Your Brain on Food, Sleep & Stress: What Top Experts Want You to Know | Brain Health Masterclass - Live Well Be Well with Sarah Ann Macklin | Health, Lifestyle, Nutrition

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Today's episode is a special one.
It is a brain health master class.
Now, if you've listened to Live Well Be Well for a long time or
followed my work, you will know that mental health and brain
health is essential for our well-being.
It's something that I'm personally really interested in,
so I wanted to collate my favorite moments over the last
few years of Live Well, Be Well.Bad gut health Poor gut health

(00:21):
is bad brain health. When we see our gums are
bleeding, that should be an AHA warning sign that our gums are
leaky. It opens the doors for oral
bacteria to get into the the brain is.
In the case of Alzheimer's is the brain starts laying down
beta amyloid plaques around the neurons to protect them from
that bacteria, but in doing so starves the brain off from
critical nutrients that it needs.

(00:41):
We go from neuroscience to nutritional science to movement
to even psychedelics. MDMA reduces activity in the
amygdala so that when you are remembering A traumatic memory,
it's not as fearful. You're going to have 10 to 15
minutes of snippets of my favorite, most powerful moments
on how to support support your brain physically and mentally.

(01:02):
The studies have shown that if you do brisk walking, you reduce
your chance of dementia by 45%. With the intake of lions mean
you can have a better sleep, youcan have a better focus and
concentration. This is really important because
sometimes we can look at our brain in a very 1 dimensional
way, and so I've wanted to give you a collation of my favorite
moments that I've personally take that have reshaped how I

(01:24):
look at my own mental health. Your brain's main job is not
feeling. It's it's not emoting, it's not
thinking. Your brain's main job is
regulating your body. So buckle up and get ready for
some of my favorite moments of brain health.
Firstly, I want to say thank youto tuning in and listening to

(01:44):
the show. It means a huge amount and
connecting with all of you is something that I absolutely love
as part of this journey of growing the show. 1 of my
biggest goals of 2025 is doubling the reach of this show
and I can't do that without yoursupport.
So I would love to ask you a favour if you can press
subscribe or follow on whicheverplatform you listen to.

(02:07):
This helps us reach more people and for me, elevating women in
science is so fundamental and ethical and scientific
information. So if you feel the show empowers
you and gives you the information that you've been
seeking, I would love to ask a favour in return and to hit that
subscribe button and help me reach the goal that I've set for
the show of 2025. Thank you.

(02:36):
How did the brain evolve 1st andhow did the immune system then
later come in? Because I think most people
would think that they came together but they didn't.
And why is that an important function to understand?
Yeah, thanks for the question. The they did come together, but
one could ask which one is older.
You could ask that about features of society such as
government and the army, for example.

(02:57):
So the the immune system, when we say immune system, most of
the time what we mean is the adaptive immune system.
We're thinking of B cells, antibodies, T cells.
There is an older arm, the innate immune system, which goes
indeed is very ancient and in fact bacteria have some.
But usually when we say immune system, we mean fighting

(03:18):
infections using antibodies, B cells, T cells that appeared
with jaws, jawed fish. Why jaws?
No one knows, but a hint is that75% of our immune system is in
our gut even today. So something to do with
nutrition. Importantly for your podcast or
not, irrelevantly, the the brainis far older than jaws.

(03:41):
The brain, it's in fact it's older than than vertebrates,
right? So the brain appeared hundreds
of millions of years earlier. Animals are about 700 million
years old and the adaptive system is something like 450 or
500. So so the brain is actually much
older, much, much older. And it's had a lot longer to

(04:02):
think about how to control and keep in balance the body that
it's attached to. And the immune system's also had
several 109 years to think abouthow to tell the brain what what
it should or should not do. But it but it's interesting that
almost everybody says the immunesystem's older, whereas
objectively the brain is far older.

(04:23):
And why is it really important? Because I'm very, I'm very
interested in understanding the mind and the body is kind of 1
unit and you talk a lot about the immune system and the brain
working together in balance. Why is that so integral for
people to understand? Well, one way to look at it, I
don't know if I have a good answer to that, but one way to
look at it is why do we need both?

(04:44):
You could imagine a an alien species that just doesn't have a
brain and an immune system. It just has one thing, right.
So maybe one reason is because they can do very different
things. So the brain can look ahead.
You have eyes, you have ears, you can smell, you can plan, you
can reason, you can integrate what's happening around you and
for example, avoid, you know, say hugging someone who has an

(05:07):
infection, just to give a very simple example.
But the brain is limited to it can control the nervous system
and it can control behavior and,and actions, but it's limited.
It can't get down into like, youknow, really the trenches, the
immune system cannot look ahead.It can only respond.
So if you have an infection or if you have cancer or, you know,

(05:27):
looking at your social media toomuch, it can respond to that.
But it can't plan. But in return for its inability
to plan, because it can only respond to what it doesn't have
eyes and ears. Basically, it has extraordinary
superpowers and if it wanted to melt you like the Nazis and you
know, the, the first installmentof Indiana Jones, it could.
And sometimes there are autoimmune reactions that are

(05:49):
extremely severe and fatal. So it has extraordinary, it's
extraordinarily powerful, but sort of blind.
It can only respond. So they need, we need both for
this reason, because you need tobe able to respond at the really
local tissue level, like get down to like the smallest cell,
the smallest little bit of bone,and at the same time to plan so

(06:11):
you don't put yourself in situations in which you need to
mount a really serious immune response.
So that's why to me, that's why it's important to understand
this connection, because you need both.
They need to work together. If you didn't need both, we
wouldn't have both. Evolution would have done away
with one or both of them a long time ago.

(06:35):
We learned something about the more basic aspects of brain
function, and so we kind of shifted our strategy to instead
of starting with anger, sadness and fear and so on, which are
not universal categories for emotion.
They're in many, many cultures, but not all cultures.

(06:55):
And there are lots of other categories that don't exist in
English or in any Western culture that are very important
to individual cultures. So instead of starting with the
categories and going looking fortheir physical basis, we started
with a more basic question. How does the brain work?
What's its most important job? How is it performing that job?
And once we understand somethingabout the Physiology and the

(07:18):
structure of the brain in its relation to the body and the
world, then we can start asking questions.
Well, how does it create these moments that we know and
experience as emotion? But really we're asking
questions about how does it create lived experience?
How does it regulate your actions?
How is it that you do what you do when you do it?

(07:40):
And what we discovered was something really consistent with
what a lot of other scientists were finding, and that is your
brain. Your brain's main job is not
feeling. It's not emoting, it's not
thinking, it's not even seeing or hearing or sensing.

(08:01):
Your brain's main job is regulating your body in a
metabolically efficient way, andit's doing that all the time.
And the way that it's doing thatis it's remembering past events
that are similar to the present,kind of you don't experience

(08:23):
yourself as remembering, but that is what your brain is doing
in the moment. It's remembering instances that
a meaning it's reinstating in its wiring instances from the
past that are similar to the present to predict what's going
to happen in a moment from now, what you'll see, what you'll
hear and what you'll feel and what you'll do.

(08:45):
And those predictions, those memories are really important
for not just creating an instance of anger or sadness or
fear, but they're important for seeing and hearing and acting.
So your brain is basically a meaning maker and sometimes the

(09:08):
meaning that it makes is an emotion.
It's attempting to use past experience to to predict and
explain incoming sensory signalsfrom your body and from the
world. The human brain is so
fascinating because it it creates experiences with such in

(09:31):
stealth. First of all, it doesn't make
itself aware of of its construction process, but also
it's so vivid and so it's so real.
In fact, it is real that that itmisleads.
I mean, brains mislead themselves as to how they work.
And that's part of the challengethat we we have experiences.

