Upcoming Book

Whole Vigor

Maximizing Mood, Motivation, and Mental Wellness by Optimizing the Brain-Body-Biome

Depression, anxiety and burnout are the “Black Plague” of our modern times. These mental wellness problems afflict hundreds of millions of people around the world and account for hundreds of billions of dollars in expenditures on antidepressant drugs and related “feel better” products. Unfortunately, most of these solutions make us feel “different” but not really “better” – and certainly not the way that we want to feel with good mood, clear thinking and abundant energy.

The World Health Organization has identified mental wellness issues (stress, depression, anxiety) as the leading cause of global health burden – and for the last century, we’ve had the mistaken notion that these problems were “all in our head” – when in reality they were largely in our gut.

The discovery of the gut-brain-axis and especially the explosion of research around the microbiome (the 100 trillion bacteria that live in our gastrointestinal tract) is causing a fundamental shift in how we think about – and how we improve – mental wellness.

Whole Vigor refers to a completeness of mental wellness and physical health. It encompasses the entirety of physical energy, mental acuity, and emotional well-being. Feelings of physical energy and stress resilience emanate from a balanced Body; Mental acuity, clarity, and creativity are the hallmarks of a balanced Brain; and Emotional well-being is a holistic sensation that infuses our entire being when our gut Biome is balanced. Optimizing the connection across the entire Body-Brain-Biome is the secret to achieving Whole Vigor and maximizing mood, motivation, and mental wellness.