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GABA

Why does chewable GABA make me run to the bathroom and what GABA do I use instead?

By Trudy Scott 9 Comments

The amino acid GABA (gamma-amino butyric acid) helps to raise GABA neurotransmitter levels and ease the physical symptoms of anxiety: stiff and tense muscles as well as feelings of stress, overwhelm and often panic attacks and overthinking/unwanted thoughts too. It can also help with the visceral pain of IBS/SIBO and insomnia. GABA eases symptoms very quickly, often within 5 minutes but is most effective when taken sublingually, is chewed or is opened on to the tongue.

I often get feedback from individuals in my community saying GABA doesn’t work for them for one reason or another. Digestive issues are a common problem and one question I often hear is the one about chewable GABA and gas, bloating and/or diarrhea.

Rav asks this question on the blog:

What about individuals with IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) or Colitis who cannot take chewable tablets? I used to take the GABA-Pro by Bioclinic Naturals and it just made me run to the bathroom. Should those with digestive trouble steer clear from chewable forms of GABA?

This is an excellent question and something you always need to consider when having digestive upset: is it due to a new supplement I’ve recently added? You have to find a product that works for you and we’re all different. Just like we need to read labels with food we need to read and understand the labels of supplements too.

There are a number of factors to consider: sugar alcohols, natural flavors and plant-based cellulose ingredients.

Let’s look at sugar alcohols first

Many of the chewable or sublingual forms of GABA contain sugar alcohols which can be problematic and cause digestive upset and often explosive diarrhea. Sugar alcohols include xylitol, sorbitol, mannitol and erythritol. Your reaction will depend on the amount of sugar alcohols used, how many chewable tablets you use and how accustomed you are to sugar alcohols. You may get used to them and eventually be fine with consuming small amounts and yet for others the tiniest amount is an issue.

Many of the chewable forms also contain natural flavors which could potentially be problematic for you.

Let’s now look at cellulose and rice flour

I’m also starting to see more and more folks have digestive distress and gas from products with plant-based cellulose ingredients, especially when someone has IBS or SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth). For example, you may see hydroxypropylcellulose on the label. This helps the chewable keep its shape and stay intact longer when in the mouth.

With capsules you may see cellulose, methylcellulose or hypromellose on the “Other Ingredients” section on the label, with these vegetable-based ingredients replacing the gelatin capsule. This also often causes bloating and gas when IBS/SIBO is an issue.

The rice flour filler in many products can also be problematic for some folks with IBS/SIBO.

Reading the label

The product Rav mentions – GABA-Pro by Bioclinic Naturals – is not one I’m familiar with but a quick check shows these ingredients in addition to the GABA:

Xylitol, stearic acid, hydroxypropylcellulose, silica, natural tropical fruit flavour (banana, pomegranate, pineapple, mango, passionfruit, orange, tangerine, mandarin), citric acid, vegetable grade magnesium stearate (lubricant).

The xylitol is a sugar alcohol, the hydroxypropylcellulose is plant-based cellulose and there are many natural flavors in this product. Any one or all could be the issue.

Magnesium stearate, a bulking agent and lubricant, is often reported as being problematic but since it’s in so many products, it’s unlikely to be causing digestive distress in this case. If you’d like to learn more, Dr Josh Axe has a great blog addressing some of the hype around magnesium stearate concluding it’s safe to consume.

Interestingly, the product label says GABA (gamma-amino butyric acid) when in actual fact it contains pharma GABA (a fermented form of GABA). It’s unlikely that this is the issue for Rav but I do find it a strange way to label a product.

Finally, it’s always important to check quality and make sure there are no artificial colors, preservatives, or sweeteners, no dairy, no gluten and no GMO ingredients in the supplement. This product passes this test.

What GABA do I use instead?

One option is to switch to another chewable such as GABA Calm. This is one of my favorite GABA products because  it works so well, is a nice low dose of GABA, is convenient when you’re out and about and actually tastes good. This one does contain the sugar alcohols sorbitol and mannitol, as well as a natural flavor which may well also be an issue, although I’ve had few complaints from clients and those in my community.

