Her Discussions by Dr Faye - What Actually Helps Your Brain? | Mini Episode

Starting point is 00:00:00 I'm going to show you some products and you can say whether you would buy it or buy-bye. Okay. Okay. First, we have a stress ball. Okay. What, buy or bye-bye? Let's see. I would say, I would say, yeah, bye.

Starting point is 00:00:18 Bye. Because sometimes you do just need to, like, fidget around a little bit. And I would rather somebody fidget around with this and contemplate ideas in their head. or if they're stressed, yeah, play around with something, have something tactile to focus on versus trying to find a supplement that's going to like boost your memory and your brain health or scroll on your phone, right? Like I think, yeah, I think anything that you can touch with your hands, this could be a mindful practice, you know? Yeah. Even as I have it here, like the first thing I noticed was like the exact color of blue I was trying to figure out is this from a specific like football club. Then I noticed the weight.

Starting point is 00:01:00 And when you threw it over, I was kind of predicting. I was like, how heavy is it going to be? How squishy is it going to be? And like, those are really nice, boring, mindful thoughts to have. Those are thoughts where I'm not stressing about something. I'm just contemplating the object in front of me. I think it's a good thing. Bye.

Starting point is 00:01:17 Nice. Love that. I'm glad you mentioned supplements because I'm going to add on an extra buy or bye-bye that we don't actually have. I'm going to add it on until the end. No. No. Next.

Starting point is 00:01:29 Aroma. Can I? Yeah. Aromotherapy. Do you know what? I would say bye. Nice. I have one as well.

Starting point is 00:01:40 I think anything that you can do to change your environment, like if you're, let's say you're stressed. One thing that you can do is like switch off the big lights, turn on the little lights, make it cozy, change the environment in whatever ways that you can. Again, this is something where you can really rely on your senses. So you can put on a scent that you really like that's going to make. that's going to make you feel calm and relaxed. There's a reason why spas do all of this stuff, right?

Starting point is 00:02:04 And I'm not saying it's going to cure you or if you're burnt out because your job is too demanding and you don't get any time off. Aromatherapy is not going to fix that. But it can help you create a divide in your day-to-day and create some mindful moments, some stillness, just a change of scenery. I think with these things, people say like, oh, this study showed that you can boost your memory by 94% by using aromatherapy diffusers at night. It was in a demographic of older individuals who are experiencing memory problems already in cognitive decline. And that's again not to extrapolate

Starting point is 00:02:41 and say that if you diffuse sense while you sleep, your memory is going to be superhuman. It's just on a certain number of cognitive tests that they were doing. They were better able to memorize it if they had. aromatherapy on at night. And then if they smelled that scent again, that could trigger a certain memory so that they could recall the information that they learned faster. And that's actually quite interesting because the olfactory bulb where you process smell and your brain is very close to the memory centers, which is why a memory can just take you back. Like I always have this if I smell the perfume of me and my boyfriend when I was 15 years old. Like I'm back.

Starting point is 00:03:26 back in that memory. Is that a good thing? It's, I mean, it's just a thing. It's that you smell something and immediately like the memories of that person or that place or that experience just rush back. And that's because of the proximity to,

Starting point is 00:03:41 yeah, smell and memory centers in your brain. So, yeah, would buy for sure. Nice. I get that with L'Orieve hairspray for, like, done shows that I used to do. Yes, yes, yes, yes, actually. And every time I smell it, I'm like, whoa, that takes me right back.

Starting point is 00:03:56 And obviously these studies, you're right, you know, and they don't do that on the Hewab Moon. They don't give you the caveats of this was done on a cognitively. But it's not a great sound bite, you know, because the sound bites that you would actually hear then is it depends. And then you would say like, does this boost memory? It depends. Does it do this? Like it really depends. Like everything depends.

Starting point is 00:04:16 You can't generalize. And that's the issue with science and that's the issue with, you know, people who are giving you protocols. Like, it really depends. And this is why mindfulness is so important because, you know, you know, you know, it's not. Yes, do the protocol if you're looking for something to help you, but then also rely on your own knowledge and understanding of yourself and your awareness of yourself to see if this is actually helping you or if you're just trying to do the most and actually you're not improving anything.

Starting point is 00:04:43 So mindfulness is really important. By all means, like if you want to sleep better and you've tried everything, you want to take some supplements, try the supplements, but actually take a moment to notice if you have slept better, right? treating yourself, you know, like your own experiment, basically, is I think a really, really powerful message. Also, what I was going to say is that study, even though that study was in an older population with some cognitive decline,

Starting point is 00:05:08 it could, you know, if you're a student and you want to try study with like your aromatherapy on and you don't find the noise distracting, then, you know, try it out, see how it goes. If you do find it helps, then good for you. It's probably not going to do any damage, you know? Yeah, yeah. And like, yeah, and it doesn't have to be like, oh, I found this protocol that's going to help me, you know, excel in all of my exams. But if it's helpful for you, for whatever reason, even if it's just that it's helping you get into a relaxed state.

