This Is What Happens to Your Brain When You Heal Your Gut

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If you have a health issue, one of the number one things you're probably overlooking is your gut-brain connection. You have a connection between your mind and your body, and most people overlook this and don't care for it the right way. And because of it, they're suffering with health issues.

For instance, brain fog, poor memory, not being able to focus or concentrate, or lack of motivation oftentimes doesn't start in the brain, it starts in the gut. Or issues like IBS, gas, bloating, any type of digestive issue, oftentimes that starts in the brain.

In this episode, I'm gonna dive into the practical things I've done in my clinic and the science behind how to heal your gut-brain connection, including the ideal diet, herbs, lifestyle medicine, and other practices to heal your gut-brain connection. Welcome to the Dr. Josh Axe Show.

So before I dive into the top 7 things that are disrupting your gut, let's talk about what the gut-brain connection actually is. The gut-brain axis is the bidirectional communication network between your gut and your brain.

In fact, also, it's important to know that your gut is often called your second brain because it has the second most neurological tissue to your brain, and it communicates with numerous— really every organ and cell and tissue in your body. And the gut-brain axis involves your neural and your hormonal and your immune signals that keep your body balanced or throw it off.

So the gut-brain axis includes One, this is really important, the vagus nerve. And this is the main communication superhighway between your gut and your brain. And it's a long nerve that runs from your brainstem to your intestines, carrying messages in both directions. And it works fast.

Messages can travel in milliseconds, helping regulate things like digestion, mood, heart rate, and your immune response. And so this vagus nerve is something, by the way, that a lot of doctors pay particularly close attention to because it really helps regulate something called your parasympathetic nerve system. Now, we all know most of us live in this sympathetic state, right?

Fight or flight response. And our ancient ancestors, they would— it's called fight or flight because they would either run away or fight. And that's when it's most activated, when your body is in fear mode, when it's very, very alert, when you have to save your life. But most of us, due to today's fast-paced environment, are living in a sympathetic state all the time. This causes cortisol to rise.

That can keep melatonin low. When cortisol goes up, insulin goes up. It then throws off your blood sugar, can throw off a lot of your different hormones, from everything from estrogen to progesterone to testosterone to thyroid hormones. And so we know that the vagus nerve is the chief nerve for the parasympathetic nerve system. And if you can activate it, it starts to calm your body.

And the opposite of fight or flight is—.

Rest.

Rest and digest. Your body can now be calm, your organs are functioning at a higher level, you can better digest food, you can better absorb nutrients and create nutrients. So all of those things start to happen when you get more in that parasympathetic state, which the vagus nerve is the chief of. And again, it is the, the top neural pathway for communication between your brain in your gut.

And if that's thrown off, well then that can lead to digestive issues or neurological issues like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases long-term. Okay, number 2 thing you need to know about the gut-brain axis is your gut microbiome is the community of trillions of bacteria and other microbes that live in your gut.

And those bacteria help digest food, support your immune system, and make important brain chemicals. This explains why digestive issues Often show up alongside anxiety and depression. And the gut microbiome helps produce neurotransmitters like serotonin for mood and sleep. About 90% of your body's serotonin is produced in the gut, not the brain.

Also, did you know that your gut creates dopamine for motivation and pleasure? Now, we also know dopamine is released— it's your body's reward system. So when you're on social media scrolling, And you get a like, well, most people think, oh, that's coming from the— and then you get that feeling of, oh, people like me, or this sort of sense of happiness or joy or contentment.

That's actually a big part of that's your gut. So dopamine, that's your reward center for something, or someone says, hey, they're proud of you, or you get a trophy or something like that. That's dopamine. But that's released in the gut. And then GABA. This is for calm and relaxation. This is actually very important for thyroid function. This is important for getting good sleep at night.

GABA is also released in the gut and your microbiome, the good bacteria, the probiotics in your gut are a critical part of that. And the brain-gut connection, the way it works is as a loop. The brain can impact the gut and the gut can impact the brain and there's a cycle that happens when they're doing those things positively or negatively.

Also, a healthy gut helps regulate, we know, stress, appetite, sleep, and cognition, making it central to mental health. Now, on the other hand, a disrupted gut can impact brain health, your mood, your focus, and even your risk for, as I mentioned, neurodegenerative diseases. And we know that stress and trauma and mental health issues can alter gut motility, the gut microbiome, and inflammation.

