How Addiction is Linked to Dopamine Deficiency

hello hello everyone I am multitasking right now  so I'm here on the webinar with you guys and I'm   also on Instagram live hi everyone but for those  of you on Instagram live I am gonna get cut off   by Instagram live but what I'm doing is a webinar  so you can still check the link in the bio to get   the replay later if you get very interested  in the topic so hello everyone that is here   on the webinar we have a really really good  topic that we're talking about today and it's   quite an expansive topic so I am going to do my  best to distill it down as much as possible and   obviously to give you a ton of information and  make sense of it all as well but we're really   kicking off what we call the better your brain  series this month and we're shedding light on   a variety of different neurological conditions  and it's unfortunate that we're living in such   an epidemic of depression and anxiety and for  those of us especially living in the Northeast   right now a lot of us are really feeling the  brunt of the winter blues which is also known   as seasonal affective disorder and then I know  this personally hits home for me is addiction and   there is a huge huge epidemic of addiction right  now as well personally just in the hometown that   I grew up in since I've moved home which has been  about eight years now there's been 30 people that   have passed away from heroin overdose and this is  not necessarily good friends but just people that   I know that I went to school with so this is a  pretty scary number and that's just people that I   know let alone other people that are also dealing  with the same thing so the goal of tonight is to   really be able to talk a little bit more about  what are the limitations with the conventional   approach because unfortunately there's really not  much testing being done if anything depression and   anxiety or almost thought to be the same thing and  there's also a lot of assumptions that everything   is a serotonin deficiency which usually results  in antidepressants so it's a very very linear   approach for people that are very very different  that all have different needs all have different   traumas all have different biochemistry and my  goal is to really help you understand some of the   imbalances that can happen some of the inspections  that can cause us to have issues neurologically   and really just the top three things that our  brain needs to function optimally so I'm gonna be   going into this and just so you know those of you  that are on the webinar even on the Instagram live   feel free to pop any questions in if I am going to  go over it I won't address it right at the moment   but I am going to take questions at the end so  definitely if you're on the webinar throw it into   the chat box throw it into the comments if you're  on Instagram I'm happy to answer questions that   are more specific to you or a family member etc so  as we kind of get into the topic I want to utilize   my fancy a PowerPoint slide because I know that  I will derail but again just to kind of reiterate   I want to go into really understanding or having  people understand that you really don't know what   you don't know when it comes to your anxiety  and depression we can obviously blame it on   stress we can blame it on a serotonin deficiency  but you don't really know and unless you do the   right testing and can be really uncovered what  is the testing that exists that is not being   used conventionally because very rarely do people  even know that you can test for neurotransmitter   levels which is serotonin dopamine and I'm really  going to be discussing what what is the difference   between the deficiencies in those different  neurotransmitters because having a job I mean   deficiency is actually very different than having  a serotonin deficiency from first of all how you   support it but second of all the symptoms that  you have and then of course I do want to give   you some really basic tools to be able to start  changing the biochemistry of your brain or even   the biochemistry of your gut if that's part of  the reason why you feel the way you do but for   those of you that are kind of new to this world of  integrative medicine myself my name is dr. Nicole   Rivera I run a practice called integrated wellness  group and you know the biggest thing that I feel   like allows us to stand apart is that we always  kind of question what was readily available and   we because of the voice that we saw not only with  what was happening conventionally and I mean this   just like the traditional medicine approach but  in addition just the plateaus that we hit with   our patient care and this really came down to  not everybody's the same everybody needs a more   personalized approach and it led us to digging  deeper and deeper and deeper with the right type   of testing so that's kind of how we evolved into  who we are today but in this at the same time is   I don't even act as a physician some days I'm  acting more as an investigator and I'm really   digging digging digging and asking the right  questions to really be able to uncover what's   going on with the person because that's step  number one it's first of all acknowledging that   your symptoms are real because unfortunately a lot  of you that are listening to this webinar and and   live are probably been told that everything's  in your head and all of your testing looks good   and nobody knows what's wrong what's wrong with  you so you're just depressed or you're just an   anxious person and unfortunately that's just bad  medicine in my opinion but I dig deeper and find   out it's not in your head you're not crazy you're  not just depressed you have a whole slew of things   that are causing you to feel the way that you do  and that kind of brings me to you know what do   I do I'm I classify myself as an integrative  medicine physician and I classify myself as   that because it's I can work with a variety of  different conditions including anxiety including   depression including bipolar including seasonal  affective disorder but it's not because I'm just   the master expert in in that and I only treat that  it's because I do testing to actually decipher   what is the root to why you feel that way and once  you figure that out it just allows the person to   just have that aha moment to be like oh my gosh  that makes so much sense and it also frees you   from feeling so guilty about you feeling the way  that you do and feeling low or feeling depressed   because there's usually it's not there usually  there's always a reason there is always a reason   for why you feel the way you do so with that being  said you know some of you may be also wondering   like how did I even get into this in the first  place and I didn't get into this because I had a   lot of problems at the end of the day I actually  thought I was really healthy and when I did my   testing it uncovered that I had a slew of issues  and what I realized at that moment was that I just   normalized those issues the occasional depression  I blamed it on oh I was busy this week I didn't   get enough sleep oh I have a lot of stress going  on oh I don't like my job or if I had anxiety it   was just like oh well my mom's like that and  you know oh I I have a reason to worry because   you know everyone should be worried about that  and there were all these different things that   I just settled for being my complete normal and I  realized that they weren't normal they were all an   