Anxiety, The Gut-Brain Axis and Gluten Sensitivity

Introduction to Gluten, Anxiety, and the Gut-Brain Axis 0:00

Welcome to the reverse brain disorder summit. I'm your host, doctor David Jokers and I have got a great guest today. This is Doctor Yvonne. But Jodie and we're going to be talking about anxiety, the gut brain axis and gluten sensitivity and really how gluten can cause problems in the gut, which can drive up inflammation in the body and particular impact the brain, cross through the blood brain barrier and really impact the brain and how anxiety and mental health disorders are really there. Warning signs that there's inflammation in the brain.

And they happen before. For many, many individuals who struggle with anxiety, clinical anxiety, depression, things like that, when they're younger, when they never really get to the root cause they never address their gut, they never address the factors we're going to talk about. It can ultimately lead to, neurodegenerative conditions later in life. And so a little bit about Doctor Bodie. Doctor Yvonne is what I call her. She actually works for us at Doctor jokers.com. She's a board certified naturopathic doctor, certified functional medicine practitioner, and an integrative mental health practitioner.

She holds a master's in psychology and MSC in Health Science with a concentration in clinical nutrition. And she's a certified gluten free practitioner. And she's got just a ton of different certifications and just all around expert. And she really has a passion to help people with mental health disorders. You guys can find her on Doctor jokers.com. And she is one of our great naturopathic health coaches that helps people all over the world. Virtually works with them, virtually works on with people one on one and in groups to help them get to the root cause of their health issues and really puts them on functional health plans to get healthy and get well.

So with that said, guys, you're going to really enjoy this show. And so let's go right into it. So Doctor Yvonne Bush out. Welcome. Hi doctor joggers I am so excited to be here with you today. And this topic is very close to my heart. So I'm ready to share to the world, what gluten does to your brain and how it affects your emotions. And, you know, the reality is, when somebody has this issue, it affects their lives. So it's good to find out what things you can do to remediate this and just start feeling better.

Yeah. This is really key. And we know that anxiety has really gone up in our society. I mean, just in the last 20 years, it's really skyrocketed. All of us have experienced some level of anxiety. Everybody, you know, it's walking the planet has had anxiety at times. But there are people that are crippled by anxiety and it literally runs and drives their life. And they don't realize that this could be coming from their gut. It could be coming from the foods that they're eating. You mentioned gluten, and we're going to talk more about that.

But what is the difference between the typical anxiety

Defining Anxiety and Clinical Symptoms 2:56

that any individual may experience when they're nervous about something, maybe a presentation or meeting somebody new or whatever it is, versus people that are literally crippled by anxiety. Exactly. And that is a big difference that many people need to know so that when they know that difference, they can, you know, search for help and the right, help that they need to get over that. And like I said, I don't know if I mentioned this to you, but I myself have suffered from clinical anxiety and later on was diagnosed with celiac disease.

And so I wish I had known that. But the relationship of gluten sensitivity, even celiac and anxiety because I could have done something. But on a positive note, I am thankful that I suffer from that because that prepared me to study about it and then look into natural medicine. And what is even more exciting for me is that now I'm able to relate to my clients and and help them. So that is wonderful. And like you mentioned, between the difference between, you know, every day anxiety and anxiety that is crippling and that would be a clinical anxiety.

So how about if we start by defining what is anxiety? I think that's a good start. So, from a psychological point of view, anxiety is a human emotion that has a purpose. I mean, anxiety does have a purpose and it has a purpose to to protect us and motivate us to take action, to move us into action. So as soon as we correct that, that is, putting us in danger or perceived danger, our anxiety should dissipate. So from a physiological point of view, anxiety is a type of stress response, and it's a function of the automatic autonomic nervous system.

And the autonomic nervous system has two branches. The sympathetic nervous system, which is works as an accelerator or a G, so to speak. And the parasympathetic system, we can think of it as the brakes. So when you experience anxiety or have anxious thoughts, the sympathetic nervous system that is the accelerator is stimulated, resulting in increased heart rate, increased breathing, increased blood pressure and then blood flow instead of going to all our organs is going into our limbs so that we can run.