I mean, I, you know, I've had so many patients over the years who have come into me with inflammatory bowel disease. And what will cause them to have a flare-up of their digestive system just as much as eating a conventional pizza with all the gluten and casein in it or a bunch of ice cream with sugar and dairy, that obviously will flare them up.

But will flare them up the same way as if they're going through a stressful time in life, maybe they got fired from work or going through a divorce or just have a lot of relational or life stress or they're just overdoing it, they're too busy all the time, that will cause those very same symptoms, okay?

Because they're both stressors in different ways to the gut, which then impacts the brain or vice versa. We also know that according to medical studies, anxiety can cause diarrhea. We know that anger and frustration or impatience or things not happening the way you want them to, that can cause constipation. And general stress can cause IBS symptoms.

You know, there's a patient I'm working with now And she is dealing with IBS and she wants to find a pill for it, okay? She wants to know what's the supplement, what's the food, and she keeps searching for those. And I've just had to tell her multiple times, listen, this is stress-related. And we can do some things dietarily and we're going to. We got you on probiotics right now.

We're gonna do some, you know, we've got you on the omegas, we've got you on a really good diet, but we have to address the stress. You can't completely ignore it or your gut can't heal. Okay.

Most people don't realize that stress, again, along with, by the way, foods, medications, and chemicals— these are things we're exposed to every day— all of those things impact the gut, and that disruption travels upstream to the brain. And so, so often I see this in medicine, uh, that people want to address just one of the issues.

And the number one thing people want to ignore is the stress issue, okay? How the brain can impact the gut. They just want to take something for the gut. When childhood trauma and relationships going on right now in their life or their overcommitment of being too busy trying to fit too much in their day. They don't realize that that is the single greatest thing damaging that gut-brain axis.

Now, I want to walk you through some other things that disrupt the gut-brain axis that might surprise you. Number one is this: antibiotic drugs. Antibiotics can wipe out beneficial bacteria, not just the bad bugs. This leads to a less diverse gut microbiome, which weakens the gut lining and ramps up inflammation.

There was a 20 There was a 2020 study published in the Frontiers journal, and it showed that antibiotics significantly reduce gut bacterial diversity by about 40% to 50%. Think about that. You take one round of antibiotics, it's going to alter your gut bacteria by 40% to 50%. This is then going to alter your metabolic activity, so your metabolism. It's going to promote inflammation.

It's going to weaken the immune system. And you know what else it's going to affect? It's gonna affect your brain. Okay, it's going to affect your mood. It's going to affect your ability to focus and concentrate. All of those are side effects from taking an antibiotic drug. So that is one of the greatest disruptors of the gut out there.

And by the way, antibiotic drugs are a big problem, but also so are other things that act as antibiotics. That's number 2 on the list, glyphosate.

Okay, glyphosate, which is the herbicide that's found in Roundup, Glyphosate, which is the most widely used pesticide today, has been shown in studies to alter gut microbiome balance, causing leaky gut, a condition where the gut lining becomes more permeable, where things get through that should never get through, right?

So I've used this as an example many times, but imagine your gut as a net or a kitchen strainer. It keeps certain things out, right? Spaghetti. We made spaghetti last night because my daughter loves spaghetti. Of course, we used, I think, like a cassava or a whole grain flour that sprouted, and pasta sauce. We added in lots of parsley and basil from our own garden, which we're excited about.

So, all that being said, we used a kitchen strainer. And when we were using this, the spaghetti doesn't get through. However, if I would go there and take a strong pair of scissors or wire cutters and cut in there and cut a few holes in it, well, the spaghetti is just going to slip right through. That's what happens in leaky gut.

And when that spaghetti, when the gluten and the casein and the toxins and things slip through in the bloodstream, it causes systemic inflammation, which then circulates and causes inflammation of the brain. That's right, causes inflammation of the brain. Now, I see this the most of all conditions with autism, okay?

When I have a child on the autistic spectrum, every time they have leaky gut, okay? And what's happening is that chronic inflammation is then affecting the brain, which is slowing and affecting development and speech. So if we can really reduce the inflammation and heal the gut, well, now the brain can develop and function at a higher level because the inflammation's gone.

