Full Transcript Podcast Introduction and Guest Background 0:00 Amino acids have played a key role in that. 0:05 If you're feeling so pent up, if you are feeling that you can't emotionally regulate, If your just feeling overall exhausted, 0:12 a lot of those times your neurotransmitters are depleted. 0:16 I think that the world is going through some heavy stuff right now. 0:24 And mental health has also just come to the forefront of conversations over the last several years where emotional regulation and these kinds of things 0:34 are becoming a normal topic of conversation. 0:36 There's not as much shame around identifying with anxiety and depression and things like that anymore, which is great. 0:45 Your health is shaped by more than symptoms. 0:48 Through real stories and expert insights, we explore how your genetics, environment, and daily choices affect your wellbeing. 0:56 We uncover root causes and share practical tools to help you find the healing you need. 1:02 Welcome to the Forum Health Integrative Medicine Podcast. 1:07 Welcome back to the Forum Health Integrative Medicine podcast. 1:11 I'm your host, Amanda Graveau. 1:13 And today we have a fascinating conversation around amino acids, brain health, and we've got our guest today, Lori Hammer, 1:22 who is a functional nutritional therapist. 1:26 Lori, thank you so much for joining us today. 1:28 Can you tell our audience a little bit about yourself and how you got here and so passionate about amino acid? 1:34 Well, amino acids literally saved my life. 1:38 Like I honestly don't think I would be here had I not done amino acid therapy. 1:43 So that's why my passion is so high on amino assets. 1:46 I had an eating disorder for 12 years, so from like junior high into the early 20s and nothing worked and I couldn't stop it. 1:55 And I was bulimic so I binged and purged all the time. 1:57 When I went to college, it got really, really bad. 2:00 I did all the counseling. 2:01 And I was in a place where I had a nursing school at the time and I tried to get into eating disorders programs and my weight wasn't low enough. 2:07 Like I answered all of the right questions. 2:08 You weren't at risk. 2:24 So, yeah, I just couldn't get the help that I needed. 2:26 So I thought I'd move away and that would solve everything and it didn't. 2:30 My eating disorder got worse, depression got worst, anxiety got, worse as you can probably imagine. 2:35 And finally I received an article from this nursing professor at the time her name was Penny. 2:41 She sent me an Article and It was about the amino acid therapy and stopping food cravings and then stopping that bingeing and purging cycle. 2:49 I talked about being addicted to what your body is sensitive to. 2:52 So the foods that you were sensitive too. 2:54 It was an outpatient clinic in California, so I called out there and that was my first introduction to, wasn't nutritional therapy back then, 3:02 but that my was our my introduction nutritional. 3:04 I found out I had celiac disease, I have thyroid issues, adrenal issues yeast overgrowth. 3:09 But most importantly, I found I was super depleted and they started giving me therapeutic doses of amino acids to rebuild my brain, 3:16 stop the craving cycle, lift to the depression, the anxiety. 3:19 And I'm still here. 3:20 That was in 1996. So it literally honestly saved my life because I had seizures ending up in the ER and I wasn't doing well.
