Episode 3: Amino Acids – Part 1 Seratonin
One of the most motivating experiences in my life was the discovery of the books and the works of a psychologist named Dr. Julia Ross, the author of the books, The Diet Cure, The Mood Cure and The Cravings Cure. In fact, the differences her books made in my life, was one of the main reasons I started a podcast – I felt it needed to be shared with more people. It was one of those medical novelties that worked, but wasn’t getting a lot of traction – until now! I hope this goes viral because it should. I tried sharing the book and the knowledge with people but it can be an overwhelming time that makes it hard to tackle these things on your own, and so many practitioners, of all stripes, were not on board with these new modalities of treating certain conditions. I really hope to change that – starting NOW… Almost all this information is from her work
In my personal quest to lose weight - over and over again, I kept buying books. I am happy to say, I probably have so many diet and health books that my collection would rival the selection at my local library! In The Diet Cure, the beginning chapter talked about using some nutritional supplements that could change a person’s personality – essentially. I was always struggling with low level depression, lack of energy, inability to stay focused (that’s why I ended up in t he restaurant business – ADD types love the action and the different roles…). And of course, there was the obvious food addiction… Finally, I thought! Some hope, potentially, some real treasure in these pages… NO – it was not just potential, BUT amazing results for most people who have tried them, myself included, my family (always good guinea pigs!) and friends who would suffer my long lectures about AMINO acid therapy.
What conditions would these supplements potentially help with? Well, here is a laundry list – do you know anyone who has these symptoms of a dysregulated mood chemistry?
Trouble sleeping or staying asleep
Feeling overwhelmed
Painfully shy (yup you heard – it could be your chemistry is out of whack…)
Loss of enthusiasm
Inability to concentrate
Overly obsessive
Explosive behaviour
Anxiety
Depression or feeling “blue” a lot
Out of control anger – all the time
Super critical
Snaps at children and spouses and coworkers …. Or the dog…
Self critical to the point of being detrimental
Caffeine addiction (gotta have my caffeine before I even….)
Overindulges in carbohydrates/sugary foods, alcohol, drugs
Addicted to exercise (it seems like a good thing but it’s an indication of something else going on behind the scenes that exercise is helping the body deal with)
Dr. Julia Ross became a psychologist in the 70’s. She worked in various capacities, including a role in a treatment center specializing in drug addiction and eating disorders. In her quest to help improve the success rate for recovering addicts and all others in their journey to wellness through the mental health process, she wondered how much nutrition played a role. She started working with a nutritionist to see if people would be more successful. She found out there was a correlation. But asking people to change their eating habits that have literally, felt like their life preservers, was very hard. That’s when she came across the work of a a neuroscientist name Dr. Kenneth Blum, PhD, who was working at the University of North Texas. His focus was the brain chemistry of alcholics and drug addicts. He found he could override the bad-mood genes by giving his research subject a few supplemental nutrients called Amino Acids. With these amino acids, they were able to jump start the addicts genetically misprogrammed brain chemistry and radically improve their moods, in less than 24 hours! In fact, the results can be felt in minutes… No waiting 3 months for anti-depressants to see if they are helping or hurting…
What exactly are AMINO acids? Amino acids are concentrates of proteins found in food that essentially feeds our brain. They are not foreign to the body. There are 22 different amino acids, but only 5 or 6 can serve as fuel for the brain and the all important mood engines. Only these aminos get a ride up through the blood brain barrier. And the best news… you only have to take them from 3 to 12 months – then your own body starts to self regulate, it will work at keeping the production level of serotonin at the newly established level - with the help of diet and basic vitamins.
The brain is responsible for most of your feelings but if your brain runs low on these feel good transmitters, whether its because of genetic miscues, or because its used them up copying with too much stress or because you aren’t eating the specific foods it needs - it stops producing normal emotions… Why can’t we get them from foods we eat? Firstly, the quality of the soil – we have stripped the soil of the bacteria and minerals necessary for nutritionally dense plant and animal life that we produce for human consumption. It is not chock full of the nutrients. The converse: lacking so many good ones and genetically modified with so many bad ones. Then commercial food processing further strips food of the vital nutrients that are needed to make and operate the brains moods engines. Our bodies are not working properly, poisoned with these toxic foods, we are not breaking down or absorbing those foods that we are eating, be they good or bad. And bad foods, are bad actors that are throwing a wrench in the brain’s efforts to create the right good moods and emotions we need to keep ourselves “level”. These bad foods to avoid for optimum mood health are white bread and pasta, sugar laden cereal and snacks, fried and hydrogenated fats, caffeine, artificial sweeteners in diet soda. Add onto that our stressful lifestyles, lack of down time and hormone changes, especially at our age… Recipe for a disaster, not a happy, healthy joyful human being!
