Kelly Brogan

Nutrition Solutions from the Anxiety Summit: New Research, Trends and Opinions

May 1, 2015 By Trudy Scott 4 Comments

AS-hawthorn

“Could diet and nutrition be central determinants of mental health? Find out when Trudy Scott, CN, provides evidence presented at The Anxiety Summit, seasons 1 and 2, which has showcased vitally important research now available to integrative practitioners and to people who suffer with anxiety, panic attacks, social anxiety and OCD. The gut-brain connection and microbiome, methylation, adverse effects of benzodiazapines, the role of inflammation, and controversial opinions about serotonin, GABA and urinary neurotransmitter testing are a few of the concepts that will be shared.”

This is the blurb describing my recent online presentation/webinar at Hawthorn University, a Leader in Online Holistic Nutrition Education. Doing this presentation: “Nutrition Solutions from The Anxiety Summit: New Research, Trends and Opinions” was a fabulous opportunity to highlight some of the incredible season 1 and season 2 speakers and share some of the exciting research. I also had the opportunity to share quite a few differences of opinions around GABA, serotonin and neurotransmitter testing.

Here is the presentation – enjoy!

Here are a few snippets from the presentation:

Dr. Felice Jacka, Principal Research Fellow at Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia shared this in our interview titled: “The Research – Food to prevent and treat anxiety and depression?”

We’ve now seen data from right around the world right across every continent and across age ranges, showing that diet really does matter to the prevalence and incidence of depression and anxiety.

Dr. Kelly Brogan, MD and Holistic women’s health psychiatry, shared this in our interview titled: “Psychoneuroimmunology, the new psychiatry”

it’s about no longer looking at psychiatry as a head up phenomenon, which at best can result in limited outcomes and at worst, can be quite dangerous”… and it “also sort of ropes in the gut and the endocrine system with the implication being that you cannot treat one without knowledge about the other.

In my talk “Targeted individual amino acids for eliminating anxiety: practical applications,” I shared this:

You’ll hear some practitioners say GABA molecules are too large to cross the blood brain barrier so GABA won’t work or if it does work you must have a leaky blood brain barrier

I have seen research indicating that GABA’s relaxing effect may be due to peripheral effects rather than the effect on/in the brain.

You can access a PDF copy of the presentation on the Hawthorn University site. While you’re there, do check out their other webinars and program offerings.

If you tuned in for season 1 and season 2, this gives you a nice recap. If you didn’t listen to season 1 and season 2 and enjoyed these highlights, be sure to check out all the The Anxiety Summit Season 1 and The Anxiety Summit Season 2 speakers and topics.

Either way I hope it has inspired you to want to hear more on season 3 which starts next week! I’ll be taking a deeper dive into troubleshooting when you are using (or recommending) amino acids and what to do when the pyroluria protocol is not working for you.

Here are just a few other highlights from Season 3:

keep-learning We have a whole set of new topics, new speakers and new research to share – so you can learn more nutritional solutions for anxiety. Join us here: season 3 of The Anxiety Summit.

The Anxiety Summit – Psychoneuroimmunology, the new psychiatry

November 5, 2014 By Trudy Scott 9 Comments

Dr. Kelly Brogan, MD. Holistic women’s health psychiatry was interviewed by host of the Anxiety Summit, Trudy Scott, Food Mood Expert and Nutritionist, author of The Antianxiety Food Solution.

Psychoneuroimmunology, the new psychiatry

The role of inflammation in anxiety and depression
Hormones and where the endocrine system fits in
Where inflammation comes from
What a healthy microbiome looks like
Natural lifestyle interventions to reverse symptoms and favorite nutraceuticals
Why psychiatrists don’t know about this

Here are some snippets from our interview:

What psychoneuroimmunology refers to is essentially the inherent inter-connectedness between multiple systems. So, it’s about no longer looking at psychiatry as a head up phenomenon, which at best can result in limited outcomes and at worst, can be quite dangerous. And what psychoneuroimmunology implies is that there is a relationship between neurology – so, between brain science – and the immune system. It is sometimes called psychoneuroendocrinology – it also sort of ropes in the gut and the endocrine system with the implication being that you cannot treat one without knowledge about the others. So, I think it’s very exciting and really is a term that embodies functional medicine, or naturopathy at its best.

What many are speaking about is something called the cytokine model, which has been around since 1991, the first paper hypothesizing about this model. So, it’s been a growing literature for some time. And what it refers to is essentially it looks at depression or anxiety, for example, as this non-specific sort of fever that tells us actually very little about what’s causing the body to react, but tells us that there’s is an expression of imbalance and that the body is working to recalibrate. So, there’s some sort of stressor or triggers or assault and the compensatory response on the part of the body is what we are seeing as these psychiatric symptoms.

Cytokines in the blood, or inflammatory messengers, such as CRP, IL-1, IL-6, and TNF-alpha are predictive and linearly related to depression and anxiety, especially in women.

