Article on Health
HOW TO STOP panic attacks FOREVER
The connection between lactic acid, dehydration and panic attacks
Cindy Throgmorton
If you want to know how to stop a panic attack, you need to know what causes them. In the 1960s, they didn't have a name for Panic Disorder...but they did know that people who had the panic problem showed elevated lactic acid levels. Research labs still use lactic acid and sodium lactate to produce panic attacks in healthy research individuals who have never had one before! "...People with Panic Disorder have an abnormality in how they produce or clear lactic acid in the brain." So is it possible that we are doing something to raise lactic acid levels in those of us who have experienced panic attacks? It appears so. Fix your lactic acid problem and you will fix your panic problem.
Many people do not understand that dehydration raises lactic acid. By understanding that you can stop a panic attack in seconds by drinking (gulp it down) a glass of water, don't hesitate, have faith, get it down, because, it has never failed me, and your panic attack will stop in literally seconds. As soon as you get that glass of water down. You will literally feel normal in 20 seconds. It is a miracle, that I was able to find out what really worked. How I learned this trick is that many times I would jump up in the middle of the night, and I would grab a glass of water and take a benedryl. After chugging the glass of water, the panic attack would cease immediately, I just felt normal normal normal. What relief! I have used this trick multiple times. Well I found out that water was the key. One time I was on a trip, I didn't have my benedryl, and in the middle of the night I jumped up, ran to the kitchen grabbed a glass of water and I took a different pill, chugged it down with a full glass of water and the panic attack gone in 20 seconds. Sweet relief!!!!
It was at that time that I realized that the water was the common denominator. The water shut it down (everytime).
I want you to understand that there is not anything wrong with you. There is not anything wrong with your mind. You have a lactic acid problem that is easy to fix.
****5 THINGS THAT RAISE LACTIC ACID (that you may be doing on a daily basis)
1. Dehydration (You have been inadvertently raising your body's lactic acid levels by not drinking enough water.) Rather than waiting for the attack, be proactive and prevent them entirely by drinking at the least 3 or 4 glasses of water a day, up to 6, if you can. There are other things that raise LA, but this is the first place to start!
Scientists know this. "A high lactic acid value can be caused by severe loss of water from the blood (dehydration)."
You may not be aware that you are creating large amounts of lactic acid when you let yourself become dehydrated. In fact, hyperventilation is one of the clinical symptoms of dehydration. You are raising your lactic acid by not drinking enough water during the day and by eating foods high in salt (sodium). If you do both, you really are asking for it! Start looking at labels. If one serving of food is much above 20% of your daily sodium, don't eat it. You could unknowingly be eating 3 times or more of the RDA of sodium.
2. SALT AND (supersalt) MSG (monsodium glutamate)
Above all things, do not eat foods that are really really salty, and especailly avoid MSG (monosodium glutamate)! Even if you drink extra water, the high sodium levels of MSG can cause super dehydration. Many processed foods are literally loaded with salt and msg. The plainer the food, (like God made it) is the safest food to eat. You can still eat some fast food, but ask them to leave the salt off of the burgers or fries. They may still have msg, but you have to manage what you can tolerate. If you eat somewhere and it makes you sick, it most likely is the salt and msg. The good thing is that you can check the sodium levels of many foods online, and the easiest way to get better is to start cooking at home.
FOODS TO AVOID: Canned broths, canned soups, processed meats, (lunch meat, hot dogs, etc...) highly salted and flavored chips, frozen meals, etc...in other words foods that the processors have added dangerous levels of salt and msg to. What has happened to you is partly caused by modern food processing. But, the great thing is you can still make fantastic meals, just think homemade, Mediterranean style, real foods. You can use butter, olive oil, coconut oil, grape seed oil, unprocessed meats that don't have extra salt and seasoning added to them, such as chicken, beef, 100% hamburger, etc...you can have all fruits, all vegetables. Basically every food God made, you can have. And other than that, you have to see what works for you. What makes you feel bad.
