Episode 384: The Top 7 Physiological Causes of Anxiety You Might Be Overlooking
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What if your anxiety isn’t something to fix, but a message from your body that something needs to change? In this episode, Erin breaks down the most common hidden physiological roots of anxiety, from disrupted circadian rhythms and blood sugar imbalances, to hormonal shifts and neuroinflammation, all of which leave your body feeling stuck in overdrive!
You’ll learn how everyday habits like poor sleep, under-eating, and overexposure to artificial light can create biological stress that fuels anxious feelings. More importantly, Erin explains how to decode those signals, understand what your body’s really asking for, and reconnect the dots between your physical health and emotional wellbeing, so you feel calm and grounded again.
P.S. Join the waitlist for Manifest Your Health so you can rewire your body’s patterns and align your health with the life you want to live.
In this episode:
Why sunlight might be the most underrated anxiety treatment, and how living out of sync with nature’s cycles disrupts your circadian rhythm
A surprising connection between skipping breakfast, caffeine on an empty stomach, and mid-morning panic
Why hormone imbalances like low progesterone and thyroid issues can amplify anxiety, and what labs reveal about it
The link between methylation, detox pathways, and feeling “wired but tired”
How inflammation in the brain and gut dysbiosis create a feedback loop that perpetuates anxious thinking
Resources mentioned:
Want help identifying your root anxiety causes? Apply to work with us 1:1 here!
Join the waitlist for Manifest Your Health
Organifi supplement powder (save 20% on your order with code FUNK)
LMNT Electrolyte Replenishing powder (Use code FUNK and get a free sample pack with any purchase!)
OneSkin (Use code FUNK for 15% off your first purchase)
Qualia Senolytic (get up to 50% off and an extra 15% off your first purchase with link + code FUNKS)
Bon Charge (Use code FUNK to save 15%)
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Erin Holt:
We are of nature. Our bodies are of nature. So when we live our lives outside of the rhythms of nature, we do not thrive physically or mentally or emotionally, like no parts of our system are functioning on all cylinders if we're out of step with nature's cycles. And that's just life in the big city, that's just showbiz, babe. No amount of biohacking is gonna hack your way out of the human body. You're occup. When we live abnormally, meaning outside of what our biology requires, then it's a very natural and normal response to feel abnormal.
Welcome to The Funk'tional Nutrition podcast, spelled with a K, because we do things a little differently around here.
I'm your host, Erin Holt and I've got 15 years of clinical experience as a functional nutritionist and mindset coach, creating a new model that I call Intuitive Functional Medicine™ where we combine root cause medicine with the innate intelligence of your body. This is where science meets self trust. Your body already knows how to heal and this show is going to show you how. If you're looking for new ways of thinking about your health, be sure to follow and share with a friend because you never know whose life you might change.
Erin Holt:
Today we are talking about root cause drivers of ye olde anxiety. It's a big one, It's a big topic, one that I'm pretty intimately familiar with. As somebody who has dealt with anxiety stuff for a long ass time. I was on benzos in my early 20s for pretty debilitating panic attacks and have found ways to manage anxiety through a lot of different channels.
Erin Holt:
I personally do not love to always pathologize anxiety because oftentimes, many times, dare I say most times, anxiety presents as a message and if we're just trying to curb the anxiety or silence the symptom, then we may also silence the message. And oftentimes those messages are pretty important. Anxiety presents to tell you that something is off, something needs your attention, something needs to be different than it currently is. And this might be more of an emotional clue like, hey, you have to get out of this relationship or it's time to take your next steps. I was having pretty daily panic attacks in the basement of the health food store that I used to work at back in the day. Not because it was a terrible job, but because my soul, my higher self was like, hey, it's time to move on girl, you're ready for your next steps. So my body was going to make me as uncomfortable as possible until I took those next steps. So that's what I mean when I say anxiety can present as a message and it can really be a gift in that way if we allow it to be.
