[zinkem]

I 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.

[Aurornis]

> 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.

[uxhacker]

This paper actually surveys research on humans and not mice.

The association between gut microbiota and cognitive decline: A systematic review of the literature

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027153172...

It shows ”Gut microbiota modulation improves cognition in adults with early impairment. Diet, probiotics, and fecal microbiota transplantation share mechanistic pathways and that evidence clarifies how microbiota-targeted strategies support cognitive health.”

The action could be explained due to an anti inflammatory action by the gut biome.

[Aurornis]

Yes, there are some interesting potential mild modulations that can occur with microbiome change.

That paper commits one of the major sins of many microbiome papers which is to attribute all benefits of diet change to the microbiome. Like the parent commenter it gets drawn to the idea that all changes in the body can be traced back to the microbiome and assumes that it explains everything, but that’s obviously not true.

However, when someone is taking two powerful substances with direct brain action and known modulators effects on memory, blaming anything else in the body is bad logic.

[coldtea]

>Heavy alcohol use and marijuana are both known to impact memory and recall directly.

And who said they don't do this (long term) exactly through their affecting the gut microbiome?

[Aurornis]

Both alcohol and marijuana have direct actions on the brain. That’s why people consume them.

They do not exert their primary effects via microbiome modulation. This is obvious because the effects occur nearly immediately upon consumption, whereas microbiome change from what you consume is a gradual process.

The question I have is: Why has microbiome become the explanation for everything? What would lead you to believe that microbiome would be the explanation for this, when the direct action upon the brain is so much more direct and obvious? Microbiome is an interesting area of research but how did we get to this point where some are ignoring the obvious and trying to construct alternative microbiome based explanations for things like alcohol and marijuana impairing memory?

[coldtea]

>Both alcohol and marijuana have direct actions on the brain. That’s why people consume them.

Which is orthogonal as to whether those direct actions also affect long term memory.

>They do not exert their primary effects via microbiome modulation.

Who said anything about primary effects?

[metalman]

a great deal of alcohol, weed, etc, is consumed ,very specifcly, to forget. to the point that users, often workers doing labour, or other jobby jobs, get fairly aggetated by days, and especialy weeks end, wrapped up in an overload of the realities of serving others interests, and ends. drugs provide a crude function similar to the processing that occurs durring sleep and dreaming. That this has effects on the gut, is hardly unexpected ,but that the system will recover with due care, is. Treating the gut as a self maintaining biological digester, which it is, then suggests looking at how various industrial digestors operate and malfunction.

[red75prime]

Or by affecting the kidneys, or by affecting the enteric nervous system, or through some other pathway for which we have no substantial evidence of influencing memory (yet). It just seems like a baseless prioritization of a hypothesis. For some reason, people are specifically fascinated by the gut–brain axis.

[coldtea]

>For some reason, people are specifically fascinated by the gut–brain axis.

Might the reason be that we're constantly finding new important ways it affects things, or that we see major changes to seemingly orthogonal issues from targetting the gut microbiome directly?

[wk_end]

I think the appropriate response here is some combination of Russell's Teapot and Occam's Razor: they might, but some kind of hard evidence is necessary before humouring that theory, particularly since there's a vastly simpler explanation on hand.

[jb1991]

It has been well recognized that alcohol significantly disrupts the bacteria in your gut.

[PeterStuer]

Anecdotal. I have never drank much alcohol, but an evening Trappist helped me turn off after a day's work.

Since I stopped that habit, I do notice memory getting worse. Not saying it is THE EXPLANATION, but it is an observation non the less.

[fwip]

Also, getting better sleep (by fixing heartburn and meals) will mean you're more rested, and improve functioning during the day.

[sfpotter]

It could easily be both.

[XorNot]

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.

[random3]

I think the "and" is for "stopped (both) A and B"

[root_axis]

Yes, that's what they're pointing out. Changing multiple variables at once means you can't attribute changes to any one of those variables in particular.

