Just about everyone in the US has experienced what it is like to alter brain function.

Maybe you had a cup of coffee and were suddenly more conversational, or a margarita and you were suddenly more conversational.

Maybe you were partially anesthetized for a dental procedure, and have hilarious videos to prove it.

These experiences show us we are not who we think we are. We are, at least partially, how our brain is currently functioning.

Brain Health and Personality

Our thoughts are influenced by a complex electrochemical soup that triggers emotions and actions.

Our memories are physically coded into special areas of our brain.

Our ability to walk, run, jump, and dance are coded into another area.

If the brain is not healthy, its poor functioning will manifest in thought and behavior changes.

An Invisible Disease

If we break a leg, no one is surprised that our walking ability is changed. But if the brain is not working correctly, and we exhibit sadness or lethargy or anxiety or some other unpleasant emotional state, we are often told to cheer up or settle down or get a grip.

No one tells a boy with a broken leg to just get up and walk, darn it!

Because brain functioning is not as visible, and because we are wedded to the idea that all behavior is—or should be—under our conscious control, people with these types of challenges are often stigmatized.

Therefore, it makes sense to take good care of our brain if our goal is healthy thinking, good memory, emotional stability, and predictable behavior.

Inflammation and Brain Function

Inflammation can create all kinds of havoc in proper brain functioning.

Inflamed tissues create neurotransmitter imbalances and suppress the brain’s auto-repair activity, called neurogenesis.

There are many dietary and lifestyle interventions that can reduce inflammation, including reducing sugar in the diet, increasing whole food consumption, and maintaining healthy levels of movement throughout the day.

There are also clinically proven supplements that have been shown to reduce brain inflammation.

Curcumin for Inflammation

The best all-around natural inflammation-reducing botanical is curcumin.

The Difference Between Turmeric and Curcumin

Curcumin is extracted from turmeric, but turmeric will not deliver enough curcumin for medicinal benefits in people with brain health concerns.

Turmeric contains only 2% to 5% curcumin. Turmeric is an excellent food, but curcumin is the natural medicine.

Studies on Curcumin

Studies on curcumin have shown it is effective for both depression and anxiety, and may be quite useful in other brain disorders, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.

Initial animal research has demonstrated potential for this herb to help people with autism as well.

Enhanced Absorption

Early studies on ordinary curcumin required as many as 24 capsules a day to attain any serum levels of key compounds.

The best curcumin forms have enhanced absorption so that medicinal levels can be achieved with only 2 capsules a day.

BCM-95

One enhanced absorption curcumin is BCM-95, which uses turmeric essential oils rich in turmerones as the delivery system, and has four published studies on major depressive disorder (MDD).

It has been found that people with depression and anxiety both have elevated levels of inflammation in the brain.

In one human study, this curcumin was compared to the prescription drug fluoxetine (one brand name is Prozac) and found to be as effective as the drug without the major side effects.

BCM-95 has also been shown to be especially useful in atypical depression, which is often resistant to drug therapy.

How to Rebuild Your Brain

The omega-3 fatty acids from fish—eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) —are crucial for proper brain health. About 60% of the brain is fat, and nearly 20% of your cerebral cortex is specifically DHA! If you are low on omega 3s, your brain will suffer. Not only are EPA and DHA anti-inflammatory, DHA is used in the brain cells themselves as part of the cell membrane.

Increasing healthy levels of EPA and especially DHA has great promise for schizophrenia, stroke, traumatic brain injury, depression, anxiety, autism and spectrum disorders, and more.

Even people without a serious brain disease can derive brain benefits from DHA and EPA from fish. In a published meta-analysis reviewing a variety of studies on mild memory problems associated with aging, using these two omega-3 fatty acids demonstrated significant improvements in memory in otherwise healthy older adults.

Another review article looked specifically at studies on DHA and found impact in almost every measure of cardiovascular health. This is important, because the same risk factors for heart disease are risk factors for strokes and other types of brain problems.

