“That the birds of worry and care fly over your head, this you cannot change, but that they build nests in your hair, this you can prevent.” – Chinese Proverb
Confession time: If I had to choose one personal health issue that I’d love to wipe out with a simple wave of my hand, I’d choose anxiety.
Everybody has some type of health concern that they deal with on a daily basis; it’s rare to find someone who feels completely, 100% healthy and free of any ailment. While many healthcare practitioners (including nutritionists) may give off the impression that they have all the answers to perfect health, the truth is that many of us struggle with our own issues, and some of the best health experts in the world became that way because of their struggle with a serious illness. For me, I’ve been on a quest to figure out how to manage my anxiety without resorting to pharmaceutical treatment.
Struggling with anxiety? Check out these tips by @AncestralizeMe to help you stay calm!
Anxiety disorders are one of the most common forms of mental illness in the United States, affecting approximately 18% of the adult population, costing us more than $42 billion a year in healthcare services. (1) And that’s just the people who have actually been diagnosed – in our hectic, stressed-out, achievement-driven society, many people deal with stress on a regular basis, even if they’re not actively seeking treatment for their condition.
While I’ve been tempted in the past to run to a doctor for a quick-fix anxiolytic medication (especially when I was a graduate student), deep down I’ve always known that this could never be the answer I was searching for. I didn’t want to use a treatment that could be hard to stop, or that could even be dangerous to my health.
After searching for effective non-pharmaceutical treatments to help manage my anxiety, I’ve found a few specific methods that, for me, have made a big difference in my day-to-day experience of anxiety.
From my personal experience, here are the three best ways to manage your anxiety without resorting to drug treatment.
1. Un-Restrict Your Diet
This recommendation is for all of you 99% Paleo dieters out there who are worried that even the most minor of slip ups will completely derail any progress you’ve made in changing your diet for the better.
First, think about the amount of carbohydrates you’re eating. While some people believe that a very low carb diet is healthy for everyone, my own personal experience (and the experience of others) has shown me that low carb is not always the best choice, especially for those of us who struggle with anxiety.
If you’re on a very low carbohydrate diet (<100 g per day) and feeling anxiety on a regular basis, you may benefit from an increase in carbohydrates. I recommend starting at 20-30% of calories, and seeing how you feel at that level. You may even feel better on a higher carbohydrate diet, perhaps around 40-50% of calories (or more!).
Don’t let the low-carb dogma dictate how you eat – if you feel like crap on a low carb diet, that’s a relevant feeling and you should be prepared to experiment with a higher carbohydrate diet. And while eating enough protein and fat can be helpful with anxiety, some evidence suggests that too much protein can induce anxiety, so try not to go above 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight if you’re prone to anxiety or panic attacks.
Finally, consider the overall restrictiveness of your diet. Are you on a self-imposed autoimmune protocol despite having no autoimmune diagnosis or symptoms? Do you completely avoid all dairy even though you’ve never had a problem with it in the past? Do you avoid generally benign foods like white rice, properly prepared legumes, or natural sweeteners like honey or maple syrup simply because they’re “not Paleo” or some armchair nutritionist on Paleohacks said that cavemen didn’t eat rice? In this case, consider the possibility that your overly restrictive diet may be doing more harm than good.
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2. Try Quality Supplements
(Please check with your healthcare provider before taking any supplements. These recommendations are intended as general advice only and should not replace medical advice from your primary care physician or other provider.)
If you feel like you’ve already experimented with your diet to no avail, there are some excellent supplements that may be beneficial, including herbs and nutritive formulas. While there are hundreds of combinations that may be beneficial, there are a few more well-studied types that will give you the biggest bang for your buck. Some of the herbs that are generally understood to help with anxiety are: California poppy, hops, verbena, chamomile, lemon balm, valerian, rhodiola, lavender, and passionflower. (2a, 2, 3, 4) These herbs are available as supplements, tinctures, and even tea blends for those looking to use evidence-based natural strategies for anxiety management.
Many supplements contain a mixture of these herbs, which can be helpful for those looking for a reduction in anxiety without the side effects that often come with pharmaceutical treatment. Personally, I like to use Integrative Therapeutics’ Lavela during the day and the Revitalizing Sleep Formula before bed; I find they help take the edge off and allow for a more restful sleep on days where anxiety is starting to get the best of me.
There are some nutritional supplements that are helpful as well. L-Theanine, an amino acid largely found in tea, has been shown to be effective for its anxiolytic effects, including increased alpha brain wave activity and inhibiting cortical neuron excitation. (5) While you can get L-theanine from drinking tea, it’s far more potent in supplemental form, and if you’re dealing with regular anxiety, you may find that it helps keep you calm and focused during the day without causing drowsiness.
Magnesium is also important to supplement with, as most of us are unable to get adequate amounts of it in our daily diets to replace the losses caused by modern day stressors. And research has shown that magnesium deficiency can lead to anxiety and HPA axis dysregulation. (6)
3. Cut down on Caffeine
I know, I know… cutting out caffeine sounds like a death sentence for many of us who either need the caffeine to get going in the morning, or just love the taste of a nice hot coffee as part of our morning ritual. I’ve tried to quit caffeine before, but haven’t been too successful, as I’m back in the habit of drinking a few cups of coffee every day.
