Hormones neurotransmitters and the brain.

Written by Lee stevenson, sorry there will be a lot of typos I am not the best editor.

This is not medical advice , if you are ill please seek the help of someone qualified. I am writing this for educational purposes. By knowing these things it can better guide you to knowing whether the professional you seek knows what they are doing or whether they do not.

COMT MAO enzymes

Our hormones and neurotransmitters regulate how we think, how we feel emotionally, and it also regulates our energy levels in our bodies. Though men usually have fast COMT and fast MAO and women usually have slow I would not assume that is the case. I have seen many women with fast COMT and fast MAO and men with slow COMT and slow MAO. When there is excess amounts of hormones for too long it starts to desensitize the receptor and a person will need more and more of the hormone until the receptors stop functioning entirely. This is why it is better to correct the problem instead of treating it with medications or herbs. Herbs can help to alleviate symptoms as you work to correct the problems. If you have slow MAO you will do poorly when you consume things that have catechols such as green tea, coffee, bananas, citrus fruit, chocolate it will cause anxiety, inability to relax, aggressiveness if MAO is slow, If MAO is high it those will make you feel better.

COMT ( catechol-o-methyltransferase) and MAO (monoamine oxidase) help to regulate neurotransmitters and hormones. I have found people can switch between fast and slow COMT and fast and slow MAO activity but it seems the switching between MAO high and slow expression happens much less often in most people. Something COMT needs whether fast or slow is glutathion, magnesium and vitamin C. There are many toxins that inhibit COMT but mercury is the most common because it is used in some vaccines. Nutrients even determine if things are fast or slow. When stressed based on the nutrient levels at the time a person could be effected either way. So I don’t assume someone is fast or slow I pay attention to what their symptoms are.

COMT effects MAO because it regulates hormone levels and neurotransmitters. Hormones effect MAO , testosterone and androgen inhibits MAO causing lower neuropeptide levels. Estrogen and progesterone decrease MAO causing higher neuropeptide levels. COMT breaks down hormones , dopamine, epinephrine and norepinephine adrenal hormones. Because women have lower catechols and adrenal hormones they are much more sensitive to things that would cause fear such as getting in a fight, or dealing with a dangerous situation. But they can handle stress better then men. Because men have low levels they can they are less prone to fear but cannot handle as much stress. Mean can get overwhelmed by stress much more easily. Now this does not hold true for those who experienced trauma as a child especially sexual abuse because it damages many areas of the brain making those areas none receptive to certain stimuli while other areas of the brain are over activated. Those ones need a therapist who knows how to use nutrients, to heal the brain and how to use therapy to heal the brain. Studies have shown those areas can heal but when the areas start working again the victim will start remembering things they had not remembered and start feeling things they never felt before which can be overwhelming and confusing for them.

Slow COMT slows down the ability to break do neurotransmitters such as dopamine, estrogen and adrenal hormones such as epinephrin and norepinephrin. Meaning adrenal hormones and sex hormone levels could become too high. Stress slows down COMT. Slow COMT are the warriors or problem solvers, because of the high dopamine and adrenal hormone levels. When these people get stressed many areas of the brain can shut down from the increased dopamine and adrenal hormones. It can cause them to be worriers, experience head pain, get annoyed easily and have difficulty falling asleep. Odd these people will not back down from a fight but when stressed they collapse. I am one of them. But I almost have it corrected. People with slow COMT tend to over react to stress, and pressure because it increases dopamine and adrenal hormone levels which are already high. This causes many areas of the brain to shut down. Estrogen has a calming effect when broken down by COMT because it produces calming metabolites but in high levels makes a woman anxious, she cannot calm down or relax because it slows down MAO. Too little estrogen will cause excessive crying and depression. Fast COMT is why men tend to be grumpier.

Slow COMT causes high estrogen and progesterone which speeds up MAO activity. This can cause low hormone levels low dopamine and low serotonin levels. COMT and MAO have to be addressed along with balancing hormones when this occurs. Stress slows COMT and MAO. Men already have low levels so when they are decreased more they could get involved in risky and dangerous behavior to try and increase them. They will be more prone to being angry and getting violent when levels are low. Men’s hormones are a bit more resistant to change. There is a form of COMT that can alternate between fast and slow expression.

MAO deficiency can cause aggressive behavior, low impulse control. Hyper activeness, ADHD, autism, if severe skin flushing sweating, diarrhea and headaches. It can also cause violent behavior. Those with low MAO enzymes will be aggressive, experience weight gain, and can be violent. People think those with certain gene mutations experience high and low. That is not true life , diet, and toxins can effect these enzymes. Even our microbiome can effect our COMT and MAO because they effect our hormones and catechols.

Because COMT breaks down dopamine it’s over expression can cause anxiety, impusliveness, obsessive behavior that can lead to addiction to drugs , alcohol or even behavior that is dangerous, ADHD, irritability, hyperactivity, poor sleep quality. These are what they call type A personalities. They feel pressured to perform. They usually will be people pleasers.

In woman during pregnancy MAO activity decreases, shortly after child birth it increases. This is why many women experience depression after pregnancy. Those who experience this usually get depressed in the winter.

Slow MAO activity causes high dopamine and high serotonin levels. Estrogen and Progesterone slow down MAO. So women have higher dopamine and adrenal hormone levels then men, making them more prone to the negative effects of stress. So this means women are more prone to the mental effects of stress. Low MAO activity. can cause hypomania, depression, anxiety, hypertension, and a stiff neck. Low MAO activity causes loss of impulse control , extreme agitation, nausea, muscle twitching, and straight forwardness. Low MAO is what can cause people to get stuck in fight or flight mode. Slow MAO causes a person to worry more and and experience anxiety. Because women have slow MAO they are more prone to worrying and experiencing anxiety. When MOA and COMT are slow and we get xenoestrogens a toxin produced by man, into our bodies or some phytoestrogen it can cause dopamine levels to get too high. This causes excess anxiety, insomnia, chronic pain. A woman with this problem will have a very low tolerance to stress and trauma. Excess estrogen will slow down many methylation pathways. This makes me wonder about the men now days who are showing to have high estrogen levels from the toxins in our food and many farm chemicals in our food.

Slow MAO causes high tyramine levels which acts just like histamines. So they think they have high histamines so they take an antihistimine. This causes them to experience difficulty sleeping, increased sexual drive but unable to achieve and orgasm, weight gain, dry mouth, sleepiness and POTS.

I see this all the time people post they are having histamine issues when it is actually tyramine. The foods they name are high in tyramine. People with high tyramine levels from inhibited MAO will react to aged or fermented foods, oranges, bananas that are too ripe, beers and wines, Avocado’s , fava beans and lima beans because they are high in tyramine. Inhibited mitochondrial beta oxidation also causes high tyramine. At the end of this article you will see the importance of this.

Slow MAO can also experience a burning tongue, nausea , hiccups, muscle twitching, restlessness, restless leg syndrome, nervousness, hyperactivity, hyper sexuality, mania, OCD, hypertension, sweating especially at night, heart palpitations, hypertension, skin may get pale, fatigue, weight gain, anxiety, bloating, headaches, moody, breast tenderness, irritable and easy to anger. When very severe they can experience difficulty breathing, asthma, many heart issues, disorientation, autism, aspbergers, dementia, adrenal fatigue, glucose imbalance, low luteinizing hormone, low growth hormone, High T4 and low T3 from low conversion of thyroid hormones. Women need to get their estrogen and progesterone levels balanced if they are slow MAO. Slow COMT tend to be more lean and cannot gain weight.

