Gut and Psychology Syndrome

Natural Treatment For: Autism, ADD, ADHD, Depression, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Schizophrenia

Saturday, January 14, 2012

GAPS Practitioners

OREGON

Jennifer Scribner
Portland, OR
Tel: 503-512-6212, Fax: 503-512-6212
bodywisdomnutrition@gmail.com
www.bodywisdomnutrition.com
Maria Zilka
Portland, OR
Tel: 503-287-4970, Fax: 503-221-5454
maria@naturecuresclinic.com
www.naturecuresclinic.com
Kristin Roslund
Bend, Oregon
Tel: 541-815-0999
Kristin@achievenurtitionalwellness.com
www.achievenutritionalwellness.com
Summer Waters
Medford, OR
Tel: 541-772-2291, Fax: 541-245-0417
summer@summerwaters.com
www.wisewomencare.com
Summer Waters
Ashland, OR
Tel: 541-326-8952
summer@summerwaters.com
www.summerwaters.com
Emily Butler
Portland, OR/Multnomah county
Tel: 503-477-5209
emily@corewisdomwellness.com
www.corewisdomwellness.com
Cherie Anello
Eugene, OR
Tel: 541-870-0646, Fax: 541-844-1618
cherieanellontp@hotmail.com
www.cherieanello.com

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Read more at: http://www.alternativementalhealth.com/articles/walshMP.htm

"Most OCD patients (both obsessive thoughts AND compulsive actions) exhibit undermethylation and associated low levels of serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine. Choline is anti-dopaminergic and often makes OCD patients worse. Generally OCD patients respond nicely to methionine, SAMe, calcium, magnesium, B-6, inositol, TMG, and zinc. Most OCD patients get worse if given supplements of DMAE, choline, copper, or folic acid. 500 to 1000 mg/day of inositol will probably be needed to provide good response. (9 Jan, 2003)

We have corrected the disordered chemistry of hundreds of conduct disorder & ODD children & teens. We've learned that the older patients have a rotten self-image and terrible social habits, even if the original cause of the behavior disorder is eliminated. They usually profit greatly from quality counseling, once the chemistry is fixed. (1 Jan, 2003)

In my experience, counseling is often unsuccessful until the "edge" of the OCD tendency is overcome with methylation therapy..... but thereafter quality counseling can be helpful. (21 Dec, 2002)

My clinic has used inositol with thousands of patients & learned the following:

A) Inositol is usually very helpful for UNDERMETHYLATED, HIGH HISTAMINE patients. This includes nearly every OCD patient we have seen. Inositol usually provides calming throughout the day and ability to settle down to sleep at night, for these patients.

B) On the other hand, OVERMETHYLATED patients usually derive little or no benefit from Inositol, and may experience very nasty side effects from it.

C) Although a couple thousand milligrams may be needed to do the job & the tablets are often quite large, Inositol has the great advantage of being palatable..... Many of our patients chew it before swallowing, and report it "doesn't taste bad at all".

I'm quite surprised that Inositol isn't more popular due to its effectiveness and its role as a major "second messinger" in neurotransmission."

Also OCD and Nutrition

Nutrient Therapy and Mental Illness

http://www.alternativementalhealth.com/articles/walshMP.htm

"Most mentally ill patients have a lousy diet, and aren't functional enough to achieve a major life-style change, such as fixing their diet. We've learned that the recipe for success is to first correct the primary chemical imbalance, and then fix the diet.

We've also learned to never attempt to take away their cigarettes, until AFTER they begin to respond to treatment..... for the same reason. Sometimes medical care (like politics) is the art of the possible.

We have major compliance problems with mentally-ill patients who hate medications. They become revulsed with swallowing capsules of all kinds, and it's hard to convince a paranoid patient that there really are nutrients inside.

Very few of our SZ or bipolar patients have any money or any insurance other than medicare. At present, about 65% of patients with private insurance receive coverage for our fees. PPO's pay about 20% of the time, but HMO's almost never cover our services. As a public charity, we provide financial assistance for most of our seriously mentally ill clients.

Compliance with nutrient therapy is a big problem even in cases of 100% recovery. Eventually a patient will wonder if they really need to continue swallowing those capsules daily, and may stop for a few days. They don't realize that it may take several weeks/months for their brain chemistry to revert to the original condition..... Often they are ok for about a month and then relapse. Nutrient therapy is much slower in response than medications.

We learned that best results are achieved if the patient continues their medication(s), if any, during the first few months of treatment. After the patient is significantly improved, we suggest that the medication be slowly reduced "to determine the optimum dosage of the medication". Many psychiatrists will agree to this..... but often are astonished to discover that the patient is just fine with zero medication.

Medications can usually take away a patient's psychosis, but the resulting over-sedation and "zombie-like" condition is repulsive to many. (March 18, 2003)"

The Chemistry of Mental Illness

http://www.yeast-candida-infections-uk.co.uk/node/58

"At the very basic level, our body is all about chemistry. Digestion, respiration, central and peripheral nervous system and the endocrine system all function based on chemistry. In order to function properly, the body requires a huge variety of molecules and trace elements. With the exception of Oxygen, all other chemicals are provided by the food that we eat. Our digestive system is responsible for converting that food into forms the body can utilize, while ridding the body of metabolic waste products and harmful toxins.

