Discover GABA: Your Ally For Metabolic Health & Anxiety Relief

Introduction to Trudy Scott and her anxiety journey 0:00

Welcome to this episode of the PCOS SOS Summit. I'm your host, Dr. Felice Gersh. With me for this episode is someone I admire so greatly, and I'm so excited to have the opportunity to learn from her. She is Trudy Scott, a certified nutritionist, to harness the power of real food to help people deal with really huge problems involving emotional distress, anxiety and so forth. So thank you so much, Trudy. I want to hear so much about how all of this connects with PCOS, a group that suffered greatly from anxiety, but so many other issues.

But first, before we delve into that, we'd love to hear about you and your journey and how you got involved in treating anxiety and other emotional issues. Dr. Gersh, thanks so much for inviting me to the summit. I'm really excited. We had some good back and forth trying to decide about the topics and it's going to be a really great opportunity to share what I know about anxiety and what amino acid called GABA. So I'm excited to be here and I'm excited to share this with my community. So thanks again for inviting me.

And the reason I'm so passionate about anxiety is because of my own anxiety issues. In my late thirties out of the blue, it seemed I suddenly developed anxiety and I developed social anxiety and this is a little bit crazy because I always considered myself an outgoing person. I was not a fearful kind of person. I was a rock climber and I did climbs on on vertical ice. And I spent the night on a porter ledge and a big wall climb. And so I was an adventurous kind of person who wasn't very anxious.

But I just decided to develop this anxiety which seemed to come out of the blue. But it was happening in my late thirties when my hormones were starting to change. So that was the first clue for me. I learned this term called Perimenopause, which I thought I didn't have to worry about menopause until I'm in my fifties. And I discovered this term at perimenopause. So this was before I became a nutritionist. I was working in corporate America. I was very stressed. I had hormonal changes going on, and then I started to connect the dots that it was gluten issues, leaky gas, heavy metals and nutritional deficiencies, and that I had this whole group of issues that were causing my anxiety.

And one of them was a it was neurotransmitter imbalances, which we're going to talk about today. So I had no GABA levels and GABA was amazing for me. It's an amino acid that I used as a supplement. It was fantastic for me. It stopped anxiety really quickly and then I was able to dig deeper and address all of the underlying factors as that were also contributing to my anxiety.

How food and nutrients affect neurotransmitters 3:08

So long story short, I went back to school to become a nutritionist. My anxiety went away and my mission is to teach and educate other women about anxiety and nutritional solutions so they don't have to struggle. Because it took me a long time to get all the answers. But it was amazing to think that changing your diet, addressing hormone imbalances, getting rid of toxins, adding in specific nutrients, addressing lower GABA levels could actually turn things around. So I was really excited to go back to school to become a nutritionist.

And here I am today. I wrote my book, The Anti-anxiety Food Solution, so I could share my information with other women who were going through this kind of issue. So one, a wonderful ending to what could have been a very traumatic and unhappy ending story. So I'm so happy that you went on this journey and we're all benefiting. I'm sure many people out there are wondering, so what is the connection, though, between nutrition and neurotransmitters? What is the connection there? How does what you eat relate to such things as neurotransmitters and how neurotransmitters relate to emotions?

Well, the the food that we eat provide the building blocks for making the neurotransmitters. So we need good quality protein. That's a key building block for neurotransmitters. So you've got to eat quality animal protein, but also you've got to have good digestion so you can break down that protein. Then you get cofactors that are needed to make those neurotransmitters like zinc, like vitamin B6, like magnesium from the beautiful quality organic foods that you eat. So quality foods are really important.

We know that pesticides can disrupt, neurotransmitters can affect hormones. So we want good quality food, healthy fats, really, really important for providing those raw materials, for making those neurotransmitters. And then there's a close interrelationship between neurotransmitters and our hormones. So when you've got good progesterone levels, for example, that's going to enhance GABA production. When you've got good estrogen enables or estradiol levels, that's going to enhance serotonin production.

So there's this merry dance sort of going on between our neurotransmitters and our hormones, and then food is the foundation, but sometimes food is not enough. We may have a nutritional deficiency that we need to address with a specific amino acid or with a specific nutrients. I think many people will find this really fascinating because unfortunately, as you are very well aware, the world of psychiatry doesn't really delve into this at all. They try to come up with drugs to modify in some way a neurotransmitter and a drug that is often used as one of the SSRI or a benzodiazepine.

