Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee - #215 BITESIZE | Simple Daily Habits to Improve Your Brain Health | Dr Rahul Jandial

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Starting point is 00:00:51 10. And these packs are perfect for keeping in your backpack, office, or car. If you want to take advantage of this limited time offer, all you have to do is go to drinkag1.com forward slash live more. Welcome to Feel Better, Live More. Bite size your weekly dose of positivity and optimism to get you ready for the weekend. Today's clip is from episode 76 of the podcast with neuroscientist and brain surgeon, Dr. Rahul Jandil. In this clip, he draws on his knowledge and years of experience as a brain surgeon to share some practical tips that can help all of us optimize our brain health and get the best out of our minds at any age.

Starting point is 00:01:54 even at 60 or 70 years old a few simple lifestyle changes with patients or with the public has been shown to increase their performance on cognitive tests and i think that's really empowering for people when they think oh well i well, I didn't do this. I've had a stressful life. Wait a minute, there are still things you can do. So let's go through what are some about the biology of it, that intermittent fasting, going 16 hours, a couple of times a week, without eating glucose, your liver will run out of its glucose reserves. It'll burn fat into these things called ketones. The brain is a hybrid vehicle. It's not all gas. It's not all electric. It likes both. And so if you have dinner at eight, not all electric. It likes both. And so if you have dinner at eight and it's Monday evening, consider having your next meal be midday the next day. That's an easy way to get to 16 hours. It doesn't mean you're fasting for days and days. There is neuroscientific literature that intermittent fasting is good for attention and focus. Okay, now it's lunchtime and you're thinking about what to eat. Before that, I would consider

Starting point is 00:03:07 taking five minutes to just breathe deeply like you're doing now. Just make deep breaths a couple of times a day, three times a day for three minutes. Make it easy. See how that works for you. Just the pause might be helpful. Now it's time to eat. The food you choose is important. Paws might be helpful. Now it's time to eat. The food you choose is important. And there's delicious food to eat that's actually good for your brain. And how do I know that?

Starting point is 00:03:37 Well, we don't have a pill for Alzheimer's, but we do have the MIND diet, which is essentially Mediterranean food that if you look at a group of thousands of people over a long period of time, they had less dementia. So now that you've figured out the cadence of eating, which is intermittent fasting, skipping breakfast a couple of days a week, now that you've brought in pre-lunch three minutes of just deep breathing, that's meditative breathing, choose plants, choose nuts, choose occasional fatty fish. The fatty fish has omega-3s, which is an essential component of your brain. It's the wrapping around all those connections that keeps those electrical signals firing faster.

Starting point is 00:04:12 Are you saying that relative to the standard Western diet, relative to that, are you suggesting increasing plant foods is generally a good thing? Absolutely. And if you want to eat meat, consider the Mediterranean diet where it's fatty fish and poultry. Pass on the beef. Pass on the fried food. Pass on the processed food.

Starting point is 00:04:35 Now, if you do have a burger, you're not going to undo what you did. Just make those things an indulgence rather than a habit. So now you're at lunchtime, you've chosen the Mediterranean diet, more plants, less meat, the right kind of meat, and your day goes on. And then the question is, what's next to improve your health? A bit of exercise is great. The brain likes exercise because it is flesh. Don't clog the plumbing to your garden because swaths of your garden will wither. So people have strokes and injuries. It's because blood flow is not getting

Starting point is 00:05:12 into their brain. That's the way to hurt the structure of your brain. So what's good for the heart is good for the brain. Then the other thing it does is it bathes itself in these neurotrophic factors. That's what my science is on, BDNF, brain drive. And so, when the brain exercises, it showers itself. It's not like thigh muscles release healthy brain chemicals that swim up there. It's got its own pharmacy. You give it the right behavior and interaction, it'll reward itself. So, exercise keeps the plumbing open to the flesh of the brain, as well as releases molecules that serve as miracle growth for the brain. A couple of times a week is a good place to start. Do we know what specific exercise is good for the brain and good for BDNF levels?

Starting point is 00:05:53 Some people are starting to suggest some strength training is an essential component. So, if you're just running a marathon, you might want to throw in some light weights. But a little bit more exercise than you're currently doing is what the brain's going to say, hey, I like this direction. I'm going to shower myself with BDNF. Yeah, exactly. And I think we can, look, strength training, I'm a huge fan of strength training. I do think we undervalue muscle mass in society and in health. But generally speaking, for most of us, if we just increase how much we move. Get vertical even. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:06:24 Get out of the chair. That's going to help. Just the postural elements of standing is a first step. Next thing you know, you're walking. Next thing you know, you're taking the stairs. So these are simple things. These are free things. So exercise and then the day moves on and you're getting to the evening.