Starting point is 00:05:39 And so you're more like receptive to the information that you're learning because you're not like thinking about a hundred million different things. Or you're able to focus. You know, you're stressed about an exam. You need something to de-stress. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So yeah, I would buy. And with anything like any gadgets, any devices, I would say like if you have the money, you have the money.

Starting point is 00:05:55 and if you do think that it does help you, then, you know, go for it. Nice. Okay. Next, we have earplugs. What do you think about earplugs? It depends for what? Give me a scenario. Scenario, maybe studying as a scenario.

Starting point is 00:06:13 So for focus. Let's say for focus. So I would say, I use earplugs that if I'm sleeping and somebody's snoring. Yeah. there's like a lot of noise like sure I will use earplugs but it's the same thing with like with meditation people it's easy to meditate when you're in a yoga studio there's calm music the lights are dim there's aromatherapy and there are no auditory distractions there's no noise in your surroundings but in real life you're not always going to have the perfect situation there will be distractions in the form of

Starting point is 00:06:53 noise, especially if you live in London, like it's very noisy. You're always going to hear traffic or people walking around. Like, we don't really have the luxury of quiet so much in big cities. And I think there is something really powerful about being able to train your focus so much that you are able to drown out the distractions and the noise and the sounds. If you're hanging on to your ear plugs because it's a bit of a crutch for you, I would say, like, it's, I mean, it's, it's, it's fine to use and I'm happy for anybody to use them if it feels like it helps you. But also just test yourself a little bit and try to be able to live with the noise and use that as a bit of a meditation where it's really noisy, it's really annoying, maybe the table next to you

Starting point is 00:07:42 is talking really loudly and it's like really getting to you. Try to practice non-judgment with that. Try to understand that there are noises. I can't always control my environment. I have the power, though, to feel how I want to feel and to focus on what I want to focus on. Because if you're always at the mercy of all of the distractions and you get annoyed at the littlest thing, you're not always going to have your earplugs with you. You're not always going to be able to, like, change the volume of something. But then again, there are people with misophonia who are very sensitive to different sounds. And it can, it's something that you can't necessarily approach in the most rational way. It's more of a reactive thing in the brain where certain sounds really upset you and can really trigger you.

Starting point is 00:08:28 And for people like that, yeah, ear plugs are a great solution. I have it sometimes with like people eating and chewing. It really winds me up. Yeah. I think that's a really, really interesting point and actually reminded me of periods of my life where I found noise really difficult. And how actually that links to my own nervous system regulation. So when I was in medical school, I went the whole four years and I could. study with my friends chatting next to me and it wouldn't necessarily distract me. Then in my final

Starting point is 00:08:58 year when my nervous system was all over the shop because I was stressed and it was the first time I had to put on white noise whilst I was studying because I physically, the moment someone said anything around me that was me gone, focus gone, I couldn't handle it. And I don't know if you agree, but I really think that was related. When your nervous system is dysregulated, it's like you're, you know, it's that fight or flight mode. It's your body is on, when you're stressed, your body is on high alert. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:09:28 You're so much more sensitive to any little trigger. Yeah. And I think actually if you get to a point where you cannot focus without maybe having all sound removed, it's maybe a point where you should, if you agree. Everything is a sign in that sense. I actually don't love the idea of the noise cancellation

Starting point is 00:09:44 because like we rely on our senses for so many different reasons. And if I'm walking through or like I'm cycling and I have my noise cancelling headphones on and I'm listening to me. music. There are a lot of auditory cues in my environment that I need to be paying attention to, where it's quite dangerous, actually, if you like cancel those out. We are supposed to be alert to certain sounds in our environments to keep us safe and protected. I understand that, especially if somebody is like really stressed, they just want to reduce all noise and all stress and all triggers all the time. But sometimes it is important to still be aware and, you know,

Starting point is 00:10:17 try to function in a, in the world that we live in. So earplugs, I was a, I was a, say bye. Okay. By overall, like, good. Yeah. I think after this section, I'm also going to need you to give advice to the goalie who is trying to be mindful, trying to meditate and just feel like her mind is going off track.

Starting point is 00:10:33 And also we're going to have to come on to some actionable tips about focus as well. Yes. We've only got a couple more items left. Next, anti-stress tea. So this is piece tea. It's got chamomile vanilla and warming cinnamon. Okay. Go on.

