Chronic Pain, Brain Health, and the Power of Self Help with Jared Katz

In this episode of The Mind–Gut Conversation, Dr. Emeran Mayer speaks with Jared E. Katz, author of Retrain the Brain: Self-Help for Traumatic Brain Injury and creator of the pain management app Painless, about a remarkable journey from traumatic injury to holistic recovery.

More than twenty years ago, Jared sustained a serious traumatic brain injury that left him with lasting cognitive impairment and chronic pain from two rare conditions: Chiari malformation and syringomyelia. Rather than accepting this as his ceiling, Jared spent years rebuilding his brain through what he calls a “brain health lifestyle” — an algorithm of daily practices spanning nutrition, movement, sleep, cognitive activity, and social engagement.

The conversation explores how chronic pain is not simply a symptom to suppress, but a signal from a complex, interconnected system. Jared explains how small frequent meals, anti-inflammatory foods, cognitive exercises like writing, and his signature principle — WAH (Walk Away Hungry) — became cornerstones of his recovery. He also discusses his work developing Painless, an app designed to bring personalized pain management strategies to anyone living with chronic pain.

This episode offers a grounded, science-informed perspective on brain health, chronic pain, and the power of self-directed healing. While it departs slightly from this show’s usual focus on the gut microbiome, the principles align closely with Dr. Mayer’s holistic approach to the brain–gut–microbiome system.

Key Topics Covered:

• What a “brain health lifestyle” actually looks like in practice
• How nutrition and anti-inflammatory eating support brain function and pain management
• Why chronic pain requires a systems-level approach, not a single fix
• The role of cognitive activity, movement, and social engagement in rewiring the brain
• How Jared’s app, Painless, is bringing holistic pain management to a broader audience

This is a practical, deeply human discussion for anyone living with chronic pain, recovering from brain injury, or interested in what it truly means to care for the brain.