Stress Relief, A New Supplement

At Healing Arts we have helped thousands of people with anxiety and depression by detoxing and supporting the body with the right nutrition.  A lot of times their personalized nutrition programs include repairing the microbiome in the gut because the neurotransmitters for the brain are made in the gut.  For more info on the gut/brain axis, read here.

It is with the pandemic hitting that of course anxiety rose but after 2 years that anxiety has stayed and depression has followed.  After 15 years in practice I am seeing worse and worse cases of anxiety and depression in ways I never have before.  That’s why I designed a new supplement called Stress Relief that can address both anxiety and depression because often a patient has both.   

You would think because we’re almost through the pandemic and things are opening back up and people are starting to go back to the office that collectively our anxiety and depression would go away but it has seemed to stay with us.  The stress started two years ago with the fear of getting COVID-19 and now I think it’s a different type of stress of managing our lives and finding a new normal.

In order to fully understand stress management and to discover a place of balance with out daily stress, it is important to understand a hormone in the body called cortisol. Cortisol is known as “the stress hormone,” but it is also responsible for three major mechanisms that help to keep the body in a state of balance, or homeostasis: raising blood sugar, increasing blood pressure and regulating inflammation. Through these mechanisms, cortisol essentially influences nearly all that we do, and is directly responsible for modulating:

digestion

circulation

sleep/wake patterns

physical activity

sexual response

behavior and mood

So, with this prestigious list of roles and responsibilities, why is it that experts suggest that cortisol imbalance is the most common form of hormone imbalance in the modern world even before the pandemic?

Cortisol is released by the cortex (or outer layer) of your adrenal glands. It is naturally secreted in an ebb and flow rhythm that repeats daily. Ideally, cortisol is highest in the morning to help us wake up in a productive, alert, and energetic manner. It then tapers throughout the day and evening, lowest at night when we are meant to be sleeping soundly, and at which point the soothing, anti-inflammatory hormone melatonin takes over.

In addition to this daily cycle that helps us wake up in the morning and go to sleep at night, cortisol is released as part of the natural human stress response. In threatening situations, a surge of cortisol primes the body to react swiftly and appropriately. This very primal system is called the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA axis). Whenever a stressor is perceived, the hypothalamus (a gland in the brain) signals to the pituitary (a hormone gland in the brain) that something is up. The pituitary then sends a chemical alarm via a hormone called ACTH, signaling to the adrenals to release a burst of cortisol and other hormones like adrenaline, preparing the body for “flight or fight” mode. This is where cortisol’s three primary mechanisms really come in handy: the surge increases glucose to the muscles so that one can fight or run, and blood pressure is raised to ensure a plentiful supply of fresh oxygen to the brain so that one is able to think clearly. Simultaneously, non-immediate functions such as digestion, sexual arousal and immune system reactions are temporarily suppressed, enabling energy to flow more steadily towards the vital functions that keep us alive. When the threat subsides, the alarm in the hypothalamus is shut off and the body is restored to a state of harmony, recovering and awaiting the next alert.

This method works great when there is an accident or medical emergency. Yet unfortunately the HPA Axis responds not only to those acute stressors, but also to those that are anticipated and perceived- our looming worries and fears. The HPA system is helpless in differentiating between psychosocial stressors like getting stuck in traffic or planning a dinner party, and physical threats such as being in a burning building. Therefore if we aren't careful, our daily life can have stressors everywhere and worry is rampant, so the HPA alarm is almost constantly stuck in the glowing red ON position. I think that’s what has happened to us the last 2 years.  The HPA alarm isn’t made to be stuck ON for 2 weeks let alone 2 years! If cortisol levels soar in an unruly and destructive manner at bizarre times of the day and night, then suddenly small tasks such as packing a lunch or responding to an email, morph into treacherous evil threats that we feel like we just can’t handle.

Over time, the body simply can’t compensate for this hormonal instability and we start to burn out. The adrenals simply cannot keep up with the burden of constantly being told to secrete cortisol, and our systems slowly falter and shut down under such demands. This phenomenon is often called adrenal fatigue, and is coupled with the experience of depression.  This is when someone suffers from both anxiety and depression and should be helped by the right nutritional support for the adrenal glands.  For some people this burn out stage may not include depression but instead other troublesome conditions as heart disease, sleep problems, digestive issues, memory impairment, excessive weight gain and worsening skin conditions.

