Metabolic and Mental Health
Leaky Gut Might Lead to a Leaky Brain: Here’s How to Lower Risks in 7 Steps.
How fixing my leaky gut improved blood-brain barrier permeability and lowered the symptoms of a leaky brain with practical tips.
This article introduces the importance of blood-brain barrier permeability, publicly known as the leaky brain.
I aim to transfer my tacit knowledge with practical tips based on my experience in fixing leaky gut and leaky brain conditions with healthy lifestyle habits.
Subscribers reading my recent stories about leaky gut and brain fog showed interest in improving their brain help. Some readers specifically requested me to write about a leaky brain.
Even though millions of people experience leaky gut and brain symptoms, some people still don’t believe them. Some readers are hesitant to share their experiences online due to judgemental sentiments on social media.
Thus, I decided to share my experience transparently in this practical story to inform and inspire my readers to explore this critical health condition and discuss it with their healthcare professionals confidently.
What is Blood-Brain Barrier Permeability?
The leaky brain is the public phrase. The scientific term is “Blood-Brain Barrier Permeability.”
There are over 13 thousand medical reports related to blood-brain-brain permeability on PubMed. It is impossible to read and digest so many reports for the public. I simplify the concept in practical terms.
Like the gut lining, the brain also has a biological barrier preventing harmful and unnecessary materials from entering the brain regions. It is called the blood-brain barrier. Again like the gut, if this lining is compromised by harmful molecules, we experience the symptoms of a leaky brain.
The blood-brain barrier only allows specific molecules to pass this border. These molecules are essential for the brain’s metabolic activities and neuronal functions.
If unwanted molecules, whether endogenous or exogenous, pass this barrier, we face severe neurological and pathological issues.
Endogenous means the molecules created in the body. Exogenous means the molecules from nutrients, supplements, or drugs.
Even if they are harmful, specific molecules might pass this critical barrier via various mechanisms, deceiving the metaphorical guards and causing severe problems in the brain ecosystem.
The molecular organization of the neurovascular unit in the brain is highly complex and involved. Interested readers might review a well-presented and publicly available paper published on BMC titled A blood-brain barrier overview on structure, function, impairment, and biomarkers of integrity.
Symptoms and Causes of Leaky Brain
The most common symptoms are related to memory, attention, and task switching. Symptoms of brain fog reflect the sign of a leaky brain, as I explained in an article titled Here’s How I Defeated Brain Fog with Six Lifestyle Habits Decades Ago.
Other symptoms are chronic fatigue, headaches, sleeping difficulties, mood disorders, anxiety, schizophrenia, depression, peripheral neuropathy, seizures, and muscular sclerosis.
Literature also indicates that people with ADHD and autism spectrum disorders might also have blood-brain barrier permeability.
Common causes of a leaky brain are excessive toxins, pathogens, chronic stress, chronic inflammation, imbalance of hormones and neurotransmitters, nutritional deficiencies, sleep disorders, sedentary life, insulin resistance, elevated cortisol, and overall metabolic syndrome.
Combining these factors can worsen the situation and increase the intensity of leady brain effects.
For example, I had plenty of plant toxins in my younger years, chronic stress, chronic inflammation, sleep deprivation, elevated cortisol, insulin resistance, and metabolic syndrome.
I’d like to briefly share my experience so that the subsequent section makes sense and become useful.
Fixing my leaky gut healed my leaky brain.
When I had a leaky gut, I had a strong interest in the brain by undertaking a postgraduate study in cognitive science. During these studies, I learned that the gut and the brain were connected. They communicate bi-directionally.
This fundamental knowledge enabled me to understand the relationships and observe patterns related to the gut and brain connection.
By undertaking a comprehensive literature review on intestinal and blood-brain permeability, I gained significant insights from various studies, predominantly clinical and interventional studies, that I value and trust.
Since I learned a lot about leaky gut and experimented with the solution finding with the help of holistic healthcare professionals, I reversed-engineered my tacit knowledge of leaky gut to shed light on the leaky brain.