And like, for example, when you are anxious, your digestion is, interrupted. And if you think about it, that makes sense. You know, you want to escape from danger. You don't want to be digesting your food. So, once the danger is gone or is or perceived to be gone, your parasympathetic nervous system is, also known as rest and digest has a calming effect by bringing your heart rate down and regulating your breathing and so forth, so insured. Anxiety is a type of stress response that results in a psychological response.

When the sympathetic nervous system is stimulated, resulting in a physiological change or changes. Now this is like super, super important to understand that concept because it is important that we know that anxiety is bio direct, is bidirectional, that is emotions or thoughts may cost a stress response resulting in a physiological change or changes, and physiological changes of the stress response may cause anxiety. So it goes both ways. And that is so key to understand. So yeah, so there are many causes of anxiety.

And like you said doctor joggers, you know, when people are having, you know, a presentation or a test, I don't know. They're going on a date. You know, it's normal. Anxiety is a day to day anxiety that is expected. For, for anxiety to, to, you know, to occurrence an individual. And it's helpful because it motivates you to action. And that is really the purpose of anxiety. But for some individuals, like you mentioned, doctor joggers, the sense of anxiety doesn't go away when the danger is gone or the perceived danger is gone.

And there are times and this is key. There are times when there isn't any danger at all. And so these individuals are not able to pinpoint oh why am I anxious. I don't understand. And, and so that anxiety is the anxiety that we're talking about today. They may have a sense of impending danger, panic. You know things like that, even if they know that nothing is going to happen or they're in a safe place, you know, they may also experience heart palpitations, excessive sweating, gastrointestinal symptoms, trouble sleeping and relaxing.

Yeah. So it's like the accelerator is stuck. And this anxiety interferes with normal daily living. It affects relationships. It affects everything. And this is what we call clinical anxiety. There are different types of anxieties, from phobias to obsessive, compulsive disorders to and, you know, many others, but conventional. Now let me jump in to conventional treatment for clinical symptoms of anxiety. Well, typically there are addressed by medication and counseling.

Gut-Brain Communication and the Vagus Nerve 8:51

However, there are some individuals that are not responsive to therapy or counseling, meaning that despite taking medications or therapy, they're excited does not resolve. So it comes down to, anxiety of, when it comes down to anxiety, or any health conditions, natural medicine and functional medicine recognizes that the best approach is to find the root cause. Typically, there are many root causes that create the perfect storm, and sometimes are what I call the driving factor that is implicated in a particular condition.

So today I would like to talk about gluten as a driving factor in anxiety in some vulnerable individuals. And I think this is important because I don't want people to come out and, and just attribute their anxiety exclusively to gluten. But for some vulnerable individuals this may be a driving factor. Yeah. And so any dietary component can play a role because there's this intimate connection between the brain and the gut. In fact, they call it gut, the second brain because we produce so many different neurotransmitters.

There's such a tie in, between what's happening in the brain. And, you know, we've always used a term like, hey, trust your gut. And it's like you kind of get, a lot of sensory information from your gut that helps, you know, that that plays a role in what's happening there with your brain. Absolutely. And, you know, there are many other factors. And but gluten in this case, we know that is one of the most inflammatory molecules in food, causing a myriad of health conditions and conditions from gastrointestinal, neurological, endocrine, and more.

And basically any tissue, any organ, any system can be affected by gluten, and it depends on what is your weakest link. So, how can gluten affect mood? Some people may be wondering how how is that possible? How how can gluten affect mind and mental health. And you alluded to that connection. So let's dive into it. So at first glance it seems like imposter ball or not plausible. How can a sandwich or a bowl of pasta cause anxiety to anyone? The logical thing would be to have an upset stomach or anything digestive, right?

Yeah, for sure. And some people, you know, obviously they develop celiac, they develop for some people, they develop irritable bowel syndrome. They develop gas, bloating, constipation, inflammatory bowel syndrome, celiac, of course, when they, when they're consuming gluten throughout their life and they're creating this inflammatory storm. But there's also non celiac gluten sensitivity. And see that's very common. And brain issues are really really commonly associated as one of the symptoms where these people they don't experience gut issues but they experience other symptoms.