Erin Holt:
And it's why I say that I don't love to always pathologize anxiety. Now, I talk a lot about my philosophy, Intuitive Functional Medicine™ here on the show and that's where we combine the systems based science of functional medicine with the innate intelligence of your body. So I'm always acknowledging all four levels of healing, physical, emotional, mental and energetic or spiritual. And I'm always making space for all of them to come online together. But I also always try to make this abundantly clear when we're diving into the emotional, mental, spiritual aspects of healing, we're not bypassing the physical body in order to do so. I really believe that there needs to be a bridge between all of these paths and that's really how I see the work that I do. So like I said, anxiety presents to tell you that something is off, but that something off can be something physical. And so that's where I actually want to start with this anxiety conversation with physiological drivers of anxiety.
Erin Holt:
Because that's something that we do see quite often in practice and it can be really common. So I kind of see this as being a three part series. When the other two parts are going to come out, I'm not totally sure. So today we'll talk about part one, which is physiological drivers of anxiety. But I also want to get into the intuitive root roots of anxiety. The messages coming from inside the house on a more emotional, somatic or even spiritual level or the mind loops that can perpetuate the anxiety. And then I'd also love to do a third part on what I call health anxiety. So anxiety specifically related to your health.
Erin Holt:
And that can also be a self perpetuating cycle. So with all of this said, I do have a little bit of a teaser announcement before we get into today's show. We have officially opened up the Manifest your Health wait list. Manifest your Health is a proprietary science back framework that blends neuroscience, somatics and energy psychology. It's designed to deconstruct beliefs, suppressed emotions and nervous system patterns so chronic symptoms stop being your story. And I have run this framework three separate times as a live program with close to 200 people going through it. And the big takeaway is that people want ongoing access to it. So I've been working on turning this into a membership.
Erin Holt:
And so the Manifest Your Health membership will be coming soon. And this will be your space to rewire your biology, your beliefs and your behavior so that your body finally aligns with the life that you're here to lead. We're going to do a little bit of a soft launch probably in January, and we're going to open this up to our one to one clients and anybody that is on the wait list. So if you're at all interested in this, head over to our show notes and get on the wait list and you'll be in the know when we do our little quiet soft launch. And if you're an anxiety girly, trust me when I tell you this, you're gonna want into this membership, into this sacred space that we're creating together. But for today though, we are talking about anxiety and the biggest physiological drivers that we see. So if someone comes to our practice with anxiety as a chief symptom, these are the top seven things that we are about. The first one, I have to start with the most basic, and that's circadian rhythm disruptions.
Erin Holt:
We are of nature. Our bodies are of nature. So when we live our lives outside of the rhythms of nature, we do not thrive physically or mentally or emotionally. Like no parts of our system are functioning on all cylinders if we're out of step with nature's cycles. And that's just life in the big city, that's just showbiz, babe. No amount of biohacking is gonna hack your way out of the human body you're occupying. When we live abnormally, meaning outside of what our biology requires, then it's a very natural and normal response to feel abnormal. Again, this can be physically, this can be mentally, this can be emotionally.
Erin Holt:
So what do I mean when I say living abnormal? This can look like spending most of the day inside, little to no exposure to nature or to sunlight, spending our days sitting down, really sedentary, not moving our body, spending our day primarily on screens, being surrounded all day long by artificial light. So not getting exposed to natural light, but being surrounded by artificial light, staying up late, having a lot of blue light exposure through devices after the sun goes down. I mean, this is just what I described as modern day living. It's how you're living your life. It's how I'm living my life. It's what we're all doing. So it makes sense that we're all feeling a little wonky. The reason that I bring this up here at the very top of this episode is because we see such profound changes in our clients when they make certain tweaks to be more in alignment with cycles with circadian rhythms so somebody can come to us.