The other option is to use a GABA-only product or a combination GABA and theanine product (such as NFH GABA-T SAP) opened onto the tongue. It’s not as convenient but if it gets you the calming results you’re looking for then it’s a non-issue.

And finally, you could do a trial of using the chewable during the day and the opened GABA capsule at night so you’re consuming less sugar alcohols overall (if that’s your issue).

You can find the GABA Calm, NFH GABA-T SAP and Enzymatic Therapy GABA on the supplements blog here. To be clear, I’m not saying the GABA-Pro product isn’t a good choice in general, rather that it may not be ideal for you, based on your unique needs and what is going on with your gut at any one time.

How do you do with these chewable GABA products (or others like this). Do you do well on them or do you end up running to the toilet or battle with gas and/or bloating?

Or do you prefer a GABA-only or GABA/theanine combination product (opened onto the tongue)?

Gut bacteria, pain and anxiety connections: Klebsiella and ankylosing spondylitis

By Trudy Scott 21 Comments

We know about the gut-brain connection where the health of our microbiome impacts how anxious or depressed we feel, but we often forget that there is a gut-pain connection too and how addressing dysbiosis and bad bacteria in the gut can have far-reaching benefits.

An old work friend recently reached out asking for help for her husband who had been diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis, ulcerative colitis and gluten sensitivity, and was not seeing results with conventional treatment. I did some digging for them and a colleague mentioned that they had addressed Klebsiella when they discovered that her husband had genes predisposing him to ankylosing spondylitis. Read on to see what I’ve learned.

Klebsiella as a precursor to ankylosing spondylitis

The paper shared with me: The relationship between Klebsiella infection and ankylosing spondylitis, discusses the HLA-B27 gene and the Klebsiella connection:

Klebsiella-reactive arthritis is the precursor stage occurring in the early and active phases of ankylosing spondylitis.

Let’s learn more about Klebsiella, ankylosing spondylitis, the anxiety connection and prevalence, the role of neuro-inflammation and genes, the problems of a high carb diet and the role the amino acids GABA, tryptophan and DPA play in pain and anxiety relief and being able to quit the carbs easily, plus provide sleep support.

In case you’re not familiar with Klebsiella, this excellent FX Medicine article describes it as follows:

Klebsiella pneumoniae (KP) is a type of gram-negative rod-shaped bacteria that can cause different types of infections ranging from pneumonia (lung), blood infections (septicaemia), wound or surgical infections, urinary tract infections, small intestinal bowel overgrowth (SIBO), ankylosing spondylitis, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis and meningitis (brain).

Ankylosing spondylitis is an inflammatory disease of the spine

In case you’re not familiar with the condition ankylosing spondylitis (pronounced like this) the Mayo Clinic site provides this summary:

Ankylosing spondylitis is an inflammatory disease that, over time, can cause some of the vertebrae in your spine to fuse. This fusing makes the spine less flexible and can result in a hunched-forward posture. If ribs are affected, it can be difficult to breathe deeply.

Ankylosing spondylitis affects men more often than women. Signs and symptoms typically begin in early adulthood. Inflammation also can occur in other parts of your body – most commonly, your eyes.

They say there is no cure and the treatments include pain medications and physical therapy to ease symptoms (and surgery in some cases).

I’m all for physical therapy but you’ll notice there is no mention of gut health or Klebsiella. This is why we have to keep searching for root causes – and work with a functional medicine practitioner – no matter what the health condition, be it ankylosing spondylitis or anything else.

Prevalence of anxiety in ankylosing spondylitis

As with most physical conditions there is a connection with anxiety. This paper: Prevalence of psychological disorders, sleep disturbance and stressful life events and their relationships with disease parameters in Chinese patients with ankylosing spondylitis reports that

AS [ankylosing spondylitis] patients had more severe psychological disorders, sleep disturbance, and stressful life events.

