Nicole Beurkens Nutrition as a Foundation for Other Therapies · Nutrition as a Foundation for...

Nutrition as a Foundation for Other Therapies, with Dr. Nicole Beurkens www.theAnxietySummit.com June 9-22, 2014

© 2014 Trudy Scott All Rights Reserved Page 1 of 27

Nutrition as a Foundation for Other Therapies, with Dr. Nicole Beurkens

• Why good nutrition status is important for people with anxiety and other

mental health issues

• What kinds of nutrition changes are encouraged

• Challenges with helping parents and families make nutrition changes

Trudy Scott: Welcome to The Anxiety Summit. You've heard about the power

of real whole foods, what you should and should not eat, and some pretty incredible nutrients for preventing and ending anxiety symptoms and other mood problems. Today, we're going to talk about “Nutrition as a foundation for other therapies”. I'm your host, Trudy Scott, food mood expert, certified nutritionist, and also of The Antianxiety Food Solution, and I'd like to give a very big welcome to our speaker, Dr Nicole Beurkens, Licensed Psychologist, Certified Brain Injury Specialist and Certified LENS Practitioner. Welcome, Nicole.

Nicole Beurkens: Thank you, Trudy. It's great to be here with you. Trudy Scott: It is really great to have you. I have known Nicole for a number of

years, and I am just really thrilled to be bringing this perspective to the summit. So, we can hear from practitioners who have clinics that are using nutrition in their clinics and seeing great benefits from doing this. I'm just really, really pleased to have you here.



Nicole Beurkens: Thank you. It's great to be here. Trudy Scott: So, let me read your bio and then I'll share a little bit more about

some of the work that we've done together, and then, we'll go into our topic. So, Dr Nicole Beurkens, Ph.D. licensed clinical psychologist, has over 17 years of experience helping individuals and families impacted by a range of neurological disorders including autism, spectrum disorders, ADHD, learning disabilities, behavioral disorders, and brain injury. Dr. Beurkens is the founder and director of the Horizons Developmental Resource Center in Caledonia, Michigan. She and her team are dedicated to exceptional evaluation and integrative treatment services, research on parent/child interaction and relationships and professional training on best practices. As a published author, Dr. Beurkens has developed a variety of educational resources for parents and professionals.

She's a highly sought after international consultant and speaker,

published researcher, a Mom's Choice award recipient – congratulations on that. I didn't know about that. And Autism One based therapist award winner – I didn't know about that either. Well done. That's fantastic.

Nicole Beurkens: Gotta keep some things a secret, you know. Trudy Scott: She is dedicated to empowering patients with knowledge and

strategies that allow them to reach their highest potential. I love it. Awesome.

Nicole Beurkens: I love the work I do. Trudy Scott: Don't we love our work? Nicole Beurkens: Absolutely. Trudy Scott: It's so wonderful when we're able to change people's lives – and I

know you do that all the time so that is wonderful. So, before we get into the actual meat of the topic, I wanted to share a little bit about your experience with nutrition and the nutritional approach to healing. Because I know you've experienced some of what we've talked about in the summit first hand, and we've actually worked together as client and nutritionist. I'd just like you to share your perspectives on what you've seen for yourself, why you sought out nutrition and how it's benefited you.



Nicole Beurkens: Absolutely. I have been using nutrition strategies for patients for a number of years – and I'll talk more about that later when we get into talking about what I do at my clinic – but I started to have some health problems of my own – particularly starting with some pretty significant thyroid issues that I was diagnosed with a number of years ago. I felt like at that point, I had used what I knew about nutrition changes and supplementation and things and was really able to help heal myself from a lot of those things that were going on. But as the years went on, as a mom of four and running the clinic and just all of the stressors and things that life brings on, I realized that I really wasn't functioning as optimally as I should be. I was having a lot more fatigue than I wanted to have and just not feeling as organized and on top of my game – having some sleep disruption kinds of things and really using things like caffeine and sugar and those kinds of things more often than I wanted to be to compensate for some of those symptoms.

So, it was really probably a little over a year ago now that I

thought, “Well, wait a minute. I have been friends and colleagues with Trudy for a long time. Why don't I just pick up the phone and call her and become a client of hers for a while and let her sort this out?” Because as a professional – and you can probably relate to this, too – you're so busy implementing these things for other people that sometimes either you go to the end of the list or you don't even necessarily think about how you should be applying that stuff to yourself. And so it just kind of hit me one day and I thought, “Why am I continuing to just sort of tolerate having these symptoms and having things not as good as they can be?”

So, I called you up and started working with you and that made a

big difference immediately and then also, over the course of the last year or so in really resolving a lot of those nagging symptoms that just really weren't going away.

Trudy Scott: Great. And I'm so glad you did. Nicole Beurkens: [Laughs] Trudy Scott: It's so true. We need someone to be working with us. I have a

nutritionist that I work with because if you just try to look after yourself, you forget it because you're busy doing everything else. I'm glad you did and I'm glad we've had such good results. Let's just talk about a few other things we did – one of them was you had been kind of gluten free, but then, you went completely gluten free.



Nicole Beurkens: Yes. And I noticed a big change with that just in terms of – it helps support everything else that we were doing too, but I noticed that energy got better, sleep got better – I just feel better when I'm not eating gluten. I know some people have a much more dramatic response to it. Mine isn't so dramatic right away but it's sort of insidious. It creeps up on me over time.

If I'm travelling for quite a while and I end up eating stuff that I

wouldn't normally eat at home, boy, after about a week or so, I really notice that and it's like, “Okay, gotta get back at that again.” So, for me, I notice I just feel better when I'm not having gluten and I do feel that my thyroid functions better as well.

Trudy Scott: Good. And then the other thing that we had you do was look at

saliva adrenal testing to assess what's going on with your adrenals and worked on the adrenal support. That's helped you a lot as well?

Nicole Beurkens: Absolutely. That was really enlightening to get the results of that

test to see, “Oh, well, we need to do something to fix that.” And that made a huge difference - the nutrition changed, but also the supplements that you put me on specifically to support the adrenals really did make a big difference. I started noticing a difference pretty quickly. And over time, there has been a big difference with that and my labs are looking better with that and I really notice a difference in terms of how that's functioning.

