I’m SO pleased to see this on the cover the February issue of O Magazine. Helping women with anxiety is my mission because I personally experienced the most awful anxiety and panic attacks in my late 30s and found complete resolution with food and nutrients!
Oprah shares how she has recently come face-to face with mental illness and recognizes that there is shame, that more help is needed and that we need to start talking about it. I commend her for these wise and compassionate words.
And I agree with so much of this: there is no shame, we are not alone and we need to be talking about it and offering help and hope. There is a solution for each one of us (it’s just a matter of finding the right one) and each of us deserves to feel on top of the world again!
I’m hoping to see some coverage of the growing field of nutritional psychiatry in one of the next two issues of O Magazine.
The fact that something like the removal of gluten could eliminate anxiety has not yet reached the mainstream and stories like the ones below would go a long way towards making that happen.
Lauren was feeling overwhelmed with life, she had some stressors that triggered heightened feelings of anxiety and fear. Her daily meditations were not enough to curb the anxiety and the supplements she trialed (inositol, Kava Kava and others) didn’t help either. But she did find a solution that worked for her and shares this in her blog: Tried & True: Gluten-Free Anxiety Fix
At the start of the new year, I found my saving grace. I had discovered an article written by Dr. Kelly Brogan, a Holistic Psychiatrist, in which she discusses the detrimental effects of gluten and the positive use of probiotics in treating neurological disorders. A light bulb went off in my brain. I’ve always considered myself a health-conscious eater, but I’d never paid much attention to the gluten-free trend. I figured since I don’t have celiac disease there was no way gluten could be negatively affecting me. Right? Wrong! There’s plenty of research linking gluten sensitivity to anxiety and depression and numerous testimonials of people who have cured their anxiety and depression by giving up gluten.
It was around this same time that I’d purchased a book called The Antianxiety Food Solution by Trudy Scott who also highly suggests eliminating gluten. The more I delved into the relationship between gluten and anxiety, the less I could convince myself that gluten-sensitivity wasn’t a possible issue for me.
On January 1st, Lauren cut all gluten from her diet. She shares:
It felt like a last ditch effort and I had little hope that it would actually work. Much to my surprise, I started to feel drastically better within a few days of going gluten-free. I would go hours without feeling anxious (a rare feat in the previous month). I was able to enjoy life again! And since I couldn’t eat bread or other gluten-filled foods, I found myself eating a lot more vegetables and protein. It was exactly what my body needed, a healthy, whole foods diet. Within 2 weeks, I was feeling 75% better. Not only did my mind feel better, but my whole body felt better.
Lauren went gluten-free and went from feeling anxious, fearful, defeated, baffled and out of control to feeling better than ever (90% better) in just 24 days.
For some people it’s the removal of gluten that makes the difference, for other it’s addressing biochemical imbalances and other nutritional deficiencies. With Jan it was a matter of addressing low GABA levels with the amino acid GABA and using zinc, vitamin B6 and evening primrose oil for her pyroluria symptoms. She recently shared her lovely results in the comments of this blog post – GABA, the calming amino acid: products and results:
After reading your book The Antianxiety Food Solution and taking one of your workshops I have had a great deal of improvement in my life. I did something I thought I would never be able to do again (not solo yet), but I drove further than I have in over 5 years, which gives me a lot of hope of regaining my independence. I’m a small step taker, but it’s working! I’ve had no panic attacks and so many improvements since I started taking the aminos and using the Pyroluria protocol. I take the GABA before I’m in any of the situations (like driving) that might trigger anxiety and its working! I couldn’t be happier!!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!… I’m getting my life back!
It warms my heart to hear powerful results like this and I appreciate both Lauren and Jan sharing and inspiring others with their hopeful stories.
Be sure to read Lauren’s whole blog post and the GABA blog (to see plenty of feedback from others who have also benefited from GABA).
Now we just need to get to get this information into the mainstream. Hopefully with Oprah starting the conversation and including stories like this, we can make this happen.
There certainly is help and much hope if you have anxiety, depression and other mental health disorders.
Do you have a story of hope to share? Please let us know in the comments.
Sure wish I had a dollar (or even a dime) for every story I’ve read about someone feeling so much better in two weeks after eating/not eating this or that, or taking/not taking this or that, or… well, you get the picture. I’d be a very rich woman by now. I’ve tried so many of these things, and for much longer than 2 weeks. Perhaps I just need to stop fighting.
Nancy
I do too! These wonderful stories are not intended to make you sad or disappointed but rather to give you hope that there is an answer out there for you. For some people it’s a few simple dietary changes, for some it’s adding amino acids or addressing the pyroluria. For others it’s other changes – sometimes simple, other times more involved (here are the 60+ causes I shared on the last Anxiety Summit https://www.everywomanover29.com/blog/60-nutritional-biochemical-causes-of-anxiety/). I encourage you to keep looking and if need be find someone to work you to help you (if you haven’t already done so).
Don’t be fooled! Oprah is fishing for a deal with Big Pharma. She would like the idea of Prozac in drinking water, especially if she can get a cut of the profits.