(09:55):
So for example, a lot of people still believe that, you know,
anger, all instances of anger share they have a family
resemblance to one another. And then I start asking
questions. Well, have you ever seen
somebody withdraw in anger? Have you ever seen somebody
laugh in anger? Have you ever felt yourself

(10:16):
where you wanted to cry in anger?
Have you ever, You know, and I start sort of pointing out these
very this variation, and they'relike, oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah. OK, yeah.
So the real question here is how, first of all, how is the
brain understanding this very this variation, it's not random

(10:37):
variation. It's very structured.
If I, Sarah, if I were to, to measure you, we have these
experiments that we do where we,we wire people up with, you
know, and they carry around kindof like very, very, very fancy,
you know, wearables, except they're, they're research grade
wearables, OK. And we, we measure people's

(11:02):
physical signals, like say theirheart rate.
So let's say I was measuring your heart rate and I would know
something about your baseline heart rate because I would have
tested that in advance. And so anytime your heart rate
increases or decreases, say 15% from your baseline and you're
not moving very much, that meansthe heart rate change is a

(11:25):
reflection that there's been some kind of state change in
your brain because there are no other reasons for the heart rate
change. It's not like you're, you know,
you started walking quickly or all of a sudden you started
breathing differently because you're, you know, we're
measuring that, right? So, and so then that's when we
asked people at we, so we, the we, we sample their experience

(11:47):
in those moments when there's been some physical change that's
not accounted for by their physical actions.
And what we learned is that there's, there's incredible
variation in the instances of anger that you yourself, if we
were to measure you, that you yourself feel, but it's

(12:08):
structured by the situations that you're in.
So somehow the brain has to makesense of this tremendous
complexity and variation. And the real question is, how do
you, how do you, why is it that you experience?
Why did your brain in that moment construct anger as

(12:30):
opposed to sadness or happiness or, or awe or what have you?
So how is the brain making choices, making decisions about
what is similar in this moment, what is similar in this moment
to, to, to something in the past?
That's really the question. And why do people believe that

(12:50):
anger and sadness and fear and so on are these stable, fixed
categories when in fact there's so much variability?
And if we were not, if we were not good at detecting and making
meaning of that variability, we wouldn't be able to live
productive lives. So clearly there's this

(13:11):
disconnect and it's a super, super interesting question.
What makes somewhere a Blue Zone?
Because it can't just be people that live to 100.
What do you have to do to pass to become a Blue Zone?
So you're looking for a place where people have made it to

(13:32):
about 100. You're looking for
concentrations of people who've made it.
Well, technically it's over age 90 over the past 150 years.
And so you need to find a population and you need to find
all the 90 year olds who made itto a 90 or are still living over

(13:54):
age 90 and then compare them to the total number of people
who've lived in that area era. So whether it's Sardinia,
Nicoya, Costa Rica, Ikaria, Greece or Okinawa, Japan, these
are areas where more people are making at age 90 over the past
150 years than anyplace else in the world.

(14:14):
OK. That's in a broad brush stroke.
And name them. Longest live women in the
history of the world come from Okinawa, Japan.
Longest live men are an area of Sardinia in the Oleosta
Province. About 11 times more males reach
age 100 than you would expect tosee in a British or an American

(14:35):
population. Nicoya Peninsula of Costa Rica,
a lowest rate of middle age mortality.
Icaria, Greece live about 8 years longer, largely without
dementia. No discernible dementia.
That's the number one killer in the UK.
Is it really? The number in in the US is
cardiovascular disease and in the UK the number one killer is
dementia. Well, people ought to be paying
attention to the way people lived in Icaria because we found

(14:59):
every person over age 65 and found only three very mild cases
of dementia and we did our homework on that one.
And then among the 7th Day Adventists in Loma Linda, CA,
you have a population or live about 7 years longer than their
neighbors here in California. So those are what we named as
the the Blue Zones. I'm largely respond that Gianni

(15:20):
Pest, doctor Gianni Pest, you actually first used the phrase
in Sardinia and when I was doingthe cover story and late later
the book The Blue Zones, I used the the phrase with his
permission and his collaborationand extended it to these other 4
extraordinary populations. And in each case we had a team

(15:42):
of of peer reviewed scientists who were developing the
methodology, doing the age validation and then checking our
findings against international statistics.
So if I put a question out before this podcast for people
to write in, and one of the mainthings people ask is from all of

(16:05):
the things that you learned, what would be the three habits
that you would say people shoulddo to help increase their
longevity? You could say 3.
Well, the first thing I would say is forget habits.
They're not going to work. The three things you should do
if you want to live longer. The 1st is to take stock.
And who the five people who you spend most time with.

(16:26):
We know that health behaviors are measurably contagious, so if
your three best friends are obese or overweight, there's
150% better chance that you'll be overweight yourself.
Smoking, drug use, all measurably contagious.
So is unhappiness and even loneliness.
Hanging out with a lonely personcan make you feel more lonely

(16:49):
than being by yourself. So it's really important to
think about who am I spending time with and finding a handful
of friends? You whose idea of recreation is
walking or hiking or playing pickleball or tennis or
bicycling. Friends who will challenge you
mentally. Friends with whom you can have a

(17:11):
meaningful conversation, not just football or fashion.
And what's also really importantis friends who you can call on a
bad day when your chips are down.
That's you. That's kind of the litmus test
if they're real, real friends ornot.
Can I calm, you know, when I just broke up with my partner or
I need to borrow a little money or you know, I I'm really sad

(17:36):
today and can I show you that side of me, not just the sort of
back slapping do. You know, one thing that was
really interesting when Simon Sinek came and spoke to me about
friendships was not just the friends that you can call on a
bad day, but the friends that you can share good news with
that also want to support you inin good news.
Yeah, I think that's a really good point.
Most of the time, though, peoplewant to be around people who are

(17:57):
positive and full of good news. The the, I think almost a better
measure of good friend is someone who, you know, when
you're not so contagiously happythat they're still.
But he both you and Simon make areally good point there.
I'd say the second most important thing to do is learn
how to cook at home. Get the necessary equipment.

(18:21):
Find a half a dozen recipes thatyou actually learn how to make
and enjoy. And that means you might have to
start with 15 recipes and remember they're mostly whole
food plant based. Nobody's going to live longer
eating eating roast beef or whatdo you call them bangers or?
Bangers and mash. Bangers and.

(18:42):
Mash, I hate to say. Or, you know, greasy chips or
fish and that sort of thing. So learning how to make and then
when you the problem with going out to eat, even if it's a
quote, UN quote healthy restaurant, we tend to eat about
300 more calories when we go outthen when we eat at home.
And those calories tend to be more sugar and salt laden and
full of things that aren't so good for us.

(19:03):
So learning how to cook at home is super important.
And then very counterintuitively, taking the
third thing is taking the time to know what your purpose is.
And this is so often glossed over, but what it really means
is this. It's the confluence of what you

(19:24):
love to do or your passion, whatyou're good at doing, what's
being able to use your strength to do the things you like, what
lines up with your values and then what has a external
benefit, not just for you, not just sitting around knitting or

(19:45):
you know, I love sports cars or whatever.
And by the way, in all the Blue zones, they have vocabulary for
purpose and purpose there is always, always has an altruistic
element to it. It's not just me, me, me.
It's benefits children or benefits the community or
benefits old people. Iron is one of the most common
deficiencies that I see in clinic, especially in women.

(20:07):
And it's not just about feeling tired.
Low iron can impact your energy,your focus, your mood, and even
your immune system. It's something we really need to
be aware of because if left untreated, iron deficiency can
become very serious. Now UK data shows that around 20
to 35% of women aged 18 to 50 donot need the recommended dietary

(20:31):
guidelines for iron intake. And if you're pregnant,
menstruating or following a vegetarian or vegan diet, your
needs are even higher and therefore you're more at risk.
So that's why I often recommend Spartone.
Now this is a naturally sourced iron rich water that comes from
the Welsh pills. It contains ferrous iron, the
most absorbable form, with studies showing up to 40% with

(20:54):
absorption, so your body can actually use what it takes in
now. It's also incredibly gentle.
It's one natural ingredient, there's no harsh tablets and
there's no digestive issues. I use it myself and it is my go
to in clinic. You can pick up Spartone at
Boots and if you've been feelinglow in energy it's absolutely
worth checking in on your iron with your doctor or GP.

