Episode Overview

What if the anxiety, depression, or brain fog you've been blaming yourself for isn't a personal failure, but a sign that your brain needs support?

We wouldn't shame ourselves for needing thyroid medication or treatment for another organ. So why do we judge ourselves when our brain struggles?

In this episode, I'm putting on my integrative nutrition and mindset coaching hat to talk about something that's been on my heart for a long time.

After watching people I love struggle with depression and anxiety, and seeing how much shame can come with needing medication, I started asking why we're so willing to care for every other part of our body but hesitate when it comes to our brain.

We're exploring how breast cancer treatment, hormonal changes, nutrition, sleep, and genetics can affect the way our brains function.

I'll walk you through four genes involved in brain health, MTHFR, COMT, MAOA, and BDNF, and explain how food and lifestyle choices may help support your brain.

We'll also talk about why medication isn't a failure, why getting professional support can be an important part of healing, and how to stop confusing what your brain is experiencing with who you are.

Because you can nourish your body, practice a healthy mindset, and still need medical support.

Your brain has carried you through so much. It deserves the same compassion, nourishment, and care you give every other part of your body.

Resources Mentioned:

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Work with Laura:
https://www.thebreastcancerrecoverycoach.com/health 

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Read the full transcript:

Laura Lummer 0:00
You're listening to Better Than Before Breast Cancer with the Breast Cancer Recovery Coach. I'm your host Laura Lummer. I'm a certified life coach and I'm a breast cancer thriver. In this podcast, I will give you the skills, on the insides, and the tools to move past the emotional and physical trauma of a breast cancer diagnosis. If you're looking for a way to create a life that's even better than before breast cancer, you've come to the right place. Let's get started. Hey there, friends! Welcome to episode 486 of Better Than Before Breast Cancer. I am your host Laura Lummer, and today I'm putting on my integrative functional nutrition mindset coach hat. I kind of always have my mindset coach hat on. That's actually my favorite thing to do. But we're we're going to talk in a little more detail about what's going on inside of our body today, and I want to tell you why. Gosh, I don't even know when it was. I was going to say two years ago, maybe it was three years ago. I don't know. But when I started doing nutrition genomics analysis and reports, I started seeing something really interesting. Because in the reports I do, they're by a company called 3x Four. In the reports that I do, there's a section in it that looks at the different SNPs, which I'll talk about a SNP in a minute, they are basically a genetic variant, and they affect the way that the brain works. They affect the functioning of the brain in one way or another. If they're expressing themselves, could be in a great way or not a great way, whatever. Right? I started doing these reports, and I started looking at the different SNPs that people had that affected the way that their brain function, and I started to see, wow, this is really interesting. That and I'm I am not a medical professional licensed. I am not a doctor, so what I'm about to say is not a diagnosis. I'm just saying, like in general, I started looking at this and going, I think everybody has some level of ADHD because I would see all of these different genetic SNPs, and I'm going to talk to you about like four really popular ones today in this show, and how they can affect your brain. And I'm also going to talk to you about the lifestyle and nutrition choices you can make to help your brain respond in a better way to you. So, if you're thinking, "Well, I don't. How would I know? I've never had a genetic test like that done." I'm going to tell you what you might experience, and if you notice these things, then you might try to make some of these changes in your life and see if it helps you. Okay, so you don't have to go out and and get a 3x four test done. You just have to know your body and really listen to yourself. So one thing I started to see was how fascinating it was that everybody's brain had these snips that were going to affect their ability to focus, to think in a certain way, to respond to people in a certain way. I thought that was really fascinating, but then I started to notice an even bigger issue. And before I get into that, let me ask you a question. Think about this for yourself for a sec. If your thyroid slowed down and you needed medication for your thyroid, would you judge yourself because of that? Would you say, "I am such a loser. I'm so weak. My thyroid doesn't work." Right? If your pancreas stopped making insulin, would you be ashamed of yourself? Would you be like, "Oh my God, I have type one diabetes. I'm so ashamed of myself." Would you lay awake at night thinking, "What is wrong with me? My thyroid is slow. My pancreas doesn't work. Right? Probably not. You'd be thinking, okay, I wasn't feeling well. I found out this organ needs some help. Let me find out what it needs from my doctor, and then I will go and do the thing that the organ needs. So why is it that when the organ between our ears, also known as our brain, struggles, we make that a self-worth call? We make that a self-judgment call.