Is there something wrong with any of those drugs or those like adjuncts or should those be like put on the back burner unless they're. As a nutritionist? Obviously, I it's outside of the scope of my work, but I have a lot of people who come to me because they want to get off their benzodiazepines or they want to get off their antidepressants. And then I'll work with them in conjunction with their doctor because I can't make any changes, but I will educate them. And then they go back to their doctor

Gut-brain connection and nutritional psychiatry 6:38

and they talk about, you know, talk about tapering off these medications. And I would love to see people consider food and nutrients first because there's you know, you talked about psychiatry. There's actually this term called nutritional psychiatry. It's published in the literature. There's a number of papers, actually, a lot of the research has come out of Australia and it's it's now recognized that food and nutrients have an impact on our mental health. So why don't we start with that and then keep the medications as a last resort if we if we're not getting results.

But I'm finding people are getting results and you address the underlying biochemistry and you don't need to use those indications. Well, that is so helpful for everyone to know that it doesn't mean they check their antidepressants or their drugs. Right. They need to coordinate with their physician. But to start to the idea that you start with food and I know there's been talk about a gut brain axis that there's like this connection, maybe you could tell us a little bit more about like how does the gut and the brain connect with one another?

I know I've heard that if you have an injury to the brain, it can affect the gut function and vice versa. So does that play into anxiety and neurotransmitters and general emotional stress and such? Absolutely. We've got this to a connection between the guts and the brain, and we have these the microbiome in the gut and this produces serotonin. A lot of people are aware of that, but it also produces GABA, which is a calming neurotransmitter. And when you've got dysbiosis in the gut, in other words, you've got derangement of your microbiome that can in turn affect your mental health and make you more depressed and make you more anxious.

So having good gut health is really important as well. And I love this. The term psycho biotics, which is a good bacteria that have an impact on your mood. And this is a lot of the research that's come out of Ireland and psycho biotics like Lactobacillus Rhamnosus is one of them is a is an anti a probiotic that actually changes your mood. So if we can get our guts into a healthy way, that can make a big difference as well. Well, certainly this is very applicable to women with PCOS who have really high levels of stress and anxiety.

And it was shown back in 2015. The first study came out of China concerning the leaky gut and the impaired gut microbial population. So this is really key information for women with PCOS. But so many of them, like I said, have anxiety. So where would you start? Like, say, a woman is eating a standard American diet and she has a lot of anxiety. Should she just change her whole diet overnight? Could she take baby steps if she's not used to eating or cooking whole foods? So like from when you have your your clients, how would you say let's start and this is where we start?

Well, I wanted to just go back to what you were talking about, the the incidence of anxiety. And then I'll come back to your question about way to start, because there's a lot of research that supports the connection between stress and anxiety and depression.

Starting GABA for anxiety and cravings 9:58

And they talk about a lot of the studies I pulled, you know, talked about 20, 26 to 35% of people with serious have anxiety. But what I wanted to clarify is that a lot of these papers are talking about the psychology article impacts. They're not talking about the biochemistry, which is what we're talking about today. So you'll read a lot of the studies and they talk about the psychological impact because people with PCOS have body image related factors. They're worried about infertility, they have worries and fears and depression and low self-esteem because of what's going on with, you know, in terms of being overweight, in terms of excessive hair growth, in terms of body, you know, high body mass index.

So I just wanted to make sure that, you know, if anyone's looking at the research, they're talking about anxiety, but they're talking about the psychological impacts of PCOS and not about the biochemistry. So we always want to bring it back to that. But I'm glad you asked the question about where do you start? So I always start with the amino acids, no matter what the condition is, no matter what's going on, because if you're telling someone, okay, we need to have you change your diet, we need to have you eat more protein, we need to have you reduced carbs.

We need to have you start to learn to cook. That's really overwhelming. If you are eating a standard American diet, really, really overwhelming. And people are just going to say, well, how do I do it? They're also going to have to use willpower in order to stop eating the high carb diet that they may be eating, to stop eating the fast food, to stop eating their the processed foods that they're eating. So we want to be focusing on real whole foods. But in order to make it easy, we use the amino acids because what the amino acids do and I'll talk about GABA in a second, they address the overwhelm, they address that anxiety and they stop the cravings.