Erin Holt:
After spending literally thousands of dollars with providers and programs and protocols, they might come to us with 12 supplements that they're taking. And the first thing we might tell them is like, take a hike. Like literally go outside, go for a walk, look at the sun, expose your eyeballs to the sun, get some light codes in your eyes. And it sounds so basic and so simple that I think people shy away from it because we're such a culture that wants to do more, harder, faster. And then we crash, we get overwhelmed, we try to do it all, we get overwhelmed and then we do nothing. And we just like oscillate ping pong back and forth between doing the most and doing the least, doing the most and doing the least, and then we feel like shit about ourselves in the meantime. But if we can just consistently do these really basic things that our physiology requires, they compound over time, they add up and they can make a huge, huge, huge, profound shift in impact and how you feel in your health. So first thing in the morning, get access to sunlight, go outside and receive the sun into your eyeballs, onto your skin.
Erin Holt:
And then when the sun goes down at night, start winding yourself down. You don't have to be done with the day at like 4pm I live in New England. Like it gets dark early in the wintertime, but you can start to wind yourself down, you can start to lower the lights, especially the closer you get to bedtime. Like, no screens. Like, I don't have a screen in my face when I try to go to sleep. I'm a great sleeper, great sleeper. I read books in bed. There's no screens in bed.
Erin Holt:
It's just a hard, hard, hard rule for me. Why? Because circadian rhythm, it's really important. I understand how important it is and I understand when circadian rhythm is disrupted. My mood can be disrupted. How I feel can be disrupted. And I don't want to be anxious and feeling like shit all of the time. So some questions to ask yourself if you're experiencing generalized anxiety. Do I spend the majority of the day inside? Do I get exposure to nature? Green spaces, blue spaces? Do I get exposed to the sun? Do I have a screen in my face all of the time? If you're like, yeah, it me.
Erin Holt:
Okay, cool, start there. Start implementing some strategies and some changes to support your circadian rhythm. That's a really, really good place to start.
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Erin Holt:
Next, we're sticking with the basics and we're going to talk about blood sugar imbalance because it is super common, probably the most common driver of anxiety that we see. And the good news is that it's pretty fixable, it's pretty solvable. If you identify this as a root driver of your anxiety, some simple tweaks can really patch things up pretty quickly for you. The other thing about blood sugar dysregulation is that it feeds into some of the other root causes of anxiety that I'm going to talk about today, specifically thyroid and hormone imbalance and inflammation.
Erin Holt:
So let me explain why low blood sugar or dysregulated blood sugar, which is swinging from high to low and skipping meals, can all trigger anxiety. When blood sugar levels are low, the pancreas releases glucagon to get access to glycogen. Glycogen, if you remember back to science class, is the body's main storage form of glucose. But if we don't have enough glycogen, then we have to activate a process called gluconeogenesis, which is exactly what it sounds like. Gluco glucose neo new genesis creation. So it's the creation of new glucose where we're making glucose from the breakdown of proteins and lipids, triglycerides that are stored in our bodies, and adrenaline activates gluconeogenesis. And so when our blood sugar drops and we don't have enough blood sugar available or storage forms of blood sugar available, then adrenaline gets released. So we can start this process.
Erin Holt:
In adrenaline. You got a big hit of adrenaline that can make you feel pretty anxious. Cortisol is also involved here to bring blood sugar back up. The first 5ish minutes of hypoglycemia, that's low blood sugar, we pump out adrenaline and then after about 5ish minutes, we start to pump out cortisol. So the release of these hormones can lead to feelings of anxiety, nervousness, irritability, heart palpitations. We feel anxious in our bodies. So this is how skipping meals under Eating or not eating in a way to balance blood sugar can lead to anxiety or worsen anxiety. If you kind of have a tendency toward anxiety, this can definitely exacerbate it.
Erin Holt:
Super duper common. I think about the morning where I kind of just like get locked into work stuff. So I wake up, I drink coffee, I get locked into work stuff, I don't eat breakfast first thing in the morning. Those are the mornings where I feel irritable, I feel stressed, everything feels harder, I feel anxious, like I feel the anxiety in my body and it's totally due to lack of food and low blood sugar. I just don't feel as resilient. The stressors in my day feel harder and more unmanageable when my blood sugar is low. So ways to prevent this on very basic fundamental levels is don't skip meals, definitely don't skip breakfast. Definitely don't drink coffee without breakfast.
