29: The Inside Story of Addiction: What You’re Made Of with Christina Vaselak
“There’s hope. There’s hope. There’s hope. It’s not your fault and there’s something you can do about it.” –Christina Vaselak
A casual conversation with an old acquaintance turns into a very enlightening discussion! Well, we’re still in the Winter Symposium with Jeff and he just had a great breakfast with Christina Vaselak, owner of Garden Gate Counselling and The Academy for Addiction and Mental Health Nutrition. She is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and a certified nutritionist. She’s currently writing a book and today we are privileged to get a prevue of it.
So, our lesson for today is Biology 101. Science may not be your favorite subject when you were at school because of so many alien concepts and terms. But today you’re going to love it as it goes down to a personal level. What we’re made of- our genes and other biochemical molecules- basically constitute who we are and what we become. Aside from our physical appearance, our emotions and predispositions can be tracked down to a molecular level- even the generational pattern of addiction. Just how? Listen in as Jeff and Christina discusses the biochemistry of addiction, how nutrition can affect, why genes need to be considered by substance users and non-users alike, and what test can give you the answers that you need.
Highlights:
01:34 About Christina
04:15 The Biochemistry of Active Addiction
28:17 Genetics 101
36:36 The Test
42:17 The 20-Minute Miracle
Resources
Book
“The Craving Cure” by Julia Ross
Do you have a trouble sleeping or an uncontrolled food craving? Ever heard of sugar addiction? (Who doesn’t have a sweet tooth!) Or do you just wish to understand how you feel. Well this podcast is for you! Join @TFRSolution and Christina Vaselak… Share on X
Connect With Cristina
Telephone: 303-888-9617
Website: https://www.garden-gatecounseling.com/
Email: christina@christinavaselak.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christina-vaselak-lmft-cn-6b7a256/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/christina.vaselak/
Quotes:
04:47 “We want to fix our addicted family member but we can feel really guilty about taking the time out to take time for ourselves.” –Christina Vaselak
05:04 “These characteristics of codependency aren’t just emotionally based or caused. They’re physiologically caused.”–Christina Vaselak
05:27 “We don’t think much about how many symptoms our clients are presenting with or our family members are presenting with for that matter… that are due to physical depletion.” –Christina Vaselak
14:18 “All sorts of things get depleted in terms of our brain when we are under both acute stress and long term stress. Because long term stress not only impacts the adrenal is but also our neurotransmitters… that help us mediate our feelings.” –Christina Vaselak
34:30 “Sugar consumption in this country is an epidemic.” -Christina Vaselak
39:50 “There’s hope. There’s hope. There’s hope. It’s not your fault and there’s something you can do about it.” –Christina Vaselak
Got ideas? Perhaps a future podcast? Schedule time with Jeff here: https://meetme.so/jeffjones
Transcriptions
JEFF: Hi everyone. So, today I’m here with a special guest, Christina Veselak. I’ve known Christina for a good number of years in a number of different contexts. How I know her primarily is a person with a very big drive and passion around how the body is affected nutritionally with neurotransmitters on a number of different levels and specifically with addiction and now, I’ve just learned from her. She’s writing a book for family members with an addicted loved one. She’s in that process. And so today we’re going to talk about a number of different topics, but before that I’d like to welcome Christina and have her introduce herself. I’m glad you’re here. Thanks.
CHRISTINA: Thanks Jeff. I’m glad I’m here too. I always enjoy your podcasts and chatting with you.
JEFF: Great.
CHRISTINA: So I’m Christina Veselak. I’m a licensed marriage and family therapist and a certified nutritionist. I have been licensed for over 35 years and working in the addiction field for that same amount of time. A nutritionist for about 25 years, specializing in mental health nutrition and addiction recovery. I do a lot of work with recovering addicts and alcoholics themselves, helping rebuild neurotransmitters and reduce craving and relapse by doing that. Helping people eat properly and stabilize blood sugar, also to reduce relapse and cravings but I’ve always been particularly interested in the addicted family having grown up in one.
JEFF: Alright. Alright. Thank you. And so how about if we just jump right in?
CHRISTINA: All right.
