The Better Question: Is Your Brain Is Starving?

Introduction: Emotions, Medications, and Healing 0:00

Our society puts down our emotions. It wants to mute them. Like, you can't be angry. You can be sad. All these things. Here's a medication for that. What are we feeling that way? Right? We're not deficient in Prozac. Right, right. That message we're getting, yeah. Most of the time it's not. It's a nutrient deficiency. A lot of times it is a lifestyle thing. Maybe it was a toxicity issue. Usually all those things combined. Especially as women, we go into the medical office, they see us for two to three minutes.

They're like, oh, you're depressed. Nobody's checked their hormones. I see women all the time who are anxious and depressed. They have like almost no estrogen or their cortisol level is flat line. Welcome to the resiliency method, the truth about healing. She survived a 12-year eating disorder, seizures in the ER, and a cancer diagnosis. And she'll tell you she shouldn't be here. But a single article in a random GNC magazine changed everything. Amino acid therapy saved her life. Today, Laurie Hamer is using it to help women get off four, five, six medications that they were put on as children.

She feels genuine emotion for the very first time. Welcome to the resiliency method, the truth about healing podcast. I'm Dr. Erica Schultz, and this show exists to help you think more critically about what you're being handed because you are not deficient in Prozac. And today, Lori Hamer, she's a functional nutritional therapist, will share her story. And she is also the founder of Calm Mom Method. She's here to reveal why calming the brain first is the missing link that makes everything else actually work.

Here's today's better question. Is what I'm putting in my body, this supplement, or this food, actually nourishing me? Or is it just keeping me manageable? Stay tuned for more and be sure to download the free report on why your health is struggling to improve.

Lori Hammeru2019s Recovery Story 2:25

OK, welcome back, everybody. Dr. Erica here with the resiliency method, the Truth About Healing podcast. And I am joined today by Lori Hammer. She is a functional nutritional therapist. she's been helping clients worldwide manage anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and neurological conditions through holistic methods. She is a mom and busy and she is juggling a lot of responsibility and sleepless nights and that can be overwhelming. And she knows if you are a Mom, what that's like. She's had that struggle firsthand.

But she was also has a health journey and I'll let her speak to that a little bit more on this podcast experience with dealing with some of these things that she now helps others with and in particularly found that amino acid therapy for her changed everything. So I've invited her on today to tell us a little bit more about therapy. And she has a background in psychology. I mentioned she's got a certification in nutritional therapy and she is created the call mom method, which is a proven approach to help moms manage anxiety, restore energy and live with purpose.

Welcome Lori. Awesome. Thank you so much, Dr. Erica for having me. Love your mission. I'm excited to chat with you today. Awesome. I am excited about your approach. And I always love to hear because, you know, a lot of us have had our own health journeys as healers, helpers and shepherding other people on their journey now. So love just start there. If you want to share a little bit about what got you on this path and you what that journey has been like and what's your story. Yeah, I honestly shouldn't be here.

The Lord is just taking me out of a really dark place in my life. And... I really shouldn't be here and amino acid therapy saved my life. And so that's kind of how I got to where I am today as we all have our own story. I was very anxious, very depressed. Weight was a huge issue in my house. My mom was always on the latest diet. And so I thought, oh gosh, you know, I'm fat and all those kinds of things. In the Karen Carpenter, like, Oh, could just throw up a few times and then it wouldn't be a big deal.

Yeah. And so it was dark. It was not good. Then I went to college and it got darker because you're not at home and you don't have to hide things as much. I drank a lot of beer, ate a lots of pizza. So I was always binging and purging. The anxiety and the depression got worse. a nursing professor of mine, because I was in nursing school at the time, she said, hey, I got to help you because we're going to lose you. And so she tried to get me into some eating disorder clinics and stuff, and I wasn't sick enough to be in there.

My weight wasn' t low enough and it wasn t suicidal enough. But I w s in the ER with seizures. We talked about your seizures on my podcast and all those kind of things. So my body was very, very imbalanced. And I couldn't get into them. And so I thought, well, if I move away, that'll fix everything. Well, I didn't fix anything. Thankfully, and I love how God works, the same nursing professor, her husband got a magazine from GNC.

How Amino Acids Support Mood and Brain Chemistry 5:49

that he had signed up for years ago when he bought a protein powder. And in that magazine was an article about amino acid therapy and how your body is deficient and they can stop cravings. It was specifically speaking to eating disorders and she's like, you need to call this place and talk to them. There was outpatient clinic in California at the time and so I called and like yeah, come on out, we can help you. And here I am today, and that was in 1996. Got it. Do you primarily work with people that have eating disorders, Laurie?