Associated with chronic inflammation from the gluten that they're consuming. Absolutely. And we're going to get to that connection. So like you said, you know, most people have gastrointestinal, symptoms like the symptoms that you mentioned. And, yeah, there's another condition, like you mentioned, a gluten sensitivity or non gluten celiac, gluten sensitive. And when you survey the literature you will find and this is so interesting that 60 to 80% of the symptoms associated with gluten sensitivity are neurological in nature.

I mean that is huge. And symptoms such as brain fog epilepsy attacks your headaches, dizziness, numbness and neuropathy, just to name a few are some of the neurological symptoms that are associated with gluten sensitivity. That is not celiac. That is huge. So, in addition to this, there are a wide range of psychiatric, symptoms and disorders associated with celiac disease and gluten sensitivity like anxiety, depression, psychosis, bipolar disease, OCD, ADHD, etc.. So what is so interesting that many individuals that suffer from this symptoms and conditions did not know that they have an underlying being gluten sensitivity or celiac disease until they eliminating gluten from their diet or underwent testing.

So there's that connection again with people that have that sensitivity and celiac. Now how about if we talk about the brain gut axis and anxiety to put it all together, this is going to help us understand how gluten may cause anxiety for some individuals. And understanding this relationship in the brain and the gut, is how it impacts the function, and especially especially important to know this so that we can do something about it. So okay, so let's say that you experience this all the time and we all experience this all the time, that many people probably don't know that there's even a scientific label to this, for this relationship between the brain and the gut and the gut and the brain.

Now notice it's a bidirectional relationship. And back when I started, I said that anxiety has a bio directional relationship. So let's say that you receive some. You're getting ready to receive news about whether you got a job or, the cell of your house is, you know, you're waiting and you're anticipating

What Gluten Is and Why It Can Be Problematic 14:42

as you anticipate that phone call, you may feel butterflies in your stomach or let's say that you're you just got, news about your best friend that got injured in a terrible car accident, and you feel a pit in your stomach. Can you see that by direction? So now let's say that you have diarrhea after eating at a restaurant and you get up and you feel kind of dizzy, you know, after going to the bathroom and you're not feeling good or maybe you develop constipation and, and you start getting headaches.

So again these are examples of the gut brain axis. As you see the gut and the brain communicate. And this communication is through the vagus nerve that runs through the brain to the gut. Now I guess Vegas is Latin for wanderer right. And it runs. Yeah. It's amazing how it runs from the brain stem goes into the heart, the lungs goes into the digestive system. And it's your main parasympathetic branch. So it helps activate the production of stomach acid, bile flow pancreatic enzymes. So you can optimize your digestion.

And it's also a sensory component that's bringing a lot of feedback back up into the brain like you were talking about. So when there's higher levels of inflammation that are taking place in the gut, higher pathogen load, then it's sending information in back up as well to the brain saying, you know what, there's problems down here. Exactly, exactly. So for example, I'm sorry, this examples show the relationship between the gut and the brain that is bi directional. And, this affects, the gut and the brain and this is through the signaling, from the gut microbiota or the flora to the brain and from the brain to the gut microbiota by means of neural, endocrine, and immune, so anyway, there's a reason why mental health, brain function, and digestion are intimately related.

And as you were mentioning, the vagus nerve is the vagus nerve is very important, with your parasympathetic nervous system. And that it makes sense because if you're in a state of a stress, you don't release those important, enzymes and, and all that good stuff to digest. And many, of course, are familiar with, I cannot digest my food because I'm so stressed and, but anyway, going on so and you mentioned, in talking about the inflammatory component of, of, gluten and other things that can inflame your gut.

And I'm sure many of you are familiar with the saying, gut on gut on fire, brain on fire. So, right. In other words, if we have inflammation in your gut, your brain will also be inflamed. And again, that's true, that communication. And if you have poor brain function and your digestive function will suffer as your brain controls motility, enzyme production and digestion function in general. And this is so very important because many of us concentrate only on the cut for digestion. But our brain is also connected with our, digestive function.

