Do you feel unease about situations that didn’t bother you in the past? Maybe about a presentation, or meeting moms at your kids’ school functions. Do you worry over things you used to take in stride? And the worrying goes on…until it feels impossible to make it stop. Or do routine challenges make you fly into a rage? Maybe you don’t even recognize yourself anymore?
The problem – and its solution – may surprise you.
Inflammation – The Bad Kind
You’re probably familiar with twisting your ankle and then watching it swell. You apply ice, and after a couple of days, the pain subsides, and soon you can walk on it again. And remember scraping your knee as a child? That red area that developed around the scrape (if you didn’t use an antibiotic and a bandage) made it hurt more.
Both of these are examples of inflammation, which is supposed to be a built-in mechanism for fighting off infection and promoting healing. But too often, inflammation is triggered in your body and brain when it isn’t needed for healing. When that happens, it can be a big problem all its own.
What You Eat Makes a Difference
Refined carbohydrates and vegetable oils can trigger inflammation. This process disrupts your neurotransmitters in your brain and throws them out of whack. For a great example, look at the way your brain uses tryptophan.
Tryptophan is an essential amino acid – famous for being that ingredient in your Thanksgiving turkey, but it’s also found in salmon, eggs, cheese, nuts, pineapple, and tofu.
Your brain uses tryptophan to make serotonin, a neurotransmitter that helps regulate your mood, sleep, and appetite. It also uses tryptophan to make melatonin – handy for your circadian rhythm! Plus, adequate rest is vital for your well-being.
With some of the tryptophan that’s left over, your body manufactures glutamate and GABA. Glutamate, in general terms, speeds up and excites your brain cells, like an accelerator on a car, and GABA makes them calm and slow down, like the proverbial brake pedal.
Since these are the two most prolific neurotransmitters, it’s vital that they’re in balance. When they are, you feel a sense of well-being, right? You likely feel calm and productive, focused and alert.
Inflammation Damage
However, when you have excessive inflammation, it strips away and reduces the serotonin and melatonin you need. It reduces the brakes of your GABA and increases the accelerator glutamate…up to 100 times the normal level.
Which can be critical. This dangerous level of glutamate can lead to glutamate excitotoxicity. And that results in glutamate attacking and damaging proteins, membranes, DNA, and mitochondria throughout the brain.
Glutamate imbalances like this are at the center of severe psychiatric conditions like bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, OCD, severe depression, and Alzheimer’s disease.
So, what can prevent this catastrophe?
You can protect your brain.
How? By avoiding refined carbohydrates and replacing them with a variety of delicious low-carb or high-fat vegetables, and by replacing vegetable oils with olive oil and coconut oil.
So, you ask, how can you stabilize blood sugar and reverse inflammation? The truth is that you can bring your blood sugar to a normal level within days by switching to a low-carb diet. And it’s a great way to slash your inflammation!
Keep it simple. Join us in our Touchpoints 180™ program to help reduce carbohydrates and increase the good fats in your diet. Enjoy nature walks, group support, and nutritional counseling… and celebrate your well-being!
Lori Calabrese, MD, is a Hopkins and Harvard-trained psychiatrist specializing in metabolic psychiatry. She offers novel advanced treatments for psychiatric conditions at her practice, Innovative Psychiatry, in South Windsor, CT. Her Metabolic Psychiatry practice provides a comprehensive treatment path with ketogenic and low-carb interventions through Touchpoints 180TM.
1330 Sullivan Avenue, South Windsor, CT 06074. For more information, call 860.648.9755 or visit: loricalabresemd.com.