Kind: captions
Language: en
But what if I told you that food as
medicine research is revealing that
something as simple as an orange could
lower your risk of depression? These
researchers looked at a huge number of
women from the nurses health study and
they found that those who ate had a 20%
lower risk of depression and lost
memory. One of the first signs of
cognitive deficiency or maybe even
dementia. Scientists found that
rubiscolan also it helps to improve
memory. Now ask your question first. Are
you breathing through your nose or
breathing through your mouth? Bet you
might not have even thought about that.
There is a way to breathe that can put
you in a better.
[Music]
[Applause]
Today I want to talk about something
that we should all be thinking about
because we live in a super stressful
world and that something we should be
thinking about is depression.
Now, depression is an actual health
challenge. It's a big one. Not just a
mental health challenge, but it actually
impacts your physical health. And the
reason is if you're feeling down
mentally, you're not your usual lively
self, and if you're not able to engage
with your regular activities, there's a
good chance that you're not also taking
good care of your physical health as
well. So, this is how when you hear
about the gut brain connection, here is
the brain and the rest of the body
connection. All right? But what if I
told you that food as medicine research
is revealing that something as simple as
an orange or a bowl of spinach could
lower your risk of depression. Okay. So,
in this video, I'm going to give you
three ways to help you get in a better
mood using a fruit, a vegetable, and as
a bonus, I'm going to tell you about a
way to breathe that'll get you into a
better mood. Are you ready? Let's get
into it. Okay, let's talk about the
fruit. Oranges. I love oranges. I grew
up eating them. There's so many
different kinds that are out there. Uh
tangerines, mandarins, carakara oranges,
navl oranges. Juicy, sweet, packed with
dietary fiber. Really good for gut
health. All right. And the best part, I
can get oranges year round and probably
you can as well. Scientists at Harvard
showed that eating citrus like orange
can decrease the risk of depression. And
here's what they did. The scientists
looked at 32,427
women from a large group of people
called the study called the Nurses
Health Study and examined what these
women ate and whether or not they had
depression. And these researchers also
looked at their gut health, specifically
what healthy bacterias were in their
microbiome. Now, we know that the gut's
connected to the brain. This is the gut
brain axis as I mentioned. And it's not
just cognition, you know, your executive
function, how uh well your memory is,
but also it's your mood as well. And so
here's what the researchers found. They
found that those who ate citrus, orange,
more oranges, had a 20% lower risk of
depression and their gut microbiome
changed. And the way the gut micro
microbiome changed that there was 15
bacteria that changed. And one of them
called ficalacterium prozitsi or fp
proziti
actually makes a metabolite when you
feed it oranges. Okay. And that
substance that metabolite is called sam
s adanyl lmethion. All right. So what
does this thing do? Right. Well, SAM
causes the body to make more of the
neurotransmitter called serotonin and
another one called dopamine. These are
exactly the neurotransmitters that when
it reaches the brain helps counter
depression, makes us feel better. It's
the counterwe all right to depression.
So again, let me pull this together for
you. It's kind of like a a series of
dominoes or you stack up and you knock
one. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. All
right. So this study showed eating
citrus like oranges helps the gut grow
more healthy bacteria fpresenci which
then makes more sam sam which then helps
the body make more of the happy hormones
serotonin and dopamine and which
actually is associated in this study
with women having a lower risk of
depression. Now that all makes sense,
right? And that's really how this
research kind of works is that you have
to sort of do the observations, do the
calculations, see if it actually makes
sense. Is there a mechanism? Are we
measuring the right things? And then try
to put the whole story together. What is
fascinating is that the researchers
found that this beneficial effect that's
specific to citrus um wasn't actually
found with other fruits, right? So they
also looked at apples. Nope. no effect
on depression, no effect on uh
fresnenci. They looked at bananas,
right? Another common fruit that people
eat. Nope. Bananas did not actually
improve uh uh mood, did not actually
improve the gut microbiome uh with
frosinsi did not actually increase sam.