I don't. I work people with anxiety, depression, autoimmune conditions. Most of my people are perimenopausal, so they have a lot of issues. A number of them have had eating disorder in the past, though, relationship with food is still an issue. Absolutely. I feel like it's pretty prominent in terms of just females in general, especially when you get to perimenopause, where a lot of women are starting to feel out of control in that area for the first time, and they are doing things out what they did when they're 20s and finding complete frustration because nothing's changing.

Right. If you look at us Gen X generation, I'm like, yeah, that's where we are. Here we are. And so how does your approach help women specifically in that time of life and with those conditions like anxiety, depression and such? Yeah, so we have neurotransmitters in our brain, and there's some very specific ones that really regulate our mood. So I concentrate in five different areas. We talk about serotonin, which is like our inner sunshine. If you have enough seratonin in your glasses, always half full.

It's never half empty. You just feel good. Then there is GABA. GABa lets us take a deep breath and let it out, respond to stress appropriately. Then we have endorphins, which are like, you know, that warm, comfy sweater. It just makes us feel really yummy and good inside. And then we ever catecholamines. That's our drive. Like that's her focus. We get things done when our catocholine means are in order. Then, we had glucose regulation and there's amino acids for that. So, in all five of those categories are specific amino acid that can target those neurotransmitters and that glucose regulations.

So I'm assessing people and figuring out where the deficiencies are because when we fix the deficiency in the brain first, then everything below the neck gets easier to deal with. Like you and I were talking about, you know, we have to balance that neurological system and then the deeper healing gets to happen. So that's my first line of defense. And then we see what's left over and we address those things. Absolutely. Yeah, because if you're depressed and you know, looking at the life as half full, you don't really have a lot of hope that you can heal.

You probably aren't being very judicious about swallowing supplements or following some of the recommendations. Yeah. No, and so once you can get the brain on board, you get more compliance. So that's the fun part because when we're testing the amino acids, we are actually opening up the capsules, putting them under the tongue because I sent all my clients a kit. And so we open them up, put them underneath the tongues, stare at each other weird for like two minutes and like, so what do you feel?

Calming the Brain Before Deeper Healing 9:13

What is your brain feeling? Do you feeling anything different cognitively, emotionally or physically? And most of the time, people feel something in two to five minutes that they're like, wow, this is the first time that the anxiety has left me in a long time. Or maybe the green is greener, the blue is bluer, your brain feels lighter, you shoulders finally relax, that heaviness is off your chest. It happens that fast with the amino acids. Yeah, awesome. And so in addition to the amino acid therapy, do you do anything else with your clients that you can share with us too?

Yeah. We work on basic foundational stuff. So dietary changes, certain lifestyle changes. Maybe adding in some therapy like acupuncture, red light therapy. Those types of things. I mean, then we see, okay, Do we need to do some hormone testing? Do I need do do blood work? We have digestive issues. Then we dive into those things and go deeper. Do some detox. Work on emotional regulation. Eventually, after you've been working with me for a while, we cover the whole gamut so that you can walk away and not need me very often or at all and to learn how to take care of yourself.

Awesome. And I know you and I have had a conversation just recently on your podcast, and you were hearing my perspective on the vagus nerve, I was sharing with you what my take on that was. But I also want to hear from you on what your take is and what you have observed throughout the years with working Right. So, as an acupuncturist, you probably target it, more than I do, when we deal with the amino acids, it's calming all the neurology in the brain. And then we can go in and do you know, some detox and those kinds of things that also affect that, that vagal pathway.

Cause it affects everything. Like you and I were talking on my podcast, it effects everything like you're from your pelvic floor to how your eyeballs move to, you how you process information. Your vaginal nerve is so, so important. And I see it mismanaged all the time, like micromanaged. I don't think we can micromanage that bagel nerve. We have to let it heal. and be targeted, but not to the point where we're just constantly stimulating it. Are you tied to treatments, protocols, and gurus who promise results but don't deliver?

You're not alone. For years, I struggled with my own long-term illness and I know how frustrating it feels when nothing seems to work. That's why I developed the resiliency method. It's a science-backed approach to combining the best of Western and ancient medicines to restore your body's natural intelligence. Patient after patient has discovered what's possible, living stronger, brighter, and more spiritually connected than ever before. Whether you're facing autoimmune issues, hormonal imbalances, weight struggles, or just feeling stuck, you don't need another quick fix.