[wafflemaker]

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)

[hattmall]

> 4 corn/20 plant oatmeal

What does this mean?

[wafflemaker]

It's my own idea for a super oatmeal. Working on the idea that it's not just about having fiber in your diet, but more so about variated fiber. Each kind of fiber is preferred by a different type of gut bacteria (I'm just repeating after some hippy that most likely made that up). And the best gut biome is the most variated one. Usually pathologies stem from monocultures. Look at the most of the society. Bread, cookies, pretzels, even pizza etc. - it's all made of wheat. Sometimes you'll get oat cookies. But other grains show up in people's diets very rarely.

Here's the recipe. I'm using norwegian 5-grain oatmeal that has oats, wheat, barley, rye and spelt:

Recipe: Use two parts oatmeal (either 4-korn or 5-korn). Add one part nut mix and one part seed mix. So for 50 g of oats, add 25 g of nuts and 25 g of seeds.

Seeds: 30% flaxseed 30% chia 20% pumpkin seeds 20% sesame

Nuts: 4 parts walnuts 2 parts pecans 1 part Brazil nuts

P.S.: since most of these ingredients are pretty cheap (oatmeal used to be poor mans food), you can upgrade to Eco versions of these and get much better taste, without going that much up in price. Especially nuts.

Also, I have the nutmix and seed mix pre blended in 2 liter jars, so that I only have to mix them once a month or two.

[DennisP]

You seem to be on the right track because supposedly for good gut health we need to eat at least thirty different plant foods each week. You've got twelve just for breakfast!

https://www.theguardian.com/wellness/2024/apr/04/30-plants-w...

https://mydoctor.kaiserpermanente.org/mas/news/eating-30-dif...

[y-curious]

What did you do for heartburn? Just looking for ideas. I noticed reducing gluten helped me personally a lot

[WarmWash]

I stopped taking esomeprazole after being on it for 4 years, and frequently had to supplement with famotidine and tums anyway.

I had an infection and was prescribed antibiotics, and needed to pause the esomeprazole. I asked gemini about it and it suggested I take two probiotics while on the antibiotics, Saccharomyces boulardii and Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG. I noticed after a few days that I wasn't getting heartburn, and started putting the pieces together.

After the antibiotics ended, with still no heartburn, it recommend I add rhamnosus gg to the mix. So now I take all three daily and rarely get heartburn. It's been quiet a shock

[dwood_dev]

There is a weak association with use of PPIs and memory loss. I myself noticed a difference once I stopped taking omeprazole regularly.

[jgalt212]

Most doctors will say avoid long term use of PPIs for a variety of reasons. Famotidine is much easier on the body, albeit less effective than PPIs.

[virtue3]

thank you going to try this. I noticed my heartburn got a lot worse after having to take a few courses of antibiotics.

[hattmall]

Some good notes on heartburn, a fiber regime, some combination of wheat dextrin, psyllium husk, inulin. All 3 are different and serve a somewhat different function.

Foods to eat, oatmeal, lentils.

Ginger tea, activated charcoal tabs.

Most all of that works very well to support gut bacteria so throwing some probiotics in as well can help. The gummy kind available in generic or Digestive Advantage work well!

[throwawaytea]

Im not saying to live this way, but a super restrictive test diet may open your eyes to some thing and then you can add back.

I even once read that someone noticed an issue they tried to clear up for years with doctors went away on day 3 of a water fast. No, he wasn't going to fast forever. But he was shocked the first relief he ever had was that day. From there he solved his problem once his eyes were opened a bit.

I'd personally try all ground beef for a week or two. It won't kill you. Is it ideal? Probably not. But you will not have any problems from that short trial. Then add things slowly until you have a whole good diet you like.

