The Dr. Hyman Show - Why Neuroscientists Love Running

Episode Date: January 24, 2020

For decades we were taught there was no stopping cognitive and physical decline, now we know it’s possible to maintain a youthful brain and body into old age using accessible means. Given the right conditions, you can continue to thrive well into old age. In fact, the personality trait of “openness to experience” was a major predictor of good physical activity at age 75, because of a willingness to participate in athletics and try new things. That means, no matter what age you are now, keeping an open and adventurous mind and trying new types of movement in your own routine can help you stay active and healthy as you get older. In this minisode, Dr. Hyman speaks with brain health experts Dr. Marwan Sabbagh and Dr. Daniel Amen, and age management medicine expert Dr. George Shapiro about the tools available to each of us to promote optimal health at any age. Dr. Sabbagh is a board-certified neurologist and considered one of the leading experts in Alzheimer’s and dementia. He is on the editorial board for the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease and BMC Neurology and is now editor in chief of Neurology and Therapy and is the author of The Alzheimer’s Answer: Reduce Your Risk and Keep Your Brain Healthy, and The Alzheimer’s Prevention Cookbook: 100 Recipes to Boost Brain Health. Dr. Sabbagh’s latest book, Fighting for My Life: How to Thrive in the Shadow of Alzheimer’s, was released last year. The Washington Post called Dr. Daniel Amen the most popular psychiatrist in America and Discover Magazine listed his brain imaging research as the top neuroscience story for 2015. He is a double board-certified psychiatrist and ten-time New York Times bestselling author, with such blockbuster books as Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, Healing ADD, Memory Rescue, Change Your Brain, Change Your Grades, and The Daniel Plan, co-authored by Pastor Rick Warren and Dr. Mark Hyman. In March 2020, his book The End of Mental Illness will be published. Dr. George Shapiro has been a practicing physician for 30 years, specializing in internal medicine, cardiovascular disease, and age management medicine. Dr. Shapiro was the recipient of the 10th Annual Alan P. Mintz, MD Award, for Clinical Excellence in Age Management Medicine, as he has become known nationwide as an expert in age management medicine, and leads one of the most prominent age management practices in the country as president of Cenegenics New York City. He has long been known as one of New York’s foremost cardiologists, specializing in regenerative medicine and improving longevity, including the genomics of cardiovascular disease and congestive heart failure.  Tune into Dr. Hyman’s full-length conversation with Dr. Marwan Sabbagh: https://DrMarkHyman.lnk.to/DrMarwanSabbagh Tune into Dr. Hyman’s full-length conversation with Dr. Daniel Amen:   https://DrMarkHyman.lnk.to/DrDanielAmen Tune into Dr. Hyman’s full-length conversation with Dr. George Shapiro: https://DrMarkHyman.lnk.to/DrGeorgeShapiro

Coming up on this mini episode. Inflammation is a disaster for every organ in your body. It's true. Including your brain. Hi, I'm Kea Prowitt, one of the producers of the Doctors Pharmacy podcast. The root of most chronic diseases we see today is inflammation and immune dysregulation. Even major brain symptoms like brain fog, anxiety, and memory loss can actually be caused by a dysfunction in the immune system.

The good news is taking simple, proactive steps like eating a nutrient-dense diet and moving your body daily are incredible tools to promote optimal health. In this mini-episode, Dr. Hyman speaks with brain health experts Dr. Marwan Sabah and Dr. Daniel Amen and age management medicine expert Dr. George Shapiro. Part of our day job is taking care of people with disease. Right. So here we are saying, let's step back from that. Let's say, instead of treating disease, let's treat health. Yeah.

Lifestyle interventions have benefits, and there's now a whole new area of research. Exercise has really emerged as one of the areas that has grown with real biological evidence that it can prevent and improve brain function and brain health. We used to think, as you said, there was north of the neck and south of the neck, right? And that everything in the Alzheimer's was north of the neck and nothing south of the neck was related to it. Yeah. When in fact now we know that things like gut microbiome can alter your immune system

and having a healthy microbiome can keep you healthy, and you can boost your innate immunity, which might reduce inflammation across the body, including the brain. Yeah, and exercise helps reduce inflammation? And BDNF. So the exercise, I have to tell you, I hated running. Oh, no. But I've taken up running because of BDNF.

So what is that? It's brain-derived neurotrophic factor. It's like miracle growth for the brain. It's miracle growth for the brain. And the funny part about it is almost neuroscientists are runners. They don't do anything but run. They have to have something to it. It's the fastest way to raise your BDNF levels. Which is basically this growth factor that connects your brain cells together. So it causes neuroplasticity, which increases connections. And it helps neurogenesis,

which is the development of new brain cells. That is correct. So we never thought that was possible. We never thought it was possible. We said, once you're born with your neurons, you're going to get it. But we now know that the brain's making neurons throughout their life.

That's unbelievable. It's pretty cool stuff. So these things like diet and exercise and optimizing your gut microbiome and stress reduction, they all in a sense work by regulating this inflammatory process. That's correct. That is correct. The inflammation, of course, is the unifying common pathway that we can manage. People think that you go to the doctor, they're going to fix you. But the truth is 80% of your health is determined by what you do,

not what the doctor does. And that's the thing I want people to take away from this is that you can engage in your own life plan to alter your risk. Don't wait. You know, people should start. They can change their diet today. They can start exercising today. They can do yoga starting today.

