Well with Arielle Lorre - 211: How to Optimize Your Brain Health with Neurologists Ayesha & Dean Sherzai

Episode Date: November 23, 2022

Drs. Ayesha and Dean Sherzai are neurologists/neuroscientists dedicated to researching, treating and preventing neurodegenerative diseases. They have studied how our lifestyle impacts our brain health, and in this episode we discuss simple lifestyle practices we can implement to support our brains. We discuss the validity of various fad diets and whether they positively impact our brains; how to support our brains through diet, exercise, and sleep; how to challenge ourselves cognitively; the importance of good stress; practical tips to easily incorporate into our lives for brain health and so much more.   More info at: healthymindsinitiative.org.   Get Origins gift sets today, available at Origins.com.   Take Cymbiotika's quiz to find the best supplements for your health goals — Use code BLONDE at checkout on cymbiotika.com to get 15% off your first purchase or create a custom bundle for up to 45% off!   Go to Zocdoc.com/BLONDE and download the Zocdoc app for FREE. Then start your search for a top-rated doctor today. Many are available within 24 hours.   Become the best version of yourself and get 15% off Ned products with code BLONDE. Go to helloned.com/BLONDE or enter code BLONDE at checkout.   You can grow thicker, healthier hair AND support our show by going to Nutrafol.com and entering the promo code BLONDE to save fifteen dollars off your first month’s subscription. This is their best offer ANYWHERE and it is only available to US customers for a limited time. Plus FREE shipping on EVERY order.   There's never been a better time to try Match. Download the Match app today.     Produced by Dear Media.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Auto-hue with Sunny Cars feels as if the children Not me's Beasel stramble Sandvorda Actisvercere Verdwine Vacantcy can chaotic

But who'sorgalose An auto-hurt Says No No Stress No own-vervict Novert to cost Always Follettive So foothoher sonder

Sonderger Go to your Reisadviceor Orsoniccars. The following podcast is A Dear Media Production It can be really tough dating nowadays and I think there's such an emphasis placed on finding fulfillment through another

person. But we know the cliche when you're working on yourself and you're the best version of yourself, you're going to attract the best partner for you. And even though it is a cliche, I wholeheartedly believe in this. And I think Match agrees. Match believes the most important relationship is with yourself. So in a world where you can choose to do anything or anyone choose you first, because dating someone who knows what they want and won't settle for less, that is sexy as hell. And Match's latest study of over 5,000 U.S. singles says there's a new triple threat on the dating horizon. Therapy, self-care, and emotional maturity. This is music to my ears.

These are things that I was looking for when I met my husband. And I think that we can all agree that self-awareness and a desire for growth and emotional maturity are definitely things that we want in a partner. 87% of singles say it's very important for their partner to prioritize their mental health and 81% report they engage in self-care at least monthly. I know that's you guys. Two-thirds of singles want to better their mental health, including 71% of Gen Z and 75% of millennials.

And two-thirds of singles are open to therapy, including 73% of young singles. So if you do you, you already know the best. relationships show up when you show up for yourself first. There's never been a better time to try match. Download the match app today. Hey, welcome to the Blond Files podcast. I'm your host, Ariel Lorry, and I'm here to talk all things wellness. From how to achieve optimal health and well-being to the best beauty tips and everything in between, no topic is off limits and I'm bringing it to you real and unfiltered. I know there is so much information out there, so I'm here to help you navigate it all. Thanks for listening. Let's get into it. Hi, everybody. Welcome to the show. I am really excited

about this episode. I was actually going to put it out in a few weeks, but I decided with the holiday this week. I know a lot of people are going to be stuck in their cars, traveling. Maybe you have some time off and you're going to be going for a walk. And I wanted to give you something that you could listen to that just really has a lot of value that I think you're really going to connect to. And that was this episode. So I'm talking to doctors Aisha and Dean Shurzai. They are also known as the Brain Docs on Instagram. And they have dedicated their lives to the study and the treatment of brain health and neurodegenerative diseases and prevention. So Dr. Dean Shurzai is a behavior Neurologist and Neuroscientist whose entire life has been dedicated to behavioral change

models at the community and population level. He has revolutionized the world of public health nationally and internationally. Dean finished his medical and neurology residencies at Georgetown University with a subsequent fellowship in neurodegenerative diseases at the National Institutes of Health, followed by a second fellowship in dementia and geriatrics at the University of California, San Diego. He also holds two master's degrees in advanced sciences at UCSD and in lifestyle epidemiology from Loma Linda University. He has received a PhD in case you weren't feeling inadequate enough at this point. He's received a PhD in healthcare leadership focused on community empowerment from Loma Linda Andrews University. And finally, he completed the executive

leadership program at Harvard Business School. His vision has always been to revolutionize health care by empowering communities to take control of their health, and his wife, Dr. Aisha Shurzai, finished two residencies at Loma Linda University, preventative medicine, and neurology. She also holds a master's in advanced sciences from UCSD, subsequent to completing her residency, Dr. Shurzai completed a fellowship in vascular neurology from Columbia University, and is currently enrolled to finish a PhD in women's leadership. Knowing the importance of empowering her patients and their communities, Aisha completed an extensive culinary training program and now teaches large populations how to make

tasty, easy, and healthy food for their brain health. All of that is to say they are incredibly qualified. I think that's so important to know going into conversations like this. And in our conversation, I just found them to be so warm, so humble, so lovely, and I think you guys will find that as well when you listen. So we discuss what specific things we can implement in our lives to prevent cognitive decline from nutrition to exercise to managing both good and bad stress. Yes, there's good stress. We talk about how important it is to have a purpose and so much more. I learned so much like the connection between leg strength

and brain health. That was a new one for me. How impactful a serving of greens a day actually is. How having a purpose can actually affect your brain. It was such an eye-opening conversation. Honestly, one of my favorite parts from this interview was at the end. They share some absolutely fascinating information. So make sure you listen the whole way through. And also make sure to check out their podcast, The Brain Health Revolution, where they have amazing conversations. They share a lot of science-based information. They debunk a lot of information that you may have seen circulating social media from popular health influencers. Also, check out their Instagram where they share clips from the conversations. They have more information there. They also share amazing recipes.

They have a cookbook. Their website has tons of resources and links to their neuroacademy and their Brain Health Institute. And we're also going to link their Healthy Minds initiative in the show notes below. you'll hear them talk about that towards the end as well. With that, I hope you guys enjoy this episode with Drs Aisha and Dean Shurzai. All right, welcome doctor and doctor, doctors. Thank you so much for having us. I'm really looking forward to talking to both of you. I was thinking before the episode, I just feel like right now the wellness space, the health space is so saturated with a lot of sexy, buzzy products that are being sold, these trends and fads. And it's really hard for the average person to sift through that information and know what is legitimate and what is not.