Starting point is 00:06:43 If you can, I like to read something completely unfamiliar. I've got a stack of old magazines and just flip through, just new content for your mind. And I think since it's thinking flesh, and of course, it likes blood, it likes to be irrigated. Of course, it likes a certain kind of diet because of the components it needs. But it also wants to think. If you ask Usain Bolt, I mean, how do you get your thigh muscles stronger? It's to take some stairs. Well, how do you get your brain to be healthier?

Starting point is 00:07:11 Think. And everybody's next level of thought and challenge is individual. We don't all have to do the same puzzles. We don't all have to have the same career, but get out of your comfort zone, if you will, just with the thoughts. So flip through something different on your phone, read something different on your phone, develop a new habit. I think that's important. The act of learning makes your brain say, I gotta pull from different pathways, I gotta get to different corners of my mind. It's actually an energy-consuming activity,

Starting point is 00:07:43 and that's what engages the greatest corners and recesses of your mind is to learn new things, particularly music, particularly languages, social interactions. We know these things. And now I'm just trying to give you a biological basis that brain's efficient if it wants to fall into its rut. And breaking the rut in a constructive way is gonna be good for your brain globally as your mind, thoughts and emotions, as well as the flesh. That's one strong way to stave off dementia. And then for those of us who have creativity as an ambition, we're all wildly creative in our dreams

Starting point is 00:08:18 and people are finding that when you, on the transition from awake to asleep and from sleep to waking up, it's called hypnagogic and hypnopompic. There's actually those same alpha ways that we've been talking about, just for 10, 20 minutes as you drift into sleep and your tasks are done. And Salvador Dali mentioned that, like he uses sleep as a psychedelic tool for creativity to solve problems. It's not going to happen every time, but I like to look at my riddles at the end of the night. That transition is like sort of a strange portal to your subconscious. And again, based on science, if you put some electrodes on a brain, at that time, you have those alpha waves that we talked

Starting point is 00:08:59 about, awake, but focused and calm. And you also have these other waves these delta waves that waves that are light sleeping early dreaming it's the only time where you have both awake and asleep wave and i've read one of your articles that you say leave a pen next to your bed so that you can actually take advantage when those creative thoughts come just before bed or just when you wake up you can actually just jot them down and And yeah, that's incredible. I always like to lead the listener with some really actionable, practical tips that they can apply in their own lives immediately to improve the way that they feel or improve the way that their brain functions. So, what are your top tips for people listening to this that they can think about applying into their own life? Get vertical. That's the most essential thing. When I see our patients who can come out of a

Starting point is 00:09:49 bed and stand, they grow. You can see a withering flower come back to life if they can get vertical. Being standing and moving is very important. Whatever you're at, just do a little bit more. Make subtle but important changes in your diet. Add in some more of the Mediterranean diet. You're still going to enjoy what you're eating. You can have a glass of wine, salmon, red wine, yogurt, fruit. It's not a tough thing. It's just changing the direction of what you're eating. Find some puzzles, find some content, read a book, do something unusual. That will also be good. And the fourth one I would say is, you know, try to find happiness.

Starting point is 00:10:26 It's the most elusive thing. If it's within your power to be happier, to pursue relationships and crafts that make you happy, that will probably be the best thing for your brain. Hope you enjoyed that bite-sized clip. Please do spread the love by sharing this episode with your friends and family. And if you want more, why not go back and listen to the full conversation with my guest. And if you enjoyed this episode, I think you will really enjoy my new bite-sized Friday email. It's called the Friday Five. And each week I share things that

Starting point is 00:11:06 I do not share on social media. It contains five short doses of positivity, articles or books that I'm reading, quotes that I'm thinking about, exciting research I've come across, and so much more. I really think you're going to love it. The goal is for it to be a small yet powerful dose of feel good to get you ready for the weekend. You can sign up for it at drchastity.com forward slash Friday five. I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Make sure you have pressed subscribe and I'll be back next week with my long form conversation on Wednesday and the latest episode of Bite Science next Friday.

Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee - #215 BITESIZE | Simple Daily Habits to Improve Your Brain Health | Dr Rahul Jandial

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