Why Amino Acid Trialing Works Better Than Lab Testing for Brain Health

Intro and Amino Acid Therapy Overview 0:00

That's like 50 to 80% of people with ADHD will respond positively to tryptophan, but that doesn't mean that that's you, and it doesn' mean it's the only one you need for the ADD. Welcome to Take Back My Brain with Lori Hammer, where real healing starts in the brain. I'm Lori, a functional nutritionist and mom who's walked the path from anxiety and burnout to clarity and calm. Each week, we're going to dive into brain-based tools like amino acid therapy, gut health, fasting and faith to help you reclaim your energy, emotions and sense of self.

Hey, everyone. Welcome back again. I've got our special guest today. Dr. Chris Molda is back with us today, and we're going to continue talking about amino acid therapy. And I really wanted to dive in today trialing of the amino acids because I had some questions and stuff about those. So how do we know what your brain is actually missing? So Dr Chris and I firmly believe that we don't want to guess, so we want a trial and want listen to the body. Thank you, Chris, for being on again Yeah, I love this.

I'm going to ask you the most common question that I get from clients about trial. You ready for it? Yep, ready. Isn't there like a blood test or urine test, or a stool test that i can do to figure this out instead of trialing? Well, there are those tests, yeah, but they're not as effective. And so, trialing is actually the most real-time, it's the easiest, and it really doesn't cost you anything to do it. So, the blood test, you know, I've had people do that a lot over the years over their urine testing, And it just doesn' always match what's going on in their body.

and so I have found like the symptom chart that I use and the trialling kit that send to people is the more effective and easiest for people to. I mean, You've seen people with low serotonin in a test, or I should say it the other way, normal seratonin, in the test but still need amino acid support. Yeah, exactly. And so then you as a practitioner are missing it or you, as the client, are like, oh, that practitioner missed it for me.

Why Trialing Beats Lab Testing 2:12

I'm still anxious, I am still depressed. Where if we would have just trialed the amino acids to start with, open up the capsule, put it under the tongue, stare at each other awkwardly for two minutes, and then like, hey, do you notice something different, cognitively, emotionally, or physically? And they'll be like yeah, I do. I don't feel as anxious and depressed more, right? So I mean, that's the goal. And then if they don' respond to it, they do respond it. We can move on. You can have normal blood work and this is so true for how many things, right?

Your bloodwork is normal and you still feel crappy. You're still anxious, you're Still depressed, You still have OCD, your still overwhelmed. Well, let's try the amino acid therapy. Let's do the trialing process because it's such fast feedback and then you as the person, putting the Amino acids under your tongue, Oh my gosh, this therapy actually works. So you know it actually worked, so you don't have to guess. And then you can just, you use this there. Yeah. That's okay. To be honest, most of these lab tests have been designed for pathology.

Right. They're not built to be sensitive enough. see those fluctuations that we see with the trialing. And at the end of the day, the reason why the trial and I think is more effective is because it bypasses a quote unquote diagnosis. If we just simply look at it as, hey, what supplements do you need and not focus on, do I have this diagnosis or that? It's like, we're really quickly finding out what you respond to. And that's really what matters. We don't need to put a name to this. we don' need you to start identifying with a certain symptom or diagnosis, we just need your to get better.

And it's the quickest, easiest way I think to do that. Well, I think you really bring up that good point that you just don't need that diagnosis. All we need to do is just fix the deficiency, right? Right. If you have this symptom, we're going to fix a deficiency and then we are going get to the underlying cause because we want you to feel better fast, and so we go through the different neurotransmitter types You want to talk about him, Chris? Should we talk? Yeah, yeah, I was actually so yeah. So what I.

Was thinking maybe we could do is just kind of talk. About the experience what it what? It's like to be a patient who gets it so like for me what. I do and you probably do the same thing is is I I put I? Put four of each of the different amino acid supplements in in. little plastic bags. And then I put a couple of handouts in there. Then I mail it to them in like a little manila envelope. They get that a few days before we do the trial so they can read about it. The hand outs, you know, kind of prep them for what to expect.

the questions we're gonna ask, you know, have some water with you, maybe have a trash can because you're going to be dumping out pills everywhere and stuff like that. And I'm assuming you do something very similar. I do. Yeah, I did similar, like I sent out a little kit, here's my little box, the Call Mom box. So yeah, same thing with instructions and everything is labeled and it's just so much fun. It's like Christmas to me every time I try something with somebody because I can't wait to see how they respond and they're so gonna feel soo much better.

