How to Optimize the Brain-Body Connection

Welcome to the Dr. Josh Axe Show, where each and every week we explore the science and principles behind how to grow physically, mentally, and spiritually, and take your health and your life to the next level. On today's episode, I'm going to be breaking down how to optimize the brain-body connection.

Also, make sure to subscribe to the podcast and to my weekly newsletter so you are getting the latest and greatest information on how to heal body, mind, and spirit. All right, so there is a tight interaction and connection between the brain and the body, and imbalances in one impact the other. And also, I would say it's not just the mind and the body.

It really is your mind, your body, your spirit. These are all very, very interconnected, and there are many types of theological and scientific discussions about how they impact each other. But it is important that we focus on the health of all of them and we focus on the health of the mind and the body, which is what we're going to dive into today.

I do want to say, It is surprising for some people how much they impact each other. For example, we know that stress increases our risk for certain types of diseases, everything from cancer to high blood pressure to, you know, even, even a weakened immune system. We know that just simple daily stress impacts all of those systems of our body.

And while positive emotions and a positive outlook on life are associated with better health outcomes, such as increased lifespan and better immune function, There are— there is so much more to the conversation on what you need to do in order to enhance your brain-body connection.

By the way, this is something that I experienced very deeply and very intimately myself when I was diagnosed with a spinal infection several years ago. I was in a position where I was told by a doctor I may never walk again. I could be permanently disabled, and I had major, major pain.

And I felt a really significant impact between my mindset when I was dealing with feelings of hopelessness and despair and anxiety, how that was impacting my physical body. Well, I was able to overcome that and start believing, using the placebo effect for my good and having a more supernatural and scientific viewpoint of how to use the placebo effect to help my body heal.

I believe it was one of the most important factors for me now being able to walk and lift weights and, and, and run and play tennis and swim and do all the things I wanna do again in order for me to restore my health. I had to activate my brain chemistry to help my body heal. And there aren't near enough people out there struggling with health issues who are using the mind to heal the body.

You know, if you're struggling right now with autoimmune disease, you can use your mind to heal your body. If you're struggling with chronic pain, there's studies around neuroplasticity and you can use your brain to heal your body. If you have cancer, you can use your brain, your spirit as well, to help heal your body. You know, Dr. Bruce Lipton, he's an incredible pioneer.

He's the, uh, he's a developmental biologist and, and an expert in epigenetics. And he says the key to healing the body is to heal the mind. So many of the health issues we have today are caused by, maybe child— it could be childhood trauma, it could be a disappointment or something that's happened in the past that you're still living with today.

Uh, we know that these things are deeply, deeply connected. And a big part of this Lives this, uh, what's happening is, is happening within your brain and your nervous system. And there's actually a nerve that goes from your brain and then feeds out to many of your organ systems, and it's called the vagus nerve.

And the vagus nerve is like a superhighway connecting your brain to your heart and to your lungs and to your gut. It helps regulate everything from your heart rate to your digestion. And by the way, when you think about terms around, oh, I feel it in my gut, talking about intuition, or, uh, my heart tells me it's leading me in this direction, right?

So we're, we're, we're talking about things here, the heart and the, and the gut that have been referenced for thousands of years, not the physical. When somebody says, my heart is leading me, it's not, is it your physical heart? Is it your digestion? Maybe there is connection there as well. But my point there is, is that the vagus nerve is a superhighway to your heart and to your gut.

By the way, the other areas of your body that have the largest amount of nerve tissue is your gut, which is why it's known as your second brain, and then areas around your heart, which is oftentimes why it's known as your third brain.

Now, there's actually a lot also around your sacrum and certain areas, but really is your gut and your heart have a lot of neurological tissue and they're connected in that way. And when you are stressed, it's the vagus nerve that tells your body to calm Down.

Also, I want to say this: if you are in a state of prayer or a state of meditation and you feel the sense of calm and peace pour over you, there's typically a connection there to the vagus nerve.

Now, there may also be something spiritual happening within your system, but maybe the pathway or the superhighway it's working through is the vagus nerve, which is then relaxing and helping your heart and your digestion and these other organs. But the vagus nerve plays a crucial role in the parasympathetic nervous system, which can controls your rest and digest responses.

So it's sort of the polar opposite as we think of, of the fight or flight response, right? So fight or flight, which is your sympathetic nerve system where cortisol goes up, adrenal hormones go up, and all your blood goes from your, uh, from various areas of your body to your extremities into a very specific area of your brain that more controls alertness. Okay.

