The Real Reason You’re Anxious (It’s Not What You Think)
Dr. Berg’s Healthy Keto and Intermittent Fasting Podcast
Dr. Eric Berg
4.7 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 29 January 2026
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Your anxiety is not in your head! Discover the hidden causes of anxiety disorder to finally say goodbye to anxiety symptoms for good. Stop anxiety attacks before they start by addressing the root cause.
👉 Download Dr. Berg’s Free Daily Health Routine: https://drbrg.co/45qtO07
0:00 Introduction: Why anxiety isn’t in your head
0:29 Anxiety explained
2:16 Blood sugar anxiety
2:45 Cortisol and anxiety
5:01 Poor sleep and chronic anxiety
6:48 Stimulants and anxiety
Anxiety has nothing to do with what's going on in your head and everything to do with what’s going on in your body!
Anxiety is a state or condition of worry, indecision, fear, and tension. Anxiety symptoms often involve feelings or concerns that something bad is going to happen. Anxiety interferes with your ability to feel comfortable in your own skin, your sleep, and your overall state of well-being.
Anxiety can directly affect your body, keeping you in a state of fight or flight. A heart rate variability test can determine how often your body is in this state.
So, what causes anxiety? Here are five common causes.
1. Low blood sugar
If your blood sugar is too low, you will have anxiety. When your blood sugar is low, your brain isn't getting fuel, which sends your body into panic mode. This increases cortisol and adrenaline, which causes the liver to release sugar so the brain can get fuel.
Removing sugar from the diet and replacing it with high-quality protein, healthy fats, and vegetables can help fix this issue.
2. Lack of sleep
Poor sleep increases cortisol, causing you to feel grouchiness, unnecessary worry, and anxiety. Blood sugar problems could also be the reason you aren’t sleeping well.
3. Low vitamin B1
Vitamin B1, or thiamine, is one of the most important vitamins for your nervous system and brain. Anxiety and nervous tension are often the result of a deficiency in this vitamin.
4. Stimulants
Too much caffeine affects your nervous system and depletes vitamin B1. Chocolate, coffee, and certain medications contain stimulants that can cause anxiety.
5. Low protein
Protein isn’t just important for fuel, it’s vital for our body’s biochemistry. If you feel better after eating protein, low protein could be the cause of your anxiety.
Dr. Eric Berg DC Bio:
Dr. Berg, age 60, is a chiropractor who specializes in Healthy Ketosis & Intermittent Fasting. He is the Director of Dr. Berg Nutritionals and author of the best-selling book The Healthy Keto Plan. He no longer practices, but focuses on health education through social media.
Disclaimer:
Dr. Eric Berg received his Doctor of Chiropractic degree from Palmer College of Chiropractic in 1988. His use of “doctor” or “Dr.” in relation to himself solely refers to that degree. Dr. Berg is a licensed chiropractor in Virginia, California, and Louisiana, but he no longer practices chiropractic in any state and does not see patients, so he can focus on educating people as a full-time activity, yet he maintains an active license. This video is for general informational purposes only. It should not be used to self-diagnose, and it is not a substitute for a medical exam, cure, treatment, diagnosis, prescription, or recommendation. It does not create a doctor-patient relationship between Dr. Berg and you. You should not make any change in your health regimen or diet before first consulting a physician and obtaining a medical exam, diagnosis, and recommendation. Always seek the advice of a physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | There is an obvious clue that your anxiety is not mental. It's not in your head. There are so many |
| 0:07.4 | people that have anxiety without any reason for feeling that way. Today we're going to show you |
| 0:12.4 | the most overlooked reasons for having anxiety that has nothing to do with something going on in your |
| 0:18.8 | head and it has everything to do with what's going on inside |
| 0:22.2 | your body. But I do want to be clear, there are certain mental reasons for having anxiety, |
| 0:26.6 | but that's not going to be in this presentation. Anxiety is a state or a condition of worry, |
| 0:33.9 | it's indecision. It's kind of like a condition of fear, tension. You kind of have this feeling or concern that something not good is going to happen. And it really messes up your ability to feel comfortable in your own skin, especially if you're trying to sleep, right? With the heart rate pounding and even your mind just racing, it can really affect your state of well-being. |
| 0:55.7 | The interesting thing about anxiety is that your body can put you into that state and that state |
| 1:02.0 | of anxiety can directly affect the body as well. When you have anxiety deep inside your body, |
| 1:07.3 | your chemistry is altered. You have all sorts of physiological things that are happening that keep your body in a state of fight or flight. |
| 1:16.9 | That would be different than the system rest and digest, which allows you to feel calm and sleep through the night and not have so many worries. |
| 1:25.3 | There actually is a test to measure how much of this sympathetic |
| 1:29.7 | nervous system that you're in at any given time. It's called heart rate variability, and you can |
| 1:34.3 | get certain watches and devices to pick up that information. I used to use this technology |
| 1:40.9 | in my practice all the time, and it's amazing. Some people would come in and they're |
| 1:45.5 | literally sitting there calm, but the inside of their body is like someone has the foot on the |
| 1:50.8 | gas pedal. They're just in total stress mode. It's because the nervous system is so far out of whack. |
| 1:57.3 | So there are physical reasons why your body has a certain emotion. I mean, just take a child, |
| 2:01.7 | for example. If your child's blood sugar is off, they are not going to be calm, okay? They're going to be |
| 2:07.2 | bouncing off the wall. They're going to be slightly irritable. They're going to be anxious. There's |
| 2:11.8 | nothing to do with some mental problem. It has everything to do with a physical problem. Blood sugar. |
| 2:17.2 | That's number one right here. |
... |
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