Reddit reviews Why Isn't My Brain Working?: A Revolutionary Understanding of Brain Decline and Effective Strategies to Recover Your Brain's Health
We found 9 Reddit comments about Why Isn't My Brain Working?: A Revolutionary Understanding of Brain Decline and Effective Strategies to Recover Your Brain's Health. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Why Isn t My Brain Working
Wow! I had no idea he had such a strong family history! Please don't take the following as didactic, because it just poured out of me, and few people know about this stuff.
Wellbutrin is an NDRI, decreasing the reuptake of norepinephrine and dopamine (i.e., increasing them), which means in addition to an SSRI, Jordan was on medications for the three main neurotransmitters postulated to impact depression. Neuroendocrinologist Robert Sapolsky notes how each of these three neurotransmitters and their deficits can clue you in to different flavors of depression: lack of energy for norepinephrine, lack of pleasure and motivation for dopamine, and (interestingly) a tendency toward obsessive thinking/rumination for serotonin. The latter is probably why I've found SSRIs to work considerably better for anxiety clients than depressed ones given the influence of near-obsessive thinking involved in anxiety disorders. And what people don't know is that antiderpessants barely fare better than placebo except in severe cases of depression.
And I'm pulling my hair out, as I've done repeatedly in the last few years since looking for non-psychogenic (i.e., not based just in psychological experiences) causes of depression. Given his daughter's parallel reduction in depression and arthritis, this is basically a dead giveaway that her depression was largely if not entirely inflammation-based (see the wonderful Dr Rhonda Patrick's outstanding video on this link). Psychologist Stephen Ilardi has written an incredible book on evidence-based non-pharmacological links to depression, including (apropos the video you posted) the clinical utility of fish oil given its power (through EPA) at reducing inflammation (and Chris Kresser, albeit wary of high doses of fish oil given oxidation and other factors, has talked about how inflammation in the gut can lead to "intestinal permeability" -- i.e., leaky gut -- which in turn leads to a permeable blood-brain barrier, causing inflammation in the frontal lobes, which is where depression is mostly neurologically located). I've had one client who took krill oil and two weeks later his depression "magically" drastically reduced (unfortunately, because of the ridiculous office politics at my last job in a university, I couldn't make recommendations that clients take fish or krill oil). Regarding the gluten allergy possibility, people don't realize that Celiac's is only one form of three main reactions to gluten: disgestive (Celiac's), skin (rashes, etc.), and much more difficult to pinpoint unless you know where to look, the brain (since the brain has no pain receptors, inflammation there is much harder to pinpoint). Fatigue, as his daughter mentions, is also associated with inflammation in many cases. Also, obesity is pro-inflammatory, not to mention it increases activity of the aromatase enzyme, which converts testosterone to estradiol, causing potential estrogen dominance symptoms in males; estrogen actually activates the stress response more than testosterone, and is considered by some researchers to be one of the main differences between the sexes regarding responses to stress or stress sensitivity.
His daughter also mentions how her depression would get better in the Summer. Well, there's research for that too: we have serotonin receptors in the backs of our eyes, which fits with the need for 20-30 minutes of bright light exposure in the morning when light is brightest -- more easily managed by many people by getting a relatively cheap 10,000 lux therapy lamp. Meaning insufficient light exposure isn't just a seasonal affective disorder type of thing by far. Ilardi also cover this in one of his chapters. FWIW, his other points are on exercise, reducing rumination (which moderates depression), being socially interactive (which is often naturally opposed by many depressives, who seek solitude, usually to ruminate with the metacognitive belief that doing either will lead to feeling better when they rarely do), and getting sufficient sleep (without which stress hormones increase, contributing to depression). Can't recommend his book highly enough.
Soy is also a phytoestrogen, which can contribute to estrogen dominance in the face of insufficient progesterone, which in turn could indicate insufficient adrenal response to ACTH, and low cortisol, being part of this, means less antiinflammation and higher depression for other reasons (e.g., increases in CRH, which precedes ACTH, high levels of the former linked to depression), cortisol being the body's main endogenous antiinflammatory. This is just one possibility among many, but it's interesting in that Jordan mentions his change in getting sleepy, which seems like a pointer to lowering of possible sympathetic overactivation (e.g., increased levels of catecholamines inhibiting the subjective feeling of sleepiness).
Anyways, I pull my hair out because the research isn't hard to find. Just like it isn't hard to find that in the biggest antidepressant study yet conducted, the STAR D study, it wasn't antidepressants but triiodothyronine, also known as T3, the body's active thyroid hormone, which worked best for people with depression, despite a lack of labwork-related hypothyroidism (thyroid hormone increases serotonin, among other things).
