Foods That Cause Depression, Anxiety, Brain Fog, Sleeping Problems

(Transcript of video)

Hey everybody Dr Hagmeyer here and today I want to talk you about some of the things you can do naturally if you are struggling with depression, anxiety, loss of focus, sleeping problems, fatigue or some other mental health problem.

Specifically I want to talk about some of the foods that you might be eating that could be contributing to a decline in your mental state.

Have you every stopped to think that the foods you are eating could be causing you to suffer with anxiety and depression brain fog, fatigue, etc.

At first, you might not think that foods can cause depression or anxiety- But they absolutely can!

We know that certain foods causes diabetes, certain foods cause heart disease and high blood pressure problems, certain foods causes IBS and Celiac disease, certain foods cause autoimmune diseases, and the list goes on and on. What you eat does matter.

Almost every patient I work with struggles to some degree or another with anxiety, depression, brain fog, some have more advanced states than others but all these patients have one thing in common. They want to start finding out why they are sick, and they want to do with out more drugs.

So if that’s you- someone who is struggling with depression, anxiety, loss of focus or some other kind of mental illness or problem related to the brain, in today’s video your going to learn about those foods, some test and some of the things that might be off in your body. And if you work with the right doctor- you will be able to turn this all around and get your life back

Like many tissues of the body, your brain is incredible sensitive to inflammation and if we want to support your mental health (regardless of the label or diagnosis a doctor has given you) I don’t care if you have been diagnosed with being schizophrenic, Bipolar, General anxiety disorder, or just brain fog) – we need to ask ourselves what are some of the driving factors or the triggers behind Neuroinfammation.

Since all health starts with our diet ,in this video I want to share with you some of those things that can have a drastic impact from a dietary perspective on your mental health.

#1- Gluten and Mental Health

Some researcher are now showing reports that 1 in 3 people have a gluten sensitivity- if you have never heard of gluten, Gluten is a combination of proteins found in wheat, rye, barley, oats, and other glutinous grains.

Proper Testing For Gluten Sensitivity Is The Key

Many times when I speak with perspective patients, I’m often told things like, “I tried a gluten free diet and it didn’t work for me”, or “My doctor testing me for gluten and I don’t have a problem with it.”

Let me say for the record two things about these all too common statements.

#1 Your doctor probably didn’t test you correctly, and

#2 Going on a gluten free diet means more than swapping out your wonder bread and pizza for gluten free bread and gluten free pizza.

I want you to look at this illustration here, what you will notice is that you have gluten here and then you have all of the subfractions of gluten.

Your doctor may have tested you for alfa gliadin and he or she may have tested you for endomyseial antibodies, they may have even tested your for tissue transglutaminase and they may have even run a biopsy- do these tests rule out gluten sensitivity?

NO- they can rule out Celiac disease but they do not necessarily rule out Non Celiac Gluten sensitivity. Another words every person that is diagnosed with celiac disease has a sensitivity to gluten but just because you don’t have Celiac disease does not mean you don’t have non celiac GLUTEN SENSITIVITY.

Some researchers are showing that gluten sensitivity occurs in 1 out of every 3 people.

To rule in or rule out gluten sensitivity the best test is the one you see here that evaluates many of the protein subractions that are found in a kernel of wheat.

My question to you is this….Has your doctor tested you for gamma gliadin 15, have they tested you for omega gliadin 17, have they tested you for Glutenin or Prodynorphin?

Have they looked at Glutemorphin? Have they tested your for the various Transglutaminase antibodies like TTG-2, or TTG3 or TTG-6?  If not you really cannot rule in or rule out a gluten sensitivity.

Here is an example of test a patient sent for my review. When I had asked what his doctor said about the test result, is doctor told him that he could keep eating gluten and that gluten was not a problem for him.

Notice that the only protein sub fraction tested was Gliadin.

Here is the same patient after I tested him- what do you see? Well you see that he is negative for the alfa and deamidated gliadin but what is he positive for?….

