299: Use Your Microbiome for Better Mood, Memory, and Dreams with Dr. Jeffrey Bland

What we have learned is that these polyphenols have really important rejuvenating capabilities for both the gut microbiome and our immune system and the subsequent connection it has to brain function.

If your neuronal function is suffering from neuroinflammation as a consequence of an activated brain immune system... it's going to affect your dream state. It's going to, I don't want to necessarily say create bad dreams, but it's going to create complex dreams that are not reflective of when your brain's immune system is at rest and at peace.

One of the most important systems of the body that the brain is connected to happens to be the immune system, and the immune system is connected to the microbiome. So, now we're starting to learn that there is this interesting intervention that we can improve brain function through improving immunity, which has to do with improving and stabilizing the health of our microbiome, which lives in our intestinal tract.

We want to stay away from things that are injurious to our immune system—a lot of food additives, food colorings, synthetic ingredients, oxidized... fats. All these things become injurious to our immune system.