So it's easy to make those changes. So I was someone with PCOS. The first thing I'm going to do is talk to them about like ABA. And the way I do that is I give them the low GABA questionnaire and I have them narrate their symptoms on a scale of 1 to 10. So for those people who don't know what Gabba Gabba is, gamma aminobutyric acid, it's an amino acid and it's a neurotransmitter. And we use the amino acid as a supplement to raise levels of at the Gabba. So we addressing the low GABA neurotransmitter by using an amino acid supplement called Gabba.

It's a little bit confusing, but that's the way it is and I'll have people write this. They gave us symptoms on a scale of 1 to 10. So what do you have? Physical anxiety? In other words, are you feeling tension in your neck? Are you feeling it going up into your your head and in your shoulders? A lot of people will be sort of such intense like this. Do you have other stuff, intense muscles? Do you have intrusive thoughts? Do you have got pain? Do you have insomnia? And then do you stress eat? So if you eat, is it as a result of stress, are you using alcohol in order to fit in and feel sociable?

Do you have ADHD type symptoms? Do you have laryngitis spasms? All of these can be as a result of very GABA level. And then as we going to discuss a little bit later, Pincus comes into this as well because I've got an amazing success story to share with you. But before we go there, how we do the trial, write your sentence on a scale of 1 to 10, and then we do a trial of GABA and we see what kind of results you get. Now the amazing thing about the amino acids is you get results within 1 to 5 minutes.

So I'm sitting with someone, they'll tell me, yes, I have this physical tension in my neck. It's a nine out of ten. And I have I just love chocolate chip cookies. And as soon as I'm stressed, I just go for the chocolate chip cookies. And that's a ten out of ten. So we'll do a trial of GABA there and then and within 5 minutes they should be able to say to me, I'm not feeling as physically tense or physically anxious and I'm not even thinking about the chocolate chip cookies. The key. Dr. Gersh With using GABA is to use it sublingual.

So I will have them use a gabbi powder or we'll use a lapis thermal gaba or we will have them open up a GABA capsule and just put that on their tongue and hold it on their tongue for 1 to 2 minutes and then we will get some feedback. So they with that kind of usage of GABA, we're getting quick results because it's getting absorbed in through the mouth and then from there we may increase based on how they respond. But say for example, in this case with someone had a nine out of ten for physical anxiety, they stress eat, they'd used the GABA and they told me it's a five out of ten.

I'm feeling much more relaxed. A lot of people will say to me, Oh, I just feel like I had a glass of wine. That's the feeling we want without needing the wine or without needing that carbohydrate, which you self-medicate with in order to feel good. So now and then they'll say this I don't even feel like the chocolate chip cookies. I'm not even thinking about it. They might say that's like a four out of ten. So that's telling me that Gabby is possibly going to work for them. And then over the course of the next few weeks, we will increase from that initial starting dose.

The other key thing, Dr. Gersh, is we want to start really low. A lot of people start to high with GABA and then it could actually make them more anxious and it can actually affect their sleep. So I will use a starting dose of about 125 milligrams. But to go to your question about where do we start with dietary changes, if we start with the amino acids, then it makes it easier for them to make all the dietary changes. And over those first few weeks, while they are starting to make the changes by adding in the GABA and seeing how it affects their overwhelming anxiety, the stress levels, the ability to not need to self-medicate with the sugar in order to feel good.

We are starting to make the introduction on all the dietary changes that they need to make in order to be more healthy. Well, I was going to ask you, like, how does it get in so quickly? Now you explain that you're doing it like right on the tongue or sublingual aid. And I could see people wanting to do this all the time. You know, this sounds like, wow, I just feel so much better. But you did say you can actually overdo it. So how does a person know how to dose themselves? I'm sure you work with them.

You can obviously take too much. Is there a way to know ahead of time? Like what would be the right interval? How often you can take it in a day? Gabby is typically used 4 to 5 times a day away from protein.

Dosing, safety, and other amino acids 16:58

So on waking mid-morning, mid-afternoon and evening, and then some folks who are having trouble sleeping or waking up feeling really tense can even take some in the night. Ideally, we want to get the right dose before bedtime, so they're not needing to take it in the night. But that's a typical timing of when to take it. And what we do is we have them in, so we'll start at 125 milligrams. So for example, in this case where they got some benefits, so they'll do 125 milligrams, maybe four times a day, and then in a week's time, if they are getting benefits.

