Functional Medicine Steps to Reversing Depression and Mood Disorders | Podcast #382

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In this video, Dr. Justin and Evan talk about depression. Depression is a common mental disorder characterized by persistent sadness and hopelessness. Treatment options include anti-depressant medication and mental health practices such as therapy. Recent research suggests that factors such as amino acids and gut health may also play a role in the development of depression.

Another approach to treating depression and mood disorders is Functional Medicine, which focuses on identifying and addressing the condition's underlying causes. This approach may include addressing nutrient deficiencies, addressing gut health issues, and identifying and addressing any underlying chronic health conditions contributing to depression or mood disorders.

 

Dr. Justin Marchegiani

Dr. Justin Marchegiani

In this episode, we cover:

00:26 – Depression
03:12 – Amino Acids
10:14 – Gut
28:17 – Key Takeaways

Dr. Marchegiani: Hey guys it's Dr. Justin Marchegiani, today we are here with Evan Brand. Excited to have a nice conversation with you, man! How's it been? It's been a little bit! What's cooking, brother?

Evan Brand: Yeah, not too much is cooking. I figured that over the weekend, I was looking at statistics, and I thought, okay I wonder if things have changed since a year ago or five years ago, or 10 years ago when I really got interested in the topic of depression.

Turns out nope nothing's changed, depression is still the number one leading cause of disability in the United States. That's shocking! and…

Dr. Marchegiani: Isn't that crazy?

Evan Brand: This affects everything! This affects your marriage, the way you treat your kids, the way you treat your co-workers if you're an employer, the way that you're treating everyone. And so our job today would be to provide Solutions and maybe some testing strategies that someone who's suffering from depression or other mood issues. What could they do at home from the functional medicine perspective, and how could you actually reverse it? Is it actually possible to reverse it?

And I would say yes, it is because we see it all the time and I've suffered tremendously but I've made massive strides in my mood over the years by slowly and systematically fixing little pieces of things that have been wrong with me from parasites and gut infections and mold and lyme and tick-borne issues, all of these add up it's not just “Oh he's in a bad mood!”, There are literally underlying causes you can fix so let me just jump into that first and say that from the Psychiatry model of depression, let's talk, what about your childhood?

Well, what's your relationship and how do you feel, and how does that make you feel? And it generally stops there. Maybe there's a prescription given but they don't ask “Hey when's the last time your basement flooded?”, “Oh, I saw you had mold growing around your window trim let's talk about that.” They don't go into that. They don't go into your environment, or how your environment may be contributing to it from a biochemical biotoxin perspective and that's a huge missing piece of the mental health puzzle.

Dr. Marchegiani: Oh I agree! I mean, you know, there's a study that just came out last year we talked about it, I think, in a previous podcast that looked at antidepressants, and they're essentially not being effective right? And kind of that whole Serotonin model as being kind of an antiquated model. Right, so a lot of these older medications, they block these reuptake ports where Serotonin would come back into that presynaptic neuron and essentially go back into the neuron and be used up again.

And so essentially, that model of causing the Serotonin to accumulate in between the synapses, so we have a neuron, that's the presynaptic neuron, this is the postsynaptic neuron, Serotonin would hang out in this area called the Synaptic Cleft. And essentially, the Serotonin will then go back up into the presynaptic neuron, and the medications would block that, it would block that port, so then it would accumulate more in the Synaptic Cleft. And so they're kind of saying this model is kind of more antiquated. It's not quite necessary that's what's happening.

And that's interesting because this is the kind of drugs that have been talked about and used in this area, and this mechanism for, you know, 20 to 30 years and so, there's also some nutrients that you use that are similar. We talk about, kind of 5- HTP, and some of the cofactor nutrients that we use on the amino acid side may plug into that model or maybe it'll be a little bit different than that. Can we kind of talk a little bit more about the amino acids?

Evan Brand: Yeah, well, first what we do is we look at the urine. And you can measure the metabolites of your neurotransmitter, so Dopamine, Serotonin, Endorphin, you can measure these metabolites. Think of it, the analogy I've been using lately is to prove that there was a bonfire, you look for the ashes. So we kind of look at those ashes, and we're like okay, look at the evidence here, there was a fire burning, so we measure the urine in the same way where we look at these breakdown products of those brain chemicals, and we can infer what the level of brain chemistry may look like.

