We believe in functional mental wellness, a holistic approach to mental health. We know that there's hope for those of us who have experienced trauma, even profound trauma and that's why we created the universe is your therapist podcast, we believe whether you call it God, the universe, source, unity or love that there is something much greater than us that conspires for our good, we envision a world of healing and connection and we teach you simple but powerful practices that integrate your mind, body and spirit so that you can come home to your highest self and your truest identity. You are not broken, you are loved, and you can heal. My name is Amy Hoyt, and together with my sister Lena, we will take you on a journey of healing and self discovery.
Hi, welcome back to the universities, your therapist podcast. We're glad to have you here. Today we're talking with Dr. Gina Hoyt, who is a pediatrician in San Diego. And she will be talking to us about how micronutrients can help us recover from toxic stress. Thanks, Dr. Gina for being here. How are you?
Good. Thank you.
I see that we're wearing matching colors on accident.
Oh, nice. We were on the same brainwave this morning.
That's right. That's right. So Gina, tell us a little bit about how micronutrients what they are and how they work and why we need to be concerned about them. Sure.
Well, Michael micronutrients are basically the vitamins and minerals that our bodies need to function. So our bodies are really just a bunch of chemical reactions. Everything is driven by chemical reaction in our bodies. And so all these chemical reactions require enzymes and hormones or neurotransmitters. And all of these use micronutrients as sort of the catalysts and sometimes even the building blocks that help us to function. So the reason they're called micro is because we only need tiny teeny amounts of them. macronutrients are the things that we need in larger amounts. And those are like our proteins, fats, carbohydrates, but the micronutrients are really small. I like to think of it as a small something that we need a tiny bit of an ingredient when we're baking, let's say a cake, we need small amount of salt, small amount of baking powder, but the whole cake would turn out completely different if we didn't have these tiny ingredients, that makes such a huge difference to the whole cake. So they're small, tiny doses, but they have really big impacts on our health.
Gina, I never knew that micronutrients meant that we only need a small amount, I always thought that they were just little teeny tiny little nutrients. So that was cool. To hear you explain about macro and micro. It's the amount we need.
Exactly, yeah. And they are really teeny tiny too. So that's true. But we do just need small amounts. And our body doesn't actually make them with the exception of vitamin D that we make from sunlight, but our body doesn't make the rest of them, there's about 30 of them. And so we have to eat them. There are things that we have to consume in order to have these crucial micronutrients. One example of a micro nutrient and the impact it has on health is well known one of the more famous accounts is about scurvy that happened on the naval ships. Back in the 16th. Through the 18th centuries, there was about 2 million British and American naval officers who died from scurvy, because vitamin C wasn't available to them. And so they would have a lot of bleeding gums and a lot of nausea wasting away all because they didn't have this tiny micronutrient vitamin C. And a brilliant British surgeon James Lind figured this out. And the British Navy ship started stocking citrus on their ships, which is why the American Navy officers started calling the British officers limeys because they always had lines on their ship. And they were rationed it actually so they'd have just these little small amounts because they really didn't need that much. They needed just enough. It was just a little bit throughout their trips prevented all that death and disease. So they're really that's kind of a more well known account. But it's not always so obvious. When we're missing some of our micronutrients. An example would be ironed. When we don't have enough iron, we end up feeling tired, we have low energy, and we know that that leads to anemia. So sometimes it really just has to do with more of our mental clarity and lower energy when we're lacking micronutrients, the micronutrients are super crucial to our neurons in our neuronal processing. So they become really important in mental health and brain health, because really, the neurons are a chemical reaction, and they communicate to each other in our bodies chemically. And so these connections are called synapses. And micronutrients are crucial for our synapses in our brain.
That is so cool. That's so interesting. And I'm thinking about toxic stress, and how much toxic stress depletes our energy sources. And the idea that we can do these small things to help our bodies respond better when we're in periods of toxic stress, or when we've had past traumas is just amazing to me.
