June 27, 2024 • 37 mins
BrainFit Coach Jude Walter is here to talk us through staying on top of your brain health.
Is it really a case of use it or lose it when it comes to our brains? Spoiler alert – it is!
Click here to order the Brainfit Book Worm Winter Bundle ( 2x best selling books) for just $65 (ex. postage) when you use the promo code: bookworm
Click here to enroll in the Memory Tune online course. Just $100 (ex. postage of supporting workbook) when you use the promo code: memory
LISTEN ABOVE.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the carry Wood and Morning's podcast from
News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
He'd b, I hope the start to your Martyring Marterriki
long weekend is going while you're with the holiday special
here on news Talks, Hedb. I'm Francisco bud Ca and
I'm with you until midday and we've got a fabulous
guest for you this hour. Jude Walter is a brain
Fit coach from Brainfit dot World and I had the
pleasure of talking to Jude. Meeting Jude earlier this year?
(00:36):
Was it so dud?
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Was it this December?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
December? The time we spoke on our podcast The Little
Things that I Do with my friend Louise Airy, And
it was a really fascinating conversation about how we need
to look after our brains, how we can at any
age and stage, and the importance of doing that so
that we just feel like we're firing on our cylinders and.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Thriving, thriving personally and professionally. And it all starts with
the brain.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
So let's start with talking about why we actually need
to look after our brains.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Well, it's a big question. I mean, at the end
of the day, you know, it's been drummed into us
for years and years and years, how unbelievably important it
is to get that physical exercise and to look after
our bodies, and unfortunately our brains often get neglected as
part of that. Yet they are you know, your brain
is not a muscle, but it behaves in very much
the same way, and so it needs a regular workout
(01:33):
of its own to stay fresh. And this is not
necessarily about doing more puzzles, which is often what people
think when you say brain fit. They're like, oh, yeah,
you're giving me more puzzles to do it. And yet
that's a part of it. But it's way more than that,
you know, we need you know, our brain thrives on
a variety of stimulation. Your brain use different parts of
your brain and therefore different parts of your memory by
doing different activities. So if we do the same stuff
(01:55):
and in and out, day in day out, we're only
using such a small part of our brains. And the
best thing we can do, regardless of how young or
old we are, is to act use our brains, challenge
our brains, and keep our brains growing. Because, contrary to
popular belief, it was only really in the late nineteen
eighties that they discovered that the brain human brain actually
(02:17):
grows from the moment you're born to the moment you die,
which is amazing, isn't it incredible? But it's if you
make it and if you let it. And what we're
doing more and more these days is we're actually limiting
our ability. It's not that we're forgetting stuff. We're actually
not even making things memorable in the first place.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Because a lot of the time when we think about
forgetting things, we think it's something which comes with older age.
And so hence I'm going to, you know, send on
my one leg while I clean my teeth, or I'm
going to do sitircles. I'm going you know, we pick
up We think we have to pick up these habits,
but actually they're the kind of habits that you want
to be instilling at a much younger age and keeping going,
(02:57):
as I say, so that the brain can keep growing.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
And my advice would be the same to a fourteen
year old. I've been giving advice. I was just talking
to you before we came on air about, you know,
some tips that I was giving to my daughter ahead
of some assessments and exams. She's just recently done you know,
my advice to her as a fourteen year old, it's
exactly the same advice that I'd give to a ninety
four year old. You know, our brains are our brains,
and we really, as you've said before, you know, it
(03:22):
really is a case of use it or lose it.
And that's that's kind of where we're at. And for
me personally, many of your listeners may have heard me
talk about this before. It's something that I talked to
you and Lou about on that podcast. You know, I
had a mental breakdown. I got burnt out as a
thirty three year old working young mum, you know, still
(03:42):
playing competitive netball and trying to help out on every
committee here, there and everywhere. And the impact that that
period of stress had on me at that time had
a really profound effect on me. And that's actually what
led me to become a brain Fit coach, you know,
eleven years eleven years on and when I first started
working with the brain Fit team, you know, seven eight
(04:04):
years ago. You know, most of the people we were
working with were kind of retirees or people looking to
retire who were suddenly thinking, shibbits, I need to do
something to preoccupy my brain. You know, in the last
seven eight years, I reckon, the average age in the
classes community classes that I've done has probably dropped below forty.
I'm in workplaces doing our brain Fit for Work program.
(04:26):
You know, memory issues are not an old person's thing.
It's no, we shouldn't be calling them senior moments anymore
because actually they affect all of us.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
And is that the main sort of symptom that a
person can go actually, hang on, there's a problem here,
And that could be a variety of problems, But is
that the main sort of symptom that that memory sort
of a brain fog? Is it that would imply to
you that not, my brain's not firing wet.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
You know yourself better than anyone knows. If you're not
feeling as sharp or as switched on as usually would,
and that can manifest itself in a huge number of
different ways. It could be a forgetful day, it could
be a forgetful week, it could be a forgetful month,
and there could be any number reasons for that. Because
stress in all its form, you know, kind of leads
and breeds breeds that you know, some of those symptoms
(05:14):
that you're describing. But at the end of the day,
you know, when it comes to the brain, if you're
not feeling as good and as sharp as you would
like to, if you think that your you know, your
memory or your alertness is impacting your ability to thrive
personally or professionally, then it's time to kind of stop
and think about what you could do differently.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
So what could we do? What should we do differently?
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Well, I think it's it is really important to suggest
or to point out that there is, you know, some
level of forgetfulness is okay, all right?
Speaker 2 (05:46):
In life?
Speaker 3 (05:47):
You know, we are living in a fast paced world,
like there is research that suggests that the average person
living in a western urban civilization, so majority of us,
would be exposed to about thirty four gigabytes worth of
information every single day. Now that's over half of the
storage on my iPhone every day, you know. So it's impossible,
(06:08):
physically impossible for us to remember everything that we see, taste, touch,
smelling here in the day. But that's why it's so
important to remember that memory is an active process. We
have to tell our brains what it's, what we want
it to remember, what's important to remember. So in terms
of that, you know, how do we do this differently?
We have got to stop multitasking. We have got to
(06:30):
stop trying to think that we can do everything all
at once, because actually multitasking is physically impossible. Even I mean,
I thought, as a thirty something year old ahead of
my of my burnout and my breakdown in my early thirties,
I thought I was a gold medallist in waiting when
it came to multitasking because I could do it all.
But actually it's physically impossible for the brain to do
(06:51):
more than one thing at once. So actually, when you're
multitasking by cooking dinner, talking on the phone, thinking about
the three emails, you've still got a clear after dinner.
All you're doing is you're just jumping back and forward,
back and forward, back and forth, very very quickly, between one, two, three,
twenty three different things. And that's using up a huge
amount of this thing called cognitive reserve, which is effectively
(07:12):
your battery brain power. And if you are using up
the cognitive reserve doing all of that wasting by jumping
between things, there is no wonder it doesn't have the
capacity there with the stuff it needs to.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
It's fascinating isn't it.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
I just.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
So if we look at the people who you mentioned,
a lot more people forty and under are now coming
to these classes and things. Is that because there's more
awareness of what might be going on with them? Or
do you think it's the way we're living our lives
(07:47):
is it? Do you think it's the inclusion of just
sort of the fact that now we are contactable at
all times, we can answer our emails at all times.
There's just sort of this pressure on people.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
I think it's probably a combination of all of those things.
And look what motivates people to buy the brain foot books,
to come along to our classes, to do the online program.
Those motivations will be different in different people, you know.
And for some people they have seen friends, family, loved
ones who have experienced Alzheimer's or any of the forms
(08:20):
of dementia, and they've gone, jeez, I don't want that
to be me, you know. I need to be proactive.
And there is a huge amount more media coverage and
talk about those conditions now than there ever has been before.
So I think we're hyper aware of that we're living longer.
But I do definitely think and my own personal experiences
and how I came to be involved with brain in
a personal capacity before I even trained as a coach.
(08:44):
You know, we've got a lot going on. We are
using our brains, the exact same brains that our ancestors
had hundreds and hundreds of years ago. We're using them
in very different ways right now, and we need to
respect them, you know that we're making that. There was
another piece of interesting research I came across the other day.
The average person makes thirty five thousand decisions every day.
(09:06):
So that's what time to wake up, what to wear,
what to eat, which way to go when you're driving
to the studio thirty five thousand. Yeah, so you know,
and some of those decisions are potentially life and death.