But it's not quite enough that they're feeling. Yes, I'm feeling much more relaxed. I'm not as overwhelmed. I'm able to eat less of the carbs. They will say, okay, well, let's increase it a little bit. So let's double that to, you know, increase the dose to 250 milligrams and do that four times a day and see how you do. If you are seeing additional benefits, then you stay on that dose. If you're feeling like you need a little bit more, then you may go up again. And if you go up and you're not getting any additional benefits, then you go back down to the previous dose and then we will have clients use that dose for a month, maybe two months, maybe three months, maybe they'll go on holiday and they forget to take it and then they realize they don't need it.

Or they just say, Look, I'd like to see if I need it any more. And then we just reduce the dose slowly. It doesn't have to be reduced or tapered or anything, but a lot of people like to do that. So they're not getting, you know, going straight back to where they were. I would say with PCOS, it's a longer term because we have to address all the underlying factors like the dietary factors and the hormonal factors so it can take a little bit longer with PCOS. And then I wanted to just also put out there for folks who feel fearful about doing this, it is an antidote.

So if you happen to take too much and you do feel anxious, you just take a thousand milligrams of vitamin C and that'll negate the effect. So it'll, it'll take away the adverse effects and I'll show you what those are in a second, but it'll also take away the benefits that you got. So say you felt common naturally, and then you started to feel a little bit ramped up. Or some people will get a sort of niacin flush as as such, you don't actually feel ridden hot, but you can feel tingly with too much gaba.

So you may feel a little bit uncomfortable because you've got a little bit of a tingle going on and it disappears. It's very quickly. It'll dissipate typically within half an hour. So if you do take too much, but a lot of people feel a little bit fearful. And then I've had some people not knowing what to do, and they'll take a 750 milligram capsule the first time and they will feel more anxious. They may feel racing hot, and then they've got this tingle feeling it does go away, but it's not feeling is not very comfortable.

So for folks who feel a little bit worried about how much should I use, it's knowing that there's this vitamin C is very helpful. And the other thing is it's very individualized. It's the dosing is depends on each person I mentioned 125 milligrams is a starting dose. For some people, it can be a quarter of that. I had one client used 125 MG Chewable, put it in their mouth. By the time I picked up the page you said, I feel so relaxed. I said, Take it out, take it out. And she actually needed one eighth of 125 milligrams.

So it's very individualized. But 125 milligrams is typical. Unless someone is very sensitive, then we might start lower and then build up from there. So by taking it at these intervals, it lasts pretty much for that length of time in most people. So many women with PCOS and of course this is beyond PCOS population have binge eating disorder and like you talked about chocolate chip cookies, it could be chips, it could be all kinds of things. So this will help control it like all through the day if you sort of interval dose it like this for most women or do some people need like a boost like, oh my gosh, that bag of chips is calling my name and I can't control it.

I can't stop obsessing about it. This will help take that away. And maybe they need a boost or maybe they won't need a boost. So ideally so a lot of people will use GABA one, one or once a day maybe, or when they feel like they, they, they've got a binge episode coming up or they're feeling more anxious and I like to have my clients use it consistently. So yes, it's going to start to get their labels up. It does last in the system about 4 hours, so that's why we do it multiple times throughout the day.

But some people are more anxious in the morning or they're more anxious later in the day, or they're more anxious at night. And if in that case, they may actually be doing 125 milligrams throughout the day, but later in the evening they manage to have a higher dose to help if this that's binge eating going on. But keep in mind, each of the neurotransmitters has a mood compared and a binge eating component. So we haven't talked about low serotonin that that can also cause that binge eating. So I like to do one amino acid at a time and then we know is it working?

And it's easy to figure out how much I need and what timing I need. But then we would then look at low serotonin, for example, and that can cause binge eating. And we would then do a trial of tryptophan or five htp in a similar way, look at the symptoms and then do a trial. And then there's also low endorphins, which is a big factor when it comes to emotional eating. And there's another amino acid called a de fennel alanine, which stops and raises endorphins. It acts in a similar way to LDN low dose naltrexone, but it's an amino acid.