What Amino Acids Are and Why They Matter 3:28 Those are some severe symptoms. 3:30 I mean, anxiety, depression, and all of that, but even seizures, that's a hefty load of stuff to deal with. 3:40 Yeah. 3:40 Well, I was so imbalanced, my electrolytes were very off. 3:44 So thank you so much for the introduction. 3:47 I'm really glad that you're still here. 3:48 Amino acids is kind of a buzzword right now. 3:52 When you hear amino acids, people go straight to peptides because those are built with building blocks of amino acid. 3:58 A lot of people take them when they're working out, so muscle building. 4:03 There's a lot more to amino assets than peptide and building muscle. 4:07 Can you break down what is an amino asset and what kind roles do those play in the body? 4:11 Yeah, so amino acids are the building blocks of everything. 4:15 So amino acid, like you were saying, make peptides. 4:18 Peptides make proteins. 4:19 And so they're the basic foundation of your protein in your body. 4:23 That affects everything, your hair, skin, and nails. 4:26 We often think about that, you're muscles. 4:27 But more importantly, it's your hormones. 4:29 It's you digestive enzymes. 4:33 and amino acids affect those neurotransmitters that affect your mood. 4:37 So everything from head to toe really depends on amino acid. 4:41 And when we're talking about amino-acid therapy, the kind that I do, I'm targeting that for specific neurotranmiters in your brain that target your move. 4:50 And I was listening to a podcast that you had done with another provider. 4:55 And, I think one of the things that had mentioned in there was, this is an area that, you start, it's a building block for everything else. 5:03 The thought of using this therapy to help build resilience as first. 5:08 A lot of times you have so much going on and you need that motivation and that brain power to put all those care plan pieces in place. 5:19 And so this is really a great starting point for people in care because it helps, like you said, refuel the brain so that you're able to tackle all of 5:29 the other pieces of care plans that have going. 5:32 It is so key. 5:33 The resilience is key and I love the amino acids because people respond to them so fast. 5:38 So when you're doing a protocol and you are trying to overcome autoimmune or you know, any disease profile, it takes a long time to get well. 5:48 And there's not too many things that you're gonna get an immediate reaction from. 5:52 The amino acids are something that, you are going to notice them right away. 5:57 That helps the person going through those protocol and it helps your practitioner because both of you get a fast win. 6:03 You're like, okay, we're on the track now and now let's work on, the root cause issues as to why you have these deficiencies in the first place. 6:10 Yeah, gut issues, or I want to lose weight, Or I'm tired and I am fatigued. 6:15 A lot of times we're missing parts of the conversation about the brain fog, anxiety. 6:20 I know our providers dig deep into their questionnaires and i've been recommended amino acids before as well. 6:27 My husband's an athlete, I have an athletic background and take amino acid, the eight essentials to help recovery, to build muscle. 6:35 We don't typically think about them for anxiety, brainfog. 6:40 depression, mood support. 6:42 How do you educate patients on the different types of amino acids? 6:45 Because there's essential, there is non-essential. 6:48 There's a lot to dive into. 6:51 So in my brain and my thinking, I'm thinking all of the amino acid are essential. 6:56 I know we have the eight essential quote unquote, your body can make the rest out of them.
Targeting Neurotransmitters for Mood Support 7:00 But if people are so depleted, you need them all. 7:02 Right? 7:03 So when we're specifically targeting mood, anxiety, depression, food cravings, those types of things, mental health issues, 7:12 I use a questionnaire that's targeted to five different areas. 7:15 So it's concentrating on your serotonin neurotransmitter, GABA, endorphins, catecholamines. 7:22 and then glucose regulation. 7:23 And there's specific amino acids that fit into those five categories to support those areas. 7:29 So that's really what I'm focusing on. 7:31 Then we can get super targeted with therapeutic doses. 7:34 We're not just taking a full spectrum amino acid and hoping it works, we're targeting those neurotransmitters so that you start to feel better right away. 7:42 Can you walk me through what a patient with anxiety would come in and what that looks like for Right. 7:49 So my first appointment is you're filling out paperwork for me because when I'm assessing amino acids, your neurotransmitter function and what amino acid 7:58 you need, I don't do blood. 8:00 I do a questionnaire and it's divided in those five categories that I just mentioned. 8:04 And when you come in, we're seeing, what are you scoring high in? 8:08 Because all of them are symptom-based. 