A lot of those decisions are totally not. No, but
you know, you can see the pressure that our brains
are under and why it's so important for us to
(09:26):
actively engage and tell our brains what's important to remember.
And your point before, you know, that's not just about
doing Sudoku puzzles or brain gym. It's about doing the
stuff that we do every day differently. And I think
you you've got some great examples of some things that
you mentioned that you and lou are doing differently after
our last chance.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
As you say, brushing your teeth with your left hand,
and when you kind of nail that and you haven't
like covered the mirror and toothpastes for yourself or you know,
then you go, I can move on to something else.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
You know.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
I'm very consistent with my exercise and when I got
on my runs off and do the same runs. So
it was like, Okay, I've got to take different routes.
I've got to think about different ways to go and
run different ways and come home. I started writing the
shopping list with my left hand, which I hate to
stop doing because I get to super Mark and I
couldn't read half the list. It was very frustrating. I
didn't quite nail that one. But it was about day
(10:21):
to day things like it's not about oh, I need
to find an extra fifteen minutes in my day to
fit in my brain. Houth is on top of everything
else I have to do. It is literally, okay, I've
got to do something, I'm going to do it differently.
I'm going to do it with a different hand.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
And that's the thing. These are practical tips and strategies
that are clinically proven. All of our programs are evidence
based research based off some incredible research into the impact
of memory and on an aging brain that was done
by a New Zealand neuroscientist, doctor Allison Lamont. And you
know they work. This is simple and it isn't about
(10:59):
like you say, finding fifteen minutes a day, you know.
This is about doing what you're doing already differently. And
I think one of the examples I've given in the
past is, you know, a lot of us spend a
lot of time sitting in traffic, you know, and so
when you are sitting at those traffic lights, instead of
you know, picking up your phone, which you shouldn't do anyway,
or mindlessly scrolling or stewing over stuff, take a look
(11:19):
out the window, look at the number plane on the
car that's directly in front of you, and add up
the numbers on that number plate or if that number
plate starts with the letter I was going to say cube,
but that's quite a difficult one. If that number plate
starts the letter in for instance, use the time until
that light goes green to think of as many words
as you can that start with the letter N. You know,
(11:40):
that is stimulating your brain. It's using the exact You
haven't had to creat any extra time. You're just using
the time you've got to really stimulate and challenge your
brain in a new and different way. And if you
can do that for two to three minutes a day,
you'll start to notice changes in eight weeks.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
That's amazing.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
Right.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
We're going to come back to getting a lot of
text through. Do feel free to call if you'd like
to have a chat to do about maybe your situation,
or if you'd like some advice on what to do,
or you've just got a question. One most welcome to call.
I wait one hundred eighty ten eight years then I
want to call. You can text on ninety two ninety
two News Talk zidby brain Fit coach Jude Walter is
our guest this hour in joining us now is Helen.
(12:18):
Good morning, Helen.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
Oh, yes, good morning. Our friendships scan dude. Two things
here concerned about people in risk homes and also an
interesting interesting fact about London taxi driver's brains. They did
some tests on their brains, you know, scanned them, and
they found that the were hippa campus had grown till
about twice the size as a frontal hippo campus. That's
(12:44):
the part of the brain to do with memory. And
because of all the facts that the London taxi drivers
had to remember, like they go to school for three
years and memorize all the streets of London, that that
part of their brain had grown because of all the
exercises did. I thought that was fascinating.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
It is fascinating, and I was just saying that to
Francesca during the break actually, and we talk about that
in our brain fit classes because that is a brilliant
illustration of how the brain can physically grow when it
is challenged. And those black cab London taxi drivers they
are required to know. I think I might not have
(13:24):
the numbers exact, but it's something like twenty five thousand
different roads and twenty thousand different landmarks that they have
to know off by heart and now totally they scan
them before they started the training and after and as
you say, the results were phenomenal.
Speaker 5 (13:41):
Yes. Now, I've got concerns about people who get putting
red homes and you hear how well can cadpot they are,
and you know they're putting the most sense of the
most manly challenging that is done. They're all loaded in
busses and taken off to a look look at a
beach or a craft show or something like that. And
(14:03):
when you hear about the care, you know, thissmits for
how well these people are cared for has never anything
to do with how they mentally challenged, whether they're being
fed the right micronutrients, I to understand, is very important
your brain health. Like they should be having debating groups,
(14:25):
people coming in and giving serious lectures. They should be
doing all sorts of things to keep people's brains going,
because it seems to be that from along the sort
of course they go into the rest home and or
never hear from them again. And I think this is
really really frightening.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Yeah, and I think the variety of stimulation is the key.
So regardless of whether you're in a rest home or
you're not, as I say, whether you're twenty or you know,
one hundred and two, we need to fill our days
with challenge and stimulation. And that's about stepping outside your
comfort zone. And so for for some people that may
be starting small, you know, maybe you know, a debating
(15:02):
club and a rest home for some people would be
a bridge too far. But it's about off offering a
range or exposing yourself to a range of activities. And
even that can start with that. I probably shouldn't say
this when I'm on the radio, but you know, listening
to a different radio station one day a week or
an hour a day can totally change us to a
few just a few minutes, Sorry, Francisca, just a few minutes,
(15:24):
I should have said a TV program, whoops, A TV
program reading, a different style of genre of book, watching
a different genre of TV program. All of that. You know,
you're still watching TV, you're still reading, you're still listening
to the radio, whatever it is, but you're just stimulating
your brain in a different way because you are seeing
different people, you're hearing different perspectives, you're following a different
(15:45):
storyline or a plot line, and all of that is
the simple stuff that we're talking about that you can
just do differently.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
How fast something Eating different food?
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Eating different food food is massive. And that's actually why
travel is so good for your brain, because you are
exposed to so much new and different and new flavors, textures, colors, sense,
you know, from a sensory point of view, amazing for
the brain.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Ah fascinating more on this we get back all right, dude,
I've got a lot of questions for you here, Ah,
Is brain fog a real thing? I'm forty eight and
my thinking feels very unclear and I'm struggling to recall information.
Could this be related to perimenopause?
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Yes, definitely could be related to perimenopause. And I was
just saying to you offline, I think that's part of
the reason we're probably starting to see more and more,
especially females in that kind of younger age backet, coming
to our classes and stuff, because there is an awful
lot more awareness around the kind of perimenopause and manipause symptoms,
and it's no longer such a taboo subject, but very different.
(16:49):
I mean, and again, doesn't matter what your triggers are
or what your causes are for not feeling as alert,
feeling foggy in the brain, whatever, my advice to you
would be exactly the same as just to go out
there and seek variety and stimulation and stop kind of overloading.
There's kind of two ways we can neglect our brain
by overloading it or understimulating it, and it's about finding
(17:11):
that kind of balance in between. And I think the
other thing to reflect on, I guess is as a
female going through the change you're going through, that that
doesn't itself cause a level of stress, and stress is
the arch enemy of a healthy brain, a memory, and
because when we are stressed, whatever the trigger is for that,
(17:32):
our bodies into survival mode, so that fight flight or freeze.
And when you're in that survival mode, the memory centers
of your brain are designed to dull because actually, originally
it wasn't important to remember the color of the stripes
on the tiger that was going to get you. It
was just a case of either run for your life,
freeze and hope it doesn't see you, or fight it.
And so we don't have the same threats and to
(17:55):
our lives anymore, but our body's reaction is exactly the same.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
I think the stress thing is really important as well,
because perimenopause is one of these things that can hit
women at different ages and it's not the first thing
at the front of your mind because we didn't really
know that huge amount about it, and that there's about
fifty two different symptoms and everybody has different symptoms and
it affects people differently, so it's not like you just
(18:19):
it sort of hits you and you go, oh, I
know exactly what this is. So by the time you're
actually addressing it, you have often been under a level
of stress. You are wondering why you cannot keep it together,
you are wondering why you are as our text to said,
you're just struggling to recall information. You're wondering what's going on.