Estrogen decreases COMT activity. Even though COMT breaks down estrogen it is inhibited 30% by estrogen. The hormones produced from estrogen have a calming effect. I have watched some women’s hormone levels jump up and down meaning their COMT and MAO levels are also fluctuating. When COMT or MAO is fast it will show up on OATS test with high homovanillic acid. There are other enzymes that break down dopamine which I will try to discuss. So it stands to reason if COMT or MAO is slow then dopamine will be high and homovanillic acid levels will be low. It takes two weeks for the body to replace MAO when they have been completely inhibited by a drug.

Usually if someone is having issues with slow MAO it will effect their CBS and BH4 pathways. If BH4 levels are low dopamine will get low. When BH4 activity is low it puts more of a burden on the CBS pathway. These ones will have high hydrogen sulfide, and high ammonia levels and will react to foods high in glutamine, and phenylalanine. They will also get ill when they eat meat or cruciferous vegetables , onions or garlic because of the high sulfur content. Normally phenylalanine and tyrosine would increase alertness and arousal but if someone has slow MAO the tyrosine will increase tryptamine causing and allergy like reaction. Phenylalanine will increase ammonia causing high glutamate levels. Glutamate is an excitotoxin in high levels it damages the brain. If levels get high enough a person will get headaches so severe they will think their head is going to split open.

Fast MAO is usually found in men because androgen and testosterone causes Fast MAO expression which rapidly break down dopamine and serotonin which can cause anxiety, impulsiveness, obsessive behavior which can lead to drug addiction or even addiction to doing dangerous things. It can also cause ADHD, irritability, hyperactivity, poor sleep quality, these are the type A personality people who can be people pleasers because they feel pressure to perform. Foods high in catechols help. Because men have lower catechol levels they can tolerate more in their diet. I have seen woman with fast COMT and fast MAO and they show many of the traits a man would with a few differences. They tend to be more disassociative and more unforgiving when they have fast COMT and fast MAO. that is just my observation.

Testosterone and androgen increase COMT and MAO. Since some woman have low estrogen and progesterone , and high androgen now days I would not doubt of many of them are now fast COMT and fast MAO.

Slow MAO can be caused by adrenal fatigue. The body tries to preserve the adrenal hormones by slowing MAO. It is very important for those with slow MAO to manage stress and learn stress management techniques.

Fast MAO can be caused by inflammation and oxidative stress. Fast MAO can cause Crohn’s usually MAO inhibitors helps with Chron’s Fast MAO causes processed sugar and processed carbohydrate cravings. These ones will wake in the middle of the night hungry. Fast MAO causes low dopamine and adrenal hormones. Because men have fast MAO they are more prone to having social anxiety especially if they have been stressed.

Fast MAO causes a craving for processed sugar and processed carbohydrates. Eating them makes it worse. From the low serotonin they will be prone to constipation. Those with low MAO get depressed during the winter. They experience insomnia, low tolerance to pain, low self esteem, OCD, panic, many with PTSD have fast MAO. They also have poor dream recall, have aggressive behavior, and can be violent very quickly and unpredictably. Very impulsive and often times do not think their decision’s through.

Symptoms of fast MAO depression, lack of motivation, lack of sex drive, no desire to live, chest pain, stiff neck, nausea, loss of libido,

Whether someone has fast or slow MAO they should reduce inflammation and oxidative stress so the body can balance things out. They should pay attention to how their COMT and MAO are working so they can make the adjustments in their protocols.

Nutrients needed for low MAO:

Iron, zinc picolinate, copper and riboflavin, glutathione, folate (make certain it is not folic acid), vitamin B12, vitamin B2, SAMe, vitamin C

Herbs for the adrenals. Such as eleuthero, ashwangha, passion flower, lemon balm, valerian

Nutrients and foods to avoid: Pay attention to high phenol foods those with low MAO can react to phenols.

Foods high in tryptophan and phenylalanine, phytoestrogens,

Fermented and aged foods.

MAO inhibitors: need to be avoided by those with slow MAO activity. Those with slow MAO may react to methy donors so should try to get non methylated forms of vitamins. I reacted to methyl groups but once I healed I was fine. For example Hydroxy B12 my be a better option for those with low MAO. Those with low nitric oxide should not take hydroxy B12.

Things that contain apigenin, luteolin,

Virodhamine and endogenous cannabinoid.

Nutrients and supplements for low MAO:

Riboflavin phosphate increases MAO this helps reduce aggressiveness.

Magnesium malate or magnesium glycinate. Especially needed if you take SAMe.

Things that increase MAO: Increasing MAO will reduce neurotransmitters preventing excess neurotransmitters.

Fulvi acid increases MAO it is high in organic, non sulfured black strap molasses, calcium.

Indian snake root

Methylene blue

St Jon’s wort

Things a person with low MAO should avoid: MAO inhibition can cause high levels of neurotansmitters. Drugs that inhibit MAO can cause serotonin syndrome.

These should be avoided until they are healed are tyrosine, tryptophan, soy sauce, chocolate, alcohol, raisins, curcumin, passion flower , nutmeg, kava, calcium , riboflavin.

Andrographin, angelica, bayberry, bilberry, celery, coffee, curcumin, echinacea, coriander , evening primrose, St John’s wort, Uva Ursa and other things with berberine.

Nutrients needed for fast MAO: be aware of any foods you are sensitive to and avoid them as much as possible.

High protein, lots of fiber, complex carbohydrates, glutathione, tryptophan,

Fermented foods and aged foods.

Some things that help with fast MAO:

Rhodiola

Green tea

Foods high in Querciten

Things to avoid with fast MAO:

Riboflavin

Eating process sugar and processed carbs will make things worse so fight the cravings when possible.

Kyurenine maintains brain health. Kyurenine pathway produces serotonin from tryptophan. It is not the Kyrenine pathway itself that is the problem but the way I worded this it may seem to be. The problem is when it becomes dysfunctional and is producing high levels of quinolinic acid. It metabolizes tryptophan and produces metabolites that are very healing to the body reduces inflammation and oxidative stress when functioning properly. It produces Quinolinic acid which is involved in many psychiatric disorders, and neurodegenerative processes in the brain. Quinolinic acid is an excitotoxin. Quinolinic acid affects neurons located mainly in the hippocampus, striatum, and neocortex, due to the selectivity toward quinolinic acid by the specific NMDA receptors residing in those regions. Quinolinic acid causes excess cell death. When it is dysfunctional serotonin levels can become decreased. Those with Lyme disease have extremely high levels of quinolinic acid. High ammonia levels can also cause high quinolinic acid levels.