As much as we might close our eyes tightly and try to resist and control it, stress is an inherent part of life. However, through adequate nourishment and care, we are able to put the body's biochemical systems back on track, shifting the way that we relate to stress so that it does not shatter our everyday experience and stifle our creative expression. Building a nutrient dense diet is essential to healing the adrenals, as is participating in healthy fitness that involves adequate amounts of rest and recovery. That's why practitioners at Healing Arts muscle test, working with the biofeedback from your body to devise a detailed diet and lifestyle plan that works for you. We can now muscle test you for Stress Relief to see if that can be part of your healing plan to get the adrenal gland back on board.  

To help the stress reaction in the body Stress Relief contains herbs and vitamins to support the nervous system and the HPA axis response to stress so anxiety doesn’t get out of hand causing depression, insomnia, weight gain and other symptoms.  Stress Relief contains red sandalwood, SAM-e, vitamin B12, ashwagandha, kava kava, glutamate, lemon balm, passionflower, and vitamin D.

Red Sandalwood is known for it’s anti-aging properties and healing the skin by purifying the blood.  Red sandalwood has nutrients in it that can cross the blood brain barrier allowing the blood in the brain to be purified as well, helping with anxiety and depression. However it is contraindicated for people with amenorrhea.  

SAM-e is very well known to help with both depression and anxiety.  SAM-e stands for S-Adenosyl-L-Methionine and is a naturally occurring molecule present in all living human cells that plays an important role in cellular metabolism. SAM-e is an important methyl donor, an essential step in the synthesis of several neurotransmitters for the brain. The antidepressant effects of SAM-e are probably related to multiple mechanisms of action including increased brain levels of serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine. The synthesis of these neurotransmitters by SAM-e requires vitamin B12.  Many depressed individuals are deficient in B vitamins, thus individuals taking Stress Relief for depressed mood will benefit from the added vitamin B12 in the supplement.  Do not take SAM-e and therefore do not take Stress Relief if on a narcotic or cough syrup.

Ashwagandha is perhaps best known for its ability to reduce stress. It’s classified as an adaptogen, a substance that helps the body cope with stress and helps with both anxiety and depression. Ashwagandha appears to help control cortisol which is exactly what we need to do in order for the body not to have a stress reaction. If the body has a stress reaction and the anxiety cannot get back in control then it leads to depression which we are trying to prevent. That’s why when patients come in with both anxiety and depression I know their HPA axis has been not working properly for months.  Besides helping to control cortisol Ashwagandha also controls and reduces the activity of the HPA axis to start working correctly again. This calms the nervous system down.

Kava Kava is another herb that can calm the nervous system down.  Studies have been done to show that kava kava could be used as an alternative to certain anxiety drugs and other antidepressants. Kava Kava is also known to help people sleep better if taken right before bed.

                 

Glutamate is a type of neurotransmitter that acts in the brain.  Almost all brain cells need glutamate to communicate with one another. Glutamate is an excitatory neurotransmitter helping people when they are feeling depressed. Glutamate can also do the opposite and calm the nervous system down because the body can use glutamate to make GABA, a different neurotransmitter that has a very calming affect and is helpful when feeling anxious.  GABA calms and glutamate stimulates, the two are counterparts and an imbalance in one impacts the other. So if the body has glutamate it will do what it needs with it, either use it directly to excite the nervous system or convert to GABA to calm the nervous system.  

Lemon Balm contains chemicals that seem to have a sedative and calming effect to help people with anxiety but research shows it is also good for depression. Being part of the mint family lemon balm is really good for the stomach and for people who put their stress in their gut.  I’ve seen many different versions of IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, where constipation and diarrhea alternate and get worse when stress occurs.  The way the body works it is very easy to put stress in our stomach.  that’s why we have so many sayings, ‘I’m so nervous I could throw up,’ ‘I have butterflies in my stomach,’ ‘I have a knot in my stomach,’ etc. Lemon balm’s essential oils, polyphenols, and tannins work together to stimulate digestion and strengthen your gut when taken consistently over time.  It might also reduce the growth of some viruses and bacteria.  Having less bad gut flora is important for the body to make the right amount of neurotransmitters; for the neurotransmitters for the brain are made in the gut.  I have used lemon balm successfully for cold sores, anxiety, stress, insomnia, indigestion, poor memory and depression.

