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d3E83gwalgM • The Daily Habits That Boost Brain Health & Prevent Cognitive Decline | Dr. William Li
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today we're going to talk about daily
habits that can boost brain health and
prevent Decline and by decline I'm
talking about cognitive decline so
here's a thing that I think you should
be doing every single day number one
start your day with a cup or two or
three of coffee now coffee is one of the
oldest beverages in the world it's um
one of the top three after drinking
water and tea uh and here's thing about
coffeee is that uh it's not just a
morning ritual it actually contains
bioactives that is good for your brain
for brain health some of the bioactives
include chlorogenic acid chlorogenic
acid reduces inflammation in the brain
very important inflammation on the whole
body but also in the brain the
chlorogenic acid that you drink with a
cup of joe actually crosses the blood
brain barrier now now the brain is kept
in the skull and there's a filter that
keeps out all the bad stuff it's called
The Blood brain barrier it's made out of
the lining uh blood vessels and so when
blood tries to go through that lining
it's actually filtering out any of the
harm things chlorogenic acid goes right
through it into the brain lowering
inflammation the other thing that's in
coffee is caffeine right so uh we know
that caffeine which has another name is
called a methyl xanthine all right also
known AKA as caffeine Caff
uh gets into the brain goes through the
bloodb brain barrier and it actually
does some really really interesting
things it improves your cognition
improves your memory it increases your
ability to uh focus and concentrate I
know when I was in medical school I
actually drank a lot of coffee so that I
could actually get up after a late night
of studying or a late night of being on
call if I had to actually be like up and
uh alert the next day coffee would
always help I think most people uh know
that if you're a truck driver and you're
drinking a cup of coffee you know going
that 18-wheeler down across the country
same deal okay so that's uh caffeine and
then there also cafeic acid which is
another bioactive that actually is
anti-inflammatory um and protects your
neurons which your brain is made out of
neurons okay so let me just tell you
this benefit of coffee has been uh
supported by clinical studies in fact
clinical Studies have shown that
drinking anywhere between two to five
cups of coffee a day are right can
increase alertness increase your
increase your attention span improve
your sense of well-being and uh sharpen
your concentration that's what you want
right now people have a lot of beef
against the caffeine and coffee and some
people are really sensitive to it but
actually for most people if you can
actually tolerate the caffeine uh this
is actually a big cognitive brain health
benefit of drinking coffee now other
Studies have shown that if you're a
lifelong Drinker of coffee that would be
me uh I'm sure some of you also are
lifelong or many year decade long
drinkers of coffee that's actually where
the benefits are shown in terms of
lowering the risk of cognitive decline
and dementia pretty amazing benefit from
drinking something that you know sort of
uh instinctual instinctive of drinking
every single morning now caffeine uh in
coffee improves brain neuron function
your brain is made out of neurons these
are nerves that have to communicate from
one neuron one nerve cell to the next
okay think about a little zap of
electricity getting this way this one
zaps over there that's how the brain
actually works and caffeine improves
that function and it actually Pro
protects the neurons in your brain
against dysfunction meaning problems
with the wiring so the electricity the
current isn't flowing well uh caffeine
protects it to keep that electrical
current that neuro transmission uh very
very smooth in your brain studies have
also shown that drinking coffee reduces
the risk of stroke reduces the risk of
Parkinson's disease and reduces the risk
of Alzheimer's disease most of these are
Association studies done in large
populations but hey we know that the
coffee actually protects the neuron the
cafeic acid chlorogenic acid lowers
inflammation so that large
epidemiological studies showing this
correlation make perfect sense all right
now uh caffeine is has also uh been
implicated specifically uh in being able
to protect against Alzheimer's disease
which is really good this is a lab
research looking at what caffeine
actually does to the plaques that um
Alzheimer's model uh form these are
usually mice they look at the effect of
caffeine they also take a look at
chlorogenic acid in a lab to see what it
does to the circulation of your brain
now let me explain if you want good
brain health you need to have good
vascular health or good blood vessel
Health you know why because there are
400 miles of blood vessels in your brain
and these are the highways and byways
