How Nutrition Impacts Mental Health

Hey there everybody, and welcome to today's presentation on the impact of nutrition on mental health. I'm your host, Dr. Donnelly Snipes. In this presentation we're going to explore why nutrition is important for mental health and how nutrients impact neurotransmitter balance, neurosignaling and neuroinflammation. Then we're going to finish up by identifying several nutrient dense foods that you can include in your diet to prevent mental health problems or to assist in treating mental health issues. It is important to note that nutritional changes should always be made under the supervision of a registered dietitian or your primary physician. This presentation is for informational purposes only. My goal is to help you understand that nutrition is important. What changes you need to make in your diet to address your circumstances are very individualized and need to be done with your treatment team. Breaking down whole foods and turning them into neurotransmitters, hormones, etc requires a balanced diet with adequate protein because those amino acids are what are, are the foundation for a lot of the neurotransmitters. So adequate protein, water, fats, carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins and minerals. And this is just an example of some of the things that are necessary in order to make serotonin, which a lot of people are familiar with. Now serotonin is made from an amino acid called tryptophan. So you eat foods that have tryptophan in them and your body uses iron, magnesium, calcium, vitamin B6 and folic acid to break down that tryptophan to make 5 HTP. Well that's great, but that's still not serotonin. So then your body uses vitamin C, vitamin B6, zinc and magnesium to help convert 5 HTP to serotonin and voila, we've got serotonin. If you don't have enough serotonin, it can cause a lot of problems in with mood, with inflammation, with pain, with sleep problems, with a lot of things. So serotonin is really important. Additionally, serotonin is broken down in order to make melatonin. So if you don't have enough serotonin, it may be harder to get adequate quality sleep. But not having enough serotonin can be caused by a whole variety of things. And, and my point in this slide is just to highlight how many different nutrients are necessary in order to create serotonin from the food that you eat. So I've already mentioned serotonin. There are what I call, like to call the big six neurotransmitters. You've got Serotonin, norepinephrine, dopamine, gaba, glutamate, and acetylcholine. Those are your main neurotransmitters that are in your body that we tend to talk about a lot. The human brain is composed of roughly 8,86 billion neurons. These cells communicate with each other through chemical messengers called neurotransmitters. So those big six that I just mentioned, neurotransmitters regulate mood, cravings, addiction, energy, libido, sleep, attention and concentration, motivation, memory, pain, sensitivity, and more. And, and I say and more because, you know, they're involved in just about everything. And it's also important to recognize that neurotransmitters are affected by the levels of hormones, and hormones are affected by the levels of neurotransmitters. So you have this system that is all interconnected. And if we want to be healthy, if we want to feel healthy and happy, theoretically, then we need to make sure that the body has the building blocks it needs and the resources it needs to make that happen. The majority of Americans have suboptimal neurotransmitter levels, as evidenced by data like this from Aaku. In February of 2021, 35% of young people aged 12 to 25 said they'd taken a prescribed psychoactive drug in the past year. And according to the national center for Health Statistics, and this is updated, I believe it was 2019, one in four adults is currently taking mental health medications. That's a big number. That's a big number. And there's a lot of people who are symptomatic for mental health issues that are not on medication. So this is just the number of people that are actually taking psychotropic drugs. It doesn't give you a good picture of how many people are struggling with anxiety and depression and bipolar and addiction. And the list goes on. Chronic stress, poor diet, environmental toxins, licit and illicit drugs, alcohol, nicotine and caffeine can all cause neurotransmitter imbalances because they can lead to hpa, axis disregulation, inflammation, an alteration in the gut microbiome, or just simply a lack of neurotransmitter building blocks. So I. I want to stop here and talk about this. And we've got so much to cover today that I want to make sure that we get through all of it in our hour, but I also want to make sure that we don't skim over some of the important stuff. We've talked in other videos about how chronic stress, whether it is due to environmental factors, whether it's due to chronic physical illness, whether it's due to addiction, whether it's due to cptsd, whatever. Chronic stress, chronic activation of that HPA axis leads to dysregulation. And when that HPA axis becomes dysregulated, we