Passionflower has certain phytochemicals and alkaloids that  promote feeling energized and positive.  Passionflower contains quercetin and kaempferol which are widely accepted as mood enhancers and recognized for their ability to actually reduce the level of stress hormones in the body. Studies show it is as good as oxazepam to reduce anxiety without the side effect of drowsiness.

           

The last ingredient, Vitamin D, is added because when stress goes high, immune system goes low and vitamin D is an immune booster.  Plus people who are feeling depressed usually run low on vitamin D.     

With 15 years experience in holistic healthcare I saw how something new was needed for these trying times and am so grateful for the results I see patients getting with Stress Relief.  

Learn These Foot Reflexology Points

 For thousands of years, reflexology has been used as a way to help people get relief from many types of physical conditions. Reflexology uses the notion that putting pressure on certain areas of the body, not only the feet, but also the hands and ears, can help decrease inflammation, increase blood flow and nerve flow to certain organs, and return the body to optimal health.

Foot reflexology is the application of pressure on different pressure points of both feet that come from Chinese Medicine.  These pressure points are linked to specific parts of the body and when applying the right type of pressure a foot reflexology session can provide pain relief and help the body by facilitating energy flow, also known as chi, throughout the body.  With stimulating certain points on the feet I have personally seen great results with foot reflexology helping people with digestion issues and females with PMS concerns.  

In a 30 minute foot reflexology session for $50 pressure is applied to both feet where Maureen feels that certain points need to be released. The pressure is not too hard and most people find a session quite relaxing.  Here are some common points that people need released during a session.  

1. Tai Chong

The Tai Chong is also called the LV3. This point is found by placing your finger between your big toe and the second toe. It is just at the point where the tendons come together. Applying pressure on this area for just a few seconds can help reduce stress.

It can also relieve headaches and can reduce feelings of irritability, anxiety, and anger. Women who are suffering from menstrual pain may also benefit from applying pressure at this reflexology point. This point is also used for treating people who are feeling depressed.

2. Yong Quan

The Yong Quan is also called the KD 1. It is also often referred to as the kidney one. It is located in the depression that you feel located below the big toe joint. It is in between the second toe and the big toe. This pressure point is used to help to calm the spirit. In this way Yong Quan can help with blurry vision, headaches, sore throat, dizziness, and loss of voice.  Applying pressure in this area can be calming and relaxing for most people.  Massage this point for two or three minutes and then switch to the other foot.

3. Tai Bai

To find the Tai Bai acupoint on the foot you will want to apply pressure on the side of the foot until you reach the depression point. This will be located in the middle side area of the foot. It is near the ball. Once you have located this point on the foot you will want to apply pressure. You can apply as much pressure as you can stand.

The main function of this pressure point is to help with gastric issues. This includes ailments such as abdominal distention, dysentery, constipation, gastric pain, diarrhea, vomiting, and sluggishness. This point on the foot can also provide support for the spleen when you are feeling sluggish or heavy.  This reflex point can also be great for arthritis and joint pain. It is useful for sugar cravings as well.

4. Shen Mai

Find the bony bump that is located on the outside of the ankle. This is where the Shen Mai pressure point can be found. When you apply pressure to this area of the foot it can help promote patience. It also can help reduce anxiety and fear. If you have a cold, pressure on this point of the foot can help alleviate some of the symptoms that you are experiencing.

If you have pain and stiffness in the neck or are suffering from a painful back or pain in the legs, using this point may help. It can also help alleviate symptoms from a headache.

I hope this helps explain how some foot reflexology points work. If you are wondering if a session can help you email Maureen for a 10 minute free demo @ maureen@healingartsnyc.com

The Heartmath Solution

One of my all time favorite quotes is ‘The longest distance you will ever travel is from your head to your heart.’   I think we can spend a lifetime trying to align what is in the heart with what is in our head and visa versa.  How often do we fight with ourselves?  Our heart says to follow our dreams and our head gives us 100 different reasons why, with 95 of those reasons not even being our own but what our mother says, what society says, what our friends say.   We have so much garbage running  around in our head that it really takes a trained person to sift through what information is actually helpful and what information holds us back.  You need to know that not all the information running through our head is truth or even helpful and a lot of what it is is preprogramming that we need to unlearn as adults in order to be happy.  The book Virus of the Mind is good at explaining how much of our subconscious beliefs are not our own and to really live the life we want we need to stop feeding those viruses.  The author calls them viruses because their contagious.  That’s how marketing is so successful. 