So, so that's sort of the idea there. By the way, there's a 2024 animal study that found that low-dose glyphosate disrupted gut microbiome balance, damaged the gut lining, and increased intestinal permeability by 25%. And that's just very low dose, very low dose, 25%. So it acts like an antibiotic in a way in how it damages the gut microbiome. Number 3 thing that impacts the gut is chronic stress.

Okay, now arguments could be made that's number 1, but overall it is— it raises cortisol. We talked about this a little bit, how it impacts the body. I'm going to actually dive into this even deeper in just a few minutes. Number 4, thing that really harms that gut-brain connection are things like artificial sweeteners.

Artificial sweeteners like sucralose and aspartame might seem like healthier choices, but research shows they can reduce good bacteria like Lactobacilli and Bifidobacterium, which impairs your blood sugar and triggers brain inflammation. And there are many studies on artificial sweeteners like sucralose altering good bacteria in the gut. Okay.

In fact, artificial sweeteners can reduce good bacteria by, by up to 25 to 30%, leading to impaired glucose metabolism and inflammation. Number 5 thing that really disrupts the gut microbiome are processed foods full of preservatives, seed oils, sugar, emulsifiers. These can change the gut environment.

And some of these emulsifiers have been shown to thin the mucus lining in the gut, which then contributes to inflammation and even anxiety-like behavior in animal studies. A few other things that are going to cause major inflammation are— this is number 6 and 7— gluten and casein.

Okay, these are the proteins found in grains like wheat, which is gluten, and the main protein found in dairy, which is casein, especially something called A1 casein. In people with sensitivities, even those without celiac disease, Gluten from wheat and casein from dairy can be broken down into exorphins. These are compounds that act like opioids in the brain.

These opioid-like peptides bind to the same receptors as morphine and can impair mood, attention, and cognition. And studies show that children with autism and ADHD benefit from eliminating gluten and casein in their diet.

You know, this is something I saw when I was working and when I still today work with children with autism is when The first diet I ever put kids on, my first even month in practice, was a gluten and casein-free diet. I'd seen the studies and I saw great improvements with that.

Now, there are more things you want to do in going beyond just gluten and casein-free if you truly want to heal the gut microbiome. But that as a start can make a big difference. And when you put a child on an elimination diet, and this is where we start to remove the gluten, the casein, maybe other foods that cause sensitivities. As well.

Sometimes eggs, sometimes just a number of foods, okay, that they might be sensitive to. We see fewer symptoms of autistic behavior. We see improvement in speech. We see improvement in any motor issues they had. Generally, we see great improvements. But if we see a child go back to gluten and casein, we see these same things exacerbated and made worse.

So, you know, gluten and casein are probably the 2 worst, but there are Other things I do want to mention, caffeine, high FODMAP foods, added sugar is a major, major problem that we could talk about. What I tend to do for a diet for healing the gut microbiome is foods that are just easy to digest that are real. I really like pears and blueberries as a fruit. I really like meat.

Uh, grass-fed beef, chicken, wild salmon. Uh, I like rice, like jasmine or basmati rice that's cooked a long time where it's kind of like a mush known as congee in Chinese medicine. Um, so those are some of the things I really like, and I'll get into that more in a little bit, the ideal diet for healing the gut-brain connection.

A few of the things that can really trigger and affect the gut microbiome: lack of sleep. Of course, that's affecting the brain, then affecting the gut, and vice versa. So lack of sleep is a big deal. Hormonal changes in women that can actually start to change the gut microbiome, especially certain medications we know, like birth control, these contraceptive drugs increase estrogen.

Estrogen kind of can act like a fertilizer for certain types of microbes like yeast in particular, causing a real change in the gut microbiome. So we see that in women even more than men. And then medications like NSAIDs are very, very damaging to the gut microbiome. And the more of these factors that we sort of combine, if somebody is not eating a healthy diet, getting excess sugar.

Maybe you have a woman on birth control. Maybe they took one round of antibiotics, you know, not sleeping well.

All—.

See, that, that's what I— it, it's rare for me where somebody had just one thing and that was the thing throughout their life that caused them to have issues.

Now, that can happen, but for a lot of people, if you're older— now, that can happen in adolescence or in the womb or as a child, but for Most people later on in life, it was sort of this onslaught of numerous things that then sort of caused the bucket to overflow, right? We've been adding things to the bucket, it starts to overflow.

