The Gut-Brain Axis: A Beginners Guide to Improving Brain Health Through The Gut

The phrase “gut-brain axis” might be the most popular buzz phrase used in holistic health care, yet is one of the least understood by those using it.

It is becoming more widely known that gut health plays a leading role in brain health and brain function. In case you missed that memo, our brain talks to our gut, and our gut talks to our brain. If the gut is inflamed, it can inflame the brain. If the brain is inflamed, it can inflame the gut. This is the foundation upon which “root cause” health care is centered.

After an injury to the brain - whether it be due to extreme stress, trauma, infection, or a physical injury - the communication pathway known as the vagus nerve that connects the brain to the gut slows down, leading to indigestion, malabsorption, and inflammation. Conversely, after years of eating an inflammatory processed food diet, inflammation in the gut from poor digestive health can cause trigger inflammation in the brain via this bidirectional highway.

“The vagus nerve represents the main component of the parasympathetic nervous system, which oversees a vast array of crucial bodily functions, including control of mood, immune response, digestion, and heart rate. It establishes one of the connections between the brain and the gastrointestinal tract and sends information about the state of the inner organs to the brain via afferent fibers. (1)”

When the vagus nerve stops firing Autonomic Nervous System dysregulation ensues and the nervous system gets stuck in the “sympathetic” mode, or the “panic and freak out” mode. This means that the parasympathetic side of the nervous system (the one that regulates digestion and relaxation) is running largely inactive causing irregularities in mood, immune response, digestion, and heart rate. Unfortunately, if left unattended to, this can be the start of a vicious cycle of health challenges.

Let’s talk a little bit more about the digestive health piece of this equation.

The impaired gut brain communication via the vagus nerve means that food isn’t moving as fast as it should through the digestive tract and digestive enzymes that break down foods aren’t being pumped out as efficiently as they should be. Both of these actions are crucial to healthy digestion. When these activities go haywire, our digestive tracts aren’t able to adequately break our food down for efficient digestion and absorption and a lot of the nutrients from our food go largely unused.

This impaired motility and break down of food particles through the digestive tract enables pathogenic bacteria and yeast to start fermenting these foods in places in the digestive tract where they shouldn’t be. A state of microbial dysbiosis (also known as bad bacteria) in the gut causes intestinal inflammation, leaky gut, bloating, abdominal pain, and ultimately a viscous cycle of inflammation between the gut and the brain.

Chronic inflammation is the result of immune system over activation.

When the gut becomes “leaky,” the intestinal barrier that separates self from the outside world gets broken down and creates an entry point for toxins and food particles that aren’t supposed to be able to get in. In an attempt to protect the body, the immune system ramps up to get rid of these toxins. It wages a war that becomes too challenging to win, creating more inflammation, fatigue, and a general feeling of unwellness. This cycle continues until appropriate intervention is initiated.

Teasing out the underlying cause of this breakdown in intestinal funciton is a crucial yet challenging part of the process. Not only can the breakdown occur from heavily processed foods diet, but it can also occur after concussions, psychological trauma or neurological toxicity from heavy metals or pathogens.

Addressing the Gut-Brain axis is a crucial stop on the road to a better brain.

The first step toward establishing an OPTIMAL gut brain axis for healthy brain and digestive functioning is to make sure the vagus nerve is firing on all cylinders. It turns out that you can exercise the vagus nerve much like you can exercise a muscle. You can strengthen it, tone it, and improve its endurance.

Strengthening the vagus nerve helps to get your parasympathetic nervous system back on-line, and a firing parasympathetic nervous system has positive implications for your mood, your digestive health, and your inflammation levels. But, like anything in life, there is not a one pill quick fix solution here. Below I’ve put together some action steps you can take.

At home exercises to stimulate and strengthen the Vagus Nerve:

1. Gargle water for 1 minute, three times per day.

2. Tiger yawns, 1 minute before bed.

3. Sing very loudly in your car for 10 minutes per day.

Secondly, make sure you’re adequately digesting your food and eating the right foods for optimal health. Below are some at home tips to stimulate digestive health:

1. Eat bitter greens such as arugula or dandelion greens in a salad before your main meal to stimulate digestive enzymes. The Digestive Booster Salad recipe in The Concussion Cookbook is a great salad to incorporate into your weekly meal planning.

2. Drink 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar in 2-4oz water before a meal to support stomach HCL.

3. Take digestive bitters in tincture or capsule before a meal. if the prior two techniques don’t feel strong enough. Check out our online dispensary for professional grade, third party tested products.

4. Eat a diet centered around REAL WHOLE FOODS such as grass fed meats, wild caught fish, plenty of vegetables and fruits (notice how I listed vegetables first?), healthy fats such as olives, olive oil, avocado’s and their oil, nuts seeds, coconut, whole grains, and legumes. Things to start ditching out of your diet would be refined grains such as breads, pastries, cookies, sweets, as well as most snack foods with food labels on them that you can’t even read. As a general rule of thumb, you should be shopping around the outside rim of the grocery store, not the inside aisles where all of the food has been heavily manufactured and processed.

5. Lastly, you want to support parasympathetic nervous system activity, as the vagus nerve will be inactive under constant stress:

   1. daily breath work & meditation practice for 15 minutes: join a local yoga studio or meditation group to learn how to meditate and breath if this is new to you. There are plenty of apps to help guide you into the practice such as Headspace, Calm, or the Chopra app. Free guided meditations are available on the Insight Timer app as well.

There are plenty of other “gut health” supportive strategies out there, but I find these to be some foundational basics that I use clinically to start reversing this inflammatory cycle. Set a goal for yourself to pick two things from each list that you can start tomorrow. The journey toward better brain & gut health doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time, patience, consistency, and sometimes the proper guidance to put together an award winning strategy for your own unique physiology.

(1) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5859128/