Anxiety and Stress Forum - Anxiety: a Nutrtional Disorder

It is a pity that anxiety attacks and phobias are usually looked upon as a mental disease, requiring talk therapy in the hope of changing a person’s outlook, attitudes and beliefs about their irrational fears.

But it is well known that psychotherapy has little effect on the course of the disease. Nor does drug therapy seem to resolve the underlying cause of anxiety attacks, and patients usually move from drug to another for many years.

I suggest that we look outside the drug/psychotherapy model and see if there are any alternatives.

Anxiety attacks are caused by an excess secretion of adrenaline. Biochemically, adrenaline functions to increase blood sugar levels by converting sugar stores (glycogen) into glucose.
This diverts energy away from the digestive system into the muscles and brain in preparation for quick action in case of danger. This is the cause of the various symptoms when we have an anxiety attack: heart palpitations, muscle cramps, sometimes nausea, giddiness, insomnia, indigestion, even diarrhea, and so on and on.. The trouble is that there is no danger in the environment and that the attack seems to be generated from within having nothing to do with whatever is going on in the environment. When we are overwhelmed with such a strong emotion as fear, our mind is all to ready to invent a cause and so we find people blame any outstanding stimulus in the environment or unforgettable memory or trauma in the past as the cause of that strong emotion. This is how phobias and obsessions are created.

The brain depends on energy, called adenosine triphosphate (atp), that is ultimately derived form carbohydrates in our food. Carbohydrates are broken down in glucose that undergoes about 13 biochemical reactions before it is converted to atp. Anywhere along this biochemical pathway there may be an obstruction in this conversion, deficiencies in enzymes or coenzymes - such as whole range of nutrients essential in the metabolism of glucose to atp.

Apart from nutritional deficiencies, the most important blockage usually occurs at the entrance point of the energy production, namely insulin resistance (or hypoglycemia). When we have insulin resistance (hypoglycemia) the body does not respond properly to insulin’s action in pushing glucose across cell membranes, including brain cells.

In response the body produces more insulin to overcome the resistance of insulin receptors and we then have hyperinsulinism (excess insulin). This causes a sudden drop in blood sugar levels, which is seen by the brain as a threat of energy starvation. When the brain senses a sudden low glucose supply it sends an urgent message to the adrenal glands to squirt adrenaline into the system. And so we see that anxiety attacks are really caused by unstable blood sugar levels feeding the brain.

We can overcome unstable blood sugar levels by adopting a hypoglycemic diet, which is a diet high in good quality proteins (as a major source of slow energy release), low in carbohydrates, taken in frequent snacks (to avoid sudden peaks and falls of sugar levels), and supplemented with certain nutrients such as zinc, chromium, vitamin c, b-complex, essential fatty acids (omega-3 & 6) found in vegetable and fish oil.

This diet will avoid and normalize sudden peaks and falls in blood sugar-, insulin and stress hormone levels.

Psychotherapy is only useful, if the physical causes of anxiety attacks are addressed first. Psychotherapy and/or drug therapy is bound to fail, if if the causes of internal hormonal upheavals are overlooked and not treated nutritionally.