Prevalence of anxiety, depression, and sleep disturbance was 31.6%, 59.3%, and 31.0% respectively.

We have to ask ourselves if we have anxiety, depression and insomnia because of the pain being experienced or because of one or more of the root causes that contribute to both pain and anxiety.

Microbiota disturbance, neuro-inflammation, and anxiety

Often the research focuses on the former but we know that there is Evidence for interplay among antibacterial-induced gut microbiota disturbance, neuro-inflammation, and anxiety in mice. In this 2018 animal study treatment with lactobacilli suppresses this neuro-inflammation.

Ankylosing spondylitis, Crohn’s disease, genes and a high carb diet

The above FX Medicine article shares the connection between ankylosing spondylitis, Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, as well as the genetic susceptibility, together with the problems of a high carb diet:

Genetically susceptible people, such as those who have the HLA-B27 allelotypes and consume a high starch/carbohydrate diet, can trigger a growth in Klebsiella in the bowel, the starch becoming a main food supply for the Klebsiella.

The amino acids for pain, carb addition, anxiety and insomnia

The amino acids come into the picture again, helping to ease the pain, provide precursors for neurotransmitter production until the microbiome is balanced, and eliminate carbohydrate cravings so they can be given up without willpower.

As always figuring out your own imbalance and doing an amino acid trial is key. Here is a summary of how they may help in this instance, assuming you have low levels of GABA, serotonin and/or endorphins:

  • GABA helps with stress eating of carbs, eases physical anxiety, eases some pain.
  • Tryptophan helps with afternoon and evening carb cravings, eases mental worry-type anxiety and depression, and also eases some pain. Both GABA and tryptophan help with insomnia.
  • DPA boosts endorphins providing acupuncture-like pain relief and provides the emotional comfort that starchy treats often do.

The FX Medicine article has treatment and prevention tips for you to share with your functional medicine doctor, who will be able to run a functional stool test such as the GI-MAP offered by Diagnostic Solutions Lab.

Just because there are these gut bacteria, pain, anxiety, Klebsiella and ankylosing spondylitis connections, it doesn’t necessarily mean everyone with ankylosing spondylitis has Klebsiella or that everyone who has Klebsiella will go on to develop ankylosing spondylitis (as stated above) or even that everyone with ankylosing spondylitis will have anxiety. I’m simply connecting some dots so you can start to think outside the box.

I’d love to hear what has worked for you or a loved one with ankylosing spondylitis and/or if you’ve seen elevated Klebsiella on your stool test or have the genetic predisposition?

Have the amino acids and a low-carb diet helped the healing process and eased some of your anxiety while addressing the underlying Klebsiella infection?

The amino acids GABA and tryptophan can help to relieve anxiety in children: an interview with Dr. Nicole Beurkens

By Trudy Scott 16 Comments

Using individual amino acids such as GABA and tryptophan can have an incredible impact on children with anxiety, easing anxiety very quickly. I don’t often write or talk about using amino acids with children and since many of you have asked for more resources for children, today I’m sharing an interview I recently did on this topic on The Better Behavior Show. This is a podcast hosted by my colleague and good friend Dr. Nicole Beurkens.

I share specifics on how Amino acids can help to relieve anxiety in children, together with some case studies.

Dr. Nicole sums up the power of the amino acids beautifully – and this is exactly why my clients love them so much – they take the edge off quickly, provide results and help with overwhelm:

I think that the fact that these [amino acids] can work quickly is really helpful. And as you said, it helps to take the edge off, it helps to reduce the symptoms so then we can more effectively address all of the underlying things. Because often, I’ll have parents say, “Oh, you want me to change the diet and do all these things, I just feel so overwhelmed, my kid is having so many issues, I don’t know how we’re going to do any of that.” And then when you can use things like targeted aminos to help take the edge off the symptoms for the parent and the child, it makes all of that other stuff more doable, I think.

