Ep 616: How Amino Acids Can Stop Cravings, Anxiety & Brain Fog with Laurie Hammer

What if your cravings, mood swings, brain fog, and emotional overwhelm were signs of a nutrient deficiency rather than a lack of willpower?

As we age, hormonal shifts, chronic stress, poor sleep, and nutrient depletion can significantly impact brain chemistry. Many people over 40 experience increased anxiety, brain fog, sugar cravings, and emotional volatility without realizing that amino acid deficiencies may be contributing.

In this episode of The Health Fix Podcast, Laurie Hammer shares her powerful personal journey with amino acid therapy and how it transformed her mental health, cravings, emotional resilience, and overall brain function. We dive into the science behind amino acids as the building blocks of neurotransmitters and why they can be especially supportive for adults over 40 navigating stress, detoxification, and hormonal changes.

You’ll learn how amino acid testing works, the signs of deficiency, and practical ways to integrate amino acid support into a holistic health plan.

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About Laurie Hammer

Being a mom and business owner isn’t easy. Juggling responsibilities, sleepless nights, and constant demands can feel overwhelming and Laurie knows this struggle firsthand.

Before becoming a mother, Laurie battled an eating disorder, anxiety, and depression, challenges that affected her health, relationships, and overall well-being. Discovering Amino Acid Therapy changed everything, helping her reclaim her life and igniting a passion for health and wellness.

With a degree in psychology and certification in nutritional therapy, Laurie created the Calm Mom Method®, a proven approach designed to help moms reduce anxiety, restore energy, and live with greater purpose and resilience.

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Resources From The Show: 

• Check out Laurie Hammer’s Website
• Listen in to Laurie’s Podcast – Take Back My Brain
• Dr. Jannine Krause’s Website

Our Partners

Podcast transcript

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Amino Acid Therapy
01:06 Laurie’s Personal Journey with Amino Acids
03:09 Navigating Cravings and Peptides
04:25 Testing Amino Acids Effectively
07:50 Immediate Benefits of Amino Acids
10:03 The Role of Amino Acids in Grief and Emotional Processing
12:04 Balancing the Brain for Better Choices
14:40 Impact of EMFs on Amino Acid Levels
16:14 Addressing Negative Thought Patterns with Amino Acids
17:56 Improving Relationships through Neurotransmitter Balance
20:06 The Importance of Foundational Health
21:45 Catalysts for Personal Growth
22:51 Amino Acids and Toxic Brain Issues
23:16 Nourishing the Brain with Amino Acids
28:15 Understanding Amino Acids for Brain Health
29:35 Foundational Health Practices
36:00 Simplifying Health Routines
37:30 Expanding Conversations on Brain Health
40:48 Detoxing and Brain Restoration

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Ep 616 Laurie H (00:01.149)
Laurie Hammer, welcome to the Health Fix Podcast.

Laurie Hammer (00:04.056)
Thank you for having me. I’m so excited to be here.

Ep 616 Laurie H (00:07.037)
Well, since I was on your podcast, so folks, you gotta go check out the Take Back My Brain podcast. We now know we have lots in common. So this is gonna be really fun because I I’m fascinated by amino acid therapy. I’ve played with amino acids probably most of my career, but I always love to get different perspectives. And now that we have so many tests out there, I wanna kind of get like pick your brain on tests a little bit today. And then of course

Laurie Hammer (00:30.653)
yeah.

Ep 616 Laurie H (00:34.961)
For you guys watching on YouTube, you’re probably noticing that she’s got this interesting looking mat behind her. And for those of you who are listening, we’re gonna be talking about things like Shanghai, we’re gonna talk about terminaling, we’re gonna talk about PEM apps in a way that you haven’t heard me likely ask someone or talk about before. So sit down and enjoy the ride, guys. All right, so Lori.

Amino acid therapy. I always like to get the scoop on like what drew you to it, where where was that aha moment where you were like this really works? Like this is the thing that I want to dedicate to my my life to to educate folks on. Give us a scoop.

Laurie Hammer (01:06.179)
Mm.

Laurie Hammer (01:13.44)
Well, it was way back in nineteen ninety-six. So I’m gonna date myself. I’m fifty two. So nineteen ninety-six I was very sick. I had anxiety, depression, eating disorder, a lot of issues going on. And that’s when functional health wasn’t cool. so and I couldn’t get into an eating disorder program because I wasn’t suicidal enough and my weight wasn’t low enough, but my life was really a mess. And thankfully I was in nursing school at the time and I had a professor that read an article.

About amino acid therapy. And it was a clinic in California, and she read it in a random GNC magazine. And she’s like, You need to call this place. And so I called out there and talked to them. And their mantra was, you know, rebuild your brain and then your cravings go away. You stop binging and purging. They also worked with other addictions. And so I went out to Mill Valley, California, to this place called Recovery Systems, Outpatient, and

That’s how I got exposed to amino acid therapy. It literally, Janine, saved my life. Once my brain was rebuilt, the anxiety was lifted, depression lifted. I stopped the craving cycle. So if you’re not craving, you’re not binging and purging. And it literally, literally saved my life. And it’s been my mission since then to share amino acids. Even before I became a practitioner, I was like, everybody has to try these amino acids because they literally saved my life. And then I became a practitioner and that’s what I do now.

Ep 616 Laurie H (02:38.322)
That’s I

I absolutely love to hear stories like that where someone’s this saved my life, and now I am will I like will tell anyone that’s a captive audience to like listen to my story. And right now we’re in a place where a lot of folks are having cravings. And especially over 40 as the estrogen declines and we’re we’re trying to navigate the perimenopause and menopause transition. I have a lot of folks, and and unfortunately, this is kind of the reality of where life is, who are on peptides and they’re using the weight loss.

Laurie Hammer (02:45.964)
Yeah.

Laurie Hammer (02:54.368)
yeah.

Laurie Hammer (03:08.247)
Yeah.

Ep 616 Laurie H (03:09.492)
particular peptides to help with their cravings instead of looking at okay what can we do under all this to to get that craving situation under.

Laurie Hammer (03:18.83)
Mm-hmm.

