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Can food and nutrients really help me if I have very severe anxiety and/or panic attacks and I’m using medications?

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food, nutrients and med

As I prepare for “The Anxiety Summit 5: Gut-Brain Axis” (airing in November 2019) I have been going through interviews from the first Anxiety Summit in 2014 and would like to share something that I addressed in my opening interview as a good recap for you as you are on your healing journey with anxiety (or in case this comes up again in the future) – you truly can eliminate anxiety entirely!

This is a question I am often asked: “Can I really eliminate anxiety using food, nutrients (and a functional medicine approach) if I have very severe anxiety and/or panic attacks and I’m using medications?”

Way too many folks don’t believe it’s possible but yes, you can! You can completely eliminate full blown anxiety, panic attacks, social anxiety (where you cannot go out to social event or go and feel so anxious), phobias like fear of spiders or agoraphobia (where you cannot get out of the house), and even obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

Many folks believe their anxiety is much too severe and that food and nutrients couldn’t possibly help. I’m here to tell you this is just not true.

It’s not uncommon for well-known thought leaders to perpetuate this myth, implying anxiety and fears never go away.

Ali Brown, entrepreneurial guru for women, and one of my amazing business mentors, created a program to help businesswomen overcome their fears. She shared this in the program information: “Let’s not forget women’s darkest best friends: anxiety and worry” and admitted “I still have to fight it. I come from a long line of worriers.”

I say no, you don’t have to fight it. Just because you come from a long line of worriers doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to put up with it and live with it. There is something you can do to eliminate the anxiety, worries and fears.

Seth Godin, author and thought leader, says this: “When fear shows up, understand that it never goes away. Dance with it instead.”

While I really enjoy the dance suggestion – it’s fun and the joy of dancing and the exercise may help – however I really do disagree with the fact that he says fear never goes away.

In season 1 interviewed Julia Ross, MA, my mentor and author of The Mood Cure (my Amazon link), on using amino acids for anxiety and she summed it up perfectly:

On a scale from zero to 10, zero is not an unrealistic goal when it comes to anxiety. It’s really the human potential and GABA and tryptophan give us access to it.

I’m going to repeat this because I think it’s really worth repeating. Zero is not an unrealistic goal when it comes to anxiety. Bravo Julia – I totally agree with this and I want you to know this!

It starts with doing trials of GABA and tryptophan, and using food and nutrients, and finding all the root causes and addressing them.

I really want you to know this, remember this, and don’t stop looking for the answer and the root causes. It may be food changes that you need to make. It may be breakfast that you need to eat. It may be low serotonin or low GABA. It may be foods that are problems for you like gluten or dairy. It may be additives in the foods that you’re eating. It may be toxins in your environment. There are many possible root causes, and you may have one or many root causes that are causing your anxiety.

Addressing these root causes with food and nutrients (and a functional medicine approach you can completely eliminate your anxiety even if you have very severe anxiety and/or panic attacks and you’re using medications.

Resources for you

Do you believe your anxiety is much too severe for food and nutrients to be of help?

Or did you believe this and started looking at nutritional and biochemical root causes anyway and found solutions and anxiety resolution?

Little evidence for SSRI use in anxiety and compulsions in ASD: my interview on Nourishing Hope for Autism Summit

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One of the reasons I’m so passionate about participating on summits like The Nourishing Hope for Autism Summit and sharing the powerful nutritional interventions is due to the fact that medications such as antidepressants and benzodiazepines are frequently prescribed in ASD – and the research and clinical evidence shows that children and adolescents with ASD (autism spectrum disorder) are more vulnerable to the side effects.

This paper, Psychopharmacological interventions in autism spectrum disorder, makes the following conclusion:

Psychopharmacological treatment of core and associated symptoms in ASD is challenging, in large part because ASD presents in many different ways. Furthermore, children and adolescents with ASD are more vulnerable to the side effects of psychopharmacological intervention than their age-matched, typically developing counterparts.

This paper, Pharmacotherapy of emotional and behavioral symptoms associated with autism spectrum disorder in children and adolescents, supports this, stating there is little evidence to support the use of SSRIs in ASD:

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors are often used in clinical practice to target anxiety and compulsions; however, there is little evidence to support its use in this population. There is a great need for further research on the safety and efficacy of existing psychotropic medications in youth with ASD.

And this paper published a few months ago, An update on pharmacotherapy of autism spectrum disorder in children and adolescents, concludes that

Overall, the evidence is limited for pharmacotherapy in children with ASD, and side-effects with long-term use can be burdensome.

Much of this also applies to adults with ASD and in my interview I talk about the psychiatric medicine concerns within the ASD community and the high incidence of anxiety, aggression, irritability and OCD in this population.

We also discuss the following nutritional solutions in my interview (appropriately titled: How to calm anxiety, and eliminate aggression and OCD) –

  • the role low serotonin plays in anxiety, aggression and OCD/obsessions and the use of tryptophan and when to avoid 5-HTP
  • the low GABA type of physical anxiety and how to effectively use GABA for results
  • how to use inositol for OCD and some wonderful success stories
  • lead toxicity and increased anxiety and the protective role of tryptophan and ascorbic acid
  • phenols and oxalates other special diets (and my story with oxalate issues)

Our interviews are always fun, science based and practical – and in this one we even shared some of our personal results (both good and bad) with some of these nutrients.

Here are just a few of the speakers and topics I’m really looking forward to hearing:

  • James Adams, PhD: The Scientific Evidence Linking Nutrition and Autism Improvement
  • Dietrich Klinghardt: Understanding Lyme, Infections, Mold, and Heavy Metals and the Effects on Autism
  • Chef Pete Evans: Food is Medicine, Inspiration from a chef
  • Kaalya Daniel, PhD: How You Can Use the Healing Properties of Camel’s Milk for Autism
  • Dominic D’Agostino, PhD: Is the Ketogenic Diet Right for an Autistic Child?
  • Susan Owens, MS: The Inflammasome, Oxalates, Autoimmunity and Autism
  • And of course, Julie Matthews, CNC: When GFCF Diets Don’t Work – BioIndividual Nutrition for Autism

This summit provides you with information and tools that address the root causes so medications such as the above do not even have to come into the picture!

The Nourishing Hope for Autism Summit runs July 30 to August 3 and is hosted by my dear friend and colleague Julie Matthews, whose work you’re probably very familiar with. In case Julie’s work is new to you, in my eyes, she is THE autism nutrition expert. I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing her a number of times on the Anxiety Summit, I endorse her Bioindividual Nutrition training (special diets) for practitioners, I highly respect the work she does and I adore her!

The focus of this summit is clearly autism and Julie is THE expert so you’ll learn a ton from the experts she has gathered.

But do keep in mind that those with autism or Asperger’s are often considered the canaries in the coalmine and even if you don’t have a loved one with ASD many of the interviews have wider applications for anxiety, ADHD and other developmental and learning disorders.

Register here for The Nourishing Hope for Autism Summit to learn more! It airs online from July 30 to August 3, 2018