Here are some snippets from one of the stories I share – the wonderful results I had with a 11-year old girl who had been adopted, was diagnosed with reactive attachment disorder and had explosive anger issues. This young girl:

….also had insomnia, so she was not sleeping well at all. She was very fatigued in the day, had really bad anxiety about going to school and loved colored candies and she was a big bread eater.

This family didn’t have much money to spend so I really had to find an affordable solution with the biggest benefits. She was anemic so we addressed that with iron supplements and getting her eating quality grass-fed red meat again and we figured out that gluten was an issue so she went gluten-free and this made a big difference with the outbursts.

The other factor was to figure out if low serotonin was a factor and address this. The big clues were the anger, the insomnia, the anxiety and the sugary cravings:

I was talking to her about the fact that she loved candies and she loved bread, and I said — how would you feel about giving it up? She was fuming with me. She was in a swivel chair and she turned her back to me and she didn’t want to talk about it.

I offered her a 100mg chewable tryptophan to see if it would help with her sugar cravings and the fact that she was furious with me:

“How about trying this amino acid, it’s called tryptophan and it’s chewable and it doesn’t taste bad… and then we’ll talk a little bit later. Don’t worry about what I said earlier.” So I gave her 100mg of chewable tryptophan.

She chewed the tryptophan and within 5 minutes, she turned around, smiled at me and said, “I think I can do it, I’m ready to do it.”

She was calm and smiling, and ready to give up the candies and bread and other gluten-containing products. These 3 interventions – addressing her low iron levels, having her go gluten-free and supplementing with tryptophan – completely turned this little girl’s life around.

Here is the link to the entire transcript of our interview: Amino acids can help to relieve anxiety in children. You can also find the audio interview at this same link or by going directly to iTunes – simply search for “The Better Behavior Show.”

Do listen in and/or read the transcript and learn more about:

  • how I do a trial of the amino acids (this allows for quick results in 5-10 minutes)
  • how I’ve worked with non-verbal children
  • a simple trick for using the unpleasant tasting tryptophan sublingually
  • what low GABA anxiety looks like in a child
  • why ADHD symptoms in children may actually be anxiety (I share another success story in this section)
  • why I use GABA Calm with children and adults (Dr. Nicole uses this GABA product too and loves that it’s sublingual and tastes great)
  • times you may consider using tyrosine or DPA
  • and much more

It was a pleasure to be on the show of someone whose work I deeply respect. Dr. Nicole is a unique combination of clinical psychologist, nutritionist, and special education teacher, and shares these resources for help with improving your child’s behavior naturally: her book Life Will Get Better, blog, and the Better Behavior Naturally Parent Program.  and tune in to my interview and some of the other excellent interviews.

If you’d like to learn more about these supplements, look at my supplements blog here

There is also a “Liquid and powder options for children” section on this blog – with other products you may find useful for children.

I’d also like offer a caution about the 100mg chewable tryptophan This chewable form is both good and bad. It’s good because it’s a nice 100mg of tryptophan per tablet, is chewable, tastes good and is suitable for children and “pixie dust” individuals who need a very small amount and for when doing the initial trial. The bad aspect is that it does contain sugar and is quite sweet. Because you are continually consuming something sweet you may end up over-consuming them if sugar addiction is your issue. I’ve seen the same with children who want to eat them like candy. So, what I do most of the time is use the chewable tryptophan for the trial and then switch to the 500mg tryptophan after that. We did that with the 11-year old with anger issues, anxiety and candy cravings.

One more thing: Lidtke is the only brand of tryptophan I use and recommend because of its quality. I forgot to mention that in our interview.

Have you benefited from using any of the amino acids and then found they also help your child/children?

The individual amino acids glutamine, GABA, tryptophan (or 5-HTP), DPA and tyrosine are powerful for eliminating sugar cravings, often within 5 minutes

By Trudy Scott 30 Comments

The individual amino acids glutamine, GABA, tryptophan (or 5-HTP), DPA and tyrosine are powerful for eliminating sugar cravings, often within 5 minutes. It seems that this wonderful benefit – over and above the anxiety-reducing and mood-boosting benefits – is often overlooked or poorly understood.