Each of the four mood engines in your brain need different kinds of amino acid fuel. These four “emotion generators” are called NEUROTRANSMITTERS. Each one creates different moods or feelings depending on the availability of the amino fuel they will have access to. These four have names you are familiar with, for sure:
Seratonin – helps keep you positive, confident and easy going
Catecholamines – keep you energized and upbeat and alert
GABA – keeps you relaxed and stress free
Endorphins – fill you with cozy feelings of comfort and joy. When was the last time you truly FELT JOY? Wouldn’t you want to? As often as possible???
In her book Mood Cure, Dr. Julia Ross cites this example from her practice. A Mom and Dad are worried about their 14 year old son who is having difficulties in school. He is has trouble paying attention, is exhibiting signs of depression, plus extreme headaches that are so bad, he has to stay home from school. The Dad is obsessive, controlling and verbally abusive – generally an overly critical and angry man. The son begins amino acid treatment and starts to get results immediately. The father is encouraged to try it himself, if only for the increase in ability to concentrate, but the son also quickly shows a major improvement in his mood. With the right supplements to nourish the right parts of his brain, the father’s explosive, obsessive behaviour evaporated entirely. So much so, he had to get counselling to change his modus operandi at work – where his brash behavior played a big role in his day to day method of operating.
So as not to overwhelm - I will discuss each of the four Neurotransmitters in a separate podcast. This will help you digest the information and get you to work through the “self help” portion, should you want to know better, what you can do to create the personality you always wanted! That’s for right now (not even a few years from now!) - and for the next 50 years! Free yourself from negative emotions and fears that keep you locked up and afraid to do and see and be all that you want to be!
The first and most powerful of these Neurotransmitters is SERATONIN. What are the signs of a deficiency in Seratonin? This is a pretty long list, indicating the importance of this neurotransmitter for almost everything good about us…. These symptoms of a serotonin deficiency are led by sleep problems, low self esteem, low self confidence, angry feelings, negativity, anxiety and unreasonable fears, perfectionism, obessive and controlling behaviours, SAD (seasonal affective disorder – do you want to hide from Halloween to Valentine’s Day??) or cravings for ice cream and candy as the sun goes down, Fibromyalgia, TMJ, migraines, abnormal cravings for alcohol, sugar and certain drugs on a consistent basis.
And to make matters worse, females produce up to 1 / 3 LESS serotonin than males do…. We’re behind from the get go ladies!
Seratonin is synthesized from tryptophan found in high protein foods like turkey, beef and cheese. Typtophan, however, of the 22 amino acids, is the runt of the litter – there is the least amount of it! Tryptophan first converts to a substance called 5-htp (htp standing for hydroxytryptophan) which then converts directly into serotonin. Again, we are not ingesting the food our ancestors ingested . It is lacking in essential minerals and nutrients. Then we add the intake of edibles that stunt the production of serotonin – and again, those are the things we often cling to near and dear to our hearts on a regular basis… caffeine, alcohol, artificial sweeteners… We don’t get enough sunlight, we don’t get enough exercise and we don’t even eat the right kind of quality fats that our brains need. Then we heap on stress, low calorie diets or extreme fasting with skipped meals and voila! Mean miserable types - all around! The last 100 years, as levels of tryptophan have declined in our food source, the levels of depression have gone way up.
People crave high carb, sugary foods and alcohol when they are “in a slump”. Why? Well when someone ingests a high carb food or drink, the pancreas releases insulin to remove the excess sugars in your blood (and rushes to store them as fat.. FYI). The insulin sweeps most of the amino acids out of your blood stream, along with the carbs. ONLY ONE amino acid gets left behind – tryptophan – and it goes right to your brain, unhampered by other more plentiful amino acids that usually crowd it out! Then that “ahhh” rush of serotonin puts you in a good mood… for a short time anyway.
