The amino acids in those single doses, there's just a single amino acid. Your body will absorb it very, very quickly. So there's no digestive process needed with the amino acids, which is beautiful.

Yeah, they're ready. They're broke down. Yeah, they're already broken down. You absorb them. It's perfect. So yeah, that's why it works. Welcome to My ND Unscripted, where health care gets personal and the script gets tough.

I'm Dr. Clint Barton, ER doctor turns direct primary care freedom fighter on a mission to challenge how our health care system treats patients in America.

In every episode, my expert guest and I dive into real conversations about what's broken and how we can fix it by making health care about people, not just managing disease.

It's time to rethink what health care should be and how we can make it better together. Hello. Welcome back to the my MD unscripted podcast. I'm your host, Dr.

Clint Carter. And as always, we are thrilled with the guests that we were able to get for, for our knowledge. This is something that I am not an expert in by any stretch and I suspect you nor your doctor are either.

So I'm super excited about this. We are thrilled to have Lori hammer here with us today. She does the take back my brain podcast. She's does the take back my brain method.

And it's really about how amino acid therapy kind of gave her her life back and how it can potentially help you too. So I would love to jump into this, Lori, let you sort of introduce yourself better.

But if I guess the opening sort of question for, you know, to get us rolling is, you know, what if you know, motherhood and life and home life plus business, um, and, and work and all of that stuff.

What if it's not just busy, but it's biochemical? What if the problem isn't necessarily just your, you know, serotonin, you don't have a Prozac deficiency.

What if there's something more biochemical going on there? So do us a favor, introduce yourself a little bit better and let's talk about how we got here.

And I can't wait. Awesome. Thank you so much, Clint. I'm really happy to be here. Love your podcast. So your listeners are so blessed to have you. So I am a functional nutritional therapist and I've been doing this for, oh gosh, well over a decade.

I went back to school and my babies were little. So I'm a mom of two. I'm a wife. We've homeschooled and now I'm a grandma. So it's a lot of fun. Life is full and it's all good.

And like you were just saying, you know, you can't medicate away a nutrient deficiency. So nobody's deficient in Prozac or any other medication. So how can we fix this at a nutrient level before we dive into something that might actually be harmful to your brain and your body?

I love it. I love it. So, you know, let's talk about your story. You know, one reason that you're so passionate about this is it, it hits home. So, you know, you were even before this might go all the way back before motherhood.

Um, so catch us up there too. I can't wait. Yeah, so I had an eating disorder for about 12 years of my life. I was anxious. I was depressed. And when I went to college, my life just kind of plummeted.

So I was in nursing school. I couldn't complete nursing school because I was so anxious, so depressed, wasn't making it to my clinicals. And thankfully, I had a nursing professor and she's like, we've got to get you some help.

And so she tried to get me to eat into order programs and stuff. And I just didn't fit the parameters. I wasn't suicidal enough. My weight wasn't low enough, which is a lot of times happens with bulimics, right?

We just don't have that. Anyway, so eventually we found this outpatient clinic in Mill Valley, California. And their mantra was that you're addicted to what you're allergic to, speaking of food cravings and those kinds of things.

I went out there as an outpatient and sure enough, I was very sensitive to gluten. I found I had celiac disease. You know, this was way back when this was in 1996 when those things were not popular for sure.

So I was on the fringe of all that. That was my first introduction, but I found out I had all these health issues going on and then I realized and they tested me on amino acids and I realized that my brain was just so nutrient depleted after all these years and eating foods that depleted me.

And once I started using these targeted amino acids to rebuild my brain, all of a sudden the anxiety lifted, the depression lifted, and that craving cycle lifted, which was the most important thing.

And so then the bulimia went away because it can't talk away a nutrient deficiency, right? So I was in counseling, is doing all the things, the groups, the methods, everything.

It wasn't until I actually nourished myself, nourished my brain with those amino acids that I got my life back and it literally saved my life. Yes, absolutely.

The eating disorder situation is not getting better in our society. Not for, you know, the standards for women aren't getting any more lax. The weight loss craze with all of, you know, that's one of the things that, you know, we of course help our patients with weight loss because that's, you know, the primary weight need.

But once you have the ability to, you know, prescribe you know, peptides to help with that. Then you start getting people like, they're like, I'm ready for a refill.

