Eat Your Way to Calm: Foods That Trigger or Tame Anxiety

Introduction to Anxiety and Nutritional Psychiatry 0:00

This is Doctor Talks, real talk from real doctors on the issues that matter to you most. Well, hello everyone. It's so good to see you. And I'm so excited to get into talking about the most common mental health disorder out there, anxiety. And we're going to talk with one of really the leading proponents and leading experts around anxiety and food. You just heard her bio Trudy. It's such a treat to see you. It's been quite a while since we've worked together, but I think I was just talking to you.

One of the very first summits I did way back when the happiness diet was published in 2011 was with you. You're really one of the first people to kind of know what I was doing and celebrate nutritional psychiatry. So I am really, really delighted to have you here in the anxiety and depression solution summit. How are you doing? I'm doing very well, Dr. Randy. Thanks for having me. And yes, that was a long time ago. And there's still so much that we can share about the connection between diet and anxiety.

So I'm really thrilled to be here. Thank you for having me. Well, let's get right into this. I mean, as a nutritional psychiatrist, I've been so interested in anxiety and its relationship with food. There's so many different ways it relates. You know, often we just think about the nutrients that cause or don't cause, but so much about our eating behavior can be triggered. by worried or anxious thoughts, so much of how sometimes we try and calm ourselves down can be related to anxiety, certainly can at times sap our diet.

But I'd love to hear your perspective and your thought. What is the relationship between diet and anxiety? Well, there's a huge relationship and it's really exciting that this connection is being recognised. A lot of people still, even though there's your amazing work and there's a lot of other pioneers in this area, of nutritional psychiatry, which I'll talk about in a second. A lot of people aren't aware that anxiety can be purely biochemical or that it can be mostly biochemical or even if there's a psychological trauma or something else going on.

There can be a biochemical aspect that is making things worse. And there are certain foods, which we'll talk about today, that can trigger anxiety, increase your fears, cause phobias, cause panic attacks, make you feel overwhelmed, cause ruminating thoughts, and affect your sleep. All really closely tied to these foods that you put in your mouth, nutrients that you might be depleted in. foods and things that cause nutrient deficiencies and there's this you mentioned nutritional psychiatry and for folks who don't know there's this new field called nutritional psychiatry and I just love the and appreciate The International Society for Nutritional Psychiatry research, which I know you're part of and very much aware of, but for folks who don't know, there was a position paper published by the organization in 2015 in World Psychiatry, which is the official journal of the World Psychiatric Association.

And they published this position statement talking about nutritional medicine in modern psychiatry and saying how diet and nutrition are modifiable targets for the prevention of mental disorders, which includes anxiety, and have a fundamental role in the promotion of mental health. And I appreciate the fact that they talk about dietary modification, but they also in this paper mention nutrients that can help. And they talk about B vitamins, omega threes, choline, iron, zinc, magnesium, vitamin D and amino acids, which is central to my work.

and they say although we advocate for these nutrients to be consumed as part of the diet, additional select use of these nutraceuticals may also be justified. So we always want to think about diet first, and then there is a place for some of these nutrients depending on the person and depending on what their

How Diet and Nutrients Affect Anxiety 4:00

unique biochemistry is. And we can use the diet and we can also use the nutrients. And we both know Professor Felice Jacker, a prolific Australian researcher, founder of the International Society of Nutritional Psychiatry Research and a trailblazer. And it's just really exciting to be able to share her work and just share the importance of diet and nutrients when it comes to anxiety. A lot of folks, maybe some people watching right now, haven't really thought about the connection between food and anxiety before.

I see this happen all the time, really well-informed patients that I'm working with who have something like clinical depression, and they've never really thought that what they eat affects how they feel. Um, in, in, in the significant way that the research is showing us, it does. I loved it to hear is, is you kind of think through those, those categories that you just went through of some of the nutrients. Can you tell us kind of, do you have a rank of importance when you, like, as people are listening, you said, you know, your work, for example, centers on the omega threes.