Everything's kind of start to fall apart around you, and
you want to kill your family. So you know, often
(18:42):
by the time you have that moment where you's made
clear what it could be, that's stress. Yeah, absolutely amplified.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
And as I say, you know, when you're living with stress,
any level of stress, financial, emotional, physical, mental, whatever it is,
those memory centers dull down. And if you stay in
that state of stress or anxiety for a prolonged period
of time, those memory centers will start shutting down, so
you will feel even more brain foggy and forgetful and
(19:10):
the like. Now that's not to say that they're shut
down and gone like they turn back on again. But
that's why it's so important and why part of this
whole brain fitness journey. You know, we said before it's
not just about puzzles around all round. Good looking after
yourself is about lowering your stress levels. And I know
that seems and sounds easier said than done, but you know,
(19:31):
lots of us will say, oh, stressful week, but I've
just got to get to the weekend for you know,
it's a stressful payer at the moment. But don't worry.
I've got a holiday coming in a month's time.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
You know.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
That's good, but not great. If we are feeling stressed
in a day, we need to counter that with something
that de stresses you in the same sort of ratio
that same day. We can't just keep pushing it to
the end, to the weekend or to next week. We
need to balance that out. Otherwise our body is just
living in the survival mode and it will impact your memory.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
A text here from Mary, I need help with my memory.
I've got memory problem and her balance is not good.
She believes it will slowly decline, although the specialists couldn't
tell her how much you know, memory she's going to lose.
It's a bit of a waiting game, but she really
wants to improve her memory.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
So yeah, balance is really important for memory, believe it
or not. It's all part of the beautiful wiring and
connections in our brain. So Mary, probably the simplest thing
I can do on air without knowing exactly what your
what your feeling, and what your symptoms are is go
to our website brainfit World and go to the article
section and if you search, you'll see the little magnifying glass.
(20:39):
If you search balance, you'll find some articles on there
about balance that will help you to have a look
at that and think of some things that you can do,
like stepping stone sort of exercises that can help you
to improve your balance and hopefully that will help you
regain a bit of confidence. Of nothing else.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
So balance, how's it's like, where does that fit?
Speaker 6 (21:02):
Well?
Speaker 3 (21:02):
It's like hearing. Hearing loss again as well is quite
a strong there's quite a strong link between hearing loss
and and the likes of any of the dimensions, outsiders,
et cetera, because they are all interlinked. It's all driven
by our brain in different centers in our brain.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
But it's also because if your hearing's not so great,
you're not maybe communicating with people so much and you
don't have that.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
Social connection, and it's on that on that spiral and
You can say the same with things like balance. If
you are unsteady on your feet, you are less likely
to go places, which means you shut down your circle
of influence, which means you do the same sort of
stuff that you're safe doing. So it's all it's all
on a spectrum, Francesca, and I think that's that's it.
You know, we've got to look after ourselves from an
(21:48):
all round health and wellbeing point of view. But there
are certain things that are particularly important for brain and memory.
What about sleep so important?
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Yeah, Sleep's just like this, this this, it's always like
we've all just discovered sleep. It's this thing which has
been around And of course we did another wonderful podcast
with the beautiful doctor Michael Moseley of course passed away.
You very generously gave us as time. So if you're
having problem sleeping, it's worth with having a listen. But
does what does the brain need to do? Yeah, night
(22:16):
to rest and recour. This is it. And this is
quite a controversial topic when we get to it in
our classes because there are people who have quite strong
opinions around how much sleep they need or don't need.
So what I am going to say now is based
on research around what is known to be good for
a brain and memory point of view, and that is
(22:37):
that adults should be having between seven to nine.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
Hours of quality sleep every night. Now that does drop
a bit to about seven to eight hours as you
get older, but somewhere between that seven to nine and
there'll be lots of people sitting there going well, that's
just bloody ridiculous. But the reason for that is that
your brain, you know, you know, when you shut down
your computer at the end of the day, and often
(23:01):
the screen's gone black, but it's still during its whirring
in the background. That's exactly what happens when we're sleeping
at night. That is when our brain and our memory
does all its consolidation. So any of the memories that
you create today will not be consolidated and kind of
sent to your long term memory until you have had
seven to nine hours worth a quality sleep. So if
(23:24):
there's something you learn today want to remember today, and
you only get five hours sleep tonight, then it'll be
the following night probably by the time you've had that
seven to nine hours, So the level of detail and
clarity of what you learned today is another twenty four
hours delayed, So you're just not getting the same quality
of memories if you're not getting the good sleep. And
(23:45):
I have a little mantra that I say to myself
if I'm ever having a forgetful period, patch day, week, whatever,
I'll stop and I'll ask myself, am I having a
case of the Hofs? The Hofs? It's just that that actually,
in itself is a memory technique, coming up with little,
you know, meaningless words, but that mean a lot to me.
The H and that is am I high rated? The
(24:07):
O in that is that is am I overwhelmed or stressed?
The F is am I actually focused? And the S
is have I had enough sleep? And I can nine
times out of ten, if I am feeling forgetful, one
of those things. Sometimes more than one of those things
is out of whack. And so that's my little kind
of uppercut to myself to really go, yep, I need
(24:29):
to do. I need to really focus on better sleep
tonight because I'm feeling wobbly.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Fascinating. Now I've had a text here saying just completed
the online course, excellent, this is your course or some
great resources Jude, When will there be community classes in
the Wellington area. I don't know if you'd know that
we would.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
Well, yeah, I was going to say, we actually don't
have a coach, a brainfit coach in the Wellington era
at the moment, so I can't answer that question directly.
But if there is someone listening who thinks that they
might like to become a brain Fit coach in the
Wellington region, then they can also have a look at
our website where we have a link there where you
can learn about being a brain Fit coach. But actually,
(25:06):
just on the topic of the of that online course,
we've actually got a really good deal on that online course.
You can do it for one hundred dollars. It's usually
one hundred and sixty nine, but you can if you
book an enroll before the end of July, you can
get it for one hundred dollars. You just need to
use the promo code memory. So if you go onto
the website, go onto our shop and order the will
(25:29):
book the memory Chune course is what it's called, and
then use the promo code Memory. You can get it
for one hundred dollars.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
And if you've forgotten that before the end of the hour,
we will repeat it and it's probably a good sign.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
I've to do it.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
We're going to come back with your calls and your
text in just a moment. Jude Walter, Brainfit Coach, is
my guest this news Talk ZB Trash.
Speaker 7 (25:48):
Good morning morning, Francisca. Fairly recently I read that you
have toxins in your brain and the only time those
toxins can be released is when you asleep.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Definitely, when you are sleeping, lots of often referred to
as as which is commonly talked about when we're talking
about any of the dementias, the plaque. I probably the
toxins in your brain. You know, when you're sleeping, your
brain does do a lot of it's cleansing, as I
said before, it does it sorting and its filing of
all those memories. But it's also doing it's clean up
and getting ready for the day for the next day.
(26:23):
So absolutely, I'm not sure of the exact research that
you're referring to, but yeah, there's definitely a deep clean
that happens in the brain every night when you sleep,
right as just.
Speaker 7 (26:34):
Well, they're promoting more sleep now for the through reason.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
Oh look, I'm not aware that they're promoting sleep more
now than they ever have before, but I think the
wonders of the research that we have available to us
these days is really hammering home just how unbelievably important
sleep is for all round health and well being, but
in particular for brain and memory.
Speaker 7 (26:58):
Right. I know that Elon Musk that his brain was
starting to hurt and he now tries to do six
hours sleep. Maybe he didn't sleep at all before, I
don't know, but he now tries to sleep for six hours.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Yeah, And look, I think you know, in the fast paced,
technology driven world that we live in, where there's an
awful lot of artificial light, it is really impacting our
natural sleep patterns. And so I think the more we
can do to just be aware of that fact and
actually the importance of that kind of sleep hygiene. I
(27:30):
often say to people. You know, as a parent who
has had young children, I know how unbelievably important a
pre bed routine was to actually getting the kids down
to sleep. And as adults we're no different. We can't
expect to just jump into bed five minutes after scrolling
on YouTube or Insta for an hour and expect to
full of sleep. You know, we do need to give
(27:51):
ourselves that kind of sleep routine and ritual to ensure
that we're actually getting the sleep we need to do
life and to thrive personally and professionally.
Speaker 7 (28:00):
Right, I generated an article about an art in the
Mediterranean whereas where they don't die, and what I found
interesting was they stay up till about twelve or one o'clock,
but they don't get up the next day to about
twelve or one.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
Yeah, there's many documentaries actually quite recently that have been done.