And I'm like, you weigh like 110 pounds. I don't know that you need a refill. Let's talk that it's, it's, but that, like you said, that's more on the anorexic side.

That's more on the low body weight side. It's, you know, a lot of people are trying to medicate away or even peptide away, which is about as natural as it gets.

Yeah. But it's not technically the underlying problem, right? You probably don't have those folks. It's more than a semiglutide deficiency, right? So you got to feeling pretty, you got to feeling, I don't know, normal.

You got to feeling back to less anxious, less depressed, eating more normally. But then motherhood comes along and it'll take down the best of us. It will take down the best of us, I tell you what.

So you kind of like skate along and then motherhood came and my life. just dramatically changed. I throw divorce in there and, you know, things deplete you.

And so just kind of revisiting that amino acid therapy again, so I didn't feel like I was losing my mind all the time. So I could be present as a mom, as a wife, you know, eventually I got remarried and, you know, we now have two kids.

And there was a time in there where You know, I was just struggling and then I'm like, duh, go back to the amino acids. And so I did. And then I went back to school and now that's why I do what I do now.

So that was when you went back to school to do the sort of the dietitian part, the functional diet. And so the peptides, you know, round two, they're getting the job done.

And then, so really the breaking point there was, you know, you had really two breaking points. One was the first, you know, the bulimia, the eating disorder, but really then it became sort of like, I can't be the mom I need to be, I can't be the wife I need to be, I can't.

And when you get that turned around, you're like, okay, I got to go deeper again. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. Well, okay. So personal transformation turned into a calling, a mission, if you will, to, to bring this out.

So let's talk more about amino acid therapy. Tell us, tell us, I mean, what is it about? I mean, amino acids are what, um, gym guys take after a workout.

So now I'm all confused. So let's fill us in. So amino acids, every single thing in your body needs amino acids from your hair, skin, nails, organs to your enzymes to your hormones.

Everything in your body is dependent upon amino acids and in particular your neurotransmitters in your brain that control your mood. So what we're doing with amino acids is not just your amino acid powder that you take to work out.

These are individual therapeutic doses of amino acids that I use to target your serotonin, your GABA, the endorphins, your catecholamines, and to balance your glucose levels.

So we focus on those five areas. So once those five areas are nourished in your brain, that's when ADHD can lift, you know, ADD, that overwhelmed feeling all the time, the anxiety to the depression, the OCD, you know, you start sleeping better.

So when your neurotransmitters are happy, then you're happy. And so that's the goal of the therapeutic doses. So it's not just taking a random powder, it's being very targeted, taking them multiple times a day until you're feeling the best that you can feel.

That's so interesting. So, you know, you have a, I would call her a functional nutritionist in our area that works at a sling center. So she's a part of their team, which is, it's nice.

I wonder, you know, I guess my question for you as a physician is like, what percent of the anxiety and depression and stuff that gets to you. So not every person, you know, is going straight to amino acid therapy for their, you know, a lot of times you're getting the most resistant cases because if they'd have, they'd have found a more obvious cure, they'd have taken it or not a cure, but a, a treatment, a masking, a numbing, whatever was going to make them stop seeking help.

What percent of people would amino acid deficiency be a primary problem for their mood disorder? Yeah, about 85 to 90%. Lee, that's crazy. It is. It really is.

And I get so many people, Clint, that are on one, two, three, maybe even more medications, but usually it's one or two meds. Yeah. And it's just because nobody's assessed them correctly.

They're like, When I test them on the amino acids, I use a chart. I don't do urine. I don't do blood. I just give them a symptom chart in those five areas that I mentioned earlier because it works, right?

And so, they rate them on a scale of 1 to 10. And so, you know, when we're talking about the serotonin levels, you know, so their anxiety is still like an 8 or a 9 and they're on a medication or their A and D is still at an 8 or a 9 and they're on an ADD medication.

The med has helped take it down just a little bit so they can function a little bit better, but they're still deficient, right? And so once we fix those deficiencies, you know, I have people in my office all the time or on a Zoom call, they're like, I have not felt this relaxed in years or I can actually, the noise is stopped.

And yesterday I had a lady and she's looking around, she goes, the words are not jumbled anymore. Like she could see the word clearly and she could read the line and she didn't have to read it three times before, you know, she understood what it meant.

