#81 Episode: The Missing Link in Mental Health No One Talks About
Struggling with anxiety or low energy? You’re not alone. In this episode, we share the deeper reasons why mental health issues show up—and how you can start healing from the inside out without relying on medication alone.
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Show Notes:
Intro to holistic approaches to mental health with functional medicine expert Amanda
The link between insulin resistance and mental health challenges like depression, anxiety, and brain fog
How gut health affects neurotransmitter production (serotonin, dopamine)
The dangers of relying solely on antidepressants and antianxiety meds
Whole food nutrition and eliminating processed food for better brain function
Movement as medicine – the mental health benefits of just 10 minutes of physical activity
How GLP-1 hormones, gut health, and metabolic function impact appetite and mental clarity
Personal stories of healing and reversing type 2 diabetes naturally
Natural mood enhancers: theobromine in Unimate tea vs. coffee or SSRIs
The importance of patience – healing takes time and consistency
Encouragement to use lifestyle tools like intermittent fasting and gut support supplements
Key Takeaways:
Insulin resistance is directly connected to mood disorders like depression and anxiety.
Over 90% of serotonin is produced in your gut, which means gut health is critical for mental health.
Movement is a powerful antidepressant – 10 minutes a day can release endorphins and reduce cortisol.
Natural tools like Unimate tea (with theobromine) can support mood and reduce reliance on prescriptions.
Healing mental health holistically takes time, consistency, and self-compassion.
Transcript:
Hello everyone and welcome back to Better Than A Pill. Today, I'm here with Amanda, our functional medicine practitioner. And I just want to say, before we dive into today's episode, which is going to be awesome. I just want to give credit to God and just express my gratitude for this platform for the better than a pill podcast, which was born from the belief that we can be proactive in our, in taking control of our own health and wellness, exploring holistic solutions in addition to what mainstream medicine has to offer. And I'm excited about today's episode because we all need it. We're going to be talking a little bit about mental health.
And we're going to talk a little bit about the things that can help us outside of a pill or our mental health. So we're going to get started. And I know both Amanda and I have lots to share about this, but I'm going to let you take the wheel to start Amanda. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, so mental health.
I know you have a lot to share with us and I just want to say a little bit about mental health and insulin resistance my passion is to help people restore metabolic health naturally and Insulin resistance is at the root of most chronic illnesses including depression, anxiety, cognitive declines like dementia, Alzheimer's brain fog, migraines, all these are related to insulin resistance.
And insulin resistance contribute to chronic inflammation and oxidative stress and both play a role and link to depression and anxiety. Insulin resistance and blood sugar dysregulations, right? So many people have 93 percent adult Americans are considered pre diabetic or have insulin resistance and blood sugar dysregulations.
It's directly linked to our mood swings, like when you eat right when you eat you every all food will spike glucose will spike insulin, and that will lead to a spikes and glucose level and then it will crash and then a spike in a crash so this is a. a normal pattern for most adult Americans due to the what the standard American diet right high carbs high sugars processed foods that leads to insulin resistance.
And another point I want to make is that most of the neurotransmitters are being produced in your gut. Especially the serotonins, the happy hormones, and then the 50 percent of the dopamine, the productive hormones, the feel good hormones, all right? So that's produced in the gut, and many of us have gut issues, have acid reflux, have leaky gut, have dysbiosis, and this will influence the amount of neurotransmitters being produced in that.
essentially will affect your cognitive functions, will lead to more depression, anxieties. And I've seen this as a pharmacist, anti depressant medication is one of the fast mover medications that I dispense on a regular basis. Yeah, it's fascinating to me how insulin resistance even ties into mental health and and how also our gut, being healthy ties into our mental health.
We don't normally think about those things as being related at all. Something on our podcast, we're going to talk about it, but most people walking around are not being informed about these things. And a lot of people are being put on medication would you say, cause you dispense it all the time, right?