Ep 616 Laurie H (03:22.962)
control. And so I would love to kind of dive into that a little bit. And and I’m guessing you’re probably seeing folks on, you know, Terzepatiter or for for other folks that’s Wago v Manjaro, you know, all of those and and trying to get off and not keeping going up and up and up on dosage because that’s another thing I see. So tell us a little bit about like how are you how are you navigating that side of things with folks.

Laurie Hammer (03:27.755)
yeah.

Laurie Hammer (03:36.226)
Laurie Hammer (03:39.8)
Yeah.

Yes.

Laurie Hammer (03:47.011)
Yeah, so I mean, ’cause amino acids are foundational. You can’t have peptides without amino acids. So I take people back to this is the basics. You can’t build anything if you don’t have the amino acids to build on those pep to build those peptides. And so when I’m when helping people come off of peptides or you know, mood medication, whatever, we’re rebuilding those deficiencies. So if you’re deficient in serotonin, GABA

you know, your catecholamines, your endorphins, well let’s use specific amino acids to rebuild those so that stops those cravings, regulate your glucose levels, and then you don’t need those peptides, so you don’t have side effects going on anymore.

Ep 616 Laurie H (04:25.294)
my gosh. And this is such a I mean, I want everyone to hear this because I don’t, you know, microdosing GLPs, like we found some good benefits for inflammation and whatnot. But at the end of the day, if you’re just using it to control your appetite, we got a bigger, we got a bigger problem. We gotta look

Laurie Hammer (04:40.286)
A bigger issue. Mm-hmm.

Ep 616 Laurie H (04:41.552)
Yeah, we gotta look back. And so of course a lot of people are gonna ask me then they’re gonna be like, Well well, how do I test my amino acids? What’s the best test? I’m super curious since this is what this is your jam. What is your favorite test? What do you use and and how do you guys go about it in terms of interpreting?

Laurie Hammer (04:56.822)
I am super basic and simple and I want it to be as easy as possible for people to understand this because I don’t use any urine blood. I don’t use any of that. So I have a questionnaire that I give people and I have them fill it out into five different categories. Zero to ten, you’re rating all these symptoms, and then I send you an amino acid kit in the mail and we test the amino acids sublingually. So we open up the capsule, put the powder under the tongue, stare at each other for two minutes.

Ep 616 Laurie H (05:07.452)
Just

Laurie Hammer (05:25.1)
Wait and see what your body does. Does something change cognitively, emotionally, or physically? Then we know that that amino acid is for you. And if it doesn’t change, we move on.

Ep 616 Laurie H (05:35.006)
my goodness. So the all it’s you know, one of the things that I was taught at Bastia was a neuro provocation test. And and much like that was was the amino acids under the tongue and it’s like something I, you know, have dabbled back and forth in in practice over the years and I haven’t thought about it for a little bit. That’s

Laurie Hammer (05:41.56)
Yeah.

Laurie Hammer (05:53.167)
It’s so fun. And because we’re so disconnected to our bodies and what our brain can do. I love that testing method because it forces people and I use the word force. It like you all of a sudden become aware of things that you’re not aware of. Like, my body my brain feels lighter. I didn’t realize it was that heavy. You know, or I had a, you know, a client the other day and it’s you know

things just lifted off of her chest when we got the right amino acid. She’s like, I it just left. Whatever was here making me feel like I was having a heart attack, it’s gone now.

Ep 616 Laurie H (06:31.716)
Nice. I I don’t think that, you know, this is talked about enough.

Like I I know I haven’t brought it up and definitely one of the reasons why I wanted to talk about amino acids in in in this light because I think a lot of folks what will happen and and I’ll be honest, this is kinda how I look at things, if I see the aminos off, I’m gonna usually, you know, kind of compare symptom to what what someone needs. But being able to feel it in your body, its benefit is so huge because so many people tell me I’m taking all these things and I have no idea if they’re helping or not.

Laurie Hammer (07:06.412)
Right. And the amino acids are one of the few things in this, you know, functional health world that you can actually get an immediate benefit from. And so my goal is to just to give people that that that win and for their brain to all of a sudden feel like it’s balanced. And then everything else that we’re wanting to do, you know, healing the gut, maybe they need some hormone, adrenal, all that kind of work, then you can go there and address those things. But they’ve already they’re more grounded.

And they can process that and they already know that their body isn’t completely broken because this therapy works. Mm-hmm.

Ep 616 Laurie H (07:43.075)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I mean, we’re in right this society if we want that quick like result, right? And this is a great way to to know, like, okay, am I, am I right there? Am I, am I, can I move forward? Yes, no, which direction? my goodness.

Laurie Hammer (07:51.893)
yeah.

Laurie Hammer (07:57.41)
Yeah.

Yeah. And it it’s you’re gonna get a positive in about ninety percent of the people. So I send a you know, nine different supplements in my kit, and you’re not everybody’s gonna respond to all nine of them. Some of people do, but you’re gonna ninety percent of the time you’re gonna respond to at least one of them. And you know, the other ten percent of the people that don’t, well, then there’s something overriding that system. And you know, then we’ll figure that out too. But ninety percent’s a pretty good rate.

Ep 616 Laurie H (08:25.97)
That is, I mean, that’s impressive. That’s impressive. And and with the the kit like that you send out for folks and you guys are doing it, you know, face to face, are you also like, do they repeat it? Do then you send out a custom, you know, blend of aminos for How does it work from there? I’m super curious.

Laurie Hammer (08:28.11)
Mm-hmm.

Laurie Hammer (08:44.246)
Yeah, so we’ll use a therapeutic dose of single amino acids for a while based on their response. So if they responded to we’ll use 500 milligrams of GABA, 500 milligrams of of tryptophan, we’ll we’ll dose that in a that higher dose two to four times a day. And we might we’ll tweak it. You’re always going to need to tweak things for probably 60 to 90 days because as your body is adjusting, your nervous system calms, you know, diet changes, all those things.

so you might go up, you might go down. but it’s just dosing therapeutically for a bit and then you can take like a total amino solutions just to kind of maintain after that.

Ep 616 Laurie H (09:25.234)
Gotcha. So the idea and and this is because I think a lot of folks are always wondering about different vitamins, minerals, aminos, we can replete what we were out of and we don’t have to stay on that super physiologic, you know, dose for like eons.