So it just calms the brain down. It helps you focus. It's just like if you haven't eaten for a day, and I love fasting, but if you haven't eaten for a day and your body isn't prepared to do those things, how do you feel?

You just feel scattered and, you know, you feel crazy, right? And so once you eat something, you're like, oh, that was really good. Well, that's what happens in your brain.

You're just feeding your brain tiny pieces of protein because amino acids make up protein. So let's give the brain these therapeutic doses so eventually you can just maintain that by eating enough protein and, you know, taking care of yourself correctly.

So yeah, so I guess that is an important back. We should step back one tiny little step for the audience and just make sure that it's clear that amino acids are the building blocks for proteins.

And like when we have our pet, because we do peptide therapies, of course, and we're like, listen, this is how the body works. Your body has DNA, which makes RNA, which makes proteins.

It takes amino acids, put them in a certain sequence, they fold up, and then those proteins go do things. And so a peptide is a small protein that your body uses to go do something.

It's either exactly what your body makes anyway or something very similar to help just encourage it to do more of what that protein normally does. So it's a relatively natural way to supplement what the body's not doing enough of, which is kind of, you know, the standard American diet is terrible.

So that's why there's so much need for peptides to help The brain actually primarily, but also the GI system and the metabolic system respond appropriately to food, but we're not.

So in this case, we're talking about these peptides, these, these, uh, amino acids are the building blocks to proteins that are the. the building blocks for your neuro messenger your nerve messengers your the things that make your brain work which god still laughs a little bit every time we think we understand how the brain works like we have no idea how how does a thought How does a few sparks of a few nerves turn into a thought, turn into any of that?

It's great. He must chuckle from time to time. Okay. So, but where did our amino acids go? Why are we having so much mood disorder and who knows what else from the amino acid deficiency?

Yeah, I think there's so many things that deplete us. So from our diet, which is obvious, to the toxins in our air, in our water, in our food, just stress in general, you burn through your resources, right?

So if you've had a trauma in the past, or you've had a car accident, or you've had a surgery, you need to take those amino acids, those peptides, because amino acids make the peptides, peptides, all those kind of things, you need to rebuild.

And you know, on my list over here, uh, thinking through it, you know, and maybe it's being a young mom is hard. Obviously it's stressful, it's sleep, it's eat when you can, it's sleep when you can, but you just got through having a baby who took so much of your nutritional, you know, it gets priority.

So, you know, you're probably coming into this thing fairly amino acid deprived before the sleep deprivation and the stress and the mom guilt and the fear and all the things that come along with having a the hospital letting you take this tiny human home with you for the first time and all of that.

I wish I could see mamas before they get pregnant. You know, the moms that I see, you know, prior to all of this, you know, then we can eliminate, minimize postpartum depression, you know, all of the depletion.

So if we can build your body up before you even have those babes, that is completely ideal. Especially like during pregnancy, you know, you know, I'm sure, Women are told in pregnancy, eat a lot of protein, protein's important, but you're eating for two, but the craving is usually for ice cream or pickles or all the silly things that people say, but the cravings are real.

It's because your body's depleted. I mean, if you are sufficient, your cravings are gonna be less. so yeah there's and if you're depleted the baby's depleted right so if you're deficient in zinc the baby's going to be deficient in zinc and that's going to try to steal from you to make sure that that baby survives i mean that's just the process Well, and thank goodness it is.

If we didn't, if the baby wasn't stealing, then we wouldn't have, there would be malnourished mamas and babies everywhere. So, you know, once again, God is good, but it, postpartum depression is for real.

It's just hard. So let's talk about the take back my brain program. Cause I think we've got a pretty good idea of the problem. Uh, we know that amino acids are a thing and that we need them.

So let's get more tangible. Tell us about how you approach this thing for real. So in the Take Back My Brain method, you get a kit of amino acids in the mail from me.

for our very first appointment, you know, after we get a good health history, all those things, and then we actually trial the amino acids. So you're going to take the – we'll just use tryptophan for serotonin, for example.

You're going to take capsule tryptophan, open it up, put the powder underneath your tongue. We stare at each other for a couple of minutes. And what does your brain do?

