Today I am joined by Nicole Laurent. Nicole has been a licensed mental health counselor in Washington State for over 15 years. Her current practice focuses on helping clients with anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues transition to a ketogenic diet or other nutritional therapies to compliment their psychotherapy work. She helps people explore medication-free options for their mental health, using research and evidence-based nutritional and functional psychiatry so that people can get their lives back without nasty side effects or dependence on big pharma.
In her work, Nicole has found that by clearing the brain fog and memory problems that so many of us are plagued with, other problems can also clear up at the same time. In this episode, we will talk about how a ketogenic or paleo diet can help clear the brain fog and help with overall health, including why protein and healthy fats are so important to proper health and brain function.
Welcome back to a Magical Life. I'm your host, magic Barclay, and I'm again joined by Nicole Laron. Welcome back Nicole. Thank
Nicole Laurent:
you. I'm glad to be here.
Magic Barclay:
Thanks for rejoining us. Now, in our last episode, we answered, you know, the general questions that I ask everyone, but I've got some really in-depth ones now, and maybe the listeners, you know, everyone's heard of keto, but maybe they don't know just how important. Protein and fats are in our diet. Can you just explain the importance of keto and maybe for those that have experienced it and not done well, what are their options?
Nicole Laurent:
So protein, my goodness, protein Is so important for your health, which is such a general thing to say, but I just, I can't find a better way to kind of communicate it. So, if we talk about it just from the standpoint of mood, and cognitive functioning, cuz you know, I'm, I'm into brains and, and that's kind of what my focus is. Although the health of your brain is an indicator of the health of your body and those mirror each other for sure. You cannot make your neurotransmitters without adequate amino acids, period. and so I have, I've literally had clients who do not have, nutritious whole foods, diets, keto or otherwise, of course. And all we do is we add amino acids and their depression lifts, like they were eating maybe 30, 40 grams of, protein a day or something like that. And, and we find that, The access to the amino acids, their brain can then make serotonin and do a lot of other great things. fat. If you want a healthy brain, your brain is made from fat, and you need healthy fats in order to make your hormones. You need healthy fats in order to maintain your brain. and so fat is, fantastic for structural reasons, but it's also an amazing fuel source, whether it's coming from your dietary fat or from the burning of your body fat. So protein and fat are really the only two essential macronutrients. Carbohydrates are actually considered. A non-essential macronutrient and your, your liver will make all of that substrate that certain parts of your body needs. There's actually no need to ingest dietary carbohydrates, and people have a really hard time believing that or understanding that, but I promise it's true. I would never tell you that. And have you, you know, dropped dead because you didn't have any carbohydrates. so how important are they? They are essential macronutrients and you will literally die without them. And so they do absolutely need to be prioritized.
Magic Barclay:
Fantastic. Now I have myself developed. An autoimmune in my brain and that's cerebellar ataxia. And having been on a keto diet, I found it helped a little. What else? For other people who are dealing with a progressive condition, what else can they do to stop brain inflammation and really get their power back?
Nicole Laurent:
Right? So autoimmune issues are tricky. sometimes when we do ketogenic diets, For autoimmune issues, whether it's Hashimotos or like what you were dealing with, I'm sure that, getting rid of the gluten and the grains was helpful for sure. But what we often will, restrict a little bit more, and I, I say restrict hesitantly because that's a dirty word in eating disorder circles for sure. but we will restrict. Foods that tend to cause more autoimmune reactions. and so sometimes that will just be taking out the eggs and the dairy and doing more of a, an autoimmune type protocol to help with that. And so usually, you know, we see a lot of improvement in immune system function with a ketogenic diet. it does seem to be able to help balance the immune system, but again, I feel like there is this, area of. Untapped potential and functional medicine that when we put the two together, a ketogenic diet with our knowledge around functional medicine, it can be really quite powerful. And so I would wonder, you should ask the question with the nutrigenomic lens of, do I have any SNPs that mean I need extra micronutrients, that I might, that someone else next to me might not need, but I do because of my genetic SNPs? Do I need a particular form of B vitamins? Do I need more zinc or magnesium? Do I have. Inefficient pathways that mean I need extra glutathione precursors so that my ketogenic diet that already will up-regulate my glutathione production and make more than someone who isn't on a ketogenic diet. Do I need more precursors so that my body can make as much glutathione as it possibly wants and needs? do I need to hit those micronutrients hard in order to. Assist with my healing. So there's that, piece where, the neutragenomics piece with a ketogenic diet, I think can be quite helpful even for people with autoimmune issues. And some people have autoimmune issues that they feel, part of it is, you know, their gut health and that sort of thing. And I just got done going to, the metabolic health. Summit. It's, um, a big conference. I didn't get to go. I went virtually, but I got to hear, a lot of researchers. And one of the researchers was a gut microbiome expert, and she was talking about how a ketogenic diet changed the gut microbiome in a favorable manner. Now we're still learning about gut microbiomes. We don't know all the things. It's very complicated. But we do have a general idea of. You know, we want some more of this particular bacteria and ooh, we see a lot of chronic illness with this other particular bacteria. We think we might want less of that. So that's kind of the state of the science in my understanding. But she was talking about how. They founded it, that it really changes the gut microbiome in a favorable manner in as little as four days. And it's just completely different, 14 days after a ketogenic diet. And so someone with an autoimmune issue where they feel like leaky gut is, part of that piece for them. ketogenic diets can be really helpful. And then, I think that. The third component I is always functional medicine sleuthing. you know, is there some other, something going on that is taxing the system that's getting in the way of your healing of the symptoms that you're aware of? Right. So is there heavy metal toxicity that is built up? Is there mold exposure, a past mold exposure, continued mold exposure, is there a parasite causing inflammation that's continuing that neuroinflammation? So functional medicine really has a lot to offer us, in terms of trying to figure out our health. And so a ketogenic diet with functional medicine I think is a fantastic, duo.