Laura Lummer 4:11
And I may have shared this on the podcast before, but I'm going to share it again just in case. There are several people in my family that struggle with depression, clinical depression, diagnosed depression, and who have gotten on medication as a result of that. Now, for some of these people, the road from noticing something was not okay to getting on medication to manage depression or anxiety was a long road and a scary road for a couple of them. Okay, but then getting on the medication literally changed their lives, changed their life, you guys. And then I would see that even though it was so obvious that this medication helped the brain to function better, these people were operating. A whole other energetic level in their lives, they would still come back to judgment. I should get off these meds, you know. I shouldn't take these. I'm going to try to get off of these, and I would say, why? Why? Why are you going to get off of those? Well, because I shouldn't have to depend on them. And I would say, but why? You know, and they say because I should be able to get through life without depending on meds, and I would say, well, I mean, I had a stage four cancer diagnosis, and you wouldn't want me to stop taking my medication, would you? Should my body be able to just function on its own and not need medication and be healthy and thrive? I mean, that would be awesome. It's perfect life, perfect world, but not the truth, not what's happening, and so these are people in my life that I love, that I would worry about and think, "Gosh, how can I help them with this?" Because so much self judgment goes into something not working correctly with the brain, and that's what this episode is about. This episode is about the brain, the organ, the brain, what it needs, how breast cancer treatment affects it, how your genes play a part through something called nutrigenomics, the 3x four test I told you about, and why so many of us resist getting medical support for this organ, when we would not hesitate for another one. So, your brain may have heard this before, makes up about 2% of your body weight, but it uses roughly 20% of your energy. It is a high-functioning, energy-using organ. Right? It is hungry, is working every second of every day, and what you feed it actually matters. Your brain is made largely of fat, and one of its key building blocks is called DHA, and that's an omega-3 fat. So when you hear people say things about fat as the enemy, really think about that, because your brain is built from it, and your nervous system needs it. Right, your brain is part of your central nervous system, and then there are these things that are called your brain's messengers, also known as neurotransmitters. Now, maybe you haven't heard neurotransmitters, but you probably heard serotonin, dopamine, GABA. Right? These are the chemicals that help you feel calm, motivated, or focused and content. And most people don't realize that your body builds them from the protein that you eat, with the help and the assistance of nutrients like b6, folate, B 12, iron, and magnesium. So, if you're missing these vital pieces, how can your body effectively build those messengers? Think about it, and think about it not just for you, but for your family. Especially if you have kids, think about it for your kids. Now, your gut is also part of this conversation. Your gut and your brain send signals back and forth all day long through nerves, hormones, and your immune system. And most of your body's serotonin, that feel-good chemical that we always associate with our brain because we're happy, it's made in the gut, most of it. So when the gut is inflamed or out of balance, researchers have found that it is often linked with mood changes, and also blood sugar regulation. Blood sugar is a big one. When blood sugar swings up and crashes down, it can feel very much like anxiety, irritability, brain fog, irritability. We hear people say, "I'm hangry," right? Sometimes, what feels like I'm a hot mess today is really, or could be, I have not had any protein today at all, right?

Laura Lummer 8:58
Let's think about this for women who've been through breast cancer have a lot going on, right? We've got chemo-related cognitive changes, very, very, very real, very real. Forget words, lose your train of thought, walk into a room and go, "What did I walk in here for?" Right? This is, and and yes, people say, "Oh, you're getting old or whatever." No, this is a recognized effect of treatment. It's not something that you're imagining, and it's also part of that. We're going to talk about these SNPs in a minute. That are we paying attention? Are we present in our life? Because something that I find super interesting is that we'll often think, "I don't remember anything. I can't remember. I put my keys, and we're doing too many things. The brain must see what we're doing to remember what we're doing. So if you're trying to do 10 things at one time, and you're tossing your keys somewhere without even looking at them, you never even showed your brain what you were doing. So it can't remember. Where you put the keys, he didn't show it. Where you put the keys, right? So we have to be thinking about all of this in tandem. How are we living our life, and what is actually affecting the brain? Estrogen also plays a big role in this, so it supports our memory, our mood, and our serotonin activity. So when we go through menopause in one freaking night, because it's chemically induced menopause, they give you an IV of chemotherapy, and you are bam in menopause. I mean, that's what happened to me. 48 years old, first treatment of chemotherapy, smack dab into menopause that fast. And when you go through something like that, or ovarian suppression, or endocrine therapy, right? The AIs that we have to take again to manage our hormones, the brain feels this. Then you add in the symptoms of what I just talked about, like sleep disruption, hot flashes, night sweats, fear of recurrence, and that long, long chain of stress from everything you've been going through, it's a lot on the brain. So I will ask you: Would you expect any organ to run perfectly after surgery? Chemo, a complete hormone overhaul. I wouldn't. I hope you wouldn't. So, can we give our brains a little bit of compassion, a little bit of understanding, right? So, let's talk for a second about nutrigenomics. So, your genes and your plate of food. Nutrigenomics is the study of how food interacts with your genes. So, we carry these variations of our genes that are called SNPs. SNPs is short for single nucleotide polymorphism. Aren't you glad we call it SNP? So people call them SNPs because it's much easier to remember. So the most important thing is that SNPs have a tendency to do things. So you've got the gene, you've got the gene with a variant, a SNIP. It does not mean since this gene has a SNIP, it's got something that has changed. There's a single nucleotide polymorphism. Something has changed in this gene. Does it mean it is a destiny? It does not mean you are destined to have this happen to you. Your genes are like the hardware. Think of them like the hardware, and your food, your sleep, your movement, your stress signals that affect how the hardware runs, and that's good news because you have power over those things. You have power over your lifestyle and nutrition, and so the choices you make will affect your genes. Now, there's also a ton of science developing in this area. Genetic results are most helpful when they're interpreted by a qualified practitioner alongside of your labs and the symptoms you're experiencing, they are definitely not to be used to diagnose yourself with something. And the reason I say this is because, as I explained, you have a SNIP. It doesn't mean, and we're going to talk about, for instance, MTHFR. So you have an MTHFR SNP. This is a methylation gene. We're going to get into all the details here. So some people have an MTHFR. They say, "Oh, I'm so tired all the time because I have an MTHFR." No. If you have an MTHFR variant and you're tired all the time, then we look at ourselves and say, "Ooh, this MTHFR may be expressing in a way that is not comfortable for me.