What does your body do? What do you feel different, cognitively, emotionally, or physically? and we'll go through this list of amino acids that I send you and we'll find which ones your body responds to so we know by the end of that appointment know what your what your body responds to and then that's our starting dose and wait so while you're sitting there so so under the tongue means that it's basically going straight to the bloodstream you're not waiting on digestion your body the reason all these peptides that we do are often either shots or nasal sprays or something is because if you just eat a protein, your body's really good at breaking it down and undoing it.

But in this case, we're getting straight peptides. We're putting them under the tongue so that the body will absorb it straight into the bloodstream. And you're saying that one after another, how long do you wait to find out if that pep before you move on to the next peptide?

Two to five minutes, usually about five minutes in between each amino acid. Wow. That's crazy. I know the body knows, which is the fun part, right? So we do the sublingual testing and you don't have to take them underneath the tongue.

When you, when we find out which ones you can actually take them morally, which is fine. Um, cause the amino acids in those single doses, there's just a single amount, you know, amino acid, your body will absorb it very, very quickly.

So there's no digestive process needed with the amino acids, which is beautiful. They're already, they're broke down. They're already broken down. You absorb them.

It's perfect. So yeah, that's, that's why it works. That's, that's a little, I would say crazy. It's awesome that the fact that your body responds that quickly is super, super awesome.

And then, so, and when you were saying there's, you don't do blood or salivary testing for amino acids, I guess largely because, you know, we have this thing called the blood brain barrier and what's happening on the brain side of things is usually fairly separate from what's happening on the blood and body side of things.

But you've not found that measuring, I mean, I suspect even if you did a spinal tap, that's not really where the body's keeping the the amino acid concentrations, although maybe there would be something there.

Obviously it's a little bit something there cause you can, you know, quote unquote measure it, but it's impractical and it's unnecessary. You're getting most of your, so diagnostically you're deciding what you think the deficiency is based on the symptoms that, and then you do sort of a trial of treatment five minutes at a time.

And then how many amino acids do people typically end up starting? You know, like two to four. That's awesome. Yeah. And we take it multiple times a day, two to four times a day, because we want to fix that deficiency.

So if you're sufficient, you don't need to take them as quite as often. That's great. Great. And so how long does it take once we pick that two to four amino acids?

Yep. The peptides are lots and lots and lots of amino acids or 60, 30 to 60 of those things. So let's talk about one specific amino acid, getting tons of it, getting two to four of those.

How long does it take for the patient to really start noticing improvement like on the day in and day out? Day in and day out within less than a week, usually sometimes two weeks.

So once you're super consistent, but the amino acids work really fast. So as long as you're taking them consistently, you're going to see consistent results.

And then we hit that 90 day point and a lot of people are like, I feel really good. We're working on the gut. We've done some, you know, hormone testing, those kinds of things.

And then, you know, six to 12 months out, you're not taking very many of them. You're kind of using them more as you need them in specific situations.

Women use more kind of at the, you know, the last half of the month as opposed to the first half of the month usually. So, you know, we tweak things to, you know, with your cycle.

So lots of different things we do. So it is a temporary load of amino acids to replace the deficiency. And then you're talking about symptom, you know, back to the diagnostic stage, like how are your symptoms doing?

Someone's doing great. Okay, let's back way off. I guess. My question also is, on top of that is, so often when you get on a therapy, the idea is, well, you were deficient for a reason, so you're gonna need to keep doing this kind of forever, like vitamin D.

There's no vitamin D in our food. It's just not in the dirt, it's not in our food, it's not in you. If you don't want to be deficient in vitamin D, or at least insufficient in vitamin D, pretty much you're gonna have to take that one way or another forever.

I mean, you can get it up and wait for a while, but it's just gonna fall. Do you find that once you kind of get the deficiency replaced that people with, you know, a healthy diet can maintain?

Yeah. I would say, you know, most of the time. So, and then you just use them as needed. So I always tell people to have those on hand, kind of like if you feel crappy one day, just take some amino acids, right?

It's not going to hurt you. They're not going to hurt you. I mean, it's just, you know, basically tiny pieces of protein. Yeah. Yeah. We got to get, we got to fix your digestion.

That's why I'm always working on like, okay, why are you deficient in the first place? Whether it's lifestyle, whether it's hormones, you know, digestion is always a big issue.