All right, so citrus orange remember
that. Okay, now this Harvard study was
done in women. So you might say, all
right, well what about men? Well, other
researchers have done similar studies in
men and found similar results. So,
what's the practical tip that I have for
you? Well, don't hesitate to eat some
citrus every day. Right now, I like to
eat a whole orange, for example, in the
morning when when I get an orange from
the market, uh, I peel it off. If it's a
tangerine, it's like a great burst of
flavor. It is very sweet, but that's
okay. You are getting the polyphenols
like hesperid and narogenine that are
also in oranges. Not just the fructose
in the sweetness in orange. You're also
getting hydration water very very
important for your kidneys um your
overall uh hydration status which is
cardiovascular brain. But you're also
getting dietary fiber by eating the
whole fruit, the slice of the fruit. I
don't eat the peel. All right. You also
get the dietary fiber that's actually in
that, you know, the skin uh of a slice
of orange, right? It's kind of chewy,
but you want that. That actually is
dietary fiber that feeds your gut
microbiome. And from that study shows it
changes 15 gut bacteria, including
F-proci, which actually helps your body
produce more serotonin and dopamine,
which lowers a risk of depression. Shall
we talk about the second food?
Second food is spinach. You remember
that cartoon character Popey the sailor
man? Popeye loves spinach and uh in that
cartoon Popey was using eating spinach
to grow his muscles, right? But now new
research shows that spinach is good
because not only does it actually help
you grow better muscles, which it can,
but it also puts you in a better mood.
Who would have thought that, right?
Turns out spinach contains some natural
chemicals that communicate directly with
your brain. And this is where this
research came from. Keyoto University.
So researchers, scientists from Kyoto
University did a lab study. All right?
And in the lab, they discovered that
spinach contains a peptide. That's a
small protein, small piece of a protein.
And that peptide is called rubiscolon
6. R U B I S C O L I N. And the number
six. So this is a small piece of a
protein found in spinach leaves. All
right? And um it comes from a bigger
plant protein that the spinach leaves,
spinach plant makes called rubiscoco. So
rubiscoco gets cleaved up in the spinach
leaf into rubiscolan six. And then guess
what? When you eat spinach, whether you
eat it raw in a salad or where you saute
it, I actually like sauteed spinach a
lot. Then you're actually going to be
able to get this good stuff that affects
the brain. I'm going to tell you about
that in one second. But what does a
plant do with rubiscoco, right? Like
it's always good to ask a question like
why is that even there? Well, it turns
out rubiscoco is used by the spinach
plant for photosynthesis.
Photosynthesis, if you remember from
maybe grade school, elementary school is
really how plants process sunlight to
get energy. Right? So, you've got
spinach growing in a field. It's low to
the ground, but still got to get
sunlight. Ribiscoco helps the plant the
spinach leaves process the sunlight and
in the leaves there's an enzyme that
cleaves that rubiscoco into a smaller
piece called rubiscolan 6. All right now
let's talk about what rubiscolan 6 does
to the brain. Well when you eat some
spinach rubiscolon 6 gets absorbed from
your stomach into your bloodstream and
what's in your blood goes to your brain
right? So, and that rub rubolin
6 goes to your brain and activates
dopamine D1 receptors in the brain. Now,
what's a receptor? A receptor is kind of
like a catcher mitt. Uh, it actually is
stimulated by peptides, by protein. So,
basically, think about a radar dish.
That's the catcher mitt in the brain
waiting for rubiscolan 6. All right? You
eat the spinach, it goes to your
bloodstream, it goes up to your brain.
Now here comes the rubicolin 6 right
into the catcher bit. Okay. And it
activates that receptor. So once that
receptor's got the rubicolin 6, it sends
a signal right down into the cell and it
tells the cell to do something. All
right? So in this case it's the dopamine
receptor that is the catcher bit.
Rubicolin 6 go to the dopamine receptor
D1 activates the brain cells and the
dopamine is used by the brain to stay
calm, keep you in a good mood, make you
happy, a reward for doing something
beneficial like eating your spinach.
Okay? And by the way, besides being a
reward neurotransmitter, dopamine has
anxolytic effect. Anxolyis
basically means, you know, like we all
have a certain level of anxiety about
something. You don't have to just be
studying for a test or waiting to get
married or do doing something that would
naturally make people anxious. We're
anxious a lot about a lot of things.
Okay? Now, dopamine has an anxolytic
effect, which means that it basically
cuts into anxiety, breaks it in half,
and so you're a little bit less anxious.
So when you actually have rubiscolan
eaten from spinach, you activate those
dopamine receptors. You're actually also
making yourself less anxious, happier,
less anxious. That's a good formula.
There's some other studies about
rubiscolan I want to tell you about.