Processed foods = high salt = dehydration = high lactic acid = hyperventilation (PA).
WHAT ABOUT GLUTAMATE? Glutamate is an excitotoxin that over-stimulates the brain. Again, protect yourself by taking a vitamin C capsule (or 2) every day. Vitamin C detoxifies monosodium glutamate. Glutamate uses the same receptors as vitamin c, so essentially, it blocks one of your bodies best methods of detoxification. B6 turns glutamate into harmless by products and Vitamin C detoxifies glutamate.
3. Eating Dairy Commercial lactic acid is derived from dairy...so your body can derive it from the dairy as well. On top of that, a tired or damaged liver cannot process lactic acid, so levels rise higher and higher. You can begin to lower L.A. by cutting back on dairy. My guess is that it's one of your favorite foods, like me! You might be able to have a limited amount of dairy, but...feel your way though. If dairy makes you feel bad, begin to eliminate some of it. If you are concerned about getting enough calcium, you can eat sesame seeds (tahini), green leafy foods, calcium citrate, almonds and other good sources of calcium.
4. Sugar and refined starches Eating sugar and refined starches in the presence of a low oxygen state (shallow breather) forms lactic acid instead of ATP (energy). In other words, shallow breathers form lots of lactic acid. They are tired a lot. You can change for the better in 2 ways. Take in more oxygen (by meditation or gentle walking) or cut back some on sugars and starches. Why not do both? This is why a lower carb diet can slow down and actually stop Panic Disorder completely. I looked on Google to see if anyone had been able to stop their Panic attacks by cutting back sugar and starches through a low carb diet. This is what I found.
"I couldn't make myself stick to a low-carb diet and I started having panic attacks again."
"Since I started this woe (way of eating, from low carb site) my panic attacks actually have disappeared entirely. I feel like a new person"
Low carb helps because when you cut back on refined sugar and starches, your body makes ATP (good energy) instead of lactic acid. We need to breathe into our diaphragm instead of into our chest. Many people don't realize that they are shallow chest breathers and they are making lots and lots of lactic acid. This is why meditation or gentle walking is a peaceful and beneficial way to bring oxygen levels up and stop those panic attacks.
5. Muscle Tension This is something people don't think about. Do you feel tense and tight? Are your shoulders tight? Is your neck and jaw tight, etc... Well, a vicious cycle happens in Panic disorder because tense muscles form lactic acid and then fear of another attack causes more tense muscles which make more Lactic Acid! Guess what. You are inadvertently causing your own body a problem. But, relax! The good thing for you to know is that there is nothing wrong with your mind. When I first had them, I thought, I must be going crazy....not true. You don't have mental problems. You have a high lactic acid problem and thankfully it is so easy to fix! I am here to help you. You just need to slowly change your lifestyle. Relax your body, drink more water, eat lower sodium foods, avoid msg, do meditation, and gentle walking if you want to...all these things get rid of lactic acid. The statement below sums it all up.
YOUR QUICK FIX!
If you eat a lot of dairy, candy, sugar and refined starches, are somewhat inactive, a shallow breather, don't drink much water, eat a high salt diet with many processed foods(including MSG...the super dehydrator) and you are tense a lot?
BINGO. There is your problem!
This is the high lactic acid lifestyle. Or the Panic lifestyle. But, you can fix it for free with the following lifestyle changes.
Do the following:
*Follow a somewhat low carb diet, avoiding sugars and flour.
*Cut back on dairy.
*Drink more water during the day. At the same time, avoiding high sodium foods.
*Practice some sort of meditation which is simply slow breathing and relaxation.
*Do gentle walking. Get sunshine.
Avoid MSG, but start taking B6 to deactivate the glutamate into harmless by products and Vitamin C to detoxify the msg.
You can get rid of this problem on a permanent basis! This works. I know! I am living proof. My story of how I cured my lactic acid problem is below.
