June 15, 2021

A brain injury can destroy your gut

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Firstly, when we talk about brain injuries, we look at ways to heal the brain to fix the problem.

However, when you have a brain injury, it directly and immediately affects the gut!

As that gut function continues to be disrupted and deteriorates, it affects how much healing can happen in the brain. As a result we get a vicious cycle of brain and gut dysfunction. These gut functions affect how the brain works.

Getting treated for brain injury, often times includes physiotherapy and visual therapy. There is less computer time, less screen time and a lot of quiet time. This is meant to help the decrease inflammation in the brain. But if we don’t directly heal the gut dysfunction that has been caused by that brain injury and heal it, we’re never going to get better. That brain injury will be a long term problem.

Have you have been noticing that your gut symptoms are getting worse and worse? Maybe it is constipation? Maybe you have irritable bowel and you have a history of a previous brain injury, even a mild one? If so, this is important information for you.

intestinal permeability is one of the first things that happen in the vast majority of people with a brain injury.

After a brain injury, the tight junctions between the cells of your gut start to act dysfunctional and they open up.

This allows unwanted food particles, pathogens, other things that usually are kept inside the gut lumen into your bloodstream. Those particles then flow through your blood. They can also create a lot of issues. One of these issues being brain inflammation. This will impact your ability to heal the brain.

One of the biggest triggers of autoimmune disease is increased intestinal permeability. This is also known as leaky gut. Many research articles have come out showing that autoimmune diseases like Hashimotos (autoimmune disease of the thyroid) and multiple sclerosis, are linked to increased intestinal permeability. If autoimmunity runs in your family, you have a history of a brain injury and you’re starting to notice gut symptoms, it’s time to start working with a functional medicine expert to help you heal.

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The second way that a brain injury can destroy your gut is by affecting gut motility.

The gut has wave like motions called peristalsis that helps move food down in a certain amount of time, through a gastrointestinal tract. The contractile ability of this tissue can become dysfunctional with a brain injury.

This can cause one of two things:

Increased gut motility can result in diarrhea. The end result of that is malabsorption. If you’re not absorbing your food because it’s moving through your gut too fast, you wind up nutrient and mineral deficient.

The other way that gut motility can be dysfunctional is when it’s too slow. When your gut motility is slowed down, there is stagnation and inflammation in the bowels. Now we can’t detoxify properly. If you’ve had a brain injury, have you noticed that your bowels have changed ever since? You may have diarrhea or constipation or even combination of both. It’s time to start getting a treated and heal.

Did you know that the microvilli in your gut can shrivel and die immediately following a brain injury?

Research shows that the mucosa in the intestines, can be directly affected by a big brain injury. The microvilli are the components of the mucosa, the intestinal lining, that absorb all of your vitamins and minerals. These can atrophy and die following a brain injury. This can affect your long term nutrient and mineral absorption.

If you’re eating all of the right foods, lots of fruits and vegetables, good quality protein, but still you’re finding that you have B 12 deficiencies or you’re low in iron for no reason, your prior brain injury can be causing this issue. Long term vitamin and mineral deficiencies lead to chronic health conditions.

If you have a history of a brain injury, and are noticing these nutrient deficiencies, you have to address your gut health.

You must heal your gut in order to heal your brain.

Next Steps

If you enjoyed this content, please…

  • Join my Mythbusting Motherhood Group full of health inspired Supermoms on a similar journey to more vitality & fulfillment.
  • If you are interested to know how I can help you or a loved one, schedule a discovery call.
  • To help you inspire radical health change in your life and the lives of your loved ones, I have created a special guide: It contains tips about how to ditch the outdated Supermom mindset, how to build an awesome support system, and the daily habits that are the building blocks of good health. Simply click here to download the guide!

If you want other Supermoms just like you to be able to access this information, this knowledge, make sure to use the share buttons below to share it with someone that means the most to you.

Kristina Bosnar
June 9, 2021

3 Ways to Slow Cognitive Decline and Clear Brain Fog

Do you secretly fear that your forgetfulness and brain fog is linked to cognitive decline?

Many patients come into my office complaining of not being able to remember words, forgetting dates or misplacing their keys. These symptoms can happen 20 years before being diagnosed with cognitive decline.

Have you gone to your doctor and they’ve told you you’re just getting older? It is true. However, it is also possible that you are in the early stages of cognitive decline.

The first way to slow cognitive decline  and clear brain fog is with regulating blood sugar through intermittent fasting.

Making new brain cells is known as neurogenesis. The process of neurogenesis is insulin dependent. When blood sugar is balanced there is an adequate amount of insulin to make new brain cells. In other words, people with cognitive decline and brain fog have impaired neurogenesis.

A great way to regulate blood sugar is by intermittent fasting. You can start with a 12 hour fasting window. This looks like fasting at 8pm and eating again at 8am. If this feels good for you slowly work your way up to a 16 hour fasting window, one hour at a time. Patients often feel brain clarity when intermittent fasting and their brain fog goes away. If you need support implementing intermittent fasting, work with your healthcare provider.

The second way to slow cognitive decline and clear brain fog is brain fitness.

I’m talking about physical exercise. Exercise improves brain function by increasing mitogenesis. Mitochondria are small cells within each cell that produce energy and mitogenesis is the process of creating new mitochondria.

For instance, different kinds of exercise can produce mitochondria. Therefore, the more mitochondria you have, the more energy you have in your brain cells for all of these cognitive functions.

Exercises that improve brain health are high intensity training (for 10 to 15 minutes), explosive interval training and weight training. In addition, Tai Chi, Yoga and meditation have been linked to mitogenesis. Remember, physical exercise increases your mitochondria (your energy production cells), and your brain is full of them!

