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Surprising Reasons You May Be Anxious + How to Use the Neurocycle to Manage & Reduce Anxiety

AHA Publisher — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 07:00:33 +0000

Dr. Caroline Leaf – In this podcast (episode #286) and blog, I am going to talk about anxiety. I get asked so many questions about anxiety, what it is, and how to manage it that I decided to dedicate a whole podcast to this topic. Here are some examples of the questions I have received: Why do I feel anxious in certain situations and not others? Why does my whole body react (to the point where I feel sick) when I am anxious? Why do some situations result in more anxiety than others? What do I do when I feel constantly anxious around a loved one or work colleague? What do you tell your mind to ward off PTSD-related anxiety when emotionally triggered? Can you give insight into how to control anxiety or being panicked when left alone and how to keep your mind at peace? Is anxiety genetic? Can it be wired in relation to a specific fear? What is hypervigilance? Everyone experiences a level of anxiety from time to time; this is completely normal. Often, there are times in our life where “stuff” really accumulates, and it is okay to be anxious occasionally. However, if left unmanaged, this “stuff” can progress to a point where we feel so overwhelmed with anxiety that our ability to go about daily life is obstructed, especially if it results in debilitating anxiety or a panic attacks. The key word here is “managed”. How we manage anxiety will be based on how we view anxiety. If we just see anxiety as a “disease” or “biochemical medical illness”, it can be pretty scary! This label can lock us in, potentially shaping the way we see ourselves and our capacity, or stigmatizing our biology—some people may view us as inherently lacking control and potentially unstable or even dangerous to ourselves and others. But there is another way to look at anxiety, one that I believe is more hopeful, kinder and less stigmatizing. Anxiety can be seen as a warning signal—a helpful messenger. It is telling us there is something going on in our lives that needs attention because it’s threatening our peace and survival. It’s pointing to the narrative that is related to our anxiety, that is what has happened to make us feel this way, rather than just focusing on a biological root as the cause of the anxiety. Indeed, what we think and experience affects our biology, so of course we will experience anxiety as physical symptoms. The cause isn’t necessarily in the brain, although, of course, physical brain damage or ill-health can affect how we feel and make us anxious. However, if we think the anxiety we are feeling and experiencing is just because we have a damaged brain or body, we can lose hope and a sense of agency, which may make our anxiety worse. We need to remember that the brain is not a preprogrammed body of grey matter. We do not just “dance to our DNA”, as the popular saying goes. Anxiety isn’t just a broken brain or illness waiting to manifest. Anxiety means that we, as thinking beings, are responding intelligently to threats to our existence. When there is a foreboding change in our environment, we experience this change through our mind. The mind is the power mechanism by which we experience life, but it is experimental because it’s always hypothesizing and working things out. This means things can get messy, but that’s okay—the point is to look at the messiness of life and learn how to manage, repair and grow through it. This is mind-management in action, which I discuss in detail in my latest book Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess. The experiences we have are then wired into the brain by the mind. Subsequently, the brain sends signals to all the cells of the body that there is a change in the mind and brain, and, in the case of a negative experience, that change is a threat to our survival. This generates an immune system response, and the entire body responds, including the release of cortisol, homocysteine, prolactin, as well as a biological impact on our telomeres and a change in brainwaves. These responses are communicated back to us through our emotions (anxiety), body (heart palpitations, stomach aches and so on), behaviors (such as panic attacks, withdrawal, or hasty decisions), and perspective, which is a warning signal of this imbalance as a threat to or survival and the desire to restore balance in the brain and body. This is why it is so important to embrace, not suppress, anxiety. We need to acknowledge the abovementioned signals, process what they mean and reconceptualize them – make them work for us instead of against us. When we learn how to do this, we can start to manage, although not necessarily solve, our anxiety. Indeed, sometimes it’s the pure acceptance of the uncertainty of life and the reality of anxiety as a normal part of being human that becomes our reconceptualized understanding—our way of moving forward! Anxiety is a feeling that needs to be understood, not just eradicated. Why? We cannot ignore the connection between our perceptions and our understanding of our experiences to our biology. This link, otherwise known as the mind-brain-body connection, helps us to predict what we need as individual organisms to cope, or to modulate our biochemistry, physiology and our behavior to make sure our body has just enough resources to deal with both acute and chronic life challenges. For example, when we find ourselves in an anxiety-inducing situation, the brain signals the kidneys, telling them that we are going to need a healthy blood supply for the acute situation we find ourselves in. Consequently, the kidneys start pumping in salt water, which constricts the blood vessels and raises our blood pressure. However, if we are on alert every second of the day, especially during a chronic situation, this experience will be wired into the brain repeatedly, which can become