April 1, 2025 • 27 mins
Did you know there is a direct link between inflammation and mental health? Karolyn talks with integrative medical expert Jaquel Patterson, ND, about how an inflamed brain can impact mental health. From mood disorders like depression and anxiety to more severe conditions such as schizophrenia, inflammation within the brain can have a profound impact on mental health. Dr. Patterson is redefining psychiatry by focusing on healing the underlying cause of many mental health issues: inflammation.
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Five To Thrive Live is broadcast live Tuesdays at 7PM ET and Music on W4CS Radio – The Cancer Support Network (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com).
Five To Thrive Live Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Any health related information on the following show provides general
information only. Content presented on any show by any host
or guest should not be substituted for a doctor's advice.
Always consult your physician before beginning any new diet, exercise,
or treatment program.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Hello everyone, and welcome to Five to Thrive Live. I'm
Carolyn Gazilla and I co host this show with my
good friend doctor LESE. Olschuler. Today we will explore the
connection between chronic inflammation and mental health issues by focusing
on healing a key underlying cause of mental illness. My
guests as redefining psychiatry. Doctor JAKEL. Patterson is an integrative
(01:05):
health expert who applies her naturopathic training to helping patients
in her clinic, Fairfield Family Health and Fairfield, Connecticut. She
is also a best selling author and a highly regarded
speaker and educator. But before we dive in, I'd like
to thank our sponsors. Beginning with Cetria, patented form of
glutathione clinically proven to raise blood glutothione levels. Glutathione is
(01:27):
the master anti accident in the body's primary defense against
free radicals. It also helps support respiratory health. For more information,
visit Cetria Gluteothione dot com. Also Cognizance citicolin, which is
nature's way of keeping the brain's energy producing centers firing
on all cylinders. If you're looking for a way to
enhance your brain function, including memory, focus and attention, look
(01:48):
for Cognizan on the label or go to Cognizant dot
com for more information. Prothriver's Wellness Brain is a product
that contains Cognizant as well as other brain supporting nutrients
and herbs. You can find Prothriver's Wellness Brain online at
pure formulas dot com. There's also Prothriver's Wellness Sleep, which
(02:08):
combines higher dose melatonin and other sleep supporting natural ingredients
specifically designed for thrivers. You can find pro Thrivers Wellness
Sleep also at pure formulas dot com and doctor Oher's Probiotics.
It's a best selling probiotic for more than thirty years,
and it contains twelve probiotic strains that are shelf stable
so no refrigeration is required. Because of a unique three
(02:30):
year fermentation process, it's a very effective probiotic. Learn more
at doctor Oheer Probiotics dot com well, doctor Patterson, Welcome
to five to Thrive Live.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Thank you, thanks Carolyn for having me. Really excited to
be here on five to Thrive to have a discussion
about really important topic on the inflamed mind and how
psychiatric conditions are impacted due to it.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Yeah, it's an important topic and I love the angle
that you take with mental health. But before we talk
about specifics, why are you so interested in focusing on
this connection between inflammation and mental health.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Well, I myself had I was a person that had
lime disease, also bartonella and the BC in my own infections,
and also had family history my mother with autoimmune conditions
and many members of autoimmune conditions, so you know, these
different disease conditions that lead to inflammation and inflammatory states.
(03:29):
And so when I actually had it myself, one of
my biggest symptoms were symptoms that were very psychiatric in
nature in terms of like anxiety, shortness of breath, air, hunger, palpitations, insomnia,
hot flashes, and I was way too young to be
I was in my later twenties, so way too young
(03:50):
to be in perimenopause, but having a lot of symptoms
of even like excessive sweating, and so when I started
working with patients in the realm of born infections and
individuals with chronic disease conditions, what I found was almost
about forty to fifty percent of them had some type
of impact on their state mentally, either anxiety, either depression,
(04:13):
either mood dysregulation and irritability. And so I found that
when I supported or you know, when their disease conditions
got better in terms of helping with that, their mind
also got better. And so I started looking at this
connection more of what inflammation's role is and spent an
extra couple years in functional medicine psychiatry, studying and learning
(04:38):
so that I could be just more adept in helping
my patients walk through that.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Yeah, I mean to me, I've written about chronic inflammation
a lot. We talk about chronic inflammation on this show
a lot, and the connection does make sense. But remind us,
how are chronic inflammation and mental health connected?
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Yeah, so there are many different reasons why we can
have what's called uh. When we're looking at our mind,
always say like leaky mind, you know, leaky, leaky, leaky brain,
leaky gut. So there's are some connections as well. When
we look at things like gut health. But there are
many different reasons for to initially cause what we call
neuroinflammation or inflammation to the brain, many different triggers. So one,
(05:18):
you know, some people obviously know things like concussions and
traumatic brain injuries. But another huge factor is bacterial viruses,
infections like tick borne diseases that will actually disrupt what
we call the blood brain barrier, which causes inflammation, these
inflammatory mediators to get elevated in the brain. We also
(05:41):
look at and we're doing chronic disease conditions like type
two diabetes and also aging, which we call inflammationing all
of this when we look at when we look at
inflammation as a whole, it's the chronicity and also the
acuity you know how significant of an inflammatory event it is.
So it could be a combination of multiple factors. Even
(06:02):
outside of bacteria, virus to born illnesses, it could also
be you know, trauma, It could be other chronic disease conditions.