Now, it is interesting to mention that with, this connection between the gut into brain, there's also other side effects when our brain is injured, like, brain injury, it also affects our gut and guess what? A lot of people that have a brain injury, like a concussion, have a high risk of developing anxiety and other mood disorders or any other, you know, psychiatric conditions. So let's get into gluten and anxiety. So, starting with what is gluten now? Gluten is a molecule founding wheat, rye, barley, spelt.

And technically oats don't have gluten because, you know, the bat gluten, but because they tend to be cross contaminated through, farming. And also when processing facilities, oats can be, have the bat gluten. So if you eat oats, just as a side note, make sure that that they're labeled gluten free. That is important. They're certified gluten free. So gluten is what makes bread elastic and sticky and actually gluten is made, many, many different proteins and peptides such as gliding lieutenant and galactic morphine and would also has lectins and other non gluten molecules that may affect some vulnerable individuals.

So you don't have to be sensitive to all the molecules of peptides of fractions of gluten. Only one is enough for you to be sensitive and have symptoms. That is very important to know. And we'll get into more detail in a little bit. So we have seen an increase of celiac disease and gluten sensitivity in the past 50 years. The Mayo Clinic study, published in 2009, says that there has been an increase of celiac disease four times in the last 50. I'm sorry. Yeah, four times in the last 50 years. And it also has been reported that people who did not know that they have celiac disease were four times more likely to die during the 45 year follow up.

Oh, that is pretty, pretty scary to me. So, the general population, sadly, and most health practitioners believe that gluten is only a problem with celiac. That is, for those who have a genetic predisposition or that gluten sensitivity is only manifested in the gut. Some of you know, celiac is a genetic condition, and it's only about 1% of the population that causes this immune reaction to gluten, that produces inflammation in the small intestines. And this will, and it damages the villi and the small intestines.

Now develop our finger like projections that increase a surface of the intestines for nutrient absorption. But there's another distinct condition, like you mentioned earlier, celiac, called gluten sensitive or not gluten sensitivity. Non celiac gluten sensitivity and its prevalence. Now this is so this prevalence is six times more than celiac disease. So more people are having this non celiac gluten sensitivity which they tend to have more neurological based symptoms than the people that are actually getting to the point where they have celiac.

Now celiac is kind of a late stage diagnosis because the villi, there's little pockets in the intestines are fully destroyed by the time the celiac diagnosis is given. Right. So the person could have a lot of symptoms or just, you know, malabsorption and a lot of different digestive struggles before they're given that diagnosis. But then, you know, for the amount of people getting diagnosed, what you're saying is that these the individuals that are dealing with non celiac gluten sensitivity at six times the amount.

Right. And you know, what is for those of us that have symptoms and your digestion, your digestive system, we're kind of blessed because we can make that connection. You know it easier. True. You know, easier to connect when you're having digestive symptoms. Oftentimes people think about what they ate, right? As opposed to anxiety, depression, brain fog, irritability. Most people are not connecting that to food that they ate. They're connecting it more to circumstances or, you know, whatever it is like going on in their life, which it could be either.

That obviously plays a factor in it. But we know that the diet and what's happening in the gut plays a huge role as well. Yeah, exactly. So both celiac and gluten sensitivity may end with neurological and psychiatric complaints.

How Gluten and Glyphosate Damage the Gut and Brain 23:00

Now this is interesting as their main symptom. What is most interesting is that 35% of newly diagnosed celiac disease had no diarrhea or digestive symptoms, dispelling the myth that diarrhea must be present to diagnose celiac disease. That is really interesting that even that 35% of people with celiac did not have digestive symptoms. Not just. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Right. So yeah. So, now it's samples. Again, of neurological complaints that this individuals may have in many individuals in general that have a gluten sensitivity can be things like headache, brain fog, numbness, migraine attacks.

Yeah. And this is a problem with balance. Yeah. Tonight is insomnia and so forth. So there. And there's no such magic condition that has not been found to be associated in the literature with gluten. Such sensitivity or associated in general, things like anxiety, depression, psychosis, bipolar disease and so forth. So it's it's interesting to note that about 70% of celiac patients, their main complaint is not gastrointestinal in nature, but neurological and psychiatric. Of course, there are other manifestations like joint pain, skin issues and so forth.