Magic Barclay:
That's quite informative. Thank you. Now, many people maybe are scared of the unknown, you know, scared of taking things out of their diet, making that leap to really clean up what they put into their bodies. What are some easy steps that you offer people that really need to start that cleanup?
Nicole Laurent:
Yeah. So, in my Brain Fog recovery program, we actually take four weeks to transition into a ketogenic diet. and so, Those small steps and working towards that is, actually going to improve sustainability. But for someone who's not even attempting a ketogenic diet, but it is just simply trying to, uh, help themselves clean up their diet. The the first thing, I mean, these are probably all things that you're. Yes, have said in the past, but the first thing is for goodness sakes, please don't buy things in the middle shelves at the grocery store. At least how the grocery stores are here. all the processed foods and the packaged foods, they're all in the middle shelves of the grocery store and all the fresher foods are on the outside aisles. and so start to. really focus on that. for some people, an understanding that the oils that they use to create shelf life are highly inflammatory to different disorders and brains and bodies, the gut. and that they want to avoid those. And then of course, start to, get rid of sugar out of your diet and, pay attention to. The ratios in your diet. I have all my people track their food on chronometer, so that we can kind of see what those ratios are because of course we're doing a powerful metabolic diet for the brain and we wanna make sure that ketones are being made. But really, if, I mean, there's people who probably, you know, 60% of their caloric intake is highly processed carbohydrates. Or very high carbohydrate foods like, you know, really high mangoes and fruits, you know, because we're wired to want that sweet taste and, and I completely get it. but that means other things are getting pushed out. That means they're likely not getting enough protein, which we talked about is super important and it's likely they're not getting enough fat, or they're certainly not getting enough healthy fats. And so starting to kind of pay attention to that and don't be afraid to find a good, reputable, functional nutrition person who can send you off to, someone who can help with your nutrition. Like, I always tell people like A good healthy brain diet, something that's a good thing to shoot for might be a paleo diet, or generally a paleo diet because there's just less refined carbohydrates. So getting those refined carbohydrates out is absolutely the number one thing. And is there
Magic Barclay:
anything else that you feel the listeners need to hear to improve their cognitive development and their cognitive health?
Nicole Laurent:
Well, I feel like what I'm about to say, your listeners probably already intuitively know. because people, people know people are smart, and that is if you have mood and cognitive symptoms like, brain fog for example, or that sort of thing. and this might be controversial thing to say, there is really no help for you in mainstream medicine. That I've ever seen, heard or experienced. often people will have brain fog and they will go to their practitioner and they'll be like, you know, I'm a little debilitated by this brain fog. I am gonna need some help with this. And they're told, don't worry about it, it's gonna pass. It's just a part of your disease. You just have to live with it. It's part of having Hashimotos or it's part of having something else. and, these are people going to primary care physicians, neurologists, autoimmune specialists, all kinds of things. And they're not getting any help with that piece. And I think, that it's important for people to be honest with themselves when they get to the point, when they actually realize that there isn't any help for them there. And I think that it's really important that they don't accept that. And I think it's really important that they start to trust themselves and trust their intuition and trust that there are people out there that have different ways of healing things and different ways of looking at how their body works that can help them heal and to just not give up. Your healing is out there. That's what I want your listeners to know.
Magic Barclay:
That's so true. And you know, really listeners. Not just hear that, but feel that, understand that and implement that, that the healing is there for you. Now Nicole, people can find you on Twitter at Keto Counselor, Facebook, that keto counselor, Instagram, mental Health, keto, and Reddit as in Laron. is there anything else that you'd like to say to the listeners before we wrap up?
Nicole Laurent:
just that you, do not have to live with brain fog regardless of reason or diagnosis. There are really powerful interventions, both dietary and supplements and with functional medicine that we can do to treat those symptoms right now, so you can absolutely live your best life and thrive and be emotionally, physically, and spiritually present for yourself and those in your life.
Magic Barclay:
True. So true. Thank you so much for joining us again, Nicole.
Nicole Laurent:
Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Magic Barclay:
Listeners. This was your episode 180 7 in 180 8. Laura Hale is talking about manifestation and your inner wisdom. For now, thank you for your time. Go forth and create your magical life.