It really is, that connection is amazing. And it's backed up by a lot of literature. We know that in moments of chronic stress that we have increased cortisol, that's a hormone that gets pumped out, and it gets pumped out at higher levels longer if we're under this chronic or toxic stress that goes on and on which a lot of us are under just going to work and daily living can really bring out a lot of stressful situations. And so during these times of chronic stress, we need to really make sure we're getting our micronutrients, our recommended daily allowance of that, because they really aren't key for helping us with these neural signaling that goes through our synapses. They're actually some of the building blocks that help create our neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine, the ones that help us feel good. And they also actually help brain plasticity. So they help us these are the building blocks are the keys that we need for the reactions that build new neuronal pathways. So it makes us not just feel better, but also be able to change better and create more neuroplasticity. So it also facilitates memory. So these are things that we really want to have in our diet, and half of the US population doesn't get enough of them. Wow, I see it a lot in my practice. Right now vitamin D levels are really low, I'd say I'm getting many more abnormal levels than normal levels right now after the pandemic. And vitamin D is really important to our mental health, as well as our immune system. So that's something we can consciously try to add into our diet.
Gina, I recently had a full blood panel done and my vitamin D was really low. And I was able to get a prescription for six weeks of vitamin D. I took a little pill once a week. And it really has helped me.
Yeah, it makes a big difference. It's one of the things things that we add to the panel when we're screening just for generalized fatigue. Because it can be one of those hidden little micronutrients that we're not aware that we're lacking, that makes a big difference in how we feel.
Do you think that the pandemic has contributed to lower vitamin D? I know that sunlight isn't the only way we get vitamin D. But what are your thoughts on how the pandemic has affected that?
Yeah, you're right, Lena, we do have two different ways of getting vitamin D. One is through sunlight, that helps our body generate vitamin D. And the other ways through eating, that we're able to get vitamin D. There's are two different types of vitamin D. And on our panels, we can tell if you're eating vitamin D, or if you're getting it through your sunlight, actually, your D three and D two. So it's interesting, but yes, definitely during the pandemic, we were indoor, we were quarantining in the early pandemic, we weren't even allowed some in some places to go outside very much or to just freely walk around and this really did have a big impact on our vitamin D levels. So we're finding that most people are low right now more people are low in it then are having normal levels. That makes so much sense. I know that with with when we get vitamin D through sunlight, we have to just be careful in terms of protection for melanoma and cancer protection. So we need to wear sunscreen. Super important, crucial. And unfortunately that blocks about you know 80 to 90% of our vitamin D conversion in our skin and so really having an oral source of vitamin D where we're taking it in and eating is really a great way to do it and a lot of people are doing what you're doing Lena where they need to have to catch up with vitamin D or they're catching up on the levels and then dietary vitamin D can take over or sunlight as well,
what kind of foods would be best? If we are focusing on making sure we get enough? vitamin C and vitamin D and those micronutrients? I know that our challenge this month to our listeners is to include five servings of fruit or vegetables every day. So I'm thinking that that might take care of a lot of it.
Yeah. Yeah, it really does. I mean, we get the best way to get micronutrients is from food that we eat. When we eat food, the micronutrients, the vitamins and minerals that we're taking in through our gut are actually more bioavailable than just a supplement. So that means that they are more useful to our body when they are absorbed, and they're easier absorbed by our body both. And so that's why fruits and vegetables and minerals and the foods that contain these are really the best way to get them. Sometimes, there are circumstances where we're not getting enough, and then we can use a supplement. And supplements are great for two reasons. One is they work synergistically so that you're taking micronutrients together, for example, vitamin C, and iron. Vitamin C facilitates iron absorption. And so those help together. And second, they give us their certain conditions and things where we may have medical issues that we need to supplement for. And so in those situations, it's great to have it sometimes we aren't getting enough sunlight, we're not getting enough in our diet. But really, food is the superior source. So they say eat a rainbow, that's really true to eat a rainbow, because so many different fruits and vegetables have this whole variety of things that we need. And basically, I like to talk about brain foods, brain foods are really the ones that impact our mental health. And that really impact mood. This is a really burgeoning like really new part of science that they're finding that nutrition and psychiatry are connected. And there's people that are actually going into this field of like nutrition psychiatry, so it's really kind of exciting. But the foods that we've studied heavily and have found that really have an impact on mental health are, there's kind of I'll give you my top 10 you're interested in that. Because these are the ones that really help the most. The number one that shows up on all the lists for brain foods, and really has multiple micronutrients that are used by our brains is salmon.