Not only do we need to sift through our thoughts and programmed ideas in our head but we also need to learn to listen to our heart and that the information in the heart is even more important than what’s in the head.  Yes, the heart should take precedence over the head.  in fact, The heart starts beating in the unborn fetus before the brain has been formed.  Scientists still don’t know exactly what triggers the beating, but they use the word ‘autorhythmic’ to indicate that the heartbeat is self-initiated from within the heart.  While the source of the heartbeat is within the heart itself, the timing of the beat is thought to be controlled by the brain through the autonomic nervous system.  But surprisingly ,the heart doesn’t need a hardwired connection to the brain to keep beating.  For example, when someone has a heart transplant, the nerves that run from the brain to the heart are severed and surgeons don’t know how to reconnect them to get the heart from functioning but they also don’t need to.  The new heart can beat on it’s own without the nerves to the brain.  The reason heart transplants work is that they have found that the heart has its own nervous system with at least 40 thousand nerve cells in the heart.  I think of this complex nervous system of the heart as the brain of the heart.  The heart’s inner brain sends information back to the brain, creating a two way communication between the heart and the brain.  When the brain communicates to the heart the heart doesn’t necessarily obey but research has found that when the heart communicates to the brain the brain does obey which makes me think that the heart is the one in control, not the brain.  

You also need to know that the heart beat is not just a mechanical throb but an intelligent language that significantly influences how we perceive and react to the world.  The Heart Math Institute was founded in 1991 by Doc Childre, and they see that intelligence and intuition are heightened when we learn to listen more deeply to our own heart.  Negative emotions throw the nervous system out of balance, they create heart rhythms that appear jagged and disordered.  They see that in a chronic state of nervous system and cardiovascular imbalance puts stress on the heart and other organs that can lead to serous health problems.  And positive emotions are not just neutral but actually increase order and balance in the nervous system and produce smooth, harmonious heart beats.  But harmonious heart beats do more than reduce stress they actually enhance people’s ability to clearly perceive the world around them and it is with that principle that Heart Math Institute found ways to enable people to generate a state of inner balance and harmony at will. 

The heart math solution has 10 different techniques to help you retrain your system to operate in a state of greater harmony, not just physically, but also mentally and emotionally.  It works because it’s a process that teaches people how to gain access to the heart.  

The first step is to acknowledge your heart intelligence and its importance for making choices big and small. The heart math solution book is a great book to get into the details of understanding the role the heart plays in health, perception, and overall wellbeing. Developing a new respect for the heart and its influence over the rest of the body helps in using the rest of the tools.  This first step involves feeling the difference between the head and the heart and observing how differently we perceive the world around us when we’re in contact with the heart intelligence.  The head that is the brain or the mind - operates in a linear, logical manner that serves us well in many situations but limits us in others.  sometimes we need more than logic to solve a problem or get through an emotional issue.  The heart’s intelligence provides intuition, a direct knowingness that’s an essential aspect of we operate in the world.  When our heart’s intelligence is engaged our awareness is expanded beyond linear thinking.  In this way our perspective becomes more flexible, creative and whole. 

For example when two people are in love and out walking  and get caught in a downpour, the rain is no big deal.  It’s just rain, they get wet and go back home and dry themselves off.  The rain may even be fun.  Because the couple are connected in the heart its easy for them to accept this spontaneous event with a playful spirit.

But if the same couple are walking and fighting, feeling frustrated, disconnected from their heart their attitude within it starts raining is very different.  They see it as annoying another reason to feel frustrated.  The difference between these two scenarios is only the perception of the rain.  Seen from the heart, the rain is a natural, spontaneous event.  Seen from the head it’s a frustrating problem.  

So how can you be in a state of heart connection at all times to keep a perception that is expanded in order to not let things bother you? The rest of the Heartmath solution steps will help you do just that so that your life can be full of new possibilities  and a sense of hope that when connected to the heart you can use that intuition to find solutions to your problems.  