The good news is that cutting down on caffeine doesn’t require total elimination of all caffeinated beverages. In fact, going cold turkey on caffeine can actually lead to an increase in mental distress and symptomatic anxiety. (7) Caffeine withdrawal is a legitimate condition, and one that I’ve experienced in the past when I went from excessively drinking multiple espressos daily (I was working as a barista while traveling in Australia) to a complete cessation of caffeine consumption. I felt awful, and it wasn’t just the emotional attachment to my coffee that was causing the problems; there are actual documented symptoms that come from a sudden removal of caffeine. (8)
So instead of going cold turkey on your morning cup of joe, try reducing the overall caffeine you consume on a regular basis by half. Maybe that means going from 6 cups of coffee per day to 3, or perhaps you switch out one or two cups of regular for decaf coffee or green tea instead. Caffeine is a well-established anxiogenic (i.e. anxiety producing) stimulant, and if you’re dealing with chronic anxiety, it’s worth at least moderating your caffeine intake and trying to reduce it over time. (9) You may find that you need less caffeine than you think to get going on a daily basis, and you may end up with more energy and less anxiety or feelings of panic if you don’t overload your nervous system with this potent stimulant.
As an aside (and this relates to step 1 above), one common practice that many Paleo gurus promote is the use of “Bulletproof Coffee” as an effective weight loss and intermittent fasting protocol.
If you do choose to continue with Bulletproof Coffee, try eating a real breakfast at least a few days a week, and use L-theanine to combat the anxiety-provoking effects of caffeine. (11) Like a low-carb approach, if Bulletproof Coffee makes you feel terrible, stop drinking it! (Don’t be a lemming!)
Time to Take Action!
Now that you’ve read my top three tips for managing your anxiety, I’d like to hear from you. Have you implemented any of these recommendations? Do you have any other ideas that would be helpful to other readers?
I’ll be covering more natural ways to manage anxiety in part two of this article series, but for now, I’d like you all to focus on these three and report back to me once you’ve given them a try!
Better supplementation. Fewer supplements.
Close the nutrient gap to feel and perform your best.
A daily stack of supplements designed to meet your most critical needs.
The best thing I have ever found for severe chronic anxiety is Yogic Breathing or Pranayama–it resets your nervous system. This is the DVD I use: http://www.amazon.com/Pranayama-Self-Healing-Vasant-Lad/dp/1883725151/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1396634992&sr=8-1&keywords=pranayama+dvd
It is by Dr. Vasant Lad the premier Auyurvedic doctor in America today. Though it is 79 minutes long, you only have to listen to the full DVD a few times to hear his explanations of what each breathing exercise is for; after that you can just fast forward to whatever breathing exercised you want to do.
I think Paul makes a good point. It’s not wrong to feel anxiety, it’s perfectly natural. Trying to cure it is pushing it away, let it be there, nothing needs to be done about it, it goes of it’s own accord.
Imagine a world where for anger you take B12, jealousy-probiotics, fear- vitamin C, boredom – parsley, pride- honey. poor self esteem- coQ10, unemployment- propolis.
I believe that believing that every problem is down to diet is disempowering.
Right on Gareth! I couldn’t agree with you more and my experience confirms this for me.
Digesting rage with an emotional growth facilitator helped me more than anything I’ve ever taken orally. The day this moved my anxiety/depression and brain fog was gone from the inside out.
Yes. I think it’s a matter of getting real to what’s going on. I think that the body responds to the mind a whole lot more than the other way around and so many people find that addressing the mind at the mind level sorts out the physical.
However getting real also means that often the body is sick at the body level and no amount of sorting the mind out will change anything and so treat the body as necessary. However a healthy mind will make dealing with a sick body a lot better. So often the worse consequences of having health problems is the minds tendency to get depressed, angry or anxious about it so it adds to the suffering.
I guess I am not a fan of thinking that the problem is always in then body and so can always be put right with diet and supplements, I think it’s missing a vital part of what’s going on
I couldn’t agree with you two any less! The body is a machine. If the mind creates stress in the body then it needs to follow the rules of the body to disrupt it. Stress hormones get released. Cortisol rhythm gets disrupted and sleep cycle suffers. Cortisol interferes with thyroid hormones production and a cascade of problems begin that include digestive enzymes weakening. Digestive problems produce nutritional deficiencies after a while. All those deficiencies have their own set of symptoms…. it fans out from there.
I believe that many long term physical symptoms of stress are all the nutritional deficiencies that develop. Compare PTSD to magnesium deficiency for instance… its all there, migraine, aversion to loud noises, photo sensitivity, sleep disorder, etc.
To understand that you have options to block the cortisol spikes if you can’t withdraw yourself from the stress is to be empowered. To ameliorate the nutritional deficiencies so you don’t suffer while you work through your problems is to be empowered.
So to fully understand that the body has procedures to follow to produce symptoms of stress is to be empowered. Wallowing in all the symptoms while you talk with your therapist is unnecessary and further, everything is not emotionally based and to assume it is is to waste a lot of time.
San Francisco examiner says:
http://www.examiner.com/article/magnesium-can-improve-symptoms-of-post-traumatic-stress-disorder
I think the problem is unreasonable anxiety, which is actually debilitating and not helpful at all. If it interferes with someone’s life to a large degree, then something should definitely be done about it. I think you may not have experienced anxiety attacks to the level that other people have. The natural anxiety you’re talking about is normal, but I think people can tell the difference between a mild anxious reaction with a cause, versus unreasonable strong anxiety with no real cause. It’s not a ‘natural’ response to something; it tends to be random and annoying for many people.
Anger can be caused by high homocysteine, so B12 would in fact be something to consider if someone was unreasonably angry all the time.
Understanding that diet has a huge effect on mood can be extremely empowering, because diet is something most people can change by themselves, and it means that they can actually DO something about their anxiety. I think it can be damaging to say “just accept it”. We shouldn’t just accept things that can be changed, for example: you can stay strong and healthy in old age, even though many people accept being frail and sickly. Many people believe that the frailty and sickness is ‘natural’ and just due to ageing. Then they don’t try to change, even though a large factor in how someone elderly will feel is their lifestyle (diet + exercise + social interactions). Anxiety is very much the same.