Laura Lummer 13:44
Let me take a look at my labs and see if it really is affecting me, because then the blood work will show some indications that may say, "Yep, definitely look like you need some more B12 support." One of those would be something like homocysteine. High homocysteine, it's an inflammatory marker in the blood, and high homocysteine will tell us your body is either not getting enough of the B vitamins or B12, or it's not using it effectively, and that could be because you have an MTHFR variant. So this is why you have to look at the whole picture. Are you having symptoms? What do your labs show? And what is your genetic blueprint? Right, but your genetic blueprint by itself does not mean you will have certain symptoms. All right, so this is an important thing to know. Genes are not your destiny. Some, I mean, there are some genes that are very related to specific diseases, but nutrition genomics doesn't deal with those. Nutrition genomics is low penetrance genes, genes that are affected by diet and lifestyle. Okay, the rest of that stuff that's medical stuff, right? And so we want to go to our doctors and a geneticist to understand those. Things, nutrition genomics is something you have a lot of power over. So let's talk about four SNPs that relate to your brain health, and for each one of them, I really want to paint a picture of what it might feel like in real life if you had this gene expressing, and then what foods can support it. And here's why I'm digging so deep in this today, because not only the story I shared with you about family members of mine who deal with nutrition and anxiety, and when someone comes to me or when I see a family member, and without naming names, I'll say, I see a family member struggling. I know this person deals with depression and anxiety. I can see the darkness come over them, right? So the darkness means the depression is setting in, but I can see also choices they're making. Is this person drinking more? Is this person staying up all night long, right? Are the lifestyle choices this person is making are they lending themselves towards poor gene expression and worse darkening mood. Same thing with anxiety, right? I see someone. This person is dealing with a lot of anxiety. I can see this person. This person's not exercising. This person's eating a lot of sugar. This person's eating a lot of processed foods, and I can know that they're going to feel worse, right? And so the reason why I talk about this, and why I'm going into these genes, is because then I've got clients who come to me, and they feel awful, right? And they've got depression and anxiety, and do they have PTSD from breast cancer, or do they have clinical depression or anxiety, or is their gut completely torn up from chemotherapy? Is their gut all out of whack because of what they're eating and the way that they're eating? So I want you to understand from this episode. I want you to walk away with an understanding that genes can influence the way our brain feels, food influences the way that our brain feels, activity, sleep, all of these things influence the way that our brain feels, and we have a lot of power to change that. And I want you to know that because I don't want you to judge yourself, because too many people come to me saying, "I'm crazy. This is ridiculous." You know, look at me. I'm a hot mess. And we attach these things to our self worth, and I don't want to see that anymore, because you are worth everything. You are deserving of everything. You are an amazing soul, a spirit, a perfect spirit and child of God, connected to every other one of us, and you also have a human brain, and you also have a human digestive system, and that human brain, and your consciousness, that's judging yourself, are two different things. So let's get into this. Let's talk about the MTHFR gene. So imagine a woman named Jen. Now, like Jen, Jen's got some MTHFR going on, but she's pretty good. You know, she eats well, but she still feels like she's running on half a battery.