(21:24):
Can we just kind of like start unwrapping how the oral
microbiome has this kind of linkto to the overarching
conversation of dementia? Yeah.
And what I can do is, is maybe start by explaining how these
bacteria get into the body. So as I mentioned, we have our
oral microbiome, our mouth is lined by tissue and that's
tissues job is the same as our skin, which is to keep the

(21:46):
environment on the outside and keep things from getting into
our bloodstream. But what happens is when we have
a biosis in our microbiome, our body senses that there's an
infection that shouldn't be there.
So it's going to release our white blood cells and our immune
modulators to go and try and kill whatever is invading.
And ahead of those cells, the body will release AM and P8,

(22:09):
which is that enzyme I talked about that's responsible for
breaking down the gut tissue. That enzyme acts as a scissor,
so it goes, and it starts cutting through any collagen
that's in the body to allow those cells direct access to the
invasion. And so that enzyme will start to
cut through our gum tissue and make our gums permeable.
So instead of our gums being a physical barrier, now they

(22:32):
microscopically become permeable, kind of like a
sponge. And so now it's it's letting the
cells get to the source of infection.
But at the same time, that gum tissue can no longer act as a
barrier. Now that bacteria get into the
gum tissue. And our gum tissue is what
houses the blood supply of our body.
That's why some people's gums are bleeding when they brush or
floss. And so when we see our gums are

(22:55):
bleeding, that should be an AHA warning sign that our gums are
leaky. We have leaky gums.
And so once those pathogens get into the gum tissue, they can
circulate anywhere and everywhere throughout the body.
And one of the places that they go, and that's very close to the
mouth is the brain. And so we have the blood brain
barrier, which is a semi permeable membrane that's

(23:16):
supposed to let certain things into the brain that we need, but
also keep out things that's going to harm our body.
So it should be keeping out pathogens, bad bacteria.
You know, sometimes people will talk about parasites in the
brain, you know, toxins, things like that.
Microplastics. Plastics but when the the blood

(23:37):
brain barrier can be broken downas well.
So things like stress, chronic inflammation, glucose disruption
in our in our bodies, those things will break down the blood
brain barrier and now that can no longer.
Protect our brain so it opens the doors for oral bacteria to
get into the brain, and the brain knows.
These bacteria are not supposed to be here.

(23:57):
And So what happens in the case of Alzheimer's is, is the the
brain starts laying down beta amyloid plaques around the
neurons to protect them from that bacteria, But in doing so
starves the brain off from critical nutrients that it
needs. And then the brain, those
neurons start to shrink and die off.
So the brain is trying to save itself, right?
But in in essence, it's killing itself at the same time.

(24:19):
So that's one way the bacteria will directly cause those beta
amyloid or contribute to those beta amyloid plaques laying
down. It also disrupts Tau protein
formation, which we know is getting even more important in
in Alzheimer's. But the other way that the oral
microbiome effects brain health is when it causes inflammation.
Again, the body knows that something is going on.

(24:41):
It's out of whack. So we elicit this chronic
inflammatory response and the bacteria will actually cause the
inside of our blood vessels to become sticky, to become
weakened, to lose their elasticity in terms of dilating
and contracting. And over time that will reduce
blood flow. So we'll actually get reduction

(25:01):
of blood flow to the brain, which we need blood flow in the
brains. That's how our brain gets oxygen
and the nutrients it needs. So it'll contribute to the
Alzheimer's by those beta amyloid plaques and Tau protein
disruption, but it also contributes to dementia because
it restricts blood flow to the brain and thus oxygen.
So two ways that it affects brain health.

(25:22):
If people don't start flossing their teeth after this episode,
I don't know what's going to make them floss.
We all fear cognitive decline. We all fear this idea.
Our brain isn't working properly.
Alzheimer's is a very specific disease and many people who are

(25:43):
said to have Alzheimer's may notactually have, only might not
actually have Alzheimer's. There may they need a
neurologist to properly diagnoseit.
They may not have Alzheimer's may not be the only condition
they have. They may have other things going
on at the same time, kind of a double whammy or multiple whammy
that's affecting the brain function.

(26:04):
Or they may have an altogether different neurological,
neurodegenerative condition thatmasquerades with some of the
same symptoms of Alzheimer's. We call that dementia.
But so rather than try to go forthe diagnosis and then look for
that magic pill that can actually reverse it or magic
food that can reverse it, which is what people, you know, people

(26:24):
that are watching that or listening, that's what they
want. They were looking for that
simple solution. I think prevention is really
key, especially in areas that we're still doing research and
we don't under fully have a fullunderstanding of it.
OK, So what are the things that we know that are helpful for
reversing dementia? We know that actually before we
go there, let me just say what are the main things that

(26:46):
actually put you at greatest risk for dementia?
OK, well, I told you many causesof dementia, many types of
dementia, but I'll tell you if you have a family history of,
of, of some type of neurodegeneration, some form of
dementia, you're going to be at higher risk.
OK, Alzheimer's specifically, but I think that other forms of

(27:09):
dementia is what Parkinson's being another one.
Huntington's disease, ALS has a genetic component, amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis. I have a really, really dear
friend of mine who has had this.Could be genetic.
All right. That's a risk factor.
I think if you had head trauma, you know, you played football or

(27:30):
hockey as a kid or boxers, you know, the repeated head, you
know, the intracranial head trauma, CTE, you know, that
actually is a setup for loss of resiliency and, and, and
improper brain function as you get older.

(27:52):
And by the way, that's tied directly into mental illness as
well. Depression, suicidal ideation,
schizophrenia, bipolar disorder,all those, all the symptoms come
up all right, in addition to cognitive defects.
So again, lots of things are feeders into this as another
risk factor. We also know, and this is

(28:13):
actually more recent discovery. I think this is probably
profound, a profound recent discovery is that our our gut
health, our gut microbiome probably plays a gigantic role
in maintaining that brain resiliency because because we
are finding in people with depression and cognitive
disorders and Alzheimer's disease, OK, many of these

(28:35):
inability to recover from with, you know, brain not being
resilient all the way to Frank dementia, Alzheimer's disease,
you find changes in the gut microbiome.
So if you study two groups of age matched patients and you
study and one and you one of thegroups has Alzheimer's, the
other group same age, same otherfeatures don't have Alzheimer's.

(28:59):
One of the major differences youfind between the two groups is
their gut microbiome is very, very different.
There's dysbiosis or a sick gut bacteria, poor neighborhood,
unhealthy neighborhood in the patients with Alzheimer's.
Is that cause or effect? Well, you know, more likely that
is a contributory 'cause you know, the brain didn't cause a
bad macrobiome. It's more likely the bad

(29:21):
microbiome and, and it could be that Alzheimer's brains are
intensely inflamed, lots of inflammation and, and blood
vessels growing in ways that arereleasing toxins and not
bringing better perfusion. I, I publish a paper on
Alzheimer's in The Lancet in theyear 2000, proposing that
Alzheimer's has an angiogenesis component to it as well.

(29:44):
It's a very frequently cited paper.
There's new, much more research to be done on that.
You know, look, these are, theseare deviations from normal,
right? So gut microbiome, head trauma,
genetic family history, we don'tknow.
There's so many other questions.Is it environmental exposures?
Are there epigenetics that couldactually make a difference?

(30:04):
What about microplastics, you know, and nanoplastics, right?
That the credit cards that we'reeating every single week,
unbeknownst in our food. Before you go on to the
positives, sorry to interrupt, but we had James Kim Ross on the
show who I speak to you about who wrote that matter.
And he was talking about fecal transplants and he was even
saying there is now studies which you spoke about the gut
microbiome where they are transferring fecal microbiotic

(30:28):
transplants into people with Alzheimer's and it's working,
which is quite mind blowing. So when you're talking about the
gut microbiomics powerhouse? That's translational research at
its best, something that we knowand that there's some positive
benefits that we're seeing in the lab in animals.
OK, research data. Animals aren't humans.
We've cured cancer in animals many times.

