Dietary Changes to Help Improve Sleep

Very few of us like to be told what or how to eat. Luckily, when it comes to improving your sleep, the list of “do’s and don’ts” is pretty short. However, just because this list is short doesn’t mean it’s not important. If you want to eliminate the urge to pull, you must establish a good quality sleep pattern. These dietary changes can help dramatically.

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Getting Back to the Basics – Start at the Beginning

You have the urge to pull. You can resist the urge, but it can take a lot of effort to do so. If you give in, you may or may not like what you feel after you pull (exhilaration, pleasure), but you probably don’t like how you feel (guilt, shame, despair) or the end result of pulling (i.e., bald spots, thinning or non-existent hair, eyebrows or eyelashes, etc.). You feel out of control and powerless to change it.

This is a typical scenario and when it comes down to it, we have to start at the beginning – with the urge to pull. If we can eliminate the urge to pull, we can eliminate everything that comes after it.

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I’ve Tried Amino Acids Before & They Didn’t Work

I recently had an initial consultation with a woman – let’s call her Mary – that had been suffering from trichotillomania for 34 years. Mary had tried “everything” to get her urges to pull under control, including many different medications, various forms of psychotherapy, and supplementation including 5-HTP. Since 5-HTP is one of the amino acids we use as a part of our amino acid formulas, she assumed that she had already “tried” our approach as well. Nothing could be further from the truth.

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I’m Pulling MORE – What’s Going On?

“I started following my program and I’m pulling MORE – what’s going on?!”

The urge to pull that is so prevalent in trichotillomania is caused (in most people) by an imbalance in neurotransmitter function. To correct this imbalance, we have found a combination of amino acid supplements that provide the body the exact nutrients it needs to be remarkably effective. In fact, we have been able to help over 86% of the people that come to us with trich completely eliminate the urge to pull.

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Food Allegies and Trich

We have covered a number of ways that different environmental and genetic factors could adversely affect trichotillomania in this blog. This post will focus on another common biological cause for neurotransmitter imbalance that can exacerbate or cause trichotillomania, and that is food allergies or food hypersensitivities.

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Can Skimping on Sleep Make Trichotillomania Worse?

As you read through the numerous articles and research on this blog you will quickly see that we have found that imbalances with certain neurotransmitters (which are brain chemicals that control most of the body’s functions) can lead to a great many disorders, including trichotillomania and the urge to pull, depression, anxiety, compulsive and/or obsessive thoughts and behaviors, food cravings, binging behavior, addictions, migraines and many others, including sleep disturbances. Therefore, it would not be surprising to find a relationship between these seemingly varied imbalances.

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Trichotillomania and Food Cravings

Many people that suffer from trichotillomania also experience other symptoms of neurotransmitter imbalance, which can include any of the following:

In particular, we have been seeing a lot of people suffering from trichotillomania that also have insatiable cravings for sweets and/or simple carbohydrates, including breads, cookies, candy, chips, pastries and similar foods. Most people that have this combination of sugar cravings and trichotillomania don’t realize they are connected, and they often feel helpless on both accounts. However, I am here to tell you that not only are they related, they can both be resolved using the same techniques.

Balanced Amino Acid Therapy

Both the urge to pull and cravings for sugar and sweets are regulated by your brain chemistry. The chemical messengers responsible for this regulation are called neurotransmitters, which include serotonin and dopamine. Imbalances in your neurotransmitter function will cause miscommunication, which often leads to symptoms including the urge to pull, cravings and any number of the conditions listed above. However, restoring proper neurotransmitter balance will improve communication and alleviate these conditions.

One of the keys to establishing proper neurotransmitter function is the employment of balanced amino acid therapy. This means that a health care professional trained in the proper use of amino acids will help you determine exactly the right mix of amino acids and cofactors you need in order to establish optimal neurotransmitter function. Once this occurs, not only will your urge to pull disappear, your cravings will also be substantially reduced or eliminated altogether. This occurs because you are addressing the root cause of your problems, and by digging down to the root, you can manage a whole host of symptoms due to neurotransmitter imbalance.

The Importance of Using Balanced Amino Acids

I have been many emails asking how to achieve proper neurotransmitter balance using amino acid therapy. It seems that many people are attempting to take their own mixture of amino acids in an attempt to alleviate their urges to pull. This trial-and-error method is bound to fail in most cases and can lead to greater imbalances. This is because taking amino acids that are not properly balanced for each individual will cause depletion of competing systems over time.

Amino Acid Synthesis

I believe the reason for so much confusion comes from the fact that the synthesis of monoamine neurotransmitters, including serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine and epinephrine, seems so straightforward:

From an intuitive standpoint, taking 5-HTP would seem to be the perfect way to increase serotonin and taking L-tyrosine or L-dopa would seem the ideal way to increase levels of dopamine. Unfortunately, this is one instance where the simple answer doesn’t play out in practice.