And that's the way that most illness tends to pop up is these things have been growing for a while. And the more of these factors we combine, again, the more likely someone is to suffer from these gut and brain issues. So here's what I want to do. First, let's go through the connection between your gut health and things like stress, infections, and even autism.

And then I'm going to share with you my top foods and herbs to boost gut health and brain health. So I'll go through the exact foods, the top foods you want to start consuming. Your gut, your brain, and your hormones are all connected. Approximately 95% of your body's serotonin, that happiness hormone, is produced in the gut. And when one is off, the others follow.

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Emotions like fear, anxiety, worry, or trauma send signals to your gut via your HPA axis, which stands for your hypothalamus, pituitary areas of the brain, and then adrenals. Where cortisol is then released. And these emotions can increase, as we talked about, all stress hormones, including cortisol, which then slows your digestion, reduces nutrient absorption, and weakens your gut lining.

Studies show a strong link between stress and IBS symptoms. And we know that IBS is heavily influenced by mental health. In fact, one study found about 60% of people with IBS— Wow. Have a psychiatric disorder like anxiety. 60% Of people with IBS are 3 times more likely to suffer from anxiety and depression than those without IBS.

Chronic cortisol exposure from stress can eventually cause leaky gut, which allows toxins in the bloodstream, fueling inflammation and brain fog. And disrupted gut flora can decrease serotonin and GABA production while raising pro-inflammatory cytokines. We know this Lowers your mood, causes depression and poor sleep and insomnia.

These tip the brain towards depression and anxiety because we need serotonin and GABA for a positive mood, restful sleep, normal digestion, wound healing, bone health, blood clotting, sexual desire, motivation, all of those things you need GABA for. And probiotics have been shown to significantly reduce the symptoms of anxiety and depression.

Which is one example of how the gut and brain are connected. A major meta-analysis— this is where we take many studies together, not one study, many studies— found that probiotics can ease depression symptoms by nearly 50% in those with mild to moderate depression, while multi-strain formulas reduce negative mood in healthy adults within just 2 weeks.

So if you know somebody with depression, or anxiety, they absolutely should be on a probiotic. In fact, I think almost everybody should be on a probiotic because we are exposed just with our daily lives to so many antibiotics, not just when we've taken them when we were kids or adults as a medication, but also hand sanitizers, cleaners, glyphosate. We're just exposed on a regular basis. Okay.

Now, early changes in your gut microbiome, by the way, there's a study on this in neurodegeneration, and they found that when your gut microbiome starts to change towards the negative, right, you have less good good bacteria more bad. It often makes you susceptible to Parkinson's up to 20 years in advance.

Okay, so major, major side effects of when your gut is unhealthy in terms of increasing your Parkinson's risk. Studies show that Parkinson's disease often begins in the gut. For example, up to 80% of patients experience constipation decades before motor symptoms appear.

Researchers analyzed stool samples from over 300 people and found that those with Parkinson's disease had significant differences in their gut microbiomes compared to healthy controls. These microbial shifts affected the production of key metabolites that influence Parkinson's symptoms and progression. And the study suggests that gut microbiome plays a pivotal role.

In a similar way to Parkinson's, gut-brain pathways have been observed in Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis, and autism, and microbial imbalances chronic inflammation and toxic gut metabolites all seem to have contributing roles to these neurological conditions. For instance, children with autism often show lower levels of beneficial bacteria, especially Bifidobacterium.

This is one of the most critical bacteria you get from— that a mom passes on to her child, okay, via typically, uh, yeah, vaginal birth, okay. This is why it is so important That if you have a C-section, that you then go and take some of the microbes from the vaginal canal and wipe the child down with it because they're not getting that via C-section like they would via the normal vaginal birth.

So you really need to make sure that, because children need these in the development of their immune system. If they don't have them, they get sick and they're at risk of many conditions. Increase.

These bacteria, by the way, like Bifidobacterium, are highly anti-inflammatory and they are protective of the brain, which may be why that they're at risk for autism, because this type of bacteria, Bifidobacterium, protects the brain. Babies with early imbalances in gut bacteria have been found to have higher risk of developing autism.

These changes can impact brain signaling chemicals like GABA and short-chain fatty acids, like butyric acid even before symptoms appear. Now, in addition to autism, MS is also greatly connected to gut-brain issues. Research indicates that microbial imbalances can worsen MS symptoms or even elevate the risk by altering gut immune signals driving autoimmunity.