The digestive system is based on a series of chemical compounds and enzymes (proteins) that break down the chemical bonds in food so that the more basic building blocks of carbohydrates, fats, amino acids, vitamins and minerals can be absorbed and utilized by our metabolism to provide energy, build new proteins, repair cells etc. Certain vitamins and trace elements present in food cannot be absorbed directly and need to be converted into other forms before they can pass through the intestinal walls. This conversion is most commonly carried out by bacteria in the gut. The various bacteria’s' own metabolism acts on the vitamins and minerals, appending organic molecules which changes the solubility of the compounds and allows them to pass through the intestine and into the blood stream. These symbiotic bacteria have a further function of protecting the intestine from pathogenic bacteria and yeast

When a pathological state exists, this finely balanced symbiosis may be damaged and cease to function normally. Several different states in the gut may exist. Symbiotic bacteria may be damaged, causing the malabsorbtion of critical vitamins and minerals. If the damage is extensive and/or long lasting, pathogenic yeast and gram-negative bacilli will begin to fill the vacuum left by the healthy bacteria.

The metabolism of these pathogens is different and foods are no longer broken down in the same way. Proteins that previously would be broken down to their constituent amino acids are only partially digested, leaving long chains of amino acids called peptides. Our entire body is built from proteins, which are themselves built from chains of peptides. Certain peptides are extremely bioactive i.e they interact strongly with other proteins in the body. Another side effects of dysbiosis (inappropriate gut micro-organisms) is that the gut becomes leaky i.e it passes larger molecules than would normally be the case. Thus peptides, which should normally be broken down to amino acids, leave the gut and enter the blood stream intact, where they are delivered to other organs. Casein and Gluten, a protein and mixture of proteins common in many foods break down to form very potent opio-peptides when acted on by certain pathogenic bacteria. As the name suggests, these peptides have a narcotic action and act on opiate receptors in the brain, triggering major changes in brain function.

These are only 2 examples and very little work has been done on identifying the structure and function of peptides created by dysbiosis.
The above example is a nice illustration of how the presence of gut dysbiosis can directly effect brain function. Given that depression has its roots in biochemistry, its not too wildly imaginative to suppose that mental heath problems and depression in particular are indeed related to gut dysbiosis.

Detoxification is hugely impacted by dysbiosis.

In simple terms metabolic pathways are decommissioned by pathogenic flora ..The long held belief that spillage if you like, from mercury in amalgam teeth fillings is the cause of accumulated mercury in the body is completely wrong. It's the bodies inability to metabolise and excrete mercury

Detoxification is, to a large extent carried out by the Liver. Toxic compounds are first oxidized or hydroxylated (Stage I), while Stage II reactions prepare the Stage I metabolites for biliary excretion by covalently conjugating them with highly polar ligands like glucuronic acid or glutathione. These detoxification reactions require vitamin and trace elemental co-factors to provide electrons for chemical bonding. In cases of Dysbiosis, these co-factors may be missing, due to malabsorbtion in the intestine. In addition, the pathogenic bacteria in the gut may metabolize the conjugated toxins, changing their form and allowing them to be reabsorbed into the blood stream.

Mercury is usually excreted via the gut in its divalent elemental form. In Dysbiosis it is thought that certain pathogenic bacteria have the ability to methylate [see below] the metallic Mercury to its organic form, which would be reabsorbed into the blood stream and carried to target organs like the kidneys and brain."

Top Probiotic Foods You Are Not Eating

http://theconsciouslife.com/top-probiotic-foods.htm
Please read full article for more info. on how to use each.

  1. Natto is a type of fermented soybeans that has been enjoyed by the Japanese for a long time. It contains the bacterial strain bacillus subtilis (used to be known as bacillus antto) which gives natto its characteristic stringy consistency.
  2. Another one of my favorite probiotic foods, kimchi is a well-known Korean pickled dish that has seen wide acceptance by many cultures outside of Korea. It is created by mixing a main ingredient such as cabbage with a host of other seasonings and ingredients, like hot pepper flakes, radish, carrot, garlic, ginger, onion, salt and fish sauce. The mixture is then left aside to ferment from a few days to a couple of weeks.
  3. Miso is an indispensable seasoning found in almost all Japanese kitchens. It’s made popular by Japanese restaurants which often serve miso soup alongside bento.
  4. Originated from Indonesia, tempeh is another probiotic food derived from fermented soybeans. Tempeh is produced by adding a tempeh starter containing the fungus rhizopus oligosporus to partially cooked soybeans and allowing the dehulled beans to ferment for about a day or two. When it matures, all the gaps in between the beans will be filled completely with a thin layer of white fungi which binds the soybeans tightly together into a compact piece of cake.
  5. Sauerkraut is the western counterpart of kimchi, except that it doesn’t contain as much seasonings and ingredients the way kimchi does. Popular in the Europe and America, sauerkraut usually only has shredded cabbage and salt as the main ingredients. It’s produced by allowing salted cabbage to ferment on its own without the addition of any starter or vinegar for two weeks or more.
  6. Kefir is a popular health drink in many European countries including Finland, Hungary, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Sweden and Ukraine. It is produced by adding kefir grains to cow, goat or sheep’s milk and letting the mixture ferment for a day. The fermentation of milk by the bacteria and yeasts in kefir starter breaks down lactose in the milk. That’s why kefir is suitable for those who are otherwise lactose intolerant. Kefir is tart and tastes thicker than milk with a slight hint of alcohol. You can also find non-dairy kefir made from sugary water, coconut water and fruit juice. To distinguish between different types of kefir, dairy kefir is also called milk kefir, while non-dairy ones are generally known as water kefir.