This article is written from my own personal perspective and is not meant to replace your own health provider.
My story
Dehydration and a high salt diet...The perfect recipe for a panic attack.
I found out about dehydration the hard way, here is what I did to finally stop the problem of panic attacks. It took me a long time to figure out the Lactic Acid problem.
Before I knew lactic acid caused panic attacks, I went through some rough times. I inadvertently let myself become dehydrated from time to time either by eating foods high in salt or by not drinking. These were when the attacks would hit hard. "If you've never had a panic attack, you don't know what you are missing. They stink. Those that suffer from them would do anything to get rid of them. I accidentally discovered what would stop one instantly and it was so simple. Before I tell you what it was, hear my story. I had my first panic attack several years ago. Had I known what I know now, I probably could have avoided it completely. We were in Kentucky on a trip. I hadn't drunk much water that day on the road. That night we had a salty meal of fried fish, and I had wine. We stayed at a "high rise" hotel that night and in the middle of the night, the heat was set too high and the temperature must have been 100 degrees in that room.....anyway, I had a severe panic attack, which seemed to linger on for about 3 weeks thereafter.
My doctor put me on Xanax and my sister-in-law who is a nurse told me to get off of it as soon as possible because it was highly addictive. I hadn't been on it very long, so I did. It really wasn't helping me that much anyway. But, I had a friend who was a doctors wife, and she told me that highly salted foods with MSG in them really caused her major problems with panic attacks. MSG is mono-SODIUM-glutamate. I think that her problem and mine were not just about MSG but about all salty foods. Salt causes dehydration. I looked online and I saw that hyperventilation, the nastiest part of a panic attack, is one of the clinical symptoms of dehydration. That made a lot of sense, after my Kentucky incidence.
I got to thinking about it. In every single case in my life that I had a panic attack, I had been dehydrated. In Kentucky, I had been on the road all day, and I hadn't drunk much water, I had a salty meal that night, which dehydrates you, I had wine, another dehydrator. The room we stayed in was baking hot that night----I got overheated...another dehydrator. Put it all together and voila----the perfect recipe for a panic attack. I was dehydrated! And eating high sodium foods! Double trouble.
In fact, when I thought about it, I realized that every time I let myself get really dehydrated over the years, by not drinking or by eating ultra salty foods, that in that same night, I would have a panic attack, and as always, I would jump up in the middle of the night, sometimes with no time to lose, and immediately drink a glass or two of water straight down, and in EVERY SINGLE CASE---WITHOUT FAIL, the panic attack would immediately subside within 20 or 30 seconds. This was a life saver! I was beginning to get it.
My daughter just had a problem with panic attacks. She had never experienced them before. She actually apologized to me. She thought all these years that they were a mental issue, but she knew that she had nothing to panic about...that there was nothing mental about it. Her problem with panic started in the hospital when they wouldn't let her drink for 2 days. All she could have was ice chips, and on top of that, they gave her 6 bags of saline solution. When she got home, she was so loaded with salt that her ankles were thick and swollen. She started having panic problems out of the blue. It took her several days to get all the salt washed out of her system, once that happened, the panic subsided and she is fine now. She started drinking a lot more. She apologized to me. All these years, she thought I had mental problems! And it was never that. It was a simple dehydration and too much salt problem. She ate some salty tacos the other day, and 30 minutes later, she felt panicky. She then realized that her panic really was set off by the high salt. We just don't realize what all this salt is doing to our bodies. Our minds say, "I have no reason to feel panicky and our bodies are saying oh yes there is...too much salt is dangerous for me." We don't have the least idea how much salt we are taking in. It is freaking our bodies out.
It is best not to eat anything that has much over 12-15% sodium per serving on the label, 20% tops. Look at those labels from now on. People don't normally even think about checking the sodium levels of a food. But, if you eat something with 35% sodium or more for a serving, and you are prone to panic attacks...you are literally "asking for it."
