Trudy Scott

Saffron has both antidepressant and antianxiety effects

December 30, 2016 By Trudy Scott 71 Comments

In a new study published in Pharmacopsychiatry, Crocus sativus L. versus citalopram in the treatment of major depressive disorder with anxious distress: a double-blind, controlled clinical trial, saffron (Crocus sativus L.) has been shown to have both antidepressant and antianxiety effects. It’s also anti-inflammatory and an antioxidant.

In this study patients received either saffron or an SSRI called citalopram/Celexa:

66 patients with major depressive disorder accompanied by anxious distress were randomly assigned to receive either saffron (30 mg/day) or citalopram (40 mg/day) for 6 weeks.

The Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D) and Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety (HAM-A) were used to assess the effectiveness of the treatment during the study.

60 participants finished the study and they all showed significant improvement in depression and anxiety scores, with no significant difference in effectiveness or side effects from either the saffron or citalopram.

The authors make this conclusion:

The present study indicates saffron as a potential efficacious and tolerable treatment for major depressive disorder with anxious distress.

A 2014 systematic review of clinical studies and examination of underlying antidepressant mechanisms of action of saffron found that:

saffron’s antidepressant effects potentially are due to its serotonergic, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, neuro-endocrine and neuroprotective effects

This means that saffron could potentially be used in place tryptophan or 5-HTP if you score high on the low serotonin section of the amino acid questionnaire (anxiety, worry-in-the head, obsessiveness, negativity and depression, irritability, PMS, afternoon and evening cravings and insomnia) and yet do not seem to benefit from either of these two amino acids.

And you’ll be getting the added antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, neuro-endocrine and neuroprotective effects.

If you do well with tryptophan and/or 5-HTP, I suspect that using a small amount of saffron together with these amino acids could enhance the effects.

Saffron: GABA is one of the mechanisms of action

Update: Dec 20, 2024

I’m adding this section about GABA as a result of saffron coming up in a question in the GABA Quickstart 2.0 program this week. One of the participants asked me this question: “I’m seeing a lot of new Saffron supplements stating that it helps with GABA. Your thoughts on this?”

According this this 2022 paper, Saffron (Crocus sativus L.): A Source of Nutrients for Health and for the Treatment of Neuropsychiatric and Age-Related Diseases

Investigations have shown that aqueous saffron extracts and its constituent safranal exert anxiolytic effects similar to that of diazepam, probably through their interaction with the benzodiazepine binding site at the GABA_A receptor.

In addition, studies have demonstrated that crocins alleviated the obsessive compulsive behavior in rats through an antagonistic action at the 5-HT2C receptor site.

This is a subtype of the 5-HT2 serotonin receptor site and further supports the impacts saffron has on serotonin.

Another paper, also published in 2022, lists GABA as one of the mechanisms of action, in addition to its effects on monoamines (serotonin and dopamine) and N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA).

Additional resources when you are new to using GABA and 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 have yet to use saffron with my clients so I’d love to hear from you (so we all can benefit and learn from each other):

Have you used saffron and found it to be effective for your anxiety and/or depression?
If you’re a practitioner, have you used it with patients or clients?
Have you found 30 mg a day to be the most effective dose and how quickly have you noticed benefits? What symptoms have improved the most?
Have you combined saffron with tryptophan or 5-HTP?
Have you combined saffron with GABA?

Feel free to post your questions below too.

I am on 5-HTP for anxiety and I am wondering about trying tryptophan instead

December 16, 2016 By Trudy Scott 74 Comments

Both 5-HTP and tryptophan help to boost serotonin levels so you can feel happy, calm, sleep well and not crave carbs. I typically have my clients who have low serotonin symptoms start with a trial of tryptophan because it I see such excellent results with this amino acid. That being said, some people simply do better on one versus the other and you may do better with 5-HTP. If you have low serotonin symptoms and are using either of these amino acids and not getting the expected results, it’s worth considering a change.