So you're seeing people, I would say a lot of the problems stem from let's just say two basic ones we'll pick today, anxiety and depression and They're being put on medications. So let's, let's talk about some of those medications that they're being put on or people are taking.
Sometimes they're necessary, but sometimes they're not right. That's one of the reasons we're here today. I know myself as well, always wanting to choose the the path where we can do. Better things for body because the thing is a lot of the medications have side effects, right?
Absolutely. Yes. I will, I do want to say that there is going to be a time and place where we may need medication in our life. And I know for, for me personally, yes, I've had to be on certain medications, in the past and, in general been told by a doctor, you're going to have to be on these forever.
And that's just not the case. Because if we. For me, that's been my experience and one of the reasons that drives this podcast. So let's just look at, yes, this could be something permanent, but it also could be something that is not permanent. And there could be other things that we begin to do for our body, like address.
insulin resistance address what kind of what foods we have control what we put in our mouth, what food we just, choose to eat. And I know sometimes it's hard because of the food industry they created these foods that's very addictive because they're removing fibers from the food.
So now we have highly processed carbohydrates, sugar added, salt added, fat added to it, all the preservatives and additives to these foods that when you eat, it creates this addictive reward, stimulate your dopamine release. So you feel good and it tastes good and you want more of those but what the, those foods are very inflammatory.
They don't feed your cells, they create, this environment that bad bacteria, pathogens thrive off of this type of environment. And so we have choices and also those foods, those carbohydrates and sugary processed foods, they spike. They cause, they spike your glucose level and your insulin levels and leading to very inflammatory state and leading to insulin resistance.
So the goal is it's, insulin resistance is a hundred percent. reversible, right? Even type 2 diabetes is reversible. We've seen it. I've helped my mother in law reverse her type 2 diabetes even after being a diabetic for 15 years and got off some medication. So these conditions are dietary diseases.
These are like all these conditions. I don't know. I guess if people can see I have a poster behind me that insulin resistant is linked to, many of conditions. And if we address the root cause, if we teach people how to reverse insulin resistance, we can potentially resolve most of those chronic illnesses and get people off medications.
Okay. Yeah. So it's fair to say there's a lot of things linked to insulin resistance and we're targeting in on just today. Cause we're on here a lot, talking about these things, the mental health aspect. So like you're saying number one, your experience as a functional medicine practitioner, you see this all the time.
You're trying to get people to eat real whole foods. So choosing to get away from, like we say, and like we said, and I think we need to keep saying it again, because the more this gets out there, the more people hear that. We're not going to be 100 percent perfect, but if we can begin to implement real whole foods, the best that we can into our lives, that's a number one line of defense.
Of course, I'm going to put in a plug for movement. I think that one of the benefits when it comes to our mental health is just moving. For me personally and any, anybody that I'm working with, I'll say 10 minutes matters. You've heard me say this before, get out there and whatever it is, yeah, we need things to sustain our body, but let's just talk about, getting moving, walking, biking, whatever it is, 10 minutes, that's going to release endorphins. That's the whole part purpose here. So we can get, regulate things like depression. If we can just get out and move.
Boy, I know for me that makes a world of difference taking action movement is like for me always the number one go to above the food because that puts me into action. And then I may desire to make healthier food choices, right? Because our mind is we've got those endorphins and in a healthier way being released.
And also people that are listening today that may. Also struggle with anxiety, myself, when I'm anxious, I, when I move, that's just amazing. It's better than a pill for me to be able to get that anxiety out. And then, so then we have that lifestyle one that's free for all of us here. And I'm going to encourage every single one, everybody listening to just move 10 minutes, I don't care if it's in your house.
I know a lot of us are busy. I know I see, a lot of, it might be moms listening, whatever it is that, get up. I talk to people all the day. I just moved in my house and I got 10, 000 steps in. Guess what? That counts. We don't need to go to a gym and crank out two hours on a treadmill.