There is no question that omega 3s are beneficial for a healthy brain. However, there are an enormous amount of omega-3 products on the market, including oils from fish, squid (calamari), and krill, as well as more cutting edge extracts without oil from salmon. Losing the oil as a delivery system means you don’t have to worry about triglyceride content and/or rancidity.

The brain is a physical organ that responds to physical interventions. Helping to improve brain function in turn improves brain activity, whether it be mood, memory, or risk of disease. Lifestyle changes and clinically validated supplements can be more beneficial that once imagined, and it is never too late to late to make a difference.

If you aren’t losing the weight you want to, then it’s time for a radical change. Bitter foods like coffee, cacao, cabbage, ginger, and dozens more, stimulate the liver, promote better bile flow, and boost your fat-burning metabolism, all of which are key components of losing weight and getting healthy.

Bitter foods are a big deal! So why aren’t we eating them, and what has taken us so long to discover their vital role in weight loss?

The answers to these questions came during the “aha!” moments that lead to my new book, Radical Metabolism. This radical new approach to weight loss and getting healthy helped me overcome the final hurdle to having the body I wanted to see when I look in the mirror – I finally lost that tummy pooch that I’d had since menopause!

If your metabolism is stalled and you crave sweets, your energy is flagging, and those extra pounds just won’t budge despite your best dieting efforts, then it’s time for a radical change to Radical Metabolism– and it starts with bitters.

Bitter for Better Weight – Why Didn’t I Think of That?

You’re born with roughly 9,000 taste buds that distinguish between five main flavors – sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami – or savory. Have you ever wondered why you are more drawn to sweet, salty, and umami foods and shy away from bitter or sour foods? That’s easy – survival.

Sweet, salty, and savory (umami) are tastes associated with foods that are fresh, rich in nutrients and protein. On the other hand, sour and bitter foods are associated with foods that have spoiled or plants that are poisonous.

We have a natural aversion to bitter foods for survival’s sake – but there’s more to bitters than what meets the eye. While most flavors can be discerned all over the tongue, the back of the tongue is reserved for bitter only, so we can detect poisons and spit them out before it’s too late.

However, bitter taste isn’t reserved just for poisons – it’s the most complex of the flavors. We have 35 different proteins in our sensory cells that respond to bitter foods and help us discern between friend and foe within this taste category. Why? Because bitter foods are some of the most powerful healers and important for our bodies when we need to detox and absorb nutrients.

The Benefits of Bitter Foods for Weight Loss

Bitter foods like coffee, cacao, watercress, arugula, cabbage, orange peel, ginger, apple cider vinegar, and more, boost bile flow, which is critical for detox, thyroid function, digestion, and even suppressing sugar cravings. Bile is a big deal, it’s been called “liquid gold” because of how valuable it is to your body. But there’s more to bitters than just bile building.

• Bitters Improve Bile and Boost Your Metabolism

  Bitters build better bile and boost your fat-burning metabolism. Bile is an emulsifying, soap-like substance that plays a key role in fat metabolism. The quantity and quality of bile you produce is essential to your health and your ability to lose weight.

  Bile should be thin, golden, and flow freely, and your liver should make a quart a day of this substance. Problems come when bile becomes toxic sludge and stops flowing freely, from toxin overload, clogged bile ducts, elevated blood sugar, excess cholesterol, and not enough to nutrients to create it.

  Did the Paleo or Keto diets leave you feeling tired and bloated? It’s likely bile quality is to blame. When bile is toxic, congested, and not flowing freely, you can’t metabolize fats properly, and it isn’t long before you’re bloated, tired, and craving sugars because you can’t digest those healthy fats.

  The good news is bitters make it better! Bitters boost bile production, and more bile means better fat digestion and absorption. Bitters rev up your fat-burning metabolism and your body processes more fat – which means storing less of it. Studies show healthy bile also reduces insulin resistance, which is essential for weight loss and healthy blood sugar levels.