start to see systemic inflammation. Part of the system is your brain, part of we start to see neuroinflammation in people who have chronic stress. We know that when people are under stress there are high levels of glutamate, one of those neurotransmitters in the brain. And glutamate is what they call an excitatory neurotransmitter. It's stimulating, it heats up, if you will. If you want to think of hot versus cold. And when glutamate is in the brain for too long, it actually creates what's called a neurotoxic environment and we start actually losing brain cells. So we start to see that inflammation happening in the brain as a result of, of chronic stress and we start to see problems. Now why do I bring this up? Well, one of the things that a good diet can do is reduce some of those physiological stressors. But it, there are also nutrients that you consume in a healthy diet that are neuroprotective. They actually work to buffer against that glutamate, environmental toxins and licit and illicit drugs. These are things that the body doesn't know what to do with and they often lead to inflammation because the body recognizes it as something that's not supposed to be there. So it says, oh, we're going to go after this and try to get rid of it. So I think we need to recognize those things. Additionally, just inflammation itself causes stress. When we have stress, it actually alters the gut microbiome. Now why is that important? Because the gut microbiome is where that food is broken down. The microbiome or the microbes are, if you will, the workers and the, the workers that are called into work differ depending on whether you are stressed or you're relaxed. So your gut microbiome is altered under stress and it will create produce different hormones, different products when you are under stress. Because when you're under stress, it's trying to help you fight or flee. When you're relaxing, it's trying to help you rest, digest, repair, etc. Nutrients, including tryptophan, one of those amino acids, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, folic acid, vitamin D, phenylalanine, tyrosine, histidine, choline, and glutamic acid are necessary for the production of your neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, gaba, glutamate and acetylcholine. All of these, as I mentioned earlier, are involved in the regulation of mood, appetite and cognition. Now if you are taking watching this video for continuing education, you're not going to have to remember all of those different nutrients. What I wanted want you to get out of that is the fact that we need a well rounded diet in order to keep the body factory functioning adequately. Omega 3 fatty acids regulate dopaminergic and serotonin neurotransmission, which can decrease both depression and anxiety. Now Omega 3s, not only do they regulate dopamine and serotonin neurotransmission, but they're also involved in anti inflammatory processes. So it's really interesting to note how important and how many different ways that something like Omega 3s can impact the system. But one thing that. Well, I'm getting ahead of myself. You'll learn more about omegas when we get there. What you eat provides energy through fats and carbohydrates and I left out proteins. It also provides antioxidants through plant compounds found in colorful foods. It provides waste removal through water and fiber. So fiber can kind of act like a scouring pad and get some of the gunk out of there and water helps flush it out. And it also provides nourishment for those workers, those gut microbes. When you don't have good nourishment. A lot of times when people are stressed, they crave high carbohydrate, high fat foods. Why? Stress means we need to fight or flee. Fight or flee means we need energy for that fight or flight. So the body craves sources of energy in order to, you know, make sure that they can do what they need to do. But unfortunately if you're constantly feeding the fight or flea microbes, then those are going to start to overpopulate and you start to see things like a candida overgrowth. So it is important to recognize that all of the microbes in your gut are necessary essentially. But if you overfeed a particular group, then they will become more powerful and may overpopulate the gut and kind of push out the other ones. The two way communication between the gut microbiome and the brain is called the gut brain axis. Regulates neuronal development, neurotransmitter production, brain function, cognition and aging. Now, I'm not going to go into the vagus nerve today. But except for to say that the main pathway that the gut communicates with the brain is through that vagus nerve. So keeping the vagus nerve healthy is important, has nothing to do with nutrition. But I just figured I'd point that out because I know a lot of people are very interested in vagus nerve and I do have videos on vagus nerve exercises and the importance of it on the channel. So let's talk about amino acids first. Amino acids are basically protein building blocks. And for example, L tryptophan is broken down to make 5 HTP, which is broken down to make serotonin. L tyrosine is