And we often see low Serotonin in people that are anxious, depressed, irritable, they have trouble sleeping, and so we will plug into that amino acid pathway with things like Tryptophan, or Five Hydroxytryptophan, we'll combine that with B6 which is a necessary cofactor for Serotonin and then for Melatonin and people feel better. So I think it's crazy to think about how many hundreds of millions of dollars and hundreds and millions of prescriptions were given out if truly those drugs don't work! I mean are people going to go ask for a refund now? I mean that's crazy!

Dr. Marchegiani: I know, right

Evan Brand: Like, what a disappointment really that model was the model, and what we're seeing is totally the opposite. We're seeing massive success with amino acids you and I've talked about free-form amino acids, these certain blends where if there's low Serotonin and low Dopamine, we may sprinkle some Tyrosine in there, or DL-Phenylalanine and these people can make a recovery within just a few weeks.

We're talking if you're on a scale of one to ten, your depression is a 10-max like you don't want to live. You could knock that down by half, I'd say, in as little as a month if you're doing all the right steps.

Dr. Marchegiani: Yeah, I think part of the reason why we see clinical benefit using some of these amino acids or nutrients, so number one, the medications are working differently. They're not actually adding building blocks, they're blocking the reuptake of that. The problem with when you block the reuptake of these neurochemicals into the presynaptic neuron is you increase the recycling, right?

It's kind of like these neurotransmitters go back into that synaptic neuron to kind of hide out from the cold or from the harsh weather, if you will because the longer they're outside the more they get depleted and so the whole goal of these medications is they block that reuptake but then they end up depleting and impacting a lot of the Serotonin long term. That's part of the reason why doses have to be increased over time. So there is that mechanism that's part of the reason why we see side effects with these drugs.

Number two is we're actually adding building blocks, and we're also adding the important cofactors that are needed for synthesis. B6 needed for synthesis, we're providing the amino acids. Also, we never see a patient that has mood issues and we just say “Hey, here's B6 and 5HCP.” We're making changes with their diets. We're reducing inflammation, we're managing Dysglycemia that means preventing these high and low blood sugar swings.

We're maximizing protein, we're making sure we're breaking down our protein, we're making sure the fats are good that's important because every single cell in your body has a healthy lipid bilayer and these lipids if they're rancid, junky, Omega-6 processed vegetable oils that have been oxidized, that's going to create stress within your cells and so if we're using good healthy fats that are Omega-3, fish oil, good healthy saturated fats from pasture-fed eggs, grass-fed meats, you know, wild game organ meats or grass-fed butter or tallow.

These fats are going to make healthier cell membranes, less oxidative stress, and so we're fixing the Glycemia, we're fixing the nutrient density, we're fixing the healthy fats, we're fixing the digestion, we're adding in cofactors and so then when we add in different amino acids whether it's 5-HTP, Tyrosine, different cofactors, Calcium, B6, Folate, B12, these are important cofactors as well so we're never just giving one nutrient in isolation.

Another problem with a lot of the studies, they're going to be like “Hey this amino acid without making any changes in this person's health, didn't really create that therapeutic effect.” And we're like “Yeah, well, we never would just do that anyway.” So that may be true that's why science and functional medicine is hard because science wants to deduce all the variables and just do one thing at a time but we just control 20 different variables right there by getting their diet right, they're water right, their sleep right, their supplements right, their environment-mold right.

So you know all these things that's like 20 variables, and so that's kind of where medicine and functional medicine have a hard time because there's too many variables that can't be isolated when we see patients.

Evan Brand: Yeah it's really not fair too because you'll see this one headline, this amino acid or natural medicine for depression is BS, it's snake oil, it's pseudoscience it's like okay, well, take Johnny, who loves his wife, loves his kids go for a hike every morning, gets plenty of sunshine, clean house, eats great, no gluten, no Dairy, and he takes it and he does amazing and then you have Betty over here she starts her morning with donuts and she watches negative news, and she sits in the dark she gets no natural bright light in the morning and she takes it and she hates her life, and she hates her kids, and she's divorced and lonely and smokes a pack of cigarettes and she takes the 5-HTP and it doesn't work and therefore it's BS.