When I thought about other random times that I had an attack, I had gone to Branson, and didn't drink all day, had a salty meal...bingo. In another case, I had gone out of town and hadn't drunk much water and had a salty meal on the way home...again bingo. And there was the time that I didn't drink much water at work for two days and had a panic attack that night. I'm a slow learner, but I finally saw the light.
JUST ADD WATER!
I try to drink more during the day now. I drink all day long...and guess what, no panic attacks. Not even a hint of one. I am thankful to God for deliverance from this problem! One night, a few weeks ago, I started to feel like I was losing my breath. (We had gone to Jonesboro, and I barely drank anything all day.) I just grabbed a bottle of water and drank it straight down until the breathlessness and fearful feeling subsided in a few seconds. It worked instantly as always. If you know anyone with this problem be sure and pass this along. I guarantee they will thank you! What is the cure for panic attacks? The answer is simple, just drink more water, don't allow yourself to get dehydrated and try to eat a generally lower sodium healthy diet. Breath more deeply, relax more often, walk and get some fresh air. Eat more natural foods as well. I will add that vitamin C also lowers lactic acid. And is a good thing to take as a preventative.
ISN'T IT GREAT TO KNOW THAT YOU ARE NOT CRAZY AND THAT THERE IS NOTHING TERRIBLY WRONG WITH YOU---- that a few glasses of water wouldn't help? Just follow the tips at the beginning of the article for the best benefits. I don't suffer anymore. I can't put a price on that. It would make my day if I could help just one person overcome this debilitating ordeal.
www.thechurchesofgod.com how to stop panic attacks forever
What is the connection between dehydration and panic attacks???? It is fairly simple. Almost all medications for anxiety and panic attacks are histamine blockers. (Including the Xanax my sister in law warned me about) I learned on the internet, that dehydration raises histamine drastically and high histamine raises adrenaline levels drastically. High Adrenaline is a precursor to a panic attack. So, it is not an outlandish claim that dehydration would be a factor in panic attacks....This also explains why my doctor's wife told me to take Benadryl for my Panic Disorder. Benadryl is an anti-histamine. But, you shouldn't take it in the daytime when you will be driving, as you could fall asleep at the wheel. It should only be taken according to the manufacturer's instructions. The safest way is to take 2 capsules right before you go to bed.You need to check with your doctor first to see if Benadryl, an over the counter medication, is ok for your circumstances. But, most of the anxiety medications are anti-histamines or histamine blockers. Benadryl is safe (when used as directed) and it is a commonly used anti-histamine. Again, ask yourself-----Why are most anti-anxiety meds histamine blockers or anti histamines???? Again, dehydration (from lack of water or too much salt) raises histamine drastically. And histamine raises adrenaline drastically. STOP THE PROBLEM AT ITS SOURCE. Only last week, I felt like I was going to have a panic attack. I was at my daughters house, and I didn't have time to look for a glass, so I grabbed a bowl, turned on the water tap and poured it in and drank it down fast....The panic attack stopped in a matter of seconds. This is a cheap problem to fix, if you know how to do it.Apparently, others are coming around to the dehydration aspect. This is a quick article I wrote on Yahoo to a girl who was having terrible anxiety. Of all the responses she got, she voted this one the best. Best Answer - Chosen by AskerHere is the quote of what I told her. It received five stars because it is so simple and so doable.
"I used to have panic attacks and really bad anxiety. I found a simple solution by accident. If I felt extreme anxiety or a panic attack coming on, I would drink 1 or 2 glasses of water straight down, and it stopped it every time. In about 2 minutes I would feel a calm come over me. It has never failed me yet. I found that eating foods high in sodium can trigger anxiety, or just being dehydrated can trigger anxiety and even full blown panic attacks. Come to find out, dehydration is a major cause of fearful feeling, hyperventilation and anxiety. I try to drink more all day long now, and I have no anxiety or panic attacks anymore. Good luck! "