another amino acid which is broken down to make L dopa, which is broken down to make dopamine. Wait for it. Which is broken down to make norepinephrine, which is broken down to make epinephrine or adrenaline. Oh my gosh. So if you don't have L tyrosine, you're probably going to feel pretty flat. Your energy levels are probably going to be pretty low because we know that as dopamine goes down, energy levels go down. We know that adrenaline gives us, if you will, energy. So people who are taking antipsychotics, for example, whose dopamine levels are being reduced by the antipsychotic medication, may find that their energy is low, they feel fatigued. And we know that this is true. And part of that can be because that there's not the dopamine there to be broken down into norepinephrine and then epinephrine. Now your essential amino acids must be acquired from your diet. So essential means you gotta get them from what you eat. And these include valine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methyl, I can never pronounce that. Phenylalanine and tryptophan to name a few. It's important to recognize that people who are vegetarian or vegan have got to pay particular attention to make sure, make sure that they get these amino acids. They are plentiful in animal based sources. But if you're working with somebody who doesn't eat animal based foods, then we need to make sure that they are aware that there are certain things they need to be on the lookout for. Your non essential amino acids are things that you can get that, that your body can make. Arganine helps with insomnia. Glutamine is broken down to make glutamate, which is broken down to make gaba. So just like dopamine is broken down to make norepinephrine and then epinephrine glutamate, that excitatory neurotransmitter, can be broken down to make gaba, which is our most potent relaxation neurotransmitter. How cool is that? Theanine is the component that a lot of people talk about in green tea and it increases GABA and serotonin levels. So it's kind of interesting. And then tyrosine, like we already talked about, is used to make dopamine and norepinephrine. But it's also also important for making thyroid hormones. Tyrosine in particular can be found in some of my favorites. Parmesan, mozzarella, Swiss cheeses, and then also lean beef, pork or salmon, tuna, mackerel, chicken breast. Okay, all those are meat based sources or animal based sources. But also pumpkin seeds. Pumpkin seeds are a powerhouse in nutrition. Peanuts, sunflower seeds another powerhouse. Dairy and beans. And beans are another powerhouse. So being aware that pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and beans are going to be talked about a lot in today's presentation. Complete proteins are those foods that contain all essential amino acids. That whole list of essential amino acids and that all of your animal based sources contain complete protein. So your meat, fish, dairy products, eggs. But then you have your vegetarian and vegan sources of complete proteins. Quinoa, buckwheat, chia seed and spirulina are all complete proteins, which is awesome. So the person who is vegetarian or vegan can get complete proteins. Incomplete proteins are those foods that don't contain all nine essential amino acids. So a lot of things that we eat contain incomplete proteins like nuts and seeds, legumes, grains and vegetables. Vet all of these are important in our diet though. And we'll talk about why as we go through today's presentation. One final thing to be aware of is the protein. Protein digestibility, corrected amino acid score. And again, if you are thinking about changing your diet or if you're a vegan or vegetarian and you want to make sure you're getting enough protein and getting enough of those amino acids, it's important to talk with a registered dietitian. But people who eat non animal based forms of protein, those amino acids are less bioavailable. Doesn't mean that you can't get all the protein you need from vegetarian and vegan sources. I'm not saying that, I'm just saying it takes a little bit more work and you've got to be more aware. Like soybean protein, 94% bioavailable whole wheat, pea or and pea flour, 82% but then we start going down to peas, 67%. Now, the interesting thing here is sausage and pork is really low on the list for protein digestibility, which I thought was interesting because most of your animal based foods are high on the high on the list. Bearing that in mind, if you're working with somebody who's vegetarian or vegan and there's a question about whether they're getting enough proteins and the necessary amino acids, a referral can be very helpful. Tryptophan, one of my favorite amino acids. Your food sources, egg whites, chia seeds, sesame seeds, wheat germ, turkey. It needs iron, magnesium, B6 and vitamins, vitamin C among others, to convert tryptophan to serotonin. So you can't just eat tryptophan. You can't just eat protein and say, hey, you know, I'm going to be feeling better. You need to make sure you're getting those other vitamins and what we'll call cofactors in order to make that chemical reaction actually take