Hey, guys. Welcome to the ultimate human podcast. I'm human biologist Gary Brecka, your host for the Ultimate Human Podcast, where we go down the road of everything biohacking, longevity, anti aging, wellness, and everything that makes human beings ultimate human human beings. Today I'm going to talk about anxiety because there's a lot of inquiries that come through our social media channels and through our clinic chain that talk about anxiety. What is it?

How can we treat it nonpharmaceutically? What are some of the scientific principles and some of the better scientific evidence that talk about ways to treat anxiety in a non pharmacological way? So I really want to spend a few minutes talking to those of you who have either suffered from anxiety or maybe, you know somebody who's suffered from anxiety. Estimates are as high as 45% of the population at some point will suffer from anxiety, and 33% of the population is chronic anxiety sufferers. So this is a major issue.

And anxiety is really a complex emotion because it's usually defined as a fear of the future, something happening in the future that is very likely not to happen, that most likely has never happened or may never happen, but the actual lack of that event occurring does not prevent that person from becoming anxious or developing anxiety. So if you've ever known someone who suffered from anxiety or you've suffered from anxiety yourself, I want you to go back and I want you to think about whether or not your anxiety fits these three characteristics. Because if it does, it's very likely something that is not happening to you. It's something that's happening within you, right? And very often we have a tendency to think that disease and pathology and all kinds of mental illness are things that are actually happening to us, but the truth is, very often they're happening within us, meaning there are nutrient deficiencies in the human body that cause the expression of conditions like anxiety.

If you've ever suffered from or know someone who's suffered from anxiety, see if it fits these three characteristics. Number one, have you had it on and off throughout your entire lifetime? That's your first indication that it actually might be coming from a very common gene mutation called MTHFR. I'm not going to tell you what the nickname is for this gene, but it is one of the most common gene mutations in the world. And by gene mutations, I don't mean that something's wrong with you.

Just remember that there's not a single compound known to mankind, not one that enters the human body and is used in the format that we put it in. Without exception, everything that enters our body is converted into the usable form. I always use the example that we pull crude oil out of the ground. But you can't put crude oil into your gas tank, right? Crude oil has to be converted into gasoline for the car to understand that fuel source.

Well, human beings are no different. When we put vitamins, minerals, amino acids, nutrients of any kind into the human body, they're not used in the format that we put them in. They are converted through a process called methylation into the usable form. If you can't make this conversion, you have a deficiency. And very often it's this deficiency that leads to some of the most common ailments that human beings in mankind suffer from.

So back to anxiety. The first question is, have you suffered from anxiety on and off throughout your entire lifetime? Generally, that answer is yes. And then secondly, can you always point to the specific trigger that causes it? Very often we can be on the vacation of a lifetime with the people we love the most in a place that we're very familiar with, and we can just be overwhelmed with anxiety.

We can wake up in the morning feeling anxiety, driving home from work on an otherwise innocuous day, and be overwhelmed with anxiety. That form of anxiety is not coming from a cluster of symptoms. It's not coming from your outside environment. It's coming from your physiology. And the third thing is, if you've actually tried antianxiety medications, did they work?

And very often that answer is no. People will say, it just made me feel like a zombie. And the reason why you feel like a zombie is because, again, this is not coming from your outside environment. So have you had it on and off your entire lifetime? Can you point to the specific trigger that causes it and have antianxiety medications work for you?

And if those answers are consistent with what I just said, then you very likely want to get a test for this gene mutation called MTHFR. What it does is it converts folic acid and folate into the form that the body can use called methyl folate. And this is really important. You may have heard of bioavailable vitamins. We put vitamin C and vitamin D three and all kinds of amino acids into the body.

But it really doesn't matter what we ingest. It matters what becomes bioavailable, what the body can use. So if your body is not capable of converting folate and all of its derivatives, folic acid, which I'll get to in a second into the usable form, your body has a deficiency. And when you have this deficiency, you get the expression of things like depression, anxiety, Add, OCD, manic depression, bipolar, all kinds of conditions that are actually not psychiatric conditions happening to you. They are psychiatric conditions happening within you.