Seven Steps to Address Leaky Brain Condition
In this section, I explain my findings and solutions under seven headings in the subsequent sections without going into scientific details. I use my situation as a case study to make my points. However, since we are all different, I attempted to focus on principles instead of specific details.
1 — Lowered unnecessary stress and anxiety.
My reviews and experience show that chronic stress and constant anxiety substantially threaten neural and mental health.
Like other organs, the brain needs some stress to grow and maintain cells. However, when the stress is too intense and prolonged, it can adversely impact the cognitive brain. We must take specific actions to reduce stress and balance the cortisol hormone.
Likewise, anxiety is a built-in feature of the brain as part of our survival mechanism, as I explained in a story titled A Shift from Anxious to Confident and Calm Mind in Two Steps. Anxiety also increases as we get older.
There are two viable ways to reduce stress and anxiety. The first is to use our neocortex (thinking brain), and the second is the body itself.
We can use our cognitive power to reduce the effects of stress and anxiety. When the amygdala and limbic system sense threats, the body produces stress hormones to deal with them. If the stress is too intense and prolonged, it can adversely impact the cognitive brain.
Mindfulness practices can empower our cognitive system. For example, I use meditation, positive self-talk, and expressive writing. During meditation, self-conversation, writing, and exercise, we use our thinking brain.
Cognitive functions like the use of memory, attention, concentration, problem-solving, and task switching can send control signals to the primitive brain to calm down.
I also use the body’s power to reduce stress and anxiety. The most effective way of creating control signals for me is breathing. By using effective breathing methods, we can significantly reduce stress and anxiety signals.
I also found the physical exercise very helpful. In addition, moving our bodies can lower stress, anxiety, and inflammation by cleaning toxins. I cover inflammation in the next section.
In addition to meditation and physical workouts, getting restorative sleep also contributed to reducing the stress and anxiety causing brain fog.
2 — Reduced chronic inflammation.
Chronic inflammation was a significant issue affecting my overall health. Therefore, I documented my experience in an article titled Here Is How I Defeated Chronic Inflammation via Nine Lifestyle Habits.
Chronic inflammation impacts all organs, including the brain, adversely. Accumulated and prolonged inflammation is one of the root causes of neurological and mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, and brain fatigue, also known as brain fog.
Ketosis was the most prominent contributor to defeating chronic inflammation, which I explained in section #5. Skipping breakfast, replacing carbs with healthy fats, and applying a time-restricted eating regimen in one meal a day format kept me in ketosis.
Other critical factors to lowering chronic inflammation were improving sleep quality, having frequent breaks, working in a flow state, slowing down intentionally, using the power of thermogenesis, re-adjusting workouts, and meditating regularly. Combining these factors made a ripple effect to combat chronic inflammation sustainably.
3 — Addressed nutritional deficiencies.
The brain needs specific nutrients in adequate amounts. As two-thirds of the brain is fat, I paid particular attention to getting healthy fats to meet nutritional requirements.
A previous plant-based diet that I followed strictly caused nutritional deficiencies. The most critical ones were Vitamin B12, Vitamin D, Vitamin K2, choline, acetyl-l-carnitine, taurine, creatine, and Omega-3 Fatty Acids. These nutrients are crucial for brain health.
Initially, I supplemented some vitamins and minerals. In low doses, I still use some supplements such as alpha-lipoic acid, CoQ10, TMG, citrulline malate, magnesium, activated charcoal, and n-acetyl-cysteine.
More importantly, my customized diet (keto-carnivore) helped me fix nutritional deficiencies in my neurological and mental health. My chronic stress, anxiety, depression, and brain fog disappeared. I gained a cheerful mood after fixing nutritional deficiencies.
4 — Eliminated toxins and pathogens.
One of the major causes of my leaky brain was toxins and pathogens. The most significant toxins for me were from my diet.
I had no idea plants could be so toxic for my body and brain. Plant toxins caused me autoimmune diseases such as arthritis and triggered brain fog. Toxins were the main reason for my leaky brain.