Erin Holt:
Eat balanced meals. So protein, carbs, fat, fiber, altogether. If you tend toward hypoglycemia, you might not want to go long phases without eating. So you might pepper snacks in between meals. We have a lot of different episodes outlining this, but those are really the foundations and the basics. Some questions to ask yourself if you are experiencing anxiety. Am I eating breakfast? No. Okay, start there.
Erin Holt:
If I'm being honest with myself, am I fueling myself appropriately? Do I even know what that means? Do I feel more energized after I eat? If you eat a meal and you immediately feel more energy, that is a good sign that you are dealing with some low blood sugar. So if any of these sound like you, you want to start with blood sugar balancing. And that can really be a way to solve some of those anxiety patches that you might be dealing with throughout the day. Next up, I want to talk about hormones, but I want to start with thyroid hormones specifically because anxiety can be a symptom of both low thyroid hormone and high thyroid hormone. Now, just having anxiety doesn't automatically mean you have a thyroid problem, but if it pairs with other symptoms, then it might be something to think about. So here are some symptoms of hypothyroid or low thyroid function. Brain fog, Poor memory fatigue Losing hair on your head Dry, brittle hair Dry itchy skin, constipation Sluggish bowels Feeling cold all the time Cold hands, feet Hypersensitivity to cold weather Poor circulation, joint or muscle pain. If you are dealing with that and anxiety or, you know, anxiety, in a couple of those symptoms, we might be dealing with a hypothyroid situation.
Erin Holt:
Symptoms of hyperthyroid can look a little bit different. So we can also see anxiety, but we can see heart palpitations, trembling, sometimes described as inward trembling, increased pulse rate, nervousness, insomnia, night sweats, difficulty gaining weight. Those are all clues that you might be dealing with hyperthyroid situation. Now, if you're coming to us with any of these symptoms, we're going to want to run a full thyroid panel on you so we can see exactly what's going on. I've talked about this different episodes. Episode 244, we talked about Thyroid Dysfunction 101, episode 377. More recently, I talked about my thyroid and hormone protocol that I put myself on and talked about some different lab testing that I did for that. So you can check out those episodes for more information.
Erin Holt:
Other hormones that can be implicated in anxiety is cortisol. We mentioned this earlier with blood sugar imbalance and low blood sugar swings. But cortisol, when it's chronically high, that can lead to anxiety. So prolonged high cortisol can start to have effects on the brain, one of which is a hyperactive amygdala or fear response. And so when this happens, you're kind of like locked in, in to an on guard state. So that can lead to feelings of anxiety and just an overall heightened stress response. Chronic high cortisol is also associated with the dysregulation of certain neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, and all of those can affect mood. So why would we see high cortisol? There's a lot of different reasons for it.
Erin Holt:
Stress being a big one. Physical, mental, emotional stress, acute inflammation or infection, insulin and glucose issues. We alluded to that earlier. Caffeine and stimulant use can definitely drive up cortisol. Poor sleep hygiene kind of clued you into that when we talked about circadian rhythm. But if you're not sleeping well, that is really going to impact your hormone health and your stress response. Chronic dieting, fasting and over training. So skipping meals under eating, especially when that's combined with overtraining, that can definitely lead to very high stress levels in cortisol levels in the body.
Erin Holt:
I mentioned neurotransmitters. We're gonna talk about them a little bit in today's show just because we know that neurotransmitters can definitely impact our mood and how we're feeling. But hormones in general can impact neurotransmitter signaling. So estrogen has effects on dopamine and serotonin, testosterone can impact dopamine, progesterone can impact GABA activity. I really wanna laser focus into that one, because low progesterone, super, super, super common driver of anxiety that we see a lot, can convert to allopregnanolone, which is a metabolite of progesterone. And it really acts as a neuroactive steroid. So it influences mood, sleep, your stress response, pms, anxiety, all of that. Specifically, allopregnanolone modulates the activity of the GABA receptor.