effect and a result so that was very empowering  to me and that's why I get on these webinars   and lives and I do this because I want you to  understand that this is not something that's just   in your and we have so many different things that  are working against us in our current environment   and there is a lot of contributing factors to why  we are dealing with depression and anxiety and   seasonal affective disorder and all of the other  mental health disorders so at this moment I know   that we are all very attached to our technology  I just want to give you guys the opportunity to   like shut other browsers down you know get rid  of like the iPad tell your kids to become a it   because the information that I'm going to give you  guys is not just your run-of-the-mill information   I'm not gonna sit here and just drill it that  your gut is the only cause of your depression   that's not what I'm gonna do I'm gonna give you  a lot of good quality information that you have   not heard before so just take this moment to kind  of shut off all of the other distractions so that   you could be present because unfortunately we  don't give us ourselves that opportunity a lot   so first and foremost I want all of you to know is  it's not your fault if you have not been able to   get better it is not your fault if you've had  relationships that you've compromised because   you've been depressed and anxious it is not your  fault that you're maybe not talking to a family   member right now because you just don't feel  like yourself at the end of the day you have   to decide for what is the root of why you feel  the way you do and then you need a strategy this   is not about just putting a bandaid on it this is  about strategy and it takes time and it also takes   it takes strategy to get strategy and you have  to have the right testing to to do that in the   first place so just kind of a preliminary before  we really dive into all of the things in relation   to mental health is I just want you to understand  that there are a couple of reasons why you haven't   been able to you haven't been able to get the  answers and I'm going to just kind of lead with   that the fact that our entire system is built on  specialists and experts is segregating out your   mental health from all of your other body systems  and that's not in reality how it works you can   easily have a variety of different mental health  issues maybe if they come and go maybe if they're   there all the time that are due to infections that  are due to your circulation that are due to your   blood sugar how many of us get hangry if we didn't  eat for a while and we think oh well you know I   just need to eat so no big deal that's actually a  warning sign that you're having massive pancreatic   stress that is not giving your great glucose so  the fact that we have to work with all separate   specialists to deal with our blood sugar issues as  well as our cardiovascular system as well as our   neurological system and then our mental health  that is never going to serve us and it is not   going to give us the root cause to why we feel  the way we do and the basic most simple example   is that 90 to 95 percent of your serotonin is made  in your gut so if you have a gut problem you go to   a gastroenterologist but if you have a depression  problem you're going to go to a psychiatrist or a   psychologist so to think that those systems are  completely separate is bad science and the other   question that I get on a regular basis mm-hmm  excuse me is why doesn't everybody do what you   do why doesn't everybody look at the body the way  you do why doesn't everybody use this technology   and at the end of the day I think a lot of us  know that medicine is for profit in the u.s.   especially and when you're talking about the way  the system is designed is the system is designed   on chemistry so the most basic thing that we  do on an annual basis is get blood work blood   work is a chemistry based test because if your  chemistry is altered compromised off whatever   you want to call it then the way that we are going  to essentially try to put it back into range is by   manipulating that pathway with chemistry which is  pharmacology so the whole system is based off of   broken chemistry gets fixed with chemistry which  is the foundation of the men of medicine in the   US which is drugs so when you step outside of just  relying on that there's this whole other world of   Integrative Medicine and you realize there are  many many strategies out there many tools out   there but the biggest thing that we do is create  strategy with the resources that exist and not as   super super important because maybe you do need  a antidepressant but to think that that's gonna   solve your problem and that you're just gonna numb  yourself and not deal with your underlying trauma   that's not gonna serve you in the long run and  I'm also gonna talk to you about neurotransmitters   like serotonin they have to be in perfect balance  if you have too low less serotonin you're gonna   have depression if you have too high of serotonin  you're gonna have anxiety so for us to think that   we could just pound these medications over the  long-term and don't be wrong cuz it's not your   fault like you're just being told this is your  solution but when you look at serotonin toxicity   or excess serotonin that actually leads to anxiety  so we need to get away from this concept of though   the one pill or the the one-size-fits-all  treatment because this is what's gotten us in   trouble in the first place so I want to tell you a  story and I think this is really relevant for this   more the information we're gonna talk about so I  had a patient and this is many patients but this   specific woman she you know I had to actually get  on a call with her to either this because she's   been to tons of doctors and she was just like I  don't really have any hope left you're kind of   my last resort and I you know I don't even really  know if I want to come cuz I don't I can't imagine   you're gonna do anything different than what I've  had done already and she decided to come in and we   uncovered you know a variety of different things  then her biggest complaints was depression anxiety   I personally felt that she had a lot of rumination  she pretty much said things over and over and over   so if you've ever had like a fight with a relative  or a spouse and you you've replayed it over and   over in your mind that's rumination a lot of  us do that on a daily basis and are not even   aware of it cuz it's our normal but she also had a  history of a lot of trauma a lot of loss a lot of   abandonment and this was you know all things that  she was aware of that she was dealing with and she   was dealing with it for a very very long time and  then as she got older she was then diagnosed with   pot syndrome pop syndrome is when you're having  a lot of circulatory issues that caused you to   be lightheaded dizzy it can even lead to fainting  so she was told that these all of her issues were   completely separate and when we were digging  into all of her testing what it really turned   out to be is that the biggest culprit behind her  actual neurological stress was the fact that her   brain was getting zero oxygen because she had  such a poor circulatory system and then when we   dug deeper one of her losses in her life was her  mother who passed away from an aortic aneurysm   which is pretty much a rupture in the aorta  which is part of your cardiovascular system so   genetically