The Link Between Neuroinflammation and Mental Health (and my favorite recipe to help reduce it)

Mind-body dualism, an idea piloted by Descartes that the mind and body are separated entities, dominated medical thought in the 19th and 20th centuries. While most of us now realize this is an outdated belief and the mind and body are indeed connected if not one and the same, modern medical approaches to treatment of mental health disorders haven’t exactly kept up with the times. To this day, separate medical specialists handle cases of psychiatry and neurology, and in our growing dependence on pharmaceuticals, this results in a massive oversight. Somehow, somewhere, mental health became separated from the material structures that house our nervous system.  Psychiatric disorders have become a disease of neurotransmitters – forget the 86 billion neurons from which they’re produced in just the brain alone.

I feel we owe it to research in long COVID that neuroinflammation finally became a term that not just integrative and eastern practitioners are using to explain some of the pathophysiology behind mental health disorders. Neuroinflammation is a reactive inflammatory response in the brain and nervous system to systemic infections, traumatic brain injury, environmental toxins, certain medications, poor diet and lifestyle habits, chronic stress and psychological trauma. And while it might be easier for us to think of inflammation as a red, hot, swollen joint, just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not there. Just ask any of us who have ever struggled with mental health.

Here's what we know is happening in a brain in a neuroinflammatory state:

Higher levels of pro-inflammatory molecules, called cytokines, are found in people with several mental health disorders, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, PTSD and major depression. A phenomenon called microglial dysfunction is a key driver of this neuroinflammatory process. Microglial cells are the most prominent immune cells in our central nervous system and are the first responders in cases of infection or injury. When these cells become activated, they change their function in response to their environment. In environments of chronic stress, injury and inflammation, microglial cell function is altered to produce and release greater amounts of inflammatory cytokines and glutamate.

Glutamate is an excitatory neurotransmitter that in excess levels is toxic to the central nervous system. Excessive glutamate overwhelms the cells that make glutathione, the most abundant anti-oxidant molecule in the brain. Without sufficient glutathione, toxic levels of oxidative stress build up and can even result in death of cells. Cell loss and chronic inflammatory signaling in the brain is a state found across the board in various mental health disorders, challenging the long-standing hypothesis of dysregulated monoamine signaling believed to separate them all.

So when it comes to therapeutic approaches, it may not even matter so much what the cause of this inflammatory cascade was in the first place. In fact, the brain changes in someone suffering from a brain injury due to blunt trauma to the head and someone experiencing neuropsychiatric manifestations of long-covid may not look that different at all. I believe it’s okay at times to extrapolate root cause from symptomology. I don’t believe spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on testing works for everyone. And I think it is safe to say we now have the data to back the role of neuroinflammation in mental health. So why not start making changes from wherever we stand to lower levels of neuroinflammation and give our brains some love.

A daily practice for reducing neuroinflammation

Aside from a good night of sleep, my favorite daily practice to combat any neuroinflammation I’ve accumulated is a shot of this orange-turmeric-ginger juice in the morning. The combination of curcumin in turmeric and piperine in black pepper combine to enhance turmeric’s anti-inflammatory effects. I choose flaxseed oil here not only because the fats increase the absorption of curcumin but also add a bit of brain-loving alpha-linolenic acid, a fatty acid that reduces neuroinflammation and promotes the growth of new neurons in the brain. The vitamin C from orange and lemon offers antioxidant support to help reduce oxidative stress and actually reverse those inflammation-induced microglial cell changes.

I use a cold pressed juicer and store these shots in the fridge for a maximum of 3 days to prevent the loss of vitamin C and other nutrients.

Ingredients:

-4-5 medium oranges

-6-7 inches fresh turmeric root

-3-4 inches fresh ginger root

-2-3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

-a pinch of black pepper per shot

-a few drops flax seed oil per shot

Happy juicing.

With love,

Dr. Kayla Amin

https://mcimh.com