I wouldn’t take anything to an extreme so if a pill helps be it natural or pharma then take it.
I did once experience extreme panic attacks and a debilitating constant anxiety which was a 24 hour nightmare. Nothing worked until one day I went for a walk and forcibly stopped myself from thinking negatively second by second and all of a sudden I felt so much better. I realized that the problem was my own mind and thoughts and with this realisation I was empowered to give up trying to find a cure anywhere else.
My point is not to ‘accept’ anxiety and ignore it or not to take something which will help, but to take responsibility for all afflictions and not put them simply down to diet (which is not to say that diet can affect mood as it clearly can).
There may come a time when someone is simply tired of being pushed around by anxiety, anger, jealousy etc and stops looking to pin the problem on something else like diet and takes responsibility for their own creations so to speak.
If your ready for this then when these afflictions arise don’t accept them, don’t run with them, don’t avoid them but let them fully be felt and experienced and you will see that they always move on and that at no point where you at any danger from them. This advice is not the usual advice which seeks to be rid of these problems (only for them to arise again) but to gently empower yourself to see that you are actually always stable in the face of all. However it’s good to be supported in doing this by others who are also giving up being a victim to their own mind training.
But as I said no extremes, get help from professionals or wherever if you need to.
Gareth, I agree with you that one of the causes of anxiety is controllable psychological factors, controlling one’s thoughts can help control one’s feelings, but that is not enough to fix a real case of anxiety. Speaking from experience as someone who had it for several years and has since recovered, it is indeed a physical experience as well as a psychological experience. Imagine if you were under some constant state of threat, how would you respond? Your sympathetic nervous system would be switched on and you will feel perpetually stressed and no amount of positive thinking would stop it. That’s what it’s like having anxiety only there is no actual threat and no logical reason for the reaction.
The gut brain axis link to depression and anxiety is particularly strong, and has been established in a number of studies – http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21893478
For me my feelings of anxiety started at the exact same time that I Developed irritable bowel syndrome, and most people with depression and anxiety have gut issues.
A number of studies have observed differences in the brain scans of depressed and non depressed people including impaired neuroplasticity – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biology_of_depression#Monoamine
The condition is also associated with decreased brain volume –
http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/v18/n9/full/nm.2886.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16425236
forgot this study on the gut-brain axis – http://www.gutpathogens.com/content/5/1/3
Gareth, I can’t agree with you more. You are spot on.
Given that you are in good health, given that you’ve done all the nutritional due diligence and your gut-brain is balanced well, and you still have anxiety, then look at your mind. Do you ruminate, why then? Do you worry, why then? Do you pace the floor for no reason, why then? Do you not enjoy simple things, why then? Is there a stench in your soul, a foul low grade chronic pain, why then? Do you feel chronic guilt but have done nothing to deserve it, why then? Do you constantly question your social interactions and reactions…worry that maybe you said or did something wrong at a party, even when there is no possible way you could have, why then? Why dammit?
Another ingestive ain’t the answer. You have to look at the way you think. You have to look at the way you tell your own story to yourself. You have to examine the movies you play in your head. You are not seeing yourself in the world correctly. But you first have to accept that fact and then release it, no guilt, go to work reprogramming your self to see the beautiful human you are.
Cat, I think you may have misconstrued “acceptance” in this regard. If a person, such as I, suffers from chronic long term (lifelong) anxiety, and your healthy, and your family history is indicative of anxiety and depression your first step MUST be acceptance. Guilt is a huge factor, and acceptance of facts removes guilt. You have to first accept basic facts, which is the first step to freedom. Based upon your comments you are neither elderly nor a sufferer of chronic anxiety. And, by the way, frailty is a natural part go aging.
gareth that is a bit dismissive. There is a difference between a normal functioning person who feels transient anxiety and someone who’s whole life is being controlled by perpetual and uncontrollable feelings of anxiety. You might as well say that anxiety as a chronic condition doesn’t exist. The fact is that people who have persistent feelings of depression and anxiety have concomitant physical symptoms that have been observed, including gut dysbiosis and measurable neurological distinctions.
I would have to disagree here. Since 1974 I have been up and down the rabbit hole of the health foodie movement looking for that magic elixir that would make me feel whole. Wine is the only thing that works and that’s just another rabbit hole in itself. I am in perfect health, sixty yrs old, and suffer chronic low grade anxiety. I’m not talking panic here I’m talking of a guilt shadow that follows you around forever.
I have friends that eat garbage and are as happy as idiots so it ain’t all diet. And I have no concomitant physical symptoms. I understand that the gut-brain (enteric nervous system) is ninety percent autonomous from the brain and that it controls the brain to a large extent. But when all that is accounted for, anxiety must be seen as “part” of who you are. Now that knowledge is true freedom for a chronic sufferer. You may not understand this but it’s true. Now we have the self permission to see it as the ghost that it is.
I think the type of protein is more important than the total amount you eat. If a protein food is high in the amino acids tryptophan and/or glycine, it will increase GABA production and have a calming effect. This is true of proteins found in poultry, beans, dairy, gelatin and pork skins, for example.
As someone who has suffered from anxiety in the past for years this is not very formidable advice.
If I had to pick the top 4 strategies for addressing anxiety it would be as follows –
1: Adopt a quality “paleo template” diet.
2: add lots of socially interactive exercise, including strength training.