Starting point is 00:10:50 So, tea. I would say bye. Nice. Because I think having a cup of tea can be such a mindful experience. I mean, everything can be a mindful experience. But yeah, I'd rather people drink this than some like elixir that's overpriced and targeted at like making you more focused and more mentally agile and whatever. Like it's just good old tea, right? Like have a warm cup of tea. Take a moment to notice, you know, the mug in your hands and like how warm it is and the sense that are emerald. from it just, you know, before and like enjoy it while you drink it. And that can be a mindful experience and at a good price. Anything that's like a good price that can give you a bit of a bit of mindfulness in your day, I'm all for. Nice.

Starting point is 00:11:38 Tea, yeah. Easy, easy win, basically. Okay. Next, we've only got two more. Okay. Puzzles. Ooh. I love this.

Starting point is 00:11:51 Puzzles, uh, bye. Nice. I think, oh, you've been doing these. Or? I do love us to do cute, though. Yeah, Tesco puzzles, yeah. Lovely. Probably very good price.

Starting point is 00:12:05 It keeps you busy, especially if you have a little booklet like this and you're not on your phone. You can just sit around and like have something to do that engages your brain. And I think, you know, we should, we should never really stop doing puzzles or doing like a bit of something that's like a little bit challenging for the brain. It's very mentally stimulating. It's fun. you alert, it keeps your mind sharp. It's not going to, you know, solve memory problems with old age if genetically that's, you know, what you're prone to or for whatever reasons. But it's, it's a really good way to be in the present moment because if you're trying to figure out a puzzle,

Starting point is 00:12:40 again, that's that's time where your brain is engaged and you're not thinking about the past or worrying about the future. So easy win, I would buy. Nice. We're going to have to come on to ways that you can protect your brain for old age a little bit later. The last buy or buy, that I wanted to come on to is you've mentioned brain supplements a couple of times. Would you buy or say bye-bye to Lions Main? This is a good one. Because I feel like there is so much promise with adaptogens, all the different like mushroom blends and all of this stuff.

Starting point is 00:13:11 But the science so far is mixed, I should say. Like I wouldn't say that there is an overwhelming amount of evidence where it's like, this is going to fix you. lion's mane is a type of mushroom that people say it helps you with focus and it helps people with ADHD. I feel like I feel a certain way about claims like this. Okay. But again, this is where I would say like you have to be mindful and understand that not everything because it's like proven by science or not proven by science is like the right way or the wrong way. I've tried Lions main to manage my ADHD and it's helped me.

Starting point is 00:13:52 So that could be placebo. It could be whatever. I do feel sharper and more alert. Sometimes when I take my alliance main, like there was a period of my life where I took it, had my little mushroom coffee. I really liked it. I haven't taken it for a while now. But yeah, I know a lot of people who love it. I know a lot of people who think it doesn't do anything. Again, if it's if it's not costing you an arm and a leg, if you actually feel like it helps you, like, you know, go for it. And I think we've also got to acknowledge that there's different cohorts of people who respond differently to different chemicals. Like we know there's cohorts of people who have a completely opposite reaction to benzodiazepines. They have the reaction where it makes them, instead of having a sedative response, it makes them anxious and on edge. Women with ADHD more likely to have PMDD, PMS. There are different compounds that affect people with ADHD differently. There are different compounds that affect. So I think that's important to consider.

Starting point is 00:14:52 Yeah, for sure. And then anything, like, you have to also remember that any studies that are done in food supplements, just even diet and nutrition, like, it's notoriously a really difficult area to study because there are so many confounding factors. If you're just giving people supplements and, like, tracking them over a period of time, first of all, do you actually know that they've taken the supplement? You have to rely on the trust of the participant. Then in the ideal world, and this doesn't really happen,

Starting point is 00:15:20 Like the people who are making these mushroom blends aren't doing these kind of studies where they're also monitoring everything that that person is eating and making sure that all the participants are following the same exact diet. The only difference is that they are taking a supplement or not taking a supplement. Then it has to be double blind. So everybody actually has to take a supplement. Some people get the active ingredient, the lion's main. Other people will be taking a supplement and it could be like a placebo. And then you have to also account for some people are going to be. be taking a placebo supplement and they're going to report improved metrics or like they feel

Starting point is 00:15:54 better, but that's just because they think that they're doing something that's beneficial to them. Yeah. Then you have to see, you know, are there in all of these people's lives over all of these weeks? Is there any other stress that's happening to them? Maybe people are going through breakups. Maybe they're going through job situations. Maybe some people are exercising. Some people are not exercising. Maybe somebody is somewhere in their cycle and then somebody is, you know, somebody somewhere else in their cycle and and there are so many confounding variables that is incredibly difficult to say definitively that xyz supplement has xyz effect yeah and i think you touched on something really important when you were speaking about the tea it also it relates

