Putting It All Together

Let’s review the three pillars:

Gut Health: Keep your gut bacteria happy, make neurotransmitters, and absorb nutrients from your food, supplements, and nootropics.

Blood Sugar Regulation: Keep stress hormones low. Eliminate sugar cravings with protein, fat, herbs, and supplements. Less sugar means fewer stress hormones — and that’s good for mental health.

Detox: Increase natural detox pathways to rid the body of toxic metals, chemicals, and metabolites that lead to mental health disturbances.

Supplement Sourcing

The supplement industry is a $40 billion industry with a reputation for lack of oversight and bad actors. While there is a lot of truth to this, there are plenty of high-quality supplements out there made by manufacturers who adhere to strict guidelines and third-party testing.

When choosing a product, it’s important to always check the ingredients that are in the supplement. Most supplements come with extra ingredients known as fillers, flow agents, and excipients. Their purpose is to provide bulk, help with the disintegration of the tablet in the digestive tract, or facilitate absorption or solubility of the drug. Some even help with the manufacturing process of the supplement to increase non-stick properties in the machinery.

It’s important to avoid any products made from soy, corn, or wheat, as these ingredients may trigger allergies and sensitivities. That being said, even the best-made supplement may not work for your body, so it’s important to know specifically what your body needs.

Artificial Colors to Avoid

Be careful of artificial colors. Here is a list to watch out for: FD&C Blue No. 1, FD&C Blue No. 2, FD&C Green No. 3, FD&C Red No. 3, FD&C Red No. 40, FD&C Yellow No. 5, FD&C Yellow No. 6.

There are links between these dyes and behavior, especially in children. Red No. 40 has been linked to hyperactivity.

Fillers to Watch For

Fillers are found in almost every supplement and pharmaceutical drug. Many can be harmless but it’s important to know where they are sourced from, and if you have a sensitivity it’s best to avoid them. Common fillers include dextri-maltose (barley malt), dextrins (primarily corn and potato), dextrans (sugar), dextrose (corn starch), maltodextrin (corn, wheat, potato, rice), pregelatinized starch, and sodium starch glycolate. Be on the lookout for any starches, as they are primarily derived from corn, potato, and tapioca, and they have been known to contain starch from wheat.

Also worth noting: some vitamin E is sourced from wheat germ, and most vitamin C is sourced from corn.

Oils and Hydrogenated Oils

As of 2018, food manufacturers are not allowed to add partially hydrogenated oils to food, but they still end up in some supplements. They have been linked to heart disease and other health problems. Watch out for peanut oil, corn oil, cottonseed oil, and soybean oil.

Other Harmful Additives

Talc or Magnesium Silicate: Magnesium silicate is similar in composition to asbestos and has been linked to stomach cancer.

Titanium Dioxide: Has been shown to cause lung inflammation, DNA damage, kidney damage in mice, and small intestine inflammation.

Artificial Sweeteners: Artificial sweeteners like aspartame, sucralose, saccharine, neotame, advantame, and acesulfame potassium-K can damage your gut microbiome and have neurotoxic effects.

While manufacturers don’t necessarily hide these different additives from plain sight, they and other health experts are guilty of trivializing the effects of these additives. The fact is that a sensitivity and a reaction can happen at even very low rates. Even if you don’t initially feel it, after a bottle of 100+ capsules with exposure to a toxic substance, over time this can add up and create complications.

Reading Nutrition Labels

Like supplements, food companies are infamous for sneaking all kinds of hidden chemicals and processed ingredients into their food. No matter what you eat, always be sure to know the nutrition facts as best you can, especially if you are eating packaged, processed foods. A good rule of thumb in the grocery store is to avoid the middle of the store where all the boxed items are. That is where you typically find all of the problem-causing ingredients.

Essential Lifestyle Practices

Sleep

Sleep is the X-factor in all of this. Sleep is the time when our brains process and detox residue, plaques, toxins, and neurotransmitters for optimal performance. Sleep also helps sync cortisol to our natural circadian rhythm.

Sleep disturbances have been linked to both mental health disorders and sugar dysregulation. Regular sleep — at least seven hours for most people on a regular sleep cycle — is a must and cannot be ignored when working to improve mental health.

Hydration

Dehydration has been linked to mood disorders and overall poor mental and physical health. Many times food cravings can really be dehydration in disguise. It’s important to make sure you’re drinking half your body weight in ounces of filtered water every day. This does not include coffee, tea, soda, sports drinks, or alcohol. For any one of those you drink, you must add eight ounces of water to your daily total.

Air Quality

Air pollution has been shown to have negative effects on the nervous system, which of course will affect mood and overall physical and mental health. If you live in a highly populated city, near freeways or airports, do your best to get out of the city and into nature as much as possible. There are also air filters that are good to keep in your home.

Breathing

Everything starts with breathing. Breathing is at the base of everything we do, and proper, controlled, deep breathing can switch us from sympathetic to parasympathetic nervous systems almost instantaneously. Studies have confirmed the power of controlled breathing techniques to both reduce anxiety and depression. In some studies, yogi breathing techniques have been shown to be more effective than pharmaceutical antidepressant treatment, and significantly reduce anxiety.

There are a lot of great breathing techniques available. Pranayama and yogi breathing are great. One of the best ways to control breath is through the practice of yoga. Yoga is the number one tool for connecting body movement to controlled breath. Yoga has been shown to be effective in helping people with a number of mood disorders including depression, anxiety, and PTSD. Yoga can also help with posture, which has also shown to influence mood. A lot can be said about standing upright and not slouching. Fixing your posture can be one of the easiest, most effective non-substance nootropics available to you — and it’s free!

Strength Training

Strength training comes with a number of positive effects including a lower risk to all causes of mortality, fewer cardiovascular events, improved body composition, better glucose metabolism and insulin sensitivity, and lower blood pressure. Recent research has also found positive connections to mental health as well. Along with improved mood and lower markers of depression, strength training also seems to improve memory and self-esteem.

Final Thoughts

I hope you enjoyed your time in this course. If you’ve made it this far, then you have gained a lot of knowledge that you can immediately implement into your life for cognitive enhancement. I highly recommend going back through the lessons and reviewing any notes you’ve taken. There is no pass or fail in a course like this — it all comes down to your willingness to practice the methods I’ve introduced.

Remember, when you implement holistic practices like gut health, sugar regulation, and detox into your life, the effects may take some time to show themselves, but they will be there. Keep the perspective that your body highly influences your mind and you have an incredible amount of control over your body.

Most importantly, never stop believing in yourself. There will be good days and bad days, but as long as you stay focused, keep your mind right, and continue to push towards your mental health goals, you will be on the right path.

I believe you can do this. Keep in touch and let me know your thoughts on the course. Let me know your successes and your struggles, and I will do my best to offer support.

Thank you so much for joining me, and I wish you all the best in your holistic nootropic journey.