Here is a question I recently received on the blog. It’s something I’m commonly asked about and something I deal with often when working one-on-one with clients:

I am on 5-HTP (400 mg) [for anxiety]. I am wondering about trying tryptophan instead. What is the best (safest) way to make the switch? What is the starting dose you usually suggest? I am tapering off SSRIs so I know my serotonin reserves are low.

Here are some of the reasons you may want to consider switching and doing a trial of tryptophan

the 5-HTP is not working as you would expect for your anxiety or depression, or other low serotonin symptoms like PMS, insomnia, afternoon and evening carb cravings, negative self-talk, perfectionism, worry in the head and ruminations, and even anger issues or irritability (here is the complete questionnaire)
the 5-HTP is causing digestive issues
you have done an adrenal saliva test and discovered you have high cortisol. If you feel wired-tired I like to use tryptophan because 5-HTP has been shown to raise cortisol levels

Depending on how severe your symptoms are I would have you slowly replace one with the other, keeping in mind that 50mg 5-HTP is roughly equivalent to 500mg tryptophan.

In this particular case she was taking 400 mg 5-HTP and was surprised to hear that she may now need 2000 mg tryptophan, saying “that seems like a lot!”

Here is my feedback:

2000mg tryptophan isn’t too much if you have low serotonin symptoms and need it. If we were working together I would have her start with a trial of 500mg which is the typical starting amount and increase based on her response. If 500mg helps some symptoms but doesn’t give complete resolution of symptoms then I’d have her try 1000mg and monitor symptoms, and then go up to 1500mg and even 2000mg.

She may respond better to tryptophan and may only need 500mg or 1000mg or she may in fact need the full 2000mg.

She is currently taking an SSRI, so I would assume her doctor already knows she has been using 5-HTP and knows her plans to switch, giving approval and monitoring for possible serotonin syndrome. She would also take the tryptophan at least 6 hours from the SSRI.

Here is additional information on SSRI tapering while using amino acids.

Obviously a similar approach could be used to switch from tryptophan to 5-HTP.

I also only ever recommend the Lidtke brand of tryptophan. You can find this and the other amino acids I use with my clients here.

Have you switched from 5-HTP to tryptophan and seen added benefits?

Have you switched from tryptophan to 5-HTP and seen added benefits?

If you’re a practitioner please share if you’ve used this approach successfully.

Genes, lithium, Kundalini yoga, coffee enemas, GABA, dairy: IMMH highlights part 1

December 12, 2016 By Trudy Scott 17 Comments

Here are some highlights from the recent Integrative Medicine for Mental Health conference. We did it live on Facebook, holding my iphone, as the conference was ending. I’m with my colleague Dr. Josh Friedman and this is the video and transcript of our discussion – we cover the following:

Methygenetic Testing to fine tune your gene results
Low dose lithium for irritability and alcoholism
Kundalini yoga if you have a hard time meditating
Coffee enemas for medication detox
Working as a detective to find your root cause
Simple changes like adding GABA or 5-HTP or removing gluten and/or dairy

Ok we are live… Trudy Scott, certified nutritionist and author of The Antianxiety Food Solution and Dr. Josh Friedman, a psychologist interested in integrative medicine approaches to depression.

Josh: I have a new website integrativedepressionsolutions.com and we are at the IMMH conference and it has just wrapped up – there was a huge amount of information, tons to learn, it was wonderful. What were your take aways Trudy?

Trudy: One of the things that I thought was absolutely fascinating was this booth called Methyl Genetic Testing. You can enter your 23andme data and then what you can also do is – while they are running their analysis on that – enter blood work, enter results of organic acid tests and results of stool. They actually show you if your genes are expressing and causing problems. Because you may have a MTHFR methylation genetic defect showing up on your SNP but maybe it is not causing you a problem. So this way you can actually determine if it is causing you a problem. You had shared with me that you have done the training?

