Questions and Answers with Omaha Area Natural Parents and Dr. Patricia Ryan

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Patricia Ryan, MD and Certified Clinical Nutritionist is the medical director of Alternatives: a whole health and wellness center in Omaha with a multidisciplinary approach to healing. If you are looking for natural therapies for your children regarding food or environmental allergies, sleep problems, attention deficit or behavioral problems or want to learn about preventative measures you can take during pregnancy to minimize future risk - then this is your chance to question a Medical Doctor who listens first, discovers root causes, and designs comprehensive plans with the necessary support for healing.

Dr. Ryan has offered to answer select questions from the Omaha Area Natural Parents community every other Monday. They can be anything from questions about her practice, what she treats and deals with, questions about topics she is familiar with, etc. You can email your questions to omahanp@gmail.com or watch for the announcement on OANP and Alternative’s Facebook pages.

Here are answers to some of last weeks questions:

Question: What is your typical care/treatment plan for food allergies/reflux
in babies and children?

Answer:   No one knows the cause of infant colic and reflux.  One has to wonder why so many infants are suffering from this now?  I firmly believe it is related to our environment.  Before you can treat something you must first think about the cause.  It has been shown by multiple studies that environmental chemicals cause alteration of the immune system.  Eighty percent of the immune system lines the gut.  Therefore food allergies are a common manifestation these days of chemical influence in our bodies. Allergies are an altered immune response.   This is why prevention is always the best medicine.  It is much easier to detoxify a woman before she becomes a mother, than help an infant once he/she has colic/GERD.
 First we need to evaluate the diet of the infant, or in the case of breast feeding -- the mom.  Food allergies are a big problem for some people.  Diet changes can provide great relief to the infant.  You need to avoid a food if it is causing an allergic response.  Many times the infant formula is to blame.  These formulas are poorly made.  The ingredients are not high quality and can actually cause some digestive difficulties. There are times when we recommend a homemade formula if breast feeding has been stopped. In addition, support for the normal flora in the gut by primarily providing probiotics in the form of Bifidobacteria. I also recommend chiropractic adjustment of the infant.  This is extremely helpful in most instances!

Question: I would be interested in hearing her opinions, thought and
treatment plans when it comes to women dealing with anxiety and panic
attacks and depression. What are her thoughts on medication and does
she have any tried and true alternatives to medication that can
completely stop or alleviate symptoms of panic attacks and anxiety?

Answer:  I would be curious to know if you are talking about post-partum anxiety and depression, or just daily anxiety and depression unrelated to the pregnancy.
Post-partum depression/anxiety is very easily treated with bio-identical progesterone.  It is safe with breast feeding and usually is not needed for very long.  During pregnancy progesterone levels get very high.  In some women, the sudden decline of this hormone after childbirth can trigger symptoms.  The hormone progesterone up-regulates the GABA receptor in the brain.  This is where valium works.  It is your natural anti-anxiety agent of the body.  Estrogen up-regulates the serotonin receptor, which of course has to do with depression.  Hormone balance greatly effects emotional status, and can be addressed naturally with bio-identical hormones.

     For depression and anxiety that is not post-partum related:  this is very complex and not just a physical, biochemical cause.  Do I like medication for these illnesses?  At times medications are indicated.  They can buy time to allow the person to pursue the deeper cause of their symptoms, or stabilize that person so they can function.

     It has been my experience (based on seeing multiple abnormal lab tests and clinical improvements) that there is a definite nutritional component to these illnesses.  Everything from inadequate/improper fats to support the nervous system to not enough amino acids, and B vitamins to help make neurotransmitters.  People also need adequate minerals that are inherent to the structure of enzymes that drive chemical reactions in the body.  Believe it or not, most people I see are deficient of one or more of the above categories. Replacing these nutrients can cause an improvement in symptoms.

     Related to nutrition, but a little different is the environmental chemicals and our neurological system.  Why do you think the United States is number one in the world for depression and obesity?  Not because we are lazy!  We are poisoned.  Heavy metals such as mercury are very neurotoxic and disrupt serotonin metabolism -- thus its link to depression.  Low serotonin levels are associated with depression.  That's how Prozac, Zoloft, etc. works - to raise the serotonin in the brain.  The problem with these drugs is that, in the long term, they cause an imbalance of other neurotransmitters.  Many chemicals are fat-soluble (pesticides, herbicides, solvents, some antibiotics).  That means they get into the brain easily because the brain is made up of 80% fat! Getting these chemicals out is not easy!  But if the nerve or neuron in the brain gets damaged, it can contribute to depression, anxiety, headaches, insomnia, and many other things!

     In our office we also have neurofeedback.  This is a method of teaching the brain a new pattern.  The brain has gotten into a bad habit of anxiety, for instance.  It keeps running the same circuit over and over again.  Neurofeedback uses blinking lights at a certain frequency combined with EEG biofeedback to ask to brain to repeat a new, healthier pattern.  This works quite well.

     Finally, each person needs to look at deeper root causes that are in the emotional and mental realm.  Working with a professional that gently reminds you of why you are lovable, and helps you re-connect with yourself is very healing.  It is best to work with a talented mental health therapist to do this.

     What works best is unique to each individual, each situation.  We take a holistic view of this and all illnesses.  Combining nutritional support with detoxification, neurofeedback, and emotional support allow for full healing process, versus just the band-aid of a medication that will NEVER fix the depression/anxiety.

     Holy Basil can help relieve some symptoms of anxiety, and St. John’s Wort can help with depression.  Please seek professional help before combining either of these with medications.

Question: What is your opinion on leaky gut?

Answer:  Leaky gut exists and is becoming epidemic.  For those who do not know what leaky gut is, here is a quick review.  Leaky gut is a condition where the cells of the small intestine get sick.  The small intestine is where you absorb all of your nutrients.  Also, 80% of the immune system lines the small intestine.  The food particles we ingest are supposed to stay inside of the intestinal lumen, get fully digested, and then absorbed by the small intestine cells.  If for some reason (there are many) that the small intestinal cells get sick, they cannot absorb food well.  Also, there is something call a "tight-junction" which is kind of a glue that holds the small intestine cells together so food doesn't leak out of the intestine into the area of the gut immune system.  When this tight junction gets weak, or the small intestinal cells get sick, food gets through and stimulates the immune system of the gut causing a delayed immune response or food allergies. This can result in multiple symptoms including abdominal bloating, constipation, diarrhea, GERD, joint pain, headaches, rashes, autoimmune thyroiditis, and insomnia to name a few symptoms.

     What is the cause of leaky gut?  Again, we don't know for sure but we are gathering data that points to a combination of things including antibiotic use not only in humans but in the meat we eat, genetically modified foods, and the over-use of herbicides, and pesticides.  These chemical causes combined with the right amount of stress, hormonal imbalances, and trauma can explain why it may be more prominent in some individuals versus others.  The sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system regulates gut function.  I think stress is the number one thing that starts to unravel gut function in most people.  Then when they are hit with the chemicals, parasites, yeast or bad bacteria they can't bounce back and protect themselves.  The nervous system of the gut can also get disrupted when the spine isn't aligned.   This is why many times chiropractic manipulation can be helpful to restore normal function to the gut.