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Faith, Nervous System Health, and the Vagus Nerve 12:40

I agree. Yeah. Well, we didn't talk about vagus nerve stimulators. Do you use those in your process at all, Lori? I have one that's not a stimulator. It just helps. Okay. What do you do? Well, we use the resiliency method, and then at times we'll use vagus nerve stimulation, but it's one of those things where I've seen, eh, I kind of started telling people, if it doesn't sound like something you want to do that day, don't do it. Because I think that when you've got, it is that state of going from excess to deficiency, right?

So if the vagis nerve is operating more from a deficiency level, then stimulation can help that. If it more of an excess and it kind creating a situation where it's a little more hyperactive. You don't want to be stimulating it further. Yeah. And you'll know when you're using those tools if it is right for you or not. But I think there we go back into that intuition, that innate intelligence that God gave our body. Like what seems right to you in that moment? And we have to listen to that, right?

We can't push our bodies beyond the capacity that it was. And so one question that we were discussing too on the last podcast was just understanding like how does your faith, your identity, you nervous system, how do those intersect in your work, would you say, Lori, around working with patients in this capacity? Yeah, faith is all intertwined into everything that I do. So I will pray with my patients, I pray for my patience, ask God for wisdom for them. Everything is intertwine. I think if you don't have a faith base, it's really kind of hard to heal.

Yeah. I've received a miracle. I was healed from cancer almost 19 years ago. At the end of this month, it will be 19-years. No kidding. Like I said, I shouldn't be here. The eating disorder and the cancer and other things, my life has been beautifully preserved. So we can receive those miracles and there's other things in my life that I've had a longer healing process, you know, for those things. And so I'm just being patient and listening to the body and knowing how God created it. Those interferences, we give the buddy what it needs, fix the deficiencies, support those organ system, glandular systems, vagal nerve.

Your body can do amazing things, I love it. And you have a technique about with respect to calming the brain first. What does that look like in terms of practice? What do you suggest to patients to do for that? Well, we start with the amino acid therapy before anything else. And so that is what I start first. So I want to fix those deficiencies, address those. Then people will get more compliance in lifestyle changes or even nostril breathing or whatever it might be. It won't feel so overwhelming because I think as practitioners, We tend to throw the kitchen sink at everybody.

We're like, just do it all. They get overwhelmed and sometimes just even changing your diet is overwhelming. If we calm that brain first, then those changes get easier for them. Got it. And you mentioned a technique that I use to encourage people to do with the vagus nerve and the alternate nostril breathing.

Tapering Medications and Restoring Emotional Range 15:58

Do you have any other good ones up your sleeve that you can share with our audience as well? Yeah. Gosh, there's so many different breathing techniques. So working on your diaphragm I think is huge because that helps to stimulate the vegal because it's going to touch the diaphragms. Really doing that deep belly breathing and then filling up you lungs, doing a few quick breaths at the end. and then hold it and let it all out. And then putting your arms above your head and doing the same thing, right?

Tilting from side to side, you know, that opens up everything. I love box breathing. box breathing with your legs up. I practice every day when I walk, you know, I'll breathe in for four and I breathe out for eight while I walked. And then breathe for 12 and see how far I can get by the end of my walk. Nice. That's great. It gives you something to also distract yourself from all overthinking, Yes, I have a friend who's an acupuncturist. She's like, Lori, you have to stop thinking. And she goes, just start saying tree, house, ground, sky.

I'm like well, i'm just counting now. she's, like that'll work. Yeah, right. Good. What other things do you think are important or unique about your approach, Laurie, that is really and share with us some client stories of some successes too that you've seen in clinic? Yeah. So I see a lot of women who come to me on mood medications, whether it's an SSRI or other type of mood med, ADHD med whatever it might be. And so the amino acid therapy helps those women or men to taper those medications. Cause they're coming to you cause they don't want to be on the meds.

So we work with their prescribing doc and we tapered those med. I don' taper, those beds, but we bring them amino acids in alongside of that so that you don''t have side effects. Got it. You're tapering off those meds. And then I get to see people like, I haven't felt maybe ever in my entire life. I have several clients who have been on med since, gosh, they were like eight, 10, 12. They were little kids. they get put on Ritalin or ADHD med and then they put an anti-anxiety med. Then the whole cascade, you know, there come to me on four to six different medications.

Right. So they never, felt life on just life's terms. And so they're 30, 40 years old. This one client, she was on five medications when she came to me and it took us a year for her to like get off all of them effectively. But she didn't have any side effects, right? And she's like, I've never felt before she, you know, just send me a message like she says I'm crying today. She's just she like Maybe a little bit i'm crying because i don't know how i didn't how to cry. What is what is appropriate crying what does not appropriate crime so it's helping these these beautiful beautiful human beings.