Is that like the most important one in your mind that we think about or are all of them important? Is there kind of a, I don't know, you know, top anxiety nutrient in your mind? I think it depends on each individual. So the omega-3s are definitely important. The B vitamins, a lot of them are cofactors, certainly something like vitamin B6 and vitamin B12. They're cofactors for making some of our neurotransmitters. If someone is iron deficient, that's going to definitely affect neurotransmitter production.

So our neurotransmitters, for example, like GABA, and serotonin help with different types of anxiety. Zinc is a key one I find because zinc is a very common deficiency and so is magnesium. So vitamin D as well is a common deficiency, less so now because there's a lot more awareness about vitamin D I think. And we need good vitamin D levels in order to have good serotonin production. And then the amino acids, individual amino acids, is something that I use extensively in my work to address low levels of neurotransmitters while we addressing all the underlying causes.

So I'll use GABA and I'll use tryptophan. I'll use D-phenylalanine. But I think it really depends on the individual, depends on their biochemistry, depends on their diet, depends on their stress levels, and maybe genetics as well. So all of these factors play a role. And we just need to figure out what is deficient in each person and what they actually need. Are there ways that anxiety and anxiety symptoms affect appetite or kind of food and eating behaviors? I see this a lot. From a purely biochemical aspect, there are a number of mechanisms where we see anxiety and cravings go hand in hand.

So with the, for example, with the low GABA type of anxiety, and this is the kind of anxiety where you've got physical tension, you'll feel stiff and tense in your muscles, you may feel tight in your belly, You may feel less butterflies in your belly. So it's sort of a more of a physical kind of anxiety. I'll see that carbohydrate cravings ramp up when you're feeling more stress. So you'll use carbs or sugar as a way to self-medicate in order to calm yourself down. And then for some people with low GABA, they will self-medicate with alcohol.

So that's another type of craving on addiction, but they'll use this in order to relax and to fit in socially. And then with the low serotonin kind of anxiety, and this is more the sort of ruminations, the worrying, the obsessing fears and phobias, the afternoon and evening cravings are what we see for sugar and carbohydrates, because this is when serotonin levels start to dip, and then you'll eat sugar or carbs in order to calm down, in order to feel good. So those are just some of the examples that I see.

Trudy, as you're talking, I think a lot of people in the wellness world and in the nutrition world and in the integrative world have had a lot of questions about the biochemical nature of anxiety. And as a psychiatrist, that's always felt pretty clear to me. That's how the model in which I was trained and how I see this. And it just struck me as you're talking that, you know, you really think in terms of things like serotonin and GABA. And I was wondering, being part of the wellness world, how has that struck you when kind of this foundational idea about depression and anxiety that they do relate to chemicals in our brain, that that's attacked?

I'm wondering, how does that sit with you and kind of how do you help patients understand that? Are you referring to the serotonin hypothesis being attacked and saying that it's not related to serotonin? I think we need to recognize that for some people, the anxiety can be related to low serotonin, but also recognize that there are many underlying causes, and this is just one cause. I don't think we want to just say it's all low serotonin.

Anxiety, Cravings, and Biochemical Root Causes 10:00

I know that's certainly been what the message has been for a long time when it comes to depression, that it's just low serotonin and then there's saying, well, it's not low serotonin. So I think we need to recognize that just like we just talked about which nutrients do we use for each specific person, low serotonin could be a factor and I see it to be a common deficiency in a lot of people. But there could be logaba, there could be infections that are contributing to the anxiety, there could be toxins, there could be inflammation, it could be the gut.

So there's a lot of other underlying root causes that we need to consider when it comes to some of the mechanisms that are contributing to this biochemical Yeah, root cause of anxiety. You know, Trudy, as you're talking, I also, I hope people hear the hopefulness. I think sometimes, you know, so many different things that can contribute if you're having symptoms with anxiety or depression and, you know, it can sound like there's a lot to do or a lot to check off, but I hear a lot of hopefulness in what you're saying that, you know, a lot of different factors contribute.