Laurie Hammer (09:35.992)
Yes.

Laurie Hammer (09:40.183)
No. Ever. No, no, no, no. And I teach people just to use things as needed. I mean, you’re always gonna have a stressor that comes up, whether it’s a car accident or even a good thing like like a marriage or having a baby, you’re gonna just get depleted. you know, when my mom died, I needed to go back on some of the amino acids for a while ’cause I helped take care of her and then the grief and the amino acids helped through all of those things. And so then I went back off of when I didn’t need anymore.

Ep 616 Laurie H (10:06.754)
Mm-hmm. That brings up a great thought in my head with the grief component. And and I think a lot of folks, you know, we we go through the grieving process, it is a huge change, especially with the loss of a parent. But I think it’s also that, you know, we think it’s all

Laurie Hammer (10:12.974)
Uh-huh.

Ep 616 Laurie H (10:25.312)
we have to process it up here. And that maybe, you know, and and this kind of piggybacks off of our podcast. And definitely we’ll put that in the podcast notes, guys. but it’s it’s showing us like, okay, we have the foundational things. We’re working on the mindset. We’re working on how we’re thinking through things. But sometimes we need a little bit of a boost to help get through our process a time in life.

Laurie Hammer (10:27.468)
Right, right.

Laurie Hammer (10:49.17)
yeah. Yeah. What I have seen over the years personally and with, you know, I I don’t know how many countless clients over the years is so many people spend so much time in therapy, and I’m not against counseling. So nobody please take this. when your brain is nourished and balanced, you don’t have as much to work through. You don’t have as much drama and trauma going on in here in all the chaos as you did.

So once I mean, I’d done lots of groups and lots of therapy to overcome this eating disorder and it was still this and this and this and my parents and this and that and my you know, my past and trauma and all those kind of things. Once my brain was balanced, there wasn’t as much that I I I couldn’t work through and my mindset changed and my ability to like deal with life on life’s terms was a total one eighty.

Ep 616 Laurie H (11:42.951)
This is this is I wanna say found like I would probably say back to foundational a little bit in terms of of why people will get stuck in patterns and thought loops. And maybe, you know, in the case of of of choice, which is a big one that I like to talk about, why we can’t why we don’t feel like we have choice or why we don’t feel like we have options.

Laurie Hammer (11:51.458)
Yeah.

Laurie Hammer (12:04.674)
Yes.

Laurie Hammer (12:11.458)
Mm.

Ep 616 Laurie H (12:11.546)
in certain situations.

Laurie Hammer (12:13.922)
That is so true. And we and we do. And when your brain is happy, you understand those choices. I had a client, she was she came to me on five mood medications from age fifteen and she was thirty-five. And so she had never dealt with life unmedicated from teenage till, you know, thirty-five ish. Never.

When we got her off the medications, because that’s why she came to me, she’s like, I want to get off these. I want to feel real again. I wanna feel the emotions and I wanna navigate life this way. Cause she didn’t know who she was. She’s medicated since she’s fifteen. And we got her off all of that. She was literally able to go home to the family that she had trauma with. And she actually enjoyed being there. She was able to process what she needed to process. And then she was able to be she had her boundaries.

She didn’t get sucked into drama. And that’s all because she got herself healthy. She got her brain balanced and nourished. Of course, we did other things besides that. But not being medicated in this season of life, in this time that we’re in this world, there’s so much, so many medicated people out there, and they start them so little, and people don’t get.

their brain to develop and to feel the feels and the emotions and to learn to process things. And you see all this dysregulation and I’m seeing some really sick and traumatized people from being on these medications. And it just and it breaks my heart. So yeah.

Ep 616 Laurie H (13:51.186)
Yeah. Yeah.

Ep 616 Laurie H (13:56.425)
That’s I mean i

I a a lot of people are taking different meds and and not sure that they even feel any better or any different. It’s just maybe more of like a flat line. And and now with a lot of my podcasts being folks who are over 40 who are going through the perimenopause, menopause, you know, roller coasters of mood and thought, it makes me think a lot about how how folks are are using, you know, the hormones directly to be like, okay, I’m teary, I’m gonna use estrogen, okay, I’m angsty, I want, you know, to give

rid of my husband and be on an island with you know none of my children anyone I don’t want to talk to anyone you know okay right just just stay out of my space like okay that we’re using estrogen and progesterone there but we could be using some amino acids before we even got to the hormones to help with emotional regulation

Laurie Hammer (14:31.916)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Don’t breathe my air. Yeah.

Laurie Hammer (14:44.001)
Yeah.

Laurie Hammer (14:47.758)
Yes, a thousand percent yes.

Ep 616 Laurie H (14:52.668)
I am curious because of course I mentioned the map behind you and we had talked previous previously about the the depletion that happens in our bodies with EMFs. So electromagnetic frequencies, you know, Bluetooth, those kind of things. Do you think that there is a direct depletion related to these of certain amino acids? And and what what do you know? I haven’t looked at I haven’t looked anything up.

Laurie Hammer (15:02.732)
Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Laurie Hammer (15:15.042)
I do.

Yeah, I don’t think there’s a ton of research, you know, comparing the the amino acids. Actually I haven’t found any to be honest with you, but my theory is that yes, it is depleting the amino acids in our body because it changes our entire vibration. Our cells

Ep 616 Laurie H (15:25.66)
Mm-hmm.

Laurie Hammer (15:32.734)
are get depleted when our when our vibration goes down and that’s exactly what those EMFs do. And so how can we raise that vibration? Well one of it is just nourishing your cells and amino acids are foundation to all proteins. So you have to nourish your body with those amino acids. And I’m focusing on the neurotransmitters in the brain. And so there’s very specific, you know, supplementation for that. And I feel like it raises the voltage.

Ep 616 Laurie H (15:51.89)
Mm-hmm.

Ep 616 Laurie H (15:59.177)
Wholeheartedly agree. And right now, you know, one of the things that’s hot, everyone’s talking about you got a protein, you got a protein, you have got you got a protein. And and in theory, if you’re breaking down the protein well and and you’re getting what you need, you know, you will get fuel to the brain. But I feel like we still have some level, you know, if you’re experiencing symptoms of different moods, obsessive, compulsive, you know, even one of the other big ones that I hear a lot, and this happened to me, is that

Laurie Hammer (16:05.186)
Yeah. Yeah.