So let's think about why is and I get this question all the time, all the time. Why is gluten so bad? It's kind of hard to understand because we have been consuming wheat for thousands of years. So why is gluten so bad? So let's talk about that because that is so, so very relevant. Number one, we have found in the literature that gluten has been found to be the one of the most inflammatory molecules. So gluten this is capable of producing inflammation not only in the gut, but every tissue in your body.

Number two, gluten has been found to break down the gut blood barrier, resulting in systemic inflammation. Now, the gut brain barrier is designed to only allow well digested particles of food to go into general circulation and prevent pathogens and other damaging molecules. When this barrier is compromised, it opens the door to inflammation, pathogens to attack your organs, your body. It opens the door to listen to this. It opens the door to our immune mechanism. So this mechanism has a key role in autoimmune conditions, not only celiac but things like Hashimoto's and lupus, for example.

Now the third thing why gluten is so bad. Once there's a breakdown in the gut blood barrier, the brain blood barrier breaks down as well as, you know, the health of the brain that will be compromised. And that is a mechanism that results from a gut on fire. Or I'm sorry, in a a gut on fire is a brain on fire. Number four, gluten sensitivity has been found to be a risk factor for opening the door to many food sensitivities. Now, I know a lot of people who are sensitive to gluten don't take it very seriously, but they should, because, like I said, it opens the door to many other, food sensitivities.

And before you know it, you have more and more, and then you cannot eat a lot of things. But I don't know gluten. I don't know if you mentioned this. I didn't hear it, but, gluten increases the amount of Zenia Lin, which is a little protein that increases the permeability in the intestines, meaning that, you know, the little, you know, in our intestines, it's one cell wall. And these cells are held together by these tight junctions and the tight junctions are basically connective tissue that holds it together.

And we need that to be like pretty strong and, steady, you know, and resilient in order to protect large undigested food particles and bacteria, bacterial waste, things like that, from getting into the bloodstream. And so Xinyi Lin creates more permeability, meaning it weakens those, those tight junctions and allows for more bacteria and pathogens and potentially undigested proteins to get across into the blood, into the bloodstream. And then our body says, oh my gosh, there's high bacterial loads or there's high amount of bacterial waste products like lipopolysaccharide.

So we call that endotoxin and that drives up inflammation throughout the body. And so this is one of the mechanisms behind it is this increase in Xinyi Lin. Exactly. So it can start with yeah. And then you know and it goes on and on. And then lastly and in there many things the way I gluten is so bad. But today I'm just talking about five that are pretty huge. And the next one gluten is a factor in creating dysbiosis. That means that more bad bacteria populate the gut producing and imbalance in our immune system.

And every cyst in the body depends on a healthy microbiome. Now, there are a few of the mechanisms that make gluten more problematic a more problematic food molecule. And and this is shown by this. That's a statistic. So according to the literature there are two major factors driving this. Number. One, wheat has been highly hybridize. Now starting in the 60s and the 90s, plant breeders hybrid different wheat varieties in order to improve yield and disease resistance, making weed harder to digest and making it more immune reactive.

So, and this is important to know because to know because there is no GMO wheat in the market yet or, genetically modified organism also known as bio engineer. And that is important to know because now GMOs has relabeled or remarket to their products by calling that out bioengineered. So if you hear the bioengineered, food that's really, the new name for GMOs. So wheat isn't GMO, but it's hybridized. It's kind of a natural way of crossing different plant genes, and it's done in a way to create, you know, a type of bread that I guess, you know, it's tastier that most people find to be tastier, easier to use than, you know, bread that many of our ancestors were using or wheat, I should say that our ancestors were using. Right.

And you know what? We cannot outsmart our body. I'm sorry. Our body knows. Heck, no, this is not normal. This is not the way nature intended it. So going back to GMOs, and this is important to understand that distinction, because GMOs products, what they do, they one up produce stronger crops like say for example, take tomatoes, they may take tomatoes. They need to be able to, to, have tomatoes in an icy weather. So what they use, they use genes from, salmon to modify weather resistance and tomatoes.

