Spring Body Blitz Week 2
Posted by Jeanne Schmit on Sat, Mar 20, 2010 @ 06:22 PM
Week 2 starts today.
The second shipment of the book Female Brain Gone Insane should be in tomorrow. You'll have a bit of extra reading this week if you're just now getting the book. It will still be doable. I've heard people tell me they can't put the book down. It's easy to read and understand.
I went to Santa Barbara and met with Mia Lundin, the author of the book, last Wednesday. She was very kind to come in and see me on her day off. My daughter Maddi (19 years old) has an initial appointment with her. She took 2 hours with us that day and we left feeling confident we were headed in the right direction with Maddi's health. I told Mia what we're doing here in the studio and how many of you are involved. She was extremely happy to hear we're putting her book to use. She's a very kind and compassionate person. She told me her mission was to write an easy to understand book people could use to help themselves. Maybe she'll pop in on the blog and leave us some comments or words of wisdom!
Here's a recap of what we've learned up to page 44:
- There IS hope and you're learning you can take charge and move forward.
- Your brain chemistry makes you feel the way you do.
- Hormones and neurotransmitters are chemical messengers relaying vital instructions throughout your body.
- Inhibitory neurotransmitters (serotonin and GABA) calm the mind and body and induce sleep.
- Excitatory neurotransmitters (norepinephrine and dopamine) provide energy, motivation, mental cognition and other activities that require brain/body activity.
- Serotonin imbalance is one of the most common contributors to mood problems.
- Depression can occur because of low serotonin in combination with fluctuating estrogen levels, common during postpartum, premenstrual and menopausal times.
- 95% of serotonin is housed in the gut. Very important if you have digestive issues, food allergies, leaky gut, irritable bowel, etc.
- Estrogen serves as a brain booster, an antidepressant and mood stabilizer. Estrogen affects serotonin functioning. Estrogen drop results in serotonin drop.
- Too much estrogen can cause irritability and anxiety.
- Progesterone has a tranquilizing effect and increases GABA in the brain. Too much progesterone can cause sedation.
Why do We Have Neurotransmitter Imbalance?
- Chronic stress
- Hormone fluctuation and depletion
- Poor dietary habits (lack of amino acids, vitamins and minerals needed to make neurotransmitters).
- Lack of omega 3 fatty acids to stabilize the brain cell membranes. Low fat diets don't provide this.
- Poor digestion. If you're not absorbing your nutrients you can't effectively make neurotransmitters.
- Neurotoxins such as heavy metals, drug and alcohol abuse, pesticides can cause permanent damage to nerve cells that make neurotransmitters.
- Genetics
- Ongoing neurotransmitter support (from amino acids and other supplementation over and above food) will be necessary if the cause is neurotoxins or genetics. If the cause is poor diet and stress, once addressed and corrected, you may not need ongoing supplementation.
This is great news because it gives us a reason for why we feel the way we do. Our task will be to understand how diet, sleep, exercise, supplemental amino acids and hormones, lifestyle and stress affects the way we feel...and link it to our brain chemistry.
We'll need to become experts on ourselves and pay close attention to how we feel so we can make the best decisions on what to eat, what kind of exercise is best for us, when to go to bed and when to get up. We'll need to seriously look at our stress level and determine if we're living in a chronic stress situation and make changes if necessary.
Action Steps for week 2:
1. Use the monthly symptom tracker on page 13,14 to see how your monthly cycle of hormones affects your feelings and moods. You will start to get clues about how your hormone levels affect your neurotransmitters, mood, appetite, and much more.
2. Start on Mia's basic supplement program on page 17. Vitamins and minerals are needed to make neurotransmitters. Vitamins B6, B12 and folic acid are critical in the making of serotonin. Vitamin B12 should be taken sublingually or via injection. It's not absorbed well orally. Try to get the vitamin A in your multivite as beta carotene.
3. Pay close attention to how the food you eat affects how you feel. Do you feel energized, foggy, sad, bloated, tired or anxious after eating or drinking? Notice the content of your food in terms of protein, carbs and fat. Notice how you feel when you don't eat or skip meals. Get to be an expert on knowing how food affects you. This information will help you once you start using amino acids to balance your neurotransmitters. Soon you'll be able to see how food affects you the same way. Notice also how your exercise affects you. Notice if you feel energized or tired after exercise. Notice how different types of exercise make you feel different. This info will be useful when we learn about adrenal function later.
4. Read pages 45-112. You''l learn about bioidentical hormones, you'll identify your hormonal phase and discover your emotional type.