And they will have filled out paperwork. They will fill out your questionnaires, right? So there's, Laurie has a questionnaire and I do too, but it's Laurie's questionnaire. That will help us understand low serotonin symptoms, low GABA symptoms. Low catecholamines, lower endorphins. Yeah. And then like blood sugar issues. Yeah, exactly. So you're like, what are those symptoms? So if we're talking serotonin, this is going to be like your anxiety, depression, worry, ruminating thoughts, low self-esteem, sleep disruption, fibromyalgia.

Yes, fibromyalgic is very linked to a seratonin deficiency. All of you out there who've been diagnosed with that. And so those are serotonin. If we're talking GABA, that's gonna be more of like, you can't take a deep breath. You feel like your shoulders are stuck to your ears.

How the Amino Acid Trial Works 6:30

It's very physical, whereas seratonin is more emotional. GAB is like a lot of muscle tension. And I would say panic disorder too. Definitely, yeah. Yeah. And then we're talking catecholamines. This is where you got the low motivation, low focus, kind of low mental energy, ADD, ADHD. So this really affects like those dopamine. CateCHOLAMINES are interesting to me because they, it's the ADDDHD, but it also, I know you use EOR for serotonin. I use the E or for CATECHOLEMINEs because it like, whatever.

It's all gonna suck in. That is so true, right? Yeah, why do I even try? Like that's, the apathetic depression of of low catecholamines, like you just don't feel like trying anymore because what's the point? Yeah, yeah. Life is going to suck no matter what you do. Right, which is not true, but you get stuck in the mud, right? And I have felt that. I've 100% felt with low-cateCHOLAMines. Yeah. Well, and then our fourth area is we have the endorphins, you're overly emotionally sensitive, really sensitive to criticism, those kind of things.

You're the person who's very physically pain receptor sensitive. You stub your toe and you feel it all the way up to your head. Whereas if I stubbed my toe, I'd be like, oof, that hurts. There's just huge response going on in your body. And you are craving comfort from lots of things, whether it's food, exercise, pornography, other addictions. That's when we know that your endorphins are really low. I'm sure the most common example of that is that week, that workout warrior, the person who's like, I don't work out five days a week.

I just feel like junk. You know what I mean? That's a pretty good indication that they're living off endorphins. And I. Don't know when we talked about it, but it's. Amino acids are a great tool or a very quick tool for restoring these neurotransmitters. But there are also diet and lifestyle that you can do. to support neurotransmitters too, right? Exactly. It doesn't have to be pills, but pills are the quickest way for us to restore a deficiency, which is why we love using them and why they're so critical for people who are stuck.

Right, and it gets you to the point where then you can actually make those lifestyle changes, because if you are super anxious, super depressed, over overwhelmed, you know, can't keep a thought process. You're like bouncing 17 different ways. The amino acids help you to overcome those things so that you can make the lifestyle changes so you don't have those deficiencies anymore. And then you just use the amino acid when you need them. Like, you know, if somebody dies in your family, like when my mom died a couple years ago, I needed the amino acids for a little bit because I was just overcome with grief and they helped me to navigate the thought processes and everything going on with that grief process.

I love it because you can just teach people how to use them as tools and I will get emails from clients like, hey, just want you to know I was using the amino acids again because, you know, XYZ happened in my life. I wasn't a car accident or whatever happened. And they were so helpful. Thank you so much, for introducing me to them because it's just tiny pieces that make up proteins and proteins are what heal our body and our brain and brain. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And so I love the trialing process because, and it is beautiful too, because you, the person receiving it, like, okay, this changes me.

But then you can also decide, if somebody's in a panic attack and you could open up that capsule, put that specific nutrient underneath their brain, whether it's tyrosine, GABA, serotonin, whatever they're needing, within five minutes that panic is going to go away. Which is amazing very quickly or if you're an intense like we'll use alcohol for instance if You have that craving or even a food craving Glutamine is Amazing or GABA to cut those cravings down like glutamine has been proven in within five minutes to Cut those sugar craving so then you are not going to go after Something that's harmful to your body so you can use these for like emergency situations as well as we're rebuilding everything else Yeah, yeah, so How long do you think a trial usually takes for you?