And I know through working with you too that the adrenals are so

important for my thyroid function. And given all the thyroid issues I've had in the past, keeping my adrenals really well supported and functioning well is really important for keeping my thyroid working well, too.

Trudy Scott: Absolutely. And then of course, the adrenals are so important as

we move into menopause because the adrenals are going to take over. So, it's good to have good adrenal support, especially with the travelling that you're doing, the speaking that you're doing – the fact that you've got this big clinic and you're writing and you're doing so much – we have to look after ourselves.

Nicole Beurkens: Absolutely. And I think that was one of the big things too in

working with you and just having someone else focus on putting together a treatment plan. I know a lot of the things that I should be doing. I recommend them to people every day – even things like getting regular exercise, getting good sleep, taking time for meditation and those kinds of things. And yet, when it comes to ourselves, it's like, “Oh, yeah.”



We forget to do that. So, working with you really helped put a

spotlight on some of that for me, too, and gave me some accountability as well for putting some of those things back in my life that I had really let slide in the business of everything. It's like, “Oh, that's not a priority.” But it really does need to be a priority, and I've done much better with prioritizing some of those things for myself. That was a really good outcome of working with you, too.

Trudy Scott: Great. And I certainly agree with that because most people know

what healthy means. They know what they should be doing and they know they should be exercising, as you say. But if you don't have someone keeping you on track or guiding you or just looking at it from a different set of eyes – because when it's yourself, it's hard to do it. But I think that's a really important clarification and I'm glad you mentioned how you tell people to exercise and meditate. I know something that I had recommended to you was doing something relaxing and you found a form of yoga that you really enjoy.

Nicole Beurkens: Yeah, absolutely. I had done some yoga before in the past and it

wasn't really my thing but I found this studio around my home here that does hot power yoga – and that really resonated with me right from the get go. So, it gives me a great workout but also combines the meditation and the focus, just kind of mindfulness with that, too. It has been a great fit for me. I love it.

I look forward to it and I've never looked forward to any form of

exercise before in my life. But I think part of that too; you helped me understand that when my adrenals were functioning so poorly, I really didn't have energy to do much more beyond just what I had to get done during the day. And so as my energy level got better and my adrenals were functioning better, it's like I have more gas in the tank, so to speak, to be able to do more things like that. People always used to describe, “Oh, I feel so great after I exercise” – I never had that feeling. I always felt totally exhausted and horrible after I exercised.

And now I know what they mean because I feel that way. When I

get done with a 90 minute hot yoga session, I feel great. I feel better than I did going in. And I know what people mean now when they say that.



Trudy Scott: Well, great. I just love all the amazing results you’ve had and continue to have. And I love that you say that you really enjoy it. I think that's important.

You’ve got to find what you really enjoy. And when I'm working

with a client and when I worked with you, I'll give you different options. “Are you going togoing to take up a dance class? Are you going togoing to do yoga? Are you going togoing to do meditation?” You've got to find something that really resonates with you and I'm just so glad you found it. Living where you do, I think hot yoga's a very good thing, isn't it?

Nicole Beurkens: It's great. I loved it. All winter long I would look forward – you

go in there – oh, it feels so good. I think along with finding something that you like, I think part of it too is having the support from the diet changes and the supplements, the aminos, those kinds of things – to get you feeling better so that you feel like you could even try some of those things. And you're feeling just so worn out and just not good all the time – it's hard to think about adding exercise or something like that.

So, I think getting some of those supplements on board and getting

the body functioning better makes it so much easier to make those healthy choices as far as what we're eating and the activities that we're doing.

Trudy Scott: Absolutely. Thank you so much for sharing all of that. Nicole Beurkens: Absolutely. My pleasure. Trudy Scott: It's really great for people to hear it from someone who's actually

experienced it because it's so powerful. So let's go on to the topic of the day, which is important because you are implementing these nutrition strategies in your clinic and as you said, you've been doing it for a long time. And this is the Horizons Developmental Resource Center – I just wanted to mention that again. So, tell us a little bit about the kind of patients you see, and then, how often do you see anxiety as one of the problems with your patients?

Nicole Beurkens: Yeah. We see a wide variety of patients. We treat children and

adults here at the clinic. I would say probably 70 percent of the patients that we see are 20 years old or younger, and then the rest of them are adults. We have a wide range of symptoms and issues that bring people in.



We've got children who have issues like ADHD, learning problems, mood issues, brain injuries, autism – those kind of things. We have adults who are experiencing run of the mill kind of anxiety disorders, depression, brain injury – those types of things. And then we've got a number of people who don't fit in any particular diagnostic category but for whatever reason, they're just not functioning as well as they could. Maybe it's children who are just having behavior problems that aren't specifically diagnosable or adults who say, “You know, I feel like I used to function better at some point in my life and I’m just not doing that well anymore.” So, it’s a wide range of things we treat, but what is really interesting is anxiety is often not the presenting symptom that people talk about when they first come in for treatment.

Sometimes it is. People will say, “I've been diagnosed with an

anxiety disorder” or “I'm here because I'm having panic attacks” or “I'm feeling really anxious.” But most of the time what we find is that people aren't talking about that as a significant symptom that brings them or their children in for treatment but it is present in the vast majority of people who walk in the door here. Even if it's not the primary symptom, we find that anxiety and panic symptoms are present in most of the people that we treat. And as we start getting to know them more and talking more about what they're experiencing, what we find is that most of them are dealing with a pretty significant level of worry, of nervousness, of anxiousness and some of them straight up panic, and they don't even realize necessarily that that's what they're experiencing. So, the vast majority of people we see have anxiety.

And the research really shows that that's true – that anxiety call

occurs at a very high rate with most other mental health issues, developmental disabilities, those kinds of things.

Trudy Scott: That's very interesting that they are not talking about it. So, it's

when you start to work with them that you're asking these questions and then they tell you about it? Are they just so used to it that they don't even think it's something that they could change and they're more worried about addressing some of the other issues that they're dealing with? Or any ideas?

