Powerful ideas from top nonfiction
Try Blinkist to get the key ideas from 7,500+ bestselling nonfiction titles and podcasts. Listen or read in just 15 minutes.
Get started
Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
Listen to the Intro
You Can Fix Your Brain summary
Tom O’Bryan
Just 1 Hour a Week to the Best Memory, Productivity, and Sleep You've Ever Had
19 mins
Brief summary
You Can Fix Your Brain by Dr. Tom O'Bryan is a health book offering a 4-week plan to optimize brain function. It explores root causes of brain decline and provides practical strategies for diet, lifestyle, and mindset shifts to enhance neurological health and cognitive performance.
Table of Contents
You Can Fix Your Brain
Summary of 4 key ideas
Audio & text in the Blinkist app
Key idea 1 of 4
Immunity, inflammation, and the brain
What do dementia, depression, anxiety, and memory loss have in common? They’re all caused by runaway processes of inflammation and autoimmunity. Not only that, they can all be treated by finding and eliminating the underlying triggers. Let’s look at how this process works.
The function of the immune system is, of course, to protect your body from foreign substances – harmful intruders impinging on your body. A well-functioning immune system can distinguish between your body's own cells and external threats, ensuring that only genuine dangers are targeted.
But what happens when this system malfunctions? Autoimmunity is a condition in which the immune system mistakes your healthy cells as invaders and launches an attack against them.
This leads to inflammation within the relevant cells and tissues and can even cause your immune system to destroy these cells if it believes they’re damaged.
So where does all this begin? Often it starts because of the presence of foreign substances, environmental toxins, or foods to which either you have an individual sensitivity or which are simply unhealthy, in general.
Unfortunately, the modern world exposes your body to many such slings and arrows. These insults can leave your immune system chronically triggered – constantly overactive. Brain symptoms like brain fog, memory issues, and even anxiety and depression, indicate that inflammation is happening in the brain, impeding its proper function.
So how do these substances get into your brain in the first place? Let’s zoom out to the rest of your body. First, your gut. Your intestinal system has evolved to do a difficult and sensitive job – allowing you to absorb all of the nutrients that your body needs to keep running while blocking out what’s harmful or not needed.
Your intestines have a semi-permeable mucous lining which acts as this filter. But in some people, the mucous lining becomes damaged and over-permeable, known as leaky-gut syndrome. A leaky gut lets through substances that it shouldn’t, like bacteria and toxins.
But your body has another protective mechanism in place to protect the brain – the blood-brain barrier. Just like the intestinal lining, your blood-brain barrier is a kind of filter, allowing only those substances which are supposed to get across to enter – straining what gets through, like an ultra-fine cheesecloth. Your brain is sensitive and important, so this filter is even finer and more selective than the one in your gut, operating at the molecular level and blocking whatever’s not needed.
But this filter, too, can become compromised – in what is referred to as a breach of the blood-brain barrier. Once that happens, the foreign substance is free to enter into your brain tissue. Your body then begins to initiate the immune response we discussed earlier. Brain tissue becomes inflamed and begins to lose function, resulting in slowly-worsening symptoms as the tissue becomes progressively damaged.
For many people, the idea of damage to the brain is an especially scary prospect. One reason is the sense that this damage is truly permanent. Scientists used to believe that we had a fixed number of brain cells and once they were gone, they were gone forever. While your brain cells certainly are precious and merit your careful protection, newer science has shown that it’s possible for brain cells to regenerate. This gives some hope that it’s possible to restore brain function that’s been compromised – to heal the brain.
But before we can, we need to address the underlying problems which resulted in damage. We have to eliminate leaky gut, restore the blood-brain barrier, and ultimately, eliminate the offending toxins that caused the problem in the first place.
So how do we know if these dangerous autoimmune processes are present? We’ll cover that in the next section.
Want to see all full key ideas from You Can Fix Your Brain?
Key ideas in You Can Fix Your Brain
More knowledge in less time
Read or listen
Get the key ideas from nonfiction bestsellers in minutes, not hours.
Find your next read
Get book lists curated by experts and personalized recommendations.
Shortcasts New
We’ve teamed up with podcast creators to bring you key insights from podcasts.
What is You Can Fix Your Brain about?
You Can Fix Your Brain (2018) is a step-by-step guide to improving cognitive function and overall brain health. Through dietary choices, environmental adjustments, and other health practices, you can reduce brain fog, enhance your memory, and increase your mental clarity.
You Can Fix Your Brain Review
You Can Fix Your Brain by Dr. Tom O'Bryan (2018) is an informative guide on optimizing brain health and overcoming cognitive decline. Here are three reasons why this book is worth reading:
- Packed with practical strategies and evidence-based advice, it empowers readers to take control of their brain health and make positive changes.
- By exploring the relationship between diet, environmental factors, and brain function, the book offers a holistic and comprehensive approach to brain health.
- With its engaging storytelling and relatable examples, the book presents complex scientific concepts in an accessible and enjoyable manner, keeping readers engaged throughout.
Who should read You Can Fix Your Brain?
- People who are experiencing brain fog or are having trouble concentrating
- Those who wish to reduce their risk of Alzheimer’s and dementia
- Anyone who wants to feel sharper and improve their mental function
Categories with You Can Fix Your Brain
Book summaries like You Can Fix Your Brain
People ❤️ Blinkist
Sven O.
It's highly addictive to get core insights on personally relevant topics without repetition or triviality. Added to that the apps ability to suggest kindred interests opens up a foundation of knowledge.
Thi Viet Quynh N.
Great app. Good selection of book summaries you can read or listen to while commuting. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.
Jonathan A.
Life changing. The concept of being able to grasp a book's main point in such a short time truly opens multiple opportunities to grow every area of your life at a faster rate.
Renee D.
Great app. Addicting. Perfect for wait times, morning coffee, evening before bed. Extremely well written, thorough, easy to use.
People also liked these summaries
Words on the Move
John McWhorter
Why English Won’t – and Can’t – Sit Still (Like, Literally)
21 min
4.5
Breaking The Habit of Being Yourself
Joe Dispenza
How to Lose Your Mind and Create a New One
16 min
4.5
4.7 Stars
Average ratings on iOS and Google Play
37 Million
Downloads on all platforms
10+ years
Experience igniting personal growth
You Can Fix Your Brain FAQs
What is the main message of You Can Fix Your Brain?
Discover how to optimize your brain health and prevent cognitive decline with You Can Fix Your Brain.
How long does it take to read You Can Fix Your Brain?
The reading time for You Can Fix Your Brain varies, but it typically takes several hours. The Blinkist summary can be read in just 15 minutes.
Is You Can Fix Your Brain a good book? Is it worth reading?
You Can Fix Your Brain is worth reading as it provides practical strategies to improve brain function and overall health.
Who is the author of You Can Fix Your Brain?
Dr. Tom O'Bryan is the author of You Can Fix Your Brain.
What to read after You Can Fix Your Brain?
If you're wondering what to read next after You Can Fix Your Brain, here are some recommendations we suggest:
- Smarter Not Harder by Dave Asprey
- Unlearn by Humble the Poet
- Life Lessons from a Brain Surgeon by Rahul Jandial
- Game Changers by Dave Asprey
- The Body Code by Dr. Bradley Nelson
- How to be Love(d) by Humble the Poet
- Activate Your Brain by Scott G. Halford
- Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott
- Unlimited Memory by Kevin Horsley
- Stop Self-Sabotage by Dr. Judy Ho