A person has stress will also chronic cortisol dysregulation will
cause an issue with with things like neural inflammation and
impacting that blood brain barrier. So there's it's multifaceted but
(06:23):
what you'll see is that these infections, especially if there's
a chronicity to it, will definitely cause some of these
inflammatory mediators to be impacted, which therefore thereby initiate these
mental health issues.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Yeah, so how do we how can we tell if
inflammation is a factor with mental health? Are the are
the symptoms different and what are the symptoms?
Speaker 3 (06:47):
So interestingly, if we look at the inflammatory mediators most
impacted for neural inflammation, the inter lukens ale one, aisle
six and also CRP, And to your question, Carolyn, that's
the tricky piece is that those also get elevated when
you have chronic disease and chronic inflammation. But when you
(07:07):
look at studies things like CRP, which is ce reactive protein,
which is a test you can check out through your
labs that any individuals that have CRP levels are greater
than three are greater at risk for depression. Or if
you look at i interluken six and CRP, both of
those numbers will go up even in fact, they look
(07:28):
at it for schizophrenia, that these CRP levels will elevate
and ile six will elevate significantly before even a first
psychotic event. And then when you look at many of
these these these conditions like hypothyroid condition you'll see and diabetes,
much higher rates of depression and autoimmune condition. So there's
definitely that overlap into your question of, you know, how
(07:51):
may the symptoms present. The symptoms present very you know,
very similarly, and the same areas of the brain are affected.
When you look at things like anxiety, the amygdala is affected,
the prefrontal cortex is affected. When you look at things
like depression, the prefrontal cortex also is impacted as well
as hippocampus. So these all relate to like cognitive function.
(08:14):
When you look at hippocampus memory, and that's why you'll
see someone that has chronic anxiety or depression. There's a
lot of forgetfulness and short term memory issues or ability.
If you look at the amygdala for anxiety, like everything
is a fear response. Everything is responded as a kind
of an emergency situation. So these things can get dysregulated
(08:37):
and they present with very much the same exact symptoms
because the areas of the brain that are impacted are
the same areas of the brain that are impacted with
those mental health conditions.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
So the concept is is that when we heal the
chronic inflammation, the mental health issue also gets healed.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Yeah, so that's what I'll often see is that when
I work on, for example, an individual that has barnella,
and we work on that infection and rid of it,
You'll see their mood and temperament gets better. And I'll
even have that noted often with family members where a
family member will ask that question if you know, they'll notice,
(09:17):
excuse me, a change in a family member's mood or
behavior or anxiety level. So you will definitely see that
adjustment once those infections will actually clear. And I might
also have to do support directly like I would do
for any patient with anxiety or depression, where I might
need to put them on things for just general neurotransmitter support.
(09:38):
But what I'll see is I need less of that
supports as they get better. Another factor to consider for
any practitioners or you know, anybody listening in too, is
if somebody has to keep changing, for example, their psychiatric
medication where the dose needs to keep going up higher,
(09:59):
or you need to keep you need to add in
two medications or three medications, there is a connection that
the inflammation of inflammation is not managed. You'll see someone
does not respond as well to psychiatric medications, and so
that's often what I see as well, where someone as
they start getting better, they need to be on less
(10:20):
psychiatric medications, or if they're really inflamed, they're on instead
of one, they might be on three or four medications,
or the dose needs to keep going up as they
also are dealing with this chronic disease state.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
And the cool thing is is we know that chronic
inflammation can affect other areas of health. So when you
heal that it's not just the brain that gets healed,
it's the entire body and overall wellness. And I know
that you use a very highly individualized approach, but I
want to talk about some foundational things beginning with diet.
(10:52):
Are there things that you focus on from a dietary
standpoint to reduce inflammation in the brain.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Yeah, So if you look at the study as it
retains to psychiatric health, the diets have been something called
the mind diet, and the mind diet is actually very
similar to the Mediterranean diet. So my mind diet, Mediterranean diet,
as well as the ketogenic diet have all been studied
to help to support mental health. So these are typically
(11:19):
one of the biggest things. That it's rich in flabinoids,
and there's tons of studies to show flabinoids and high
levels of antioxidants. Those are going to really help to
decrease inflammation and will help with mental health as well.
Things that are like when you look at Mediterranean diet,
it's higher in things like omega threes and also you
(11:39):
have higher amounts of than epa and DHA, which are
all protective for the brain as well. So looking at
higher consumption of with the protein with fish versus red meat,
and then things like the Mediterranean diet where it's higher
in these antioxidants which are are very helpful for the
for the brain health.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Yeah, talking about the Mediterranean diet and also the medi
Trainian diet, you know, people eating that diet eat less
highly processed foods and it's a cleaner diet and so yeah,
that makes a lot of sense. So what about from
a lifestyle perspective, where do you place your focus when
it comes to lifestyle factors?