I usually schedule like an hour and a half. Yeah. Then I get a good health history with everybody, and then it gives us time to trial the amino acids and kind of talk through things. A lot of it's conversational, you're not just picking something. You're popping supplements for an hours and half? Oh, goodness, no. No. Some of them don't taste good, let's just be really honest, but I've never had anybody throw up. And so, you know, I've been doing this a really long time and so everybody's able to do it.

If you have kids, most kids can do a little bit of it depending on their age.

Neurotransmitter Symptom Patterns 11:30

And, so we just navigate, if they're not able too, but certainly all you adults out there can the trialing process for sure. Yeah. I mean, it's nice. You can trial anybody. Like you said, a child, little kids. My girls and stuff like that. It's a great experience for everybody. I've found personally, it works great if they're married and their spouse is there just watching. Yes, I love that. I loved that, yeah. Because it's so nice to have somebody observing because sometimes you yourself are a little bit nervous or scared, like, what if I say the wrong thing?

You know, help you like I don't know what I'm supposed to feel. And we're not going to tell you what you're probably going feel because I am not gonna plant anything in your brain. and I want it to be as raw and natural as possible because part of this process is learning how to know your own body again because we've become so disconnected. And so I love the trialing because I feel like it's a beginning piece for a lot of people. Then when you have your spouse or a friend with you and they can be like, I don't know what I'm feeling yet.

I felt something different, but I didn't what it is. Your spouse can say, well, she stopped shaking her leg or they just sat back in their chair. and I loved it when all of a sudden you're like well I think I think I feel happy and they get kind of like giggly in the moment, which is so funny. Like, what did you just do to me? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's great to see people's reactions. For the person, you know, for the people who are afraid and hesitant, right? What's the worst reaction you've ever seen?

Hey friend, just a quick break to remind you if calming your brain is the missing piece in your practice or in you home, my Mind Thrive certification course teaches you exactly how to do that with targeted amino acid therapy. So it's real science, real results, no band-aids. Enrollment is now open. Link is in the show notes. Back to the Show. Somebody got a headache that lasted 10 minutes. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I've seen people just say things like, oh, i don't like that. And I'm like why? And they're like I don' know why.

Just don''t like it. That's a real answer. The first time we did amino acid trials with me, it's like the one that I liked, tyrosine, like i loved it and I couldn't even tell you why I was like. i had no idea but i like and i think i want another one and you're right. Another one. and try another and like think I like even more. But I couldn't tell you why I liked it, because I didn't know what, like, relaxed felt like. I did not know. My mind was racing. What my mind falling down felt, you know, I had no reference for it.

and speak every thought and get rid of everything, you know, I didn't realize I did have to do that. And so I don't know what that felt like and I realize that that was normal. A lot of people struggle with that, but there really isn't a lot. I've had people ask me, will this upset my stomach? Yeah, some people feel like, a little bit, after we've done like six of them, they're like I think my stuff doesn't feel very good. But that's really rare. It's so rare. So Chris, I have to ask, what happens if you just try an amino acid and you don't trial it?

Throw it out there. That's okay. That is okay because when me and Laurie first met, I was hesitant to trial because I nervous about sitting with somebody, trialing something and my anxiety was so high. I'm going to have an anxiety attack in front of her and I don't want to do that because this is so stressful. Because I learned about tryptophan, so I know I need trypophane and a lot of it. So I started to take just tryptophan and I started with one and then I took two and three and four and was taking like four trypophane maybe once or twice a day and after about a week of doing that I was sitting in my office and I could hear my two girls playing in the other room right next door to me, and they were literally giggling and playing and having a good time.

And I sitting there going like, oh my gosh, they're so annoying. I mean, this is just awful. Like I'm going to go punish them and stuff. But I at least had to wear with all to be like wait a minute. They're just having a good time. What's wrong with me? Why am I so angry? Like this is, I don't know what's going on. And so I went out and I saw my wife and talked to my life and was like, i think, just angry for no reason. Then she goes, yeah, you should call Lori. So I got a call with you, Lori, a zoom call.

