trudy scott targeted individual amino acids for anxiety · pdf fileamino acids can make such...

Trudy Scott – Targeted individual amino acids for eliminating anxiety: practical applications www.theAnxietySummit.com November 3-16, 2014

© 2014 Trudy Scott All Rights Reserved of 33

Targeted individual amino acids for eliminating anxiety: practical applications

• Glutamine: how it’s calming and helps with blood sugar balancing • GABA: how it eases physical tension • Tryptophan: how it eases anxiety in the head/busy ruminations (and when

not to use 5-HTP) • DPA and tyrosine: how they help you quit the comfort-eating and coffee • Precautions when using individual amino acids • Factors that make them more effective and factors that make them less

effective

Trudy Scott: Welcome to The Anxiety Summit Season 2. I am your host, Trudy

Scott. I am known as a food mood expert. I'm a certified nutritionist, and I am the author of The Antianxiety Food Solution. Today's topic is “Targeted individual amino acids for eliminating anxiety: practical applications.” Today, I am the speaker of the day. I have invited Dr. Lauren Noel to interview me on this topic. Welcome, Dr. Lo.

Dr. Lauren Noel: Thank you. It's so good to be here. Welcome. Trudy Scott: Dr. Lo is the owner and medical director of Shine Natural

Medicine in Solana Beach, California. She received her doctorate in naturopathic medicine from National College of Natural Medicine in Portland, Oregon, and her areas of expertise are digestive disorders, thyroid, and hormone imbalances, and primal



nutrition. We are going to actually be hearing from Dr. Lo later on in the summit talking on primal nutrition for anxiety, so I'm really excited about that. Dr. Lo is host of this fabulous radio show called Dr. Lo Radio, and it's a popular podcast top-rated on iTunes that has attracted over 1 million listeners. She actually interviewed me on her radio show, and it was such a great interview that I decided she would be perfect for doing this one, so thanks, Dr. Lo. I'm excited to have you interview me on my summit.

Dr. Lauren Noel: Yeah, it's great. I want all the listeners to know that you may be a

great interviewer, but you're also a really great expert in this topic. You wrote an amazing book on dealing with anxiety with nutrition, so it only makes sense that we highlight your knowledge and expertise. You know a thing or two, so we get to show people what you've got, so let's jump right into it. I want listeners to know a little bit more about you, so I'm going to just jump right into your bio. Food mood expert, Trudy Scott is a certified nutritionist on a mission to educate and empower women worldwide about natural solutions for anxiety, stress, and emotional eating. Trudy works with women one-on-one and in groups, serving as a catalyst in bringing about life-enhancing transformations that start with the healing powers of eating real, whole food, using individually targeted supplementation and making simple lifestyle changes. She also presents nationally to nutrition and mental health professionals on food and mood, sharing all the recent research and how-to steps so they, too, can educate and empower their clients and patients. Trudy is past president of the National Association of Nutrition Professionals. She was recipient of the 2012 Impact Award, and currently serves as a special advisor to the board of directors. She's a member of Alliance for Addiction Solutions and Anxiety and Depression Association of America. Trudy is the author of The Antianxiety Food Solution: How the Foods You Eat Can Help You Calm Your Anxious Mind, Improve Your Mood and End Cravings. I need to read your book again because I'm feeling a little crazy right now. She is, of course, also the host of the wildly popular Anxiety Summit. Today’s talk is “Targeted individual amino acids for eliminating anxiety: practical applications.” And Trudy, you really are an expert in this area, and I absolutely love your book. I'm so excited to jump right into it, so let's take it away.

Trudy Scott: Okay.



Dr. Lauren Noel: The first thing, we're going to be talking about amino acids on the

show, so for people who aren't familiar with what the heck are amino acids, what are neurotransmitters, let's really start with the basics.

Trudy Scott: Okay, great. Before you go there, I want to make one little

statement about my bio because a lot of people say, "Oh, do you only work with women? Does this only work for women?" and absolutely not. Everything that we're going to talk about today, everything on the summit is for everyone. It just happens that I attract women, and the women that I work with then go and help their kids and help their husbands and the other loved ones in their family. All of this works for everyone, so I just want to make that clarification, and I'm not excluding anyone. It just happens that women come and work with me. Let's go into your question. Amino acids are organic compounds that combine to form proteins, and we hear about them as being the building blocks of life, so these amino acids and the proteins are the building blocks of life. They are needed by our bodies so we can break down food, so we can grow, so we can repair body tissue, and so we can make neurotransmitters. What happens is when we eat protein, like a piece of beautiful, grass-fed red meat, they're actually digested and then broken down into amino acids, which then become these raw materials that we can use in our body. We hear the term neurotransmitters, so what are neurotransmitters? They are chemicals in the body that transmit these signals across a synapse from one neuron or brain cell to another brain cell, and we often hear the term brain chemical. When we hear neurotransmitters and brain chemical, it's one in the same thing. As I said, they are made from some of these precursor amino acids, and we're going to talk about some of those amino acids today. And then we've also got all of these cofactors, which are nutrients that are used to help make the neurotransmitters: things like zinc, vitamin B6, folate, magnesium. We need all of these precursors in order to make these amazing brain chemicals or neurotransmitters that make us feel great and stop the cravings, and calm us down and make us feel happy.

Dr. Lauren Noel: Love it. Who doesn't want more of that? I know that you work

with a lot of clients one-on-one, so I'm sure probably one of the first things you start with is diet, making sure they're actually getting enough amino acids in their diet, right? It's like kind of the building blocks.



Trudy Scott: Yes, that is exactly it. We can't forget about real, whole food.

That's the focus of everything. Today, we're just going to be talking about the amino acids, but I don't want anyone to think, "Well, we can just do the amino acids and forget about everything else," because we've got to focus on real, whole food so we're getting all those nutrients, so we're getting that balance, not needing to take the amino acids long-term, because this is a short-term solution while we're getting everything else sorted out.

Dr. Lauren Noel: Yeah, and I know from experience, too, with patients that the

amino acids can make such an incredible, miraculous difference for so many people. So let's dive a little bit closer into each one of these amino acids that you use. The first thing, you use targeted individual amino acids with clients, so targeted meaning it's very specific for that person, so this person might have anxiety, maybe low mood, emotional eating. Can you share a little bit more into this, like how it works, why is it so powerful?

Trudy Scott: Yes, and the big focus is that they're targeted, as you said. They're

targeted to a person's individual needs, and we all have our own unique biochemistry. You may have someone who's taking tryptophan, or you may have someone who's taking GABA. That doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to work for you, so you've got to figure out what your needs are, and then take the amount that you need. I'm going to talk a little bit later about how you figure out how much you need. A lot of people will come to me because they've done what you've suggested: they've made all the food changes, they've maybe been on medications for anxiety or antidepressants, and they're not getting results or maybe they've got some side-effects from the meds, or they just know intuitively that they've got to get to the root cause of the problem. That's what we're doing with the amino acids. We are figuring out if you've got this deficiency, and then we are supplementing to raise your levels so you can start to feel good. Maybe they've removed gluten or maybe they've tried to remove gluten. Gluten can be so addicting. It can be really, really difficult to remove. Maybe they've tried to quit sugar and they've tried to quit the carbs, and maybe they've succeeded to some extent or maybe they've completely quit, but they just feel deprived and there's something missing. When there's this “something that's missing”, this is when you would consider targeted individual amino acids. What you said earlier is very important, and going back to what I said, the “targeted” is really important.



When I say individual, I'm talking about one amino acid at a time, and this is not a combination product. There are some really great combination products out there that have some of the precursors, they may have GABA and some of the other nutrients, like glycine or taurine or valerian, some of the calming nutrients, but I like to work with one amino acid at a time. There's one or two exceptions, and I'll talk about that when we get to the GABA section, but using one individual amino acid allows you to increase or decrease as needed.

