ZOE Science & Nutrition - Recap: Maintain brain health as you age | Dr. William Li

Episode Date: January 28, 2025

Today, we’re putting the spotlight on our brains. As we age certain behaviours often become more noticeable - misplacing keys, struggling to recall names or forgetting why you walked into a room. Most of us have likely seen this happen to someone close to us and may have even seen these patterns develop into more serious conditions like dementia. But are these behaviours just an inevitable part of getting older? Or is there something we can do to prevent them? Dr William Li is here to outline the connection between our lifestyle and the health of our brain. 🥑 Make smarter food choices. Become a member a zoe.com - 10% off with code PODCAST 🌱 Try our new plant based wholefood supplement - Daily30+ *Naturally high in copper which contributes to normal energy yielding metabolism and the normal function of the immune system 📚 Books from our ZOE Scientists: The Food For Life Cookbook by Prof. Tim Spector Food For Life by Prof. Tim Spector Every Body Should Know This by Dr Federica Amati Free resources from ZOE: Live Healthier: Top 10 Tips From ZOE Science & Nutrition  Gut Guide - for a healthier microbiome in weeks Have feedback or a topic you'd like us to cover? Let us know here Listen to the full episode here

Hello and welcome to Zoey Recap, where each week we find the best bits from one of our podcast episodes to help you improve your health. Today we're putting the spotlight on our brains. As we age, certain behaviours often become more noticeable, misplacing keys, struggling to recall names, or forgetting why you walked into a room. Most of us have likely seen this happen to someone close to us, and may have even seen these patterns develop into more serious conditions like dementia. But are these behaviors just an inevitable part of getting older or is there something we can do to prevent them? Dr. William Lee is here to outline the connection between our lifestyle and the health of our brain.

We start by getting some definitions straight. Will, what is dementia and is it the same as Alzheimer's disease? You've just asked a huge question because dementia is one word that represents the end result of many different processes problems that impact our brain. And so it's sort of a final result of different types of disease states that can actually happen to us and people tend to underestimate how complicated and how different types of dementia Actually exist so you asked about Alzheimer's disease. Well, you can call it Alzheimer's dementia It's the type of dementia that we attribute to Alzheimer's disease and even Alzheimer's itself We're beginning to realize there's different flavors or different types of Alzheimer's disease

and it's not one size fits all. So, you know, we've kind of moved from a table of contents on dementia where we have simple chapters of understanding the brain to really beginning to understand. This is a dictionary and there's a lot of different definitions that need to be This is a dictionary and there's a lot of different definitions that need to be precisely understood in order for us to be able to better prevent, better treat, and indeed better reverse the condition. Okay, so we're sort of discovering it's a lot more complex than maybe, you know, many of us listening had understood in terms of it's not just one disease, there's many different ways and underlying explanations for why this happens. And if you were gonna just sort of summarize, I guess, the symptoms that would distinguish someone with dementia from someone who's just getting older, what are they?

You know, I think all of us inherently can recognize the symptoms of dementia if you say it. So memory loss, cognitive problems, you know, you can't figure out what was I about to say, maybe misplacing your keys, maybe not being able to solve a problem, you know, executive function, decision making. These are the things that, you know, we associate as people get older and then ultimately have dementia. We say these are the symptoms of dementia. Now, it can get even more serious. you know, we associate as people get older and then ultimately have dementia, we say

these are the symptoms of dementia. Now, it can get even more serious. There are, you know, well-known figures like the Bruce Willis of the world who have lost the ability to speak. That's alphasia. That's another, you know, processed, our ability to speak is driven by the brain. And so when we actually have a misfire or derailing of those processes that allow our brain to normally function It could happen through our ability to speak and our ability to think but also our ability to breathe and our ability to eat

Which is fundamental to life itself. This is one of the reasons why dementia itself makes people feel apprehensive You know, you sort of lose everything is the impression. If this is happening to you or someone you love, you should absolutely be going to doctors and really pushing for what's possible. What about the non-medical side of this? So the things that you could be doing at home yourself. We know that exercise is helpful.

But when we think about exercise, a lot of people get put off for saying, you know what, I can't saying you know what I can't Afford a gym or I can't I don't have time to go work out two or three times a week and they just kind of put It off and they're like, well, that's for somebody else. Well, listen Exercise means staying in motion. All right, and our body is designed to stay in motion It's one of the laws of physics right a body that stays in motion It is in motion stays in motion

So it's one of the things that we actually need to do. Working out, being deliberate about our exercise is good. Cardio is great. You want to actually go for spinning or you want to go jump rope or you want to actually go swimming or you want to go ballroom dancing. Those are all things that actually are good cardio. And what happens when you're actually getting a really good workout? For those of you who might be jogging or running or training for a marathon

You're actually getting your heart working to pump blood the heart pumping blood through that 400 miles into your brain is gonna be Better at delivering oxygen and nutrients to that engine that that mastermind that's inside your skull So exercise is good for the brain, but there's more to it than that exercise also mind that's inside your skull. So exercise is good for the brain. But there's more to it than that. Exercise also winds up triggering the stem cells. You want to get stem cells to actually help repair your organs and you want to get a jump on that. You want to actually get a little more juice out of your stem cells. You want to exercise. Wow. Exercising helps your bone marrow release these stem cells, regenerative cells, into your bloodstream. And guess where they go?

They go wherever there's something that needs to be fixed. Stem cells are very smart. Your brain needs to be repaired. It's going to go to the brain. Your liver needs to be repaired. It's going to go to the liver. You want to get a little more juice out of the system that's already set up in order to fix you from the inside out. Exercise is really important. of the system that's already set up in order to fix you from the inside out, exercise is really important. That's right.

