everywomanover29 blog

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

GABA

Source Naturals GABA Calm™: Why I recommend it for anxiety

By Trudy Scott 185 Comments

source naturals gaba calm

When you have low GABA levels you will have physical anxiety with stiff and tense muscles as well as feelings of stress, overwhelm and may even have panic attacks.

The amino acid GABA helps to raise GABA levels and ease these symptoms very quickly. I find that all GABA products are most effective when taken sublingually or opened on to the tongue. This is why I recommend the Source Naturals GABA Calm™ product.

It is a pleasant-tasting sublingual product that you can buy at your local health-store and in my online supplement store. It is a lozenge that contains 125mg GABA, 5mg magnesium, 50mg glycine, 25mg tyrosine and 20 mg taurine.

[Note: this product is a lozenge with 125mg GABA and is not to be confused with the Source Naturals, GABA Calm Mind, 750 mg tablets]

This is my most popular and most effective form of GABA I use with my clients. Here is the product description from the Source Naturals site:

GABA Calm™ combines two of the main inhibitory neurotransmitters, GABA and glycine, with N-acetyl L-tyrosine, which is a precursor to the neurotransmitters dopamine and norepinephrine. In addition, taurine supports the calming effects of GABA. The lozenge form dissolves in the mouth for quick and convenient delivery.

gaba-calm-supplement-facts 

The GABA, glycine and taurine are calming and the N-acetyl L-tyrosine (which boosts the catecholamines and can be more stimulating) counters some of the calming effects so you have a nice balance.

A typical starting dose could look like this:

  • 1 x GABA Calm on waking
  • 1 x GABA Calm mid-morning
  • 1 x GABA Calm mid-afternoon

If this works well but you still have some anxiety, then you could try 2 each time and even 3 each time.

I have all my clients do an amino acid trial to determine what will work best for their own needs.

As with all of the amino acids we review the Amino Acid Precautions before starting GABA Calm. The only precaution for using GABA is low blood pressure. I have yet to see it be an issue but it’s something to watch.

Since GABA Calm does contain tyrosine please be aware of these precautions. I don’t have my clients use it in these instances:

  • Overactive thyroid/Grave’s disease
  • Melanoma
  • Phenylketonuria (PKU)
  • Bipolar disorder

The amount of tyrosine in GABA Calm is so low it’s typically not an issue but I have my clients monitor their use of GABA Calm if they have

  • High Blood pressure
  • Migraine headaches

Some of my clients do fine taking this product at night and it calms them and helps them sleep. Here is feedback I recently received from someone:

I’ve been getting good results with taking 2 x Source Naturals GABA Calm lozenges of late, especially at night if I can’t get to sleep. I have tried several GABA supplements but this one seems to be the only one that works for me

Others find it affects their sleep and can only use it for easing their anxiety in the day time.

When I was experiencing my anxiety and panic attacks I used to take GABA Calm™ during the day (1-3, 3 times day) and it completely stopped the panic attacks and eased my anxiety while I dug deeper looking for the other contributing factors (like gluten issues, low progesterone, heavy metals and more). I took 2 of the Country Life GABA Relaxer at night. This product contains GABA, glycine, taurine, inositol, vitamin B6 and niacinamide.

It’s a great product to use with children. Trish Soderstrom shared how she used this product with her daughter’s Lyme anxiety.

We’ve used Source Naturals GABA Calm sublinguals with good results. I learned about GABA helping anxiety and because I was treating my young daughter I purchased this because it was easy for her to take.

She’ll be sharing more during her interview on the Anxiety Summit: How We Used GABA for Lyme Anxiety.

Dr. Zendi Moldenhauer, PhD, NP, RN will also be talking about how she uses this product in her interview: Anxiety in children, adolescents and young adults: an integrative psychiatric approach.

I recently received this comment on another blog post where I mentioned GABA Calm™:

Checked out gaba calm. Sounded great until I looked at the ingredients: sorbitol and mannitol are listed as first ingredients. These fake sugars can wreak havoc on your system. Also natural orange flavor… Heaven knows what that is. Too bad, sounded great. Any other suggestions?

