THE #1 MENTAL HEALTH NUTRIENT 🦃 (It's not what you think)

In your community, what has been the conversation that's top of heart for you? In other words, what do you feel that we really need to know right now about mental health at this time in the world?

Well, first, something that's really top of mind is that when we're relating to one another, just remembering the humanity in us all, and that whether you are pro mask or you don't want to wear the mask, or whatever you think about the mask, just remember we're all fighting our own battle. So not about inferiority, superiority. It's just we can never know exactly what's happening in that other person's mind or situation. And so just kindness is the first thing when it comes to, like, relating to one another. But when it comes to mental health, I think the important thing to understand is that this pandemic is going to. They predict the next big issue will be a mental health epidemic. And unfortunately, we were kind of already there. 40 million people are suffering from anxiety, and that was pre Covid. And, you know, depression is the world's leading cause of disability. And there's nothing to be ashamed of if that's your reality. And so that's what I want people to know. I grew up and just thought something is wrong with me and I'm less than. And I just want you to know this is part of life. Mental health struggles, you know, they linger sometimes, but we all experience them and there's a lot you can do about them.

So.

So that's what I've learned.

That's so powerful. I love the way you brought up, like, hey, if you're pro mask, if you're pro this, whatever. I found myself getting into narratives where I want to tell other people my truth and everything. But look, we're not here to convince anyone of anything. I think really what's happening is we see that there's a line of division between people and there's been a line of division about mental health and even like mental health being kind of like a. No, no. That you don't even talk about. It's like mental health, politics, food and sex, certain things at the table that are challenging. Right. But I have experience with this in my own life. A lot of know if they're listening to WellnessForce for a while now that, you know, my mom suffered with taking lithium and being bipolar for 20 plus years. A lot of people in my family Tree have taken SSRIs. So this is rampant. I mean, if you look at the numbers and we're actually going to post an article right? Now, that someone really special wrote, I'll let you guys figure it out when you click on the link. Someone really special wrote this article, and it's about boosting our mental health because we can start with the inside to meet the outside world demands. That's what this is all about. We can't control other people's stress. We can't control the craziness online or the. The BS in the world. Give us some hearts and let us know if you are dealing with stress right now. Autumn, when we look at bolstering our mental health and actually taking care of the gut, brain access in the brain, one of the coolest things that I know is that if we're taking in healthy fats and healthy protein and we're getting all these good nutrients in our gut, that actually has a direct correlation with the brain. Almost like a link, right? A redox system that Dr. Bush talked about. Share with us what you know about this link between the gut and the brain and really the fat and the protein.

Yeah. Oh, it's so fascinating because, yes, most people thought that, okay, our brain and gut connection was, like, one way we thought, and then it went into our gut. But what we know now is that, like, four messages for everyone that comes from our brain to our gut, goes from our gut to our brain. So when our gut's unhealthy, where 95% of our serotonin is made, 50% of our dopamine is made, then our brain becomes unhealthy too. What we also know is that there are many, many sources of inflammation in today's standard American diet. And inflammation. Like, they used to think that depression was this chemical imbalance. Right. That we needed to treat with a pill. But people would be interested that there hasn't actually been a human trial to show that a serotonin deficiency is actually the cause of depression. That's kind of something we've been trained to believe. Interesting for financial interests. But the truth is, what we know now is that depression is often the root cause of a lot of mental health issues. And so when it looks at what are we doing more than we're eating every day, we're eating three times a day. And so I think if we're eating inflammatory foods, we are three times a day, creating an inflammatory environment, not only in our gut, but also in our brain. And so I have a lot of steps people can take, and there's like three foundational ones. I often just give if you'd like to hear those.

I love foundations because sometimes we get like in the weeds of what are the biohacks and what are the crazy things we can do? And meanwhile, the foundations, the most important things, they just get glossed over. So take us to the foundations.

The foundation. Well, that's kind of the first piece, is just the inflammation. We have to find what's causing inflammation for you. And there's some really. Like, people have probably heard about gluten, but gluten can be a strictly neurological disease. You know, for every one symptom in the gut, there's, like, eight in the brain. Okay, so there's also this story about this PhD, like, really intelligent woman who the gluten became such an issue that she became kind of psychotic. I think that it was spiraled so out of control that she attempted to murder her parents. Now, that's a really extreme example, what they found when they removed the gluten. She got better. And I know, and I have a client I'm working with right now, and he is such a lovely soul. And when he eats gluten, five days later, it will be. Five days later, he will have paralyzing anxiety. Okay, so it's gluten. You know, sometimes it's dairy for people, but other people have just other foods that their body's not tolerating well or, like, underlying gut dysfunction, which is causing healthy foods to become inflammatory for their bodies. And so just finding that source of information, even things like BPA exposure in plastics have been linked to mental health issues. And so it isn't. While you can start with food, it's a very powerful place to begin. It definitely isn't the only cause of inflammation. Just wanted to throw that out there. The second one is nutrient deficiencies. So we are all talking about, well, at least the people I'm in contact with lately, what we're not eating. We're eliminating gluten and dairy and soy and whatever else. And I think that's great, and that is powerful for a lot of people. But the bigger picture I think we all miss is, like, what are we eating? And is this enough to sustain us? Because all of our brain chemicals, like our proteins that we're taking in, that is becoming our neurotransmitters. Okay? So if we're not getting enough protein or our body's unable to digest that protein, then it will manifest in nutrient deficiencies. B12 is a big one. Fish oil is a big one. Magnesium is a big one. And there's another really cool, powerful story about a lifelong vegetarian who all of a sudden became delusional. And it spiraled in. She became catatonic eventually, and no one really knew what to do with her. They tried electroconvulsive therapy. They did everything and anything for thankfully, she was transferred to a different hospital. They gave her B12 injections and she had a full recovery. So just vitamins, simple vitamins. And my little hack for this to track it is like an app called Cronometer. Do you use this, Josh?

No, but tell us about it.

Yeah, it's so simple. It's like my fitness pal, but it has this really extensive micronutrient database. Rather than just looking at proteins, fat and carbohydrates, you're going to see your iron, your vitamin a, your vitamin Bs, all this stuff. If you just take three days out of your life and just put everything you put into your mouth into that software, it'll show you where those nutrient gaps might be. And if you're looking low in the bees, if you're looking low in the omega 3 fatty acids in iron, in zinc, in vitamin C, these are really key nutrients for the brain and especially protein. Like I said, those are precursors to neurotransmitters. This is the one thing I find with pretty much every woman I work with, she's under eating high quality protein, and it definitely impacts not only the blood sugar, but also the mental health. Sam.