JEFF: We’re at the Winter Symposium and I just had breakfast with Christina and there were several topics that she wanted to talk about. And when I heard these I kind of lit up and I’m going: “Hey, can we have this recorded conversation?” And so, do you want to just jump right into the first topic, it was around stress, the impact of stress on family members who are dealing with addiction. Did I framed that –
CHRISTINA: You framed that beautifully. So Jeff, I want my book to be two and four and about the impact of living with active addiction on family members. So it could be active addiction, you know, now, how it’s currently impacting people that’s where we get stress, but also the long term health impact of growing up in a stressful, addicted, frequently traumatic home.
JEFF: Right.
CHRISTINA: And then the third thing that I’m going to be covering in the book and we’ll touch on today is how the genes that predispose us to addictive behaviors also impact non substance using family members. Whether they be parents, children, etc, because it’s the same genes running through all of us. It just impacts us in different ways.
JEFF: Yes. So I’m kind of wondering like –
CHRISTINA: Where do I want to jump in?
JEFF: Yes.
CHRISTINA: Okay. I’ll jump in with what happens to us in active addiction. So a lot of treatment programs, a lot of therapists, we kind of laugh a little bit about how challenging it can be working with a family member, whether it be a parent or a spouse. Because family members tend to be a little rigid, maybe a little angry. a lot angry, maybe a lot blaming, have problems with self care. You know, we want to fix our addicted family member and we can feel really guilty about taking the time out to take time for ourselves or take care of ourselves.
JEFF: Yeah.
CHRISTINA: And it can be a little challenging sometimes working with family members because of these things. Well, a lot of therapists don’t realize is these characteristics of codependency aren’t just emotionally based or caused. They’re physiologically caused, because of the impact that ongoing stress has on our body, our brain, and our adrenal glands. We don’t think about this as psychotherapists, right?
JEFF: Right.
CHRISTINA: And we don’t think about how many symptoms our clients are presenting with, or our family members are presenting with for that matter that are due to physiological depletion. So Hans Selye, a long time ago, he was a researcher, came up with the General Adaptation Syndrome that talked about how stress impacts the body and the adrenal glands. He talked about how the first thing that happens in the alarm phase with the short term stressor is the adrenals produce a lot of cortisol and adrenaline and we get all hyped up. You know, we have stories of mothers who can raise cars single handedly to rescue their kids, right?
JEFF: Because the amount of cortisol and adrenaline is pumping through their body.
CHRISTINA: Exactly. And help us cope.
JEFF: Yeah. Yeah – yeah.
CHRISTINA: And then what happens for the next 24-48 hours is we sort of crash.
JEFF: Yeah. After a situation like that.
CHRISTINA: After a situation like that because we’ve exhausted our adrenals temporarily and they sort of shut down and allow us to recover.
JEFF: And that’s a natural process that the body Instinctively will do by itself.
CHRISTINA: Exactly.
JEFF: And, there’s an and here. What happens if like that stressor is long term?
CHRISTINA: Exactly.
JEFF: For instance, like that just to hold that car up for the next month or I mean, it’s not a car, but living with addiction –
CHRISTINA: Living with addiction that can go on for years and years, sometimes even decades.
JEFF: Right.
CHRISTINA: So, he talks about that too and that’s the resistance phase. In the resistance phase, the adrenals keep on pumping out cortisol. They keep on pumping out adrenaline. This has a very clear impact on the body because when we are under the influence of adrenaline and cortisol, lots of not very good things happen in the body, so it’s very useful short term but –
JEFF: Right. Like to lift up the car.
CHRISTINA: Exactly. Where to put to swerve your car if you’re about to get hit on the freeway. You don’t think. You just go into instinct of action.
JEFF: Right.
CHRISTINA: Well, not thinking as part of what happens because when we’re under the influence of adrenaline, our prefrontal cortex shuts down. We’re in the sympathetic arousal. We are reacting, not planning and thinking.
JEFF: So for people who may be listening to this who may not understand all this technical jargon that I could get into and have this conversation with, kind of like talking about this in layman’s terms. I mean, like the prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain that we need to actually make good decisions and think about things and to weigh this decision and the potential implication that could happen or then option B –
CHRISTINA: It slow down.
JEFF: Yeah, to slow down look, wow, if we do this other option, it may play out this way kind of thing. It is where we actually think about it, but when the prefrontal cortex, as you say, isn’t “online” or something or functioning –
CHRISTINA: Yeah, because of adrenaline.
JEFF: – because of the adrenaline, the activated nervous system. It’s like then they’re operating from what I would call like the emotional brain or survival.