Now, it's important to note there are many researchers that believe there is a— that That MS and what starts to happen in that demyelination of that protective coating around the spinal cord, you know, that's part of what happens with MS, right? You have this, something called your myelin sheath, okay, that surrounds.

Imagine you've got this copper wiring or some sort of wiring where you're sending signals, right? And what happens is if you remove the coating on the outside, that rubber that tends to protect wiring, and let's say water, certain things start to impact it, it starts to short circuit.

And that work— that's like what happens with MS. Part of these bacteria kind of act as a protective mechanism around our nerves and brain, okay? In a similar way, when you have MS, people believe that sometimes it could be a form of mold or fungus, or it's very similar to that, that starts to eat away at that area around the neural tissue that can then cause that short-circuiting.

And that's why I believe people with MS really, really need to focus on healing the gut microbiome. I mean, if you have MS, That is the primary thing you should focus on healing is your gut microbiome in order to heal.

And gut imbalances, as we talked about, weaken also the intestinal lining, promote autoimmunity, and even disrupt the blood-brain barrier, allowing harmful substances to then impact the brain and nervous system tissue. Okay? So that's a major contributor there. Now, I want to also go from MS now to more with autoimmune disease.

Infections like H. pylori, Candida, and parasites directly damage the gut lining, which triggers immune activity. Those conditions can generate neurotoxins, which can intensify mood imbalances, migraine headaches, autoimmunity, and brain issues like brain fog. The ways in which infections impacted people's guts and mental health are highly individual. Okay. It depends on genetics, diet, immunity.

One person might experience anxiety from a gut infection. While another might develop skin rashes or autoimmune disease. So it can impact everyone differently based on your gut microbiome. We know that systemic inflammation, though, disrupts gut-brain axis.

And these microbes, everything from parasites to bad bacteria, they'll leach toxins, okay, that then start to damage the gut lining, which then impacts the brain. There's a book I remember reading years ago. It was called Wheat Belly. It was by a cardiologist. His name was Dr. William Davis.

He discussed how modern wheat, which is genetically different from ancient grains due to hybridization, right? So they bred this grain, this wheat, to have higher levels of something I think called amylopectin, so higher levels of this carbohydrate and higher levels of the sticky protein gluten in there. They made it more highly glycemic and more inflammatory. On the gut and brain.

And so he covers this in the book of how, of how we've, we've done this. By the way, we've done this with a lot of foods. We've hybridized them and made them more sweet and maybe lower in fiber. I mean, just more unhealthy. Okay. We've removed seeds from food. So there's been a lot of genetic modification, a lot of hybridization of a lot of foods.

And wheat is one of the examples of the ones that's probably the most changed to where it was historically, like an einkorn wheat.

Okay.

Or something like that. But that was a great book that really got into and started to uncover some of this. And then very soon after, a friend of mine, Dr. David Perlmutter, wrote a book called Grain Brain. And he goes even further into this and how many grains and all grains basically break down into sugar very quickly.

They also trigger neurodegenerative diseases, including brain fog and Alzheimer's. And this is largely by way of gut inflammation and blood sugar spikes, okay, in that book. But Wheat Belly and Grain Brain.

Grain Brain were two great books written years ago that really sort of demonstrated, went through a lot of research on how this connection between the gut-brain axis and how that can cause issues. I wrote a book years ago that started to touch on this as well called Eat Dirt.

It was really how to— it was all about how to heal leaky gut, okay, the book was, and how really being outdoors and gardening and doing a number of things there. And in fact, Eat Dirt, part of the idea there in my book was also fostering a good garden in your gut, how that led to better health and reversing autoimmune disease. That book was called Eat Dirt.

But these books, my book Eat Dirt, Wheat Belly, Grain Brain, really sort of highlight the research that we discovered years ago about the gut-brain connection and how crucial it is. So if you're a person who has any neurological issue or you have a child that does, it could be autism. It could be ADHD, it could be MS, could be Alzheimer's, could be depression, could be anxiety.

You want to focus on healing the gut first because it's the gut that's impacting the brain. And if you've got digestive issues like IBS or IBD or stomach pain or ulcers, well, oftentimes those issues start in the brain with that chronic emotional stress. It's your mental health, it's your spiritual health. In fixing that. But whether you have each or, or condition, you can't ignore one.