Even Chris Hemsworth has done one as well, which is
worth a watch in my opinion for more reasons than one,
but around this kind of longevity and the fact that
we're living long and when you do look at at
the common threads that exist between some of those communities
(28:35):
where they do have a lot of people who live
well into their hundreds, there are some very common lines
to the things that we talk about.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Also through Brainford, they'll also have a different Cicadian rhythm
and they'll stick to it. It's not like they do
that a couple of nights a week and then go
back to it. So often. It's about what works for
you and sticking to that routine. And someone did text
to say, look, well, how do you get enough sleep.
And there is a lot now around on sleep hygiene.
As I mentioned, if you just got to iHeart or
Spotify or Apple podcast, you get your podcasts if you
(29:07):
do google the little things. We did do a podcast
with doctor Michael Moseley on good sleep and how to
approach sleep and having good sleep habits, and he goes
into that because of course sleep is so beneficial for
lots of different reasons. Dude, somebody texts to say, being
told you need to sleep or you will get dementia
stresses me out when I can't go to sleep, and
(29:27):
that makes it worse because I get anxious. We're not
saying that though.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
We're not, and I'm not saying that if you look,
definitely not saying that if you don't sleep you're going
to get dementia at the end of the day. You know,
there is an awful lot of talk and discussion around dementia,
but we need to put it in perspective that actually,
you have no idea, I have no idea what your
(29:50):
life is going to throw at you. The best thing
you can do to prepare yourself for aging and all
disease is to just look after nurture and challenge your brain,
regardless of how young or old you are, and that
nurture comes in many, many forms, of which part is
sleep brilliant.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
All right, Jude, David's got an in question for you.
On a scale of one to ten, how effective for
brain health efficiency is spending one to two hours a
day learning a new language.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
I was going to say, I can't necessarily comment on
the time that you spend learning that new language, but
I do know that learning a new language, like learning
a new instrument, like going for a run on a
different route, is great for stimulation and challenging and growing
different parts of your brain. So we talk a lot
about learning different languages. And I made the comment before
about how amazing travel is, and that doesn't have to
(30:35):
be international travel to non speaking you know, non non
English speaking countries and the like. It could be you know,
going half an hour down the motorway and just visiting
a different beach. But again, it's that same thing we
keep coming back to as the brain really thrives on
variety and different parts of the brain are stimulated by
different things. So yeah, awesome, keep up that learning of
that language.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Thomas, good morning, Good morning.
Speaker 6 (30:58):
I'm just wondering about the effects of sleep by the
dairy farmer. Were in essentially work a lot and I
will often, not every night, but often fall asleep in
front of the TV after literally like half an hour
if not less, of watching it. It's better now because
(31:19):
I'm not working in the morning. But how would that
affect my overall sleep? Because I fall asleep, wake up
after a half an hour an hour, and then go
to bed And I love that because I know I
can sleep for longer.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
Yeah, look, Thomas, I think first and foremost good that
you're getting sleep. I think the fact that you're falling
asleep on the couch in front of TV is probably
a sign that you are a little bit sleep deprived,
and that actually you're the best thing you can do,
because when it comes to that sleep, we're not. So
we shouldn't be so fixated on the time. We've got
(31:52):
this time guide of seven to nine hours. But the
key there is around quality sleep. And the challenge you've
got is when you fall asleep on the couch, it
isn't going to be quality sleep. So if you can
make yourself sit in a less comfortable chair while you
watch TV and then maybe pop yourself off to bed
a little bit earlier than you normally would, so that
you can actually get that quality sleep as opposed to
(32:13):
just that quantity. And you know I should say too,
you know, for other people, because this is exactly why
I say. This is a very kind of taboo subject
and a very kind of contentious subject whenever we bring
it up. You know, if you are lying in bed
tossing and turning and stewing trying to get to sleep,
that is not quality either, you know, So you would
be better to get up. Don't go and turn on
a TV screen, but you'd better to get up and
go and get a glass of water or whatever and
(32:35):
come back, or try a meditation or some of the
other tips that doctor Michael Moseley provides, because really that
quality is the key.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
Yeah, And he says, don't stress about it, No, don't.
There's nothing worse than waking up and then catastrophizing about
the fact you are awake, and then everything else is
It's like, it's actually fine to wake It's fine to
wake up, get up, go and get a cup of tea,
he says, A pile of boring books that he used
to read sit and I often do do you know what,
just taking that pressure off waking up. Actually, don't mind.
(33:06):
I'm quite looking forward to how can I get up
in the night? And I plot around and everyone sound asleep.
Now it's myself and I go back to bed and
I'm relaxed, and I inevitably drift off back to sleep.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
And there are some amazing breathing exercises that you can
do that really in that moment calm you down. And
I haven't yet listened to Michael's podcast, but I've written
it down so I can make sure I don't forget
good to do that good. But yeah, breathing exercises are
amazing too in that moment, absolutely news talk ZB trash.
Speaker 7 (33:34):
Good morning, morning, Francisca. Fairly recently I read that you
have toxins in your brain, and the only time those
toxins can be released is when you asleep.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
Definitely when you are sleeping lots of often referred to
as as plark, which is commonly talked about when we're
talking about any of the dementias. The plark, I probably
the toxins in your brain. You know, when you're sleeping,
your brain does do a lot of it's cleansing. As
I said before. It does it sorting and it's filing
of all those memories, but it's also it's clean up
and getting ready for the day for the next day.
(34:09):
So absolutely, I'm not sure of the exact research that
you're referring to, but yeah, there's definitely a deep clean
that happens in the brain every night when you sleep,
right as.
Speaker 7 (34:20):
Just while they're promoting more sleep now for the through reason.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
Oh look, I'm not aware that they're promoting sleep more
now than they ever have before, but I think the
wonders of the research that we have available to us
these days is really hammering home just how unbelievably important
sleep is for all round health and well being, but
in particular for brain and memory.
Speaker 7 (34:43):
Right. I know that Elion Musk when his brain was
starting to hurt, and he now tries to do six
hours sleep. Maybe he didn't sleep at all before, I
don't know, but he now tries to sleep for six hours.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
Yeah, And look, I think you know, in the fast paced,
technology driven world that we live in, where there's an
awful lot of artificial light, it is really impacting our
are our natural sleep patterns, And so I think the
more we can do to just be aware of that
fact and actually the importance of that kind of sleep hygiene.
(35:16):
I often say to people, you know, as a parent
who has had young children, I know how unbelievably important
a pre bed routine was to actually getting the kids
down to sleep. And as adults we're no different. We
can't expect to just jump into bed five minutes after
scrolling on YouTube or Insta for an hour and expect
to full of sleep. You know, we do need to
(35:36):
give ourselves that kind of sleep routine and ritual to
ensure that we're actually getting the sleep we need to
do life and to thrive personally and professionally.
Speaker 4 (35:46):
Right.
Speaker 7 (35:46):
I gen read an article about an hour in the
Mediterranean whereas where they don't die, and what I found
interesting was they stay up till about twelve or one o'clock,
but they don't get up the next day to about
twelve or one.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
Yeah. There's many documentaries actually quite recently that have been done.
Even Chris Hemsworth has done one as well, which is
worth a watch in my opinion for more reasons than one,
but around this kind of longevity and the fact that
we're living long on when you do look at the
common threads that exist between some of those communities where
(36:21):
they do have a lot of people who live well
into their hundreds. There are some very common lines to
the things that we talk about.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
Also through Brainford, they'll also have a different Cicadian rhythm
and they'll stick to it. It's not like they do
that a couple of nights a week and then go
back to it so often. It's about what works for
you and sticking to that routine. And someone did text
to say, look, well, how do you get enough sleep?
And there is a lot now around on sleep hygiene,
as I mentioned, if you just got to iHeart or
Spotify or Apple podcasts wherever you get your podcasts, if
(36:52):
you do google the little things. We did do a
podcast with doctor Michael Moseley on good sleep and how
to approach sleep and having good sleep habits, and he
goes into that because of course sleep is so beneficial
for lots of different reasons.
Speaker 4 (37:06):
Dude.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
Somebody texts to say, being told you need to sleep
or you will get dementia stresses me out when I
can't go to sleep, and that makes it worse because
I get anxious. We're not saying that though.