Synthesis Interactions

A thorough review of peer-reviewed literature shows several interactions occur in the actual synthesis of neurotransmitters from amino acids:

As you can see, giving only 5-HTP, L-dopa, L-tyrosine or L-tryptophan can deplete the monoamine neurotransmitters along with their amino acids, making the overall situation worse. Based on this data, the odds of a person obtaining the correct balance of amino acids to achieve proper neurotransmitter function are virtually zero. Once more, the probability of a person using trial-and-error to try and establish proper neurotransmitter function causing further imbalance is incredibly high. This highlights the need for professional guidance in regards to establishing the optimal amino acid dosing for each person.

Professional Guidance

Although resolving this situation isn’t as easy as it seems, a solution does exist. The science of amino acid therapy has grown by leaps and bounds over the past six years, due in large part to the work of Marty Hinz, MD and his staff at NeuroResearch, Inc. Dr. Hinz’s work has shown that with proper training, achieving optimal neurotransmitter function is possible using properly balanced amino acid therapy along with functional testing as needed. We have been using this approach for almost a decade with tremendous success and can help you achieve the resolution you are looking for.

Amino Acid Therapy and RepleteExtra

A large minority of people (~30%) using properly balanced amino acid therapy will achieve a complete resolution of symptoms using only NeuroReplete and CysReplete at the proper dosage. However, many others will require the addition of other formulas to increase the amounts of serotonin, dopamine or both in the system. One of the formulas often used in this process is RepleteExtra.

RepleteExtra was formulated to be used in addition to NeuroReplete when it is desired to increase both serotonin and dopamine in a balanced manner. RepleteExtra contains only L-tyrosine, 5-HTP and folic acid. It does not contain the basic cofactors (vitamins and minerals) that are found in NeuroReplete, highlighting the need to use these products in combination with one another.

By providing L-tyrosine and 5-HTP in a balanced ratio, RepleteExtra works with NeuroReplete to increase the levels of dopamine and serotonin, respectively, in a balanced fashion. Using clinical experience and functional testing when needed, a trained health care professional can help a large number of people (~80%) achieve a complete resolution of symptoms using only these formulas in the proper dosage. If testing indicates the need for additional cofactors, other formulas such as TyrosineReplete, D5 Mucuna or 5-HTP may be employed. We will explore each of these formulas in other posts.

A Very Trichy Case

Many of the testimonials and case studies I write about are about very fast results where people suddenly have a complete elimination of the urge to pull within days or weeks of starting balanced amino acid therapy. Truth-be-told, most cases of trichotillomania do resolve within a relatively short period of time, so these case histories and testimonials are representative of what we typically see at the clinic. However, we do have a few cases where things aren’t quite so cut and dry; in these instances, it can take months to get the amino acid dosing right. This obviously requires incredible dedication on the part of the client, as well as their family, as this case history illustrates.

Jenna came to us after her mom had been searching the internet for three years trying to find a solution for her daughter. Jenna had started pulling the hair out of her sheep-skin blanket before progressing to pulling out her eyebrows and then from her head. By the time we spoke with Jenna’s mom, the right side of her head was bald and she didn’t have any eyelashes or eyebrows.

In addition, Jenna had been diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), with the onset of symptoms occurring when she was just six years old. Her mother stated that she had a period of several years when she did exhibit any OCD symptoms, but that about three years ago, she started constantly washing her hands (to the point that her hands cracked and bled), “straightening things”, developing extensive bedtime rituals and became very worried about contamination and germs. Jenna had been on Prozac for about a year when we first spoke. Both she and her mom were desperate.

We began by attempting to balance out Jenna’s neurotransmitter levels as we always do. However, it became obvious quite quickly that this was not working, so we ran some testing to help guide her care. Jenna’s body was requiring incredibly high levels of amino acids to show any kind of change and the testing was extremely valuable to help make sure we were on the right track.

It took 12 tests and 10 months until she got the result she was looking for. The dedication and support exhibited by Jenna and her parents was incredible over this time period, especially considering that Jenna did not experience any relief of symptoms for the first 10 months we worked together. However, her diligence, and her parents dedication paid off. Like flipping a switch, everything changed.

I spoke with Jenna recently and she told me it was suddenly “easy to control my trich and OCD” and that she “didn’t need reassurance as much”. She was sleeping well, eating normally and doing well in school. Her mom was ecstatic. She said both she and Jenna were realizing most of the repetitive actions were now only habits versus being due to OCD or anxiety and that Ana was now able to differentiate between them and stop when she wanted to. This was a HUGE improvement according to her mom; “We have a life again, and we have our daughter back!” said mom. Now, Jenna’s work is awareness; becoming aware of when she is doing something mindlessly and asking herself if she wants to continue. Now she has control.

Everybody wants instant gratification – and why wouldn’t we? Getting something for less or little effort is always preferable, especially when we are talking about ending what could be a debilitating condition such as trich or OCD. However, when things don’t happen right away and our resolve is tested, then we find out how badly we want a solution. In this instance, desperation was the key to sticking with the program until we achieved the desired result. This means preparing for the long-haul knowing that a resolution will come when we determine exactly what your body needs to achieve balance. We will help you reach your goals, but it is your resolve and dedication that will matter most if and when the going gets tough or the journey grows long.