(30:50):
We're still working, struggling to get it to work reliably in
humans. Same thing in Alzheimer's.
I think it's really exciting that they're translating that
research to to humans. Let's talk about things that can
lower your risk of, of cognitivedisorders, ranging from just,

(31:10):
you know, having difficulty finding it.
We can't remember where your keys are, which you ate for
dinner last night to all the wayto full blown dementia.
So again, except the fact these are different diseases,
different conditions, are there things that I could generally
say with lower risk? A couple of things.
Number one, better gut health isprobably going to wind up being

(31:32):
one of the central, it's probably going to be the
bullseye. I think, you know, in 20 years
we're going to be looking back and say, why didn't we think of
this 100 years ago? Gut health, bad gut health, poor
gut health is bad brain health. So and by the way, when does it
start? It probably starts when we're
when we're children. So for all the parents out

(31:53):
there, younger people who you know, have younger kids and say,
you know, they got the rest of their lives to figure it out
wrong. We when we're thinking about
making decisions when young parents are making young parents
are making decisions for young children, they may be actually
casting their fate, both positive and negative at a very,

(32:14):
very early age. And so I think getting kids onto
good dietary patterns that foster better gut health,
they're going to be thanking youwhen you're long gone, OK?
Because their gut microbiome be healthier, their brain will
probably be healthier as well. And you're right, there are lots
of research studies, clinical research studies, being able to
look at this now to see what we can actually getting more

(32:37):
evidence to have a better understanding of so #1 gut
health. So all the things related to gut
health, better but better diet, less ultra processed foods, you
know, etcetera, etcetera #2 regular physical activity.
Everyone feels, you know, when you're younger, you feel like,
you know what, I want to be in shape.
I'm going to join a gym. Some people say I want to get a

(32:58):
trainer. And you look in the mirror and
you look pretty good. Look, that is something that
people can do in a certain window in their lives, but
really being physically active is something that we can
actually do our entire lives. And that's what's important is
consistent regular physical behavior.
Look, kids are running around all the time.
They're bouncing off the walls, right?
Teenagers are super active youngadults.

(33:20):
You're rushing off to work, you know, you're zipping around,
going out to events and parties and you know, things like that.
When you get to middle age, you're tired.
You know, there's things happening to you.
You sort of you're worn down and, and a lot of those physical
activity things that you might, we might have otherwise done, we
slow down on. I would encourage people to keep
up your physical and be mindful of your movement right.

(33:43):
But I even think the younger generation, because a lot of us
can sit behind laptops all day for 9 hours and we don't move.
And then we think 20 minute run is going to solve the movement
crisis as it's we're not in a crisis, but you know, tick all
of our boxes of movement. But actually, we're probably
getting less because we're sitting down all day.
Right. Well, that's, you know, that's
bringing up not only the kind ofthe laptop phenomenon.

(34:05):
Look, if you're if you're a laptop, yeah, but if you're
mobile, you can still walk when you're mobile.
Yeah, totally. However, now we're talking about
another dimension, which is bluelight that shines out of our
devices that interferes with oursleep.
So after physical activity, well, I'm going to get to the
sleep part. Staying in motion is really
important throughout your whole life.
Not only it's important for brain health, but it's important

(34:26):
for overall mobility as well. You know, somebody once told me
that, you know, as we get older,when we're young, younger, we
can, you know, climb on walls like Spider man.
When you get older, you don't think about doing that anymore.
And yet if you think about like a like a leopard in the jungle,
it's hunting, It is pouncing from tree to tree branch to tree

(34:48):
branch its entire life. Otherwise it wouldn't be able to
hunt or eat. That's kind of what we need to
be able to actually do is to stay limber, stay agile and and
stay in motion. That has been shown to improve
vascular health, blood vessel health, which then of course
addresses the blood brain barrier, which then also
directly addresses the circulation of the brain.

(35:09):
More movement brings better blood flow just by the nature of
movement. So stay in motion.
All right. The other thing that I think is
really important is social connection.
Social connection turns out to be, it sounds like a kind of a
hand WAVY sociology, psychology thing, you know, have good
friends, make good connections, network.

(35:29):
It's much more vital than that. If you look at the Blue Zones
where people live not just long lives, but they live vitally,
they live with a vibrancy. Part of their vibrancy is their
connection to other people. They want to be connected to
other people. When you, you know, and, and so
that's also important is to, to find meaning.
You know, there's a term called hedonia, right?

(35:53):
So that's where you get great pleasure in something.
And then there's eudaimonia. This is a more, a newer concept.
Eudaimonia is actually feeling asense of purpose and happiness
because of your purpose. When you've got friends, when
you've got family, when you've got good connections, you feel
like you're part of a, part of your purpose is to be there for
them. That's really important too.

(36:13):
And although we don't understandthe biology behind that, that's
also very important for brain health and probably ties into
the, the, the, the preventative aspect, the social connections
that actually lower the risk of dementia.
I've watched the science of adaptations grow personally over
the last few years, and I've become more curious in their

(36:34):
role in nervous system support, focus, and resilience because
adaptogens basically buffer the cortisol that gives us that
stress and anxiety. But here's the thing, quality is
everything. Most adaptogens on the market
don't actually contain enough ofthe active compounds that you
see in clinical studies to make a difference.
That's why I've partnered with London Nootropics.

(36:54):
These guys only use clinical studies, standardized extracts.
It's really, really important toget the benefits that you're
seeing in clinical research. And they work with HIF Asta
Terra, Europe's leading mushroombioscience company.
They have high bio of availability.
They use incredible ingredients like KSM 66, ashwaganda,
Amarilla life and these are the active ingredients that you need

(37:15):
to see the difference. They have lots of different
blends. Flow gets me into deep focus
with Lion's Mane, then help support my calm study my clarity
with ashwaganda and Mojo gives aclean lift, no crash and mish
love. Made with fantastic fungi with
three Hefasta Terra mushrooms toelevate your day.
Enjoy 20% off and use code. Live well, be well.
They come in these fantastic little sachets and they're great

(37:37):
for travelling too. How does MDMA work with the
brain and PTSD? OK, this is an easy one.
All right, so the the first stepis what does how does PTSD
change your brain? So PTSD is this post traumatic

(37:58):
stress disorder. People are fearful very much of
whatever happened before is not really in the past, is it's
going to happen again. And so your amygdala, the part
of your brain that is more processing fear is hyperactive.
There's more activity in the in the amygdala for people that
have PTSD than than average normal people.

(38:21):
The other thing about PTSD is that it's hard to separate out
what's a real threat, what's a nut.
If you, you know, people are always triggered by different
things. So there's less activity in the
prefrontal cortex where we thinklogically.
So you're sort of short circuited by your emotions.
So you see somebody that looks like somebody that assaulted
you, and now you feel like you're about to be assaulted
again. If you had a moment to think

(38:43):
about it, it's a whole differentperson.
It's a whole different context. It's not that.
And then these traumatic memories are never really put
into the past. And so the hippocampus, which is
the part of our brain that stores memories into long term
storage, there's lower activity in the hippocampus and less
connectivity between the amygdala and the hippocampus
when you have PTSD, right? So that's kind of how your brain

(39:06):
changes and you've got these real circuits that are
activating all the time. So MDMA works great for PTSD,
but we found later that or not we other people found it.
We felt that if we focus on the healing, other people will do
the neuroscience. So what we know is that MDMA
reduces activity in the amygdalaso that when you are remembering

(39:31):
A traumatic memory, it's not as fearful.
MDMA increases activity in the prefrontal cortex, so you're
able to sort of think logically more so.
And then MDMA increases connectivity between the
hippocampus and the amygdala so that you're able to process
memories and put them into long term storage.