So these are cross species and this has not been approved with wheat, which is a good thing. Now the second reason why, gluten has become or wheat has become so bad and this is super duper huge, is that glass of fate. Now, glass of fate is the active ingredient in roundup, and it has been proposed as a major factor in the epidemic of celiac disease and gluten sensitivity. And it's why. Well, I mean, I was just saying. Yeah, I mean, glyphosate, it's, very hazardous to the gut lining. Right? So really damages the gut microbiome and the gut lining.

And so, again, you know, this gut lining is only held in by its only one cell wall. And we've got these tight junctions to hold it in place. And we need to do everything we can to help create a very strong stress resilient gut lining. So we don't have pathogens getting into the bloodstream. So we don't have, endotoxins. We don't have large, digestive proteins. So these kinds of things that make the gut lining weaker, more, permeable, right. Or damage the villi, drive up inflammation. And they're really, really problematic.

And, you know, it's going to increase our risk of developing autoimmune conditions, neurological conditions. You know, today we're talking about anxiety. So yeah, glyphosate is a huge factor here. Right. And some people will wonder, well why do we use class if they would wheat. Well it's widely used in wheat and crop and oat crops and many others and is used before harvesting and of many non-organic crops. And the purpose is to reduce the amount of residue that needs to be cleaned up and get a head start to the next, years of weeds.

So according to, published paper in the Journal of Interdisciplinary Toxicology, fish exposed to glyphosate developed digestive problems.

Testing, Elimination, and Going Fully Gluten Free 32:28

They're reminiscent of celiac disease. Now, celiac disease is associated with an imbalance in gut bacteria that can be fully explained by the known effects of gland phosphate and gut bacteria. That is so interesting. And then celiac disease characteristic impediment in detoxifying environmental toxins and deficiencies in vitamin D, iron, tried to fan and many other nutrients, and poor bile, production and so forth match glass of face effects and depletion of these nutrients and amino acids. Now, furthermore, celiac disease patients have an increased risk of lymphoma, infertility, miscarriages.

Birth defects can also be explained by loss of fate in other words, class of faith toxicity matches to select disease impairment. Now like to say it is kind of amplifying the the effects of what's happening there with gluten. Actually, the way the, the, the, the research is presenting, it is more the reason like glyphosate is in the wheat in the, in the actual molecule and, and it becomes toxic. But if we didn't have that we probably wouldn't be experiencing this. So it's not so much amplifying it but producing that fact.

So what you're saying is if somebody were to get organic without glyphosate, they may have better, a better, experience with it. And it wouldn't be as inflammatory. It wouldn't increases vanillin. Is that what you're saying there? Yes. But then in addition to that, you have to have, we have what we call new wheat. So even if you have, because our wheat in America is so hybridized and is polluted with glycine fate, even if you get non-organic, wheat, you may still have the, the, the effects of, new wheat.

Yeah. You mean get that organic getting organic wheat because it's hybridized. You're saying it's changed the gliadin strains of the the gluten that's in there, which can increase the inflammation where we're as we look at something like einkorn wheat, which basically is a type of wheat that was used back in biblical days, so thousands of years ago that wasn't hybridized. And the molecules of proteins in there had a different structure that was that's a lot more tolerable. And you can still get einkorn wheat.

And if you get organic einkorn wheat, you're saying somebody should have a much better response with that. Correct. And now we also have to remember that for some people that are genetically vulnerable to be sensitive to, to wheat, even if they have ancient wheat and that is organic, they will still have an immune response. So that is important to understand. So but for those that don't have an immune response to gluten and that say they would go to Europe where they don't have are we they still have ancient wheat and glycine.

Fate is outlaw. Many people report that being gluten sensitive in America when they go to Europe, they don't have those reactions. Yeah, I've heard a lot of people say that as well. Yeah, yeah. So just to say so if you have celiac or you have a genetic predisposition, you will it will affect you still. So I wouldn't recommend that. So in conclusion there's a definite link between gluten and anxiety having to do with the gut brain axis. And there are many reasons why wheat is a factor in anxiety.