3: Address gut health (that was a big one for me, Fecal microbiota transplantation is needed in some cases). There is a HUGE link between gut dysbiosis and anxiety.
4: Address psycho-social issues. For me, getting a girlfriend made a really huge difference in my life. The support, strength and bond of a partner almost eliminated the residual symptoms of anxiety that I had.
No offense but I really don’t think drinking herbal teas and being less strict on one’s diet should be top priority for something as serious and recalcitrant to treatment as anxiety. No coffee is pretty much a no brainer.
Hey Marcus:
This all makes sense to me. I’ve experienced similar and having a girlfriend was awesome and definitely noticed way less anxiety when I was dating. I’m sad to say I walked away from both my x’s and would rather be alone that in an unhealthy relationship and glad I gave it a shot with both of these women!
I’d just add that sometimes waking away from an unhealthy relationship is just as important and having one depending on the circumstance.
Good point Ian, a destructive relationship can make things even worse and people with anxiety tend to have trouble letting go of these relationships because they find it hard to cope alone, i’m glad you were strong enough to do that 🙂
+1 for the exercise and social interaction, together and/or separate. Though it has to be actual vigorous exercise where I’m thinking about the game; it can’t be the slow types of yoga (I know there are fast tempo yogas) that make you focus on yourself and your breathing -that’s counterproductive for me. Basically, things that bring me out of my head seem to work really well (which is why yoga and meditation are unfortunately not strategies I can utilize).
Chamomile and magnesium never worked for me, but green tea does have a general calming effect. I’ve also found chicken hearts (high in phosphotidylserine, I believe) to be helpful. For carbs I find it’s more about the single dose not being too high. I can eat lots of carbs if I split them into ~50g portions in each meal, but going over 50g gives me anxiety attacks.
I also believe gut dysbiosis is a major factor in anxiety, but I find that it’s incredibly difficult to fix, so other strategies can be tried in the meantime.
50g of carb is 100g of bread (3 slices in my sprouted whole wheat bread ) that is HUGE.
What am I missing?
2 apples =50g carbs. It’s about 1.5-1.75 potatoes, or 1 potato + other fruit/veggies, so not that huge at all. If you eat 3 meals per day with 50g carbs in each meal, that’s 150g carbs total, which is low carb ala PHD, and what many Paleo-template adherers eat.
But either way, what you’re missing is that I was just sharing how I control anxiety attacks. I noticed eating more than 2 potatoes in a meal would trigger anxiety, so I stopped. Just an n=1.
(You may also be eating very low carb, and I only eat moderately low carb, because otherwise I find it difficult to get enough calories. I think 300g+ carbs is what many high-carbers eat, so 150 g is half of that, ie/ moderately low carb. 50g carbs is not a lot unless you are doing a ketogenic diet or controlling diabetes.)
Hi cat, i had the same experience, yoga, meditation and other supposed stress relieve exercises were also counterproductive to me, vigorous exercise is much more effective. I think this is because people with anxiety are operating on high stress levels and they need a fight or flight response like vigorous exercise to deplete all those stress hormones and resolve the conflict. Gut health is hard to treat but FMT can be like a miracle cure if you IBS or other issues.
I have healed from Post Traumatic Stress disorder, Anxiety and Depression. I’ve always believed that I could heal med free but until a few years ago had not found peers in my profession who believed as I do. I now contract almost exclusively with a wonderful website where all of us as coaches/counsellors share a similar philosophy. We believe that anxiety is condition of both overstimulation and fear. So we start off by teaching people physiological strategies…what you’ve mentioned here as well as a few more. THEN we teach them how to contain their thinking (cognitive strategies)…after which we’ll go to underlying issues.
When people start with, and consistently apply, the physiological strategies their symptoms will go away.
If you’re interested in checking it out, there is a lot of great information at the membership part of the site: http://www.anxietycentre.com (Canadian spelling of centRE) 🙂
Dear Laura (and Chris, too),
Thank you for this wonderful article and thanks, as well, to everybody’s informative comments. I intend to read up on every one of the suggestions. You are all kind to post and share your strategies!
Anxiety is a new companion for me (but I have had mild depression for years). I have been doing a Paleo/GAPS diet for 8 months with wonderful results. However, recently anxiety has gotten very high (several stressful life events converging has contributed) with really uncomfortable physical symptoms (grindy stomach, not able to physically relax and bring it down, feelings of fear and racing thoughts, constant, constant worry, pain in my mid-back).
One thing your article helped me to ID right away was a change to my diet which may have contributed to higher anxiety. I followed up on the URL about Bulletproof coffee which led me to Bulletproof tea. We are tea drinkers and order high-quality loose-leaf teas from China, Taiwan and India. I have always drunk either Te guan yin or Jade Oolong teas; these are both lightly oxidized oolong teas (closer to green teas than to black teas) with high levels of theanine and other antioxidants. These teas calm me and help me focus and I gravitated to them.
I ran out of my tea and started drinking my husband’s; he favors Darjeeling, which a highly oxidized, almost black tea. It has much less theanine (so caffeine will affect one more) and more purines (aids blood circulation, normalizes blood pressure, warming properties…) than the lightly oxidized oolongs I favor.
BTW, we do not add anything to our tea (milk, sugar, honey, butter…), preferring to enjoy the subtle and ever-changing qualities of multiply-steeped tea leaves.
It is clear that the tea is absolutely a medicine for me and by both running out of mine and also switching to a black loose-leaf tea, I am reacting badly. The Jade and Te guan yin create calmness and focus, a feeling of well-being physically/mentally, for me. Theanine lack? Well, your article made me sit up and take notice…
But, I also think there may be dietary factors that are contributing. The stressful life events came and I started craving sweets and I began eating dates. Not a lot, not every day. But, I do not think I can tolerate any simple carbohydrates right now and I believe I experience more anxiety in the days following eating dates.