place. Now, a lot of people talk about tryptophan as an amino acid that makes them sleepy. Now, interestingly, tryptophan is more readily absorbed when it's eaten with a high carbohydrate meal because insulin that's released when you eat a high carbohydrate meal causes the competing amino acids to be absorbed into the tissues. So the tryptophan is more available to the brain. And, and I thought that was kind of interesting. So if you're eating tryptophan and you don't want to get that, you know, groggy feeling, one way to do that might be to not eat a whole lot of heavy carbohydrates with it. Low levels of B vitamins also may be linked to depression. Vitamin B1, which is also called thiamine, is necessary for the utilization of glucose in the brain. For your brain to use the energy that it needs, it needs to have vitamin B1. Lack of vitamin B1 starts causing a lot of problems. One of those problems is called Wernicke Korsakoff Syndrome. If you have a patient who suddenly starts displaying confusion, loss of appetite, dizziness, tachycardia and or urinary bladder retention, it is a medical emergency. This is not something to play with what we're looking for. And a lot of times it almost looks like they're intoxicated, but they're not. And if you do see a sudden change in their presentation, they need to get to the er. There's just no other question about that. Wernicke encephalopathy is most commonly seen in alcohol addiction, but it can also occur in other conditions such as bariatric surgery, severe or prolonged vomiting, whether that's because of cancer treatment or because of morning sickness or something else. And anorexia nervosa. Now it's not seen nearly as often in bulimia nervosa, mainly because a lot of times the person with bulimia is getting sufficient calories and sufficient thiamin in their diet, whereas the person with anorexia is not meeting their basic dietary needs. So where does B1 come from? You can get it in fortified breakfast cereals, pork, fish, beans, lentils and sunflower seeds. I told you those sunflower scenes were going to come up a lot. As well as the beans and lentils. Beans and lentils are great because they come in different colors, if you will. So the red beans and the black beans and the red lentils and the brown lentils all have different antioxidants in them that contribute to anti inflammatory, have an anti inflammatory action. So beans and lentils are, are awesome sources of nutrients as well as those wonderful antioxidants. Vitamin B3 or niacin can be found in poultry, fish, meat, whole grains and fortified cereals. It helps with digestion and changing food into energy and helps the body conserve tryptophan and then convert it to serotonin. So we need vitamin B3 in order to act as sort of the gatekeeper, if you will, in some ways. Now, whole grains may, and fortified cereals may not be on everybody's list, especially if they have gluten sensitivity. So it's important again for people with celiac disease, for irritable bowel syndrome, people with gluten sensitivities that can't eat whole grains or fortified cereals to talk with their healthcare providers to make sure that they're getting enough niacin. Vitamin B5 or pantothenic acid is found in beef, mushrooms, eggs, vegetables, legumes, nuts, pork, saltwater fish, whole rye flour and whole wheat. Here again we have legumes and we have nuts. So if you can't eat those grains, that's okay. You can still get your vitamin B5. Vitamin B5 helps control the secretion of cortisol. Oh, that's helpful. So when you're under a lot of stress, your body tends to need more vitamin B5. It can help with migraines and chronic fatigue syndrome. But supplementation in very high doses, Remember that Goldilocks principle. Supplementation in very high doses. Can increase panic attacks. We want to make sure that people don't start jumping on supplement supplements and thinking more is better. That's not always true. Vitamin B6 can be found in fortified cereals, fortified soy based meat substitutes, baked potatoes with the skin, bananas, light meat, poultry, eggs, peas, spinach. B6 is important because it supports your nervous system by helping the body break down proteins. And if it breaks down the proteins, then it can take those components and make those neurotransmitters and help with other functioning. Vitamin B9 or folate has been found to potentially be involved with depression. And it has been found that it may reduce depression when taken in conjunction with vitamin B12. Vitamin B9 is found in those green leafy vegetables like spinach and kale. It's also found in lentils. How many times have we talked about lentils so far? Asparagus, black eyed peas, broccoli, avocado, and oddly enough, French bread. Vitamin B12 you can find in beef, eggs, shellfish, salmon, poultry, soybeans, yogurt, tuna, and fortified foods. Now, it's important to note that B12 is almost exclusively found in anim for people who are vegan. It may be harder for them to get their vitamin B12 unless they get it from fortified foods or they find a vegan supplement. Talk with your doctor. B12 helps with cell division and helps make red blood