That's old. But, let's move on from that mentality that doesn't serve us. So let's just think about taking care of our bodies, moving for health reasons, mental health, being one of them eating good. And what I love you share cause I know you've shared this before and I've heard this before from other practitioners in your field is that, that we want to be careful of the blood sugar spikes.
And so I was sharing with you earlier, we were talking about this and I had my lunch. And then I got really tired and I I just wanted, really just wanted to go to bed. I'm done, but that's not going to happen. And so I drink. So one of, one of the things that we talk about a lot on here is the the.
I'm learning the Unimate tea, so I drank my Unimate tea and I'll tell you what, mentally. For my mental health. That does me more good than anything. I now have more energy. I feel like I can be productive and I didn't have to have a cup of coffee. This is something natural that's affected my mood, affected my mental health and is allowing me to what show up here for our podcast.
It's allowing me to, so it is a big deal. And so I want to pick your brain a little bit about how does something like that work? Because it's been working for me in many ways. And so this is a very important topic. Yes, I know. Absolutely. The tea is actually, this tea is pretty amazing.
There's some beneficial compounds in there that can help boost the moods. The main one is theobromine. Theobromine helps to improve circulation, and it's theobromine exists in dark chocolate. And also exist in this T So it helps to improve your moods, improves your stamina, improve circulation.
So I've been able to help people get off Lexapro which is an anti anxiety, antidepressant medications and Prozac. Once they started on this protocol, so it's pretty amazing. Wow. And just to go back a little bit you're talking about movement and how that boosts your moods too.
Absolutely. I love movement and it, it's And I just want to touch that. When you move, when you exercise, it also helps to stimulate your, the production of GLP 1s, the hormone that kind of, suppress your appetite so that you feel less hungry. So it reduces your cortisol levels. And not only that, muscle, when you move in, when you have more muscle, create more muscle.
Muscles, the Because glucose consumer so that in itself helps to lower your glucose level. So it also helps to improve insulin resistance and metabolic health. So it all works together, right? The movement, the stress reduction and going back to this tea. Yes. It's the theobromine that's in this tea that causes, elevate your mood and make you feel good. That's why, our protocol is called the feel good, right? Yeah, it does. I, I, it's amazing to me because when we first, started talking or whatever, I just was not open minded to, to the fact that. That could be so helpful. And just taking the tea for me every morning is the first thing that I drink.
And I can't tell you what a lifesaver that is because I'm really tired at whatever it is, five in the morning. And it just, my mood it works. It's amazing. And what I love, and I will share this again, is I'm not getting jittery. I don't have the, and if you like coffee, you can still have coffee.
It's not like there's a right or wrong here, but I love that. for me personally, how it works for me. And now I understand it's the theobromine. I do want to ask you a question. I hear a lot that, so I'm still, and I think a lot of people listening to may have this, not understand the GLP one, that is a hormone that is released and that helps suppress our appetite.
Yes, it releases in your gut. So in your colon to stimulate your to signal your brain that you're not hungry. It also helps to slow down gastric emptying. So when you're eating, it allows the food to stay in your gut a little bit longer. That's why people using the injections at a high dose, it can cause And
the digestive tract and now you have a problem because food's not supposed to stay there for that long for some people it stays there for weeks and a month and then they get, paralyzed gut now they have to go to the hospital and have surgery. Yeah, that's not good. Yeah, that's sad it, that's, I just, I can't even tell, that's a whole nother topic.
I was working with a client today and just, I'm so upset and that's another topic we can talk about it later, but with the drugs that they were on and what's, what has done to their body and just. Long term damage. So again, that's what makes us show up here today. And, we talk about that other component now of the gut health and how that talk, like how having a healthy gut, these is going to help with our mental health as well.
And I think. I'm going to let you speak on that in a second. I just want to say one thing that I think what I've learned is that none of these things happen overnight. If you are sitting here thinking that these are going to happen instantly, then I think you have, I think for me, this is what I've learned that things take time.