that are bringing oxygen to your brain
cells nutrients to your brain cells
glucose to your brain cells that's right
I said glucose some of you might say
well you know isn't glucose bad nope
your brain absolutely needs glucose in
order to function in fact you would have
brain fog if you actually didn't have
enough blood sugar healthy amounts of
blood sugar uh in your brain now so how
do you get um good vascular Health again
these are the highways and byways of
everything oxygen and nutrients and
survival factors to your brain well you
need to actually have good endothelium
that's the lining of the blood vessels
has to be really healthy the lining of
the blood vessels is like an ice skating
rink the ice is really smooth you know
if you go to the ice skating rink if you
ever skated when you were a kid after
the Zamboni that's the polishing the ice
Pol polishing machine runs through it
man is that ice slippery and smooth
perfect for skating right in fact if you
took a sweater and you threw it after
the Zamboni that's a machine that cleans
the ice you threw the sweater out it
would slide all the way across the ring
right now that's what you want but the
endothelium the lining of the blood
vessels have to be smooth but when you
get older in particularly if you've got
a hard ring of the arteries high
cholesterol diabetes or smoking
cigarettes exposed the secondhand smoke
um have all kinds of other chronic
diseases inflammatory diseases the
endothelial lining including the lining
in your brain those 400 miles gets
damaged when the endothelium that lining
of blood vessels that slippery lining
gets damaged you know what happens it is
like an ice skating rink after a hockey
game right think about how roughed up
that ice is right so if you've ever been
to a regular public ice skating rank
when you were a kid after a session of
skating if you took that sweater and
threw it on the ice would happen it
would just stay right there there's no
way it would slide because ice is so
roughed up that's what can happen with
endothelial damage damage to the lining
of the blood vessels and when that
actually happens your brain is not
getting good blood flow and the sticky
lining can actually start to attract
lipids so then your blood vessels get
even more narrow and of course when
you've got stickiness guess what your
blood platelets can stick and that can
cause micr clots and that can cause
vascular dementia so if you want good
brain health you want good vascular
Health if you want good vascular Health
well chlorogenic acid which is found in
coffee actually protects it keeps the
ice um the the ice skating rink slippery
and smooth the way that you want it so
blood can flow smoothly right through
the 400 miles of blood vessels in your
brain really really important that is
key to preventing vascular dementia
which is a very very common form of
dementia where you don't have good blood
vessels good blood flow uh to your brain
and you without adequate oxygen to your
brain you know it's not quite having a
heart attack to your brain but it's not
getting enough oxygen it's kind of like
a a scuba diver that's sucking on a tank
that's almost out of air it is a
dangerous situation you can't function
uh very well in that kind of scenario
okay now here's another kind of benefit
uh for coffee and that is that coffee
benefits gut health coffee benefits gut
health it's beneficial to the gut
microbiome that's a healthy gut bacteria
and guess what because coffee actually
gets all the way down to your gut
microbiome and this is another benefit
is that it's been shown to reduce the
risk of the development of colon cancer
right you drink your coffee good stuff
to the brain all right this is what
we're talking about with this video but
it also tumbles all the way down to your
gut good for your gut microbiome lowers
the risk of coloral cancer that's what
clinical studies have found oh but wait
a minute gut health is is good for brain
health right that's the gut brain axis
we're talking about and so when you
drink coffee that's good for gut health
it actually benefits your brain as well
it improves uh the ability for the
brain's
neurotransmitters to be able to form
like dopamine serotonin oxytocin these
are the things that our gut bacteria
communicate help our brain communicate
to release these
neurotransmitters okay now I can tell
you this a little bit more in in terms
of neurotransmitters is important to
think about studies in the lab have
shown that the caffeine the kind of
caffeine found in coffee can reduce
stressinduced
neurotransmitter responses all right so
when you're super stressed out your
brain is releasing neurotransmitters
like crazy it's like a lightning storm
going off in your head because of stress
right you know like when you're feeling
panicked and super stressed out your
brain is kind of nuts right and this is
what's happening neurotransmitter are
firing left and right um think about it
like six shooters shooting left and
right everywhere all right well what
caffeine does is it reduces that