Let's go back for a second and talk about how the human brain works so we can understand anxiety. I mean, first of all, as sophisticated as we'd like to think our brains are, they're really not, you know what the brain cares about? The brain cares about survival. And the brain is actually very primal, and very often it does not know the difference between perception and reality. So what do I mean by this?

I mean that if you drove home tonight, for example, and you got out of your car and somebody was standing in front of you with a knife, that's a very real threat. You would have a fight or flight response. Your brain would flood with something called catecholamines fight or flight neurotransmitters. What would happen is your pupils would dilate, your heart rate would increase, your extremities would flood with blood. You're actually having a fear response, but you could also be laying in bed in your condo building.

I'm on the 27th floor of a condo in Miami right now, but you could be laying back there in that bed, and you could start thinking about getting eaten by a shark. And the chance of a shark getting out of that ocean and coming up that elevator and getting you in your bed are zero, but you can have the exact same response. So once we understand that the brain can play tricks on us, that we can actually feel the presence of a fear without a fear, we start to understand the genesis of anxiety. One of the worst things that you can do to somebody that has anxiety is try to reason them out of an anxiety attack, right. By telling them there's no reason for them to feel this way.

There's nothing for them to be afraid of. Why do they choose to feel like this? Why do they choose to have this kind of attitude? Nothing like that will be effective. It will really upset them.

It's almost like you're downplaying that very visceral fear that they have. When someone is afraid of heights and they're standing at the edge of a 30th floor balcony, all the reasoning in the world about how safe that balcony is or how strong the handrail is, is not going to work. And it's no different than trying to reason somebody out of having an anxiety attack. So when we talk about neurotransmitters that lead to anxiety, what are we talking about? Well, very often we're talking about a category of neurotransmitters called catecholamines, and these neurotransmitters are involved in the fight or flight response.

Dopamine, epinephrine, norepinephrine, we also call them adrenaline. You probably know them as adrenaline. So we know that adrenaline is a fight or flight neurotransmitter, but can it be released in a scenario where there's no presence of a fear? And the answer for that is yes. So if you have this gene mutation, MTHFR, which is very easy to check for, it's a cheek swab.

There are thousands of companies that do it. Our company does it. You do not have to use our gene test. You can use any number of gene tests that are on the market, but you essentially take a cheek swab, a QTIP, you put it in your mouth, you send it into a lab, they get back to you and they say, yes, you are positive for MTHFR. Or you're not positive for MTHFR.

There's also two sub alleles, which I'll get to in a minute. And if you have this genetic mutation, then there's a lot of clinical evidence that supplementing with something called methyl Folate, specifically five methyl Folate, and another amino acid called CME s adenosylmethione can be very, very effective at treating anxiety and even effective at treating depression. Because, remember, if we cannot degrade these catecholamines, they build up. And as they build up, you get the presence of a fear without actually having a fear. One of the studies that I'm going to put into the links below was recently published in the Journal of Integrative Medicine, and it found that one of the best studies on non pharmaceutical inventions for treating depression and anxiety was an analysis of Sam E, this amino acid, and something called methyl Folate.

Remember that our body is going to convert folic acid, or Folate, into this usable form called methyl Folate. But if you're one of the 44% of the population that can't make this conversion, then you have a deficiency. And it could be this deficiency that's leading to your anxiety. So there are certain foods that actually have a positive effect on this cruciferous vegetables, dark green leafy vegetables, whole foods, nonprocessed foods can actually provide the Folate that your body needs in order to properly regulate these catecholamines. You know, there's such a spike in Add, HD, OCD, manic depression, bipolar, and all kinds of learning disabilities, especially in young children in the US.

Now. And a lot of it is related to our food supply being deficient in these raw materials. So if you're one of those people that suffered from anxiety, you haven't been able to find a solution. You've had it on and off throughout your entire lifetime. You can't point to the specific trigger that causes it.

And antianxiety medications haven't worked. Methyl Folate and Sammy may just be for you. I'm not a physician. I'm not licensed to practice medicine. I'm going to put this study into the link below.

You can actually read the dosage requirements for these. It's based on weight and severity of symptoms. These are over the counter supplements that you can get on your own. I would suggest that you consult your physician before you do it. But it actually pointed out that four of five patients that enrolled in this clinical study actually saw very positive outcomes just from supplementing these two nutrients.

I hope you find this helpful, because it's just science.