Speaker 3 (37:16):
We're not and I'm not saying that if you look
definitely not saying that if you don't sleep, you're going
to get dementia at the end of the day. You know,
there is an awful lot of talk and discussion around dementia,
but we need to put it in perspective that actually,
you have no idea, I have no idea what your
life is going to throw at you. The best thing
(37:38):
you can do to prepare yourself for aging and or
disease is to just look after nurture and challenge your brain,
regardless of how young or old you are. And that
nurture comes in many, many forms, of which part is
sleep brilliant.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
For more from Carrie Wood and Mornings, listen live to
news talks that'd be from nine am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the carry Wood and Morning's podcast from
News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
He'd b, I hope the start to your Martyring Marterriki
long weekend is going while you're with the holiday special
here on news Talks, Hedb. I'm Francisco bud Ca and
I'm with you until midday and we've got a fabulous
guest for you this hour. Jude Walter is a brain
Fit coach from Brainfit dot World and I had the
pleasure of talking to Jude. Meeting Jude earlier this year?
(00:36):
Was it so dud?
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Was it this December?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
December? The time we spoke on our podcast The Little
Things that I Do with my friend Louise Airy, And
it was a really fascinating conversation about how we need
to look after our brains, how we can at any
age and stage, and the importance of doing that so
that we just feel like we're firing on our cylinders and.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Thriving, thriving personally and professionally. And it all starts with
the brain.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
So let's start with talking about why we actually need
to look after our brains.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Well, it's a big question. I mean, at the end
of the day, you know, it's been drummed into us
for years and years and years, how unbelievably important it
is to get that physical exercise and to look after
our bodies, and unfortunately our brains often get neglected as
part of that. Yet they are you know, your brain
is not a muscle, but it behaves in very much
the same way, and so it needs a regular workout
(01:33):
of its own to stay fresh. And this is not
necessarily about doing more puzzles, which is often what people
think when you say brain fit. They're like, oh, yeah,
you're giving me more puzzles to do it. And yet
that's a part of it. But it's way more than that,
you know, we need you know, our brain thrives on
a variety of stimulation. Your brain use different parts of
your brain and therefore different parts of your memory by
doing different activities. So if we do the same stuff
(01:55):
and in and out, day in day out, we're only
using such a small part of our brains. And the
best thing we can do, regardless of how young or
old we are, is to act use our brains, challenge
our brains, and keep our brains growing. Because, contrary to
popular belief, it was only really in the late nineteen
eighties that they discovered that the brain human brain actually
(02:17):
grows from the moment you're born to the moment you die,
which is amazing, isn't it incredible? But it's if you
make it and if you let it. And what we're
doing more and more these days is we're actually limiting
our ability. It's not that we're forgetting stuff. We're actually
not even making things memorable in the first place.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Because a lot of the time when we think about
forgetting things, we think it's something which comes with older age.
And so hence I'm going to, you know, send on
my one leg while I clean my teeth, or I'm
going to do sitircles. I'm going you know, we pick
up We think we have to pick up these habits,
but actually they're the kind of habits that you want
to be instilling at a much younger age and keeping going,
(02:57):
as I say, so that the brain can keep growing.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
And my advice would be the same to a fourteen
year old. I've been giving advice. I was just talking
to you before we came on air about, you know,
some tips that I was giving to my daughter ahead
of some assessments and exams. She's just recently done you know,
my advice to her as a fourteen year old, it's
exactly the same advice that I'd give to a ninety
four year old. You know, our brains are our brains,
and we really, as you've said before, you know, it
(03:22):
really is a case of use it or lose it.
And that's that's kind of where we're at. And for
me personally, many of your listeners may have heard me
talk about this before. It's something that I talked to
you and Lou about on that podcast. You know, I
had a mental breakdown. I got burnt out as a
thirty three year old working young mum, you know, still
(03:42):
playing competitive netball and trying to help out on every
committee here, there and everywhere. And the impact that that
period of stress had on me at that time had
a really profound effect on me. And that's actually what
led me to become a brain Fit coach, you know,
eleven years eleven years on and when I first started
working with the brain Fit team, you know, seven eight
(04:04):
years ago. You know, most of the people we were
working with were kind of retirees or people looking to
retire who were suddenly thinking, shibbits, I need to do
something to preoccupy my brain. You know, in the last
seven eight years, I reckon, the average age in the
classes community classes that I've done has probably dropped below forty.
I'm in workplaces doing our brain Fit for Work program.
(04:26):
You know, memory issues are not an old person's thing.
It's no, we shouldn't be calling them senior moments anymore
because actually they affect all of us.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
And is that the main sort of symptom that a
person can go actually, hang on, there's a problem here,
And that could be a variety of problems, But is
that the main sort of symptom that that memory sort
of a brain fog? Is it that would imply to
you that not, my brain's not firing wet.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
You know yourself better than anyone knows. If you're not
feeling as sharp or as switched on as usually would,
and that can manifest itself in a huge number of
different ways. It could be a forgetful day, it could
be a forgetful week, it could be a forgetful month,
and there could be any number reasons for that. Because
stress in all its form, you know, kind of leads
and breeds breeds that you know, some of those symptoms
(05:14):
that you're describing. But at the end of the day,
you know, when it comes to the brain, if you're
not feeling as good and as sharp as you would
like to, if you think that your you know, your
memory or your alertness is impacting your ability to thrive
personally or professionally, then it's time to kind of stop
and think about what you could do differently.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
So what could we do? What should we do differently?
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Well, I think it's it is really important to suggest
or to point out that there is, you know, some
level of forgetfulness is okay, all right?
Speaker 2 (05:46):
In life?
Speaker 3 (05:47):
You know, we are living in a fast paced world,
like there is research that suggests that the average person
living in a western urban civilization, so majority of us,
would be exposed to about thirty four gigabytes worth of
information every single day. Now that's over half of the
storage on my iPhone every day, you know. So it's impossible,
(06:08):
physically impossible for us to remember everything that we see, taste, touch,
smelling here in the day. But that's why it's so
important to remember that memory is an active process. We
have to tell our brains what it's, what we want
it to remember, what's important to remember. So in terms
of that, you know, how do we do this differently?
We have got to stop multitasking. We have got to
(06:30):
stop trying to think that we can do everything all
at once, because actually multitasking is physically impossible. Even I mean,
I thought, as a thirty something year old ahead of
my of my burnout and my breakdown in my early thirties,
I thought I was a gold medallist in waiting when
it came to multitasking because I could do it all.
But actually it's physically impossible for the brain to do
(06:51):
more than one thing at once. So actually, when you're
multitasking by cooking dinner, talking on the phone, thinking about
the three emails, you've still got a clear after dinner.
All you're doing is you're just jumping back and forward,
back and forward, back and forth, very very quickly, between one, two, three,
twenty three different things. And that's using up a huge
amount of this thing called cognitive reserve, which is effectively
(07:12):
your battery brain power. And if you are using up
the cognitive reserve doing all of that wasting by jumping
between things, there is no wonder it doesn't have the
capacity there with the stuff it needs to.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
It's fascinating isn't it.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
I just.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
So if we look at the people who you mentioned,
a lot more people forty and under are now coming
to these classes and things. Is that because there's more
awareness of what might be going on with them? Or
do you think it's the way we're living our lives
(07:47):
is it? Do you think it's the inclusion of just
sort of the fact that now we are contactable at
all times, we can answer our emails at all times.
There's just sort of this pressure on people.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
I think it's probably a combination of all of those things.
And look what motivates people to buy the brain foot books,
to come along to our classes, to do the online program.
Those motivations will be different in different people, you know.
And for some people they have seen friends, family, loved
ones who have experienced Alzheimer's or any of the forms
(08:20):
of dementia, and they've gone, jeez, I don't want that
to be me, you know. I need to be proactive.
And there is a huge amount more media coverage and
talk about those conditions now than there ever has been before.
So I think we're hyper aware of that we're living longer.
But I do definitely think and my own personal experiences
and how I came to be involved with brain in
a personal capacity before I even trained as a coach.
(08:44):
You know, we've got a lot going on. We are
using our brains, the exact same brains that our ancestors
had hundreds and hundreds of years ago. We're using them
in very different ways right now, and we need to
respect them, you know that we're making that. There was
another piece of interesting research I came across the other day.
The average person makes thirty five thousand decisions every day.
(09:06):
So that's what time to wake up, what to wear,
what to eat, which way to go when you're driving
to the studio thirty five thousand. Yeah, so you know,
and some of those decisions are potentially life and death.
A lot of those decisions are totally not. No, but
you know, you can see the pressure that our brains
are under and why it's so important for us to
(09:26):
actively engage and tell our brains what's important to remember.