Laurie Hammer (16:23.821)
Yes.

Ep 616 Laurie H (16:29.13)
I would go to like negative worst case scenario thoughts when I would never do that before, but I it was like instant like driving along and I’m like, what if I crash? And and then I would like turn to like the worst crash ever. And I’m like, this is stupid. I’m not gonna do that. Like, what is going on? What with the Minos and in that kind of concept, what have you found for like worst case scenario and like trauma, like disaster looping?

Laurie Hammer (16:32.418)
Yeah. Right.

Laurie Hammer (16:39.926)
Yes. Yeah.

Laurie Hammer (16:54.212)
yeah, definitely serotonin deficiency. Definitely serotonin. So then we’re gonna come in with five HTP or L tryptophan is my favorite. So I always start with that first. and see what what profound changes we can make. Mm-hmm.

Ep 616 Laurie H (17:07.738)
Yeah. And then of course use some mats, and different things like we

Laurie Hammer (17:11.254)
Yes. Use other things. Yeah, it’s like the stuff behind me.

Ep 616 Laurie H (17:14.362)
Yeah, yeah. And then in terms of, you know, another really common one that I get, and and we could easily say estrogen progesterone, you know, would be helpful, but but I’m looking at it in the aminos department. A lot of people will come in and they’ll be like, I just don’t really like my partner anymore. Like my libido is down down. I just feel like I need, you know, to move in a different direction. Maybe, you know, maybe it’s time for divorce. What do you find with aminos in that? Is this serotonin again or is this dopamine? Is it

Laurie Hammer (17:29.15)
Mm.

Laurie Hammer (17:41.571)
Yeah, we’re going to serotonin, catecholamines, because, you know, that apathetic feeling, you know, towards people or things is definitely a catecholamine issue. I’ve I’ve seen marriages saved just by doing amino acid therapy and getting the man and or the woman, you know, healthy. because then your mindset changes and then they’re they’re much cuter when your brain is balanced. They smell better. I mean, do you know what I mean? Like there’s just

Ep 616 Laurie H (17:59.911)
Yeah, yeah.

Ep 616 Laurie H (18:07.336)
Break.

Laurie Hammer (18:11.156)
It shifts absolutely everything when your neurotransmitters are firing and healthy.

Ep 616 Laurie H (18:17.896)
I, you know, I mean it that alone, just like they look better to you. Obviously you liked them at one point. What happened, you know? And and that makes sense looking at the neurotransmitter connection there. You know, a lot of people will go to oxytocin, but oxytocin is like such a quick in out of the system. It’s not gonna replete. Now that fascinates me, in terms of of a a full spectrum study on happiness and

Laurie Hammer (18:24.172)
Yeah. Yeah.

Laurie Hammer (18:43.564)
Right. I know. I would I would love to see that done. I would love to see it done. Or even your endorphins, like when your husband hugs you, like I’m assuming when you got married, it was the most yummy place to be. Right. And if you don’t feel that yummy anymore, well, let’s look, maybe your endorphins are low too. So then we can supplement with amino acids, get that firing better. And then maybe that’s your favorite place to be again. Yeah.

Ep 616 Laurie H (18:55.836)
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Ep 616 Laurie H (19:08.208)
Right. my goodness. You know, I

I’m, you know, over the years have have dabbled, right? And I’m kind of you’re kinda giving me this sense of like, I think I need to go back to dabbling in these things. Dabbling again, you know, it’s funny how I don’t know, at least in my practice, I’ve kind of gone in and out of different different things and and different gravitations, but like you’ve stuck with amino acids for for your career. And I mean 1996, that’s a long time for learning with the aminos. I mean, I I graduated high school in 1996. So

Laurie Hammer (19:18.862)
Gotta dabble again. Yeah. Yeah.

Laurie Hammer (19:27.239)
yeah.

Laurie Hammer (19:36.652)
Long time. Yeah.

yeah. Yeah. No, I get that. I read it in ninety two, but yeah.

Ep 616 Laurie H (19:43.58)
Looking at like that’s that’s a little not it’s it’s sticking with them. I’m just gonna quick shut one thing here. Sorry.

Laurie Hammer (19:50.712)
Sure.

Ep 616 Laurie H (19:55.933)
The dog jumped in the room, I apologize. It was getting loud. Sorry.

Laurie Hammer (19:58.708)
no, that’s good. Usually mine’s back in the bed, but he’s not in the room today, so

Ep 616 Laurie H (20:04.642)
I’ll edit this out. I was just like, I’m gonna show that. but you know, with it going back to the concept of of looking at a quick fix, what I have found with amino acids is that it is quick, like you were mentioning, you can see things change. And I think that, you know, looking at things a little bit more

Laurie Hammer (20:06.68)
Yeah.

Ep 616 Laurie H (20:25.832)
Holistically and and how you were saying we could we can also use this as a jumping point for folks to get on board with some of the more foundational health things and making choices and the brain. Let’s dive into the brain a little bit more because so many people have frazzled brains. And Fighter Flight, you know, we we’ve talked about the vagus nerve. We’ve talked about releasing trauma from the body. And

Laurie Hammer (20:35.576)
Yeah.

Laurie Hammer (20:40.376)
Okay.

Yes.

Ep 616 Laurie H (20:51.77)
It seems to take people many years because they’ve been in therapy, you know, and and also I I see therapy being beneficial, but when you’ve been going over and over again and nothing’s changing, we’re we’re missing the boat.

Laurie Hammer (20:55.086)
Yeah.

Laurie Hammer (21:02.338)
Yeah. We’re missing. Yeah. We are. Because you you can’t talk yourself out of that. I mean, you you can speak life. I really believe in speaking life and when when you’re speaking positivity and stuff, you know, that changes your health, it changes your cells, changes your vibration. When you’re going over the same trauma again and again and again and it never ever leaves you, then that’s not helpful.

You know, your your brain needs to be rewired. I mean, there’s so much neuroscience around that now. And I believe n nutrition, amino acid therapy helps that process along.