There's another study also from Kyoto
University where the scientists found
that the spinach rubcolan also it helps
to improve memory. Who doesn't want to
have better memory, right? It's not just
what did I do with my car keys? It's
like, wait a minute, what is on my to-do
list I got to do? What kind of things do
I need to plan? Wait a minute, what did
I done? What have I done already? Well,
I want to have good memory, right? And
by the way, one of the those things that
happen during aging is we have um we
tend to have poorer memory. That's
something we observe a lot. Nobody wants
that, right? And sometimes loss of
memory or difficult with memory is one
of the first signs of cognitive
deficiency or maybe even dementia. So,
keeping your memory is always really
really good uh to be able to do.
Everybody wants it. Okay. So, what's my
practical tip when it comes to what I
just told you about spinach and rubon 6
and dopamine. All right. And memory.
Here's the thing. Eating spinach is good
for more than muscles. It's good for the
brain. It's good for your mood. Makes
you feel happy. Lowers a risk of of the
kind of risk that you would have with
depression. What about cooking spinach?
Right? You can eat raw leaves, but
cooking is okay. Rubiscolon will survive
cooking heat, but just cook it very
lightly. All right. If you ever cook
spinach, you know that you put these
spinach leaves right into a hot pan.
Little extra olive oil, maybe a little
bit of garlic. All right. Um the leaves
will wilt really fast. It'll turn kind
of bright green, then darker green. Then
the leaves wilt. They release their
juices. They release their water. Now
you're done. Don't keep cooking it. Just
like any vegetable, as you might
imagine, if you keep if you overcook it,
you super wilt it, you cook the cook it
to death, you're also going to destroy
the polyphenols, and in this case, the
proteins, rubcolon will also be
destroyed. I always say when you're
cooking spinach, and I like to cook
spinach, saute it lightly. Don't boil
it. Don't overcook it. All right? Just
remember, super hot heat. Overcooking
can destroy that rubiscolan and that
rubolan actually activates the dopamine
receptors in your brain um and actually
put you in a better mood. I promised you
I'd give you a bonus tip. So, are you
ready for it? This is the bonus tip for
getting into a better mood. That bonus
is breathing the right way. Now, nobody
teaches us how to breathe, right? Like,
and actually you can go to yoga class
and breath work, do breath work and in
order to be able to learn how to breathe
better, okay? But there is a way to
breathe that can put you in a better
mood. Right? So ask a question first.
Are you breathing through your nose or
breathing through your mouth? Bet you
might not have even thought about that.
Most of us do a little bit of both. Some
people are nose breathers. Some people
only breathe through their mouth. But
here's the reason that you need to know
this. When you breathe through your
nose,
it does something amazing. Putting air
through your nose into your sinus
cavities cavities turns on your body's
own nitric oxide factory right inside
your sinuses like right behind your nose
your parasyl your paranasal sinuses they
are factories to make nitric oxide now
what is nitric oxide I'm not talking
about nitrous oxide that's laughing gas
not talking about that nitric oxide is a
serious molecule with a big job to do.
All right. Nitric oxide made by the body
opens up your relaxes your blood vessels
which lowers your blood pressure. And
because your blood vessels are relaxed,
you get better blood flow everywhere in
your body. Your brain, your heart, your
muscles. And by the way, the way that
Viagra and Seialis works, you know, for
treating erectile and sexual
dysfunction, it causes blood vessels to
dilate with nitric oxide, so you get
better blood flow. So this is really
important. Nitric oxide made by your own
body relaxes your blood vessels and
brings better blood flow forward. Nitric
oxide also reduces inflammation which as
we all know is a root cause of many
chronic illnesses. Lowering inflammation
just a generally good thing. We need a
little bit of inflammation to knock out
like injury, bacteria, all that kind of
stuff when after you get a cut or wound.
But you want that inflammation to go up
and go down, turn on and then turn off.
All right. When you've got too much
chronic inflammation, that's a setup for
disaster across almost every organ
system in your body. Nitric oxide is one
of your body's natural ways to lower
inflammation. Nitric oxide also supports
your immune system. Now, we all know how
important a good immune system is. Good
to fight bacteria and viruses from
outside of our body, right? Think about
it. You're sitting in a bus or a subway
or an airplane or train or in a grocery
store line and somebody next to you is
hacking up a lung, coughing and sneezing
and sputtering. Guess what? They're
putting viruses and bacteria right into
the air right in front of you and you're
breathing it in. Strong immune system
will keep you from uh getting infected.