Speaker 3 (12:18):
Yeah, so several different factors. So sleep, sleep and mental
health actually have a definitely a bi directional relationship, so
much so that they've even since studies that have shown
adolescents and young young children that do not get adequate
sleep have a much much higher risk for depression later
(12:39):
in life. So sleep is a huge factor for just
immune function, immune just regulation. So we're always working on
that as part of just like a baseline foundation. And
I find sleep is something that people can at least
make some small market you know, baby steps of improvement
that they can actually feel like they can manage. So
that's one piece. If you look at lifestyle by way
(13:02):
of exercise, on average, when it comes to anxiety and depression,
it's about three to four times a week forty five
minutes of workout of a mix of both cardio and
like strength training, and they have shown an inverse relationship
if it goes over forty five minutes four times a
(13:23):
week that it might be mental health wise, it could
actually have a negative impact because there's the balance of
doing too much and also the impact on cortisol, cortisol
dysregulation and things like that. So generally it's about three
to four times a week forty five minutes. I will
often try to get people, especially if you're you know,
type A like myself, doing something like walking for longer
(13:46):
periods of time if somebody has a drenal fatigue or
any kind of dysregulation, will be a great way into
that and also gives them a chance to connect in
with nature. There's been studies on even that. When I
talked about nature forest bathing, forest bathing actually decreasing inflammatory
markers and helping with their immune function even thirty days
(14:10):
after looking at studies in Japan. And then the other
thing I like, if you have access to is is sauna.
There's been several studies on the sauna. Sauna has been
studied to show help cardiovascular function. It helps to decrease
the CRP levels, which I mentioned is that inflammatory marker.
But they've even had in the studies in Finland studies
(14:31):
of over two thousand it was men. There were men only,
but over two thousand men studied in Finland over a
course to twenty five years, and what they found was
the more frequent they did sauna bathing, the less likely
they were to have mental health conditions, particularly anxiety, depression,
and schizophrenia. So that's another great adjunct that people can do.
(14:53):
That also, you know, is self care as well for themselves.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Yeah, yeah, it's great stuff. We've done entire shows on
green exercise and be out being out in nature, and
so I'd like to talk about specific nutrients and herbs,
but first I want to know what is your overarching
view of how dietary supplements can potentially help heal chronic information.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
I think they are very much needed necessary because we
try to get as much as the foundation piece supported
like I mentioned sleep, exercise, and then obviously diet, but
unfortunately we just can't get as much of nutrients that
we want are in high enough of a nutritive value
that we need just from the diet alone. So especially
(15:34):
if someone as a chronic disease or you know, are
in our high inflammation or autoimmune conditions, et cetera. So
nutrients are often needed to be able to add at
a level that is therapeutic, to be able to have
an impact on really shifting shifting them back into homeostasis.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Yeah, I would agree. I think that you're correct, and
you know you can use like tumeric as a great example.
There's no way to get enough curcuman uh with with
diet alone, so that's why, uh you know that supplement
is so needed. So so let's talk nutrients first. What
are some of your go to nutrients maybe foundational nutrients
(16:16):
that can help ease inflammation.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
So, Carolyn, you just mentioned one of them that I love,
and they even and they even had in some of
the studies that turmeric when you mentioned consumption, that the
higher amount of tumoric like consumption or curcumin consumption, the
higher the better your ability for stress resilience. It's like
four to five times better stress resilience just from people
(16:38):
that frequently consume that in their actual diet. But tumeric
has been heavily studied for for depression. Actually the most
studies clinical studies for depression or for tumeric rather have
been for for for tumoric and depression. And so the
reason being that turmeric has studied a show to help
(17:01):
with aisle six, which I mentioned earlier, which is an
inflammatory mediator to basically downregulate that. And so what you'll
see is if someone is taking higher amounts of tumoric,
their inflammation will go down and also their brain health
will be better. So turmeric is one that's been studied,
and I love to use things that I find can overlap,
(17:22):
so things like turmoric or ginger which also helps with
you know, ginger helps with digestion. It's also shown to
help with serotonin levels. People don't think of it for neurotransmitters,
but it helps with the neurotransmitters as well. So I
might look at things like that. And it's also an
anti inflammatory, especially if someone is having you know, joint
pain and physical pain. We can get things like tumoric
(17:43):
and ginger that not only help with those issues that
many of my patients are struggling with, but will also
help with their mental health state. So when I can
look at things that are combinations, those are really great,
so tumeric ginger. As I mentioned, there are a lot
of civic herbs that have been studied for different tickborn
infections like cryptolepsis artemicia Japanese not weed. Those have been
(18:08):
studied and shown to be as effective, sometimes if not
more effective than some of the antibiotic treatment like doxacycline.
So I might add in some of those specific herbal
protocols if I'm working with somebody with the tickboarn illness rodiolis.
I also like to look at adaptag and so Rodeola
rosea is an adaptagen that not only helps with physical
(18:30):
stamina your ability to manage stress, but it also helps
it down regulate COX one and COX two these inflammatory pathway,
and it also increases up nerpinephrine, epernephrine, dopamine. So those
are all neurotransmitters that get impacted as well due to neuroinflammation.
(18:52):
So if you look at neuro inflammatory events, you'll see
that for example, like the dopamine levels will go down,
and dopamine is actually neuroprotective. You'll see things like gabba
gabba and glutamate. The relationship between those get impacted negatively,
and gaba is also protective for the brain. So things
(19:13):
to help support those neurotransmitters like a rodeola, like amino core,
essential amino acids like tyrosine or trip to fan. I
look to support, especially for if I have younger people,
because they're often not getting enough for example, amino acids
through good proteins in their diet as well. So tons
(19:34):
of different ways to do about. What I try to
look at is how do I address many things too
in maybe one herb or one supplement.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Yeah, you kind of get a two fur or sometimes
a three fur, you know. And I'm glad that you
mentioned adaptogens because I was going to ask you about
that and you mentioned rodeola, what about ashwagonda engine sing
and mushrooms and some of the others, Or is rodeola
kind of the go to for mental health?