she had a more fragile cardiovascular  system but she didn't know how to take care of it   because nobody actually educated her on that so  she had these long-standing issues that wasn't   allowing for her to get proper blood supply to  the brain which changed her neurotransmitters   and caused her to actually be depressed anxious  and also just replay her trauma over and over and   over in her mind so for me to sit there and try  to mend her neurotransmitter pathways but never   address the root cause of her circulatory system I  would have never helped her so it was a completely   different approach than she expected she was happy  because I didn't give her the same run-of-the-mill   that everybody else did but this is really a  matter of piecing the puzzle together and looking   at the body from an integrative perspective so one  of the most fun things about my job is I get to   blow mines every day I usually love when I get to  see at least one Mouse drop a day but I think that   a couple of really important things about this  topic is number one is depression has many faces   and those of you that are listening probably know  that you know you can have someone who completely   can't get out of bed there's other people that are  fully functioning but are kind of depressed behind   closed there's other people that just stuff it  down and suppress it and internalize it and then   there's other people that just lash out when it  gets too much and a lot of times too is we kind   of confuse depression and anxiety or those terms  get used interchangeably and we think that they're   the same thing or we get told that they're the  same thing when in reality they're very very   different we also think that addiction runs in  our families and that it's genetic and it's just   lack of discipline and poor behavior and there's  actually a root cause to addiction that stems from   imbalances in the brain and another thing too is  a lot of our programming clouds our confidence and   it makes us very reactive how many of us have had  a reactive situation that we got super annoyed at   something somebody said you know we're like I'm  not gonna hang out with him anymore I don't like   them I'm gonna ignore them this person's written  off and you know one of the most fascinating   things that I felt like was very liberating  to me in this you know evolution of my life   is you know those judgments and resentments that  we have towards others are really just a matter of   us instilling our value system onto them or them  instilling their value system onto us and us being   annoyed about it so at the end of the day we are  always going to have people in our lives that are   there to challenge us and we're not gonna always  be around people that have the same value system   and that's okay and we need to understand that  so if you inject your values onto someone else   and you tell somebody how they should eat and how  they should live their life they're going to be   resentful to you and they're gonna lash out at you  and the same thing it goes the other way if you're   being highly triggered or affected by someone it's  because they're instilling their values and you're   being triggered by that and you know at the end  of the day you just have to sit back we're like   that's cool that that's your values it's not  mine but thank you for your opinion because at   the end of the day it's all people's opinions and  fortunately especially for those of us that are on   this webinar or on this live because our kids  are suffering with anxiety and depression you   know we are living in this digital world that  there's a million comments and people can say   whatever they want and they have their keyboard  confidence and you know I had a conversations   Fannie's that's your opinion that's great that  that's your opinion but everybody's entitled to   one but it doesn't necessarily hold validity in  my life and it shouldn't hold the living validity   in your life everyone is entitled to their opinion  and at the end of the day it's just an opinion it   doesn't define us so really coming back to more  of this biochemistry piece and some of these   physiological things that we can be dealing with  that are affecting our neurological system is your   brain needs three things and those three things  one of them is stable blood sugar so if you're a   diabetic if you're hypoglycemic if you have either  type 1 or type 2 diabetes if you're hyperglycemic   whatever it is you have an issue with blood  sugar and maybe you haven't been diagnosed   but maybe you're that person it gets super hangry  if you don't eat for a while not as a blood sugar   issue then the other thing that your brain needs  is oxygen and that comes from proper blood flow   so if you're a person who gets migraines headaches  pressure or you have cold hands and feet chances   are you don't have proper amounts of blood flow  to your head and you are not going to necessarily   have proper oxygenation of your brain tissue the  next one is stimulation so stimulation is exercise   many of us are living a sedentary lifestyle we're  not making time to exercise or we feel like too   much of crap to actually exercise and then the  other thing too is after we get out of high school   get out of college we kind of stop learning unless  you know that's our passion or that's one of our   values is we get very stuck in our jobs you know  we don't learn new things we don't stimulate our   brains in you know in a very productive way and  then this becomes very our brains become very   stagnant and our pathways become as well because  you could be developing new pathways in your brain   that make your brain healthier or you could be  actually shutting down pathways because you're   only using certain ones in a day so it's really  really important for you to figure out what you   get excited about and read a book learn something  new and read a book a physical book do not read on   your Kindle you're activating completely different  pathways that are not necessarily healthy pathways   you need to get back to the basics and start  picking up paper right even if it's just like you   write notes for yourself get off the technology at  least for a little while because we're just it's   so linear the way that we're using our brains and  we're not branching out so I want to kind of dive   into these topics a little bit more so blood  sugar there is a couple of reasons why you can   have abnormal blood sugar but one of my personal  relatable situations is hypoglycemia so how many   of you that are listening don't eat breakfast in  the morning and even if you do you eat breakfast   after you drink coffee or some type of caffeinated  beverage probably many of you so you wake up you   don't really eat it perpetuates to the point  that you almost are like offended by food in the   morning you're just like oh I cannot eat anything  because I feel like a little nauseous or I'm just   totally not hungry then you drink some type of  caffeine and you suppress your appetite then it   gets to like between 12:00 and 2:00 and you're  ravenous you're like give me anything and then   you find yourself eating carbs to spike your blood  sugar you're not doing this conscious that you're   doing this unconsciously by the way you spike your  blood sugar because it's so low at this point then   you crave caffeine in the afternoon because now  you're tired and then I may always after coffee   and then after that you go home you eat dinner  you're usually snacking on cheese