So let's address those issues. So the amino acids get people to the place where they can actually make those other changes better. So the anxiety, the depression, and then everything else doesn't feel so overwhelming.

So we fix them first. What's left below the neck, then let's address that. Yeah. Cause chances are if your gut is a, just a dumpster fire, then you're going to be headed back to, you know, anxiety, depression land sooner than later anyway.

So let's, let's start moving in that direction and start talking about what we can do there. I love that. I love that so much. Um, Okay. So, you know, I guess this one may seem obvious, but you know, you have a couple cases, a couple patients that stick out in your mind would be a classic sort of a great representation of how this could go.

Yeah. So classic case would be actually have a counselor who was a client of mine. And so she's done all the talk therapy. She runs groups. She does all those kinds of things, but she was still anxious and she was still depressed.

So she came to me. We did amino acids. I think she was on two. Yeah, it was definitely two amino acids that really helped her. And she's sitting here in my office and she goes, oh my gosh, this knot that's been in my chest for years, it's just gone.

It just lifted. And she goes, I feel like I can breathe. She thought she had lung issues, that there's something really wrong with her heart. And she went and had all this testing done.

They're like, no, it's just in your head. Yeah, there's nothing wrong with you. And how many, especially women, hear that. And then they're stuck on an SSRI.

And she'd been on an SSRI. And she's like, that never helps me. And so we did the amino acids. And she doesn't need them all the time anymore. She'll text me every now and she goes, ooh, I'm a little depleted.

I started taking my amino acids again to get through a holiday or a family event or whatever it might be. But that's really typical. I just had a young lady who was on five different medications and started medicating her when she was 12. So her whole entire teenage years, she was on medication.

Now she's 30 some years old and she never felt life. And so she wanted to get off all these medications. And so she heard about me. She contacted me. We worked on getting her off all five of those medications.

Right. So she had a psychiatrist. She was on board who, you know, worked with us and we're almost a year out now. And she's like, feeling the feels like this is what life is supposed to feel like.

You know, she's gone home a couple of times and she's like, I dealt with my family without being medicated. And she goes, it was so much better. Yeah.

Yeah. And she goes, you know, enjoying the holidays, going on trips, you know, all of these things you do as a 30 year old that you shouldn't need to be medicated for those deficiencies.

And she's doing amazing. Does she have every day is amazing? Of course not. But right now a year out, she's feeling pretty darn good. And yeah, I can, I can see so much of what we do for anxiety, depression on the medication side is really a numbing effect.

Yeah. And, and, and so, you know, and. It's not an unreasonable trade for some people who are so miserable with the overwhelming anxiety and depression.

They just don't want to feel anything. But then when they get to that, you know, can't feel anything stage, that's not satisfying. So then they're super frustrated.

So they get off of it and then the anxiety and depression overwhelms them again. And you know, if it was ever better. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, okay.

So tell me about, So, so I'm a physician. I got doctors and other practitioners in my office. How can you help us get better at this kind of stuff? Cause I think this is pretty, I mean, this is like base basic is how we probably should be addressing this first.

It's, it's, you know, you know, it's a, they're very root get to the root of the problem, functional medicine, root cause medicine. You know, you've got a little something to help practitioners out.

What does that look like? Yeah, so it's called MindThrive. So it's where I teach amino acid therapy that you can use in your practice, you know, with your clients, patients, whatever you have.

And it just teaches you how to assess, how to use. We talk about all sorts of scenarios because there's a lot of nuances to amino acid therapy. Um, some people need a ton of them.

Some people need what I call pixie dusting, where I actually just sprinkle a little bit in a glass of water. I have a guy that that's all he can handle.

But if we sprinkle some tryptophan and a little bit of theanine and a glass of water, he drinks it twice a day. He is good to go. Um, so there's lots of nuances in there.

Um, but it works. And so it just, it makes your practice better when, and a lot of practitioners, let's just be honest, are burnt out. So they come to me because they want to get better.

And so we balance their brain, then they can be better practitioners and then you can help your patients or clients a lot better. Oh, I mean, so, you know, I do direct primary care and the reason I do that is because I burned out doing the other stuff.