So I know that on your page and you kind of speak truth to a lot of that and dispel that in a really gentle, kind of nice way. So I would love to wade through some of that today and talk about the best ways that we can optimize our brain health. But to start, maybe you can just introduce yourselves to the audience and tell them a little bit about yourselves. Sure. Thank you so much for having us. That's a topic that both Dean and I are very passionate about, passionate about the science, but more importantly, the application of that science in our lives and the translation of true data and true science in communities. So Dean and I are married. We've been married for 18 years. We're both neurologists. I know that's kind of strange to have two neurologists in one family,

but we trained in neurology. So I went to Lomolini University for my residency in neurology and preventive medicine. And my focus after residency was prevention of neurological diseases. And I did a two-year fellowship at Columbia University focusing on vascular neurology, which is stroke and vascular diseases of the brain like vascular dementia and epidemiology, which essentially means understanding disease patterns in the communities and in societies and how prevention can actually work in preventing these devastating diseases. And since then, both of us have been focusing, and we actually coined the term preventive neurology,

and we've been working, we're the co-directors of the brain health and Alzheimer's Prevention Program, but also lead a non-for-profit healthy minds initiative, essentially working on spreading information about prevention of dementia, stroke, Parkinson's disease, and others in communities. I'm her husband. I'm a neurologist trained in Georgetown. I did several fellowships at NIH and UCSD, and my PhDs in community empowerment and science and real science.

And it's so beautiful that you actually hit on the most important thing right from the beginning, which is when there's a lot of noise, people settle back to their comfort. And in a world where we have 6.2 million people who suffer from Alzheimer's, 700,000 from strokes. And that's not even including anxiety, which is universal and ubiquitous and depression and all of these things. And I'm not saying all of it can be prevented, but a lot of it can be prevented with simple, applicable, science-based means without the biohack of the moment, you know, adding the chocolate into the coffee or the butter into the this and confirmation bias driven, which creates so much noise and chaos where people just give up and say, oh, nobody knows anything. Yet the data is just bewilderingly overwhelming what works. And what works is simple.

And it's done in your own home, in your own communities. And you don't even need us. You can forget our names tomorrow. And we would be happy because that's, That means that we did our job, which is work ourselves out of a job. And that means simple things, I'm going to throw one in right now. Here's, you want a big biohack. You want the greatest of all biohacks of all time. Eating one serving, one heaping serving of greens a day improves your brain health by 11 years. Before you book any brunch, you probably pour over lists and lists of reviews.

So why not do the same when you're booking a doctor's appointment? With Zoc Doc, you can see real verified patient reviews to help find the right doctor in your network and in your neighborhood. After all, finding the right doctor is just as, if not more, important than finding the right plate of eggs Benedict. I have to tell you guys, I found one of my favorite doctors and actually one of my favorite people through Zoc Doc. So I had been looking for a specialist and I'm sure you guys have all done this. You're putting it into Google, a bunch of people pop up who are maybe in your area, but you don't know. know if they take your insurance and then if they do, then you can't get an appointment. And the amazing thing about Zoc Doc is that it's a free app that shows you doctors who are patient

reviewed, take your insurance, and are available when you need them. And that was how I found this doctor. So you can find every specialist under the sun, whether you're trying to straighten your teeth, fix an achy back, get your skin checked or anything else. Zoc Doc has you covered. And their mobile app is as easy as ordering a ride to a restaurant or getting delivery to your house. Just search, find, and book doctors with a few taps. You can read verified patient reviews from real people who made real appointments. And you can find the doctor that is right for you, book an appointment in person or remotely that works for your schedule. So go to Zocdoc.com slash blonde and download the Zocdoc app for free. Then start your search for a top rated doctor today. Many are available

within 24 hours. Again, Zocdoc.com slash blonde. Zoc, doc.com slash blonde. Zococ dot com slash blonde. Hey guys, it's me, Chrisel Lim, co-founder and CMO of Bumo. As a busy working parent myself, I felt like there was a lack of options for parents and I personally needed more support. So that's what we're doing here on Being Bumo. We're here to make your life easier, a little less stressful and help you navigate through this complex thing called parenting. So subscribe now to being boomo at Applepodcast.com slash being boomo or wherever you listen to podcast. Oh, got to go. See you guys soon. Okay, I have a question about that. How can that be quantified? Yes. Beautiful. Okay. We have a scientist that has said has to be validated. And validation means

that it is repeatable, repeated not by just somebody you know, but by another group that's completely contrary to you and it's been done repeatedly and it's been shown cause and effect. But in science, cause and effect is almost non-existent, but strong correlation is good enough. Smoking, we don't have causal studies. Nobody said, okay, we're going to put you on three packs a day of cigarettes and let's see if you get lung cancer. That wasn't done. But the correlational studies were so powerful, so repeated, and with enough power that said it's absolute. And we've seen the results of eliminating it. The same thing is true with Greens. huge studies, the Framingham study, the Mind Diet study, where we study in the Adventist Health

study, 96,000 people over 50 years. Aisha was the lead scientist and she won the award for this, California teacher study, 133,000 people over 20 years. And you have enough data you can tease out other confounds, other elements that might be affecting and giving you false data. And then also forward studies where people who are put on nutritional elements, such as as greens and vegetables and things of that nature. So the realm of data is overwhelming. And with greens in particular, there are so many lines of data, both observational, retrospective, prospective, randomized. Everything you can think of has been done. And that's why something as simple as greens is magical. But why isn't it talked about? Because it's not sexy. Really? Greens? You mean it's not

in a pill, it's not in a beautiful, fancy bottle that you have to shake. Nobody's profiting off of it. Nobody's bottle. Yeah. The green industry has not become a powerful industry. Big green. The big green, yes. I don't know how this has evolved. It seems like it's becoming such a huge problem now, but I feel like so many people don't trust the data. So how would you guys approach that in your position? It is tough. And there's no easy answer for it. I think. the most important thing to realize is that science is not ubiquitously shared appropriately by different scientists and universities. It's a mechanism. It's a mechanism of essentially questioning and finding a very path. As a matter of fact, when people start doing a research project, we start with a

hypothesis. We started with a null hypothesis, essentially asking a question and then answering it On the contrary. And you're going to try to prove yourself wrong. And if you can't prove yourself wrong, then maybe there is a correlation. Maybe there is a direction. It's not a 100% answer either. It's something that will start another series of questions. So it's a mechanism that has been used to make sure that it is as unbiased as possible,

that the entirety of the picture is taken into consideration, and that it allows us to expand on a particular. area as much as possible. It's true that some scientists are not looking at each and every element and they're publishing things and they're coming up with concepts that may not be based on the true data. But at the end of the day, I think we have to trust some people who are experts and scientists in that field that have done them over and over again and have essentially gained some some trust in their integrity and in their capacity for them to come up with a consensus statement. So it is difficult for people to understand it very well.