Whereas Rest and digest, activating that and the vagus nerve is connected to that area of your brain that's most associated of where I think the ancients believed where your spirit resides, okay? Where you have the most activation spiritually or when you're meditating or when you're praying or reading an ancient spiritual text.

It's a different area of your brain that's activated and lit up when you look at an MRI. But, this is why it's so important that we activate this brain-body connection. We know the pathways. Again, the vagus nerve is the main pathway that feeds out to your organs.

And when you activate it, it's also been shown in studies to help you overcome issues like anxiety, depression, loneliness, lack of purpose, lack of motivation in life. And the vagus nerve, though, I do want to say it's not just about calming you down. It's, it's about communication. It's a communication line between your brain and your body influencing Everything from digestion to your emotions.

And the vagus nerve is deeply involved in emotional regulation, helping to synchronize bodily states with your emotional experiences. And I'm going to dive into how Chinese medicine and Ayurveda really looked at this in the past as well. And I think there's also some biblical thought around this too. Now, I want to give you a sense of how this might work in this communication.

Imagine your body as a car. Mechanical sensing is like the pressure gauges and speedometers telling you how fast you're going, Or if your tires are full, right? You ever have that? Like, you can see this on your dashboard if you're driving a car.

You see how much oil do you have, how much, you know, how, how is your brake fluid, how are all, you know, these different, um, these different metrics in your car. Okay. It's how your body, in a very similar way, this is how your body monitors things like your heart rate and your lung pressure. Okay. So your body has a similar mechanism, uh, that helps Regulate organ function.

Now, research shows that the body's ability to sense pressure and stretch, like how full your lungs are, is vital for maintaining balance and homeostasis. And chemical sensing is like your car's oil and fuel gauges telling you if your engine has the right mix of fuel and oil in your body. It involves detecting things like acidity or even the presence of pathogens like viral infections.

And there's a study that found that chemical sensing in the body is crucial for helping your organs function properly, which of course is critical for you being healthy and promoting longevity. So again, the vagus nerve acts as this communication pathway between your mind and your body and these organs. And so we have to keep it healthy and functioning at the highest level possible.

Um, there's, there's also a deep connection I want to mention here as well, uh, and, and, uh, kind of move into another topic related to the brain-body, and that is how our emotional health impacts our physical health. We know via studies chronic emotional stress activates the body's stress response, leading to an increased release of stress hormones like cortisol.

Over time, elevated stress hormones can influence numerous, numerous body functions, including immunity, digestion, heart function.

I can tell you what I have taken care of patients with You know, something like celiac disease or inflammatory bowel disease, okay, will, will inflame their gut just as much as if they went and ate a piece of pizza or went over to, you know, and, and had a, and had ice cream. Okay.

I, I mean, if, if I had somebody with inflammatory bowel disease and they went and ate conventional pizza and ice cream, their gut would be an absolute wreck. You know what impacts their body in almost the exact same manner? Emotional stress.

When I have those patients, they may say, I got in a fight with my spouse, or I'm, I'm stressed about my kids, or I have work stress, or I lost a loved one, something like that, and just wrecks their system in the exact same way. And one of the things you'll see in regards to this mind-body connection is they both affect each other. Here's an example.

If you are dealing with a low-grade depression and then you go and you eat a really poor diet, okay, let's say you go and eat a bunch of fast food and you just don't move for a couple days, you know what that does to your depression? It makes it worse. Versus if you would've gone out and exercised and connected with a loved one and watched a funny movie, your depression would've improved.

And so we know that the physical impacts the mental and the mental impacts the physical. Okay? So these things are very, very interconnected. We also know that your emotional health disturbs your sleep. I can tell you, whenever I've been through stressful, stressful situations where I've spent the most time work on, on a computer or traveling. It's when I sleep, I have, I have the worst sleep.

So we know that emotional distress is known to lead to sleep problems or insomnia, which can affect hunger levels, concentration, muscle, uh, you know, muscle retention, digestion, and so much more. So, so, and it can create a vicious cycle to where, for instance, let's say you just had something negative happen in your life and you feel depressed.

Well, then you go and eat bad food for you, so you feel more depressed, right? And so there, there's this vicious cycle that can happen between the mind and body. Now, Now, what's interesting is people have been talking about this thing for thousands of years. In Western medicine, it's something we do not focus on enough, is this mind-body connection.