We eat sauerkraut every day and my husband now makes his own kombucha (fermented tea). I started making water kefir and I also make my own 24-hour organic, whole milk/cream yogurt. The ferments are aiding our overall health, but by adding sugars (dates) I am probably feeding a bunch of bad bacteria and upsetting the balance I am trying to get to, by eating ferments.
I am one of those people whose gut disorders (and auto-immune response) lead to a disregulation of the brain chemistry. Gut-brain connection. Mild depression has taken a back seat to anxiety, for me.
My sympathies to anyone who has struggled with anxiety for years… …it is not easy to live with.
So, THANK YOU so much for writing about this critical topic and for giving us more tools/info to use to heal and get to well-being and calm. I really hope will write more about this topic. Those of us whose master-computers (our brains) are affected by an out-of-balance gut really do appreciate it!
Oh, Laura, I feel you, sister! It is obvious you take your health seriously and are stepping up. Good for you!
May I ask what autoimmune issue you are dealing with?
I, too, fermented my own kefir, yogurt, etc. and LOVE kombucha! I ate only raw dairy and giving it up was really hard. I hate to admit this, but I do feel better dairy-free!
I love your observations about how you react to the different teas! I am envious of your ability to handle the oolongs; they are delicious!
I hope to be able to tolerate the small amount of caffeine in them again! And how I miss kombucha…
How well do you sleep?
My very best to you,
Trish
Trish,
I have a mild brain injury from a car accident years ago; left me with mild depression & SAD (seasonal affective disorder).
I am so excited to read the Paleo community (including Dr. Kresser) posting and writing books about the gut-brain connection. This info was unknown years ago; I tried to help my mild brain injury heal years ago with diet, herbs, etc. …with virtually no known tools – well, you could get all kinds of meds / pharmaceuticals …which I did NOT want and chose to refuse.
Today, I am aware of at least two books wherein the authors (doctors) not only advocate a Paleo approach but give very, very specific ways to heal the gut/brain connection, thereby helping the brain itself. It is now generally agreed – among these researchers – that just like people develop “leaky guts”, they can also develop “leaky blood-brain barriers”. It is generally agreed that if you have had a brain injury, you now also have a leaky gut, because of the intimate connection between the vagus nerve and the gut. Insult the brain, insult the vagus nerve & the gut. The communication between the two is pretty much initiated mostly in the gut …with the brain NOT the leader but the follower! So, heal the gut/vagus nerve pathways, heal the brain.
As far as a “leaky blood-brain barrier”; holy cow does that factor introduce lots of things to think about! Just HOW does a “leaky blood-brain barrier” manifest in one’s day-to-day life? I wanna know!
…and, just HOW the heck do you heal a leaky blood-brain barrier?
…and, are they telling me I not only have a leaky gut but I ALSO have a leaky brain ?
We were all taught years ago by the Drs. / media / drug companies that you need anti-depressants so you can (re-use) serotonin in the brain and manage depression. Well, now it is being stated by Paleo docs that 80%+ of your serotonin is not only produced in the gut, it is also USED in the gut. So much for the effectiveness of SSRIs and their serotonin recycling in the brain! Toss the pills and gimme my sauerkraut, please.
I, too, can’t have (non-fermented) dairy. But I have found that if I ferment the milk for 24-28 hours I have NO problems; this long fermentation both gets rid of the milk sugars and changes the milk proteins so they are digestible for me. I also ferment using 1/2 whole milk and 1/2 full cream (all organic, grass-fed). The higher fat works really well for me. I would ferment 100% cream but I can’t afford it! Boy is it yummy!
BTW, sleep is off right now. I am staying up later, waking up earlier, and am not refreshed. This anxiety-thing is not fun.
Trish, are you dealing with an auto-immune issue?
Thanks for your post!
Hey, Laura,
I have Hashimoto’s Disease. But frankly, it’s the adrenal fatigue syndrome that is really the dominant issue.
I was an outsales sales rep in the natural health industry and I sold to holistic M.D.’s, N.D.’s, etc. but I had filed the info regarding a leaky brain-barrier away in some part of my brain. Thank you for the refresher! I love dialogue with people who are informed and passionate about getting healthy naturally! And it sounds like you have really been through it, too!
Now… I had this massive lab done through my lovely D.O. and found out that my body was not digesting nor absorbing ANY fat! Not fat synthesized by my body nor dietary fat! Which completely explains why I gained 25 bloody lbs on the GAPS diet and had constant reflux that actually developed into full blown gastritis with erosions covering my stomach and esophagus! I felt unwell the whole time I was on it.
Not to thouroughly gross you out, but I had a week in which I was pretty sick. I had diarrhea with vomiting and for 5 days ate only clear bone stock, which I made, and I GAINED 4 lbs! When my thyroid and adrenals tanked I gained 20 lbs within 4 weeks, not changing my diet or acitivity level. I ate well and was doing yoga, pilates and good cardio. Then I nearly collapsed and had to cease all exercise and went on the GAPS diet, working with a certified GAPS practitioner. I gained another 25 lbs within 4 weeks! When I switched to a more balanced paleo diet, then eliminated all dairy, I started feeling better and I am slowly dropping weight.
My AFS was so bad, Laura, that the slightest stimulant triggered an adrenal crash. For a while there I was truly in fear for my life.
I am slowly doing better and looking forward to rejoining society! And unfortunately, even well fermented yogurt makes me bloated. 🙁
Thank you so much for the fantastic info, your intelligence and sense of humor!