This person should not be eating gluten and in fact if you look at the marker in the middle of the page- Gluteomorphin and the marker at the bottom of the page TTG-6 when this person eats gluten-Gluten can cause problems in the brain, the cerebellum (area of the brain that controls balance, movement, posture and coordination) this person may have problems with ataxia, they may have restless leg, they may have numbing, tingling in their hands, or feet.

The devil is in the details folks- and when you have a chronic problem and you are getting sicker year after year- you have to have the mentality of no stone left unturned.

So what can we take away from this? We can take away that accurate testing is the first step towards an accurate diagnosis and without an accurate diagnosis- your chances of gettting better just became a whole lot tougher.

Remember this -Just because you were tested for celiac disease does not rule out Non Celiac Gluten Sensitivty.

The next thing I want to show you is from a study done in 2013. The headline of this study shows that not only does the dietary intake of wheat cause inflammation, it says what?

Cereal Grains and Inflammation and Depression

It says the dietary intake of wheat and OTHER cereal grains and their role in inflammation. So we know that wheat causes inflammation and we also know that other cereal grains also can cause inflammation. This is why I believe so strongly in testing for cross reactive grains.

Ok… so are their other foods that might be driving and inflammatory reaction in your body causing brain fog, depression, anxiety, headaches, or other mental health problem?

The answer is absolutely YES-

Milk- Doesn’t Do A Body Good.

Another big problem for people is Milk? Consider this study. Immune activation by casein dietary antigens and bipolar.

Casein is a protein found in milk proteins. We know that the proteins found in milk and dairy products (Caseins, Whey, Exorphins, Prodynorphins) have a similar or overlapping amino acid sequece to gluten and in certain individuals the ingestion of these foods creates the same immunological response that eating gluten can. Another words these proteins can effect the opiate receptors of the brain the same way Gluten does.

Immuologists refer to this as something known as molecular mimicry.

When your body comes in contact with these foreign proteins, antibodies are formed and these antibodies can bind to various tissues, glands, muscles, organs- of your body.

This is one of the reasons why people who have one autoimmune disease are often victims of several autoimmune diseases.

This is also a reason why for many people if they go a gluten free diet, if all they do is swap out their pretzels, beer and pizza for gluten free variations they will never get well. This may be one of the reason why after going on a gluten free diet you didn’t feel better- its not that it didn’t work- you didn’t do it correctly.

Ok….. so what else might be driving inflammation in your body besides, Gluten, Milk, and other cereal grains?

Chances are if you are struggling with depression, anxiety, Brain fog and now I want to add in another symptom FATIGUE, perhaps Insomnia, changes in appetite another consideration from a dietary standpoint is the connection between amino acid imbalance specifically Tryptophan to Branched Chain amino acids and blood sugar problems.

While this may seem complex and it is- I’m going to unpack this a bit and break down for you.

High carb diets= whether you are vegan, vegetarian, you love carbohydrates, you have a sugar addiction, it doesn’t matter what the cause it- the end result is you eat or drink too many carbs

Carbs=sugar when you have lots of sugar in your body, your body gets rid of the sugar by increasing insulin- Insulin takes the sugar in your bloodstream and it sweeps it into the cells- the problem is when your diet is high in carbs- you have high insulin-high insulin decreases the amount of BCAA (Branched Chain Amino Acids) into brain

Less Branched Chain Amino Acids into brain means you have More Tryptophan entering the brain.

If you look at this illustration- BCAA compete with Tryptophan for entry into the brain. Once tryptophan enter the brain it can get converted into

1. Serotonin (Happy hormone)
2. Melatonin (Sleep hormone)
3. Or Kynurenine or Quinolinic acid (under inflammation)

 

What does all this mean? When you eat a low-protein, carbohydrate-rich diet (full of high glycemic starches, high glycemic fruits) you will end up with higher levels of Tryptophan in the brain, but because of inflammation that Tryptophan never gets converted into serotonin and melatonin instead, it is metabolized or broken down or converted into kynurinate, picoinate or quinolinic acid– all of which are markers of Neuro-inflammation.

