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Exploring Anxiety through the Functional Medicine Lens: A Deep Dive for Practitioners

Hi!

In today’s pandemic environment and beyond, it’s important that we are also focused on the potentially devastating effects of chronic anxiety.  Especially for the lionshare of our patients and clients who are not personally wrestling with infections, their underlying chronic disease dynamics are otherwise likely worsening behind the scenes of this pandemic.  Sustained uncertainty and fear precipitate and potentiate anxiety – on top of all the other contributors and root causes.

I recorded this video just a few months ago,  and I believe these information is even more CRITICAL now for ALL practitioner modalities.

Are you confident in etiology and intervention for Anxiety, as seen through the functional medicine lens?

Although you may already be a savvy practitioner, I am certain you will learn something new in this video. You’ll walk away with pages of notes and practical pearls you can use in your practice right away.

Here are some of the things we’ll be discussing:

  • We know it’s Not all in their head (but it Might all be in their gut).
  • What is THE number-one everyday thing that can resolve anxiety? (No, it’s not magnesium).
  • Which comes first: anxiety or disease? (the answer is Yes!)
  • How too many or too few neurotransmitters CAN indeed be a root cause! (But not nearly as often as you think).
  • Impairment of ________ can drive up anxiety all on its own. And be at the root of both chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia. (Nope, we’re not talkin’ serotonin this time).
  • The Biggest pitfall in Black-and-White thinking that we see savvy practitioners’ trip into All the time!
  • Chronic stress. (Yep, we talk about it all the time. But do you Really understand what is happening on a detailed biochemical level?)
  • The three hormones imbalances that can – and do – promote Anxiety. Often.
  • The surprising nutrients that can either reduce or cause anxiety and how the same nutrient that supports lowering anxiety can also cause it (I’ve got a whole list; get Beyond magnesium!).
  • What’s on your clients’ and patients’ dinner plate could be the Biggest root cause of their anxiety (Yep, sugar is on the list, but it’s among other heavy hitters that may surprise you!)

Thank you very much for joining in the fun and learning!

With warmth, love, and gratitude to you for sharing your gifts with so many –

 

 

 

Click here in case you missed the first few minutes before tech hiccup

P.S.  If you are passionate about transforming healthcare through the power of functional medicine, we encourage you to learn more about our training program here.

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Lindsay Velasquez
Lindsay Velasquez

Thank you for this talk today. I found it really interesting that men can react to a gluten sensitivity with anger. I also really appreciated learning about the different forms of magnesium to take to deal with anxiety as well as omega 3’s. I love how at the end you talked about taking the information and making it easy for our patients to understand and utilize. If the patient does not understand what we are telling them, or they are unwilling to do what we ask of them- it is useless. Something like a gratitude journal is a perfect first step to a healthier mind and body.

Cindy

Tracy! Loved loved loved this FB Live, like all of them always!
My biggest take away and practice pearl would be the reiteration of the importance of sleep as an anxiety supplement. Prioritise sleep and rest and don’t wear little sleep as a medal.

Sending you and the SAFM team love and light,
Cindy

Aimee Peterson
Aimee Peterson

I am so grateful for your insight that people with anxiety are NOT going to be able to access meditation in the beginning and that a gratitude practice is a better step for them. So true….but I had not seen it in this light before. Thank you!

Juliette Ardant Carpentier
Juliette Ardant Carpentier

Wonderful very lively talk. Thank you so much. Lots of things to take on board. Particularly appreciated the discussion of most appropriate Mg supplement for anxiety. I have been using glycinate for sleep mostly and will now look into Mg threonate as a potentially more appropriate supplement for some of my clients. This is one of the many take home comments for me. Thanks again.

Juliana Nikolova
Juliana Nikolova

Thank you Tracy for one more amazing talk. This was full of pearls – for me it was the relationship between gaba and glutamate and the role of B6. Thank you.

Jelka Leedle
Jelka Leedle

Tracy and team,
I watch every monthly webinar and appreciate your time. I am currently going through grad school to be a nurse practitioner, but I can’t help to see that it is symptom management (le sigh). I told myself there has to be a better way. I found there is through Functional Medicine, the hard part is putting all of this information down into a usable format. I do feel that your Courses would be the answer to that.

Anxiety, boy this seems to be so prevalent in society today.
I particular found it interesting on how it effects genders differently and how gluten can causes fluctuations in mood and how the different detox phases also play into anxiety.
Thank you as always
Sincerely,
Jelka Leedle, RN
A nurse wanting to bring Functional medicine to her rural town

Leahanna Stevens
Leahanna Stevens

thanks for sharing your wisdom. I’m very much a practical person so I really enjoyed the application to practice info – magnesium dosing recommendations and time to take it, avoid caffeine after 11am or try green tea, small steps to reduce anxiety, gratitude diary, improving sleep tips and overall how these things effect the very important hormones and the role they play in the body.