Nicole Beurkens: I think sometimes that – yeah, I think sometimes that can be the

case but I think more often than not, when it comes to anxiety, people – even children – their experience of living has been so anxiety filled for so long that they don't even realize that they could not be that way. And especially for kids, they feel like this is just what it's like for everybody. They don't realize that there's



another way to feel or be and they think, “Well, everybody feels this way” so they don't even bring it up because they don't think it's anything different.

Trudy Scott: Aw, that's sad. Wow. But they're working with you so they're

finding answers, which is great. Nicole Beurkens: Right. And you know what we say to people – and often we'll say

to parents – we'll observe their kids for a little bit and maybe they won't have brought up anxiety, they'll bring up things like, “Oh my child's really hyperactive or inattentive” or those kinds of things. And we'll watch the child for a while and we'll say, “Well, we're seeing a lot of symptoms of anxiety.” And then we'll kind of talk about that and they'll go, “You know, I never thought about that as being the issue.” And that's one of the common misdiagnosis in children and adolescence especially is anxiety disorders get misdiagnosed as attention problems.

And so many children and teenagers who end up with a diagnosis

of ADD or ADHD really, what they're dealing with is anxiety disorder or some type of anxiety and that is presenting as inattentiveness and they get misdiagnosed. So we end up doing a lot of second opinion diagnosis of those kinds of things because that is so often missed by people.

Trudy Scott: Great. And it's interesting that you say that the kids feel like it's

so much a part of their living because they’ve always been like that. I work with a lot of adult women and I find that a lot of women will have similar kind of thinking. Because they're either thinking, “Well, I'm at the age where things are going wrong and I'm more anxious and I've just got to live with it” or they've had it their whole lives and they don't realize that there's something that they could do about it.

And it's unfortunate but we are hopefully going to change it so

they don't have to live with it forever because there is a resolution. They don't have to feel like they have to manage it. When I had the interview with Julia Ross, we were talking about the fact that a lot of people think they're just going to manage their symptoms and they're going to going to learn to live with them. And it doesn't have to be like that. We can completely eliminate the symptoms.

Nicole Beurkens: Yeah. And I think people – you're right – that people just don't

even realize it's possible. They just think, “This is a part of who I am. This is how it is.” Or “This is what life is like.” So, part of



the initial phase of treatment is even helping them to understand and conceptualize that things could be different.

Trudy Scott: Excellent. So, is this part of your approach in teaching the anxiety

– I know you've got some different approaches that you use. Is that – the starting point is actually acknowledging that this is something that can be dealt with?

Nicole Beurkens: Absolutely. Helping them to understand that this is a component

of what's going on for them and doing some patient education on how anxiety impacts our function, the physiology and the neurology behind anxiety and really giving them – that educational piece is huge. In our practice, we use a wide variety of approaches for anxiety and all the other things we treat – things like more traditional, individual and family counseling, cognitive behavior therapy, cognitive skills training – those can all be helpful tools for people. I'm teaching things like relaxation strategies. We also do a specific form of neuro feedback that we find can be helpful for many people with anxiety; the nutrition support, obviously, that we're talking about, and then another component that sometimes people don't think about particularly in relation to children and teenagers is the issue of needing to do a lot of parent training and education.

Because when children have anxiety disorders, we really need to

work with parents to understand what's going on with that. And for them to be able to implement strategies at home and in school and things like that to support them – so that parent training piece when you're dealing with a child population is important, too.

Trudy Scott: Good point. Do you find that you have anxiety running in

families? So, you may have parents bringing in a child and they have anxiety symptoms and the parents may have anxiety as well without being aware that it's really something they could do something about.

Nicole Beurkens: Absolutely. I'm really glad you brought that up because that's

something that we see a lot, actually. That when we have kids who are struggling with anxiety symptoms, very frequently, one or both parents has similar issues. And it's funny because as adults, as parents, we'll do things for our children sometimes that we won't do for ourselves. So, parents will bring their kids in for treatment and then you start talking with them and getting more information in talking about that for the kids and then the parents start going, “Oh, well, I have that. Oh, well, I experience...” and you start talking with them and then they suddenly become aware of and



realize, “Oh my goodness, I really have a lot of the same challenges.”

When parents are able to recognize and acknowledge that that's

going on, it allows us to work with them in treatment, too. And ultimately, that is really critical for kids. Because when we try to treat a child in a family who's very anxious and we have parents – one or both parents – who's very anxious and isn't receiving appropriate treatment for that, it makes it very difficult to treat the child because they're in this environment all the time that's highly anxiety driven. So, that's really where our family approach comes in in our clinic of working with everybody in the family and really helping to address these issues across the family and not just in the child. Very often, it is occurring for the parents, and we need to help them, so that they can help their child.

Trudy Scott: Wonderful. I think that's beautiful. And it's so interesting because,

as you say, parents are bringing their kids in and you're helping the kids and then in turn helping the parents. With me, I work primarily with women and they come to seek help from me and then they think, “Oh, my daughter's got anxiety” or “My mother's got anxiety.” So, it's interesting how we're ending up helping the whole family from it – a different initial perspective. It's wonderful.

Nicole Beurkens: Absolutely. Yeah. Trudy Scott: It is. So, any other topics on these approaches? Do we want to

talk about the nutrition that you use in the practice? Nicole Beurkens: Yeah. Let's talk a bit about that because the interesting thing is,

there's a lot of approaches that the research shows can be very effective for anxiety. What I find, and what we find here at our practice, is that an integration of many of those approaches is often helpful. Just like when you and I were talking about sort of my treatment plan of making some diet changes, implementing some supplements, getting an exercise component – there were multiple things that played into me feeling better. I think it's the same thing for patients with anxiety.

Often there's multiple components but what we find is that having

good nutrition status is so important as a foundation for other therapies that we might do. And so when people have really poor nutrition status and they don't have good physical health or they're lacking in some areas of their health, that really impacts the brain and impacts things like mood, and anxiety. When people are ill –



some of the children and the adults that we see have been dealing with a lot of chronic medical issues for a while – that impacts how the brain functions. And you know, it's very interesting because often in the medical field we talk about the brain and the body as if they’re disconnected – and it blows my mind that this still happens but it's very common. –. It's like, I go to my medical doctor for this. I go to my psychologist or my psychiatrist for this.