Going back to this whole issue of targeted and your own unique needs, as you said, if you've lot low GABA, you take GABA. If you've got low serotonin, you may take Tryptophan or 5-HTP. We're going to go through each of these different deficiencies in more detail as you get further into the interview. I like to use the amino acid questionnaire, and then your response to the aminos to figure out how you’re doing. So you do the questionnaire, you score your symptoms, you see how you feel, and then you try the amino acids that relate to that deficiency section, and then you see how you feel. The questionnaire that I use is a slightly modified version of the questionnaire developed by Julia Ross. She's the author of The Mood Cure. I actually worked in her clinic for two years, and she's just a pioneer in the use of amino acids. I learned so much from her, and she's a trailblazer. She really is. She actually presented on Season 1 of The Anxiety Summit on the amino acids - a great interview and she's just a wonderful wealth of knowledge. Going back to this whole questionnaire thing, I just wanted to raise this question about urinary neurotransmitter testing, because a lot of people ask this question, "Should I use the neurotransmitter testing that you can do with urine?" I don't use it, Julia doesn't use it, and we've just found that it doesn't correlate consistently with the amino acid questionnaire and symptoms. I actually blogged about it after Season 1 because a lot of questions came up. Julia Ross actually has a great article in the Townsend Letter about the fact that it doesn't seem to correlate, and we can share the blog, so folks can look at that and learn more about why it may not be such a good idea. The other thing is I just wanted to mention about the questionnaire. Julia has been using this questionnaire in her practice for over 20 years. I've been using it for 10 years. We refine it as we go to help with some of the questions that may come in that may not quite fit. Someone may think, "Well, I'm not depressed but I've got this



negative self-talk going on," or, "I've got this critic on my shoulder," so slightly different terminology for different situations. But essentially using that questionnaire, trying out the amino acids, seeing if you've got a response is such a powerful thing. As far as I'm concerned, I think it's a very, very solid assessment tool to figure out if you've got one of these deficiencies.

Dr. Lauren Noel: Yeah, and I feel like we can't mention enough of just how

important that's it's individualized for people, because you can take something as simple as glutamine and give it to two different people; one person will notice some real calming effects, someone else it will be excitatory for them and they'll actually feel anxious. So making that very individualized for people - we cannot stress that enough how important that is. For you, as a practitioner, where do you start with the amino acids, so where do you begin and what's kind of your process with that?

Trudy Scott: Before we do that, I just wanted to go back to one other thing that I

didn't say about why it's so powerful. The power is exactly what you said. You can feel it yourself. You can experience it yourself. Once you've done that, that's great, you know something is going to work.

The other thing that I wanted to mention is that you get results right away, and when I say right away, I mean in five minutes. When I talk about this, when I'm lecturing or when I've actually got someone in the office or I'm working with someone over the phone and I say, "You're going to notice something in five minutes. We're going to do this trial, and you're going to see an effect." They just think, "Oh, it sounds too good to be true. It can't be true, and usually, when it sounds too good to be true, it's not." But really, as you know, Dr. Lo, these amino acids work so quickly, especially if you take them sublingually. I'll have my clients open up the capsule or chew a capsule, or take something that is sublingual. Because of this, you're going to know within a few days if it's going to work for you. We'll talk more about this a little bit later when we get together how I actually would do a trial with someone. You don't have to be on the aminos for months and months and then say, "Well, I'm not really sure if they're working." You are going to know right away. The other great thing is that you're going to get results while you're figuring out all these other issues that may be contributing to your anxiety − have you got gluten issues? Is it your adrenals? Have you got digestive issues? It just gives my clients hope right away.



They will feel calmer and happier, and now everything else just doesn't seem so overwhelming, "Yes, I can deal with the diet changes. I can figure out what I've got to do to sort out my adrenals." The really cool thing is it helps you sort out some of those other areas because it's going to help you quit the gluten, if that's an issue, and, for most people that I work with, gluten is an issue. It helps you quit the sugar and the soda, and even the coffee, and we're going to talk about coffee in a second because coffee is a big one if you're anxious. We self-medicate with these foods to feel good, and we eat these foods and drink these beverages when we're stressed, but getting on the aminos are going to help you with your mood, and then they're going to help you break these addictions, as well.

Dr. Lauren Noel: Yeah, I think that's so helpful. I'm sure patients say over and over

again that they feel like themselves again. Do you hear that a lot? Trudy Scott: Yes, they do, "I'm a new me," and a lot of people have felt so bad

for so long, they don't know what it really feels like to feel good. Some people will fill in the questionnaire, and there's a rating scale of 1 to 10, and they say, "I don't know what it feels like. It feels bad. It's really bad. I don't know what good could feel like because it's been so long since I have felt good," and it's heartbreaking. Some people who contact me to work with me will say, "I've been like this my whole life," and that's really sad, and adding a few amino acids can make a world of difference.

I do want to just say this is not for everyone. I call them the amazing amino acids because they truly are amazing if you have a deficiency, but you may think that it's low serotonin, you may think it's low GABA, and it may in fact be something else. So going back to my comment about you'll get results right away, if you try it, and if it works, great. If it doesn't, then you cross it off the list and you move on to something else.

Dr. Lauren Noel: Right. For you as a practitioner, where do you start with this, like

where does someone start with amino acids, because there's so many different options.

Trudy Scott: Before we start with which amino acid to do, we've got to do this

questionnaire, so I typically start with glutamine. I'm glad you mentioned glutamine earlier, because I think controlling blood sugar is so key for anxiety, whether it's with nutrients or whether it's with diet - so key. The number one thing I have all my clients



do is add in breakfast with protein, and I'm sure you do the same. We can make it even better if we add in glutamine, so I like to start with balancing blood sugar first.

But let's just give a quick overview of what someone is going to do if they are going to try and figure this out, whether they're going to work with a practitioner or if they're going to try and figure it out themselves, is do the questionnaire. You will do this amino acid questionnaire, and you will score your symptoms – the low serotonin, the low GABA, the low catecholamines, the low endorphins, and the low blood sugar − and we're going to go through each of these as we go through the rest of the interview. You want to review the precautions. There are some precautions as to which ones you may or may not be able to use, and we'll talk about those in a second, too. Then, as I said, we want to start with one single amino acid, and then while you're making some of these other food changes, maybe adding in the breakfast, making sure you're getting some protein. And then we're going to do this trial to figure out is this one really going to work for you, and how much you need. And then it's important to only take what you need. You don't want to take more. You think, "Well, 500 mg of glutamine is great, so I'm going to take 5 of these." You want to figure out how much you need. You may also want to add some of these back in when you're under a lot more stress. The amino acids all need to be taken away from protein, so away from a meal that contains protein, and typically about 30 minutes before a meal or 60 minutes after a meal that has protein. If you have any adverse effects, you obviously want to stop, and vitamin C is fabulous for negating the effects. Say, for example, you take one of these amino acids and you don't feel so great, you can take 1,000 milligrams of vitamin C and it can completely wash it out of your system, which is really cool. Then, about the quantity, you want to respect the reverse effect of nutrients: too much can cause the same effect as a deficiency. Now I'm ready to talk about glutamine. Any comments about all of that?

Dr. Lauren Noel: No, that's fascinating. I think that's good for people to know, that

you take it apart from protein, because I think most people would think, "Oh, you take it with your meal," so that's a very important key.



Trudy Scott: Yeah, and the one exception to that is 5-HTP, but it just gets complicated so I just like to say take them all away from protein, and you're going to get much better effects.