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One of the first foods I want to talk about here are fermented foods, upping your probiotic intake, eating fermented foods daily like goat's milk yogurt or coconut yogurt, kefir, kimchi, sauerkraut, miso, Natto, these live cultures support microbial diversity.

Now, I do want to say there are a group of people with autoimmune disease or who have something called— who have elevated mast cell activity. This is a histamine intolerance. You may need to then get on a diet that is lower in fermentable foods. Okay. Because some people, this gut microbiome, they're having major histamine reactions.

And, and so they need to actually lay off the fermented foods for a time or any sour foods. And instead they need to just do, uh, when they can do small doses of soil-based organisms, SBO probiotics. Those tend to be the most tolerable for people with histamine issues and they wanna start there instead. Okay.

Um, the other thing you wanna do if you want to heal your gut is limit processed carbs, gluten, conventional dairy products. Again, and by the way, dairy is such a, A goldmine or a kryptonite for some people. For some people, organic raw fermented dairy, like a raw goat's milk kefir that's 100% grass-fed, can be a healing food. I've referenced this before.

One of my best friends, Jordan Rubin, he healed himself from ulcerative colitis and IBS by— the number one food he ate was raw goat's milk kefir every day. And for myself, even the healthier stuff, I can do it in small amounts and I do well with it. But if I do too much, it bothers me. Okay. But for some people, they can't tolerate it at all. Okay.

So dairy is sort of that one you got to look out for. But basically the processed carbs, the sugar, the gluten, you want to stay away from those completely. Those are going to cause gut inflammation. Any and all packaged foods, only eat real whole foods for the most part. Now, there is an ideal diet in Chinese medicine for this. And then there's also the Western medicine, which I'll hit on today.

But in Chinese medicine, they tend to call the— when you have this digestive issue, they tend to call it a spleen Qi deficiency or a lung Qi deficiency. But basically, it's either the upper GI or the lower GI is weakened and inflamed, or it has excess dampness in it, which is bad bacteria overgrowth, and we need to get rid of it. And the ideal diet for that is actually eating a lot of soups.

So I see a lot of people with health issues who think, okay, I'm unhealthy, what do I need to do? I need to eat a lot of salads. I need to do a lot of smoothies. Those are terrible for people with digestive issues. You want to focus on doing a lot of soup and a lot of herbal tea. That's how you heal. And so for breakfast, you might do like a cream of rice, okay?

And and and you could do a little manuka honey or some blueberries or apples with that, okay? And a little bit and a lot of ginger, okay? So so doing that, and then drinking bone broth, doing a lot of soup. It could be true chicken vegetable soup, but you're eating soups mostly. Meat and cooked vegetables and certain fruits that are easy to digest like pears and blueberries.

And oftentimes you can even cook those or warm them up to make them even easier to digest. That's the ideal diet for healing your gut. Also getting more healthy fats to support the brain. Could be a little bit of extra virgin olive oil, could be some avocado, coconut oil. That's another great one because it has antimicrobial properties. Okay.

And as a sweetener, Manuka or raw local honey in just small amounts, no more than a tablespoon a day. But something like that, that's sort of the ideal diet. So when it comes to— so do a lot of meat, grass-fed beef, chicken, wild fish. That should be the primary part of your diet.

Secondarily, cooked vegetables, only cooked, that are easy to digest, like carrots or green beans would be an example for that. And so doing those cooked. And then after that, you can do again some of the healthy fats we talked about. And then again, fruits in small amounts. I'd start off with pears and blueberries and see how you do with those.

And then you want to drink a lot of herbal tea, especially ginger tea. Ginger is warming, it's nourishing, it's moving, but I would say ginger tea is probably one of the best. And then doing some other herbals. Astragalus is great as an herb for a lot of these bright gut-brain connection issues. Slippery elm is another good one, licorice root extract.

But those are the things you want to do and really just stick to that simple diet like that. And the grain that people tend to do the best with is jasmine rice or basmati. Okay. And you want to cook it to where it's like a mush. So cook it for a long time in a Crock-Pot overnight and or a pressure cooker. And then eating that can also be good.

And then I'd say one other thing, you can do some squash as well, like pumpkin, getting some of that good— it's a really good fiber for the gut, and along with the pears and blueberries. And then some people tolerate apples if they don't have a histamine response, like an applesauce. Okay, but try out those things, see how your body does.

