Reader, Developing dementia or Alzheimer's is one of the most common issues my patients tell me they worry about as they get older.
But it doesn't have to be. Here's the truth:
By making a few simple changes, you can keep your brain sharp and your memory intact. Those changes may surprise you because they don't involve doing more crossword puzzles, taking classes, or exercising more.
Sure, those things are good for you and your brain. But the real solution goes much deeper.
And it's something I've been telling my patients for years...
The best way to preserve and protect, even restore, your brainpower starts by taking better care of your gut.
Your gut microbiome contains trillions of bacteria, both beneficial probiotics and harmful pathogens. When your microbiome is in good balance, probiotic bacteria rule the roost, vastly outnumbering pathogens.
And what you may not realize is that your gut is your body's health center. What happens in your gut microbiome affects your entire body, your overall wellness and vitality.
Just like Hippocrates said 2,500 years ago: All disease begins in the gut. And that includes conditions that affect your ability to think, learn, and remember.
The opposite holds just as true. Good health starts in your gut — including good brain health.
That's because probiotic bacteria create nutrients, chemicals, and compounds that keep your brain quick and clear. Those include: - B vitamins, well known for their role in preventing and slowing cognitive decline.1
- Butyrate, a short chain fatty acid (SCFA) that improves brain cell function, cognition, and memory.2
- GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid), a calming brain chemical that helps regulate brain functions including cognition.3
- Serotonin, the "feel-good" neurotransmitter that's known to refresh and restore brain power.4
Don't Ignore Your Second Brain Have you ever had butterflies in your stomach? Or gotten diarrhea when you were anxious? Those are messages from your "second brain," the one in your gut.
Your digestive tract contains your enteric nervous system (ENS), a network of nerve cells called neurons and "brain chemicals" called neurotransmitters.
The ENS lines your esophagus all the way down through your colon with more than 100 million nerve cells. And that piece of your nervous system drives your body's responses to stress and emotions.
Your enteric nervous system constantly communicates with your main brain. It does this over the gut-brain axis, which is mainly your vagus nerve — the longest nerve in your body.
The gut-brain axis works like a two-way street.
Messages flow from your brain to your gut, which is why you feel fear in the pit of your stomach.
But your gut also sends messages to your brain. And that can affect everything from your mood to your attention span to your ability to learn.
The bacteria in your gut microbiome have a supersized impact on your gut-brain axis.
Beneficial probiotic bacteria keep things running smoothly, promoting clear thoughts and razor-sharp memory. But when pathogens take over, they can trigger everything from depression to brain fog to Alzheimer's disease.5,6,7
When your gut microbiome is unbalanced — a condition called dysbiosis — harmful pathogens outnumber and dominate probiotic bacteria.
You lose all of the brain benefits that probiotics normally deliver.
It doesn't take much to knock your microbiome out of balance. The toxic Western diet full of processed foods, sugar, and food additives takes a huge toll on probiotic bacteria...but promotes pathogens.
Antibiotics, stress, excess alcohol, pesticides, and other toxins destroy the good bugs but let the bad guys thrive, creating a state of dysbiosis.
When your gut is out of balance, pathogens overwhelm everything. They also produce toxic and inflammatory substances that can take a toll on your health. Bad bacteria produce toxic compounds like ammonia and hydrogen sulfide.8
They also overproduce a compound called TMAO (trimethylamine N-oxide) that increases your risk of cognitive decline.9 Follow These Simple Steps To Rebalance Your Gut I've been helping my patients protect their brains by fixing their guts for years.
And there's a growing body of research proving that my patient protocol works...that keeping the gut microbiome in balance can prevent and even reverse cognitive decline.
Here are some dos and don'ts for keeping your gut microbiome in healthy balance - DON'T eat a diet high in processed foods, sugar, and simple carbs that feed pathogens but starve probiotics. The standard American diet is a recipe for dysbiosis.
- DON'T use artificial sweeteners like sucralose that can harm beneficial bacteria.
- DON'T overindulge with alcohol, which causes bad bacteria overgrowth and dysbiosis.
- DON'T take unnecessary antibiotics. They can decimate probiotic gut bacteria and create cognitive problems.
More important than the Don'ts are what you should Do to protect your gut and your memories. Here's what I suggest:. - DO eat foods that contain fructooligosaccharides (FOS), a special type of undigestible prebiotic fiber that probiotics love and pathogens ignore. Good food sources of FOS include asparagus, onions, garlic, and bananas.
- DO get enough glutamine, an amino acid that your digestive system relies on heavily and beneficial bacteria use for fuel. I recommend taking 1 gram (1,000 mg) of glutamine three times a day.
- DO consume probiotic-friendly foods like sauerkraut, organic yogurt, or kefir (with no artificial sweeteners added).
- DO take a probiotic, but make sure it's the right probiotic. Look for a probiotic supplement that contains at least 10 billion CFUs (colony forming units) of clinically proven strains like LGG and Bifidobacterium longum. Make sure you give the probiotic enough time to work, at least four weeks, preferably 12 weeks.
To Your Good Health, 
Al Sears, MD, CNS
References: - Wang Z, et al. "B vitamins and prevention of cognitive decline and incident dementia: a systematic review and meta-analysis." Nutr Rev. 2022 Mar 10;80(4):931-949.
- Bourassa MW, Alim I, Bultman SJ, Ratan RR. Butyrate, neuroepigenetics and the gut microbiome: Can a high fiber diet improve brain health? Neurosci Lett. 2016 Jun 20;625:56-63.
- Koh W, et al. "GABA tone regulation and its cognitive functions in the brain. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2023;24:523–539.
- Ε vob Ε trac D, et al. "The serotonergic system and cognitive function." Transl Neurosci. 2016 May 9;7(1):35-49.
- Liu L, et al. "Gut microbiota and its metabolites in depression: from pathogenesis to treatment." EBioMedicine. 2023 Apr;90:104527.
- Almeida C, et al. "Influence of gut microbiota dysbiosis on brain function: A systematic review." Porto Biomed J. 2020 Mar 17;5(2):1-8.
- Cammann D, et al. "Genetic correlations between Alzheimer's disease and gut microbiome genera." Sci Rep. 2023:13:5258.
- Sitkin SI, et al. "Metabolic dysbiosis of the gut microbiota and its biomarkers." Eksp Klin Gastroenterol. 2016 Jul;12(12):6-29.
- Buawangpong N, et al. "The role of trimethylamine-N-Oxide in the development of Alzheimer's disease." J Cell Physiol. 2022 Mar;237(3):1661-1685.
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