Speaker 3 (20:00):
So rodeo is also has been studied interestingly for adhd
Ashwaganda is a great adaptagen and I usually will use
that too for individuals that need hormone support. So ashwaganda
helps the tasosterone. It can also help with thyroid function. So,
like you said with the two for if I have
somebody that has those things as well, I might want
(20:22):
to might want to look at that. But in general,
they all the adaptations are going to help with stress resilience,
so they're definitely going to be supportive in that way
as well.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Yeah, they're they're really powerful substances. I know that you
do a lot of lab testing. Do you find, like
you probably test for nutrient deficiencies, do you find that
there are some common nutrient deficiencies that you may have
to address in clinical practice practice with some of these
(20:53):
inflamed patients.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
Yeah, So one of I say the top ones I've seen,
iron has been a big one. Now. I think when
I would say when I first started practicing, I would
do the regular what's called complete blood count, and you
would see people's teemoglobins and I would kind of use
that as a general guideline and I would say, in
conventional medicine, that's that's pretty typical. But then I started noticing,
(21:16):
especially after twenty twenty, a lot of people becoming with
just having chronic fatigue that I started testing iron and
ferratin more specifically, and I found so many a huge
percentage of my patients that became you know, iron deficient
or had lower ferratin levels posts infection. And so one
(21:36):
of the reasons ferratin is actually an acute which is
one of the markers they look at ferratin for anemia
iron deficient anemia that one. Ferratin is also a marker
that will go up for as an acute inflammatory marker.
So you'll see you sometimes when people get ill, it'll
go up and then it'll go down. So iron is
definitely one of the ones. I also look to look
(21:56):
at core minerals like RBC, magnesium, RBC, zinc. Vitamin D
is a huge one, especially anybody that's lower than forty
A lot of studies have shown increased progression of chrome
disease conditions if the vitamin D is less than forty.
So I definitely look at those core nutrients in addition
(22:17):
to some of the inflammatory biomarkers I mentioned like CRP ESR,
and I might look at things like ile one and
aisle six as well as ale ten.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Yeah, it's and it's interesting because when you find the deficiency,
correct the deficiency, you know, the relief comes pretty quickly,
doesn't it.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
Yes, it does. And if you look at something like
you know, iron, I've had some people that have So
the range for example with iron is sixteen to two
hundred and fifty, and I have people at like two
or three. So if you give someone like that iron,
I mean they feel like a completely new person. So
that is always great. When you can support on the
bottom line like that, their foundation is stronger because yes
(22:56):
we can work after and go after the infections, and
yes we can help them become less inflame. But if
you don't have enough of that, you know, that base
foundation of something as simple as iron, then it's going
to be way way longer, longer journey to recovery. So
I think those things are always the first things I'm
trying to adjust so that people can also feel better
sooner than later.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Yeah, exactly. So what final advice do you have for
listeners who may be struggling with mental health issues like
depression or anxiety? What final advice do you have?
Speaker 3 (23:32):
Yeah, so, I would definitely suggest for any provider you're seeing,
if they're if they're looking at the full, the full
physical piece of you in terms of other disease conditions
that you may have that may have been overlooked. Obviously,
area focused for me is tick born illnesses, because that
definitely can instigate mental health conditions, but it could also
(23:54):
be other things. You know, autoimmune conditions that haven't been
fully worked up, or yory conditions are high, So you
really want someone to fully investigate if those other things
are contributing. And particularly, as I mentioned earlier, someone if
a medication is not working, or you keep going up,
or something was working before with your medication and it's
no longer working. Those are all flags of is there
(24:16):
something that's preventing the medication that worked before to no
longer work, And so those are all questions you should
ask in and making sure that you might maybe are
not seeing the person only for medications for let's say,
psychiatric conditions but you're also following up on all your
regular you know, medical care needs as well to ensure
(24:37):
that those are those aren't actually making the issue worse
as well.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
Yeah, I mean it's such a good point. It's it's
a cornerstone of natropathic functional integrated medicine, getting to that
underlying cause that's what that's what you doctors do so well,
and I think that that's really important. And you mentioned
the medications. Oftentimes that's very frustrating for patient when they
they're they're layering on more medications and the medication stops
(25:05):
and they have to start again and that can be
hugely frustrating for patients. So well, this has been great.
Where can people find out more about you and your work?
Do you have a website you'd like to share?
Speaker 3 (25:18):
Yeah, so I'm based in Fairfield, Connecticut, but we do
provide telemedicine since we have licenses in multiple states. So
the website is Fairfield f AI Rfieldsfamilyhealth dot com and
you can also follow up find us on Instagram and
Facebook as well as LinkedIn at Fairfield Family Health.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Yeah, and I listeners check check out doctor Patterson. She
is a wealth of information and follow her and check
out our website Fairfieldfamilyhealth dot com. Doctor Patterson, this has
been wonderful. Thank you so much for joining me today.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
Thank you, thank you so much for having me. I
am really enjoyed the conversation.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Yeah, you're doing great work. Well. That wraps up this
episode of five to Thrive Live once again. I'd like
to thank our sponsors pro Thrivers Wellness, Sleep Formula, Cetria glutathione,
the superior glutathione to support liver and immune health, cognizancetacholine
to help enhance memory, focus and attention, and doctor Ohira's
(26:16):
award winning shelf Stable probiotic. I also want to remind
our listeners that you can find past episodes of five
to Thrive Live at ithriveplan dot com. That's I thriveplan
dot com. All right, may you experience joy, laughter and love.