And if you follow a diet like that, you can, you can heal in an amazing way. Now I also want to mention too, the supplements.

Probiotics are the most important supplement, and typically higher dose soil-based organism, and then combining that with With, if you tolerate it and don't have histamine issues, a really diverse strain that has a lot of Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus, doing a probiotic that has a multi-strain and altering that with the SBO probiotics, or take them both and doing higher doses.

And so that can be very good for the gut as well. And then if you've got brain issues and a lot of stress, consider CBD oil, ginkgo biloba, lion's mane mushroom is amazing.

Yeah.

For the gut-brain connection as well. And so, and if you're looking for another type of diet, I think a GAPS diet is pretty good, but it's generally gonna be very similar to what I just shared for that Chinese medicine diet that's very good for healing that gut-brain connection. You know, I have a virtual practice where I take care of a lot of patients.

My practitioner team does, and I do a weekly call with, with a group on helping them heal and reverse Inflammatory bowel disease, depression, anxiety, hormonal issues, but a lot of them start in the gut.

One of the things I always have done when I had my brick-and-mortar practice in the past, or I have my virtual practice today, is I work with patients on healing, not just where their symptoms are. Again, if you have MS or you have depression or anxiety, there tends to be— that's not where it starts. Similar thing, I take care of a lot of patients with hypothyroidism.

I've helped them reverse hypothyroidism, get off their thyroid drugs. I didn't do it by treating the thyroid. I did it by improving the health of the adrenal glands, by healing the leaky gut, which was then causing Hashimoto's, so that autoimmune form of hypothyroidism. But too far or too often today in mainstream medicine, people try and treat the symptoms, not the root of the issue.

So if you truly want to heal, you've got to get to the root of the issue there, and you've got to eat healthy, You've also got to practice mindfulness. Here's another thing eating-wise. Don't eat late at night. You want to give yourself at least 3 hours before you go to sleep at night. So if you eat dinner, ideally, let's say 5 o'clock is the ideal time for most people.

But let's say you ate dinner at 6. You want to go to bed then around probably 9:30. You want to give your body that 3 hours. And then walking actually around your meals actually improves digestion as well. It's really good to get outside and go for a walk. And of course, the other part of this is, is reducing stress.

The best way I found for most people to reduce stress is by building joy and peace in their life. Number 1, get good at saying no. Most of us say yes to everything and we're just too busy. Stress isn't just the feeling of anxiety or fear. I rarely ever feel those. I tend to instead, I'm just too busy and I'm doing stuff most of the day. Okay? That's stress.

So once it gets to be 5 o'clock, just turn it off. Okay? Schedule time in your week to do things you love. Read a novel, go for a walk outside, Grow spiritually. This is so important for your physical health. Spend time in the body, nurture your soul, which will nurture your brain, which will nurture your gut.

Read your Bible, meditate, have a gratitude practice, go to church, be part of a growth group, serve. Doing those things is so healing. So those stress— time in nature, reducing stress, very, very healing there as well. And then some supplements, if it's more gut, we talked about things like probiotics and ginger.

If it's more brain-related, SAMe, St. John's wort, ginkgo biloba, lion's mane mushroom we talked about. But often taking both of those together is the best bet, especially when it comes to some of those brain and neurological issues there as well. So remember, the gut and brain are inseparable partners.

A disruption in one can ripple into the other, affecting mood, cognition, Your behavior, or causing gut issues. So a healthy gut equals a healthy brain equals a healthy life. And you know, there are so many people that are treating their brain for anxiety, depression, or they have a child with autism, and they are treating the symptoms, not getting to the root of the issue.

And people need to know the truth about how to finally get to the root of the problem. And I just want to say thank you to all of you who are willing to share this episode, get the message out there. Again, there are so many people that just don't know the truth. And also want to say thank you for subscribing.

You know, there are a lot of people who listen to the show that aren't subscribed, and I just want to encourage you to subscribe because it's the number one thing you can do to support the show, to keep it going, to allow me to bring on more high-profile guests like we've been able to, allow me to go on bigger shows and just expose the truth here of how to heal using food and lifestyle medicine, also to heal the body physically, mentally, and spiritually.

So thanks for sharing. Thank you for subscribing, and I'll see you on the next episode.