Category: PMDD

Gut Health is Important for Mental Health

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At Thrive Wellness, we recognise that mental health is multifaceted, and addressing it from all angles is important. While psychological therapy plays a significant role in mental health care, did you know that your gut health could be just as important? The gut-brain connection influences everything from mood to cognitive function and improving the health of your gut could be your ticket to a happier mind.

The Gut-Brain Connection: More Than Just a Feeling

Your gut and brain are constantly communicating through what’s known as the gut-brain axis – a two-way street where your gut can influence your mood, thoughts, and overall mental health, and vice versa. Here’s how it works:

Neurotransmitter Production: Did you know that a significant amount of serotonin, the “happy hormone,” is produced in your gut? A healthy gut is essential for maintaining optimal serotonin levels. An unhealthy gut can disrupt serotonin production, leading to mood swings, anxiety, or even depression.

Inflammation and Immunity: A disrupted gut can lead to systemic inflammation which has been linked to mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety. A healthy gut helps maintain a balanced immune response, reducing inflammation and potentially alleviating symptoms.

Nutrient Absorption: Your gut is responsible for absorbing the nutrients that your brain needs to function effectively. If your gut isn’t healthy, you might miss out on essential vitamins and minerals important for mental clarity, emotional balance, and resilience.

Microbiome Balance: Your gut is home to trillions of microorganisms, collectively known as the microbiome. These beneficial bacteria help regulate mood by producing and modulating neurotransmitters like serotonin and GABA. They also help maintain the gut barrier, enhance nutrient absorption, and regulate immune responses. When the microbiome is imbalanced – a condition known as dysbiosis – harmful metabolites and endotoxins are produced, leading to inflammation and poor mental health.

Why Psychological Therapy Alone May Not Be Enough

Psychological therapy is an essential part of mental health care, but it’s not the only piece of the puzzle. While therapy can help you manage emotions, thoughts, and behaviors, it may not address the underlying physical issues that could be contributing to your mental health struggles.

This is where a Certified Practicing Nutritionist (CPN), also known as a Clinical Nutritionist, can help. Through comprehensive assessment of your medical history, current symptoms, lifestyle factors and laboratory testing, a CPN can create a personalised plan that includes dietary modifications and therapeutic supplmenentation to support and enhance your mental well-being.

Research shows that this evidence-based, dual intervention approach of tackling mental health from both the inside and out produces better outcomes than psychological therapy alone.

Microbiota-gut-brain bidirectional relationship. Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/medicine/articles/10.3389/fmed.2022.813204/full

How Clinical Nutritionists assess and improve your Gut-Brain connection

Certified Practicing Nutritionists (CPNs) are tertiary qualified, clinically trained, Practicing Nutritionists who assess and address a person’s nutritional biochemistry and metabolism by providing customised recommendations within a clinical and nutritional medicine framework to improve health. Using dietary and lifestyle modifications along with therapeutic supplements, CPN’s aim to remediate the metabolic dysfunctions that drive a person’s poor health and/or chronic disease states. Here’s what you can expect when working with a CPN at Thrive Wellness to improve your gut-brain health:

  1. Comprehensive Assessment: Upon scheduling your appointment, you’ll receive an information pack and questionairres for you to complete detailing your health concerns, symptoms, lifestyle, dietary habits, and your health goals. Your CPN will review this information prior to your initial consultation, identifying key areas and questions to explore further during your first meeting.
  2. Additional Assessments: Your CPN may suggest further investigations, such as additional questionnaires, food diaries, or laboratory tests (e.g. blood, saliva, stool). A comprehensive stool analysis, for example, can profile your gut microbiome’s diversity and abundance, shed light on the health of your gut lining and mucous, nutrient breakdown and absorption and measure inflammation.
  3. Customised Recommendations: After evaluating your information, your CPN will provide tailored recommendations, education and support to help you implement the recommendations. Restoring gut health following dysbiosis typically involves five to six consultations over a 6 month timeframe, sometimes longer. Initial recommendations are based on population-based scientific studies, wheras prescription following specialised testing allows for a higher level of personalised health care due to your specific biochemistry and needs being identified. As not everyone requires advanced testing to get results, a cost-effective option can be to engage in an initial 2-3 month course of therapy and only pursue additional testing if you’re not getting the results you want.
  4. Nutritional Medicine – Supplement and Dietary recommendations: Your CPN will prescribe evidence-based therapeutic supplements and dietary modifications to address underlying issues. For example, if you’re lacking in key nutrients like magnesium, B-vitamins, or Omega-3 fatty acids, supplements might be recommended to fill the gaps, enhancing your mental health outcomes. Select clinical probiotic strains and prebiotic fibres will be prescribed to modify gut microbiome composition. Although making permanent changes to gut microbiome diversity and abundance takes a long time and requires a diet diverse in plant-foods to sustain it (possible without ongoing supplementation), faster improvements in mental health from taking psychobiotics occur on average, within 6 weeks. Such outcomes are due to the metabolites that the psychobiotic strains produce having a modulatory affect on the micorbiome-gut-brain axis and immune system, leading to significant reduction in depression and anxiety. Of course, gut health is just one system that may be contributing to and impacted by your mental health, as others systems are also affected, your CPN will provide you with recommendations that address your whole body and bring it back into balance. For this reason, early improvements in energy, mood or sleep may occur in just a few days.
  5. Transition to self management – Once balance is restored and your mental health wellness goals achieved, your CPN will provide you with a plan for maintaining your health, along with education on how diet and lifestyle alone can acheive this without the need for ongoing supplementation. Clients with a long history of being unwell, may cling to supplementation out of fear they might become unwell again. The supplements used for restoring homeostasis however are often not needed ongoing, with the exception of specific circumstances. An example of an exception is an individual experiencing ongoing stress, who has a genetic SNP or other variant that increases their susceptibility to poor gut, immune or mental health. Another example is an individual who is unable to make the necessary diet and lifestyle modifications to maintain their health. Your CPN will discuss your individual needs with you, and customise ongoing supports for you accordingly.

Ready to improve your Mental Health?

At Thrive Wellness we’re passionate about providing multidisciplinary, evidence-based, comprehensive, holistic mental health care. We value psychological therapy as an important primary mental health intervention. Our psychologists help you manage emotions, thoughts, and behaviors, and provide you with evidence-based strategies to reduce stress, however they can’t address underlying biochemical, genetic or metabolic issues that could be contributing to your mental health struggles. If you’d like to support your body using clinical nutrition and nutritional medicine interventions, reach out and request a CPN consultation. After all, when it comes to your well-being, why settle for anything less than complete care?

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The Brain Booster: How Beef Liver Enhances Your Mental Well-Being

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Eating beef liver can offer several benefits for mental health due to its rich nutrient profile. It contains various essential nutrients that can positively impact brain function and emotional well-being. Here are some of the benefits of consuming beef liver for mental health:

1. Rich in Vitamin B12: Beef liver is one of the best dietary sources of vitamin B12, a crucial nutrient for neurological health. Vitamin B12 plays a vital role in the synthesis of neurotransmitters, such as serotonin and dopamine, which are involved in regulating mood and emotions. Adequate levels of vitamin B12 can help improve mood and reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety.

2. High in Folate (Vitamin B9): Folate is essential for brain function and the production of neurotransmitters. It is involved in the synthesis of serotonin, which helps regulate mood and sleep. Consuming beef liver can contribute to maintaining healthy levels of folate in the body, supporting mental well-being.

3. Excellent Source of Iron: Iron deficiency can lead to cognitive impairment, fatigue, and even mood disturbances. Beef liver is a highly concentrated source of iron, which is essential for transporting oxygen to the brain and body. Ensuring sufficient iron intake can help maintain mental alertness and overall cognitive function.

