How do we know if it’s our gut talking, or our anxiety? (Trigger warning, I’m going to be chatting about mental health and suicide here)
I don’t know if you’re noticing but a hell of a lot of people are ending their lives. People we once looked up to for guidance on how to get through hard times – life coaches, public speakers, celebrities, mothers, fathers, children and teenagers….unable to cope and cutting their time short. Two people I was thinking of when I wanted to start this website to help people’s mental health have killed themselves already. The truth in how many suicides are happening are not being disclosed to the public.
Last night I looked up one of my favourite bloggers of the past twenty years – Heather B Armstrong of Dooce.com and I was devastated to find she too, despite writing about how much of a selfish act suicide was and how to find help, had left behind her two daughters and her husband. It has all become to hard. And you know what, life is pretty tricky to navigate. Like if I had stayed with my baby daddy, we’d be mortgage free by now. Cost of living would be managable with two incomes yada yada but here I am, eleven years later still sole providing. Damn that $700 rent each week! If I could afford to become an alcoholic to cope (and didn’t experience horrific depression post alcohol due to sulphite and preservative intolerances) I would probably do just that!
A hell of a lot of people are barely able to function with their mental health diagnosies, anxiety, depression. It seems to be a massive wave since Covid that continues to destroy families and communities. So what is going on?
I have my theories and a lot are based in what’s going on in our food. Hear me out. In 2012, I had my first proper panic attack and it was terrifying. It was Christmas Day and suddenly I felt like I was going to die. I went and snuck into my Mother In Law’s bed (and that was not something I ever did) and I lay there frozen and terrified and very confused as to what was happening. It would take a little while for doctors to confirm I had developed a new condition and whenever I would eat gluten, I would feel horrendous like someone had died, I was going to die, something awful had happened and life would never be the same. It would pass in time, and would happen within 24 hours of consuming gluten.
GAPS is what they called it. Gut and Psychology Syndrome. What’s taken years for me to experiment with and research is that through damage to the gut through Australian food standards, affects my gut brain axis. It decreases the thickness of the stomach lining, destroys the villi (little hairs that absorb nutrients) and the food permeates through the lining into the blood stream and hits the brain directly, which it’s not supposed to do. And I’m not alone, when I was diagnosed 12 years ago the doctor said one in ten people have this. I’ve just consulted with CHAT GPT and sadly, there’s not a lot of research in it these days? It makes no sense. There are SO many people struggling daily with anxiety and depression, not realising that diet and could be the cause. It takes 2-3 weeks to heal the villi again to absorb the nutrients your body needs to make a happier brain. But if these kids and adults don’t know this, they are continuing to eat the foods that damage them, wonder why they are experiencing malabsorption. There doesn’t seem to be this common understanding that if the body is depleted in something nutritional that there would be a noticeable consequence.
IBS is another disorder of the gut-brain interaction. If you’ve gotta run to the loo before you make a public speech, go on a first date or have a job interview – you have IBS. Over the years, some doctors referred to GAPS as simply IBS. GPs know a little about a lot of things and you really need to become your own doctor and specialist these days.
Another issue is that Antibiotics from the past are destroying our microbiome so we need to replace and repair the damage they do to the gut.
This information blew me away too so I’ve started taking daily bifidobactirum in a probiotic. My kids take them whenever they are with me too.
So I need to be gluten free. I’ve mastered this almost perfectly with almost twenty years commitment, it’s so rare for me to have anxiety now. If a teenager in the fast food industry makes me a gluten free pizza but is ignorant and adds a sauce with gluten, I’m cooked! I must be very strict otherwise it can take me days to recover. You can imagine my shock when a French friend assured me that once I was in Europe, I would not have the same diet restriction effects from Gluten in Europe. She explained the process of growing wheat was different there. I knew the food standards ARE much higher in Europe – as a Thermomix Consultant for the past eleven years, I regularly tell my customers that when they are purchasing
- grated cheese
- frozen chips or
- iodised salt, for example,
that these foods contain something called ‘anti- caking agent.’ What is anti caking agent? Well, in Australia there is a law that if something is less than 5 percent of the ingredients, the food manufacturer does not have to disclose what those ingredients are. Often, it’s sawdust or aluminium filings, to prevent food sticking together. Yep. Fancy that seeping through your gut? And what does aluminium have links to? Neurological issues, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. I don’t know about you, but anecdotally, but I have noticed a SIGNIFICANT shift in diagnosies of all things neurological across ALL age brackets.
In Australia, the amount of people living with Dementia across the years is as follows:
2005 = 243,000
2025 = 433,300. This means a 80-90 percent increase in the number of Aussies living with dementia in the past 2 decades. If no intervention occurs, this will grow to become 812,500 by 2054.
Eating whole foods, eating organic where possible and avoiding Australian wheat (which is treated with Round Up/Glyphosate) are going to be wonderful for your health. One of the reasons they recommend having a variety of foods in your diet, is because a quality microbiome which directly affects the brain and mental health and thankfully, there’s a lot of interest in studies on this topic. And if you have children who are very limited in diet, this is important information for you to consider for their neurological health. Repetitive food choices can lead to microbial imbalance also known as dysbiosis.
Your gut microbiome makes 90 percent of your serotonin. Some microbes produce dopamine. How diverse your microbiome is influences your reaction to stress.
The easiest way to see how varied your microbiome is to keep a tally of how many different plants, nuts and seeds you’re consuming, even if it’s a small amount. The ideal amount is thirty a week.
If you or anyone you love is suffering with anxiety and depression, please consider editing their diet.
Looking forward to sharing with you more.
Karleigh x
Swings & Roundabouts 