But again, there are mechanisms and ways of highlighting good science and good data. It's beautifully stated. And so if you see a scientist say, oh, don't listen to anybody else. And even if they don't highlight themselves, but when you're in front of them and you're negating everybody else, you're leaving a vacuum back to yourself, right? And you see a lot of scientists. Trust yourself. Don't trust scientists.

No, scientists do great work. It's not about the scientists, even us. It's not about us. The method we're using, is it valid? Is it just depending on our opinion? Or is it that there are many, many others that agree upon it? And then when a group of, a large group of people, usually they call them consensus reports, like I just said, when a large group of, you know, the scientists from different realm come

and say, we agree upon this, then that's good enough. The beauty of science is that it's not absolute and it's not perfect. Ironically, absolute and perfect is worrisome. Yeah, I was going to say there's humility in it. There's intrinsic humility. Like I just said, we start, I think the most humble thing in the world is the null hypothesis. A good scientist starts with the idea of disproving his or her idea. Yeah.

And I think one of the reasons why, coming back to your question of not trusting anyone, so how do we build trust, right? We build trust when you see a certain amount of authority and strength, right? So people who speak in absolutes, like, this will do that, like A will result in B, right? that kind of language of absolutes and incredible certainty doesn't exist in science. I think one of the reasons why good scientists don't really get a lot of real estate for people to listen to them is because they always talk in a very circuitous way. This may help you or that might be helpful or this may be related to that. They never speak in absolutes.

And I think in the world of social media, when everybody has an attention span of five to 10 seconds and they're like, just tell me what to do. I need answers right now. You need to tell me what to do. And when they hear that level of circumspectness, if that's a word, right? It kind of causes a little bit of discomfort. But then there are individuals who just come up and say, hey, you know what? You got to eat beef liver for a good liver, you know, for good liver health.

like, where did you come up with that and why are you so certain about it? But unfortunately, in today's world, people need that kind of a very solid answer. And unfortunately, that just doesn't happen in the world of science. So I think we need to create a culture where we are comfortable with the discomfort of not knowing everything. And just basing our actions on very good data. May not be 100%, but it's good enough for us to have a vector and have a direction to move towards. Well, you have an acronym, right, neuro, and maybe for the listeners, we can just break those down a little bit so that we can talk about prevention and talk about some of the solution here.

So, you know, we're scientists and we're physicians and, you know, coming up with a self-serving acronym was kind of funny because of neurologists and kind of cringe you. But acronym's work, it reminds you, you know, quickly of what's important. And over the years, over the several decades, you know, research coming from amazing universities and scientists and from some of the work that we've been involved in the school of public health and in communities, it's quite evident that lifestyle matters, as Dean was pointing out to it. And it's not just one thing. Like, for example, people are always focused on superfoods. There's no such thing as a superfood. We eat different kinds of foods and it's the synergistic relationship between them that matters

more. It's the pattern that matters more. So nutrition matters. So N is for nutrition. And then E is for exercise. We all know how important exercise is for brain health, definitely for cardiovascular health, but for prevention of dementia and prevention of so many other neurological diseases as well. U is for unwind or stress management. We all know how stress can affect our bodies, but it really negatively affects our brain health, and we have evidence for that. R is for restorative sleep. You know, having good, deep, restorative 7 to 8 hours of sleep can help us memorize things better and it cleanses our brain. And O is for optimizing cognitive activity, which essentially means keeping our minds active in something that is purposeful and meaningful in our lives. That creates resilience and cognitive reserve and people do very, very well as far as prevention of dementia's concern.

It's that time of year when we are all scrambling to find the perfect gifts for the people in our lives. And I can guarantee that there's somebody in your life who would really love the gift of skincare. So Origins has the best gift sets this season. The packaging is so cute. They have incredible products in there. I have been an OG Origins fan since high school since I got the tea tree oil and it changed the game when I had breakouts. Origins is the pioneering nature-infused skincare brand, and they have elevated gift sets that will surprise and delight everyone on your holiday shopping list. Origins creates transformative skin care with naturally derived ingredients to noticeably improve how skin looks and feels.

Origins has a long history of commitment to our planet by reducing waste and caring for our natural resources. All of Origins holiday gift set cartons are plastic-free, recyclable, and sourced from responsibly managed forests. And for every tree harvested, new trees are planted. To date, the brand has planted over 2 million trees around the world so you can feel good about the gifts you are giving this season from origins. So like I said, the packaging is so cute and festive and they've really done an incredible job at kind of curating these different gift sets. So there are a couple that I have my eye on. I'm probably going to get one for myself too. I love the mask this way. It's a five mask

starter kit. It's a $40 value for $20, so you can't beat that. And you can pamper the ones you love with Origins Five Masking Favorites. It features the Origins Drink Up Intensive that delivers 72-hour hydration. They have original skin to re-texturize and refine the look of pores, out of trouble to absorb excess oils that can lead to blemishes, active charcoal to deeply purify and detox, and charcoal honey, which I love to purify and nourish the skin. They also have all for youth. So you guys know I am very into this one. They have the plant subscription essentials to cleanse and plump. This is a $166 dollar value for $102. So another incredible deal. And it has the origins number one anti-aging serum, cleanser, eye cream, and

moisturizer. It contains a powerful anti-ageer and youth boosting ingredients to help reduce the look of lines and wrinkles. So definitely head to their site so that you guys can check out all of the gift sets for yourself and see the cute and festive packaging. I know that you will find something for either yourself or for somebody that you love. So get Origins gift sets today available at Origins.com. Again, that is Origins.com. 30 million women are impacted by weakened or thinning hair. And if you're among them, know that you're not alone and that there is a solution you can trust to deliver results. You guys may have seen my Instagram reel that I did on my experience with Nutraful.

I developed some post-virus and probably stress-related thinning of my scalp around my hairline and it was so frustrating. But my hair people and also my nurse practitioner recommended Nutrifol and it really helped to fill it in. Nutriful is the number one dermatologist recommended hair growth supplement, clinically shown to improve your hair growth, thickness, and visible scalp coverage. Nutraful supports healthy hair growth from within by targeting the five root causes of thinning, stress, hormones, environment, nutrition, and metabolism through

whole body health. Nutriful has three unique formulas to support women throughout all stages of life, including postpartum and menopause. Each formula is physician formulated using natural, drug-free, medical grade ingredients in consistently effective dosages, so you get the most reliable results. In a clinical study, 86% of women reported improved hair growth after six months. 3,000 plus top doctors and stylists recommend NutriFle as an effective and high-quality solution for healthier hair. And like I said, I have had such a positive experience with it. You guys can go to my Instagram and see my before and after. And you can also grow thicker, healthier hair and support my show by going to NutraFle.com.

and entering the promo code blonde to save $15 off your first month's subscription. This is their best offer anywhere, and it's only available to U.S. customers for a limited time. Plus, you can get free shipping on every order. So get $15 off at Nutraful.com, spelled N-U-T-R-A-F-O-L.com, and the promo code is blonde. Again, neutraful.com, and the code is blonde. Okay, so let's delve into those a little bit. Let's start with nutrition. You mentioned greens, obviously,

but what are some other things that the listeners could try to incorporate more into their meals, into their lives, or their brain health? So for transparency, this is, you know, I always say the most important relationship is trust, trusting integrity and capacity. Here's the integrity. We always say this for transparency to build that trust. We're vegans, for animals, for environment, but we don't push that.