Laura Lummer 18:14
You know, she's tired in a way that sleep doesn't fix. She wakes up, she's still tired. She wakes up and she thinks, can't wait to get back to bed, can't wait to take a nap, right? She notices that her moods are dipping for no real reason. She feels like a lot of brain fog in the afternoon. It's like sludging through mud in her head, and her doctors say, "Well, your labs are normal," and she's starting to wonder if she's not trying hard enough. Self-judgment pops right up. I'm not trying hard enough. I'm not doing enough. I'm not eating well enough. Sound familiar? But MTHFR is a gene that makes an enzyme your body uses to turn folate, a nutrient, into its active form, methylfolate, and that active form feeds a process in our body called methylation, and methylation is something that happens billions of times a day in your body. It helps make the neurotransmitters that do things to our brain. It supports detoxification in our body, and it helps keep a compound called homocysteine, which I just talked about, in check. So higher homocysteine has been linked with inflammation and brain and even cardiovascular health concerns. So when someone has a variant that slows this enzyme down, their body may need more support to keep this system running smoothly. Some research has linked certain MTHFR variants, and there are multiple types of variants with higher homocysteine and greater tendency towards low mood. But that does not mean everybody with that variant is going to notice something. But when. And if a specific variant is expressing itself, then we're going to start seeing those effects, right? So, what are foods that support MTHFR? Dark leafy greens like spinach, chard, romaine, my favorite arugula. The word folate comes from foliage. Now it's gonna be. Now you can remember. Am I eating enough foliage today? Did I get enough folate? I don't know where I get folate from. Foliage, leaves are your friend. Throw leaves in shit. Cook with them. Throw them in things. Cook them down. Throw them on top of things. Put them on top of your chicken breast. Put them in your chili, right? And in fact, speaking of chili, other sources of folate: lentils, chickpeas, black beans, all naturally rich in folate. So if you're making some kind of a bean dish, throw a couple handfuls of dark green leafy veggies in there. Other sources are asparagus, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, avocado. Then we have eggs, wild fish, and quality meats. And by quality, I mean grass-fed, pasture-raised, grass-finished, right? Quality meats have a lot of vitamin B12, which works side by side with folate in that methylation process. Eggs are also good for choline, another nutrient that helps methylation. Okay, mushrooms, almonds, eggs for riboflavin. I mean, my God, food is medicine here, people. So if you have an MTHFR variant, if you know you have an MTHFR variant, talk with your practitioner, whether it's your standard of care doctor or naturopathic doctor, about whether you need a methylated source of B vitamins, whether that makes sense for you. Don't just guess about it, and absolutely, definitely, do not hear me talking about MTHFR, and then just run out and buy a bunch of supplements and start taking them. Yeah, that's a waste. You don't even know if you need it, and if you're taking things you don't need, you're just putting extra work on your body, on your liver, on your kidneys, and we don't want to do that. Never, never, never. This is educational only, information only. Take this and meet with your practitioner to ask them to take a look at you and your unique body to see if you need anything. Okay, let's talk about this. A big one, COMT, C O M T. This is a gene that it's a stress and estrogen clearance gene, and this is one of those genes among many that when I started working with nutrition genomics, my eyes kind of opened up, and I went, "Oh my goodness!" I hear all the time, and I hear from myself, "Oh, I have got a diagnosis of breast cancer with no family history," and we say no family history, as if this is a huge mystery. How did we get this?

Laura Lummer 22:43
And then I started working with nutrition genomics, and I started to see the impact of a toxic environment and toxic exposures on our estrogen, on our hormones in our body. And then I started to see how certain SNPs, like a com T snip, how it affected our body's ability to detoxify itself, to break down hormones, and then get them out of the body, so they don't hang around in their state of toxicity because they become more and more toxic as they break down. Okay, so let's talk about Donna. Donna, smart lady, she notices everything. She remembers every detail, and she's the one everybody turns to, everybody counts on. But when stress hits, it hits Donna hard. Her mind races all day, all night. She's not sleeping. One cup of coffee, and she's like that squirrel from what was the cartoon where he's just like bing bing bing buzzing around, right? After a difficult conversation, Donna cannot let go of it. She ruminates for hours and hours over everything that's said. She ruminates for days. She ruminates for weeks, and she's often been told she's just too sensitive, or that she just overthinks everything. And COMT is sometimes nicknamed the worrier gene, and hopefully, what I just explained or described to you can help you see why. So the COMT enzyme helps clear out dopamine, another feel-good chemical, adrenaline, and the chemicals involved in focus, in drive, and in the stress response. So some people have a slower version of COMT, and slow COMT can mean more of those chemicals hang around longer, and that can be wonderful for focus and attention to detail. It can also mean stress feels really big and lasts a long time. So here's why this one matters for us, those of us who have had a breast cancer diagnosis, because COMT also helps clear certain estrogen byproducts from the body, so it sits right where brain health. And estrogen come together, so people with a faster calm T they clear these chemicals quickly, and they may stay calm in a crisis, but they may struggle with focus or motivation and find themselves looking for stimulation to feel engaged. You know, they just can't pay attention. They're easily bored. They've got to go from one thing to the other all the time. Sounds like me. Anyway, foods that support slower calm tea, and that's the one. Remember, slower calm tea. Maybe the symptoms that you notice in yourself: super stressful, rumination, right? All of that kind of thing. Foods that support that and increase the functioning of that: magnesium-rich foods. So think pumpkin seeds, almonds, our leafy greens again, avocado again, even a little dark chocolate, good dark chocolate without a bunch of sugar in it, right? Cruciferous vegetables, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, kale, right? Those all support healthy estrogen metabolism. Broccoli sprouts, which are especially rich in a compound called sulforaphane, an antioxidant compound, they we've got folate and B12 foods from that MTHFR list because COMT depends on methylation too in order to do its job correctly and well. So these two genes work together. So going easy on caffeine, noticing how that feels in your body. How does your body respond to that? Be mindful with concentrated green tea extract supplements. So even though we may hear the catecholamines in green tea are good for us, if you have a slow calm tea, then a cup of green tea is a very different thing for you compared to someone with a faster calm tea, so if you notice, well, gosh, I have whenever I have that green tea, do I feel it? Then there's a signal for you, right? Listen to your body, don't judge it, and I think that's what we tend to do instead of listening to ourselves and say, "I don't feel that way," oh, that's really healthy. I guess I should have more, and I have more, and I say I don't like the way I feel on that. And we're like, I should feel better. No, should does not belong. What is true is the only thing that's important. I do feel like this. Boom. Oh, I might have a slow com T. I might have an MTHFR. I might have a combination of genes. All I know doesn't matter what the genes are; it doesn't work for me. Trust yourself. Yeah.