(39:52):
Then the other big part of what it does is oxytocin, so the
hormone of love and connection of self, compassion of self
love. Yeah, my favorite one.
Yeah, so MDMA releases oxytocin.And there's a woman, Gul Dolan,
a neuroscientist, who has done studies that show that in mice
that the oxytocin is released byMDMA, and that's what promotes

(40:15):
neuroplasticity. And that's what we really need
with PTSD is that we need to create more of these neural
highways and kind of shunt them off from the trauma loop and
create new neural highways. So we're having new processing
methods. Right, yeah, you definitely can
have one session where you rewire your brain and then if
you do the therapy. Now, I I should add though, that

(40:36):
for example, this woman that I worked with in in 1984 who had
PTSDMDMA, by reducing this fear response to traumatic memories
can be destabilizing as well as healing.
So she initially did it with a friend of hers and memories of
past sexual abuse came up and itso destabilized her.

(40:58):
She'd previously attempted suicide, she'd been medicated,
she'd been hospitalized from this trauma and under MDMA, even
in a safe place, relatively witha lover, these memories came up
and she felt that they were overwhelming.
So she checked herself into a hospital not to kill herself.
And while she was there, they stabilized her, but they gave

(41:19):
her the same accessorized stuff that she'd had before, whatever
medicine, she didn't think it would work.
So she was more so subtle when she got out.
So I, I, I don't want people to think you take MDMA and now all
of your problems you can deal with.
If you're not in a safe therapeutic setting, you, you
can trigger traumatic memories and then they can be
overwhelming. So it's the context more than

(41:42):
the drug that is what produces the healing.
So Lion's Mane is getting a really big kind of moment, I'd
say, where a lot of people are adding it to their coffees in
the morning. And I would reference it as a
nootropic. So things that can kind of allow

(42:03):
us to connect more wiring in ourbrain and work with
neuroplasticity and new neural networks.
I want to start with Lion's Manebecause I think it's having a
real buzzword at the moment and it's on a trend.
And there's lots of different research that is out there,
though it's some really interesting ones that I've come
across where there is neuroprotective neuroplasticity.

(42:26):
This is words that, you know, a lot of our listeners would have
heard. And I also heard you kind of
mention just before you came on also how it's involved in gut
health. So is Lion's Mane just a trend,
first of all? And if it's not, what does the
research say and how can people use it really day-to-day?
Well, definitely it's not a trend.

(42:47):
It's it is a trend. How it got now to be known.
It is something that we've been researching now for, for more
than 20 years. And there's a lot of research
from other universities, research centres, hospitals, but
we have big research in autism in children, for example, with

(43:09):
lion's mane and reishi, which isgiven an incredible result.
And this is very much linked to that link of the brain access to
the gut because we are seeing that when there are in the
metabolism of the microbiota, we're missing some of those

(43:34):
secondary metabolist that are produced by the specific
microbiota. We're conducting now a study in
Argentina, Venezuela and Colombia.
Wow, and is it safe? I guess it's safe for kids to.
Take The beautiful thing of mushrooms is that they're really
safe. Only people who cannot take
mushrooms are the ones that are allergic.

(43:57):
But if not, they're completely compatible with every treatment.
The mushroom, the pure mushroom.So when we're talking about the
extract that is dry and extracted or the pure mushroom
powdered or even the the micellum depending on how it's
done. But what it's very important is

(44:19):
how then it's been produced, theexcipients that it's put, that
it's when it can interact with other drugs.
But if not, if it's the mushroompure, the whole pure in the
whole form, then there's no problem.
And we have tested it. This is something that we need
to always when we go into research, we need to go through

(44:41):
something that's called the ethical committee of the
hospital where you need to bringall the proofs and all the
previous studies in cellular forms and also in in rats, in
murine models that are called inorder to see that it's safe,
there's no toxicity and that people can take them.

(45:02):
That's really important. So you, you mentioned that two
mushrooms linesman and then you slipped in one very quickly and
and we didn't have time to interrupt you, but was Reishi.
So I want to make sure that people kind of who are new to
this really understand what these mushrooms are.
So you've just mentioned lion's mane and that can work really
well on our gut health, you weresaying, and our brain health.

(45:23):
What we have seen in the studieswe have conducted is that it
gives you neuroplasticity, meaning that your neurons become
younger and and that's somethingan idea that I really love,
which is not the pro aging or anti aging.
It's not only for the face. Oh no, it's for the mind.
It's for the whole system, yeah,even for the gut, even for the

(45:46):
heart and the circulatory system.
So that is one of the big treasures of mushrooms that that
pro aging or anti aging works inevery single cell of our body in
the mitochondrias in DLS 10 for example.
So it's for our skin, for our arteria, for every single

(46:09):
membrane of the cells. And what we're going to see with
the intake of Lion's mane is that you can have a better
sleep, you can have a better focus and concentration because
of those neurons that are even growing because they activate

(46:30):
the synthesis of the nerve growth factor.
So Lion's main erisinones are molecules that are contained
ingredients and that can't pass surpass the Amanto encephalic
barrier. This is a barrier that normally
nothing can pass. The blood brain barrier, the
blood, the blood brain barrier and barrier.

(46:51):
And normally nothing can trespass it because it has to be
closed there the the the brain nothing can trespass it, but
these erisenones can. So they will be there
activating. The myelin sheath.
The myelin sheath that is protecting the nerves and this
is so important because it's going to give us the connections

(47:14):
from the brain to activate the muscles and to activate the
action. So what we're thinking, it has
to go all the impulse, the nerveimpulse directly to move
actually what we are the the action that we're sending.
And this happens when everythingit's completely connected with

(47:35):
that mealing sheet. And this is something that
lion's mane does, so we can see a improvement in multiple
sclerosis, for example. Well, so you can be working with
Ms. We are working with an M with the Ms. as well and it's
helping there. As I was saying, with autism.

(47:58):
We have now a research that is starting that's a clinical trial
with 500 elderly people that we're going to work to see how
we can work in early stages of Alzheimer's because we are
seeing that we can help incredibly with Alzheimer's.

(48:21):
When with lion's mane, yes. With the abstract of Lion's
Mane. I think that's something that so
many of us are scared of, right?I know it's the leading cause of
death in the UKI say that all the time in this podcast because
I think dementia and Alzheimer'sis something that always arises.
It's incredible. So I guess even thinking pre
Alzheimer's, right, Maybe if you've got a genetic risk for

(48:44):
it, a genetic disposition, yeah,this is maybe something that
people should be thinking about,right, As a prevention measure.
Totally, because so we need to change the medicine that
intervenes for the medicine thatprevents.

(49:05):
We do know that mushrooms which have dietary fiber have
something a bio active called beta D glucan.
Beta D glucan, by the way, is really good for your
endothelium, your lining, good for blood vessels of the body,
also good for blood vessels of the brain.
It's also anti-inflammatory, also improves your immune system

(49:26):
as well. This beta glucan is also found
in oats, so like oatmeal. And so we took a page of the
playbook from what we're what we've learned from mushrooms
because we know that the beta D glucan can be important for
healing. And we extracted from oats and

(49:47):
tested to see if the oats beta glucan will actually have
healing. And guess what we found?
And this has been, we presented this last year at a wound
meeting in the lab. When you actually treat a wound
with oat derived bio actives, including beta glucan, you can
double the rate of normal healing.
You can speed up normal healing,you can improve the circulation

(50:09):
underneath the surface. So after the wound is healed,
kind of like the, the covering is shut, right?
It's like, but what about underneath?
Well, we found that that beta D glucan from Oates will actually
improve the circulation, better blood flow, which is what you
want for better healthy tissue, right?
And we also found when we cut out the wound and look under the

(50:30):
microscope, something startling the wound that healed is
scarless. No scar.
OK. And then we looked even deeper.
We found that part of what made it scarless was it recruited
stem cells, right? So this is insights we gained
from mushrooms we applied to oats.