It's time to thrive everyone, have a great night.
Any health related information on the following show provides general
information only. Content presented on any show by any host
or guest should not be substituted for a doctor's advice.
Always consult your physician before beginning any new diet, exercise,
or treatment program.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Hello everyone, and welcome to Five to Thrive Live. I'm
Carolyn Gazilla and I co host this show with my
good friend doctor LESE. Olschuler. Today we will explore the
connection between chronic inflammation and mental health issues by focusing
on healing a key underlying cause of mental illness. My
guests as redefining psychiatry. Doctor JAKEL. Patterson is an integrative
(01:05):
health expert who applies her naturopathic training to helping patients
in her clinic, Fairfield Family Health and Fairfield, Connecticut. She
is also a best selling author and a highly regarded
speaker and educator. But before we dive in, I'd like
to thank our sponsors. Beginning with Cetria, patented form of
glutathione clinically proven to raise blood glutothione levels. Glutathione is
(01:27):
the master anti accident in the body's primary defense against
free radicals. It also helps support respiratory health. For more information,
visit Cetria Gluteothione dot com. Also Cognizance citicolin, which is
nature's way of keeping the brain's energy producing centers firing
on all cylinders. If you're looking for a way to
enhance your brain function, including memory, focus and attention, look
(01:48):
for Cognizan on the label or go to Cognizant dot
com for more information. Prothriver's Wellness Brain is a product
that contains Cognizant as well as other brain supporting nutrients
and herbs. You can find Prothriver's Wellness Brain online at
pure formulas dot com. There's also Prothriver's Wellness Sleep, which
(02:08):
combines higher dose melatonin and other sleep supporting natural ingredients
specifically designed for thrivers. You can find pro Thrivers Wellness
Sleep also at pure formulas dot com and doctor Oher's Probiotics.
It's a best selling probiotic for more than thirty years,
and it contains twelve probiotic strains that are shelf stable
so no refrigeration is required. Because of a unique three
(02:30):
year fermentation process, it's a very effective probiotic. Learn more
at doctor Oheer Probiotics dot com well, doctor Patterson, Welcome
to five to Thrive Live.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Thank you, thanks Carolyn for having me. Really excited to
be here on five to Thrive to have a discussion
about really important topic on the inflamed mind and how
psychiatric conditions are impacted due to it.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Yeah, it's an important topic and I love the angle
that you take with mental health. But before we talk
about specifics, why are you so interested in focusing on
this connection between inflammation and mental health.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Well, I myself had I was a person that had
lime disease, also bartonella and the BC in my own infections,
and also had family history my mother with autoimmune conditions
and many members of autoimmune conditions, so you know, these
different disease conditions that lead to inflammation and inflammatory states.
(03:29):
And so when I actually had it myself, one of
my biggest symptoms were symptoms that were very psychiatric in
nature in terms of like anxiety, shortness of breath, air, hunger, palpitations, insomnia,
hot flashes, and I was way too young to be
I was in my later twenties, so way too young
(03:50):
to be in perimenopause, but having a lot of symptoms
of even like excessive sweating, and so when I started
working with patients in the realm of born infections and
individuals with chronic disease conditions, what I found was almost
about forty to fifty percent of them had some type
of impact on their state mentally, either anxiety, either depression,
(04:13):
either mood dysregulation and irritability. And so I found that
when I supported or you know, when their disease conditions
got better in terms of helping with that, their mind
also got better. And so I started looking at this
connection more of what inflammation's role is and spent an
extra couple years in functional medicine psychiatry, studying and learning
(04:38):
so that I could be just more adept in helping
my patients walk through that.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Yeah, I mean to me, I've written about chronic inflammation
a lot. We talk about chronic inflammation on this show
a lot, and the connection does make sense. But remind us,
how are chronic inflammation and mental health connected?
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Yeah, so there are many different reasons why we can
have what's called uh. When we're looking at our mind,
always say like leaky mind, you know, leaky, leaky, leaky brain,
leaky gut. So there's are some connections as well. When
we look at things like gut health. But there are
many different reasons for to initially cause what we call
neuroinflammation or inflammation to the brain, many different triggers. So one,
(05:18):
you know, some people obviously know things like concussions and
traumatic brain injuries. But another huge factor is bacterial viruses,
infections like tick borne diseases that will actually disrupt what
we call the blood brain barrier, which causes inflammation, these
inflammatory mediators to get elevated in the brain. We also
(05:41):
look at and we're doing chronic disease conditions like type
two diabetes and also aging, which we call inflammationing all
of this when we look at when we look at
inflammation as a whole, it's the chronicity and also the
acuity you know how significant of an inflammatory event it is.
So it could be a combination of multiple factors. Even
(06:02):
outside of bacteria, virus to born illnesses, it could also
be you know, trauma, It could be other chronic disease conditions.
A person has stress will also chronic cortisol dysregulation will
cause an issue with with things like neural inflammation and
impacting that blood brain barrier. So there's it's multifaceted but
(06:23):
what you'll see is that these infections, especially if there's
a chronicity to it, will definitely cause some of these
inflammatory mediators to be impacted, which therefore thereby initiate these
mental health issues.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Yeah, so how do we how can we tell if
inflammation is a factor with mental health? Are the are
the symptoms different and what are the symptoms?