Lisa
Wow, when I first read your comment I was disappointed because this is such a story of hope. But I always learn from my readers so googled it and this is what I found
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2007/12/06/talking-back-to-prozac/
“During the summer of 2002, The Oprah Winfrey Show was graced by a visit from Ricky Williams, the Heisman Trophy holder and running back extraordinaire of the Miami Dolphins. Williams was there to confess that he suffered from painful and chronic shyness. Oprah and her audience were, of course, sympathetic. If Williams, who had been anything but shy on the football field, was in private a wilting violet, how many anonymous citizens would say the same if they could only overcome their inhibition long enough to do so?
To expose one’s shyness to what Thoreau once called the broad, flapping American ear would itself count, one might think, as disproof of its actual sway over oneself. But football fans knew that Ricky Williams was no voluble Joe Namath. Nevertheless, there he was before the cameras, evidently risking an anxiety attack for the greater good—namely, the cause of encouraging fellow sufferers from shyness to come out of the closet, seek one another’s support, and muster hope that a cure for their disability might soon be found.
Little of what we see on television, however, is quite what it seems. Williams had an incentive—the usual one in our republic, money—for overmastering his bashfulness on that occasion. The pharmaceutical corporation GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), through its public relations firm, Cohn & Wolfe, was paying him a still undisclosed sum, not to tout its antidepressant Paxil but simply to declare, to both Oprah and the press, “I’ve always been a shy person.”
To understand why this was considered a worthwhile outlay, we need to know that the drug makers earn their enormous profits from a very few market-leading products for which new applications are continually sought. If those uses don’t turn up through experimentation or serendipity, they can be conjured by means of “condition branding”—that is, coaching the masses to believe that one of their usual if stressful states actually partakes of a disorder requiring medication. A closely related term is more poetical: “astroturfing,” or the priming of a faux-grassroots movement from which a spontaneous-looking demand for the company’s miracle cure will emanate.
In this instance Cohn & Wolfe, whose other clients have included Coca-Cola, Chevron Texaco, and Taco Bell, was using an athlete to help create a belief that shyness, a common trait that some societies associate with good manners and virtue, constitutes a deplorably neglected illness. Given the altruistic aura of the occasion, it would have been tasteless to have Ricky Williams display a vial of Paxil on the spot. But later (before he was suspended from the football league for ingesting quite different drugs), a GSK press release placed his name beneath this boilerplate declaration:
As someone who has suffered from social anxiety disorder, I am so happy that new treatment options, like Paxil CR, are available today to help people with this condition.”
I had no idea and although I’m disappointed to learn this type of thing happens, and even though I have heard of astroturfing, I believe in the goodness of people and would like to believe that both Oprah and Ricky Williams did this show because they truly believe this story and Paxil will help others. Even if they are both getting paid.
Hopefully enough anxious and depressed people will read the these new O magazine articles (and this blog) and feel hope. And if these articles (and my blog) can educate people who have misconceptions about mental health issues that loved ones suffer then we’re doing good.
Hi, I recently found more info about the Ayurvedic approach to weight control. You may find it interesting and helpful that they suggest guggul for restoring thyroid function.
Lots of free info about dosha diets online, also a new book called The Prime by Dr Kulreet Chaudhary. Good luck!
Trudy, thank you for sharing my story with your readers! I’m truly honored. It was certainly not easy for me to share my story of anxiety. I felt very ashamed about my struggle with anxiety for quite some time. And the more I felt ashamed, the more I struggled. Anxiety IS NOT something to be ashamed of.
While my gluten-free diet has helped me tremendously, it has not been a 100% cure all. At which point, I went back to your book and decided to experiment with amino acid supplementation too. The amino acids (GABA and L-tryptophan) have positively attributed to my overall well being and I can feel my anxiety lessening with every passing day. Going gluten-free, caffeine-free and adding amino acids have all been a blessing to me. I will write a follow-up blog post about amino acids shortly as well.
If my story can touch just one person, I know I’ve done the right thing in sharing it. It’s not an easy journey, but with the right support and willpower, I truly believe we can all heal through a more holistic approach.
Lauren
How wonderful to hear that the amino acids GABA and tryptophan are helping you even more. Thanks for stopping by and letting us know!
It’s such a pity there is shame around this – but the more we talk about it and write about it the better I think it will become.
Thanks again for the original story you posted and I look forward to the amino acid follow-up. Stories like this touch many and give so much hope!
Hi Trudy,
I’ve been able to come a long way by reading your book and implementing those changes. I do think I might have pyroluria though — do you think it’s worth ordering a kryptopyrrole test? I’d like to start working with a professional (such as yourself!) to help with this ongoing anxiety recovery process. Is there anyone in the NYC/NJ metro area you can recommend?
Thanks so much!
Lauren
Lauren
Pyroluria testing is often false negative so I have my clients do the questionnaire and start on the protocol. Just keep this in mind if you do score high and do the test and it’s negative. Dr. Peter Bongiorno ND would be a good referral but I don’t think he’s familiar with pyroluria.
My homestudy program could be a great DIY option for you https://www.everywomanover29.com/aminosforanxietyhs/