The Mood Cure: Take Charge of Your Emotions in 24 Hours Using Food and Supplements. Julia Ross
on one of these cat substitutes? Or does it take cocaine or some other major stimulant to get you going?
Any of these drugs can temporarily increase your cat levels by as much as 1,400 percent. Cocaine and amphetamines, for example, both force a huge cat release,1 but the effects are short-lived. These drugs almost inevitably quit giving real satisfaction over time because your brain simply can’t produce enough cats to meet the relentless demand. The ultimate result, cat depletion,2 is what accounts for the long-term withdrawal depression that stimulant addicts experience after they quit taking drugs, and it’s what drives 90 percent of them back to their drug use.
Whole classes of antidepressant medications have been designed to try to mimic or amplify the cats’ activities in the brain—notably, the popular Wellbutrin (or Zyban), the older tricyclics and MAO inhibitors, and simple uppers like Dexedrine, Adderall, and Ritalin. Even some of the serotonin reuptake inhibitors like Prozac and Zoloft, whose primary job is to enhance serotonin’s calming influence, also have cat-stimulating effects. That’s why some people, high in cats but low in serotonin, find that SSRIs make them jittery or sleepless.
At our clinic, we’ve had much better results using nutrients to boost cat levels. One amino acid in particular has worked wonders in helping our clients recover their natural vivacity and focus. It’s called “tyrosine.”
Tyrosine—Nature’s Energizer
Levels of the amino acid tyrosine are known to be low in people with low-cat depressions.3 Tyrosine, found plentifully in high-protein foods like beef, fish, and eggs, provides the unique raw ingredient that your brain uses to produce all three big cats, dopamine, norepinephrine, and adrenaline. Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology initially demonstrated that tyrosine supplementation could increase the cats dramatically.4 Many subsequent studies have found that tyrosine could produce impressive antistress,5 antidepressant,6 and pro-concentration7,8 results, just as we’ve seen firsthand with so many of our clinic’s clients.
For over fifteen years we’ve been successfully using tyrosine to overcome apathetic depression and attention deficits. We’ve watched as hundreds of flat, tired, easily distracted clients were revitalized soon after taking a few capsules of tyrosine. Typically, it takes only ten or fifteen minutes for this superabsorbable amino supplement to reach the brain and start turning on the lights.
A particularly dramatic example of tyrosine’s effects occurred during the initial meeting with a young Native American man, Stan, who was so depressed and unfocused that he could hardly talk, although he had traveled three hours to get to our clinic and clearly wanted our help.
Stan came from a family where low moods and alcoholism abounded. He’d been in counseling for several years but never got much benefit from it. When I asked him to point on the mood type chart to the negative mood symptoms he was feeling right then, he immediately picked out the symptoms of the blahs—apathy, exhaustion, introversion, and poor concentration—and said, “I’m really ‘down,’ and I’m so tired all the time.” I could see that he was not going to be able to proceed with the interview without help, so after quickly conferring with our nutritionist, I handed him a capsule of tyrosine.
As I’d hoped, Stan began to come to life soon after taking his first capsule. Within ten minutes it had him smiling and moving around comfortably in his chair. Most important, he started to talk, so we were easily able to complete his work-up. Stan took his tyrosine home and continued to take it and feel much less depressed, and much more alert and focused, from that day on. He did better work on the job and started socializing easily with people for the first time in his life.
One thing puzzled us about Stan’s recovery: He got dramatic results from an unusually small amount of tyrosine. The most likely explanation, we later learned, involved his Native American ancestry, which made him by nature a more efficient nutrient absorber than European Americans tend to be. This fact is attributed to a “thrifty” gene that historically allowed Native Americans to extract maximum nutrients from a sparse diet.
While Stan was fortunate in this regard, I can assure you that even with less efficient digestive systems, European Americans also get immediate benefit from tyrosine, they just need to take a little more of it. You’ll get a lot more information later in the chapter on exactly how tyrosine supplements work, but now let’s take a look at how you and Stan landed in the dumps in the first place.
GETTING CLEAR ON WHY YOU’RE SINGING THE BLAHS
If your cat levels are low, there are several possible reasons. Let’s explore these reasons before we go on to how you can remedy the situation.
Is It Your Genes?
About 35 percent of Americans carry an altered gene that misprograms their production of the catecholamine dopamine.9 Because dopamine parents the other two cats, this inherited foible can easily impact energy, mood, and ability to focus. Do the blahs run in your family? If so, don’t be intimidated by the possibility of having this genetic miscue. Although it may sound like an irreparable problem, it isn’t. The influence of genes in this case can be counterbalanced by remarkably gentle and natural yet scientifically validated nutrient therapy.
Kenneth Blum, Ph.D., the researcher in the field of brain chemistry and genetics whom I mentioned in chapter 1, discovered that the genetic anomaly in dopamine programming could cause mood and behavior problems—notably “blah”-type depression and distractibility. He also found that this inherited deficiency could lead to stimulant drug addiction. Most important, Blum discovered that these problems could be remedied through the use of certain targeted amino acids, most notably tyrosine.
In my favorite of his studies,10 Blum succeeded in reducing depressed moods in newly recovering cocaine addicts. Cocaine addicts in early recovery are about the most apathetic people on earth. Why? Because they were low-cat in the first place or they wouldn’t have been drawn to the big upper, and although cocaine initially enhances cat production, it ends up stripping it to the bone. Close to 40 percent of the cocaine addicts in the thirty-day treatment program whom Dr. Blum studied became so depressed that they dropped out of treatment during the first few weeks, unable to tolerate their drugless, hopeless, catless emotional state. Using tyrosine and other amino acids I discuss in this chapter, Dr. Blum was able to eliminate their intolerably low moods, and as a result, their AWOL rate dropped from 40 percent to 4 percent! Nutritherapy can be more powerful than debilitating genes or addictive drugs.
Are You Too Stressed?
Have you been under so much stress that you’ve drained your stores of the cats that are so essential for keeping you in good fighting trim? There really is a limit to how many of the cats your brain and adrenal glands can produce at one time. Exceed that limit often enough, and your cat supply is soon in the red. For example, cat deficiency occurs routinely under military battle conditions.
This is how it happens: At the first sign of an impending stressor, your brain sends word to the response center in your adrenal glands. There, cat messengers are made and sent throughout your body to prepare for fight or flight or both. Your heart speeds up, your muscles tense, your breathing slows down. You’re ready for action. Over time, with prolonged stress, especially if cat production is not your strong point anyway, you’ll run low on supplies. You won’t be able to meet the demand for cats.
While your brain and adrenals can still mobilize