Here is my response to this: I agree we could do better but it’s still a very effective product since sublingual GABA is best for most people. Sorbitol and mannitol are not fake sugars but sugar alcohols that don’t affect blood sugar. Very large amounts of sugar alcohols can sometimes cause lose stool but none of my clients have reported this effect from GABA Calm since it contains a very small amount.

If you choose not to use this product, I list other GABA products here on my supplements blog. Opening the capsule seems to be the best way to take GABA.

We are all different and many people do well with other types of GABA products as you can read here – GABA, the calming amino acid: products and results.

The blood brain barrier question comes up at least once a week. In fact, I was just asked this question last week:

Does a GABA supplement have to cross the blood brain barrier to be effective? A nutrition seminar I have been to, said it does not and GABA supplements are ineffective.

This is a myth and I am on a mission to change this thinking about GABA. GABA supplements are very effective for many anxious individuals.

I’d love to hear if you’ve used GABA Calm™ for anxiety, panic attacks, sleep and/or stress eating and how it’s worked for you. How often do you take it and how much do you take?

If you use it with clients I’d love to hear from you too.

If you use GABA Calm™ during the day and another GABA product at night please share that info too.

I’m sharing this information in preparation for my Anxiety Summit interview on GABA and dispelling the blood brain barrier myth. I’ll be sharing what we do know about how GABA works, what we don’t yet know and what we hope to learn through further research.

 

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.

 

Lyme Disease – my anxiety GABA interview, ACEs and replay reminders

By Trudy Scott 8 Comments

lyme-summit-day7

Just a quick reminder that today is the last day of new interviews for the Chronic Lyme Disease Summit and tomorrow you get a full day of replays of ALL the interviews.

Here is the line-up for today, day 7:

My interview airs today: Tryptophan and GABA to ease the Anxiety and Panic Attacks

  • Many people with chronic Lyme disease have chronic anxiety too and the focus of my interview is how to use targeted individual amino acids GABA and tryptophan to top up low levels of GABA and serotonin while the Lyme is being addressed.
  • This gives Lyme sufferers resolution from much of the anxiety (if not all) right away and they don’t need to resort to meds like benzodiazepines or anti-depressants (like the women in the study below). There is also a big connection between Lyme disease and pyroluria and I cover this too.

You can read a bit more about some of the research I discuss here: 
https://www.everywomanover29.com/blog/chronic-lyme-disease-summit-anxiety-pyroluria/

Here is a snippet from The Role of Stress & Emotional Trauma with Lyme Disease, a fascinating interview with Niki Gratrix (we’ve met and I love the work she is doing in this area of ACEs):

lyme-niki-gratrix

…stress and emotional trauma have a primary effect on your biology. So emotional trauma in childhood, if you like, your biography becomes your biology. And emotional trauma in childhood, unfortunately time does not heal, it conceals. And the body will remember the trauma. And so to 20, 30 years down the line, you’re going to start to have physical expression of illness due to the unresolved trauma.

So ACEs, which are these adverse childhood experiences, they were first studied in the mid-1990s by the CDC and Kaiser Permanente.

And they looked first at 17,500 adults. And they were looking at the health statistics over a lifetime and correlated them with the number of ACEs that they had. When we talk about ACEs, what do we mean? In the context of that study, they were looking at physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, physical and emotional neglect. They were looking at parents separating or divorce, domestic violence or mental illness in the family, substance abuse, and someone in the family being incarcerated.

So as a child, if you experienced one or more of those ACEs, these were some of the statistics. First of all, 67% of all adults said they’d had at least one ACE. And of 67%, 80% of those had 4 or more ACEs. And essentially, if you have a high level of ACEs, this was correlated with a dramatic increase in the risk of 7 out 10 leading causes of death in the U.S. so if you have four or more ACEs, your relative risk of things like cancer is twice as high, hepatitis 2.5 times as high, depression 4.5 times as high, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease 2.5 times higher, and suicide 12 times more likely to commit suicide with 4 ACEs in childhood. If you have 8 or more ACEs, you have triple the risk of lung cancer and 3.5 times the risk of getting heart disease.