  One additional note: Normally, the gallbladder regulates the flow of bile, but if yours is causing you pain and nausea, or has been removed, you may need help to boost your bile flow. This is what I created my Bile Builder for, and it works well in combination with bitter foods to get your fat burning metabolism back on track and digestion working optimally.

• Bitters Support Liver Health

  As the body’s prime detoxification organ, the liver takes an enormous beating from today’s toxic world. Many foods and lifestyle factors, such as refined sugars and grains, unhealthy fats like processed vegetable oils, too little fiber, too much alcohol and caffeine, medications, emotional stress, heavy metals and toxic chemicals in the air, water, and food, are all hard on the liver.

  The most prevalent liver disease today is non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which is characterized by the accumulation of fat in the liver. This is a sign the liver has stopped processing fat and storing it. If your liver is sluggish, every organ in your body is affected and your weight loss efforts will be stalled from multiple angles. A fatty liver is a toxic liver.

  Because bitter foods increase bile production, your liver health will improve. Bile plays a major role in detoxifying your liver – it flushes out all the toxins your liver collects and can’t process. Without enough bile, these toxins get stored in fat cells and promote cellulite by increasing body fat and reducing collagen formation.

  Like a magnet, bile grabs onto whatever the liver needs to get rid of – heavy metals, drugs, toxic chemicals, food preservatives, pesticides, flame retardants, and more – and carries it through the colon to be eliminated.

• Bitter Foods Boost Thyroid Function

  Essential fats from your diet supply your body with the raw materials needed to make thyroid hormones. If you’re not absorbing fats, you can’t make thyroid hormones. Once you have a thyroid problem, like hypothyroidism, it slows the emptying of the biliary tract, which increases your risk for gallstone formation. It also slows metabolism and causes weight gain.

  The good news is bile acids boost thyroid activity. So when those bitter foods produce better bile flow, they’re also improving your thyroid function! According to thyroid specialist Dr. Antonio Blanco, bile release triggers your body to convert T4 (your body’s less active thyroid hormone) to T3 (the more active form), which fuels metabolism. He found individuals who improved their bile experienced a whopping 53 percent increase in metabolism, which breaks through the weight loss barrier!

• Bitters Improve Digestion and Absorption

  Bitter foods get your digestive juices flowing by stimulating the release of saliva, stomach acid (HCl), pepsin, gastrin, pancreatic enzymes, and of course, bile. It’s basically a downstream cascade that happens once bitter flavors are introduced to the tongue.

  What happens when this cascade is triggered is a balanced release over time of these essential fluids, and proper breakdown of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins for optimal nutrient absorption. For this purpose, bitters need only be introduced in small amounts, and may not even need to be swallowed to be effective.

• Bitters Reduce Acid Reflux and Constipation

  Bitters reduce acid reflux, GERD, and constipation. Bitters relieve reflux by increasing the tone of your lower esophageal sphincter (LES) and “priming the pump” for optimal stomach acid levels, by inducing the digestive juices cascade that begins with the taste being detected on the tongue. Once this cascade results in better bile production, this intestinal lubricant relieves constipation and promotes healthy elimination.

• Bitters Are Good For Intestinal Flora

  Bitters feed “skinny bugs” and reduce the populations of “bad bugs.” Bitter foods, especially naturally fermented, unpasteurized vegetables like sauerkraut from cabbage, are acidic and loaded with gut-friendly microbes, increasing the numbers of bacteria that help with weight loss and maintenance of a healthy weight, and decreasing the numbers of “fat bacteria.”

  The presence of even one strain of bacteria known to cause weight gain is enough to shift your entire microbiome and cause you to pack on the pounds. Bitters help rebalance the microbiome with intestinal flora in your favor.

  Another function of bile is to reduce the populations of unhealthy bacteria, fungi and parasites. When bile is thin and free-flowing, it’s also acidic, and balances the pH of the intestines in a way that is unfavorable to “bad bugs.”

  Just the presence of enough healthy bile is all it takes to kill off many foreign invaders that would set up shop in your liver and intestines and cause harm to your health.

