The fastest way to improve mental health may be through your metabolism.

For decades, we’ve treated mental health like it starts and ends in the brain. But at Parsley, I see something different every single day.

Patients come in for gut issues, skin flares, hormone chaos—then quietly mention brain fog, anxiety, irritability, or low mood as a “side issue.”

Then we stabilize blood sugar. We lower inflammation. We replete nutrients. And suddenly their mood improves. Sometimes dramatically.

Parsley isn’t a psychiatry practice—but the brain is a metabolic organ. (A big part of my book State Change is about exactly this: how we can transform mood, anxiety, and depression through the body.) 

Lately, I’ve been deep in the emerging field of metabolic psychiatry, and it’s blowing the lid off what we thought we knew. From Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s to ADHD and anxiety, new research shows that many neurological and psychiatric conditions may have a strong metabolic component.

Take microglia, for example...

Research shows when you reduce insulin resistance and improve metabolic health, you can shift microglia—your brain’s immune cells—from inflammatory “M1” mode back to protective “M2” mode (Metabolic Brain Disease, 2025).

That shift alone may meaningfully improve cognitive and mood-related symptoms in some people.

This doesn't replace therapy or medication. But it does explain why your metabolism can change how your brain feels and functions—sometimes faster than anything else.

⚡️ Forward this protocol

If your brain feels anxious, foggy, or “on edge,” walk after you eat.

This is less about clearing your mind and more about clearing inflammation. 

Post-meal blood sugar spikes trigger inflammatory signaling (NF-κB, cytokines) that can cross the blood–brain barrier and activate microglia—the brain’s immune cells—pushing them into an inflammatory state linked to anxiety, brain fog, and low mood.

Walking for 10 minutes after your largest meal can lower post-meal glucose spikes by up to ~30%.

👉 If your mind feels calmer and clearer within a week, metabolism was part of the problem.
👉 If not, you still improved brain health with almost zero downside.

🤓 What to know: Your brain runs on metabolic fuel.

Your brain uses ~20% of your body’s energy, even though it’s only ~2% of your body weight.

When metabolism is off—unstable blood sugar, insulin resistance, chronic inflammation—the brain feels it first.

Here’s what the science shows:

📈 Blood sugar spikes trigger inflammatory chemistry

When you eat a high-glycemic meal (refined carbs, sugar, ultra-processed foods), blood glucose rises quickly. Your pancreas floods your system with insulin to pull glucose into cells.

This spike → crash cycle does more than mess with your appetite. It triggers inflammation, even without chronic high blood sugar.

Repeated glucose spikes:

• Increase reactive oxygen species (ROS) inside cells

• Activate NF-κB, a master inflammatory signaling pathway

• Increase circulating pro-inflammatory cytokines like IL-6 and TNF-α

You don’t need chronic hyperglycemia to create inflammation—repeated swings are enough.

🔥 Systemic inflammation reaches the brain via the blood–brain barrier

The brain is protected by the blood–brain barrier (BBB)—but it’s not impenetrable.

Chronic metabolic inflammation: 

• Increases BBB permeability

• Allows inflammatory cytokines to signal into the brain

• Activates immune signaling in brain tissue

Even without immune cells crossing the barrier, cytokine signaling alone is enough to change brain function.

👊 Microglia respond by shifting into “attack mode”

Microglia are the brain’s resident immune cells. They constantly monitor the environment.

They exist on a spectrum, but are often simplified into two functional states:

• M2 (protective): repair, clean-up, neuroprotection

• M1 (inflammatory): threat response, cytokine release, synaptic pruning

Chronic metabolic inflammation pushes microglia toward the M1 inflammatory phenotype.

When microglia stay in this state too long, they:

• Release inflammatory mediators inside the brain

• Disrupt neurotransmitter signaling

• Interfere with synaptic plasticity (learning, memory, mood regulation)

😠 This directly affects mood, focus, and emotional regulation

Neuroinflammation alters key brain systems involved in mental health:

• Serotonin & dopamine signaling (TK)

• BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor, critical for mood and cognition)

• HPA axis regulation (stress response)

This helps explain why people with unstable blood sugar often report: Anxiety that feels “wired” or physical, brain fog or slowed thinking and low motivation or flattened mood.

💪 What to do: Reduce neuroinflammation by fixing the metabolic inputs.   

This is not about willpower or “eating clean.” 

It’s about removing the metabolic signals that keep brain immune cells activated and replacing them with ones that restore balance. 