(50:50):
Then we went jumped into wound healing.
It was also powerfully anti-inflammatory as well.
This is how food is medicine. Researchers like me actually
take discoveries in one area andtry to apply it to other areas.
Explore what else can we do? So I think it'd be fascinating
to take a look at this Chinese celery derived NBP and ask are

(51:13):
there any other plants that havethis?
And if so, could we develop someprotocols potentially for people
who you know, need better brain recovery or brain regeneration?
What I heard you say, and I don't know if this is correct,
we can regenerate parts of our brain.
Is that true? I know this is a very big thing

(51:34):
because it's coming on to understanding more around
cognitive decline, but thinking about that is such a a large
statement and gives a lot of hope if that is true, is that
true? OK, so when I went to medical
school, it was very clearly taught to all the doctors to be
that humans don't regenerate. And of all the things that heal

(52:00):
very slowly, the brain, once youhave a stroke and you have a
blockage to the circulation of the brain or bleed that destroys
the brain, that's it, game over for that part of the brain.
We know that's not true because,and I actually questioned that
as I went through my schooling and training because I saw
plenty of stroke patients who they were kind of knocked out
immediately after their stroke. But over the course of a week,

(52:24):
you saw differences towards recovery.
A month, six months and even a year later, you see people can
continue to improve. That is not a scar, even though
there might be scar like features in the, in the scan
That's recovery. Now, what causes recovery
rewiring. We used to say, well, you know,

(52:45):
the, the, the brain electrical signals found a way around the
blockage. So it was able to ignore the
blockage and find its way through.
That's true. We do know that you're you can
rewire after brain injury. But as we began learning more
about stem cells, progenitor cells, we began realizing that

(53:05):
progenitor cells also play a role in in brain recovery after
traumatic injury. Now, how do we know this?
Well, one thing is that if you take a look at somebody with a
stroke and you try to and you know, we can scan somebody after
a stroke in the hospital, you can see the exact area where
there's a problem. All right, right, where the

(53:26):
block after where the blockages is a part of the brain that
that's looks like it's dying andit looks worse, You know, a
couple of days later, you could actually draw blood from that
same patient, which we do all the time in the hospital and
stroke patients. Let's get some blood and let's
run their blood tests. You're checking their blood
chemistry, you're testing your blood count, all the usual

(53:49):
things that happen. But once we began doing research
on stem cells, we were able to actually count the stem cells.
And guess what? After a stroke, stem cells are
called by your brain out of yourbone marrow to help rescue parts
of the brain through healing, repair, and regeneration.
Because that's what stem cells do, they regenerate.

(54:11):
So I think that this idea that the brain doesn't regenerate is
an old idea. And now as we're beginning to
learn more about stem cells, we're beginning to realize that
they also play a part in recovery from stroke.
They also play recovery in traumatic brain injury as well.
You know, so and then the real exciting thing and I've been,

(54:33):
you know, I run the AngiogenesisFoundation.
We've been part of this. Could we in the future deliver a
dose of stem cells to to the brain after a stroke in an
effort to recover? Now, in animals in the lab,
delivering stem cells will actually help the brain
regenerate and recover from stroke.

(54:55):
It'll protect it from having as much damage as might otherwise
happen. So again, research is showing
that stem cells play a role. Brain can regenerate.
Even human brains does it slowly.
It would be great to optimize it.
And we don't have that magic keyto unlock how to optimize it.
However, in China, which has a completely separate FDA, it's

(55:20):
called the SFDA, the Sino FDA, they've already approved a
regenerative substance that comes from a plant, Chinese
celery. I don't know if you ever been to
an Asian market to look at celery.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not the same short, fat,
thick, very rigid celery. Chinese celery is very long and

(55:40):
it's kind of, it kind of droops all right.
It's fluffy. It's it's, it's also a lot more
potent. It smells like celery.
You were to cut it up and stir fry.
It really has a really, really powerful celery taste to it.
Actually, it's it's a delicious,I like to cook, so I always talk
about this. It's got a delicious flavor to
it. It really enhances a vegetable

(56:01):
dish, for example, like a vegetable stir fry.
That's what you want to do. There is actually a compound in
there, a natural compound calledNitro butylphalide, NBP in the
lab. NBP delivered to animals who
have had an experimental stroke will cause stem cells to come
out to, to limit the damage and help of the stroke and also help

(56:24):
the brain recover. So in China, they ran that
clinical trials, phase three clinical trials.
It worked like gangbusters. So now this is actually an
approved treatment for stroke plant based substance NBP to
treat stroke expressively for the goal, or I should say for
the expressive goal to be able to actually prompt brain

(56:44):
regeneration. We're also talking about
ketogenic diets as well in psychiatry.
So I thought that could be a really interesting place to go
down actually is obviously at the moment, and you'll know
this, the word longevity, everything is toted about within

(57:06):
mental health and how we should be optimizing our diet.
But they're 2 quite different diets.
So someone listening to this, how can they navigate what they
think should be going down? Was it the Mediterranean diet or
is it the ketogenic diet? What's the kind of overarching
answer from your opinion? So I would say the the first

(57:26):
step in even questioning whetheryou might benefit from changing
your diet is a really basic assessment of your metabolic
health markers. So what are your what's your
blood sugar like? Do you have pre diabetes or
diabetes? Unfortunately, 50% of Americans

(57:48):
now have pre diabetes or diabetes.
So one in two people are going to have to say, oh, that's the
problem for me. I want to look at your lipids,
HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, triglycerides.
I want to look at inflammatory biomarkers.
I want to look at waste, waste kind of circumference or

(58:13):
abdominal fat. I want to look at blood pressure
and with those markers and I will even take the inflammatory
biomarkers out because they're not officially part of metabolic
syndrome, but those general markers.
So blood glucose, HDL cholesterol, triglycerides,

(58:37):
blood pressure and abdominal fat, abdominal obesity, those
five biomarkers are biomarkers of what we call metabolic
syndrome. And right now only 7% of
Americans have none of them. 93%of Americans have at least one

(59:00):
abnormality in those five simplebiomarkers.
And that means so if you are in that 93% category, it means that
there is something about your lifestyle.
So those six pillars of lifestyle medicine that is off

(59:23):
more often than not. Diet is one that you should at
least consider. Now again, you might be
following the perfect diet and not sleeping well, or you might
be following the perfect diet and be in an abusive
relationship. And there's no way a perfect
diet is going to overcome the adversity and the health

(59:43):
consequences of being in an abusive relationship.
So I again, I don't want to makeit simpler than it is, but
barring those type of examples there, for a lot of people,
diet, nutrition is playing a keyrole and increasingly like in
Western countries such as the United States and the UK.

(01:00:04):
Increasingly, the consumption ofultra processed foods is being
found more and more to play a harmful role in human Health and
Human metabolism, including mental health, including
depression, anxiety, but even bipolar disorder and
schizophrenia. And unfortunately, in the United

(01:00:27):
States, about 60 to 70% of people's calories now on average
are coming from ultra processed foods.
That's a real problem. So if we put men and women under
a brain scan, is there much difference between a woman's
brain and a man's brain? Because all I've got in my brain

(01:00:50):
at the moment is men are from Mars, women are from Venus.
Yes, and if you opened up a man's skull inside as a blue
brain and a woman's inside as a pink brain, and they're
completely separate, that's not really how we think about
things. So the way I like to describe
male versus female brains is, and we need to get back to just

(01:01:13):
quickly defining sex and gender.So remind me to come back to
that just so we don't get in, don't get in ourselves in a
quagmire is this idea that we contain multitudes and so do our
brains. So if you were to measure a
brain and compare one brain to another brain, what I mean,

(01:01:33):
you've said put it under a brainscanner, but like, what are you
measuring? Even under a brain scanner, you
could measure 100 different things.
You could measure like the entire volume of the brain or
the size or the shape. You could zoom in and look at
specific parts of the brain. How thick is the cortex, what is
the volume of that sub nuclei. You could use a different type

(01:01:57):
of brain imaging technology, like if MRI, functional MRI, and
you could look at how do different networks in the brain
connect? Which parts of the brain become
activated or deactivated while you're performing certain tasks
or maybe just when you're sort of lying there thinking about
nothing. You could look at how white and
organizes the white matter. You could look at, you could

(01:02:19):
zoom on in and look at very, very specific components of Gray
matter, perhaps getting beyond the point of an MRI scanner or
an MRI scanner. You could take a brain out.
You could cut it up into little pieces and look at it under the
microscope and count neurons or look at synapses or look at
neuron number or look at receptors.

