Chronic pain is often treated as a problem to suppress with medication or surgery, but what if it’s actually a signal from a complex system that needs to be addressed holistically?

In this episode of The Mind–Gut Conversation, Dr. Mayer is joined by Jared E. Katz, author of Retrain the Brain: Self-Help for Traumatic Brain Injury and creator of the pain management app Painless. Jared’s story begins more than twenty years ago, when a traumatic brain injury left him with cognitive impairment and two rare, painful conditions: Chiari malformation and syringomyelia.

Rather than accepting a life defined by pain, Jared spent years quietly experimenting with how he eats,sleeps, moves, and thinks. He developed what he calls a “brain health algorithm” — a set of daily practices spanning nutrition, cognitive activity, movement, sleep, and social engagement. The result is not just a book, but a blueprint for anyone living with chronic pain or seeking to understand whatbrain health truly looks like in practice.

This episode is slightly different from our usual focus on the gut microbiome, but the principles align closely with the holistic, systems-based thinking Dr. Mayer teaches. Jared’s experience demonstrates that the brain is not a machine with one broken part — it’s a dynamic, interconnected system capable of adaptation and healing when given the right conditions.

Topics discussed include:

• What a “brain health lifestyle” actually involves

• How anti-inflammatory nutrition and eating patterns affectpain and cognition

• Why chronic pain requires addressing multiple systems, notjust one symptom

• How cognitive exercises like writing can help rewire thebrain

• The future of personalized pain management

This is a practical, deeply human conversation for anyoneinterested in chronic pain, brain health, and the power of self-directed healing.

Chapters:

0:00 - Introduction

6:04 - Jared's Story: The Injury & Living With Chronic Pain

11:30 - Nutrition, Diet & the WAH Principle

16:57 - The Painless App & the Future of Pain Management

22:30 - The Five Pillars of a Brain Health Lifestyle

27:48 - Resilience, Recovery & the Gut-Brain Connection

35:11 - Psychedelics, Neuroplasticity & Closing Thoughts