• Bitter Foods Suppress Sugar Cravings

  This is a well-known principle in Ayurvedic medicine. Different flavors of foods hold different healing attributes, and one way bitters are used is to balance a meal and suppress sugar cravings.

• You Can Have Your Coffee and Chocolate and Lose Weight, Too!

  Coffee and cacao are loaded with bitter and antioxidants, and when consumed in moderation, they can enhance your weight loss efforts and support your overall health—and this is why they’re part of my Radical Metabolism plan!

  Coffee is a powerhouse superfood packed with antioxidants. Did you know women who drink coffee have lower death rates from cardiovascular disease? It’s true! The latest scientific research also shows that coffee drinkers have fewer digestive issues and lower rates of type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, and liver cancer. Coffee drinkers also have healthier brains and tend to live longer!

  Cacao, the purest form of chocolate, has 20 times more antioxidant power than blueberries, making it a true superfood. Cacao helps cleanse and restore health at the cellular level. It also boosts your body’s serotonin levels, making you feel content, and when it comes to eating, you feel full faster. Notice here, the form of chocolate that has the health and weight loss benefits you’re looking for is pure cacao, not milk chocolate or other sugar-laden choices. When it comes to your health, don’t compromise!

We all struggle with stress and anxiety. Looming work deadlines, final exams, bad news from the doctor, challenging family relationships. This is called situational anxiety—the stressful situation triggers an anxious response. Everyone has this kind of occasional anxiety. I have a little bit of it right now, as I hurry to meet writing deadlines.

However, some people have anxiety every day. This is called chronic anxiety. In fact, over 40 million adults in the United States suffer from some form of clinically diagnosed anxiety, including generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

What is Anxiety?

You may have heard the expression that a cockeyed optimist, one who perceives things as better than they actually are, “sees the world through rose-colored glasses.” Well, people struggling with daily anxiety see the world through orange-high-danger-alert-colored glasses. Their perception is that the world is even more stressful and dangerous than it is. It is the woman who fears a brain tumor when she gets a headache, it is the man who sees threats to his job security in innocuous statements at work, it is the teen who thinks they are failing if they get a “B” instead of an “A.”

People with serious anxiety are easily overwhelmed. A flat tire ruins their day—maybe a few days. Pleasurable events become a chore—going to parties and farmer’s markets are work instead of fun.

In addition to all the negative emotions, which are certainly painful, anxiety is exhausting. Anxiety pokes our adrenal glands with a stick and they pour out stress hormones which causes heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, perspiration, and elimination to go into overdrive, diverting resources from the gastrointestinal tract, immune system, and other functions.

The brain becomes hyperalert and healthy sleep becomes a thing of the past. The startle reflex increases, and emergency stores of sugar are dumped into the bloodstream by the liver to fuel our increased energy needs.

These are the reasons that people with chronic anxiety can have problems with constipation or loose stools, impaired gut function (irritable bowel is common), insomnia, impaired wound healing, more infectious diseases, hormonal imbalances, and even have a slightly increased risk of cancer. They often report living every single day with a sense of impending doom.

Wherever you are on the spectrum of anxiety—whether occasional stress because the holidays are coming, or chronic problems that interfere with your life—it is a miserable sensation and one that we seek to alleviate. I believe that many people who have problems with drug and alcohol dependence are trying to self-medicate to get rid of their anxiety.

Reducing Anxiety

One important way to reduce anxiety is often overlooked because it is so simple. Move your body, hard and fast. Remember, anxiety shifts your body into physical overdrive, so engaging in physical activity immediately reduces some of these unpleasant physical and mental sensations.

I recently had a terrible experience in which my youngest teen son became quite ill after an emergency appendectomy and was admitted to intensive care. He is fine now, but I have rarely been so anxious—and so helpless—in my entire life.

Some days later, I was still anxious even though he was home and improving every day. When I worked out with my personal trainer, I told him what had happened. He decided to change my routine. He made me put on boxing gloves and box for an hour. First, I am not a boxer, and second, I am not big on hitting things. But I did it and I could not believe how much better I felt after that much extreme exertion. I also could not believe how exhausting boxing is!