Ep 616 Laurie H (21:42.607)
I I agree. I’m looking at it, you know, on the lens of like we we almost need catalysts because I find that for some folks we’ll get stuck in trauma loops, we’ll get stuck in different things, and we can’t seem to move forward there. And and you know, in personal growth, for example. I made the joke that I’ve done with my one friend. I was like, I’ve done a lot of personal growth and realized that, you know, I’m fine, everyone else is crazy. But the truth is, the truth.

Laurie Hammer (22:07.022)
That’s so true.

Ep 616 Laurie H (22:09.8)
It’s it’s so true. I mean it’s not me. but at the at the end of the day, we’re looking at like how all the tools that we’re taught with personal growth, all the tools that you’re taught just in a functional, you know, nutrition visit, so many people come back to me and will be like, I didn’t do anything. I’m frozen, you know, I’m frozen, or I know what to do, I just can’t do it. And you know, we’re looking at it in a in a phase of like, okay, this, we can get

Laurie Hammer (22:31.97)
Yes.

Ep 616 Laurie H (22:39.634)
the neurotransmitters dialed in a little bit better to move Linux.

Laurie Hammer (22:43.628)
Right. To move. Yeah. Yeah. Get your brain out of that that that stuck, that that fight or flight, the sometimes that freeze. sometimes you’re not flighting, you’re just you’re just frozen.

Ep 616 Laurie H (22:52.84)
Mm-hmm.

Ep 616 Laurie H (22:56.806)
Yeah, yeah. And I I think that’s an incredible thing, you know, for folks to to really s let that sink in for a minute. That’s kinda why I repeated it twice in in the podcast here because I wanted folks to really hear that. The other big thing is right now it’s incredibly popular.

I don’t know if popular a good word, but it’s incredibly, it’s incredibly common for folks to have toxic brains. Meaning we’ve got leaky gut, we’ve got leaky brain, we have mold toxicity, we have MCAS, so multiple histamine chemical sensitivity components. How how do you work with amino acids in that department with the neurochemical and the signaling? How do how do you weave that in with the toxic brain that needs some help?

Laurie Hammer (23:20.579)
Yes.

Laurie Hammer (23:25.132)
Mm, huh.

Laurie Hammer (23:39.319)
Yeah. I just always start with amino acids. Like let’s just nourish the brain first and then let’s see what’s left over. Like I don’t really deviate from that at all, Janine. you know, somebody’s like, I have the AMTHFR. Okay, great. Okay, let’s do amino acid therapy. You know, I’ve got MCAS, great, let’s do amino acid therapy. I think I have parasites, great, let’s do amino acid therapy. Like, let’s fix the deficiencies so that your neurology in your body is calmer.

Ep 616 Laurie H (23:50.482)
Gotcha.

Laurie Hammer (24:08.62)
Your brain can think differently and when those two things happen, then that parasite protocol is gonna be better. Then that gut protocol is gonna be better. You know, like we could we could go on down the line. We s we have to be able to think clearly and to make those choices that you always talk about, so then those other things just work better.

Ep 616 Laurie H (24:34.406)
I think that thinking clearly, I mean, is is one of the biggest issues hands hands down. And in fact, you know, I’m thinking to myself right now, I’m like, I probably needed some amino acids this morning to get my time zone stuff dialed in. you know, and and going, hmm, what would be so what would be the best what would be the best there in terms of let’s let’s go like straight brain fog. What

Laurie Hammer (24:46.892)
Yeah.

Laurie Hammer (24:58.562)
Yeah.

Ep 616 Laurie H (24:59.376)
What different realms of amino acids would be relevant for brain fog? Or is there one that seems to be most common for brain fog?

Laurie Hammer (25:06.914)
You know, a ’cause everybody’s gonna be a little different. It could be serotonin that’s creating that day brain fog issue for people. It could be GABA, it could be your catecholamines, you need a little tyrosine. It could just be glucose regulation. Well, let’s give you some glutamine. You know, and I’ve seen it, you know, lift in all of those. Or a combination. You know, it’s not usually just one, it’s a combination that usually does the trick for people. Yeah.

Ep 616 Laurie H (25:30.226)
That makes sense. That makes sense. And in terms of like the best route to take it sounds like for the higher doses, you probably gotta do the capsules, but the under the tongue, like I’ve used that with L-theanine. I’ve used it with with a couple of of different other ones like in a in the moment to try to calm a situation. What is your favorite route? Is it powders or is it capsules? What what what do you think it’s

Laurie Hammer (25:38.446)
Yeah.

Laurie Hammer (25:52.767)
it it’s capsules because you can just open up and put the powder under the tongue and then you can carry with you, you know, where powders is kind of a pain in the rear. But

Ep 616 Laurie H (26:01.062)
And they don’t taste that good. I mean glutamine’s okay.

Laurie Hammer (26:02.764)
They’re they glutamine’s fine, but serot you know, tryptophan and five H T B and L P I mean, they don’t taste good.

Ep 616 Laurie H (26:12.518)
Yeah. And so all of the the different powders out there, because that that’s another thing I get asked a lot is like the perfect aminos and and all of those out there. You would mention that you like something for like a baseline going forward after you do the like repletion. What’s your favorite like combination form formula out there?

Laurie Hammer (26:19.703)
Yeah.

Laurie Hammer (26:27.822)
Yeah.

Laurie Hammer (26:35.096)
I honestly like total amino solutions. It’s all of the amino is, it’s not just, you know, eight or nine. like ca we’re in a society where you are literally deficient in all of them. I know technically you only need nine and you can make the rest, but if you don’t have all the foundations in place all the time, you’re not gonna make them. So let’s just be honest. So I like total amino solutions. It’s got everything in it that you need.

Ep 616 Laurie H (26:40.946)
Yeah.

Ep 616 Laurie H (27:00.731)
Gotcha. Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay. Total immunosolutions. We’ll keep that in mind because yeah, that is something I find with the different like I I would say a lot of them are more recovery based types of amino solutions.

Laurie Hammer (27:07.523)
Mm-hmm.

They are. I mean great. Use them after, you know, you worked out, you did CrossFit, you ran a ten K, whatever. Fine. Use those. I I’m not opposed to any of them. They’re all helpful. All of them are helpful. So I just I gravitate towards, you know, the total amino solutions. It’s capsules, it’s not a powder, so you’re not gonna put it in your water after workout, those kind of things. But you can, you know, take four capsules and you’re gonna be good to go.