Speaker 3 (06:47):
So interestingly, if we look at the inflammatory mediators most
impacted for neural inflammation, the inter lukens ale one, aisle
six and also CRP, And to your question, Carolyn, that's
the tricky piece is that those also get elevated when
you have chronic disease and chronic inflammation. But when you
(07:07):
look at studies things like CRP, which is ce reactive protein,
which is a test you can check out through your
labs that any individuals that have CRP levels are greater
than three are greater at risk for depression. Or if
you look at i interluken six and CRP, both of
those numbers will go up even in fact, they look
(07:28):
at it for schizophrenia, that these CRP levels will elevate
and ile six will elevate significantly before even a first
psychotic event. And then when you look at many of
these these these conditions like hypothyroid condition you'll see and diabetes,
much higher rates of depression and autoimmune condition. So there's
definitely that overlap into your question of, you know, how
(07:51):
may the symptoms present. The symptoms present very you know,
very similarly, and the same areas of the brain are affected.
When you look at things like anxiety, the amygdala is affected,
the prefrontal cortex is affected. When you look at things
like depression, the prefrontal cortex also is impacted as well
as hippocampus. So these all relate to like cognitive function.
(08:14):
When you look at hippocampus memory, and that's why you'll
see someone that has chronic anxiety or depression. There's a
lot of forgetfulness and short term memory issues or ability.
If you look at the amygdala for anxiety, like everything
is a fear response. Everything is responded as a kind
of an emergency situation. So these things can get dysregulated
(08:37):
and they present with very much the same exact symptoms
because the areas of the brain that are impacted are
the same areas of the brain that are impacted with
those mental health conditions.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
So the concept is is that when we heal the
chronic inflammation, the mental health issue also gets healed.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Yeah, so that's what I'll often see is that when
I work on, for example, an individual that has barnella,
and we work on that infection and rid of it,
You'll see their mood and temperament gets better. And I'll
even have that noted often with family members where a
family member will ask that question if you know, they'll notice,
(09:17):
excuse me, a change in a family member's mood or
behavior or anxiety level. So you will definitely see that
adjustment once those infections will actually clear. And I might
also have to do support directly like I would do
for any patient with anxiety or depression, where I might
need to put them on things for just general neurotransmitter support.
(09:38):
But what I'll see is I need less of that
supports as they get better. Another factor to consider for
any practitioners or you know, anybody listening in too, is
if somebody has to keep changing, for example, their psychiatric
medication where the dose needs to keep going up higher,
(09:59):
or you need to keep you need to add in
two medications or three medications, there is a connection that
the inflammation of inflammation is not managed. You'll see someone
does not respond as well to psychiatric medications, and so
that's often what I see as well, where someone as
they start getting better, they need to be on less
(10:20):
psychiatric medications, or if they're really inflamed, they're on instead
of one, they might be on three or four medications,
or the dose needs to keep going up as they
also are dealing with this chronic disease state.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
And the cool thing is is we know that chronic
inflammation can affect other areas of health. So when you
heal that it's not just the brain that gets healed,
it's the entire body and overall wellness. And I know
that you use a very highly individualized approach, but I
want to talk about some foundational things beginning with diet.
(10:52):
Are there things that you focus on from a dietary
standpoint to reduce inflammation in the brain.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Yeah, So if you look at the study as it
retains to psychiatric health, the diets have been something called
the mind diet, and the mind diet is actually very
similar to the Mediterranean diet. So my mind diet, Mediterranean diet,
as well as the ketogenic diet have all been studied
to help to support mental health. So these are typically
(11:19):
one of the biggest things. That it's rich in flabinoids,
and there's tons of studies to show flabinoids and high
levels of antioxidants. Those are going to really help to
decrease inflammation and will help with mental health as well.
Things that are like when you look at Mediterranean diet,
it's higher in things like omega threes and also you
(11:39):
have higher amounts of than epa and DHA, which are
all protective for the brain as well. So looking at
higher consumption of with the protein with fish versus red meat,
and then things like the Mediterranean diet where it's higher
in these antioxidants which are are very helpful for the
for the brain health.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Yeah, talking about the Mediterranean diet and also the medi
Trainian diet, you know, people eating that diet eat less
highly processed foods and it's a cleaner diet and so yeah,
that makes a lot of sense. So what about from
a lifestyle perspective, where do you place your focus when
it comes to lifestyle factors?
Speaker 3 (12:18):
Yeah, so several different factors. So sleep, sleep and mental
health actually have a definitely a bi directional relationship, so
much so that they've even since studies that have shown
adolescents and young young children that do not get adequate
sleep have a much much higher risk for depression later
(12:39):
in life. So sleep is a huge factor for just
immune function, immune just regulation. So we're always working on
that as part of just like a baseline foundation. And
I find sleep is something that people can at least
make some small market you know, baby steps of improvement
that they can actually feel like they can manage. So
that's one piece. If you look at lifestyle by way
(13:02):
of exercise, on average, when it comes to anxiety and depression,
it's about three to four times a week forty five
minutes of workout of a mix of both cardio and
like strength training, and they have shown an inverse relationship
if it goes over forty five minutes four times a
(13:23):
week that it might be mental health wise, it could
actually have a negative impact because there's the balance of
doing too much and also the impact on cortisol, cortisol
dysregulation and things like that. So generally it's about three
to four times a week forty five minutes. I will
often try to get people, especially if you're you know,
type A like myself, doing something like walking for longer
(13:46):
periods of time if somebody has a drenal fatigue or
any kind of dysregulation, will be a great way into
that and also gives them a chance to connect in
with nature. There's been studies on even that. When I
talked about nature forest bathing, forest bathing actually decreasing inflammatory
markers and helping with their immune function even thirty days
(14:10):
after looking at studies in Japan. And then the other
thing I like, if you have access to is is sauna.