8:10 It's on a scale of zero to 10. If you are scoring anything higher than a two, that flags in my mind that we are going to need some amino-acid therapy for 8:17 that particular So we're talking about anxiety and depression. 8:21 Just generalize. 8:22 A lot of that has to do with having low tryptophan, so low serotonin, right? 8:27 So trypophane is an amino acid that helps to produce seratonin in your body. 8:31 And so we'll discover. 8:31 I actually take a capsule of trypsophan, and if you're not local, I send you a kit of amino acids. 8:38 So, we are on Zoom. 8:40 You're like, what are we doing right now? 8:41 And you open up the capsule with amino-acid, tryppofan. 8:44 Put it underneath your tongue. 8:46 We stare at each other for a couple of minutes. 8:48 And then I asked, do you feel anything different cognitively, emotionally and physically? 8:52 And sometimes people say, yeah, absolutely do. 8:55 Somebody's like, maybe, and then if it's a maybe we'll try another dose instead of 500 milligrams, we will do a thousand milligrams and we go up to 2000 milligrams. 9:03 to see what you actually respond to. 9:06 And that'll be your starting dose for that particular amino acid. 9:09 Then we'll decide, do you need it twice a day or do need four times a days? 9:14 So that's all based on health history. 9:16 But we will go through those five categories and try the different amino acids based your responses, the questionnaire, and the health histories that I 9:24 got from you. 9:25 So you're testing for the difference buckets of anxiety, insomnia, depression, and they're put into the box for like serotonin, 9:35 dopamine, et cetera. 9:37 Are people staying on like those doses long-term? 9:40 Is this a temporary protocol? 9:42 What is the length or the duration of people having to take these precursors? 9:48 Yeah, so I like to do everything in 90-day increments because your body needs at least 90 days for adjustment. 9:53 So those first 90 day we're really tweaking those amino acids in the dosing to make sure that you feel super stable, right? 10:01 And then once I know that your feeling super-stable, you know, we start doing some basic changes in those 90 first days, 10:07 maybe some testing and then the next 90 is where you kind of maintain and oftentimes before that six-month mark, People will say, 10:15 oh, I forgot to take my GABA in the afternoon and I still feel really good. 10:20 That's great. 10:20 So then your body is sufficient, right? 10:22 So usually when your your is getting built up, you just kind of forget to those amino acid supplements and you still really feel good, 10:28 some people it takes close to a year, so six months to year and we adjust those doses during that time. 10:35 Okay. 10:36 Cool. 10:36 So the brain's raw materials, amino acids are the building blocks to neurotransmitters. 10:43 Neurotransmitters help us regulate our emotions. 10:47 They help with our mood stability. 10:49 Mm-hmm. 10:50 Let's go back to those five categories. 10:52 Tryptophan and 5-HTP is a precursor to serotonin. 10:56 Serotonins, it helps to regulate, not just anxiety and depression, OCD. 11:02 Maybe you become super angry, super fast. 11:05 You have afternoon or evening cravings, PMS, you have a hard time falling asleep at night or even just staying asleep. 11:13 A lot of that can be related to serotonin. 11:15 And so we're going to try that 5-HTP and L-tryptophan. 11:19 If we are going over to GABA. 11:20 There's an amino acid GABA, and GABE lets us take that deep breath and just let it out. 11:25 It's our stress responder. 11:26 Its nature's natural value, really. 11:29 And so you could try GAbe, you can try taurine, try theanine maybe even glycine. 11:35 Those are some of the amino acids that could be helpful to support that GABe pathway. 11:39 So we have serotonin which is like our inner sunshine. 11:42 GAB helps us to take a deep breathe. 11:44 Then there's the endorphins. 11:46 Endorphin are like your inner joy and they make us feel super comfortable. 11:50 And so if you have food cravings or anything you're craving to bring you comfort, that could be an endorphin issue. 11:56 Or maybe you are super sensitive emotionally. 11:59 You cry super easy at the drop of a hat. 12:02 Where you feel physical pain more than other people do. 12:06 Like when you stub your toe, you fell it from head to toe as opposed to just in your tow, right? 12:12 So that can be endor... 12:12 We're going to use D-phenylalanine or DL-fenoalaninine for those things. 12:17 And then catecholamines. 12:19 That's your dopamine, that's you epinephrine, norepinephrin, all those things. 12:22 And so you mentioned tyrosine. 12:24 Tyrosin is great for that. 12:25 That gives us our focus. 12:27 You know, those catecholamines are, you know our mental energy is strong. 12:30 If you have apathetic depression where you just don't care, or you don�t feel like doing anything, and you do not have the want to do things, 12:37 then that is usually a low catocholine issue. 12:39 So we can use tyroxine, we could use DLPA again, Dl-phenylalanine Those are great for boosting on those catecholamines.
