Anxiety/Depression
Alright folks, the last blog on hormones was a little too long for my liking so this one I want to keep short and sweet. However, this might be one of the blogs that helps you and or a loved one out the most. So many people in our world suffer from anxiety and or depression and in this blog I am going to be sharing what I find clinically helps people the most. The saying is that anything can cause anything and that is as true as ever on this topic. There are structural, chemical, emotional, spiritual and metaphysical causes of anxiety/depression and this blog will weave in and out of many of those. So sit back, relax and enjoy some information that can and will change the lives of you and your loved ones.
When it comes to anxiety/depression, at its core you have to look for the causes instead of trying to put a chemical Band-Aid on it with drugs like the western medicine model. And the core concept is that ANYTHING THAT CAUSES BRAIN INFLAMMATION LEADS TO MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES. In this case we are talking about anxiety/depression but the following information can lead to someone being schizophrenic or bipolar in extreme cases. And it’s important for you to realize that it doesn’t take a concussion to cause brain inflammation (although if you have ever been concussed, I suggest you find a doctor like me in your area because concussions don’t just go away with rest, your body makes the symptoms go away over time but you still have neurological inflammation that gets worse with time). In fact most brain inflammation is not physical in nature but rather chemical and emotional. So with that being said, lets dive into the most common causes of brain inflammation.
First and foremost, I don’t care what anyone says, your diet is the most important factor. YOUR FOOD IS YOUR FUEL. If you don’t supply your body and brain with good fuel, how do you expect to perform optimally? You can’t, its impossible. Now I don’t want to beat a dead horse, so to find out about healthy diets, check out my earlier blog on food sensitivities. But what I want to repeat is that if you are consuming toxic foods or any foods that you are sensitive too, your body and brain inflammation levels will sky rocket. The truth hurts but it is what it is, get off your trash foods! And to take it a step further, I think foods are so important for the reason that they either HELP BALANCE OR CONTRIBUTE TO DYSREGULATION OF BLOOD SUGAR. And if you can stabilize your blood sugar, I am convinced that you can get rid of 80% plus of anxiety/depression. It is the fluctuation from low blood sugar to high blood sugar that really hurts people. In simple terms, you can equate your mood with your blood sugar. If your blood sugar is low then your low and if its high then your high. And if it’s going up and down rapidly then your mood is high and low….how many people do you know like that? Here’s another clinical pearl, if you get cranky when your hungry or hangry, as people call it, that’s a sign that your blood sugar is not stable and is contributing to your depression/anxiety. Also, your brain’s preferred fuel source is glucose which is a form of sugar and if you have low blood sugar then your brain fights with your body for the little amount of sugar you have and that tug of war CREATES SIGNIFICANT INFLAMMATORY CHAOS IN YOUR BODY AND BRAIN. I usually find that low blood sugar gives way more depression/anxiety than high blood sugar does.
After blood sugar balancing, the second most important concept that some people will argue is actually the most important is a healthy digestive tract. Although your diet once again plays a pivotal role in maintaining a healthy gut, there is more that has to be addressed for optimal gut health. The most common thing that has to be addressed is dysbiosis, which is basically a lack of healthy gut bacteria due to parasite, fungal, bacterial and viral infections. I did a whole blog on parasites so reference that for a lot more info on balancing the gut micro biome. I am convinced that if you clean out gut infections and balance your blood sugar that not only will 80% of your symptoms of any kind improve but maybe 90% or more of anxiety/depression cases will be solved. Why do I say that? I say that because there are chemicals in your body called neurotransmitters that regulate many processes in your body and when certain ones are off they mess with your mood. I will mention three of them but the two main ones when it comes to anxiety/depression are serotonin and dopamine. Chances are you have heard of these before but something you may not know is that 50% of your dopamine and 95% of your serotonin are PRODUCED IN YOUR GUT. So if your gut is unhealthy and inflamed then you can’t possibly make enough of these feel good neurotransmitters. The saying going around is that your gut is your second brain, and now you know a big reason why that statement is so spot on.
