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The Brain-Gut Highway: A Two-Way Street
Plus: are you too fat, or do you just have too little muscle?
The 10almonds Team
September 06, 2023
Today’s almonds have been activated by:
Loading Screen Tip: smile! It tricks your brain into doing good things for you.
(and now, a sly smile please, for having tricked your brain)
⏰ IN A RUSH?
Today’s 30-Second Summary
If you don’t have time to read the whole email today, here are some key takeaways:
As we get older, we tend to lose muscle mass, and sometimes gain fat. While a lot of attention is given to the latter, it’s actually the former that matters more.
In fact, an “overweight” BMI, after a certain age, results in better health outcomes and longer healthspan.
However, not all pounds are created equal, and muscle does a lot of things for us that fat can’t
Today’s featured video explains this in more detail!
The brain and gut talk to each other quite a lot, and while the gut is a veritable chatterbox, offering about 90% of this conversation, the brain does have its things to say to the gut too, and we ignore that 10% of brain-gut communication at our peril.
Today’s featured expert looks at improving both sides of that brain-gut communication, so that they each have the best, most helpful things to say to each other
This, in turn, helps us avoid a lot of chronic diseases (beyond the scope of today’s article)
He also offers gut-healthy advice that (unlike a lot of gut-healthy advice) is appropriate for people with IBS and/or related disorders.
As we age, our collagen levels tend to get depleted more easily
Collagen is important not just for youthful good looks, but also for the health of bones and joints
Today’s sponsor NativePath are offering high-quality collagen without additives or harmful impurities
Read on to learn about these things and more…
👀 WATCH AND LEARN
Are you too fat, or do you just have too little muscle?
An important reframe of the body size issue. This also illustrates what’s happening in the apparent paradox of an “overweight” BMI resulting in longer healthspan than a “healthy” BMI after a certain age.
Body fat has its place and its uses, but muscle must not be neglected:
Muscle menu:
MAIN FEATURE
The Brain-Gut Two-Way Highway
This is Dr. Emeran Mayer. He has the rather niche dual specialty of being a gastroenterologist and a neurologist. He has published over 353 peer reviewed scientific articles, and he’s a professor in the Departments of Medicine, Physiology, and Psychiatry at UCLA. Much of his work has been pioneering medical research into gut-brain interactions.
We know the brain and gut are connected. What else does he want us to know?
First, that it is a two-way interaction. It’s about 90% “gut tells the brain things”, but it’s also 10% “brain tells the gut things”, and that 10% can make more like a 20% difference, if for example we look at the swing between “brain using that 10% communication to tell gut to do things worse” or “brain using that 10% communication to tell gut to do things better”, vs the midpoint null hypothesis of “what the gut would be doing with no direction from the brain”.
For example, if we are experiencing unmanaged chronic stress, that is going to tell our gut to do things that had an evolutionary advantage 20,000–200,000 years ago. Those things will not help us now. We do not need cortisol highs and adrenal dumping because we ate a piece of bread while stressed.
Read more (by Dr. Mayer): The Stress That Evolution Has Not Prepared Us For
With this in mind, if we want to look after our gut, then we can start before we even put anything in our mouths. Dr. Mayer recommends managing stress, anxiety, and depression from the head downwards as well as from the gut upwards.
Here’s what we at 10almonds have written previously on how to manage those things:
Do eat for gut health! Yes, even if…
Unsurprisingly, Dr. Mayer advocates for a gut-friendly, anti-inflammatory diet. We’ve written about these things before:
…but there’s just one problem:
For some people, such as with IBS, Crohn’s, and colitis, the Mediterranean diet that we (10almonds and Dr. Mayer) generally advocate for, is inaccessible. If you (if you have those conditions) eat as we describe, a combination of the fiber in many vegetables and the FODMAPs* in many fruits, will give you a very bad time indeed.
*Fermentable Oligo-, Di-, Monosaccharides And Polyols
Dr. Mayer has the answer to this riddle, and he’s not just guessing; he and his team did science to it. In a study with hundreds of participants, he measured what happened with adherence (or not) to the Mediterranean diet (or modified Mediterranean diet) (or not), in participants with IBS (or not).