And it's all one. The brain and the body are totally interconnected.

And so if we have chronic health problems in the body, that's automatically going to impact how the brain functions. So, if people are eating a diet that's full of junk food, sugars, chemicals – those kinds of things – it's not appropriately nourishing their body and their brain. They're going to end up with a wide variety of mental health symptoms.

Now, some people – those mental health symptoms may not rise to

the level of where they would seek help for them. And then some people, really it becomes a huge problem and they need to seek out help for that. But that nutrition status – looking at that nutrition piece is just so critical and often, people don't understand or connect the two because they think, “Oh, something like anxiety – that's a mental health problem. That's something in my head and nutrition has to do with the body.”

And they don't have the ability to see and connect how those

pieces fit together. And so I feel like our role, as clinicians, is to do education around helping them understand how those things connect and why the things that we eat and what we're doing to support our nutrition in our body is so important for reducing symptoms of things like anxiety.

Trudy Scott: Wonderful. I'm so glad you made the point about the brain and

the body being connected. That's so obvious. Dr. Felice Jacka, the researcher that I interviewed talking about using food to prevent and treat anxiety and depression – she said when she did her study in 2010, they were skeptical that it would actually show that food could impact anxiety and depression. So, it's amazing that – to us, it just seems so common sense.

To a lot of people it just seems common sense and yet, it is not

well recognized. But we are on a mission to change that, aren't we?

Nicole Beurkens: Well, that's exactly right. And it's amazing even how much within

the traditional medical community that stuff isn't talked about and



how a lot of the treatments that are done for people with issues like anxiety act like their brain is completely disconnected from their body. “Oh, we'll give you this chemical medication to treat this neurotransmitter in your brain” – completely ignoring the physiology of everything that's going on that's perpetuating those symptoms. And it's really not an ideal situation when we're compartmentalizing symptoms and treating them like they have nothing to do with one another. And that's why I think that more holistic, integrative approach of looking at the whole person and all of the pieces that are going on – that's really critical whether we're aiming to reduce symptoms of anxiety or anything else that we might be trying to address symptom wise. Looking at the big picture of the person is really important for treatment.

Trudy Scott: So, what do you see in children and adults who try these other

therapies – that aren't actually addressing the nutrition piece? Nicole Beurkens: You know, it's interesting. We have some patients who make

progress – they reduce their anxiety symptoms without addressing the nutrition piece. Some of them do that. However, we find that some patients don't make any progress at all with other therapies that we're doing until they address the nutrition piece. And most of them – they make some progress on their symptoms but maybe some of the other approaches we might use like neuro feedback or relaxation training or some cognitive behavior therapy or things like that.

But at a certain point, they get stuck and have difficulty going

further or really getting to the point where that anxiety is not an issue for them anymore if they're not addressing the nutrition piece. So, I feel like that is so important as a foundation for people that yes, it's appropriate in many cases to use other types of treatment for the anxiety but when we remove the nutrition piece from the picture all together, I think most people are limited in the progress that they're going to make. And we see people make faster progress and progress that lasts longer and they get better results when we're addressing that kind of piece. You know, I could give many examples from my practice. We had a little guy in here just the other day – a seven year old – whose parents really were struggling with the idea of making some diet changes for him.

It just was so clear that he's not processing his food very well. He

has all the classic symptoms of food sensitivity – dark circles under the eyes, pale skin, real inconsistent bowel movements – just all kinds of physical types of things that are speaking to the fact



that the diet that he's eating is not really supporting him well. And we've been doing some parent training using some relaxation strategies, using some neuro feedback and he has made some progress over that last six weeks. But we have continued to say to parents, “You know, we would like to see him be doing much better. He has the potential to do much better. We're doing what we can with the treatments we're using now but he'd really make much faster progress, we believe, if we could look at some of the pieces of what he's eating.”

And you know, as they've gotten to know us more and kind of

eased into the idea, they've come along with it and are starting to be willing to talk about how we could help them implement some of those changes. And they even just reduced the amount of sugar filled junk food that he was having for snacks and started to notice some small changes with that. And so sometimes, it's even just little things like that that get the ball rolling. People start to see, “Okay, this can make a difference and can move us forward.” But, he's a great example of where we were making some progress slowly, but we could make much bigger progress more quickly if we address that underlying nutrition piece.

So, we just feel like it's a cornerstone of treatment for people. And

while you can do other things without it, everything really works better when you're incorporating that piece.

Trudy Scott: Great. And kids respond so quickly. The smallest change – just

start adding in protein in breakfast and as you say, reducing some of the junk food – even just reducing it. And if gluten was an issue, removing that all together. Imagine the results that they would see then.

I think it's nice for parents to get a taste of a change that they can

see it in their child and then say, “Wow. Look at the difference. Okay, now I'm more motivated to continue.” And for people who might not even make that connection to food and how their kids are behaving and some of the issues that they're having, sometimes that's difficult to make that connection. Those little changes can go a long way to helping.

Nicole Beurkens: Yeah. And most parents who come into the clinic haven't ever

even been exposed to the idea that what they're feeding their children could be having an impact on their learning mood and behavior. I mean, really. A lot of the parents that we see in our clinic are educated people. It just really hasn't occurred to them or they haven't had education around that piece.



And so you're so right – when they get some even small successes

and they can see some changes, it motivates them to be willing to maybe make some of the more difficult changes in terms of that kind of thing. I was thinking I should give an example too of adults with how we can get stuck in treatment if we're not addressing this piece because I think maybe a lot of the people listening to this, if they're adults who have struggled with anxiety, might be able to relate. Probably the number on treatment recommendation that's traditionally given to patients with anxiety is to go for counseling, right? Do you find that's what most people have been told to do. “Go get some kind of counseling.”

I've had many adult patients over the years say, “I've been to

counseling. I have learned how to do things like reframe my thinking, rehearsing positive thoughts. I've learned how to communicate my emotions. I've learned deep breathing techniques. I've done all of that and it may help temporarily or it may take some of the symptoms away but I'm still struggling with this.”

