In this YouTube interview, host Mohika speaks with Dr. Preeti Nanda Sibal, a functional‑medicine practitioner and creator of the KetoCyclic program, about the profound mental‑health challenges posed by the COVID‑19 pandemic and practical, medicine‑informed strategies to protect brain health. Dr. Sibal outlines how COVID‑19 can cause loss of taste and smell, confusion, irritability, agitation, and depression, emphasizing the need for proactive self‑care. She presents ten actionable recommendations: (1) maintain optimal cerebral blood flow by managing hypertension, heart disease, exercise, and limiting caffeine and nicotine; (2) reduce systemic inflammation with daily omega‑3 supplementation (2,000‑3,000 mg); (3) preserve gut microbiome health by limiting alcohol, consuming probiotics, fermented foods, and a simple rice‑water probiotic drink; (4) consider any history of head trauma and prioritize detoxification to keep blood vessels clear; (5) practice mental hygiene using her “MYM (Mind Your Mind)” gratitude routine each morning; (6) boost immunity with onion, garlic, mushrooms, and vitamin D; (7) keep hormonal balance—insulin, thyroid, cortisol—within normal ranges; (8) address obesity and diabetes through healthier food choices such as yogurt with berries instead of ice cream; (9) ensure adequate, quality sleep, with a reference to her sleep blog; and (10) overall, adopt a diet and lifestyle that “loves you” to support both mental and physical resilience. The interview ends with encouragement for listeners to adopt these steps for a healthier, safer life during the pandemic.
Hi everybody, today we have Dr. Preeti with us. She has over 30 years of experience and is a functional medicine expert and also the creator of KetoCyclic program. Today I would like to ask Dr. Preeti to give her— give us a few insights about how mental health is related to the epidemic that's going on right now and what are the things we could do to fix it.
Wow, thank you, Mohika, for the sweet introduction and a very, very interesting topic. So yes, recently a lot of studies are coming that COVID-19 is affecting the mental health in a significant way. People are losing sense of taste, sense of smell. They're feeling confused, irritated, agitated, depressed, and, and the symptoms are so prominent that nobody can miss them. So it is exceptionally important that we take care of ourselves and do social distancing. But let me just share with you what are the few things which we should be careful about. Number 1, we have to maintain a good blood flow to our brain. So patients who are hypertensive, who have cardiac diseases like congestive heart failure, who do not exercise, who are on high caffeine or nicotine, These are all ways, you know, to have lesser blood flow, and lesser blood flow means more prone to mental problems with COVID-19. 2. Inflammation. To tackle the inflammation in your body, omega-3s play a significant role. So if you think your diet does not have omega-3s, you are vegetarian, adding a supplement of omega-3, 2,000 milligrams to 3,000 milligrams every day, is gonna help. Very much. Third, gut is unhealthy. That is very critical. 100 trillion bacteria we have in our gut, and those make us, and we— our genes don't make us. So nurses and doctors and everybody is recommending using alcohol to sanitize your hands and all. What is it doing? It is killing the bug. Do you want the same thing to happen for the healthy bug which is inside your gut? No. So please make sure that you take less alcohol and you take probiotics in your food. Something like, you know, just soaking 2 spoons of rice before you sleep at night and drinking it empty stomach in the morning adds a lot to the probiotic culture in your gut. Having yogurt and others— pickles add a lot of value. The fourth point is any history of head trauma, very critical, and we should know that toxins in our body— detoxification is of utmost importance at this COVID-19 time. Having toxins in your body is like having closed bars, and until you remove that, your blood flow will never be smooth enough for your brain to function properly. Sixth point Mental health. You need to maintain good mental health and mental hygiene, and I strongly advocate using my, you know, MYM method to do it, in which what I tell people is, moment you get up in the morning, write 3 good things you are thankful about. And MYM stands for mind your mind, and the way you mind your mind in the morning, that's the way your mind stays throughout the day. So use this simple technique and share with us how things change for you in terms of mental health. The next 7th point is immunity and infection. So what do you do for that? You add onion, garlic, mushrooms, and vitamin D in your diet. Hormones— keep your hormones balanced, exceptionally important. Insulin, thyroid, and cortisol, which is your stress hormone, they make a triad. So the least we have to do is we have to keep them normal. Diversity— diabetes— diversity, that is obesity and diabetes together, is one single factor affecting the maximum number of COVID patients who are going into ICUs and, you know, ultimately death. Please, this is high time we start working on it. So Simple thing you need to do for that is eat food which loves you so that you get an opportunity to love yourself. For example, if you have to choose between an ice cream and a yogurt, I would choose a yogurt, add some erythritol and blueberries or blackberries or strawberries in it and have it rather than having an ice cream. And 10th point Last but most important is please sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep properly. And if you want to know more on that, please go and read my blog on sleep. And I wish you a very healthy, happy, safe life. Let me know what more I can share with you, and I'll be happy to.
Thank you, Dr. Preeti. I'm sure that everybody loves pickles and berries. So they won't have any problems changing.