High quinolinic acid levels will resemble high glutamate levels because glutamate increases, and it causes glutamate to be released, but you also may only you may sleep a lot, have brain fog and get very severe headaches and severe depression, loss of the ability to focus, loss of the ability to learn, severe forgetfulness.

kyurenine pathway when functioning properly will produce beneficial metabolites from tryptophan. It produces toxic metabolites when there is excess Inflammation, oxidative stress, infection, high glyphosate, or if someone has taken antibiotics such as fluoroquinolones which can cause it to dysfunction producing too much quinolinic acid, which causes brain swelling and brain fog, and brain cell death. KYNA inhibits the convulsive and excitotoxic effects of too much glutamate transmission. This occurs because it has to be used to neutralize excess glutamate. High levels of kynurenic acid have been identified in patients suffering from tick-borne encephalitis, schizophrenia and HIV-related illnesses. Notice all conditions that involve confusion and psychotic symptoms. Kynurenic acid acts in the brain as NMDAr antagonist, key in glutamatergic neurotransmission system, which is thought to be involved in the pathophysiology and pathogenesis of schizophrenia. So even though it is involved in producing ATP it’s upregulation can cause many problems in the brain. So it is very important to get rid of any infections causing it’s upregulation, inflammation and oxidative stress. It’s upregulation causes a pyridoxine 5-posphate deficiency which effects many metabolic and mitochondria functions negatively.

Reducing KYNA increases glutamatergic function in the hippocampus and enhances cognitive abilities and synaptic plasticity. Hippocampus has been found to be dysfunctional in those who suffered child hood abuse, experienced chronic stress or who have PTSD. By reducing it, it would increase a persons desire to experience life spatial recognition, passive avoidance, and spatial discrimination. So they would become more enthused about life, be more aware of their surroundings and be able to identify bad situations and avoid them. Their ability to learn from mistakes they have made that could have endangered them or caused them harm improves. Those who have hippocampal damage will constantly make bad decisions that endanger them, bring them pain whether physically or emotionally. They cannot remember those experiences when the hippocampus is not functioning so they will continually put themselves in bad situations that can damage their lives, relationships and the effects often times are completely life changing bringing more trauma on themselves. It is not good to inhibit this pathway because inhibiting it can cause MAO to be inhibited. KYNA also damages the amydala which is also damaged in those who experienced childhood trauma, chronic stress and who have PTSD. Stress also activates KYNA pathway so stress management technique learning is important to reduces it’s activation. You do not want to inhibit it because it is involved in helping us overcome social defeat. Low kynurenine levels have been implicated in aggression, depression, and headaches. So it should never be inhibited. If you experience any of those symptoms then tryptophan can help alleviate the feelings of social defeat, aggressiveness , depression and headaches.

kynurenic acid exerts its neuroprotective effect by acting as an antagonist of the glutamate receptor, N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA), quinolinic acid exerts its neurotoxic effect by acting as an agonist of the NMDA receptor. So you can see it is not so much KYNA that is the problem but when inflammation, toxins, stress, trauma has caused it to start producing quinolinic acid in higher amounts then kynurenic acid. The reason it does this is to produce more ATP in the body because when injured , or when you have an infection the body needs more ATP. Also if you have a metabolic issue slowing the production of ATP found in obesity then KYNA pathway will compensate and more quinlolinc acid is produced.

The headaches caused by high quinolinic acid is because it prevents glutamate from being uptaken into cells causing high levels of glutamate in the brain which is an excitotoxin when levels are high.

caffeine and regular black tea consumption can elevate quinolinic acid levels so should be avoided if KYNA is upregulated.

KYNA production of quinolinic acid activates an inflammatory response, and increases oxidative stress in the body and brain. Once inflammation and oxidative stress has activated it, these will need addressed. Remember oxidative stress and inflammation is what caused the production of quinolinic acid, so a cycle is created that needs to be broken. Major depression and bipolar depression contain increased quinolinic acid. High quinolinic acid levels causes a person to be less caring towards others. It can cause amyotropic lateral sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, restricted blood flow to the brain, Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease. Quinolinic acid also causes low acetylcholine levels which causes brain fog, lack in the ability to concentrate, hindered ability to learn, inability to focus, poor memory recall, and low energy levels or enthusiasm. Sulfation issues need corrected , because it is involved in regulating KYNA. The excess glutamate causes restlessness, anxiety, inability to focus, increased pain throughout the body. If levels get high enough a person can get ringing or strange sounds in their ears and splitting headaches.

Exercise helps to reduce KYNA, learning to manage stress and reduce it reduces KYNA.

Things that help to decrease the production of quinolinic acid are melatonin, selenium, L-theanine, green tea, curcumin combine with black pepper, niacin, Pyridoxal 5-phosphate, cruciferous vegetables, astanxanthan from natural sources, man made astaxanthan is toxic to the body, glutathione, riboflavin, Vitamin E which is found in COD liver oil and extra virgin olive oil. Zinc picolinate can help but in high dose it can do the opposite, grape seed extract, and pine bark extract. Amino acids leucine, isoleucine, phenylalanine, and methionine reduce quinolinic acid production. Chromium, lipoic acid and vanadium help to get out of ketosis if beta oxidation is inhibited.

These should be avoided if quinolinic acid levels are high because they will increase it more arginine, tryptophan, and glutamine. Quinolinic acid causes Pellagra (niacin deficienty) which causes excess weight loss, scaly skin lesions, delusions and confusion. Magnesium can actually increase quinolinic acid so those with high quinolinic acid levels will react to magnesium. You will also react to carbohydrates because they increase tryptophan levels which get converted to quinolinic acid when KYNA is dysfunctional.

N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) melatonin and serotonin are needed to produce it. Very healing to the brain but can cause hallucinations.Holding your breath (hypoxia) Yoga increases DMT. Fast MAO causes low levels. Slow MAO have increased levels.

DMT acts on Sig1R it can interact with other neurotransmitter receptors and change their function by forming complexes with them. When it’s inside the cell, it binds anti-stress proteins and aids them in performing their functions. In the nucleus, it recruits other proteins that bind to DNA and activate or deactivate different genes via epigenetic mechanisms. Other compounds bind to it as well, including cocaine and the sex hormone progesterone. It protects the brain from cell death even during oxygen deprivation. DMT is shown to lead to the production of cyclic adenosine monophosphate. (cAMP), a secondary receptor messenger. Forskolin can increase cAMP. Low cAMP levels causes depression by increasing cAMP it would improve mood. Also many hormones and neurotransmitters are regulated by cAMP. DMT also 5-hydroxytryptamine 2A receptor or the trace amine–associated receptor to cause its psychedelic effect.

DMT is found in many hallucinogenic plants and mushrooms that are being used to heal injury to the brain. DMT prevents anxiety and depression. DMT has been found to restore inflammatory and immune homeostasis.

DMT improves HPA function which helps to reduce fatigue and improve tolerance to stress. DMT improves brain plasticity and has been found to help those who’s brains have been damaged by trauma, chronic stress, and PTSD. It improves the health of tissue throughout the body.

DMT is produced from tryptamine by certain enzymes. MAO breaks it down so fast MAO would have low levels and slow MAO would have higher levels. This may be way fermented and aged foods make some feel better because they are high in tryptamine. It inhibits MAO for a very short amount of time. L-amino acid decarboxylase converts tryptamine to DMT. L-amino acid decarboxylase needs pyridoxal 5-phosphate to form DMT. The enzymes that produce it need oil soluble vitamins such as vitamin A, vitamin E, and Vitamin D most of those can be acquired from cod liver oil and olive oil, omega 3 oils increases DMT. L-amino acid decarboxylase that is involved in DMT production are also involved in serotonin and dopamine production. Ironically it’s expression is increased by cAMP. L-amino acid decarboxylase other biogenic amines. So if this enzyme is slow a person would have issues when consuming fermented foods. Lack of sufficient P5P is the main cause of it being slow. Those with Slow MAO will react to tryptamine an biogenic amines so be they could try this they would need to address issues with MAO. Also those who’s beta oxidation in their mitochondria is inhibited would need to address their mitochondrial issues because it causes high tyramine. So if they have mitochondrial issues and slow MAO it is going to cause them a lot of problems.