And I think what people need to understand is – those kinds of

techniques and communication skills and emotional regulation skills are great. But if your brain is constantly in a high alert mode because your neuro chemistry and your biology is just driving this anxiousness within you, you can learn all the cognitive behavior strategies in the world and you're not going to truly relieve the anxiety. So, you have to address that from the bottom up as well. Continue, by all means, using some of those good, cognitive kinds of strategies but we also have to address what it is that's going on in the body that's driving this constant sense of internal tension and anxiousness if they're going to really see results over the long term.

Trudy Scott: Excellent. And you just said exactly what Dr Josh Friedman said.

I interviewed him and he has an integrative psychotherapy practice and he said the same thing. It's going to make the therapy better and easier and you sometimes need that extra biochemical component that needs to be addressed.

Nicole Beurkens: Yeah. Absolutely. Trudy Scott: Great. So, what about combining this nutrition with the other

treatments? You've talked about therapy and some of these other treatments. What about medication?



Nicole Beurkens: Yeah. I think that combining nutrition with other treatments is often a really good strategy. Some people can do just the nutrition piece and their anxiety symptoms go away and that's great. And other people need to have some of these other components with it. We find that many of the patients who come in with anxiety symptoms, they're already on medication and/or receiving counseling services.

So, we're fine with them continuing with that while we work on the

nutrition and the other components that they need for that. And for most people who come in, they're here because they have a goal of wanting to reduce their symptoms without needing to be on prescription medications long term. I'm not against prescription medication for things like anxiety but I think there's far too many people put on those medications without really giving them the option or the opportunity to do other things first. It's sort of like they go into the physician and say, “Well, I'm struggling with panic” or “I'm struggling with anxiety” and they leave five minutes later with a prescription for a medication” without even being educated about why it is that they're having these symptoms or other things that they can do. At least that's what we find at our clinic.

So, in an optimal situation, when a patient comes in and they're

having anxiety symptoms, we would like to have them work with us to address the nutrition piece right from the start of treatment along with whatever other components of treatment we're doing. But, as we mentioned before, some people need some time to warm up to the idea of that. Some people need more education and to wrap their head around the idea that their diet and supplementation of things could be impacting their symptoms. And some people just need to work towards the idea of making really small changes initially. So, we kind of take people where they're at in terms of starting with what feels like a starting point that they can manage and then working from there.

So, I think it really varies – the combinations of things that can be

used, but I think it's preferable when people can start to think about and have us help them address the nutrition piece right from the start along with whatever else we're doing. And obviously, when people are on medications, we're working closely with their prescribing physicians to talk about what we're doing for our treatment plan and to be in good communication with those physicians about how this might be impacting their symptoms and how we might look at monitoring their medications and looking at making changes in that along the way. So, that communication



with those prescribers is obviously really important if people are already taking medication.

Trudy Scott: Absolutely. And I'm glad we're talking about the medication part

because you're right – a lot of people are not even told that there's other options and too many people are being over medicated. I am not a fan of any of the anti-anxiety medications. I actually had Dr Catherine Pittman talked about benzosand the addictive component and –

Nicole Beurkens: Oh, it's a disaster. Trudy Scott: – tolerance and actually causing more anxiety. And I saw a very

disturbing article – I think it was in The Wall Street Journal talking about wanting to put kids with autism on Benzodiazepine at a very young age. That is so, so disturbing.

Nicole Beurkens: It's very disturbing and that's the thing, you know. I think it's a

problem with adults where like I said, they go in and describe to their physician during a 5 or 10 minute appointment, they're having some of these symptoms. They leave with a prescription. But that's happening a lot with kids, too. And children often can't really articulate exactly the symptoms that they're experiencing.

They can't really articulate what their experience is of being on

these medications – especially if they have more significant issues like autism or those kinds of things. And these children are being put on medications that we don't have good research to show us what the long-term impacts of these things are. And we get these kids in here who are on many, many different medications – these cocktails of medications – and still having very significant symptoms of anxiety and other things. You look at that and you go, “Wait a minute. Not only are they on all these medications and have the potential side effects and long-term problems of that, but it's not even making their symptoms better. So, what are we doing?”

So, often our role becomes one of really working with the family

and with the physicians and people involved with their care to look at how can we more effectively treat this and how can we try to minimize use of medication? Because often, what we end up with is having to treat side effects of medications that they're on and it just becomes a really awful situation. So yes, certainly, where that can be avoided, it's definitely preferable and I think that if people were better educated about their options and were told, “Look, here's a variety of things that can be done. Let's try some of these



other things first” – I know that the majority of parents we see would be more than willing to do that. Most of them do not want their children on prescription medications for things like anxiety.

They simply don't know what else to do because they haven't been

given other options. So, that education piece and like this – the summit that you're doing to get this information out there – it's so important for educating the public on what their options are for treating these things.

Trudy Scott: Wonderful. And what we need is this to be in the mainstream so it

is the first approach that is taken instead of the medications. And, as you say, people have these options that they can use and they can decide what they want to do.

Nicole Beurkens: Absolutely. That's exactly right. Trudy Scott: So, I'd like to hear about the kinds of nutrition changes that you

encourage your patients to consider and I'd love you to give us an example. Maybe we can talk about the little seven year old guy that you mentioned earlier and maybe you could say what foods he was eating, just to give us an example of what some of these kids might be eating.

Nicole Beurkens: Sure. Absolutely. It is not uncommon for us to see children whose

diet consists of mainly sugars and empty starches. So, when we do diet histories – and that's one of the things that we require on our intake for all patients, regardless of what their symptoms are or whatever, we want to see a diet history over a couple of days of what they're eating. And it's not uncommon for us to get diet histories for kids – and even some adults – that you get this list of saying, “Eat Corn Pops for breakfast, drink pop or sugary juice beverages throughout the day.”

Their diet consists of things like French fries, hot dogs, macaroni

and cheese, pizza, and chicken nuggets. It's not uncommon for us to see these diet histories where this is pretty much what these kids are eating. Cereals, processed foods – the closest thing to a vegetable in their diet is French fries and the parent say, “Oh, well, it's” – no. That's not a vegetable. But this is the stuff that they're eating.

