Jeffrey Bland explains how immune reactions in the gut, like gluten sensitivity, can trigger brain inflammation and cognitive decline. He outlines protective interventions: omega-3s, magnesium, zinc, glutathione, and plant compounds that support both immune and brain health.
Immunity plus cognitive health. You know, when we think about the overall functions of our body that we're really thinking of value. Right at the head of the list of most of us is our cognitive function. And you know, there are really these four kinds of function. Physical function, metabolic function, cognitive function and behavioral function. And cognitive for many people would be right up there in their hierarchy of importance as it relates to their definition of health. Being able to go forward and backward in time, remember things, conceptualize, innovate, create, do the kinds of things that very high cognition allows us to do using the frontal lobes of our brain, these high executive centers that do the magic of human creation. So how do you defend against the loss of cognitive function? Well now I'll give you a tool that is really important because it's part of our big bold health whole teaching mechanism. And that is the brain has its own immune system that connects then to the ability to define our cognitive function. Is that right? The brain has its own immune system? Yes, it does. The brain has cells. They're named after the Greek word for glue. They used to be thought of cells that would glue the brain together, glia, these are called the microglia. And those cells are actually kind of the brain's immune system. They're actually derived in the origin of our development as a fetus going into a full grown infant. They're derived from the same cells that our immune system is composed of. The immune system that's traveling around in our blood as white blood cells. So the microglia are very, very important as part of the brain's immune system that then responds to like all of our immune system to foreigners. And this is why people that have for instance, one of the products that's in wheat called gluten, and they have a sensitivity of their immune system to gluten that those individuals have been found statistically to have a higher incidence of the loss of cognitive function. Early stage dementia as a consequence of eating gluten containing grains. If they have a gluten immune dysfunction. So it's the gut is connected to the diet is connected to our brain. So this concept of our brain's immune system is extraordinarily important. And there are things that we now know that make individuals more susceptible to that brain immune system dysfunction, certain kinds of immuno identities. Fortunately, what we've also learned is that there are certain things we can do about that. And that's where we are in bigwell health. Not just educating about the problem, but also learning how to provide solutions. And the solutions are things like omega 3 fatty acids, EPA and DHA certain kinds of minerals like magnesium and zinc, certain types of anthropocen antioxidants that help to protect against brain injury like glutathione and its relationship to activation through certain B vitamins and certain niacin derived derivatives. Also certain phytochemicals that are proud as plant derived materials that have specific function in helping to defend the body's cognitive function through the regulation of the brain's immune system. So this is part of our big Bold Health Immunity focus Immunity plus Cognitive Health. So be part of our community. We're going to be exploring much more about this in the latest developments and how it translates directly into personalizing your immune health.