Josh: The training was really amazing. Functional medicine looks at how the biochemical pathways of the body are working. This provides you with another layer – which is how are the genes that are programming those enzymes support those pathways – and it can provide you with an awful lot of information. And then they have a very simple program you plug your genes into and it gives you a guide as to what kind of supplements might help.

Trudy: Amazing! So it is really fine tuning the functional medicine and fine tuning what might actually be going on with each individual.

Josh: It gives you the next amount of information because the functional medicine actually shows you what is happening whereas the genetic testing shows you what potentiality there might be. So you might have a folic acid defect or your folate could be fine – so that was pretty interesting.

Trudy: What else did you like?

Josh: I went to a lecture on the use of low dose lithium for all kinds of things. It is something that I’ve known about – obviously pharmaceutical use [of lithium] for bipolar disorder. Low dose lithium can also be used for bipolar disorder, but the two things new I learnt is that it is incredibly helpful for irritability. So I am dealing with [clients with] depression and it is something that I have often not thought about for irritability. It is also helpful for situations if you have a parent or family history or a past history of substance abuse or alcoholism. So that was something that I’ll take home to my office.

Trudy: And it is something that I currently use in my practice and [I learned it from] Dr. James Greenblatt. He actually presented on a similar topic last year and I heard it then. So low dose lithium is the lithium orotate, we want to be clear about that – 5 to 10 mg twice a day is kind of what we are thinking about. I’ve had great results with women with insomnia. It helps to stabilize the mood and when you are using the amino acids you need a stable mood – you can’t have these ups and downs – so the low dose lithium is really good for that. I would like to hear how it goes when you are using it.

Josh: I have used it with some people with a history of alcoholism and it has provided stability in their mood which is really good. What else have you got?

Trudy: I loved Dr. Kelly Brogan, we always love her, don’t we? She is just really fabulous. She talked about the issues with all the medication and how she does not prescribe anymore. And she talked about a good Paleo diet and getting off gluten and all that good stuff. New things that I heard from her was how she loves Kundalini yoga and how she loves it because she can’t meditate. I find a lot of my clients have a problem with meditating so I always say if that does not work find something that is going to work. And she has found that this Kundalini yoga works for her. So tell me a little about what you know about it?

Josh: I think Kundalini yoga is quick movements with very quick breathing so it easily occupies the mind. So for someone who would have a hard time sitting and meditating that kind of movement would be helpful. Other kinds of movements and other types of yoga are Tai Chi or qigong. Movement or walking meditation can be easier practices for stress management if sitting completely still is hard.

Trudy: So we are doing Facebook live here for those of you who are just joining now. We are at Integrative Medicine for Mental Health conference and it is Trudy Scott and Josh Friedman.

And I want to pass the phone to Josh to hold because my arm is sore and killing me. Maybe he will do a better job than me.

The other thing that I heard from Kelly Brogan that I really enjoyed is that she is using coffee enemas. I have quite a lot of experience with them because the first practitioner that I worked with when I was an intern used coffee enemas for detox for cancer and had really good results. Dr. Brogan was saying how effective it is for phase 1 and phase 2 detox. It also helps with bile production and the part that I really like is that it helps with medication detox. So this is something that I’m going to be looking into a little bit more and I’ll come back and share more as I learn more.

Josh: That’s pretty cool. One take away I had is that functional medicine can often be like a very complex process of delving into the root underlying cause of symptoms – so things like detox pathways or different kinds of infections. Trudy here gave a talk – and her talk was on amino acids and dietary change and blood sugar stabilization and stress management. One of the things I heard running through the entire workshop was sometimes it is simple things that can make a huge difference. And so with using amino acids for mood issues it can be incredibly quick.

I don’t remember what her name was, but there was a psychiatrist who presented at the end, she talked about how she got into functional medicine and she was talking about the radical changes she had in her health status from simple dietary changes. So stopping gluten and dairy was a huge change for her.

