Your Brain is Incredible!
The most metabolically active organ in the body, only weighing 2% of our body’s weight but consuming 20% of our metabolic energy.
Metabolic health
There is now a significant body of research that explores the connection between metabolic health and mental health. The evidence is pretty convincing that if we heal our metabolic dysfunction then we stand a good chance at improving how we feel mentally, physically and emotionally.
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​Some of the mechanisms involved in improving both our metabolic and mental health are:
Mitochondrial health
Our brain, and neurons in particular use a disproportionate amount of energy relative to its weight. The intensive energy requirements of neurons means they are packed with mitochondria. Mitochondria are not only the powerhouses of our cells, producing adenosine triphosphate (ATP - the energy currency of cells), they play a crucial and yet to be fully understood role in many of the pathways affecting our mental health, including but not limited to the production and regulation of neurotransmitters, the production of hormones and they are involved in our inflammatory response.
By modulating our diet we can up-regulate two processes that support our mitochondrial health.
Mitophagy : which can be simplified as the removal of less efficient or damaged mitochondria.
Mitochondria biogenesis: A fancy way of saying the generation of new and healthy mitochondria.
The processes of mitophagy and mitochondria biogenesis allows for us to have a higher density of healthy mitochondria in our neurons (and other parts of our body).
We want this, we want to increase the number and size of the mitochondria in our neurons as this improves their functioning and in turn improves our cognitive, emotional, mental health.
Inflammation in your brain and body
Inflammation is not bad. It’s a really important response that keeps us safe from dangerous toxins, substances & disease. Chronic inflammation however can cause a variety of unwanted symptoms including depression like symptoms.
Increasing the amount of fibre we eat can be an effective way to reduce inflammation in our brain and body. Through the fermentation of certain fibres our gut microbiome produce the metabolites; butyrate, propionate, and acetate, more commonly known as short chain fatty acids (SCFA).
SCFA, among other things:
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help heal and maintain a healthy gut lining which can prevent inflammatory or pathogenic cells/toxins from crossing this barrier
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help maintain a healthy blood brain barrier
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communicate with our immune cells and can reduce chronic pro inflammatory responses
There is research that shows that people with an abundance of the microbes that produce these SCFA have shown less depression like symptoms. The opposite is also true that people with less of the microbes producing these SCFA metabolites have more depression like symptoms.
Neuro inflammation
Microglia (an important part of our brains immune system) release pro-inflammatory cytokines which is really important when they are functioning optimally. When microglia are chronically activated by exposure to long term stress, injury or viruses then they can become ‘primed’ making them oversensitive. This can be a problem for our mental health for numerous reasons. The over production of pro-inflammatory cytokines can disrupt the production of neurotransmitters and affect the blood brain barrier allowing neurotoxins to pass through.
When microglia are primed and chronically activated like this we can feel lethargic, have brain fog, depressive like symptoms or what people describe as chronic fatigue. More research needs to be done to better understand how we can support our microglia that have become too sensitive. There is talk of flavonoids (found in plants), Luteolin in particular having the potential to reduce this heightened pro-inflammatory response. Some times it can take years for the research to verify a theory or produce absolute ….results but in the mean time we can eat lots of plants, especially the delicious greens like broccoli, green capsicum and celery to increase our intake of luteolin. It may not drive the response we want but for most people it won’t hurt us and will have some health benefits.
Increasing our consumption of omega 3 fatty acids, fibre (plants), and micronutrients can all contribute to reducing inflammation, or supporting the mechanisms needed for optimal brain function.
Oxidative stress
As the brain is the most metabolically active organ in our bodies, primarily using glucose as its fuel, it is susceptible to oxidative stress. Luckily we can import lots of antioxidants through our diet to combat this. Eating the colours of the rainbow by Increasing the amount of richly coloured fruit and vegetables we consume is a great place to start to increase the antioxidants in our diet.
Glucose hypo metabolism
(where your cells aren’t able to utilise glucose as an energy source as efficiently as needed.)
The brain needs a lot of energy to function optimally and without a sufficient energy supply the functioning of our brains can be severely impaired. Glucose is the brains primary source of energy but for some people their cells aren’t metabolising glucose efficiently. Switching up the fuel to mimic a fasting state or reducing consumption of certain fuels can support the brains metabolic health, moving it towards optimal function for some people.
Insulin resistance
We know that insulin resistance in the periphery (body) is undesirable. Insulin is the hormone needed to unlock the cell so that glucose can enter. If this process isn’t working properly then more insulin is sent to try harder to unlock the cell resulting in unwanted inflammation among other health concerns.
Insulin has two important functions in the brain; controlling food intake and regulating cognitive function. Insulin resistance in the brain can lead to impaired cognitive function, mood disorders and metabolic issues.
Gut microbiome dysbiosis
There is an enormous amount of research now on the gut microbiota and the impact on our bodies and brain when this is out of balance, meaning there is an overabundance of the ‘bad’ bacteria and not enough of the ‘good’ bacteria. Some common effects of this imbalance are:
Increased permeability of gut lining
Reduction in mucosal layer
Pro inflammatory metabolites, bacteria and toxins crossing the gut lining
An under production of the metabolite we need to reduce inflammation and support mood function.
These actions have a significant impact on our immune function, mental health and overall health.
Nutritional deficiency
Micronutrients play an essential role in the production of both energy and key neurotransmitters involved in mood.
These complex mechanisms require a range of micronutrients meaning that we need to eat and potentially supplement the broad spectrum of vitamins and mineral to optimise these reactions/ systems/ pathways.