And your point before, you know, that's not just about
doing Sudoku puzzles or brain gym. It's about doing the
stuff that we do every day differently. And I think
you you've got some great examples of some things that
you mentioned that you and lou are doing differently after
our last chance.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
As you say, brushing your teeth with your left hand,
and when you kind of nail that and you haven't
like covered the mirror and toothpastes for yourself or you know,
then you go, I can move on to something else.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
You know.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
I'm very consistent with my exercise and when I got
on my runs off and do the same runs. So
it was like, Okay, I've got to take different routes.
I've got to think about different ways to go and
run different ways and come home. I started writing the
shopping list with my left hand, which I hate to
stop doing because I get to super Mark and I
couldn't read half the list. It was very frustrating. I
didn't quite nail that one. But it was about day
(10:21):
to day things like it's not about oh, I need
to find an extra fifteen minutes in my day to
fit in my brain. Houth is on top of everything
else I have to do. It is literally, okay, I've
got to do something, I'm going to do it differently.
I'm going to do it with a different hand.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
And that's the thing. These are practical tips and strategies
that are clinically proven. All of our programs are evidence
based research based off some incredible research into the impact
of memory and on an aging brain that was done
by a New Zealand neuroscientist, doctor Allison Lamont. And you
know they work. This is simple and it isn't about
(10:59):
like you say, finding fifteen minutes a day, you know.
This is about doing what you're doing already differently. And
I think one of the examples I've given in the
past is, you know, a lot of us spend a
lot of time sitting in traffic, you know, and so
when you are sitting at those traffic lights, instead of
you know, picking up your phone, which you shouldn't do anyway,
or mindlessly scrolling or stewing over stuff, take a look
(11:19):
out the window, look at the number plane on the
car that's directly in front of you, and add up
the numbers on that number plate or if that number
plate starts with the letter I was going to say cube,
but that's quite a difficult one. If that number plate
starts the letter in for instance, use the time until
that light goes green to think of as many words
as you can that start with the letter N. You know,
(11:40):
that is stimulating your brain. It's using the exact You
haven't had to creat any extra time. You're just using
the time you've got to really stimulate and challenge your
brain in a new and different way. And if you
can do that for two to three minutes a day,
you'll start to notice changes in eight weeks.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
That's amazing.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
Right.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
We're going to come back to getting a lot of
text through. Do feel free to call if you'd like
to have a chat to do about maybe your situation,
or if you'd like some advice on what to do,
or you've just got a question. One most welcome to call.
I wait one hundred eighty ten eight years then I
want to call. You can text on ninety two ninety
two News Talk zidby brain Fit coach Jude Walter is
our guest this hour in joining us now is Helen.
(12:18):
Good morning, Helen.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
Oh, yes, good morning. Our friendships scan dude. Two things
here concerned about people in risk homes and also an
interesting interesting fact about London taxi driver's brains. They did
some tests on their brains, you know, scanned them, and
they found that the were hippa campus had grown till
about twice the size as a frontal hippo campus. That's
(12:44):
the part of the brain to do with memory. And
because of all the facts that the London taxi drivers
had to remember, like they go to school for three
years and memorize all the streets of London, that that
part of their brain had grown because of all the
exercises did. I thought that was fascinating.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
It is fascinating, and I was just saying that to
Francesca during the break actually, and we talk about that
in our brain fit classes because that is a brilliant
illustration of how the brain can physically grow when it
is challenged. And those black cab London taxi drivers they
are required to know. I think I might not have
(13:24):
the numbers exact, but it's something like twenty five thousand
different roads and twenty thousand different landmarks that they have
to know off by heart and now totally they scan
them before they started the training and after and as
you say, the results were phenomenal.
Speaker 5 (13:41):
Yes. Now, I've got concerns about people who get putting
red homes and you hear how well can cadpot they are,
and you know they're putting the most sense of the
most manly challenging that is done. They're all loaded in
busses and taken off to a look look at a
beach or a craft show or something like that. And
(14:03):
when you hear about the care, you know, thissmits for
how well these people are cared for has never anything
to do with how they mentally challenged, whether they're being
fed the right micronutrients, I to understand, is very important
your brain health. Like they should be having debating groups,
(14:25):
people coming in and giving serious lectures. They should be
doing all sorts of things to keep people's brains going,
because it seems to be that from along the sort
of course they go into the rest home and or
never hear from them again. And I think this is
really really frightening.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Yeah, and I think the variety of stimulation is the key.
So regardless of whether you're in a rest home or
you're not, as I say, whether you're twenty or you know,
one hundred and two, we need to fill our days
with challenge and stimulation. And that's about stepping outside your
comfort zone. And so for for some people that may
be starting small, you know, maybe you know, a debating
(15:02):
club and a rest home for some people would be
a bridge too far. But it's about off offering a
range or exposing yourself to a range of activities. And
even that can start with that. I probably shouldn't say
this when I'm on the radio, but you know, listening
to a different radio station one day a week or
an hour a day can totally change us to a
few just a few minutes, Sorry, Francisca, just a few minutes,
(15:24):
I should have said a TV program, whoops, A TV
program reading, a different style of genre of book, watching
a different genre of TV program. All of that. You know,
you're still watching TV, you're still reading, you're still listening
to the radio, whatever it is, but you're just stimulating
your brain in a different way because you are seeing
different people, you're hearing different perspectives, you're following a different
(15:45):
storyline or a plot line, and all of that is
the simple stuff that we're talking about that you can
just do differently.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
How fast something Eating different food?
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Eating different food food is massive. And that's actually why
travel is so good for your brain, because you are
exposed to so much new and different and new flavors, textures, colors, sense,
you know, from a sensory point of view, amazing for
the brain.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Ah fascinating more on this we get back all right, dude,
I've got a lot of questions for you here, Ah,
Is brain fog a real thing? I'm forty eight and
my thinking feels very unclear and I'm struggling to recall information.
Could this be related to perimenopause?
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Yes, definitely could be related to perimenopause. And I was
just saying to you offline, I think that's part of
the reason we're probably starting to see more and more,
especially females in that kind of younger age backet, coming
to our classes and stuff, because there is an awful
lot more awareness around the kind of perimenopause and manipause symptoms,
and it's no longer such a taboo subject, but very different.
(16:49):
I mean, and again, doesn't matter what your triggers are
or what your causes are for not feeling as alert,
feeling foggy in the brain, whatever, my advice to you
would be exactly the same as just to go out
there and seek variety and stimulation and stop kind of overloading.
There's kind of two ways we can neglect our brain
by overloading it or understimulating it, and it's about finding
(17:11):
that kind of balance in between. And I think the
other thing to reflect on, I guess is as a
female going through the change you're going through, that that
doesn't itself cause a level of stress, and stress is
the arch enemy of a healthy brain, a memory, and
because when we are stressed, whatever the trigger is for that,
(17:32):
our bodies into survival mode, so that fight flight or freeze.
And when you're in that survival mode, the memory centers
of your brain are designed to dull because actually, originally
it wasn't important to remember the color of the stripes
on the tiger that was going to get you. It
was just a case of either run for your life,
freeze and hope it doesn't see you, or fight it.
And so we don't have the same threats and to
(17:55):
our lives anymore, but our body's reaction is exactly the same.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
I think the stress thing is really important as well,
because perimenopause is one of these things that can hit
women at different ages and it's not the first thing
at the front of your mind because we didn't really
know that huge amount about it, and that there's about
fifty two different symptoms and everybody has different symptoms and
it affects people differently, so it's not like you just
(18:19):
it sort of hits you and you go, oh, I
know exactly what this is. So by the time you're
actually addressing it, you have often been under a level
of stress. You are wondering why you cannot keep it together,
you are wondering why you are as our text to said,
you're just struggling to recall information. You're wondering what's going on.
Everything's kind of start to fall apart around you, and
you want to kill your family. So you know, often
(18:42):
by the time you have that moment where you's made
clear what it could be, that's stress. Yeah, absolutely amplified.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
And as I say, you know, when you're living with stress,
any level of stress, financial, emotional, physical, mental, whatever it is,
those memory centers dull down. And if you stay in
that state of stress or anxiety for a prolonged period
of time, those memory centers will start shutting down, so
you will feel even more brain foggy and forgetful and
(19:10):
the like. Now that's not to say that they're shut
down and gone like they turn back on again. But
that's why it's so important and why part of this
whole brain fitness journey. You know, we said before it's
not just about puzzles around all round. Good looking after
yourself is about lowering your stress levels. And I know
that seems and sounds easier said than done, but you know,
(19:31):
lots of us will say, oh, stressful week, but I've
just got to get to the weekend for you know,
it's a stressful payer at the moment. But don't worry.
