Is Brain Fog Caused By Your Microbiome? with Dr. Todd LePine
The Dr. Hyman Show
Dr. Mark Hyman
4.6 • 8.7K Ratings
🗓️ 29 June 2020
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Is Brain Fog Caused By Your Microbiome? with Dr. Todd LePine | This episode is brought to you by AirDoctor
Many of us have experienced an inability to sustain our train of thought, difficulty focusing, the feeling like you’re living in a daze, and other types of brain fog. So what causes brain fog? The key insight is that your brain is not just some object sitting on the top of your shoulders. Your brain is an organ that’s connected to everything else happening in your body. And fixing your brain starts with fixing your body. When it comes to brain fog, that usually means attending to your gut health.
In this episode, Dr. Hyman sits down with Dr. Todd LePine to discuss the Functional Medicine approach to treating brain fog. They explain why brain fog is so inextricably linked to gut health and how brain fog can be triggered by a range of things from diet to allergies to autoimmune conditions to environmental toxins and much, much more.
Dr. LePine graduated from Dartmouth Medical School and is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, specializing in Integrative Functional Medicine. He is an Institute for Functional Medicine Certified Practitioner. Prior to joining The UltraWellness Center, he worked as a physician at Canyon Ranch in Lenox, MA, for 10 years. Dr. LePine’s focus at The UltraWellness Center is to help his patients achieve optimal health and vitality by restoring the natural balance to both the mind and the body. His areas of interest include optimal aging, bio-detoxification, functional gastrointestinal health, systemic inflammation, autoimmune disorders and the neurobiology of mood and cognitive disorders. Dr. LePine teaches around the world, and has given lectures to doctors and patients at American College for Advancement in Medicine (ACAM), Age Management Medicine Group (AMMG), the University of Miami Integrative Medicine Conference, The Kripalu Center in Lenox, MA, and is on the faculty for American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M). Dr. LePine is the head of the Scientific Advisory Board for Designs for Health and a consultant for Diagnostic Solutions Laboratory. He enjoys skiing, kayaking, hiking, camping and golfing in the beautiful Berkshires, and is a fitness enthusiast.
This episode is sponsored by AirDoctor. We need clean air not only to live but to create vibrant health and protect ourselves and loved ones from toxin exposure and disease. Learn more about the AirDoctor Professional Air Purifier system at a special price at www.drhyman.com/filter
In this episode, Dr. Hyman and Dr. LePine discuss:
- Brain fog is not a condition, it is a symptom
- Gut fermentation is as a common cause of brain fog
- How gluten, dairy, diet, food sensitivities, and gut dysbiosis can lead to brain fog
- Other reasons for brain fog including infections, tick infections, allergies, environmental toxins, autoimmune conditions, and more
- The relationship between the immune system and the gut
- How Dr. LePine worked with and treated a patient experiencing brain fog
For more information visit drhyman.com/uwc
Additional Resources:
Supporting Our Innate Resilience
https://www.ultrawellnesscenter.com/2018/08/25/supporting-our-innate-resilience/
The Wrong Gut Bugs Can Make You Fat and Sick (and How to Fix Them)
Getting Healthy is an Inside Job
https://www.ultrawellnesscenter.com/2016/03/16/getting-healthy-is-an-inside-job/
Building a Better Immune System for Lifelong Health and Vitality
A New Approach to Autoimmune Disease
https://www.ultrawellnesscenter.com/2018/06/27/a-new-approach-to-autoimmune-disease/
Fixing Your Broken Brain + Lots More: 10 Takeaways from My Most-Asked Questions
The Broken Brain Podcast – My Personal Journey to Fixing My Brain with Dr. Mark Hyman
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Coming up on this episode of the doctor's pharmacy. |
| 0:02.6 | Certain foods may trick or brain fog, and it is something that I think is intimately connected to the gut. |
| 0:14.7 | Welcome to the doctor's pharmacy. I'm Dr. Mark Heimner. |
| 0:17.1 | It's pharmacy with an FAR, M-A-C-Y, a place for conversations, it matter. |
| 0:21.2 | And today we have a special episode of the doctor's pharmacy, House Call, with one of my colleagues from the Ultra-Wall in the Center, Dr. Todd Lapine. |
| 0:27.3 | You probably know him by now. |
| 0:29.0 | He's an extraordinary physician. He's been a doctor of functional medicine longer than I have, which is a long, long time. |
| 0:35.0 | He graduates from Dartmouth Medical School. He teaches all around the world. He's one of the smartest guys I know. |
| 0:40.0 | And he's just an awesome physician, and we get to talk about some really interesting cases today. |
| 0:45.8 | Today we're going to talk about brain fog. |
| 0:48.5 | Now, that's not something I learned about in medical school. There was no class on brain fog. |
| 0:53.4 | ICD-10 diagnostic code for brain fog, but it is a real thing that people experience, and most doctors dismiss. |
| 1:00.0 | So, in traditional medicine, we don't really have a way of thinking about it, actually. |
| 1:05.2 | Except it is really, really common. And when people have it, they know what it is. |
| 1:10.6 | I've had it. I'm sure you've had it. And it's not a fun thing. You feel like you're walking through silly putty. |
| 1:16.6 | You can't focus. You can't think. Your brain's all foggy. |
| 1:19.8 | And it's very difficult to get through the day. And there's so many different causes of it. |
| 1:23.6 | So, talk to me in general about, let's just sort of skip the part where what traditional medicine does with brain fog. |
| 1:29.7 | Because maybe they'll give you an annual press-in. Maybe they'll, I don't know, what's the brain. |
| 1:33.6 | Ignore you. But what would be the major reasons that we're seeing this pandemic of brain dysfunction and brain fog today? |
| 1:43.8 | So, brain fog is really a symptom, sort of like cough. So, cough can be caused by a cold, bronchitis, pneumonia, post-nasal drip, asthma, a whole bunch of things. |
| 1:52.7 | So, you've got to figure out what's driving it. And there is no ICD-10 code for brain fog. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Dr. Mark Hyman, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Dr. Mark Hyman and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.