And in traditional Chinese medicine, TCM, they believe that the free flow of chi or energy, which by the way, chi in Chinese medicine is gonna be very closely related to certain hormones that are related to the adrenals and cortisol and even melatonin. And also it's gonna be closely tied to cellular ATP production. So cellular energy.

And so when you hear the word chi, some people are like, Well, that sounds weird or made up, or that's not real anymore. No, no, chi is just a different language. It's just saying your cellular energy, which science dives deep into today with your mitochondria or your, really a lot of the hormones related to your adrenal function.

But Chinese medicine believed that the free flow of this energy throughout your body to organ systems was one of the greatest keys to health and healing. And emotions can become problematic when they're extremely intense or prolonged, causing what's called chi stagnation. In Chinese medicine.

In fact, what's interesting, when you look at Chinese medicine, they believe that the top 2 causes of cancer are qi stagnation and blood stagnation. So if your blood isn't moving through your system enough and becomes— and that's also a big cause of things like myocarditis and heart disease and stroke, but it's also a big, a big belief it's, it's also a cause of cancer.

But the biggest cause of cancer in Chinese medicine is lack of qi flow. So your body becomes swamp-like rather than you know, this living, you know, the stream of living healthy waters that are clear and, and that fish can thrive in. Instead, it becomes this sort of swamp, swamp material in your body.

So that's the belief there in Chinese medicine, or at least the metaphor that they'll use when explaining it. And from a Western medical perspective, we know that negative emotions actually cause systemic inflammation, which causes disease in specific organs. And in Chinese medicine, different emotions impact different organ systems. For instance, worry impacts the stomach and the pancreas.

So if somebody is having a lot of worry, you're worrying about a test or something coming up, and you actually kind of feel some digestive distress, that's, that's from worry. Worry affects the digestive system. Fear— we already know this, you know this— fear affects the adrenal glands. What happens when you get in a fight-or-flight state?

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That causes that liver stagnation and liver toxicity issues. What we call someone an angry drunk, right? Because alcohol can cause— and by the way, these work This, this is— this works vice versa, right? Um, if you drink too much or do something bad for your liver, that can cause anger, but also anger is bad for the liver. Grief, that impairs your lungs and your immune system. Okay.

And anxiety impacts your heart. Going back to grief, grief, if you've lost a loved one or you were abused as a child and you've never dealt with it emotionally and you're still living in the past, you've had something in the past and it's still bothers you today. That impacts that mind issue, that spiritual issue that is affecting your lung and immune system.

And then of course, your anxiety, worrying about your future, that's a heart issue. That's actually connected to things like trusting God. Do you really trust God? If not, you wouldn't have anxiety. So that's really connected to the heart there. Okay. And the vagus nerve we mentioned earlier, by the way, is most connected to anxiety and worry. Okay, uh, those, those parts of the organ system.

Now, grief, it's pretty connected to as well. It's really every one of these there's a connection to, um, to that vagus nerve we talked about. And so really activating and supporting that vagus nerve is so, so critical. Now, I want to go through it. I'm going to go through some specific examples on some things you can do to help support that mind-body connection.

But I want to go through it in terms of medical studies proving these ancient philosophies in Chinese medicine and Ayurveda that really help with the function. One is regarding the heart. We know that anger and anxiety and other strong emotions activate our fight or flight response and increase your blood pressure, right? Anger, anxiety, increased blood pressure.

A 2022 study published in the European Heart Journal found that anger may contribute to the development of cardiovascular disease and mortality, especially heart failure in men. You've probably seen this in a movie where maybe a dad got worked up and blood rises to their face and they have a heart attack, right? That's a, that's a common thing that happens today.

Um, I want to talk about this in relation to gut health. Chronic worry and anxiety can inhibit digestive functions, potentially leading to symptomatic acid reflux, bloating, or irritable bowel syndrome.

Studies show that people with psychiatric disorders like depression, or generalized anxiety disorder, or even issues like autistic spectrum disorders or schizophrenia, they actually have different gut microbiota compositions compared to those without those disorders. So there's really, really a deep connection between our gut health and our brain health.

We know that your gut actually— 95% of your body's serotonin is produced in the gut. Think about that. You might think of serotonin, this good mood hormone, it's activated in your brain. No, it's, it's, it's It's— most of it's created in your gut.

A 2020 Journal of Affective Disorders meta-analysis is a very large-scale study looking at several studies found that people with anxiety and depression had less diverse microbes in their gut. Certain gut bacteria can influence the production of important neurotransmitters like serotonin. So when an imbalance in gut microbiota lowers neurotransmitters, it can negatively influence somebody's mood.

