The UltraMind Solution (58 page)

Everything in the body is connected and there are only a few things that cause inflammation.

The list is short.

1.
Our
inflammatory diet
, which consists of enormous amounts of sugar (158 pounds per person per year), refined flours, as well as trans fats and saturated fats.

2.
Food allergens
—mostly delayed reactions to food or hidden allergens that lead to “brain allergies” (allergic reactions in the body that cause inflammation in the brain).

3.
Imbalances in
digestive function
and the gut immune system that produce widespread systemic effects.

4.
Toxins
such as mercury and pesticides (and the 85,000 mostly untested toxins in our environment), which have been linked to immune dysfunction and autoimmune diseases.

5.
Low-grade, hidden, or
chronic infections
such as HIV-associated dementia, syphilis, and Lyme disease, which can cause many neurological and psychiatric “diseases,” or PANDAS that leads to OCD.

6.
Stress
—emotional or physical, such as trauma.

7.
Sedentary lifestyle
.

8.
Inadequate sleep
—fewer than seven hours a night.

9.
Nutritional deficiencies
such as vitamin C, B vitamins, vitamin D, zinc, and omega-3 fats.

The inflammatory markers or cytokines that we see in almost all disease are now being discovered in autism, Alzheimer’s, depression, and so many
other neurological and psychiatric diseases. But cytokines are just the smoke signals. The real question is what causes the cytokines to send messages of inflammation and spread the fire.

The few basic causes noted above explain nearly all the complex phenomena of disease we see. They are all connected in one way or another to all the seven keys of UltraWellness.

The problem in medicine is that most researchers and doctors are like a group of blind men examining an elephant. One feels the leg, another the ears, another the tusks, another the trunk, and another the tail. All have a different story to tell about the nature of the elephant, but they see only one piece. They are all right, and they are also all wrong because they miss the whole picture.

Remember even within the paradigm of Functional Medicine, inflammation is just one (albeit very important) factor. The other six keys outlined in Part II of this book are equally critical.

But all of them connect back to the list of problems above.

Let’s take a moment to look at some of the specific ways in which two of these factors (excess sugar in your diet and food allergies) lead to inflammation in the brain. Keep in mind these are only two of the more important factors that lead to brain inflammation and the problems that can result. There are others, but to cover them all in this book would be impossible. Similar problems result from each of the other issues mentioned above as well.

A Sweet Brain Is an Unhappy and Forgetful Brain

By far the most important factor in brain aging and inflammation in America is sugar. The sheer flood of sweet things and processed refined foods into our bodies is a tidal wave that leaves destruction everywhere we look.

As we saw in chapter 7, the insulin triggered by this flood of sugar sets into motion an entire inflammatory parade.

As I have already mentioned, Alzheimer’s (which we now know is, at least in part, caused by inflammation) is now being called type 3 diabetes. We know that type 2 diabetics have four times the risk of getting Alzheimer’s. Excess sugar in your diet is linked to brain diseases.

The inflammation triggered by sugar leaves in its wake a sea of disease beyond the brain—heart disease, obesity, cancer, diabetes, and rapid aging. The evidence is overwhelming and irrefutable.

Sugar (or anything that quickly turns to sugar, the “white foods” such as potatoes and pasta) is an enormous stress on the body, triggering a surge in
stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. If you notice your kids bounce off the walls after a big sugar load, it is because the sugar produced a jolt of adrenaline.

The surge of insulin in the body also turns on cellular switches that increase the inflammatory cytokines, just as happens when you have the flu. Except it doesn’t go away, but persists for decades, doing its damage slowly.

There is no scientific controversy here. The evidence is in. Sugar causes inflammation. The insulin-resistant fat cells you pack on when you eat too much sugar produce nasty inflammatory messengers (cytokines) like TNF a and IL-6, spreading their damage to the brain.

In fact, researchers have suggested calling depression “metabolic syndrome Type II” because instead of just having a fat swollen belly, you also get a fat swollen (and depressed) brain.
¹⁶
And psychiatrists are starting to treat depression and psychiatric disorders with anti
diabetic
drugs like Actos!
¹⁷
These drugs lower blood sugar, lower insulin,
and
reduce inflammation.

But sugar is not the only thing that creates inflammation. I want to highlight one more important factor in brain malfunction. Hidden food allergies. This is a much more controversial area.

Do You Have Brain Allergies?

What is food for some may be poison for others.

TITUS LUCRETIUS CARUS,
A.D. first century
De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)

Do you have brain fog, trouble focusing, feel brain fatigue, or feel sad or angry after eating? Does fasting or skipping meals make you feel alert, focused, and clear? If so, something you are eating is eating at you. You may be allergic to your food. But what are food allergies, and how do they affect your brain?

Allergies are an inflammatory response. When you ingest molecules you are allergic to, your body believes a foreign intruder has entered its midst. Never mind that the molecule may not be truly harmful—it may simply be a food you have eaten—allergies make your body “think” this intruder is out to do you harm.

As a result your body sets in motion a host of inflammatory reactions to stop this intruder from harming you. What reactions are set off depend on your individual genetic makeup and can range from mild skin irritation to brain fog to aggressive behavior, anxiety, depression, and more.