(01:02:41):
You could, you know, there's, there's so many different
things. Yeah.
And you could also then start going, well, what about perhaps
risk factors for different typesof diseases?
So we could look at Tourette's syndrome or Alzheimer's disease
or anxiety or depression or autism, a whole host of
different factors like that. We could start doing different

(01:03:02):
types of cognitive tests. So we've got hundreds of
different types of measures thatwe could make of anyone brain.
And each of those measures, sometimes we might see a
biological sex difference and that we might see a difference
between a male brain and a female brain.
Often we won't see a biological sex difference.

(01:03:26):
Sometimes when we see a difference, it's not an
enormously big difference. Now you'll be from because
you're a scientist, right? So if you've got like a normal
distribution curve, a standard distribution, if you measure
like 1000 male brains and 1000 female brains and you did start
to see perhaps a biological sex difference, it's not as if the
standard deviation curves are completely separate.

(01:03:48):
Often there's a, there's a lot of overlap.
We're looking at very, very subtle differences.
We're only going to start seeingthose differences emerge when
we're measuring lots and lots ofbrains.
There was this, there's one study, which I haven't talked
about a lot, that comes out of work from a woman, Pauline
Mackie, a neuroscientist, psychiatrist, Women's Health
researcher, who's looked at brain fog during menopause.

(01:04:11):
And this is like this big topic.And again, if you're told you
get to 48 and you're going to get brain fog, you're going to
experience it. Like we can't, we do create our
own realities. But also it is real and it is
measurable, but not in everyone all of the time.
So they had a cohort, It was a small longitudinal study whereby
they looked at a group of women and followed them the whole way

(01:04:32):
through perimenopause and menopause and kind of out the
other side and did tons of different cognitive tests on
them at multiple times all the way through this sort of
perimenopause transition. And the cognitive tests were
designed to pick up different aspects of kind of memory and
attention and thinking. All the sorts of functions that
our brain does that we might feel aren't working as well.

(01:04:55):
When we say we had brain fog, and brain fog's a very big
umbrella word, like a constellation of symptoms, a bit
like baby brain, where we might just like my brain isn't
working. But like, people with who
haven't slept much might say they have brain fog.
Or perhaps people with depression might have brain fog.
Or, you know, we use it quite loosely.

(01:05:16):
And it turns out that not every woman shows cognitive decline
across this time course. Machine learning was able to
analyse this data and kind of come up with these like kind of
four subgroups or buckets of women showing these different
kind of trajectories across the menopause transition.
Some women, their cognition stayed the same, did all these

(01:05:38):
tests the whole way through and they they just sort of stayed
the same as they were. There was one small group of
women who showed a slight reduction in some of their test
scores across that menopause transition and they were much
more likely to have poor levels of education, have terrible
sleep and to also have lots of other kind of constellation of
symptoms going through menopause.

(01:06:00):
But then there was two groups ofwomen who actually showed
improvements in their test scores and through menopause and
in a way that might not will probably shouldn't necessarily
come as a surprise. Not every test score, but you
know, some tests of memory and some tests of attention actually
improved. But when you do cognitive
testing multiple times, your test scores get better.

(01:06:24):
And we we tell the story about brain fog, but that's not
everyone's experience all of thetime.
And it's not until we've got really rigorous data analysis,
we've got lots of data points and then we use sophisticated
ways to analyse it. We have these new stories
starting to emerge that I think show that again, we're not just

(01:06:49):
reaching this reproductive life transition that automatically
equals dysfunction and decline and instability and things going
wrong. Brains shift in shape and
reorganize and respond and you know, be familiar with this
word, even just this word, brainplasticity.
Our brains reorganize and react and often show quite a great

(01:07:13):
deal of resilience over time. But we're just not telling these
stories. And I would, and I saw some of
the types of stories emerge whenwe're talking about pregnancy
and motherhood and, and baby brain and even just aging and
memory across the lifespan. Data is starting to reveal some

(01:07:33):
really new and interesting stories that aren't always about
dysfunction and decline. I think that gives OK, so
there's one study that I read inyour book.
I'm going to I'm I'm jumping in the lifespans here.
But listen, stay with me. I'm.
Jumping as well We're. Going everywhere but it's, you
know, that's, that's, that's thejourney of life menopause.

(01:07:54):
So I went to this Women's Healthsummit in LA and I mean, for a
woman in her 30s being very muchin the severe, I'm informed
about menopause now I'm. Probably petrified at the
moment, but I'm petrified. And I can see these.
Two years ago you wouldn't have went menopause.

(01:08:14):
I joke and I say menopause wasn't invention, but yes.
But I also really don't want to undermine women that are really
struggling. I actually do have some friends
who can call me in tears becausethey feel like they've
completely lost who they are andthey feel very alone.
And so I guess I'm kind of in the weeds of kind of wanting to
understand the science behind this.

(01:08:34):
But I remember sitting in the summer House conference only a
couple of months ago with some incredible scientists and
showing this decline of the brain on the screen and going,
this is what happens when you hit 35.
This is what happens when you hit 45 and the surface of the
brain declining. So I'm obviously naturally as
anyone for listening to the showand anyone who is very deep in

(01:08:55):
the menopause space, I'm pretty scared about what's meant to
happen. And then I read this part in
your book, which had the first brain image study tracking women
from perimenopause to post synapause came out in 2021.
It showed that some areas of grey matter expanded, especially
in the regions of the brain linked to memory and cognition.

(01:09:19):
So I was like, it's not lost, it's adaption, which I don't
think I've had or heard any conversation that said that
parts of our memory and cognition can actually expand in
menopause. What are we wasting our money on

(01:09:41):
when it comes to our brain? Vitamins.
Nutraceuticals, we did the reviews, we look at the data,
the data that I mean, if you, ifyou want the magical one thing,
first of all, that's not going to get your help.
It's a comprehensive approach. You're going to have to do the
brisk walking. The studies have shown that if
you do brisk walking, you reduceyour chance of dementia by 45%.

(01:10:05):
Brisk walking free in your neighborhood, you don't have to
pay to some social media guru. So brisk walk 20 minutes a day.
It's incredible. The operative term though being
brisk walk, leg strength, leg strength.
This is a good one. Yeah, we looked at the compared
population that actually had MCI, pre dementia, mild

(01:10:28):
cognitive impairment, pre dementia, 2 groups, one did leg
strength and exercise, the otherone stretching exercises.
They reduce their chance of dementia by more than 40% by leg
strength. And by leg strength I don't mean
you have to do squats and put weights on your mini squats in
front of TV. What about calf lifts if I'm
sitting here now talking to you?Completely, absolutely,

(01:10:52):
absolutely. So simple things like that are
incredibly powerful. I want people to start moving
towards that direction of many meaningful activities.
So coming back to vitamins and neutral circles, there are a
couple that are invalid and and validated have been shown to be
important. In US.
About 40% of population is B12 deficient.

(01:11:14):
B12. Is.
Much. Yes, yes.
Whether they're omnivore or vegetarian, it doesn't matter.
4041% is not getting enough vitamin.
So check your B12, check your B12, and even if you take B12,
if you haven't checked it, B12 is water soluble and most often
it goes away after you know. So check your B12.
That's an important thing. B12 is involved in so many

(01:11:36):
cellular processes, including DNA repair.
B12 should be normal and a little bit on the higher side.
The other thing about the brain is, is that this little organ, 3
lbs two percent of your body's weight consumes 25% of your
body's energy. It is incredibly overwhelmed

(01:11:57):
throughout life and but yet at the same time, it's the most
resilient organ in the body. It continues to grow as you get
older if you give it the right chance.
It's the one of the, it's the only organ that can actually get
better as you get older if you give it the right chance.
That's the critical thing. And, and it's just remarkable.

(01:12:19):
The reason that you sleep is because of the brain, because
it's during night that the brainneeds to reboot, it needs to
clean it's reach, needs to reorganize.
So some simple measures can profoundly, profoundly help your
brain grow and become better every single day.

