Your gut and brain talk to each other constantly. When the gut barrier becomes too open or inflamed, the brain often reacts with fogginess, irritability, stress sensitivity, and disrupted sleep. Understanding this connection gives women a clearer path toward feeling better.

What Intestinal Permeability Really Is

Your gut lining is a selective filter. Nutrients are meant to pass through, while irritants are meant to stay out. This filter is controlled by tight junctions, which open and close in response to signals in the body. Zonulin, a key protein, influences how tight or loose these junctions become.

Stress, hormonal shifts, poor sleep, inflammatory foods, and microbiome imbalance can increase zonulin and make the barrier more permeable. This does not mean something is broken. It simply means the barrier is overwhelmed and needs support.

How the Gut Affects the Brain

The gut barrier and the blood brain barrier work in similar ways. When the gut becomes more permeable, inflammatory signals can circulate more easily. For many women, this shows up as brain fog, mood swings, heightened stress response, sleep changes, fatigue, and feeling emotionally on edge.

Hormones Matter Too

As women move through different stages of life, especially perimenopause, fluctuations in estrogen and cortisol can increase intestinal permeability. This is one reason digestive issues, food sensitivity patterns, and mood changes often intensify during hormonal transitions. Supporting the gut barrier becomes an important part of supporting hormonal balance.

Larazotide: Focused Tight Junction Support

Larazotide is a peptide that gently supports the integrity of the tight junctions in the gut lining. It helps regulate zonulin and encourages a healthier, more selective barrier. Women often describe improvements in digestion, bloating, clarity, and emotional steadiness when tight junctions are supported.

Ultimate GI Repair: Top Tier Gut Barrier Support

For women who want the most complete option, Ultimate GI Repair offers a full spectrum formula designed to soothe, rebuild, and nourish the gut lining. It includes zinc carnosine, KPV, BPC-157, GHK-cu, larazotide, tributyrin,and quercetin. This means it supports the structural tight junctions and the mucosal layer that protects the entire gut lining. It is considered the top of the line option because it addresses multiple layers of gut repair at once.

Choosing What Works for You

If you want a straightforward starting point, choose Larazotide. If you want the strongest, most comprehensive support, choose Ultimate GI Repair from LVLUP Health because it includes Larazotide plus a complete blend of restorative ingredients. Both approaches help women feel clearer, calmer, more balanced, and more resilient.

Final Thoughts

A stronger gut barrier supports a stronger brain barrier. When digestion calms, the nervous system follows. As the gut becomes more resilient, hormones often feel more balanced and emotions feel steadier. Supporting the gut is one of the most meaningful investments women can make in their long term well being.

The post The Gut Brain Conversation: Why Intestinal Permeability Matters first appeared on Dr. Fiona Lovely.

In this week’s episode,  Dr. Fiona Lovely speaks with Cathy Eason, a certified holistic nutritionist and clinical educator, about nitric oxide (NO), often called the “miracle molecule” for its vital role in blood flow and thus, overall health. 

We talk about the groundbreaking findings from a pilot study on nitric oxide’s impact on women’s sexual health, revealing significant improvements in desire (75%), lubrication (58%), orgasm (83%), and reduced discomfort (83%) among participants who took two capsules of nitric oxide daily for 60 days. Beyond sexual function, we discuss optimal blood flow, facilitated by nitric oxide, which is essential for nutrient and oxygen delivery, waste removal, and hormone transmission throughout the body.

Cathy Eason explains that nitric oxide levels naturally decline by about 50% by age 40, which is concerning for women during perimenopause and menopause.  It impacts cardiovascular health, brain function, and energy levels. You can boost your nitric oxides by eating foods like leafy greens and the Berkeley Life supplements, along with practices like nostril breathing and exercise, can support its production. Cathy shares how to use the Berkley Life test strips which offer a practical way to monitor personal nitric oxide levels. Cathy also shares her personal experience using nitric oxide to support her in recovery from mold exposure, noting its benefits for detox, cellular energy, and immune system health.

You can learn more about Cathy Eason through her LinkedIn profile, or explore her work with Berkeley Life, a company focused on stress resilience and nitric oxide-boosting supplements.

Thank you to our sponsors for this episode:

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The post Restoring Blood Flow for Brain, Heart and Hormonal Health with Cathy Eason first appeared on Dr. Fiona Lovely.

