5 Tips to Increase Neurotransmitters Naturally

Foreign. I'd like to welcome everyone to today's presentation on how to naturally increase neurotransmitters. I'm your host, Dr. Donnelly Snipes. This is one of those questions that I get asked a lot and it is one of those things that's really popular online. So it's something that people really want to know about. How can they increase their neurotransmitters? And as we learned about yesterday, it's not necessarily about increasing neurotransmitters. It's about allowing the system to function like it's supposed to. So sometimes we may need to decrease things like cortisol so our other neurotransmitters can function because cortisol, for example, suppresses thyroid stimulating hormone. So today we're going to explore the main neurotransmitters involved in behavioral health and how to increase them naturally. Start with serotonin. We're going to do the snagged E going just in that order, not because one's more important than the other, but just because I like that order. So serotonin, nutritional building blocks. We want to start out with foods that are rich in the amino acid tryptophan and that is converted to serotonin in the brain. And if you remember serotonin is broken down to make melatonin. If you don't have enough serotonin or that system is not functioning well, or you don't have the CO factors to break it down to make melatonin, then you are going to likely have experiences that are challenging with mood, with low energy, problems with digestion and problems with sleep and pain. None of those things are things that we want. So foods that are rich in tryptophan include whole wheat foods. Not everybody can eat wheat, no problem. Potatoes, brown rice, lentils and other legumes, oats and beans. You know, those are all very viable vegetarian vegan options. So there's no reason you shouldn't be able to get enough tryptophan in your diet. They have found that dietary tryptophan variations affect the effectiveness of SSRI in major depression. So if you're giving somebody or if somebody's taking an SSRI but they're not eating enough tryptophan, they're not going to get the maximum benefit from the ssri. It is really important to make sure that they, even if they're taking a, a psychotropic, that they're also getting the adequate nutrition, other nutrition that is important. Not just tryptophan, your B vitamins, calcium, iron and Vitamin D are all what we call cofactors. Those are chemicals, if you want to call them that, that are necessary elements that are necessary to break down tryptophan to make it into 5ht and serotonin. It is important to have these. Now B vitamins, really easy to get. They're very available in GRA grains and legumes. Calcium is available in dairy. A lot of us, you know, think of getting our calcium from milk and yogurt and cheese and those things. But it is also really available in green leafy vegetables, especially spinach and kale. So if you're a vegetarian or a vegan, you still have an option here. Iron is also important, which also comes from, guess what? Green leafy veggies and legumes or meat. So, you know, if you're keeping track here we have grains, green leafy vegetables and legumes that keep coming up over and over again. And a lot of your foods are going to do that. It's not really tricky to eat a diet that is supportive of brain health. Other things that we can do besides nutrition though, Bright light therapy can help stabilize circadian rhythms which will help the body know when to secrete melatonin will reduce stress on the body. And as stress goes down, you know, if people are getting good sleep and their circadian rhythms are stabilized, stress goes down on the body. So serotonin goes up. Exercise fatigue during exercise is associated with elevated brain tryptophan and serotonin synthesis. I believe we talked about this yesterday. It doesn't have to be fatigue from going in just full bore exercise. It can be fatigue, that kind of tiredness you feel after you go out and you know, go on a walk, you know your body's going, okay, I'm ready to rest now. Well, that is, that feeling is a clue that your brain is developing more serotonin that is helping you relax at this point. So that's a good thing. We also know that exercise, low intensity exercise reduces cortisol. Cortisol goes down, serotonin goes up. So benefit essential oils that increase serotonin and dopamine. It seems like every single essential oil that I looked at increase not only serotonin but also dopamine at the same time, which is good. We, we like dopamine. Generally when serotonin and dopamine are released, you also have endorphins and gaba coming along for the ride. And all of those are helpful relaxation happy chemicals. Bergamot, lavender, lemon orange and clary sage are all helpful for increasing levels of Serotonin and dopamine. I'll also add rose, essential oil of rose. Now, essential oil of rose is really expensive. So you know, you can use that judiciously. You want to get the good stuff. But remember, with essential oils you don't really use them up that quickly because you don't have to apply them. You certainly aren't recommended to ingest them. What you're doing is sniffing them. So even a little, you know, the smallest amount of essential oil that you can get can last you a long, long, long, long time. Because the turbines that are within the essential oils are preserved as long