CHRISTINA: We’re operating out of survival. Exactly.
JEFF: Yeah. Yeah – yeah. So what’s happening like biochemically, the neurotransmitters when it goes from like the baseline of the nervous system is down, the prefrontal cortex is operating and working fine. And then when it goes up and it stays up.
CHRISTINA: Yeah. So there’s a couple things that could happen. One, we can just be very reactive. And the other thing we can be in freeze mode. Now, the real reactive place is driven by adrenaline, cortisol, norepinephrine, these high hot chemicals. But when that just becomes too much, we go into what’s called freeze. And freeze, there’s a number of different – it can get complicated and they wanted to simplify this. Part of freeze is what’s called hypo arousal. When we just can’t function anymore and we get depressed and we get slow and this is mediated by the endorphins. Even when we’re running hot and it’s like your foot is both on the gas pedal and the brake at the same time?
JEFF: Yeah.
CHRISTINA: We get a flood of endorphins as opposed to adrenaline. I’ll come back around to this.
JEFF: Yeah.
CHRISTINA: And so our vision becomes very narrow and we can’t deal with any more stress. And all we can do is sort of put one foot in front of the other.
JEFF: So what I’m wondering is are there some things that you could say that like family members who may be able to identify within themselves, like behaviors in freeze? So one I’m thinking, you know, maybe pull away or get real quiet or –
CHRISTINA: Not be able to get out of bed. You want to run and hide –
JEFF: Yeah.
CHRISTINA: – when we’re in freeze. But I want to back up just a little bit, the adrenals for a minute because this is really important. We’ve got adrenal overactivation when we’ve got the adrenaline and the cortisol and we’re running really hot and you’re really reactive and we’re trying to do everything. We’re not sleeping very well. We may be really tired in the morning. We can’t wake up in the morning but we can’t get to sleep at night because we get our second wind and that’s when we want to do all the dishes and all the housework, but then we go to bed at 3:00 in the morning and can’t sleep. So this impact sleep profoundly.
JEFF: Right. Oh my god! I’m raising my hand. I have a personal relationship with this.
CHRISTINA: [laughing] Yeah. And there are a number of sleep issues that occur when we’re under a lot of stress. But this high adrenaline at bedtime is a biggie and yet there are things you can take to bring down your adrenaline at bedtime.
JEFF: Tryptophan.
CHRISTINA: Well, Tryptophan is something –
JEFF: 5-hdp. These are things I can think of.
CHRISTINA: Yes, but they’re not the ones that lower adrenaline.
JEFF: Oh, okay.
CHRISTINA: Okay? They raise serotonin which raises melatonin, which can help us sleep, but they don’t lower adrenaline. So something like the amino acid L-theanine that blocks adrenaline and cortisol and can help us relax.
JEFF: So I just want to put this into context what you just said sounds really, really important. So, if someone’s nervous system is really activated. Like I just had a fight with my loved one and the fight went for the last hour and I can’t think about anything else except, you know, the detail of that fight, by taking something like L-theanine, would that help me to where I could look at a rose for instance, and you know, slow down and appreciate the flower as opposed to just be looping around and round about this fight with my loved one that I so upset me.
CHRISTINA: Exactly. So L-theanine helps cut the adrenaline, the cortisol, the angry making chemicals that can bring them down, help you start breathing again. Once your breathing again, then you can start noticing other things around you. Realizing you’re not just angry, your left when you’re also scared and you’re hurt and you’re feeling abandoned.
JEFF: So, L-theanine is something that I can get when I’m driving home. Stop at natural grocers. So, what I mean –
CHRISTINA: [laughs] Precisely.
JEFF: I’m saying that in a real way, but I’m also saying: “Hey, you can get this stuff.”
CHRISTINA: You can get this stuff really cheaply, really easily.
JEFF: From natural food stores all over the place.
CHRISTINA: Yes. All over the place. Not [inaudible]. Okay?
JEFF: Yeah.
CHRISTINA: But –
JEFF: [chuckles] Thank you for that.
CHRISTINA: [laughing] But in any vitamin store.
JEFF: Yeah.
CHRISTINA: Okay. The other thing after a fight that you would want to take is the 5-hdp or the Tryptophan, because our serotonin gets very depleted as well. All sorts of things get depleted in terms of our brain when we are under both acute stress and long term stress because long term stress not only impacts the adrenals, but also our neurotransmitters. Our neurotransmitters are the chemicals in our brain. They help us cope with stress and mediate all of our feelings. Okay? They get depleted long term and short term.