When I learned about toxins such as lectins, phytotoxins, mycotoxins, oxalates, solanines, glucosinolates, phytates, saponins, glycosides, tannins, and furocoumarins, I removed most of the plants from my diet.
Customizing my diet and eliminating offensive food was an excellent start. When I stopped eating certain plants, my symptoms quickly disappeared. Thus, I decided to follow an animal-based diet that helped remove toxins from my body and brain.
In addition, I used some detoxifying supplements such as n-acetyl-cysteine, choline, activated charcoal, magnesium, and calcium d-glucarate, which I plan to cover in another article.
Removing pathogens (biological toxins) from the body required a long-term investment in my health. I explain it in item #7.
5 — I Leveraged the power of ketosis.
Scientists have documented the benefits of ketosis for neurological and mental health since the 1920s. The most researched area has been the beneficial effects of ketosis on seizures. Ketogenic diets healed the seizures of millions of children.
Despite all, some skeptics see ketosis as a harmful reaction in the body which does not make any sense to me after following the literature and practicing ketogenic diets and fasting for decades. I sometimes fast for two to seven days. I know that fasting can change brain chemistry.
Ketosis became the best contributor to fixing my metabolic and mental health issues. The significant contribution of ketosis was to address chronic inflammation. No medication worked better than ketosis for reducing my inflammation when I was suffering from arthritis.
When my body became fat-adapted and created ketone bodies as alternative energy, brain fog, anxiety, chronic stress, and depressive thoughts disappeared. I gained mental clarity and had a cheerful mood.
Even though the primary energy source for the brain is glucose, the brain can also use ketones for energy. BHP (β-hydroxybutyrate) is cleaner energy for the brain and other organs, causing less metabolic garbage than glucose in the cells.
However, ketosis does more than provide energy for the body and the brain. It is a signaling molecule at the genetic level. Ketone bodies can influence several genes, including longevity genes, by turning them on epigenetically, affecting healthspan and lifespan. I hope skeptics review research in this area and start benefiting from ketosis rather than rejecting it.
Furthermore, ketosis can increase BDNF (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor), a signaling molecule in the brain, putting it in a neurologically advantaged position. I documented my experience in an article titled Increase BDNF with Five Lifestyle Habits.
Because of the many benefits of ketone bodies, I try to stay in ketosis using time-restricted eating and an animal-based ketogenic diet. I provided practical tips for entering ketosis in an article titled Why and How to Enter Ketosis via Lifestyle Choices. I also explained my reasons for entering ketosis in an article titled Here’s Why I Choose Ketosis as a Lifestyle Habit.
6 — Balanced neurotransmitters and hormones.
Our brain health depends on the balance of our neurotransmitters and hormones. Balancing our hormones and neurotransmitters is critical for metabolic and mental health. Our metabolism affects the brain as it does all other organs.
From a hormonal perspective, the crucial factor for me was fixing insulin resistance. From a neurotransmitter’s angle, the critical factor was balancing dopamine which balanced other neurotransmitters like serotonin, acetylcholine, glutamate, histamine, norepinephrine, and GABA.
The balance of hormones and neurotransmitters revolves around lifestyle factors such as nutrition, sleep, exercise, and rest.
Solving addiction issues and taming my addictive behavior contributed to my brain health. The critical factor was understanding the role of dopamine, as I explained in an article titled What DeltaFosB Is and Why It Matters in Solving Addiction Problems.
7 — Improved cellular and mitochondrial health.
The brain is an energy-hungry hormone. It consumes more energy than other organs. Therefore, the density of mitochondria in brain cells, especially neurons, is critical for energy generation.
Through years of investigation, I learned practical ways to improve mitochondrial health. One of the critical points was initiating mitophagy. I documented my experience in an article titled Here’s How I Initiate Mitophagy and Make My Mitochondria Denser in 7 Steps.