Trish,
May I ask, what are the physical symptoms of adrenal glands which are weakened or not working well?
Yeh, digesting fats is an issue. I am OK with that part of Paleo-GAPS, thankfully. But I have a friend doing GAPS and she has also gained weight and now thinks digesting fats is an issue. She has started taking HCl/betaine tabs. (She is also currently under a lot of stress.)
I hope you continue to do better and find ways to heal the auto-immune thing(s). I am so envious of people who can just start Paleo and have no probs no AI issues – well, not really envious, just wishing that my pathway were easier.
Best to you!
Trish, re. tea and caffeine: among tea people (and I’m talking cammelia sinensis here, not tissanes AKA herbal teas) it is recommended – if you are sensitive to caffeine – that you discard the first steep of your tea. This removes a very large percentage of the caffeine. Steep the loose-leaf for 60 seconds, discard the water, and then steep again & again and you will gain the benefit of the other phyto-nutrients in the steeps, while loosing the effects of caffeine.
Also, you sound like you probably already know that different types of tea produce different mental states in different people (the Chinese tea-masters have known this for centuries). So, try different types of teas to see their effect …and try brewing your initial steeps (discarding the first, of course) for very brief times (30, 45 seconds) …and read up on which temp. of water to use for which tea (very important). Both water temp & steep length will change the expression of the phyto-nutrients in your cuppa. Let your tongue tell you what is right for you.
Tea bags (not the more expensive and superior loose-leaf teas) contain tea leaf that has been broken up (it is called “dust” in China and is the cheapest, lowest grade of tea – sold to the Lipton’s and Tetley’s of the world). Once broken up as “dust” the leaf releases a great deal more caffeine. So, do not use store-bought tea bags.
Finally, the black teas (highly oxidized) tend to express more caffeine and the light oolongs and greens (lightly or not oxidized) tend to express less caffeine and more of the other phyto-nutrients. So, stay away from black teas …and dust!
Caffeine makes me jittery and I should have picked up on the Darjeeling (almost a black tea) making me antsy!
HTH. I would be desolate if I had to give up tea! Maybe this will give you a way to add tea back in?
For years I struggled with chronic anxiety, the life-changing difference came when I surrendered my life to Christ. I know I can cast all my anxiety upon Him and He will set me free. I have a hope and peace in Him like nothing I had ever experienced in my life prior to His Saving Grace. I pray that you will find relief, peace and joy in the One who truly can save. Many blessings, Kelly 🙂
“… cast all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you. .”
-1 Peter 5:7
Laura,
Excellent post! I can relate with this and here’s what I’ve done/experienced to share with the tribe:
I found I do best with the Paleo Autoimmune Protocol. My friends told me I’m the most solid and confident “ballsy guy!” they know when I’m doing that as long as I have plenty of work coming in.
I’ve struggled with employment and if my diet is “perfect” or what works best for me is dialed in, but I don’t have income coming in my anxiety goes through the roof no matter what and the the focus on diet can then become a distraction. So there are definitely psycho/emotional things that can’t be “fixed” by diet for me.
This isn’t black and white, but in general having a low carb diet (especially without fruits) without nuts/seeds/grains/beans and moderate clean forms of caffeine works for me.
Just for the record, when you talk about grams of carbs and protein, it’s usable carbs and protein and not weight? I followed the Zone ratios for a number of years (on and off I confess, and I always lost weight steadily) and functioned very well. I now eat cleaner but think the lower carb isn’t working so well for me either.
July has a good question which makes me ask mine:
I am VERY confused: you say “a very low carb diet is 100g of carbs/d?” That is about 200g of my bread daily, hardly a low carb diet.
On protein, 1g/poud of body weight means 150g for SO weighing 150lbs.
Now with 32g of protein per 4oz steak (nutrition Now tables) that’s about 18-19oz of steak/day (1lb 3oz). I’d agree that it is a lot!
Laura, Please correct the numbers you use if there is an error. Dod you mean 10-15g carb/d, not 100?
100g of carbs is total carbs not net carbs. 1g of protein per lb of body weight should be lean body mass. There are calculators online to find your lean body mass. The 150 lb person you talked about may have a LBM of 105 lb. 1g per LBM is also for very physically active people so people should adjust their protein intake based on activity levels just as they should with total carb intake.
Magnesium, theanine, rhodiola, ashwaganda & B vitamins are key! Plus some form of meditation & probiotics.
I struggled with anxiety for several decades before eventually finding my own solution and now I help others to do the same. I thought my anxiety had no connection with my diet as I had zero digestive symptoms and a seemingly cast iron stomach. Ah how wrong I was!
But it’s not just your macronutrient balance that counts. Your Brain loves fat, water and lots and lots of nutrients. It hates inflammatory foods, things you are intolerant to, rollercoaster blood sugar and a wonky 03/06 balance. And it hates toxins.
The solution is not about ‘restricting or unrestricting’ your diet according to a Paleo blueprint. Just because you are paleo doesn’t mean that your diet is healthy or right for you.
Paleo is a good start but it’s only a start. If 100 paleo dieters read this page you are looking at 100 different diets. You might actually need low-fodmap, no nightshade, egg and lactose free paleo with no walnuts!
What you are aiming to do is to improve the quality of your diet one habit at a time – upping the nutrients whilst removing the stuff your body doesn’t like….
Get rid of the inflammatory foods, the foods that you are intolerant too (which you probably won’t notice until you clean up the rubbish first), balance your blood sugar and your o3/6. Eat enough damn nutrients in the first place.