as you keep the cap on it. So take a sniff, put the cap back on, you're good for a long time. Massage has also been found to increase dopamine and serotonin. Now we would all like to go and get a, you know, professional massage that you just kind of want to go to sleep. Excuse me. But it, you also can use the, like the shiatsu massage pads that you can get. They're not super expensive, but anything that helps relax those muscles and promote physical relaxation is going to promote serotonin. So just to sum up, a good diet, bright light therapy to stabilize those circadian rhythms, exercise, essential essential oils and potentially massage. Vitamin D is also important. I didn't mention that earlier in under nutrition. And you can get that from sleep, sunlight and fortified foods. Norepinephrine, Remember that's one of our excitatory neurochemicals, but it kind of does double duty if you remember. It is responsible for helping us focus, for helping us have energy as well as part of the stress response. So we do want to have norepinephrine. One of the things that you can do, and I'll get to nutrition in a minute. To increase norepinephrine. They found that people that took a power nap right after lunch tended to have much higher levels of circulating norepinephrine. So there is some legitimacy to taking a nap that's less than 30 minutes after lunch. And because it can help increase your norepinephrine levels in the afternoon, which will help you increase your focus, you know, may try to run, run that by your boss. I don't know how they're going to feel about it. In terms of nutrition, norepinephrine needs carnitine. The liver and kidney usually produce enough carnitine in the human body, so there's really no need to supplement with it. You just need to eat a healthy diet and keep your liver and kidneys healthy. Vitamin D is Also necessary for. For the formation of norepinephrine. People need to get out, get some sunlight. We know that vitamin D receptors are very dense within the emotion areas of our brain. They're very dense in the same areas that we've got serotonin receptors. They are, you know, as I said, also involved in the production of norepinephrine. We do want to make sure people are getting enough vitamin D during the winter months. Or if people are working inside all day long, they may have a vitamin D deficiency. Easy enough to check with a blood test. And there are a lot of things that they can do. They can talk to their doctor about what they need to do to increase their vitamin D levels, whether sunlight's enough, or they need to take a supplement or change their diet. Now, choline is a nutritional component that is essential for the. For formation of norepinephrine. You find choline in a lot of things. Eggs, meats, dairy, poultry, chocolate. Chocolate's going to come up a lot. I love that because I love chocolate. Chocolate comes up a lot. Peanut butter, wheat germs and brussels sprouts and broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables. As I said, the body really makes a lot of the stuff that you need to make norepinephrine in the liver and kidneys. So we need to keep our liver and kidneys healthy. That means drinking enough water, helping the liver and kidneys flush it out. Think of the liver and kidneys like a sponge that you're using to wash your dishes. You know, it gets kind of yucky, and you rinse it out. You don't want to just keep smearing dirt all over each and every dish. Same sort of thing with your liver and kidneys. You want to be able to help your body rinse out those toxins because they're filtering everything from our body. Reduce alcohol. Alcohol is associated with cirrhosis of the liver. Liver inflammation, it is not a happy thing on your body. Address obesity and insulin resistance because both of those contribute to a syndrome called fatty liver, which makes the liver inflamed and much less functional. If you have hepatitis, obviously you want to address that and control or prevent, if you don't already have it, diabetes and high blood pressure, because both of those are leading causes of kidney failure. If your kidneys are bad or your liver's bad, you're going to have a hard time, you know, making enough norepinephrine. So you're. You may feel like you've got brain fog. You may have low energy levels, exercise Also increases norepinephrine. And the essential oils, black oil, rose, chamomile and possibly rosemary have been associated with increases in norepinephrine. Now, there were a couple articles that noted that black pepper is a very stimulating essential oil. So if somebody's already anxious, they probably don't want to use that particular essential oil. They want to gravitate towards others that also enhance serotonin and dopamine, like rose and chamomile and possibly rosemary. Acetylcholine is another one of those excitatory neurochemicals. It does a lot in terms of modulation of the other neurochemicals. But acetylcholine is important. As acetylcholine goes up, serotonin goes down. We do need to remember that as acetylcholine goes up, glutamate generally goes up. And remember, when glutamate is insufficient for some reason, then acetylcholine becomes our main excitatory neurotransmitter. Which means acetylcholine is important for the fight or flight reaction. It's important to have for energy and it's important for a lot of bodily functions. We just don't want to have too much of it. It's