Second step is to reduce stress which i know is easier said than done.  When stress of any kind whether physical, emotional or mental stress is on the body the heart’s rhythm goes out of balance and can be seen on EKGs.  When there is no stress, there is a flow to the body and mind where no energy is wasted.  In this state it’s easier to do everything and thrive mentally, emotionally and physically because your body’s power is maximized.  It’s no longer wasted on trying to survive the day, or on insufficient thoughts and reactions.  The mind nor body have to struggle to keep focused and productive.  When in a stressed state not only does the mind and heart struggle but your hormone balance is compromised too and your health and quality of life are compromised.  So what can we do about stress?  That’s where step 3 comes into play

Step 3 is to learn a technique called Freeze-Frame.  It is a simple five step process that takes you out of the stress of situation by creating a balance in your nervous system.  The more balanced your nervous system is the the more efficient the brain works.  Freeze frame is useful for making in the moment shifts in perception and attitude.  When you need clarity to make a decision- big or small- or to reduce stress use freeze frame to modify neurological impulses from the heart to the brain.  When you do the technique you watch yourself get stressed and actually stop your thinking and putting focus on your heart, purposely think about a happy moment and try to recreate it in your mind.  You then go back to thinking about the stressful situation while continuing to put focus on your heart and I promise you it's amazing how you think of the stressful situation differently now.  You feel more at peace, you're able to let go of the stress and you often find a solution that you didn't think of before.  Freeze frame helps manage your thoughts and reactions thereby reducing your stress.

Step 4 is all about managing your energy.  In this key step you develop a new awareness of how effective you are at using your mental and emotional energy.  For this energy is a determining factor in the quality of our lives.  Internal power translates into vitality and resiliency.  You need to know that positive thoughts and feelings actually add energy to our body.  An optimistic perspective, a feeling of gratitude or a kind gesture are energy assets.  Negative thoughts and feelings deplete our energy.  Anger, jealousy and judgment are energy deficits.  By learning to observe your thoughts and feelings you can learn where you are losing or gaining energy or internal power.  The heart math book has a worksheet to help you record and see where your mental and emotional expenditures are to show you where you gain energy and where you lose it.

Step 5 is the ability to activate what is called the core heart feelings.  There are many core heart feelings including courage, love, patience, sincerity, forgiveness, compassion, nonjudgement, and appreciation.  All these feelings synchronize the heart’s rhythm patterns and help the body.  The main core feelings are appreciation, nonjudgement, forgiveness and care.  These feelings are the main ones because they are essential for the other core feeling to unfold.  Each core feeling has a powerful benefit.  Through daily life these feelings are usually random but this 5th step is all about how to activate these feelings consciously and on demand to facilitate your personal growth and happiness.

Step 6 is managing your emotions.  So you have some emotions you want to cultivate like appreciation and you have others you want to learn to manage so they don’t get the best of you.  Emotions can be intense and complex.  Learning to manage them is key to a happy, healthy life.  Positive emotional states are rewarding and regenerative to the heart, hormone system and immune system while negative emotions drain these systems.  For most of us every day is an emotional roller coaster so unless we learn to manage our feelings and look at the root cause of them by taking responsibility for our feelings and asking ourselves, ‘why do I feel this way?’ What is the real fear of what I am feeling? we will continue to be on that emotional roller coaster our whole life. By learning to manage our emotions we can gain the ability to harness the power of emotions and use the power in ways that benefit us and not drain us.

Step 7 is Care but don’t overcare.  IT’s critical to learn the difference between care and over-care. Caring for yourself and others is an important ingredient to a healthy, rewarding life.  Yet there is a fine line because caring can also be stressful.  When we feel stressed because of the caring the term is overcare. When the caring turns into a burden of responsibility accompanied by worry, insecurity or anxiety.  Problems occur when we allow our care to drain us including a lowered immune system, trouble sleeping, poor decision making and hormonal imbalance.  I think we get stuck in situations where we don’t even realize we are in overcare.  When we learn to distinguish between care and overcare we then can make the choice to choose care and avoid overcare.  

Step 8 is to learn and apply a technique called cut-thru which is to help you manage your emotions and eliminate overcare. Let’s say you are concerned about a meeting at work.  It’s okay to be concerned but if we get really emotional about it the concern can easily become anxiety or even panic which can cause a huge energy deficit.  The scientifically designed Cut thru method will allow you to stop experiencing emotions that create incoherence.  By practicing the heart math Solution the goal is to learn when you’re in stress and do something about it.  We are so used to the day  to day stressors that many times I ask patients what their stress level is and they say medium but when I muscle test their body the body’s biofeedback is telling me their stuck in high stress, for the adrenals which are the first organs to respond to stress are stuck in the fight or flight mode.  