But there’s also a very interesting later study done on 15,500 people by the same researchers, which was the CDC and Kaiser Permanente, just specifically looking at autoimmune disorders. And what they found, again, dramatic statistics. Two or more ACEs, you’re 100% more likely to be diagnosed with rheumatic diseases.

…

How that’s translated in the brain is it’s a chronic fear response that is constantly there. And the brain responds by actually increasing the number of neurons in the brain that react to fear and stress. The amygdala expands. It becomes more activated. That will translate through the hypothalamus, through the HPA axis, the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis, and that will translate, also impacting the immune system.

…

there’s many experts in the Lyme field who acknowledge that this emotional trauma is a primary impact. And I happen to know Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt’s work very well, very familiar with his work and having interviewed him on my summit, he has his, I think it’s called the “Klinghardt axiom,” which is for each amount of bacterial infection in the body, there will be an equal amount of unresolved toxicity. And for each amount of unresolved toxicity, there will be an equal amount of unresolved emotional trauma. So these things all go hand-in-hand. And they need a multifactorial approach, if that makes sense.

If you are not yet registered you can do so here and catch interviews today and the replays on Monday: 
https://qt247.isrefer.com/go/LYME16reg/trudyscottcn

And a reminder if you are considering purchasing the series for later listening and learning, the process will increase when then summit ends. Here is that purchase link: 
https://qt247.isrefer.com/go/LYME16order/trudyscottcn/

PS. Tomorrow you get a full day of replays of ALL the interviews so enjoy the rest of the summit!

Heavy metal detox on Chronic Lyme Disease Summit – starts Monday

By Trudy Scott 4 Comments

Just a quick reminder that the Chronic Lyme Disease Summit starts tomorrow Monday April 4th and runs through April 11th.

lyme-day1

Here are the speakers for day 1. And you can register here:
https://qt247.isrefer.com/go/LYME16reg/trudyscottcn

Dr. Jay Davidson is the fabulous host of the summit and he covers Heavy Metal Detoxification and Lyme Disease and why he is so passionate about this topic and getting the message out there. He shares the story of his wife’s Lyme disease and how she didn’t have the classic bulls eye rash and how they didn’t even find a tick. It was when his wife gave birth to their daughter that she got really sick and almost died.

He shares the role heavy metals (lead, mercury and aluminum) play and where they are found:

  • High fructose corn syrup contains mercury
  • Contact lenses cleaners in the 80s or even early 90s contained thimerosal
  • Red lipstick contains lead
  • And many more sources of these metals!

Dr. Davidson goes into great depth into heavy metal chelation in this interview:

I’m not really a big fan of the cilantro and the chlorella. Even though those are talked about a lot in the heavy metal world. It seems as if those stir things up more than they actually are able to pull things out.

For instance, when you’re looking at studies with chlorella and cilantro a lot of the studies will be in vitro or they’re looking at the chlorella binding to mercury, or the cilantro binding to mercury in a petri dish. But I think it’s a whole different set of circumstances in the science world. And you look at in vivo of in the body, being able to grab onto it in the body and pull it out.

He shares that he is a fan of glutathione:

I know there’s definitely a lot of disagreement in this world of “Well, should we raise glutathione or shouldn’t we? Are we causing other issues?” But I really love glutathione because glutathione is one of those things that helps to neutralize mercury in the body

Dr. Davidson goes into great depth on heavy metal detox and the hard lessons he has learned. It is an intense interview full of very specific information (probably the most detailed heavy metal interview I’ve listened to!) He ends with this connection to Lyme disease:

I don’t know if anybody can ever truly get well from Lyme disease if there’s mercury and lead in the body if you’re not detoxing that. Because essentially what happened with my wife is as we started detoxing the mercury and lead, which she was also high levels of mercury and lead in her body, toxic levels of it, it started releasing the biofilm, which allowed her body and her immune system to say “Hey, there’s bugs underneath these blankets of biofilms.”

Signing up for the event is worth it just for this interview!

Register here https://qt247.isrefer.com/go/LYME16reg/trudyscottcn

And a reminder that the price increases once the summit starts so make your purchase now if you are wanting to keep this valuable information for your learning library
https://qt247.isrefer.com/go/LYME16order/trudyscottcn/

Enjoy!