all about balance, making sure that you're drawing a warm bath, not too much hot, not too much cold. You need to maintain adequate glucose stores. When our glucose stores go down, acetylcholine goes down. One of the things that people do when they go in start a ketogenic diet, for example, they want to go into ketosis, is they intentionally try to burn through all of their glucose stores and that can actually reduce acetylcholine levels. Now temporarily, that will increase serotonin levels, which can feel pretty good. A lot of people report that after they get out of that initial phase, once they're fully into ketosis, they often report feeling a lot more energetic and a lot more optimistic. However, it's important that they talk over with their doctor what they're doing. It's hard to eat a well rounded diet diet and that is completely ketogenic. And ketosis can actually be hard on the liver and kidneys over time. Taurine is also essential for the development of acetylcholine. Now, taurine can only be found in animal based products. Think about if you have cats, you know that they have to have taurine because they are what you call obligate carnivores. Now, as humans, there are other ways that we can get our taurine. You can get it through Supplements, there are ways you can go about it. And, and I intentionally don't talk a lot about supplements because in our culture we tend to overdo supplements. People would rather pop a pill than try to plan, make a meal plan or think about how to do it naturally. But taurine is helpful. And you will find a lot of the energy drinks that are out there have taurine in them. And part of it is to support the formation of acetylcholine. Now, choline is necessary for the development of acetylcholine. Remember, choline is found in animal foods and legumes. B vitamins are also needed to handle the chemical processes to make acetylcholine, which again, we go back to grains, sunflower seeds, tofu, all of those are high. And B vitamins. If you can't eat grains, you know, look at sunflower seeds. If you have gluten intolerance, you can look online. You can do an online search for gluten free sources, B vitamins and you'll come up with entire lists. So you know, it doesn't have to be that hard. People out there on the Internet have actually done a lot of research for you already. Some of my favorite sites are Dr. Axe, as well as world's healthiest foods. In order to find lists of, of different types of foods associated with different nutrients and vitamin D, again is important. Vitamin D is necessary for just and B vitamins are necessary for just about every neurotransmitter. So that's why it's so important that we make sure we are getting those in our diet. Liver health again is essential. Now humans can produce choline endogenously in the liver. We already talked about that. But we've got to make sure our liver is healthy. Remember, we want to make sure that we're not drinking too much alcohol and causing inflammation. And we are moderating our body mass index because fatty liver is an unhealthy liver. Long term exercise of light and moderate intensity, remember, it reduces cortisol. It also improves acetylcholine levels. Intense training has been linked with depletion of acetylcholine. So light and moderate intensity acetylcholine is being released to kind of help you with energy. But when that training becomes really intense, they actually find that acetylcholine levels go up, but then they are depleted at the end of that intense exercise. Sleep. Good quality sleep improves acetylcholine levels, improves balance. And the only essential oil that I found that was associated with increasing acetylcholine was sage now remember, acetylcholine is one that is going to work opposite or in, in inverse correlation to a lot of the neurotransmitters that we really want to enhance, like serotonin and dopamine. So it is important, you know, really consider what you're doing. Basically, if you're living a healthy life, engaging in adequate health behaviors, good quality sleep, exercise, proper nutrition, not too much alcohol and plenty of water, you're going to be about 60% of the way there. And then there are a few things that you can do to kind of bolster GABA and glutamate. Remember, glutamate is our main excitatory neurotransmitter. Normally that's the one that's released when that HPA axis, the fight or flight response is kicked off. That's the one that's released to help us have the energy to fight or flee. Gaba, if you remember, is made by breaking down glutamate. So if we don't have enough glutamate, then we won't have enough gaba. But, but there are also other things, like if you don't have the CO factors to break down glutamate to make gaba, then you're going to have a problem. Or if by some strange stretch of the imagination, you haven't been eating enough glutamine to make glutamate. Glutamine is one of the most abundant amino acids out there. So it is rare that you won't have enough glutamine in your diet. More likely you, you don't have enough zinc in your diet. Zinc is a little bit harder to come by. So it is important to make sure that you're getting enough zinc. Fermented foods like sauerkraut and yogurt, almonds and walnuts, cherry tomatoes, bananas, brown rice, potatoes, the white ones, oats and lentils and other legumes are all high in zinc and glutamine. Taurine raises its little head again. And