And as it happens, most of the science kind of supports it. But there are places where there's a different opinion. For example, fish. At this point, there's data that if you're eating fish, two to three servings of fish, it's fine. It's actually good for your brain. So we want to show that level of transparency. I mean, it's critical that people put their own.

And by the way, everybody has biases. If you're eating an omnivore diet, by definition, you have bias towards that. So we want to make sure that people recognize their biases and put it up front so that the science is not tainted. The science shows that a plant-centered, plant predominant, plant mostly diet is incredibly healthy. And yes, the blueberries are very beneficial. There are studies that shows that it improves your brain two to three years. The greens, the leafy vegetables, the beans, the legumes, the herbs and spices, turmeric. We did a study as we were directors of Brain Institute at the Cedar Sinai. We did a study in turmeric and

curcumin, which is a subtype, and its benefits and others. But as I just said, the totality matters. And when she was doing fellowship at Columbia University, in the morning, she would be in the ICU at nights, and I was in L.A. with the kids, and we would fly back and forth. And at night, she would be taking cooking courses, because that's how important it is to teach people to eat healthy. You could keep on telling people how important it is to eat, but if it's not delicious, nobody's going to eat it. So that's one of the reasons why I went and I got my culinary degree. But as Dean was mentioning, the dietary patterns that have been studied are the Mediterranean diet, and you probably heard about that, and the mind diet. The mind, mind stands for Mediterranean

dash intervention for neurodegenerative delays, a long, you know, a set of words, but mind diet has been studied thoroughly, and there was one study, the key study that came out of Russia University showed that when people adhere to the mind diet, they reduced their risk of developing Alzheimer's dementia by 53%. But the best news was even small adherents or moderate adherence made a huge difference. So it's not an all or none phenomenon. Every small little change that people make in their dietary patterns matters. So say, for example, instead of getting fries with a burger, if you get a side salad, yes, it matters.

You actually benefit from that. Say, for example, if you cut down on adding refined sugar in your cereal in the morning and instead, I don't know, you add maybe a handful of, you know, walnuts or berries or maybe go for some monk fruit or some of these, you know, sweeteners that don't have any calories. It matters. It makes a huge difference. And so when you look at that dietary pattern, again, like Dean said, it is essentially plant predominant with some fish, but people can actually live a very healthy life if they're completely plant-based as well. So you mentioned some things that were good for prevention, but kind of on the flip side of that coin, are there foods? I mean,

So many foods have been vilified and, you know, processed everything and sugar and seed oils and gluten, dairy. I mean, I don't know if that really is pertaining to brain health. But it seems like there's a lot of fear around food. So is there validity to any of those, you know, refined sugar, processed foods, fried any of that? I don't think we should ever call any food evil, like dangerous and evil. or superfood, those are terms that should never be used to describe any food. Because even if people eat a little bit of it, it doesn't mean it's the end of the world. Yes, maybe they can actually just, you know, tilt the balance a little bit.

It's pretty easy. It has strawberries. I love it so much, but yeah. But like I said, I think the dietary pattern essentially is more important. As far as the specific things that you mentioned, and I could talk about them for hours with you because each one of them have tremendous amount of data behind them. So these statements are not frivolous and they are based on good evidence. Let's pick on sugar.

So refined sugar, you know, consumption of refined sugar has been associated with increase in cardiovascular diseases and damage to the arteries and blood vessels, whether it's in our heart or in our brain. And on the other side, on a more direct side, weight gained by itself has been associated with increased risk of dementia, stroke and some other neuroline. diseases. So it's never a good idea to eat a lot of refined sugar. And unfortunately, in the United States, we eat a ton of sugar. We don't realize it. It's just hidden in so many different types of foods. So trying our best to consume foods that are unrefined and trying our best to make sure

that even if we want something sweet, we have some alternatives. First, is always a good idea. And when you look at different dietary patterns and different studies and different populations, they essentially are a variation of the same theme, foods that are lower in refined carbohydrates. And that doesn't necessarily have to be sugar. It could be white flour, it could be white rice, things of that nature, and opting more for unrefined sources of carbohydrates like whole grains and vegetables and, you know, starchy vegetables and, you know, starchy vegetables. If non-starchy vegetables have carbohydrates, it's always a good idea. So that's the thing. And then as far as the, I'm just picking on some of the controversial things that come up over and over again. Let's talk about gluten because there was this massive, you know, war against gluten and it's a harm for brain. But now we actually know that, yes, there is a subset of population that have, you know, intolerance and allergies to gluten. And they should absolutely stay away from gluten. And even if they are exposed to, you know, million parts of a micromillometer of gluten, they actually start having.

That's 1% of psiliac disease. Celiac disease. That's just 1%. And then one or two more percent of individuals who have some sort of a wheat allergy or sensitivity to gluten. They may have some problems and they have to stay away from it. But for the rest of the population, they've done some studies where they show that when people go gluten-free, they cut down on very important components of foods,

such as fiber and the B vitamins from whole grains. And that's never a good idea because that can actually increase your inflammation, that can increase cholesterol. Fiber has been linked to lowering our cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, which damages our arteries and brain health. So you see the balance? Like when you cut down on something, you actually increase the risk for so many other diseases as well. So for people who do not have true allergy or sensitivity to gluten, it's never a good idea to cut down on it. And gluten is never synonymous with white bread. Everybody thinks that gluten is white bread.

