A Brain Injury Can Affect More Than Your Brain - How Traumatic Brain Injury Impacts Your Heart, Gut, Hormones, and Immune System with Dr. Aaron Hartman | Brain Injury | E166

🔥 What if a brain injury doesn't just affect your brain—but also your heart, gut, immune system, hormones, metabolism, and even the way your body heals? Read UnCurable (https://uncurablebook.com/) to explore how seemingly unrelated symptoms can be connected through the body's complex biological systems.
How a Brain Injury Can Affect Your Heart, Gut, Hormones, and Immune System
In this Made for Health minisode, Dr. Aaron Hartman continues his concussion series by explaining why a traumatic brain injury can have effects far beyond the brain itself. Using a "one brain, one body" perspective, he explores how the brain serves as the master regulator of nearly every system in the body. When that regulation is disrupted—whether by a concussion, emotional trauma, or PTSD-like events—it can contribute to problems involving the heart, digestive system, hormones, immune function, metabolism, and sleep.
Dr. Hartman discusses the connections between the brain and the vagus nerve, heart rate variability, the gut microbiome, neurotransmitter production, immune regulation, hormone balance, metabolic health, and lipid membranes. He explains how understanding these interconnected systems can help clinicians recognize why symptoms that seem unrelated may actually share a common neurological origin, setting the stage for the next episode focused on practical treatment strategies.
Key Topics Covered
The "one brain, one body" approach to traumatic brain injury
Why the brain acts as the master regulator of the body's systems
Heart rate variability (HRV) and the brain-heart connection
The role of the vagus nerve in heart, gut, and immune function
How traumatic brain injury may contribute to fatigue and exercise intolerance
The gut-brain axis and neurotransmitter production
Leaky gut, the microbiome, and neuroinflammation
Butyrate and its role in brain protection
Sleep disturbances following brain injury
Brain injury, immune dysregulation, and autoimmune conditions
Emotional trauma, PTSD, and adverse childhood experiences as potential contributors to brain dysfunction
Hormonal changes that may influence brain recovery
Metabolic health, insulin resistance, and brain resilience
Lipid medicine, phospholipids, omega-3s, and neuroprotection
Why understanding whole-body connections can guide recovery
Follow Dr. Aaron Hartman and Richmond Integrative & Functional Medicine
🌐 Website: https://richmondfunctionalmedicine.com/
📺 YouTube: @AaronHartmanMD
Mentioned in this episode:
25% Off Back to School Support for Parents
Back to school asks a lot of parents, too. Support your body through the season with three physician-reviewed, foundation-first essentials: Twice Daily Multi, Quercetin + Nettles, and NAC.
For a limited time, save 25% on the Back to School Support Bundle.
Visit the link below ⬇️ Shop the Back to School Sale
Back to School Support for Parents
25% Off Back to School Support for Parents
Back to school asks a lot of parents, too. Support your body through the season with three physician-reviewed, foundation-first essentials: Twice Daily Multi, Quercetin + Nettles, and NAC.
For a limited time, save 25% on the Back to School Support Bundle.
Visit the link below ⬇️ Shop the Back to School Sale
Back to School Support for Parents