remember, taurine is associated with excitatory. It's associated with acetylcholine. So taurine is also associated with gaba, I'm sorry, with glutamate. And it's important to pay attention to, not overdo taurine. If anything, people tend to overdo, overdo taurine. Taurine itself is an amino acid. It's not going to be addictive, so to speak, but people can, especially in the ratios that it is consumed in energy, energy drinks and other things like that. The body can become dependent on stimulants so you really want to look at whether we're talking about becoming dependent on taurine or becoming dependent on stimulants to have energy vitamin B6 and the other B vitamins. But B6 especially may impair the production of GABA as it is one of the main cofactor nutrients responsible for helping break down glutamate. GABA can also be assisted by eating a low glycemic diet. It promotes the glutamate GABA balance because when we have hypoglycemia or hyperglycemia, that's perceived as a stress state. So it is going to increase glutamate levels. Now when we have adequate blood sugar levels, then we're not going to have those spikes in glutamate which helps regulate that balance. Foods high in theanine like green tea have also been found to promote GABA secretion. Not everybody likes green tea. So you can explore different sources of theanine but, but green tea really is the richest source of theanine that I am aware of. Reduce stress, physical stress as well as mental stress in order to increase GABA release. And you can do this through exercise, yoga, meditation, massage. See massage increases serotonin, dopamine and GABA and your endorphins. It's a great thing. Sleep. Regulating your sleep schedule reduces stress. We know when people are not getting quality sleep, it increases stress, activates that HPA axis, increases glutamate, reduces gaba. So if people are getting adequate quality sleep, then they are starting out physiologically they're not stressed and psychologically it's easier to deal with life on life's terms when you're not exhausted. So again you're more likely not to have the increases in, in glutamate that would overpower gaba. Essential oils that have been shown to increase GABA circulating it are jasmine, lavender, lemon balm, valerian and catnip. And there are others, you know you can, you can do Internet search and find a reputable source. You can either go to PubMed, that's you know, always a good place to start. But there are other places that you can go. Just look and see you know, at the end of their articles if they're talking about how to use essential oils, see what they are citing. If they are citing articles from PubMed then you know, you probably, it's probably a good synopsis if you don't want to go digging through it yourself. But PubMed does provide your scientific peer reviewed articles. You know, it's the things that are from all those professional journals. So that's always a place that I like to start. If you go to PubMed and you get overwhelmed easily by statistics, then I would encourage you to just to kind of start. You do your search and then start by reading the abstract and a lot of times in the abstract and the conclusions, or yeah, abstract in the conclusions, you will find what you need. You don't necessarily have to read through all the methodology unless you really want to. Endorphins. You know, this is another thing that we talked about yesterday. These are our endogenous opioids. Endorphins, remember, are naturally released when you eat. We don't want to release our endorphins too much though, because just like our body can become tolerant to exogenous opioids like heroin or oxycontin, our body can be become tolerant to endogenous opioids. And one of the ways that may happen is if we are constantly or regularly eating and causing a kind of a low level influx of endogenous opioids constantly. So it is important to pay attention to that and try to enhance your insulin sensitivity. Now, insulin sensitivity is the opposite of insulin resistance. Just like other types of resistance where when tissue is exposed to a chemical or a substance too often or too much, it becomes less responsive. That's the resistance. It says, no, I'm not going to pay attention. Sensitivity means that it is, you know, alert, sort of, and looking for that chemical or hormone or whatever it is to come its way. One of the ways that people increase insulin sensitivity is by intermittent fasting. That is not for everybody, especially if somebody has diabetes. But it is. There are ways to help your body become more insulin sensitive. One of them is eating a low glycemic index diet, eating meals instead of grazing throughout the day. Those are the two biggest things that you can do. Some people need to eat throughout the day and that's, you know, great. That's what we've always been told. You need at least breakfast, lunch and dinner and maybe even a snack in there. But that's very different than somebody who is eating, you know, every single hour, like constantly throughout the day, and their body is constantly producing insulin. Again, before you make major changes to your diet, talk to a nutritionist or your doctor. But it is important. Insulin resistance, you know, the bad thing is associated with cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure and, you know, a whole host of things. So increasing insulin sensitivity is good for a lot