There's so many healthy grains that have gluten, and they're excellent sources of B vitamins, minerals, and fiber, which we're deficient in. Saturated fats is the other one. Saturated fats is the other one that we can't miss on. Not all fats are bad, but saturated fat has been linked with poor cardiovascular health, and there are multiple studies that have shown

that when people consume more saturated fats, they actually have an increased risk of dementia. There was one study from the women's health initiative and the nurse's health study, they showed that when women consumed more saturated fat, they had a 70% increased risk of cognitive decline over a span of six years compared to women who consumed polyunsaturated fats and mon unsaturated fats. What are saturated fats found in? It's usually foods that are meat-based. So meat and cheese, high-fat cheeses have saturated fats in them. cream has saturated fat in them. And then the plant-based worse, palm oil and unfortunately, coconut oil, I've lost a lot of

friends over this state, has a lot of saturated fat. So it may not be as healthy as people think it is. We're still trying to learn about the different components of saturated fats because it's not just one entity. It's multiple different types of fatty acids. But so far, the data shows that it might be a good idea to cut down on saturated fat as much as possible. It's interesting because I'm just thinking.

about keto. And you were mentioning earlier, the putting the butter in the coffee and eating all these kinds of fats and everything. And I think that one of the reported benefits is increased cognitive function and brain health. Can you talk about keto a little bit? I've heard you talk about it on other podcasts, but I think it's important for the audience to hear too. Sure. Yeah. So we know about keto for several reasons. By the way, on the good side is the omega-3 fatty acids. We did two major review papers that were just published. we're kind of proud of that. One was omega-3 in the developing brain and children. And that's the kind of fact that's needed. However you get it, I don't care. Even if it's supplements, it's critical that we

get enough omega-3s, especially in children, where the brain is developing rapidly. And omega-3 and the aging brain. And aging depends on how you look at aging. I look at aging from the whole spectrum, 20 years of age and later. But definitely later in life, omega-3 is important. On the negative side, keto diet is the data that that's usually shared and we've looked at all the reviews, the data is incredibly weak. There is no data that's more than 30 people in the study and nothing more than three months, nothing meaningful more than three months. And imagine that for all this talk that you hear, for all the talk, the best study is three months and the largest study is 30 people. Well, and actually it was a randomized controlled trial, so which means that

they subjected people to a ketogenic diet and they compared them to those who were not exposed to them. And they didn't find any clinically meaningful results. And that's another factor. When they say results, they're not actually telling you that clinically meaningful, yeah, by statistics, but the statistics in your and my life doesn't mean anything if you're MOCA, which is a neuropsychological test, increased by one point. That means nothing. And then also most important in public health is long term. So if you help, there's a lot of things that can help you for short term. You want to wake up somebody? I can put them on many drugs. I mean, hardcore drugs that can wake them up and make them, you know, more sharp for 10 seconds, 20 seconds, 30 seconds.

I used to do some of those. Yes. Yeah. No, it's, but long term, though, there's no data. So what differentiates the data that they're sharing is, I mean, it's kind of, it's so worrisome that when scientists know that the long-term data is not there, the power of the studies is not there, population studies are not there. And the fourth thing, which is the most important thing for us on our non-for-profit side, we work on this, which is how do you apply things that communities can truly own? How many people can truly achieve ketosis? How many people can truly maintain it?

So we, and as neurologists, we do keto diets in really bad seizure cases. For children only. They're a specific type of syndrome where a ketogenic diet is actually helpful for them because none of the epilepsy medications work. Exactly. And it's like saying that chemotherapy works for certain cancers, therefore everybody should do chemotherapy. Literally, that's the analogy. So the data is worrisome.

We're completely open to new data. Like as I said, the transparency. We're just data driven, but the data is not there. And on the other side, what it takes for you to be keto diet and also who actually a lot of people that go to keto diet is because young men who want it's confirmation bias, right? If I find out, I remember when I was younger, I was a hunter and all that. If somebody said that bacon was medicine, oh my goodness, that would be my favorite person. That's the driver behind a lot of this keto diet stuff. So it's somewhat problematic.

We're open to studies looking for them, and none is coming. None. For all the talk, for example, we just came from the airport. We've been traveling quite a bit. Every airport, the most common thing you see in the magazine racks, keto, keto, keto. So if it's so prevalent, so ubiquitous, wouldn't you think that there would be one study, just one, that would have had longevity and power? None. Absolutely none. Wow. Also, I feel like a lot of the keto food that I see. see like at health food stores and everything, they have really high fat and they also have like pretty high carbohydrates. So I think you were kind of saying that earlier. How many people truly go into ketosis that might be. Right. Right. We just we just need better studies and we need them long term enough so that we could be comfortable saying, okay, there's a signal. And now it's time for us to apply that into different communities. But we don't have anything like that. You guys probably heard my episode a while back with Cherveen, the founder of Symbiotica. Well, ever since that episode, I was inspired to try some of Symbiotica's supplements.

And let me tell you, I absolutely love them. So Symbiotica is a health supplement company designing sophisticated organic formulations that are scientifically proven to increase vitality and longevity by filling nutritional gaps that result from our modern day diet. they have the highest quality bioavailable ingredients and the most advanced delivery system. So when we recorded the episode, Sherivine brought me the liposomal vitamin C and I fell in love with that because it tastes so good, unlike most other liposomal vitamin C's. Also, last week I felt a cold coming on and I went to Arawan and I got the symbiotica liposomal elderberry. I did that and the vitamin C and the next day I felt completely fine. So I absolutely love their supplements. Another thing that I've started using, which I was inspired to incorporate after we talked about it in the podcast episode, is the Shilagit.

So this is a plant-based mineral resin that contains over 84 different essential minerals and fulic acid and offers numerous health benefits. It is a super antioxidant that can help with memory and immunity. It's anti-inflammatory and it's an energy booster. When I take this in the morning. I feel so much energy. I absolutely love it. So this is something that I'm incorporating into my daily routine. And right now, you can create a custom bundle subscription and get up to 45% off, which is such an amazing deal. So you guys can go to symbiotica.com. That's C-Y-M-B-I-O-T-I-I-K-A. symbiotica.com and use the code blonde at checkout for 15% off your first purchase. This is in addition to custom bundle discounts so you can get up to 45% off. So create your custom bundle at

symbiotica.com and get 30% off. Then you can get an additional 15% off your first purchase. Another amazing thing about symbiotica is that you can take their quiz so that you can find the best supplements for your health goals. You guys know me. I went straight from the anti-aging. So I'm doing the Shilogy. I'm going to try combining it with the liposomal glutothion. And like I said, that liposomal elderberry and vitamin C, also amazing, something that I think everybody should have in their toolbox, especially with cold season upon us. So again, that's the code blonde, B-L-O-N-D-E at symbiotica.com. With the holidays coming up and travel and end of year, which always means a lot of deadlines, tying up loose ends and getting a ton of work done,

it is more important to me than ever to practice my grounding routines. And I have a few that I have been super consistent with that have really made a difference in my overall well-being. One of those, which you guys are probably familiar with because I posted on Instagram a lot, is my nightly magnesium from Ned. It's called Mellow. I like to have this drink when I am taking a bubble bath. It really helps me to unwind. It has helped me so much with sleep, so much with anxiety. I always say it was kind of like finding a missing puzzle piece when I started taking this. It's a powerful daily magnesium supplement with amino acids and trace minerals that can help with mood, stress response, nerve and muscle health and sleep. I never did well with other forms of magnesium. Sometimes they would actually make my insomnia worse

or it would give me stomach issues. This one, like I said, has been incredible. I love the lavender berry flavor, so I mix a little bit into my water and I just sip it while I'm in the bath. And it's become a ritual that I really look forward to. They also have a new super blend latte. So I am really excited to get my hands on that. It's available for pre-order right now and it will ship in late November. So check that out. And of course, Ned is known for their CBD. They have a very good. of the world's purest USDA certified organic hemp from the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. I love to take the de-stress if I am flying. I don't love flying and it has really helped with my anxiety.

