Hello again, today I am going to elaborate more on how I began healing my anxiety. First, let’s talk about what some of the underlying causes of anxiety are. The most common are stress, issues in the gastrointestinal tract, food allergies, hormonal imbalances and sometimes even side effects of certain medications. You can have problems with one or all of them. Sometimes to really figure your anxiety out it may be beneficial to speak with a functional nutrition practitioner.
A big link that is becoming more and more well known is the one between anxiety and digestive health or issues with the gastrointestinal tract. In my case my digestion played a huge roll in my anxiety and was an issue for as long as I can remember. When there are issues with your intestinal lining it can lead to the inability to make enough serotonin. Did you know you make about 80-90% of serotonin in your intestines? I like to use the super medical term “gut” and will refer to it as such for the remainder of this article. For those of you unclear about what serotonin is, it is the calming and happy neurotransmitter in your body. It is also the one that is affected by the anti-anxiety or anti-depressant medications that your doctor can prescribe. There are many things that can lead to an unhealthy gut which ultimately leads to decreased production of serotonin. The top ones are:
- Stress
- Food allergies
- Medications
- Imbalance in gut bacteria
The most common medication prescribed to patients with anxiety is a SSRI or a Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor. Now let’s talk a little science, but I promise not too much. In your brain you have neurons that speak to each other, they each have neurotransmitters that they release to other neurons. This release of neurotransmitters lets each of the neurons know how to be feeling and once they have given the message or signal they will go back in the neuron to recharge until they can be used again. People with anxiety show a lower level of serotonin, the calming and happy neurotransmitter, in their brain so doctors prescribe medications that will block some of the serotonin from going back in the neuron. This allows the serotonin they have in their neurons to stay outside of the neuron longer, continuing to give the message of being calm and happy. This makes it feel like the patient has more serotonin in their brain then they actually do. So here is a picture to show you what I mean.
So then my question to myself became, “Why don’t I have enough serotonin and how do I get more?” First thing I thought was since serotonin is made in my gut then how can I get it to produce more? This is when I started doing things to help my digestion and heal my gut, which finally started giving me relief with some of my anxiety. When I started healing my gut I was able to address the problem of my anxiety and not just my symptoms. I changed my diet to a more whole foods approach and eliminated all the junk that I talked about in my post “How I Started Healing My Anxiety Part 1”, you can read more about that here. I decided I wanted the most nourishing things to go in my body so that I could heal my intestinal lining and ultimately lead to more absorption of the vital nutrients my body needed as well as give it the ability to make what I needed, like some flippin’ serotonin!
Here are some of the steps I took to help heal my gut so it could make serotonin.
- Most importantly, I took a probiotic. Probiotics are beneficial bacteria and are very important in balancing the bacteria in your gut so that it can start healing, I recommend Ther-Biotic Complete by Klaire Labs and can’t live without it.
- I gave my gut essential amino acids, which are major building blocks to heal the tissue lining of the intestines. The first one is Glutamine and I also took 1 tablespoon of Vital Proteins pasture-raised gelatin. Gelatin has the amino acids glycine and proline, which many people don’t consume in adequate amounts, as they are found in the bones, fibrous tissues and organs of animals.
- I started taking the precursor to serotonin which is 5-HTP and stands for 5-Hydroxytryptophan. This gave my body what it needed to make serotonin while I was healing to give me relief from my anxiety.
- I added a supplement of calming herbs to help take the edge off and mellow me out while I was healing to help with the anxiety symptoms. NeuroCalm is the supplement I recommend. I also sometimes still take this on days when I know I will have extra stress and it helps me relax and stay calm so I can have a better day.
After I took these steps, it didn’t take long to start really feeling good and this is the same protocol that has really helped a number of my clients. Now there are also factors that could be in play that can make each individual’s healing process a little more complex. If you feel like you are one of those people you can click on my services tab and we can look into other things like hormones, genetics or other things that could be contributing to your anxiety. Anxiety can have a simple cause or a more complex cause but that is why I am here! I want to help you figure it out so that you can finally heal.