The third neurotransmitter is known as GABA. So let’s just briefly go over what symptoms you may experience when these three are low and that can help you identify what is affecting you. First, people who are low are dopamine are the depressed people who like to seclude themselves. They can’t handle stress well and get feelings of worthlessness and hopelessness. They also find it hard to complete tasks. These people are your addicts. The people who love to do drugs to fill that void and tend to be gamblers. Low serotonin people are the people who have lost their joy. They get sad easily especially when it’s gloomy outside. Paranoia and anxiety are very common in these people and they tend to lose enthusiasm about things that used to bring them joy like their favorite activities and meals. They tend to get overwhelmed. And lastly, the low GABA people are the people with a thousand thoughts running through their head. They are the overwhelmed nervous type that can’t turn off their brains when relaxing. Lots of inner tension with these people with feelings of a knot in their stomach. They tend to feel guilty easily as well. Does this sound like anyone you know? Also, people can be low on multiple of them and get a mix of symptoms.
The last contributor to anxiety/depression that I want to mention is anemia. Anemia means you have a lack of iron in your blood, which causes less oxygen to be transported in your body because iron carries oxygen in your blood. Now you obviously know how crucial oxygen is for us to breathe and we can’t go long without it before we die. Well anemia makes your brain live in this oxygen-deprived state, which isn’t good as you can imagine. My mentor would say CHECK THE BLOOD FOR ANEMIA IN ANY CASE OF ANXIETY BECAUSE THAT ANXIETY IS THE BRAIN SCREAMING FOR OXYGEN! And the last thing about anemia is that they are missed on blood work ALL THE TIME. The medical world lab ranges are only to detect pathology so it misses any functional issues like anemias that aren’t full blown yet. And they don’t have to be full blown in order to give you symptoms, which is why so many people feel awful and their medical doctors say their blood test is all good. This points out another reason to get checked out by a doc like me because we ask different questions, which gets different results.
So Dr. Charlie, what are the action steps I can take with the info above? First and foremost, change your diet. As I have said many times before, people don’t want to hear that advice. But ask yourself this question….are you sick and tired of being sick and tired? And more importantly, are you willing to give up what’s making you sick? If you answered no to either one of those questions, then this isn’t the place for you. If you answered yes, then read on. The diet that I have seen work the best clinically for patients dealing with depression and anxiety is a diet high in animal protein and healthy fats. The patients who eat the most carbs and sugar by far do the worst. This carb overload leads to blood sugar instability, which bombards you with depression and anxiety type feelings. Remember, your blood sugar is your mood. And animal protein and fat is what creates stable blood sugar levels because they don’t cause a huge spike in blood sugar, which then prevents a huge drop in blood sugar. On top of eating all the right foods that I outline in my previous blog on food sensitivities, it’s probably a good idea to invest in a plant based protein shake (like hemp protein) that you can do in between your meals as a protein rich snack that prevents your blood sugar from dropping. It’s a fast and easy way to get in that crucial protein. I say plant based because whey is dairy based and most people can’t handle it.
Also, the reason why animal protein is so crucial is because it supplies the nutrients to build health neurotransmitters. That’s right, the tyrosine in animal protein creates dopamine and the tryptophan creates serotonin. This is why people end up feeling so much better emotionally when they get on a paleo-type diet. As for GABA, there is no direct nutrient for it so the best thing to do is stabilize your blood sugar with B vitamins and healthy fats like avocado, wild caught fish and coconut oil. These create healthy energy in your cells, which supports healthy GABA levels.
I am telling you, if you do the following action steps, it has the potential to totally reverse all of your anxiety and depression…..Eat a grass fed and wild caught paleo diet….get a good source of B vitamins, L-tyrosone and tryptophan. This can be accomplished with Vervita Inspiracell and Vervita Kalmz in the store on this website. The Inspiracell supplies the B vitamins, L-tyrosine and actually has GABA in it, while the Kalmz supplies the tryptophan and also have other herbs in there that support GABA. Inspiracell also has the added benefit of Magnesium, which is a mineral that is great for depression, balancing blood sugar and overall health. Also, get a good fish oil high in DHA like cod liver oil. I like the brand Nordic Naturals that you can get in stores. Make sure it is higher in DHA compared to EPA since DHA helps regulate brain inflammation. And lastly, find a good organic plant based protein that has no added sugar in it. I like hemp protein for this. Use protein shakes in between meals to keep you blood sugar stable. If you start by doing this, you’re doing yourself a great service to your health.