Each of us are uniquely made. It may happen sooner for some people than others, depending on what's going on with our system. But it's all of these things can help. And, nourishment, proper food, supplementation, the product that we choose to align ourself here on the better than appeal podcast for a reason, because I know that it's working, for me personally, or movement, those things all take time.
It's not like that, it's not like for, just going to happen. You're going to have a healthy gut instantly, or you're going to balance out everything. Would you say that, that would, there's some truth to that? Oh, absolutely. It's like many of us did not get to where we are today. In a week, in a month, in a year, some of us, it took us decades to get here, right?
It took me like 30 years to get leaky gut, to have a leaky gut. So I had leaky gut, I had psoriasis. So I was. My gut was so damaged to the point that I couldn't even eat solid foods without triggering and inflammatory processes without having bloating abdominal distension and flare in my psoriasis.
So yes, so this is not a quick fix. What we're teaching people here, what we're offering with this tool is to help you to be able to repair your gut, to allow your body to come back to homeostasis, to allow your body to heal from the root. by providing it proper nutrients by allowing your gut to rest and repair through intermittent fasting.
Because I mentioned at the beginning that 90 percent of your serotonin is being produced in your gut. 50 percent of your dopamine are produced, in your gut. So these are the neurotransmitters that influence your mental health, right? Damaged gut, if we have a leaky gut, that's going to cause increase in inflammation.
So damaged gut lining allows the harmful bacteria, toxins, and undigested food particles to enter your bloodstream and trigger your immune response. And that's why we get, inflammations and have all kinds of symptoms. When you have leaky gut and that can trigger your autoimmune. Flare and also affect our mental health, which is what we're right because when you have leaky gut, when you have gut dysbiosis, the amount of the Sarah of the neurotransmitter productions will be decreased.
So that's why have, medication to supplement with those neurotransmitters to to help. What if we just. address it with our foods, with intermittent fasting, with some targeted supplements, using some tools to help us repair our gut. And from that, we can restore our gut health and then improve our mental health.
Yeah, it's great because you're right. It's like we are Going at it, we want to go at it from all angles. And like the way I look at, obviously our food choices, our movement are the intermittent fasting, which we've talked about before, which, just a quick reminder that can be no snacking guys that can be just eating three meals a day.
That can be for some people not eating breakfast. It can be lunch and dinner. It can be longer than that. Listening to your body, we did a whole episode on that and, can listen to that episode and we'll probably talk about it again because what Amanda's just said and what I'll reiterate and what I've learned to, to be true is our systems need to rest from having any food in them and that's how our gut can get restored from not having to work and even Like we've talked about, we won't go off on a tangent, but the snacking, which we all thought, I know I thought was good, eat when I'm hungry, is not.
That's just a relearning affecting our mental health. And it's, for me, that's, that definitely is working. Yeah. There's so much here. Yeah. And just if, you heard something today that, listening to that, that you are struggling with mental health issues and hopefully you're able to take away something from this episode that can help you if you are interested in the feel great system, which does help you feel great.
Go green mentally, which is true. It's just the truth. You can check out the episode description and there is a product link there that we recommend. The company is a great company. Studies have been done Cleveland clinic on these products that we've talked about before, but you get a 90 day money back guarantee.
And what I also love is the company is now covered by HSA. an FSA account. So that means if somebody wants to use that account, they can pay directly with that account to, to cover the cost of the supplementation. Amanda? Absolutely. Yes. That's awesome. Some of you also today, you might be, struggling with just making your health and wellness a priority.
Maybe you're low on your energy, maybe it's back pain or just plain stiffness. So if you're ready to improve your health and enjoy living, I'd love to help you. You can schedule a well body consultation today and receive personalized insights and strategies. So just click the link in this episode or reach out to support at movementcraft.
com. And because you guys are listeners of the better than a pill podcast, you'll get a 50 percent savings just for letting us know. So we release new episodes every other week on Wednesday. And I truly look forward to having you join us then. And thank you, Amanda. You are always amazing. You're such an amazing person.
We're lucky to have you here. We are. Thank you so much for this opportunity.
