This is day 6 of the Anxiety Summit. Dr. Hyla Cass, M.D. board-certified in psychiatry and integrative medicine and the author of Natural Highs and The Addicted Brain and How to Break Free, is interviewed by host of the Anxiety Summit, Trudy Scott, Food Mood Expert and Nutritionist, author of The Antianxiety Food Solution.
The Addicted Brain and How to Break Free
- how to recognize the signs of addiction
- why do we become addicted and what is the connection to anxiety
- food/carbs/sugar, caffeine, alcohol and drug addictions
- how can we end addiction without suffering/withdrawal
Here are some great gems from my interview with Hyla:
in order to make neurotransmitters/brain chemicals that send messages around in our brain, we need the right raw materials
I think the personality becomes addictive because of this imbalanced neurochemistry
I’ve had people sent to me, for example, with anxiety, and it turned out that what was really going on was they were consuming aspartame in their soft drinks
If someone has anxiety, it’s not a Valium or a Xanax deficiency. It could be a GABA deficiency
Low serotonin leads to increased appetite, really craving carbs, feeling depressed, anxious and irritable, and having trouble sleeping
the food industry feeds off us as we’re feeding off of all that junk
This whole idea of a pill for every pill is just wrong
Hyla shared how Dr. Davidson, a conventional psychiatrist from Duke University, discovered that with atypical depression, there were people who were totally unresponsive to the drugs i.e. – nothing worked. He found that those patients did really well with chromium. Here is an article on the Psychology Today blog on chromium for depression.
And here is Hyla’s Huffpo blog post on Is it drugs not guns
Here are two of Hyla’s great books:
Natural Highs: Supplements, Nutrition, and Mind-Body Techniques to Help You Feel Good All the Time
Get your free gifts from Dr. Hyla Cass: “Outsmart Your Addiction Quiz” and “Reclaim Your Brain” e-report
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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As to Dr. Davidson’s article, there are some safety considerations w/chromium picolinate. Would chromium polynicotinate work as well?
Hi CK
Great question.
This article talks about safety considerations – I’d be cautious if someone has kidney disease or liver disease http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter/minerals/chromium/
Some good info here too http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-932-CHROMIUM.aspx?activeIngredientId=932&activeIngredientName=CHROMIUM
This meta-analysis published this year http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24635480 says “The available evidence suggests favourable effects of chromium supplementation on glycaemic control in patients with diabetes. Chromium monosupplement may additionally improve triglycerides and HDL-C levels. Chromium supplementation at usual doses does not increase the risk of adverse events compared with placebo. Data on chromium combined supplementation are limited and inconclusive. Long-term benefit and safety of chromium supplementation remain to be further investigated.”
This paper, also published this year http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24948052 “This review presents the most important results from preclinical and clinical studies showing involvement of essential elements such as zinc, magnesium, lithium, iron, calcium and chromium in depression and anxiety. From these studies it is evident that different types of depression and anxiety respond to treatment at different receptors indicating that the underlying mechanisms are slightly different.”
Trudy
N-joyed listening to Dr. Cass,
Appreciate her knowledge & experience,
loved the glutamine tip – must try!
Fabulous!