After going through the worst burnout of my life from 2018 to 2020, I have proof in my own life that diet and digestive issues are hugely correlated with cognition and mood.<p>Personally, I don't expect these kinds of studies to find a smoking gun. The chemical interactions between foods and the immune system are far too complex to be understood at this time. The immune system is the second most complex biological system after the brain. But we can still get clues. I highly recommend the everlywell comprehensive test (no affiliation) of 200+ foods, which I took that confirmed my suspicions about certain foods:<p><a href="https://www.everlywell.com/products/food-sensitivity-comprehensive-test/" rel="nofollow">https://www.everlywell.com/products/food-sensitivity-compreh...</a><p>There's also a regular test of 100 foods for about half that price. And yes, these tests have their flaws, but can still inform us.<p>I've also been taking ashwagandha for a few months for ADHD symptoms (still undiagnosed, but I'll get to it, I swear!) after hearing good things about it online. I'm an INFP with 78% on intuition, so I'm somewhat cursed with knowing the solutions to problems before people finish explaining them to me. Which is great for programming, but debilitating when living in a sick society healing from recent events in these times. My "deficits" (should really be differences) are around dissociation because it's too easy for me to slip down interesting rabbit holes. Living and working in the malignant mundanity of The Matrix while knowing a better world is just beyond our reach due to dogma, takes everything I got, every single day.<p>Attempting to keep this brief, I believe that ashwagandha may desensitize the immune system to nightshades, which are pretty much all of the fun foods. I also suspect that it raises the proportion of good bacteria in our gut that live on roots. Humans evolved as scavengers eating icky things, but our surroundings and food are too sanitized today, so autoimmune issues and inflammation will eventually come to dominate our medical system.<p>Which was the plot of a 1990s sci fi series called Earth 2, where a billionaire's kid gets "the syndrome" from living in too sterile of an environment:<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_2_(TV_series)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_2_(TV_series)</a><p>So people have known about this stuff for a long time.<p>For anyone curious, the way I got out of burnout (severe anxiety, I learned) was by completely shutting down for a few months and taking care of the chores I had put off for years/decades. I had to relearn how to break overwhelming tasks down into simpler steps on my todo list and just do what I could each day, even if it was only one thing or getting out of bed. But more importantly, service. I let my ego finally die and gave myself over to helping others. That was the missing piece we don't hear about in a capitalistic/patriarchal "me" culture.<p>Kids are very bright, often just as capable as you and me (you remember) but forced to endure eons of slow growth before they are free. I think we'll find that most developmental "disorders" are clues as to what's wrong with our society, and that as we all heal and ascend, they'll begin to subside.