MP3s + transcripts and listen when it suits you.

You can find your purchasing options here.: Anxiety Summit Season 1, Anxiety Summit Season 2, Anxiety Summit Season 3, and Anxiety Summit Season 4.

Mental Health Month: anxiety, nutrition, gluten, GABA, leptin and fluoroquinolones

By Trudy Scott 21 Comments

egg-asparagus-salad

Since 1949, Mental Health America and affiliates across the country have led the observance of May is Mental Health Month by reaching millions of people both online and locally. They share this:

This year’s theme for Mental Health Month is – Life with a Mental Illness – and calls on individuals to share what life with a mental illness feels like for them in words, pictures and video by tagging their social media posts with #mentalillnessfeelslike (or submitting to MHA anonymously). Posts are being collected and displayed at mentalhealthamerica.net/feelslike.

I love that they say that spreading the word that mental health issues like anxiety, depression, bipolar and other disorders is something everyone should care about.

I’d love to educate and inspire many of those individuals who have already posted on social media using #mentalillnessfeelslike and have yet to find a solution. There are so many of them and it’s heart-breaking. You can go to mentalhealthamerica.net/feelslike now and see what is being said.

Here are a few examples:

Severe anxiety feels like you are lost in a big city where no one else can speak your language and you are trying to get home.. #mentalillnessfeelslike

#anxietyfeelslike #mentalillnessfeelslike a never ending battle to keep worry from creeping in to your every thought. Trying to be present

Anxiety Attack #mentalillnessfeelslike: I’m swirling in a cyclone while also being constructed by a Boa

#MentalIllnessFeelsLike Worrying About Passing This Semester Causing Your Anxiety To Mess Up More Although Your Anxiety Put You Here

And this profound quote by MentallyAbnormallyNormal (you can find her here on Facebook)

mentally-abnormally-normal-meme

I encourage you to participate if it feels ok to you. I’d especially love you to share how nutrition and nutrients like GABA, tryptophan, zinc, vitamin B12, and/or vitamin D have helped you. You can also respond directly to the posts others have made.

Here are some links to my prior blog posts on some of the many nutritional (and biomedical) approaches so feel free to also share some of this information and use it if you’re still on your healing journey to overcome anxiety, panic attacks, OCD, insomnia and other mood problems:

I’ll be adding to this last blog during season 4 of The Anxiety Summit which runs June 6th – 16th. As I continue to interview experts I learn more about the myriad of possible underlying causes of anxiety:

For some of my clients, eliminating anxiety (and other mood disorders) can be as simple as switching to a real whole foods diet, eating to balance blood sugar, quitting sugar/gluten/caffeine and adding some key nutrients like zinc and vitamin D. Many benefit immensely when using targeted individual amino acids like GABA and tryptophan. And some need to dig deeper to find the root cause of the anxiety.

But let’s always keep looking for that root cause or causes – find YOUR root cause/s – and address it/them.

My heart goes out to you if you are still suffering and still seeking a solution (and to everyone tagging themselves with #mentalillnessfeelslike and #anxietyfeelslike).

I say let’s aims to change this to the past tense so instead of #mentalillnessfeelslike let’s get to #mentalillnessfeltlike. Or how about #anxietyfeltlike or even #nutritionfixedmyanxiety ?

It truly is possible with food and nutrients! Do you agree? What has worked for you? Feel free to share in the comments and tag yourself on social media.

And do join us on The Anxiety Summit next month and share this during the Mental Health Month of May.