Dr. Lauren Noel: Yeah. Trudy Scott: Okay, so now glutamine. Glutamine is this amino acid that helps

to keep blood sugar stable. It does a number of other things. It's really good for the digestive system, it's very healing of the gut, it can be calming. You mentioned for some people it may be calming, and someone else may get a little bit excited about it, so you've got to figure out if it's going to work for you. What we want to do is think about how do we feel if we've got good, stable blood sugar: we'll feel grounded, we'll feel stable, we won't feel irritable or agitated or nervous, and we're not going to have these intense cravings for something sweet. When we've got low blood sugar symptoms, we are going to have these intense cravings for something sweet, and we may have this irritability or shakiness and it can look like anxiety, and you can actually feel like you're having a panic attack, as well. Then, glutamine is the amino acid that can help address this: 500 mg a few times a day – first thing in the morning, mid-morning, mid-afternoon, and then evening sometimes. I like to be a little bit cautious about evening glutamine because, as you said, some of it can covert to glutamic acid and be a little bit excitatory. Most of the time it's going to help, but you just need to figure out if that's going to work for you. Opening it onto your tongue - directly onto your tongue - can help with this intense desire for sweet cravings. It can just completely take that desire away. Then, of course, we've got to do everything else, like the protein at breakfast, the three meals, and the snacks, and then look at the adrenals, because when we've got adrenal issues, as we heard in the interview with Dr. Alan Christianson, we are going to have blood sugar issues. At the same time as doing all of this, we want to look at the adrenal issues. I actually got a great little story from one of my clients who had such great success with glutamine. She described her sugar cravings as this demonic urge to eat sugar and all things sweet. She made the food changes, she added in the breakfast and the healthy snacks, she was doing yoga and affirmations, but the key for her sugar craving was this 500 mg of glutamine opened onto her tongue. It completely stopped her sugar cravings. Now, I'm talking about glutamine as being so powerful to stop the sugar cravings; but all the aminos work in some way to stop cravings.



Glutamine is one. If you've got the low blood sugar, then the glutamine is going to, obviously, help in that area.

Dr. Lauren Noel: That's fascinating. How often do you see this with patients where

they have crazy sugar cravings, anxiety, you get their blood sugar balanced and they go away?

Trudy Scott: Oh yes, that could be the only thing they need to do. They may

just need to add in breakfast and protein. They may not even need glutamine. Some people do need that additional glutamine in between meals. It's powerful. I interviewed Dr. Kelly Brogan, and she actually mentioned a story of a client who came into her office, and all she did was started to eat real food, cook at home, add in breakfast and protein, and her anxiety and panic attacks went away. That's all she did. I like the glutamine for busy people who are on the run. I'm working with someone who doesn't get a chance to have a snack mid-morning, so then she'll use the glutamine because she can just pop it in her mouth. I've got a teacher that I'm working with, and it's handy for her when she's on the run, so from that point of view, it's good. We do want to be thinking about the food, as we said earlier. We want to be having those snacks, but it's great, and if someone's got damage to their gut, it's wonderful for healing the gut. It's one of the nutrients. As you know, there are many nutrients that are great for healing the gut.

Dr. Lauren Noel: Yeah. I think it's good for people to recognize low blood sugar

symptoms, like you mentioned. I'll ask patients, "How do you feel if you skip a meal? Do you feel like you could punch someone? Do you feel angry? Do you feel jittery," and, also, "How do you feel when you eat a meal? Do you feel so much better, or do you feel more tired?" because really, when you eat, you should just feel not hungry anymore. You shouldn't really feel that drastic of a difference, you know?

Trudy Scott: Yes, good point. Dr. Lauren Noel: If you're on a rollercoaster, you're going to notice those real wild

symptoms, so very, very important. Okay, anything else about glutamine?

Trudy Scott: No, I think that's it. Do you find that it's useful in your practice? Dr. Lauren Noel: I do. I use it a lot for gut healing. I mean a lot of what I see with

patients is leaky gut and things like Crohn's and Celiac, so we're doing a lot of healing the digestive tract. As you know, and I'm sure your listeners know, there's a huge connection between the gut



and the brain, so when I'm working on healing the gut, oftentimes their brain symptoms get better, too, so there's a big connection with that.

Trudy Scott: Oh yes. Yeah, the gut is so important, and we've had so many

people talking on that topic in the summit, so it's nice to see how everything ties together. We can focus on one area, but I just feel that if we can add in some of these other elements, like the amino acids, it just takes the healing to the next level. As I said earlier, it's giving people hope and they're starting to feel better right away, which is what we want.

Dr. Lauren Noel: Absolutely. One of the next things we wanted to talk about is

GABA, and I am a huge fan of GABA myself. The more I help to support GABA for my own body, I just feel so much better. I've dealt with just some low-grade anxiety over the years, and starting my own practice and with my radio show, it just gets to be a lot sometimes. So the more that I help support GABA, I just feel so much better, so I'm excited to talk about this. I know GABA is one of your favorite calming amino acids, so tell us a little bit of how you use and a little bit more about it.

Trudy Scott: Yes, and it is my favorite. I just find that I use it with so many

people, and it is a little bit controversial, and I'll talk a little bit about that in a second, but just for people who may not know, it's gamma-aminobutyric acid. It's an amino acid and it's also a neurotransmitter. When you've got good levels of GABA, you're just going to feel relaxed, you're going to feel calm; you're not going to feel overwhelmed by the smallest things. You're not going to go for sugary foods or you're not going to drink wine to relax. Of course when you've got low GABA, you're going to just feel this physical tension, wired, stressed, overwhelmed by the smallest thing, and you're going to possibly go for sugar or you're going to go for wine to relax. My favorite GABA is actually an over-the-counter by Source Naturals that's called GABA Calm. It's a sublingual. It's a very small amount of GABA, I think it's 125 milligrams, a small amount of tyrosine, which kind of counteracts the relaxing effect of the GABA, and you would do one to two first thing in the morning, mid-morning, and mid-afternoon. Some people can actually take it in the evening and it doesn't seem to affect their sleep despite the fact that it's got a little bit of tyrosine. The fact that it's sublingual, means it gets into the blood vessels in your mouth pretty quickly, and it has an effect. I'm going to talk a little bit about this whole issue with “does it cross the blood-brain



barrier and is it really effective?” It definitely does work. But let's just go through how we're going to do a trial, because I wanted to share how we do a trial, and I think that might be useful for you if you're listening, but a few more other things about GABA before we go there. I don't like the higher doses – 500 mg, 750 mg of GABA –just seems to be too high for most people. That being said, we mentioned how everyone is biochemically unique, and I am working with someone at the moment and 1,000 mg of GABA is great for her. We started off really slowly and we've been building up, and she's doing great on 1,000 mg, so you never know. Everyone is different.

A few other things that I like that can raise GABA: yoga, of course, is fabulous; taurine is an amino acid, 500 mgof that is a nice starting dose; and then theanine is an option, as well. I seldom use it, but I do have a lovely cat story about theanine. There is actually a drug on the market called Anxitane. One of my clients contacted me and said, "My cat is anxious," and could I look into this Anxitane drug and see if it would be okay for the cat. I looked into Anxitane and, believe it or not, it's theanine, and it works beautifully for pets – dogs and cats – so we know that these amino acids do work on pets, as well. Let's just talk about this trial that I do. This is for if someone is working with me in the office or if I'm working with them over the phone, I'll say, "Let's do the low GABA questionnaire and score your symptoms on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the worst." They may say, "Yes, I'm feeling physically tense. My shoulders are tight. It's like a 9, and I'm definitely feeling overwhelmed. I've had this terrible week, and it's an 8. My stress is sky high, it's an 8. I've been stress-eating all week, it's a 10." I'll say, "Okay, let's try one GABA Calm, and within five minutes you'll see a visible change, or you'll feel a visible change. You'll just feel, "I just feel like I had a massage or maybe I had a glass of wine. I'm just feeling relaxed," and they often can't believe it. Some people will say to me, "Am I imagining this, or is this really happening?" It really does happen within five minutes, if it's going to work. Now, what you want to do then is figure out how many notches did it improve? If it's a 1, then maybe when you start taking it, three or four times a day, you're going to need two at each time. If it went down from the 9 or an 8 to like a 4 or 5, or even a 2 or 3, then maybe one, three or four times a day is going to be enough.