It is a very inflammatory food molecule and hence having the potential of inflammation in the brain, breaking the gut blood barrier and the brain blood barrier. And it has the potential of causing an increase in food sensitivities. And that is so sad. So it has been found to be a key factor in our immune mechanisms and got dysbiosis having an impact on brain function and mental health. So there are two major reasons why wheat and gluten are so inflammatory molecule hybridization of wheat and the use of glass of fate on wheat crops.

Yeah. So we can what should somebody do here? So, obviously going gluten free is one thing, but there's a lot of gluten free things that are in the grocery store that, you know, I wouldn't exactly say are healthy, right? They're using a lot of, gluten free alternatives that may have a less of an inflammatory effect, but a lot of them are really highly processed, hyper palatable types of things. And so, you know, so when you're looking at it just because something says gluten free doesn't mean it's healthy.

Really, we want to look for real whole foods, right? Absolutely. And, I like to touch on that because there's been studies that show that when people go gluten free, you know, their inflammation, inflammatory markers go up. And it's just what you said that people say, oh, it's gluten free. So it's healthy. So I can have two muffins instead of not having any muffins or have one. And a muffin is a muffin is sugar is refined flour. And then when they're gluten free, there's more additives to it and flavorings to make it more palatable.

So it's very dangerous for us to assume that something that is gluten free. Yeah, is is healthy for you. And a lot of times we're using corn, which, you know, technically is is gluten free. However, oftentimes it's not organic and it's highly sprayed with glyphosate like we were talking about. Exactly, exactly. And sadly enough, a lot of people that are sensitive to gluten are also sensitive to corn, right. And so forth. But going back to what do we do? So if you're suffering from anxiety or a mood disorder, what do you need to do?

And what I recommend that you go on a gluten free diet for at least three weeks. And I suggest that, you be squeaky clean. I mean, absolutely squeaky clean and get educated before you go on to that diet, because, like you, we mentioned, many people just jump right into, you know, gluten free items. They are not healthy at all. So the reason why we want to do an elimination diet is to bring that inflammation down. And a lot of people have, they are able to notice a difference. Now, their anxiety may or not resolve with only three weeks, but they most people do feel a difference in their entire system.

You know, people start feeling like they're less achy. They feel their headaches are gone, their digestive symptoms are gone. So what I suggest that when do you want to do that, that you sit down and make a list of all the symptoms that you have and don't think anything? Oh, they're, only think of digestive symptoms. No, no, no. Go on. Any symptoms that you have, it may be insomnia. It may be restless legs, anything you can and that you can think of that your suffering and then go into this elimination diet.

And when you do elimination diet, choose foods that are naturally gluten free. Okay. So that would be so important. And let me reiterate about the importance of being gluten free. This is not going to be like a diet, like normal weight loss DIYs where you have a cheat day, oh, I'm just going to cheat today. Or this meal because then you're going to produce that inflammation, that, immune reaction. You got to be gluten free. And what how would like to illustrate the importance of being gluten free?

What it is 100% gluten free. It's like saying I'm going gluten free is like saying I am pregnant. Okay, so what does that mean? You either pregnant or you're not pregnant. You cannot say, I'm almost pregnant today I'm pregnant, but tomorrow I'm not. No, no no no, you're either pregnant or not pregnant. That is how serious you have to be 100% gluten free. Now. It is particularly troublesome to go gluten free when you go dining out because you get exposed, to other foods, cross-contamination and so forth.

And for those, occasions, and, I recommend that you go with a special enzyme formula that will help you digest the gluten if you happen to be cross contaminate it. And, and it's also a good idea, it's also a good idea, you know, if you are very gluten sensitive, maybe you've been diagnosed celiac, you know, you've got significant symptoms. You have a very low threshold because there are some people that, like, for example, I'm gluten free, but if I have gluten, it's like, I don't really notice any symptoms, but I go gluten free in general because I want to keep inflammation under control my body.

But if I were to steer off, you know, 1 or 2 times, I have a certain threshold, you know, that I'm able to handle. Although, you know, for the most part, I stay gluten free, whereas others, their threshold for what they can consume is very low and drives up inflammation, particularly genetically, if they have a genetic susceptibility, to it. And they've tested have, you know, antibodies associated with, certain components of it. So for those individuals, I think it's a really good idea to actually tell the waiter, too, that they have a severe gluten reaction in today's day and age.