Vagus nerve rehab with GABA, breathing, humming, gargling and key nutrients

By Trudy Scott 248 Comments

vegas nerve rehab

I’ve got an issue going on with my vagus nerve at the moment and the throat spasms have been affecting my voice and ability to speak for any length of time. It’s also causing this persistent dry cough, despite not feeling sick or having any respiratory symptoms. It’s much worse later in the day and gets particularly bad after about 30 minutes of talking.

I’ve been working with the very talented PT/nutritionist Joe Tatta for the last week and I am seeing much improvement already. I’m also learning so much on vagus nerve rehab.

Joe is a Musculoskeletal Pain Expert and you may recall our wonderful interview on the last Anxiety Summit on pain and anxiety.

Let me give you some of the back story. Just over a week ago I posted this message in a private facebook group of integrative practitioners/colleagues:

I’d love some help for me please. I have this ongoing spasmodic dry cough that starts as soon as I talk and gets worse later in the day. As you can imagine it’s affecting my day to day meetings, seeing clients and doing interviews, not to mention being highly irritating!

I don’t feel sick at all and have no congestion. It started after my NYC trip and a really frightening flight over the Colorado mountains!

We had the most awful turbulence and it felt like wings on the plane were going to break. People were screaming and the parents behind us were reassuring their kids saying it’s ok, it’s just like a roller coaster ride. I was sitting next to a 6’4’’ young man who had just completed training in the Coast Guard. He was also terrified and said they had taught him how to survive a boat going down but not how to survive a plane going down.

I believe my immune system got suppressed big time! The day after I got home I got the flu for the first time in 30+ years and I felt pretty grim for a day and then recovered nicely over the next 4-5 days. The flu was over 10 days ago but this stupid cough continues!

One night I could not sleep due to the coughing and decided to try and relax my airways with GABA. I know how effective GABA is for stiff and tense muscles so why not try it for the throat spasms I was having? I am now able to have a reasonable conversation for say 15-30 mins if I take 500mg GABA opened on to my tongue. Viola! a new use for GABA – pretty cool!

I must be low in GABA because I’m able to take upwards of 5 (and sometime more) doses of 500mg a day and not feel too wiped out. That’s a lot of GABA for me – 125mg to 250mg used to be enough for the anxiety I once experienced! I did have a bit of my old early morning waking with anxiety (that I used to have in my late 30s) that week of the flu but that’s now gone.

I’m also using a homeopathic called Boiron Drosera. I’ve never had asthma and don’t have much experience with it but from what I’m reading it sounds like the“cough-variant” of asthma!?

I’m asking here because I’m intrigued by this whole scary flight/depressed immunity/GABA for the spasms thing and wonder if anyone here has any insights?

Joe Tatta responded in about 30 minutes with this message:

Sounds like you have a vagus nerve problem. Potentially loss of parasympathetics. You can read some in this article but there is much more…

Here is the article he shared: Arnold’s nerve cough reflex: evidence for chronic cough as a sensory vagal neuropathy

Arnold’s nerve ear-cough reflex is recognised to occur uncommonly in patients with chronic cough. In these patients, mechanical stimulation of the external auditory meatus can activate the auricular branch of the vagus nerve (Arnold’s nerve) and evoke reflex cough. This is an example of hypersensitivity of vagal afferent nerves, and there is now an increasing recognition that many cases of refractory or idiopathic cough may be due to a sensory neuropathy of the vagus nerve.

The paper presents two cases where the cough was successfully treated with gabapentin. Gabapentin (also known as Neurontin) affects GABA levels and this why I get such great results with GABA.

Gabapentin is drug that is primarily used to treat seizures and neuropathic pain. It is also used for restless leg syndrome and hot flashes, and off-label for anxiety, insomnia, fibromyalgia and bipolar disorder. I’d love to see GABA being studied and used for these conditions especially because gabapentin can cause withdrawal syndrome: Withdrawal symptoms after gabapentin discontinuation and an increased risk of suicidal thoughts.