How Amino Acid Therapy Is Assessed and Dosed 12:47 And then we go into glucose regulation, and glutamine is great, for that. 12:51 Glutamine it's very grounding to the brain as well. 12:53 So those are things that we'll definitely do in that trialing session. 12:57 Then one thing that's not an amino acid, Amanda, is lithium orotate, which is super protective to brain. 13:03 It calms the noise down. 13:05 That can be very helpful for people as, well so I send that in my kit to see if you respond to that? 13:10 Awesome, I love that! 13:11 areas that you could identify if you are feeling a little bit like everything has to be put together or everything's kind of just triggering you too, 13:22 right? 13:22 Like, my gosh, there's a mess over there where normally it wouldn't get to you, but today it is, Right? 13:28 There's always, we always have those days. 13:30 I had a day yesterday, everything irritated me. 13:33 Everything. 13:34 If you're feeling like so pent up, if you are feeling that you can't emotionally regulate, If your just feeling overall exhausted, 13:42 your neurotransmitters are depleted. 13:44 Our tools in the past were anti-depressants, anti anxiety medications, and there is a whole group of us that are either coming off finding alternatives. 13:55 When we went to the doctor, we didn't talk about our emotional well-being or mental well being. 14:00 We just talked about her physical. 14:01 And we have the, this generation of women and men and who are. 14:05 Either on still trying to do it on their own, which is super hard if you don't have Yeah, which is, it's a big problem right now. 14:16 Cause we've had, you know, I have clients that have been on SSRIs and other medications for 30 plus years. 14:24 And, they're suffering from being on those medications and it is very hard to get off of them. 14:30 The amino acid therapy makes that transition so much easier. 14:34 At Forum Health, we uncover the why behind your symptoms. 14:39 With advanced lab testing, hormone optimization, and cutting-edge therapies, We help you heal and perform your best. 14:47 And now, through shopforumhealth.com, you can access physician-grade supplements trusted by our providers, supporting everything from adrenal health to 14:58 focus and longevity. 15:00 Learn more at forumhealth.com and explore supplements at shopforumhealth dot com. 15:07 It really does. 15:08 You can feel that initial change in your brain chemistry and you put it under your tongue or on your tone because it dissolves so quickly and it's absorbed 15:18 directly into the bloodstream. 15:19 So it hits your. 15:20 And you'll be able to feel those impacts. 15:22 Amino acids are fascinating because you can do that immediate type of a test and can you feel a difference right away. 15:34 adjust your dosing, if you will. 15:36 So it does allow transitioning off of those kind of pharmaceuticals a lot easier. 15:43 I will say too, that this is not a do-it-yourself type of a situation. 15:49 A professional or somebody who can collaborate even with like psychiatry or anything like that. 15:54 I think that this is one of those things you don't do it on your own. 15:57 Supplements can give the impression that you. 15:59 Don't have to go to a doctor's office. 16:01 You don' need help with it. 16:03 In this case, it's very important. 16:05 Your playing with your brain chemistry. 16:06 It's not a probiotic or a fish oil where you can just pop it in and. 16:12 It's doing its job in its gut, right? 16:14 Right. 16:14 No, it's therapy. 16:15 It is very targeted, intentional therapy for your brain. 16:19 And if you're on medication, you really need to work with somebody. 16:22 I do think that we have an epidemic of amino acid depletion. 16:27 in the country. 16:28 You can naturally just see it occurring, right? 16:30 We have this GLP-1 and weight loss momentum going. 16:34 People aren't eating as much, and where do you get building blocks for life? 16:37 You get it from your food. 16:39 And we have a lower intake of food overall, a low quality of the food if you're not getting the right quality. 16:45 Even your baseline nutrition isn't getting you the ingredients your body needs just on a daily basis to maintain the appropriate level. 