I've got a holiday coming in a month's time.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
You know.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
That's good, but not great. If we are feeling stressed
in a day, we need to counter that with something
that de stresses you in the same sort of ratio
that same day. We can't just keep pushing it to
the end, to the weekend or to next week. We
need to balance that out. Otherwise our body is just
living in the survival mode and it will impact your memory.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
A text here from Mary, I need help with my memory.
I've got memory problem and her balance is not good.
She believes it will slowly decline, although the specialists couldn't
tell her how much you know, memory she's going to lose.
It's a bit of a waiting game, but she really
wants to improve her memory.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
So yeah, balance is really important for memory, believe it
or not. It's all part of the beautiful wiring and
connections in our brain. So Mary, probably the simplest thing
I can do on air without knowing exactly what your
what your feeling, and what your symptoms are is go
to our website brainfit World and go to the article
section and if you search, you'll see the little magnifying glass.
(20:39):
If you search balance, you'll find some articles on there
about balance that will help you to have a look
at that and think of some things that you can do,
like stepping stone sort of exercises that can help you
to improve your balance and hopefully that will help you
regain a bit of confidence. Of nothing else.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
So balance, how's it's like, where does that fit?
Speaker 6 (21:02):
Well?
Speaker 3 (21:02):
It's like hearing. Hearing loss again as well is quite
a strong there's quite a strong link between hearing loss
and and the likes of any of the dimensions, outsiders,
et cetera, because they are all interlinked. It's all driven
by our brain in different centers in our brain.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
But it's also because if your hearing's not so great,
you're not maybe communicating with people so much and you
don't have that.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
Social connection, and it's on that on that spiral and
You can say the same with things like balance. If
you are unsteady on your feet, you are less likely
to go places, which means you shut down your circle
of influence, which means you do the same sort of
stuff that you're safe doing. So it's all it's all
on a spectrum, Francesca, and I think that's that's it.
You know, we've got to look after ourselves from an
(21:48):
all round health and wellbeing point of view. But there
are certain things that are particularly important for brain and memory.
What about sleep so important?
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Yeah, Sleep's just like this, this this, it's always like
we've all just discovered sleep. It's this thing which has
been around And of course we did another wonderful podcast
with the beautiful doctor Michael Moseley of course passed away.
You very generously gave us as time. So if you're
having problem sleeping, it's worth with having a listen. But
does what does the brain need to do? Yeah, night
(22:16):
to rest and recour. This is it. And this is
quite a controversial topic when we get to it in
our classes because there are people who have quite strong
opinions around how much sleep they need or don't need.
So what I am going to say now is based
on research around what is known to be good for
a brain and memory point of view, and that is
(22:37):
that adults should be having between seven to nine.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
Hours of quality sleep every night. Now that does drop
a bit to about seven to eight hours as you
get older, but somewhere between that seven to nine and
there'll be lots of people sitting there going well, that's
just bloody ridiculous. But the reason for that is that
your brain, you know, you know, when you shut down
your computer at the end of the day, and often
(23:01):
the screen's gone black, but it's still during its whirring
in the background. That's exactly what happens when we're sleeping
at night. That is when our brain and our memory
does all its consolidation. So any of the memories that
you create today will not be consolidated and kind of
sent to your long term memory until you have had
seven to nine hours worth a quality sleep. So if
(23:24):
there's something you learn today want to remember today, and
you only get five hours sleep tonight, then it'll be
the following night probably by the time you've had that
seven to nine hours, So the level of detail and
clarity of what you learned today is another twenty four
hours delayed, So you're just not getting the same quality
of memories if you're not getting the good sleep. And
(23:45):
I have a little mantra that I say to myself
if I'm ever having a forgetful period, patch day, week, whatever,
I'll stop and I'll ask myself, am I having a
case of the Hofs? The Hofs? It's just that that actually,
in itself is a memory technique, coming up with little,
you know, meaningless words, but that mean a lot to me.
The H and that is am I high rated? The
(24:07):
O in that is that is am I overwhelmed or stressed?
The F is am I actually focused? And the S
is have I had enough sleep? And I can nine
times out of ten, if I am feeling forgetful, one
of those things. Sometimes more than one of those things
is out of whack. And so that's my little kind
of uppercut to myself to really go, yep, I need
(24:29):
to do. I need to really focus on better sleep
tonight because I'm feeling wobbly.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Fascinating. Now I've had a text here saying just completed
the online course, excellent, this is your course or some
great resources Jude, When will there be community classes in
the Wellington area. I don't know if you'd know that
we would.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
Well, yeah, I was going to say, we actually don't
have a coach, a brainfit coach in the Wellington era
at the moment, so I can't answer that question directly.
But if there is someone listening who thinks that they
might like to become a brain Fit coach in the
Wellington region, then they can also have a look at
our website where we have a link there where you
can learn about being a brain Fit coach. But actually,
(25:06):
just on the topic of the of that online course,
we've actually got a really good deal on that online course.
You can do it for one hundred dollars. It's usually
one hundred and sixty nine, but you can if you
book an enroll before the end of July, you can
get it for one hundred dollars. You just need to
use the promo code memory. So if you go onto
the website, go onto our shop and order the will
(25:29):
book the memory Chune course is what it's called, and
then use the promo code Memory. You can get it
for one hundred dollars.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
And if you've forgotten that before the end of the hour,
we will repeat it and it's probably a good sign.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
I've to do it.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
We're going to come back with your calls and your
text in just a moment. Jude Walter, Brainfit Coach, is
my guest this news Talk ZB Trash.
Speaker 7 (25:48):
Good morning morning, Francisca. Fairly recently I read that you
have toxins in your brain and the only time those
toxins can be released is when you asleep.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Definitely, when you are sleeping, lots of often referred to
as as which is commonly talked about when we're talking
about any of the dementias, the plaque. I probably the
toxins in your brain. You know, when you're sleeping, your
brain does do a lot of it's cleansing, as I
said before, it does it sorting and its filing of
all those memories. But it's also doing it's clean up
and getting ready for the day for the next day.
(26:23):
So absolutely, I'm not sure of the exact research that
you're referring to, but yeah, there's definitely a deep clean
that happens in the brain every night when you sleep,
right as just.
Speaker 7 (26:34):
Well, they're promoting more sleep now for the through reason.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
Oh look, I'm not aware that they're promoting sleep more
now than they ever have before, but I think the
wonders of the research that we have available to us
these days is really hammering home just how unbelievably important
sleep is for all round health and well being, but
in particular for brain and memory.
Speaker 7 (26:58):
Right. I know that Elon Musk that his brain was
starting to hurt and he now tries to do six
hours sleep. Maybe he didn't sleep at all before, I
don't know, but he now tries to sleep for six hours.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Yeah, And look, I think you know, in the fast paced,
technology driven world that we live in, where there's an
awful lot of artificial light, it is really impacting our
natural sleep patterns. And so I think the more we
can do to just be aware of that fact and
actually the importance of that kind of sleep hygiene. I
(27:30):
often say to people. You know, as a parent who
has had young children, I know how unbelievably important a
pre bed routine was to actually getting the kids down
to sleep. And as adults we're no different. We can't
expect to just jump into bed five minutes after scrolling
on YouTube or Insta for an hour and expect to
full of sleep. You know, we do need to give
(27:51):
ourselves that kind of sleep routine and ritual to ensure
that we're actually getting the sleep we need to do
life and to thrive personally and professionally.
Speaker 7 (28:00):
Right, I generated an article about an art in the
Mediterranean whereas where they don't die, and what I found
interesting was they stay up till about twelve or one o'clock,
but they don't get up the next day to about
twelve or one.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
Yeah, there's many documentaries actually quite recently that have been done.
Even Chris Hemsworth has done one as well, which is
worth a watch in my opinion for more reasons than one,
but around this kind of longevity and the fact that
we're living long and when you do look at at
the common threads that exist between some of those communities
(28:35):
where they do have a lot of people who live
well into their hundreds, there are some very common lines
to the things that we talk about.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Also through Brainford, they'll also have a different Cicadian rhythm
and they'll stick to it. It's not like they do
that a couple of nights a week and then go
back to it. So often. It's about what works for
you and sticking to that routine. And someone did text
to say, look, well, how do you get enough sleep.
