zinc

Anxiety nation: why are so many of us ill-at-ease

May 1, 2014 By Trudy Scott 12 Comments

Anxiety nation – this is what we are!

I recently received a call from a school in New York City asking me to present to the parents of the autistic children who go to the school. The school director said the biggest issue their kids face is …anxiety and OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder).

“For a condition that affects so many of us, there is very little agreement about what anxiety actually is. Is it a physiological condition, best treated with medication, or psychological – the product of repressed trauma, as a Freudian might suggest?

Is it a cultural construct, a reaction to today’s anomic society, or a more fundamental spiritual and philosophical reflection of what it means to be human?

For most sufferers, the most pressing concern is whether drugs work, and if therapy is a good idea.”

This is an excerpt from a recent article with this same title on newstatesman.com – you can read the whole article here.

The author also states:

“The most recent nationwide survey, which took place in 2007, found that three million people in the UK have an anxiety disorder.

About 7 per cent of UK adults are on antidepressants (often prescribed for anxiety, too) and one in seven will take benzodiazepines such as Xanax in any one year.

Mental health charities warn that our anxiety levels are creeping even higher”

Something is NOT working, both in the UK, here in the USA and in other developed countries – it’s time to be open to more than only medications and therapy.

I’d like to suggest that we rather look at the beneficial effects of real whole food and nutrients (like zinc and GABA and tryptophan) and exercise and yoga and nature.

Here are a few examples:

Low blood sugar can result in anxiety
Good levels of zinc and vitamin B6 can help many anxious introverts not feel anxious in social settings
Red meat is good (provided it’s grass-fed) and coffee is not – listen to an audio interview on these topics

This questionnaire is taken from chapter 6 of The Antianxiety Food Solution: How the Foods You Eat Can Help You Calm Your Anxious Mind, Improve Your Mood and End Cravings, now available in major books stores, at Amazon and via www.antianxietyfoodsolution.com. – See more at: https://www.everywomanover29.com/blog/low-gaba-questionnaire-anxiety/#sthash.UI3XqHNv.dpuf

Read more in The Antianxiety Food Solution: How the Foods You Eat Can Help You Calm Your Anxious Mind, Improve Your Mood and End Cravings, available in major books stores, on Amazon and via www.antianxietyfoodsolution.com

Designs for Health, The Pantry Principle, Hawthorn University and Organic India: a BIG thank you!

October 8, 2013 By Trudy Scott 11 Comments

I exhibited at the recent Integrative Medicine for Mental Health / IMMH conference and appreciate the support of my sponsors or “partners.”

Designs for Health, a professional brand, offered exclusively to health care professionals and their patients through referral, donated bottles of Zinc Challenge for my zinc testing. This is something I like to do at events because zinc is such a common deficiency, especially when it comes to anxiety and depression. Low zinc is common in pyroluria – you can do the pyroluria questionnaire from my book to determine if this may be an issue for you. There are 4 different levels of the zinc taste test: here is more information and an example of how it should taste.

Designs for Health Zinc Challenge – for zinc status testing

Mira Messy, NE, author of The Pantry Principle: How to read the label and understand what’s really in your food. I had 10 of her wonderful books on display and available for purchase, plus a small standup poster with information, plus space on my signup sheet for people to get on her email list. We did a trade and she is going to be exhibiting at HMN Natural Living Conference on Oct 12 and will reciprocate with my book The Antianxiety Food Solution: How the Foods You Eat Can Help You Calm Your Anxious Mind, Improve Your Mood, and End Cravings.

Hawthorn University “is dedicated to providing supportive, comprehensive, and professional education in the fields of holistic health, nutrition, and the health sciences through the utilization of distance education methods. Hawthorn offers online undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate degrees, certificates and continuing education programs to a diverse community of adult learners working to enhance health and wellness around the world.” I displayed fliers for these programs at my booth and was available to answer questions that my booth visitors had about their programs.

Hawthorn University fliers – “Nutrition Consultants promote health and balance”

Organic India is a herbal tea and supplement company which “promotes sustainable organic agriculture and protects the bio-diversity of the Earth, while supporting thousands of marginal farmers and tribal communities in rural India.” They donated organic tulsi tea: “Tulsi, also called Holy Basil, is revered throughout India as a sacred herb infused with healing power and is considered to be the “Queen of Herbs.” Abundant in antioxidants, certified organic Tulsi Tea is not only great tasting; it offers stress relief, increased energy and a boost to your natural immune system.” Also, because they are naturally caffeine-free they fit perfectly with my antianxiety food solution message of no to coffee! My favorite is the lemon-ginger – it’s delicious!