Why those who are chronically ill isolate themselves.

This is not medical advice if you are ill seek medical attention. Do not treat yourself. I am writing this for educational and information purposed.

Written by Lee Stevenson sorry I am a lousy editor.

Before I get into this I do want to explain what occurs is not your fault and those involved are not completely guilty. In our desire to live a normal life we may hide how sick we truly are. When we do finally start realizing how sick we are those around us will offer very little support or help because we look like we are not ill so they assume that our illness is mostly psychological. They will often times say and do hurtful things that add to our stress and can even make our illness worse. We tend to blame ourselves but for the most part it was not our fault that we became ill. The body is very resilient and has many mechanisms that will compensate for things they are not functioning correctly but it reaches a point that it can no longer compensate and then a person becomes chronically ill. It usually take correcting many things in order for the body to get the upper hand and start healing but the demands made by society now days makes it very difficult to heal. Adrenal hormones are usually highest in the morning so symptoms most likely will be worse in the morning. This is also why nausea that comes with it is often times worse in the morning.

Healing from chronic illness requires an anti-inflammatory diet and once that will reduce oxidative stress. It will also require eating more whole foods and for many they may have to cut back on meat consumption until they heal.

When a person is chronically ill they will isolate themselves. This comes with a feeling of guilt because they may be neglecting responsibilities or even family. This is actually a protective mechanism to prevent increased damage to the brain, heart and even the organs in the body. This condition is known as anhedonia. The brain will shut most emotion off in order to protect the Hypothalamus Pituitary Adrenal axis. The HPA also regulates the limbic system. When the limbic system become affected this starts affecting the heart and can result in death. This occurs from sepsis which can be caused by physical injury, infection, stress, betrayal from someone we love, loss of someone we love, trauma, toxins, vaccine injury and many drugs can cause it. The cause of this is because when a person is chronically ill their bodies get stuck in a fight or flight mode. If the issues causing the illness are not correct the HPA and limbic system can become damaged which can be life threatening because they regulate the heart and blood pressure. This also effects a person glucose levels so they will frequently have bought of low glucose levels which will cause nausea, flushing and weakness.

Because the HPA and limbic system function together healing the HPA will help to heal the limbic system.

When this occurs and the brain is still calling for adrenal hormone because the body is still in a state of injury it will start effecting the person emotions. They will start having mood swings, they will start taking more risk in order to try and increase adrenaline. Often times there will be severe muscle twitching or muscle spams or severed charlie horses.

The brain disconnects emotion to prevent further stimulation to the HPA. I found it strange because I experienced this but I still felt the love for others. So I felt guilty I was not there emotionally for them but when I tried I could feel it effecting my health. When the HPA axis is over expressed it increases expression of the limbic system which damages the heart . This causes a loss in blood flow to the extremities and a person will start experiencing ankle swelling, liver and kidney problems which can cause swelling in the face. Nerve damage will occur because the heart is beating irregular so the hands and feet and even some organs are not getting the blood they need.

The limbic system is regulated by the HPA axis. So when they HPA axis is affected so is the limbic system. Symptoms of limbic dysfunction are chronic fatigue, myalgic encephalomyelitis (chronic fatiogue the overwhelming desire to sleep), extreme neurological sensitivity, or heightened sensitivity to pain, chemical and mold sensitivity, a variety of chronic pain, anxiety like attack which will cause rapid breathing, systemic inflammation and POTS. Loss of motivation, impaired short term memory and when it gets more severe loss of long term memories, sever mood swings, it also effects our blood pressure, endocrine system and thyroid hormones. Digestion can be severely affected for each it is affected differently but often times it results in frequent constipation and malabsorption of nutrients especially vitamin B12 and the oil soluble vitamins like D, E and K.

I kept thinking if I just push through this it will get better and I would try to force myself to interact with others and to do things I felt I needed to do like mowing the grass or clearing the driveway of snow. This would result in me having dizzy spells for days because of the damage that had occurred to my heart.

Sometimes it would cause me to get so sleepy that I could not stay awake and I would sleep for days. If I fought the sleep my health would rapidly decline and I would get to the point that I couldn’t even get out of bed to eat or get a glass of water I would have to crawl to get them.

Because the illness cannot be seen many would make unreasonable demands on me. I tried to tell them how ill I was and they would brush it off and even say mean things to me like “you need to suck it up and be a man” or “you need to stop being so lazy”. The emotional hurt that put on me contributed even more to my being ill because the emotional pain added to the stress on the HPA so I would become even sicker.

The links to the studies below show the things that occur when a person is chronically ill. This is the symptoms of someone who’s HPA axis and limbic system has been pushed to the point that it start severely effecting their health and possibly end in death if not treated and not given enough rest.

The first symptoms a person is near HPA and limbic collapse is they will be extremely wired but also be very tired.

Severe muscle fatigue or muscle aches, severe sleepiness and difficulty waking, dizzy spells especially when a person goes from resting to standing. These are not your normal dizzy spells that occur when standing to quickly but they will last for a very long time. A person may lose their libido, gain weight and have hair loss. There may be nausea in later stages because it takes a lot of energy and even for the heart to digest food. When this happened to me I could no longer eat solid food I had to puree it and sometimes that was too much and I could only drink juice. A person may have mood swings from trying to maintain a normal life while their body is trying to tell them to rest. It also causes increased brain swelling adding to the HPA and limbic system dysfunction. Constantly low body tempeture is a sign the HPA has been damaged this will also effect hormone levels and thyroids.

When the limbic system gets impaired a person will first start to experience short term memory loss. When it gets more severe they will start losing long term memory. Mine got so bad I could not remember my name or where I lived sometimes. Symptoms that the HPA is over activated are anxiety, mood swings and severe depression and irritability.

When a person is chronically ill the fight or flight mode their bodies are stuck in will constrict blood vessels and increase heart rate in order to prepare the body for what it perceives is a threat. If the health issues are not correct the heart will become damaged and then there is a loss of proper blood flow. If a person reaches this stage of illness their body and brain starts going into survival mode. When the chronic illness is severe the body knows things are starting to fail. It will induce panic and rapid breathing will occur. In later stages when things get very severe seizures will occur. Because this effects the body tempeture a person will become very sensitive to cold.

Sadly even though man studies show it is not a state of mental illness but a part of their chronic illness society and modern medicine list it as a mental illness and tries to treat it with drugs often times making the chronic illness worse. Family will try to push a person suffering from this into living a normal life or offer very little help which usually contributes more to their illness.

When a person has experienced anhedonia and recovered they can be easily set back and become ill again. It takes the HPA axis and limbic system months and even years to heal. The problem I had is as soon as I felt well again I would start to act like life was normal and would set myself back.

To recover from anhedonia you must address the cause.

If a person has experienced a traumatic event loss of a loved one or betrayal by a loved one they will need to learn to stop dwelling on it and get past it and stop letting it effect them emotionally because that translates over to physical illness. If a person dwell on the loss of a loved one or a traumatic event it will keep the body in a state of fight or flight and the HPA and limbic system will continue to decline.

