A declining mind is one of the scariest things we can imagine. Yet, many of us walk around every day with brain fog, which is a clue that our brains (and our bodies) need some support. Left unchecked, there can be long-term consequences, and not just for your brain. The good news is that changes to diet, reducing toxic burden and stress, improving sleep and gut health, and getting good movement can work wonders to clear up any fogginess. In this episode, Dr. Hyman speaks with Dr. Todd LePine and Max Lugavere about the Functional Medicine approach to reducing brain fog. View Show Notes From This Episode Get Free Weekly Health Tips from Dr. Hyman Sign Up for Dr. Hyman’s Weekly Longevity Journal Full-length episodes of these interviews can be found here: Dr. Todd LePine Dr. Mark Hyman Max Lugavere This episode is brought to you by Big Bold Health, Mitopure, and AG1. Big Bold Health is offering my listeners 30% off their first order of HTB Rejuvenate Superfood. Head to Bigboldhealth.com and use code DrHyman30. Support essential mitochondrial health and save 10% on Mitopure. Visit TimelineNutrition.com/Drhyman and use code DRHYMAN10. AG1 is offering new subscribers a FREE $76 gift when you sign up. You’ll get a Welcome Kit, a bottle of D3K2, AND 5 free travel packs in your first box. Just go to DrinkAG1.com/hyman
Chapter 1: What is brain fog and its symptoms?
I learned, I learned, and I think I mentioned this before, and it was one of the things that really stuck with me is when I worked at the VA hospital, there were a lot of alcoholics. And when you're an alcoholic, you basically turn your liver into a pickled liver. You trash your liver. You trash your liver. And then you're not able to detoxify.
And I would typically see this over and over where patients had cirrhosis of the liver and their liver was not able to detoxify. And then when they would eat foods, especially high protein type meals, they would get hepatic encephalopathy and literally go into a coma.
So they would literally get delirium, confusion. Absolutely. Brain fog. Brain fog. That's brain fog on steroids. And the reason is it was coming from their gut. And what I found so striking when I started learning about functional medicine was that here was a condition in medicine that we knew how to treat.
by fixing the gut, we gave people antibiotics to sterilize their gut, to kill the bacteria that caused all these byproducts that made people have basically delirium or encephalopathy and brain fog. So it was like, wow, the gut is connected to the brain.
Totally, totally connected to the brain. Absolutely. And in some cases, there have been cases of people actually having psychosis from
gut dysfunction yeah you mentioned auto brewery syndrome i remember reading a case of a woman who was arrested for driving under the influence and it turned out she wasn't drinking but she had a high blood alcohol level that was coming from her gut yeah yeah it is yeah and it's it's a very real phenomenon you have to think about it and the way that you actually test for that is you you can it's actually quite simple is you just have somebody do what i call a pancake challenge you basically some pancakes full of carbs but throw some maple syrup on it eat it
and get a blood draw at point zero, eat the meal, and then half an hour later, check your alcohol level.
That sounds like a fun medical test, the pancake challenge. So we talked about the gut, we talked about gluten, dairy, food sensitivities. There are other reasons too.
So infections. Infections can do that. Another one that is- Tick infections. Oh, absolutely. Tick infections. Yeah. Oh, those are, yeah, those, I would say that that's in addition to brain fog, you get a lot of cognitive dysfunction too.
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Chapter 2: How is gut health connected to brain fog?
And you can go to ifm.org and you can find a practitioner certified in your area.
I looked through the medical literature and I determined the foods that were going to be the most accessible, the most available to people that are listening to this and watching this, that are going to serve a neuroprotective effect. Foods that are literally superfoods for the brain.
And I coined the term genius foods, which is not a scientific term, but it's the term that I've applied to the foods that are going to give your brain the most bang for its buck with regard to neuroprotection,
with regard to promoting neuroplasticity by providing important builder block molecules like mucosahexaenoic acid or DHA fat, which we know is one of the most important and yet under-consumed structural building blocks of the brain. And so we can look to certain foods like avocados, for example. Avocados at this point are pretty widely available.
And avocados are a fruit that provide the highest concentration of fat-protecting antioxidants of any other fruit or vegetable. Wow. Yeah. Why? This is of relevance to the brain because the brain is made of fat. Right, Dr. Hyman? The brain is made of fat, but not just any fat. It's made of a type of fat that is most prone to oxidation, most vulnerable to what's called oxidative stress.
And so you eat an avocado, which is rich in vitamin E, a fat-soluble antioxidant, It literally is one of the most powerful brain anti-aging foods that you can consume. It's also loaded with fiber, which makes it satiating and it helps support gut bacteria, which is promotive of a healthy gut microbiome.
It contains potassium, which we know is really important for helping maintain a healthy level of blood pressure. And it also contains compounds called carotenoids, which we know protect neural tissue, both in our eyes and in our brain. This is one of the reasons why avocados and dark leafy greens are protective against age-related macular degeneration.
They contain these carotenoids, which we now know also protect brain health. So that's one of my favorite foods, avocados.
Yeah, my problem with that is it often comes in the form of guacamole. Unless you order the vegetable sticks instead of the chips, it's a danger zone for me because I just kind of like those chips or I don't like crack. I don't know why, but if anybody has had those corn chip thing, it's like I can't eat them because I just can't stop.
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