Here is Dr. Brogan’s wonderful blog post on the topic of Psychoneuroimmunology, the new Psychiatry

What is driving this inflammation? How does it get kicked off? And how does it induce depression? With the limited clinical applications and revelations that came with the completion of the Human Genome Project in 2002, we have begun to focus on where we have outsourced our physiologic functions.

The microbiome has become an important consideration, and particularly, the gut, which houses at least 10 times as many human cells as there are in our bodies, and 150 times as many genes as are in our genome. These microbes control many vital operations and are responsible for synthesis of neuroactive and nutritional compounds, for immune modulation, and for inflammatory signaling.

Here is one of the studies on how traditional diets can impact the microbiome: Intestinal microbiota, probiotics and mental health: from Metchnikoff to modern advances: Part II – contemporary contextual research

researchers reported less potentially pathogenic bacteria, yet a far greater degree of biodiversity and microbial richness in rural Africans living a traditional lifestyle and consuming traditional high fiber foods

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

The Anxiety Summit: Misunderstood and Mistreated – Reinventing Psychiatry

June 20, 2014 By Trudy Scott 8 Comments

[REPLAY on Saturday 6/21 – ENJOY!]

This is day 1 of the Anxiety Summit. Dr. Kelly Brogan, M.D., Holistic women’s health psychiatry, is interviewed by host of the Anxiety Summit, Trudy Scott, Food Mood Expert and Nutritionist, author of The Antianxiety Food Solution.

Misunderstood and Mistreated: Reinventing Psychiatry

misconceptions around causes of mental illness
the danger of psychiatry and a better model of mental illness
bodily problems that masquerade as psychiatric
top lifestyle interventions and powerful natural treatments

Here are great gems from my interview with Kelly:

there is never a realm in health where you have more opportunity to turn things around through these lifestyle changes than in mental health

we can use inflammatory markers like c-reactive protein to actually tell us which patients are going to develop depression

I have been most compelled by the fact that there is absolutely no mortality benefit for prescribing statins to women. Period

Lifestyle, diet, gut and inflammation

Kelly has a huge focus on lifestyle changes and a healthy Weston A. Price type of diet. She advocates for animal protein and teaches her patients about eating healthy fats. Isn’t that so wonderful? Here is one of her blogs on the topic: Western Diet Causes Cognitive Impairment, Anxiety, and Depression

I just love that she no longer writes prescriptions for SSRIs. She only writes benzodiazepine prescriptions when it’s acute post-partum or psychosis.

We talked about the role of the gut and inflammation in depression and anxiety. Here is a great article by Kelly on her website: Inflammation in Depression

We also talked about the role of the gut and microbiome. Here is a very interesting and recent article that Kelly wrote for GreenMedInfo – Primal Bugs: The Amazing Hunter Gatherer Microbiome.

GreenMedInfo

Kelly is an advisory board member for GreenMedInfo.com. It was at the recent NANP (National Association of Nutrition Professionals) conference that I met Kelly and Sayer Ji, founder of GreenMedInfo, for the first time.

GreenMedInfo.com is a cool resource I’d like to share with you. They are “The World’s Most Widely-Cited, Open-Access, Evidence-Based Natural Health Resource With 20,000+ Articles!” and are “dedicated to bringing the public information on the science behind natural healing methods, as well as to make available research on the inherent dangers associated with the use of chemicals in our food, drugs, water and environment.”

Here is a great GreenMedInfo infographic on what anxiety does to your body.

If you are like me and get all geeky about the science and research, the GreenMedInfo Professional Membership comes highly recommended. I wish I had been a member when I was writing my book! Here is an example of how they have gathered the research related to stress and anxiety

Kelly is not a fan of the low serotonin theory of depression and anxiety

The interesting thing is that Kelly is not a fan of the low serotonin theory of depression and anxiety. We had a rather interesting discussion around the topic, and we respectfully disagree with each other. Surprisingly enough, this is the only real difference of opinion in the whole summit. I had decided that I wanted to air Kelly’s interview on Day 1, and I could have moved it to a later date because of the difference of opinion that we had, but I think healthy debate is a good thing. Hopefully, we can convince Kelly that serotonin is a factor when it comes to anxiety and depression, but also I would like to learn more about why she feels low serotonin doesn’t play a role.

Julia Ross interview on low serotonin and the amino acids

Please do check out my interview with Julia Ross – Eliminating Anxiety: Amino Acid Therapy and Adrenal Balancing. We spend a big part of the interview discussing the role of low serotonin in anxiety and depression and how effective tryptophan and 5-HTP are for alleviating symptoms.

Meme Grant: Client success story with tryptophan

I use tryptophan and 5-HTP with great success with my clients. Be sure to listen to Meme Grant’s success story on Sunday June 22. She shares how she used amino acids to end her anxiety, panic attacks, insomnia and emotional eating. Tryptophan and GABA made a world of difference for her.

Get your free gift from Dr Kelly Brogan

Top 7 Therapeutic Foods

~~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~~

UPDATE: the summit concluded on Tues 6/24 – season 2 of The Anxiety Summit will be in November 2014. If you’d like to be on the notification list just sign up here www.theAnxietySummit.com

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