This is what I was saying earlier, that you may need more or you may need less, and there are some people who are pixie dust people and they need a very, very tiny amount. I remember one client I worked with: she put the GABA Calm in her mouth, and by the time I picked up the pen to write down the next note that I was going to write, she said, "I feel relaxed," and I had her spit the GABA Calm out right away because just two or three seconds gave her some relief. So it can be as varied as that.

Dr. Lauren Noel: Wow, that's fascinating. Is this something that you would have

clients maybe do prior to a flight or public speaking or something that they know is going to really set them off?

Trudy Scott: It's great on an as-needed basis, but ideally what you want to do is

get them to the point where they are doing it consistently because they're anxious a lot, and then, when they go and have a flight, they're not going to need it because now their GABA levels are at a good level. If someone does have something stressful event coming up, it's great, and it's great for public speaking, it's great for traveling, but we really want to get people to the point where they are never anxious so they shouldn't be needing it in a critical situation. When you're first trying to figure this out, doing it in those kind of situations is great.

Dr. Lauren Noel: Yeah, getting to the point where your neurochemistry is balanced,

you're not so sensitive to things like that. You're more resilient. Trudy Scott: Yeah. Dr. Lauren Noel: Yeah, great. Awesome. Anything else about GABA? Trudy Scott: Yeah, I would like to just talk a little bit about the controversy,

because we hear it come up a lot, and it certainly came up in the last summit, and I've had some people comment on the blog after my initial interview. I want to just address a few things because we'll hear practitioners saying, "These GABA molecules are too large. They don't cross the blood-brain barrier, so it's not going to work," or, "It's only going to work if you've got this leaky blood-brain barrier." I actually came across something pretty recently where there's this talk of a test for leaky brain called the GABA Challenge, which recommends - I think it said - 1,000 to 2,000 mg of GABA at night. Are you familiar with it, Dr. Lo?

Dr. Lauren Noel: I am familiar with it. I'm not sure of the dosage, but yeah.



Trudy Scott: Yeah, so what the thought is, that if the blood-brain barrier is intact, you're not going to feel any effect from the GABA, and if there's problems with the blood-brain barrier, you're going to feel drowsy or you may feel drunk. I even saw some comments about how you may feel jittery or wired. And then you've got to, obviously, address this leaky blood-brain barrier. I just want to say I've not used the GABA Challenge. I only recently heard about it, but I am a little bit concerned about this high dose, if it is 1,000 or 2,000 mg because, as I've said, my starting dose for GABA is 125 mg. For the average person, I think 2,000 mg is going to be a lot. It's probably going to cause problems for most people. I also mentioned earlier about this reverse effect, so it may cause you to be very drowsy, but it may cause you to be anxious if it's causing a reverse effect, because it's too much. I've been digging into this area because it's very interesting to me, and because I have such good results with it, I feel like I need to look at some of the research that's out there. What I've found is that there's some research showing that the relaxing effect from GABA may be due to peripheral effects, meaning other areas of the body, rather than its effects on the brain. There was a study that was done saying that GABA and its receptors are found in a wide range of peripheral tissues, including parts of the peripheral nervous system, the endocrine system, and non-neural tissues such as smooth muscle, and the female reproductive system, which I thought was very interesting.

Dr. Lauren Noel: Wow. Trudy Scott: Yeah, isn't that so interesting? Dr. Lauren Noel: That's fascinating. Trudy Scott: We hear about how it just relaxes your whole physical body;

hearing that it's affecting the smooth muscle makes so much sense. It really does.

Dr. Lauren Noel: Yeah, well I can definitely vouch for that for myself. When I do

some GABA support, I feel calm everywhere, not just in my brain. I feel it kind of all over the body, so it's fascinating.

Trudy Scott: Yeah, and another paper talked about it being in the pituitary, in

the pancreas, in the adrenal glands i.e. having these GABA receptors in all these different areas of the body, so maybe it's working at that level. Now, these papers that I'm talking about, and I'll share them on the blog post that goes with this interview,



they're older, and we really do need some more research. There's a few studies on oral GABA - taking it orally. There was a study done looking at people crossing a bridge and making that stressful situation, and what they said is that “GABA could work effectively as a natural relaxant, and its effects could be seen within one hour of its administration to diminish anxiety.” Then, there was a really cool study that actually looked at the stress-reducing effect of chocolate enriched with GABA. Isn't that cool?

Dr. Lauren Noel: Oh wow, that sounds great. Trudy Scott: They had the participants perform this arithmetic, and what they

said is that those that had the GABA chocolate made a quick recovery from the stressful state. It's an interesting combination because we want to be calm and a lot of people love chocolate, and we've got other issues with chocolates. Obviously, it's got caffeine in it, so that may be problematic for some people, but the authors actually said that – they actually addressed this. They said “it's been reported that ordinary doses of GABA by oral ingestion do not permeate the blood-brain barrier; therefore, it has been considered that GABA may act on the peripheral nervous system of the digestive organs and not the central nervous system.” I just thought that was really interesting that they are starting to consider that maybe it's something else, some other way that it's working. I just wanted to share a few other snippets from some of the other interviews because we've had a little bit of difference of opinions in this summit about GABA. In the candida interview with Dr. Mikell Parsons, which was a fabulous interview, by the way, she shared that she doesn't use GABA, and she said that the chiropractic community is not a big fan of it. Then, Dr. Rebecca Robb, she's a psychologist working in an integrative practice, she hasn't found that GABA Calm works well enough for her clients, and she uses Phenibut. I've got some concerns because there's research showing that it creates dependence, tolerance, and has withdrawal symptoms. Do you have any thoughts on Phenibut?

Dr. Lauren Noel: I don't. I don't feel like I'm much of an expert on that, to be honest. Trudy Scott: Okay, yeah. Just when there's some negative research, I just err on

the side of caution. Then, the other one is PharmaGABA. A lot of people like PharmaGABA. I have not used PharmaGABA with much success. I did try it out when it first came on the market. Dr. Prousky talks about getting off psychiatric meds on the summit, and he's used both GABA and PharmaGABA and found good results with both. And then I mentioned that Julia Ross has



been using GABA for 20 years, so do all the practitioners that she's trained. Then, in Season 1, I interviewed Dr. Josh Friedman, he's a psychologist who uses the amino acids, and I loved what he said. He said, "Who cares what the mechanism is? It works." [Laughter] I have such good success with my clients. As I said earlier, it's the most common supplement that I recommend, and I can attest to it personally. GABA was my lifesaver. When I had my anxiety and my panic attacks, it saved me. It stopped the panic attacks immediately. I actually had three panic attacks. I didn't have any more after I started using the GABA. I actually used GABA Calm throughout the day, and then I used 250 to 500 mg of another product that contained GABA, because I would wake with this pounding heart and feeling afraid in the middle of the night, and that extra GABA at night was fabulous for me.

Dr. Lauren Noel: Wow. Well, you obviously had an incredible healing experience

with this, and you really believe in it and you've seen it work for hundreds of patients, so yeah, it's amazing stuff. Anything else about GABA you can think of ?

Trudy Scott: No, I think that's good, and I know you had mentioned that you

like to use another product instead of using individual GABA in your practice, correct?

Dr. Lauren Noel: Yeah, so what I've used for myself and I've used for many patients,

too, is something called Gabatone. It's from Apex. It doesn't actually have GABA specifically in it, but it does have some of the cofactors like you mentioned, so it has some B6, some magnesium, it has zinc, and there's taurine and theanine, so it has some of those amino acids. It also has some herbs in it, so a little bit of valerian, some passion flower, and it has a little bit of lithium, as well, and this just really makes a big difference for me. I probably take it two or three times a week, just a couple capsules. I don't work on Mondays so I don't really have the case of the Mondays like a lot of people get, but sometimes I get the case of the Tuesdays mornings, so I'll take a couple Tuesday morning and it just kind of eases me into my week and really kind of takes the edge off. You don't want to take too much. I find if I do more than maybe two to four capsules, I'll get a little bit of a headache, so I just keep it to a couple capsules, and that's been really helpful. I've actually used this for a couple patients getting off of SSRIs, actually, so taking care of some of the anxiety that comes along



with getting off of those medications, that's helped to kind of offset some of those side-effect symptoms −

Trudy Scott: Great. Dr. Lauren Noel: − so good stuff. Trudy Scott: That's good. Tell me what are Tuesday morning feelings?

