Find Your Triggers, Stop Your Suffering with Chelsie Moore, Integrative & Functional Medicine Nutritionist

Making Headway

Looking to learn more about how your diet can influence your brain injury recovery? Post-concussion and all other brain injury survivors, go no further! This episode has it all!! Chelsie Moore functional medicine nutritionist, action sport aficionado, and all-around super-smart, bad-ass teaches us about all things brain and gut. We dive deep on neuroinflammation, the brain-gut connection, and hormonal imbalances along with what YOU can do to take control and get better. Grab your pencil and take notes; you’re going to feel inspired to take action after hearing this!

Topics covered in this episode:

• Functional Medicine
• Getting down to the root cause of what is going on with your health
• Differs from Western medicine as it looks to treat what causes the problem instead of just treating the symptoms of the problem
• Practitioners in functional medicine spend a lot more time with their clients to uncover root causes and provide individualized care
• Chelsie’s Story--Motocross rider with multiple concussions
• She lost 5 years of her 20s because she didn’t have the right help that she needed. As bad as it was, it led her to turn it on its head and became a functional medicine nutritionist to be able to help others heal their brains
• Suicide prevention
• Untreated brain injuries can lead to chronic inflammation causing mental health struggles which include suicidal thoughts
• People may feel embarrassed to seek help if they’re having depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts. There can be a stigma in the action sports community to not seek help and suffer alone
• Don’t be ashamed to ask for help: https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/
• Neuroinflammation
• There is a lot we can do for neuroinflammation
• Brain injuries cause a breach to the blood brain barrier which allows toxins into the brain. That creates a cascade of reactions that cause inflammation (inflammation is an immune response)
• Anti-inflammatory diet
• Clean diet
• The first most basic thing to do is to do lower inflammation in the brain is to eliminate gluten, dairy (casein), and sugar
• gluten and casein fuel trigger an autoimmune reaction called molecular mimicry that fuels the vicious cycle of neuroinflammation
• What has gluten in it?
• Learn how to read your food labels. Most food labels have to say if it has wheat (gluten) in it
• Wheat, barley, soy sauce, some condiments
• Anything that is “enriched”, “self risen”
• Graham or durum flour, food starch
• Emulsifiers
• Most of the fake meats have gluten
• Hydrolyzed vegetable protein
• Malt
• Cammett
• Rye
• Oats, unless certified gluten free
• Stabilizers
• Thickeners
• Wheat starch, wheat bran, wheat germ, semolina
• What has dairy in it?
• Milk
• Whey
• Casein
• Anything lacto-based (although some lactobacillus is dairy free)
• Brown sugar and caramel
• Binding agents
• More chronic severe symptoms may need more dietary controls than the above
• Autoimmune paleo diet: Fruits, vegetables ,grass fed meats, wild caught fish
• Ketogenic diet: has the most research around it for neuroinflammation. Can be hard to maintain
• How you exercise affects inflammation. Subthreshold high-intensity interval training protocols are best
• It’s better to do something rather than nothing. It is ok if you can’t fully overhaul your diet overnight. Take it in small bits. Chelsie focuses on easing people in by assessing where they are at and making small changes over a period of time.
• Maybe it is starting with just cutting sugar or gluten and then see how you feel
• When you actually feel a difference you will be more inspired to make more changes. That is when you can introduce other changes
• Get through two weeks of cutting sugar. You do detox and don’t feel well at first; but it gets better!!
• EAT REAL FOOD, stop eating processed food
• Is there ever a place for moderation (aka cheat days)?
• Stay strict for a certain period of time when you are in the thick of post concussion symptoms
• After you get through 3-6 months of being very strict with your diet, you may be “cheat” in moderation. More importantly, remember there are many substitutions that fill your craving and stay within your diet
• Grain free pasta: Cappello’s
• Desserts that are very anti-inflammatory: Keto Cups
• Dark Chocolate sweetened with coconut sugar: Hu
• Pizza: Capello’s
• Coconut mozzarella: Miyoko’s
• Thrive Market has all these foods!! Delivers these foods directly to you.
• Brain-gut connection
• Your brain controls digestion through your vagus nerve. With a brain injury, the vagus nerve slows down so your gut isn’t working optimally. The slow down allows for leaky gut syndrome and bad bacteria to colonize.