This is why one of the biggest things I do when I have a patient that comes in with depression or anxiety is I focus on the gut. It's one of the— sometimes even, even before the brain, as I'll get them on high doses of probiotics. I'll get them on more prebiotic-rich foods like steamed vegetables and certain types of berries and certain types of seeds.

It's really, really impactful for them overcoming these mental health disorders. Also, the gut and brain communicate constantly through nerves and chemical pathways, including hormones and the vagus nerve, And your largest cranial nerve that stems from the neck to the abdomen, like having a nervous stomach or saying, I've got the butterflies when you're worried, excited, or scared.

This is really this connection between the brain and the gut. Now, here's a study on how diet— so this is, this is not the brain-body connection, this is the body-to-brain connection. Okay.

Research shows that improving the gut microbiome can enhance cognitive function, focus, and There is a quote here from a study that was published at the University of Stanford, and they compared high-fiber diets to diets rich in fermented foods. Significantly outperformed even high-fiber diets in improving gut microbiome diversity and reducing inflammatory markers.

Now, if you have, you know, you've got a connection between your gut and your brain in terms of you have, you know, some depression, anxiety, and maybe gut issues as well. Yeah. You want to do high-dose probiotics. You want to get fermented foods like sauerkraut, like coconut yogurt. And if you tolerate dairy, you can do things like goat's milk kefir and yogurt as well.

Raw cheeses, kombucha, kefir, kvass, kimchi, miso, natto. All of those are great foods, those fermented foods. But also you do want to get some good fiber in like steamed vegetables and berries as well. I would say in addition, that's going to help tremendously. And you, you do want to take some things from the brain. Ginkgo biloba, lion's mane mushroom, uh, bacopa are all very beneficial.

Omega-3 fatty acids. I also wanna mention something, that one of your most powerful tools at supporting the healing of your body via the brain is the placebo effect. When you experience a perceived improvement in symptoms or wellbeing after receiving a treatment that has no therapeutic value, that's the definition of the placebo effect.

Whereas, by the way, there's the opposite, which is the nocebo effect. Which is if you believe something bad is gonna happen to you based on an experience you're having or have had, and then you experience that negative outcome, your belief about what's going to happen is sometimes just as important about— is just as important as whatever action you're gonna take.

I mean, your belief about the thing itself. You know, Dr. Joe Dispenza, he's a, he's a well-known author and chiropractic physician, says become your own placebo. Become your own placebo. Uh, that means harness that brain-body connection. I wrote about this in my book, Think This, Not That.

By the way, if you wanna read a book that really dives deep into a lot of the things we're talking about, and also how to find your purpose in life, how to find your identity, how to experience a mental and spiritual breakthrough, you should check out my book, Think This, Not That. That really dives into this. Um, but again, Dr. Dispenza here says become your own placebo.

And you, the way you do that is you decide this is the outcome I want. And then you visualize it, you see it clearly, you tie healthy emotions to it, getting excited for experiencing that joy you're gonna experience when you have that in the future. And you create a plan to make that a reality. And then continue to educate yourself on why these things are gonna help you.

I did this when I had my spinal infection. I decided I was gonna be able to throw my 2-year-old daughter up in the air again. I decided I was going to be able to run again. I decided that and felt those emotions at that time of the joy and the excitement of being able to do those things. And I created a plan to make that a reality.

That's harnessing that placebo effect and that mind-body connection in order to help you heal. And if you have hypothyroidism, if you have autoimmune disease, if you have low testosterone, if you have diabetes, no matter what issue you have right now, you should do that same thing. Picture yourself in the future with yourself in perfect health or the best health you can have.

Then think about what it's gonna feel like in order to be in that position and experience those emotions now. Then go and create a plan in order to make that a reality and set a time timeline and get, get to work. That's how you amplify the power of the placebo effect and that mind-body connection.

I also want to mention the power of meditation and mindfulness in regards to the brain-body connection. Regular meditation and deep breathing can change the structure and function of the brain, such as by increasing gray matter density in regions linked to learning and memory, emotion regulation, and self-awareness. Self-awareness is so key.

The more you can be self-aware— that's, that's really self-awareness That core and key component of emotional intelligence. Okay, um, there's great books on this one, I think by Daniel Goleman, called Emotional Intelligence, that I encourage you to read. I get into this as well in my book Think This, Not That, but this is key for a healthy mind and body.