[Laughter]

Dr. Lauren Noel: Well, you know how people get a case of the Mondays, they start

their week and they feel anxious? Well, I was saying I don't really work on Mondays –

Trudy Scott: Okay. Dr. Lauren Noel: − that's kind of my day to catch up, so I get the Tuesday mornings

instead of the Mondays. [Laughter]

Trudy Scott: Okay, got it. That's cute. I'm glad we talked about this because

I'm raving about the aminos and how amazing they are, but different things are going to work for different people –

Dr. Lauren Noel: Right. Trudy Scott: − so if it doesn't work for you, find something else that is going to

work, and I know the Gabatone product that you're talking about by Apex. I'm just going to mention it again because I think they're a great company, I know that Dr. Kharrazian, who does a lot of presentations for Apex, is a big proponent of this “GABA not working and not crossing the blood-brain barrier”, so I just wanted to put that out there. He's of the opinion to use these cofactors to help make your own GABA, so it's good to hear that you've got results. I do love that it's got lithium in there. I'm going to be talking about lithium in the last call of the series because I'm finding such good results with lithium. I think it's just wonderful. It's just such a great, all-around nutrient. My one concern with the Gabatone is it does have valerian in it, and some people get nightmares with valerian, so I think it's on a case-by-case basis.

Dr. Lauren Noel: What did you say some people get? Trudy Scott: Nightmares.



Dr. Lauren Noel: Oh, got it. Yeah. Trudy Scott: Have you noticed that or seen that? Dr. Lauren Noel: I haven't seen it for myself, but there's such a little amount in this I

wouldn't worry about that, but I think if I dosed up higher than maybe two or three capsules, I'm sure that might be a possibility,

Trudy Scott: Okay Dr. Lauren Noel: All right, good. Well, let's keep it moving. One of the things that

GABA can help with is anxiety, but sometimes there's other amino acids that can really make a big difference with anxiety. Let's talk a little bit about low serotonin and how this might contribute to anxiety, and how it might be different from maybe a GABA kind of anxiety.

Trudy Scott: Great, because we often think of low serotonin and depression. We

don't often associate low serotonin with anxiety, and it can be one of the symptoms that we can see when someone has got anxiety - that it could possibly be low serotonin. The big difference between low GABA and low serotonin is that low GABA is the physical anxiety, so you're going to feel it in your body, and low serotonin anxiety is in your head, so it's this worry, those ruminating thoughts, this busy mind. A lot of my clients will say, "I get into bed and I can't stop thinking and I can't shut off that busy mind." That is the big difference, and to figure out which it is. You could have low serotonin and low GABA, and I'll often see people with all of the low brain chemicals, so it's not uncommon to have more of them, and then you would use the different amino acids for each one of those.

Let's just go through some of the signs of low serotonin. It’s this worry in your head, you may actually have panic attacks, phobias are often seen with low serotonin, this worry, fearfulness, feeling of doom, and then of course the depression, which we talked about, feeling negative, this critic on your shoulder, winter blues. There's actually research showing that people are more anxious in the winter, and that may be related to low serotonin, so all of this talk about, "It's Christmas time, and the family are coming and I'm stressed out," I think a lot of it has got to do with serotonin taking a dip in the winter. If you address low serotonin, then you can breeze through the holidays, you're not going to have family stresses, holiday stresses, and you're not going to crave, either, because the other big thing with low serotonin is those afternoon



and evening cravings. With all the brain chemicals, there's this craving aspect. The key with low serotonin is that it's the afternoon and the evening cravings. You know that we make so much serotonin in our gut, so we may have digestive issues. Also low self-esteem, rage issues, irritability, obsessive thoughts or obsessive tendencies, and then the other big thing with low serotonin is insomnia, so not being able to fall asleep or maybe waking in the night.

Dr. Lauren Noel: A couple things that come to mind, too. What about chronic pain,

body pain, joint pain? Is that something you see, as well? Trudy Scott: Absolutely. Fibromyalgia, TMJ, pain issues. Now, pain could

also be low GABA because of the physical component, and then the other area that I see pain with is low endorphins, but definitely with low serotonin, as well.

Dr. Lauren Noel: What about sexual dysfunction, like issues with maybe achieving

climax? Do you ever see something in this area with sexual dysfunction and neurotransmitters?

Trudy Scott: I must say it's not something that's come up, but we do see

hormonal imbalances with low serotonin, and certainly PMS can start to resolve and menopausal symptoms can start to resolve, but I must say I haven't. It sounds like you have.

Dr. Lauren Noel: Well, what comes to mind is when someone is on an SSRI, I know

sometimes they can have issues like not having an orgasm, it's just they become almost inorgasmic, so I didn't know if that was something that you see if there is low serotonin. I guess I haven't seen it so much for myself, or with patients, I should say, but I thought maybe in your experience, because you deal with this a lot more than me with neurotransmitters.

Trudy Scott: Yeah, that's very interesting. I'm going to have to look into that. I

would assume that it would definitely play a role because of the fact that the SSRIs do affect libido, so yes, I'm sure.

Dr. Lauren Noel: Yeah. Trudy Scott: I need to look at that. I don't even know what the mechanism of

that is, so it would be interesting to see what it is. Thanks for raising it.



Dr. Lauren Noel: Yeah. Let's say you have a patient who comes in, they do the questionnaire and you're really thinking for them they would probably have low serotonin, so what's the first step for them? What do you do to address that? Are there particular amino acids that you use? Any kind of lifestyle interventions? How do you boost that for them?

Trudy Scott: Yep, all of the above. Obviously, diet is important, you know,

grass-fed red meat, omega 3's, all of these nutrients that I talked about that provide these cofactors, having all of those in the diet. The amino acids that are effective for raising serotonin are tryptophan and 5-HTP. Tryptophan at 500 mg is typically the starting dose. For 5-HTP, 50 mg is the starting dose. With both of those, you would take one or the other, typically one to three mid-afternoon, because that's when the serotonin starts to take a bit of a dip - towards the end of the day - and then one to three at bedtime. Certainly if you've got sleep issues, you may take more at bedtime and less in the afternoon. Now, 15 percent or so do poorly on one of the above. I like to start people on tryptophan just because I have such good results with it, and we do know that 5-HTP can raise cortisol, so if someone has severe insomnia or if we know, having done a saliva test, that they've got high cortisol, then we definitely want to use tryptophan. If they've got the sleep problems and we're not getting resolution with the tryptophan - often it does completely resolve sleep issues - then I'll add in melatonin, probably a sublingual or time-released melatonin. But often just putting that tryptophan in can make a difference.

I do want to just say one thing about tryptophan: quality is paramount, and I only use one brand of tryptophan - Lidtke - and I'm not paid by them to say this. I just have found amazing results. Their quality is superior. I've had a number of people buy a different brand of tryptophan and just not get the same results, so it's just the one that I really like. Of course, you've got to think about if someone is on an SSRI, so if they are taking Zoloft or one of the other SSRIs, that you want to, obviously, talk to your doctor if you are going to be adding in the tryptophan. Work with a knowledgeable practitioner, ideally. I would only have someone use tryptophan if they're on one SSRI. I have a lot of people coming to me and they're on two SSRIs, and I don't think that's a good idea to use tryptophan at the same time. You do want to talk to your doctor, you do want to do it six hours apart from the SSRI. So get permission from your doctor to move



your SSRI to the morning, if that's okay, and then do the tryptophan six hours apart from that, mid-afternoon and evening. Then, be aware of the possibility of serotonin syndrome: too much can cause a problem. Then, other things that can help raise serotonin is getting out in the sunshine, in the snow in the wintertime. Using a full-spectrum lamp can be very helpful. I mentioned one of the symptoms being obsessiveness, and tryptophan can often help with those obsessive tendencies or thoughts. If the tryptophan doesn't do it, then I may add in inositol, and up to 18 grams a day of inositol seems to be very helpful for full-blown OCD and then helping with some of the obsessiveness. I want to just share a little story of a client that I worked with, but have you got any comments or questions on any of that?