16:53 There's foundational things you can do. 16:55 to support amino acid levels in the body and just have that foundational level of protection. 17:00 And then when you have been looking for a solution to transition off of my anti-anxiety or I had a traumatic event in a family, 17:08 I'd have a passing or something where I'm going through a large emotional burden or a mental burden where you might need some of these tools back in your 17:18 toolbox to fill up your buckets. 17:19 Yeah, amino acids are great tools to have. 17:22 When my mom died, I went back on several of the amino acid because it helped me with the grieving process. 17:28 We'd spent two years taking care of her and while I maintained a really good health during that time, it does take a toll on you or maybe you have you're 17:36 in a car accident or you get married. 17:38 I had, you know, one client, she got married and she crashed and it was a good thing. 17:43 Really. 17:43 It was great, but it just a stress on her and then she's got all this anxiety. 17:47 She's like, I don't even know why I'm anxious because I love my husband. 17:49 And I loved my life, right? 17:51 Well, we did the interview. 17:52 You're still planning a really expensive event or not. 17:56 But you can love your husband and be planning on a very stressful event. 18:02 Yeah, and it is so, I mean men way too, but it's so prevalent in women because I think we just are naturally, our hormones deplete us because we don't 18:10 nourish ourselves well enough to start with. 18:12 And so all of a sudden you have anxiety, depression and nobody looks at your hormones. 18:16 Nobody checks, you know, hey, are you deficient in anything? 18:19 You know you just get put on an SSRI and sent out of the doctor's office and said, well. 18:23 Good luck. 18:23 So yeah, it is just it's a phenomenal tool to have in your tool bag So I teach all my you know clients how to use them But throughout their life and you 18:32 now I teacher my students that to you. 18:33 Sorry train practitioners So, you Know anybody looking for a practitioner I can lead you to somebody if you want to see somebody in person so Absolutely.
Using Amino Acids for Stress, Medication Transitions, and Brain Health 18:41 So amino acids are the building blocks of pretty much everything in the body. 18:46 They're not just for athletes, they're just not for building muscle, They are also for all of these little individual chemicals in our body that send signals everywhere. 18:57 And a big part of our signals and our communication is our neurotransmitters, which right now we're kind of going through an epidemic of neurotansmitter 19:07 or amino acid depletion. 19:08 And that's coming from so many different areas. 19:12 It's come from the fact that our nutrition looks a lot different, so we are not getting the same ingredients in that we need to support our body's general maintenance. 19:23 ton more stressors that hit the body from mental and emotional, just like what's going on in the world, what going in your own life. 19:31 All of that on top of biologically, we see a lot of women going into perimetapause and metapose. 19:37 Those are just, again, more stresses on the bodies that your body needs building blocks for. 19:42 And if it's not, if you don't have enough building box, your buddy has to prioritize Right. 19:47 What you put in and where it goes. 19:49 And it's not going to the neurotransmitters. 19:52 It is not. 19:54 Right? 19:55 It's going your essential organs, right? 19:57 Like that's where your ingredients that you feed your body are going. 20:00 Yes. 20:01 We're not giving our body enough ingredients for the basics. 20:05 So when we sacrifice the basic, then we get to these levels of depletion. 20:10 As we're talking about amino acid depleation as it relates to brain and neurotransmitters. 20:17 You can see symptoms for like low serotonin being worry, low dopamine. 20:23 When I'm feeling low motivation or severe procrastination, there are physical symptoms of neurotrasmitter depletion or amino acid depleation. 20:35 Gaba is such an important amino acid that helps also, my husband just tweaked his back last night. 