cells. And a deficiency of B12 is related to mood problems including depression, anxiety, poor memory and difficulty concentrating. So B12 is really important. We can't just say, ah, you know, if I have everything else, don't need the B12. You do need the B12. And if you think about it, a lot of people when they're having low energy, what do they do? They go to the doctor to get a B12 shot. So B12 is important, but again, I encourage you not to think that more is always better. Vitamin C. We love vitamin C. Most people think about vitamin C and orange juice and vitamin C as a for illness prevention, but it's involved in so much more. It can be found in citrus berries, tomatoes, potatoes. Who knew? Broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, bell peppers, cabbage, and our favorite, spinach. Vitamin C promotes a healthy immune system. Yes, it is intimately involved in that immune system. Thank you, Linus Pauling. It also is associated with reducing neuroinflammation, inflammation in your brain, which, remember, neuroinflammation is associated with depression, anxiety and cognitive decline. So we really don't want neuroinflammation. As a side note, it helps make collagen, has nothing to do with mental health, but just figured I'd throw that out there. It's also needed to regulate norepinephrine, dopamine and serotonin. So vitamin C is involved, remember in that first image I showed you, in creating some of these neurotransmitters and helping to regulate them. Vitamin C interestingly, has been associated with significant reductions in the, in anxiety. And nerve endings contain the highest concentrations of vitamin C in the human body. And they're still not a hundred percent sure about exactly why that is. But the, the important part is to recognize that nerve endings are. Our body communicates through nerve endings, through our nervous system. So we want to keep our nervous system healthy. We want to recognize the importance of, of vitamin C. Vitamin D3 is called your sunlight vitamin and you can find it. You know, obviously if you go outside and you are in the sunlight, especially during the summer, you can get some vitamin D3 that. Not that I'm advocating for baking in the sun because we know that UVA and UVB radiation can be associated with skin cancer. But your body does make vitamin D3 from the, the sun. You can also find it in fortified milk, cheese and cereals, egg yolks, salmon and cod liver oil. It's another one that is really prominent in animal based sources. But again, thankfully you can get some from being outside in sunlight and you don't have to be out for that long. What it does, it maintains bone health and helps the body process calcium. Calcium is really important for the body to be the nervous system to be able to send messages. It's important for immune system function and is related to a reduction in depression and anxiety as it affects the amount of neurotransmitters and how they work in the brain. They found that the amount of vitamin D receptors are extremely dense in those areas of the brain that they know to be associated with emotion. Vitamin E can be found in wheat germ oil, sunflower seeds, almonds, peanuts, spinach, again, pumpkin, asparagus and avocado. The functions of vitamin C or vitamin E, I'm sorry are, are generally for effective transmission of neurological signals. And vitamin E has a lot of benefits for health and wellness. But in terms of mental health, what we're really talking about is keeping that nervous system plugging along, making sure the messages can get from the brain to where they need to be and that everything in the brain can communicate effectively. Calcium can be found in dairy products, broccoli, dark leafy greens like kale and spinach. And fortified dairy, grains and juices. What does it do? It helps build and maintain strong bones and teeth, which is great, not necessarily related to mental health. It helps muscles work and it supports cell communication. Now, the important thing to know about calcium is a lot of our neurotransmitters communicate through calcium ion channels. So in order for the nervous system to work effectively, we've got to have an adequate supply of calcium. We have calcium throughout our body. Calcium's in our bones, calcium's in our teeth. So if we're not eating enough is not to say that the body can't get enough calcium. But where's it coming from, at what cost? Deficiency in calcium is associated with nerve sensitivity, heart palpitations, irritability, anxiety, depression and insomnia. And excess calcium can cause depression and difficulty concentrating. Chromium can be found in some cereals, beef, turkey, fish, broccoli and grape juice. So broccoli is another one that comes up a lot besides your, your animal based products. Chromium helps maintain normal blood sugar levels and influences the release of norepinephrine and serotonin. Researchers at Duke University found that a daily dose of 600 micrograms of chromium led to a significant decrease in symptoms among people with atypical depression, especially those that had the tendency to overeat. So it's an interesting, but we don't want