If the illness is caused by physical illness then the person will need to address the cause or causes because often times it is caused by many things coming together whether it is trauma, along with vaccine injury or a number of other things that can combine to cause the HPA and limbic system to become damaged. There are many forms of chronic illness that can lead to this condition but the biggest causes now days is tick born illness or other infectious diseases because vaccines and GMO foods have weakened many people immune system along with the many medication they are pushing now days especially fluoroquinolones.

This is not something a person can recover from over night. I for the most part have healed but stress still sets me back. I can usually handle physical exertion with no problem until a stressful event has occurred. When this occurs it sets me back physically because it takes the brain months and sometimes even years to heal . Since the HPA and limbic system are located in the brain they do not heal as quickly as the rest of the body. So in order to heal on top of addressing the health issues we need to do our best to avoid stressful situations. We need to learn to view things more positively and get over things that have stressed us much more quickly. Sometimes we may need to talk to a psychiatrist to help us resolve things from our past including the trauma, neglect and out right cold heartedness we experience from those we love.

I will try to explain what is happening.

If we do not correct our HPA axis and limbic system our hormones cannot return to normal because progesterone gets shunted to make adrenal hormones. This is not as noticeable in men but in woman they can develop PCOS or some other hormonal problems. If this is not corrected a person could develop interstitial cystitis. The hormonal problems caused by HPA over activation is a double edged sword. We may be very tired and very fatigued but may struggle to sleep or wake through the night often. We will develop severe night sweats. We may experience bloating in the gut. Women will experience issues with menstruation and may grow excess facial hair. Men and women can experience hot flashes. This comes from the hormonal imbalance and the low glucose levels. Some may experience weight gain, lowered libido and sugar cravings. Processed sugar increases HPA activity so would make the symptoms worse. There will be migraines or severe headaches.

If the upregulation of the HPA and limbic system continues the adrenals and limbic system becomes severely damaged causing them to function improperly the body will lose it’s ability to produce adrenal hormone. This is called NeuroEndometabolic stress response (NEM). This puts the adrenals at the forefront of this anti-stress battle. The body puts adrenal function ahead of other things because it is needed to maintain proper function of the cardiovascular system if it fails then we could die. This is why the body starts shunting progesterone and using it to produce adrenal hormones when all other sources to produce adrenal hormones have been depleted it is one of the bodies last ditch efforts to survive. Many medical professionals will throw substitute hormones at someone which often times mask the symptoms while making the person sicker. When it has reached this point then the recovery process will most likely take years instead of months. Progesterone is needed to protect the body from the oxidative stress causing properties of estrogen so when it becomes depleted oxidative stress increase adding to the body be in a state of fight or flight mode. The liver and kidney become congested and their function becomes inhibited causing them to swell and they will start to develop fibrous tissue farther decreasing their function. Until the adrenal issues and the issues causing them to occur are addressed this process will continue to occur until there is renal failure. This is why when a person is experiencing HPA dysfunction they will have pain in the lower back on their side. Over consumption of B vitamins can also cause that type of pain because the body can store B vitamins and over consumption of certain ones can start to damage the liver and kidney. If progesterone is added when this is occurring it will speed up the rate the renal system is being damaged. In males the low progesterone levels cause a loss of sperm production. Low progesterone levels causes heart arrhythmia, POTS which can result in stroke or heart failure. Progesterone is needed for connective tissue repair in the body. When levels are low the gut can become damaged, the joints can become damaged and even start to leak, when very severe the bladder will get damaged.

There is a chemical released called phoenixin and reducing it can help but we still need to address the causes of the HPA and limbic system dysfunction. Symptoms of high phoenixin levels are poor memory or memory loss, a lack of showing emotions, a person may start seeking adventure or start doing dangerous things in an attempt to increase adrenal hormone levels, if phoenixin levels get to high a person will lose their ability to think logically. If phoenixin levels remain high for an extended period of time a person will experience severe itchiness in the skin. A person with high phoenixin level will be prone to retaining fluids especially in the face and ankles. Phoenixin causes the secretion of many hormones which can farther contribute to the hormone imbalance. It also stimulates the HPA axis. To reduce it we must reduce inflammation, if we have leaky gut or gut dysbiosis we must correct it. If we have tick born illness or mycoplasma infection or some other infection it has to be addressed in order for the HPA and limbic systems to heal. Avoiding processed foods and foods that are not organic is a must because glyphosate works synergistically with the BT Toxins in GMOs and cause chronic illness. Phoenixion can cause a persons body temperature to remain lower then normal. Stress, physical trauma need to be avoided as much as possible in order to reduce phoenixin levels. Phoenixin also causes nerves to become much more sensitive and the pain can cause increased HPA and limbic activity. High phoenixin levels increase the markers found in interstitial cystitis so it will cause interstitial cystitis to become much worse. Phoenixin causes high insulin levels and low glucose levels it causes insulin resistance. Phoenixin causes oxidative stress so antioxidants are a must. It inhibits the NRF2 pathways so it may be necessary to take an NRF2 activator in order to heal. Remember balance is the goal we need some oxidative stress and inflammation to maintain our health and to protect the body from cancer. Palm oil helps to reduce phoenixin.

We need to heal the whole body including our way of handling stress because it cannot be avoided now days. I will attempt to explain what happens to the adrenals before I get into healing them. The constant HPA up-regulation will eventually wear the HPA and limbic systems down. They will no longer be able to keep up. Adrenal hormones are needed when we exert ourselves, when we deal with stressful situations. Because our adrenals and limbic system is damaged they will not be able to keep up. When this occurs heart failure can occur if we try and push ourselves beyond what our bodies are capable when it has reached such a point. I have had many friends while healing who pushed themselves too hard because they thought they were well and they either severely set themselves back or even died. So as we are healing we need to pay extra attention to our bodies and know when we need to take a break from either stress or physical activity.

It is very very important to stay hydrated because dehydration adds to the adrenal fatigue because it an put the body in a state of fight or flight mode also. Electrolytes are also very important to support the HPA axis. A good way to restore electrolytes is to take some water and add lemon, 1/8 teaspoon of cream of tartar (be cautious get aluminum free, aluminum damages the HPA axis and the limbic system), also add organic raw honey which has many healing properties. Cholesterol is needed to produce all hormones in the body especially adrenal hormones. Deficiencies in B vitamins damages the HPA and limbic systems. This is very common now because processed foods are low in B vitamins and the farm chemicals used on our crops causes them to be deficient in B vitamins. Adding to the problem is the fact that much of the farm land has been over farmed adding to the nutrient deficiencies. It is best to buy organic and buy from local farms when possible. Magnesium, zinc, iron, copper, chromium, vanadium are needed for HPA and limbic system health. If you take too much zinc , iron, copper , chromium , vanadium it will have the opposite effect and start damaging the HPA axis. Excess iron can increase oxidative stress. Vitamin C is needed in high amounts when the trying to heal. Taking too much vitamin C can cause oxalates to form and can destroy red blood cells so if you take vitamin C do so wisely. I found liposomal was the one I reacted to the least. I had interstitial cystitis and reacted severely to anything that contained vitamin C. Once my adrenals started to heal my interstitial cystitis started to heal though I had to heal many other health problems to stop the damage that was occurring. The sesquiterpines found in myrrh and frankincense have been found to work very well for increasing oxygen levels around the receptor sites involved in the HPA and limbic systems which speeds up the healing time. Omega 3 fatty acids have been found to speed up the recovery of the HPA axis. I found alternating the types of Omega 3 was much more effective. Some may react to coconut oil because it kills many types of pathogens including mycoplasma. The endotoxins released will add to the body being in fight or flight mode so when a person start killing infection they should do so slowly and strengthen the body and detox systems before doing so. Avoid processed sugars , because the upregulated HPA axis will cause low glucose levels a person may crave sugar and salt. Sugar will add to the HPA dysfunction because it causes systemic low grade inflammation which also puts the body in a state of fight or flight mode. We need complex carbohydrate like those found in roots , inulin which is non digestable fiber,grains, seeds, legumes, beans, vegetables and nuts. Those with leaky gut may have to avoid things that contain lectins until there gut is healed. We need lectins but when the gut is too porous the lectins will enter our blood stream and will cause systemic inflammation. This also can cause immune dysfunction which also causes the body to get stuck in fight or flight mode. Things that contain the highest level of lectins is milk, wheat, tomatoes and beans. The complex carbohydrates help keep the blood glucose levels stable because when they are low the body will also go into fight or flight mode. The most important B vitamins are B6 and B12. Avoiding inflammatory foods like Omega 6 fatty acids is very important.