The third way to slow cognitive decline and clear brain fog is through a whole foods diet with healthy fats

Consuming a whole foods diet is vital for providing the vitamins and minerals needed for brain function.

The best healthy fats for brain health are Omega-3’s. These fats decrease inflammation and help with healing. In fact, your brain structure is partly made up of Omega-3’s. In other words, you require Omega-3’s to build your brain. Good sources of Omega-3’s include olives, olive oil, coconut, avocado, grass-fed beef and salmon. These are all wonderful foods that we can eat to help increase our brain function.

Let’s talk about the diets I typically encounter that negatively impact brain health. Those of us who are a little bit older were told that fats are inflammatory, they’re bad for you and can cause heart disease. However, a low fat diet is basically starving your brain. Getting the right amount of fats is vital to nourish and grow your brain.

The other thing I see is what I call ‘dirty keto’ diets. These are diets that are based on high fats but the wrong kinds of fats. This diet is mostly high in Omega-6 fats. Not only do these fats not help build a brain, they cause massive inflammation in the brain. This inflammation definitively contributes to cognitive decline, brain fog and poor brain function.

Next Steps

If you enjoyed this content, please…

  • Join my Mythbusting Motherhood Group full of health inspired Supermoms on a similar journey to more vitality & fulfillment.
  • If you are interested to know how I can help you or a loved one, schedule a discovery call.
  • To help you inspire radical health change in your life and the lives of your loved ones, I have created a special guide: It contains tips about how to ditch the outdated Supermom mindset, how to build an awesome support system, and the daily habits that are the building blocks of good health. Simply click here to download the guide!

If you want other Supermoms just like you to be able to access this information, this knowledge, make sure to use the share buttons below to share it with someone that means the most to you.

Kristina Bosnar
May 31, 2021

The top 4 reasons you have brain fog

How do you know if you have brain fog?

Symptoms include anxiety, irritability, inability to remember names, inability to retrieve words, forgetfulness, low mood, difficulty sleeping and chronic headaches.

When you tell your doctor you have brain fog, you’re  often told you’re depressed or just getting older. Brain fog is a common symptom in so many chronic health conditions including thyroid issues, metabolic syndrome, high blood pressure and inflammation. Different autoimmune conditions also present with brain fog. It is so ubiquitous that I see this symptom in almost all of the patients that I see in my office.

The first reason you have brain fog is inadequate sleep

Sleep is important for restoration and so many functions in our body!

When you go to sleep, your body detoxifies from all of the chemicals and byproducts that you’ve ingested in the day. When we don’t get adequate sleep, our detoxification processes can be impaired. That can lead to inflammation in the body. In turn, this can lead to brain inflammation. It is this brain inflammation that is causing your brain fog.

Major detoxification in our body happens between 10pm and 2am in the morning. If you’re not getting adequate sleep and you’re not sleeping between these times, you’re not detoxifying.

The second way sleep is causing your brain fog, is because adequate REM and deep sleep is imperative when you are sleeping. Your body takes all the information that you learned in the day, consolidates it and files it away. When you get less sleep, it affects this process. This effects your ability to remember things and cognitive function decreases.

The second reason you have brain fog is because your hormones are out of whack.

Many people have thyroid conditions that are undiagnosed. When you have a thyroid condition, it can really affect how your brain works. In fact, brain fog is a common complaint I see in my patients. If you haven’t tested your thyroid, and your thyroid hormones are imbalanced, it will impact the way your brain works. Traditional testing for thyroid is not enough. What you want to make sure you do is complete a full thyroid panel. This complete panel will give you an idea of how your thyroid is functioning. This will let you know if an imbalance in your thyroid hormones is causing your brain fog.

The third reason you have brain fog, is because you’re being exposed to toxins in your environment.

There are so many toxins in our environment that we inhale throughout the day. As we inhale them, they can actually affect the way our brain functions and inflame it.  You could be exposed to mycotoxins (which are mold toxins) that you don’t see and you could be exposed to them for a long time.

There are also toxins in our environment and in our air. For example, you could live or work in an older building that has lead in the paint that is inflammatory. You could also work in an area where there are chemicals and pesticides that you’re inhaling. All of these hidden environmental triggers and mycotoxin triggers can lead to inflammation in your brain.

If you suspect that something in your environment is causing your brain fog, get it looked at! A mold inspector can come in and check to make sure that there aren’t any unseen molds in your house. This will make sure that you’re not being exposed to any pesticides or chemicals outside or inside your house.

The fourth reason that you have brain fog is your food intolerances.

So often in my practice I see people who have brain fog. When we uncover foods that are inflaming their gut, it goes away. There is a connection between the gut and the brain! When you’re eating  foods that your body is intolerant to, it creates inflammation in your gut.

The most common foods that I see that causes brain fog are dairy and gluten proteins. If you think that food intolerances are causing your brain fog, you can do an elimination diet for 4 weeks and take gluten and dairy out of your diet. If you’re not quite sure at the end of the four weeks, have some of that dairy and gluten. See how your brain feels. If these foods are causing your brain fog, you’ll notice it right away.

Next Steps

If you enjoyed this content, please…

  • Join my Mythbusting Motherhood Group full of health inspired Supermoms on a similar journey to more vitality & fulfillment.
  • If you are interested to know how I can help you or a loved one, schedule a discovery call.
  • To help you inspire radical health change in your life and the lives of your loved ones, I have created a special guide: It contains tips about how to ditch the outdated Supermom mindset, how to build an awesome support system, and the daily habits that are the building blocks of good health. Simply click here to download the guide!

If you want other Supermoms just like you to be able to access this information, this knowledge, make sure to use the share buttons below to share it with someone that means the most to you.

Kristina Bosnar