Erin Holt:
So we were talking about neurotransmitters. GABA is the major inhibitory neurotransmitter of the central nervous system. That means it slows things down, it calms things down. It slows down the rate at which neurons are firing. That's what it means when we say inhibitory. And it's really involved in calming and relaxation and anti anxiety. In fact, benzos or benzodiazepines is a class of sedatives. I'm sure you've heard of them before.
Erin Holt:
It's the Xanax, Klonopin, Valium, Ativan, all those anti anxiety meds that we know and love, they actually work by enhancing the effect of gaba. So progesterone, low progesterone can lead to anxiety. Progesterone, when it's abundant in being produced in healthy levels, can really, really have a calming effect on the system. So that's why we see high anxiety with low progesterone. So if you notice that your anxiety is more cyclical or it comes at certain times of your menstrual cycle, this is definitely something to think about and to hone in on. Progesterone tends to be the lowest at the beginning of the menstrual cycle. So during your period, during your actual bleed, and then throughout the follicular phase, something to definitely track and make note of. I will also say that progesterone is typically the first hormone to fall with perimenopause, which is part of the reason that we see a lot of mood shifts with this transition phase.
Erin Holt:
So I have a couple of episodes for you to look at. Episode 310 Ways to Naturally Increase Progesterone. So I talk about reasons for low progesterone and how to support your own progesterone levels. And then episode 357, I get get more into the perimenopause conversation and we talk about progesterone in that episode as well.
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Erin Holt:
Now as we're talking about hormones, I also want to bring in methylation as part of this conversation. Methylation is the process of a methyl group being added to DNA, rna or certain proteins, and that modifies gene expression. So when we pop a methyl group on something, it modifies the expression of that gene. Basically, it can silence a gene or activate it. And these genes are really running the whole show. So if we over methylate or under methylate, it can lead to a lot of different issues. It can change physiological processes that impact mood, hormones, inflammation, you name it. Now, if you listen to my episode on beta glucuronidase, a few weeks back, I went into the process of detoxification a little bit, and I explained how the liver has to basically neutralize toxins to get them ready for excretion out of the body.
Erin Holt:
Well, it does the same thing for hormones, and methylation is part of that process. There's this enzyme called catechol o methyltransferase, or COMP for short. And we see this activity when we are looking at somebody's hormone test on a Dutch test. So, you know, I love looking at a Dutch dried urine test when we're looking at hormones specifically for this reason, because it doesn't just show us the levels of hormones that you're producing, but it's also showing us what our hormones are doing, where they're going, how they're being metabolized, how they're being cleared out of the body or not cleared out of the body. And it really gives us a lot of insight into what's going on with you, but also how we can help you feel better. So through methylation, we can can neutralize four, oh, estrogen metabolites. And those metabolites tend to be more harmful. They can lead to inflammation, they can lead to DNA damage.
Erin Holt:
So this is a really important, crucial part of overall hormonal health. And we can see estrogen clearance, including COMP activity on the Dutch test. And if there's slow activity here, we can see estrogen dominant symptoms, which can include irritability and anxiety, not necessarily because your body's making too much estrogen, but because it's having a difficult time clearing it out. So that can certainly be a contributing factor to anxiety. But what we can also see here is that this same enzyme is also responsible for breaking down stress neurotransmitters, specifically catecholamine. So this is adrenaline, norepinephrine and dopamine. So if we have low activity of this enzyme, we can really see anxiety pair with this, because not only are you not effectively clearing out your estrogen, but you're not effectively clearing out stress neurotransmitters or catecholamines. They remain in your body longer than they should.
Erin Holt:
And this can make you feel wired and anxious. So when I'm looking at a Dutch test and I see this low comped activity, I'm pretty much always asking about anxiety. Even if the person hasn't shared that they struggle with anxiety, I'll ask about mood, I'll ask about stress levels. Like when you get stressed, do you feel like stress just like sticks in your body and you have a hard time like letting it go? Yeah, that's because without appropriate methylation, your body's not like clearing out stress chemicals essentially. Methylation in general can also impact other neurotransmitters as well. Glutamate, gaba, dopamine, serotonin. So irregular methylation can just lead to a lot of anxiety. So why would somebody struggle with methylation? There's different factors that can influence the rate at which you methylate.