and crackers and   all these things before you that because you're  so hungry as we're making dinner then you make   dinner you overeat and then you want sugar I think  many of you can relate to that like throw a hand   up if you can and this is something that we call  hypoglycemia so if your blood sugar is low that's   equally as bad as you being a diabetic because  what's happening is your blood your your brain   runs on glucose so if the glucose is too low your  brain can't use it and then if you're diabetic you   become insulin resistant meaning your insulin is  what allows your brain to use the glucose and now   the insulin doesn't work so your brain can even  the glucose so now you have a bunch of glucose   floating around in your blood just causing a  boatload of problems so it doesn't matter if   your blood sugar is high or if your blood sugar  is low it is going to cause massive problems to   your brain and they found that in diabetics your  brain is shrinking aka it is degenerating so it   is no joke to be as I bet ik I can't tell you  how many diabetics I work with and they're just   like oh I just take my medicine and that's it and  like literally you're on your way to dementia and   I know that that is a harsh reality but that is  reality so for your kids who are eating like crap   and you're like us too difficult I can't deal  with it they don't have a picky diet they're   eating sugar processed food everything's out of  a box they're going to Chipotle yeah Chipotle's   not that healthy they're just constantly eating  sugar and cards and you think well they're young   their bodies are more resilient they're literally  deteriorating their brains and this is why we have   so much ATD and so many learning disabilities and  we have autism we have Asperger's join me wrong   there are a lot of reasons for these things but  sugar is definitely a recipe for disaster so in   addition to that some other things that cause  pancreatic stress also comes down to your gut   your pancreas as part of your gut so if you have  infections in your gut maybe you have IBS maybe   a indigestion heartburn you could easily have  infections that are now affecting your pancreas   that are throwing off your blood sugar so it's  not always about what you put in sometimes it   is just about the stress that your pancreas is  under because of infections that is very very   common oxygen so again I already kind of gave  this away if you have low blood pressure if you   have migraines if you have headaches if you have  visual issues if you have ocular migraines if you   have dizziness if you have vertigo if you have  cold hands and feet chances are you have blood   supply issues to your brain your brain is not  getting enough oxygen oxygen and glucose are the   two nutrients that your brain needs and this is  going to cause you to be foggy and depressed and   anxious and that could perpetuate into bigger  things later like schizophrenia and bipolar   and seizure disorder etc so this is no joke about  getting proper oxygenation to your brain and one   of the very simple things is doing something like  yoga that puts you in an inverted position that   allows your blood flow to work with gravity to get  to your head this is something that's super simple   but obviously if you have Ranaut's phenomenon you  probably have a very significant cardiovascular   issue that is not being diagnosed properly because  it's thought that brain else just happens and it's   no big deal but think about it your hands and  your feet are farthest from your heart not only   is your brain far from your heart but also your  blood has to pump against gravity so getting your   blood into your brain is actually more difficult  than you think so if you have any type of road   blocks or you have you know a poor heart muscle or  anything like that that is going to make it even   more difficult so stimulation again we've kind of  scratched the surface on this is you know some of   you might be relating to this if you drive a long  distance maybe you drive two hours three hours and   you get really fatigued like physically fatigued  that is not your body that is your mental fatigue   because you are if you're someone who doesn't  Drive a lot and then you drive this long distance   you're activating pathways that are not stimulated  and you're getting massive neurological fatigue   that is actually manifesting as physical fatigue  so this comes down to your in the same groove   every day you're not doing a new type of exercise  you're not doing a new hobby you're not getting   out and learning something new you're just in the  day-to-day same job boring same tasks and you're   literally going to have a huge portion of your  brain that is not being stimulated and then other   parts of your brain that are overly developed  that can lead you to being anxious and suppressed   because certain pathways depending on what they  are especially if you work on a computer all day   you could be strengthening pathways that induce  more negative behaviors and feelings so it's   important for you to branch out and stimulate your  brain in different ways so the role of toxicity is   also significant in this if we think about just  Anatomy our mouse is very close to our brain and   we are dealing with fillings and our teeth we're  getting fluoride cleanings we're getting root   canals which is dead matter in your mouth receding  gumline bleeding gums all of these things are   toxic to us and this can get into the nerves of  your face which can then go right back into your   brain so if you have a boatload of silver in your  mouth chances are you are having some level of   mercury that could be affecting your neurological  system as well so this is not just about the   oxygenation stimulation and glucose or blood  sugar this is also we live in a very very toxic   world and we need to consider this piece because  I know for me I was extremely toxic with mercury   and I had nothing to do with fillings of my teeth  because I still to this day have never had one but   I was a pescetarian for ten years and all I ate  was fish so I primarily ended up giving myself   mercury toxicity by consumption of fish so if you  haven't learned by now you don't know what you   don't know because I would have never known that  I had mercury toxicity if I didn't test it and   that's not a conventional test nobody's testing  that in your blood nobody's testing that when you   go for your annual checkup but these are very real  things that I see a lot that are a huge culprit   behind our brains being stressed so the point of  all of this is we need to take a step back we need   to acknowledge what we are accepting as our norm  because if we feel depressed and we go as women oh   well it's just around my menstrual cycle this is  all not normal feeling depressed feeling anxious   having addiction none of these things are normal  brain function and we need to stop settling for   it and just thinking that there's something wrong  with us oh there's but that's just me oh it runs   in my family it's just genetic because there is  so much out there that we could actually do about   it so some of the top myths that I personally  feel like are in relation to mental health is   one depression is always caused by a serotonin  deficiency addiction is solely behavioral or   even genetic anxiety is genetic or hereditary  that you've had tests the proper testing for   your mental health issues and that you have no  control over your mental health so as we kind of   go in starting