Restaurants are, you know, they don't want they don't want an ambulance coming to the door. Right? So if you say words like that, like, hey, I have a severe gluten allergy. And so I just really want to make sure that I'm able to enjoy my meal here, and we don't have to call the ambulance. They will do whatever they have to do to figure out, you know, how to get you a really gluten free meal. Exactly, exactly. And another possible next step is to do some testing to find out if you're gluten sensitive or have celiac disease or have, celiac genetics.

And that is important because for some people that have celiac genetics, but they yet have not developed celiac. Yeah. This is so wonderful. So because what are the genes. So hla dk JK you're right Anderson. Yeah exactly. And so what I have found that with working with clients that labs having that lab done gives them, an incentive and it's more powerful for them to go gluten free and stay gluten free. Yeah. I just have no know when you know that exactly when you know that you've got the genes associated with it.

Or perhaps you've done like antibody testing or something along those lines then it definitely gives you more, you know, just verifiable data that makes you more convicted. Exactly, exactly. And the lab test that I recommend is a complete gluten sensitivity panel. And this panel tests several wheat fractions, or peptides of gluten, as opposed to the only one that most offices test, which is alpha gliadin. And this is mainstream testing. And when you ordered, when you only have that particular test, just one for dry, then you miss a lot of people.

Yeah, a lot even glue it even, gliadin. You've got like beta gamma gladdens. Right. That that you may be having a response to there's trans glutamic ace enzymes in in wheat gluten that, you may be reacting to. There's like a whole bunch of different compounds in there. So you're only getting, you know, a percentage of people if you're only testing the alpha gliadin. Exactly. So if you learned that you need to avoid gluten via elimination, dyed or testing elimination of gluten is permanent, it is not going to be for a period of time until your gut heals is going to be permanent.

And this is important to know because, it will prevent that inflammation to be ongoing. And is very, very important. And I find people this knowledge give them it makes them very upset and, you know, and rightly so. And it has is, you know, we're so, tied to our food is so tied to our emotions. Right? So it's very but what I like to help people think is that you can see this as a half full or half empty glass of water. So I choose and I invite everybody to choose to see it as a half, full, glass.

Because how many conditions do you know that if you eliminate one food from your diet, is going to bring your condition into possible remission, or is it going to prevent you to get more conditions or that? So just by doing that one thing is going to improve your quality of life, that for me, that is not a, glass half full. That is more like my glass is overflowing. I mean, that is so exciting that I can do one thing to improve my health so much. So take heart. Eliminating gluten may be hard and is very challenging.

But being sick and anxious really is is worse, and eliminating gluten from your diet may help you improve your overall health and prevent other conditions. Because when you look at the literature, practically any any conditions, you can find an association with gluten like diabetes, cancer, Parkinson's disease, etc.. So in closing, I like to mention that I created a questionnaire to help people determine if they have a risk for celiac disease or gluten sensitivity and is by no means diagnostic, but it will help an individual determine if it would be a good idea to do an elimination trial or getting testing done.

And if you're interested, you can email me, Doctor Yvonne at Doctor jokers.com. That's my email. And you can request our questionnaire. Yeah that's great. And that's super helpful for people to know. So, you know, basically what you're saying is that going gluten free here could be one of the easiest steps, even though, you know, it seems like, hey, that's a lot of foods. There's so many other foods that you could be consuming and enjoying. And it really beats a a lifetime of sickness. Suffer, bring developing, you know, multiple different, chronic health conditions.

And, you know, depending on medications for the rest of your life and medical treatments. And there are so many people out there that are doing that. And if they just remove gluten, that would go a long way and actually improving their health. And so, really great information. You guys can email Doctor Yvonne at again. Driver. Oh no. So Doctor Yvonne at Doctor jokers.com to get that great questionnaire. And that will help you understand if potentially gluten is an issue and what you're dealing with.

So definitely definitely do that. Thank you again for your time, doctor. Man, it's a wonderful presentation. Thank you guys. We will see you all in in a future presentation. Be blessed everybody.