neurotransmitter chaos all right and
what this does is actually help Focus
attention your brain's ability to focus
attention under stressful circumstances
I can tell you as Somebody went to
medical school and medical training
residency training this is the kind of
stuff that even though we were drinking
coffee all the time when we you know
just kind of stay awake whenever we
actually had a uh stressful super
stressful clinical situation code blue
right this is a cardiac arrest like
we're all running uh into the area to
the hospital room where the cardiac
arrest took place boom we were
absolutely laser focused like Navy Seals
on taking care of that patient and
making sure all the things that were
done were being done completely in a
focused Accurate Way all right so this
is I'm just telling from my own
experience how coffee drinking actually
made it easier for me to stay really
really focused under condition of stress
now there was a rumor a long time ago
that came up to said well you know don't
drink too much coffee because it
actually will make your heart rhythms go
crazy it can cause atrial fibrillation
it can cause all these other problems
well actually it's been shown now that
drinking coffee reasonable amounts of
coffee so I'm talking about two to five
cups a day does not increase the risk of
heart disease does not increase the risk
of arhythmia does not okay so safe now
if you actually have atal fibrillation
and you are sensitive to caffeine this
is something you should actually talk to
your cardiologist about I can't give you
medical advice on a video like this but
if you already have an arhythmia uh and
you're and you're trying to drink coffee
you might want to actually have a
conversation with your cardiologist just
to be safe that's what I recommend
people to do but if you don't have it uh
drinking coffee doesn't doesn't cause it
all right that's the key thing like I
said some people are sensitive to
caffeine uh and it could it you know and
and every individuals different this is
personalized reactions to different
kinds of foods um and uh caffeine uh can
sometimes cause sleep disturbances it
doesn't happen to everybody that's
actually what the generalization is oh
I'm not going to drink coffee at night
because it's going to disturb my sleep
actually doesn't disturb sleep for
everyone like for me I could drink a cup
of coffee uh in the evening and it
wouldn't disturb me at all and in fact
if you look at how people in the
Mediterranean actually work uh like in
Italy they will eat an Italian meal
dinner and often times they'll have one
small cup of espresso after dinner Boop
Shove It Right Down the Hatch and um and
it doesn't actually disturb sleep at all
in fact what it does is it actually
decreases sleep latency so the next
morning it's a little easier to get up
in the morning that's a whole other
topic that that we're going to address
in another video this whole idea of
sleep latency now some people do are
sensitive to coffee and it could make
them more an but again this whole idea
about like caffeine triggering heart
rhythm you know problems and causing
insomnia and triggering anxiety that may
be true on an individual basis but it
can't be generalized and the overall
benefits of drinking coffee are
exceedingly uh good but you should
actually take a look at your individual
tolerance to coffee now some people also
do experience caffeine withdraw if they
stop coffee all of a sudden I don't know
why you'd want to do that um I love my
coffee uh I guess if I run out of coffee
beans or run out of ground coffee I
might not drink it a day or two but for
the most part if you stop coffee for a
couple of days you're probably going to
be just fine in fact a great example is
if you go on vacation if you're you know
working and drinking coffee you do a
regular day job you go on vacation and
you're like ah I get to kick my heels up
and relax a little bit if you don't have
that cup of coffee you're probably going
to be just fine so it's context
dependent all right so that was tip
number one tip number two uh for brain
health is I I said to start your coffee
with coffee and now I'm going to tell
you to end your day with a cup of tea
we're talking about daytime habits
that's you for brain health start with
coffee end with tea this is what I
actually do almost every single night
now why do I end with tea well tea is
good green tea we know as kakin
egcg epic Gallow kakin 3 gal
all right it's a mouthful uh you don't
have to try to memorize it just know
that researchers like me actually we
know what it is all right so polyphenols
green tea green tea also has caffeine
right and it also has something called
lanine guess what all of these uh
bioactives egcg caffeine Aline they are
all
anti-inflammatory end of the day what
better thing can you do than to cool off
any inflammation right so that's what
green tea does um by the way lenine has
been studied it actually improves
calmness as well so clinical trials have
been done in humans uh uh being
administered eleine and it it actually