But, you know, as it turns out, quitting the hospital and the ER and starting a practice from scratch with zero patients and working in a different ER job to pay the bills and And getting, um, uh, you know, two full-time jobs, plus a family, it didn't immediately fix my burnout, anxiety and depression, right?

Um, that's so for sure. And the people that practice with me, maybe hopefully aren't as burnt out as low as I was at that time as desperate, but they're eager.

to get out of the old way and into a direct primary care setting where they get to spend that time with their patients and get to have a little bit of work life balance and that kind of thing.

And so it's not even really the work life balance. It's just the job satisfaction and the ability to really be able to help people the way they want. I mean, it really burnout isn't I'm working too hard.

Burnout is I'm being asked to do things that I know better. I can do better. I heard it put this way a couple days ago, I'm a craftsman and I'm on an assembly line.

I could make the most beautiful rocking chair, but I'm putting in a screw one time over and over and over and it's like, yeah. That's exactly what I felt like.

Yeah. Yeah. So, so getting, getting the providers treated for sure, but, but, but also, you know, just the ability to train up a team that could better root cause, take care of folks with mental health, which is sort of the forgotten the forgotten part of healthcare, and largely because insurance doesn't pay for it very well.

It's not a sexy specialty to go into. Most of the psychiatrists that I know are kind of weird themselves. And I've got several that I'm big fans of, but we're all a little weird in our own way.

But I think the ability to mix this into a functional medicine, direct primary care, personalized medicine approach makes perfect sense. So providers can reach out to you for, to do your mind thrive program and, and take it into their own practice, which is great because there's only so much of you to go around.

Exactly. Yeah. I can't, I literally can barely see more clients than what I have. So, and I've worked with practitioners and like train their staff. So if you have a, you know, a practice and you want your staff trained, I mean, that's what I do.

So, yeah, beautiful. Okay. Well, yeah, we see plenty of. you know, burnt out, tired, anxiety, depressed, ADD, especially with the ADD stuff, I'd love, you know.

Oh man, that's an epidemic right now. Epidemic, and only the physician can write the refills, and they only let it write once, so once, I see, I have to write a prescription for every patient on an ADD med every month, because I'm the doc, you know, it's like, oh my gosh, this is ridiculous.

It's, we're, We're not really getting to the root of the problem, but these, they're, you know, God forbid you can't refill it early. Cause that's like a red flag and God forbid we, we aren't on Johnny on the spot that day.

They start going to straight up panic attack. Cause it, they absolutely have, you know, addicted is the wrong word, but without it, they don't function well and they're miserable.

Well, it is, it is kind of an addiction. I mean, look what it does to the brain. I mean, cause without it, they feel like they're losing their mind. Yeah.

So it's a physical, if not mental, emotional, um, you know, it's certainly had it for me and that's why the government's all freaking out about it. Okay.

So I love how an amino acid based approach would compliment what we're doing here and in, in many, many clinics. Um, man, thank you for that. So, okay, let's do a couple of rapid fire questions for you.

Where are you based out of? Where, where are you? I'm based in Algona, Iowa. Okay. All right. So, you know, do you take care of people just local? I mean, obviously you, you talked about being on the screen.

So, um, is there, I actually have people from all over the world. Okay. All right. And then we may be reaching out to get some help for our practice in general.

Tell me about what you think the biggest misconception is in general about amino acids. Well, they're just for bodybuilders, right just for athletes, you know, nobody really understands the therapeutic use of them Yeah, well, there's great powders out there, but they're incomplete and it's not gonna really help your mental health a lot That was kind of my question too.

I thought, well, and then I just didn't ask it because in a way, but I think it's a good question because I'm listening. I'd be like, well, screw that.

If I need a little tryptophan, why don't I just go get a full amino acid powder at GNC and call it. And it's like, well, it's because tryptophan is not what your body really is making skeletal muscle with.

You know, the different proteins do different things. And so these powders are. rightfully so, they're focusing on building muscle, not mental health.

And so, to the extent that there may be a, you know, there's the entrepreneur in me, there may be a market for a mental health blend, but what's even better than that.

There may be one coming, Clint, so. Laurie, Laurie, Laurie, let's talk. But the idea is that even better than that is a personalized root cause approach, just like everything else.

And you know what, if you just go get your powder and you start to feel better and your gut is still a dumpster fire and your stress is still through the roof and you don't have any, you don't have a guide, you don't have the skillset, you don't have the knowledge base to fix those things, then you're kind of going to be back at square one soon enough, or you're going to be on it forever.

