This is day 5 of the Anxiety Summit season 1. Julia Ross, MFT, pioneer in the field of Amino Acid Therapy and the author of best sellers The Mood Cure and The Diet Cure, is interviewed by host of the Anxiety Summit, Trudy Scott, Food Mood Expert and Nutritionist, author of The Antianxiety Food Solution.
Eliminating Anxiety: Amino Acid Therapy and Adrenal Balancing
- the role of low serotonin and low GABA in anxiety
- when to use tryptophan versus 5-HTP
- the effectiveness of oral GABA supplements
- how to assess for neurotransmitter deficiencies and the ineffectiveness of urinary neurotransmitter testing
- the adrenals and excess cortisol: how to correct this cause of anxiety
- the issues with using benzodiazapines and SSRIs for anxiety
Here are some great gems from my interview with Julia:
On a scale of zero to ten, 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
Amino acids are really our only hope for quickly reversing the epidemics not only of anxiety, but of depression, compulsive eating, and obesity
We see these low serotonin symptoms disappear in front of us when we administer capsules of one of the two forms of serotonin fuel, either the amino acid tryptophan or the amino acid 5-hydroxy tryptophan
with GABA there’s a whole body relaxing element, as well as an anxiety-relieving, stress-relieving element
if you or someone that you’re working with is dependent on these kind of drugs [benzodiazapines] to get any kind of decent sleep at night, then you can be pretty sure that cortisol levels are too high
Julia talked about how when it comes to funding drug research to treat depression, schizophrenia, anxiety, and other psychiatric disorders, the global pharmaceutical industry prefers to invest its research dollars in cancer, metabolism, autoimmunity, and other disease areas. Here is a link to the article she referred to : Psychiatric Drug Development
We discussed how to assess for neurotransmitter deficiencies and the ineffectiveness of urinary neurotransmitter testing. This is the 2012 study Julia mentioned: Correlation of serotonin levels in CSF, platelets, plasma, and urine
This method of measuring serotonin levels in platelets results in a very strong correlation with levels in CSF (cerebrospinal fluid)
I highly recommend Julia’s wonderful books The Mood Cure: The 4-Step Program to Take Charge of Your Emotions and The Diet Cure: The 8-Step Program to Rebalance Your Body Chemistry and End Food Cravings, Weight Gain, and Mood Swings – Naturally
Be sure to listen to Meme Grant’s success story on Sunday June 22. She shares how she used amino acids to end her anxiety, panic attacks, insomnia and emotional eating. Tryptophan and GABA made a world of difference for her.
Here is Julia’s Townsend article on Urinary Neurotransmitter Testing
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: season 1 summit concluded on Tues 6/24/14 – If you’d like to be on the notification list for future summits just sign up here www.theAnxietySummit.com
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