There are also natural products that can be very useful in helping to restore balance.

Relax Anxiety with Magnesium 

Magnesium is an amazing mineral that is essential for our health and well-being, but we often do not get optimal amounts in our diet. Did you know that a traditional Chinese diet provides 300 percent more magnesium than the standard American diet? Magnesium is crucially important for both mental and muscle relaxation.

However, it can be difficult to supplement with magnesium because it is not easily absorbed. If the magnesium is not absorbed, it stays in your intestines. Magnesium acts as a water magnet and pulls extra fluid into the intestines, which loosens the stool and can even cause diarrhea. There is a good reason the laxative Milk of Magnesia works!

So how do we get more magnesium into the body? There is an enhanced absorption system for minerals called chelation. Chelation is a process of binding, and in this instance, the magnesium is bound to (chelated) to an amino acid called glycine. The intestines grabs the amino acid and it pulls the magnesium in after it. This form of magnesium is called magnesium glycinate or magnesium bis-glycinate. People rarely have digestive issues with this form.

Calm Anxiety with Cannabis

The valuable resource Cannabis sativa comes in two versions: marijuana and industrial hemp. And while marijuana is useful in reducing anxiety, since we are talking about supplements and not drugs, we will focus on hemp, and the unique nutrients in hemp oil called phytocannabinoids.

The best known phytocannabinoid in hemp oil is called cannabidiol, or CBD. Clinical work investigating the effects of CBD in specific regions of the brain confirm the compound’s ability to change the blood flow in those sections associated with social anxiety disorder. This preliminary work led to another clinical trial in Brazil that compared CBD to a placebo in volunteers diagnosed with social anxiety disorder along with healthy volunteers as a control group.

People with social anxiety tend to feel overwhelmed with a sense of negative self-evaluations, whether they are speaking in public or simply walking down the street. Since public speaking is one of the most feared social activities for many people, this study featured a simulated public speaking test, and the researchers wanted to see how quickly a single high dose of CBD (600 milligrams) would work to alleviate anxiety symptoms.

CBD from hemp virtually eliminated the anxiety, cognitive impairment (losing your place in the speech), and generalized discomfort for those in the test group. Although this was a limited trial, given the side effects of conventional medications prescribed for anxiety and stress, the fact that CBD worked so dramatically well in such a short time, and for such an overwhelming fear for so many people, is very impressive.

Other trials on anxiety have shown that very high doses are generally not necessary, and have used 20 mg to 100 mg with great benefits. One caveat—make sure you buy from a retailer you trust. Because of the huge popularity of hemp oil and CBD, there are a lot of bogus or adulterated products on the market.

Surprisingly... Echinacea for Your Endocannabinoid System!

Echinacea may be a confusing choice, because all the science on echinacea has been about boosting the immune system. However, it turns out that hemp is not the only plant source of compounds that work with the body’s endocannabinoid system.

There has been some very interesting research done at the Hungarian Academy of Science in Budapest on a unique extract of alkamides from echinacea. This is not a full spectrum echinacea, but a low dose of concentrated compounds that activate cannabinoid receptors in the brain associated with relaxation and feeling calm and in control.  In a clinical study of people with diagnosed anxiety issues, 20 mgs of this extract used twice daily reduced anxiety significantly the first day of use, and even more significantly after seven days of use. There were also no reports of drowsiness or confusion, or other adverse effects. It was shown to be safe, effective, and non-habit forming.

Additional Herbs & Supplements for Anxiety Relief

There are so many ways to address anxiety with natural interventions that a book would not give us enough space to do them justice. Lavender, rhodiola, omega-3 fatty acids, kava, L-theanine, bioactive B-vitamins, calcium, and passionflower are just a few more of the myriad supplements that may be useful as you seek to restore balance. It may take some patience and experimentation, but you will find what works best for you.