Ep 616 Laurie H (27:32.841)
Gotcha. Gotcha. No, another thing that I see, because I will test, I actually tend to test micronutrient tests in the blood. And what’ll happen is there’s aminos that come with that. And and because I haven’t focused specifically on aminos, what I’ll often see is we’ll see a lot of phenolaninine show up. And then I’ll see a lot of histidine show up.

Laurie Hammer (27:39.715)
sure.

Mm-hmm.

Laurie Hammer (27:50.98)
Mm.

No. Mm-hmm.

Ep 616 Laurie H (27:55.037)
And I’m very curious what your thoughts are on, you know, I get the little printout that that has info there as to why someone might be deficient, but I’m like in this modern society, why do you think that I would end up seeing those two showing up quite?

Laurie Hammer (28:00.206)
Yeah.

Laurie Hammer (28:09.192)
Got got microbiome. Yeah.

Ep 616 Laurie H (28:12.2)
Okay. Noted. Noted. And then I think the other third one that I see a lot is threonine. So, yeah, threonine. There we go. Three anine. Yeah. Yeah. And magnesium three and eight is why I said three and eight, guys, because that we need, you know, that’s the magnesium for the brain, but three anine, yeah, that one shows up a lot. And so it’s like we’re just brainpowering, like.

Laurie Hammer (28:23.343)
yeah. I mean that’s so good for your brain. Yeah, so good for your brain.

Yeah.

Ep 616 Laurie H (28:40.294)
Would you say the brain is just churning quite a bit for

Laurie Hammer (28:40.557)
Yeah.

It is just churning, it’s getting bombarded with s you know, we were talking about frequencies. It’s getting bombarded with toxic food. It’s getting bombarded with whatever’s in our air, in our water. And a lot of these toxins have an affinity for fatty tissue and that’s your nervous system. And so they’re gonna

get sucked into there. So until you, you know, rebuild the brain and then your body’s like, I can get rid of these toxins now, because it’s gonna if you’re overly toxic and your brain is stuck, you’re not gonna release those toxins no matter how many detoxes you do. It’s just not gonna come out of here. And so once we calm the brain, we nourish the brain, then your brain can release the things that it was holding on to because it’s just doing it out of safety.

Ep 616 Laurie H (29:27.792)
Yeah. I didn’t think about it that way. I didn’t think about it that way in terms of the toxins going to the fatty tissue. And obviously I thought about fat in the body, but didn’t think about the brain and and the nerves. Hello. Yeah.

Laurie Hammer (29:35.886)
Sure.

Yeah. Yeah.

Ep 616 Laurie H (29:40.451)
So when you’re using amino acid therapy, obviously you have a junk therapies, and so I do want to dive into Shungaite and some of the the different, you know, gems that are out there as I I like to call them. tell us a little bit about what are your go-tos for you’ve got the amino, what other things might be involved in a protocol that folks might be getting exposed to with you.

Laurie Hammer (30:01.442)
Yeah, we’re well like we talked on my podcast, foundational everything. You know, diet we get we dial in your diet so you’re getting the cleanest food possible that’s the most nourishing. We’re we’re getting outside in sunshine, you know, regulating your circadian rhythm, putting your toes in the ground, water, drinking clean, clean water for your shower and you know, your cooking and you know, all of those things. so those are always foundational. And then

I do some testing, you know, what do your hormones look like? What do your adrenals look like? Because if those are messed up, you know, what what can we do functionally that’s gonna help, you know, to regulate those things as we’re regulating your nervous system. and I you know, things like the you know, the bed behind me, I recommend different

different therapy devices, whether it’s a bed or DNA vibe, which is a great little device you can travel with in your car. so I have a lot of things, you know, that I’ll that I’ll recommend to people to castor oil packs, you know, that can be a game changer for people. Coffee animos, nobody wants to do coffee animals, but I love coffee animals. They’re so good for you.

Ep 616 Laurie H (31:09.412)
Interesting. Yeah, I I nobody does want to do but they they have been like, you know, on the radar for I mean, being a path, that’s like a a foundational thing. When when do you think that the coffee enemas are most like relevant for someone? When would someone introduce it in a protocol? Like what

Laurie Hammer (31:16.355)
Yeah.

Laurie Hammer (31:25.878)
I would say after you kinda have your c foundations more in place and your body isn’t so overburdened with those things, you know, maybe like ninety days in, you know, we might talk about then. Yeah.

Ep 616 Laurie H (31:38.63)
What’s your favorite source of coffee for the coffee enemas?

Laurie Hammer (31:42.131)
Ooh, I’m just trying a new one now. It is Trust Your Guts and I really, really like it. I went to a holistic place in Scottsdale, Arizona, and I can’t think of the name of it at the moment. I would say I think it’s just Scottsdale Hydrotherapy. Scottsdale Hydrotherapy, so shout out to them. so I I did their

Kalonics and some other things there. And then they have their own line of coffee and I tried it and I I really like it. I really, really like it. So and that’s kind of my new favorite at the moment.

Ep 616 Laurie H (32:13.702)
Nice, nice. So ninety days in. And and you know, because I think a lot of the other big thing, and we kinda talked about this too. you guys gotta listen to to Laurie’s podcast with Mihana because we can’t it kinda it sinks really well. And part of what I’m I’m thinking about with the with the colonics and and and and different got colon hydrotherapy, but also using cap coffee enemas, I’m thinking like a lot of people try to do all of this stuff at once, like all in the same realm.

Laurie Hammer (32:24.652)
We had so much fun. Yeah.

Laurie Hammer (32:41.07)
yeah. Yeah.

Ep 616 Laurie H (32:44.007)
And so what I’m hearing from you in in is is that health restoration takes time in sequence.

Laurie Hammer (32:49.816)
It takes time. Yeah. I mean I’ve been working on my health since nineteen ninety-six. I didn’t do coffee animas in nineteen ninety-six. I think I started doing them maybe fifteen, probably fifteen years ago. You know. It wasn’t something that I was like, hey, let’s do one. You know? that was not on my radar.