And what it does is it raises endorphins and stop said need for comfort eating and emotional eating. And I would say in the US population, all of those neurotransmitter imbalances may be there. Certainly it's very common in my community of anxious women who don't necessarily have PCOS. It's very common to have neurotransmitter deficiencies and all the different areas. And seeing we mentioning them, I'm just going to mention the other to low blood sugar is a factor and there's an amino acid called glutamine and that can stop cravings as well.

And then low dopamine can also contribute to binge eating. And you needing that sugar as a sugar fix to give you that energy and focus. But I wanted I wanted to taste and to be to focus on GABA, because there is so much research on GABA specifically with regards to PCOS. And you know, when I was preparing for this, I was amazed to see the research. One of the studies that I pulled actually showed how GABA used in rats that with PCOS they found it there was reduced body weight, reduced body mass index, reduced testosterone, a favorable lipid profile, normal glucose tolerance, and a decreased number of cystic follicles in the ovaries.

And and this particular paper I want to just read the name of bit in case people want to look it up. Protective Effects of GABA against metabolic and reproductive disturbances in PCOS syndrome in rats. And that conclusion was this the effect were comparable to that with metformin and that is profound to me and that they didn't have any of the side effects. So which can include anxiety, racing, heart shakiness and depression. So the authors conclude that the results suggest that GABA treatment had shown protective effects

GABA research in PCOS and metabolic health 24:58

in PCOS and provides beneficial effects either by reducing insulin resistance or by inducing antioxidant defense mechanisms. So here we've got GABA that's helping ease the anxiety, that's helping stopping that binge eating. And it is having all of these metabolic effects when it comes to peace. So when I looked at this research and I did a blog post about it, I was just blown away. And I know you looked at the blog post and you were pretty intrigued as well. So it's very exciting to think that GABA can play such a role in PCOS.

I think this is almost unknown in the PCOS community or PCOS therapeutic managers, you know, the doctors, nurse practitioners and other nutritionists, I don't think they have a clue. And I found this to be incredibly eye opening and and it fits with the whole notion of everything is multitasking in the body, you know, so like neurotransmitters don't just exist in the brain and you know, they do things throughout the body and most everything has a metabolic component as well as that, an emotional component.

And this this article, I know, like you said, it was in rats that almost everything is conserved in terms of genetics between rats and humans. That's why they can use them as study subjects. So for me, I am going to I'm telling you, I'm going to start using your protocol like just incredibly frequently, because I think this is the nominal. It's not just about anxiety that's great in itself. That's phenomenal, but it's dealing with these metabolic issues. So I was going to ask you, I've learned something about some of the other neurotransmitters are probably weakest in GABA, you know, so in terms of like serotonin, dopamine.

So I know some of these are produced by the gut microbiome. They're not just produced in the brain. So I don't know about GEP, but can you tell me if there's been any research on where else in the body gap is produced and besides in the by the neurons. It's produced in the gut as well. So the absolutely is just in a similar way that we produce serotonin in the gut, we reproduce GABA in the gut. One of the psycho biotics is lactobacillus rhamnosus and they actually did a study, a rat study again where they severed the vagus nerve of these rats and they found that the benefits that the rats had been well limited to back up the rats were given lactobacillus rhamnosus and it was calming and it lowered the, the cortisol levels and essentially their anxiety when they severed the vagus nerve, which is the communication, one of the communications between the gut and the brain, that they were not getting that benefit.

So we know there is definitely this microbiome impacts and we. MAKGABO And I guess it's it's amazing. And as you know, we've got receptors all over the body for GABA. And, you know, the paper that I mentioned was a rat paper, but there was actually a 2019 paper looking at women in Egypt with PCOS that also had dyslipidemia. They had high testosterone and low vitamin D levels. And they they found that they were giving them GABA and had an impact. And they report that we've got GABA is reported to improve insulin sensitivity through its peripheral receptors in the pancreas, the ovaries and the adrenals and animal models.

So we know there's will point you, you and anyone else who's interested. There's a lot of research on GABA in diabetes and the effects on blood sugar and and the pancreas. So we can hopefully we're going to see a lot of that research being applied to the pictures community because because of them, you know, we know of the metabolic issues that we see with PCOS. So it has a huge impact on the pancreas as well, which is then impacting all of these metabolic effects. So it's it's exciting. It really is.