So yeah, I agree with you it is hard because what we're doing is 20 to 30 variables all at once and then we're not even addressing the part that we talk about too, which is trying to get the Limbic System dialed in because if you've been stuck in a chronic state of fight or flight because of your depression, you want to get out of this hole, you feel trapped in this home, you're trapped in this job, I mean this could be a three-hour mega podcast but the long story short of it is all these other variables those change, how your brain processes, stress, fear, and that all can lead to more depression too. So we're always trying to implement some sort of mental health practice.

I love doing meditations. It used to sound crazy to me. I used to hate to sit there for five minutes and be quiet but now I look forward to it. Now I'm like “Oh! I'm turning back into the real me!”, versus this busy version of me is different so I think you have to be miserable enough to listen to us when I say and I know that our friend and Mentor Kayla has said this for years something like if you don't have an hour to meditate you need two and I was guilty of that because I was like I'm too busy. I'm too busy to slow down, I'm too busy to relax and think and now I'm like no I need that time so that I am clear-headed and not depressed during the day because I'm less overwhelmed because I'm more clear-headed.

Dr. Marchegiani: Yes, so when we talk about a lot of things here different factors, just take it with a grain of salt you can find studies you can find people that have had benefits or not, the issue is we're not going to ever just take and do one variable at a time. There's going to be a lot of things, and the more leverage you move and the more you set that foundation of health up, the more a supplement or a nutrient or an herb or a Botanical or a hormone could potentially provide a therapeutic effect even though data out there isn't supported because we're setting a foundation and moving a lot more variables than these studies are. It's important to note.

Evan Brand: Yeah, we hit the organic acid test also, if you are having mood issues at all. You need to look into your gut as you and I know there's a huge correlation between gut infections and mood disorders, whether that's anxiety, bipolar, depression even panic attacks, this could be coming from the toxins released by the overgrowth of the microbes in your gut so to me a stool test would be a critical component of a mental health workup.

Dr. Marchegiani: Yeah, so in general that's super important because 80%, 90% of all the neurotransmitters come from the gut now. Some of the data says hey these neurotransmitters don't cross the blood-brain barrier but either way the amino acids that we take in those do have to get through the gut into the bloodstream and then those would then either get converted in the gut or go past the blood-brain barrier the astrocytes in the brain and they would get converted in the brain so the whole idea of like 5-HTP is those can actually cross the blood-brain barrier and go to the brain but we need to have good health, good healthy gut function to be able to break down and absorb these things and then also the newer model of depression looks at the brain's inflammation.

They're saying, hey a lot of the inflammation in the brain could be what's causing problems. The problem is we know a lot of conventional medicine's way of addressing inflammation tends to have side effects. We know NSAIDs kill about 20 000 people a year with gut and liver issues. We know Vioxx from the early 2000s killed 60 000 people with strokes and cardiovascular issues. So when you start to inhibit and stop these uh Cyclooxygenase the Cox Pathways. Cox-1, Cox-2, Cox-3 they can have impacts on reducing inflammation but those enzymes are also really important for rebuilding other tissues so you're kind of robbing Peter to pay Paul.

And so conventional medicine, they have a lot of tools that may have a lot of side effects and so we know this new model of brain inflammation and mood is real and I think that's why we can move the needle so much when we fix the gut because so much of the inflammation is in the gut. Whether it's from food dysbiosis, endotoxin from bacteria, mycotoxin from fungus, or colonized yeast or mold, H. Pylori, parasites, just not breaking down foods and having larger food molecules of of dairy, Casein, wheat right grains and so all of this inflammation in the gut can be easily driving inflammation in the brain.

Evan Brand: Do you think you can eat your way out of this because that's a common thing that just spreads on social media like wildfire is this idea like if you just get your diet perfect, all your problems go away and I already have my answer but I want to hear it from you because 90 plus percent of people that come to us are already doing something to improve their diet and they still have these issues.