They don't need to wait. So new research, brain cells don't age. It's your blood vessels that age. So anything that damages your blood vessels damages your brain. So if you know how to increase blood flow, so things like exercise and ginkgo and beets and rosemary and pepper. I mean, really simple things can actually help improve the function of your brain. Ping pong, that's your thing. Table tennis. But you're not stuck with the brain you have.

You can make it better. And most people don't know that. There's actually a study from England on who lives the longest. So they looked at sports. And so if you don't play any sports you don't live long tennis players live seven years longer if you play football or soccer you don't live longer than anybody else because you're butting your head with the ball people who play racket sports live the longest and that's why i play table tennis

all right because you got to get your eyes hands and feet all to work together while you think about this spin on the ball yeah yeah i picked up tennis when i was 45 and i work at it as much as i can it just makes me so happy and i think it has kept me younger and well it activates your cerebellum and the cerebellum you know you're the young people listening you're not going to know who this is. It horrifies me. I call the cerebellum the Rodney Dangerfield part of the brain. It gets no respect. Even though it's 10% of the brain's volume, it contains 50% of the brain's neurons. And the cerebellum is not just involved in coordination. It's involved in processing speed and thought coordination. And so when you play tennis, you're activating the

cerebellum, which O has reciprocal connections with your frontal lobes. So it's actually making you smarter, more focused. It's really a great game. My goal is really to keep getting younger. I had my telomeres done, which are a measure of the end caps of your chromosomes, and they shorten as you get older. But we know from research that through diet, through various vitamins, through exercise, stress reduction, meditation, you can actually lengthen your telomeres. It's not a one-way street. I'm 59, but my telomere says I'm 39, which is pretty awesome. Correct. Telomeres are big. It's a big part of our program. We've been using telomeres for many years. But you're right. Just walking 60 minutes a day

will lengthen your telomeres and increase your lifespan by 25 years. Just walking 60 minutes a day. Something that easy. Let's say you exercised your whole life compared to someone who was sedentary their whole life, and you both had a heart attack. From the books, remember some of these studies, the person who exercises is going to have a smaller heart attack. The person who doesn't exercise will have a larger heart attack. What does exercise do? Grows new blood vessels. I can speak for hours on just cardiology and traditional disease management, but I mean, here we're talking about more natural ways to stay younger and healthier and live longer.

It's great. It's really great. And I think the thinking about aging as a process that's not necessarily inevitable. We can, with a little effort, work, and intelligence, use lifestyle plus various innovative treatments that are regenerative to actually optimize, maintain our health, and even reverse some of the things related to aging. Now, I look at myself, the more I've understood about diet and exercise, the more I've implemented it, the better I am. I can tell you my bone density and my body composition was better than even just three years ago. Even though I'm getting older, I'm getting healthier. So there is hope for all of us who are aging because that's the fastest growing segment of the population. And the baby boomers

are all heading there. And even if you're young, it's important to start young if you're listening, because what you invest early pays off later. I've been taking care of myself my whole life. I've never really been overweight. I've exercised. And as you see, I'm almost 60 and basically as fit as a 30-year-old or younger. And I think that's possible for everybody. I just want everybody to have hope and believe that if they understand the basic workings of their biology, if they understand how to create health, that it's available to them at any time. And it doesn't take a long time. You're talking about really months or weeks for people to start to see massive changes. We have the power to age well. It just takes a little

insight, effort, and of course, the right mindset. Exercise can impact inflammation on a molecular level through regulatory effects on the immune system. Science is showing physical benefits from movement ranging from supporting brain health and cognition to balancing stress response signals. It can be intimidating to start a new workout routine, which is why making it fun is so important. Choose activities that are appealing to you, whether it's hiking with a friend, swimming, tai chi, yoga at a studio, or maybe even dancing in your own home. New research also revealed that we can work out less than previously thought and see even better results. Interval workouts alternate between bursts of high-intensity movements and low-intensity resting periods.

The approach to exercise can be incorporated into a variety of programs from walking to weightlifting. Finding a buddy can also be very powerful in keeping you accountable to your health routine. Exercise and movement play a vital role in our cognition and ability to age young, and it's never too late to make improvements. Thanks for tuning into this mini episode of The Doctor's Pharmacy. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider sharing it with a friend. Until next time! Hi everyone, I hope you enjoyed this week's episode. Just a reminder that this podcast is for educational purposes only. This podcast is not a substitute for professional care by a doctor or other qualified medical professional.

This podcast is provided on the understanding that it does not constitute medical or other professional advice or services. If you're looking for help in your journey, seek out a qualified medical practitioner. If you're looking for a functional medicine practitioner, you can visit ifm.org and search their Find a Practitioner database.

It's important that you have someone in your corner medicine practitioner, you can visit ifm.org and search their find a practitioner database. It's important that you have someone in your corner who's trained, who's a licensed healthcare practitioner, and can help you make changes, especially when it comes to your health.