In chronic illness, brain function struggles in ways associated with advanced aging. Is there anything we can do to reverse this?
SYMPTOMS OF POOR MENTAL FUNCTION
When we stack multiple approaches together, we succeed — finding true, sustainable success.
BRAIN HEALTH: Rating Influence
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BRAIN HEALTH: Discussion
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Influence on the brain:
10
The gut-brain connection is strong.
The front lines of gut health are certainly in the microbes that live in the intestines — and these microbes directly affect the chemistry of your brain.
When gut health suffers, so does the protection against chronic inflammation and stress hormones (cortisol) — both of which can have a crippling effect on brain function.
Sleep suffers in poor gut health — and without good sleep, the brain quickly loses performance. Keeping the gut healthy also ensures better nutrient absorption and detoxification — which are key components of strong cognition.
Show Study:
Dysbiosis and inflammation of the gut have been linked to causing several mental illnesses including anxiety and depression, which are prevalent in society today.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/brain-gut-connection-explains-why-integrative-treatments-can-help-relieve-digestive-ailments-2019041116411
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Influence on the brain:
10
During sleep the brain empties its metabolic waste.
If you don’t sleep well (or enough), these toxic compounds will build up in the brain — hurting its function.
When we don’t feel well after a night of poor sleep, not only is our gut suffering, our hormones suffering, but our brain suffers, too.
Show Article:
A mouse study suggests that sleep helps restore the brain by flushing out toxins that build up during waking hours.
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/how-sleep-clears-brain
Lack of sleep impairs reasoning, problem-solving, and attention to detail, among other effects.
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Influence on the brain:
9
“How does light affect my mental state?”
Amazingly, light directly affects the mind! Did you know bright light in the eye causes dopamine in the brain to rise?
Bright light also causes the hormone melatonin to drop — an important function in the maintenance of the circadian rhythm. Too much artificial blue light (from screens or fluorescent lighting) can cause your cortisol to rise.
Infrared and red light therapy, directly applied to the head, can stimulate, regenerate and protect the brain from injury — improving mental performance.
Show Study:
The brain suffers from many different disorders that can be classified into three broad groupings: traumatic events (stroke, traumatic brain injury, and global ischemia), degenerative diseases (dementia, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s), and psychiatric disorders (depression, anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder). There is some evidence that all these seemingly diverse conditions can be beneficially affected by applying light to the head.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214647416300381
Show Study:
The study found an association between decreased exposure to sunlight and increased probability of cognitive impairment.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2728098/
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Influence on the brain:
8
Your immediate environment can affect how you think and feel.
Trapped, stuffy air with low oxygen levels can make you tired. High pollen and mold counts can leave you feeling far away and slow to react.
EMFs can make you feel wired and zippy — or confused and tired. Fluorescent and LED lighting can leave you feeling wired and stressed out. Dim lighting can cause your melatonin to rise — even in the daytime — leaving you sleepy and tired.
Other anxious people can spread their energy to you — making your brain more likely to feel similarly.
Your location can even impact your sleep quality, which directly affects your cognitive performance.
Show Study:
We find that long-term exposure to air pollution impedes cognitive performance in verbal and math tests.
https://www.pnas.org/content/115/37/9193
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Influence on the brain:
8
Food is important to mental function and stamina — and it may have little to do with “brain food.”
Food helps the brain when meals are eaten on time, macronutrient ratios are solid, and we don’t eat foods that irritating.
When you eat is just as important as what you eat. How your gut processes food is just as important as the food you eat.
The brain runs on glucose (a carbohydrate sugar) and going too low in carbs (possibly due to poor gut health) can leave your brain starving for glucose (energy).
Show Study:
Skipping breakfast or eating a low-quality breakfast have a negative effect on cognitive function, thus resulting in a decline in brain excitability, the emergence of a slow response and a reduction in attention.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5241917/
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Influence on the brain:
7
Nutrient imbalance can have an effect on your mind.
Improved gut health means more nutrients are produced by intestinal microbes. It also means nutrients from food are better absorbed.
Solid nutrient balance can also improve your fluid balance, digestion, energy production, and sleep.
Adequate nutrition (and correcting nutritional deficiencies — which are common in poor gut health) may support your body’s ability to turn macronutrients from food into energy for your body to use — as well as help control fluid balance, which is incredibly important for the brain’s function.
This metabolic energy is critical to keep the brain charged up. The brain can use up to 20% of total body energy. The brain uses 10x the energy consumption of normal tissues.
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Influence on the brain:
7
Slow thyroid function can dampen your mental prowess.
In hypothyroidism, them metabolism slows down and less energy is produced for the body to use. This means the brain — which runs on glucose — begins to starve for energy. The body begins to enter a stressful state with cortisol rising to help release new sources of energy for the body to use.
The brain does not do well when cortisol levels are high — and this can result in severely worsened cognitive faculties.
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Influence on the brain:
7
Mold may not be on most people’s radar for brain health. It should be.
Mold growth in indoor spaces has long been a silent problem throughout history — but it’s a full-blown health epidemic in the US.
Many people scoff at invisible, out-of-sight issues that may affect health — but with up to 80% of American buildings having suffered water-damage, chances are this fungal pathogen may be affecting you.
As the inflammatory response rises to meet mold’s mycotoxins and VOCs (which harm the liver and your gut health), your blood sugar will become dysregulated. Worsening mental performance is a classic symptom of mold exposure.