What Causes Brain Inflammation And How Can We Fix It?

Coming up on this episode of the Doctor's Pharmacy.

We see that the diet we're eating is a highly inflammatory diet in this country of processed foods, inflammation that are driven by sugar and starch, excess refined oils, all the lack of things that are anti-inflammatory, the whole foods with all the phytochemicals in them and the nutrient dense foods. So we're eating a diet that's super inflammatory.

Hi, I'm Kaya, one of the producers of the Doctor's Pharmacy podcast. Most modern diseases have one thing in common: inflammation. And the more we learn about the intricate, bidirectional connections between the brain and the body, the more we understand that inflammation is not only driving conditions such as cardiovascular disease, autoimmunity, cancer, and diabetes, it's also linked to a range of neurodegenerative and mental health disorders. Dr. Hyman spoke to Dr. Daniel Amen, who is paving the way for a new type of psychiatry. He looks at the actual brain and.

Uses an integrative approach to prevent disease and successfully treat it. Inflammation is a disaster for every organ in your body.

That's true.

Including your brain.

It's important to underscore this. We know from the research today that depression is inflammation in the brain, that autism is inflammation in the brain, that ADD and dementia are inflammation in the brain. And if that's true, then the question is what's causing the inflammation? How do you stop it? And how do you fix it? So tell us about that.

So, if you have a low Omega-3 index, taking Omega-3s can be really helpful. You have to get your gut right because having this thing, and I'm a psychiatrist, I didn't know one thing about leaky gut until I read the UltraMind Solution. And then I'm like, oh, you have to get your gut right. Because if your gut's not right, your brain's not right. You're likely to have things get inside your body that have no business in your body, which causes an autoimmune or an inflammatory response. So food really matters. Sugar is pro-inflammatory and foods that quickly turn to sugar, bread, pasta, potatoes, rice, you want to, you often say, eat them like a condiment. That lasts better. Recreational drug. Recreational drug.

They're not even a condiment. Sugar is a recreational drug. It's fine, but Didn't you say the four white powders? Deadly white powder.

Deadly white powder, white flour, white sugar.

Cocaine, and too much salt.

So diet really does matter, and our processed foods are loaded with pro-inflammatory omega-6s, so corn and soy, we're overloaded with them. I mean, not that they're evil, But they're not the right choice as primary staples in our diet. Our food system is broken, right? I mean, 70% of us are overweight, 40% of us are obese. I published two studies that show as your weight goes up, the size of your brain goes down, which should scare the fat off anybody.

Size and function of your brain.

Size and function of your brain. I've heard you say that many times. And because the fat on your body is not innocuous, it increases inflammation, it stores toxins, and it takes healthy hormones and turns them into unhealthy cancer-promoting forms of estrogen. And so if you just think about that, that one thing by itself, our food, I actually think is responsible for almost half of the mental health challenges in America. There's this fascinating study from Australia where they looked at two outer islands. One of them had fast food restaurants, the other one didn't. And then they looked at their Omega-3 index, and the island with fast food restaurants had significantly lower Omega-3 index and five times the level of depression. Think about that.

Yeah, of course.

Just with the food.

But also things like infections and mold and other things.

We're gonna get there. Well, let me tell you a story from the book. It's one of my favorite all-time stories of a couple who failed marital therapy. Now, I don't know if you went to marital therapy. I certainly did in the past. And it's hard. Well, this couple went for three years, spent $25,000, and then the therapist gave them an F. She flunked them. She said, Get divorced. Well, they got really upset with her. And when they got angry at her, she said, well, I know a doctor in Costa Mesa, California, who takes care of really difficult people. You should go see him. And so as part of our process, we scanned them both. And the wife actually had a pretty healthy brain. His brain was just full of holes, just like a drug addict.

Yeah, and when you say holes, you mean areas that aren't getting blood flow.

Right, areas of decreased perfusion, how we render them, they look like they have holes in them. Yeah. And just like a drug addict. But in his history, he said he didn't drink and never did drugs. Now, it's the first thing they teach us in psychiatry school about addicts. They lie. They lie. They lie a lot. And so in front of his wife, I went, Are you sure you've never done drugs and you don't drink? And he said, Dr. Amen, I have many problems. That's not it. Now, the therapist diagnosed him with a mixed personality disorder with narcissistic and antisocial features. And so she basically called him a jerk. That's our way of calling someone a jerk.

Then you're a psychopath.

Right. And so when he said he wasn't doing drugs, I looked to the wife and I said, is that true? And she said, oh, yes, Dr. Raymond. He doesn't drink, he's never done drugs as far as I know. He's just an asshole.

Comes by naturally.

And like you, I laugh. But in my head I went, well then why does his brain look so bad? And I went through the differential diagnosis. Drugs, alcohol, probably not. If, you know, he and his wife says no, an environmental toxin, anoxia, lack of oxygen at some point, severe hypothyroidism, severe anemia, an infection. And so my next question to Dave was, where do you work? He said, I work in a furniture factory. I said, what do you do? He finished furniture all day.

Maldahyde.

He was doing drugs. He was doing the worst drug of abuse, which is inhaling organic solvents. Because what do organic solvents dissolve? Fat, 60% of the solid weight of your brain is fat.

Wow.

So they were damaging.

And so in that case, they're off-gassing from all the furniture and carpets and paint and.

Which is why firefighters often have toxic brains because when you light the couch on fire, it's producing all of those chemicals in the brain. And so after she told me that, I said, after he told me that, I said to the wife, I said, so when did he become an asshole? She said, what do you mean? I said, did you marry him that way? Do you have father issues you're trying to work out? And she said, no, he was great when we got married. It wasn't until about five years ago, and then she put her hand over.

About and she said, that's when he got that job.