Consider this study

 

heres another study

 

So we talked about Gluten, we talked about Dairy, we talked about BCAA and Trytophan levels and serotonin- What else should you know about the inflammatory foods we eat and its impact on your mental health ?

Lectins and Inflammation

This bring us to Lectins– Lectins are carbohydrate binding proteins, they are found in nuts, seeds, beans, night shade vegetables they are even found in various receptor in the cells of your body.

Learn more about lectins here

Not all lectins are bad.  Some are problematic especially the ones found in seeds and grasses and they can be a big problem for people who are in chronic pain-Rheumatoid arthritis, people with autoimmune diseases, Diabetics. What do all of these diseases have in common? INFLAMMATION

In this study titled “Do Dietary lectins cause Disease?”

Here’s another study on lectins

This study points out several things about lectins that I believe have implications related to mental health, symptoms again including anxiety, Depression, Brain Fog, loss of focus, loss of concentration especially from Brain- Gut connection standpoint.

Lectins and Why You Should Avoid Them. 

#1 Damage the intestinal lining by stripping away the protective mucous coat. This in turn can put you at risk for infection, ulcers and things like bacterial overgrowth. They can also damage the intestinal tissue that interrupts nutrient absorption, healthy gut flora, and the ability to push food through and out of the body.

#2 They cause a local toxic and inflammatory responses when the lectin attaches to a tissue in your body. This is how researchers are linking lectins to autoimmune disease things like Rheumatoid arthritis , diabetes.

#3 Lectins also cause discharge of histamine from gastric mast cells,15 which stimulates acid secretion. This might lead to things like ulcers, Reflux and H.pylori infection.

#4 Lectin affects weight gain by disrupting the duties of a hormone called leptin. Leptin is produced within the fat cells and tells your brain when it is time to stop eating. This is because lectins can bind to leptin receptors, rendering leptin’s messaging system ineffective. The brain is never given the message that the body is satisfied, so the eating continues.

#5 The vagus nerve, which extends from the gut to the brain, plays a huge role in mood. This is why many people who suffer from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) also struggle with clinical depression.

Of those who seek treatment for IBS, about 50% to 90% have a psychiatric disorder, including generalized anxiety disorder and major depression. Other digestive problems are also associated with depression and anxiety

If we talk for just a moment about leaky gut and depression one might Consider this study- “The Gut-brain barrier in major depression intestinal mucosal dysfunction”

Here is another study showing how Leaky gut is connected to autoimmune disease.

And finally these two medical studies Zonulin and its regulation of the intestinal barrier function- The biological door to inflammation, autoimmunity and cancer

And Leaky gut, microbiota and cancer an incoming hypothesis.

So there you have it folks!

I hope you learned a thing or two! I hope I made a strong enough case as to why you should reconsider how some of the foods we eat promote and drive inflammation, cause a leaky gut, cause nutritional deficiencies and imbalances between different amino acids and how this in turn can cause or worsen mental health problems.

What I find frightening is that is this day and age- some doctors will laugh at their patients when the patient asks them about a leaky gut- But yet these are the same doctors who only listen to you for about 10 minutes and offer you a prescription. This mentality of health care needs to stop.

Don’t let this stop you from taking back your body your brain and your future!

I want you to realize that a doctor who practices functional medicine, will talk to you about some of the things we talked about today and hopefully so much more.

There Is So Much More To Supporting Mental Health

Today’s video only scratches the surface of natural things related to mental health. Things like hormones, Thyroid disease, Leaky Gut, Gut disbiosis, heavy metal toxicity, blood sugar imbalances, Infections, yeast overgrowth, methylation defects, genetics are all so very important and things I consider when working with a new patient who suffers with mental health problems.

If you like today’s video

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If you have questions about becoming a patient- check out our website where you will find a just a wealth of information about what we do and how we do it. Well that wraps it up-

Until our next video! Don’t give up! There is always a cause! Once you find it- you can get your life back!