Take Care Of Your Gut

Our state of mind gets affected by our gut bacteria, which is part of our Microbiome.

Probiotics are live bacterial supplements and Prebiotics are the dietary fiber that promotes bacterial growth. In various experiments, scientists have been able to alter our stress response, anxiety levels and reduce mental health problems by administering Probiotics/Prebiotics in our stomach.

Psychobiotics is an upcoming class of medicines geared towards promoting psychological health through the alteration of your microbiota (Gut Bacteria).

Doctors have known since long that certain mental health problems do have their origin in the gut, like inflammation, but a detailed study on mice is now being done, with large-scale studies on humans in the offing.

There has been a lot of hype around the health benefits of prebiotics and probiotics in recent years, but while they're increasingly used in treatments including inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, several reviews suggest there needs to be further research on which strains and dosages are effective. Recent studies have found some people are even immune to probiotics.

Gut microbiota has a major role to play in the health and function of the GI tract, with evidence that conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) often coincide with altered microbiota. But it also plays a much wider role in our health, and this is largely determined in the first few years of life.

Our cells generate energy through oxidation, but oxidation also reduces the dopamine and serotonin in the brain and creates oxidative stress.

Antioxidants found in brightly colored foods like fruits and vegetables act as a defense against oxidative stress and inflammation in the brain and body. Antioxidants also repair oxidative damage and scavenge free radicals that cause cell damage in the brain. 

Omega 3 are polyunsaturated fatty acids that are involved in the process of converting food into energy. They are important for the health of the brain and the communication of its feel-good chemicals dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine.

Omega 3 are essential nutrients that are not readily produced by the body, so we must include foods high on it in our diet. 

Studies show inflammation might be one of the reasons for depression, due to a substantial effect on brain activity.

This has led to new experiments using anti-inflammatory drugs like antidepressants, which proved successful.

This provides an important insight on how the body, brain, and mind are co-related and is vital at a time when there are rising cases of mental health disorders and dementia throughout the world.

Pills, superfoods, and other wellness habits do not boost our immunity as the 'symptoms' which we get when infected are in fact measures taken by our immune system to respond to the foreign pathogen.

Many allergies that people have are a misguided response from the immune system that treat harmless foreign bodies as harmful pathogens.

While over-the-counter medicines provide us with a so-called ‘relief’ by suppressing our fever, runny nose and other ‘symptoms’, these are in fact necessary for the body to get well. The symptoms we want to be stopped are not our enemy:

• The mucus is helping flush out the pathogen.
• The fever(heat) makes the body impalpable for it to survive and replicate.
• The body pain is actually the inflammatory chemicals in your veins, guiding the immune cells like an air traffic controller.
• The brain is provided with a signal to slow down and let the body recover.

The one terrifying aspect of how the space we live affects our health is that many of the bad effects aren't even fully known to us, like mood swings, neuron damage, chemical imbalance and many brain-altering effects, that are yet to be fully studied.

Abraham Lincoln is most celebrated for his role in keeping the nation together during the Civil War and signing the Emancipation Proclamation, which helped to end slavery in the United States.

His leadership exemplified determination and is a reminder that great leaders must remain persistent, even when others do not believe in their vision.

“In order to cultivate a set of leaders with legitimacy in the eyes of the citizenry, it is necessary that the path to leadership be visibly open to talented and qualified individuals of every race and ethnicity.”

Sandra Day O’Connor

Mistakes are really a demand for order and continuity. But the world and everything in it is constantly changing. 

It is better to continually bend into this reality rather than fight every change we experience. Fighting it can cause us to make more mistakes. 

• Mistakes point us to something we did not know
• Help us see what matters and what does not
• Inform us more about our values
• Teach us more about others
• Keep us connected to what works and what doesn’t work
• Remind us of our humanity
• Spur us to want to better work which helps us all
• Promote compassion for ourselves and others
• Help us to pace ourselves better
• Invite us to better choices
• Can suggest new options we had not considered
• Prompt us to learn more about ourselves
• Make us more humble
• Expose our true feelings
• Point us in a more creative direction
• Can hasten change
• Reveal our blind spots

A diet high in sugar makes learning difficult by slowing the brain down. Overconsumption of sugar damages synaptic activity in the brain.

When you consume too much sugar, you could develop resistance to insulin, the hormone responsible for regulating the function of brain cells. 

When you eat too much sugar, your blood sugar levels peak and drop. This causes you to experience irritability, mood swings, brain fog, and fatigue. You may find yourself feeling anxious or depressed. Carb-laden foods create the same response.

Chronically high blood sugar levels are linked to inflammation in the brain, which may be a cause of depression.

Eating a fiber-rich diet is associated with better gastrointestinal health and a reduced risk of heart attacks, strokes, high cholesterol, obesity, type 2 diabetes, even some cancers. Fiber slows the absorption of glucose — which evens out our blood sugar levels — and also lowers cholesterol and inflammation.

Fiber doesn’t just help us poop better — it also nourishes our gut microbiome.

Instead of munching on fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, and seeds, more than half of the calories Americans consume come from ultra-processed foods. On any given day, nearly 40 percent of Americans eat fast food. These prepared and processed meals tend to be low in fiber, or even fiber free.