Raphael Kellman, MD, is the founder of the Kellman Center for Functional and Integrative Medicine in New York City. He is the author of Matrix Healing, Gut Reactions and The Microbiome Diet, and is considered to be a pioneer in the field of “Microbiome Medicine”. So you can imagine just how excited I was when the publishers contacted me to ask if I would review his latest book entitled The Microbiome Breakthrough: Harness the Power of Your Gut Bacteria to Boost Your Mood and Heal Your Body.
In this book, Dr Kellman offers an approach that is backed by research to heal depression, anxiety, memory loss and brain disorders. He does this by focusing on the “whole brain” – the gut, the microbiome, the thyroid and of course the brain.
He lays out a simple 4-week, 4-Step Program to help you gain back your health that includes meal plans and recipes. He also guides you through working with your doctor, so you know what tests you should be asking your doctor for, to help you identify underlying factors that may have been overlooked in the past.
Anyone who knows me knows how excited I get when I start talking about the microbiome and gut health. The more excited I am, the faster I start talking, until I’m stumbling over my words, and no one can really catch what I’m saying. So here are some of the ideas Dr Kellman discusses that really excited me (and have the potential to make me stumble over my words):
How to support your brain by viewing your body as an ecology where every aspect and system of your body affects the others and is interconnected
How you can change the way your genes affect you
The importance of your microbial genes
How your brain, gut and microbiome should be considered one system
Bacterial intelligence
How the microbiome talks to the brain
The vicious cycle between stress and the microbiome
These are some of my favorite topics!!! It’s great to see that someone is putting them into a book in a way that is easy for everyone to understand. One of the things I liked the best about this book was that Dr Kellman includes a section on specific strains of probiotics for specific symptoms, including gut symptoms, depression and anxiety, brain fog and cognitive decline. Doing so allows you to take a very targeted approach in your probiotic supplementation.
I do have a couple of points of concern with this book. Dr Kellman keeps gluten-free grains, and legumes in his protocol. When the microbiome is imbalanced, keeping these in the diet may not be enough to shift microbial health for some individuals. Dr Kellman also discusses SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth). He outlines a dietary approach, but neglects support for the migrating motor complex, which is an important step in dealing with SIBO.
Who Should Buy This Book
Anyone suffering from a mood disorder
Anyone who wants a better understanding of their own mental health
Anyone who wants to learn some really cool information about the microbiome
With Christmas right around the corner, this is the perfect gift for someone who is suffering from a mood disorder, anyone working in the field of wellness, or people like me who just like to geek out about the gut.
Where to Get the Book
Happy, Healthy Reading!
Tracey