And then these kids come in with all these symptoms and you look

at that and you go, “Well, it's no wonder you're not functioning very well.” And a lot of the adults that we see is not a whole lot better. It might not be chicken nuggets and hot dogs but it's a lot



of sugary beverages throughout the day or a lot of diet beverages with artificial chemicals and sweeteners. It's a lot of processed food. A lot of eating out at restaurants not getting good nutrient quality in their food.

So, those are, in general, the kinds of things that we see patients

presenting with in terms of what their nutrition status is. And as a general rule, we have a chart that we've put together for a patient that is geared towards red light, yellow light, and green light foods. And actually, that's a document that I can make available to people. So, I can get that to you and you can put it on your website if you want people to be able to download that.

Trudy Scott: Wonderful. Nicole Beurkens: But you know, we're teaching them that even at a most basic level,

if they can avoid certain things, limit certain things and then really focus on eating certain kinds of things, that that will help their symptoms. We may need very specific strategies and specific diet protocols for some people but in general, if we can get people to totally avoid the red light foods of things like artificial sweeteners, food dyes, MSG, high fructose corn syrup – those kinds of things – that will produce some positive change for them. We talked about yellow light foods as things like genetically modified foods, refined grains, dairy products, processed foods – those kinds of things – of wanting to limit those. And then our green light foods are things that we want them to eat a lot of.

So, fruits and vegetables and drinking a lot of water and nondairy

kinds of milks and proteins and healthy fats and organic items wherever they can. So, we educate even young children that we see all the way up through the adults on, “Here's kind of how we want you to be thinking about food and making these kinds of choices for yourselves.” And then we have patients who need more specific recommendations. They may need to be gluten free or dairy free. They may need more of a Paleo kind of diet or a specific carbohydrate diet or a Feingold diet or things like that.

But we always start with those basics of “Let's start thinking about

what we're eating and putting in our bodies. Let's move towards more whole, real foods – away from the processed chemicals.” And those are changes we try to help everybody make. For the little guy who I mentioned earlier – that seven year old – even just helping his parents start to think about what he was eating for snacks and making some changes there. Not having so much juice kinds of items, not having so many sugary options, starting to think



about what are some other things that you can have in the house for him to snack on besides that.

Even just that change, they started to notice some small differences

there. Now, he's a kid who really, as we move towards gluten-free/dairy free – I have no doubt he's going to do much better with that because all his symptoms just fit the profile for sensitivities to those things so clearly. But even just with making some of those lateral shifts away from some of the real sugary chemically stuff that he was eating for snacks to healthier options, they even notice a difference with that. So, sometimes it's just a matter of starting with small things that his parents feel like they can manage and don't kind of shock the kids by totally changing everything about what they're eating all at once, that can be helpful. We've noticed that with adults, too.

I don't know if you see this but we see a lot of adults come in who

are drinking a lot of diet beverages. Do you see that, too? Trudy Scott: Yep. Nicole Beurkens: Yeah. A lot of diet beverages. And it's something that I've been

really aware of as an issue for a long time because I, way long ago, used to be a Diet Coke drinker and developed a full blown allergy to it. In fact – I don't know if I ever told you this – but I was diagnosed with early onset rheumatoid arthritis in my 20s.

Trudy Scott: I didn't know. Nicole Beurkens: Yeah. It turned out that wasn't the issue at all. I ended up self-

diagnosing that I had developed an allergy to Aspartame. And when I cut the diet drink out, within eight weeks, all of my symptoms had resolved. But when I have anything with an artificial sweetener in it now, I start to get joint pain and that reaction.

So, I've been aware for a long time about the powerful effects of

those kinds of chemicals can have on us. And a lot of people don't even realize that. We get a lot of adults in the clinic who are experiencing things like anxiety and depression and obesity and those kinds of things and they're drinking just gallons of this diet stuff all day. And even a change like that – cutting out the diet drinks, cutting out the artificial sweeteners – people will notice a difference pretty quickly in how they're feeling and they'll notice a reduction in their anxiety. So, sometimes it's, like I said, just kind



of starting with some of those small things and helping them to see a change with that.

I will say that some of our more severely impaired people who we

see who have a host of cognitive symptoms, like anxiety and severe mood symptoms, have a lot of medical and physiological problems on top of it, those tend to be more of the patients who need more of the restrictive diets, the really closely monitored diets where we're really limiting them to certain kinds of things. And they can do very well on that. I mean, we've seen a lot of symptoms – even in severely impaired people – really clear up when we get them off of all grains, for example, if that's an issue for a person. And you take them not only off gluten, but you take them off all grains and you notice, in some of these kids, their behavior just improves miraculously in a short period of time. So, I think it's being able to work with a practitioner who sort of has experience with that and knows what the symptoms are that can be connected to some of those food issues and being able to help the family put a plan together that will make sense as far as, “Let's try this with the diet and let's see what happens with the behavior.”

It can be a trial and error sometimes but I think even getting people

to start with some of those really basic things is a step in the right direction.

Trudy Scott: That's wonderful. And wonderful hearing those results that you're

getting. I'm curious, Nicole – when did you implement the nutritional component into your practice? Was it right from day one or was it something that you evolved into doing?

Nicole Beurkens: It's something that we evolved into doing. And we evolved into

doing it because along the way, it's like, “Okay, we're getting good results with people but then there's some people who are kind of stuck.” Everything in my practice over the years, has been an issue of expanding to find new solutions when people get stuck with things.

Trudy Scott: Good for you. Nicole Beurkens: So, that really is what that's come out of, over probably the last 10

years or so is saying, “Boy, we're getting to a certain point with some of these people but then we're getting stuck. What else can we do?” And starting to educate myself more and get more training and take more classes and work with more colleagues to educate myself and then my staff on, “Here's other important pieces we need to consider.” And so it's interesting – the nutrition



piece has become bigger and bigger over the years. We initially started doing it just for some of the people who were stuck and then began realizing, “You know what? This is something that should be at the forefront of what we're doing.”

