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the anxiety summit

The Anxiety Summit – Conquering those yeastie beasties (candida) once and for all

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Mikell Suzanne

Dr Mikell S. Parsons, DC. Certified Clinical Nutritionist was interviewed by host of the Anxiety Summit, Trudy Scott, Food Mood Expert and Nutritionist, author of The Antianxiety Food Solution.

Conquering those yeastie beasties (candida) once and for all

  • Yeastie beasties/ candida: what it is and how common it is
  • How to assess if you have it and symptoms of overgrowth
  • Why craving sugar is a HUGE sign of a yeast overgrowth
  • How yeast can be a cause of weight gain
  • How do we get it and is it contagious
  • Protocols for getting rid of the yeastie beasties
  • Methylation and mercury toxicity and candida?

Here are some snippets from our interview:

We’ve got a lot of different microbes in the gut, and we’re supposed to have them, but they’re all supposed to be in the right balance. It’s when the body gets out of balance, yeast is opportunistic. I tell my patients yeast is like a covert spy. It’s laying in the background, doing its thing, acting like everything is cool until the body gets out of balance. And then it can just grow like crazy. And that’s when people start to get symptoms. So we’re all supposed to have it, but the question is will your body provide the opportunity for yeast to kind of take over.

I’ve found it in people who may not have had antibiotics in the last five years or so. But they’re eating a lot of food that is higher in sugar, and they’re not eating vegetables and even good sources of protein. So if you coat your body from the inside with a lot of sugar, that candida starts to kick up their heels, and it’s like a fire. If you want a fire to build, keep putting wood on the fire. If you want to put the fire out, you take the wood away and you cover it with water.

Candida can cause anxiety, depression, leaky gut, reflux and heartburn, brain fog, irritability, low libido, chronic fatigue, weight gain and the feeling of where is my next sugar fix.

Here is the 2013 study we discussed: Could yeast infections impair recovery from mental illness? A case study using micronutrients and olive leaf extract for the treatment of ADHD and depression.

Micronutrients are increasingly used to treat psychiatric disorders including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), mood disorders, stress, and anxiety. However, a number of factors influence optimal response and absorption of nutrients, including the health of the gut, particularly the presence of yeast infections, such as Candida. As part of a wider investigation into the impact of micronutrients on psychiatric symptoms, many participants who experienced a yeast infection during their treatment showed a diminished response to the micronutrients. One case was followed systematically over a period of 3 y with documentation of deterioration in psychiatric symptoms (ADHD and mood) when infected with Candida and then symptom improvement following successful treatment of the infection with olive leaf extract (OLE) and probiotics.

You can get a copy of her fun and educational video here Sexy from the Inside Out: The Art of Poop.

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

The Anxiety Summit – The hidden master organ: Why treating your liver is fundamental to anxiety and depression

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AmeetAggarwal

Dr. Ameet Aggarwal ND psychotherapist and author of Feel Good: Easy Steps to Health and Happiness was interviewed  by host of the Anxiety Summit, Trudy Scott, Food Mood Expert and Nutritionist, author of The Antianxiety Food Solution.

The hidden master organ: Why treating your liver is fundamental to anxiety and depression

  • Why the liver is the hidden master organ and defining a sluggish liver
  • The role of lactate and the liver and how this contributes to anxiety
  • How the liver affects thyroid hormones
  • Dietary factors that improve the liver and the ones that make it more sluggish
  • A form of breathing that massages the liver
  • Homeopathics, antioxidants and herbs for a sluggish liver
  • The benefits of using a castor oil pack
  • The importance of organic psychotherapy, family constellations, de-stressing, meditation, and exercise

Here are some snippets from our interview:

We call the liver the master organ because it’s really responsible for most of the functions in your body, including blood purification, detoxification of drugs and toxins, and also detoxifies the toxins that are produced by your body itself. The liver also creates a lot of enzymes, produces bile, so it’s responsible for a lot of your digestion, hormone production, protein production, and it also helps with blood sugar storage and regulation. Not only that, it helps with immune cell activation and storage of vitamins and iron.

When you have a sluggish liver, less bile is produced and digestion is poor leading to constipation, toxin buildup, inflammation and less absorption of important nutrients. You can then have neurotransmitter deficiencies and be more susceptible to anxiety.

Your liver also controls hormones, so if your liver is imbalanced, you will see a progesterone deficiency and usually estrogen dominance. As you know, Trudy, progesterone deficiency directly affects the function of GABA in your brain, and so with liver qi stagnation, leading to progesterone deficiency, we will see increased levels of anxiety.