I was kind of telling you about the experience and it was, like yeah. I think I'm just like angry for no reason. And my wife was listening and she's like, he has been for like a week now. and you said, well, what are you doing? And I said well I am taking like four trip to Finland. Your question was well how did you react when we trialed it? and I say well we didn't try it. You said why don't you stop it and then like trial things. So I stopped it, and that was it the anger was gone. Right because you didn' t need it Right.

Using Amino Acids as Tools 16:48

So it turns out that if you supplement, and this happens a lot with people once they get on the protocol, like once you find, right, what amino acid you need, as you go on, As you keep taking it, you won't need it as much. And when you don't meet it. It's not uncommon for you start to feel more symptomatic because you just don t need right. Right? And that's a good indication that you And I just learned that the hard way. And so then we did the trial and I found out I didn't need that one. I did need one and like for me, it was at the time it really only needed like one, I really needed only like two different supplements and that was it.

That kind of got me where I needed to be stable wise. To be honest, at that point I don't know my protocol for the gut. Like I was still learning, deep dives into the guts and different things like that. So I still needed to do a little bit more digging with reducing inflammation and getting rid of these hidden toxins. But yeah, that was my experience of just like, I'll just try it and see what happens. Right, so that's why the trialing is so important. So if you're a person listening out there and like, oh, I'll just go try some of these, right?

I mean, you can, but you may not have a good experience and then you like this doesn't work when in fact it actually does work. And I've had people where literally we'll take like a sprinkle of the amino acids and put it in a glass of water and that the dose that they need. If you are not working with a practitioner who understands that, You could be like, oh, amino acids are bad for me, and they're not. We just have to figure out what dose you need. And, you know, if you're a practitioner out there, like, oh, gosh, I would love to learn this, but that just sounds complicated.

That's why I created MindThrive that Dr. Chris is in as one of my students and has been for like five years. And so we just have a great time in there. We learn all these nuances and we go through the trialing process together. we talk about clients and, all those kinds of things, because it is, just go with the flow with people with amino acids because you can't hurt people. The amino acid is the only thing you have to do is just navigate a few different medications if they're on them. And that's super simple to.

But it's just pieces of protein. That's all it is. It's. Just food for the body. Food for. I want to share with you two experiences. One experience is if a patient listening to the marketing for amino and the other one is a recommendation from another doctor. So it's not uncommon, and I know you know this too, for these amino acids to be marketed in a very specific way, right? So hyracin gets marketed as, what do you see more of? For ADD, ADHD. ADDD, ADHD, but in your experience, Laurie, in mine, so this is the leading question, that's that always the case.

No, not at all. No, so these companies are marketing to very specific symptoms because maybe that's like 50 to 80% of people with ADHD will respond positively to tryptophan, but that doesn't mean that that is you. And it doesn' mean it's the only one you need for the ADHD, right? Right. So you can't just go off what you read and what learned in a webinar or what they're marketing for you because that how, maybe not Lori, that kind of how I started. And you very quickly realize that there's so many gaps.

There's, so, many holes in those, in that kind of marketing that you can't just rely on one supplement to take care of everything for you. This is not a magic pill thing. It's you're deficient and we need to restore those deficiencies and very rarely is it just one thing that somebody's deficien in with those kinds of symptoms. And then the other experience I had was I was going to trial a client and they had another functional doc and The week before we were going to trial, they came to an appointment and said, based on my questionnaire, my practitioner put me on 2000 milligrams of DPA.

Didn't trial her.

Trialing Mistakes, Dosing, and Real-World Examples 21:00

shoulder the supplements, had never taken DPA in her life. And so she'd come in before taking it. I said, you know what, we're going to trial you next week, but let's just sit down and trial right now for D.P.A. just to make sure. Sure enough, I gave her a quarter of what was recommended to her. She got a headache, and she just got super angry all of a sudden, she's like, ''I do not like the way I feel.'' I was like great, try to return that because you bought it from it, go return it! And so we found the amino acids through the trialing that she would respond to and that you did respond too.

