The UltraMind Solution (125 page)

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If you have a sore throat, a swollen joint, or a rash, you know you are inflamed, but if your brain is inflamed you feel nothing. Nothing, that is, besides being depressed, unfocused, or worse, autistic or demented.

If your score on the “Inflammation” quiz in chapter 8 rated you for Self-Care or Medical Care, you need to focus on finding and getting rid of the causes of inflammation.

The list of causes is, thankfully, short: an inflammatory, high-sugar, processed-food diet; a sedentary and stressful lifestyle; toxins; infections; and allergens. That’s it.

Since most of our inflammation is from diet and lifestyle, the treatment for inflammation comes on your plate and in your shoes. What you eat and how much you exercise are the most important factors governing inflammation.

Finding the causes of inflammation is not always easy. The most common and obvious causes are our diet and being sedentary. But there are many factors, and at times specialized testing is needed to find hidden causes.

The two most common sources of inflammation in the twenty-first century are sugar (and refined carbohydrates) and hidden food allergens (perhaps most important, gluten).

Common, but often unrecognized, inflammation comes from hidden food allergies—especially gluten. Eliminating gluten and other delayed IgG food allergens is one of the most powerful treatments I use in my practice.

You do this as part of the six-week program.

Other, often overlooked, sources of inflammation are mold in your
surroundings in damp basements or moldy bathrooms, or hidden in the walls of your house: environmental allergies, a hidden infection such as a virus, parasite, or bacteria that doesn’t cause immediately obvious symptoms; or a medication you are taking, and even toxins such as mercury or pesticides.

Stress may also make you inflamed.

And while just sitting around doing nothing also causes inflammation, regular exercise is one of the best-known anti-inflammatories on the planet.
¹

Multivitamins are also a great natural inflammation-fighting tool.
²

Sometimes locating and eliminating the sources of inflammation requires detective work, testing, and working with an experienced doctor, but the results for your brain, your weight, and your health will be worth the effort.

Cooling off inflammation requires only a few basic steps

The six-week plan is designed to be anti-inflammatory, but be sure to add extra anti-inflammatory herbs in your cooking:

Add anti-inflammatory herbs, including turmeric (a source of curcumin), ginger, and rosemary, to your diet daily.

Get Rid of Hidden Food Allergies

Many people suffer needlessly with hidden food sensitivities and allergies. The most powerful, immediate, and dramatic results you can achieve for reducing systemic inflammation is to eliminate the most common food allergens in your diet: gluten, dairy, eggs, yeast, corn, peanuts, citrus, and occasionally soy.

In the six-week plan in Part III, I have provided you a method for eliminating the top two allergens—gluten and dairy—from your diet. This is because these are the most common allergens that affect the brain and benefit almost everyone.

However, for some people the other food allergens mentioned above
may be a problem. If you still experience problems with inflammation after the six-week program is over, you may need to go on a more rigorous elimination and reintroduction program.

The UltraSimple Diet
provides all the guidance, tools, and resources for you to do this successfully. If you follow the UltraMind Solution and the Self-Care program for six weeks and don’t get the results you expect, I strongly suggest you do the program outlined in
The UltraSimple Diet
for two weeks, then reintroduce foods slowly to identify the connection between what you are eating and how you feel.

For most of you, eliminating gluten and dairy (by far the worst culprits) will give you significant anti-inflammatory benefit without having to do
The UltraSimple Diet
.

Special Note: Sugar and Refined Carbohydrates

The biggest cause of inflammation in our culture is belly fat resulting from insulin resistance. Too much sugar promotes high insulin levels, which trigger a domino effect leading to system-wide damage, including inflammation.

Fixing insulin resistance by following the recommendations for healthy eating in Part III will take care of much of the inflammation we see from our diet other than hidden food allergies.

Supplements to Reduce Inflammation

The nutritional supplement recommendation in Part III, including a multivitamin, omega-3 fats, and vitamin D, all have powerful anti-inflammatory benefits. Here are some additional anti-inflammatory supplements that can be helpful:

Turmeric—the yellow spice found in curry is the best anti-inflammatory. Take 200 mg twice a day with food.

A well-researched combination of anti-inflammatory herbs (including turmeric, ginger, and rosemary) can be used. Take one softgel of Zyflamend by New Chapter twice a day with meals.

Enzymes, four capsules twice a day between meals for six weeks (bromelain and other proteolytic enzymes).

One of the most powerful things you can do to fix your brain is fix your gut. The link is clear, and the results are often immediate and dramatic. Clear out the bad bugs, eliminate food allergens, support digestion with enzymes, add in healthy bacteria or probiotics, prebiotics (fiber fertilizer for probiotics), healing nutrients, and learn to find the pause button so your second brain can relax too.

This is an easy, clear, and simple process that, if followed, can achieve dramatic results quickly, not only for your brain and mood, but also for your overall health and well-being.

Once your gut is healthy you can keep toxins and allergens out, cool off inflammation, and digest and absorb all the nutrients you need to run your body and your brain at top performance.