alt Hacker NewsI believe this research is totally true-- I had a lot of memories come back after
1. I stopped drinking heavily and using other drugs, i.e. marijuana
2. managed my diet to avoid heartburn without medication
3. schedule my meals so it was easier to sleep at night (always eat something for breakfast when I wake up)
I did not need any "poo infusion" or anything.
I had a gal bladder removal that didn't fix the problems the doctors thought it would and got a lot smarter about the kinds and variety of food I eat.
I believe alcohol in particular was really screwing up my gut biome and entire digestive system.
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The really crazy thing that happened to me when I changed diet to a more gut-biome friendly* is that (like I craved sweets before) I started craving vegetables and oatmeal. Like there was a regime change in my gut and the new guys pushed the buttons to get more of their food.
(less/no simple sugars, much more vegetables and starches/fibers, regularly eating 4 corn/20 plant oatmeal few times a week)
Fascinating to hear. I am trying to cut alcohol - still not entirely successful.
But I've been able to cut for months at a time. Whenever the cut happens, I feel my brain sort of "return" roughly a week or two in.
I'm not sure how to explain it other than something like fog clearing. Obviously makes some intuitive sense when you read it.
However, as someone that has consumed alcohol somewhat regularly (sometimes more, sometimes less) since college, it's bizarre to think about that consumption in retrospect. In effect, years and years of "fog" - it makes me wonder how different or similar life would have been without that fog.
Can't change the past now, but a data point and strong signal for the future.
weird. gal bladder removal made me a lot smarter too. no, really. cuz it didn't fix my problems either. well, it did but in an unexpected way. because it forced me to ask myself the real questions. so i started fixing my life, bit by bit. trial and error.
theorem of indirection, i guess.
What did you do for heartburn? Just looking for ideas. I noticed reducing gluten helped me personally a lot
Your hypothesis here though is full of complicating factors.
For example
>I stopped drinking heavily and using other drugs, i.e. marijuana
Like the primary change you made was to cut out using a whole bunch of drugs with known, significant neurological effects.
So, you stopped being an alcoholic and pothead, and your memory improved?
Wow, it must be those gut microbes!
> 1. I stopped drinking heavily and using other drugs, i.e. marijuana
Heavy alcohol use and marijuana are both known to impact memory and recall directly.
Discontinuing both of those explains changes in memory. Attributing this to microbiome changes does not follow.