Here is the Neuropsychopharmacology paper called Neural pathways underlying lactate-induced panic where they connected high lactate levels to panic attacks. We discussed how sugar, alcohol, caffeine, food sensitivities, low levels of niacin and vitamins B6 may contribute to elevated levels of lactate in the blood.

Here is the paper that addresses the liver-thyroid connection: The relationship between the thyroid gland and the liver. Basically, thyroid hormones are processed by the liver. Some of the conversion of T4 into active T3, which is a thyroid hormone, requires healthy liver function.

Ameet shared this at the end of our interview and I want to share it here because I’m inspired by what Ameet is doing, because I love Africa and Kenya (my husband and I honey-mooned there) and because I’d love to inspire you to get involved and consider a trip to Kenya (why not!):

I actually live at the bottom of Mount Kenya right on the equator, a little town called Nanyuki. My dream was to come back to Kenya after Canada to start mobile clinics for remote communities and supervise students and doctors from around the world, which I started through a program called FIMAFRICA/Foundation for Integrated Medicine in Africa. Basically, we go to remote villages that don’t have medical services and treat them for chronic diseases or acute diseases using naturopathic medicine, mainly homeopathic medicine, which works really well, because a lot of these communities suffer from just a lot of chronic disease but all they’re given is antibiotics or antimalarials, which don’t necessarily treat the root cause of the issue. So, they love homeopathy because a lot of chronic disease is disappearing, and they really notice the difference between the two types of medicine. So it’s my passion, and yeah, I hope to continue doing it for the rest of my life. My aim is hopefully one day to sell a million copies of my book and just do mobile clinics all day.

Watch this short video of Ameet talking about it and then tell me you’re not excited about the idea of going to Africa and getting involved!

If you want to help, check out the FIMAFRICA site above, contact him about going there and volunteering or buy a few copies of his great book Feel Good: Easy Steps to Health and Happiness

Here is a nice video of Ameet giving an overview of Feel Good

And get your free chapters from the Feel Good book (on emotions, better sex and liver health)

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

The Anxiety Summit – Psychoneuroimmunology, the new psychiatry

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Kelly Brogan

Dr. Kelly Brogan, MD. Holistic women’s health psychiatry was interviewed by host of the Anxiety Summit, Trudy Scott, Food Mood Expert and Nutritionist, author of The Antianxiety Food Solution.

Psychoneuroimmunology, the new psychiatry

  • The role of inflammation in anxiety and depression
  • Hormones and where the endocrine system fits in
  • Where inflammation comes from
  • What a healthy microbiome looks like
  • Natural lifestyle interventions to reverse symptoms and favorite nutraceuticals
  • Why psychiatrists don’t know about this

Here are some snippets from our interview:

What psychoneuroimmunology refers to is essentially the inherent inter-connectedness between multiple systems. So, it’s about no longer looking at psychiatry as a head up phenomenon, which at best can result in limited outcomes and at worst, can be quite dangerous. And what psychoneuroimmunology implies is that there is a relationship between neurology – so, between brain science – and the immune system. It is sometimes called psychoneuroendocrinology – it also sort of ropes in the gut and the endocrine system with the implication being that you cannot treat one without knowledge about the others. So, I think it’s very exciting and really is a term that embodies functional medicine, or naturopathy at its best.

What many are speaking about is something called the cytokine model, which has been around since 1991, the first paper hypothesizing about this model. So, it’s been a growing literature for some time. And what it refers to is essentially it looks at depression or anxiety, for example, as this non-specific sort of fever that tells us actually very little about what’s causing the body to react, but tells us that there’s is an expression of imbalance and that the body is working to recalibrate. So, there’s some sort of stressor or triggers or assault and the compensatory response on the part of the body is what we are seeing as these psychiatric symptoms.

Cytokines in the blood, or inflammatory messengers, such as CRP, IL-1, IL-6, and TNF-alpha are predictive and linearly related to depression and anxiety, especially in women.

Here is Dr. Brogan’s wonderful blog post on the topic of Psychoneuroimmunology, the new Psychiatry

What is driving this inflammation? How does it get kicked off? And how does it induce depression? With the limited clinical applications and revelations that came with the completion of the Human Genome Project in 2002, we have begun to focus on where we have outsourced our physiologic functions.

The microbiome has become an important consideration, and particularly, the gut, which houses at least 10 times as many human cells as there are in our bodies, and 150 times as many genes as are in our genome. These microbes control many vital operations and are responsible for synthesis of neuroactive and nutritional compounds, for immune modulation, and for inflammatory signaling.