The results and conclusions from that study included:
❝Among IBS participants, a higher consumption of fruits, vegetables, sugar, and butter was associated with a greater severity of IBS symptoms. Multivariate analysis identified several Mediterranean Diet foods to be associated with increased IBS symptoms.
A higher adherence to symptom-modified Mediterranean Diet was associated with a lower abundance of potentially harmful Faecalitalea, Streptococcus, and Intestinibacter, and higher abundance of potentially beneficial Holdemanella from the Firmicutes phylum.
A standard Mediterranean Diet was not associated with IBS symptom severity, although certain Mediterranean Diet foods were associated with increased IBS symptoms. Our study suggests that standard Mediterranean Diet may not be suitable for all patients with IBS and likely needs to be personalized in those with increased symptoms.❞
In graphical form:
And if you’d like to read more about this (along with more details on which specific foods to include or exclude to get these results), you can do so…
The study itself (full article): The Association Between a Mediterranean Diet and Symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Dr. Mayer’s blog (lay explanation): The Benefits of a Modified Mediterranean Diet for Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Want to know more?
Dr. Mayer offers many resources, including a blog, books, recipes, podcasts, and even a YouTube channel:
❤️ OUR SPONSORS MAKE THIS PUBLICATION POSSIBLE
NativePath: Your New Secret Weapon Against Aging*
*Parts of aging, anyway! We’ve written before about the importance of collagen for far more than just youthful skin—it’s also critical for the health of joints and bones!
Most collagen supplements on the market are made from industrial by-products of animal agriculture, and contain artificial ingredients. What NativePath does differently is focus on keeping things as close to nature as possible, with the highest quality (and purest) ingredients.
As a bonus: with 18 grams of protein per serving, their collagen powder also supports muscle growth and maintenance, keeping you feeling energized and strong throughout the day!
Please do check out our sponsors—they help keep 10almonds free
🌎 AROUND THE WEB
What’s happening in the health world…
Intermittent fasting's role in combating Alzheimer's disease neurodegeneration
Cracking the code on post-vaccine COVID protection
Alzheimer's screening just got easier and more accurate with new blood test
Study shows strong link between depression and inflammation in obese patients before and after bariatric surgery
The efficacy and safety of anti-androgens in the management of hormonal and clinical features of PCOS
Low-dose aspirin linked to 15% lower risk of type 2 diabetes in older adults
How little things can reduce hip fractures
More to come tomorrow!
📖 ONE-MINUTE BOOK REVIEW
The Brain's Way of Healing: Remarkable Discoveries and Recoveries from the Frontiers of Neuroplasticity – by Dr. Norman Doidge
First, what this book isn't: any sort of wishy-washy "think yourself better" fluff, and nor is it a "tapping into your Universal Divine Essence" thing.
In contrast, Dr. Norman Doidge sticks with science, and the only "vibrational frequencies" involved are the sort that come from an MRI machine or similar.
The author makes bold claims of the potential for leveraging neuroplasticity to heal many chronic diseases. All of them are neurological in whole or in part, ranging from chronic pain to Parkinson's.
How well are these claims backed up, you ask?
The book makes heavy use of case studies. In science, case studies rarely prove anything, so much as indicate a potential proof of principle. Clinical trials are what's needed to become more certain, and for Dr. Doidge's claims, these are so far sadly lacking, or as yet inconclusive.
Where the book's strengths lie is in describing exactly what is done, and how, to effect each recovery. Specific exercises to do, and explanations of the mechanism of action. To that end, it makes them very repeatable for any would-be "citizen scientist" who wishes to try (in the cases that they don't require special equipment).
Bottom line: this book would be more reassuring if its putative techniques had enjoyed more clinical studies... But in the meantime, it's a fair collection of promising therapeutic approaches for a number of neurological disorders.
What did you think of today's newsletter?We always love to hear from you, whether you leave us a comment or even just a click in the poll if you're speeding by! |
Wishing you the best of health in every way,
The 10almonds Team