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What is the Triple Whammy?

The Triple Whammy is a health problem that affects tens of millions of women and is caused by three separate but tightly connected factors that work together. It’s a health problem that’s not a disease but that does underlie women’s most common medical conditions. Doctors certainly agree that any of the three components of the Triple Whammy taken separately can cause all sorts of unpleasant symptoms. But they’ll also tell you things like, “You have to learn to live with it” or “There’s not a lot that can be done.”

The Triple Whammy is a devilish interaction among three factors: non-stop stress, low levels of stress-buffering serotonin (a brain chemical behind good moods), and imbalances in your female hormones. That’s right. The situation that’s making so many women feel anywhere from the euphemistic “less-than-well” all the way to the “utterly crummy” consists of stress, serotonin, and hormones. Here’s why:

  • Women are poorly protected against the ravages of stress on their bodies because they have less available serotonin, which acts as a buffer to damp down the physical effects of chronic stress.
  • Women are genetically predisposed to low serotonin, one of the feel-good neurotransmitters in our brains. Women actually have more serotonin than men, but it doesn’t work as efficiently.
  • Women have shifting tides of hormones — which themselves control serotonin level and function — monthly and throughout life.

And the result? These three factors conspire to make millions of women feel miserable, living their lives with Triple Whammy symptoms that often progress to one or more Triple Whammy disorders. To find out if you have the Triple Whammy, take the quiz .

Triple Whammy Symptoms

Triple Whammy symptoms include feeling “beaten up” — tired, achy, anxious, depressed, forgetful, headachy, and lacking energy and focus. Forgetfulness and sleep problems are common, as is a bloated feeling, with constipation or diarrhea. Craving carbohydrates (a cry for the body to produce more serotonin) is another symptom. Women with these symptoms chug through life feeling less than well most of the time. When things get really bad, women with Triple Whammy symptoms go to their doctor and hear the discouraging refrain “all your tests are normal.”

Here’s something I want to repeat, because it’s hopeful: Triple Whammy is not a disease. But if you don’t resolve its symptoms, one or more of the Triple Whammy disorders usually develops. Each disorder involves a low level of serotonin aggravated by stress and is made worse by shifts in your female hormones, estrogen and progesterone.

To complicate matters, low-serotonin disorders run through families like fault lines in California. While all women have less serotonin than men, some women also carry the “depression gene,” making them even more vulnerable to Triple Whammy disorders.

Triple Whammy Disorders
Anxiety Disorders
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Depression
Fibromyalgia
Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
Memory Loss and Brain Fog
Menopause Transition
Migraine Headaches
Postpartum Depression
 Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS)
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
and Wintertime Blues
Sleep Problems
Smoking
Temporomandibular Joint Disorder (TMJ)
Weight Loss Agonies

How You Can Feel Well Again

Repeat after me: “Simple, fixable, not a disease. I can feel well again.” Notice that I didn’t lighten up the Triple Whammy by calling it “just an imbalance.” Girl, this is an imbalance from hell.

In my book, The Triple Whammy Cure (click here to purchase), I offer you some powerful ways to quell the effects of the Triple Whammy. The Triple Whammy Cure is all-natural, easy to follow, and inexpensive. It produces results very quickly, clearing the vast array of symptoms you’ve been experiencing and restoring the good health that seems like a remote memory. You can purchase Triple Whammy supplements at your local drugstore, or you can buy them here.

The Triple Whammy Cure has enabled thousands of my patients — many of whom were skeptical of the plan at first — to get their lives back. Now, with The Triple Whammy Cure, you can get your life back, too.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: In The Triple Whammy Cure, you talk about women having less serotonin than men. How much less serotonin do women have…and why is this so?

A: This question is actually more complicated than you might think. In terms of “total amount” of serotonin in the brain, the difference between the sexes is not significant. But in order to actually work as a neurotransmitter (brain chemical), the serotonin needs to sit in your synapse–the gap between two brain cells. This is where the sex difference occurs. Men have more serotonin in the synaptic gap, where it functions as an effective neurotransmitter, than do women.

In addition, serotonin’s effect is linked to hormone shifts. For women, these shifts in estrogen and progesterone are a constant factor in their lives. Men’s levels of testosterone, on the other hand, remain fairly even until their mid fifties, and then begin a slow decline.

Why women get the short end of the stick, serotonin-wise, can only be conjectured. If we consider how humans developed, the physically stronger male, functioning primarily as a hunter-gatherer, was out in the woods (plains, veldt, wherever), trying to bring back dinner. Because he could be attacked at any time, his brain perhaps needed to develop an effective stress-buffer to keep him on an even keel, and serotonin worked nicely.

His female companion, back in the safety of the cave, raising the kids, tending the fire, lived, comparatively speaking, a less stressful life. Unfortunately, now in the 21st century the tables have turned, and it’s women who are stressed to the nines without the serotonin buffer men still have.

Q: Once I start taking the Triple Whammy serotonin-boosting supplements, how quickly will my body start producing more serotonin?

A: Theoretically, the supplements start working to raise serotonin immediately. The question then becomes when you feel the effect of this rising serotonin. My women patients tell me that they feel more positive, calm, and energetic as early as within one week, especially when they combine the supplements with exercise, sunlight exposure, and carbohydrate timing.

Overall, effects are felt on the average of about 2 ½ to 3 weeks. I can say this with confidence because I schedule a patient’s first return appointment three weeks after her initial visit, and virtually all women do report feeling better during this second visit.

Q: Is there some kind of test that can show if I have too little serotonin?

A: Yes. Your doctor can order a simple test that measures serotonin along with other neurotransmitters. You can read more details about this test in The Triple Whammy Cure. Currently, the test can only be ordered by a physician.

Q: How exactly does serotonin protect me against stress (and, boy, do I ever
have stress!)?

A: There are two primary ways that serotonin acts as a stress buffer. First, it seems to protect the brain (and, as a consequence, the rest of your body) against the ravages of excess stress hormones–epinephrine and cortisol from the adrenal gland and, to a lesser extent, thyroxine from the thyroid. Both increase in response to stress.

Understand that an appropriate amount of stress hormone released during a single difficult situation, like a mugging, is fine and in fact quite helpful in helping you fight or get out of there fast (the fight-or-flight response). What’s damaging are the waves of stress hormones that are released throughout the day and night as you try to cope with the serial “muggings” of job stress, relationship stress, money stress, and so forth.

Second, more serotonin in your brain, acting as a neurotransmitter, does allow for more connections between your billions of brain cells. You actually can think better with more serotonin. Brain fog lifts and you experience an enhancement of the problem-solving skills you need to cope with whatever pickle you find yourself in.

Q: I think my 15-year-old daughter could benefit from the Triple Whammy Cure. Is she too young to follow the plan?

A: Not at all. Adolescence is definitely a rocky path and teenagers feel immense amounts of stress that they often keep back from their parents. Hormone changes also abound. If you sense your daughter (or son) has inherited some of your Triple Whammy symptoms, he or she can only benefit from the supplements along with the food plan, exercise, and sunlight. In addition, St. John’s wort is a very popular (and safe) choice among European physicians for adolescent depression and anxiety, and I recommend it too. Establishing open lines of communication is also extremely important, so keep the conversation going.

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