Laura Lummer 27:24
So for foods for faster calm tea, think plenty of quality protein at every meal. So that provides the amino acid tyrosine, and your body uses that to make dopamine feel good chemical. Right. Look at how food is medicine, friends. Eggs, fish, poultry, pumpkin seeds, lentils great, great sources for someone who has a fast, calm tea. So you could see how two women can eat the exact same diet, drink the exact same cup of green tea, and feel completely different. And that is bio individuality in action. Trust yourself. Your body is unique. Listen to it. It's not betraying you. All these rules, like this, is healthy. This makes you feel good. This is right for you. Not if it isn't, right? If if you're allergic to avocado, which several people in my family are, doesn't make avocados a bad food, but it sure is a bad food for them because they're allergic to it. Okay, you are unique. Learn what works for your body. This one I love. M A O A. This is a mood messenger cleanup gene. So let's meet Teresa. Okay, Teresa. She used to love Sunday mornings, slow coffee on the porch, her favorite music, Laura Lovett, calling her sister. Hey, what's up? And since treatment put her in overnight menopause, those things just don't land the way they used to. Nothing's terrible, but nothing really feels good either. And usually by mid-afternoon, Teresa's reaching out for something sweet or starchy, and for about 20 minutes, she feels a little bit better after she eats it, and then flattens out again. And she keeps wondering why can't she just be grateful she's here? Have you ever had that kind of emotion, that grayness? Right, M A O A is a gene that makes an enzyme called monoamine oxidase A, and monoamine oxidase A, its job is cleanup. It breaks down serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine once they've delivered their message, so your brain can reset, and that's a really healthy, necessary response. Some people carry a faster version of MAOA, and so their brains make clear feel-good messengers really quickly. And in some studies, that faster version has been associated with a greater tendency towards low mood, and. Anxiety, particularly in women, other people carry a slow version of MAOA, where those messengers linger longer, and that can show up as emotions that run hot, like really quick to irritate or having a harder time calming down once they're upset. And here's an important piece of that estrogen appears to help keep MAOA activity in check. So researchers at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, when they looked at brain scans of women in their 40s and early 50s, they found MAOA levels were about a third higher in women in perimenopause than in younger women, and it was a small study, and it measured the enzyme itself rather than the gene MAOA. So it was looking at the monoamine oxidase A, but it points to something really important, and it indicates to us that when estrogen drops, the cleanup crew may get busier, and the mood can dip right along with the drop in estrogen, and so for many of us, treatment brought estrogen drop suddenly overnight. Like I'm sure I'm not the only one who got chemo and went, "What just happened?" So here's our girl Teresa, and does she really have a gratitude problem? Is that what she needs to be more grateful she's alive, or does she have a biology issue where her body is asking for support? Okay, foods that support faster MAOA, tryptophan-rich foods, and since tryptophan is one of the building blocks for serotonin, that feel-good chemical, isn't that fascinating? I love this stuff. So we want to think about turkey, chicken, eggs, salmon, pumpkin seeds. Those pumpkin seeds keep popping up. That's a good little seed to have around the house. And sesame seeds. And I love roasted pumpkin seeds are my favorite. I love to roast them, and I love to throw them warm and roasted on my salad. Delicious. So think about pairing proteins with a slow-burning carbohydrate because again we want good blood sugar regulation to support our brain. So slow-burning carbs: potato, quinoa, beans, steel-cut oats, and that kind of pairing the protein with the slow-burning carbohydrate helps tryptophan reach the brain without the sugar crash.