4. Abundance of Vitamin A: Vitamin A plays a role in maintaining the health of the nervous system and supporting vision. Proper nerve function is crucial for optimal brain health and mental clarity.

5. Provides Choline: Choline is a nutrient that supports brain health and is a precursor to the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which is involved in memory and cognitive function. Beef liver contains choline, contributing to cognitive support.

6. Nutrient-Dense Superfood: Beef liver is considered a nutrient-dense superfood as it contains a wide range of vitamins and minerals necessary for overall health. A well-nourished body is better equipped to handle stress and maintain emotional balance.

It’s important to note that while beef liver offers these mental health benefits, it should be consumed in moderation due to its high vitamin A content. Excessive vitamin A intake can lead to toxicity, so it’s best to enjoy beef liver as part of a varied and balanced diet.

As a general rule for adults, a 140gram serve of cooked beef liver eaten once a week as part of a balanced diet is considered as befificial and consumed in moderation.

As always, individual nutritional needs vary, and if you have specific health concerns or conditions, it’s advisable to consult with a healthcare professional or a registered dietitian to determine the most appropriate dietary choices for your mental and overall well-being.

Simple Recipe – Cooked Beef Liver

For best taste and texture, soak beef liver in milk for at least an hour, then rinse off and pat dry before cooking. Preparing beef liver in this manner removes the bitter taste, draws off any impurities and tenderises the meat.

Ingredients:

  • 300g Sliced grass-fed, organic beef liver
  • juice of 1-2 lemons or 3/4 cup of milk
  • 1/4 cup unbleached flour (or gluten free flour)
  • 1/8 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1/8 teaspoon pepper
  • 1 T olive oil

Preparation:

  1. Marinate liver slices in lemon juice (or milk) for at least an hour, or overnight.
  2. Rinse off, then pat the liver slices dry.
  3. Dredge in a mixture of flour, salt and pepper.
  4. Saute over high heat.
  5. Transfer to a thermoserver or simliar to keep warm until ready to eat.

Menstruation – the good, the bad, and the ugly

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Femininity is beautiful. Along with our curves, intuition, nurturing souls and strength, we are blessed to be bearers of the wombs from which all human life begins in this world. Every human alive today, begun life in the womb of their mother. Regardless of whether a woman bears children, or how many she bears in her lifetime, there is a special process her body goes through each month to prepare for this potential event. Each step in this process, signalled by hormones, ideally occurs without interrupting, or negatively impacting, a woman’s daily activities. Unfortunately, however, this is not the experience for all women. For some, menstruation is a heavy burden and the monthly reminder of this life-giving cycle is most un-welcomed.

Understanding the menstrual cycle…

The menstrual cycle can be divided into stages – the first stage, known as the ‘follicular phase’, orchestrates the release of the egg and begins preparing a cosy cushion of lining for the egg to take lodging in, should it become fertilised. The second stage, known as the ‘luteal phase’ continues building up the comfy cushion wall and watches for the signal a fertilised egg has arrived. If a fertilised egg arrives, a special glue sticks the egg to the cosy cushion lining, where it is nurtured and grows into a little person over the ensuing 9 months. If, however, a fertilised egg does not arrive, the cushion wall is deconstructed and the materials that formed it are removed from the body – this is known as menstruation, or a woman’s ‘period’.

Image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luteal_phase#/media/File:MenstrualCycle2_en.svg Wikipedia link for more information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menstrual_cycle

Introducing PMS… when being a woman becomes unpleasant

Premenstrual symptoms are the changes in mood, behavioural and physical health that some women experience prior to menstruation. Common symptoms include breast tenderness, abdominal bloating, food cravings (how often have you reached for chocolate pre-menstruation!) depression, and anxiety. Symptoms diminish after menstruation but come back again the following month, as the woman’s body prepares itself yet again for the prospective arrival of a fertilised egg.

Commonly, 90% of women experience at least one premenstrual symptom at some stage during their childbearing years, and for most of these women, symptoms are minor, non-disruptive and nothing more than a quiet reminder of the life-giving process going on deep within their body.