Joe offered to meet with me via skype and I learned that the neuro-rehab is key. I’ve been doing breathing exercises and humming every hour on the hour for the last week i.e. about 10 times a day. When I hum it’s the “happy birthday” song and I have to think of a specific birthday. I hum and smile and think about my baby sister’s 7th birthday party 37 years ago. I had just come back from Australia and I have such great memories of it! We chatted about it at the weekend and had a good laugh.

I continue to use the GABA as needed, and am also taking GPC (GlyceroPhosphoCholine) and Acetyl-L-carnitine, both of which are acetylcholine precursors for nerve rehabilitation.

Because I’ve had so many questions about what is going on with me and what I’m doing, I have decided to start this blog post and I’ll continue to add to it. I’ve been documenting what has been happening as I go through this rehab because I’m finding it so fascinating.

Stay tuned for all the details:

  • More on the vagus nerve and why it’s so important
  • Why the very scary plane ride triggered this issue I’m having
  • How GABA works to stop the spasms in 5-10 seconds (I have a video to share)
  • Exactly what exercises I’m doing for the rehab and why you need to build up and not do gargling exercises on day one
  • More details about the nutrients: GPC and acetyl-l-carnitine
  • And an interview with Joe Tatta to share his expertise (I’m the patient/client here and am in learning mode)

I wouldn’t suggest trying any of this yourself until I share more because from what I’ve learned so far, you need to slowly built up to certain of the exercises.

Updates April 1, 2016:

Here is the first video (taken March 16, 2016) where I share the story of the scary plane ride and my flu and the start of the throat spasms.  You can hear how my voice sounds and how quickly 500mg GABA relaxes the spasms in my throat/neck.  I share what I learned from Joe Tatta about it being connected the vagus nerve.

Here is the second video (also taken March 16, 2016) where I demonstrate the 3-6-6 second breathing exercise and the happy birthday song humming exercise. I have to think of an actual birthday. I hum and think of my baby sister’s birthday (you can see those photos above).  Be warned, I am what I call “musically challenged!”

Here is the third video (taken late evening March 16, 2016) where you can hear how bad my voice and throat gets later in the day.

Here is the video taken at Heavenly ski resort on March 27, 2016.  You can see me doing my humming exercises in between skiing on this beautiful mountain and how I needed GABA after a strenuous ski run.  And I summarize what has been working for me so far.  I hope you enjoy the stunning scenery too!  I feel so fortunate that we can hop in the car and visit such an amazing place like this on the weekend! It’s about 90 minutes up the hill from where we live.

And here is the final video in this series (taken yesterday March 31, 2016). I demonstrate the exercises I am currently doing: 3-6-6 second breathing, humming (which has improved), the yawning and the tongue massage of the roof of my mouth.  I also talk about GPC and acetyl-l-carnitine.

You can probably see and hear that I am much improved and have not needed much GABA for the last two days now.  In the last week I have interviewed Dr. Josh Axe for his “Eat Dirt” book and Dr. Kelly Brogan for her “A Mind of Your Own” book.  And Dr. David Brady has interviewed me for his Fibrofix Summit and Dr. Eric Zielinski interviewed me for his Essential Oils Summit.  For each interview I did my exercises right beforehand and took 500mg GABA half way through the interview and had immediate relief.

GABA for vagus nerve
I had 2 x 500mg GABA on hand for my interviews – opened and ready to use!

Update: April 8, 2016

I continue to improve and have not needed GABA for 4 days and only have a very mild hint of the throat feeling late evening.

Two days ago I added an essential oil called Parasympathetic. It contains clove and lemon and I’ll share more in a future post.  Right now I can share that I used too much the first day and had the very dry mouth I experienced with too much GPC and acetyl-l-carnitine.

Update: April 22, 2016

A quick update to let you know that my dry spasmodic cough has completely gone.  I  have not had any symptoms for a week and I have stopped the vagus nerve rehab exercises, GPC,  acetyl-l-carnitine, the essential oil called Parasympathetic and GABA.

Additional resources when you are new to using GABAand other amino acids as supplements

As always, I use the symptoms questionnaire to figure out if low serotonin or low GABA or other neurotransmitter imbalances may be an issue.

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 (this is covered in an entire chapter too), 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.