JEFF: So, wait a minute, you said something really important there that I like mediate all of our feelings.
CHRISTINA: Yes.
JEFF: So, yeah. I’m kinda thinking like, wait, wait and I’m kinda playing a little bit Christina, but –
CHRISTINA: Say ahead.
JEFF: – but it’s like, hey, my feelings are my feelings. Like I just had this fight with my loved one and I feel kind of pissed off here or something and it’s like, it’s so easy to identify with these feelings. And there was something that I heard you say here that it’s like by taking some of these amino acids I could potentially separate a little bit from identifying with my feelings and believing that all who I am or something.
CHRISTINA: That’s a really good way of putting it because they want to make a distinction between sort of acute stress and long term impact. So when you have a fight with a loved one, you’re angry, you’re hurt, you’re upset. This is really normal.
JEFF: Right.
CHRISTINA: But the human body and psyche is designed that we get over that upsetness pretty quickly when everything’s working properly.
JEFF: Yeah.
CHRISTINA: Okay. The calming neurotransmitters kick in. As I said, we’re able to start breathing and then thinking and then calming ourselves down and relaxing and we’re able to then move on.
JEFF: Right.
CHRISTINA: But when our neurotransmitters are depleted, these calming ones can’t kick in.
JEFF: Yeah. Yeah.
CHRISTINA: The hot ones keep running and then, you know, the next day we’re still going round and round and round and the next week we’re still going round and around and around and we can’t turn it off.
JEFF: Yeah. So one of the things that I think about here is how in the ideal world, you know, the baseline of the nervous system will be down, in the ideal world, like feelings come and feelings go. Like when I look at the clouds blowing over or something like that. There’s one feeling that I know that is different than that, that it comes, it stays, it can be there longterm and that’s great. That’s my understanding of it. And I know that grief can be a really huge part for family members. Kind of grieving: “Hey, I had this relationship with my loved one. We used to connect in this way and this way and because of this alcohol or this addiction, like the more progressed it gets, the more of that connection, like it gets weaker and weaker and it’s like eventually I’m living with a stranger.” And it’s like that’s a grieving process for family members. And so I’m wondering like these amino acids, like how they might end. You know, I’m asking questions that I truly do not know the answer here.
CHRISTINA: So there is a brain chemical and your a transmitter, there’s sort of two families, the encapsulants and the endorphins that helps soften the grief experience. Okay?
JEFF: It help soften the grief experience. And what are those again?
CHRISTINA: The endorphins?
JEFF: No. What are the two things that I could get it natural grow to help it soften.
CHRISTINA: Okay. I’ll get there, but we have to go sideways for a minute.
JEFF: Yeah. Okay.
CHRISTINA: So these are natural opiates. Our body produces around opiates.
JEFF: Yeah. Yeah.
CHRISTINA: And these opiates help us deal both with physical pain but also emotional pain. They bring comfort. They help us grieve. They soften loneliness. They help us cope with loneliness and loss. Right? Go on.
JEFF: So what I think of, yeah, I know exactly what you’re talking about. Like I have this picture in my office with a mom holding a baby. They’re like having eye contact about eight inches and when that’s happening, there’s millions of neural networks being connected in that brain.
CHRISTINA: And lots of endorphins.
JEFF: That’s the opiate system. Right there that’s being built. However, when I think of, specifically with like childhood emotional neglect and like for children who didn’t get that kind of thing, like, so I’m painting the picture of like there’s a lot of human beings that their natural endorphin system is compromised big time.
CHRISTINA: Exactly. And then they encounter oxycodone after four or one of these other drugs right after surgery.
JEFF: Painkillers. Opiates.
CHRISTINA: Right.
JEFF: And they take that and it’s gone: “Oh my god! I feel like I have this soft warm hug that I’ve never had in my life.”
CHRISTINA: Yes. Exactly.
JEFF: And just say no to that soft warm hug. I’m being a little facetious here.
CHRISTINA: Yeah, right. We would bring it on. We need more of it. We crave it.
JEFF: Yeah. So like instead of the painkiller, like are there other aminos –
CHRISTINA: There are aminos.
JEFF: – that can like, I can have some of that soft warm hug that I never had before.
CHRISTINA: Exactly. And this particular amino is called D-phenylalanine.