Especially if my kids were little at that time too, and I don’t think I would have been able to do it, you know, when you have toddlers and stuff running around. I mean I have clients that who do have toddlers and they can get it done. but it’s much more relaxing if you’re not navigating a toddler in the bathroom while you’re doing one.

Ep 616 Laurie H (33:26.096)
I couldn’t imagine. I couldn’t

Laurie Hammer (33:27.092)
When your children are over older, they don’t want to come in. So it really is your alone time. I just have the dogs. Both dogs like lay at my head when I do a coffee enema, so I can’t do it totally by myself, but nobody’s coming in the bathroom with me.

Ep 616 Laurie H (33:40.39)
Right, right. Now dogs, you know what, they’re soothing to me. I l I I’d be all over.

Laurie Hammer (33:43.906)
They’re smoothing. I th yeah, it’s it’s good. I listen to a podcast and my dogs, so it’s fine. Yeah.

Ep 616 Laurie H (33:49.627)
It’s perfect. Yeah. I you know, that’s one of the things that I think it’s really important for folks to think about is is coffee animas might be something that’s like that I I make a joke of that’s a level five biohacking. Like you gotta get through like level one and then the move.

Laurie Hammer (34:04.212)
Yeah. Start with a castor oil pack, that’s pretty easy. Maybe a magnesium bath.

Ep 616 Laurie H (34:10.396)
The those

Laurie Hammer (34:11.33)
Do some tongue scraping, you know, do some of the easy stuff first.

Ep 616 Laurie H (34:14.916)
Yes, yes. Talk to us talk to us about your castor oil protocols. How do you how do you use the castor oil? Do you use a particular pack? Are you old school and get people using their rags of fabric or

Laurie Hammer (34:26.57)
Yeah, no, I don’t do those anymore ’cause they’re so messy and people won’t do Let’s just be honest. So I’ll you know, I say go find an organic cotton wrap that ties on, you know, that’s fine. so you can find those on Amazon or anywhere. So and and I’ll use, you know, hexane free organic castor oil. There’s a good one on full script that I recommend to all my clients. I use it to help move my bowels. If I feel stuck, you I’ll put castor oil over my belly and then I’ll do, you know, a rub.

You know, on my belly and that really helps too. I love castor oil, I put it on my face.

Ep 616 Laurie H (35:01.134)
It it is the thing for the face lately too. I’ve heard so many people mentioning that. Yeah.

Laurie Hammer (35:03.982)
I don’t use fancy schmancy stuff. I mean I’m just you know, if I need an exfoliation I use baking soda. If I want extra, I’ll put in some castor oil. I mean, it’s just it’s just basic stuff. I’m not fancy. This is all you get.

Ep 616 Laurie H (35:22.03)
Me either. Me either. I’m lucky if I get makeup on one day.

Laurie Hammer (35:25.096)
I know, I’m like eyeliner and mascara, like I’m good to go for the day. We’re good. Uh-huh.

Ep 616 Laurie H (35:30.408)
Absolutely. Absolutely. No, I think glass is more. And especially when it does come to skincare. I I back in a previous life, I owned a spa and we had aestheticians. Yeah, it was it was fun for a minute. It was fun for a minute. but then I realized like it’s it too many moving parts, right? And and the ten step aesthetics products, you know, like I’m like, my gosh, do we need all?

Laurie Hammer (35:34.018)
Laurie Hammer (35:38.786)
You can find it.

Laurie Hammer (35:47.566)
yeah.

Laurie Hammer (35:52.307)
I can’t do it. Yeah. I had cystic acne growing up ’cause I mean my gut was such a mess. And so, you know, I did all of the the skin stuff and it was not my skin, it was my gut, clearly, and toxicity. yeah, I don’t even go there anymore, like just baking soda and you know, I wash my hair and like use my shampoo to wash my face. I mean we’re good.

Ep 616 Laurie H (36:15.506)
Hey, you know, and and one of the things and this is what I tell a lot of my folks, that frees you up to be able to do other things for your health if you have some routines that you’ve really simplified and those

Laurie Hammer (36:21.42)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Ep 616 Laurie H (36:26.514)
Those are definitely a my my jam. I don’t you know. Super easy. Super easy. So my goodness. Such good stuff here, Lori. And you definitely got me thinking of about amino acids again and cycling back through them again. Cause I’ll be honest, I kinda let it go just because probably something new and shiny, you know, hit me.

Laurie Hammer (36:29.506)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Laurie Hammer (36:38.381)
Right.

Laurie Hammer (36:44.816)
I’m sure.

Ep 616 Laurie H (36:46.02)
let’s try that thing but I like I like to hear when folks have been using something over and over again and getting consistent results now to the point that you are teaching other practitioners. Tell us a little bit about that because I know a lot of folks that listen to my podcast may be in the realm of of being a practitioner of one sort or the other and and let’s let’s hear how they can work.

Laurie Hammer (36:56.897)
I do.

Laurie Hammer (37:05.27)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. No, I I have a certification program where we go through all the ins and outs of amino acid therapy. You know, we go through each in each individual amino acid, how it affects the brain, when to use it, when not to use it, you know, how to navigate medications, how to implement that with whatever your your niche is. I’ve had some moms come into, you know, the course that weren’t weren’t practitioners and they got certified in amino acid therapy just for their family and friends and you know.

do doing all those kind of things. So we have a lot of fun. We meet s once a week, do a mastermind every single week. We go over case studies. it’s it’s great. I love it. It’s my it’s my favorite thing in the world to do is teach about amino acids.

Ep 616 Laurie H (37:49.213)
Hey, you know, you’re you’re well versed, and I can tell, you know, how much you like it just from how you light up to talk about it. And that’s something that’s absolutely important. And and of course we have to talk about your podcast too. So take back my brain. Did so obviously you’re talking a lot about amino acids, but you’re bringing on some guests too. What what can folks expect from from you going forward with with Take Back My Brain? What do you what do you got in the the Hopper News?

Laurie Hammer (38:01.263)
Of course, yes. Take back my brain.

Laurie Hammer (38:09.528)
Mm-hmm.

Laurie Hammer (38:15.246)
What are we getting for? So we’re gonna expand. We’re gonna start maybe releasing twice a week instead of once a week and doing some more solo episodes and just really focusing in on more more brain health because brain health is such a a big topic right now with Alzheimer’s dementia, you know, other neurological conditions. And I don’t want people to normalize any of it.