About the time he got that job, he started to change. And so it shifted from he's an a**le to he's sick. In his attempt to being a good husband by going to work and supporting his family, he's being poisoned.

Yeah.

And so for me, I took him out of that job, at least that position in the plant where he worked, put him on a rehabilitation program, and they didn't really need marital therapy. What he needed was brain rehab and get your brain right. It's easy. I mean, both you and I are married, and, you know, it's hard to be married with a good brain, but with a bad brain, it's really hard. But no marital therapist thinks about, well, what about the physical functioning of the two brains that are in front of me.

Well, that's a radical idea. You know, you have to get a brain scan in order to go to therapy.

Because what if it's the head trauma? Or what if it's the toxic exposure? Or what if it's you just both have a terrible diet leading to inflammation and you both have inflamed brains, which means now you're anxious and depressed and you take things the wrong way. This is not the sign of love, right? When your brain works right, you tend to be more empathic, more thoughtful, more loving. You can see things from their point of view, not just your own. Right, I mean, it's a very different.

Framing instead of you're a jerk to your brain is broken and it fixes your brain and you're not a jerk anymore and you've seen this over and over again. Thousands of people.

Dr. Hyman also spoke with his colleague, Dr. Todd Lappen, about the topic of neuroinflammation.

Most brain diseases are diseases of brain inflammation. But when the brain is inflamed, it doesn't hurt like your joints or a sore throat. It creates all these other cognitive problems, whether it's depression, anxiety, autism, ADD, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's. These are all inflammatory diseases of the brain.

Neuroinflammation is about inflammation. It's not just about these single molecules like cholesterol and serotonin. so it's really important to look at the whole big picture and how that relates to conditions that we see all the time, things like Alzheimer's disease, things like ALS, things like multiple sclerosis, things like even schizophrenia. I don't see children, but Pandas. I'm sure you have probably cases of patients who've had Pandas, which is the pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders relate to strep infections. And this can be a devastating clinical scenario where all of a sudden this young boy or girl starts getting these strange neurological type behaviors, these tics, these OCD type behaviors, et cetera. And these things are driven by neuroinflammation.

And then the question is, how do we help the brain repair? How do we set up the conditions for the brain repair? Because it's a pretty systematic approach that addresses diet and lifestyle and also some of these underlying causes. We see that the diet we're eating is a highly inflammatory diet in this country of processed foods, inflammation that are driven by sugar and starch, excess refined oils, all the lack of things that are anti-inflammatory, the whole foods with all the phytochemicals in them and the nutrient dense foods. So we're eating a diet that's super inflammatory. So this is the first thing and often dairy and gluten are among the worst. And then we focus on how do we get the right nutrients because if you're low in certain nutrients, whether it's the antioxidant nutrients or the B vitamins, your body needs these nutrients to regulate your immune system to function, whether it's zinc or vitamin A or selenium or vitamin D. Vitamin C, all these are really necessary for proper regulation of immune function. So getting adequate levels of these is key. Also, we really get people on an elimination diet if we suspect or we test that they have sensitivity certain foods, we treat the underlying infections if we find them directly with antibiotics if we need to, antivirals, or sometimes we'll use herbal therapies or things like ozone and other approaches to deal with infections. We'll fix the gut often. That's a big issue. So we have a whole functional medicine approach to fixing the gut. We've talked about a lot on this podcast. And then we'll address whatever toxins that are there and help you eliminate the toxins through a really focused detoxification program. And so building on the framework of functional medicine, we can identify in each individual which of these things are the problem, and then we can start to map the right treatments for that person.

The other thing which I think is also really, really critical, Mark, is sleep. And this is something that I really emphasize to people, is that when our bodies sleep, our brains take out the garbage.

Okay?

And I'll guarantee you, when you have a patient who's got a neurodegenerative condition, one of the first things that you'll see is disruptions of their sleep. And what happens is during the day, you know, our brain only comprises 2% of our body weight, but it uses 20% of our body's energy, which means that there's a lot of metabolic activity. And what happens throughout the day is we get metabolic waste products that build up in the brain and our brain flushes them out during deep delta sleep. If we don't get that deep sleep, we can't flush the brain and take the garbage out in the brain and those toxins build up, those things that metabolic byproducts, misfolded proteins, inflammatory molecules, amyloid, et cetera, build up in the brain and can affect how the person's cognition is, their memory, their mood, et cetera.

It's amazing.

The key insight is that your brain is an organ that's connected to everything else happening in your body. Fixing your brain starts with fixing your body, optimizing all the inputs and taking out all the bad influences. By addressing the drivers of inflammation, the body can recover from the inside out, and that comes along with better mental, physical, and cognitive health. If you'd like to learn more about any of the topics you heard in today's episode, I encourage you to check out Dr. Hyman's full-length conversations with Dr. Daniel Amen and Dr. Todd LePine. If you have people in your life who could benefit from this information, Please consider sharing this episode with your community. We need each other to create a healthier us. Until next time, thanks for tuning in. Hi everyone. I hope you enjoyed this week's episode. Just a reminder that this podcast is for educational purposes only. This podcast is not a substitute for professional care by a doctor or other qualified medical professional. This podcast is provided on the understanding that it does not constitute medical or other professional advice or services. If you're looking for help in your journey, seek out a qualified medical practitioner. If you're looking for a functional medicine practitioner, you can visit ifm.org and search their Find a Practitioner database. It's important that you have someone in your corner who's trained, who's a licensed.

Healthcare practitioner, and can help you make changes, especially when it comes to your health. Don't forget, there's a way to listen completely ad free. With Hyman Plus on Apple Podcasts, you can enjoy every episode without any breaks. Just open Apple Podcasts and tap Try Free to start your seven-day free trial.