As I’m sitting here getting ready to press, “post,” I feel so grateful for all the learning opportunities I have had and continue to have over the years.

The past few weeks, I’ve been dutifully listening to “The Depression Sessions.” I literally have taken 51 pages of notes!! I love these online seminars because I glean amazing clinical pearls from so many brilliant brains! Then, I can take this information and spread the love by sharing here. I tend to listen to at least one summit a month, now that they are becoming so popular.

Still, once a year there’s a session that stands out. For me, “Underground Wellness Radio’s Second Opinion Series” is the most superb. This is because of the interviewing style and production, the diverse set of experts selected, and the sound science. When I listen to these sessions, I have to stay close to my laptop in order to type my copious notes; whereas others, I can “multien” (multi-task while listening) while doing chores or blogging.

Here are just some of the highlights from my studies :

• Depression can be a sign of neurodegeneration. You can use symptoms that go along with low mood, such as problems with sleeping, brain fog, fatigue, anxiety, and history of head trauma in order to find the cause and treat accordingly. Brain fog can be a sign of brain inflammation so it’s important to support this aspect.
• Exercise is as effective as a drug for depression.
• Reflections of a former pharmaceutical representative turned nutritionist expressed the importance of diet as the most powerful medicine.
• Blood sugar fluctuations feed cycles of mood imbalances. A few experts felt glutamine could help, I concur.
• Microbes talk to our brain and the stressors, such as food sensitivities, emotions, infections, and traumas can negatively impact our critter population. (Bad bugs can signal inflammation to turn on the IDO enzyme which pulls the pathway of serotonin to inflammatory signaling molecules. This can make one feel depressed).
• Proper amino acid supplementation can help mood.
• The depression theory using serotonin may be all wrong and inflammation may be the best explanation.
• The increase in toxic exposure may be the reason depression is on the rise.
• Nutritional support for depression was reviewed from some of the top integrative MDs.
• Depression provides an opportunity for growth and healing
• The broccoli whisper went through some mad biochemical pathways regarding the impact of dietary components on brain health, he had my typing like crazy.

Speaking of whispering to broccoli…

If you haven’t heard Tom Malterre (an IFM faculty member), check this out:

This event is in full alignment of my vision for this blog:
1. It’s full of empowering education for all.
2. It’s integrative and…
3. It’s free!
You can still tune in for free to catch the encore here until June 29th.

More exciting news!!

I’m going to head to Frank Sinatra’s windy kinda town for more training with the Institute for Functional Medicine! It’s my last advanced practice model for certification, this one’s on hormones. Whoo-hoo!

I’m jazzed because we just got all the pre-webinars and slides to review as prep before our brilliant lecturers go live in July. Right now, I’m listening to Dr. Lukaczer’s presentation on thyroid. A doc after my own heart, he is currently discussing the various mechanisms that environmental toxins effect the thyroid.

For my fellow docs interested here’s the mechanisms:
(CAUTION—biochemistry explosion!!)
• Preventing iodide uptake by thyroid related to NIS transporter induction.
• Inhibition of thyroid synthesis (thyroperoxidase).
• Binding of thyroid’s transport protein in the blood.
• Altered liver phase 2 catabolism (glucuronosyltransferase / sulfotransferase metabolism of T4/T3).
• Changing deiodinase-thyroid metabolism.
• Negatively impacting transport across cellular membranes and cellular receptors (TSH receptor).

See why IFM is a geek-out dream for docs who want to know!?

Don’t worry, I’ll keep you posted on my learning in future blogs.