Trudy Scott: That's so wonderful to hear. I take my hat off to you and I wish

there were more clinics doing what you're doing. It's really, really wonderful.

Nicole Beurkens: Thank you. Trudy Scott: Now, when you are treating kids, are there challenges that you run

into with helping the parents and the families make some of these changes? Because I certainly find that when I'm working with a mom, I say, “It's helpful to have the whole family make the changes, otherwise, it gets quite tricky if mom's having to cook one meal for this person and a different meal for someone else.” Are these the kinds of problems that you're seeing and can you share possible other problems that you're seeing?

Nicole Beurkens: These are exactly the kinds of problems that we see. And it's so

funny – I was talking to a mom just a couple of hours before you and I got on the phone together. This is a family with four boys between the ages of 5 and 13, all of whom have various levels of learning and behavior challenges, anxiety. Mom and Dad have some challenges with anxiety themselves. And we've been using a variety of approaches with them over the last year and then talking with them about nutrition changes.

And they've kind of been slow to warm up to the idea. Mom was

very overwhelmed at the thought of having to cook differently or eat differently and she came in today and she said, “I am ready to make these changes that we need to make. I'm ready to start with this this summer. What can we start with? How can you help me put together a plan for this?”

And she was really determined to do it and determined that the

whole family was going to do it. And that really had been what I'd said to her all along. “If you're going to do this, we need to do it for everybody.” Because as you said, to try to do short order restaurant cooking of, “Well, you can't have this and I'm going to make this for you” – that's a recipe for any parent to become anxious, right?

Trudy Scott: Yes many people can feel overwhelmed.



Nicole Beurkens: Exactly. So, we try to help families see that this way of eating is going to benefit everybody. And you may be doing it specifically because one or two members of the family are really having significant symptoms but ultimately, everybody's going to see the brain and body benefit from that. So, that's a big thing. When we see families who the parents say, “No, I'm just going to try to change it for this particular kid” – very rarely does that work out.

And one of the very simple logistical things is when those foods

are in the house and available, it's really hard to keep a kid out of them. You have to watch them every minute to make sure they're not getting into it because it’s there and other people are eating it. And they're going to get hold of it. So, we really try to help families implement that for everybody and help parents to see the benefits that they will experience from that, too. But I would say that it is one of the unique challenges of trying to treat children is that you need to get the parents on board.

And nutrition is something that parents have control over, not kids.

I'm thinking too of a teenager I saw today who has really significant anxiety issues, some depression, and some learning problems. We've been working on him being willing to try new foods and eat more and his mom made a comment today and she said, “You know, I think it's to the point where David is making better choices about his nutrition than I am.” And I thought, “That's interesting.” And he said, “Well, I would eat even better than I do if there was more good, nutritious food available in the house.”

And I just said to him, “Well, you're going to take driver's training

this summer and when you have more independence and you can get yourself places, then you can buy the things that you want to have.” But I thought, “Here's an interesting case where the child has bought into this idea and has been able to make better choices for himself than what his parents are making.” But that's the exception. Most of the time, if the parents aren't making good choices and providing things, then the kids aren't going to go along with it. So, it's really important that you get the whole family buying into it.

And I think that's where, as practitioners, we try to offer a lot of

resources for patients and families. We'll help them and give them resources for meal planning. We have a lending library of books and videos and resources that help them learn about and make it easier to make some of these changes in how they're cooking and shopping. Some of our clinicians here have been known to even



go to the store with parents and help them – “See, here's how you look at labels. Here's kind of things that you want to avoid. Here's the parts of the store that we want to focus on shopping in. Here's the parts we want to stay away from.”

Giving them recipes, connecting them with other families who

have already made these changes so that they have a support network and can talk to other people who are doing it – I think those are all really important parts of clinically, what we can provide to people to help increase the likelihood that they're able to really implement these kinds of changes. Because it can be really hard for some people.

Trudy Scott: You're right. And when they're malnourished, they're going to be

feeling overwhelmed. The adrenals are probably burned out so everything just feels like it's too much. So, we want to make it as easy as possible for them. And sharing all those resources is absolutely wonderful.

Nicole Beurkens: Yeah. And some of them really need it. And ultimately, our goal

is we may lay out a plan that involves a lot of nutrition changes but ultimately, we're going to say, “Where do you feel like you can start?” Whether it's an adult patient where we're saying, “Where do you feel like you can start?”

Or we're saying to parents, “Okay, here's ideally, all the things that

we want to do. What feels like a place that we could start right now? Could we just start to look at substituting water instead of some of these sugary drinks during the day? Could we start to dilute your child's juice with water if we have to take that small of a step? Where can we start?”

Because we feel like if people are overwhelmed by it, they're not

going to do it. So, I'd rather start really slow and help work them up to it and help get them feeling competent with those changes than to overwhelm them with trying to push changes that they're never going to be able to implement. So, I feel like even if we have to start with very small steps, then that's where we start.

Trudy Scott: Great. They are very lucky to have you there, Nicole. Nicole Beurkens: Thank you. I really feel like coming to work every day is a

privilege. I love what I do and my staff here – we love what we do. It feels like an honor and a privilege to be able to work with the people who come in the door and allow us to kind of walk alongside them. These people have been through a lot



individually, as a family, and it means a lot that they are willing to keep trying and to trust us to kind of guide them and walk along with them. It really is a privilege. I feel very privileged to do the work I do.

Trudy Scott: And that's an important point. That we're guiding them and we're

not judging. Because we talked about the bad diets that these families are eating and it's not their fault. It's just that there's not anything in place for people to learn this information. And I think this should be foundational stuff that we learn in school.

I remember in South Africa going to school and we had Home

Economics and we learned about food. We learned about cooking. And yes, that's all gone out the window. I remember when we were buying our house, we went to different houses, and some of them had kitchens that hadn't even been used because people weren't cooking. They were just buying/eating out.

So, we need to change things at a grassroots level so people know

how important food is and they know that they can go to a Farmers' Market and buy beautiful vegetables and fruits and meet the farmer and buy good quality, grass fed red meat and know that that's going to make a difference in how they feel. Unfortunately, a lot of people say, “Well, it's too expensive.” But when they are no longer buying the sugary foods and they're no longer buying the sodas, they're going to have the money to spend on this beautiful food and they're going to feel much better.