Step 1: Flatten glucose curves (not just “eat less sugar”)

The shape of your glucose curve matters more than total carbs for neuroinflammation.

Avoid:

• Spikes >140 mg/dL after meals

• Crashes <70 mg/dL within 2–3 hours

How to do it (practically):

• Eat carbs last (protein → fat → fiber → carbs)

• Cap refined carbs at ≤30–40g per meal

• Pair all carbs with protein and fat

• Walk for 10–15 minutes after meals (reduces postprandial glucose by up to 30%)

Step 2: Hit a protein floor—especially in the morning

Skipping protein in the a.m. is one of the fastest ways to set off a glucose → anxiety cascade.

Protein slows gastric emptying, reduces glucose spikes, provides amino acids for neurotransmitters, and improves insulin sensitivity.

Non-negotiable target: 30g protein within 1 hour of waking

Step 3: Replete magnesium (most brains are running low)

Magnesium improves insulin signaling, dampens NMDA receptor overactivation (linked to anxiety) and reduces neuroinflammation. 

Actionable dose: 300–400 mg/day magnesium glycinate or threonate

Step 4: Eat the rainbow to actively calm microglia. 

Certain phytonutrients directly suppress microglial activation and shift them toward the protective (M2) phenotype.

High-impact additions:

• Omega-3s: 2–3 servings fatty fish/week or 1–2g EPA/DHA daily

• Curcumin: 500–1,000 mg/day (bioavailable form)

• Polyphenols: berries, olives, cacao, green tea

💛 The Momgevity Files

This past week was an exercise in contrast therapy—but not exactly the sauna-to-cold-plunge kind.

First, the warm part: I started off with a three-day trip with my YPO forum, a business group I’m part of, on our annual retreat. We chose to sail for a couple of days on catamarans in the British Virgin Islands. The boats were a lot less fancy than it sounds, but the setting was stunning. We spent a good part of our days swimming and catching up, but most of our time was in working sessions—including a personal values exercise, five-year goal setting, and workshopping the business and life challenges each of the seven of us are facing. We went deep.

For me, one of the biggest takeaways was this: having a tried-and-true process for 90-day, annual, 3- and 5-year goal setting is one of the most powerful longevity tools I have.

Where your eyes go, your car goes. Knowing where you want to head is essential for getting there.

From there, it was a quick turnaround through the office before I headed upstate for the “cold” part of the week’s itinerary: a trip that turned into a 12-inch snowstorm. Not exactly the ideal setting for cleaning out a giant shipping container filled with 10 years of our stuff from our old house.

My husband and I stood in the snow, sorting old toys and clothes and plates and books, slashing open boxes with pocket knives, and munching on GF pretzels alongside thermoses full of coffee. This was after our U-Haul got stuck in the snow—twice. (Don’t try to drive in that weather in one of those things, people!)

After seven hours of sorting and handing things off to be junked, auctioned, or gifted to friends, backs sore and feeling way too frozen for more sledding sessions with the kids, I said goodbye to a phase of life.

We’re parting ways with some land up there that, at one point, we had planned to build a house on. But for a lot of reasons, our vision shifted and our dreams turned elsewhere.

It was a reminder: some dreams have to die for new ones to be born.

Also a reminder: Make no small plans. And know that most of them will turn out. But some have a way of turning out for the best, just not in the way you planned.

I’m a big believer that when you know your passions, operate from a set of core personal values, set big dreams, and chart the best path you know how, you’ll achieve a lot of them. Back in 2010 or so, during med school, I set a goal to be a leader in integrative medicine and health—and, well, here I am!

I also set a goal of having a family, and as I watched my kids careening down the hill and having snowball fights, it dawned on me: I asked for this. I created it. Here we are.

And yet, not sure if anyone else feels this too, but this seems like a moment—for me, and for a lot of people I’m hearing from—of shedding old selves (thanks, Year of the Wood Snake!) and opening the door for new ones.

Another reminder: for things to change, they have to change.

Part of longevity, I think—especially as women—is allowing ourselves to evolve, and become new iterations of who we are. The person you were at 24 is not the same person at 44 or 64. That can be scary—but it’s also the way we keep things interesting, alive, and full.

We are continually expanding, if we do it right. And that’s what makes all the healthspan work—the estrogen, the weights, the supplements, the fiber—worth it.

Stay strong, stay curious and breathe, 

Robin

As always, this newsletter is for informational and educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Always consult your healthcare provider before making any health decisions or changes to your treatment plan.