And there is a lot now around on sleep hygiene.
As I mentioned, if you just got to iHeart or
Spotify or Apple podcast, you get your podcasts if you
(29:07):
do google the little things. We did do a podcast
with doctor Michael Moseley on good sleep and how to
approach sleep and having good sleep habits, and he goes
into that because of course sleep is so beneficial for
lots of different reasons. Dude, somebody texts to say, being
told you need to sleep or you will get dementia
stresses me out when I can't go to sleep, and
(29:27):
that makes it worse because I get anxious. We're not
saying that though.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
We're not, and I'm not saying that if you look,
definitely not saying that if you don't sleep you're going
to get dementia at the end of the day. You know,
there is an awful lot of talk and discussion around dementia,
but we need to put it in perspective that actually,
you have no idea, I have no idea what your
(29:50):
life is going to throw at you. The best thing
you can do to prepare yourself for aging and all
disease is to just look after nurture and challenge your brain,
regardless of how young or old you are, and that
nurture comes in many, many forms, of which part is
sleep brilliant.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
All right, Jude, David's got an in question for you.
On a scale of one to ten, how effective for
brain health efficiency is spending one to two hours a
day learning a new language.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
I was going to say, I can't necessarily comment on
the time that you spend learning that new language, but
I do know that learning a new language, like learning
a new instrument, like going for a run on a
different route, is great for stimulation and challenging and growing
different parts of your brain. So we talk a lot
about learning different languages. And I made the comment before
about how amazing travel is, and that doesn't have to
(30:35):
be international travel to non speaking you know, non non
English speaking countries and the like. It could be you know,
going half an hour down the motorway and just visiting
a different beach. But again, it's that same thing we
keep coming back to as the brain really thrives on
variety and different parts of the brain are stimulated by
different things. So yeah, awesome, keep up that learning of
that language.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Thomas, good morning, Good morning.
Speaker 6 (30:58):
I'm just wondering about the effects of sleep by the
dairy farmer. Were in essentially work a lot and I
will often, not every night, but often fall asleep in
front of the TV after literally like half an hour
if not less, of watching it. It's better now because
(31:19):
I'm not working in the morning. But how would that
affect my overall sleep? Because I fall asleep, wake up
after a half an hour an hour, and then go
to bed And I love that because I know I
can sleep for longer.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
Yeah, look, Thomas, I think first and foremost good that
you're getting sleep. I think the fact that you're falling
asleep on the couch in front of TV is probably
a sign that you are a little bit sleep deprived,
and that actually you're the best thing you can do,
because when it comes to that sleep, we're not. So
we shouldn't be so fixated on the time. We've got
(31:52):
this time guide of seven to nine hours. But the
key there is around quality sleep. And the challenge you've
got is when you fall asleep on the couch, it
isn't going to be quality sleep. So if you can
make yourself sit in a less comfortable chair while you
watch TV and then maybe pop yourself off to bed
a little bit earlier than you normally would, so that
you can actually get that quality sleep as opposed to
(32:13):
just that quantity. And you know I should say too,
you know, for other people, because this is exactly why
I say. This is a very kind of taboo subject
and a very kind of contentious subject whenever we bring
it up. You know, if you are lying in bed
tossing and turning and stewing trying to get to sleep,
that is not quality either, you know, So you would
be better to get up. Don't go and turn on
a TV screen, but you'd better to get up and
go and get a glass of water or whatever and
(32:35):
come back, or try a meditation or some of the
other tips that doctor Michael Moseley provides, because really that
quality is the key.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
Yeah, And he says, don't stress about it, No, don't.
There's nothing worse than waking up and then catastrophizing about
the fact you are awake, and then everything else is
It's like, it's actually fine to wake It's fine to
wake up, get up, go and get a cup of tea,
he says, A pile of boring books that he used
to read sit and I often do do you know what,
just taking that pressure off waking up. Actually, don't mind.
(33:06):
I'm quite looking forward to how can I get up
in the night? And I plot around and everyone sound asleep.
Now it's myself and I go back to bed and
I'm relaxed, and I inevitably drift off back to sleep.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
And there are some amazing breathing exercises that you can
do that really in that moment calm you down. And
I haven't yet listened to Michael's podcast, but I've written
it down so I can make sure I don't forget
good to do that good. But yeah, breathing exercises are
amazing too in that moment, absolutely news talk ZB trash.
Speaker 7 (33:34):
Good morning, morning, Francisca. Fairly recently I read that you
have toxins in your brain, and the only time those
toxins can be released is when you asleep.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
Definitely when you are sleeping lots of often referred to
as as plark, which is commonly talked about when we're
talking about any of the dementias. The plark, I probably
the toxins in your brain. You know, when you're sleeping,
your brain does do a lot of it's cleansing. As
I said before. It does it sorting and it's filing
of all those memories, but it's also it's clean up
and getting ready for the day for the next day.
(34:09):
So absolutely, I'm not sure of the exact research that
you're referring to, but yeah, there's definitely a deep clean
that happens in the brain every night when you sleep,
right as.
Speaker 7 (34:20):
Just while they're promoting more sleep now for the through reason.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
Oh look, I'm not aware that they're promoting sleep more
now than they ever have before, but I think the
wonders of the research that we have available to us
these days is really hammering home just how unbelievably important
sleep is for all round health and well being, but
in particular for brain and memory.
Speaker 7 (34:43):
Right. I know that Elion Musk when his brain was
starting to hurt, and he now tries to do six
hours sleep. Maybe he didn't sleep at all before, I
don't know, but he now tries to sleep for six hours.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
Yeah, And look, I think you know, in the fast paced,
technology driven world that we live in, where there's an
awful lot of artificial light, it is really impacting our
are our natural sleep patterns, And so I think the
more we can do to just be aware of that
fact and actually the importance of that kind of sleep hygiene.
(35:16):
I often say to people, you know, as a parent
who has had young children, I know how unbelievably important
a pre bed routine was to actually getting the kids
down to sleep. And as adults we're no different. We
can't expect to just jump into bed five minutes after
scrolling on YouTube or Insta for an hour and expect
to full of sleep. You know, we do need to
(35:36):
give ourselves that kind of sleep routine and ritual to
ensure that we're actually getting the sleep we need to
do life and to thrive personally and professionally.
Speaker 4 (35:46):
Right.
Speaker 7 (35:46):
I gen read an article about an hour in the
Mediterranean whereas where they don't die, and what I found
interesting was they stay up till about twelve or one o'clock,
but they don't get up the next day to about
twelve or one.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
Yeah. There's many documentaries actually quite recently that have been done.
Even Chris Hemsworth has done one as well, which is
worth a watch in my opinion for more reasons than one,
but around this kind of longevity and the fact that
we're living long on when you do look at the
common threads that exist between some of those communities where
(36:21):
they do have a lot of people who live well
into their hundreds. There are some very common lines to
the things that we talk about.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
Also through Brainford, they'll also have a different Cicadian rhythm
and they'll stick to it. It's not like they do
that a couple of nights a week and then go
back to it so often. It's about what works for
you and sticking to that routine. And someone did text
to say, look, well, how do you get enough sleep?
And there is a lot now around on sleep hygiene,
as I mentioned, if you just got to iHeart or
Spotify or Apple podcasts wherever you get your podcasts, if
(36:52):
you do google the little things. We did do a
podcast with doctor Michael Moseley on good sleep and how
to approach sleep and having good sleep habits, and he
goes into that because of course sleep is so beneficial
for lots of different reasons.
Speaker 4 (37:06):
Dude.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
Somebody texts to say, being told you need to sleep
or you will get dementia stresses me out when I
can't go to sleep, and that makes it worse because
I get anxious. We're not saying that though.
Speaker 3 (37:16):
We're not and I'm not saying that if you look
definitely not saying that if you don't sleep, you're going
to get dementia at the end of the day. You know,
there is an awful lot of talk and discussion around dementia,
but we need to put it in perspective that actually,
you have no idea, I have no idea what your
life is going to throw at you. The best thing
(37:38):
you can do to prepare yourself for aging and or
disease is to just look after nurture and challenge your brain,
regardless of how young or old you are. And that
nurture comes in many, many forms, of which part is
sleep brilliant.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
For more from Carrie Wood and Mornings, listen live to
news talks that'd be from nine am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.