to take this one study and say everybody with depression can benefit from chromium. No, what they were saying is there's a subset of people with depression that have a tendency to overeat. And that may be the body's way of trying to self medicate because it's having difficulty regulating its own blood sugar. So by adding that chromium, the blood sugar was better regulated and it helped with a cascade effect that ended up improving mood. Copper can be found in seafood, cashews, my favorite, sunflower seeds, again, wheat bran cereals, whole grain products, avocados, and another one of my favorites, cocoa. So we want to recognize that too much, I mean, you don't want a whole bunch of copper in your diet, but having some copper in your diet is necessary. It helps break down iron, it helps make red blood cells, it helps produce energy for cells and maintain bones, connective tissue and blood vessels. For us to feel happy, healthy, energized, for our body factory to function effectively, those blood vessels have to work. You've got to be able to transport stuff throughout the body. However, high copper and low zinc have been found to contribute to depression. So too much copper Especially if zinc is low. But too much copper in proportion to the zinc can contribute to depressive symptoms. Iodine can be found in iodized salt, some seafood, kelp, and seaweed. Now, a lot of people have switched over to Himalayan salt, sea salt, which, you know, it has some trace minerals in it and stuff. So I'm not knocking Himalayan salt, but I am encouraging you to be aware that in the past, you know, prior to like 2000, people got most of their iodine in their diet through iodized salt and sea salt. And Himalayan salt is not iodized. So if you're starting to feel not so good, that's one of those things to check. Not saying to go out and jump on supplements or anything, but it's one of those things to keep a tab on and see if you're getting enough iodine in your diet. If you're not or you don't think you are, talk to your doctor. Iodine works to help the body make thyroid hormones. If you don't have enough thyroid hormones, you're going to feel depressed, you're going to feel flat and lethargic. So it is important to. For thyroid functioning. It's also important for energy metabolism in the brain cells. So not only does it help for you feel energetic physically, but if you don't have enough iodine, you're going to have brain fog because the brain cells aren't able to effectively use the glucose that's up there for. For what it. For what it needs. A deficiency of iodine is associated with weight gain, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, as I said, brain fog and depression. Iron is found in those leafy green vegetables again, including spinach, beans again, shellfish, red meat, eggs, poultry, soy foods, and some fortified foods. A lot of multivitamins do not have iron in them anymore because people were actually getting too much iron. So it is important to regulate. Yes, you, you definitely can get too much iron. Iron carries oxygen to all parts of the body through the red blood cells, and it helps in the synthesis of neurotransmitters. Getting that oxygen around when you're not getting enough oxygen, you're going to have brain fog. You're going to feel tired and fatigued. Likewise, if your neurotransmitter levels are low, you may feel fatigue and brain foggy. So iron's important, but that. There's that Goldilocks principle, magnesium and I know I'm going through these quickly, but you can go back and look at the PowerPoint later and identify different food sources. I've got a table at the end you can look at, I just really want you to get an understanding of how fascinating and how integral each of these nutrients is to mental health. Magnesium can be found in whole grains, leafy green vegetables, almonds, brazil nuts, soybeans, halibut, peanuts, hazelnuts, lima beans, black eyed peas, avocados, bananas, and again, cocoa. One of my favorite sites to go to to figure out good sources of particular nutrients is world's healthiest foods. Now there's probably other sites out there, that's the one I usually go to. Magnesium helps muscles and nerves work. It optimizes thyroid function, steadies heart rhythm, maintains bone strength, helps the body create energy and regulates calcium ion flow in neuronal calcium channels. So magnesium, calcium and zinc all kind of go together. It's also important to recognize that it helps create energy through optimizing that thyroid as well as utilizing the resources that the body already has. And for people who have anxiety, you know, an unsteady heart rhythm is likely going to contribute to increased anxiety in people. So we want to make sure that the, the factory is functioning. Dietary deficiencies of magnesium coupled with excess calcium and stress may cause many cases of other excitability related symptoms including agitation, anxiety, irritability, confusion, sleeplessness, headache, delirium, hallucinations, and hyperexcitability. So when you have magnesium and excess calcium, there's a chance that it could, that alone, that nutritional aspect alone