I'm on a new brain health plateau
and why that might be
Over the past two months, I’ve found myself on a new brain health plateau—a kind of meadow that isn’t at the top of the mountain, but is significantly higher than where I was before.
My mental clarity, mental energy, ability to focus, to switch tasks, to maintain dual-awareness, have all been improved.
Why might that be?
I made a number of changes starting around two months ago. All of them are probably playing a factor. Here they are.
An intensive anti-inflammation protocol
After getting my blood test results from Function Health in October, which showed biomarkers for inflammation, my ND and I made significant changes to the protocol I had been following for 10 months.
Previously, the focus was almost entirely on gut repair and restoration. But my sense (even prior to getting the blood test results two months ago) was that despite improvements to gut health, I had hit a wall and couldn’t progress.
The revised protocol includes daily exercise, both steady state cardio and weightlifting, and taking a raft of new supplements prescribed by my doctor (I have a whole shelf of them, it’s kind of preposterous, but I figure this is a three-month protocol, and I can do this), including pro-resolving mediators.
The plan is to hit the inflammation hard for about three months, then retake the Function Health blood tests, then retake the blood barrier test around March.
New, head-trauma specific probiotics
For 10 months, I took a broad spectrum probiotic. Two months ago, I switched to a probiotic (from Ayush Herbs) of microbiota that are decimated in the microbiomes of those who’ve suffered a head trauma due to disrupted CNS control over the microbiome.
Going dairy free
A while back, when someone suggested I go dairy free, I said, “Life would not be worth living.” Cream in my coffee. Butter between my toast and eggs. Butter in everything. Mac and cheese. Heavy cream sauces. Etc. I guess in this respect, I am very French.
About one year ago, I did a fasting mimicking diet (700 calories a day) for one week and experienced a dramatic cognitive boost. This was an Awakenings (the movie) moment. Testing at that time revealed that my gut and brain barriers were compromised, so it made sense that not eating would help stop the constant influx of things that shouldn’t be crossing those barriers. It showed me what was possible.
So for the past 10 months I’ve been doing the gut repair protocol, but I kept eating dairy.
Two months ago, when I switched gears into the intensive anti-inflammation protocol, I decided to bite the bullet and go dairy free on the presumption that this would really help the cause of reducing inflammation.
It was not easy. Mornings were especially difficult. In my coffee, I tried many different healthy unsweetened non-dairy alternatives, all of them terrible. Eventually I bought a machine to make my own cashew milk (or any other type of milk) and this seems to be the best option so far.
After being dairy free for about three weeks, I tried a bit of dairy as a test, and immediately felt a kind of brain fog and even a bit of dizziness. The longer I remain off dairy, the more noticeable the reaction is if I have any.
I’ve been listening (via podcasts and videos) to Dr. Mark Hyman and other doctors at the Ultra Wellness Center for years, and they generally recommend going dairy free and wheat free to just about everyone. I finally relented.
I should mention that I’ve been wheat free for many years now, and that made my reliance on dairy that much stronger because without wheat (think good pizza, croissants, baguettes) dairy was one of my remaining food pleasures. Being both wheat free and dairy free felt like a bridge too far.
Is life still worth living? If I continue to feel this much better, maybe.
Daily steady state exercise
This was a surprisingly hard habit to form because I enjoy exercising and I lift weights fairly often, and I do it at a high intensity without resting too long between sets.
I thought I’d start with walking 45 minutes a day. Too daunting. Too much resistance to doing it.
And to my surprise, when I did make the attempt, I was tired by about the 20 to 30 minute mark. I couldn’t believe it. I thought I was in decent shape. Not cardiovascularly. And atherosclerosis is a brain problem as much as a heart problem.
What I discovered was that, even 15 minutes in, the perfusion of blood to my brain felt far greater than if I had done an hour of weight lifting with breaks between sets. Something about steady state cardio is a wonder for perfusion.
To keep myself from being utterly bored by walking, I relied on quick brief bursts of intensity (even a three-second burst) or maybe climbing a flight of stairs before returning to a walking pace.