Vegetarian notes on GAPS

Disclaimer: this blog is mainly to collect info. for clients, predominantly parents of children with Autism, but also for teens and adult clients with various conditions.

Personally, I am a vegetarian and have been for two years.  My husband happens to be the R&D chef for Tofurky/Turtle Island Foods. They make two categories of products: soy meat analogs and tempeh.

So I am wanting to post on the possibilities for vegetarians with the GAPS diets, as well as the challenges.

No Soy?

Gut and Psychology Syndrome book p. 113
"Soya is cheap to produce and, following some research suggesting that it may be beneficial for menopausal women, the whole market has exploded with soya products.  It can be found in many processed foods, margarines, salad dressings and sauces, breads, biscuits, pizza, baby food, children's snacks, sweets, cakes, vegetarian products, dairy replacements, infant milk formulas, etc...

  1. The perceived benefits to menopausal women, seen in Japan and other Eastern cultures are due to the form in which soy is traditionally used: as a whole bean or fermented as a soy sauces, natto, miso and tempeh.  The form in which soya is used in the West is called soy protein isolate."
So we see two forms of vegetarian protein: whole vs. processed.


What I don't understand is why she is not including the whole products on the list of what you can eat (on the GAPS diet)?


Gut and Psychology Syndrome book p. 156
"A few words about vegetarianism" section is very negative and cautionary about being vegetarian, esp. for a child with any of the is GAPS issues.


Gut and Psychology Syndrome
 book p. 233-4
"Vegetarian diets are largely based on carbohydrates, which require a lot of magnesium to be digested and metabolized, so deficiency in magnesium follows."

Monday, December 26, 2011

GAPS DIET: Gut & Psychology Syndrome

Natural Treatment For: Autism, ADD, ADHD, Depression, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Schizophrenia


"Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride set up The Cambridge Nutrition Clinic in 1998. As a parent of a child diagnosed with learning difficulties, she was acutely aware of the difficulties facing other parents like her, and she has devoted much of her time to helping these families. She realised that nutrition played a critical role in helping children and adults to overcome their disabilities, and has pioneered the use of probiotics in this field. Her willingness to share her knowledge has resulted in her contributing to many publications, as well as presenting at numerous seminars and conferences on the subjects of learning disabilities and digestive disorders. Her book “Gut and Psychology Syndrome” captures her experience and knowledge, incorporating her most recent work. She believes that the link between learning disabilities, the food and drink that we take, and the condition of our digestive system is absolute, and the results of her work have supported her position on this subject. The GAPS Diet is based on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, otherwise known as SCD (which was developed by Dr. Haas, and popularized by Elaine Gottshall ). In her clinic, parents discuss all aspects of their child’s condition, confident in the knowledge that they are not only talking to a professional but to a parent who has lived their experience. Her deep understanding of the challenges they face, puts her advice in a class of it’s own."

The overlapping picture


"Why are all these conditions related? What underlying problem are we missing in our children which makes them susceptible to asthma, eczema, allergies, dyspraxia, dyslexia, behavioural problems, ADHD and autism in different combinations? Why, when they become teenagers, do many of these children fall prey to substance abuse? Why do many of these children grow up to become diagnosed with schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder and other psychological and psychiatric problems?

To answer all these questions we have to look at one factor, which unites all these patients in a clinical setting. This factor is the state of their digestive system. I have yet to meet a child or an adult with autism, ADHD/ADD, asthma, eczema, allergies, dyspraxia or dyslexia, who has not got digestive abnormalities. In many cases they are severe enough for the patients or their parents to start talking about them first. In some cases the parents may not mention their child’s digestive system, yet when asked direct questions would describe a plethora of gut problems. But what have digestive abnormalities got to do with autism, hyperactivity, inability to learn, mood and behaviour problems? According to recent research and clinical experience – a lot! In fact it appears that the patient’s digestive system holds the key to the patient’s mental state.

Gut And Psychology Syndrome (GAP Syndrome) establishes the connection between the gut and the brain. Children and adults with GAP Syndrome often fall into the gap – the gap in our medical knowledge. As a result they do not receive appropriate treatment."