Hello, this is Richard Jacobs with the Finding Genius podcast, now part of the Finding Genius Foundation. I’m going to talk to you about more details with the anxiety and depression codex, the huge guide of information that we are putting together over the next 18 months. So, I wanted to tell you I’ve referenced, I believe it was 17+ possible treatments for depression. I just want to list a bunch of them out just so you can know what the thinking is here. What do brain scans say? Are there structural differences in people with depression, are there areas that light up or fail to light up, what about brain EEG, brain wave activity in people that are depressed or anxious, brain waves that happen while they are having one episode of it, let’s say a panic attack or they are feeling down versus feeling normal, what will this tell us?

Hormones, enzymes and other biomarker imbalances or trends; what are the important ones that could tell you if you get blood work, If I fix these levels then I may be able to alleviate my depression and/or anxiety, so are there hormone, enzyme or other bio markers that could cause this. We are going to look at genetic approaches, snips, these are single errors or changes in your DNA. We are going to look at epigenetics. So, how you live, the environment you are in, what you eat, what you inhale, etc. All that changes what’s called your epigenetics, it regulates your gene function, turns some off, turns some on, makes some stronger, makes some weaker etc. So, we are going to look at genetic approaches as well to depression and anxiety.

We are going to look at depression and anxiety after someone has perhaps been infected by a parasite where they had a viral or a bacterial infection, where they have diabetes or dementia or ageing or emotional trauma, stress, obesity, Crohn’s disease, irritable bowel syndrome, cancer, flu, other illnesses etc. chemical exposure, environmental pollution. So, we are going to be reading papers and listening to seminars and gathering information on all these possible reasons for depression and anxiety and what to do about them. We are going to look at cognitive behavioral therapy which is a form of psychotherapy that is reputed to be very effective for anxiety and depression. We are going to cover prescription drugs SSRIs, anti-psychotics, etc. because we don’t want to leave them out.

They do help a certain amount of people and they help them quite a bit. So, I’m thankful that these drugs are out there but again, they are not all of the story but they do need to be included. We are going to look at psychedelics, magic mushrooms, psilocybin, that’s for depression. At Johns Hopkins, they are doing studies on it, clinical trials, it actually may be available in a city near you in the next year or so or in the next two years. But it’s coming, they are doing clinical trials for depression and mushrooms. Ecstasy, also in clinical trials for PTSD. Ketamine, this is actually in use. It’s useful in some cases for depression or anxiety. So, we can include that, other drugs, other psychedelics. But psychedelics are actually becoming a really powerful tool in fighting anxiety and depression and we are going to include it.

We are going to look at plant medicine, not just psychedelics but certain other plants and herbs, essential oils, supplements. You may have heard of St. John’s wart that appears to be scientifically based on many articles and can help with depression a bit. We are going to look at these areas too. We are going to look at dietary intervention in your microbiome, if you consume very little fermented foods, if you consume probiotics or you don’t, would this affect depression and anxiety. We are going to look at chronic blue light late night exposure to our phones, tablets, computers and televisions. We are going to look at low deuterium diets, this courtesy of a woman named Dr. Petra Davilar.

A little bit technical but there are ways to modulate what you eat that this doctor and other research has shown may help with anxiety and depression. She tells me there are many dozens of testimonials she has. So, it does appear that this can help in certain circumstances. We are going to look at plasmalogen supplementation which plasmalogens I got from Dr. Dain Goodnow. He tells me they help your cell membranes to keep them robust and protective of your cells and he also mentioned that it appears, at least anecdotally so far that may help with anxiety and depression. We are going to look at other alternatives, acupuncture, massage, meditation, mindfulness etc. We are also going to look at our religious beliefs, support networks of friends and family, satisfaction at work, level of autonomy you have in your life and your personal relationships. These are all the areas and I’m sure there will be more that occur.

These are all possible treatments, reasons for and ways to fix, at least partially anxiety and depression. So, I want to see if we can research everything possible. Like I mentioned in another audio, any given practitioner probably knows about 1% of all the treatments out there.  What if we can gather 21%? That’s a home run on top of a home run on top of a home run. So, that[‘s the goal here with the codex.