In episode 15, Dr. Larson discusses:
- A research update that links the gut health and the health of your brain
- With the aging boomer generation, Alzheimer’s is on the rise
- For a variety of factors, your gut ecosystem can become imbalanced and promote inflammation
- If those inflammatory chemicals get outside of the gut and into the circulation, they can travel throughout the bloodstream and up into the brain
- This can cause inflammation in the brain, which can lead to neurological disorders, as well as the beginnings of Alzheimer’s disease
- We have about 10 trillion cells in the human body
- We harbor about 1000 trillion bacterial cells at any time
- Our human genes total about 20,000
- We harbor about 2 million to 20 million bacterial genes
- We are far more bacteria than we are “human”
- We need to care about our microbiome and how it influences our brain
- Diet is a major influencer of the gut microbiome
- Depression, anxiety, ADD, ADHD can all be linked to the gut microbiome
- Things that promote an unhealthy gut microbiome include high sugar foods and bad, unhealthy fats
- You should focus on a plant-based diet, along with lean, healthy animal proteins and healthy sources of fat
