Research has revealed gut health is linked to brain health - and whatever boosts one can have an impact on the other.
The gut communicates with the brain through the vagus nerve, the gut microbiome, and through the immune system, hormones and neurotransmitters.
Naturopath and wellness expert Erin O'Hara explains how to keep both organs healthy and thriving.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talk SEDB.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Wellness Time, and I'm joined by Nature breth Erin O'Hara.
Good morning, Good morning. Yes, I suddenly thought, gee, I
need to boost my brain health a little bit. Here
tell us ways that we can do this.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Yeah, I think with brain health people just think of
more external things they can do, like puzzling or crosswords
or foods that they're eating. But it's a lot of
leap sleep. But actually a lot of it comes down
to also your gut health. And I know that there's
a lot of chat and lots of talk around gut
health and mental health, but actually gut health is really
(00:45):
important for even cognition and memory and reducing your risk
of things like Alzheimer's. And there's some really interesting studies
around this. And the thing that links the gut to
the brain is we always talk about the gut being
the body second brain, and there's relationships between the gut
brain axis and the vagus nerve and as communicates between
(01:08):
the brain and the gut, but also the gut microbio
imbalance and all those good bacteria within the gut and
how they produce chemicals and metabolites that circulate into the brain,
and all of that works together along with your hormones
and also your neurotransmitters, and that's where the gut also
affects the way our brain is going to function, which
(01:28):
also affects your cognition and your memory and your focus
and being able to get stuff done.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Okay, so how do we boost our brain power? So
through these foods.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Yeah, So a lot of it you can do with
the brain foods, which I know we always probably think
first up, I always think walnuts that actually look like
little brains, and they are good for the gut and
they are also good for brain health. But one of
the ones that's got a lot of good interesting research
is around fiber and how our gut bacteria feasts on
the fiber and how that makes it essential gut environment.
(02:05):
And even with a five gr gram increase in fiber
was linked to a five percent drop in depression. But
also there's other studies done around research on bacteria in
the gut and also creating better memory and how that
detected early scientifics.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Without trying about fiber a lot more, and we sort
of used to talk about it and it all kind
of came down. You'd always be talking about it in
association with your movements, won't you, But we sort of
talking about it for different reasons now we are.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
But also those bowl movements are important.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
I think if you ever.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Go to a naturopath, and number one thing they'll ask
you every single consult it is so do how often
do you go for a foe? And that is a
really common thing because that is so important. But the
fiber is what is also the food. It's like food
for feeding these superbugs within our gut, and that's what
they feed off. And that's what prebiotics are, is all
(03:00):
those fiber which comes from fruits and vegetables and nuts
and seeds, and there's some bigger fiber boosters to things
like beans and lentils are fantastic for big boosts of fiber. Also,
cheer seeds one of my absolute favorites because one tablespoon
of cheer seeds is five grams of fiber. And it's
interesting that the mainstream medical sort of system recommends thirty
(03:21):
grams of fiber a day, but you know what, just
not enough. You actually need to get as much fiber
as you can into your diet, and so it can
be getting the biggest variety of fruits of virtuals, nuts
and seeds, and those nuts and seeds are also going
to be great for the brain health with all those
amiga threes and amiga threes are absolutely essential for brain
(03:42):
health but also for body function, and if we don't
eat them, we don't magically produce them within our body.
So trying to get them through your oily fish, which
not everyone loves oily fish, but that's your things like salmon, anchovies, sardines,
not everyone's favorites, but they are really good brain foods
and they have really good research that they will help
(04:04):
with reducing the risk of outs but also vascular dementia.
So making sure getting those they're going to be great
for the gut health as well as they help to
feed the gut bacteria. They like those early amega three
fish fish fatty oils that are so good for the
gut and good for the brain as well as our antioxidants.
(04:25):
Which variety of fruits and vietules I like to think
about it has been colorful rather than trying to think, okay,
which ones have I had today? So if you can
try and aim on even getting five different colors of
fruits and vegetables across the day. So it might be
having the likes of an orange for the orange color,
spinach for green, or maybe kale beech truit for your reds.
(04:50):
You could do blueberries for purple, a banana for the
yellow or yellow pepper. But all those different colors provide
different antioxidants but also different types of fiber into the
diet as well, So it's good to try and get
those big variety of colorful, colorful fruits and vegetables and
as many different ones as you can, and that will
(05:11):
help with the brain function. The other big one is
last one I'll leave with is some coffee, which I
know that everyone who likes coffee is probably thinking yay
because it has a polyphenos in which is so good
for the brain health. But also that caffeine actually upriculates
brain function and the gut actually really likes a bit
of caffeine. So whether it's a cup of tea cup
(05:32):
of coffee, obviously not too much. If you get severe
anxiety or ibs, maybe consider not having that or decaf,
but it's a really good brain booster as well.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Erin for more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudken.