20:42 And so instead of ibuprofenate, how about some gaba? 20:45 Get some of that tension, like loosen the muscles up, right? 20:48 It helps just, Like you said, take a deep breath. 20:51 So it's not just all mental, emotional anxiety. 20:55 There is also the physical symptoms as well in that. 21:00 It's head to toe, inside out. 21:02 Amino acids are affecting everything and can be used for so many different things. 21:06 And they're just readily available for anybody to find. 21:09 But really, anyway, you can go to Sprouts and get a whole line of amino acids. 21:13 So it's amazing. 21:14 Yep. 21:15 Our providers at Forum Health, we do recommend, and we have health coaches also that help with neurotransmitter support. 21:22 And I love that you have trainings because this is such important work that clinicians in regenerative and functional and integrative medicine, 21:31 it's such a key piece to care that if you are seeking comprehensive care, this is one of those puzzle pieces that fits into protocols with patients' stall. 21:42 If you've been in such a neurotransmitter depletion and HPA access dysregulation that this can be one those tools in the tool box, 21:51 you have to give yourself to get yourself the next level. 21:54 Exactly. 21:54 It's just a key, it's like we just keep saying this over and over again, man, is just key. 21:58 Its foundational. 22:00 Everything in your body is dependent upon amino acids. 22:02 And so you want to make sure that those, if we're going to look at everything as a pyramid, we've got amino acid and we got minerals and fatty acids and 22:10 so let's focus on those first. 22:12 Maybe the issues that you have is an amino-acid deficiency and then minerals in fatty- acids, and that might take care of 80% of the things that are going 22:19 on in the body. 22:20 Then let see what's left over. 22:22 And then let's dive into that, right? 22:23 Then we can shift your microbiome because your neurology is calm. 22:27 When your neurology calm and regulated, then your gut can heal. 22:31 And so it's just a fast win for the body. 22:35 It's a faster win emotionally for people. 22:38 Be like, oh, I'm doing something and I notice it right away. 22:41 Then it changes that your practitioner is telling you to do at Forum Health. 22:46 Yeah. 22:46 So you get to those deep issues and you won't have as much to work on. 22:50 I was having a call with one of my girlfriends today.I was telling her that I would super excited to this podcast today with you and talk about amino acids. 22:58 And she has two young kids, I can see this becoming a bigger problem just because of food quality. 23:04 Children earlier and earlier with mood or emotional not being able to regulate emotions. 23:11 The parents today are also a little bit more proactive having those conversations now. 23:16 With that being said, I feel like there's also lack of support for children. 23:20 Like right now, your only option is therapy, medications, and that is still a tool. 23:27 Is there an age limit? 23:29 Yeah. 23:30 And I think most people feel like that's what they have to do. 23:32 I have get my child labeled with something and then we have do therapy so that they can overcome this label. 23:38 Then we'll have put them on medication. 23:40 They'll just be on it forever. 23:41 Kids diagnosed with ADD, they're like, this is it. 23:44 This is what you're going to have use to regulate. 23:46 You can use this with infants. 23:49 All the way up to, I've got 80 and 90 year olds that I use with. 23:51 It's amino acids. 23:55 So there's nothing harmful about them. 23:58 There's a few medications where you're going to need to navigate a view of the amino acids around. 24:02 But other than that, I mean, you are not going get harmed by tiny, tiny pieces that build up protein, right? 24:08 So I have a lot of kids that I've worked with, autistic kids, kids with ADD. 24:13 Um, kids with pretty severe anger issues, you know, all those kinds of things and we can work those things out. 24:18 You know we, we bring in the amino acids. 24:20 Like I had one, well, I'll give you, this is a recent one with one of my students. 24:24 They had a child that they were working with and the child was just out of control, angry all the time.