a habit if this occurs over 9 weeks (for more on this my book Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess). Essentially, during this time the mind is continually sending a response to the brain and body that something scary is going to happen, which can result in hypervigilance if left unmanaged, putting the brain and body into an emergency state. To cope with these feelings, our level of alertness and various bodily activities must respond to this state of being. Using the same example above, this means the brain is continually telling our kidneys that we need more blood supply, so the kidneys are continually pumping in salt water to constrict the blood vessels, which can have negative repercussions, such as high blood pressure, if we do not learn how to manage this response. If we’re constantly living in a high-alert state, the natural mechanisms of the brain and body stay in high alert, which can have all sorts of mental, emotional and physical consequences. Of course, many people suffer from anxiety, and there are manifold reasons why someone may experience anxiety, such as divorce, poverty, racial inequality, bullying, and war. Getting to the root of these reasons is essential when learning how to manage anxiety. There are also a few surprising reasons why we may be experiencing anxiety, such as: 1. Bad digestion: The gut microbiome, which is the world of bacteria living in our digestive system, doesn’t just exist to help us break down food. There is a constant conversation going on between the brain and gut, which also has its own amazing neurons, just like the spinal cord! This relationship is incredibly important when it comes to our mental health, which is both directly and indirectly affected by what we eat. In fact, a growing body of research shows that certain gut bacteria not only influence thought processes and the physical structure of the brain, but also that our thought processes and physical structure of the brain affect our gut bacteria. As I told all my patients in my clinical practice (and anyone who asks me today), what we eat affects how we think, and how we think affects what we eat and how we digest food! So, watch what you eat—try to avoid too much processed food, eating too fast, eating on the go and eating too much, all of which can contribute to increased anxiety levels! 2. Multitasking: When we multitask, we end up with what I call “milkshake thinking”, which is the opposite of mindfulness. Every rapid, incomplete, and poor quality shift of thought makes a “milkshake” with our brain cells and neurochemicals, which is the opposite of how the brain is designed to function. When we consciously try to jump rapidly from one task to another, we essentially cloud our ability to concentrate and think deeply, which impacts our ability to do a task well, leading to unnecessary levels of anxiety in our life. This is why I always recommend choosing to focus on one thing. Where you direct your mind is a choice, one that can affect you in either a positive or negative direction. This is especially the case with multitasking. You can reduce the anxiety that comes from decision fatigue—the feeling of being overwhelmed by the plethora of “would” or “could” choices we all face daily—by choosing, in the moment, to stay focused on a task and disregard less urgent demands. When you do this, you actually build up your mental strength and resilience, which will help you better deal with disappointment, failure and the daily anxieties of life! 3. The search and reward circuit: There is a special circuit in the brain that helps us search for food, comfort, love, relationships, friendships, peace, and so on, called the search and reward circuit. (Much of the research in this area of neuroscience has been done by Peter Sterling.) When we experience these positive experiences, dopamine is released and we can relax until we start the next search. Essentially, we are built to seek out a way of life that rewards us with a dopamine rush—the little searches and little dopamine rushes drive us to seek these rewards, which has a cumulative effect. Often, we are driven by these frequent, small surprises, and if we don’t find them, we can get agitated or anxious. This is especially true if we are in a chronic, unmanaged stress state—we don’t experience this rush as much as we need to, which can make us anxious. 4. Not daydreaming enough: When we don’t give our minds a break and let them just wander and daydream, we can end up feeling really anxious and stressed out. This kind of thinking is not just “nonsense” or “distracted” thinking. When we daydream, we essentially reboot our mind, as talked about in Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess. These moments give your brain a rest and allow it to heal, which increases your clarity of thought and organizes the networks of your brain by balancing alpha activity, helping create an optimal state of relaxation and alertness and bridging the divide between the conscious and nonconscious mind. This, in turn, puts you in a state of peacefulness, readiness, meditation, and beta activity, which is important for processing information, being alert, working through something challenging, focusing, and developing sustained attention. This balanced energy, in turn, increases blood flow to the brain, which helps it function better and helps you deal with mental challenges and manage anxiety. The opposite happens if you don’t take regular thinker moments. Not giving the mind a rest and letting it daydream can reduce blood flow by up to 80 percent in the front of the brain, which can dramatically affect cognitive fluency and the efficient, associative thinking required at home, school or in the workplace. Cumulatively, this can lead to unprocessed thoughts and nightmares, affecting your overall quality of sleep, performance and mental health. To do a thinker moment, simply close your eyes and let your mind wander. Daydream, listen to some music, take a walk outside,...

