
Link between inflammation and mental sluggishness shown in new study - conse_lad
https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/latest/2019/11/link-between-inflammation-and-mental-sluggishness-shown-in-new-study.aspx
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matheusmoreira
The actual published study:

[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S10538...](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1053811919306895)

N = 20 healthy males.

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Vomzor
I've become convinced a lot of what we now consider mental illnesses are
actually symptoms caused by unknown pathogens. Inflammation plays a big part
in this.

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rcconf
I'm also convinced of the same thing, I don't know enough about biology, but I
have days where I feel like the only thing that could be causing certain
emotions is an infection that I don't know about.

For example, I use to feel tired all the time, and I would get sick all the
time. I swear I could "feel" that my immune system sucked and I constantly had
to fight things off.

Now I feel like my immune system is stronger, and it shows because I get sick
so less often. My brain fog is basically gone and my energy levels are a lot
higher. Every now and then it comes back, but recently I always wondered:

Is there a set of anti-biotics, anti-parasitical, anti-viral drugs that you
could take in a row to try to flush the body of any infections? There's been
similar comments about HSV1, that a lot of people have, but there's also
Toxoplasmosis. If you look into it, so many people have both of these
infections, but what are the side effects on the body?

I think immune system is one part of the picture. I also think your bodies
natural response to the environment has something to do with this. I've been
way more social and have gotten WAY better social feedback from all angles in
my life (positive feedback loop) and that has helped immensely with mood and
feeling good all the time.

When you combine a lot of these things, such as: poor immune system,
conflicted social life, bad diet, and lack of exercise, I could see how the
combination could manifest its self into mental illness.

I'm still convinced pathogens have a high ranking in the cause of brain fog
and emotional issues tho, social life being second, diet third and
surprisingly exercise being last even though I initially thought it was number
1. It just made me feel good, but it didn't really get to the root of any
issue for some reason.

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carlmr
>Is there a set of anti-biotics, anti-parasitical, anti-viral drugs that you
could take in a row to try to flush the body of any infections?

My uninformed guess is no, they probably lower your immune systems defenses.

What you can do is work on your sleep hygiene, work out more, and eat lots of
vegetables. Reduce milk, red meat, alcohol and caffeine. Basically anything
that's known to cause inflammation (milk and meat) and bad sleep (alcohol and
caffeine).

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GrantZvolsky
> Reduce milk

Have you got a source for that assertion? A brief search yields contrary
evidence[1], unless you limit your audience to those allergic to bovine milk.

[1]
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/26287637/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/26287637/)

~~~
carlmr
That's true, I guess that was wrong. I remember reading something about cancer
causing effects of milk, and I assumed that was due to inflammation. However
it seems to be more related to the steroids in dairy.

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4524299/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4524299/)

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ben_w
Possibly dumb question: could NSAID painkiller’s like ibuprofen counter this
type of inflammation? Or is that unknown at this time?

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Vomzor
An analysis of 30 studies involving 1,610 people has concluded that NSAIDS
were 79 per cent more effective at fighting major depression than a placebo.
[https://jnnp.bmj.com/content/early/2019/08/29/jnnp-2019-3209...](https://jnnp.bmj.com/content/early/2019/08/29/jnnp-2019-320912)

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louis8799
[https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/315255.php](https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/315255.php)

Good news is, just 20 minutes of exercise is enough to reduce inflammation.

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Bizarro
Exercise might help, but a change of diet will help a lot more.

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bob1029
Both of these are equally important. Diet and exercise are 2 sides of the same
coin. This is why they are usually mentioned together using a conjunction when
one gives health advice.

Exercise has direct impact on inflammation markers (initially increases them,
but suppresses them over longer timescales), and also helps substantially with
nutrient uptake + digestion. You may also find that you crave healthier food
options immediately after having just completed an arduous workout.

In my experience, the best approach for keeping inflammation under control and
generally being in the best mental state possible is to exercise every morning
while fasted, and then eat 1 big meal sometime in the afternoon. This approach
ensures your body experiences a shift in metabolic modes on a daily basis, and
makes it a much more seamless experience as you shift between them (assuming
you stay consistent). I feel that being in a ketogenic state (i.e. right after
you complete your fasted exercise session and before you eat your big meal)
yields countless health benefits. And, if you can essentially guarantee that
you experience this mode for 4+ hours every day, whatever benefits it may
confer should be substantially realized.