Children, Depletion, and Emotional Regulation 24:31 And they literally, they we're going to send it off to, to the children after respite care for a while with, with grandparents and stuff. 24:36 Cause the parents are like, We've got three other kids. 24:38 We just can't handle this right now. 24:40 Yeah. 24:41 And literally, you know, my student, she used tryptophan. 24:45 This was the one that helped this child. 24:47 It could be another amino acid. 24:49 But she use trypophane and literally the anger outbursts and the harming of the other children in the home with the right dose of trypsophene stopped all 24:57 of that and a child could stay at home. 24:59 profound. 25:00 I had a child in my office not too long ago. 25:02 He wasn't sleeping and we gave him and he was just very overactive, like on all the time. 25:07 And I know you parents out there and are like, my child just never ever stops, right? 25:11 And, I'm just constantly on and on, and, on. 25:15 And we used tyrosine with him for starters. 25:17 And he started sleeping through the nights and he was able to calm down. 25:22 Then we added a couple other amino acids. 25:24 So he's able regulate his nervous system then. 25:28 He could respond appropriately to situations. 25:30 Just like as adults, we want to respond to appropriately situations Kids want to too, but they're so stuck at overdrive and they are so depleted that they 25:38 don't have the tools to emotionally regulate. 25:41 And you can do all the therapy you want. 25:43 If they do not have basic nutritional tools, their brain can't remember what you just did in therapy. 25:50 They really, really want it. 25:51 No child wakes up and says, gee, I want be a problem today. 25:54 So let's start addressing the the nutritional piece of it too. 26:00 And it's not just diet. 26:01 It's fixing those deficiencies. 26:03 Because you can have a great diet, but if you've never fixed the deficancies, a lot of times your body just, it not gonna catch up. 26:09 So let's allow it to catch-up, set them up for success, and then you're gonna have happier kid and you gonna be happier as a parent. 26:16 I agree, I do think that we're going to be supporting with, you know, acids more and more in the future. 26:21 I did my certification about 10 years ago in vitamins, trans, through Huntington Sciences College. 26:29 And at that time, they were comparing the food from today, which back then was 10-years ago, to the foods 10, 15, 20 years and very different nutrient makeup. 26:43 One tomato today is probably equivalent to about 15 or 20 tomatoes from 10, 20 years ago, right? 26:50 We do not get the same level of nutrition from our food. 26:55 And like you said, you can have a perfect diet, but with the amount of stressors and Things that you cannot control. 27:03 You can't go outside and control the air quality. 27:05 No. 27:06 Go outside. 27:07 And control, the exhaust on somebody else's car. 27:09 you're going to be breathing that in whether you like it or not. 27:12 Yeah. 27:12 Can't control if there's wifi and EMFs at all of these locations. 27:16 Your, our bodies are exposed to so many toxins and just things that your body has to combat. 27:24 and it uses all the ingredients from the food that we eat. 27:27 which does not even touch our baseline nutritional needs for regular functions. 27:37 We're delusional if we think that we can get by in today's day and world and have optimal health without supplementation in some way or capacity. 27:48 Is oil supplementations the only way to get amino acids or are there other forms of delivery for people? 27:55 Yeah, I mean, there's IV, you can clearly get the IV. 27:59 You can get some liquids out there, like theanine comes in a liquid a lot of the time. 28:03 Most of them are just oral though. 28:04 There's some chewables, those are awful. 28:09 I don't have very many kids that even do those, but yeah, most of the time it's just oral is going to be your best and most efficient dosing. 28:16 What are your thoughts on all of these functional foods that are coming out? 28:19 When I say functional food, there's like little like protein bars. 28:23 Yeah. 28:23 I mean, I think they have their place. 28:25 So I'm not against them, But I wouldn't rely on those. 28:29 That's not the goal. 28:30 We don' want to eat bars and chocolates and you know, all those kinds of things. 28:34 Can they be in the moment? 28:36 If that's the only thing you have, can it be something? 28:38 Sure. 28:39 But it's not going to fix the deficiency. 28:41 That's the point. 28:42 You really have to the fix deficiency." They're not usually therapeutic. 28:46 They are kind of a nice to have, but it is not fixing a deficiency, one big key takeaway that I have is you have be fixing the deficiencies first. 28:56 And then second is doing a mini inventory every now and then. 29:02 I do think that you have to like do some check-ins because it's really easy to keep moving. 29:07 Like when you're feeling really good. 29:08 And I just got into this problem myself, I've been recovering from burnout and I'd gotten into a really great groove and feeling great mentally and emotionally. 29:16 Then I kind of start hitting the gas again. 29:19 Yup. 29:21 I was like, oh, but I had all of this energy and motivation. 29:24 And then for two days I'm like nope, I can't do anything.