And if I'm jet lagged or if things are just really crazy and I need some extra help, getting to sleep, staying asleep, the sleep oil is incredible. It does not leave me groggy in the morning like melatonin. And one of the best things about NET is that they are fully transparent. This is an industry where you don't always know what you're getting. Ned shares third-party lab reports who farms their products and their extraction process all right there on their site. So become the best version of yourself and get 15% off Ned products with the code blonde. Go to hello ned.com slash blonde or enter the code blonde at checkout.

That's H-E-L-L-O-N-E-D dot com slash blonde to get 15% off. Thank you, Ned, for sponsoring the show and offering our listeners a net. natural remedy for some of life's most common health issues. Okay, let's move on to exercise. So you mentioned walking 25 minutes. What else should people be focusing on when they're working out? So weightlifting, ironically, I was an athlete when I was younger. I didn't say I was a good athlete.

I injured myself a lot. But I tell you, exercise is more and more important as you get older. After the age of 20, it becomes even more. important, 30 even more important. One of those strongest markers of resilience, one of the strongest markers of resilience are people that exercise throughout their life, and especially later in life. And I'm not just talking walking and running. I'm talking weight-bearing exercises. And of these leg strength is the most powerful thing you can have. For various reasons. We have the biggest muscles in our body, in our legs. And when we work on increasing our muscle mass,

we actually start releasing certain growth hormones, particularly the one that benefits the brain is called BDNF or brain-derived neurotrophic factor. And this is basically brain juice. What happens is we have a finite number of brain cells or neurons, and each of them can make as little as two connections or as many as 30,000 connections. And this BDNF continues to make connections between our existing neurons, whether you're 9 or 99. And that's such an incredibly empowering information to have, which essentially tells you that when you exercise, your brain literally grows. And they've done studies. They've done neuroimaging studies where they've exposed people to a particular regimen of exercises. And after six months, they saw that the region of the brain

that was responsible for encoding memory, literally grew in size. And they can't. to actually do better. And there was another study where they found that when people did resistance training and build up muscle, even those who had the beginnings of dementia, which is called mild cognitive impairment, that stage is amenable to change and that it's amenable to reversal as well, not when it's Alzheimer's disease, but usually in the preliminary stage. People who did resistance exercises actually reversed their mild cognitive impairment and they got better.

They became normal compared to those who were just strapped. and kind of taking it easy. So for multiple reasons, not just for muscular skeletal health, but for our brain health and prevention of dementia, exercise is so important. In fact, the one element that we start with every patient is the exercise component. The other reason is for elderly,

the number one reason that they end up in the hospital is false. And people who have stronger legs have much lower risk of falls. And the sixth element of exercise is habit formation. Habit creation, if you can create the first habit and you're successful at it, the likelihood of second, third, fourth, fifth goes exponentially higher. And nothing is easier in habit formation than exercise. When you say that I walk 20 minutes in the morning and you check it off, you literally turn on the dopamine reward system and the dopamine addiction system

towards positive behavior. And it kind of steeps in. to other areas as well. You tend to eat better. You tend to sleep better. You tend to actually keep yourself busy mentally. It's such a wonderful nitis of a habit to work on. Yeah, I was going to say that. I feel like when I'm exercising, I'm eating better. I'm sleeping better. I am more committed to my other habits like meditation and we can talk about those too. And it just does seem to kind of bleed into so many different areas of my life in a positive way. So let's, let's, talk about unwind. I don't know if meditation falls under that one. Yes. But even before we get

one last thing for exercise, it's the number one medicine for anxiety and depression. And that one is not controversial. Everybody will tell you it's the most effective, most long lasting, most stable treatment for anxiety and depression. And we are not the kind that throws the baby up with the bathwater. We think medications are useful. They have their place and all of that. But exercise is your best tool for anxiety relief. In fact, even when we have two teenagers, we tell them, as soon as you get anxious and our son, Alex, was telling us,

that he actually ended up doing 200 push-ups. I said, that's a lot of anxiety that you pushed up. But it's an incredible tool for kids to manage their anxiety. You're anxious, do a little regimen of running, do some exercise and some push-ups. So that's a wonderful tool to use. Unwind.

For us, unwind is good stress, bad stress management. Yes, and there is good stress. The very function, the very purpose of your brain is for good stress. It wants to be challenged. It is an inquisitive organ of pattern recognition and learning. There's a reason you have 87 billion neurons and one quadrillion connections. And this little three-pound organ, which is 2% of your body's weight, consumes 25% of your body's energy. And I can assure you the purpose is not just Sudoku.

I hate Sudoku. I'm sorry. I'm going to get a lot of hate from your... What about spelling bee? Those are great. I'm joking. Even Suduuku is great. I'm just terrible. I do my spelling bee every morning and I feel like I'm doing something positive for my brain. You know what you're doing that's incredibly positive? This. So when we're talking, it's not just talking. You're listening. That means that your auditory centers and your parietal lobe is actually processing the information. You're also looking at us and and reading faces. that's your occipital lobe and your frontal lobe. Then you're processing that.

That's your memory. That's your memory centers as well as your executive centers. Then you're producing thought, which is your language centers, your frontal lobe and all that. That's not just a word game. That's your entire brain being challenged, being pushed, but more importantly, around your purpose. Now, that's the nitis of good stress and bad stress. Bad stress is the kind of activity that's not driven by your purpose, doesn't have clear timelines, doesn't have clear victories where you check it off and you're done, and it goes on and on

it's not around your purpose. That creates long-term chronic inflammatory cortisol elevated state, which is terrible for your brain, for your body, for everything, including inflammation. Good stress is a purpose-driven activity that has timelines, you have a clear check and you're able to succeed, and if you're pushing yourself, it's not easy, you're pushing yourself. That actually literally grows your brain. It actually transforms your neurotransmitter system from one of chaotic serotonin to one where serotonin is being tugged, the ship of emotion, the ship of serotonin, is being managed by small successes of dopamine. Actually, this is a new concept that I'm introducing in your podcast first time. The ship of emotion is being tugged by the tugboats of

dopamine and success. That's a complete different mechanism. That's a complete different, and it's stress related, but it's great stress around your purpose. Now, here's the thing. People who are very active and they're retired, but they just didn't do anything. They just laid there on the beach for two years. They had the steepest decline in their cognition. So yeah, spend a couple of weeks on the beach, but if you're not pushing your brain around your purpose, the brain is going to shrink. It's not going to invest 25% of the energy on just watching trees. Those are great.