All senility jokes aside, there is change for many women at mid life in regards to brain function.  Many of us report fogginess, lack of focus or clarity.  I recently found my empty, used coffee mug in the pantry and I wondered just how many days it had been sitting there!

The struggle is real!  And the good news is, that more research is being done on the hormonal and metabolic changes for women at menopause.  This research is giving us a deeper understanding of what happens to a woman’s brain at menopause.  This same research is also giving us great prevention tactics.  We understand so much more now about why and how brain degeneration happens (sadly, too late for many of our loved ones.)

Turns out, our food, stress level, hormones and gut health all affect our brain. So does the quality of our sleep, our genetics and a few others too!

Listen in to Episode 68 of the Not Your Mother’s Menopause podcast below to learn more!

The post 10 Things You Can Do For Your Brain Health Now first appeared on Dr. Fiona Lovely.

Concussions can happen anytime to anyone. We are learning quickly just how far reaching the effects of a mild traumatic brain injury can be. Unfortunately, they can last way beyond the original injury. There is much you can do when you have a recent concussion and getting this info into play in a timely fashion can go far into resolving the symptoms of a concussion.

There are three things you should know if you have a concussion. Here is that critical info for you:

1. Rest is the most important factor in whether your symptoms last a week or 6 months or more. Get serious about rest during this time! Take a week off of work, school and all recreational activities. Yes, I’m serious! Your brain needs this rest. But please don’t fill up your time with screen time – smart phone, tablet, laptop or TV. The bright lights, loud sounds and rapidly moving graphics on a screen are deadly to your brain at this sensitive time. Listen to quiet music, a podcast, read a paper book or magazine in natural lighting, play a board game or cards. Yes, this sounds boring but lots of us grew up without devices and turned out just fine! Embrace the quiet. Sleep as much as you want to. Give yourself permission to rest.

Just to hit this point home a bit more – taking time off now will absolutely make the difference in whether this injury continues to make you miserable for months (or years even) or for a week. Rest like your life depends on it, because the quality of your life after concussion, does.

2. Food is the second critical piece to getting yourself back to your life after a concussion. First – eat like an athlete. Lots of protein and healthy fats. Eliminate processed foods and sugar. Eat smaller more frequent meals – nuts, free range eggs, avocado, natural raised meats, veggies and fruit taking extra care to include fatty fish like salmon, tuna, etc. Brain foods!

Drink plenty of water – 2-3 litres daily if you are an adult, half of your body weight in ounces if you are uncertain exactly how much. No sugary drinks. Milk is intended by Mother Nature to fatten up a calf and any health benefits from it are mollified by the pasteurization process. Please don’t fool yourself into thinking that drinking milk is healthy. Drink water.

There are 3 supplements I recommend for everyone with a traumatic brain injury – omega fats, vitamin D and probiotics. Omega fats rebuild the structure of the brain (along with the fish, avocado, nuts and coconut oil you are eating). Vitamin D acts to help the brain structure clean up the cellular debris from the physical injury. Liquid vitamin D is the only one worth spending money on. Finally, probiotics. These are the healthy bugs that reside in our gut and make up a big portion of our immune system and contribute massively to our overall health. Turns out there is constant communication from these bugs in our gut via the Vagus nerve to the brain. Let these bugs be the healthy ones (not just the pathological bugs we pick up along the way without proper probiotic innoculation.)

Now, if you have managed to do a good job of 1 & 2, you won’t need number 3. If your symptoms persist beyond a week or two, refer to number 3:

3. Rehab for a concussion is sometimes the only way to feeling well again. If you have applied rest and good food principles and you still don’t feel well, you may require some help getting your brain firing on all cylinders again. Functional Neurology, often called Chiropractic Neurology can help. After completing a thorough assessment of your specific brain function, we can create a rehab plan specifically for your brain and it’s needs. Using adjustments, movement and the 5 senses, we can re-wire the parts of your brain that are broken. It’s called neuroplasticity and basically it means that the neurons that fire together, wire together. Reinforcements of these connections over time mean you get your brain back to normal!

Neuro rehab is fun and will teach you a great deal about how your brain functions and how it can function optimally. There are few in the country who are trained properly to assess and rehab your brain functionally after injury. If you have questions about a concussion please reach out to me: drlovely@calgarybrainandspine.com. I am proud to be a part of the wellness team at Active Sports Therapy!

The post 3 Things You Need to Know if You Have a Concussion first appeared on Dr. Fiona Lovely.