Starting point is 00:16:33 to how you feel and what price you're paying because some of these brain supplements yeah are just and i i really so as a fellow ADHD girly which will have to come on to the focus things as people who are, you know, inherently struggle to focus. I enjoy my line. I have lines made match every so often. And whether it is a placebo or whether it actually helps me, I enjoy it. It's nice. I'm not paying. Yeah. Like I'm not putting, I'm not paying an extortionate amount of money with the promise that this is going to make my brain 10 times better, you know. Yeah. Yeah. And that's the thing is that a lot of the things in the wellness world and especially supplements, they come at a very high price point already. Even higher now because supplements used to be this like something and like now it's

Starting point is 00:17:20 part of like wellness and elevated lifestyle. So there is a huge upmark like in in the pricing. And it's sold to you as if you're not doing this, then you are not living a healthy balanced lifestyle. So I feel like a lot of people that what I always think about is single moms who are just trying to, you know, feed their children, you know, put food on the table, get to their jobs, do good work, make sure that the kids are okay. They don't need to be worried about paying what some supplements, you know, like athletic greens, for example, it's like an extra hundred pounds a month for one person. You don't like, and it's marketed to you as this is going to fix all of the, like all of the things that you're not getting originally from your diet, like this is, this is going

Starting point is 00:18:08 to supplement that. It's going to boost this and you're going to be healthy because you're taking this. I don't like the way that it's marketed and I don't like the way that it makes us think that we have to be spending money on these things. If you have the extra income, you have disposable income, you want to do something. You have other areas. Like everything in your life is taking care of and you have time to think about what supplement should I take? Fine. But don't, you know, if you're if you're down in the dumps and you're hardly getting by with your job and your money is not, really stretching. You don't need to think about what else should I be taking in order to be healthy and how much money do I have to spend on this? It's just not where your mind should be

Starting point is 00:18:47 and your focus should be. That's such an incredible point and in the cost of living crisis as well. Like it's not just an anomaly for people to be really struggling month to month. It's a really, really, really common issue. And I think that, you know, wellness is not wellness. Financial wellness is so key for wellness. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, if you do not. We know the implications that, you know, your socioeconomic background has on health outcomes. If you are spending money and putting yourself out of pocket to spend on wellness products, that is not healthy. No. That is not healthy.

Starting point is 00:19:22 It's not. And speaking to those women who are listening who are just getting by month to month, what are your top, low cost, actionable tips that they can take to look after their brain? Yeah. This is, and I love this because, like, everything that I see is, like, start your day with drinking this bone broth. And then I look at the biggest bone broth company that's marketed at our demographic right now. And it's like it is a higher price point than other bone broth that you can just get from Tesco or whatever because it's supposed to be clean. And then it's drink your electrolytes.

Starting point is 00:19:57 And every single day have this little sachet of like a single waste product that's again more expensive than if you just like sprinkle a bit of table salt into your water. If you want electrolytes, you can do that. Don't get me started on electrolysis. I'm like, every single episode I'm electroiser. But it's just like, it's just product. Like it's capitalism, right? It's consumerism. It's like buy this product and this one here.

Starting point is 00:20:22 And you need five different supplements and five different products before it's even 9 a.m. Right. In order for you to be healthy. We used to get by on nothing, you know, like why all of a sudden in order to be healthy, do we need a hundred different products and supplements? and like powders and and all of that stuff. So I, yeah, I would say, I have so many thoughts about this, but I would say the most effective low-cost things that you can do,

Starting point is 00:20:50 they're free. You know, they don't, it's not something that you can go and buy at an online health store. It's, you know, just the way that you structure your day, getting good sleep, having time away from your screens where you're in nature and you're walking, moving your body, you're eating a very diet. And I would rather somebody spend more of their money on buying a lot of different, like, plant-based items and a variety of different groceries and make a home-cooked meal than eating, I don't want to say badly, because I don't want to say like it's good or bad, but eating a certain way and then thinking that they can solve all of their dietary

Starting point is 00:21:33 requirements still with greens powders and other supplements because it's just not cost effective in that way and most of the time the supplements are just going to run straight through you you're going to be in a lot better shape if you actually eat your supplements I guess yeah no 100 percent thank you for listening if you would like to hear the full episode with even more jam-packed knowledge then just click the link in the description

Her Discussions by Dr Faye - What Actually Helps Your Brain? | Mini Episode

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