Raphael Kellman - The Whole Brain Diet: the microbiome solution to heal depression, anxiety, and mental fog without prescription drugs

H eyhow is your brain doing today?

Are you thinking well? Is your mood terrific? Do you feel as though your brain is functioning in peak condition, humming along the way it was meant to: concentrating easily, analyzing effectively, deciding confidently, and maintaining its focus? Is your brain making you feel calm, energized, and optimistic?

Or are you feeling anxious? Depressed? Foggy? Does your brain feel like an enemy youre constantly battlingone creating anxious thoughts, mood swings, or a sense of misery and despair? Do you wonder if you need medication to sharpen your mind or improve your mood?

Or perhaps are you already taking medication that isnt working as well as you would like. Maybe youre wondering if you will ever be able to take your brain for grantedstill waiting for that morning when youll wake up rested and full of energy, enthusiastic for the day ahead.

If you are one of the millions of Americans who feel that your brain just isnt working rightthat your ability to think clearly or maintain a balanced, happy mood has been lost long agotake heart. The problem is not in your headthere are understandable scientific reasons for whats gone wrong. And there are proven solutions that can help youwithout medication, without frustrating side effects, without the constant fear that maybe your medications will stop working and what will you do then?

Im a holistic and functional medicine MD who has spent the last two decades in private practice, treating thousands of patients with complaints like yours. Ive developed an approach to brain health that goes far beyond conventional medicineand beyond most functional and alternative practitioners as well. Ive written this book to share my solutions with you, so that you, too, can feel calm, energized, clear, sharp, and optimisticso that your brain functions at its very highest level, every day, all the time.

In this book, youre going to learn about the latest cutting-edge science, because that science offers so much room for hope. When you understand how the brain works, youll understand that you have the power to make your own brain work better. Like many of my patients, you might have spent years going from one doctor to another, trying different medications, taking various herbs and natural remedies, struggling in therapy, and you may have become discouraged, even despairingcertain that there is no help for you. So, I want to say this loud and clear:

This approach can work for you, just as it has for thousands of my patients.

And when you understand the science behind it, youll know why it works, and why you can be helped.

In Part I, youll learn the basics of the new brain science and youll discover a powerful new concept that I call the Whole Brain. In Part II, youll learn about each aspect of the Whole Brain: brain, gut, and microbiome, as well as the thyroid, which powers the Whole Brain, and the will to wholeness, which activates it.

Then, in Parts III and IV, youll find your Whole Brain Protocol. Ill tell you exactly what to eat and which supplements and probiotics can get your Whole Brain functioning at top capacity. The Whole Brain Protocol is your 4-week plan for getting your brain back on track, so that you can think clearly and feel terrific. If youve been taking medication, you may very well be able to work with your prescriber to wean yourself off of it. If you havent yet taken medication, you might never have to start.

So, read on. A whole new world of brain health is waiting. I cant wait for you to experience the wonders of that world.

Take a quick look at the waiting room of any doctors office, and you can see at a glance that we are facing a crisis in brain health. Rates of depression and anxiety are skyrocketing. More and more people struggle with cognitive decline: brain fog, failing memory, senior moments. Rates of ADHD, Alzheimers, autism, and neurodegenerative diseases are on the rise as well.

Unfortunately, the treatments we haveantidepressants; antianxiety medications; antiattention-deficit medications, such as Adderall; and a host of other medicationsrepresent an outmoded approach to treating the brain. They work to a degree, but not very well.

I see the hazards of the old type of treatment all the time. People come into my office with long histories of depression or anxiety or sometimes both, having spent years on one medication after another. Maybe their depression has gotten a little better. Maybe their anxiety is more under control. Or perhaps it isntperhaps after offering a short-lived relief, their medication has stopped working and theyve had to increase their dose, switch to another medication, or suffer through a return of the very same symptomswhich now, perhaps, are even more intense.

Even when the drugs actually work, they dont accomplish nearly enough. In the best-case scenario, they might alleviate some symptoms. Even then, they almost always create punitive side effectsweight gain, sleep disturbances, brain fog, loss of energy, the diminishment or loss of sexual function. Worst of all, available medications rarely allow people to achieve optimal levels of enthusiasm, clarity, and joythe zest and energy that make life truly worth living.

Fortunately, as this old era ends, a new one is beginning. We now understand the brain in a new way, which means that we can heal it in a new way. The first step in this exciting new approach to brain health is to understand that the brain is not merely the gray and white matter between our ears. Rather, the brain is part of a system