The body goes into fight or flight mode during infection for many reasons. Often times it causes systemic low grade inflammation and oxidative stress which causes the body to go into fight or flight mode.

Our stomachs contain microbes called our microbiome. Those microbes modulate our genes and health. A deficiency in one microbe can cause many health issues. Those microbes consist of phages, viruses, bacteria, fungus and even amoeba. Most in the industrialized nations are more prone to chronic illness because the toxins, medication, farm chemicals in foods, stress, vaccinations altering the immune system leads to an imbalance in gut microbes, processed foods, consumption of too much of one specific type of food instead of getting a variety causes a loss of many of the microbes in our guts needed to maintain a healthy immune system, prevent inflammation , regulate our glucose levels and protect us from infection. Part of the reason infectious disease is rampant is because many species of microbes are now extinct in those who live in the industrialize world. For those who do not have a way to replace those microbes they have to permanently adjust their diets to compensate for the microbes that are missing which only partially addresses the health issues caused by a lack of certain microbes. It is very difficult to get those microbes from our environment now because the chemicals and toxins being put in our soils have killed many of the beneficial microbes in the soil which is how many of our microbes that maintain our health are acquired. We also inherit our microbes from our parents. The fathers microbe heavily influence the makeup of the mothers so the fathers microbes can effect the health of the whole family. Achieving health should involve the whole family restoring microbial balance in their gut. If we have an overgrowth of certain microbes or a deficiency in some it can cause systemic inflammation, autoimmune disease, nutrient deficiencies because most of our vitamins are produced by our microbiome and we only get some our our vitamins from food. Even biotin is created by our gut microbes. All of these can lead to the body being stuck in fight or flight mode which will cause HPA and limbic dysfunction. Now add to the fact that all this can make the gut more porous which will cause food particles that would not normally enter the blood stream to enter our bodies. This causes a person to start developing a variety food intolerance and allergies. The regulation in the immune system will also cause the HPA axis to become dysfunctional. As this goes on and our environment becomes more toxic chronic illness is becoming more and more rampant. In the U.S. 80% of the population is said to be on a medication of some type. The sad part of that many studies have shown that up to 80% of the benefits of medications are based on the noocebo effect . In other words because the person has changed their negative state of mind based on their believe the medication is healing them they start healing showing our state of mind is a very part of the healing process. The medications all come with side effects that are very damaging to the body so they end up with a new set of health problems after taking the medications , especially antibiotics which dramatically alter our microbiome. If a person does not heal their gut they will be fighting a losing battle and the gut is always effected during chronic illness.

Things that can help restore the HPA and limbic health.

There are herbs that can help restore health of the HPA and limbic system once the causes are addressed these can also be taken as a person is addressing those issues to help reduce the damage. For example grape seed extract improves blood flow reduce inflammation and histamines which will help reduce the bodies need to be in a fight or flight mode to survive. There are adaptogenic herbs that help support adrenal function while reducing stress hormones these are called adaptogenic herbs. Some of these are ashwangha, rhodiola, bupleurum, rhemannia, mace root and kudzu root. Herbs that relax also help to reduce stress hormones, some of them are lemon balm, peony, rooibos, and mugwort.

Exercise in moderation helps to improve HPA and limbic health but be very aware of your limitations because if you over do it you can set yourself back not just for days but for weeks. Even someone healthy could damage their HPA axis if they exercise excessively. Excess exercise can cause progesterone levels to decrease.

Studies have shown that meditating on positive things and happy things can improve HPA health. I meditated on things I liked doing or even on just laying in a field with flowers. Taking the time to enjoy nature and looking at the stars has been shown to improve HPA health.

Positive social interaction has been shown to be good for HPA axis once our adrenal health is well enough we can interact with others. If we attempt to do this before we have recovered enough it could actually do the opposite and increase the time needed to recover. Negative interactions have been shown to have a dramatic effect on the HPA axis. When I say negative interactions I am speaking of those that involve yelling, fighting, all out bad behavior that could negative effect others. Even gossip has been shown to have a negative effect on the HPA axis. I never listened to gossip so I was protected by this one because I always thought if they are saying that about them when they are not around what are they saying about me when I am not around?

We have to remove ourselves from stressful situation that we can remove ourselves from. For example I never liked arguing so if a person started yelling and arguing I would not discuss things with them until they started being respectful and listening to me as well as I listen to the. The bible says “be quick to listen and slow to speak”. I was also protected by the stress of this because I would rarely engage in someone who behaved this way until they started behaving rationally. I used bible principles in guiding me on who I should and should not associate with , this meant some family who caused me stress I had to start cutting out of my life in a biblical way. Though the bible may consider them a bad association we still have familial obligations so we cannot leave them go without something to wear, eat or drink. If they were ill we would still be required to help them. But we would do so in a way we protect ourselves from the stress their life styles could cause us.

Things that cause us stress that are not necessary could be cut down. I had too many belongings, this was very stressful for me. I had to worry about them being stolen. I had to worry about the money to maintain them. I always had a car and a truck. I used to own my own property and it was paid off. I lost that because I could not afford to pay the taxes when I got ill. Reducing my belongings dramatically reduced my stress. Though I really got sad when I lost my house no longer having the responsibility of maintaining it reduced the physical and emotional burden it had been causing which shortened the time it took too heal my HPA axis. I am not saying a person should get rid of their belonging but I am saying to not let yourself get consumed in acquiring them because in the long run it could take it’s toll on your health by having a negative impact on your HPA axis. I have watched many wealthy people die unhappy only to have their wealth go to someone who did not work hard to build it the wealth so they squandered it. This is not always the case but I have seen it happen many times. Since I have gotten ill I am much more aware of what brings me true happiness. I have learned enjoying the simple things in life bring me much more happiness then money and my belongings have. Studies have shown that focusing on the success we have and not on the success we do not have improves brain and HPA health. Studies have also shown if we dwell on past failures then it will have a negative impact on the health of our brains. So we need to keep looking forward and view those mistakes or failures as lessons and move on. Dwelling on them will only hold us back anyways because if we continue to look back how can we move forward?