There's been several studies on the sauna. Sauna has been
studied to show help cardiovascular function. It helps to decrease
the CRP levels, which I mentioned is that inflammatory marker.
But they've even had in the studies in Finland studies
(14:31):
of over two thousand it was men. There were men only,
but over two thousand men studied in Finland over a
course to twenty five years, and what they found was
the more frequent they did sauna bathing, the less likely
they were to have mental health conditions, particularly anxiety, depression,
and schizophrenia. So that's another great adjunct that people can do.
(14:53):
That also, you know, is self care as well for themselves.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Yeah, yeah, it's great stuff. We've done entire shows on
green exercise and be out being out in nature, and
so I'd like to talk about specific nutrients and herbs,
but first I want to know what is your overarching
view of how dietary supplements can potentially help heal chronic information.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
I think they are very much needed necessary because we
try to get as much as the foundation piece supported
like I mentioned sleep, exercise, and then obviously diet, but
unfortunately we just can't get as much of nutrients that
we want are in high enough of a nutritive value
that we need just from the diet alone. So especially
(15:34):
if someone as a chronic disease or you know, are
in our high inflammation or autoimmune conditions, et cetera. So
nutrients are often needed to be able to add at
a level that is therapeutic, to be able to have
an impact on really shifting shifting them back into homeostasis.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Yeah, I would agree. I think that you're correct, and
you know you can use like tumeric as a great example.
There's no way to get enough curcuman uh with with
diet alone, so that's why, uh you know that supplement
is so needed. So so let's talk nutrients first. What
are some of your go to nutrients maybe foundational nutrients
(16:16):
that can help ease inflammation.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
So, Carolyn, you just mentioned one of them that I love,
and they even and they even had in some of
the studies that turmeric when you mentioned consumption, that the
higher amount of tumoric like consumption or curcumin consumption, the
higher the better your ability for stress resilience. It's like
four to five times better stress resilience just from people
(16:38):
that frequently consume that in their actual diet. But tumeric
has been heavily studied for for depression. Actually the most
studies clinical studies for depression or for tumeric rather have
been for for for tumoric and depression. And so the
reason being that turmeric has studied a show to help
(17:01):
with aisle six, which I mentioned earlier, which is an
inflammatory mediator to basically downregulate that. And so what you'll
see is if someone is taking higher amounts of tumoric,
their inflammation will go down and also their brain health
will be better. So turmeric is one that's been studied,
and I love to use things that I find can overlap,
(17:22):
so things like turmoric or ginger which also helps with
you know, ginger helps with digestion. It's also shown to
help with serotonin levels. People don't think of it for neurotransmitters,
but it helps with the neurotransmitters as well. So I
might look at things like that. And it's also an
anti inflammatory, especially if someone is having you know, joint
pain and physical pain. We can get things like tumoric
(17:43):
and ginger that not only help with those issues that
many of my patients are struggling with, but will also
help with their mental health state. So when I can
look at things that are combinations, those are really great,
so tumeric ginger. As I mentioned, there are a lot
of civic herbs that have been studied for different tickborn
infections like cryptolepsis artemicia Japanese not weed. Those have been
(18:08):
studied and shown to be as effective, sometimes if not
more effective than some of the antibiotic treatment like doxacycline.
So I might add in some of those specific herbal
protocols if I'm working with somebody with the tickboarn illness rodiolis.
I also like to look at adaptag and so Rodeola
rosea is an adaptagen that not only helps with physical
(18:30):
stamina your ability to manage stress, but it also helps
it down regulate COX one and COX two these inflammatory pathway,
and it also increases up nerpinephrine, epernephrine, dopamine. So those
are all neurotransmitters that get impacted as well due to neuroinflammation.
(18:52):
So if you look at neuro inflammatory events, you'll see
that for example, like the dopamine levels will go down,
and dopamine is actually neuroprotective. You'll see things like gabba
gabba and glutamate. The relationship between those get impacted negatively,
and gaba is also protective for the brain. So things
(19:13):
to help support those neurotransmitters like a rodeola, like amino core,
essential amino acids like tyrosine or trip to fan. I
look to support, especially for if I have younger people,
because they're often not getting enough for example, amino acids
through good proteins in their diet as well. So tons
(19:34):
of different ways to do about. What I try to
look at is how do I address many things too
in maybe one herb or one supplement.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Yeah, you kind of get a two fur or sometimes
a three fur, you know. And I'm glad that you
mentioned adaptogens because I was going to ask you about
that and you mentioned rodeola, what about ashwagonda engine sing
and mushrooms and some of the others, Or is rodeola
kind of the go to for mental health?