of aspects of health and mental health anyhow, in order to increase endorphins Other nutritional things that you can do include eating dark chocolate. And you don't have to eat chocolate candy bars. You can eat chocolate nibs or you can even eat organic dark chocolate powder. That's what I do. I put in about a quarter teaspoon of dark chocolate powder into my coffee. I like the taste myself. Not everybody does. But dark chocolate powder, your cocoa is actually, you know, relatively fat free. It's high in a lot of flavonoids. There's a lot of benefits to it. So I can really, I'm a fan of chocolate. Another way to increase endorphins, interestingly enough, is to eat spicy foods. And the reason that is, is our endogenous opioids, remember, are painkillers. So when we eat spicy foods and our tongue starts burning, our body sends out endorphins to take care of that. So I thought that was kind of interesting. Again, vitamin D and B vitamins raise their little heads. We have to have them in order to complete the, the chemical processes in our body. There's just no getting around it. Exercise can release endorphins. We've heard all heard of the runner's high. Generally, the endorphins are released when we are engaging in more strenuous exercise. Forest bathing, we've talked about that before, which just means being out in nature. It's not literally taking a bath in the forest, but being out in nature. Being around green plants is also another way to increase endorphins. Sex increases endorphins. Laughter increases endorphins. I have regularly encouraged you guys to take time every day to laugh, whether it is watching a funny video on YouTube or laughing at your dog or your cat or whatever it is. But try to do something every day that gives you a good belly laugh. It enhances your immunity, it enhances your endorphins, it enhances dopamine. It's, it's a good thing. Laughter is good. You know, they say it's the best medicine. I don't know if it's the best, but it definitely is good for a lot of, a lot of things. Acupuncture and acupressure have also been associated with increased increases in endorphins. Obviously, acupuncture, you're going to go to somebody who's professionally trained in it. Acupressure. There are some books and videos that can train you how to do acupressure for yourself. Part of the benefit is theoretically opening up the energy meridians in your body. But another aspect of it, whether it's acupressure or acupuncture is those endorphins again are sent out to respond to, to the injury or to the pain acupressure provides. You know, it's not something that's just a gentle touch. It is an intense pressure and that's enough not to do damage, not to bruise anybody, but it's enough pressure that the body starts relief, releasing endorphins. Essential oils of vanilla and lavender have also been shown to increase endorphins. And you can also increase endorphins by increasing dopamine. Remember, dopamine is your I want to do that again. Neurochemical and endorphins are the reason you want to do it again. So when endorphins come through and give us the pleasure, dopamine says, yeah, I like that, let's do that again. So if you increase dopamine, you're obviously increasing endorphins at the same time. And we know for increasing dopamine we're also increasing serotonin, which is good for mood, which takes us to dopamine. Your nutritional building blocks for dopamine include vitamin C, E, magnesium, selenium and tyene. Amino acid rich foods. Some of the foods that that's in are your meat products. Almonds, apples, avocados, bananas, beets, chocolate again, green leafy vegetables again, green tea again, oatmeal, you know, that goes with those grains. Sesame and pumpkin seeds. You'll notice if you haven't been keeping track, but pumpkin seeds come up quite a lot and you can get the pepitas that are already shelled. So it's not this big ordeal from places like nuts.com or even at the local grocery store. Turmeric is a spice. It's a kind of an orangey spice, but. And it, I believe it's normally used in Indian foods, but it also increases dopamine levels and it is really high in antioxidants. So that's another double benefit to that. And watermelon and wheat germ also increase dopamine. Watermelon was always a surprise to me, but any of these things can help increase your dopamine levels or give you the raw materials to increase your dopamine levels. Remember, neurotransmitters may be out of balance because you are stimulating their antagonists. So if you are stressed out, you're stimulating all those excitatory neurotransmitters and the calming ones may not be able to catch up because they're being suppressed. They can be out of balance because you don't have enough raw materials, they can be out of balance because the system is def. Defunct for some reason. So we do want to recognize that there are a lot of different reasons things can be out of balance. Our body will naturally try to balance itself out if it is not being constantly assaulted with physical or emotional stress. Sunlight also affects both serotonin and dopamine transporter binding activity. So what does that mean? Just like what I was just saying, you may have all of the raw materials you need to make dopamine and serotonin, but if you're not getting enough sunlight, then it may not actually be able to be transported through that system. You know, the. The communication may break down