Listen live to news talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talk SEDB.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Wellness Time, and I'm joined by Nature breth Erin O'Hara.
Good morning, Good morning. Yes, I suddenly thought, gee, I
need to boost my brain health a little bit. Here
tell us ways that we can do this.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Yeah, I think with brain health people just think of
more external things they can do, like puzzling or crosswords
or foods that they're eating. But it's a lot of
leap sleep. But actually a lot of it comes down
to also your gut health. And I know that there's
a lot of chat and lots of talk around gut
health and mental health, but actually gut health is really
(00:45):
important for even cognition and memory and reducing your risk
of things like Alzheimer's. And there's some really interesting studies
around this. And the thing that links the gut to
the brain is we always talk about the gut being
the body second brain, and there's relationships between the gut
brain axis and the vagus nerve and as communicates between
(01:08):
the brain and the gut, but also the gut microbio
imbalance and all those good bacteria within the gut and
how they produce chemicals and metabolites that circulate into the brain,
and all of that works together along with your hormones
and also your neurotransmitters, and that's where the gut also
affects the way our brain is going to function, which
(01:28):
also affects your cognition and your memory and your focus
and being able to get stuff done.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Okay, so how do we boost our brain power? So
through these foods.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Yeah, So a lot of it you can do with
the brain foods, which I know we always probably think
first up, I always think walnuts that actually look like
little brains, and they are good for the gut and
they are also good for brain health. But one of
the ones that's got a lot of good interesting research
is around fiber and how our gut bacteria feasts on
the fiber and how that makes it essential gut environment.
(02:05):
And even with a five gr gram increase in fiber
was linked to a five percent drop in depression. But
also there's other studies done around research on bacteria in
the gut and also creating better memory and how that
detected early scientifics.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Without trying about fiber a lot more, and we sort
of used to talk about it and it all kind
of came down. You'd always be talking about it in
association with your movements, won't you, But we sort of
talking about it for different reasons now we are.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
But also those bowl movements are important.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
I think if you ever.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Go to a naturopath, and number one thing they'll ask
you every single consult it is so do how often
do you go for a foe? And that is a
really common thing because that is so important. But the
fiber is what is also the food. It's like food
for feeding these superbugs within our gut, and that's what
they feed off. And that's what prebiotics are, is all
(03:00):
those fiber which comes from fruits and vegetables and nuts
and seeds, and there's some bigger fiber boosters to things
like beans and lentils are fantastic for big boosts of fiber. Also,
cheer seeds one of my absolute favorites because one tablespoon
of cheer seeds is five grams of fiber. And it's
interesting that the mainstream medical sort of system recommends thirty
(03:21):
grams of fiber a day, but you know what, just
not enough. You actually need to get as much fiber
as you can into your diet, and so it can
be getting the biggest variety of fruits of virtuals, nuts
and seeds, and those nuts and seeds are also going
to be great for the brain health with all those
amiga threes and amiga threes are absolutely essential for brain
(03:42):
health but also for body function, and if we don't
eat them, we don't magically produce them within our body.
So trying to get them through your oily fish, which
not everyone loves oily fish, but that's your things like salmon, anchovies, sardines,
not everyone's favorites, but they are really good brain foods
and they have really good research that they will help
(04:04):
with reducing the risk of outs but also vascular dementia.
So making sure getting those they're going to be great
for the gut health as well as they help to
feed the gut bacteria. They like those early amega three
fish fish fatty oils that are so good for the
gut and good for the brain as well as our antioxidants.
(04:25):
Which variety of fruits and vietules I like to think
about it has been colorful rather than trying to think, okay,
which ones have I had today? So if you can
try and aim on even getting five different colors of
fruits and vegetables across the day. So it might be
having the likes of an orange for the orange color,
spinach for green, or maybe kale beech truit for your reds.
(04:50):
You could do blueberries for purple, a banana for the
yellow or yellow pepper. But all those different colors provide
different antioxidants but also different types of fiber into the
diet as well, So it's good to try and get
those big variety of colorful, colorful fruits and vegetables and
as many different ones as you can, and that will
(05:11):
help with the brain function. The other big one is
last one I'll leave with is some coffee, which I
know that everyone who likes coffee is probably thinking yay
because it has a polyphenos in which is so good
for the brain health. But also that caffeine actually upriculates
brain function and the gut actually really likes a bit
of caffeine. So whether it's a cup of tea cup
(05:32):
of coffee, obviously not too much. If you get severe
anxiety or ibs, maybe consider not having that or decaf,
but it's a really good brain booster as well.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Erin for more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudken.
Listen live to news talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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