[y-curious]

Thanks, I’ll definitely give a fast and slow reintroduction a shot

[ratg13]

It might not be gluten (protein) that is affecting you, but the fructans (carbohydrates) that are found in wheat, rye, and barely which are high in FODMAPs.

Look into low-FODMAP diets if you haven't already.

[y-curious]

Thanks, my wife and I did one and it helped but it’s really hard to find the root cause because I also wasn’t eating bread at the time. I also get it from beer but not liquor, which makes me consider its gluten. Great point though, I’ll keep it in mind

[throwawaytwit9]

It may not work for you but I had years of chronic heartburn. While sick with covid in 2020, I stopped consuming coffee and alcohol. It took a few months and for the long covid symptoms to subside, and then no more heartburn. At all. I felt really dumb that I never connected it to coffee before. I didn’t experience direct symptoms from coffee and I didn’t consume an excess amount. But it definitely was the cause.

[jb1991]

The kind of coffee you drink can make a huge difference as well. Filter coffee is typically larger in volume so there’s more acidic liquids going in to trigger your heartburn. Compared to espresso which is usually a smaller volume. It can be a huge difference in heartburn between coffee types.

[reverius42]

I'm a couple weeks into giving up coffee because of heartburn, and yeah, this tracks... unfortunately. I've replaced heartburn with heartache (having given up a beverage I've enjoyed daily for over 20 years).

[jb1991]

What kind of coffee were you drinking? I replaced filter coffee with espresso and my heartburn went away.

[throwawaytwit9]

Good luck, my friend. I’m right there with you. It’s not the physical effects but the rituals and the social connections that I miss. I felt the same with coffee as I did with smoking, which I quit about 20 years ago. It’s remarkable how much these simple vice shape our daily lives.

[wafflemaker]

Yup. Discovered me and my dad have ADHD at pretty much the same time. In our case (very stimulant sensitive) we had to quit coffee to use ADHD meds. While I eventually switched to Inka (a roasted grain coffee substitute) when I saw how my heart results get better without coffee, he still struggles. He recently quit meds for some time due to unwanted symptoms and told me how he was away with some friends and deeply relished being able to normally drink coffee again.

[james-bcn]

I can confirm that eliminating coffee can make a big difference.

[2OEH8eoCRo0]

My "chronic" acid reflux disappeared at USMC boot camp so...exercise, no snacking, no alcohol, and rigid sleep schedule?

[colordrops]

There are many resources online on which foods trigger gerd and reflux. Also, try the whole30 anti inflammation diet, and don't eat at least 2, preferably 4h before bed.

[ekaryotic]

not the commenter but I bake my own soda bread and found that i was getting heartburn from the salt that was in the recipe. once i eliminated that i could eat as much as i wanted. I also cannot eat salt preserved potato chips on consecutive days.

[m463]

I kind of wonder if sometimes acid reflux happens more than we realize, but we just notice it when spicy food comes up.

[frankzinger]

Pretty sure this is correct. You only notice it when it comes right out of the top. Other days it may be 25%, 50%, or 75% of the way up. And that's still bad for your oesophagus over the long term. My dad got cancer right at the bottom and one potential cause was chronic acid reflux (GERD leading to Barrett's eosophagus).

[grvdrm]

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.

[butlike]

I feel that same way you described with the "fog" clearing. I don't know exactly what it is, but I'm imagining it being the fact I _finally_ get some good, restful sleep (with it taking about 2 weeks give or take for that clear headed feeling to regenerate).

[grvdrm]

Oddly I don’t feel like I sleep better, but probably do. But I’m sure you’re right about the impact of sleep as a contributor to the overall clearing.

[baldrunner2049]

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.

[meindnoch]

So, you stopped being an alcoholic and pothead, and your memory improved?

Wow, it must be those gut microbes!

[mhluongo]

What unnecessary snark. Is a little civility too much to ask for?

[meindnoch]

Ridiculous claims deserve to be ridiculed.

[learn_more]

On Reddit perhaps. Not here.