These little bursts not only keep it interesting, they help me feel like I am preparing for some real-world scenario where bursts of lateral motion or power are required.
During these bursts, my hip joints and other joints also get to work at different angles. It turns the overall movement into something pleasurable and unpredictable rather than monotonous.
Above all, the bursts keeps me engaged with the terrain and with myself and they keep me going, along with my training playlist.
Taking Ginkgo
I went a bit down the rabbit hole watching videos from Dr. Amen, and it seemed like he recommended ginkgo to just about everyone, and he said he’s been taking it every day for decades. So I thought I’d give it a try (in the morning) and it does seem to be helping.
Combining Mendi (neurofeedback training) with Wim Hof breathing
About two weeks ago, I combined these two things, and the results are fascinating and promising.
I’ve been using the Mendi device every morning for about 5 weeks. And I’ve been doing Wim Hof breathing nearly every day for about three years.
Your score in the Mendi game is derived from how much oxygen-rich blood you can bring to your prefrontal cortex (the area of the brain that often becomes too under-active with head trauma, depression, and ADD). The makers of Mendi aim to help those with focus issues.
It seemed to me that I was experiencing better focus throughout the day from doing the Mendi for 10 minutes every morning. On a lark, I tried doing it while doing the breathing exercise simultaneously.
Wim Hof breathing brings a massive amount of oxygen into the brain during the hyperventilation phase. When you exhale and hold your breath, the oxygen in your prefrontal cortex plummets as your brain pulls the oxygen-rich blood into the core of your brain (as a survival mechanism). You can watch this happen in real time with the Mendi.
So the Wim Method creates a pulsing of oxygen rich blood into and out of the prefrontal cortex with each round. When you start breathing again, the oxygen level in your prefrontal cortex rockets back up to 50 or 80% above baseline.
Here’s the difference. Instead of holding after my exhale for as long as I comfortably could (which is the standard Wim Hof instruction for the Method), I held after exhale until the oxygen rich blood in my prefrontal cortex plummeted past the 10% mark, then I inhaled and held for 15 seconds (the standard protocol) which prevented me from bottoming out at 0.0.
By using the Mendi, I can time the cycles with precision. It remains to be seen how helpful this may be, but so far I seem to reaching some pretty awesome levels of brain oxygenation, perhaps a better result than I get when holding after exhale for extended periods of time.
Using the NeoRhythm at 48 Hz
There was a software update in the NeoRhythm app allowing you to manually set the device to 48 Hz, and this frequency seems to really help with prefrontal and temporal lobe stimulation. For the past few weeks, I’ve been doing this for about an hour a day, mid-morning.
Based on information from Dr. Amen about the form of ADD caused by head trauma (in his book “Healing ADD”), I was concerned about stimulating my temporal lobes, but I seem to be tolerating transcranial magnetic stimulation of those areas, perhaps because it’s not the chemically induced stimulation (via medication) that he warns against for this type of ADD.
Using a WaterPik showerhead on my neck
A couple of months ago, I was given a WaterPik showerhead, which pulses the water in an awesome way. I’ve been using it almost every morning, massaging the end points of my atlas (underneath each earlobe) and my neck in general. It seems to really be helping keep my neck tissue in a good place.
Being more in touch with my emotional body
I’ve been making a conscious effort to be more in touch with my emotional body. Based on my childhood and family background, I have a reflexive (all too easy) ability to disconnect myself from my emotions. This work is an ongoing process, but I’m finding that as I do this within myself, I am better able to connect with others.
I’ll leave you with one of the songs from my training playlist.
Onward.
Brainwave is a newsletter about brain health, a personal blog about my own journey, and an informational resource for people whose symptoms haven’t resolved after a concussion or mTBI. I aim to present this information in a clear and concise way, spelling out what’s backed by science and what remains unknown. Nothing here is meant as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. I am not a physician or a healthcare practitioner of any kind; I’ve had a lot of sports-related head trauma and had to learn this stuff the hard way. If you found this information helpful or know someone who might benefit from it, please share and subscribe to Brainwave.