Step 9 is to learn how to do a heart lock in which amplify the power of the heart.  It’s a way of quieting the mind to connect with the heart more intensely locking in to its power adds energy back in to your body.  The book explains scientific evidence on how this technique balances your nervous system and boosts your immune system.    Heart Lock ins take about 5-15 minutes. I suggest doing this in the morning because  when you spend this time strengthening your connection with your heart it is easier to stay in contact with your heart intelligence and it’s intuitive messages throughout the day.  So the 3 main tools of the heart math solution are Freeze frame, cut thru and heart lock in.  Freeze frame is used to manage the mind, cut thru is used to manage the emotions and heart lock-in is used to reinforce the practice of these other techniques and to activate a deeper connection with your core heart feelings and heart intelligence.  Using The heart lock in daily is beneficial for improving health, enhancing creativity and experiencing more intuitive insight.  It really can regenerate your system physically, mentally and emotionally.  

Step 10 is the last step and is about actualizing what you know.  You take all that you've learned from the first nine steps and apply that knowledge to different aspects of your life - personally, professionally and socially.  The book gives many examples of how others have used heart math solution to improve their lives  - their personal lives, their health, their families which helps give you insight on how you can use heart math. It’s very inspirational.  

So those are all the steps!  The formula is activating heart intelligence plus managing the mind plus managing the emotions = energy efficiency, increased coherence, enhanced awareness and greater productivity.  Now you just have to apply it to your every day life.  

 I highly recommend reading the book but if you just want the heart lock in, cut thru and freeze frame directions I have worksheets on them in my office so just ask next visit. at your next visit I want you to know that I will test your nervous system and look for any incoherence. It’s actually the first thing I do on every patient every visit is test their nervous system to see if it is strong or if there is a disruption.  If there is an incoherence then I muscle test to see what toxin is interfering with the nervous system and why the heart and brain are having trouble communicating with each other.  It could be due to a heavy metal toxicity, heavy chemicals, a food the patient is eating, a bacteria, mold or other bug or it could be a scar interfering with how the nerves are firing and communicating with one another.  The 6th stressor it could be is emotional and that’s where the heart math solution comes in.  Managing your emotions and emotional healing is just as important as detoxing the body and giving the body the right nutritional support.  To learn more on how stressful emotional affect our health listen to my podcast called Your body speaks to you: Stress Reduction and Detoxing Stress.  It’s so important mind, body, spirit.  They are all connected.  

Poison and the Blood Brain Barrier

The Blood-Brain Barrier, or BBB, is a single-layered lattice of cells joined together by tight junctions that keep most substances out and allow few substances into the brain.Toxic substances typically kept out include heavy metals, pesticides, germs, plastics as well as damaging proteins while substances allowed in are oxygen, hormones, and nutrients.  Your bbb has tight junctions that become loose or broken with a protein called zonulin. Zonulin also breaks down the protective layer of your intestinal wall creating leaky gut.  Zonulin is increased in the body due to glyphosate (an herbicide found in our food from Roundup made by Monsanto).  To find out what foods contain glyphosate go to Detox Project website. Zonulin is also made in response to eating wheat.  With too much zonulin the bbb leaks letting toxins come into the brain causing damage and inflammation on the brain.  In other words, a Leaky Brain is an Inflamed Brain.

What are the Signs and Symptoms of a Leaky Brain?

Leaky Brain manifests as multiple signs and symptoms, so pay attention to these as opposed to ignoring them:

ADD/ADHD/Autism spectrum disorders

Brain fog or difficulty concentrating

Chronic fatigue that does not improve with rest or sleep

Headaches or migraines that come on suddenly, become worse with standing, and grow more severe as the day progresses

Memory loss or another cognitive decline which may lead to dementia and Alzheimer’s disease

Mood disorders, particularly anxiety, depression, and schizophrenia

Peripheral neuropathy 

Seizures

It is important not to ignore these signs and symptoms because those living with Leaky Brain are at an increased risk of developing neurological or psychiatric conditions. 

What Causes Leaky Brain?

The profound connection between the brain and the gut cannot be underestimated as research repeatedly confirms that microbes living in the gut affect the brain both positively and negatively.

In fact, the stomach and small intestine contain a lining similar to the blood-brain barrier which also keeps harmful substances from entering the gut.