And that is the reality that most practitioners are in. They, they know amino assets can help. Yeah. Don't have the training to no fault of their own and they're trying to help and so they look at the studies and then they looked at them marketing and look out all the things that. Oh, this will probably help the, the trialing just gets rid of the probably. Yeah, it does. Isn't that beautiful? As a practitioner, like, we don't have to think, We just don' have guess anymore. Like, this is what's going to help them.

It's beautiful. This is way better than any test we could ever do. Yeah. Way better then anything. We've got the questionnaire to helps us understand you better, to understand your life better. I always tell people, the more information you give me, The faster I get to catch up to where you're at. Because I don''t know anything about you until you share it with me. And so, It''s such a great experience for the practitioner. because it's easy. It's such a great experience for the patient or the client because you get to feel the results and there's nothing better than feeling results.

Like in that appointment, which is so fun. You don't have to wait six weeks for something like, oh, I think I'm feeling the effects of these digestive enzymes right now. So yeah, think they're working. Yeah. After somebody goes through this trial, This is the starting point of their protocol. Yeah, total starting, because then we know what amino acids you're going to respond to and what doses we're gonna start. And then, we are gonna meet, you know, every 7 to 14 days, depending on what's going on, and we going adjust those amino acid.

So you might need more, or you may need less. We may add, may subtract, just depends on how we respond. I use that same questionnaire. rated on a scale of one to 10, like how are you doing? And if we're not down to twos or less, we know that there's still something going on in that area. Which is probably strange for people. Like if you're just sitting there listening to this and I say, hey, on the scale zero to ten, what would you rate your anxiety? Like, Lori's serious when she says it's realistic for that number to get down to a zero, one or two in like two weeks.

Yeah. That is a very realistic thing to experience with amino acid therapy after you try them. All the time. I see it all the The goal, what I love about creating the protocol for people is that the goal is to get rid of this. This is your day, and we're looking for your to just be steady, Eddie, feel good all day long. I can handle life again and there's no more ups and downs, right? Yeah. Yeah, and that's why the trialing is so, so beautiful because one, you know what you're responding to. And then we, as practitioners know, what your responding too.

We've got this beautiful jumping point. So we don't have to wait for, lab tests to come in and we'd have just spend $2,500, $3,000 in lab test to get your anxiety down. It's a beautiful process. And I would say my experience has been, it does take people about 30 days to get to their optimal dose. Yeah, definitely. Because the trial helps us at a starting point. And then through just you doing the protocol and tracking your progress, we're able to add things, eliminate things make some movement.

to get to the protocol where you're like, you know what? I feel pretty good. I felt pretty stable. We've got those zero ones and twos. And then what I've observed is that as you spend the next couple of months reducing inflammation, healing your gut, helping your body detox those hidden infections, that's when you are able to start to not need the aminos as much.

Why Personalized Protocols Matter 25:36

Exactly. Exactly, yeah. So the goal is not to be on a ton of medication, tonne of supplements, tone of amino acids, whatever it might be that you're on. That's never the go. I don't plan to make my living selling you thousands, thousands of pills a year. The goal that we get you feeling really good, see that, you just use them as tools when your body feels deficient, that's all. medicine cap and our supplement cap, and it's just being overflowing with supplements because you've tried so many things.

And the reality is, is I've try just about everything because one, I'd been sick and two, there aren't a lot of answers out there. So you kind of have to do your own research and figure it out. Even as a doctor, you have do that. And so it's nice to be in a place, it is frustrating to have all these supplements and you are tied to them. It is nice when you're able to take all those supplements, put it in the box and either pack them away and put them somewhere or just toss them in garbage and say, I don't need you anymore.

You're not keeping me happy and alive. My body is doing it on its own. It's beautiful. God designed our bodies to heal. What if we remove the interference and fix the deficiencies? Give it what it needs. Yep. Yes. Awesome. Well, thank you, Dr. Chris, for being on today. I hope you all enjoyed this and God bless each and every one of you and I'll see you in the next episode. Bye. Thanks for listening to Take Back My Brain. If today's episode helped you connect with hope or direction, I want you to follow the show, leave us a review, and share it with someone who needs it.

And if you're ready to start your own healing journey, explore our courses and our coaching programs at lorihammer.com backslash store. So until next time, remember you cannot medicate away a nutrient deficiency and healing your brain isn't just possible, it's Powerful.