Some are new, like the microbiome. I also like how you're differentiating the types of worry. If you're scared about going into the classroom or public speaking, That's different than if you have a ruminative worry, you know, an idea you can't get out of your head or an obsessive worry, you know, which is all, you know, kind of different than other types of anxiety. For example, if you have more panic or a specific phobia. And so really being very clear with yourself and kind of the types of anxiety that you're having, there's also where it's great to talk to a mental health professional and kind of You know, I meet a lot of patients who describe their anxiety and experience it in a certain way.

And then as I'm sitting with them, you know, it seems a little different to me in terms of some of the triggers or some of the causes or some things that people maybe hadn't been asked about. So I really appreciate all that and what you're sharing and how you're asking us to really be circumspect when we're thinking about the symptom of anxiety. It's not as simple as, you know, one neurotransmitter. Or it's not as simple as, you know, one bed trigger food. But these are things that we want to consider and think about when we're being circumspect about anxiety.

I was wondering if there are specific foods. I mean, there's so much that we're seeing about ultra processed foods and it's linked to depression. We've seen so much about dietary pattern and the more modern or more kind of a processed food or Western dietary pattern, as actually Felice Jacka's first paper came out in the Green Journal, the American Journal of Psychiatry, the first really ever nutritional psychiatry paper. It was her graduate thesis. It was a correlational study looking at a Western dietary pattern.

And what made all the headlines was how a Western territory pattern was correlated with an increased risk of depression. It's also interesting in that study, there was also an increased risk of anxiety disorders with a Western dietary pattern. But I'm curious about the foods that you see most commonly triggering anxiety and I'm particularly interested in the ultra-processes, these new modern foods that are kind of infiltrated most people's diets and which of those are the worst culprits? Yes, and I'm glad you quoted Professor Jacker's paper that was One of the papers that I actually quoted in my book when it came out, because it was so profound and it was so exciting to see that there was research around this.

And she's since gone on to publish many, many papers with different populations. I think that one was with women in Australia. She went on and did a similar study on children. and then different population groups in different countries. So it's really exciting that she's looked at junk food and what she calls a traditional diet or, you know, the junk food is the ultra process. I like you calling it junk food. I think Felice, we both know Felice. She'd want us to call it junk food or garbage food.

I mean, she's, you know, she's, I like her firiness and her, she's very brave. You know, I think a lot of us are a little, maybe, I don't know, I wouldn't say we pull punches, but I just, I like the way that Felice talks about processed food and large food companies in very explicit terms and holding them culpable that these aren't really foods that are going to help our health or our mental health. Right. Right. And, and she, she. She calls it a traditional diet, which we could call a whole foods, real foods, quality foods.

And part of that junk food or ultra processed food is the sugar. So when you're consuming a lot of sugary foods, firstly, it fills you up. So you're less likely to eat more nutrient dense foods, but that sugar, We'll deplete some of the same nutrients that we need to make our neurotransmitters. We're burning fuels. And anytime you burn fuels, you're burning, you're making energy, but you're also creating a lot of waste products. The thing about these simple sugars is they don't come with any of the nutrients that help us deal with the processing of the energy or the processing of the waste products.

It's just kind of a hint. I think about their takers. These foods can't make it on their own. I think the foods that you tend to recommend, and we'll get to those after we talk about trigger foods, You know, there are foods that come with a lot. They bring a lot to the table. You know, they're here to kind of contribute to your body. They've got some extra nutrients they can lend into the fight. And I really like that about them as opposed to these processed foods where it's like, you know, they're always showing up like, anybody have any zinc to help me deal with myself?

And it's just, you know, it's not, it's not, you know, it's not who you want to your party, right? You want to bring to your party somebody who's going to show up to the potluck with something delicious and nutrient dense that they've made with love. And I kind of, I think about that as all the foods that we're eating. I'm cutting you off Triti. You're telling us a little bit about some of the trigger foods, high sugar foods, lots of sugar, and these ultra processed foods.