JEFF: Oh, yeah.
CHRISTINA: Okay. Long name, just think DPA. Okay? DPA.
JEFF: Yeah. D-phenyalanine.
CHRISTINA: D-phenylalanine.
JEFF: Yeah. Okay. Your pronunciation –
CHRISTINA: No. You get it right. You’re good. There’s another L in there, but yeah. D-phenylalanine.
JEFF: Okay. And you can get this out like?
CHRISTINA: You can get it online. You can get it from natural grocers mixed in with L-phenylalanine. It’s a long story we won’t get into. Over the counter you can get something called DLPA.
JEFF: DLPA.
CHRISTINA: That’s how you ask for it. It helps with grief, with loneliness, with that emotional pain. It won’t take it away like, you know, heroin does, but it will soften it. It will allow you to cope more effectively with it. And that’s what human beings what we want.
JEFF: Yeah.
CHRISTINA: To be able to cope more effectively.
JEFF: Yeah. Wow. This is rich. Important.
CHRISTINA: Yeah. Yeah. Because we don’t know these things. Doctors don’t know these things. Psychiatrists don’t know these things.
JEFF: Yeah. Oh boy, I’m just kind getting this like relief thing. So that’s like one topic. Was there more about that topic that we should go into because I know there’s a couple others.
CHRISTINA: Yeah. So, stressed to please our adrenal glands and first we can have, you know, with the cortisol running way too hot and then the adrenals down regulate these, sort of burnout. And when the adrenals are burned out Jeff, we’re exhausted. We can’t concentrate. We can’t focus. We can’t remember. We can’t think. We can’t do our job very well, because we just can’t do our job very well anymore. You know, you have to be able to remember and think and focus to do your job, right?
JEFF: Right.
CHRISTINA: And you’re having trouble sleeping or you’re oversleeping. You’re overeating, you’re burning the candle at both ends. You’re needing caffeine and sugar to function, of course, which makes things worse. You’re depressed. You don’t want to get out of bed. You want to run and hide. So, this is partly due to your depleted adrenal glands, but it’s also due to the fact that when we’re under a lot of stress for long period of time, we use some of the nutrients we need to make our brain chemicals that help us cope with stress because usually we stop eating appropriately too. We’re not feeding ourselves. Our blood sugars going haywire. We’re grabbing junk food. We’re going for sugar, we’re going for caffeine. We maybe feeding our children because we know we’re supposed to do that as good mothers, but we’re not taking the time to feed ourselves and so everything gets depleted.
JEFF: Yeah – yeah.
CHRISTINA: We don’t have the get up and go to function optimally and then we feel guilty and then we feel ashamed and then we beat ourselves up and then we feel too guilty to take the time to feed ourselves properly or to exercise properly and it goes down hill.
JEFF: This happens to so many people, not just family members with an addictive loved one.
CHRISTINA: That’s true.
JEFF: And I mean it happens to me when I get really, really busy. My own personal experience is like, once the snowball starts going down the hill, it’s hard to recognize and –
CHRISTINA: It’s really hard to recognize. Yeah.
JEFF: It’s like –
CHRISTINA: We’ve got really narrow vision.
JEFF: Yeah, how do I, even though I may have a fog, like, hey, this is not going well and it’s not getting better. I’m running on borrowed time here kind of thing. So, any little tips or suggestions, someone in a situation like that on, you know, how to recognize it to the point to where it catches their attention and they can actually divert that snowball from going down the hill kind of thing to some kind of self care or some kind of supplement or some kind of practice to calm themselves down to where they can be thinking more. I know I’m asking you some really hard questions Christina.
CHRISTINA: Well, these are really wonderful questions. What you’re talking about is what are the ways that you can sort of enter, what are the entry points. There are a number of different entry points, but sometimes we need to feed the brain before we can feed the brain or before we can meditate or before we can slow down.
JEFF: Oh! You mean like I should have a breakfast with protein and things like that? [laughing]
CHRISTINA: Yes, but sometimes getting up in the morning, we’re running late and we’re stressed and we’re exhausted and eating and fixing breakfast is the last thing that we feel capable of doing. So again, this is where the amino acids come in, something like the L tyrosine that can help give us energy and focus and drive, again, not like a drug, but gently bring our brain back online, so we have a little more energy, a little more focused, a little more ability to remember that we have a protein drink and that maybe we could just drink it. Maybe it’s not the best food in the world, but it’s better than the cup of coffee with three teaspoons of sugar that you were going to take, right?