All right? Or at least lower your
chances of getting infected. You want to
you want to have the best possible
immune system. And a good strong immune
system does something else super
important that you may not have thought
about. When your immune system is
strong, those immune cells, these like
super soldiers in your body, are
patrolling your entire body looking for
trouble. What kind of trouble? They're
looking for cancer cells. So if you
think about it, the immune system is one
of your best defenses against cancer
because these little immune super
soldiers are cruising through your body
all the time looking for troubled,
abnormal cells. And if it spots one,
it'll actually take it right out. Okay.
The other thing that nitric oxide does
is it gets oxygen flowing to wherever it
needs to go. Just like I told you, the
brain, uh, the muscles, the heart, your
tissues, uh, wherever you need to heal.
All right. So, here's the cool part. New
research. Scientists from the Karolinska
Institute in Sweden found that when
people breathe through their nose, okay,
right into these par nasal sinuses, the
nitric oxide factory, nitric oxide is
released into your airways and it gets
inhaled right into your lung.
Nitric oxide being made goes right down
to your lung. And guess what it does? It
helps to dilate your airways. I want you
to try that now. Okay? Exhale.
Inhale through your nose.
[Music]
You feel your airways relaxing a little
bit and getting more air. That's nitric
oxide. All right? And what that does is
it gets oxygen circulating better in
your lungs and then throughout your
body. All right? Here's what they also
did at this these researchers. Okay?
They also did something unexpected. They
asked people to hum while they were
exhaling.
M.
Now guess what that what that did when
they were exhaled. So you inhale
lungs dilate with the nitric oxide. Now
you exhale and hum.
Okay, you get this vibration going.
Guess what? That vibration with exhaling
cause the nitric oxide levels to go up
by 15 times. Breathe in your paradasal
sinuses make nitric oxide. Everything
relaxes. You get better blood flow.
Breathe out and hum and your nitric
oxide goes up 15 times just from
humming. That vibration in your face,
behind your face, inside your skull,
your paranasal sinuses actually help
make more nitric oxide travel from your
sinuses all throughout uh into your
lungs and also into your uh body. And by
the way, it's not just about air flow.
Another study from the University of
Buffalo found that nitric oxide helps
your brain secrete serotonin and
dopamine. We just talked about this
serotonin and dopamine. These are
neurotransmitters.
This kind this time made in your brain
that actually improve your mood. They
counter depression, improve your mood,
make you feel happy, more reward. All
right, nitric oxide does that to your
brain. same chemicals that we talked
about with oranges and citrus. Um, uh,
now just by breathing the right way and
humming, you can actually regulate your
mood, increase your motivation, feel a
sense of, uh, reward. So, it's not just
about eating to beat disease. Now, you
can breathe to beat disease, and you can
hum to beat disease as well. What are
some my practical tips for you? Number
one, go for a walk. And when you're
walking, breathe through your nose. So,
you're physically exercising, you need
some oxygen. Breathe through your nose.
Nitric oxide comes out, airways dilate.
Now you're getting more oxygen
throughout your body and that nitric
oxide is also helping to boost your
immune system, lower inflammation, all
that good stuff, right? And then when
you're exhaling, try humming. Hum a
song, your favorite tune. And if you're
cooking, you're breathing this way,
doing something mindless or whatever, uh
that something doesn't require a lot of
brain power, just hum. No supplements
needed, just you, your breath, few leafy
greens. All right? Maybe some citrus,
some beets. That'll actually all put you
in a better mood. So, let me pull this
all together. We talked a lot about a
lot of things in this video. Three ways
to support your mood. One from fruit,
citrus, one from vegetable, spinach. One
from breathing the right way through
your nose
and then humming when you exhale. All
right. So, these are super super easy
ways. are not cures for depression, but
they actually all contribute in their
own easy way to put you in a better
mood. Everyday choices, how you eat, how
you breathe, how you move, these are
ways to help build a stronger, more
resilient overall platform for your own
health, including a more resilient
brain, including better mental health.
Again, small changes, easy moves, big
impact. If you found this video helpful,
go ahead and hit the like button. Don't
forget to subscribe for more stuff that
I'll actually be uh posting and then
share this video to with somebody who
you think could need a little boost uh
in terms of their mood. Maybe those be
something easy for them to actually do
and can be helpful to them. As always, I
want you to remember my mantra is to
love your food, to love your health, and
now to love your mood. Dr. Lee out. Hey,
if you like that video, then you're
going to love this one. Check it out.