Dr. Marchegiani: The more chronic the problem is no because I give an example of a patient, right? If you're driving down the street and you get a flat tire right and now your car is not driving well, if I change that flat tire that day, do all my problems with my car go away? Yes because it just happened that day. But if I were to drive around on that flat tire for years and then be like well the root cause was that flat tire if I just change the flat tire I'm addressing the root cause the car should go back to normal like it drove three years ago well now you have collateral damage because you drove the car now aligned for years now the front end, the axle the suspension the shocks, the steering, everything's jacked up and so just because you fixed the underlying root cause collateral damage happen in other places in the body.

And so then now you have to come in there and fix all the other collateral damages that occurred.

Evan Brand: Yeah that's a great analogy. I mean the sound bite makes it difficult for us because then we have to explain that to people because people say oh well I heard from so and so if I just eat this, if I do kefir, if I do grass-fed Meats I'll just be fine. That'll fix my SIBO, that'll fix my infections, that'll fix my health issues and if you could eat your way out of this, if everyone could eat their way out of this then you and I wouldn't be having this conversation right now.

Dr. Marchegiani: Yeah and a good history is really what tells you because usually with a good history, you can kind of see where the first shoe to fall was right. you're like going to the person's history their diet was good their lifestyle was good they had a mold issue in their basement because of a flood that wasn't addressed and it's like oh okay that screams to me this is an environmental thing or you can go back and see there was emotional stress and then there was some diet issues and then antibiotics you're like okay.

So the history kind of can tell you you know how things started to unfold just like if I told you my history about my car and I told you three years ago I got a flat tire, you could say Okay, I see how that kind of unfolded. So this is where a good history you know really makes a lot of sense and then you want to also go into it not thinking it's just one thing. It's just the mold, It's just you're the gluten, it's like no no. So when you have people that are like just dietitians, the problem is all they have is food. So all they're looking at is food as being the underlying issue and that's the problem.

You have to have a broader tool belt because then you're like okay, food definitely is blood sugar, definitely is. But then other things could be as well and you want to combine everything.

Evan Brand: It may be a little harder for us to explain that and we've done this for a decade plus now which is that we have to be generalists and specialists at the same time like if you go to just the diet guru he's going to convince you everything that you do diet wise is going to fix all of your problems and then you and I go wait a second you take 20 depressed people that come to us there's going to be 20 different clinical outcomes and 20 different clinical protocols for this people here.

Dr. Marchegiani: And diets too!

Evan Brand: It could be this lady here, it was the death of her husband, it was an illness, it was moving out, it was Trauma from her children and it was mold exposure and dysbiosis and she was on XYZ medication versus over here lady just had thyroid issues. Okay easy fix that depression, this lady here gut infections, fixed that, that depression is gone. So the problem with the mental health space is it's like okay depression and everyone thinks they have the same flavor of depression. You can have 20 different flavors or 20 different little small rivers that all end up at the same symptom depression but not everyone is getting there the same way the same path.

Dr. Marchegiani: Bingo! 100 percent! And even with diets right, I see some patients and they're super sensitive to vegetables. They can't even handle vegetables; some have to be on an elemental or even a carnivore diet. Some are just okay with the Paleo template, some need some level of variation between an autoimmune or an SCD or low oxalate or so there's always a different variation depending on what's going on.

So food always is important, so when we look at food, we're looking at nutrient density, anti-inflammatory, low Toxin and we've got to make sure that you can break the foods down that's super important and then the next part on top of food is that we don't have enzymes acids in bile support, dial then and you can't break that food down that food's going to be a stressor inside of your body. And then, of course, all those nutrients to run our brain chemicals and pathways have to come from that food so if we don't break them down and absorb it then that's a problem too.

Evan Brand: So let's make that visual for people so this is a 52-year-old woman, she's had digestive issues for 20 years and she has depression. She was told if she does go autoimmune or she does go animal-based, she's going to be fine. She does it, now she has diarrhea, she doesn't know what to do, she's confused. How do we approach that and break that down?

Dr. Marchegiani: Yeah, so I mean, the first thing is we have to look at her gut because even a healthy diet and healthy enzymes and acids there could be infections and stuff inside the intestinal tract that could be creating stress and inflammation so we're going to work on the enzymes, we're going to work on the acids, we're going to make sure she's breaking down her fats, we're going to make sure the food is dialed into to whatever degree we think we need to based on how severe the issues are and then we're going to be testing, we're going to be looking at what's going on with her microbiome and her and dysbiotic bacteria and yeast and bacteria and potentially colonized mold. This colonized mold from the living arrangement for where you live could be impacting things as well so we've got to look at everything.