Organic India – a selection herbal tulsi tea

A big thank you to Designs for Health, The Pantry Principle, Hawthorn University and Organic India!

Zinc, turmeric and tryptophan for brain health and mood

September 4, 2013 By Trudy Scott 33 Comments

So much can be done using the amazing healing power of foods and nutrients when it comes to brain health and mood. I truly believe this holistic health approach is the way to go because it gets back to basics and addresses the root causes of issues instead of the using the band-aid approach. The added bonus is that this approach also improves focus, skin health, digestion, heart health and more.

Here are just some of my top nutrients for a healthy brain and great mood!

Zinc is one of the top nutrient deficiencies I see with my clients.

Zinc is a key nutrient for the prevention of anxiety and depression, especially the type of social anxiety called pyroluria. Here is the pyroluria questionnaire: https://www.everywomanover29.com/blog/pyroluria-questionnaire-from-the-antianxiety-food-solution/ It’s also been shown to be beneficial for sleep, cognitive function and for healing from traumatic brain injury. Zinc is also an important co-factor in making the neurotransmitters GABA and serotonin.

Turmeric is an uncommon yet powerful supplement

Research shows that turmeric has “promising cardioprotective and anti-inflammatory properties”. We often see inflammation and brain/mood problems go hand in hand. Inflammation produces cytokines which activate the IDO enzyme, degrading tryptophan and leading to less serotonin and less melatonin. This can result in increased depression and anxiety, poor sleep and poor focus. A new randomized, controlled clinical trial published in the journal Phytotherapy Research has confirmed that the primary polyphenol in turmeric known as curcumin is both safe and effective in treating serious states of depression. One study even found that turmeric benefited 3 patients with Alzheimer’s disease and reduced symptoms of irritability, agitation, anxiety, and apathy.

Tryptophan is an amazing amino acid

It promotes sleep and improves depression, anxiety, panic, worry and OCD /obsessive compulsive symptoms in people who have low serotonin. I have my clients do this questionnaire so we can figure out which deficiency they have https://www.everywomanover29.com/blog/amino-acids-mood-questionnaire-from-the-antianxiety-food-solution/ Although there isn’t a great deal of research on this amino acid and “the evidence base is significantly larger for depression than for anxiety disorder”, tryptophan is recognized as an add-on for when someone is on medications. I see so much success using tryptophan with my clients that I wish it was the first choice before anti-depressants!

I’d like to share some recent success I’ve seen with tryptophan. I’ve been having the most amazingly rewarding sessions with a young man (and his mom). During our first session, an in-office trial of 100mg of chewable tryptophan reduced his worry, sadness and very busy thoughts from a 7/8/9 out of 10, to a 3 out of 10 within 5-10 minutes. He said “my head feels different…good different…I’m thinking happy things”. He started to smile a lot. He also has a repetitive behavior which went from 7/8 out of 10, to a 5 out of 10. Tryptophan is known for reducing OCD but it wasn’t quite enough and we have had to add inositol too. I know the amazing amino acids work wonders but I’m always thrilled when I see them in action changing lives. And most of all, I’m so pleased his mom decided to go this route first instead of having him take medications. We are simply addressing nutritional deficiencies like low serotonin and low zinc [he did also need zinc].

What supplements have you found to be beneficial for your brain health, anxiety or depression?

Zinc deficiency is common: using liquid zinc status test as an assessment tool

December 21, 2012 By Trudy Scott 156 Comments

zinctest

“Zinc deficiency is quite common in the developing world. Even in the United States, about 12 percent of the population is probably at risk for zinc deficiency, and perhaps as many as 40 percent of the elderly” Science Daily, Sept 17, 2009

I, however, find that the majority of my clients with anxiety, pyroluria, depression and/or sugar and carb cravings are low in zinc. I have all my clients do the zinc status test when we start working together and then we retest their levels each week until they have good zinc levels. I use zinc sulfate, a liquid zinc that tastes a certain way depending on zinc levels.