So we had another guest on the podcast talking about he believed the reason why exercise works in the sense that the exercise directly might cause some damage in your body, but it triggers all of these healing mechanisms. And it sounds like you're now sharing like a particular way in which we might be starting to understand how that's happening. That is exactly it. So let me demystify exercise for people, right? So if you, and let's think about it from a young person's perspective, you want to actually be in really good shape, you want to look really good in the mirror,

okay? You want to have... Sound just like my son now. The six pack, the cut pecs, the biceps, right? The definition, right? So think about it, you gotta work at that. You're lifting, you're doing your cardio. Let me tell you what happens. When you're exercising, you are straining your muscles. And in order for your muscles to get bigger,

they have to regenerate. So you're straining them, they're breaking down a little bit. It's okay, that's what they're there for. You're breaking them down, and then it's triggering the repair system, which includes stem cells, to build more muscle. So when a young person wants to build bulk and get more muscular, they're breaking down their muscles so their own body can build it back up,

including using stem cells and better circulation by the way so you get better blood flow and more stem cells into your system. Now look, what's good for the biceps is good for the brain. And so as we get older, you know, not everybody is going to be of the mindset of actually going to the gym and working out, but this is where even a moderate amount of exercise can help. Even going for a walk for 30 minutes after dinner actually can be really useful. And as you're getting older, if you wind up actually having knee problems, hip problems, back problems, where you're not quite as mobile, this is where actually getting physical therapy to help you out, you know, ask your insurance company, ask your doctor to help you out. You know, ask your insurance company,

ask your doctor to help you out, to get a physical therapist, and maybe you have a neighbor, somebody who's already trained as a physical therapist, to help you stay in motion. Get out of that chair, even if you need a walker or a cane, stay in motion, it's going to help your body.

You know, you use the word breaking itself down. You know, I like to be kinder and gentler to say that, you know, you're putting it through its paces and then afterwards it's going to build itself back up and repair itself because that's how we're hardwired. So much of this, Jonathan, we're talking about is the body's own hardwiring that actually does what it wants to do. We just need to allow our body to do what it's designed to do and not impede it. It feels as though what you're describing is sort of the same that you might be saying to

me or you about what you should be doing. Is there anything sort of different for someone who is wanting to try and avoid this happening from somebody who, you know, knows that this is starting to happen but wants to try and delay, or even maybe it sounds like potentially sort of prevent the progression. Yeah, that's a deep question, Jonathan, because, you know, all of us want to avoid dementia. Of all the things, I mean, you know, maybe cancer is number one, but dementia would be the other thing that everybody would sort of dreads, fears, and is probably willing to do anything,

at least to consider how they can avoid it themselves. Let me recap some of the high points of what we've talked about in this conversation, because these are all the things that can actually protect us. Let's talk about exercise. Stay physically active, even 30 minutes of walking a day is useful. Get good sleep. You don't want those toxins to build up.

All right. Get good quality sleep. Very important. Right. So what do you need to do to get good quality sleep besides, you know, being comfortable? Don't eat too close to bedtime. Don't drink too much alcohol. Don't drink coffee at the very end of the evening. All these things interfere with good sleep. Good sleep is required for the glymphatic system to drain, to soot, drain toxins out of your brain. That's what's needed to be done. All right, now what about having good blood flow? Well, look, something very simple. It's never too late to stop smoking, if you're smoking. It's never

too late to stop drinking heavily, which can affect your blood vessels and your circulation as well, as well as directly pickle your brain. Alcohol is a toxin for the brain. Okay, alcoholic dementia is a real thing. So cutting down or cutting out your drinking could be a very, very important part of lifestyle. And then we talked about the gut. Gut health pays off throughout our lives for so many things. Against autoimmunity, against cancer, against cardiovascular disease. Look, it's never too late to start thinking about your gut to protect your brain. Every

neurodegenerative disease known from Alzheimer's to Parkinson's to ALS, Huntington's disease, autism, you know, all of these brain conditions have been tied to abnormalities of the gut or dysbiosis, meaning going away from a healthy neighborhood of gut healthy bacteria. Now we don't know the exact cause and effect, we don't understand exact mechanisms, but what we are really clear on is that there is a clear cut connection between the gut and the brain in terms of these terrible diseases that everybody wants to avoid. So you know, and by the way, that's been tied to lifestyle and diet.

Eat plant based foods, eat dietary fiber, prebiotics, probiotics, eat fermented foods, don't eat too much, by the way, optimizes your metabolism, don't add added sugar that overwhelm your metabolism, you want to lower inflammation, you want to stay physically active, you want to get good sleep. The old adage of live well to be well is so true and what's, I mean it's always been true, but what's different now, Jonathan, is that we now have the power of science and Zoe's doing some of it. I mean I'm amazed when I read the papers that Are coming out of Zoe. I'll find published in nature and nature medicine

I mean these are the hard-hitting Journals that I publish in for example, I know how difficult it is to get it published in this is like relentless rigorous scientific data I pay attention to it and the connections that are being seen between gut health and brain health are incontrovertible. I hope you found the information in this week's episode useful. If you're interested in improving your gut health, you might want to download our free Gut Guide. It's packed with recipes and science-backed information to help you on your journey towards better health. Go to zoe.com slash gut guide to download it for free. Or if you're looking

for another podcast to listen to, we have a lot more in our back catalogue. Would you like to know how to reduce your risk of dementia or how to make the most of coffee's hidden health benefits? Search for these episodes on your favourite podcast player.