Erin Holt:
And I want to focus on the big ones that are really within our wheelhouse, really within our control. Diet being one them. Certain nutrients are crucial to run the whole methylation process. Folate, B12, vitamin, B6, riboflavin, B2, magnesium, choline, trimethylglycine or betaine, amino acids. So protein, all of these things are really, really, really important. Now those are specific nutrients. How does this translate into a diet? It's the same shit I'm telling you guys day in and day out. Diversity.
Erin Holt:
Eat a lot of color, eat a diverse diet. Green, leafy veggies, those are really important. So things like spinach, kale, collard greens, animal products or high protein rich foods. We need those amino acids. Those are also good to get the choline in nuts and seeds. Great source of magnesium, B vitamins. Just eat a wide variety diet. I mean, we spend so much of our time in, quite frankly our stress and our energy on what is the exact right perfect diet for me and 80% of you guys listening just need to do this, eat more whole foods.
Erin Holt:
It really is that simple. There's 20% of you that need to refine that a little bit more and kind of dial in what specifically you need. You might be more sensitive due to certain, like immune issues or other things going on, but for the most part do this. And that's gonna get you pretty far. Now, because these nutrients are so critical for methylation, sometimes we do have to bring in supplements. The big ones that I think about when I see somebody under methylating B vitamins, magnesium, those are the two first places I go. Trimethylglycine is another one. Same can Be a game changer.
Erin Holt:
We see this pretty effective in practice. It's a key methyl donor, and so that's why it can be so powerful. I will say that sometimes it can make anxiety a little bit worse. And it would be contraindicated in some situations, like if you're already taking antidepressants, if you have bipolar disorder. These are things that might, you would need to talk to your doctor about for sure. I wouldn't just throw Sammy into the mix without careful consideration. But it is worth noting that that can be really impactful and powerful. And then of course, we have to look at lifestyle.
Erin Holt:
Lifestyle influences methylation. So exercise, smoking, alcohol use, endocrine disruptors, certain medications, these can all alter methylation. We know that, that through epigenetics, environmental factors, behaviors, choices we make, diet and lifestyle, all of this influences our gene activity. That can turn those decisions that we make day in and day out can turn genes on, can turn genes off, can decide what genes gets expressed. So we have so much power in these bodies of ours. We have so much power in our daily choices. So like, yay, that's a really positive thing. And you can choose to see it as a heavy load to carry, as burdensome.
Erin Holt:
I have to do all of these things to keep up with my health. Or you could choose to see it as power that you have with your own decisions. I mean, it's a choice that you can make that choice. Switching from one to the other might actually alleviate some of the anxiety that you feel. Anyway, I promise that I wouldn't get into mindset today. So let's get into the next physiological driver of anxiety, and that is inflammation, specifically neuro inflammation. So that's talking about inflammation in the brain. So much of our mental health conversation focuses on neurotransmitters and their signaling.
Erin Holt:
So we talked about some neurotransmitters today, and that's important that matters. It's not irrelevant. But there's other stuff going on as well. And I always like to think about swimming upstream to the root and, and neuroinflammation can directly impact neurotransmitters, their synthesis, their release, and their reuptake. We need to. We can talk about neurotransmitters and all the things that impact neurotransmitters, but we also need to look at inflammation, specifically neuroinflammation. So some examples of how they can impact, how neuroinflammation can lead to anxiety. Neuroinflammation disrupts the kyureminine pathway, which is Critical for serotonin.
Erin Holt:
It basically diverts tryptophan, that's an amino acid that we consume through food. It divers tryptophan away from producing serotonin and towards producing kynurenine. That goes on to get converted into quinolinic acid, which is neurotoxic. It acts as an NMDA receptor agonist. Those receptors are excitatory, meaning they enhance neuronal firing. So this can lead to and cause excitotoxicity in the brain. It can excite and even damage neurons. So neurons neuroinflammation lower serotonin levels, it increases excitotoxicity, it increases neurotoxic metabolites, creating even more neuroinflammation.