Dr. Lauren Noel: I just wanted to just follow up with the light and how important

that is to make serotonin. I'm down here in San Diego, and everyone goes outside but they wear sunglasses all the time, so making sure you are getting outside and not wearing your sunglasses all the time so you can actually get some of that sunlight into your eyes. That's just really crucial to make that serotonin, so important.

Trudy Scott: Good point, yeah, and then wintertime, I go up to Tahoe and we go

skiing, and I can tell you that reflection off the snow is just amazing for boosting mood. It's fabulous, and in wintertime, if your serotonin is taking a dip, get in the snow if you can, or if you're in San Diego, get out in the sun, and get a full-spectrum lamp. They now make these beautiful lamps that you can have on your desk, and it's going to give you some of that light. Actually, in the summit interview with Dr. Alan Christianson, he talked about the light and how important it is for adrenal health, as well, so that light is just so important. We know how important sunshine is for vitamin D, as well, so we've got many reasons to be out in the sun.

Dr. Lauren Noel: We are meant to be in the sun, we are meant to be connected with

the sun and the moon cycles, and not meant to be inside in an office all day long, so the more we can connect to nature, the better it's all going to work out.

Trudy Scott: Yes, definitely. Dr. Lauren Noel: All right.



Trudy Scott: I wanted to tell two quick stories. One was an 11-year-old girl who had really bad anger issues. She had insomnia, anxiety, she loved candies, and she actually turned out to be anemic. We got her on iron. I encouraged her mom to give her red meat. She actually had gluten issues. She got off the gluten, and that helped with the anger outbursts, but I did an in-office trial of 100 mg of tryptophan. There's actually a chewable tryptophan that Lidtke makes that's nice for doing the trials, and she was very unhappy about the thought of giving up her candies, because we knew that she had to give up the candy and the bread. She didn't want to even talk to me. I said, "Look, how bad do you feel about the thought of giving this up?" talking to an 11-year-old girl, you know, "You have to give up candy. How do you feel about it?" She was mad and she said, "I'm just anxious about the thought of giving this up." I gave her this 100 mg of tryptophan in the office. Before we started having the discussion, she was in a swivel chair and she turned her back to me and she didn't want to talk to me. I said, "Well, just take this tryptophan and see how you feel." She took 100 mg of this chewable tryptophan, and, within five minutes, she turned around and she was smiling, and she said, "I think I can do this. I think it will be fine."

Dr. Lauren Noel: Wow. Trudy Scott: Getting off the gluten, adding in protein, and then adding some

iron, supporting iron via her diet, and adding in this tryptophan completely turned this little girl's anger issues and anxiety and sleep issues around. So very, very powerful. I mostly work with women, so when I see it with a kid, it just seems so much more powerful.

Dr. Lauren Noel: Wow, that is amazing, something so simple can have such a

miraculous difference. Trudy Scott: It really is. One other quick story is from Meme who presented in

Season 1. She was a woman who participated in my six-week group amino acid program for emotional eating, and saw mood results. When she started the tryptophan, her panic attacks diminished dramatically. When she added the GABA in, they disappeared completely, and what she said is, "Tryptophan stopped my negative thoughts and helped me sleep like a baby instead of waking at 2:00 AM," and she hadn't had good sleep for 11 years. She added the tryptophan and then she got results that first night, so she's one of these beautiful success stories where all the amino



acids worked for her. It doesn't always work for everyone, but it worked amazingly for her.

Dr. Lauren Noel: Wow, really incredible. Trudy Scott: Yeah incredible. Now I just wanted to share a little bit on the

research on tryptophan and 5-HTP. There's a little bit more research on these. We see research showing that 5-HTP helps with panic attacks and agoraphobia, which is fear of outdoor spaces, and then there was actually a really interesting study in 2004 that showed tryptophan helping in symptom improvement for premenstrual dysphoric disorder, PMDD. What they did is they used tryptophan in the second half of their cycle and they found improvement, which I thought was very interesting. There was a study actually looking at 55- to 75-year-olds, and they put tryptophan in their cereal twice a day. I'm not sure why they put it in the cereal, but they saw improved sleep, less anxiety, and less depression.

Dr. Lauren Noel: Wow. Trudy Scott: As you probably know, Dr. Lo, it's a little bit controversial. I

interviewed Dr. Kelly Brogan in Season 1 and then again for this summit, and she is just wonderful and a wealth of knowledge. She doesn't actually believe that low serotonin is a factor in anxiety and depression at all, and she doesn't use tryptophan or any of the amino acids. I totally agree with and support the work that she's doing, and that's why I invited her back. We talked about psychoneuroendocrinology, and inflammation and the gut, but I do have to say that I disagree with her in this particular area because I've just seen such amazing results.

Dr. Lauren Noel: Yeah. Well, a wise healer uses what works. That's my motto. Trudy Scott: You're right, yeah, and we can all learn from each other, and we

certainly do that. That's why doing this summit is so amazing. We're learning from everybody else.

Dr. Lauren Noel: Yeah, for sure. Awesome. Anything else about serotonin or

tryptophan? Trudy Scott: No, I think we're good. Dr. Lauren Noel: Okay, let's move on to something that I think a lot of us women

deal with, and this is comfort eating. This is something you treat a



lot in your practice, so what can you use to help with comfort eating?

Trudy Scott: There's an amino acid called D-phenylalanine, and it's amazing for

raising endorphins, which are often low when you go for comfort eating. You may relate to this kind of thinking: “I just love chocolate chip cookies”, or “I just LOVE ice cream.” You know, if you've just got this passion for something, and the thought of giving it up makes you just feel dreadful, "Agh, I could never give it up. I love it so much." What we've got are these endorphins that make us feel good, and the way to figure out if it could be low endorphins is say, "What is your favorite food?" Okay, "I LOVE chocolate chip cookies." "How would you feel if you could never have it?" "No, I'd feel devastated," and this is what I'll get from my clients, "No, I'm emotionally very attached to it. It makes me feel good. It's my reward. It's my treat. I deserve it." If you can relate to this and you're very sensitive to emotional pain, and I mentioned the physical pain, you may cry or tear up easily, then this amino acid called DPA, D-phenylalanine, is amazing because what it does is it raises your endorphins and it takes away those feelings. I'll do a trial with someone and they'll say, "Yeah, I could take it or leave it. I can't believe I felt so emotionally attached to that chocolate chip cookie. I think I can do it." It's just another tool that we have to make it easier, so you're not using willpower, so you're not having to white-knuckle it and give up some of these treats, that you're self-medicating with because you've got a biochemical imbalance. The DPA starting dose is 500 mg. Lidtke actually happens to make a very nice one called EndorphiGen. I don't use DLPA. DLPA can actually help to raise endorphins, as well. Some of it converts to tyrosine. I just find really good results with the straight DPA and find it to be really great. Now of course the other things that can raise your endorphins is exercise - wonderful - and then giving. If you give of your time or you donate, you feel good and that raises your endorphins, so do something good and say something nice, and you'll feel a lot better.

Dr. Lauren Noel: Wow, and I think this is so helpful for so many of us women to

hear, that something like this can help with this emotional kind of eating, because we beat ourselves up about this like, "I just can't seem to say no to that piece of cake or that piece of chocolate. There's just no way I can do that." So knowing that there could be something like this that's out of balance biochemically that is



getting in the way of us actually having that willpower is so helpful. It takes some of the shame away. I think a lot of us really beat ourselves up because we just can't seem to stick to it, so really helpful to know there's something like this that may play a big role in this.