along the way. So sunlight, because it helps produce vitamin D, does affect serotonin and dopamine transmission, basically. Exercise. Like we said earlier, fatigue during exercise is associated with increases in tryptophan and serotonin, which increases dopamine. And exercise also directly modulates the dopamine system. You know, exercising too much, too hard, you may not want to do it again. But exercising in a light to moderate fashion often increases oxygenation, which is good for the body. It helps lubricate the joints, which is good for the body. It reduces inflammation, which is good for the body. Whenever we do things that are good for the body, dopamine usually goes up, because dopamine is one of those neurotransmitters that's designed to help us survive. So it helps us figure out which things are good for us, and then it theoretically doesn't reward the things that are bad for us. Just like your endorphins, laughter, and sex will both increase dopamine. Now, doing them both at the same time may not work, but those are both things that you can do. Essential oils of bergamot, lavender, lemon, oregano, rose and peppermint have all been shown to increase dopamine levels. And I encourage you to go to health food stores somewhere where you can smell some of these essential oils, just to know what they smell like and see what you think about them. Obviously oregano, you probably have it in your kitchen. You can take the lid off and sniff it and just get a general idea. You know what rose smells like and peppermint, but you may not know what, for example, bergamot or clary sage smells like. So it's worth, when you're out sometime, taking a stop by somewhere that has essential oils, generally health food stores, and seeing if there are any that you want to add to your tool chest. You can also increase dopamine by increasing serotonin when we take serotonin reuptake inhibitors, we actually are also increasing, at least to some degree, levels of norepinephrine and dopamine. Not that I'm saying that's the way to do it necessarily, but I'm saying anytime we increase serotonin we are going to alter the balance and the levels of just about every neurotransmitter. Now your endocannabinoids, your natural cannabis receptors, obviously one way that you can activate those is with CBD oils or cannabis, but that is activating them, that is not supporting the natural system as much. You're basically ingesting, just like ingesting exogenous opioids, you're ingesting exogenous cannabinoids. So in order to support the endocannabinoid system, which remember, helps with mood, helps with inflammation, helps with immunity, we really have just begun to learn all of the things that the system is involved in. We need omega threes. Omega threes are super, super, super essential. The precursors for endocannabinoids are found in the lipid membranes, which lipids are fats. And it's these essential fatty acids that provide that. So we need to have omega threes and to a certain extent omega 6s. Remember we generally want to have them in a 4 to 1 ratio. 4 omega 6s to every 1 gram of omega threes. But you can find omega threes, they're very plentiful in walnuts, cold water, fish like salmon and mackerel and oops, I didn't spell that right. Chia seeds. Chia seeds are a wonderful, amazingly dense source of not only protein but also omega 3s. Now they are relatively, because they're high in fatty acids, they're also relatively high in calories. I think, I think it's 2 tablespoons is 150 calories. It may be a quarter cup, I can't remember right now. But it is an excellent source of fiber, omega threes and vegan protein. Chia seeds are one of the few vet plant based sources of complete proteins. Most vegetable proteins are incomplete so you need to combine them in order to make a complete protein profile. Chia seeds have everything, so I'm a big fan. Vitamin D is essential for your endocannabinoids. Tea, especially green tea is helpful for increasing the activity of the endocannabinoid system partly because of the theanine and dark chocolate. Again so we keep have seen these things coming in that are important and repeatedly. Green tea, tea, vitamin D, dark chocolate, B Vitamins, green leafy vegetables, legumes, exercise, stress reduction and certain essential oils. Endocannabinoids are released when there is a little bit of inflammation. So when we exercise, a lot of times we cause a little bit of inflammation and endocannabinoids can be released. What we're talking about again is light to moderate exercise, not anything that's super intense sleep can help regulate endocannabinoid levels by reducing physiological stress. And essential oils of black pepper, clove, lang lang lavender and atlas cedar wood have all been found to activate the endocannabinoid system. Thyroxin. Remember, thyroxin is one of your, or is your thyroid hormone. So when your thyroid is not operating the way it's supposed to, you can feel sluggish. When your thyroid is not operating as it's supposed to, the hypothalamic pituitary thyroid axis is going to have a breakdown and that will affect the other systems of the body. We need our thyroid, or at least we need thyroid hormones. People can have their thyroid excised because of cancer or whatever and take thyroid medication, but we do need thyroxin in our system. Nutritionally, what do we need for a healthy thyroid? Iodine. We need to have iodine in our