first and foremost with depression  is always caused by a serotonin deficiency this   is really really important so if you have a true  serotonin deficiency then you potentially have   lost enjoyment and things that you've once loved  you're finding very hard to find joy being around   your family you're finding hard to find joy  and hobbies you used to like you're really just   nothing is making you happy and you can have all  the money in the world and the few most beautiful   house and all these great things and you just  are not happy another is you might find that   you're kind of snapping into rage or anger and you  probably are not able to really sleep deeply but   on the flip side there's dopamine and dopamine  is a little bit different dopamine is when you   feel very hopeless and very worthless it's easy to  lose your temper you find it's really hard to cope   with stress hard to get motivated and you kind of  just stop caring because you just feel so hopeless   and there is these are very different symptoms  that indicate two very different deficiencies   and they need to be worked with very differently  and number one when it comes to serotonin most of   your serotonin is made in your gut but also your  frontal cortex so if you've had a bad head injury   to the front of your head and you're that person  that now has lost joy and many of the things   yeah you probably do actually have a serotonin  deficiency but if it's from an injury then you   probably need to heal your brain and give it the  nutrients that it needs opposed to thinking that   an SSRI is just gonna fix the problem and like I  said before is that if you go the route of taking   an antidepressant it's a very fine line because  if your serotonin is too low you're depressed   but if your Saarinen is too high you then shift  into becoming anxious so it's very important to   know that these look different and you have to  be strategic in the treatment so secondary to   that is a seasonal affective disorder so all of  us that are in our complete winter slump right   now and we're hating the winter and trying to run  for the hills this is actually due to serotonin   deficiency interesting enough is we have serotonin  receptors in our skin that the Sun activates so   when we're in the Sun we activate the serotonin  in the skin and then it helps to boost our level   in our bodies so this plays a very very big role  in feeling less depressed in the summer so there   are many ways that you could support serotonin  without necessarily antidepressants but step   number one is balance your blood sugar so if you  are the person who does not eat breakfast or you   eat breakfast after drinking coffee or some other  type of caffeine you need to eat 30 minutes within   waking up and you need to eat something that is  protein and fat based stop with the oatmeal the   cereals the granola stop with all of that and I'm  not saying long-term but you need to eat something   almost like keto esque in the morning before  caffeine to balance your blood sugar to start   to boost your serotonin levels so on the flip side  when you're dealing with dopamine so dopamine is   interesting because dopamine has a lot to do with  pleasure seeking so when we see massive dopamine   deficiency this has a lot to do with our addictive  behaviors so if you're and and I should clarify   I'm not talking about heroin I'm not talking about  alcohol per se yes those are part of it but I know   for me I had a dopamine deficiency I had no  idea that I did but I used to get stress and   I was like give me a mocha latte so it doesn't  need to be drugs or cigarettes or wine but it   could be sure it could be cars it could be fried  food it could be speeding it could be gambling it   could be a variety of different things but when  your dopamine is is suppressed you will seek out   these pleasure seeking stimulus but unfortunately  if you smoke the cigarette it only gives you a   short-term high and if you drink the mocha latte  it gives you a short-term high and that's why   you're always going back for those same types of  pleasures so it's a matter of if you can get your   dopamine boosted then you don't necessarily you  can move away from those addictive behaviors so   the other thing again the same way serotonin if  it gets too high if you make you anxious if you   have dopamine become too high you can actually  develop like psychosis or schizophrenia so it's   very very important for you to understand this no  matter what route you go if you go pharmaceutical   route or if you go natural route is anytime  you're working with the neurotransmitters it   should be heavily regulated and it also never be  permanent or long-term because once you're able   to fix the roots so maybe that's the oxygen the  blood flow maybe it's the blood sugar that will   then allow your brain to function more optimally  so the other thing that your dopamine does is it   regulates your prolactin so there are some women  that get they have trouble with breastfeeding   and that's a prolactin issue and it can be stemmed  from dopamine and then there are other people that   have a pituitary part of your brain enlargement  and that also comes back to dopamine deficiencies   so there is a lot of trickle-down effect that  happens from these different deficiencies and   imbalances so we want to tell you a story had a  patient she had constipation for about ten years   as we took the history turned out that there was  anxiety and depression in the mix as well that   was going on for almost the same amount of time as  we've dug in turns out patient had a snowboarding   accident resulted in a severe concussion neck  sprain 13 staples in the head constipation came   and went nothing too bad but started shortly  after intermittent depression definitely felt   like it was more situational you know Oh stress  less stuff going on you know somebody was rude etc   then there was dizziness then there was full-on  fainting around the menstrual cycle with physical   activity so running exercise something like that  which then eventually turned into more anxious   feelings that were more internalized meaning like  no panic attacks but just feeling very worried   racy mind and then eventually memory loss so this  was me and it took a long time to piece the puzzle   together because I didn't always know what I know  now and I had a lot of separate things that again   that I classified as my normal you know occasional  constipation oh it's because I traveled oh I ate   wrong Oh eat gluten depression oh you know I had  a bad day a lot of stress didn't sleep well the   dizziness was like oh I'm dehydrated I'm fainting  around the menstrual cycle that was just kind of   like no I don't nobody could figure out what's  wrong with me so that was like all right I just   gotta learn how to live with this and I just  stopped doing cardiovascular activity around   my menstrual cycle the anxiety was nothing that  I ever probably would have admitted out loud but   had tons of internal worry you know RACI mine  couldn't sleep well and then the memory loss   was really probably the scariest because of the  nature of what I do not being able to remember   things was really a scary moment in my life so it  really came down to being super super multifaceted   what happened was my injury caused a lot of scar  tissue in my brain and a lot of alteration in my   cerebral spinal fluid which caused me to have a  lot of blood supply issues to my brain secondary   to that because I had bad bad whiplash I actually  