Trigger Foods: Sugar, Gluten, and Caffeine 16:00

Tell us a little bit more of what are on the list for things we need to look out for in our diet that could be triggering anxiety. Yes. I've got another one, another few I wanted to add, but just going back to the whole sugar thing is the sugar aspect is that we self-medicate. to feel calm, to feel comforted, to feel rewarded, to feel happy. So if we've got low GABA, if we've got low serotonin, we're using that sugar, that junk food as a treat, as a reward to make us feel good. And then that makes things worse.

So we do want to always mention that. And then tied into the sugar is blood sugar swing. So if we are eating sugary foods, certainly having a sugary food or carbohydrate at breakfast time, that's going to give us a spike in blood sugar and then we're going to get a crash and then we're going to want more sugar and then we're going to spike in blood sugar and then a crash. So that's going to give us this roller coaster of anxiety. focus issues, fatigue issues, and stress the adrenals and cause these nutrient deficiencies.

So an important thing is to have quality protein, healthy fats at breakfast. That's going to prevent those blood sugar swings. But then the other thing is that we don't want to forget about is some of the food sensitivities that are very common triggers for anxiety. And one of them is gluten. And we often think about gluten affecting the gut, causing leaky gut or causing constipation or diarrhea. But there's plenty of research showing it can trigger anxiety, social anxiety, even depression and schizophrenia.

So this is bread, cookies, pasta. And for many people, it's very challenging to quit. I actually had one client She was in her 40s and she said quitting bread was more difficult to quit than when she had to quit cocaine that she was addicted to in her 20s. So there's these gluteomorphins, which opioid-like compounds found in gluten when you start digesting it, these compounds are produced and that makes it very addicting. And I mentioned the amino acids, which is the main focus of my work, and that can help break the addiction.

So these diet changes are much easier to make. Now, some people can just give up sugar, they can just give up gluten using wall power. But for some people, they need the amino acids, so they don't have to use wall power and they don't have to. There's a gluten sensitivity study with gluten. People who had gluten sensitivity, the anxiety rate for a sort of 75 plus percent. And then when they adopted a gluten-free diet, it dropped down to the same rates as the control group. And so, you know, certainly with people with those sensitivities, you know, it's one of the great things with more awareness and more testing, it's something that more people are aware of.

But even people who have frank celiac disease and autoimmune disease to gluten, half of people with that disease don't even know about it. And so that can be a huge game changer. What are some of the other culprits on your list, Trudy? Caffeine. And that's a tough one, Doctor. A lot of my clients will say, I'll give up sugar, I'll give up bread and cookies, but don't take my caffeine away. Don't take my coffee away. I need it. It's a ritual. It's something that I like to do in the morning on my own.

It's really something that I can't give up. And there are some individuals that are more susceptible. There's a gene, CYP182, that determines how fast we metabolize coffee. So for some people, a little bit of coffee is just a huge trigger for anxiety. And actually, there was a study done in 1989. It was a very small study, but the people in the study had generalized anxiety and panic disorder. None had benefited from medication or therapy. They were only consuming one and a half to three and a half cups of coffee a day.

But within a week of stopping the coffee, their anxiety disappeared. So I see this all the time. There's no point in making all these other wonderful changes and we're going to talk about some foods that are really beneficial. If caffeine is a trigger for you, then you need to think about giving up caffeine and you can drink Roybos tea, you can drink chamomile tea, there's a lot of wonderful herbal teas that, you know, great to drink and you're not getting that caffeine fix. And I'm just talking about coffee here.

When we're talking about caffeine, we need to think about the double whammy when you're drinking a soda, you're getting the sugar and you're also getting the caffeine. That's great. And I think also folks listening, exploring, I've had periods where I drank decaf. If you like all those polyphenols that you get in your coffee, you can go to something that's decaffeinated. There are a lot of wonderful products now that are doing a third calf or half calf, you know, where you can kind of dial in the caffeine a little bit or wean yourself off.