(01:12:41):
That's a that's an incredible positive thing to know about
your own brain. I think the fact that you said
25% of our energy and 50% of ouroxygen, I think if I'm correct
and this even happens during oursleep cycle.
Especially during sleep. The brain does some of its best
work while you're asleep. When you're asleep, the brain

(01:13:01):
actually shrinks, which means imagine we use the analogy of a
city. Imagine the streets getting
wider. All the traffic is gone.
Now the cleaning crew comes in. These are glial cells, which are
outnumbering the other cells by by ninefold.
Well, there are different kinds of glial cells, but let's say in
general ninefold they the cleaning crew is larger than the
population of the city. Imagine New York City or LA, the

(01:13:24):
streets are wider now. There's that flow of fluid that
goes through the street to cleanit, not just a little truck
coming around, a flow of fluid. That's the glymphatic system and
it cleans the brain and it does that during the deep cycles of
sleep. So you need deep sleep.
You need 4 to 5 * a night where you get to the deep sleep.

(01:13:45):
And that's an important conversation we can have is what
do you need to do to get to deepsleep?
And when you do that also, that gives space for the information
to get reorganized and put in the right file folder and
cabinet. The one thing that helps memory
the most more than any trick, more than any gimmick, is sleep.

(01:14:06):
So that dormant period which youthought was just a wasted 1/3 of
your life is literally the part that actually grows your brain,
cleans, cleanses your brain, andthen reorganizes your brain to
be better. If there's any detox, real
detox, it's sleep. And how much sleep should we be

(01:14:27):
getting on average night? Because this is a very big topic
of debate. Some people say 6 hours, some
people say 8 to 9 hours. What is the brain health?
If we're literally thinking about our brain health, what is
the optimum amount of sleep thatone should be getting and does
it differ from men to women? Yeah, that's a great question.
So based on the latest data, on an average, an adult needs about

(01:14:51):
8 to 9 hours of sleep, dependingon their activity levels and
some other needs. There have been some differences
in the need for sleep among men and women, but it's not more
than 30 minutes more than that. So say, for example, if it's
eight hours for men, it's probably 8 1/2 hours for women.
And it may change during the different phases of their lives.

(01:15:13):
Whether, you know, women are menstruating or going through
menopause or through some recovery periods, it might
actually be a little bit more, but about 8 to 9 hours is is
enough. Now, there's a perception that
people need less sleep as they grow older, and that's not true
whether you're in your 30s or 40s or 80s and 90s.

(01:15:36):
You have to meet that quota. The sleep cycle and the
architecture changes. So the number of hours that we
spend in the deeper stages of sleep kind of shrinks for older
adults, but the number of cyclesof sleep that they go through
remains the same. We typically go through 4:00 to

(01:15:56):
5:00 cycles of sleep when you look at the architecture, and
I'd be happy to send you that picture.
And we spent about 90 minutes ineach of these cycles.
And the first half of the night is usually spent in the deeper
stages of sleep, stage 3 and 4. And that's where all the
cleansing and the memory consolidation happens during the

(01:16:20):
latter half or the second-half of the sleep architecture is
when we spend more time in REM sleep.
And REM sleep is about dreaming,where your mind is very active.
And that has been associated with creativity, with problem
solving. And, you know, you hear stories
from artists and from painters that actually come up with

(01:16:42):
phenomenal ideas during those stages of sleep.
So to come back to your question, it's about 8:00 to
9:00 hours of sleep and it kind of stays the same throughout our
adult life. What is?
What are the main things that people could basically start
doing today regarding all of this to help their brain health
and optimize their brain health?And our neural concept used at

(01:17:05):
the centre, Unwind. Unwind is not just sitting
around and and and relaxing on the beach, which is great that
we live on the beach. So it's fine.
Unwind is identifying the stressors specifically.
I mean, if you notice that's therunning stream through this
whole conversation, whether it'snutrition and everything else.
Spend a little time, go, go old,old school, get a notepad, write

(01:17:29):
down specifically, measurably the bad stressors in your life
specifically and measurably the good stressors.
What is good stressors? Things that have meaning in your
life, the direction you want to go in.
I mean, as, as I said, mine is, you know, one of the things is,
and there's several, I mean, oneof them is learning the guitar,
learning several languages, you know, Spanish and and French,

(01:17:53):
learning technology, learning about technology.
So lots of things. And then the service we do in
the communities, but very specifically what did this
project and so on and so forth, write those down.
Then systematically build timeline around the good
stressors and create a plan around bad stressors, how to

(01:18:14):
reduce, eliminate and delegate the bad stressors
systematically. We don't do that.
It's management. At the end of the day, it's
management. I, I know that I'm a
neurologist, but I'm going to talk to you as a manager.
Managing the good and bad stressors is critical because if
you don't do that, you will never get the good nutrition
because it's going to be the diet of the day.
Somebody on the Internet said, oh, now eat liver this or a

(01:18:38):
kidney that or, or this particular kind of mushroom
that's got a weird name or this or that.
They're going to they're going to pull you along, Although no,
it's a lifestyle, it's more plants as this and that needs a
little organizing, which means managing your stressors, many
unwinding your, your, your, your, your stressors into good
and bad. You won't be able to create a

(01:18:58):
good exercise plan because it becomes a one off.
But if it's organized and withinthose good and bad stressors,
then becomes a life program. And and that's I think where for
me, that's central, a simple oldfashioned list of good stressors
specifically and bad stressors. And working through those
throughout the day, it becomes so powerful, so engaging and so

(01:19:23):
meaningful. And by the way, in there ad very
important, the most important thing that that brain is made of
creative crazy time. Things that just just let your
mind go free for half an hour. That creative time time actually
expands. I love that I was actually going

(01:19:43):
to, so that's my that's my element.
And I'm very passionate about women's brain health.
And one of the things that comesup is cognitive activity is
ignored. You know, you have a lot of
lovely women who focus on their exercise and nutrition and
stress and sleep, but there's there's very little emphasis on

(01:20:03):
cognitive activity and building that that.
That situation where you can just deep dive into a topic and
learn more about it. And that actually trains the
brain to sustain focus and attention as well.
And Dean always says focus is the gateway to memory.
When you learn to build information from 1:00 to 2:00 to

(01:20:26):
3:00 to 4:00 and maintain focus and attention, whether it's
creating a body of information or whether it's in a
conversation. If you, Sarah and I, if you sit
down with me over a cup of tea and you and I start talking
about, I don't know, history of Ireland and we, you start having
a conversation and I will listento you and I will maintain what

(01:20:49):
you told me and I will add something to it.
Then you add something to that and then I will add something to
that. In one hour, both of us will
come out of that conversation knowing so much about the topic.
One of the ideas that one of ourcommunity members had was
PowerPoint nights. You know, friends and family
members, they go, they do a deepdive into a topic and then they
have a PowerPoint presentation to their family and friends and

(01:21:11):
just give them an overview aboutthat particular topic.
I think it's so phenomenal for us to do that.
It does two things, neuroplasticity, connection
between more brain cells, sharpen, sharpening your focus.
So I guess there's three, and the third one is that deep
desire and curiosity for learning more and more.
It almost becomes a habit. You kind of disconnect yourself

(01:21:34):
from things that are bothering you, that are stressful in your
life and you hone in in something that brings you so
much joy and pleasure. I love that you both love things
of three, which is wonderful. I, I I.
Problem is when when you make lists of three and.
Then you can't remember the third one.
Yes. There was a third one, yes.

(01:21:55):
But I love that because now whenI read a book or do a podcast,
whatever it is, I actually spend.
And I didn't used to do this because I used to forget and
then I used to try and do a review of the year and go, I
can't remember the conversation I had six months ago that I
remember was incredible, but I have no memory of what happened
in that conversation is now I try and retake notes and bullet
points. And that really helps ingrain

(01:22:18):
for me what I did learn and whatI did take away and what really
stuck in my mind. Because I think sometimes we can
just take for granted that our minds will have this incredible
capacity to remember every conversation that we've had.
That's important. And actually now I found bullet
pointing and kind of reverbatating back to myself.
What I have learned has been such a powerful mechanism for
for my brain.

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