Laura Lummer 32:24
So think about also foods rich in b6: chickpeas, salmon, pistachios, potatoes, and b6 helps turn that tryptophan into serotonin. It's a little helper. So magnesium foods again, what are rich magnesium foods we talked about? Leafy greens, foliage. Right, the foliage has lots of good stuff in it. Pumpkin seeds show up again, and dark chocolate again. 80% or more chocolate, not that sugary, sweeteny stuff. Don't go get Hershey bars. Okay, omega three rich fish, wild caught fish, right, to support healthy brain cell membrane. Where these messengers, it's where they do their work in the membrane of those brain cells. So folate and B12, those foods from the MTHFR list, they also help because your body needs methylation to make these messengers in the first place. How cool is that? Look how everything works together, you guys. This is something that drives me crazy because the medical system has become a field of specialists, but our body doesn't work in silos. It all works together, and so we, in order to support ourselves and be the steward of these bodies, have to realize everything works together. Nothing acts in isolation. So I told you there was a fast MAOA and a slower MAOA. Foods that support the slower MAOA are foods that support steady blood sugar. So protein and fiber at every meal, since sugar crashes, can add fuel to emotions that are already running hot, so if our emotions are heightened, the last thing we need is dysregulated blood sugar. And you know, I'll share a story with you. One time, my husband and I were at a lunch party. I think it was somebody's birthday party. Beautiful home. We're sitting outside. They've got this gorgeous. I think they had just remodeled their home. Gorgeous patio, outdoor fireplace, like sitting area was so cool, and there was their nephew was there, and he must have been eight, around the age of eight, something like that, and he was having a tough time. He was very emotional. He was crying. He didn't want to do the things they were asking of him, and my husband turned to his friend and he said, "When was the last time he ate?" And his friend, who's the uncle and the nephew staying at the house, he's like, "I don't really know." And so we asked the child, "Honey, when was the last time that you ate? And what did you eat?" And what he had eaten was some sugary cereal. Many many hours before, so we said all right, and we went over to the cold cuts, and we got him some cheese, and we got him some turkey, and we got some protein and some fat in this kid, and he was a different kid, right? I'm not saying he had an MAOA, but I'm saying good food affects the ability to manage our emotions, right? So notice how you feel after you eat aged cheeses or cured meat or soy sauce or red wine, because these contain tyramine, which is a compound MAOA, helps break down. And so some people find those foods to bring on headaches, flushing, even a racing heart. Then there are things like chamomile or other calming herbal teas in the evening, as part of a wind-down ritual that can be helpful. So MAOA research is still very very young. We're learning so much about genes and SNPs, and many of the early genetic studies have been done mostly in men. So good for guys, but we want to see how it affects women because our bodies are very different, biologically, physiologically. So this is a gene that we want to be curious about, but we don't want to draw big conclusions. Again, I want you to resist that because I hear too many people say, "Oh, I have that gene. That's why I'm this way." We don't want to go there. And if you are prescribed medications that affect the brain messengers we talked about the serotonin, the dopamine, the norepinephrine, right? All of these different neurotransmitters. Then you want your your doctor to know about any supplements you're also taking because you know we love our supplements because they're natural. We don't think twice about them, but they work because they're powerful. So St. John's Wort, five HTP, or tryptophan; those kind of supplements can be affected by different medications, and all of that can be really rough on our brain.

Laura Lummer 36:50
All right, last one, BDNF. I love this one. This is called the brain growth gene. So let's meet Linda. Linda has had a great memory. She's got a sunny outlook, but since going through treatment, it takes her a lot longer to bounce back. A stressful week will just knock her out for a month. Really hard to come back. Learning something new feels harder than it used to. She feels like she can't retain anything, and she started to believe that she's just not as smart as she used to be. She's not as sharp as she used to be. She's not as quick as she used to be. Well, BDNF stands for brain-derived neurotropic factor, and I like to think of it as a fertilizer for your brain because it helps brain cells grow, connect, and adapt, it's involved in learning, memory, and mood resilience. And some people carry a variant that means their brain releases less BDNF in response to activity. So that's been associated with a tougher time bouncing back from stress or memory that needs more support. So the beautiful part of this is that one of the most powerful ways to support BDNF isn't even on your plate. It's one of my favorite things. It's moving. It's exercise. Exercise is one of the strongest signals known for supporting BDNF. Now, food plays a role too, but exercise is something fabulous for you here. So, foods that support BDNF: omega three rich fish like salmon and sardines, blueberries and other deep colored berries, cacao, a good dark chocolate because of the flavonols, and again, what's a good dark chocolate? Like I'm talking to you. Say it back to me. 80% or higher chocolate, right? Not just a bunch of sugar and processed stuff. And cacao, I got to tell you, I love making a. It's called golden milk. It's a version of golden milk for me. And golden milk is an old Ayurvedic tradition, and it's got turmeric and ginger and honey and all of these things in it. I like to make my golden milk with half and half because it's higher in fat, so I use that instead of regular milk. I'll put turmeric in it, teeny tiny pinch of black pepper in it. I'll put the cinnamon in it, and I put a little bit of clove. I like to like get all the yummy spices in it, and then I add cacao. I love the cacao. Now all the things that I mentioned, that's not going to taste very sweet, especially not turmeric. And so I use a little of my xylitol, which is or erythritol, which is an alternative sweetener. And you can use those. You just have to be careful to make sure it's a good quality one and that it doesn't upset your tummy. Some people get upset by a sugar alcohol, which is what xylitol and erythritol are. But you can use a little bit of sweetener in that if you if agave doesn't spike your blood sugar, you could do something like that. But usually it does. Anyway, adding in that cacao. That kind of faux golden milk, I love it, especially when the fall and winter come up and cold night and have this delicious like chocolatey golden milk. It's a perfect evening beverage. So another food that supports the BDNF green tea as a beverage, as long as you don't have that slow calm tea, right? You want to really keep added sugar low because high sugar diets have been linked with lower BDNF in animal studies. All right, so not human studies yet, but still we'll kind of cross reference those. So think about pairing your plate of good whole foods with daily movement, brisk walk, good quality sleep, and whether you identify with Jen or Donna or Teresa or Linda or a little bit of each one of them, can you see how much of what you've been feeling could have a biological story behind it? And biology responds to care to good lifestyle. So let's talk about everyday foundations for the brain, the organ in your head, so that it works in a way better to support you. And know that that doesn't mean that even if you do all these healthy things, you may not at some point need medical support. There are people I often speak to and say this is a situational treatment, right?