I actually got much worse when I started a paleo diet as I had unwittingly added more of the ‘healthy’ foods that were causing my problems. It sounds so obvious to say ‘You Are Your Diet’ but you are. It has a huge impact on your anxiety levels. But it takes time. Don’t just ‘restrict or unrestrict’ your diet to follow a blueprint. Work systematically until you find your own. Yes it can be a slow and frustrating process but it’s worth it in the end 🙂
The magnesium suggestion is right on the money. I had panic issues on and off for most of my life. I had weird symptoms that had gotten progressively worse as I got older as well… especially nerve conduction issues; I woke up and one of the triceps muscles was paralyzed. I went physical therapy for 2 months until the nerve began to fire again. Then one of my vocal cord stopped working for 3 months. I was sure I had MS but test showed nothing.
I discovered after years of many different doctor visits that I had a couple undiagnosed food allergies that would play havoc with my stomach. When you have gut inflammation you cannot absorb magnesium and B vitamin absorption is disrupted as well. Could be because the bacteria in your stomach that makes B12 called intrinsic factor is overrun as the gut ecology changes drastically with food allergy.
I cut the foods out of my diet and it took a few months of Mediclear plus and daily L-glutamine to calm the inflammation. Restoring my B12 took weekly injections of methyl-cobalamin for months. Magnesium is hard to restore orally when you have lingering stomach issues and because of different qualities and the levels of absorption of the different types of Magnesium. Magnesium oxide is notorious for being just about useless in terms of absorption for instance.
Even after months of taking high quality magnesium glycinate testing showed I was still deficient. I was taking regular magnesium baths and using magnesium oil as well as 1500mgs of glycinate but red blood cell analysis still showed low magnesium blood levels. I had to have 2500mg IVs of magnesium once a week for 3 weeks to bring levels up to normal. Now I take a powdered magnesium drink called “Natural Calm” occasionally and that takes care of my levels now along with lots of dark green veggies of course.
Benefits of restoring my deficits have been no more tingling hands and feet, no more of occasional RLS, no more nerve conduction problems, no more dehydration, no more of my life time of canker sores, no more chronic constipation, no more depression, no more panic, no more exaggerated startle response, no more social anxiety, I am calm to the core, no more occasional prostate pain, no more chiropractor once a month for back adjustments, adult acne disappeared.
One thing I learned is that if you are truly magnesium deficient that you are also potassium deficient since they go hand in hand. I drank low sodium V8 juice since one 8 ounce glass is like eating 2 bananas for the potassium. Restoring magnesium without potassium supplementing will highlight the potassium deficiency symptoms like leg cramps. Potassium pills are limited by law to 99mg which is 3% of the RDA. Taking one pill will not help you.
Hi Laura,
As a child growing up in a violent home, anxiety was my normal way of being; it was all I knew. I had panic and anxiety attacks but didn’t realize that’s what was going on until much later.
I now know I was born with adrenal stress, and the subsequent ongoing abuse created a chronically anxious state that developed into PTSD and then very advanced adrenal fatigue syndrome.
I suffered from crippling insomnia, getting 2-4 hrs of sleep in 15-minute increments, and often not sleeping at all. The cascading effect of health issues started very young and took over my entire life. I vibrated at my very core, kind of like a car idling. I had IBS as young as 7 yrs old, debilitating headaches, PCOS, stage 3 cystic acne, chronic low back pain and sacral instability, carpal tunnel, tendinitis, interstitial cystitis, and Hashimoto’s Disease.
I worked as an outside sales rep in the natural health industry, I am a certified clinical hypnotherapist and a certified professional coach. I have acquired a lot of tools over the years and always looked to food and supplements as a way to augment the other emotional and spiritual healing modalities I utilized.
4 years ago when I was on the verge of collapse and adrenal failure, I was having paradoxical reactions to nearly everything I took. I was forced to leave my job and have even been housebound off and on for months at a time. I gave in then and began taking very small doses of xanax at night in order to get some kind of sleep. If I am unable to sleep, healing will not occur. I do not take it during the day and really look forward to the day when I can wean myself off at night.
Paying out of pocket seeking help in a society that knows very little about adrenal fatigue syndrome has left us financially drained. I have found that even those who know something about AFS don’t understand that mild and moderate AFS are a far cry from advanced adrenal fatigue syndrome. Once you cross that line into advanced it’s a whole different ballgame. Any kind of stimulant can trigger an adrenal crash and paradoxical reactions are the norm.
I have been working with a brilliant therapist doing sound therapy with tuning forks. I was holding onto so many toxins that I was unable to absorb nutrients, especially the nutrients that calm the nervous system. Someone mentioned copper earlier, and she is spot on! I was storing high levels of copper deep within my cells and I have been releasing the toxins that have contributed to my body’s inability to function as it was intended. It took me 4 months to release the copper. I am currently releasing old vaccines and this experience is profound.
I am now able to absorb magnesium and vitamin C is also really important for adrenal healing. I drink lemon balm tea and have L-theanine on hand for times when I need it. I practice slow, deep breathing and will lay down in the ‘corpse pose’ during the day doing slow, deep belly breathing. While this all works well, I have had AFS for so long, healing is taking a while. Those of us dealing with this, often have a hard time self-regulating and as soon as we start to feel better we try to resume normal activities… and then we have an adrenal crash. It is frustrating and I deal with this firsthand. I am learing about being patient with myself!
One more thing. I highly recommend an exercise program called TRE or Trauma Releasing Exercises developed by Dr. David Berceli of the Berceli Foundation. When we are under severe or chronic stress, our posas muscles constrict as a way of protecting us at our most vulnerable. Other muscles react in kind and this triggers fight/flight. When the stress is severe or chronic enough, our psoas muscles remain constricted and our emotional and mental health reflects that. The exercises are like yoga poses that elicit a shaking within the psoas that reverberates throughout the body and relaxation results.