Really extremely and you know, you're going back to your own personal story how you were approaching kind of an early but within the normal range of perimenopausal women, trans, you know, transitioning in their hormones, becoming more irregularly produced and less reliable and with a trajectory that tends downward. So we know there is this relationship between hormones and the neurotransmitters. And in women who are losing their estrogen, there's a much greater increase in anxiety, like women in perimenopause in menopause have like doubled the incidence of anxiety or four times as high if they've had prior history.

And women with PCOS and this is often not recognized, they actually have a problem with producing estradiol in their ovaries. So I'm thinking like there seems to be a relationship. So maybe if you don't have enough estradiol, you don't have enough GABA, but by giving GABA you're sort of like getting rid of the middleman of estradiol. You're going straight to what you need and providing what every cell needs in order to function properly, whether it's a neuron or whether it's involving insulin function and so on.

So is that something that that you've also been looking at. The biggest connection I have actually seen? Dr. Gersh, is between progesterone and Deborah, so I haven't looked into the estrogen connection, but I'm intrigued and I know that's a big passion of yours. And I love your work because of what you bring to the table in terms of educating about estrogen. So I'm going to look into it. I don't have an answer for you right now, but I'm sure there is a connection and if we find it, it'll be very exciting to know and to share as well.

Well, in addition,

Hormones, progesterone, and broader nutrient support 30:48

I'd love to just talk a little bit about the progesterone effect, because women with PCOS don't ovulate regularly, so they don't have the levels of progesterone they should have. And same thing as women go through the perimenopause and their ablation becomes less frequent. So what is the role that that we do know and that, you know, that you can share with us about progesterone and GABA? So they they feed off each other, so to speak. And we know that progesterone improves GABA receptors. So if you've got if you've got low if you've got low progesterone, that's going to affect your GABA levels.

And I, you know, when I'm working with women in my community who are in perimenopause and may have low progesterone, the first thing we do is we support GABA, you know, as a nutritionist, to focus on the nutrients and then if they've got low, they've got so that they've got PMS, for example, or PCOS, and we know that they've got some hormonal issues. I will work on the supporting their neurotransmitters first. So supporting GABA, supporting serotonin and within two or three cycles the hormones are doing better, their production of the hormones are better and then if they still need support is, then I'll refer to a nurse practitioner or to a doctor who can support them from a, you know, hormonal point of view if they need identical hormones, for example.

But using the the Gabba and the serotonin support will usually start to normalize a lot of the hormone imbalances in two or three cycles. Now that going back to what I said earlier, is that you're getting results for the anxiety and the binge eating and the cravings right away takes a little bit longer to work on the hormone support. So there's definitely the strong connection between these neurotransmitters and our hormones. And yeah, so I wanted to just say that as well. Of course, there are other things that we look at.

The other big issue that I see in my community is this social anxiety condition called paranoia, and I had that as well. And this nutrients, zinc and vitamin B6 and Evening Primrose oil help the paranoia. They also help hormone production and they also help with the neurotransmitter production. So, you know, you asked earlier about where do I start? So I'll have people start with the amino acids. We starting to make the dietary changes. And then I look at some of these other factors like paranoia.

And once we start to address that with those nutrients, it then starts to have a trickle down effect and affects the hormones, improves, you know, estrogen and progesterone and and then helps to make the neurotransmitters as well. So it's a big picture. We just focusing. It's not just GABA, it's not just paranoia. We've got to do the whole picture as we just focusing on a small area here today. But I wanted to I wanted to end with a wonderful case study because when I did the blog post about the research, I had a woman in my community share how GABA had actually helped her with her.

PCOS Can we can we talk about that? I was just going to ask you to do that because when I read that it was just warming to my heart. And so everyone has to hear this story because like you share, you know, this is global effect on the body. You know, it starts at the top and works all the way down beyond the ovaries. And so this is phenomenal. This is like really groundbreaking work. And I'd love for you to share the story of your patient, your client. So she did the blog post with the research.

And my community is amazing. If I share some research, they'll come back and tell me their story, which is wonderful. And then I take I took her story and I created a new blog post and then I got more feedback. So it's wonderful how, when you when get results, you want to share it with the world, which is, is wonderful. And as you say, it's very heartwarming. When I hear results like this, it's amazing. And then I get to learn, too. So if she hadn't shared this, I probably wouldn't have been on your summit.