And then as Trudy mentioned, all kinds of wonderful teas, periods in my life where I've gotten off coffee for whatever reason, I've got a real nice Earl Grey addiction to replace it. And, you know, maybe that's not perfect in the sense I'm still taking in some caffeine, but I really found it was less caffeine and it helped. And I love your recommendations that, you know, if you're a caffeine sensitive person. Trudy, is there a way if, you know, someone like me, I've been habituated for coffee for a long time.

I, you know, I think a lot of physicians are. I start my day. I don't think about it as a treat. I just kind of, it's coffee with some half and half is my first caloric intake and usually the only thing I eat for, I don't know. three or four hours, a couple hours maybe. Is there a way, are we looking that, you know, if it is coffee or caffeine sensitive, we're going to notice maybe more anxiety or panicky or kind of worried symptoms like in the hour after we drink our caffeinated beverage or is it something that you see in your client shows up at different times of the day or kind of how do we know?

For most people I have found that it's pretty soon after the caffeine intake. They're feeling agitated, maybe a pounding heart, maybe a little bit restless. And for some people they'll say, I only have one cup or I only have two cups and I only have it before noon and I'm still anxious in the afternoon and I still can't sleep. And they're not convinced that stopping it will make a difference, but when they do, they do notice a difference. So even having it in the morning can affect your sleep. Even having it early in the day does seem to trigger anxiety later in the day for some people.

So again, Dr. Ramsey, I think it's very individualized as to how it impacts people. Well Trudy, thank you for that. Let's talk about some of the solutions, some of your favorite foods I'm really interested in that you see helping patients with anxiety and why you recommend them.

Food Prescriptions for Anxiety Relief 23:00

What are some of the top food prescriptions you see on your prescription path? Obviously, we've got to just recap and say the real foods that we were talking about when it comes to the work Professor Feliz jacket. So that's just goes without saying. But when we're honing in on some of those real foods, a big one is quality animal protein. I'm a big fan of grass-fed red meat, for example. What it's going to do, it's the amino acids providing the building blocks of protein and making neurotransmitters.

Red meat is a great source of zinc. It's a great source of iron, great source of omega-3s. A lot of people just think of oily fish as being a source of omega-3s, but grass-fed red meat does have omega-3s. And we talked about those nutrients earlier, cofactors for making our neurotransmitters. The other thing about animal protein and having it first thing in the morning, is that it's helping with blood sugar stability. I have my clients have protein at breakfast and it could be dinner for breakfast, leftover stew, it could be lamb steak, it could be eggs.

Obviously, pastured eggs are going to be a better choice. It could be Chicken broth, you know, leftover dinner is perfect, or it could be, you know, some sort of breakfast that's made up. And having that protein first thing in the morning sets you up for the rest of the day and is providing all of these beautiful nutrients that I'm talking about. Now, the important thing, Dr. Ramsey, is with protein, we need to make sure digestion is good. There's not much point in eating this good quality protein if we're not able to break down the you know, break down the amino acids into the, you know, the constituents that we need for making neurotransmitters and getting access to those nutrients.

So for some people, we need to think about, you know, what's, what's going on in the gut? Do they have Are they producing enough hydrochloric acid? Do they have enough protease? Do they have enough of these other enzymes? But certainly quality animal protein, I'm a big fan of, and that also includes the well-recognized source of omega-3s like wild salmon, sardines. I grew up in South Africa, and we used to have a sardine run up the coast every year, and I'm a big fan of sardines. What's the sardine run?

You go up the coast to get fresh sardines? The sardines went up the east coast of South Africa, and they beach themselves on the beach so you can actually they'll have the media out with the helicopters telling you where the sardines are going to beach and you all everyone goes to the beach and all the sardines come into the beach and you just catch sardines and buckets and in your clothing and it's just a real fun time and it's It's just a crazy scene to see. Trudy, will you take me like sardine beaching?