JEFF: Right. Yeah – yeah.
CHRISTINA: And maybe you could still have your cup of coffee with the protein drink. Only one teaspoon of sugar rather than three. Right?
JEFF: Right. Right.
CHRISTINA: It’s in the right direction, you know, do it all or nothing because all or nothing you’re not going to do it.
JEFF: Yeah. Yeah – yeah. Thank you very much for talking about the L tyrosine. I have personal experience with L tyrosine myself. I know that, that has been a game changer for me. It’s in my cupboard for like those times when I need it. I used to do it regularly for a period of time and then I got to a place where –
CHRISTINA: your brain didn’t need it anymore because you’ve refilled your neurotransmitter stores. Isn’t that lovely?
JEFF: Yeah. And the other thing about it, it’s like the person just kind of like automatically knows when they don’t need it anymore. I mean, I experienced that myself too, so thank you for that reminder.
CHRISTINA: Yeah, I took tyrosine for years and years and years. Now I don’t need it except most of the time except that yesterday morning before I gave my talk here, I did take some just to make sure that my brain was fully online at 8:30 in the morning.
JEFF: Right. Yeah.
CHRISTINA: Yeah. Yeah. So these are –
JEFF: Perfect example of kind of like how to integrate something like amino acids into one’s life and like some can be used on a regular basis. Like, yeah, that bottle over there that you recognize, that tryptophan for me.
CHRISTINA: For sleep.
JEFF: For sleep, you know, and that has been a consistent, but for me the tyrosine is something that I only do occasionally. And you did yesterday before your talk. So yeah, really helpful. So do you want to go into the topic of genetics?
CHRISTINA: I do want to go into the topic of genetics, but just one last sentence about the depletion. So we want to feed ourself Jeff. We want to start thinking about how can we can feed ourselves easily and gently, bringing in hard boiled eggs. That can be easy. You can even buy them hardboiled from Costco, you know, using some of the better quality protein bars and protein shakes. But just beginning to think in terms of, oh, I’m so overwhelmed. When was the last time I ate protein? What can I grab that will actually feed my brain and help me function better? A candy bar while it may work for 10 minutes then drops you. It doesn’t actually feed you long term. So beginning to brainstorm, troubleshoot what will work for me and my lifestyle to get this into my body because the more I feed myself, the better I’m going to function and then I can start an upward spiral in my life and maybe even get myself to a few Al-Anon meetings rather than staying stuck in this downward spiral.
JEFF: Wow. Yeah. This was like topic number one.
CHRISTINA: Okay. Now we’ll get to topic number two. We’re good.
JEFF: I have this time frame that I was looking at, and I’m thinking, you know, maybe there’s a part B or C conversation with Christina.
CHRISTINA: There will be, but I just wanted to get that last sentence in.
JEFF: Okay.
CHRISTINA: Okay, genetics. So what my talk yesterday morning Jeff was on Reward Deficiency Syndrome, which most people haven’t heard of, but it’s the prevailing theory for the genetic driver of addiction. And Reward Deficiency Syndrome talks about how we use an addictive drug to get pleasure, ultimately to fire the reward center of our brain. To feel better in some regard. And it really doesn’t matter what drug or behavior you’re using addictively. Ultimately, it all fires a neurotransmitter called Dopamine. Actually, Tyrosine turns into Dopamine, so we have natural means to build Dopamine. Reward Deficiency Syndrome talks about how this reward system in the brain is not working very well. Doctor Kenneth Blum, who’s been studying this for 30 odd years has discovered there are 10 genes, that when working properly, feed the reward system, make it work so that we can be happy, we can feel satisfied, we can feel rewarded. Life is worth living.
JEFF: Right. Right.
CHRISTINA: We need this Dopamine and reward center of the brain actively working well to feel like life is worth living. If there are issues in any of these 10 genes, and the more issues there are, the more problems we’re gonna have –
JEFF: Wow.
CHRISTINA: – the less satisfied, happy rewarded alive, joyful we’re going to feel the less able we are to deal with stress and feel motivated, and the more turned on we’re going to be when we find the right drug or the right behavior.