~~~
louis8799
Can you elaborate more on " You may also find that you crave healthier food
options immediately after having just completed an arduous workout.".

I actually found myself less attracted to junk food after working out but I am
not aware that there is a connection behind.

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TurkishPoptart
What's the solution? I've felt brain fog for 15 years.

~~~
loceng
Ketogenic (including carnivore) diet will greatly reduce inflammation. You'll
also want to do an Igg food sensitivity test to see what specific foods your
body is creating inflammatory markers for, and a microbiome test can also let
you know if bacterial/yeast infections that could be adding to brain fog.

Fasting is useful for seeing how your mental state is while limiting external
food resources (you're using internal fat reserves otherwise), otherwise
intermittent fasting is the best option.

~~~
zadler
Seems like IGG doesn’t have the best reputation...

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loceng
Just like fat didn't have a good reputation for awhile due to X, Y, Z - be
weary of your sources.

I use my own experience with Igg food sensitivity testing and removing those
foods to see how I felt after. After allowing my system to calm from the foods
then reintroducing just one of the foods that I was conditioned to the
discomfort of, it let me see how much discomfort/pain different foods that
showed up on the Igg test that make me feel horrible.

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xvilka
To everyone who wants to do keto - keep an eye on your renal function and
acidity. Keto in general is good, but may damage your kidneys in some
(uncommon) cases.

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ceres
What does inflammation mean in this case (i.e., what part of the body is being
inflamed)?

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kekebo
Inflammation can occur all over the body, it's a central part of the immune
response, triggered for example by pathogens, damaged cells or toxic
compounds. The type of inflammation that correlates with more and more
(mental) disease is usually in relation to chronic inflammation, meaning the
normally healthy immune response doesn't return to baseline and starts harming
the body. This can occur because of chronic stress, obesity, a dysfunctional
gut microbiome, chronic infections or as side effect of medical treatments,
amongst other, and probably a lot of unknown, causes.

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chiefalchemist
"For example, people living with a medical condition or being very overweight
might complain of cognitive impairment, but it’s hard to tell if that’s due to
the inflammation associated with these conditions or if there are other
reasons.”"

Is this study proof inflammation is the root cause, or that it correlates with
other symptom.

I can here it now, "Obesity isn't my problem, inflammation is." Or "It's not
my lifestyle. I don't need to exercise and/or eat well. My problem is
inflammation."

~~~
rorykoehler
Exercise and diet are proven to reduce inflammation.

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csours
As someone with sinus allergies, I wonder if this could be partially
attributed to things like airflow.

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aitchnyu
I felt mildly feverish and had aches. I also slept poorly because of narrow
passages causing brain fog. Then I had FESS which cleared the chronic
infection. Now I sleep better and almost got rid of brain fog.

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Dowwie
Asian cultures have known about this link for a long time and their diets
reflect that. Hot and cold foods aren't just related to temperature.

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sslayer
Can you clarify and quantify that statement? I'm not sure what you mean by Hot
and Cold foods and temperature? And how are each integrated into the overall
diet? Is there any information you could point us too?

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wahern
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_food_therapy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_food_therapy)

Of course, the notion that there's a correlation between what you consume and
what your body exhibits is common to pretty much _every_ culture, including
modern culture. Likewise for classes of foods correlating with classes of
ailments.

The devil is in the details--what's the particular effect, if any, of a
particular ingredient or mix or ingredients. Rarely do the claims and the
reality line up in a rigorous, medically significant manner. But like with
religion, the classes of foods and ailments are susceptible to very liberal
interpretation, and lend themselves to equivocation with whatever correlation
may actually exist. And because foods obviously can and do have significant
health effects, opportunities for coincidental relationships abound.

That said, modern food science isn't particularly rigorous either, relies on
its own gross generalizations and fallacies, and even shares some with folk
medicine--most infamously, the supposed relationship of salt and saturated fat
consumption to hypertension and cholesterol, respectively, exhibit many of the
same classic errors you see in folk medicine.

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kranner
Similar concepts of hot and cold foods are widely applied in Persian and
Indian cuisines.

[https://frbkrm.com/2013/02/17/139/](https://frbkrm.com/2013/02/17/139/)