Trudy: That’s important. We want to realize that these dietary changes and nutrients can have profound effects. I was talking to Dr. Nicole Beurkens earlier [about zinc and GABA for anxiety] and saying a lot of my clients will say “my anxiety and my depression is so severe I have to have medication, there is no way that diet and nutrients can make a difference”. But they really can. It can completely transform your life. I remember you shared a story of someone who got off gluten?

Josh: Yes, I see those powerful changes every day – where someone with a dietary change or a supplement like 5-HTP or GABA just changes everything. It is the one change that might move things along. It is quite amazing.

Trudy: And it is just a matter of finding what that root cause is for your anxiety and your depression – it may be low serotonin, and it may be gluten or you might need lithium support, it may be that you have an infection. We have heard about Clostridia this weekend, we’ve heard about Toxoplasma gondii, we’ve heard about Lyme disease – they can manifest in many different ways, [including anxiety and depression] – so finding that root cause is important.

Josh: So what people were talking about was being a clinical detective. So working collaboratively with your clients and just saying “it is going to be a process, we will find a solution, but it is going to take some time to figure it out.” Then there is a lot of detective work that can be done with pencil and paper: measures, asking questions, a clinical interview and it is putting the person’s story together to get to the bottom of what is going on. And so sometimes we can do that without testing. There are a lot of clinicians here, there are doctors here but neither of us are physicians and a lot of the work we both do is working with clients to try to figure out what that missing piece is.

And so, sometimes the missing piece can be quite small. I had a patient who had debilitating depression, had been hospitalized three or four times and we did one test, and the test was an IgG food allergy test. He was a weight lifter and he was doing 5 whey protein shakes a day, and it came up that he was severely allergic to dairy. He stopped dairy and within two days his mood was back to normal. I spoke to him recently and he has been stable and happy since his mood lifted.

What a wonderful outcome for his client!

And what an excellent conference! This is part 1 of our discussion. Stay tuned for part 2.

Feel free to post questions or comments below. And let us know if any of the above resonate with you?

Gut healing bone broth and SIBO on the Better Belly Project

December 11, 2016 By Trudy Scott Leave a Comment

A quick reminder that The Better Belly Project: Crushing the Critters, Plugging the Leaks, and Balancing the Biome for Your Best Body Ever, hosted by fermentationist, Summer Bock started on December 9th!

Here are some snippets from some of the many excellent interviews.

Kellyann Petrucci, M.S., N.D., is the author of the New York Times bestselling book Dr. Kellyann’s Bone Broth Diet and she shares this about the gut healing bone broth:

I call this my liquid gold, and this is my gold standard, this is my go-to, this is the love of my life, I have to say, is bone broth. Here’s why I love bone broth so much. We talked about your intestines, the long tubing. Well we talked about it being red and inflamed. Think about it like this. If you’ve got a sunburn, it’s inflamed, it’s red, you want to heal it, you want to get it to feel better, so the two things you’re looking for is you want to get out of pain, you want it to feel better, and you want it to heal. You put some aloe vera on there, it calms it, it soothes it, it heals it. But guess what? That’s what bone broth actually does to your gut. That’s what it does to your intestines. It goes in there and it heals it. It seals it. It provides nutrition.

To me it’s one of the most premier and best foods that you can possibly put in your body, and there’s nothing trendy about it. There’s nothing trendy about bone broth. It’s simply putting some healthy bones in a pot with some water. Celery, onions, and carrots for some flavoring, if you want. Throw them in there. Any spices that you want. You want to take that and simmer it for anywhere from 18 to 24 to 48 hours depending on what your goal is and what you’re doing. Just simmer it for a long period of time.