I mean, I've never even heard of this. It sounds a little bit like a fever dream to me, the idea that I could be out with you and lots of people grabbing sardines off the beach. You just like cook them right there on the beach, like they get some fires going. Yeah, we have in South Africa, a barbecue is called a braai place and you'll have You'll put the grill on the coals or the wood and you'll make sardines and just enjoy the sunset and get out in nature. It's just amazing. I mean, that sounds absolutely amazing.

And I think it's also such a wonderful piece of culture to share with us. And one of the pieces of nutritional psychiatry and the frameworks that we've proposed in our clinician training and in my books is really asking clinicians to think about the cultures and cultures of origin and traditions that people love. If I were working with Trudy, This story would light me up so much as a clinician and if she were depressed or anxious and let's say hadn't been eating sardines, you can appreciate how a clinician thoughtfully getting excited and encouraging sardine consumption.

gets her all these amazing nutrients, you know, calcium, one of the top sources of calcium is sardines and anchovies, all those little small bones, all the omega-3 fats we've been talking about, all these B vitamins and iodine. Of course, this is a seafood and selenium, all the other nutrients and sardines. She'd get all those, but she'd also get this taste of her upbringing and taste of something that her country, you know, is amazing at in terms of like celebrating sardines, having a big beach party.

And so it's one of those things in your life is your Thinking about your symptoms of anxiety and depression, you're wondering what of these lessons help? Which of these foods should I focus on? I always ask people to look to your past and your family's past and your microculture. And I don't think about sardines as a huge South African food because I don't know anything about South African food. But if I were working with Trudy as a client and as you're thinking about your health, it's such an important, you can see it's such an important and cool piece of her nutritional psychiatry history if you take it in a proper way.

So thank that. What a, what a cool thing. So sorry to go off on the sardine tangent there. But it is one of those foods that I certainly hope the summit helps you eat more of. We've been talking about some red meats, some sardines and oily fatty fishes. I think we're both fans. Besides the beach fresh sardines, these are great anchovies and sardines to get tinned because they're fresh. You keep them, you know, they stay, they stay or that they're canned fresh. So you don't have to worry about them spoiling.

very economical and just easy to add into a pasta, to a salad, all kinds of ways. So what else besides these two protein sources do you like for anxiety, Trudy? I've got another one that I'm going to share Dr. Ramsey, but I just love the fact that you're so excited about the sardines and it is, it's just so interesting. I want to add another little tidbit about that is there's so many sardines that are caught that they're actually used in pet food. So the pets The cats and dogs in South Africa are very well nourished because they're getting a lot of sardines as well.

So there's another little aspect to it, which I think is pretty interesting. That is very interesting. It's not only good for us. It's one of those things we don't think about a lot, but the pet food industry is a huge industry. And there's been a lot of, I think, just like with human food, there's been a lot of concerns. We love our pets. We want to feed them healthy stuff. That's not what's in a lot of pet foods. So let's talk about some of your favorite plants for anxiety. I was going to just mention fermented foods and that's plants because it's sauerkraut.

So yes, let's talk about a combination. So sauerkraut is wonderful because it's providing those probiotics for gut health that we know about the gut-brain connection.

Fermented Foods and Vegetables for Gut-Brain Health 30:00

Yoghurt, if dairy is tolerated as well. And I just, I remember the first time I heard the term psychobiotic, I thought, oh, that's interesting. And I know you know Dr. Ted Dynan as well. I had the opportunity of interviewing him on one of my summits as well. He's a professor of psychiatry in Ireland, and he published a paper, I think it was around 2011 or 12, The paper is called Psychobiotics, a novel class of psychotropy. And for anyone who doesn't know what a psychobiotic is, it says in the paper he writes about it being a live organism that when ingested in adequate amounts produces health benefits in patients suffering from psychiatric illness, which could include anxiety as well.