The post Surprising Reasons You May Be Anxious + How to Use the Neurocycle to Manage & Reduce Anxiety appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.

Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess Chapter One: What Happens When We Don’t Use Our Minds Correctly

AHA Publisher — Wed, 03 Mar 2021 08:00:41 +0000

Dr. Caroline Leaf – Sometimes it feels like we live in a world characterized by fear. People are fearful about their health, the economy, their jobs, the future, corruption, crime, and their feelings of powerlessness. The cost of this fear is toxic thoughts, toxic stress, anxiety, and depression, which in turn increase our vulnerability to disease. The end result of this fear, anxiety, and illness cycle, if we don’t manage it with our minds, is a society dependent on external factors such as painkillers, medications, wellness fads, and skyrocketing health costs to fix us. But what if there was another way? What if the answer lay inside of you? What if you held the key? Most people understand the need to live a healthy lifestyle, even if they don’t fully understand the impact of their lifestyle choices on disease processes. What many people don’t recognize is the need for proper mind-management and how it both supports and sustains a healthy lifestyle. When our thinking is toxic, it can mess up the stress response, which then starts working against us instead of for us. This, in turn, can make us more vulnerable to disease, which is why many researchers now believe that toxic stress is responsible for up to approximately 90 percent of illness, including heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. Only 5–10 percent of disease is said to come from genetic factors alone. Why? When an individual is in a toxic thinking state, the release of stress hormones such as cortisol and homocysteine can significantly affect the immune system, cardiovascular system, and neurological system.  In fact, excessive stress hormones are so  effective at compromising the immune system that physicians therapeutically provide  recipients of organ transplants with stress  hormones to prevent their immune system from rejecting the foreign implant. Despite a more widespread understanding of the importance of healthy  lifestyle choices, and many incredible resources out there on making good lifestyle choices, many people lack the necessary  mind-management skills they need to apply this knowledge to everyday life. This  isn’t a one-off thing. Mind-management is a skill that needs to be learned; used all day long, every day; and constantly upgraded as we grow from childhood into adulthood. For every new experience, we need a new set of mind-management tools! Now, before you start panicking and thinking that it’s impossible, stop, breathe, and read on. I don’t want you to get stuck thinking it’s hopeless, that you have caused all your own problems, and that you cannot change. This will only make you feel worse about yourself, and it really isn’t the case. You can’t blame yourself for something you didn’t know—but you can empower yourself and shift into change mode when you learn how to manage your thinking. This is a skill that needs to be learned and constantly upgraded—I do this daily, and will continue to do so until I pass on from this world. Most of what I share in this book hasn’t been taught to you before because it’s an area that isn’t well understood. We’re only beginning to understand mind and consciousness, which is exciting. If we’ve come this far without good mind-management skills, imagine where we can go when we’ve learned how to control our thinking! To read the original article click here. For more articles from Dr. Leaf click here.

The post Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess Chapter One: What Happens When We Don’t Use Our Minds Correctly appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.

Approximately 30% of American’s Can’t Convert This Common B-Vitamin

AHA Publisher — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 08:00:57 +0000