That was a very simple way of explaining it, but his website explains it all beautifully. http://www.bercelifoundation.org/s/1340/aff_2_home.aspx
Thank you again, Laura, for your great information and offering a place to be heard!
I find I love all things Chris Kresser related! 😀
Trish,
I just wanted to chime in and say you are right on. My experience of doing deep psycho/emotional growth and healing helped me more than any diet ever has.
Anxiety is often fear of being hurt or a way to bypass rage. When I digested repressed rage from a traumatic family where I was forced to give up my power to an alcoholic man eating/hating mother and coward of a father it was the first time in my life I felt my anxiety/depression/brain fog really resolve! The day this moved was literally the best day of my life and I’m 33 so that says a lot.
Thanks for saying something about this and best of luck on your path!
Ian! Thank you so much for your kind words and support! And congratulations on your own growth and healing!
Being willing to show up and face what you have takes courage. So many people are afraid to do just that out of fear of pain, not realizing that they are creating far more pain by resisting and denying.
Good wishes back to you! Here’s to radiant health!
Trish 🙂
You bet Trish and right back at ya!
Trish I noticed you listed Hashimoto’s last on your list as a symptoms of adrenal fatigue but every last one of the other symptoms are signs of undertreated Hashimoto’s. What are your labs? As a Hashimoto’s sufferer like myself your free T3 should be in the high normal range.
Beyond looking for a silverbullet food / supplement regime anxiety is also mind made, which is precisely the point of this axiom: “That the birds of worry and care fly over your head, this you cannot change, but that they build nests in your hair, this you can prevent.” – Chinese Proverb
If you suffer a chronic undercurrent of anxiety that shaves off joy and pleasure…and your healthy in general you need to look at your thinking process. I am sixty, healthy and sensitive to nothing…can tolerate dairy, legume, pasta, meat…all of it, I had anxiety all my life, been through buttload of foodie / vitamin stuff and was about to go pharma when my doc told me that I just may be hard wired for it, based on my family history. These were words of magic…it’s what I needed to hear. It took all the guilt away.
Sure I have anxiety, lots of it, so what? I thInk wrong…I can work on that. Don’t just look for the injestive magic bullet…there ain’t one. Look at your mind, the way you think, the way you put yourself in the world, the movies you create in your mind. Just accept it. Watch your mind…watch the way you think and love who you are.
Mind made…change mind.
There may be some benefit to tinkering with diet and herbs but if anxiety is really bothering you then I would suggest getting real. The real cause of anxiety imho is due to believing that your well-being is dependent on things going right in life and worrying that things won’t go well. This is merely a habit we have all trained in and it causes stress and anxiety to nearly everyone.
When you see that actually you are ok all the time no matter what, then you gradually stop believing in your mental gymnastics and they die down.
I used to walk into a health food shop and believe that somewhere on those shelves must be the cure to my anxiety. This type of thinking is just more anxiety.
We have created torture chambers in our own minds and so we can choose to stop the self abuse.
What a great article! I found this personally so true for me and feel much better with heatlhy carbs. Plus being strict is just no fun and thats important. I also find that being appreciative to God that we have all this real food to eat! Thanks again for a great article 🙂
I agree with increasing the carbs! I feel better now that I switched from low-carb paleo to PHD (more root veggies/plantains/white rice and LOTS more fat…specifically the healthy oleic & stearic fats). I also consume caffiene very rarely. The only supplements I take are vit d3 and the occasional cod liver oil when Im not eating liver. But I do eat a crazy amount of variety, including seaweed (i sprinkle dulse on everything!), herbal teas, lots of healthy spices (especially ginger/turmeric) gelatin, and fermented foods/kombucha everyday. I feel overall better including OCD/anxiety/binging problems. Also I think yoga/buddhism helps! Oh and I am lucky enough to get 8hrs of sleep every night. And I try to eat a mix of raw and cooked foods everyday. It’s hard to say what has helped me the most. But I feel like I’ve found a great balance/routine now.
Maybe the thing to do for anxiety is to get some vitamin B3. It’s interesting how a general need for niacin is linked to so many anxiety and even dangerous mental disorders.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/10/21/pellagra-causes-violent-crimes.aspx
Although, I like to add a wide spectrum medical grade probiotic to help control anxiety. I find Super Shield Plus probiotics from Blue Rock Wholistics to be a pretty nice blend for my purposes. I figure if leaky gut can exacerbate conditions like autism, why not anxiety too?
A few years ago I developed crippling panic disorder with near constant fear and paranoia. When it first occurred, I went into a doctor and he mentioned my cholesterol was slightly high as well. My reaction was to become a vegetarian, then a vegan. But my lipid numbers only increased and I had more and more trouble keeping off the weight. Meanwhile I required constant benzos just to function throughout the day.
I changed my diet from one of severe restriction to one of super nourishment; eating egg yolks, liver, quality fats, meats and healthy vegetables… while leaving out processed foods, oils and sugars and largely eliminating the tremendous amounts of whole grains I had been eating as a vegetarian. I no longer take medication, I no longer have panic attacks, and I find the little anxiety I do have is very manageable. My energy levels are stable, I’m calm, and I can now face situations that would have had me shaking in fear with a grin.
I would recommend a mindfulness/action practice called ACT (said like the word “act”.) http://contextualscience.org/act
In combination with a great diet and healthy body, I am of the opinion that many of the worst effects of anxiety can be mitigated.