damaged my vagus nerve your vagus nerve controls   your lungs your heart rate your gastrointestinal  system your reproductive system your vagus nerve   does all of the things that you don't think  about like breathe have your heartbeat so the   vagus nerve was a big culprit in the constipation  the constipation then led to decreased serotonin   levels I was really not eating properly I was  skipping breakfast that story that I told you   about Oh wake up don't want to eat drink the  coffee's suppress the appetite that was me that   was a hundred percent me like slamming cards when  I would like get home from school because I was   so hungry and then I would want to eat sugar  after so my blood sugar was a mess and then   the vagus nerve because it also innervates your  reproductive system that was inducing the response   the fainting response around my menstrual cycle  so this was something that was a snowball it was   a snowball over time and it affected me greatly  but because everything was a gradual onset I just   learned to live with adapt and I normalized it  and also my blood work looked great I was super   healthy according to all the conventional means  so really when it comes down to the second piece   of the puzzle here is that you know when you are  dealing with depression and anxiety you obviously   want your case to be handled with the utmost care  and you are in such a low vulnerable place that   you just want to trust that the doctor is gonna  do exactly what is right for you and I do think   that they are but they're doing what is best  based off of their very very small set of tools   which is pharmacology and you know when we even  talk about some of the testing like an EEG an   EEG first of all is never really done and unless  you have seizures but there is something called   a QE EEG and a qu G is called the quantitative  EEG and this is something that actually Maps the   complete the complete hemispheres of your brain  and all of the lobes of your brain and it tells   you what's active what's o what's under active  what's over active what are your brain waves   look like is the left hemisphere talking to the  right hemisphere are your neurotransmitters off   are there certain centers that are completely shut  down do you have abnormal pathways that are very   strong it literally gives you a map of your brain  and a report that allows you to understand what   that map is is manifesting from a symptomatic  standpoint and then from there the qejy the   brain map actually can dictate a process called  neurofeedback which will actually retrain your   brain should be balanced and healthy again like  this technology exists and we're not using it in   medicine it is crazy to me but even in addition to  that is we assume that everybody has a serotonin   problem and what about the dopamine well I didn't  even talk about acetylcholine and norepinephrine I   didn't even talk about the other neurotransmitters  there are so many neurotransmitters that can   contribute to you feeling off so neuro as matter  testing is done through the urine you could easily   get a baseline for what is going on or are you  truly serotonin deficient or is there something   else going on some of the more unique technologies  that we do which I'm actually going to show you in   a minute is the bio resonance testing so bio  resonance is a type of technology that we use   that actually scans down to the DNA level and we  can actually scan not just the brain but we can   scan the vascular supply to the brain we can scan  the pancreas to see if the blood or the pancreas   is stressed that's throwing off the blood sugar  like it's a fascinating technology that's only   really being used in Europe so with that being  said I actually want to give you guys a visual   because it's hard for me to like really do it  justice so I am NOT going to be able to talk as   I show you it's only about like 15 seconds so I'm  gonna just play this and let you guys take a peek you alright I'm back so if you saw the last thing  there that was in relation to the veins of the   brain so it's really fascinating because you  can actually get a baseline to look and see is   the blood actually flowing is this person's brain  getting proper oxygenation so this is a technology   that we use regularly to piece the puzzle together  so we're not missing anything and then the other   really fascinating thing too is that though  we have a different technology called bio scan   bio scan actually works as a digital version of  acupuncture so it actually looks at the meridians   so you have a bunch of meridians that actually  come up into the head so one simple example is the   gallbladder which is part of your digestive system  the gallbladder Meridian comes up and wraps around   to the temples so many people complain of temple  pressure or headaches and sometimes that actually   is a Meridian based issue and it comes from the  gallbladder it's not actually a head issue so it's   really really significant to be able to understand  the differences behind okay is there something   going on vascular Li is this a Meridian problem  and it's it's really though treatment protocols   are gonna be completely different heavy-metal  testing is another big one I mentioned how mercury   can play such a big role in the brain but another  big one that I haven't even touched on which is   so so important is infectious disease testing so  those of you listening how many who have have you   heard that when a woman is pregnant she should  not change cat litter if she has a cat so the   reason why they say that is because of the risk of  exposure to something called toxoplasmosis which   is a parasite that causes the capillaries of the  brain to explode yes they have proven this under   specific types of diagnostic testing at UPenn i've  actually seen the footage so when you're talking   about different infections that can cause massive  massive neurological stress we have things in the   parasite spam toxoplasmosis which is transmitted  from cats being one another one transmitted from   cats being called Bartonella which is also known  as a co infection to Lyme disease and then there's   Lyme disease Lyme disease in certain cases does  become neurological and these are people they   call it Lyme rage I've seen everything from Lyme  rage to line depression to literally unable to   form sentences to seizures to paralysis I've  had someone come to my office in a wheelchair   because of paralysis from Lyme disease so this  is no joke and this is being so overlooked by   medicine and another big one being overlooked is  mold mold and mycotoxin illness there is mold in   our food it's in some of our favorites it's in  chocolate it's in coffee it's in wine it's in   blue cheese and then there's obviously mold that  comes from our water damaged buildings so these   are all things that need to be considered when  you are struggling with depression or anxiety or   seasonal affective disorder or addiction because  these things could hijack you completely that   you are not even yourself anymore so with that  being said this is kind of a really good example   of testing not always being able to reveal what's  going on so a patient came to us about eight years   old he had sensory issues they were actually at  the time deciding if he was technically classified   as being on the autistic spectrum he had a lot  of gut complaints as well so as we did testing   at this time I was using a lot more conventional  tests I was doing blood work and stool