Here is one of the studies on how traditional diets can impact the microbiome: Intestinal microbiota, probiotics and mental health: from Metchnikoff to modern advances: Part II – contemporary contextual research

researchers reported less potentially pathogenic bacteria, yet a far greater degree of biodiversity and microbial richness in rural Africans living a traditional lifestyle and consuming traditional high fiber foods

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

The Anxiety Summit – Microbes in the gut and psychobiotics as a potential treatment for anxiety and depression

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Dr_Ted_Dinan_Anxiety2

Dr. Ted Dinan, MD, PhD. Professor of Psychiatry at University College Cork was interviewed  by host of the Anxiety Summit, Trudy Scott, Food Mood Expert and Nutritionist, author of The Antianxiety Food Solution.

Microbes in the gut and psychobiotics as a potential treatment for anxiety and depression

  • Varied ways in which anxiety presents
  • Anxiety as a co-morbid condition e.g. irritable bowel syndrome
  • Microbes in the gut and the influence on emotional activity
  • Non-pharmacological approaches to treating anxiety
  • Psychobiotics as a potential treatment and the newest research in this area

Here are some snippets from our interview

Now the brain-gut axis is an axis that we learned more about over the decade or 2, how does the brain communicate with the gut, how does the gut communicate with the brain, and the view of irritable bowel syndrome is that it is as I say a brain axis disorder, an exceedingly common disorder, up to at least 50 percent and some studies suggest much higher rates in terms of the presence of psychiatric symptoms in patients with irritable bowel syndrome. The general view is that at least 50 percent of patients with irritable bowel syndrome have a coexistent or comorbid depression or anxiety.

We’re gradually I think learning more about the pathology underlying irritable bowel syndrome and we and others have published a number of studies show that for instance patients with irritable bowel syndrome have high levels of cytokines. Now cytokines are chemicals that are produced by the immune system and there are certain cytokines that are caused pro-inflammatory. They give rise to inflammation or are the product of inflammation. And certainly there is now good evidence that many patients with irritable bowel syndrome do have very high levels of these pro-inflammatory molecules in their blood stream. The molecules would be molecules like interleukin 6 and CNF-alpha.

Here is the quote from Dr. Dinan’s article that was co-written with Dr. John Cryan and called Psychobiotics: How Gut Bacteria Mess with Your Mind

In the 20th century the major focus of microbiological research was on finding ways to kill microbes by antibiotics. This century the focus has changed somewhat with the recognition of the health benefits of bacteria, not just from an immunity perspective but from a mental health one.

Here is some of Dr. Dinan’s research:

Do interactions between stress and immune responses lead to symptom exacerbations in irritable bowel syndrome?

co-morbidity with mood disorders such as depression and anxiety is common in IBS

Psychobiotics: a novel class of psychotropic.

Here, we define a psychobiotic as a live organism that, when ingested in adequate amounts, produces a health benefit in patients suffering from psychiatric illness. As a class of probiotic, these bacteria are capable of producing and delivering neuroactive substances such as gamma-aminobutyric acid and serotonin, which act on the brain-gut axis. Preclinical evaluation in rodents suggests that certain psychobiotics possess antidepressant or anxiolytic activity. Effects may be mediated via the vagus nerve, spinal cord, or neuroendocrine systems. So far, psychobiotics 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. Evidence is emerging of benefits in alleviating symptoms of depression and in chronic fatigue syndrome. Such benefits may be related to the anti-inflammatory actions of certain psychobiotics and a capacity to reduce hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity. Results from large scale placebo-controlled studies are awaited.

This is the recent resistance training anxiety study I mentioned: The anxiolytic effects of resistance exercise

This research has shown that resistance training at a low-to-moderate intensity (<70% 1 repetition maximum) produces the most reliable and robust decreases in anxiety.

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

The Anxiety Summit – Gluten’s impact on the inflamed brain: reducing anxiety and depression

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Tom

Dr. Tom O’Bryan, DC host of ‘The Gluten Summit – A Grain of Truth’ is interviewed  by host of the Anxiety Summit, Trudy Scott, Food Mood Expert and Nutritionist, author of The Antianxiety Food Solution.