Participating in bible study and prayer has been shown to improve over mental health and HPA health. Doing good things for others has been shown to improve HPA function. Learning not to hate and not to hold grudges but learning to forgive protects the HPA axis from the negative hormones produced by those. Acts of kindness produce hormones that have been shown to improve HPA and Limbic health.

There is stress that cannot be avoided. We need to do our best to train our minds not to react to harshly to it and try our best to maintain balance and composure so that our adrenal levels do not climb. We have to learn to let things go we can do nothing about and not dwell on the. How we react to stressful things also can effect our HPA and limbic systems negatively. For example often times people will view unexpected events or obstacles as a negative thing. I have retrained my mind to view them as challenges that will build my mental endurance, wisdom and knowledge. I have found this prevents me from getting over excited about things that occur that I cannot control. Now as for the negative emotional things that occur I am still working on this and it still has a dramatic effect on my HPA and limbic system. For example I do not deal well with being falsely accused of something and it causes my adrenal hormones to go through the roof. I have been working very hard to learn to deal with this because when it occurs it sets me back pretty far.

The brain also needs to be repaired. The brain cells can restructure themselves and can even grow new cells. When we learn new things this stimulate new brain cell growth and restructuring. This is called neural plasticity. The more we use our brains the faster it becomes at doing this. This can also improve HPA and limbic health since they are a part of the brain. This is why developing new hobbies or learning new skills can improve limbic health. Hobbies and learning new skills have also been shown to help people recover from trauma much more quickly. Hobbies or skills that require the use of the hands have been shown to dramatically improve brain health. Playing games including card games improves brain and HPA health. Getting workbooks that involves answering questions or doing word puzzles improves brain health.

Self-acceptance or self love is very important. I struggle with this one but I have been working on it. We need to learn to do acts of kindness towards ourselves. I have lived my life always being needed by others and never had time to focus on myself. I either forgot how to love myself or never knew how until some friends pointed out I did not do acts of kindness towards myself and had difficulty excepting when others did acts of kindness towards me. Another part of self-acceptance is not comparing our self image of who we are or our body image to others. We need to learn to be happy with our bodies the way they are. Studies have shown that dwelling on body image in a negative way has a dramatic negative impact on the health of the brain , HPA, and limbic system. We need to accept our bodies for the way they are. Many of us may struggle with this, I am one of them because I used to be very muscular and I also got damage by fluorquinolone drugs which caused me to lose some of my teeth and it also cause bone loss which made my teeth become crooked. I am trying to to dwell on those things because I can feel it effecting my health. I am trying to apply what friend has stated to me “we need to stop worrying about those things because we have much bigger fish to fry” . In other words we need to focus on maintaining our health and for many of us trying to make a living while recovering from chronic illness because most forms of chronic illness the government will not give a person disability for.

Quinolinic acid

Quionolinic acid is very damaging to the body, brain and neurological system. It also causes the body to get stuck in fight or flight made through it’s effects on the NMDA receptors . It up-regulates them this can lead to many mental health issues, severe headaches, this causes a person to be sensitive to light glare, very sensitive to sound, difficulty staying focused. The over stimulation of the NMDA receptor cause the HPA and limbic system to be over stimulated. If the high quinolinic acid levels are not corrected it can lead to severe neurological damage, Alzheimer’s , schiszophrenia, and dementia. A person could also develop Bell’s Palsy like symptoms. This can also happen when the HPA has been stuck in a state of fight or flight.

Quinolinic acid is a metabolite of tryptophan. Quionolinic acid is formed during the bodies production of niacin which is the final step in the kynurenine pathway which is needed to produce energy for our cells. When this process has become disrupted by oxidative stress, toxins, systemic inflammation, emotional stress or trauma, infection, gut dysbiosis, leaky gut, vaccine injury, aluminum build up in the brain and body, heavy metal, autoimmunity, high histamine which can also increase HPA axis over activation, eating too many processed foods especially ones that contain glyphosate and drug injury usually from fluroquinolone drugs.

When quinolinic acid excites the NMDA receptor glutamate increaes , this inhibits the reuptake of glutamate into the cells. This also inhibits the ability to create GABA . The excess glutamate also stimulates the NMDA receptor causing increased activity. This causes even more glutamate to be released. This starts causing brain inflammation, neurological damage and can damage the blood brain barrier. If it become severe enough the brain may start leaking fluid bay the base of the skull and it may also leak out through the nasal passages. This causes sever swelling at the back of the neck and severe pain. When the quinolinic acid levels are high a person will experience severe headache that may make it feel like their head is going to split open. The body has another way to produce quinolinic acid and it is effected by the same things kynurenine pathway is. This adds even more to the quinolinic acid being produced. The alternative pathway is not found in the brain but with the blood brain barrier now leaking the quinolinic acid produced by the 3-HAO pathway can now enter the brain also increasing quinolone levels even farther. Those who have Lyme disease almost always have high quinolone levels because it creates the perfect storm needed to cause this to occur. The destruction of nerve cells that occurs causes iron to be released. The increased quinolinic acid production even more. Since the 3-HAO pathway is producing energy for the rest of the body which covers a much broader area it produces quinolinic acid at 80 times the rate that they kynurenine pathway does. This farther adds to the inflammation and oxidative stress causing a positive feedback loop that can be very difficult to break.

Since the blood brain barrier has been compromised it let many things enter the brain that would not normally be able to enter the brain including infectious agents, and toxins. This adds even more to the brain inflammation and damage.

Metabolic issues and infection that cause high ammonia levels or acidosis can also cause the blood brain barrier to become porous setting of a cycle that would cause quinolinic acid levels to become very elevated. Another thing that increases quinolinic acid is brain injury.

Oddly depriving oneself of tryptophan can actually cause the quinolinic acid to increase. A person with high quinolinic acid levels will usually be very sensitive to the consumption of gluatamate, glutamine and MSG.

These are some things that will help reduce quinolinic acid levels. Antioxidants especially selenium helps to reduce quinolinic acid, P5P the bioavailable form of B6 help reduce quinolinic acid. Vitamin B2 is also needed. A ketogenic diet with complex carbohydrates reduces quinolinic acid and increases kynurenic acid production which is very healing. Certain proteins will inhibit the formation of kynurenic acid. These would be glutamine, glutamate , alanine, tyrosine, phenylalanine, aspartate, leucine, methionine and isoleucine. A person with high quinolinic acid levels may be sensitive to those proteins because of the inhibition of the kynurenic acid. This does not mean that a person should avoid protein but they should avoid consuming those ones in large amounts. When all nutrients needed for the conversion of tryptophan consuming it will increase kynurenic acid.

A-lactalbumin increases tryptophan , and serrotonin synthesis and release in the brain.

Retraining the limbic system.

After being chronically ill for an extended period of time the limbic system needs to be retrained in order to get it out of the fight or flight stage it is stuck in. Things that heal the brain also heal the limbic system. As mentioned earlier the brain can produce new cells and restructure old ones. For example it has been found if a person acquires a new job and their old skills are no longer needed but they are learning new skills the brain will grow new cells and restructure old ones that it is no longer using for the old job and old skill to accommodate for the new skill and memory needed. This also stimulates healing throughout the brain. By retraining the brain we are getting the brain to rewire the neuronal pathways in the brain that are associated with the maladapted stress response.