system. And they found that since a lot of people have gone to sea salt and Himalayan salt, Himalayan sea salt, that a lot, and non iodized salt, that in America, a lot of people are actually starting to have an iodine deficiency unless they're taking a multivitamin. A lot of the foods that we eat that have salt in them, like bread, and those things are made with non iodized salt. Iodized salt is one way to get it. You don't need a whole lot. Kelp is another way to get iodine in your diet. And also multivitamins. Selenium is important, and it's available in nuts, seeds and yogurts. Brazil nuts are one of the healthiest and most dense sources of selenium. Now, if you're not familiar with brazil nuts, they're those, if you get mixed nuts, like from planters, they're those big old nuts that I always used to think looked kind of like a banana. You only need one and you're getting like 400% of the selenium you need for the day. Actually, if you eat too much selenium, you're probably going to develop selenium toxicity, which will make you nauseous, which is probably one of the reasons I always thought they were just being stingy in the mixed nuts. But that's probably one of the reasons they don't put a lot of Brazil nuts in the mixed nuts because they don't want people overdoing it on the brazil nuts and, and getting a tummy ache. So Brazil nuts are available. You can order them, you know, individually. You know, just order Brazil nuts alone instead of having to try to get 17 different kinds of mixed nuts to pull out the. Pull out the Brazil nuts. But remember, walnuts, almonds, and brazil nuts are all super high, super nutrient nuts that are available if you can eat them. They're all tree nuts. So if you have an allergy to tree nuts, then you're kind of out of luck there. You can also get selenium from seeds like sunflower seeds and yogurt. Zinc you can get from meat, cashews and chocolate. Cashews are really high in zinc and copper, which are both necessary for a lot of your neurotransmitters. So that's a good food, good nut to add in there. Again, a tree nut, you may not be able to eat it, but it is a very rich source. Sesame seeds are also in the seeds category. They're high in copper as well as selenium. Magnesium you can get in spinach, corn, avocados, shrimp, raisins, bananas and broccoli, among other things. My guess is you can. With the exception of iodine, you can probably find something in each one of these categories that you already eat, which is good. Exercise can help regulate thyroxin levels because it helps to reduce cortisol. Low intensity exercise, when there's. When the cortisol is in the system too much, it prevents the thyroxin from being converted, so it's bioavailable. We do want to reduce cortisol levels. Sleep also regulate, helps regulate stress. Adequate quality sleep reduces that HPA axis. I know I sound like a broken record, but it really is that important. And essential oils, any of your stress reducing essential oils, any of your essential oils that increase serotonin and dopamine and GABA are going to be helpful at suppressing cortisol, which make thyroxine more able to do its job. It gets cortisol out of the way. So thyroxine can do its job, but also frankincense. And I thought that one was interesting, that frankincense is stimulating on the thyroid. Now, the last thing we're going to talk about is progesterone. And I know that's not a neurotransmitter, that's a hormone. But if you Remember, progesterone is the precursor to cortisol and we need cortisol in our circadian rhythms because it peaks in the morning and it gives us the get up and go to get out of bed. If we don't have enough cortisol, you're going to wake up and you're just going to be like, yeah, snooze. So we do need a certain amount of cortisol. What we need to do to regulate that cortisol is regulate our stress. Because cortisol is secreted not only because of circadian rhythms, but also in response to stress. We want the cortisol to come in with the circadian rhythms, but we want to minimize the excessive stress. So progesterone is a precursor to cortisol. We need it. Progesterone also balances estrogen and estrogen tends to cause anxiety symptoms. Progesterone tends to be more anti anxiety in nature. Nutritionally, what can we do to support progesterone? Vitamin C from those green leafy vegetables. Again, citrus, pumpkin and white potatoes. Zinc from meat, cashews and pumpkin. Not pumpkin seeds, but pumpkin. Magnesium from cashews, leafy greens, legumes, brown rice. Vitamin E we haven't talked a lot about. From sunflower seeds, almonds and again pumpkin bees from your grain and legumes. Good cholesterol. Remember your gonadal hormone hormones are steroids and in or steroids are require or that sorry. Or are made from cholesterol. So we do have to have good cholesterol. Having too little fat, too little cholesterol actually can be harmful. You can get good cholesterol from coconut oil, eggs, yogurt. Look up different sources of good cholesterol. If you've got high cholesterol, talk with your doctor about, you know, how you can increase your good cholesterol without increasing your bad. We also need sulfur and sulfur is that smell that you get from rotting eggs. But it is also a essential component to making progesterone. And you can get sulfur from your cruciferous vegetables. Broccoli, kale and cabbage are your biggies right here. Another thing that