By the way, meditation also helps reduce stress hormones, improves sleep, and supports immune function. And by the way, just deep breathing— we do this with our daughter when she gets worked up. She's 4 years old right now. We'll say, okay, what do we We take 3 deep breaths. And if you are ever feeling a sense of anxiety or stress, do that 3 times.

And if you need it, then do it another 7 times for a total of 10. Okay? Just take, you know, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and then out, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Okay? And, and it's been shown in studies to help reset. And it— and what that deep breathing, what it actually does is, is it stimulates the vagus nerve in your parasympathetic nerve system to move into that rest and digest state.

Because if you're in a sympathetic state, you're, you're breathing very quickly and very, and very fast cuz you're either running or you're fighting or you're having to, you know, you're, you're in that stress state. Versus if you start breathing real slowly, your body's like, oh, okay, I'm outta, I'm outta the, I'm outta a state of stress now, so I don't need to be stressed.

So all the organs then can relax. Everything can start. Becoming balanced again. Deep breathing is probably the number one therapy outside of prayer that I think not enough people probably utilize today to help heal their body. By the way, there are some also some great treatments that I think really support the brain-body connection. One of those is called biofeedback.

Biofeedback training teaches people how to consciously control their physiological functions such breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure. You can do this at home. Uh, you can get quiet, slow down, and basically first pay attention to how your body feels. Okay, take some deep breaths and feel sensations coursing through your body.

Like right now, if I do this, and you may notice a few pains some, some places, you may notice just some certain things, but just sit there and notice your breathing. Notice your warmth and body temperature. Notice— What you're feeling on your skin and your body. Okay, so just pay attention to how you're feeling and the sensations.

And then as you do that, meditate for a minute on something positive, like, uh, you know, something spiritual. Like for me, I would, I would meditate on love and what God did for me, what Christ did for me. So that's what I would do. And while I'm doing that, I would take some deep breaths and maybe also affirm who I am. And so I might say, I'm a child of God.

God has God is for me, not against me. He's got a plan and purpose for my life. Like doing that exercise while, while you are meditating, while you are sensing yourself, your being spiritually, while, while doing a form of sort of meditating on biblical truths is incredibly healing to your mind.

Really, I would say it actually really starts with your spirit, which then infects your, your brain, which then impacts your body. Visualization is also very powerful. It's another tool you can use to help support this brain-body connection. Picturing that ideal future.

Now, if you want to add in not just the mind component, but the spiritual component, ask God, God, what is that ideal future you have for me? What does that look like? And ask God to share a vision with you. We know that this is talked about constantly throughout the Bible. God gives people visions.

I mean, God tells Abraham, he essentially says, you know, look at how numerous the stars are in the sky. So shall your descendants be, right? It's a very similar thing. God used visualization with, with, with people, and, uh, Jesus used it with giving a lot of farming, uh, metaphors.

Uh, but again, there, there's a, there's a, there's an absolute visual component to healing yourself and optimizing your life, uh, in harnessing that brain-body connection and gratitude as well. This is very, very healing to this brain-body connection as well.

In fact, studies have shown That doing a gratitude journal or a gratitude walk where you just say what you're grateful for a few minutes in the morning or anytime during the day, it's been shown to reduce stress and depression. Okay? What I like to do is first thing in the morning, wake up and go on a gratitude walk. Okay? I just go outside and I just start telling God everything I'm grateful for.

And if it's too cold to go outside, well then maybe I'll do it at the treadmill in the gym. Or if it's too cold to do that, I'll just pace up and down in my hall. Okay? Or I, I just, I walk when I get grateful. Okay. Now you can also sit, um, but there's something for me that's just very good in doing that, just 5 minutes in the morning.

And part of what I have done to enhance my brain-body connection is a spiritual triathlon where I spend time in the morning doing gratefulness, spending some time reading something for growth, and spending some time in that prayer and meditation. If you can start your day that way, or if you're feeling stressed, do that for a moment.

It's amazing what it does, how healing it is for you spiritually, Mentally and physically. Hey, I want to say thanks so much for tuning in here to the Dr. Josh Axe Show. Remember, each and every week I'm diving deep into the science and the principles behind how to grow in body, mind, and spirit, and take your health and your life to the next level. Hey, make sure to subscribe, like, and share.

There are so many people that are struggling with mental health issues today, and if they knew these truths, it could help radically improve their mental, And physical health. So thank you to all of you who are on mission with me for sharing. Thanks to all of you that are subscribed here. We have so much great content coming out.

I can't wait for you to check it out here, especially the episode next week. I'll see you on the next episode.