And it's still going to be sort of a bandaid of a bigger problem. So I do, I love that this method is you know, and my eyes are open. I had not, literally until right now, did not know this was a thing.

So this is really great. So, and moms have been sort of a, I don't know, a hot spot for you because, you know, they just got through having, you know, they got postpartum depression.

They're probably, you know, immune, not immune, but they're malnourished to some degree in some ways from having carried that sweet baby for nine months, hopefully a full nine months-ish.

Uh, what is one habit that a new mom should stop doing immediately to better off their, to better help their chances of, um, you know, maybe avoiding the depression or basically, you know, give them, give themselves some well-rounded nutrition that can feed their brain.

Yeah, they have to actually eat. So I have so many new moms where they're just so exhausted. They probably have another toddler or maybe two, and they're just eating off their plates.

They're just running around. They're nursing. They're doing all these things. you know, we, we ask moms to bounce back and to start doing things so faster than most other cultures do.

So, you know, getting getting your family on board to like, you have to rest, you have to eat, you know, call a friend and say, Can you make me some, you know, super high density nutrient food for me if you can't, you know, Yeah, you just have to eat.

And you have to eat enough protein, you have to eat some really good healthy fats. So if that's all you do, so instead of grabbing a muffin, I would rather you have 10 beef sticks in a day, right?

I mean, we've got to get you some nutrient dense food. Right, right. And those meat sticks are going to have some amino acids in them, right? Yeah, they are.

They're certainly better than, you know, leftover goldfish off of a, you know. Yeah, I just had a client and she was having panic attack like all day long and she came to me and she was barely eating anything.

And so we did test the amino acids and she, you know, we gave her a couple of them, but I'm like, you have to eat. Right? Like you can't supplement away a crappy diet or lack of food, you still have to go back and eat.

And you know, I just talked to her yesterday and she's like, I haven't had a panic attack in three weeks because I'm actually eating three times a day.

Like, yeah. Yeah, great. Your body now is convinced you might not be actively dying. Yes, exactly. We are a survival mechanism. Our body is survival, right?

And it will do whatever it needs to do to keep you alive. And if it creates a panic attack because you need adrenaline to stay alive, that's what's gonna happen.

There's the thriving that we put on Facebook and social media and there's the surviving that's really happening at the house and we're not allowed to really talk about it to anyone because, you know, who's not busy and So it's just, it's real, it's nice to be able to get real advice from someone who knows, who says, no, stop eat, stop sleep.

All that other stuff will still be there. Just go do something. Make it protein, make it fat. I love it. Yeah. Well, okay. So for folks that would love to hear more research, get ahold of you, uh, how do we, how do we follow you, get ahold of you, that kind of stuff?

Yeah. If you want to follow me, um, I have my podcast, take back my brain. I'm at take back my brain on all social media. Send me a message. Would love to chat.

Otherwise go to my website, Lauriehammer.com. Take back my brain. That is well titled. I love that. Um, and I had really honestly no idea. I guess, you know, I knew that we were nutrient deficient and our guts were unhappy and all that, but I really did not realize that an effective therapy would be.

you know, amino acid replacement, and I'm blown away that you can put some under your tongue and start to feel something in the next three to five minutes.

That's really blown away. I've been doing this for myself and for my clients since 1996. So it excites me. It's like Christmas every time I do a trialing with people.

That's so fun. Okay. Well, hey, thank you so much, man. This has been great. And thank you so much for, uh, coming on the pod and for what you do on your podcast, take back my brain and, um, uh, you have a Merry Christmas and, uh, and this may not even air till after Christmas, but either way, happy new year.

And, uh, thanks for coming on. Hey, thanks for having me. God bless. Thanks for joining me today on My MD Unscripted. I hope today's conversation opened your mind and inspired you to imagine a better path for your health and therefore life.

If you found value in this episode, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone passionate about transforming healthcare. Real change starts with real conversation, so let's keep them going.

Until next time, stay well, stay curious, and never stop pushing for better.

Take Back Your Brain: Why Amino Acids are for More than just Muscles

Clint Carter, MD

Laurie Hammer, FNTP, NNTS

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