could be contributing to a lot of the symptoms that people with mental health issues are facing. So nutrition, we, we can't rule out nutrition. We need to use it as a foundational component of our assessment to make sure that there's not something that's being overlooked. Omega 3s can be found in walnuts, chia seeds, mackerel, tuna, salmon and krill supplements. You can also find it in some of your cooking oils. The recommendation is to use canola, olive and flaxseed oil as opposed to other oils that are higher in omega 6s and omega 9s. Flax seeds are a source of omega 3s, but they're not nearly as efficient at producing positive effects because the ALA from the flax seed needs to be converted to EPA and DHA, which are the omega 3s that we talk about. What do omega 3s do? They help your body transmit, transmit nerve signals, they help maintain serotonin balance, they reduce inflammation, they're neuroprotective. So remember I said earlier, they can help protect against some of that neuroinflammation and they assist with brain cell functioning. Both DHA and EPA. Omega 3s generate neuroprotective metabolites. In a double blind randomized controlled trials, DHA and EPA combinations have been shown to benefit adhd, autism, dyslexia, aggression, major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, and has shown promising results in treating schizophrenia and symptoms of borderline personality. Now obviously, omega 3s are not a singular treatment. They are an additional treatment or an adjunct to other forms of treatment to improve the treatment outcomes. The American diet has been flooded with omega 6 fatty acids, mostly in the form of vegetable oils such as corn oil and safflower oil. A diet high in omega 6, omega 3, omega 6s in compare that comparison to omega 3s causes an increase in the endocannabinoid signaling and related mediators, which leads to an increased inflammatory state and difficulty with energy, homeostasis and mood. So overactivity of the endocannabinoid system is just as bad as under activity. A balanced omega 6 to omega 3 ratio is generally 1 to 1 or 2 to 1 and has found been found to be one of the most important dietary factors in the prevention of obesity along with physical activity. So I thought that was kind of interesting. When we see people who are starting to develop obesity, one of the things we also see in general is an increase in systemic inflammation. That inflammation goes up, then we start seeing more mood issues. So it can't. We can start to see the connection between stress on the body and mood disorders. Interestingly, another study found A ratio of 2 to 1 Omega 6s to Omega 3s suppressed inflammation in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. And a ratio of five to one had a beneficial effect on patients with asthma. But a ratio of 10 to 1 had adverse consequences on the people in the study. The average American diet, I think I read, is about 25, 4 to 1 omega 6s to omega 3. So we have a ways to go to get that ratio back in balance. Lycopene is one of my favorite antioxidants out there. And the food sources for lycopene include any of your red foods like watermelons, pink grapefruit, apricots or tomatoes. And tomatoes that are cooked is better. And the lycopene is mainly in the tomato skins. It's an antioxidant, it's a neuroprotective, and it's been found to prevent brain degradation with age. So that's kind of cool. And that just gives me an excuse to plant more tomato plants. Potassium is found in broccoli, potatoes with the skin, prune juice, orange juice, Leafy green vegetables, bananas, raisins and tomatoes. It's required to activate neurons, helps maintain our balance of water. A lot of people, when they start getting cramps, they say, oh my, potassium's low. Well, that could be one of the reasons without the electrical charge sparked by potassium, neurotransmitters like serotonin can't be used to make us feel better. So we need potassium to jumpstart that system. Selenium is another trace element found in Brazil nuts, brown rice, turkey, chicken, spinach, and sunflower seeds. It's an antioxidant. It helps regulate thyroid hormone and helps regulate circadian rhythms. Now, a lot of selenium, a lot of the foods we eat are really actually low in selenium, even the ones that are listed here because of our current agricultural practices where we're using soil and land that's been depleted of most of the vitamins and minerals. So it is important to, you know, focus ideally on getting selenium from high quality sources of foods. Toxicity with selenium is easy. You, anything over about 400 micrograms per day is considered toxic, which isn't all that hard to get, especially if you're like me and you love Brazil nuts. Those are the nuts that kind of look like the bananas that come in the mixed nuts. We need about 55 to 60 micrograms of selenium per day, and that can be found in the average, in one average Brazil nut. So, you know, if, again, if you're like me and you could eat an entire package of them, wouldn't be so good. You'd start to feel really nauseous. Zinc is also so important. Food sources include red meat, fortified