How to Enhance Your Gut Microbiome for Brain & Overall Health

Our gut biomes and the gut-brain axis are pretty mind-blowing in the way they facilitate our behaviors and general mental/physical health. It's amazing how much we haven't figured out yet too...especially with neural pathways. Today's world of commercialized food (a few major foods/culprits in particular) throws inflammation at us in spades, and eating well has honestly made a huge difference in my life -- the most noticeable parts by far being cognition, energy, and mood. Every time I deviate from clean cooking and eating mainly whole foods, it's painfully obvious since my microbiome loves the new, healthier norm. I would highly recommend this podcast (neuroscientist Andrew Huberman) if anyone wants to learn more about improving their gut health and the science and research that we know so far. [this video]

Cold showers, breath exercises (i.e. Wim Hof method), intermittent fasting and physical exercise do wonders for regulating stress, boosting immunity, dopamine, and serotonin. Cutting out sugar and eating fermented probiotic foods like sauerkraut, kimchi and apple cider vinegar can also help your gut microbiome immensely. The Huberman Lab Podcast presents some very interesting data on the science behind these practices: How to Enhance Your Gut Microbiome for Brain & Overall Health | Huberman Lab Podcast #61 [this video] Dr. Justin Sonnenburg: How to Build, Maintain & Repair Gut Health | Huberman Lab Podcast #62 [link] Using Deliberate Cold Exposure for Health and Performance | Huberman Lab Podcast #66 [link] Dr. Craig Heller: Using Temperature for Performance, Brain & Body Health | Huberman Lab Podcast #40 [link] Dr. Jack Feldman: Breathing for Mental & Physical Health & Performance | Huberman Lab Podcast #54 [link]

This is the sort of advice people need to hear more of. Almost none of us are ever going to realistically adopt a hunter-gatherer lifestyle again. We need more data on how to get close to that within the confines of modern life. There's some great material out there now, but only very recently. I personally really enjoyed this discussion on this between Andrew Huberman and Justin Sonnenberg (Professor of Microbiology & Immunology at Stanford University): [link] Huberman's prior episode is also great: [this video] Basic takeaway was low sugar fermented food 4-6 times daily. Doable for almost everyone, palate aside.