Lisa Vosloo
Lisa Vosloo

Wow! Another fantastic Facebook live filled with many more pearls of wisdom. Who would’ve thought that gluten could affect men’s moods so badly?! Thanks again Tracy, xxx

Nour
Nour

Hi Tracy! As usual, I loved how you explained the interconnectedness in the body. I particulary loved how the body reduces cortisol after a surge due to anxiety to end up in depression. This is a great example of the negative feedback that I learned about in Pharmacy school but never learned how it could affect a patient. I also liked the practical tip: L-theanine for ADHD adolescents. Will definitely look into that. Many mothers that I work with suffer the most from being an ADHD parent. Loved your live class.

Kathie Robinson
Kathie Robinson

Another great topic that affects so many people. Many takeaways and pearls from your topic and two that really connected with me. After our webinar last week about Omega 3, I did not realize how they promote Gaba. Also, how green tea has L-Theanine. It is the perfect afternoon pick me up and also endless benefits that green tea provides to our health.

Judy Shoobe
Judy Shoobe

Poor sleep is the #1 root cause of illness. It’s so true and also true how little value people put on getting a good nights sleep.

It also struck me that I’ve been recommending gratitude journaling to parents in a way for years and year by telling them to take some time every night before going to sleep to write down at least one funny thing their child did or said that day, to review it when they are sad or frustrated and to give the journal to their child ar their wedding or a similar life event.

Laurean Millonzi

Thank you for the very informative seminar I believe I would classify it as a full fledge course. As a practicing FDN, I am use to having my clients do Food Journals. When you started talking about Gratitude Journals a light went off. I really see the benefit of it because normally people focus on the negativity in their life. This process i could see bringing them to a postive level. Also great info on the Gaba Glutamate balance.

Thai P
Thai P

Thank you so much Tracy for sharing your knowledge, I always listen to your FB videos again and again and have been learning a lot of interesting information. What fascinates me today is anxiety can begin from the gut , microbes produce neurotransmitters and hormones (GABA) . Again , thanks Tracy

John Coelho
John Coelho

Thank you for this Tracy. I’m a nutritional & wellness consultant. I’m continually fascinated by all the intricacies of the human body and how so many systems interconnect with one another. I chose Depression and Anxiety as one of my clinical courses because of dealing with anxiety myself. Something new that I hadn’t heard of before that intrigued me was learning about the COMT enzyme. I’m a sponge for information and had to look it up. COMT, short for catechol-o-methyltransferase enzyme and how it metabolizes and degrades the catecholamine stress hormones and how methylation is needed to produce it. So it’s critical process in reducing anxiety. Also, how balance is key.

Sandy Anderson
Sandy Anderson

Thank you for sharing the wonderful pearls on helping clients alleviate anxiety Tracy! I am a Health Coach and was fascinated when you said that men in particular can have heightened anxiety and even rage after eating gluten. I wasn’t aware that men might be more prone to rage due to a food sensitivity to gluten and will definitely be on the lookout for this in my practice.

Theresa ("Terri") Pinder

This was an awesome video! My favorite pearl was that when a patient reports anger/rage to consider the following possible underlying causes to the neuro-inflammation of mood disruption: mercury toxicity; gluten sensativity.

Claudia Petrilli
Claudia Petrilli

Thanks for the training Tracy! You have a great way of breaking things down, so they’re easy to understand.

What inspired me was when you mentioned we need B6 to metabolize estrogen down the less carcinogenic pathways. And that B6 is one of the main nutrients that gets depleted from birth control pills! Yet we need it to handle the estrogen overload from said birth control pills!

It’s so infuriating, as many of my clients have been on or are on hormonal birth control and it’s doing a number on their health (happened to me as well and why I do this work!).

Mary Schurr
Mary Schurr

This was a very helpful video, so many people have issues with anxiety in various forms. The part about microbes, hormones, and about detoxification playing a part was very interesting to me. Phase 2 detoxification and sulfate. How all this plays a part in the thyroid and perhaps hypertension is a question in my mind. Many thanks…I will listen to this again since there was so much to take in. Something to add to my gratitude journal for sure. 🙂

Rebecca Johnston
Rebecca Johnston

It is so difficult to pick just one outstanding clinical pearl here. I was glued to my seat and taking notes rapidly, which helps the information sink in. I believe the most powerful and impactful takeaway for me was ALL the ways that not getting adequate sleep can play a role in hormonal imbalance, anxiety, immune suppression and unfortunately promoting disease process. I relished one the description of how the fastest way to increase cortisol is not to sleep well and that “sleep is nature’s Xanax”. It is so true that we need to stop treating sleep as a “nice to have”, or perhaps at some times an inconvenience and other times a luxury instead of giving it due credit for what it really does for our overall wellness through a series of biochemical processes. I also learned a lot about how it is a surge in adrenaline that wakes us up in the middle of the night. I personally had terrible insomnia for 3/4 of a year a few years ago and I would not wish it on anyone. Still not sure which came first, the anxiety or insomnia. Going through that was the worst experience of my life… Read more »

Lucy Bhalla
Lucy Bhalla

Another great webinar! I am aIIN graduate now SAFM core 101 student going onto 202. Enjoying every bid of functional medicine juices here at SAFM, thank you Tracy for your teachings & generosity! There are many pearls as always what stood out for me this time the relationship between GABA & Glutamates which could affects your sleep. I realized the bad effect of gluten to our digestive system but didn’t know that could cause rage in any individual
Thanks again Tracy?