Laura Lummer 41:24
Because something could be so hard to handle a breast cancer diagnosis. It could be so hard to handle what you've just gone through with chemotherapy, drugs, steroids. If you went through treatment, that can mess you up, and it's going to take a while for things to stabilize, and if you're feeling like I just can't do this, you know it's too much. The relationships, the getting through the day, I don't want to get out of bed. Sometimes it's a situational treatment to go on antidepressants or anxiety medications. So it's often when we do that, and I encourage many of my clients to this, because when they can treat their brain and help the neurotransmitters to work better, now they can see things more clearly. Now they have more energy, so they can do these foundational things. Because when you are in that dark place, it's really hard to do these foundational things for yourself. One time, I spoke to one of my family members who was struggling with depression, and he was doing great. And he said to me, "I used to feel like I was stuck in a dark Salvador Dali painting. I cannot imagine that, and it sounds like torture, right? And so sometimes we need medication. Can you imagine someone who feels like that doing great things for themselves? No. So we need to support the organ, the brain, so the consciousness can operate better, can function better, so we can show up for ourselves better. If that's the case, so no matter what your genes say, doesn't matter. Doesn't matter if you know your genes or not. These foundations will support every human brain. Protein and fiber at every meal. This helps to keep your blood sugar steady. Colorful plants every day, because color means polyphenols, and polyphenols help calm inflammation. Good sleep. Your brain does much of its cleanup while you're in deep sleep. It is not lazy to sleep well. It's maintenance. It's important. When I have a poor night's sleep, or a couple weeks ago I went through like three, four days, I just could not fall asleep. I was up until 3o'clock in the morning, and I am a hey hon, it's 730. You want to go to bed and read? You know, like going to bed is such a treat, and I love to go to bed early. I like to eat early, dinner early. I like to go to bed early. I like to wake up early, so for me to be staying up all night, and I got to tell you, the first thing on my mind was, whoa, how is this impacting my health and the inflammation in my body? So good sleep very important. Daily movement, and what do we not feel like doing if we don't get good sleep? We don't feel like exercising when we get up, right? We feel like just just want to hang out and do nothing. I'm I'm like groggy, right? Time outside, sunlight and nature. Oh my God, so good for your brain. And I know you know this. I know you know this. Every human being who is sat outside in not the burning hot sun, but in the beautiful sun in nature, in a forest, in a mountain, at a stream, at the beach, you know you feel good when you do that, right? In your backyard, why do we have patios? Why do people want patios? Why do people want yards? Why do people want gardens? Because nature helps us feel good. So time outside, sunlight, and nature is so. Important, and then real connection with people who you feel safe with, who you feel loved by. Okay, so now we've talked about what's going on with the brain, the organ, the brain. We've talked about lifestyle and nutrition that would support the healthy functioning of the brain. Let's talk about the thing that really tugs at my heart that I want to speak to you about today, and that I want every woman to hear, because I want to see an end to that self-judgment. Why do we resist medical support for the brain? For me, I think this is a part of the conversation that matters most. So we'll take a blood pressure pill without a second thought. We'll use an inhaler. We'll take thyroid medication. I mentioned that, right?