Evan Brand: Yep, Candida could be in the puzzle too so people blame the food and they'll say oh well I don't feel good with meat like I've tried that I don't feel good I've tried to increase fats I don't feel good and then they may give up and we're like okay it's not the food that's the problem it's everything else that's in your bucket that's making that a problem. You should tolerate this, you should feel fine with it, it's just a matter of getting your nervous system calmed down.

Someone in the comments has a vagus nerve yeah I mean your nervous system is a piece of it, we were talking about the limbic system. You know if you're stuck in fight or flight all the time that you know that's going to impair your ability to digest your food I mean how many times have you been in an argument at the dinner table you get done with the meal and you don't even remember you're still hungry. You're like did I even eat? Like that's what we're talking about here.

Dr. Marchegiani: Yeah, when you're activating your amygdala and or your limbic system, this is kind of your fight or flight response, that's going to go up the vagus nerve or your parasympathetics go down it's not a seesaw. So as the limbic, amygdala, brain stem right that's the back part of the brain these are all primordial reflexes for fight or flight and survival okay. So very very important and the problem with that is if this is over activated the parasympathetics which are really that's the vagus nerve, that's this whole entire nerve cascade that helps with rest digest, activates the frontal cortex so you can make decision making, you can see the outcome of poor decisions and actions and then you can stop acting in a bad way right.

Most crimes and people doing bad things it's because they're thinking from their amygdala brain stem and not their frontal cortex, and so the more stressed you are that can create problems. I also saw, I read an article one time where a lot of things like road rage and like serious crime done like impulsively, was done from people that were hypoglycemic, so very low blood sugar. Because the low blood sugar kind of creates a stress response, and that activates the frontal cortex I mean, everyone can have that response of like dealing with their spouse and they haven't eaten all day, and they're just like, “Oh my God! I just need to eat like I'm just, I'm angry!” right.

So things like nutrition and blood sugar could easily impact that kind of brainstem response now outside of that there are different programs and things you can do, like you mentioned earlier in meditation or there's different programs like DNRS or the Gupta program or NLP or EFT or EMDR. These are different programs that help get at the subconscious, limbic system, brain stem response kind of calm down which then brings up the parasympathetics and brings up the vagus nerve.

Evan Brand: Yeah and this was a critical step for me I mean I didn't realize I was stuck in fight or flight until I downshifted from it and then I'm like, “Oh wait a second, man I was running running running like a little rat on a wheel”, and then finally I kind of snapped out of it, and I was almost running on autopilot I'm like wait a second I need to be more conscious with what I'm doing my actions and all of that.

So sometimes you have to say no to be able to say yes and what I mean by that is if you're a people pleaser, you may end up as a depressed, anxious person because you're constantly trying to satisfy everyone's needs. This could be for your children or your spouse or whoever. If you're a people pleaser we find this a lot. Those people are the ones that end up more burnt out, more anxious, more depressed, whether it's a caretaker role as any sick family member or a sick parent or aging parent or just trying to please people in society.

So it's okay to say no if you're too booked up, if you're too tapped out, you can say no to someone. Get your mind right, sit down, get your functional medicine labs done, get your work up done, so you can see what you're up against. When you're so stuck in fight or flight, you're dealing with blood sugar crises, you've got toxins, you're worried about your house, you got to get the plumber over to fix the leak, you got to separate from all that if you need to go sit out on the front porch and watch the birds fly for a minute to get your mind right that's what I would do.

Dr. Marchegiani: Yeah you kind of mentioned the people pleasers. I grew up with some of those and it's interesting right? Because you think people pleasing comes from a place of like, you know this is good, I want to help all these people around me. The problem is there's also on the other side of the people-pleasing spectrum is a lot of resentment, because people pleasers will do a lot for this person XYZ, family, friends, kids, etc.