So the paper goes on to say, it produces and delivers neuroactive substances such as gamma-aminobutyric acid, which is GABA, and serotonin, which act on the gut-brain axis. And he, him and his team, as you know, Dr. Andy have gone on to publish multiple papers on psychobiotics. So I'm a big fan of fermented foods like sauerkraut. And they, I think they, I have a big role to play in anyone's diet and certainly in the diet of individuals who have anxiety. Yeah, this has been really one of the big shifts in my clinical practice.

There's more enthusiasm and incitement because oftentimes that I have when we're talking about fermented foods. especially with patients with anxiety. It seems like the data really, anxiety, depression, and one study for mania and bipolar disorder that was in a fermented food, but it was a probiotics, but you know, really interesting and intriguing notion that one of the ways to kind of shift symptoms of anxiety is through shifting the diversity of the microbiome. So that's a great food category.

I love that one. So we've got some good animal proteins like healthy grass-fed beef, we've got some oily fish, we've got some fermented foods, bring us home with some some delicious plants. What are your favorites? I love non-starchy vegetables such as cauliflower, broccoli, asparagus, you name it, anything that's organic preferably because if it's not you're going to have the issue with the pesticides which are not going to do you any favors so all of these healthy vegetables should be part of the diet as well and I like to Personally, and what I recommend to my client, is find a way that you like to enjoy vegetables.

Personally, I like to steam them with lots of butter. They can be roasted with olive oil as well. They can be made into a soup and blended up. So there's many ways to enjoy healthy vegetables. Oh, I really appreciate you mentioning that, Trudy. And I'm sure people listening also appreciate it. Because so often it's like, do you like cauliflower? I was like, it's one thing. And, oh, you're talking raw cauliflower? Are you talking sauteed? Are you talking about cauliflower steak? Are you making a puree or a soup?

There's so many different ways to making a pizza with a cauliflower crust. And so really, both the diversity of plants that we eat, but also working a little bit on your skills and I'd say your enjoyment in preparing vegetables in a variety of different ways. A lot of pleasure in my kale game, you know, I can make a lot of different ways for you. I've worked on that over the years. And so I think it's a great piece of encouragement. Well, if you came into this conversation with any question of how diet and anxiety are related, I hope you've gotten a little mini masterclass here from Trudy Scott.

Along with this conversation, Trudy has generally given some wonderful free resources for the summit.

Closing Thoughts and Action Steps 34:00

The types of resources she uses with her clients who are struggling with symptoms of anxiety, certainly in healing the modern brain. This is really one of the ways that we feel that mental fitness and lifestyle interventions really is foundational to things like taking care of worry and anxiety. And Trudy, thank you so much for sharing all of your knowledge, everybody. It's been a wonderful, wonderful episode, and I appreciate so much your time and attention. I asked you the same question at the end of every one of these, which is, I hope that one of the things that stuck out with you, my request, I'd say your cost of admission, in my opinion, is that you do something specifically with each one of these talks.

Something, maybe Trudy mentioned asparagus and you thought, yum, I haven't had those for a while. Or maybe, There's something about the microbiome or the way that Trudy, with all of her knowledge about anxiety and food, got you kind of excited about making some sauerkraut. Whatever struck you, it's my request that you do something about it. We know that awareness helps us, but awareness doesn't do anything unless we turn it into action. And that's my request of you. Everyone, I'll see you in the next talk.

Thank you so much for being with us for the Anxiety and Depression Solutions Summit. I'm Dr. Drew Ramsey. I'll see you next time. Thank you for tuning in to Doctor Talks. We hope today's episode has enlightened and inspired you on your path to optimal health. Each day is a new opportunity to make choices that empower your well-being. For more insights and strategies, subscribe to our podcast and visit our website, www.doctortalks.com. Stay connected, stay healthy, and join us next time on Doctor Talks, real talks from real doctors on the issues that matter to you most.