Hello  – severe anxiety following an infection is usually due to a need for more tryptophan – an essential amino acid protein that we cannot make, but need to get through food.

So question #1 to you – do you consume enough animal & plant protein sources rich in tryptophan? Here’s an expanded list of foods rich in tryptophan.

Given that you have hypothyroid function, stomach acid production may also be compromised since everything in the body becomes “sluggish” with underactive thyroid function. We need good strong stomach acid to break down our proteins from food, including tryptophan and other amino acids which are critical for neurotransmitter production (and regulating mood!).

So from a root cause approach – how would you rate your overall digestion and gut health? Given your recent bout of food poisoning, I suspect low stomach acid might be at play since stomach acid acts like a “cleansing tank” preventing pathogens from entering our GI tract.

Supplemental support with hydrochloric acid betaine (if confirmed there is no H. Pylori bacterial overgrowth) or digestive bitters might help offer rapid relief. Have you ever done a comprehensive stool test like the GI map to get an idea of your gut health? I know you’re new to B Better, so here’s the video on GI map interpretation inside the Gut Health Masterclass to give you an idea of what this test offers.

So going to back tryptophan for a minute… it helps with mood and sleep. Has your sleep also been affected?

When we get sick, our immune system needs support. Tryptophan helps with immune activity, so instead of those resources being used to make neurotransmitters like serotonin, which help us feel calm, and sleep well, it will instead be used up to support immunity.

Here’s a diagram that shows these 2 pathways where tryptophan is used in the body. When there’s an infection, the body shifts tryptophan away from the right (down the serotonin/melatonin pathway) and instead shifts it to the left down the “kynurenine” pathway, leaving a person feeling more anxious since low serotonin will lead to anxiety and poor sleep.
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Increasing your animal protein intake (if it’s been low) and/or supporting digestion (stomach acid), or supplementing with tryptophan with B6 its cofactor might help. You can search for it in the B Better Fullscript dispensary. Here’s one possible supplement option.

For rapid relief, you can also try the ice water face dunk to stimulate the vagus nerve and parasympathetic process or some of these other tips shared in this post. Gargling and humming can also help as they all stimulate the vagus nerve.

Please let me know if you have any questions. Let’s keep the conversation going and get you feeling better again soon.

 please keep us posted with your results. We’re here to support you.

 just to be on the safe side, I think it’s best that you see a doctor about that symptom with difficulty swallowing and rule out neurological deficits, obstructions of the esophagus or a motor disorder.

Usually, the assessment goes as follows:
Difficulty with solids only: can indicate an obstructive lesion
Difficulty with liquids and solids: can indicate a motor disorder
Difficulty initiating swallowing: can indicate a neurological deficit

If the above are ruled out by a doc, look to a parthyroid dysfunction and/or biliary stasis. The parathyroid glands are a pair of small glands, located in the throat near the thyroid.

If you feel there’s a lump in your throat, this could be associated with a potassium insufficiency and/or gallbladder dysfunction with biliary statis.

Please watch this video on the the major players of digestion to understand the role of the gallbladder in digestion. And here’s a video on solutions for supporting the liver/gallbladder if this is at play in your case.

Have you ever tested your liver markers? These are ALT, AST, GGT, Alk Phos or ALP, Total and Direct bilirubin, Albumin, Total protein. If so, please share your results so we can help guide you better.

Hi  – just wanted to check in with you. How are you feeling?

 how was the H Pylori test done? Breath? I’ve seen many false negatives to be honest… my favorite test is by Diagnostic Solutions (it’s stool PCR) but it’s not covered by insurance.

If anything acidic makes it worse, that’s usually a sign you need a period of gut healing first. Here’s the video on that. Something like GI Revive powder/capsules or GI Relief for at least 30 days might offer some relief so you can better tolerate anything acidic (which you likely need, but not before putting out the fire first!). 

 I’d love to take a look at your labs. Would you be comfortable sharing your results here so we can take a look at them and help you troubleshoot? 

You can crop out any identifying information and change your profile name to an alias for confidentiality if you prefer. Here’s a video I did to show you how to do that: https://b-better.circle.so/c/start-here/how-to-change-your-notification-preferences-to-receive-less-emails-notifications

I can also suggest that I review your case live on our next case study call in March if you’d be interested in that opportunity. (January is already booked)

My hunch from everything you’ve shared so far is parasites and possibly yeast overgrowth. They often go hand-in-hand.

Have you ever done a parasite cleanse?

 did any of your naturopaths have you run any functional tests other than the heavy metal test? I would have loved to see a GI Map with Zonulin in that list of tests and an OAT test given your complaints with fatigue, brain fog, and digestive issues.

I’m still suspicious of H Pylori and possibly other microbial overgrowths (yeast is notorious for brain fog) and parasitic infections, despite the negative breath test and parasitology they ran for you. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve seen false readings.

I’m glad to hear that your severe anxiety has lessened. If your first naturopath did chelation therapy, I’m assuming there were high levels of heavy metals? This can lead to severe anxiety in people. The toxic elements test you attached doesn’t show the result bars for some reason… was this test done before or after your chelation therapy?

Can you please share what your doctors prescribed for you in terms of supplements/diet and what you’ve implemented from their guidance. For example, selenium which is critical for thyroid health was low. Did you supplement to correct this deficiency? What else have you been doing? This will help us guide you better.

Your thyroid antibodies are elevated. What type of diet are you following? As a minimum, when there is autoimmune activation, dairy and gluten should be eliminated 100% for a minimum of 4 months as a way to help calm the immune system. Due to molecular mimicry and cross reactivity, these proteins resemble thyroid tissue, and would be best avoided while working on healing the gut lining. Leaky gut is always at play in autoimmunity.

In the meantime, please watch this video on recommendations for autoimmune thyroiditis if you haven’t already done so.  And this video shares facts on what contributes to autoimmune disease to help you start thinking about possible root cause factors in your life.

 we can help facilitate access to functional tests like the GI Map with zonulin and the OAT for example. Just email support@bernadetteabraham.com with the tests you’d like to pursue, your full name, email address, date of birth, phone number, and billing/shipping address (if they’re different).

Iron on a hair elements is not a good reflection of iron status in the body. It’s best to test it in blood with ferritin and transferrin saturation.

I’m glad that your antibodies have come down. Removing dairy and gluten while working to address leaky gut will be helpful. Here’s the video on the triggers and causes of leaky gut (which I touch on as well in the previous video I sent you about thyroid autoimmunity), and here are some solutions from the Gut Health Masterclass course.