Erin Holt:
And all of this can contribute to mood changes, including anxiety. Chronic neuroinflammation can also damage the glial cells. These are cells that support and protect neurons in the brain and also the nervous system. And this can really impact how they manage manage glutamate levels. So glutamate is the primary excitatory neurotransmitter in the brain. It speeds up neuro impulses. Neurons fire more, but if this gets too high, that can lead to anxiety. All of that can activate the microglia, which are immune cells in the brain.
Erin Holt:
And when these guys are constantly activated, that can start to break down the blood brain barrier. So we know all about leaky gut. This is kind of of like that, but it's in the brain, so it's sometimes called leaky brain. And that can lead to a whole host of other problems. So neuroinflammation is a pretty vicious cycle that kind of just keeps perpetuating itself. We don't want it, it's kind of bad. So where does it come from? First of all, oxidative stress and inflammation pretty much go hand in hand. So oxidative stress comes from different toxins that we might be exposed to and not having enough antioxidant reserves to deal with them.
Erin Holt:
Inflammation from anywhere in the body can really travel up to the brain. So we always talk about going inflammation hunting with our clients to figure out where that inflammation is stemming from. It can stem from a lot of different places. Diet and lifestyle, of course, can play a huge role in the body's inflammatory load. Like I said, exposure to toxins can be a big one. And then of course, the gut can be a big contributor of over inflammation. So let's close out our conversation with that. The gut brain access grossly oversimplified.
Erin Holt:
Any imbalance in the Gut or the microbiome can lead to mood imbalances because the gut and the brain talk to each other all day long bidirectionally. So it works in both directions. The gut to the brain and the brain to the gut. Our digestive system has its own own nervous system called the enteric nervous system and that communicates with the brain via the vagus nerve. So the vagus nerve really acts as the primary communication highway between the gut and the brain. And they're sending signals back to each other all the live long day the gut microbiota. So the bacteria living in your gut also communicate, they produce and they modulate neurotransmitters. So we have bacterial species that can produce dopamine, norepinephrine, gaba, acetylcholine, serotonin.
Erin Holt:
So our gut bacteria can influence and alter neurotransmitter levels. Our gut bacteria can also impact hormonal pathways, which certainly can impact our moods and how we feel. We talk a lot about dysbiosis here on the show. So if there's any imbalance in our gut bacteria that can trigger systemic inflammation, so it can trigger inflammation in our gut, but then it can get outside of our gut as well and get into systemic circulation. So we can have inflammation not just in our gut but everywhere in our body that can impact the immune system. It can lead to neuro inflammation, which we just talked about. It can lead to increased permeability of the blood brain barrier. And all of that can contribute to anxiety for reasons we already discussed.
Erin Holt:
Anything that modifies the metabolic activity of the gut microbiome, including stress, including diet, how we eat, including antibiotics, including probiotics, all of that can really modulate the emotion generating circuits. So our gut can definitely impact how we feel. So we're always working on gut health all of the time and this is one of the reasons for it. So sometimes our anxiety that we're feeling is actually stemming from our guts. So basically, in short, a lot of different things can contribute to anxiety. Some of them might be life circumstances and some of them might be what's going on inside your body when you work with us. We are looking at all the different pieces and parts and everything I just outlined in discuss. We have ways to objectively test those things so that we can pinpoint what's driving the anxiety and create a unique plan that actually works for you.
Erin Holt:
So that's exactly what we do inside the 1:1 Functional C.A.R.E. method. If you are interested in working with my team, you can apply in the show notes and we would love to get you feeling good. Anxiety is often a call coming from inside the house so we can help you figure out what that call is all about and what that message is. All right, I love you guys. I'll check you next week.
Thanks for joining me for this episode of The Funk’tional Nutrition Podcast. Please keep in mind this podcast is created for educational purposes only and should never be used as a replacement for medical diagnosis or treatment. If you got something from today's show, don't forget, subscribe, leave a review, share with a friend and keep coming back for more. Take care of you.