But then there's this unspoken kind of goal or agreement that they're kind of making that person is also going to make them a priority at some point and help them and if they don't, it's totally unspoken, this is where the resentment comes in. “Hey, you didn't do this for me but I did this for you.” It's like “Well, wait a minute. I didn't realize I had to pay you back on that. I didn't realize that was something I had to like to be indebted to you. I thought you were just doing that out of kindness.”

So it's really important that you know, one, that you make yourself a priority that's important because only you know what you need. Only you know the rest you need, the self-care you need, the things that you love, the hobbies, the time that you need right? Only you can put food in your mouth and get to bed on time. I can't ever force you to do that.

And then you're kind coming from a place of abundance where your cup is filling over and then, the spilling over is what you give away to friends and family and obviously, this is different if you have young kids right because they can't take care of themselves but as kids get older and family gets older right it's kind of more of that cup running over and that's a much better mindset than having a low cup where you just give away and then your cup super low to begin with.

So just kind of make sure that you're making deposits into yourself and then using the abundance to help others around you after the fact.

Evan Brand: Yeah and this could be something simple, this doesn't necessarily have to be a supplement, this could be you taking a hot bath, you could be scheduling a massage, you'd just leave the house, go take a little drive, if you got to get away hopefully your spouse is supportive. If you say “Hey, gotta get my mind right. Gotta reset, go for a drive honey.” Perfect! These are the small steps that allow us to think clearly about our next action step but if you haven't looked at your underlying issues, it's time to look.

If you've done the diet, you've done the lifestyle, get the data because if you're not testing, you're guessing.

Dr. Marchegiani: Yep and anyone that has young kids, you have three kids, I have two young kids. We know kids, their needs are insatiable and they will never fully be satiated where like, you go do this activity, you do this, you give them this treat, you have this meal, you have this experience, the kids will never say “Mom and Dad thank you so much for this great day. You go take care of you now.” That never happened, it's like “Now we're on to this! And now we're on to that!” right? There will never be that closure of like, “Great job Dad, thanks!” It's like “Now what's next? Now what's next? Now what's next?”

So you have to have that like all right, “Now it's Mom and Dad's time.” We're gonna get a sitter, we're gonna have a date night, we're gonna have, I'm gonna schedule a time to go for a drive or go for a walk or meditate or exercise right so you have to kind of have that boundary within yourself and know that no one's gonna just probably pat you on the back and say “All right, you go do you now,” probably not going to happen.

Evan Brand: Yeah and that's not really a sexy advertisement that's going to come from the media or anywhere else. There are benefits to society being caught up in this Loop and when you can step back from that it really helps change your perspective and even just that perspective change alone can help improve your mood so this topic is all about depression but as you see there's a million different little spider webs. Yeah little inputs here and I think this is a totally reversible condition, yes there are genetics involved, yes there are environmental pieces, biochemical pieces, nutrition, lifestyle, digestive, all of it adds up but you really have to just plug and fix each little hole in this happiness bucket.

If you think you're happy I think of it almost visually this bucket of happiness, default that's what it is like my baby she's default happy but as you age you get inflamed, you get infections, you get nutrient deficiencies because the soil's depleted. Even if you eat an organic orange, you gotta eat 20 of them to equal the orange of 1920’s,

Dr. Marchegiani: Exactly

Evan Brand: Well, that's a hole in the bucket. And then it's, you're overworked, okay that's a hole in the bucket. This is why tribal societies, you ask them, they rarely have a word for depression because all the inputs they're getting are keeping that happiness bucket full or set another way, they don't have as many holes in their bucket that we in the modern world do so try to plug those holes, fill that bucket and you can totally reverse from this to where your life is something you look forward to, rather than you dreading your life and wishing it away.

Dr. Marchegiani: I love it! I love it! And so outside of that, if you have like previous trauma, whether it's sexual abuse or issue with marriage or kids, get the support you need on the counseling side, behavioral therapy or if it's like some kind of a subconscious trauma that's there from the past, you know, EFT, EMDR, NLP, these are techniques that really work on that kind of subconscious stress, just make sure you have support for that if that is a thing or not and then everything else that we're going to recommend is going to be customized because I could have a patient with really really high cortisol and all these nutrient deficiencies, we got to get that cortisol in check because that's going to be causing limbic system problems.