And so that’s always my goal with any podcast I do is we can’t normalize this dysfunction. We can’t medicate away the nutrient deficiencies. We’ve got to actually have this conversation because there’s so many, you know, we will use lots of different words, whether it’s neurodivergent or autistic or this or that. And some people are get upset when I’m like, whoa.

Why don’t we just balance the brain so people aren’t neurodivergent and there aren’t autistic, right? Don’t we want people to function on a higher level? Because that’s what we’re created for. I don’t believe God created us to function on a lower level and or in a in a very difficult way. Cause some of these people that I that I see th being neurodivergent or autistic or just being on medications for years, they’re struggling.

And so if there’s something we can do to people don’t have to white knuckle through every single day, I mean that’s what my podcast is about. So and that’s why I do what I do.

Ep 616 Laurie H (39:37.658)
Such a huge topic when it comes to yes, neurodivergent, you know, different things that we’ve almost kinda yeah, normalized it and then given it a whole like, it’s okay, let’s, you know, move through life like this. I I you know, ADD, another one that

Laurie Hammer (39:41.112)
Huge.

Laurie Hammer (39:53.965)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Everybody’s on Vivance now or, you know, one of those similar medications and you know, menopausal women, prairie menopausal women. I’m like, maybe we should look a little bit deeper. I mean, you’re not deficient in that medication. Let’s let’s fix those deficiencies so that you do age well. Yeah. And get you back into the rhythm. We’re so dysregulated as a society. And that breaks my heart.

Ep 616 Laurie H (40:14.599)
Right.

Ep 616 Laurie H (40:23.716)
It’s I mean, it’s easy to for us to blame a lot of things on different, you know

conditions we have and and in particular with manapas. I mean, I think I’ve seen like multiple podcasts lately of ADD. now neurodivergent comes out, you know, and you didn’t come out like that before. Word salad and rain fog, you know, and and cognitive just decline in general. And so I think it’s incredibly important for us to to pose that question, like maybe we need to look.

Laurie Hammer (40:32.878)
Yeah.

Laurie Hammer (40:39.234)
Mm-hmm.

Laurie Hammer (40:43.362)
Right.

Laurie Hammer (40:51.97)
Yeah.

Ep 616 Laurie H (40:55.386)
At the aminos. The other is is back to Parkinson’s, back to Alzheimer’s, whatnot. I’ve had a an influx for sure of folks who have been diagnosed. Parkinson’s in particular, it seems like it is just rampant. And, you know, there’s there’s a lot of folks out there talking about the B vitamin deficiencies, the toxicity, this and that.

Laurie Hammer (40:55.682)
Did not.

Laurie Hammer (41:00.448)
Tell us. Tell us.

Laurie Hammer (41:05.975)
my goodness, bro.

Ep 616 Laurie H (41:20.396)
And one of the big questions I have for a lot of folks that are working on restorative health, and this is kind of partially of me trying to figure it out too, as we’re all trying to figure out what’s gonna be the best option. When there’s such a need for to detox someone because they are quite toxic, do we, is it much like what you described before, replete the brain first before you go to, you know, a coffee enema in the toxicity department?

Laurie Hammer (41:45.763)
Yeah. And I have tried it the other way. And you know, ’cause people are like, no, no, no, you gotta detox first in order to heal the brain. I’m like, No, these amino and then people are like, No, no, no, and then you listen to, you know, the the expert or your coach at the time and you do it the other way, and I’m like, This doesn’t work very well. And I’m seeing way more issues than if I would have just started with the amino acid therapy first. And then we can go into those other things.

Ep 616 Laurie H (41:48.573)
Mm-hmm.

Ep 616 Laurie H (42:10.568)
Gotcha. Gotcha. Yeah, I’m seeing a lot of cases right now where amino acid therapy would be the way to go. And I think what I’m missing is not doing the singulars, doing, you know, ape Apex has dopitone, Apex has, you know, the blended great stuff. But I think I think what I’m missing just hearing you talk and and I always learn from podcasts. And so I’m like, hmm.

Laurie Hammer (42:22.334)
yeah. Great stuff.

Ep 616 Laurie H (42:34.234)
I miss them both because I was doing combination formulas with folks and singulars are probably wholeheartedly more of the way to be going here.

Laurie Hammer (42:37.272)
Yeah.

Laurie Hammer (42:44.844)
Yeah. Yeah. They they they really are ’cause then you can get that therapeutic dosing in there.

Ep 616 Laurie H (42:50.364)
That makes sense. That makes perfect sense. Well gosh.

Laurie Hammer (42:51.586)
Yeah. Yeah.

Ep 616 Laurie H (42:54.79)
We’ve talked about a lot of different things and and folks, you know, are probably thinking like, okay, Lori, amino acid therapy. Clearly, clearly Dr. Krause is not a specialist in it, which is why I love bringing folks on. We’ve got to tell them how they can work with you specifically more than just a a certification, so that they can get some insights into literally bringing back their brain. Totally bringing it back, taking it back both ways.

Laurie Hammer (43:07.222)
Yeah.

Laurie Hammer (43:18.924)
Yeah, absolutely. Taking it back. Yeah. So every single social media is at Take My Pac Take Back My Brain. Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, all of those. So you can find me there. You can message me on Instagram or you can go to Lauriehammer dot com. And there I was there’s a free session that you can, you know, schedule for a fifteen minute session. Tell me your story and I’ll let you know how you can help.

Ep 616 Laurie H (43:41.018)
Awesome. And I love the idea of the questionnaire that you have for folks too. Like that sounds like

Laurie Hammer (43:44.619)
Yes. The quiz is very fun, so jump into that.

Ep 616 Laurie H (43:48.905)
That sounds like the best way to go to kind of get some some good insight. Thank you, Lori, so much for coming on. I sincerely appreciate it. And guys, you definitely want to check out our podcast swap where we both were on each other’s. And I’m gonna have the notes at drjkrausnd.com. Thanks again, Lori. Really appreciate it.

Laurie Hammer (43:55.629)
Thank you.

Laurie Hammer (44:09.465)
Thank you so much. It was my pleasure.