JEFF: Yeah. Yeah. So let me just try to summarize. Well, I can’t summarize everything that you said, but the summary part that really catches my attention is wow, so there’s 10 genes. There’s 10 genes that Doctor Blum has focused on that are a part of this –
CHRISTINA: Reward system in the brain.
JEFF: – this reward system. And so we are born with genes and we can’t do anything about, you know, what genes we weren’t born with or were born with.
CHRISTINA: Yes we can.
JEFF: Yes we can. So, I’m thinking of like epigenetics –
CHRISTINA: Epigenetics.
JEFF: And the environment that weren’t around –
CHRISTINA: That we can turn genes on and off. We can change the way our genes are expressed and we can support the impaired pathways.
JEFF: Right. So, 10 genes. I’m thinking there’s variables in like what percentage of what gene and different combinations and so yada yada yada. And then there’s this environmental piece, the epigenetic piece.
CHRISTINA: Right. So, you know, we don’t have the time to get into that and this isn’t the place to get into that in detail, but the theory is that the more of these poorly operating genes we have, the more problems you’re going to have in life. And for the addict, the more substances you might use, the more prone to relapse you are and the less able you are to stay in and profit from treatment. Okay, that’s the addict. But what about the family member? Because if you’re blood related to the addict or alcoholic, you’re carrying some at least half of those genes yourself. And so how do they impact the family member? The family member may not be a substance user, although sugar’s also a substance I may add, and a lot of family members are addicted to sugar and food and we just have to acknowledge that.
JEFF: And that kind of habit or addiction isn’t often seen –
CHRISTINA: It’s not.
JEFF: – as a “problem” like shooting up heroin or something like that, because sugar is like normalized and like the booth that you have, you know, where you have nuts out there and some little tangerines and the booth right next door has like a huge variety of different candies or something.
CHRISTINA: And Jeff, you should’ve watched that table. I wish that we’d had a movie camera on that table and people’s interaction with those jars of candy.
JEFF: Oh boy!
CHRISTINA: And the children’s interaction, that’s what made me really sad with those jars of candy because one of the things that Dr. Blum found is that in the extended family of people with substance use disorders was sugar addiction, obesity and compulsive overeating that these are also Reward Deficiency Syndrome Disorders. And this is where it gets really tragic, because sugar consumption in this country is an epidemic. I just want to tell all your readers or listeners very briefly about a wonderful book by a friend of mine, Julia Ross called The Craving Cure. She talks about sugar and food addiction from again, the biochemical perspective and how the depleted neurotransmitters that we’ve been talking about drive sugar addiction. And you take these amino acids, depending upon the ones you need, and it can turn off your sugar addiction just like it can turn off any other addiction.
JEFF: Oh my gosh! I’m like blown away with what you just said right there, because sugar addiction seems so pervasive, so powerful. And what I just heard you say is that by taking certain amino acids that sugar addiction can be a thing of the past.
CHRISTINA: Absolutely. And eating protein every four hours.
JEFF: And eating protein every four hours. Wow!
CHRISTINA: Yeah. This is an amazing information.
JEFF: I mean, I feel like we could have a hour long conversation just here.
CHRISTINA: Right.
JEFF: But while we’re here in the time that we have, what are some important points about this specific topic that you would like to share?
CHRISTINA: Things we can do to find out what’s happening with our neurotransmitters, whether they’re depleted by stress or genetically depleted, that we can take nutrients, that we can eat food that will rebuild our brain, that will strengthen these depleted pathways and that can change our lives again and help us cope so much more effectively.
JEFF: So, is there like testing?
CHRISTINA: There is testing you can do. We have in my practice and what I teach in my online school to practitioners, we use a neurotransmitter assessment chart, so because we know what the symptoms are, if depleted neurochemicals, so we can use just that. But Dr Blum also released in May a genetic test, which I think is going to be a game changer. Because it can predict, saying it can predict, and I think they’re probably right, people’s propensity for addictive behavior and other reward deficiency behaviors such as Tourette’s and ADHD, Attention Deficit Disorder and pathological gambling and pathological anger, you know, the explosive anger. All of these, as well as personality disorders.
JEFF: So, is this like a self report assessments?
CHRISTINA: So, my paper and pencil thing is self report. The genetic test is actually a genetic test. It’s a cheek swab that you send into their lab. It’s called geneus lab. G-E-N-E-U-S. And the test is GARS Genetic Addiction Risk Score. The GARS test.
JEFF: Oh, the GARS. Yeah – yeah.