Zinc Status test (also called zinc taste test or zinc tally or zinc challenge)

Category 1:

No specific taste or sensation – “It tastes like water” INDICATES GREATEST NEED FOR EXTRA ZINC

Category 2

No immediate taste noticed, but after a few seconds, a slight taste is noticed – ‘stale’, ‘dry mineral’, ‘furry’ or ‘sweet’ INDICATES SOME NEED FOR ZINC

Category 3

A definite mildly unpleasant taste is noticed almost immediately , and tends to intensify with time.. INDICATES LESS NEED FOR ZINC

Category 4

A very strong and very unpleasant taste is noticed immediately – bad enough to need to spit it out.. INDICATES NO NEED FOR ADDITIONAL ZINC, EXCEPT THAT FOUND IN A MULTIVITAMIN

Here is a video of Kelly taken at the recent 2012 Weston A Price conference. She did the zinc status test at my Antianxiety Food Solution booth and this is how the zinc sulfate should taste! Really really terrible! She was the one and only person over a 3 day period who had this reaction. Most of the other attendees scored either 1 or 2 i.e low zinc; a few people scored 3.

If your zinc status is good, this is what the zinc sulfate should taste like!

Zinc is an important and much-needed mineral:

Zinc is needed for neurotransmitter functioning ie to make “calming” GABA and “happy” serotonin
Zinc helps eliminate pyroluria (a social anxiety condition – see the pyroluria questionnaire here
Zinc is critical for wound healing, protein synthesis, muscle contractions, skin conditions
Zinc is critical for taste buds and appetite
Zinc is crucial for blood sugar control, weight control and diabetes
Zinc is crucial for thyroid health and sex hormones (and fertility)
Zinc is important for immunity and protection against yeast infections
Zinc helps with mental alertness and brain function, as well as sleep
Zinc is needed for many enzymatic processes in the body
Zinc is not stored in the body and can be depleted by sugar consumption, exercise and sweating and stress

Food sources of zinc

The highest concentration of zinc is oysters
Zinc is also found in other shellfish such as shrimps and crab
Zinc is also found in red meat, fish, poultry and cheese
It’s also found in smaller amounts in whole grains, beans, miso, tofu, nuts and seeds, mushrooms and broccoli (many of the plant sources also contain phytic acid which binds to zinc and prevents it being absorbed; many also contain copper so overdoing something like nuts or nut flours can be an issue for many of my clients with low zinc and anxiety)

Zinc supplements

I have found that zinc supplement containing 30mg is a good place to start if your level is low i.e. level 1 or 2 or even 3. I also find that Opti-zinc is very well absorbed by most of my clients (I like the Solaray brand). For someone with pyroluria I prefer a zinc supplement without copper and this brand is free of copper.

Here is my blog with the supplements I recommend to clients and details on how to set up an account with the fulfilment company I use. Simply search for zinc and you’ll find various professional grade zinc products and the zinc tally or zinc challenge products.

If you’d like more information on zinc, pyroluria and anxiety, a great resource is my book The Antianxiety Food Solution: How the Foods You Eat Can Help You Calm Your Anxious Mind, Improve Your Mood and End Cravings, available in major books stores and from Amazon. You can read more about it here.

HMN twitter Food Mood party: more on pyroluria and zinc

January 25, 2012 By Trudy Scott Leave a Comment

Do you experience anxiety, social phobia and inner tension that you cover up? Do you have poor dream recall? If yes, then read on.

On January 10^th The Holistic Moms Network invited me to answer questions at their January 10^th twitter party on Food and Mood. It was a great virtual “event” with really great questions.

A colleague, Mira Dessy, Certified Nutrition Educator and holistic health columnist, provided a great summary of much of the discussion. I added some information on sugar and cravings and I’d like to add to the discussion on zinc.

There are a subset of anxious people who do need higher amounts than the average person. From Mira’s blog “Zinc can be found in beef (grass fed is best), calf liver, venison, spinach, shitake mushrooms, and pumpkin seeds. It’s very important for pregnant women and children to get enough zinc with the addendum that zinc is a trace mineral and we do not need massive doses of it.” I agree, we don’t need massive doses but if you have pyroluria (anxiety, social phobia, inner tension you cover up – here is the complete pyroluria questionnaire) you will benefit from zinc and vitamin B6 supplements (at a minimum).

Again, thanks to Mira and read her blog to get the rest of the discussion. And thanks to HMN! Do come to the next HMN twitter party – they are a lot of fun and very informative!

Much of this information relating to anxiety and mood and food (and so much more) is covered in The Antianxiety Food Solution: How the Foods You Eat Can Help You Calm Your Anxious Mind, Improve Your Mood and End Cravings, available in major books stores, at Amazon and via www.antianxietyfoodsolution.com