Studies have shown that past trauma can cause negative epigenetic changes so we need to learn to think positively. Not only that but the trauma our parents experienced can cause negative epigenetic changes that can be passed to the children. Those who have had these types of issues will take longer to heal and will have to address those negative epigenetics that were inherited in order to heal. This involves teaching the brain to react positively to things and teaching the brain to remain calm as much as possible this will slowly make epigenetic corrections so the persons body will not be instantly in fight or flight mode.

Things that also retrain the brain and repair it also repair the limbic system for example positive social interaction, meditation on positive things, exercise in moderation. For those who are chronically ill only do what your body will allow if you push too hard you will not only set yourself back but you could cause increased heart damage and even experience a stroke. Dwelling on our day and picking out the positive things that happened out of the day and dwelling on those have been shown to improve limbic health. Also as we heal reintroducing ourselves to stress slowly and as we do learning to deal with it more positively or reacting less negative to it will help restore limbic health. Constant negative thinking rewires our brain and nerves to be more sensitive to pain and causes neurodegeneration. I had to learn to avoid those who think negatively and talk negatively about certain things all the time. I am not talking about those who vent and then react to the situation by working to correct it but I am talking about complainers who just keep complaining and do nothing about it. These ones can start to affect us negatively and cause our brains to rewire in a negative way.

All the things that affect the brain also affect the lymbic system for example over exposure to blue light at night will decrease melatonin which has a negative impact on the health of the whole body. Earth grounding has been found to restore the bodies voltage back to what it should be and restores health to the whole body. Avoid exposure to EMFs as much as possible. Any insulin issues or glucose issues need to be addressed. Reduce exposure to toxins as much as possible. Many things we use are very toxic for example bleached paper products contain dioxin which is very toxic to the body, I still see many cooking in aluminum pains and aluminum is very difficult to remove from the body. If a person has mercury fillings it is very important they find someone who knows how to properly remove them.

Avoiding processed foods as much as possible helps a lot even ones that are organic are fortified with folic acid which is man made and toxic to the body. Folate is natural and is not toxic to the body.

If a person is experiencing sleep issues it is very important that they work to correct these because the brain , HPA axis, and limbic system cannot heal if we are not getting REM sleep or if we wake often through the night or do not get enough sleep. From my body being stuck in fight or flight mode it had forgotten how to sleep I had to work very hard to retrain my body to sleep.

Anti-inflammatory foods.

Meats and foods from animals feed grain should be avoided it has been found they have a different nutritional content and they are inflammatory. So when looking for foods produced from animal products look for ones that have not been fed grains but have been free range or pasture raised this included eggs. Farm raised sea food is inflammatory because of the foods they are fed and the environment they are raised in causes increased stress which makes consuming them inflammatory. Avoid things that contain transfats they are extremely inflammatory. Transfats or foods that contain them will state they contain hydrogenated oil. Also processed meats are very inflammatory. GMOs should be avoided because the body reacts the same way to the BT Toxins found in them as it would if a person had food poisoning. Artificial sweeteners are not only inflammatory but they also damage the liver and kidneys and promote obesity. It is very important to eat organic because the toxins sprayed on conventional grown foods do not only cause inflammation and oxidative stress but they cause many types of chronic illness . This is why obesity and heart disease has become epidemic in the industrialized world.

So the anti-inflammatory foods I mention should be from pasture raised animals, wild caught or free ranged. Eggs are anti-inflammatory, fish, fruits and vegetables especially berries. Calciferous vegetables in moderation, over consumption can have the opposite effect. Squash pumpkin and melon is very anti-inflammatory. Olive oil , avocado oil and coconut oil are very anti-inflammatory. Fish oil is anti-inflammatory unless it is old then it becomes inflammatory. When I buy fish oil I make sure it is guaranteed fresh and I make sure it contains lemon and I refrigerate it to prevent oxidation.

We need to learn to seize control of our thoughts and be more aware of when we are thinking negatively or reacting negatively so we can retrain our minds to respond in a way that would not effect our health. We must try our best not to react to negative circumstances especially ones we cannot do anything about. We also must retrain our minds to respond positively because if we could do something about it the increased HPA up-regulation will cloud our thinking and it inhibits the ability to think logically. This is why many companies especially the pharmaceutical industry and the media induce false fears in people and then give them false hope because inducing fear causes a person to lose the ability to reason and think logically. If a product truly worked they would not have to use deceptive tactics to sell their products.

Training the brain to respond appropriately.

Some of the things I mention here I myself am still working on. Once our HPA and limbic systems have healed enough we can endure some stress we need to start meditating on the stressful situations we know cannot be avoided and will arise. We need to meditate on how we can respond in a way it will keep things from getting more stressful and when it cannot be avoided how we can respond in a way it will not cause an increase in activation of our HPA axis. If we are dealing with people who cause us stress we need to handle it in an appropriate way. The bible has the best advice for handling things like that. Sometimes it may involve cutting certain people out of our lives the bible has advice on when that is appropriate and when it is not. Some will be unconcerned about your health issues and how the stress they cause you effects your health. When appropriate and possible it is best to avoid such ones because it will dramatically increase the time it will take you to heal. I am dealing with this now and often times experience many set back but at the present time I have no choice but to learn to deal with it in a way that will not negatively impact my health until I find a way out of my present situation.

How we breath effects our HPA axis and brain. When we are stuck in a state of fight or flight our breathing will become more rapid. This increase the upregulation of the HPA even farther. In order to train the body not to do this we need to learn to breath differently when that happens. Breathing in through the nose deeply while pushing the stomach out next breath out through the mouth slowly. This will increase our oxygen levels and help break the fight or flight response. Only do this about five times because if you increase oxygen levels too high it can cause dizziness and you could even pass out.

Developing a core believe system so we can make clearer boundaries and know when to make our yes mean yes and no mean no retrains the brain to react to stressful situations ion a way that the HPA does not get activated. For me learning the bible and writing it on my heart has helped me a lot, it has given me very clear boundaries that I will not cross or leave others cross. This has prevented me from having to rely on my own understanding and wisdom and has gotten me through some pretty rough times.

We need to learn to word things in a more positive light even negative things that have occurred when possible. This is one I am still at the beginning stages of learning.

Massages help to retrain the limbic system and also trains the body to relax.

We have to stay active if we are healthy enough to prevent our minds from dwelling on negative things. If we are bed ridden we need to develop a hobby we can do while we are healing that will keep us busy or find things we can do while we are bedridden. Used it for an opportunity to read about and learn new skills which I have been able to apply and teach others to help them learn to heal. Also reaching out to others and teaching them to heal helped to prevent me from dwelling on negative things too much.

Engaging in small talk and taking and interest in others heals the brain and limbic system. It also stimulates new brain cell growth.

Memory games improve brain health and stimulate cell growth. Thing like memorizing number, or having someone give instructions and then repeating them back to them helps to stimulate brain healing and brain cell growth.

Taking words and finding words that have similar or the same meaning

Learning a new language improves brain health.

We need to be mindful of ourselves which means we become aware of our thoughts but do not judge ourselves. If the thoughts are ones we should not have instead of judging ourselves we should dwell on what we will do to change our thinking and prevent those thoughts in a good and positive way.

Learning to dance or play music has been shown to improve brain health and limbic health.

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Is a Limbic System Impairment Hijacking Your Health?

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