And PMDD… most unpleasant ☹

Approximately 30% of women experience more than one premenstrual symptom, at an intensity or frequency that is unpleasant and somewhat disrupting to their daily lives.

Of these women, 5-8% experience moderate to severe symptoms that cause significant distress and functional impairment, interfering with their ability to go about their daily activities, and leading them to seek treatment.

Premenstrual Dysphoric disorder (PMDD) is what practitioners call this most severe form of PMS. It is a disorder classified in the DSM-5, and able to be diagnosed by Psychologists, who can also provide treatment to support reduction in symptoms and severity. You can see a Psychologist as a private patient or speak to your GP about getting a referral – it’s recommended you call and inquire after a Psychologist with experience seeing PMS/PMDD patients, as not all are.

At our practice, we recommend Psychologist Michelle Nolan.

If you would like additional diet, exercise and supplement support, our Exercise Physiologist and Clinical Nutritionist, Felicia McQueen can support you. You may choose to see one practitioner only, however if you choose to see both, we will work collaboratively with you as a team to address your concerns and help you achieve your goals.

Reducing your risk for developing PMS/PMDD

Although imbalances in the steroidal hormones progesterone and estrogen were once believed to be the cause of PMS/PMDD, hormone therapy has been shown to be ineffective for symptom resolution in many cases. Despite ongoing, rigorous research, scientists have not yet been able to identify the pathophysiological cause and effect of PMS & PMDD. They do however have several theories, and thus far have identified four proven risk factors associated with its development.

The four proven physical, environmental, and psychological risk factors associated with the development of PMS/PMDD are:

  1. Cigarette smoking – if you smoke or have previously smoked (especially if you began smoking during your teenage years), you have an elevated risk for moderate to severe PMS symptoms. Risk for developing PMS increases with the number of cigarettes you smoke.
  • Obesity – For every kg/m2 you are above a healthy BMI, your chance of getting PMS rises by 3%.
  • Past traumatic events – although the underlying mechanism is unknown, experiencing a traumatic event increases your risk for PMDD.
  • Anxiety – if you have a pre-existing anxiety disorder, you’re at increased risk for developing PMDD.

Reducing your existing PMS/PMDD symptoms…

Addressing the above risk factors has proven to be successful in reducing symptoms, improving function and restoring quality of life.

If you are overweight, our Clinical Nutritionist and Exercise Physiologist can review your dietary and lifestyle practices, help you develop a plan and provide support to achieve your weight loss goals.

Psychological interventions such as trauma-focused therapy, EMDR, CBT, ACT, are utilised by our Psychologists in an individually tailored course of therapy to reduce your anxiety and psychological symptoms, and improve your coping skills, mental health and wellbeing.

For support in cessation of smoking – we recommend talking to your GP, Psychologist, Nutritionist and your other treating Health practitioner team about your decision to stop smoking – to put together a plan and support network to help you achieve your goal. The Australian government have put together a resource guide to stop smoking: https://www.health.gov.au/health-topics/smoking-and-tobacco/how-to-quit-smoking. There’s also handy apps available to track your progress and provide support from this US government site: https://smokefree.gov/tools-tips/apps

Stepping forward to a more comfortable you…

We invite you to contact us on 07 4637 9097 or thriveadmin@thrivewellness.com.au to discuss our professional services and how we can assist you to achieve your goals. Although we are based in Toowoomba, we provide support to women Australia-wide through video and telephone consultations.

When contacting us to book your appointment, we recommend you request a 50min appointment with Psychologist Michelle Nolan, and a separate appointment with Clinical Nutritionist & Exercise Physiologist, Felicia McQueen. Service provided and costs associated with these appointments are listed in the ‘Fees’ section of our website. You may also wish to discuss your concerns with your GP, and ask about your referral options and eligibility for Medicare’s Better Access Initiative, which provides partially funded Psychology appointments through Medicare. A valid GP Mental Health Care Plan referral is required for this.

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