I recently posted this on Facebook: GABA for ending sugar cravings (and anxiety and insomnia) and I’m writing this blog today because it’s clear there is some confusion about this cravings aspect.

Let me first recap Melissa’s experience with Source Naturals GABA Calm during her family holiday trip (the link above has all the details):

I’m glad I bought it before traveling home for Christmas – I was cool as a cucumber at the airport and was much calmer when visiting family and friends compared to last year! I notice a general calmness and am sleeping well.

As well as the calming benefits of GABA, Melissa found this unexpected reduction in cravings for sweets, chocolates, truffles and ice cream after about a week of taking it:

I didn’t even realize this until I was grocery shopping and out of habit walked towards the ice cream – I stopped and realized I didn’t want ice cream. So I walked toward the chocolate – same reaction. For once in my life, I was not craving sweets. I made truffles for a NYE party and only ate two. But what is really shocking is that the leftovers are still in my refrigerator two days later and I haven’t touched them.

This is a very typical response that I see with my clients and when I shared the above blog, others on Facebook shared similar experiences and surprise about the connections. Kim found it fascinating and very timely saying:

I ran out of GABA a month ago. Not only has my anxiety been very difficult to manage but literally I haven’t been able to stop eating. Sugary, high carb, total junk has consumed my thoughts. I never realized the correlation.

April also seemed surprised to learn that GABA was also actually helping with her sugar cravings too:

I think my sugar cravings are down (not looking for something sweet every night after dinner, maybe I treat myself to once a week and not overindulge when I do) and when I think about it, I’ve lost a bit of weight as a result. Most of all it helps me sleep and reduces tension in my neck.

In the above examples, due to low GABA levels in these women, GABA was helped with both the anxiety and the stress-eating, leading to a calming effect and reduced sugar cravings. If you have low blood sugar cravings then glutamine is the amino acid to use; low serotonin cravings then tryptophan or 5-HTP will help; low endorphin cravings then DPA will do the trick; and low catecholamines then tyrosine is the amino acid to use.

The best way to figure it which neurotransmitter deficiency is affecting your sugar cravings

The best way to figure it which neurotransmitter deficiency is affecting your sugar cravings is to do the amino acid mood questionnaire and also review this list for further clarification:

  1. If you have to eat sugar when you haven’t eaten in awhile it’s likely low blood sugar and glutamine on the tongue stops the sugar desire almost immediately and also helps with the low blood sugar symptoms of shakiness and irritability
  2. If you stress-eat your sugar cravings are likely due to low GABA, and GABA will stop the stress-eating and calm you down
  3. If you eat sugar or carbs to feel happy (and especially from late afternoon into the evening) then your sugar cravings are likely due to low serotonin, and tryptophan (or 5-HTP) stops the cravings and boosts mood and reduces anxiety
  4. If you are a comfort-eater then it’s likely due to low endorphins and DPA will stop that feeling of “I deserve-it” kind of reward-eating or comfort-eating and also give you a hug-like mood boost
  5. If you eat sugar for an energy boost or to give your focus then it’s likely due to low catecholamines and tyrosine will stop those cravings and give you a mood and energy boost, and help with mental clarity

It’s not uncommon for my anxious clients to have issues in all these areas and I have them address low blood sugar and each neurotransmitter deficiency one by one (for 2 through 5) and very methodically so they know exactly which areas are problematic for them.

When it comes to low blood sugar, addressing adrenal health is also key. And as always, we need to be making dietary changes, fixing gut health, addressing other deficiencies, removing toxins and more, using a complete functional medicine approach.

How quickly can you expect to get results?

However, using the amino acids in a targeted way like this gets you results quickly while you’re figuring out everything else.