Trudy Scott: I'm glad you say that because that is such a common thing. So

many people have tried so many diets, or they've tried so much and they feel so bad, "I'm smart, I should know this, I should know better. I'm destroying my life," and it's not your fault. If it's a brain chemical imbalance, you've got no control over it, so it's a really important thing to point out, and I'm so glad you did.

Dr. Lauren Noel: Yeah, and I'm sure you hear clients say, "Well, I know what to do.

It's just a matter of doing it," right? It's the matter of doing it, the willpower connection, so I think this plays a big role in that. One of the things that plays a big role with anxiety is sugar and how sugar depletes us of key nutrients. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Trudy Scott: Yes. With all of these amino acids and all of these brain chemical

imbalances, there could be this craving aspect, so if you are consuming a lot of sugar, you are going to become depleted in some of the nutrients. That's why using these amino acids can really help to quit the sugar. Also, we fill up on sugary foods so we're less likely to eat the healthy foods. Using these amino acids can help us get off the sugar, because we know we want to get off but if it's contributing to some of the anxiety, that's going to be a problem.

Dr. Lauren Noel: Yeah, and it's kind of a cycle, too. It's like you're deficient in

certain key nutrients in your brain, so you are craving sugar. If you eat the sugar, it further depletes you of key nutrients that you need to not have anxiety.

Trudy Scott: Exactly, yeah, and then as I said earlier, any of these brain

chemical imbalances can cause a craving, and you may have low blood sugar, you may have low GABA, you may have low serotonin, you may have low endorphins, you may have all of the above, and different people will use a different drug of choice to make them feel good. Someone may use coffee, someone may use sugar, someone may use chocolate, someone may use pot, and for someone who uses pot, it may improve your focus or it may be relaxing, so you can't say, "This drug is because of low serotonin, or this one is because of low GABA." It's very individualized for each person.



Dr. Lauren Noel: Right, right. You mentioned coffee, which is kind of a lead-in for

the next one, so let's talk a little bit about tyrosine. Where does tyrosine come into the picture, and how might this relate to something like maybe coffee?

Trudy Scott: We need to think about tyrosine not because it has a direct impact

on anxiety - in fact too much can make you more anxious. I usually will look at this at the end of working with someone once they've added in the GABA, they've made some of the food changes, because we don't want to make them more anxious. But you may have low catecholamines and you may be going for coffee to give you that energy. If you've got no energy, you've got poor focus, you've maybe got attention issues, you're bored, low drive, or you're going for sugar or coffee for your energy, that could be a sign that you've got low catecholamines. Another sign is this depression with apathy. Tyrosine is amazing for raising the catecholamines - these are brain chemicals that are produced in the brain and also the adrenal glands. Take tyrosine, 500 mg, first thing in the morning. I'll have my clients have it next to their bed and take it as soon as they get up in the morning, mid-morning, and then mid-afternoon, if sleep is not a problem. That can help you completely get off the coffee, and we've got to think about that because that coffee can be making you anxious. If you're self-medicating with it, you want to remove it. Of course, you've got to look at other reasons why you may feel you need the coffee. It may be underactive thyroid or adrenal issues or anemia, or you're not getting enough sleep, and getting rid of that coffee is just a really important factor, and the tyrosine makes it easy, and then of course addressing these other things that I've talked about.

Dr. Lauren Noel: I can only guess that there's people listening that are going, "Well,

I have all of that. I feel anxious, I feel depressed, I have cravings and I want to eat a lot of chocolate, and I love coffee," so where do you start with someone like that?

Trudy Scott: Well, we've got to do the questionnaire and see which sections you

score high in, and then focus on those areas with the amino acids and see if you're getting results. Yeah, one at a time, and while you're starting to make the food changes.

Dr. Lauren Noel: Yeah, that's important to keep in mind, so if you're listening and

you're resonating with all of them, don't get ahead of yourself and go, "Okay, I'm going to try DPA or I'm going to try tryptophan."



Really start from the beginning with the diet, looking at the questionnaire and do it little by little, because there is a little bit of a systematic flow with this and you don't want to get shiny-object syndrome and jump to all these different things, so start from the beginning. Okay, so one of the things, too, about amino acids, and similar to herbs or vitamins and minerals, you can't just take them all in a huge amount and think that all is going to go well, so there are some precautions when using these, even natural kinds of therapies. What are some of the precautions when using amino acids?

Trudy Scott: That's a great question, Dr. Lo, because, as I said earlier, we're all

unique; some people may respond well, some may not respond so well. We need to look at precautions for each individual amino acid, and then some general precautions, certainly if you've got an ulcer. If you're pregnant or nursing, there are no studies showing that you can take these, so you want to be cautious with those. I've talked a little bit about the SSRIs, and then there are some that you definitely want to avoid if you've got bipolar disorder or high blood pressure. But what I'm going to do is I'll share a list of all those precautions on the blog that goes with this interview so folks have got it all in front of them, because it's quite long. It's actually a precautions document that my clients complete before they start working with me so I know what's going on with them and so they know what they need to be aware of. I'll share that on the blog.

Dr. Lauren Noel: Great. Well, we've talked a little bit about things that can make

amino acids more effective, so making sure your diet is really in check, you're having sufficient protein, it's clean food, you're eating organic and exercise, you're taking the time to exercise. What are maybe some other things that we haven't mentioned that might be some cofactors or other factors in helping these amino acids work well for people?

Trudy Scott: Great. I'm glad you mentioned food, and I know we're going to

hear more from you on this in your talk on primal nutrition, so I'm excited about that. We've talked about sugar extensively, so I don't think we need to go into that. I've actually got a nine-step approach that I take with my clients. Step one is real, whole food, so we've covered that one. Step two is removal of sugar. We've covered that one, we heard from JJ on the summit on that one, and the aminos really help, as we said, if you can't quit. We've talked about step three, which is caffeine removal. Alcohol and tobacco can be a factor, so we would want to remove those. Again, the aminos can help you to do that one. Step four is removal of gluten,



and the aminos help you quit that addiction because gluten can be very addicting.

And then, obviously, optimizing digestion. That's step five, so adding in prebiotics, probiotics, looking at enzymes, adding in beautiful fermented foods, and we heard from Dr. Dinan and Dr. Brogan and Julie Matthews, and liver support - all of those are really important. Then, when it comes to the amino acids, the one thing that I wanted to say that I didn't say earlier is adjusting the amino acids until you find the right amount for you. We talked about tryptophan having a starting dose of 500 mg. You may start on 500 mg twice a day, and then you may say, "Well, it's helping but not quite enough," so then you may do 1,000 mg twice a day. Then, if that's helping but not quite enough, then you may go to 1,500 mg twice a day, and you can adjust it until you find the right amount. If you go up and it's not making a difference, then you go back down. This is why I like the individual amino acids, because you can go up and down as needed. Then, I mentioned the pixie dust person, and you may need to for example, open a 500 mg capsule and just take a dab. I've had a few clients who will open a capsule and they'll literally get 20 dabs of the amino acid out of one capsule and that's going to make a difference. So it's very, very individualized. Then, step seven is pyroluria, which is a social anxiety condition, and the nutrients for pyroluria are zinc and vitamin B6, and these are cofactors for making the brain chemicals. I was interviewed on this topic in Season 1 because it's an area that I feel very strongly about. I actually have pyroluria myself. And then step eight is other nutrients, like vitamin D ‒ we haven't even talked about vitamin D ‒ low cholesterol, curcumin, magnesium, and then all the lifestyle factors. We've talked about a number of them, but maybe adding in music or laughter, flowers, and then other things, like methylation and gene mutations ‒ this is quite a new area for me ‒ and then looking at things like infections, like Lyme or H-pylori would be other things that you might want to look at.