Laura Lummer 45:49
But when someone suggests support for anxiety or depression, so many of us pull back. We confuse the organ, the brain, with our identity as the person. We believe our thoughts are who we are. So when the brain struggles, it feels like we're the problem. But your thoughts are just output from an organ that's affected by fuel, hormones, sleep, stress. You're the one noticing the thoughts, which means there's more to you than the thoughts themselves. You're the observer, right, of these thoughts. So what's that about? We carry old stigmas when it comes to our brain. Many of us grew up hearing that mental struggles meant you were dramatic, you weren't trying hard enough. We use derogatory terms toward anybody. God forbid, had a therapist, right? They must be crazy, and I think that message runs deeper than we give credit to, even when we know better, right? I have heard from so many people whose children want to go to therapy. Well, I just, you know, we just pulled on our bootstraps and kept going, so we still have this derogatory shadow over it. We have this: I should be able to handle this on my own story, and I think that comes to us from tough stock that we came from, because they grew up in a world where they better be tough, and they didn't have the time or the privilege to be able to go to therapy or get coaching, it was a different world, but our world has shifted, and our mindset hasn't shifted fast enough to keep up with it. So I think, especially for women like us who hold everything together through diagnosis, through treatment, we've been strong. We have this message: be a warrior, be a fighter, hang in there. And we've been strong for so long that asking for help can feel like letting go of something we worked really hard to build. We worked really hard to hold on to, and I think this it might just sting a little, right? We have a little bit of wellness world guilt. I see this very often in the integrative space. If I eat perfectly, if I meditate enough, and take the right supplements, I shouldn't need medication. That's bullshit. The truth is that integrative means both and, not either or. Food, lifestyle, mindset, and medicine can all have a seat and a purpose at the table. We fear losing control, or we've had side effects in the past, or a doctor who brushed us off dismissed us. Those experiences are very real, and they deserve to be heard. I've had many of them, myself, and so we start to lose trust. We're already resistant, and then we lose trust in the system. And I get that. I do. I understand it. I mention these things. I see medication as a bridge that can give you enough footing to do the things to support your brain long term, like cooking real food, moving your body, getting good sleep, and it's hard to make a nourishing meal when you can barely get out of bed. So again, is this going to be a long-term thing? Depends on the functioning of the organ, the brain. Is this going to be a situational thing? Because the situation is just so hard; it's knocking you off your foundation. I don't know. That's why we take it one day at a time. So I think an important note here, especially for women on tamoxifen, some antidepressants, including paroxetine and fluoxetine. I hope I'm saying those correctly. They can interfere with how tamoxifen works. So you always want to talk with your team, including your oncologist, about any kind of mood, medication, or supplement, so they can help you choose what is safe for you. So, wrapping this up, here's a few questions that I want you to consider for yourself this week. What is the story you tell yourself when your brain is struggling? Would you. Ever talk that way about your heart or your liver, and what does your brain need more of right now? Does it need fuel, rest, movement, connection? What kind of support does it need? Medication, and what would change if you gave your brain the same compassion that you give every other part of your body. So I offer those questions because here's what I'd love for you to try this week.

Laura Lummer 50:27
I'd love for you to try catching the story, and that means noticing one moment when you blame yourself for something your brain is doing that maybe have conditioned since you were three years old, right, into your brain, and just gently reframe that. Think about it in a different way. Rename it as a signal from the body. My brain needs a little more support right now. My brain needs to be redirected right now. Instead of "I'm so crazy. Something's wrong with me." Feed your brain intentionally. Add a protein source and an omega-3 food to your next three meals, and get at least one serving of leafy greens or cruciferous vegetables, the broccoli, cauliflower, bok choy, all that at least every single day. And move for your brain. Take a 15-minute walk because you love your brain and your body. Take a 15-minute walk each day. That's going to connect you to nature, give you some quiet time to listen to the voice inside of you, and support your brain, and then notice how you feel afterwards. And very importantly, reach out if you need to. If your mood has been low or anxiety has been running the show for you, please talk to a care team. Talk to someone who will support you. Getting support for your brain is part of caring for your whole body. It's a part of your body, and if you're ever in a crisis in the United States, you can call or text 988 any time, any time, day or night, to get support for yourself, to get support for your brain, do not suffer, right? Do not stay in that pain and think it's attached to you and your self worth. If your arm was in pain, you wouldn't do that. If your leg was in pain, you wouldn't do that. If your brain is causing pain and suffering, don't just sit there and allow it, get some help. All right, your brain has carried you through so much life good times, bad times, hard times, challenging times. It's been working on your behalf through your whole life, and it deserves nourishment, rest, and kindness. So thank you for being here today. I hope that information helps a little to help you consider the relationship you're in with that part of your body, with your brain, and if there's anything else, other choices you can make in your life to better support the brain. So, if this episode spoke to you, share it with a friend who needs to hear it too. Obviously, this show is not about breast cancer, but I talk a lot about life and how sometimes that added trauma and drama of breast cancer can affect everything. But these things taking care of our brain, this is important for everybody. And I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. Come to my free community, my private community. It's on my website. It's called Living Well After Breast Cancer. If you go to my website, the Breast Cancer Recovery Coach, you'll see it right there on the homepage. Join it. Talk to me. Tell me what you think about the podcast. Ask me questions about certain podcast episodes. I love to hear from you, and I would love to give you any information that you feel you need that wasn't included here. And for more one-on-one, if you want to work with me, I have private coaching options, and I also have the Better Than Before Breast Cancer Metabolic Health and Mindset Membership, where you can not only work with me but be a part of a community of amazing women who are looking to create lives that are better than before breast cancer. It's all on my website. You'll find the links right here where you're watching or listening to this podcast. And I will talk to you again next week. Until then, friend, be good to yourself. Take care.