Protein Intake, Maintenance, and Practical Takeaways 29:27 I've burned myself out again. 29:29 So I think having check-ins to check yourself is really important to correct the deficiency, check in with yourself regularly. 29:37 and I want to ask you, are there things that people can do as a maintenance or things they can be proactive with their amino acid levels? 29:45 Just make sure you're getting enough protein and that you can actually digest that protein. 29:49 So, I mean, we want to get most of this is from Whole Foods as much as possible. 29:53 So let's go back to those. 29:55 Let's start eating, adding some hemp seed to your yogurt or whatever it might be, something that's got some really sound amino acid profile to it. 30:03 And the animal proteins are going to be your best option. 30:07 Please, please, eat animal protein. 30:09 If you don't want have steak, get some good high-calorie yogurt, do something. 30:14 But you need to get in that protein content every single day. 30:20 Not necessarily a rule of thumb, because I don't like to give rules out, but on average, 30-ish grams of protein is a sweet spot for your body to absorb. 30:29 And the new dietary guidelines does prioritize protein more than it did in the past, which is fantastic. 30:37 It's so important. 30:38 But to your point, animal proteins have more variety of that amino acid profile. 30:42 So when you're eating animal, proteins or other protein, those proteins are built of what it breaks down in your gut. 30:48 It's breaking it down into these precursors that we need to absorb, to rebuild back up into all of these things. 30:54 Animal protein has that variety. 30:59 30-ish grams is a sweet spot for a lot of people. 31:02 I've seen people try and load their protein in one or two meals, and that's not the most efficient way to intake protein. 31:08 It's really throughout your day you want to be taking protein, because then your body can break it down and use it. 31:15 There's so many people who think that I can sit down, eat all this protein and one sitting. 31:20 And it starts, your body only has the capacity to break down so much and rebuild it into the building blocks that you need. 31:27 All that extra protein that it's not able to do that with goes to other things like creating energy. 31:32 So when you're looking at protein intake, having it throughout the day is probably the most beneficial. 31:37 Three to four times a day, if you can get in 30 to 40 grams of protein, animal protein is going to have the more variety of amino acids. 31:47 There's a few protein shakes that we have at Forum Health that actually use very specific protein blends because of the amino acid profiles. 31:56 Yeah, absolutely. 31:57 And, you know, we don't want people relying a ton on those protein powders, but they are, again, just like, some of those functional foods, 32:04 they're helpful, especially when you're recovering, repairing your gut, trying to rebuild your brain, overcoming anxiety and depression. 32:09 I never want to be afraid to use those because those are very therapeutic as well. 32:13 Yeah. 32:14 For me, I use protein powders because physically I just feel like I cannot eat that much protein in volume. 32:21 And I also get texture fatigue from meat sometimes. 32:26 The other night I was eating chicken and I had to stop three-fourths of the way through my chicken breast. 32:31 I'm like, okay, the texture's finally gotten to me. 32:33 Almost a full chicken breasts, but I can't do the rest of it. 32:37 There's definitely times and places for it, it is there to fill gaps, not replace real food. 32:44 Yep, I agree. 32:45 I personally find the benefit too of just like things like the Perfect Amino, i'll have like a scoop of this once a day just again to have that like covering 32:55 my foundations. 32:56 Absolutely, absolutely. 32:58 And when your brain is balanced and you've got the therapeutic doses in you are better able to do that. 33:04 Laurie, it has been such a pleasure talking with you today and I appreciate all the insights that you shared with me and our audience today. 33:16 Can you tell the audience how they can find you if they want to learn more? 33:19 Absolutely. 33:20 Go to laurahammer.com and you'll find information on there. 33:22 You can schedule a free 15-minute consult with Check out and see if I can help you. 33:31 Awesome. 33:32 Thank you so much. 33:33 I really appreciate it. 33:35 And I know amino acids are a big part of what we do at Forum Health. 33:39 It's part. 33:40 How we treat patients. 33:41 and I'm so glad to hear more practitioners are out there and also practitioners have access to trainings with experts like you, 33:48 because there's certainly a, there is magic to this. 33:51 You shouldn't be doing it on your own. 33:52 Find a practitioner like Lori or practitioners at forum health to help support you through this journey. 34:00 Absolutely. 34:01 Thank you so much for having me, man.
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