When I asked Dominic D’Agostino, PhD, a metabolic researcher and associate professor at the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine, with expertise in neurophysiology, to explain the connection between mental and metabolic health—he didn’t hesitate.
There’s now a growing body of evidence showing that inflammation in the body directly affects the brain. As D’Agostino explains, the same tight junctions that regulate gut permeability also exist in the blood–brain barrier. When those break down, it can set off a chain reaction: inflammation → neuroinflammation → mood changes, anxiety, and depression.
What was once dismissed as fringe “gut-brain” talk is now an NIH-funded area of research.
“Inflammation in our body, our systemic inflammation, is tightly linked to neuroinflammation. And neuroinflammation is now recognized as a hallmark characteristic of depression and anxiety.”
Clip Highlights:
Systemic inflammation is tightly linked to neuroinflammation.
Neuroinflammation is now recognized as a hallmark of depression and anxiety.
Gut permeability (“leaky gut”) can make the brain more vulnerable to inflammation.
Metabolic health—from insulin to hs-CRP and triglycerides—directly affects brain function.
Physical fitness and metabolic health correlate closely with mental well-being.
“We firmly know now that the status of our metabolic physiology really can dictate the functioning of our brain, from brain energy to neuroinflammation.”
Takeaway:
Our mental health doesn’t exist in isolation—it’s metabolically driven. The state of your body shapes the state of your mind.
“Our metabolic health and our physical form, you could even say our physical fitness level, really correlates to our mental health.”
🔜 Coming Tuesday: The Rise of Metabolic Psychiatry