What Are Food Allergies Anyway?

There are two main types of food allergies: acute (or immediate) and delayed.

Everyone knows about the
acute form (or IgE allergies)
, because they happen immediately and in a big way. If you eat a peanut and your throat closes, you get hives, and you can’t breathe, you will never eat a peanut again. You know you are allergic to peanuts.

But
delayed allergies (or IgG allergies)
are sneaky. You may eat a piece of bread on Monday and be depressed on Wednesday, or have a piece of cheese today and get a migraine tomorrow. You never make the connection, because you don’t even realize food can have this kind of impact on you.

This type of allergy is mostly ignored by conventional medicine. Yet addressing this in my practice is one of the most powerful things I do to help people recover from nearly any problem.

Allergic diseases of both types (IgE and IgG) are on the rise for many reasons.

We are becoming hypersensitive to our environments, perhaps because we live in an oversterilized environment and our immune systems don’t mature properly. Or because we are eating hybridized and genetically modified (GMO) foods full of antibiotics, hormones, pesticides, and additives that were unknown to our immune systems just a generation or two ago.

The result?

Our immune system becomes unable to recognize friend or foe—to distinguish between foreign molecular invaders we truly need to protect against and the foods we eat or, in some cases, our own cells. In Third World countries where hygiene is poor and infections are common, allergy and autoimmunity are rare.

But delayed allergies, more specifically, occur because many of our twenty-first-century habits lead to a breakdown of the normal barrier that protects our immune system from the outside world of foods, bugs, and toxins.

That barrier is our gut. Right under that barrier is 60 percent of your immune system. When the lining of your gut breaks down, your immune system is activated by food particles that it misinterprets as foreign invaders. This sets off a chain reaction leading to inflammation throughout your body, including your brain.

In chapter 9, where I discuss the gut, you will learn more about why the barrier breaks down and how this is linked to so many mood, behavioral, and neurological problems.

For now, recognize that if that barrier is weakened by a nutrient-poor diet high in sugar and low in fiber, by nutritional deficiencies of zinc and omega-3 fats, by overuse of antibiotics and hormones, by exposure to environmental toxins, and by unprecedented levels of mental and emotional stressors, then the outside environment “leaks” into your body (and your brain) and you develop allergies and systemic immune problems. This is called a leaky gut.

In fact, much of what we see go wrong in the epidemic of mood and brain disorders is because of a “leaky brain.”

This happens when outside influences from our diet and our environment somehow directly or indirectly cause changes in our brain function that we “diagnose” as neurological or psychiatric problems. There is a breakdown in the normal barrier protecting our brain and it then reacts, leading to brain inflammation. Toxins, small peptides from gluten and dairy, antibodies we make to the foods we eat, or infections and bugs and the cytokines they trigger, all get into our brain.

This is manifested as “brain allergies”—specific responses to the foods you eat that occur inside your brain. These allergies are a little bit like “nasal allergies.” It’s like you have a runny nose inside your brain. But the symptoms show up as fatigue, memory loss, brain fog, or, in more extreme cases, depression, anxiety, OCD, autism, Alzheimer’s, dementia, and other “brain disorders.”

Most of us accept that small amounts of food, pollen, mold, chemicals, dust, or dander can cause inflammatory reactions in our skin, lungs, and digestive system that give us hives, make us cough or wheeze, and give us diarrhea. But we somehow think our brain is insulated from the inflammation triggered by these allergens.

We now know differently. Food allergies create a metabolic disorder that can lead to a whole host of “mental” symptoms, including fatigue, brain fog, slowed thought processes, irritability, agitation, aggressive behavior, anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, hyperactivity, autism, learning disabilities, and even dementia.
¹⁸

One study of thirty patients suffering from anxiety, depression, confusion, and trouble concentrating were tested using a placebo-controlled trial to see if food allergies contributed to their problems.
¹⁹
Indeed, food allergies lead to severe depression, nervousness, and lack of motivation, brain fog, and anger without cause.

Other studies have linked eating gluten (the protein found in wheat, barley, rye, spelt, kamut, and oats) to everything from depression
²⁰
to anxiety, from schizophrenia
²¹
to autism,
²²
and even dementia.
²³

And a recent groundbreaking study showed that children who were overweight and had the beginnings of cholesterol plaques in their arteries all had higher levels of IgG antibodies, which indicate more delayed food allergies and inflammation than normal-weight children.
²⁴

This remarkable study clearly shows that food allergies can make you fat and trigger inflammation and metabolic syndrome, which we know cause brain injury. Inflammation can be triggered in many other ways, but food allergies are clearly an important one.

Like gluten, casein, a protein found in dairy, also has negative effects that can lead to mood disorders and altered brain function.
²⁵

In fact, partially digested dairy and wheat particles (called
caseomorphins
and
gliadomorphins
) are found in the urine of severely depressed patients (as well as children with autism and ADHD). These odd proteins change brain function and can lead not only to depression but also psychosis and autism.

I have treated autistic children who begin to speak simply after going on a gluten and casein-free diet.