You want to get it gelatinous, because one of the big hitches, one of the beautiful things about bone broth is it really helps your body mainline it’s own collagen. We know that collagen, that’s the glue that holds us together, it’s super important. We lose that as we get older. Cooked collagen is gelatin. Gelatin is a big, big word, because that word means so much to gut health and gut healing. Gelatin, it heals everything so beautifully, particularly the gut. That’s why for me, that’s what I’ve used with patients, with readers, with celebrities, with everybody I work with, my go-to is bone broth. I love it because, again, I’m into the trifecta effect. I want something that I give my patients to work on so many levels so they get a lot done with a little bit of effort, and that’s why I love bone broth.

Dr. Vincent M. Pedre is author of Happy Gut and he shares about Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO)

I’m excited to talk about SIBO because I feel that it is one of the most misunderstood diagnoses. In Western medicine, so regular MD’s, they don’t know how to treat it. They don’t understand the length that it has to be treated in order to resolve the SIBO. SIBO doesn’t resolve overnight. It didn’t happen overnight. It’s not going to resolve overnight.

What happens in SIBO is that you get too many of the good guys in the small intestine, so an imbalance occurs.

If you have methane-predominant SIBO, often these people have constipation because the methane causes the migrating motor complex that controls peristalsis. It causes it to malfunction. These people will develop constipation.

He covers the SIBO breath test and how it measures hydrogen and methane, and the effects of fermented foods:

What we’re looking for and measuring in those samples is hydrogen and methane. Now, this is key because we’ve been talking about bacteria up to now. The methane producers are a genus of bacteria or species that is more archaic. It’s called archaea. They’re not even sure that they’re actually bacteria. They’re very fastidious. They’re a little bit harder to treat.

If it is a methane-predominant and it is probably more Archaea, they will, more likely, do well with fermented foods. It’s not going to worsen their symptoms. It actually will help them get better. We need the lactobacillus to out-compete the archaean to keep it in control.

He covers pros and cons of antibiotics and other medications, herbal approaches and probiotics, pro-kinetics, can you treat it through diet, with fermented foods and changing the diet into a low-FODMAP diet, avoiding the foods with the short-chain carbohydrate, plus tips to improve digestion like reducing stress, having fun, tips for stimulating the vagus nerve and much more. It’s a wonderful interview!

My anxiety-gut interview airs on December 14^th and I address the following in my interview:

IBS and anxiety
psychobiotics
serotonin and the second brain
GABA and GABA-eating bacteria
the vagus nerve and the gut-brain connection
how to use tryptophan and GABA to ease anxiety (and cravings)
melatonin for gut motility and sleep
glutamine for gut healing, calming and intense sugar cravings
prebiotics to lower high cortisol
and probiotic-rich foods too of course!

Why attend?

From the bacteria and flora, to your digestion and your elimination, the way your belly is operating has a lot to do with how you are operating.
You’ll be able to customize your experience so that whether you’re a full-fledged nutrition geek, or simply interested in maximizing your belly’s efforts you’ll find the knowledge and information that is perfect for you.
With all the toxins we’re exposed to, with processed foods and the stress in our lives, it’s more important than ever that your digestion is dialed in.

I hope you’ll join me and the other experts on The Better Belly Project: Crushing the Critters, Plugging the Leaks, & Balancing the Biome for your Best Body Ever

It’s going to be a great online event and I’m so pleased to be part of it. I can’t wait for you to hear the expert speakers: other authors, nutrition professionals, physicians, fermentation specialists and cutting edge experts that are going to be teaching everything belly.

When: December 9th-14th (Put it in your calendar now!)
How much: Nothing!
Where: Here! /online

See you there!

Psychobiotics: a novel class of psychotropic for anxiety (Better Belly Project)

December 5, 2016 By Trudy Scott 7 Comments

psychobiotics

Are you familiar with the term psychobiotics and the role they play in anxiety and depression? In 2013 Dr. Ted Dinan and Dr. John Cryan published a paper titled Psychobiotics: a novel class of psychotropic and in this paper they define a psychobiotic as:

a live organism that, when ingested in adequate amounts, produces a health benefit in patients suffering from psychiatric illness.