Gluten’s impact on the inflamed brain: reducing anxiety and depression

  • Terminology and why it’s not called gluten intolerance but sensitivity
  • Is gluten sensitivity just a fad and the recent FODMAPs research
  • The multitude of diseases and symptoms caused by gluten sensitivity
  • Gluten sensitivity as a contributing factor to psychiatric manifestations/anxiety/depression and new 2014 research from Italy
  • Suicide rates in kids with celiac disease (even when they quit gluten), and kids celiac camps
  • The conundrum with testing
  • Doing an elimination and then challenge?
  • Can anyone eat wheat or should we all be gluten-free

One of my favorite quotes in my anxiety food talks is this one from a 2012 paper by Jackson and Fasano called Neurologic and psychiatric manifestations of celiac disease and gluten sensitivity

gluten sensitivity remains undertreated and underrecognized as a contributing factor to psychiatric and neurologic manifestations.

Here are some snippets from our interview:

73% of kids with celiac disease have social phobia, 63% still have social phobia on a gluten-free diet. You have to also heal the gut and address nutritional deficiencies

No human on the planet can digest gluten! Whether or not it causes symptoms like anxiety or depression or arthritis why eat anything that would cause inflammation!

He shares recent research published in BMC Medicine. The study looking at Italians with non-celiac gluten sensitivity, found that 68% of participants felt “a lack of well-being” and 39% experienced anxiety. In the large majority of patients, the time lapse between gluten ingestion and the appearance of symptoms varied from a few hours to 1 day.

No human on the planet can digest gluten! Whether or not it causes symptoms” like anxiety or depression or arthritis “why eat anything that would cause inflammation”

The gluten-FODMAPs discussion and non-celiac gluten sensitivity is a fad:

Dr. O’Bryan summed it up like this:

it took two studies to do this but it appears to be the FODMAPs in the wheat that cause the GI complaints (the bloating, the gas, the abdominal pain) but it’s the proteins that cause symptoms in the brain and other parts of the body

I write about gluten often. Here are some additional links for you:

Last year Dr. O’Bryan hosted the fantastic Gluten Summit and you can grab a copy of one of the interviews here: Dr. Marsh’s Gluten Summit interview: Why the Early Stages of Celiac Disease Must be Taken Seriously

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

The Anxiety Summit – Sugar Impact Diet with JJ Virgin

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JJ Virgin, CNS Celebrity Nutrition & Fitness Expert, author The Virgin Diet and the new Sugar Impact Diet  was interviewed on the Anxiety Summit by host of the Anxiety Summit, Trudy Scott, Food Mood Expert and Nutritionist, author of The Antianxiety Food Solution.

“The Sugar Impact Diet” and stress/anxiety
– The role stress and anxiety play in sugar addiction
– Why sugar is a drug and what it’s doing to our health and mood
– Why all sugar is not created equal and where it hides
– Why fructose is worse than glucose
– Can we eat natural sugars, fruit, honey and agave
– The dangers of artificial sweeteners
– Signs of high sugar impact and how the sugar impact diet works
– Why snacking may not be a good thing

Here is a snippet from our interview:

When you look at it, sugar is as addictive as cocaine. It’s more addictive than morphine. Connecticut College did a study where they looked at morphine and Oreos with rats and they both lit up the same pleasure centers/reward centers in the brain. The only difference was when the rats were given a choice between morphine and Oreos; they picked the Oreos because they were more pleasurable. Maybe it’s because with the Oreos you got a little trifecta because when you look at it what’s the worst thing? So sugar lights up the reward center and then you’ve got gluten and dairy, opiates, you know, caseomorphins and gluteomorphins and so just an opiate load to you when you look at something like cereal and milk, right, with all the sugar, gluten and dairy. So clearly you’ve got a drug and the more of it you eat the more of it you want.

stress and anxiety make you crave more sugar, you’re hungrier overall and then tired so you want things that are quick, energetic pick-me-ups and have unstable blood sugar. It’s like this trifecta of bad for setting you up for going after sugar

Here is one of the sugar-is-like-a-drug studies from 2013 – Sugar addiction: pushing the drug-sugar analogy to the limit.

research has revealed that sugar and sweet reward can not only substitute to addictive drugs, like cocaine, but can even be more rewarding and attractive.

The biological robustness in the neural substrates of sugar and sweet reward may be sufficient to explain why many people can have difficultly to control the consumption of foods high in sugar when continuously exposed to them.

And the rat oreo study/faculty research concluded with this:

Even though we associate significant health hazards in taking drugs like cocaine and morphine, high-fat/ high-sugar foods may present even more of a danger because of their accessibility and affordability

sugar impactJJ’s new book Sugar Impact Diet launches November 4th – be sure to grab your copy to learn how you can lower your sugar impact today!

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