you can do to help with the progesterone estrogen ratio, which essentially increases progesterone. It makes progesterone more available. If estrogen isn't, you know, stomping it down all the time. Avoid soybeans. There is a lot of research out there that shows that soybeans are what they call a phytoestrogen or a plant based estrogen. Now there's a Lot of argument out there about the benefits of soybeans in terms of breast cancer. Some people say it is bad. You want to avoid it if you've got a history of breast cancer in your family. Other people say you definitely want to eat it because it blocks some of those receptors. We're not talking about that right now. I'm not saying soybeans either way for those purposes. What I am saying is we do know that soybeans do have phytoestrogen components. So if you're trying to have less estrogen in your system, then avoiding soybeans can be one way to do that. And reducing coffee. Caffeinated coffee is also recommended because caffeine, just like other stimulants, increased estrogen. Yeah, I know it takes a while to switch to decaf, but it's totally worth it. Lower your stress, and that includes lowering the amount of stimulants you take in, lowering your cognitive stress and any physical stress on your body. Reduce obesity. Obesity increases estrogen. Fats. Your lipid tissues help produce estrogen. And so people who are obese tend to produce more estrogen, and which means progesterone has a hard time keeping up to balance it out. So let's look at a nutrient summary really quick because I know we talked about a lot of different nutrients, and I made a little chart. You know, a lot of things people are not totally averse to eating. Almonds, bananas, lima beans, brown rice, cheese, cherry tomatoes, chocolate chia seeds, you know, and then across the top, I have dopamine, norepinephrine, GABA, serotonin, acetylcholine. And then you have your omega 3s over here just to look and see, you know, which foods support which neurotransmitters. Interestingly, bananas are really good for your antidepressant. It's really technically a good antidepressant food because it helps with the formation of dopamine, norepinephrine, and gaba. Serotonin is bolstered with lima beans, brown rice, chia seeds, lentils, oatmeal. I'm getting my potatoes and wheat germ, among other things. So it's important for people to sit down and think about in the categories what they can eat to support their brain health and nutrition. An easier way to go about it is to think to themselves. You know, looking at the food pyramid, if they're eating foods from each group of the food pyramid and they're having three colors on their plate at every meal, they're likely going to be getting all this stuff. But it's important to consider that vegans and vegetarians have a little bit more of a challenge, especially vegetarians that are not lactobac ovo vegetarians. If they're willing, if they eat eggs and are willing to consume dairy products, then they're getting a lot of those things like taurine that are only available in animal products. But if they do not consume any animal products at all, then they need to think a little bit and look and make sure that they are getting the full complement of nutrients that they need. Helping your body to balance hormones and neurotransmitters requires good nutrition and good health behaviors like exercise, sleep, and deep breathing. All of those things are going to be good for your body, which are going to help regulate your neurotransmitters. When we sleep is our body's time to rest and recalibrate, so to speak. So if we're not getting good enough sleep, then we're not recalibrating. Address cognitive and emotional stress. Those things are going to cause the, the brain to secrete more excitatory neurochemicals than it needs to. You know, we have the normal circadian rhythms and the cortisol flow, but then additional stress that we experience cause, you know, bumps in that cortisol level, causes it to go spike up. And we really want to try to avoid as many of those spikes as possible. Remember, serotonin, gaba, dopamine, endorphins, thyroxin, and progesterone are all related to relaxation and positive mood. We need to have thyroxin and a healthy thyroid to avoid symptoms of depression. You know, so that's why thyroxin's there. Norepinephrine is involved in stress and anxiety. When there's too much of it, you'll have stress and anxiety, but a little bit of it is necessary for energy, focus and mood. Physical and emotional stress in general can inhibit the happy chemicals and intensify the stress chemicals, which makes that imbalance even greater. So we do want to help people focus on mitigating. You're not going to eliminate stress. It just ain't gonna happen. But mitigating the stress in their life and learning how to regulate their reactions, regulate their emotions so they don't become dysregulated and cause, you know, extreme dumps. Cortisol and glutamate and acetylcholine, that is really very tough on the body. Are there any questions? If this podcast helps you help your clients or yourself, please support us by purchasing your ceus@allce.com or getting your agency to sponsor an episode. A direct link to the on demand ceus for this podcast is@allce.com podcastceus that's allce.com podcastceus to sponsor an episode of Counselor Toolbox and reach over 50,000 clinicians per week, go to allce.com sponsor thank you.