Therefore, many of the same factors that cause a leaky gut—poor gut health, unhealthy diet, food intolerances, food sensitivities, toxins and infections—can also create a leaky brain. For more information on Leaky gut listen to my podcast #13 Digestion Leaky Gut and Lectins.

Studies from Harvard show that wheat creates leaky gut because it contains  a protein called gliadin, which increases the zonulin.  Again it’s this Zonulin that weakens the tight junctions of the gut lining and BBB thereby contributing to leaky gut and leaky brain.

Five causes of Leaky Brain:

1.Gut Dysbiosis (infections)

2.Leaky Gut

3.Autoimmune Disease

4.Mental Health Conditions

5.Stress & Vagus Nerve Dysfunction

All five of these categories have inflammation as a basis for the problem, yet they become even more problematic in the following disease states:

Bacterial infections deteriorate the BBB allowing bacteria into the brain where they do not belong.

Mold toxins trigger inflammation, promote oxidative damage in the brain, and disrupt the BBB.

Excess glutamate overstimulates nerves causing the BBB to breakdown increasing permeability to potentially harmful agents.

High blood sugar and diabetes represent dramatic changes in blood sugar which produce oxidative stress and inflammation

Elevated homocysteine, seen in individuals living with heart disease, autoimmune disease, cancer, and neurodegenerative disease or those who survive a stroke, changes tight junction function and prevents the BBB from functioning properly.

Obesity increase oxidative damage and deprive the brain of oxygen.

Low quality sleep interrupts the sleep-wake cycle interrupting the uptake of nutrients and offload of toxins while increasing inflammation.

While it is more obvious that leaky brain causes inflammation which then drives mental health conditions, it is less known that mental health conditions can also drive inflammation and leaky brain.  The contributing factors could be:

The Brain-Gut Axis: The Vagus Nerve Connection

The brainstem connects to the vagus nerve, which in turn connects to all the digestive organs. The brain sends signals through the vagus nerve to the organs. The organs also send signals through the vagus nerve to the brain.

The vagus nerve initiates many important digestive functions such as stomach acid secretion, enzyme production, gallbladder function and intestinal motility.

If there is poor brain communication to the vagus nerve there can be many negative effects including:

Chronic inflammation

Poor digestion

Leaky gut

Inflamed brain

How to Reverse and Heal a Leaky Brain – Stop, Start, and Seek

Treating a leaky brain starts by healing a leaky gut. This involves eliminating all the causative factors of leaky gut and leaky brain and then adding dietary and lifestyle factors that support brain health.

Following these steps will lower inflammation in the body and brain, maximize the transport of oxygen, glucose, and other nutrients into the brain, facilitate better removal of toxins out of the brain, reduce oxidative stress, and help rebuild tight junctions to restore the integrity of the BBB.

STOP:

Consuming gluten and foods that you cannot tolerate including sugar and processed foods in meals

Ignoring stress

Allowing bacterial and viral infections to fester before getting treatment

Drinking alcohol in excess

Exposure to environmental toxins in air, water and food

Eating nonorganic food that contains glyphosate

START:

Detoxifying the body of pesticides,  and heavy metals

Taking in probiotic foods to keep the gut balanced

Eating essential fatty acids, which are vital for the brain, including avocado, coconut oil, flaxseed, hemp seed, oily fish, pumpkin seeds, and walnuts

Reducing inflammation through the diet  - Listen to our podcast on Chronic Inflammation

Making quality sleep a priority

Reducing psychological and emotional stress through exercise, meditation, journaling

SEEK:

Figure out what supplements you need to take to help repair the BBB including:

Acetyl L-Carnitine, Alpha-Lipoic Acid, Alpha-GPC, Angelica (Dong Quai) Extracts, Astragalus, Astaxanthin, Apigenin, B12-B6-Folate Mix, Berberine, Bitter Melon, Butyrate, Catechins, Chlorogenic-Acid, Citicoline, Collagen, Curcumin, Vitamin D3, Fish Oil, Ginseng, Licorice, Luteolin, Lycopene, Myoinositol, Magnesium, Melatonin, Methylene Blue, Olive Leaf Extract, Oxaloacetate, Parthenolide (Feverfew), Progesterone, Pterostilbene, Resveratrol, Rosmarinic Acid, Shilajit, Selenium, Sulforaphane, Ursolic Acid

There's lots of different supplements for support so it's best to get muscle tested for your exact nutritional support.