And if I see these neurotransmitters off or important cofactors like Folate, B12, and B6 off, that could be a bigger deal for someone that maybe have normal markers for that. And so a lot of the rec like, these are things that could be wrong, but then we like to have that individualized approach so we're not guessing, we're assessing. So this is where we're going to do organic acids and nutrient tests, this is where we're going to look at the hormones so what we're going to look at blood sugar and diet.

Just causing dysglycemia issues can cause massive problems so you can go get like a Freestyle Libre Three, put it on your shoulder, connect it to your phone, and test your blood sugar for two weeks, see how you do, see how you feel, monitor that, creating awareness, check, track your sleep, track your HRV, see how you're doing in regards to your recovery and your parasympathetic response. These are some cool kinds of devices that you can do to kind of monitor and bring awareness to what's happening.

Evan Brand: Yeah absolutely and I would say for someone that is on the verge of giving up and they have no hope, have hope, just reach out to someone, talk to someone. If you are obviously suicidal, you know call The Suicide Hotline. Don't kill yourself over this, it's not worth it. There's too many people ending their lives that they could have been fixed. I mean just a famous recent case of suicide was, it was the either president or there was someone high up in Texas Roadhouse. It was a, there's a restaurant chain that was headquartered in Kentucky where I'm from, and the guy, post virus, had tinnitus, and of course he got depressed from that and ended his life.

It's like, well, there's a million things we could do to help with tinnitus, like if he could have had a functional workup, he might have been able to fix that and would have ended his life. So there's so many different situations that lead to someone doing that but I've even had clients where in the beginning they feel like they're at the end of the rope and by the end, they think, “Why did I ever think that?” “I'm totally out of that mindset now.”

Dr. Marchegiani: Yeah, the last thing you want is a permanent solution to a temporary problem, right, that's what suicide is. It's a permanent solution to a temporary problem. We gotta have that solution-based mindset, okay? And again, the healthier you are, the more adaptable to stress you become, right, the more you're going to think with that frontal cortex, the more you're going to be able to problem-solve and get to the root.

So I think we have some good things here, that we kind of laid out. Again a lot of this will be individualized again if you guys want to dive in deeper, head over to evanbrand.com. Evan has research and resources for y'all, sees patients worldwide, and you also can head over to justinhealtstg.wpengine.com as well. We do functional medicine support worldwide, so you can reach out to either of us. We'll put some links down below of different supplements that we like, different labs that we, like highly recommend work with a practitioner so you can have a guided approach. 

Again it's not just if I gave you a recipe right and I said, hey these things are, this is what you need for the recipe, but I didn't give you the right order, and I didn't customize it for you you're gonna have a bunch of slop because if you put the eggs in after you baked it right it's just not going to taste good and so the order of operations and that customization approach is so important that's how we get patients better so just kind of FYI on that. Anything else Evan you want to leave a listen with?

Evan Brand: Yeah, I appreciate the website and we are some of the best guys out there. We don't say that just to toot our own horns, we say it because we've been through our own struggles, and we've helped thousands of people worldwide.

I've confirmed with the labs that we work with that we are in the top 10 worldwide of practitioners running the most labs, and from that, we see a ton of data, and with that data, we can help people the average person has been to 5, 10, or even 15 different practitioners specialist, other functional medicine people, naturopaths, conventional doctors, neurologists, cardiologists, and then somehow they wind up with us, and we give them good results so if you do decide to work with us we're going to take great care of you, as he mentioned, Dr. J at justinhealtstg.wpengine.com that's justinhealtstg.wpengine.com or me Evan Brand at evanbrand.com.

We're happy to be there for you guys, and we're always willing to look someplace that someone else hasn't looked at, that's why we don't give up. We're just ruthless for the pursuit of health and happiness, so thank you all, and take good care.

Dr. Marchegiani: Excellent! If you guys found value in this, please give us a share with friends or family, write us a review, put a comment, give us that five star on iTunes we really appreciate it. Thanks, guys! Have an awesome day!


References:

https://justinhealth.com/

Audio Podcast:

https://justinhealth.libsyn.com/functional-medicine-steps-to-reversing-depression-and-mood-disorders-podcast-382

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