Nicole Beurkens: That's right. And you know what a lot of patients say to us, too?

They say, “You know, look at what I'm paying every month for my prescription medications.” And when they start to realize that by investing in good quality foods that the tradeoff then is better health which may, in the short or long term, reduce their reliance on some of these expensive medications, we've had patients say, “I eat way better. I buy more expensive food now that I'm cooking, but I'm still coming out ahead at the end of the month because I'm not paying hundreds of dollars for all these prescriptions I don't need anymore.”

Trudy Scott: Wonderful. And then there's other things they can do. They can

grow a garden. They can become part of a community garden. They can grow their own herbs in their kitchen. So, there's so much that we can do.

Nicole Beurkens: Well, and I should say too that one of the things that we do here

with a lot of the kids and the teenagers is involve them in learning



how to cook. And in fact, we just were doing our planning for our summer programs where we've got kids here individually in groups over the summer and a lot of the things they're doing every day center around growing our garden out back here at the clinic and cooking and learning those kinds of skills. Because you're right – we've lost that in public education and a lot of families aren't doing it. So, children are not able to be an apprentice to people in the kitchen, learning how to cook. And it's such an important thing and it's a proactive way of keeping them then from following in that cycle of just eating out at fast food or at restaurants all the time. So, yeah, it's an important thing for kids to learn.

Trudy Scott: It is. And I love that you say, “Apprentice in the kitchen.” I

remember cooking with my Granny in the kitchen when I was growing up and that's not happening anymore. Kids don't know how to cook. They don't know how to identify various fruits and vegetables.

They don't know how to knit. Things that we did when we were

kids. It's sad. We need to get back to the basics and we can just change the world and change the way people feel by doing that.

Nicole Beurkens: Absolutely. Trudy Scott: Well, I've seen pictures of your clinic online and did the virtual

tour on your website and it looks absolutely fantastic. You've done such an amazing job creating that place and doing what you're doing and I hope to get there one day – hopefully sooner rather than later.

Nicole Beurkens: Absolutely. Our door is always open to you and to anybody else

who wants to come and visit. Trudy Scott: Well, it's great. And it's been so wonderful having you sharing this

information. I know that you'd mentioned that you would make this Yellow Light, Red Light, Green Light document available, which is fantastic, and we'll have that link available on the website. And if Nicole comes up with anything else that she wants to share with you, we'll make sure that's available as well. And any final words?

Nicole Beurkens: I think just for anybody who is listening to this, whether it's ever

occurred to you before or not, to just have your mind be open to the idea that what you eat and how you eat can impact how you feel – whether it's anxiety or other symptoms that you're experiencing. Just be open to the idea that the way that you're



nourishing your body impacts how your brain works and how anxious you're feeling. And once you're open to that idea, it opens up a whole realm of possibilities that you can do to shift that in a more positive direction.

Trudy Scott: Wonderful. Fantastic ending and really fantastic interview.

Thanks so much, Nicole. Nicole Beurkens: Thanks for having me, Trudy. Trudy Scott: This has been a fantastic talk – Nutrition as a Foundation for other

Therapies. I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have. I hope you're inspired to get out there and grow some vegetables and make some changes in your family so everyone in the family can feel great. And thanks very much again, Nicole, for sharing with us today, and everyone for listening to yet, another fantastic interview on The Anxiety Summit. This is Trudy Scott signing off.

Here is the The Anxiety Summit blog post for this speaker. It has additional information and useful links: http://www.everywomanover29.com/blog/anxiety-summit-nutrition-as-a-foundation-for-other-therapies/ Dr. Nicole Beurkens, PhD, Licensed Psychologist, Certified Brain Injury Specialist, Certified LENS Practitioner

Dr. Nicole Beurkens, PhD, licensed clinical psychologist, has over 17 years of experience helping individuals and families impacted by a range of neurological disorders including autism spectrum disorders, ADHD, learning disabilities, behavioral disorders, and brain injury. Dr. Beurkens is the Founder and Director of the Horizons Developmental Resource Center in Caledonia, Michigan. She and her team are dedicated to exceptional evaluation and integrative treatment services, research on parent-child interaction and relationships, and professional training on best practices. As a published author, Dr. Beurkens has developed a variety of educational resources for parents and professionals.



She’s a highly sought-after international consultant and speaker, published researcher, a Mom’s Choice Award recipient, and AutismOne Best Therapist award winner. She is dedicated to empowering patients with knowledge and strategies that allow them to reach their highest potential. Trudy Scott, CN, host of the Anxiety Summit, Food Mood expert and author of The Antianxiety Food Solution

Food Mood Expert Trudy Scott is a certified nutritionist on a mission to educate and empower women worldwide about natural solutions for anxiety, stress and emotional eating. Trudy works with women one-on-one and in groups, serving as a catalyst in bringing about life enhancing transformations that start with the healing powers of eating real whole food, using individually targeted supplementation and making simple lifestyle changes. She also presents nationally to nutrition and mental health professionals on food and mood, sharing all the recent research and how-to steps so they too can educate and empower their clients and patients.

Trudy is past president of the National Association of Nutrition Professionals. She was recipient of the 2012 Impact Award and currently serves as a Special Advisor to the Board of Directors. She is a member of Alliance for Addiction Solutions and Anxiety and Depression Association of America. Trudy is the author of The Antianxiety Food Solution: How the Foods You Eat Can Help You Calm Your Anxious Mind, Improve Your Mood and End Cravings (New Harbinger 2011). The information provided in The Anxiety Summit via the interviews, the blog posts, the website, the audio files and transcripts, the comments and all other means is for informational and educational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for advice from your physician or other health care professional. You should consult with a healthcare professional before starting any diet, exercise, or supplementation program, before taking or stopping any medication, or if you have or suspect you may have a health problem.

Date post:	26-Jun-2020
Category:	Documents
Upload:	others
View:	0 times
Download:	0 times

Nicole Beurkens Nutrition as a Foundation for Other Therapies · Nutrition as a Foundation for...

Documents