I love trees. But it's got to be more than that. It's got to be a purpose. That's the difference. Now where meditation and mindfulness comes in, meditation and mindfulness is a self-controlled way to manage the dopamine, to manage the cortisol, those two things. When you meditate and do mindful breathing, which is what we do,

you're actually actively creating a dopamine management system and a cortisol relief system. That's incredible. Now, the trick is this. Yeah, a lot of people do mindfulness, breathing, and meditation. First of all, they don't do it well, so they don't get anything out of it. They think that just went through the five minutes and afterwards they're even frustrated, like, okay, I didn't see it. But if you are able to achieve that moment or that state of calmness, and it doesn't matter, you don't have to, you know, reach nirvana. just calmness and a state of wellness.

Now, if you can capture that feeling and transfer it to your everyday activities, like even in this talking, where your sympathetic system is not overdiving, your parasympathetic system is in control, your mind is focused, now you've taken meditation and brought it into everyday life. That's the seat. I meditated before we did this, and I do TM, so a little bit different. but I remember when I started doing it years ago, they taught us about like inward strokes and outward strokes of stress release, I believe it was. And it's something that I noticed in my meditation

before I started this was I had been running through my day. I had so many things going on. I went to work out and my trainer and then I work. And I was so just tightly wound. And I sat down to meditate and about halfway through, I started yawning. I don't know if this is like any science to that up. But I felt like I could feel the stress leaving my body. And I'm just such a big proponent of like any kind of meditation that anybody can do where they do not reach Nirvana like you said, but get some kind of peace. Because I think that they're not all made equal and I don't want to start on my tangent about meditation. But I think it's so important because we're so distracted. Yeah. No, I agree with you. I think social media.

has evolved so rapidly that, you know, as human beings, we haven't really had the time to evolve with it and to manage it in a way where we keep the positives and we use some of the positive aspects of social media and have a good control over some of the negative aspects of it. Social media can be an incredible tool, and especially at a DNA where, you know, there was a time when you would have to go to the library or borrow a book and mail in some papers to learn about a concept. But right now, you have the entire library of the world in the palm of your hand. You can learn about anything. You can contribute to the information out there. The dangers are, of course, a lot of misinformation with the ones that we were talking about, it's in the realm of health or any other, any other field. So that's, that's one of the negative aspects of it. As far as brain health and social media is concerned, I think it can definitely be useful. There were

some studies that came that showed that, you know, people who play video games, they actually have sharper processing speed. They process information sharper as well. But then there are some studies that show that the distraction factor, you know, the focus factor, the the, the, the, the, the concept that when you're exposed to so much information, it makes you so distracted that you're not able to memorize anything. You know, we always say focus is the gatekeeper of memory. If you're not able to focus on something, and if you're living in an environment where you're forced to multitask it, where the TV's on, and you're speaking with someone on the phone, and there's another person speaking with you, whether it's your child or your mother or your sister,

your friend or co-worker, how on earth are you going to be okay with doing multiple tasks at the same time? And people think that they do a very good job at it, but they actually do multiple things badly when they're multitasking. So that is a big, big problem. And I think the solution, the blanket solution is just management. How do you manage this and setting times and setting paths to focus on one thing, finishing it off and moving on to another thing? No, I fully agree. But I'm a bit optimistic. I'm somewhat optimistic. I mean, there's a, right now, it's a signal detecting system that is actually

detecting your signal and using that signal to agitate you enough so that you can go to the next video, to the next video, to the next video, right? That's how it works. And that's bad because it's going to pick on your most agitated state. So it has to raise your cortisol level for you to be attentive enough to the thing, agitated enough to the thing so that you can keep going. But the positive side of this is the information side that Isha was saying, no matter what, when there's a lot of exchange of information, truth always comes to the surface. Yeah, we don't feel it right now. But over time, there's been much that's been shown that over time, truth will manifest itself. The other positive part is we will learn more and more how to optimize this tool, technology in general, to optimize focus. First, this comes focus. And then once you have optimized focus, than to optimize memory, executive function, language, and so on and so forth.

And that's where the realm of education will come in. Parents will actually opt for those tools, where we think that using the right tools, right technology, you can expand people's cognitive capacities, children's capacities, by double the amount of what they can do now in a very positive way, not in an anxiety-provoking way. Even our education is anxiety-provoking. From this test to this test to this test, that's not helpful. Yeah, you taught them, but you've taught them in the most blunt way. Like as if an, we think we're not the same Stone Age people where you have a, you have a whip in the back and telling the kid to learn or you're going to get whipped.

Well, it is a whip. If they don't learn, they're going to get bad grades and they're not going to get jobs. It's the same. There will be a time. There will definitely be fairly soon a time where around the persons for cleavities, their tendencies, their joy, their gamesmanship. You can build focus. You can build language.

which in all of that, that's around the corner. I can promise you. Right now, it's a new tool that, remember that we didn't have iPhone 15 years ago. I was too young then. You might remember this. I'm joking. But now, in 15 years, we have all of this.

Yeah. In the next 15 years, we'll have better tools. And the discerning parents, the discerning person, will fund the thing that will give them better focus, calm or state of being, more memory, more language. I remember the way I used to memorize, I hated that. I mean, looking back, you would sit there and try to memorize things. Medical school was painful.

It could be so much more fun. Even if it didn't make any sense you had to memorize the whole thing. Oh my gosh. I hated histology. I still hate histology. I get nervous thinking about it. I know, but it could be so much easier when you give it into context, three-dimensionality. You can see the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the,

visual representation of it in front of you, and we're around the corner. It is so exciting. I'm very optimistic. Meditation, where the tool senses where you truly are, where you even don't know where you are in your state of being, right? Because we kind of know, I mean, I feel it better. Well, no, it will measure your sympathetic tones. It will measure your pupils. It will measure your sweating. It will measure your heart rate. It will measure your blood pressure. And from that will give a better accurate, a thousand times more accurate state of your state of sympathetic parasympathetic balance and then put in front of you the next thing that will calm you down further. Now, some people are scared of that. I'm not. No, me neither. That sounds amazing. Because right now,

as much as I know neuro, when I meditate, I'm not completely aware of everything. I'm not, I'll be honest. I think a lot of people are going to say that they are, but I'm not even close to Nirvana. I'm not even close to nerve. That was a bad joke. My kids would say that was a dad joke. Sorry, your audience might not be used to this. Yeah, I mean, back to the meditation thing. And then we can move on. I know we're running out of time, but I'm with you. I think that sounds amazing. And it's probably once every few weeks, even, where I have an experience like today, where I feel like, oh, this is actually doing something. Usually I just do it. And I do know that it benefits my life in so many ways. But I don't feel like I'm transcending.