So it's wonderful. I appreciate her sharing and I appreciate her giving me this opportunity to share here, too. So this was a woman, she said. I was diagnosed with PCOS when I was 27. I'm currently 43. When diagnosed they immediately put me on birth control and metformin. I also eventually went on anti-anxiety medication. So that's really common. I've been anxious my whole life, even as a kid, but my anxiety increased to my late twenties and peaked in my late thirties when panic attacks started taking over.

Even with the anti-anxiety medication, it was debilitating. I first heard about GABA, an amino acids and how they can help with anxiety from a podcast you did with Wildness Mama about three years ago I started to wean off my anxiety medication and I started taking GABA and noticed a huge difference in my anxiety. I've eventually got off birth control and all medication for my PCOS

PCOS success story and where to find Trudy Scott 35:48

and started regulating my cycle with diet, lifestyle changes and supplements, all the while still taking Gabby now ovulate every month, which I could never do on my own before. So I'm going to give a lot of credit to GABA. But it wasn't just GABA. She made the diet changes, she made the lifestyle changes as well. But what was really heartwarming, Dr. Gersh, is she said this feedbackabout her oldest daughter, her oldest daughter is nine, was also showing early signs of developing PCOS and other issues that she had dealt with when she was younger.

And she had a slightly different response. So her mood was changing and she was getting angry out of nowhere, which is unusual. You usually think of anger issues as being a low serotonin issue, but she because of her good results with GABA, she said, I started her on a small dose of GABA and immediately both of us saw a difference in mood. She now asks for her happy pills daily because she doesn't want to feel those dark feelings anymore. I wish this information was around when I was young. It could have helped me so much of what you know with that, what I had to struggle with for years.

So Debbie was, you know, I appreciate her for sharing her story and letting me share. And then she gets to help her daughter, too, and we get to share and help other people as well. So pretty amazing results. It is there is there is no pharmaceutical out there, guys, that that has a result like this. I mean, we give ovulation inducing drugs and they give out metformin like water and it does not yield these kind of results. And here every side effect is a benefit, right? You improve anxiety and you also improve all your metabolic functions.

You improve ovarian function. So I think this was probably one of the most eye opening interviews that we've had on this summit. I cannot thank you enough. And I know truly that everyone wants to follow you. They want to learn more. Maybe they would like to work with you so tell us, how can people find you and what could be their next step if they would like to work with you? Thanks, Dr. Gersh, for your kind words. I'm so glad that you're excited about this, because, as you can tell, how really excited about GABA and the amino acids too.

So thanks again for having me on the summit. And my I'm all about empowerment. I want to empower my clients. A lot of clients just take my advice from my book, The Anti-anxiety Food Solution and start making the changes and get results. So you're a DIY kind of person. That's a great resource for you. It's got all the dietary information, it's got a chapter on the amino acids, it's got a chapter on paranoia. But if you need support. I've got online group programs where you can work with me and you can have an opportunity to ask questions and figure out how much GABA you need and when to use it.

So if you're the kind of person who feels like you need that support, I've got these online group programs and then of course I'm on Facebook. Trudy Scott Anti-anxiety Food Solution at my blog. I send out my newsletter once a week with new information, new research, new case studies. And then of course, I also teach practitioners on how to use the amino acids. I would love it if more practitioners were using these amino acids with their clients and patients. So that's where you can find me and that's where you can get information.

Well, that's fantastic. I'm sure that almost everyone is not everyone wants to read your book because anxiety underlies almost every problem that women with PCOS face and like that beautiful story. None of that would have happened if she continued to have anxiety she wouldn't have had the ability to do all of those other lifestyle changes. So I just love your protocol. And although I would never wish someone to have, you know, like the symptoms that you had to deal with, I'm kind of glad it happened because it changed the trajectory of your life and it changed your career.

I mean, it's what a story. It's pretty darn amazing. So I can't thank you enough and I look forward to following you myself and learning more about GABA and the other amino acids and utilizing them in my practice a.s.a.p. So thanks so much. It's a pleasure and I'm so excited. Thanks again for having me. I look forward to sharing this with my community. I know it's going to be so invaluable for them, so thank you for doing it. Dr. Gersh.