analysis   I did not have bio resonance technology I didn't  have BIOS scan technology at this time so as we   were using these conventional tests we found  that he had some fungal overgrowth from the   stool sample get some heavy metal toxicity so  we started to work together and because he had   many sensory issues he had a lot of issues with  his mouth he wouldn't brush his teeth his mom   found it impossible to try to give him any type  of tinctures or supplements so she agreed that   it would be best to use a suppository which a spa  story is a little detoxification supplement that   can be put into the rectum to help to detox so  that was the route that we chose was best and as   we were going through his mom said to me so I've  seen I saw a worm excuse me and I was like okay   well nothing came up in the stool sample so then  we decide to do three different stool samples from   three different companies and every single time  they said he had no issues with parasites and then   at that point after spending almost $1,000 she  looked at me and said I've seen worms three times   what are we gonna do about it and it really opened  my eyes to understand that not all the testing is   reliable even when you're using these really  high-quality labs and I learned the hard way   by one of my mentors who's dr. Clem Hart he said  he told me that because he's a German physician   he said that in Europe they will actually have a  patient stay in the office and and when they have   a bowel movement they will take the sample and  put it under a microscope immediately to check   for parasites because parasites will actually  self-destruct 20 minutes after the bowel movement   leaves the body so it is very difficult for our  labs in the u.s. to pick up on parasite issues so   this is just very very important because parasites  will hijack your behaviors so outside of that I   think that you know really walking away with some  important things that you can apply right away and   one of them being that you know a lot of us don't  feel in control of our mental health we feel very   powerless and I think that it's important for you  to understand that everything I'm talking about   tonight is just trying to help you understand that  there is better testing out there there are better   approaches out there and once you understand the  route anything is possible and chances are you're   not depressed for no reason chances are there  is a root cause that could be an infection it   could be a blood my issue it could be a blood  sugar issue it could be a toxicity issue really   there are many many possibilities but also we are  living in this world of gluten gluten sensitivity   celiac disease etc I will tell you that gluten  is not always gonna cause a stomach ache but   if you start paying attention you might notice  that when you eat gluten the next day you are   depressed or you are tired or you are foggy so  it's not always about did this make my stomach   hurt you have to start looking at did this affect  me neurologically because chances are it is you   have to eat breakfast you have to eat breakfast  thirty minutes of waking up has to be protein and   fat and you also have to do it before you drink  any caffeine if you make that one simple change   I guarantee you you will start to feel better  exercise I know that some of you are so just   you're so tired you feel so low and so hopeless  that exercise sounds like the biggest task in the   world maybe it's not about doing physical exercise  maybe it's about just learning something new maybe   get yourself a good book something positive  something that you can grow from take something   valuable away it's not always necessarily about  just exercising your physical body once you get   you feel good enough to do that that will be great  but it's just about even exercising your brain to   learn something new so at the end of the day the  most important thing for you to take away from   this is that very rarely do things manifest like  the textbook and especially when you're dealing   with mental health and you're dealing with an  array of different experiences everybody has   had a different upbringing everybody has had  different experiences you know some of us have   had significant trauma some of us just feel  ashamed of our past some of us feel abandoned   there's so many factors let alone if we have  Lyme disease let alone is we have parasites   let alone if we have toxicity because we have  a boatload of silver fillings our there's so   many factors to be considered so for you to  think that you are the textbook of depression   chances are you're not and if you don't fit the  textbook then how do you expect to be treated   with the text book recommendations it's time  to look beyond and ask for more so one of the   things that I think is important to establish  is really this old model versus the new models   so you can clearly see that when I listed out  some of these tests that I think are very very   valuable to mental health I didn't just sit there  and list out all of these biochemistry based tests   I didn't sit there and just say oh just test  for heavy metals just test for infections just   test for b12 and folate and MTHFR this is about  going beyond that this is about looking at the   person's emotional health looking about looking  at their their environment do they hate their   job do they hate their spouse it's about looking  at the meridians it's about looking at their gut   it's about looking at so many different factors  and when I started practicing I was functional   medicine and I did a lot of more comprehensive  tests I tested for heavy metals I tested the   stool samples I did all those things but I still  hit plateaus and that's why I have moved towards   this concept of Integrative Medicine and it's  not just about the testing it's also about the   approach there are some people that I work with  that are severely depressed and they literally   just go through and do some detoxification get the  crap out of their body and their mood completely   stabilizes and then there's other people that  they just need to work on their meridians and   they get better every single person's approach  is completely completely different and I have   with the way that we do testing I have the ability  to know what your body needs opposed to assuming   and opposed to using trial and error which is a  lot of waste of time and a lot of wasted money   so people always want to know you know how do we  work with our customers or patients and I will   tell you we serve people we've been in this since  day one to serve people we do not serve insurance   providers we would never be able to do the work  that we do if we did people are definitely welcome   to use their out of network coverage and use their  flex spending accounts in health savings accounts   and all of those amazing things but when it comes  to being able to be fully in network unfortunately   it's just not possible right now and we would not  be able to spend the time we would not be able to   dig deeper we would not be able to use these  really amazing accurate technologies that we   do so it's definitely about serving the people  and giving you what you need because at the end   of the day I most of the people I work with they  just wasted a lot of time and a lot of money and   haven't had any answers and I feel like we forget  that health care is supposed to be about answers   and solutions we settle for little to no answers  and we settle for a blanketed solution