They go on to share how these good bacteria or probiotics can impact our mood and anxiety via neurotransmitter production, sharing that they are:

capable of producing and delivering neuroactive substances such as gamma-aminobutyric acid [GABA] and serotonin, which act on the brain-gut axis. Preclinical evaluation in rodents suggests that certain psychobiotics possess antidepressant or anxiolytic activity.

We often incorrectly hear that GABA taken orally is not effective because it can’t cross the blood brain barrier and if it does work it means you have a leaky brain. This is a myth I am working hard to dispel. The authors contribute to this discussion saying the following:

Effects may be mediated [or effects may occur] via the vagus nerve, spinal cord, or neuroendocrine systems.

The authors conclude with information about how these psychobiotics benefit IBS which we now know is often associated with both anxiety and depression. They share that these psychobiotics or good bacteria:

have been most extensively studied in a liaison psychiatric setting in patients with irritable bowel syndrome, where positive benefits have been reported for a number of organisms including Bifidobacterium infantis.

They also report benefits for alleviating symptoms of depression and chronic fatigue syndrome, likely related to:

the anti-inflammatory actions of certain psychobiotics and a capacity to reduce hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity.

The impact these psychobiotics have on inflammation and the adrenals is wonderful since we know about both are closely tied to anxiety and depression, as well as digestive health.

This is older research but Dr. Ted Dinan and his colleagues continue to expand the research and our knowledge on this exciting topic, and we appreciate them for this.

The above is just one topic I cover in my interview on the upcoming online summit: The Better Belly Project: Crushing the Critters, Plugging the Leaks, and Balancing the Biome for Your Best Body Ever, hosted by fermentationist, Summer Bock!

We also cover the following in my interview:

IBS and anxiety
serotonin and the second brain
GABA and GABA-eating bacteria
the vagus nerve and the gut-brain connection
how to use tryptophan and GABA to ease anxiety (and cravings)
melatonin for gut motility and sleep
glutamine for gut healing, calming and intense sugar cravings
prebiotics to lower high cortisol
and probiotic-rich foods too of course!

Here we are during the interview, with me in my new temporary location in Australia.

And we ONLY had one plane fly over! ha ha! Ask me about this – it was hilarious and I plan to share the video…

Here are some additional reasons to attend

From the bacteria and flora, to your digestion and your elimination, the way your belly is operating has a lot to do with how you are operating.
You’ll be able to customize your experience so that whether you’re a full-fledged nutrition geek, or simply interested in maximizing your belly’s efforts you’ll find the knowledge and information that is perfect for you.
With all the toxins we’re exposed to, with processed foods and the stress in our lives, it’s more important than ever that your digestion is dialed in.

I hope you’ll join me and the other experts on The Better Belly Project: Crushing the Critters, Plugging the Leaks, & Balancing the Biome for your Best Body Ever

When: December 9th-14th (Put it in your calendar now!)
How much: Nothing!
Where: Here! /online

Please post your gut, microbiome, IBS and other related questions in the comments. We’ll see you on the summit!

The New Fat Flush Plan book, poor bile production and anxiety

December 2, 2016 By Trudy Scott 12 Comments

A new book by Ann Louise Gittleman, Ph.D., C.N.S., The New Fat Flush Plan, has just released and already it’s a New York Times bestseller. The first edition of this book was an all-time favorite with me and my clients when I first started working as a nutritionist. I’m really pleased to see she has a new edition and I am loving the updates.

I especially enjoy the new sections that address the Top 10 Hidden Weight Gain Factors (the notes in parentheses after each hidden factor are mine):

Hidden Factor #1: Your Tired, Toxic Liver (she has always been an expert on this topic)

Hidden Factor #2: False Fat (this one is intriguing, isn’t it?)