The book, The Mood Cure, by Julia Ross, p. 42, cites a study done by Dr. J.J. Van Hiele, who concluded that as an anti-depressant, 5-htp is so effective that it has repeatedly matched or outperformed many of the most established antidepressant drugs, including Porzac, without the negative side effects so often associated with these drugs. In a study in 1980, 99 patients who had been deeply depressed for an average of nine years, almost half achieved complete recovery, while others experienced significant improvement after being given 5-htp supplements. The author of the study wrote “I have never in 20 years used an agent which: (1) was effective so quickly; (2) restored the patients so completely to the persons they had been and their partners had known; (and) (3) was so entirely without side effects.”
Julia Ross goes on to say that she and her staff have been amazed at how quickly 5-HTP can lift the spirits of clients who had been depressed for so long that they had forgotten what it was like to be cheerful and optimistic. IS THIS NOT WORTH SHOUTING FROM THE ROOFTOPS?
Simple theory that works. With the help of diet and exercise, taking 5 HTP twice a day, in the afternoon and at bedtime (50 mg tablets) could have you feeling more confident, positive, easy going, walking around feeling warm and happy feelings. Once again you take pride in your accomplishments, enjoy the company of other people again, and have sound refreshing sleep…. At least it works for most of the people. There are alternates if the 5-HTP doesn’t work for you. The book goes into depth at alternate options like tryptophan itself (its more expensive) and St. John’s Wort (apparently Germany’s number one alternative treatment for depression). These are not things that should be taken without the supervision of a medical professional. Extreme mood conditions like bi-polar or manic depressive states should not be treated without the help of a professional. If you are already taking antidepressents, studies have shown that adding 5-htp increases the improvement rate dramatically!. But you should definitely talk to your health care provider…
Level I - The MAGIC FIX I – is so easy – buy some 5-HTP from your local health food store then take one 50 mg pill twice a day – in the afternoon and at bedtime. If you do not find relief after 15 or 20 minutes, take another one, up to a maximum of 3 at one time. If you take too much or have started making your own Seratonin in the quantity your body needs, taking more 5-HTP will have the opposite of the intended affect.
If you have no effect, positive or negative, then your thyroid may be so out of sorts that it is not able to help process the transition from 5-HTP to Seratonin. Taking pure Tryptophan might help. It is harder to find and more expensive than the 5-HTP. There are other options that are outlined in the book.
Level II – SUPPORT THE MAGIC FIX!
For that you will need to stock up on the basic vitamin and mineral supplements
Take a basic multivitamin at breakfast and at dinner
Magnesium
Calcium
Vitamin D
Basic Vitamin B Complex
Vitamin C
Basic Fish Oil
The recommended amounts should be discussed with a healthcare practitioner. Get blood work done to see what level of each you really need. If you suffered so long, what’s another few weeks to get it just right?
2. Get out in the sunlight!
3. Get some exercise! Any movement is good for you! Walking outside in the sunlight, will accomplish two at once.
Level III – MAINTAIN THE MAGIC FOR LIFE!
Eat healthy foods that help your body make serotonin.
Try to eat organic versions. These are eggs (especially yolks), turkey, pineapple, tofu, salmon, nuts and seeds
Avoid gluten and dairy
Avoid excess caffeine, alcohol and fake sweeteners
Don’t stress your body out by skipping meals or low calorie diets
Incorporate meditation and mindfulness practice into your daily life to keep stress down.
Heal your gut if you have digestion issues.
Another recommendation by Dr. Caroline Leaf, MD and founder of the NeuroCycle App, is to hang out with loved ones, OFTEN, to boost feel good serotonin output. “When we engage with others in a meaningful way, our cortisol levels drop while the neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine keep our brain balanced.”
I had an experience where the phone interaction with a friend and the anticipation of the meet up the next day for breakfast, was such a powerful serotonin boost, that I slept through it! I usually am a light sleeper and always wake up before I have to… but that night, I slept so soundly, I slept in and couldn’t meet her since she had to go to work…
Check out the website www.thewiseswomansway.com (no apostrophe) or annerad.com (that’s anne with an “e”) for show notes and information on all of Julia Ross’s books.
This is Anne Radojcic,
Thank you for listening!
Check out Dr Julia Ross’s website: https://www.juliarosscures.com
Where you can take a mood test to see which of the four mood regulators you need help with! Or book an online virtual clinic appointment!
For more in depth information, please see all three books written by Dr. Julia Ross – all available wherever you buy books like Amazon
Ross, Julia. The Mood Cure. 2002. Penquin Books, New York, New York
Ross, Julia. The Cravings Cure. 2017. Flatiron Books, New York, New York
Ross, Julia: The Diet Cure. 2012. Penguin Books, New York, New York