Learn how the feeling motions that god gave us that he puts down our emotions and wants to meet like you can't be angry can be sad you know like all these things here's a medication for that when. why are we feeling that way? Right? We're not deficient in Prozac. Right, right. Well, the message we're getting, yeah, like it's a chemical deficiency. Most of the time, it is not. It's nutrient deficiency, a lot of times it a lifestyle thing, maybe it was a toxicity issue, usually all those things combined.

And we're, especially as women, we go into the medical office, they see us for two to three minutes. They're like, oh, you're depressed.

Common Deficiencies in High-Functioning Women 19:40

Nobody's checked their hormones. I see women all the time who are anxious and depressed. They have like almost no estrogen or their cortisol level is flatlined. Well, of course you're anxious. You don't have any stress resilience. Right. Or they're putting you on a thyroid medication, but nobody's check your adrenal. What if your pituitary doesn't even know how to convert anything? You know, what if you liver is toxic? It's my mission to educate people, like, let's calm the brain first. Let's assess all of your body from head to toe and figure out what's not communicating properly.

And then support that, detox it, and retrain your how to live the way God created it to life. Absolutely. The master control tower. Yes. Yeah. What are some of the common deficiencies you see in high-functioning women especially? Oh gosh, serotonin deficiency, GABA deficiency. If we're just going to talk amino acids, hands down, it's like usually all five of them. So we have glucose regulation issues. They're metabolically not flexible anymore. Those are the things I see most commonly. people are just malnourished in general.

So I think there's just so many deficiencies. Like we talked on my podcast, the whole food supplementation is so important. We've got to be nourishing those cells and not just throwing synthetic B vitamins at people. I see that as like sandpaper to the nervous system instead of actually feeding the nerve system. And so that's always the goal. Yeah, absolutely. I love that. It's always a short-term fix, too. And most of the time, the synthetics, they end up peeing them out. You've got really expensive urine.

When you're doing those synthetic products, your body doesn't know what to do with it. The cofactor, or the nutrient that's needed for you to actually utilize the nutrients you are taking is absent. That's the beauty of whole food, right? Well, it's kind of like taking vitamin D and megadoses. Not that I don't ever do that, because sometimes I do. But it's really rare and it gets more rare all the time, right? Right. Right, but you need the vitamin A, the Vitamin E, vitamin K. You need all those things combined and the vitamins C and you can get that from a whole food supplement because it is already in there in the right ratios that our body was designed to use in first place to get a better result.

So we're so ingrained and we've been taught misled lie to that if you just take a lot of it, Right. It might show up in your blood work, but that doesn't mean it's actually getting into your cells. Yeah, and the supplement industry is like, what, a multi-billion dollar industry? It is, yeah. And there's good reason for it. Everybody's kind of like looking for the magic pill, looking the for magic fix. A lot of times it is more complicated than that. You might need some homeopathy along with the whole food supplementation or acupuncture or red light therapy.

Yes, absolutely. There is no one thing that is going to fix your autoimmune, your eating disorder, the cancer, or whatever might be going on in your body. Yeah. And is there anything else that you think is important in you message today, Lori, that want to offer to people about what your preclinical perspective is on working with clients in this capacity? Yeah, I think I'll just reiterate that when we calm the brain first, then so many other things can heal.

Simple Steps for Better Brain Health 23:08

And I feel like that's the missing link in so may things. I think so too. Our bodies designed to heal, God gave us this amazing brain and we have the mind of Christ, right? So we were created in His image and so if we had the Mind of the Christ let's calm it so that we can use it and allow our body to be healed the way it was designed. Absolutely. And what's one simple shift you think someone can make this week to support their brain health? Go super simple. Increase your protein intake. I've never seen a woman in my office who is eating enough protein.

There you go. True, true. We always like to end our podcast with a better question that you could offer somebody to ask themselves or their doctor or clinician, whoever they're working with. What would you say today would be the better questions you can prompt somebody ask? I would say, is this supplement, this food, activity, going to nourish my body or is it going drain my Oh, good question. Yeah, absolutely. Especially when you're middle-aged peri-menopause females. It's okay to say no. Yes, I think we both probably see a little bit of, like I said, that mindset from the 20s thinking it can apply to the female in her 50s.

Yeah, it doesn't even work. I've tried it. Sometimes we have to hit ourselves really hard and be like, we can't do it, yeah. That's great questions. And where can people find you, Lori, to learn a bit more about your approach? Yeah, you can go to my website, LaurieHammer.com, and then on all social media, I am at Take Back My Brain, including my podcast. I love it. Awesome. Thank you so much for joining us today, Lori. It was fun. Thanks for tuning into the resiliency method, the truth about healing podcasts.

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