cereals, oysters, almonds, peanuts, chickpeas, soy foods, and dairy products. It supports the immune, reproductive and nervous Systems. More than 300 enzymes and 1,000 transcription factors rely on zinc. So zinc's involved in a whole bunch of different chemical reactions in the body. They rely on zinc to perform their functions, including growth, development, antioxidant activity and immunity. Now, zinc balances with copper. And a deficiency in zinc can be seen in a lot of people that have anxiety. Other notes, eating foods with a low glycemic index improves the quality and duration of intellectual performance. So if you're eating those really highly processed, simple sugars, you're going to have a sugar spike and then you're going to have a crash and intellectual performance, cognitive performance actually suffers. So eating foods that have, that are whole grain have a low glycemic index, which means they don't spike your blood sugar is better for cognitive functioning. Mood and cognitive performance also tend to be impaired by dehydration. Most people don't drink enough water. You may think you are, but if you're also drinking caffeine, you need to weigh that because caffeine is a diuretic. And fiber, which can be found in those whole grains as well as your legumes and your beans. Fiber helps feed the microbiota and improves inflammation. Final Helpful Notes when you get nutrients from real foods, there's much less danger of toxicity, with the exception of those Brazil nuts. And it's more bioavailable in most instances because it's in a useful ratio. It's in a ratio that's supporting that plant. So it's probably going to be supportive to your body as well. Nature is all about balance. Increase in one vitamin and mineral may decrease the availability of others. So we need to, you know, not overdo it. Buy or grow organic fruits and vegetables to maximize the nutrient value. And download an app such as Spark People or My Fitness Pal to track your nutrition. See what nutrients you're actually getting and which ones you might actually be low in. And then you can provide that to your healthcare provider and say, okay, how do I balance this out? And remember that small changes are longer lasting. Try to add more of one type of food that has multiple vitamins instead of just overhauling your entire dietary menu, which is probably not sustainable. Deficiencies of nutrients such as calcium, magnesium, zinc, omega 3s, vitamin A, B complex, C, D and E are common, especially if you eat refined foods. There are a variety of different vitamins and minerals involved in addiction and mental health disorders. And again, it's not always about increasing. Sometimes you need to decrease the amount that you're getting. Like if you're getting too much copper, you may need to decrease that. Human brains try to maintain balance or homeostasis. And too much or too little of anything can be bad. So a balanced diet that means you're not getting too much or too little will provide the brain the necessary nutrients in synergistic combinations. Now, I did mention for those of you who want to hang around for a few more minutes, that I had a chart at the end of the PowerPoint and if you're taking this for continuing education, if you're watching this video for continuing education, the PowerPoint is in your class and you can download this and see what I call the nutrient summary. Now, along the far column I have everything listed and it's in different colors based on its colors because different colored foods have different antioxidants, different nutrients and they are beneficial to our body in different ways. So you want to eat colorfully. And then across the top I have the different neurotransmitters that those foods are associated with. You know, if you eat almonds and walnuts, it can help make dopamine more bioavailable and, and GABA, etc and then vitamin C, E, B complex and omega 3s so you can find these nutrients in these foods over here. Obviously it's not a comprehensive list, but if you're looking for nutrient dense foods, you know who would have thunk? Bananas can help with dopamine, norepinephrine, GABA levels there they've got vitamin C and they're can help with improving B complex intake. Or you can go down here to green leafy vegetables are helpful for dopamine, GABA, vitamin C, vitamin E. They're not as high in omega 3s. You can also notice from this chart that the B complex is prevalent in a lot of stuff. So chances are if you're eating an even modestly healthy diet, you're probably getting the majority, if not all, of your B complex, especially if you are an omnivore. If you're a vegan, then you may be having difficulty getting a few of those B vitamins that are found primarily in animal based sources. Anyway, just put this here to make it a little bit easier to kind of conceptualize because I know there was a lot of information, hopefully it's useful to you. Remember, just think small changes. Find one food on that we talked about today that you might add to your diet, especially one that has a whole bunch of nutrients like spinach or kale or avocados and, and consider adding that to your diet.