Dr. Don Colbert – Are you one of the 30% of Americans who can’t convert a common B-Vitamin due to a genetic mutation? You may have this gene mutation without even realizing it. It’s called the MTHFR gene mutation. If you’re not familiar, it is crucial to understand how this common mutation affects the metabolism of vitamin B9 in countless Americans. If you are one of the many who has one or two mutations in this gene, you may have accumulated folic acid in your body, leading to low vitamin B9, and you may be suffering from it. MTHFR stands for methylenetetrahydrofolate reduction. When this gene is mutated, unmetabolized vitamin B9 including folate and folic acid can accumulate in the body. The most concerning problem with its accumulation is the potential for high levels of homocysteine. Elevated homocysteine is associated with cardiovascular issues, birth abnormalities, depressed moods, eye conditions, and more. Here’s how to find if you have this mutation, and what you can do to safeguard yourself from unmetabolized folate and folic acid accumulation. The MTHFR Gene Mutation The MTHFR gene is responsible for converting two types of vitamin B9, folate, and folic acid, into their active forms in the body. There are 2 variations of MTHFR gene mutation. The first variation, or a heterozygous variation, is when one piece of this gene is mutated. You can inherit one mutation from either your mom or your dad. The second variation, or a homozygous variation, is having 2 mutations. This means you inherited a mutation from both parents. While having one variation can be only a small problem, having a 2-variation mutation can lead to more serious health issues including the potential for elevated homocysteine. Importance of a Healthy MTHFR Gene The conversion of folate and folic acid into their active states is a vital function in the human body. Inadequate levels of active vitamin B9 are associated with many health issues, including depressed moods, cardiovascular concerns, and birth abnormalities. Both this is a double-sided sword. While inadequate levels are associated with health challenges, the accumulation of inactive vitamin B9 is also damaging. This is why the conversion process is so important if you consume folate or folic acid. Vitamin B9, Folate, and Folic Acid Vitamin B9, folate, and folic acid are often used interchangeably, which can be confusing. Vitamin B9 is typically consumed as folate or folic acid, which are forms of the vitamin. Folate is the naturally-occurring form of B9, and it’s found in many foods including vegetables, fruits, seafood, eggs, dairy, and more (1). Folic Acid, on the other hand, is the synthetic form of Vitamin B9. It is used in supplements, breads, cereals, and other common foods. In fact, the fortification of folic acid in common foods is mandated in the United States (2). As experts became aware of its ability to reduce birth abnormalities, they pushed to include it in foods such as breads, cereals, flour, and more. Sounds great, right? Yes and no. There’s an issue with all this folic acid in our foods and supplements. Both folate and folic acid must be converted into the active form of B9 in order to be used by the body. This conversion can be inefficient and takes many extra steps. In those without the MTHFR mutation, most folate, and some folic acid is readily converted. However, it can still accumulate in the non-active form, especially if it’s consumed daily (3, 4). In those with the gene mutation, much less is converted. And this is a real problem. Accumulated unmetabolized folate and folic acid are associated with health concerns. In some cases, the very issues folic acid supplementation is meant to correct, it promotes. The Vitamin B9 Conversion When folate and folic acid are consumed, the body tries to convert them into 5-methyltetrahydrofolate (5-MTHF) in the digestive system before they enter the bloodstream (5, 6). This conversion requires many steps. They include: Folate or Folic Acid is consumed. They must be converted in the digestive system or liver. Folate or folic acid is changed to dihydrofolate. Dihydrofolate is converted to tetrahydrofolate. Tetrahydrofolate is converted to 5, 10-methylenetetra-hydrofolate 5, 10-methylenetetra-hydrofolate is finally converted to the active form, 5-methyltetrahydrofolate. How can you tell if you’re at risk of unmetabolized vitamin B9? Is your body converting efficiently? Symptoms of MTHFR Mutation While there are no surefire symptoms of this mutation, some conditions have been linked to it. These symptoms are the same as low levels of 5-methyltetrahydrofolate, since folate and folic acid are not efficiently converted. They include: depressed or anxious moods mental health issues cardiovascular and thromboembolic issues whole-body discomfort or pain overactive nerves headaches recurrent pregnancy complications in women of child-bearing age pregnancies with birth abnormalities Testing for MTHFR Mutations If you know you have high levels of homocysteine and/or symptoms of the mutation, such as depressed or anxious moods, you may want to test for it. To do so, you can talk to your doctor and request a test from a lab such as LabCorp. The specific test is called Methylenetetrahydrofolate Reductase (MTHFR) Thermolabile Variant, DNA Analysis. Avoid Folic Acid Accumulation From the Get-Go Whether you have a MTHFR mutation or not, you can choose a better vitamin B9 in your supplements. Take a look at your multivitamin or B-vitamins. Do they include folic acid, or the active form, 5-methyltetrahydrofolate (5-MTHF)? Multivitamins with Optimal Nutrients When looking for a multivitamin, it’s best to find a high-quality one with nutrients that are bioavailable and in the right forms. Specifically, look for those formulated with 5-methyltetrahydrofolate (5-MTHF). Your body will not need to go through the inefficient conversion process, nor will you risk unmetabolized Vitamin B9 accumulation. In fact, 5-MTHF can be found as a prescription. It’s also in some high-quality supplements, including the Divine Health Enhanced Multivitamin. If you have a MTHFR gene mutation, you can rest assured that your body will get the vitamin B9 it needs, in the form it can use. Bottom Line Sometimes, there’s more to a vitamin than meets the eye. Vitamin B9 is a prime example. Since it requires extensive conversion, it’s important to know if you are one of the many with a MTHFR gene mutation, especially if you have symptoms. Always look for high-quality supplements with active forms of nutrients ready to be used in your body. To read the original article click here. For more articles from Dr. Colbert click here.

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