Dr. Lauren Noel: I love that you brought pyroluria to light, because this is something

we talked about in naturopathic school and didn't really hear about it for a few years, and then not until I read your book and we started talking on my podcasts did I hear it again. I think it's a very, very important topic that a lot of doctors don't talk about and a lot of people don't know about, so I love that you bring that to



light and discuss it in your book, which I love. I recommend everyone read it. I just wanted to just say that I appreciate you talking about that. For clients who you work with who maybe they tried the amino acids, they don't work as well as you expected, are there any other factors that might be contributing to that, or are those kind of the ones you just mentioned? Anything else?

Trudy Scott: Yeah, if you're not getting enough or if you're getting too much, I

talked about the reverse effect, or if you don't need them, it's something else. Maybe your cravings are because of candida. If you've got an underactive thyroid, they're not going to work as well, so you do need to address that. I talked about the quality issue, tryptophan being one example. The form: we talked about the different forms of GABA. Maybe you've got malabsorption issues, and some of my clients do better just opening up the capsule, even the tryptophan capsule, which doesn't taste very good at all, but chewing a gelatin capsule with the amino acid can actually help for some people. We talked about lithium orotate, and if you have mood swings or you know you've got bipolar II, lithium orotate is amazing for evening out the mood, and then the amino acids haven’t got this constant moving goalpost that they have to work on. Otherwise, if you've got an up and a down kind of mood, it's really hard for the amino acids to work. I have found lithium orotate to be fabulous, so I'm really glad that you mentioned it. Then, of course, methylation is a factor. We need the folate to make these brain chemicals. And then other non-brain issues are, obviously, the candida and the GMOs and the gluten, drug-induced nutrient depletions, and all these other things that we're covering on the summit. There's a lot of aspects that go into it. Most of the time, people do really well. If they don't, then they would need to look at some of these things that I just mentioned.

Dr. Lauren Noel: Now, for people listening going, "Oh my gosh, this is so complex.

I obviously need someone I can work with one-on-one," you work with clients one-on-one, right?

Trudy Scott: I do. Dr. Lauren Noel: How can someone do that if they'd like to work with you? Trudy Scott: Well, I start out with a 15-minute initial consultation, I'll have

them do a questionnaire, and then we'll figure out if I can work with them. I like to see what medications they're currently on and what they've already tried, and then we work together one-on-one



and do all the questionnaires and customize it for their own unique needs.

Dr. Lauren Noel: All of this is really written out in a lot more detail in your book,

The Antianxiety Food Solution. Trudy Scott: Yes. Dr. Lauren Noel: I absolutely love that book, I highly recommend it, and you also do

a live hands-on training, a live hands-on group program. Trudy Scott: I am. Dr. Lauren Noel: Can you talk a little bit about that? Trudy Scott: Yeah, I'm offering my first live group program on “The amazing

amino acids for eliminating anxiety, social anxiety, and panic attacks.” It's going to be a six-week group program. It actually starts in December. We're going to talk about how to use the top five individual amino acid supplements, the ones we've talked about today, how to end your anxiety, help you feel calm, slow down that busy mind, overcome social anxiety, sleep better, and end that physical tension and the stress-eating. We're going to cover a different amino acid each week, and you'll walk through the questionnaire, you'll do a trial, just like we talked about today, of each amino acid in each category. There's going to be some basic food and lifestyle education, but the primary focus is going to be how to figure out your unique amino acid protocol. There's going to be quizzes, obviously handouts, PDFs, PowerPoints, and I'll be reviewing the quizzes and intake forms of each person who's in the program. There's going to be a private Facebook group, and then live Q&A with me.

The gift that I'm offering for my interview – all of the speakers have offered a great gift – I've actually got an amino acid questionnaire, so you can do the questionnaire and figure out, "Do I have possible deficiencies in this area?" and a little section on how to start boosting serotonin and GABA, so you can start doing that right away. I've also got the pyroluria questionnaire, because I think a lot of people don't know about it, and then a few highlights from Season 1. Actually some highlights from Julia Ross: she talked on the amino acids. Dr. Kelly Brogan talked about inflammation, and Dr. Felice Jacka talked about food for lowering your risk of anxiety



and depression. That will be the gift that you can sign up for, and, when you sign up for these goodies, then I'll keep you posted on details of the six-week group program.

Dr. Lauren Noel: So great, and such a great opportunity for people to work more

closely with you and get more kind of hand-holding, so I think that's a really, really great opportunity for them.

Trudy Scott: Great. Dr. Lauren Noel: Yeah. Awesome, Trudy. Any final words of wisdom before we

bring this to a close? Trudy Scott: Yeah. Firstly, thank you for interviewing me. It was lovely. It

was as enjoyable as when you interviewed me on your show, and if anyone has not tuned in to Dr. Lo's show, I just want to say do tune in to her show. It is fabulous.

Dr. Lauren Noel: Thank you. Trudy Scott: I just want to say Tamara was in the last group program that I did

for emotional eaters, and it also helped people with mood problems, and she said, "It's hard to remember how anxious I really was, but I look back on my food mood logs and I can see how bad I was." Sometimes you may not know how bad it is, and I just want to say don't tolerate how you're feeling, and you may have forgotten how good you can feel. But don't tolerate it, look for answers, because we deserve to feel awesome, and we really deserve to feel on top of the world all the time.

Dr. Lauren Noel: Amen. Some great advice. Well, thank you so much for being on

the show, and having me be on your show, and have a wonderful evening, Trudy.

Trudy Scott: Well, thank you so much, and it's so cute you're calling it a show,

because it's a summit, but I know what you mean. [Laughter] Thanks, Dr. Lo. I look forward to your interview, too.

Dr. Lauren Noel: Great. Thanks so much. Thanks, guys. Bye. Trudy Scott: Thanks everyone. Thanks for joining in, and join us on another

great interview on The Anxiety Summit.



Here is the speaker blog: http://www.everywomanover29.com/blog/anxiety-summit-targeted-individual-amino-acids-eliminating-anxiety-practical-applications/ Dr. Lauren Noel, ND, host of Dr. Lo Radio

Dr. Lauren Noel is the owner and medical director of Shine Natural Medicine in Solana Beach, CA. She received her doctorate in naturopathic medicine from National College of Natural Medicine in Portland, Oregon. Since 2010, Dr. Noel has treated over 5,000 patients using natural therapies. Her areas of expertise are digestive disorders, thyroid & hormone imbalances, and primal nutrition. She has been a frequent guest/lecturer on health radio shows and medical conferences, and she is the host of Dr. Lo Radio, a top rated podcast on iTunes that has attracted over 1 million listens. Dr Noel treats patients locally in the San Diego area and all throughout the US. To learn more visit DrLaurenNoel.com.

Trudy Scott, CN, host of the Anxiety Summit, Food Mood expert and author of The Antianxiety Food Solution

Food Mood Expert Trudy Scott is a certified nutritionist on a mission to educate and empower women worldwide about natural solutions for anxiety, stress and emotional eating. Trudy works with women one-on-one and in groups, serving as a catalyst in bringing about life enhancing transformations that start with the healing powers of eating real whole food, using individually targeted supplementation and making simple lifestyle changes. She also presents nationally to nutrition and mental health professionals on food and mood, sharing all the recent research and how-to steps so they too can educate and empower their clients and patients.



Trudy is past president of the National Association of Nutrition Professionals. She was recipient of the 2012 Impact Award and currently serves as a Special Advisor to the Board of Directors. She is a member of Alliance for Addiction Solutions and Anxiety and Depression Association of America. Trudy is the author of The Antianxiety Food Solution: How the Foods You Eat Can Help You Calm Your Anxious Mind, Improve Your Mood and End Cravings (New Harbinger 2011).

The information provided in The Anxiety Summit via the interviews, the blog posts, the website, the audio files and transcripts, the comments and all other means is for informational and educational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for advice from your physician or other health care professional. You should consult with a healthcare professional before starting any diet, exercise, or supplementation program, before taking or stopping any medication, or if you have or suspect you may have a health problem.

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