I provided practical guidance to improve mitochondrial health in an article titled 12 Tips to Get Denser Mitochondria for Joyful Energy. In addition, I introduce mitochondrial uncoupling: Uncouple Mitochondria and Increase the Chance of Living Longer via 6 Lifestyle Choices.
To improve my cellular health, I used the power of thermogenesis (cold and heat exposure). Both cold and heat therapies can reduce stress and inflammation in various ways. I documented my experience in an article titled Here’s What Happened When I Experimented with Thermogenesis for Decades.
Thermogenesis, time-restricted eating, and intense exercise helped me initiate autophagy and improve my cellular health. Clearing the metabolic garbage from the brain cells was noticeable to me. I gained mental clarity.
Autophagy has removed harmful pathogens and toxins, causing stress and inflammation in the brain. I documented my experience in another article titled Here Is What Happened When I Experimentally Initiated Autophagy Decades Ago.
Conclusions and Takeaways
Since gut and brain health are interrelated, after introducing leaky gut syndrome, I thought understanding the leaky brain condition was also important.
As you can see in the previous seven sections, what we do for our gut can also contribute to our brain health. In other words, fixing our leaky gut might fix our leaky brain to some extent.
Some people still don’t believe in leaky gut and leaky brain conditions. They are well-documented conditions under different names, such as intestinal permeability and blood-brain barrier permeability.
Millions of people, including myself and some loved ones, suffered from them. However, some critics still see brain fog as controversial and imaginary. So they argue the points with tenuous understanding for some unknown reasons.
Denying these conditions does not help anyone. Some people get intimidated by those loud voices on social media. And some innocent people suffer silently and even feel guilty about sharing their authentic feelings. Ignoring bullying and useless voices and focusing on our health assertively is essential. Health is a personal responsibility.
While learning from the experiences of each other, we also need to seek help from qualified healthcare professionals when we feel leaky gut and brain symptoms. There are many options, such as lifestyle improvement, medication, and physical and mental therapies.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
As a new reader, you might check my holistic health and well-being stories reflecting on my reviews, observations, and decades of sensible experiments. I write about health as it matters. I believe health is all about homeostasis.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
As a new reader, please check my holistic health and well-being stories reflecting my reviews, observations, and decades of experiments optimizing my hormones and neurotransmitters. I write about health as it matters. I believe health is all about homeostasis.
Petechiae, ALS, Metabolic Syndrome, Type II Diabetes, Fatty Liver Disease, Heart Disease, Strokes, Obesity, Liver Cancer, Autoimmune Disorders, Homocysteine, Lungs Health, Pancreas Health, Kidneys Health, NCDs, Infectious Diseases, Brain Health, Dementia, Depression, Brain Atrophy, Neonatal Disorders, Skin Health, Dental Health, Bone Health, Leaky Gut, Leaky Brain, Brain Fog, Chronic Inflammation, Insulin Resistance, Elevated Cortisol, Leptin Resistance, Anabolic Resistance, Cholesterol, High Triglycerides, Metabolic Disorders, Gastrointestinal Disorders, Thyroid Disorders, Anemia, Dysautonomia, cardiac output, and urinary track disorders.
I also wrote about valuable nutrients. Here are the links for easy access:
Lutein/Zeaxanthin, Phosphatidylserine, Boron, Urolithin, taurine, citrulline malate, biotin, lithium orotate, alpha-lipoic acid, n-acetyl-cysteine, acetyl-l-carnitine, CoQ10, PQQ, NADH, TMG, creatine, choline, digestive enzymes, magnesium, zinc, hydrolyzed collagen, nootropics, pure nicotine, activated charcoal, Vitamin B12, Vitamin B1, Vitamin D, Vitamin K2, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, N-Acetyl L-Tyrosine, and other nutrients.
Disclaimer: My posts do not include professional or health advice. I only document my reviews, observations, experience, and perspectives to provide information and create awareness.
As part of my creative non-fiction writing goals, I’d like to share a few stories that might warm our hearts with a bit of humor into weighty topics.
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