You may say “what exactly do you mean by quickly”?   When opened onto the tongue and used with the trial method, based on your unique needs, if you have low levels, you can expect to notice effects in as quickly as 5 minutes and sometimes up to 15 minutes in some cases! This is why I like to refer to them as the amazing amino acids! They truly are amazing for eliminating cravings, reducing anxiety and improving mood and even sleep – provided they are needed.

Each of the individual amino acids

Last year I wrote a series of blog posts on each of the above-mentioned amino acids. If you missed them you may find them helpful for getting a better understanding, even though they are not specific about sugar cravings:

You can find the amino acid supplements that I use with my clients here.

The amino acids help you make dietary changes with ease

Keep in mind the amino acids are intended for relatively short-term use so the goal is to work on your diet, gut health, adrenals, nutritional deficiencies etc. so they are no longer needed or only needed in times of added stress. My book, The Antianxiety Food Solution – How the Foods You Eat Can Help You Calm Your Anxious Mind, Improve Your Mood, and End Cravings (my Amazon link), covers in-depth how to implement much of what is mentioned in the above article: a real food Mediterranean diet, red meat, oily fish, the importance of zinc, vitamin D, antioxidants and so on, and the powerful role of nutrition in immunity, inflammation, sleep, stress, anxiety and food cravings.

The amino acids help you make those dietary changes with ease, end your cravings and stress-eating or excessive drinking, so no will power is needed and you don’t feel deprived.

Pandemic stress pushed people toward overeating, mostly looking for sugary “comfort foods”

(UPDATE 4/17/2020 for coronavirus pandemic)

Keep in mind that in times of added stress – like being in the midst of a pandemic such as the coronavirus – you may find your sugar and carbohydrate cravings have increased, and you may be over-indulging, emotional-eating, comfort-eating and/or stress-eating as a way to self-medicate in order to feel calm and good.

This paper, Nutritional recommendations for CoVID-19 quarantine, published just a few days ago, shares how continuously hearing or reading about the pandemic without a break can be stressful and may be

pushing people toward overeating, mostly looking for sugary “comfort foods”. This desire to consume a specific kind of food is defined as “food craving”, which is a multidimensional concept including emotional (intense desire to eat), behavioral (seeking food), cognitive (thoughts about food), and physiological (salivation) processes.

We can apply this knowledge and logic to any stressful situation we may find ourselves experiencing.

Self-medication with alcohol as a way to calm down

You may also find you are more drawn to alcohol as a way to calm down and relax i.e. self-medication with alcohol.  According to this Forbes article, Nielsen reports that online sales of alcohol increased by 291% compared to the end of March 2019.

You may be surprised to learn that the amino acids also help with reducing alcohol cravings and the need to self-medicate with this “drug-of-choice.”  If one glass of wine leads finishing to an entire bottle in one evening or if you’re drinking beer or spirits excessively, know that the words “sweets”, “sugar”, “carbs” can be substituted in the blog post below with “alcohol” and consider trials of the respective amino acids.

This blog post illustrates this perfectly: Tryptophan had the added benefit of turning me completely off alcohol when I took it to improve mood and sleep during perimenopause.

Resources if you are new to using amino acids as supplements

If you are new to using amino acids as supplements, here is the Amino Acids Mood Questionnaire from The Antianxiety Food Solution (you can see all the symptoms of neurotransmitter imbalances, including low GABA, low serotonin and low endorphins).

If you suspect low levels of any of the neurotransmitters and do not yet have my book, The Antianxiety Food Solution – How the Foods You Eat Can Help You Calm Your Anxious Mind, Improve Your Mood, and End Cravings, I highly recommend getting it and reading it before jumping in and using amino acids on your own so you are knowledgeable. And be sure to share it with the practitioner/health team you or your loved one is working with.

There is an entire chapter on the amino acids and they are discussed throughout the book in the sections on gut health, gluten, blood sugar control, sugar cravings, anxiety and mood issues.