And then, last but not least (i.e., I'll shut up briefly), there's a new field (still struggling to shed its falsities) called nutrigenomics, which looks at the association between genes, particularly single nucleotide polymorphisms, and phyisological (and therefore potentially psychological) affects on the body, given that genes code for enzymes which are affected by these SNPs, with homozygous polymorphisms (which you've inherited from both of your parents) being the worst given they most impact these enzymes. The most popular example is the MTHFR SNP, which codes for the enzyme of the same name, responsible for methylation, including folate metabolism. And surprise surprise, once people get this figured out their depression can go away, and there's even a pharmaceutical form of a supplement you can get for much cheaper in supplemental form called Deplin, which is just high doses of methylated folate, which bypasses the problems people with an MTHFR SNP can have with processing folate.
There are so many strands of interesting research, and I don't share Jordan's skepticism regarding what we can know about treatments for depression, including his methodological skepticism regarding how the studies are conducted and therefore the conclusions that can be generalized from them (although there are definitely poorly designed studies). In a clinical setting you have to be pragmatic and just try and see what works, and often many of the things I've mentioned above (among others) might not work, but if one or two do and this causes a significant reduction in symptoms, that's what matters; everyone's unique.
All of the reasons above are why people are shying away from allopathic medicine (dominated by MD doctors) and tending toward "alternative" medicine, such as naturopathic physicians or chiropractors (the best book I can think that's yet been written for a layperson is Datis Kharrazian's Why Isn't My Brain Working?, which has unimaginable detail on many different neurologically-related issues, including "over the counter" supplemental remedies fiercely backed by the research, and he's "just" a chiropractor).
Then you have hormone replacement therapy, but I'll save that for another time.
Sorry for the length. This subject infuriates me and fascinates me. So, so many people out there are done a mammoth disservice by their usually ignorant primary care physicians (or even psychiatrists) who throw antidepressants at what they can't understand, and even where neurotransmitter deficiencies are an issue, it's a disservice to clients to put them on a medication which often has a slew of side effects when the low neurotransmitters in question are more often than not mediated by other biochemical, nutritional, or genetic factors.
There are a range of possible causes for brain fog. In my experience, the most common are nutritional/digestion and anxiety related.
Check out Why my brain isnt working on Amazon
I think he means this book
The protein in gluten and soy and oats and corn are all very similar and have been shown to contribute to brain function. There's a book that discusses this.
Why Isn't My Brain Working?: A Revolutionary Understanding of Brain Decline and Effective Strategies to Recover Your Brain's Health https://www.amazon.com/dp/0985690437/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_phAXDbB5AY1PT
I'm working through this with my Doctor now. I really recommend reading Why Isn't My Brain Working?: A Revolutionary Understanding of Brain Decline and Effective Strategies to Recover Your Brain's Health https://www.amazon.com/dp/0985690437/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_.j71wbEERT89G
Examples of foods that effect me:
I have been working with my Doctor and have found I am having autoimmune reactions to several foods. I thought removing a bunch of food from my diet would be terrible (milk, gluten, eggs, soy... For a few) but I really seem to be getting more energy back and my moods have stabilized a lot.
It's not going to be the same for everyone but through all this I have found a huge link to my diet, my gut, and my autoimmune system.
read this https://www.amazon.com/Isnt-Brain-Working-Revolutionary-Understanding/dp/0985690437
Have you read these books?
Why Do I Still Have Thyroid Symptoms? when My Lab Tests Are Normal: a Revolutionary Breakthrough in Understanding Hashimoto's Disease and Hypothyroidism https://www.amazon.com/dp/0985690402/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_len.BbZ6R5NQV
And
Why Isn't My Brain Working?: A Revolutionary Understanding of Brain Decline and Effective Strategies to Recover Your Brain's Health https://www.amazon.com/dp/0985690437/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_cfn.Bb7DZ7JAX
That's very interesting. This loss of focus (brain fog) is quite familiar to me. I suspect it's a symptom of brain inflammation and I get it whenever I have eaten something I shouldn't have. Did you notice these mood changes coinciding with your meals or certain foods? From my experience, if you're indeed having reactions, those won't go away if you stick to the diet for a couple of months more. I noticed improvements within days to maybe a week after eliminating certain inflammatory foods (going gluten/grain-free, dairy-free, egg-free, nightshade-free, etc.).
This book helped me a lot understanding the connection between brain health and gut health/nutrition. The author also has a website and stuff on youtube. My knowledge about food sensitivities and stuff mostly comes from doing the paleo autoimmune protocol before going ZC (AIP). It's great for that kind of stuff, but way too high in vegetables/fiber/plant toxins to be a truly healing diet IMO. That's why I went ZC.
I can empathize. He might want to read "Why isn't my brain working" by Dr. Datis Kharrazian
https://www.amazon.com/Isnt-Brain-Working-Revolutionary-Understanding/dp/0985690437
Avoid wheat in case of auto immunity. Maybe start taking lions mane?