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). 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.

Wrapping up and your feedback

I so appreciate all the caring and concerned comments, feedback and ideas for me!  And boy, am I grateful for Joe and his expertise!

I will still be interviewing Joe so he can share the theory and address questions so please post questions you may have.

If any of this resonates with you or if you have any other questions I’d love to hear back from you.

Please post them in the comments section below.

Chronic Lyme Disease Summit – anxiety, pyroluria & more

By Trudy Scott 6 Comments

The Chronic Lyme Disease Summit runs from April 4th to 11th so I’m sharing some additional information for you.

chronic-lyme-disease-summit-y

The response to this summit, hosted by Dr. Jay Davidson, is out of this world already. Lyme disease is much more talked about than most realize and more people are affected by Lyme disease each year than breast cancer!

Many people with chronic Lyme disease have chronic anxiety too and the focus of my interview is how to use targeted individual amino acids GABA and tryptophan to top up low levels of GABA and serotonin while the Lyme is being addressed.

This gives Lyme sufferers resolution from much of the anxiety (if not all) right away and they don’t need to resort to meds like benzodiazepines or anti-depressants (like the women in the study below). There is also a big connection between Lyme disease and pyroluria and I cover this too.

Here is one study that shows that Lyme-anxiety is very real and that panic attacks may actually be trigged by the Lyme disease:

A paper published in the Journal of Psychiatric Practice in 2000: Panic attacks may reveal previously unsuspected chronic disseminated lyme disease

describes the histories of three patients with panic-like episodes that turned out to be related to underlying, previously unsuspected tick-borne diseases.

Each woman experienced symptoms that are not usual in panic disorder but are typical of neurological Lyme disease, including exquisite sensitivity to light, touch, and sounds, joint pain often in combination with cognitive changes including mental fogginess and loss of recent memory, and some degree of bizarre, shifting, and often excruciating neurological pain. Because these symptoms are atypical of primary panic disorder, they were very helpful in alerting the clinician to suspect an underlying physical illness.

In each case, the results of testing revealed positive hallmarks of disseminated Lyme and other tick-borne diseases [ including Lyme borreliosis caused by the spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, babesiosis, and ehrlichiosis.] Since beginning treatment with intensive doses of appropriate antimicrobial medications for their tick-borne infections, all three patients have become free of panic attacks.

Treatment of their infections by a specialist in Lyme disease allowed one of the women to discontinue anti-anxiety medication completely and another to reduce the dose of medication to occasional use only. The third patient is no longer anxious but her depression is resolving more slowly despite the ongoing use of an antidepressant. Two of the patients have also needed ongoing medication for pain and other symptoms of late-stage, neurological Lyme disease

lyme-trudy

One of my favorite presentations at the 2015 IMMH/Integrative Medicine for Mental Health conference was Dr. Suruchi Chandra’s Neuropsychiatric Lyme Disease talk. She shared that:

Lyme disease is one of the fastest growing infectious diseases in the United States. It can remain dormant for years and then later mimic a number of psychiatric illnesses, including anxiety disorders, mood disturbances, psychosis, and autism-like behaviors. It can be further complicated by the presence of co-infections.

Tune in to the summit to hear more about Lyme and anxiety and the amino acids GABA and tryptophan (and the Lyme-pyroluria connection).

(Please note: I’m not a Lyme disease expert – people seek me out for help with their anxiety and many of them also happen to have Lyme disease. The information we covered in the interview is very powerful for anxiety whether or not Lyme disease is a factor.)

Here are a selection of the many excellent Lyme interviews you’ll hear:

  • Dr. Jay Davidson, DC, PScD: Heavy Metal Detox and Lyme Disease
  • Connie Strasheim: Lyme Disease and Cancer
  • Jack Tips, PhD, CCN: The Gut Microbiome and Lyme disease
  • Shayne Morris, PhD: Biofilm, Bugs and Bacteriophage
  • Bradley Bush, ND: A Lab Test that Actually Works for Detecting Lyme Disease

When you register you get access to 3 talks right away – mine is one of the 3 talks! You can register here:
https://qt247.isrefer.com/go/LYME16reg/trudyscottcn