Brain Nutrition & LOOPING

Introduction to Brain Nutrition and Looping 0:00

This is very important for all of us to not loop, not be stuck going off in some other direction. Now what's the fastest way? Let's look at dysfunction and then talk about function. Dysfunction, how is the fastest way to sabotage your dopamine and go looping? Fastest way? Eat processed sugar. Welcome to the Natural Facts Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. David Wickenheiser. I'm a naturopathic physician with over 30 years of clinical experience. I have a focus on natural and regenerative medicine. Through this podcast, I will be your guide, helping you to make sense of conflicting healthcare choices.

Welcome to The Natural Facts. I'm Dr. David Wickenheiser, naturopathic physician and your host of the Natural Facts podcast. In this episode, I'd like to talk about a very important emotional and physical concept known as looping. This is part of brain nutrition. Now there's different parts of brain nutrition. There are fats that make up the membranes of our cells in our brain. There are a number of nutritional modulators like huperazine and many others that we'll cover in other episodes.

Dopamine, Serotonin, and Neurotransmitter Balance 1:13

But in this episode, I want to talk about brain nutrition and looping. Looping is repetitive actions, repetitive thoughts, repetitive movement of your body. It could be something like tardive dyskinesia where you've got involuntary motions. It could be fasciculations of muscles. It could be as simple as muscle spasming and also be simple as hormone dysregulation where people get stuck in a repetitive loop. So this is the first part of brain nutrition because this is one of the most important concepts.

We want to talk about amino acids. These are the building blocks for proteins, but also the building blocks for neurotransmitters. So I've attended all kinds of different educational presentations. And one of the best that I've ever attended was with Dr. Marty Hintz. He's a medical doctor out of Duluth, Minnesota. He had some fantastic information, enjoyed it deeply, and have integrated many of his concepts into my daily practice of medicine. And he taught about the value and necessity for good health to have balance with both dopamine and serotonin.

Now you've probably heard a lot about dopamine and serotonin. And I'm going to have you suspend those concepts for just a moment while I add to your understanding. Now serotonin is a neurotransmitter that when you don't have enough, you're at risk of anxiety, depression, poor digestion, and poor sleep. And yes, those four symptoms have affected all of us from time to time. You're not guaranteed to have those symptoms if you have low serotonin, but it is a contributing factor to those symptoms. Now, serotonin and dopamine are made by the same enzyme and the same vitamin B6 dependent enzyme, by the way.

So if you have enough serotonin, you're going to have more calmness in your life.

Recognizing Repetitive Thoughts and Addictive Loops 3:08

But again, deficiency is anxiety, depression, poor digestion, poor sleep. Serotonin must be in balance with dopamine. Who has the least amount of dopamine in our world? It is the Parkinson patients. They have resting tremors. This is where they cannot stop their body motion. They're going through a loop where they're just in a resting tremor. They can't stop motion until they're so deficient in dopamine that they lock right up. I've worked with many patients with this situation and by balancing off and feeding their system and modulating with certain herbs, we're able to get their dopamine levels back up again.

Now, how many people are looping? Are they going through repetitive thoughts? Do you know anyone who's had a failed romantic relationship and just can't stop talking about it? We all know someone like that. Other people have got the same stories that they get an emotional rush from, and they cannot help themselves but tell you the same story every time you see them. Those people are stuck in a loop. But it's not just repetitive thoughts. It's not just the obsessive, compulsive thoughts. It's also addiction.

It's being stuck in a loop where you need to have a certain stimulation. And there's various forms of addiction. As we all know, there's emotional, there's physical, there's substance abuses, and all of these different loops affect our body. But we've even seen looping with hormone regulation, women's hormones. We've treated polycystic ovary syndrome. We've treated many other challenges with female hormones by getting their dopamine levels back to an operational level. Many people have heard and followed the teachings of Eckhart Tolle.

He's very popular with his teaching that people should be harnessing the power of now. being in the moment, not being stuck in childhood memories, not being stuck projecting to the future, but the power of now.

Nutrition Strategies to Support Dopamine 5:09

My contention is people cannot harness the power of now unless their brain's fed, unless they've got enough amino acid building blocks for neurotransmitters, until they've got enough vitamin B6 in their system. This is very important for all of us to not loop, not be stuck going off in some other direction. Now, what's the fastest way? Let's look at dysfunction and then talk about function. Dysfunction, how is the fastest way to sabotage your dopamine and go looping? Fastest way? Eat processed sugar.

Many of us live on processed sugar, and we get stuck in loops. And people with computers, you may even be listening to this podcast on a computer, People with computers can get stuck for hours watching sometimes very odd videos, for example. It's a common joke. People get stuck watching cat videos. Well, I don't care what you're watching. I care that you're giving up choice and being stuck in a loop. But I'm more than emotionally concerned or concerned with your emotions. I'm concerned with your physiology.

So being able to be in balance, be in the now, physically as well as emotionally, takes certain nutrition patterns. We've got nutritional protocols where we feed enough amino acids or well-digested protein. This means we have to boost your protein digestion, getting enough of the right proteins into your body, plant-based and animal-based, whatever works best for your genetics. and making sure that your brain is fed so that you don't get stuck with empty carbohydrate modulated looping. So this is a major concept that we've got for people with Parkinson's, of course, that's the most extreme, but also every person we know at certain times.

So it's not a question of if, it's a question of when. When will you go looping? And how do we break into that cycle, feed your brain and get you to pattern into a less compulsive, more choice lifestyle. So we do this nutritionally. Emotional counseling is very important. We don't specialize that in my office. We do more physiology. We do more nutrition. detoxification, balancing energy in the human body.

Clinical Applications and Closing Remarks 7:29

But all of that depends on having enough building blocks in your body. That's amino acids and B6. Now, for some people who are more extreme, actual Parkinson's patients, we have a choice of moving ahead with other prescription nutritional elements that will build your ability naturally to make enough dopamine. This is really cool. We get some pretty cool results. So if you're interested in taking charge of your life, if you're interested in balancing off your serotonin and your dopamine, make an appointment, contact me, perhaps read some of our longer articles on the subject and take charge of your life.

I'm Dr. David Wickenheiser, naturopathic physician, helping you with the natural facts. I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Natural Facts Podcast. To get access to my future episodes as soon as they're available, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. For all of my podcasts, as well as detailed discussions and reports on healthcare issues that matter to you, go to www.thenaturalfacts.com. This is Dr. David Weckenheiser, naturopathic physician, guiding you to better health with The Natural Facts.