You know, while I'm doing it. Okay. Let's close with sleep. We kind of talked a little bit about mental activity with the good stress. But I've heard you talk about the importance of sunlight in the morning and how does that enhance our sleep and how does sleep affect our overall wellbeing and cognition. Yes, absolutely. It's such an important topic that has been ignored for years and years.

And just over the past few years, people are realizing how important sleep is. I feel like a hypocrite talking about sleep right now because I'm so sleep deprived and I was traveling yesterday and I haven't had good sleep, as you can tell from my eyes. But, you know, from the different studies, we know that people who have regular deep restorative sleep have better functioning brain. Two very important things happen when we sleep. The first thing that happens is we have this very elaborate system called the glymphatic system that gets activated when we hit the deeper stages of sleep. And it's responsible for cleansing our. our brain. It's almost like a janitorial system that gets activated when we go through the deeper

stages of sleep. And what it does is it collects all the debris, the dead cells, the dead connections, and the byproducts, including bad proteins that are essentially associated with disease. They're all taken out of the brain and thrown out of the body into the venous system. We don't activate the system if we don't get a good night's sleep, if we don't go through the deeper stages of sleep. And so there's accumulation of these byproducts and that can cause damage to the neurons, to the connective structures, to the vessels, and can result in multiple diseases as well. So, you know, waking up at the same time and going to bed at the same time is so important, even during weekends, because we're a creature of habit and that keeping that cycle and circadian

rhythm as intact as possible helps us significantly. The second thing that happens when we sleep is our memories get consolidated. So all of the information. that we gather during the day gets converted into long-term memory during our deeper stages of sleep, and they get organized. It's as if, you know, you get these bits and pieces of information. They get typed in the right document, put in the right file, put in the right cabinet. So it's easier for you to know where they are and retrieve them rather quickly. And they've done studies before and after among students.

So it's not just long-term damage. You even see the damage short-term as well. where lack of sleep or lack of restorative sleep have resulted in lower scores if they were exposed to a test compared to those who actually had a better sleep. So it's so important for people to sleep well. And as far as sunlight is concerned. Yeah. So as beautifully stated, and along that line, two things. We don't have time to get into those. One is sleep hygiene. And you can look that up and there's no trick to it. It says one of them Ish has said, which is a pattern. Pattern is critical. light, sound, colder temperature, not eating two hours before sleep.

And the second thing is for those who have running thoughts, cognitive behavioral therapy. And cognitive behavioral therapy doesn't have to be formal. Having a notepad next to your bed so that you can dissociate the thoughts from the bed. So when you have the thoughts, write them down in bullet form, put it next to you. And initially, you don't feel a change. But over time, what it's doing is transferring the thoughts onto the paper, transferring it away from that bed, that disassociating the bed as a worry place, right? Which we've developed over the years.

Those are very, very important. And then sunlight is critical in the morning because it resets the hormonal system. The melatonin goes down, the cortisol goes up. So if you're getting sunlight in the morning, it does that. It also has an incredible effect on your mood. So just those simple measures are critically important for sleep. And so we must invest on our sleep time. If I had to ask you, what is the most impactful thing?

You mentioned Greens earlier. I know the exercise sounded like it kind of affected all of these other things. But if you had to pick the most impactful thing that the listeners could start doing today, knowing this would vary person to person, what would that be? How about this? I'll say one and then, Dean, you say one. Okay. So I think as a woman, the most important aspect of brain health is cognitive activity.

Yes, food is very important. My master's in nutrition. You're a chef. Yeah, yeah. My master's is in nutrition. I'm a culinary artist. But the one thing that I have seen is that women who don't challenge themselves cognitively, they tend to be at a very high risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

And the numbers are pretty scary. So right now, we're seeing that women have almost twice the risk of developing Alzheimer's dementia compared to men. And these are women, cohorts that have come to us from, say, for example, the 1960s, 50, 60s. And when you look at the differences of how women were not really challenged cognitively compared to men back then, most women were housewives. Most of them were not really in an environment where their talents were, you know, provoked and they actually contributed to. too much, they tended to have lower cognitive reserve and resilience. And they succumb to Alzheimer's disease even more than men. And there have been studies that showed that when women keep themselves cognitively challenged, there's a study from the nuns study. We didn't have time to get into that.

But the nuns showed us that the nuns who were engaged in their community, they spoke more, they carried a diary. More complex language. They had more complex language. They had more idea density, which means they had more, you know, creativity. Even if their brains were completely riddled with amyloid protein, which is the protein that damages neural cell, they never showed the signs of dementia. They were sharp. They were great. Nobody knew that they had Alzheimer's disease compared to those who were shy, who were hermits,

who didn't really interact with people who were not cognitively the child. Even the smallest amount of amyloid protein actually manifested in disease. So I think as women living in the 21st century, we need to have a purpose-driven life, even if we don't have a job, but at least be creative and do something that challenges us every single day. I love that. She took my area and I'm going to take her area, which is adding greens. But, okay, no, I'm not going to go there. We already talked about exercise. Yes.

Add a regimen of exercise that when you're done, check it off. Because that will actually start you in other patterns. as well. That will get you started in other habits as well. But add exercise to your daily routine. And the kind of exercise that gets you tired, all our patients come, oh, Dr. Shares, I'm fine. You don't have to tell me about X. What do you do? I walk the neighborhood or I do gardening. That's great. That's meditation. I mean, you've got to get tired. And it's got to be time bound. And that's so powerful because it's going to affect their mood that's going to give them a sense of control over their habits. And that will start the pattern.

I love that. And then do they get dopamine checking it off? Oh, literally. If you have checklists, I am a checklist manifesto guy. Checklists and check them off because there's nothing that affects your mood, especially over time, especially repeatedly when you get those checks off. Totally agree. Thank you so much for coming on. I think that was a really incredible, comprehensive conversation in a short amount of time. So I really appreciate you guys coming on and sharing your knowledge and expertise, tell everybody where they can find you. We really appreciate you. Thank you for this beautiful platform that you've created where people can actually, you know, be exposed to some myth-busting. We are known as the brain docs,

the brain docs on social media on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Our website is thebrainedox.com. And we have our Healthy Minds Initiative, which is a non-for-profit platform where we spread information about brain health and wellness into the communities. And we're happy to work with some volunteers if they're interested. Thank you so much. Healthymindsinitiative.org. Yes, healthy mindsinitiative.org. Thank you for having us.

We really appreciate it. We'll link that below too so that people can access it easily. Amazing. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you. I hope you enjoyed that episode. If you liked it and if you like the show in general,

please take a second to rate, review, and subscribe. It goes a long way and it's actually the best way to support the show. Also, if you want to see more about each episode, you can head over to The Blond Files podcast on Instagram. I'm always posting about each episode there or over on my personal page at Ariel Laurie. Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.