Gina, did you say salmon? Yes, salmon?
Dang it. I do not like fish in any way. What's my alternative to salmon?
Oh my goodness. Yeah, well, alternatives to salmon would be nuts and seeds. Those are number two and three. So walnuts have those omega threes, they have the magnesium and zinc. And they have the fat level. But really salmon to go back to fish because really, those are the that's the number one and I also Lena don't like seafood. I've tried to make myself like it over and over and over. But um, those omega threes are super helpful. And fish they have multiple vitamins that help and also the fact that we need because our brains are actually 70% fat. Wow. So those neurons are all wrapped in a myelin sheath that's made out of fat. And so it really we need that fat to help our our brains work. Well.
I thought the part of me that was 70% was my stomach.
Right? Exactly. No, that's true that we it's a different kind of fat. And so we think of oh, I have plenty of fat but we actually need a different kinds of fat for our brains to work and in in limited amounts because they do have other kinds of fats sometimes as well. seeds like chia and hemp. Those are really great. Those are on the list. Tomatoes have a lot of vitamin C, they have lycopene, they are really also helpful. We have spinach that has a lot of iron, vitamin C, the magnesium, calcium, these are things that are used for nerve transmission to prevent cognitive decline, and to help just our neurons operate more efficiently. Berries, eggs, and then the last one is oatmeal. So those are kind of like your brain foods that if you can work those into your diet. It's going to really help you You out in terms of brain power and mood, and energy.
That's wonderful. I like that succinct list. I think that's really helpful. And as we've been talking about on this podcast from the very beginning, some thing is better than none thing. So to all the listeners who might feel overwhelmed at hearing five servings of fruit or vegetables a day, just add one or two. And on an earlier podcast, we talked about the importance of using fresh if possible, and then frozen as a second alternative, and to try to stay away from canned fruit and vegetables, because those tend to lack a lot of the nutrients that we need.
Yeah, they have less it's sort of like a good, better best situation. Canned is good. Frozen is better and fresh is best. And I couldn't agree more Lena that just working in a few one or two more than you normally have is great. I just think of fruits and vegetables as the more the merrier. Yes. So just finding a man, the more the merrier. You don't need to stress about how many and count them that just getting as many into the party that you're having as you can for your own health.
That's great. Thank you, Gina for joining us today on this really fascinating topic. And I certainly learned several things. We appreciate your time, we want to remind our listeners that we are at www mending trauma.com and we operate the whole health lab where we help people like yourselves, understand and build on strengths so that you can eliminate and heal from toxic stress and or trauma. We're glad you're joining this. Have a great week and we look forward to seeing you next week.
Thank you so much for listening to this episode. If you want to go deeper on this subject or any other subjects we've covered in the podcast. We are so excited to be launching our signature membership program at mending trauma.com This is a trauma informed mental health membership where we combine clinically effective practices courses and mentoring while putting you in the driver's seat. We teach you how to heal your trauma with the latest research combining mind body and spirit we want to walk you through a healing journey while also empowering you if you have felt this episode is helpful. We would absolutely love if you would go to Apple podcasts or wherever you listen to your pods and give us a review. We'd also love it if you would share it with someone you think it might help tag us on social media at mending trauma.com Or at Amy Hoyt PhD, we would love to reshare and also if there's anything we can do to help we would love to hear from you email info at mending trauma.com Give us your suggestions or topics you want to hear about. We would absolutely love to be of more service to you. We're so excited because we have so many good episodes coming up in season two, and we can't wait to go on this journey with you