a linear   solution a one-size-fits-all solution and we need  more so this is really our approach to figuring   it all out we use a variety of different  technologies that test for everything from   chemical sensitivities environmental sensitivities  food allergies we look at the DNA down to the DNA   level we look for infections we look for mold we  look for heavy metals mineral deficiencies vitamin   deficiencies and then one of the absolute best  things that we do is something called autonomic   response testing and the reason why I want it to  specifically talk about this is because one of the   things that make us stand out or set us apart is  that we don't just do all this fancy testing and   then give you the same blanketed approach we  actually use this specific modality to figure   out what supplements what herbs what remedies what  therapies does your body need to get better so you   may have been listening since we you know early  on and heard about the brain map the queue EEG and   the neurofeedback and you might be thinking oh my  gosh that sounds amazing I think I need that we're   gonna test you do you need that or do you need  to detox or do you just need a dietary change   it's really a matter of what does your body need  and what does it mean now so everyone is different   everybody has different needs and you need to be  specific so that you give the person what they   need and I always say to people trying to put a  value on you know getting these answers getting   this testing it it varies because it depends on  your goals and what you can achieve I have some   people that are like I don't know what to eat  everything makes me sick being able to know what   they kind of can't eat is priceless to them being  depressed for ten years and not being able to get   out of bed and you know losing all your hopes and  dreams and aspirations and losing you know your   relationships being able to get your life back  that's priceless so at the end of the day you know   putting a true value on this was really difficult  and I do feel like depending on what your goal is   you know what we can offer in the answers we can  provide is priceless so everybody always wants to   know the cost so our onboarding for all of those  tasks plus three hours with the doctor and also   half an hour with a nutritionist is 1425 some  of you might be like that is astronomical that's   crazy I will tell you right now when we talk about  functional medicine versus integrative medicine or   just versus what we do is you can easily go to  a functional medicine practitioner and you can   get your consultation I don't know 200 or 300  others maybe a little more and you will walk   out with a bunch of private lab testing that will  rack up between three to five thousand dollars so   it's very important for you to know that going in  and the reason why we do things the way we do is   because we find that our results are more accurate  number one but number two is we want to keep the   cost as low as possible in the beginning because  at the end of the day I do what I do because I   want to see people get better I don't want to just  give you answers and say okay now you know what's   wrong with you now live with it it's a matter of  being able to give you a solution to what comes   up in your test so we also offer if you do come in  with a spouse a family member etcetera 597 so the   same exact tests for any additional family member  which is pretty great because I think it's really   really important for families to be embarking on  integrative medicine and it's not just about you   know one family member being able to afford it at  a time but you must apply I am actually gonna put   up the little link that you guys can check out you  really when it comes to applying it's really just   we want to make sure that we are clear on who we  are what we do what we have to offer just to make   sure that it matches because we always want to  give people exactly what they're looking for and   just make sure that we're a good fit if you're  long distance definite or you have somebody that   you're listening to this you like oh my gosh  I really want to send it to them we can do all   of our testing from a distance and the reason we  can do that is because two of our or most of our   tests are actually DNA based so DNA is in your  hair so we can actually do most of our testing   on a hair sample which will allow us to get all  of the information that we need and then from   there if the person does decide that they want to  get treatment with us we do offer everything from   immersion weekends to immersion weeks which  are pretty amazing we see amazing results we   actually if you follow us on Instagram or Facebook  definitely check out we actually have a amazing   woman who's in from Vegas right now doing an  immersion week that she was really excited about   us documenting the process so definitely keep an  eye on that because she's she's doing amazing and   it's really exciting so again the reason we do  this unique onboarding process is so that we can   save you in the it like in the start of this  process because the last thing we want to do   is have you spend a boatload of money on testing  and then not be able to get care most importantly   is getting care and getting better so I'll see  if there's any questions I don't see any now I'm   going to be wrapping up if you have any questions  throw it throw them in there quickly but thank you   guys for being here and I really really hope that  you can share this with others because I know that   it is an epidemic of depression and anxiety and it  is like literally it just mm breaks my heart when   I hear I'm getting like choked up mm-hmm it really  breaks my heart some of the things I hear on a   day-to-day basis um I had a friend of mine who  pretty much said that her mom found her 27 year   old daughter dead in her bedroom because she ran  out of her medicine for depression and she went to   the hospital and she got some type of medicine and  she got home and they still don't really even know   what happened and it's just it's just we can't  rely on these methods we just can't and it's it's   really we're not taking into consideration  the long-term effects we're not taking into   consideration how they mix with each other we're  just not taking these things into consideration we   don't realize how dangerous they are and we're  putting kids on them that their brains are not   being fully developed and then on top of it  we're exposing kids to massive stress with   this comparison game of social media we really  need to start thinking about these things and   almost getting back to basics and being able to  disconnect and spend quality time with each other   I know your kids are gonna kick and scream if you  take away those iPads and cell phones but it's   just it's like taking some time away from it but  lastly I just want you guys to know that this is   an educational experience I really really hope you  about a lot out of it and you learned new things   but at the end of the day when you figure out what  is the cause of your mental health issues that's   really when this becomes a breakthrough experience  and then being able to know what you need to do to   actually heal so thank you guys for being here  with me I really really appreciate it definitely   check out our website for podcasts or any  additional information I'll be with our team if   you want to learn a little bit more about working  with us alright guys I'll see you next week