To take it a step further, you have to clean out your gut. I talk all about this in the previous parasite blog. Getting off toxic foods and sugar is crucial. From a supplement stand point, Vervita Klenz and Black Cumin oil is a great regimen to accomplish this. If you want a more intense protocol then use Morinda, Melia, and Goldenthread from Supreme Nutrition. These three should take care of most toxic microbes in your gut. The Goldenthread Supreme is also high in berberine, which helps stabilize blood sugar.
The last concept I talked about is anemia. Now the most overlooked source of anemia is a dysfunctional digestive tract that can’t absorb the iron from your food. Heal the gut with the recommendations above and in previous blogs to deal with this. From there, in order to absorb iron, you need enough vitamin C and B vitamins in the stomach. For this, I use Vervita Cir-Q Tonic and Black Cumin oil both orally. They supply iron, B vitamins and vitamin C. Black cumin also helps heal the gut as previously mentioned. And the best source of iron from food is rare red meat. If you cook your meat beyond medium-rare then you don’t absorb any of the nutrients. Rare red meat is nature’s anti-depressant.
So to keep it simple and cover all your bases, use Vervita Inspiracell, Cir-Q Tonic, Kalmz, Klenz and Black Cumin oil along with a cod liver oil high in DHA. That will help you out a ton. If you want some other suggestions beyond that, I recommend using 3 more herbs. The first two help heal brain inflammation and those are Vital Guard Supreme and Scutellaria Supreme. Both supply nutrients that help heal brain and gut tissue. Scutellaria also helps calm down anxiety. The last herb that I use specifically for anxiety and depression is Albizia Supreme. People have raved about how good that herb makes them feel, almost a Valium like effect Ha!
The last suggestion that I have for you is take action steps to build the health of your nervous system. The number one way to do that is to find a doctor who practices like I do. I promise you it will change your life. Before getting treated by the work that I now do, I didn’t know what it felt like to feel good. And the chances are your living like that too. Chiropractic done the right way is the single most important action step you can do for health of your nervous system. But you won’t get that by walking into any random chiropractic office. Reach out to me if you need me to find you someone in your area etc. I don’t tell people to see a chiropractor unless its through word of mouth and I would trust them to treat my family. Chances are you have heard that chiropractors are quacks and hurt people etc. And there are those types of chiropractors out there. However, when you find one who practices medicine the way docs like I do, you found yourself the most important doctor for you and your family’s health that you will ever come across. You can take that to the bank.
On top of seeing a very good chiropractor, I suggest doing other therapies that help your conscious and subconscious mind. Utilizing things like yoga and working out can help your emotional health greatly. Praying and meditating can help a bunch too. Limit your EMF exposure as well due to the signals changing your brain waves. See the EMF blog for more on that. And speaking of brain waves, seeing a good hypnotherapist has been a game changer for people. Think similar to the relaxed state of meditation however through imagery and suggestions you are being guided to create a deeper connection with your mind. Similar to the work I do in clinical practice, it accesses the subconscious mind, which is the powerhouse of our patterns, beliefs, behaviors and emotions. If you can change your subconscious mind you can change your life.
In conclusion, anxiety/depression affects so many people. Chances are you or someone you know is dealing with this and it can cause such a burden. The usual treatment is a pharmaceutical drug that tries to mask your symptoms without ever getting to the cause of your issue. And these drugs have more side effects than positive effects. It is really a model that is failing people with mental health issues. And remember this, emotions are physiological not psychological. This means you feel your emotions in your body. Like a pit in your stomach or sweating etc. So you need to change things internally that affect your body and its physiology. Makes sense right? I outlined some of the biggest ones above. They may not be every cause of anxiety/depression but they are ones that I have seen make the biggest impact clinically for my patients. Hope this helps!
This is the way,
Dr. Charlie