Hidden Factor #3: Fear of Eating Fat (I’m constantly amazed this fear still exists)

Hidden Factor #4: Insulin Resistance and Inflammation (a big factor in so many diseases)

Hidden Factor #5: Stress as a Fat Maker (we know all about this one, don’t we?)

Hidden Factor #6: Messy Microbiome (we’re seeing so much new research on this topic)

Hidden Factor #7: Poor Quality Bile (we don’t hear much about bile so I’m going to share more on this topic – I shared some of it from the Medicinal Supplements Summit here)

Hidden Factor #8: Tuckered Out Thyroid (more and more people are experiencing thyroid issues)

Hidden Factor #9: Hidden Hitchhikers – Parasites (you heard her share her expertise on this topic in our Parasite-Anxiety interview on the Anxiety Summit)

Hidden Factor #10: Missing Magnesium (this one is also a big factor for anxiety)

As you can see much of the above applies to both weight-gain and anxiety. I’d like to share some of the excellent information on poor quality bile because it’s not something we hear much about. Because it’s tied to fluctuating blood sugar levels, toxins and fat digestion, it has a direct impact on anxiety.

If you’ve been taking or are currently taking prescription anxiety or depression medications (SSRIs or benzodiazepines) or other medications then there is also the need for more liver and gallbladder support.

Let’s start with the function of bile:

Made from lecithin, cholesterol and bilirubin, your bile has two jobs. First it emulsifies and digests fat, breaking it down into small particles so that your intestines can absorb them. Second, it helps escort toxins that your liver has removed out of the body.

Ann Louise shares how bile deficiency affects your overall health, prevents weight-loss and encourages weight gain:

You know that erratic blood sugar levels, haywire hunger hormones, a tired toxic liver, and poor detoxification prime the body to accumulate excess fat.

What she shares next is very interesting:

Each of these factors are rooted to some degree in low quality bile as well as other causes. As a matter of fact, bile has such an important role in weight regulation that improving bile quality has been shown to increase metabolism by 50 percent. If you thin the bile you thin the body. Period.

I really enjoy the signs and symptoms she shares in the book. Here are some of the signs and symptoms of low quality bile:

Queasiness after a fatty meal (impaired bile flow)
Light-colored or floating stools (lack of bile output)
Nausea (not enough bile)
Dry skin and hair (lack of essential fatty acids)
Constipation (inadequate bile for lubrication)
Constant feeling of fullness
Inability to lose weight
Pain under the right rib cage (reflective pain from the gallbladder)
Hemorrhoids (congested liver)
Varicose veins (pressure from constipation due to thickened bile)
Pain between the shoulder blades (reflective pain from the gallbladder)
Bloating or gas
Headache over the eyes (gallbladder meridian passes over this region)
Bitter taste in the mouth after meals (sign of bile regurgitation)
History of prescription or recreational drug use (need for more liver and gallbladder support)
Sensitivities to chemicals
Easily intoxicated (need for more liver and gallbladder support)
Fibromyalgia (sign of liver and gallbladder overload)
Hypothyroidism (sign of deficient bile to stimulate active thyroid hormone in fat cells)

Here is a quick summary of the advice she offers to improve bile production:

Elimination of food allergies
Addressing low levels of hydrochloric acid or stomach acid
Controlling stress
Adding bitter greens to the diet
Hot lemon water in the morning (a favorite of the original Fat Flash Plan)
Adding non-GMO lecithin from soy and sunflowers to your morning smoothie
Using castor oil packs
Using a bile building formula that contains choline, taurine, beet root and pancreatic lipase

Here is the link to the New Fat Flush Plan on Amazon so you can check out the bile chapter in detail and read about all the other hidden factors and tools for weight-loss and overall health.

Get a copy for yourself as a gift or get a copy for a friend or sister or other family member. And let us know what you think? And how you do with improving your bile production?

I’m going to work on improving my bile production and I’ll keep you posted on my progress.