CHRISTINA: This is what I spoke on yesterday morning.
JEFF: Okay.
CHRISTINA: And it will tell you these 10 genes, which of these genes are functioning well, and which of these 10 genes are not functioning well. And therefore at what risk you are for issues.
JEFF: And then after someone were to have that cheek swab, that GARS test kind of thing, and then they get that report back. Then what would they do with that information?
CHRISTINA: Take a particular amino acid supplements.
JEFF: Like so, from that report it would say this is low and I could, just a layman kind of look at that and line that up with some –
CHRISTINA: No, he sells his own supplement line. His designed it to correlate with the GARS test. And so when you get your report, it will tell you which of this supplements to buy and why.
JEFF: I see. Yeah,.
CHRISTINA: And you can do it that way and he has some really good research showing the effectiveness of his supplements. So I think that’s great and it’s easy. Or you can go to the vitamin store and use to mix matching, which works just as well too.
JEFF: Right. Wow. So is this the same kind of genetic testing like I’ve had people that I’ve worked with that they get genetic testing for, like what bipolar medications is going to work the best for that kind of thing?
CHRISTINA: It’s similar.
JEFF: Similar but not the same.
CHRISTINA: It’s like looking at some different genes than for instance, the Genomind test does.
JEFF: Yeah. Yeah. Great. So, I’m looking at our time here and I’m kind of going when is a good time to kind of start to bring this to a close and say, Christina, how can people get ahold of you? But before I do that, I want to ask you from the conversation that we’ve had, is there anything that you want to summarize or points you want to highlight or things that you haven’t said that you want to like bullet points you want to leave people with?
CHRISTINA: There’s hope. There’s hope.
JEFF: There’s hope.
CHRISTINA: It’s not your fault.
JEFF: Yeah.
CHRISTINA: And there’s something you can do about it.
JEFF: Oh, wow! It’s not your fault and there’s something you can do about it.
CHRISTINA: Yeah.
JEFF: Wow. Wow. Well, this has been an enlightening conversation for me, personally.
CHRISTINA: Oh, good. I’m glad.
JEFF: And I honestly mean that. And, you know, I feel like I know a fair amount about amino acids and I have that self report test. I think I may have gotten it from you –
CHRISTINA: Probably.
JEFF: – years ago, but I still use that today. And so this conversation has given me a lot more substance around that. And actually, using that myself and using that with my clients. I’m really excited to, like we have to have another conversation and set up another time to do this.
CHRISTINA: Yes.
JEFF: So thank you very much for this conversation. And how can people connect with you?
CHRISTINA: So, here’s my phone number. It’s 3038889617. And one of my websites is garden-gatecounseling.com.
JEFF: Okay.
CHRISTINA: So that’s my private practice, my clinic where I do mental health nutrition counseling as well as psychotherapy and addiction counseling. And so they’ll find a lot of articles on that website. Ways to reach me, ways to set up an appointment. I do phone sessions with people –
JEFF: That’s what I was going to ask.
CHRISTINA: – not just in person.
JEFF: So like phone sessions, like would this be under the realm of like coaching kind of thing?
CHRISTINA: Mental health.
JEFF: Mental health. So people anywhere could call you up and say: “Hey, I heard this podcast, I tried some things, but it’s still not quite doing it for me.” Like do you have some suggestions?
CHRISTINA: I’ll find your program for you or if we have to do deeper work, like we build your adrenal systems and other things. Yes, that’s what I do with people and it works phenomenally Jeff. Amino acids work within 20 minutes as you know, which is just miraculous.
JEFF: Yeah – yeah.
CHRISTINA: With no side effects.
JEFF: Yeah.
CHRISTINA: 99.9% of the time.
JEFF: Well, and the other thing on that self report at the end of it, there are some like what precautionary things if you’re in this kind of health situation or something like –
CHRISTINA: So we know when you shouldn’t take amino acids.
JEFF: Right. Right.
CHRISTINA: There’s some very specific situations, and of course anybody can have an idiosyncratic reaction to anything that you just can’t predict. It happens but it doesn’t happen very often. These things are legally considered safe.
JEFF: Yeah. So it’s garden-gatecounseling.com. And your phone number is 3038889617?
CHRISTINA: Yes, I’ll be happy to talk to everybody.
JEFF: All right. Great. Thank you Christina.
CHRISTINA: Thank you, Jeff.