Nourishing the Brain Body on the Today Show with Maria Shriver
Yesterday, I had the great honor and privilege to launch my new book, Brain Body Diet, on the Today Show with Maria Shriver. WOW was it exciting to share with the world this important research on the interconnectedness of the brain body and the bidirectional components of health. As advocates for women’s health, we had a wonderful time spreading hope on the practical, evidence-based lifestyle changes that have real power to heal the brain body and to reverse the all-too-common symptoms of chronic and degenerative diseases. Watch the whole talk in the video below!
Maria and I both agree, it’s a surprise that most of us don’t consider the relationship between the brain and the body. The brain controls every aspect of your body, health, daily functions, and relationships. When one of these areas breaks down, your brain does, too—and vice versa. You can’t have a healthy brain if your body is out of whack, and you can’t have a healthy body if your brain is out of whack. The brain is the ultimate output center for all efforts of the body. There is an interdependent relationship between the brain and the body, mutually dependent and mutually supporting. Understanding the brain body connection holds the key to reversing many chronic symptoms that you may feel stuck with.
Millions of women are suffering from foggy thinking, anxiety, depression, addictive tendencies, forgetfulness, overwhelm, exhaustion, and other seemingly brain-related problems. Half a billion women have an inflammatory issue that puts her at risk for one of these conditions and causes stubborn weight gain. If you fit either category, listening to the messages that the brain body is telling you, especially the gut-brain pathway, is key to your future health.
What I’ve learned from most of my patients is that the root cause of most illness is inflammation caused by the stresses and environmental toxins of modern life. Inflammation acts as an ugly low-level burn that’s quietly robbing you of brain cells and the connections between them, making you fat, tired, and dim. You may experience symptoms of inflammation first in your gut and then your brain or the other way around. The classic gut symptoms are gas, bloating, loose stool, gluten and dairy sensitivity, acid reflux, and difficulty losing weight. Feeling swollen or puffy, brain fog, anxiety, moodiness, and early memory loss (short-term memory first) are additional indicators of inflammation, which usually can be traced back to the gut. Having a healthy brain body means you are clear of the inflammation that causes brain-body breakdown.
A serious and harmful type of inflammation is brain trash, an invisible toxic brain damage. Not the major brain damage that we think of when we hear of a traumatic head injury, but the slow, low-level depletion from brain inflammation, caused by environmental toxins like bisphenol A, alcohol, lead, and mercury. Brain trash is the insidious damage to our gray matter, which usually occurs below the radar.
One type of brain trash is amyloid beta, a toxin that accumulates in the brain that is believed to be involved in the development of Alzheimer’s Disease. Our body cleans up this brain toxin with an enzyme called insulin-degrading enzyme. This is the exact same substance that the body uses to process insulin after it is used. Here’s the problem: this enzyme can’t do both jobs at once. If the enzyme is busy breaking down insulin because your blood sugar is too high —thereby cranking out the insulin to try to drive the blood glucose into cells—your insulin-degrading enzyme won’t be free to break down amyloid beta.
The body has its own natural ability to fight toxins that build up in the body. However, when the body is constantly trying to defend itself against the daily onslaught of stresses and environmental toxins of modern life, these toxin fighters are overwhelmed. It might be from poor DNA-repairing genes and habits (e.g., drinking too much alcohol), marginal stress-coping tendencies, and poor toxin elimination.
In my Brain Body Protocol, I share my research-based strategies that bring immediate and long-term healing for some of the most frustrating symptoms women experience on a daily basis. Take my Brain Body quiz to gauge where your set point is holding and better understand the root cause of any brain body dismay you may feel. Grab a copy of my book to begin your journey in repairing your brain body today.