The book doesn’t include product names (per the publisher’s request) so this blog, The Antianxiety Food Solution Amino Acid and Pyroluria Supplements, lists the amino acids that I use with my individual clients and those in my group programs. You can find them all in my online store.

If, after reading this blog and my book, you don’t feel comfortable figuring things out on your own (i.e. doing the symptoms questionnaire and respective amino acids trials), a good place to get help is the GABA QuickStart Program (if you have low GABA symptoms too). This is a paid online/virtual group program where you get my guidance and community support.

If you are a practitioner, join us in The Balancing Neurotransmitters: the Fundamentals program. This is also a paid online/virtual program with an opportunity to interact with me and other practitioners who are also using the amino acids.

Have you found any of the amino acids to help you eliminate your cravings for sweets, chocolate, ice-cream and other high-carb foods? Were you pleasantly surprised to experience this lovely benefit when you were initially looking for anxiety-relief?

Were you / are you drinking more and have you figured out which amino acids help you quit?

If you’re a practitioner, do you see similar cravings benefits with your anxious clients/patients?

Are you still struggling with comfort-eating, stress-eating of carb/sugar or drinking alcohol to “self-medicate” and feel better?

Feel free to ask your questions and share challenges and/or successes you’ve had too.

More kids are showing up in ERs with anxiety, depression and other common mental health problems: why isn’t nutritional psychiatry part of the discussion?

By Trudy Scott 23 Comments

This article on NBC news, More kids are showing up in ERs (Emergency Rooms) with mental health crises, reports large increases across the country.

Dr. Anna Abrams, a pediatrician and researcher at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, finds the numbers both shocking and disheartening.

In the 5-year period from 2012 to 2016, when looking at ER mental health admissions in 45 children’s hospitals, they found the following increases:

  • 48 % in white children
  • 64% in non-Hispanic black children
  • 77% increase in Hispanic children

with about a 55 % increase overall.

Dr. Abrams and her colleagues presented these findings at the American Academy of Pediatrics conference in earlier this month.

Other than the very large increases, there is something else to be concerned about: the researchers say they aren’t sure why we are seeing these increases, speculating it “could be due to the scarcity of mental health professionals who can help children” and “People are also talking more openly about depression, anxiety and other common mental health problems and that may make parents feel more comfortable about seeking help for their children.”

While these are very valid reasons, we really do need to be incorporating nutritional psychiatry (a term coined in 2015) and functional medicine (Dr. Mark Hyman is one of the leaders in functional medicine) into these discussions, studies and conferences. Other than poor diets and nutritional deficiencies we need to be considering stress, exposure to toxins, poor gut health and increasing Wifi exposure, to name a few.

If we look at diet alone, there is so much recent research supporting the connection between diet and mental health. Here are two of many new studies:

Despite some contradictory results, overall there was support for an association between healthy dietary patterns or consumption of a high-quality diet and lower levels of depression or better mental health. Similarly, there was a relationship between unhealthy diet and consumption of low-quality diet and depression or poor mental health.

These data suggest that Iranian adolescent females eating a pro-inflammatory diet…had greater odds of having at least moderate depressive symptoms.

And here are just a few other factors to consider:

How do we get this nutritional psychiatry research and case studies into the hands of those who can change actually policy and the way mental health is addressed? I believe it has to be a grass-roots effort from the bottom up and I have these suggestions:

  • share this blog and the research with your doctor and/or allied health practitioner
  • reach out to study authors, journalists and legislators and share research and success stories like the above, and your own personal results
  • if you’re a practitioner, write blogs like this sharing the good results you see with your clients and patients – with researchers, journalists and legislators
  • share in forums and on social media, and with your neighbors, friends and family
  • comment on blogs like this – with success stories in your family or with clients – so more people get to see what really is working

Every little bit helps! I’d love to hear your ideas too.

MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy for Treating Chronic PTSD: Why I feel we can do better and the role of nutrition and amino acids like GABA

By Trudy Scott 7 Comments

You may be familiar with MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine), also known as “ecstasy”, because of its reputation as a party drug. And you have likely seen some of the media reports on the new research and growing support for MDMA-Assisted psychotherapy for treating chronic PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). Due to adverse effects I’d like to share my concerns about this research and treatment and why I feel we can do better – by addressing nutrition and using amino acids like GABA and others.

In a recent press release, Colorado Study Shows Lasting Benefits of MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy for Treating Chronic PTSD, the non-profit organization, Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) reports these study results:

28 participants found that one month after their second day-long experimental session, 42.9% in the active-dose (100 mg and 125 mg) MDMA groups did not qualify for a diagnosis of PTSD, compared to 33.3% in the low-dose MDMA (40 mg active placebo) control group.

The results were even more notable 12 months after the third active-dose experimental session, which found that one year following treatment with MDMA-assisted psychotherapy, 76% of participants no longer had PTSD.

It is the largest U.S. FDA-regulated double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for the treatment of chronic PTSD and the results are impressive: 76% of the study participants no longer had PTSD after a year and 3 treatment sessions. I’m really happy for the participants BUT I believe we can do better because there are adverse reactions to this treatment and there are other safer approaches for recovery.

This comment about an acceptable risk profile and adverse reactions concerns me (and I suspect it concerns you too):

The study replicated previous research showing an acceptable risk profile for MDMA, with the most frequently reported adverse reactions during experimental sessions being anxiety, jaw clenching, headache, muscle tension, dizziness, fatigue, and low mood.

Adverse reactions one week following treatment included insomnia, low mood, irritability, and ruminations. Temporary elevations in pulse, blood pressure, and temperature were also recorded during MDMA sessions, and did not require medical intervention.

A common theme we see in the research on psychedelics is how effective it is for PTSD that doesn’t respond to therapy or medications. This paper states:

There is an immense need for innovative treatment options that improve outcomes, especially for PTSD refractory to psychotherapy and/or pharmacotherapies

I agree there is an immense need for successful treatment approaches, but jumping to MDMA from psychotherapy and/or psychiatric medications is skipping out the entire nutritional and biochemical step which is SO powerful and doesn’t have the above adverse effects. I’m concerned too many who have not seen benefits from therapy or medications are seeing MDMA as THE solution and are going to be harmed even further.

This paper, The Potential Dangers of Using MDMA for Psychotherapy, the author is concerned about the fact that “acute MDMA can stimulate the release of difficult feelings and memories, which may be distressing” and also the negative moods that occur after MDMA treatment:

This period of negative cognitions may be counter-productive, especially in psychiatrically vulnerable clients, for instance those with predispositions to anxiety, depression, or psychosis. For example, it could increase the likelihood of suicide in those individuals with strong post-recovery feelings of depression.

Because of this, I wholeheartedly agree with the author’s position:

it will always be far safer to undertake psychotherapy without using co-drugs. In selected cases MDMA might provide an initial boost, but it also has far too many potentially damaging effects for safe general usage.

In addition to psychotherapy, there are also so many nutritional and biochemical factors we can consider when it comes to PTSD. These don’t have any of the above damaging effects seen with MDMA. Here are a few to consider:

I feel it is these above approaches and others like this that we need to be using to address PTSD, rather than subjecting individuals who are already suffering to treatments that have adverse reactions AND are not addressing underlying nutritional deficiencies of low GABA, low serotonin, out of balance endocannabinoid system and overall health, to name a few of many possible underlying biochemical factors.

If this treatment approach is approved, I would hope that all the adverse effects and dangers are clearly explained and I’d also like there to be informed consent before it is used – so individuals know exactly what they are getting into. Hopefully, by the time it is approved, nutritional psychiatry will be more accepted.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this research and treatment approach. Is it something you have considered or would possibly consider in the future – you personally or with patients?

Or do you have similar concerns that I have?

Have you already tried MDMA recreationally (possibly for therapeutic reasons) and what were your experiences like?