• If there is gut inflammation in the gut, it triggers and exacerbates brain inflammation
• A healthy gut relies on real food (nothing processed) and organic foods with as little chemicals as possible
• Microbiome- assess this with a stool sample. The sample tells what is wrong and then you make adjustments
• Have to look at digestion--is there enough stomach acid? Is the pancreas working correctly?
• You can exercise your vagus nerve through: lowering your stress levels, gargling water (60 seconds three times a day), singing really loudly, activating your gag reflex, tiger yawns (sticking your tongue out and yawning), stick your tongue out, tilt your head back, close your lips around your tongue and swallow
• Do all this everyday for at least a month
• Stimulates digestion to work more efficiently
• Many mood dis-regulatory aspects of brain injuries (brain fog, cognitive sharpness, fatigue, headaches, anxiety, depression) are triggered by diet. Need to keep the toxins down and the gut healthy. Gut inflammation can trigger a lot of the brain injury symptoms by itself.
• We live in environments plagued with chemicals. Our bodies have trouble keeping up. This stems chronic diseases as our bodies are worn out trying to handle the daily toxins.
• It’s as simple as eating whole, organic foods!
• Hormones and brain injuries
• When our hormones are in balance our brain works at it’s best and our energy levels and moods are at their best
• With concussions and brain injuries the pituitary gland is susceptible to damage. It’s in a vulnerable area and is fragile tissue. This gland controls our hormone secretions in our bodies and when it is injured we see hormone deficiencies all over the place
• About 25% of people with brain injuries have a hypo-functioning pituitary gland after injury. It’s not common for practitioners to look at hormone function post injury so hormonal imbalances are often missed
• Hormonal imbalances are linked to common brain injury symptoms
• Low testosterone: anger, fatigue, depression, memory issues, troubles focusing. Address with replacement, ginseng, high-intensity interval training, low carb diet
• Low pregnenolone: anxiety and social anxiety
• Low progesterone: Progesterone is a potent anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective hormone. When it is low you have anxiety, insomnia, irregular menses, bone loss. Address with bioidentical hormone replacement, Vitex, diet controls
• Adrenal hormones: cortisol is high with stress and brain injuries which leads to adrenal exhaustion. Looks like blood sugar dysregulation, being lightheaded with standing, and burnout. Address with exercise, stress management, mindfulness, naps, meditation, ashwagandha, phosphatidylserine
• Dutch Complete: test to diagnose hormone dysregulation. Looks at hormones over the course of a period of time (whereas a blood test is only a snapshot of your hormones at the time the blood is drawn)
• Need to work with a qualified provider to take a stepwise, smart approach to make a treatment plan
• How to learn more: https://www.mooreintegrativehealth.com/
• “Concussion Comeback” program: Self-paced, 12 week virtual concussion recovery program. The program includes video modules, monthly Zoom conference calls to answer questions and individualize care; and a support group.
• Goes over the 5 most beneficial treatment areas and gives action steps. Each module has 10-15 minute videos that teach all the main categories. Neuroinflammation: digestive function, food intolerances, triggers, neuroinflammation protocol supplements to bring down inflammation
• Neuroinflammation
• Mastering Diet
• Toxin Levels
• Hormones
• Lifestyle: exercise, cognitive exercises, stress management
• Concussion Kits
• Concussion First Aid: what you need in your pocket for acute stage brain damage prevention (take immediately after impact)
• Concussion Recovery Kit: for first month after concussion
• Comprehensive Recovery Kit: for longer term post-concussion symptoms
• Free 3 day meal plan on website
• Save-a-Brain helps connect brain injured people to the right treatment
• Concussion Recovery Cookbook--stay tuned to the website, coming soon!
• Work with Chelsie Moore--she is not limited to one state or country and can work with you individually

Links to any resources mentioned:

• Suicide Prevention: We’ve been there and we care about you, please get help! Suicide Prevention Hotline: [phone]-TALK (8255)
• Grain-free pasta and pizza crust: Cappello’s
• Desserts that are anti-inflammatory: Keto Cups
• Dark Chocolate sweetened with coconut sugar: Hu
• Coconut mozzarella: Miyoko’s
• Thrive Market
• Concussion Comeback Program
• Concussion Kits
• Save-a-Brain
• Sessions with Chelsie Moore: https://www.mooreintegrativehealth.com/
• Instagram: @mooreintegrative

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