Speaker 3 (20:00):
So rodeo is also has been studied interestingly for adhd
Ashwaganda is a great adaptagen and I usually will use
that too for individuals that need hormone support. So ashwaganda
helps the tasosterone. It can also help with thyroid function. So,
like you said with the two for if I have
somebody that has those things as well, I might want
(20:22):
to might want to look at that. But in general,
they all the adaptations are going to help with stress resilience,
so they're definitely going to be supportive in that way
as well.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Yeah, they're they're really powerful substances. I know that you
do a lot of lab testing. Do you find, like
you probably test for nutrient deficiencies, do you find that
there are some common nutrient deficiencies that you may have
to address in clinical practice practice with some of these
(20:53):
inflamed patients.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
Yeah, So one of I say the top ones I've seen,
iron has been a big one. Now. I think when
I would say when I first started practicing, I would
do the regular what's called complete blood count, and you
would see people's teemoglobins and I would kind of use
that as a general guideline and I would say, in
conventional medicine, that's that's pretty typical. But then I started noticing,
(21:16):
especially after twenty twenty, a lot of people becoming with
just having chronic fatigue that I started testing iron and
ferratin more specifically, and I found so many a huge
percentage of my patients that became you know, iron deficient
or had lower ferratin levels posts infection. And so one
(21:36):
of the reasons ferratin is actually an acute which is
one of the markers they look at ferratin for anemia
iron deficient anemia that one. Ferratin is also a marker
that will go up for as an acute inflammatory marker.
So you'll see you sometimes when people get ill, it'll
go up and then it'll go down. So iron is
definitely one of the ones. I also look to look
(21:56):
at core minerals like RBC, magnesium, RBC, zinc. Vitamin D
is a huge one, especially anybody that's lower than forty
A lot of studies have shown increased progression of chrome
disease conditions if the vitamin D is less than forty.
So I definitely look at those core nutrients in addition
(22:17):
to some of the inflammatory biomarkers I mentioned like CRP ESR,
and I might look at things like ile one and
aisle six as well as ale ten.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Yeah, it's and it's interesting because when you find the deficiency,
correct the deficiency, you know, the relief comes pretty quickly,
doesn't it.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
Yes, it does. And if you look at something like
you know, iron, I've had some people that have So
the range for example with iron is sixteen to two
hundred and fifty, and I have people at like two
or three. So if you give someone like that iron,
I mean they feel like a completely new person. So
that is always great. When you can support on the
bottom line like that, their foundation is stronger because yes
(22:56):
we can work after and go after the infections, and
yes we can help them become less inflame. But if
you don't have enough of that, you know, that base
foundation of something as simple as iron, then it's going
to be way way longer, longer journey to recovery. So
I think those things are always the first things I'm
trying to adjust so that people can also feel better
sooner than later.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Yeah, exactly. So what final advice do you have for
listeners who may be struggling with mental health issues like
depression or anxiety? What final advice do you have?
Speaker 3 (23:32):
Yeah, so, I would definitely suggest for any provider you're seeing,
if they're if they're looking at the full, the full
physical piece of you in terms of other disease conditions
that you may have that may have been overlooked. Obviously,
area focused for me is tick born illnesses, because that
definitely can instigate mental health conditions, but it could also
(23:54):
be other things. You know, autoimmune conditions that haven't been
fully worked up, or yory conditions are high, So you
really want someone to fully investigate if those other things
are contributing. And particularly, as I mentioned earlier, someone if
a medication is not working, or you keep going up,
or something was working before with your medication and it's
no longer working. Those are all flags of is there
(24:16):
something that's preventing the medication that worked before to no
longer work, And so those are all questions you should
ask in and making sure that you might maybe are
not seeing the person only for medications for let's say,
psychiatric conditions but you're also following up on all your
regular you know, medical care needs as well to ensure
(24:37):
that those are those aren't actually making the issue worse
as well.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
Yeah, I mean it's such a good point. It's it's
a cornerstone of natropathic functional integrated medicine, getting to that
underlying cause that's what that's what you doctors do so well,
and I think that that's really important. And you mentioned
the medications. Oftentimes that's very frustrating for patient when they
they're they're layering on more medications and the medication stops
(25:05):
and they have to start again and that can be
hugely frustrating for patients. So well, this has been great.
Where can people find out more about you and your work?
Do you have a website you'd like to share?
Speaker 3 (25:18):
Yeah, so I'm based in Fairfield, Connecticut, but we do
provide telemedicine since we have licenses in multiple states. So
the website is Fairfield f AI Rfieldsfamilyhealth dot com and
you can also follow up find us on Instagram and
Facebook as well as LinkedIn at Fairfield Family Health.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Yeah, and I listeners check check out doctor Patterson. She
is a wealth of information and follow her and check
out our website Fairfieldfamilyhealth dot com. Doctor Patterson, this has
been wonderful. Thank you so much for joining me today.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
Thank you, thank you so much for having me. I
am really enjoyed the conversation.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Yeah, you're doing great work. Well. That wraps up this
episode of five to Thrive Live once again. I'd like
to thank our sponsors pro Thrivers Wellness, Sleep Formula, Cetria glutathione,
the superior glutathione to support liver and immune health, cognizancetacholine
to help enhance memory, focus and attention, and doctor Ohira's
(26:16):
award winning shelf Stable probiotic. I also want to remind
our listeners that you can find past episodes of five
to Thrive Live at ithriveplan dot com. That's I thriveplan
dot com. All right, may you experience joy, laughter and love.
It's time to thrive everyone, have a great night.
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