induces a sense of calmness and a sense
of relaxation calms your mind so that's
one of the reasons why I drink tea at
the end of the day after dinner you know
I might sip some tea I never put dairy
in my tea or coffee by the way because
um dairy cow uh fat actually forms
little tiny soap bubbles around the
polyphenols and when I drink the coffee
or the tea I'll still get some of the
bioactives but a lot of it gets wrapped
up in those little soap bubbles from
dairy uh milk dairy fat and then it
tumbles down through my gut and I don't
absorb as much as I could now nut milks
are okay so if you really want to cut
your tea or coffee you know an almond
milk or soy milk or cashew milk all that
is actually fine they won't form those
same type of soap bubbles all right back
to tea
um if I want to get as much egcg as I
can I'm drinking my tea straight I'm
sipping it at the end of the day it's
calming uh and uh the other thing it
does is it actually improves a process
called neurogenesis so this has been
studied in the lab that the bioactives
like egcg from tea can actually help
your neurons stay healthy and they can
even cause them to grow this has been
studied in uh sort of developing uh
animals young anim anim and looking at
brain development guess what it helps
your nerves actually grow now some tees
like Macho which is packed with egcg
right so look regular tea leaves that
you're actually soaking and steeping in
a tea ball for example is uh dissolving
out the the polyphenols in hot water
you're steeping the tea all right um and
a lot of the polyphenols will come out
but not all of it cuz it's a whole Leaf
well matcha actually is the entire Leaf
ground up into a fine powder
now you've got this fine powder all of
it is actually in the water you stir up
a cup of matchats powdery green bright
green you're going to get all the tea
leaves all the dietary fiber good for
your microbiome but all the polyphenols
all the egcg all the Aline uh all the
caffeine as well so matcha te has been
studied clinically and shown that not
only is in high levels of egcg has high
levels of egcg bioactives it's also been
shown to enhance cognitive function
right so here's an advantage of
grounding up the whole Leaf as opposed
to just seeping the tea leaves or
putting in a tea bag where you're not
going to get all those polyphenols out
that you could all right clinical
studies have also shown that green tea
can reduce anxiety again that calming
effect of eleine um and calming anxiety
is actually really important for
self-care really important for mental
health and mental wellness and look who
doesn't live with some amount of stress
in fact arguably some stress is good for
your health you don't want to be
completely chill the whole time a little
tension is good in your life but
unfortunately in our usual lives we uh
live with probably too much stress so
it's a welcome opportunity to have a cup
of tea at night to actually lower your
stress now the um other thing is that
elen has been studied and it improves
clinically it improves the ability for
executive function
decisionmaking right now you don't need
you might not need this at night but you
you certainly want it the next morning
when you wake up so heeing actually
helps your brain we're talking about
brain health now be able to make clearer
calmer better executive decisions you
don't want to be the CEO you're the CE
of a company you can be the CEO of your
own life and you want to be able to be
that executive and make good executive
decisions for yourself it doesn't matter
even if if it affects anyone else even
if it's just for you you want to make
have Clarity on that and lth
in green tea is actually good now green
tea also improves memory and the ability
to stay focused uh so you have less
distractions again this is not something
you need at night uh you want calmness
at night but actually having all this
stuff in your uh bloodstream allows you
to function better the next day you wake
up and your brain is refreshed it had a
calm night of sleep and now you've got
this ability to focus and make better
decisions that's actually a really
really good thing and how do we know
that green tea can affect brain uh
activity the kind of brain activity
we're talking about because there is
actually a scan called
fmri functional MRI magnetic resonance
imaging that actually been shown and
people have to drink tea you stady brain
activity and you can see it light up it
actually does uh your brain a world of
Good by lighting it up the ecgc we
talked about reduces the risk of
cognitive decline it protects you
against neurod degenerative diseases
there's multiple mechanism of action we
don't understand everything about how
this works look I'm a scientist and an
honest scientist will tell you when they
don't know so I'm telling you we don't
have all the answers to how green tea
and the egcg protects against neurod
degeneration but clearly one of the
reasons one of the explanations that it
lowers inflammation that's one of the
common denominators of all brain
diseases is inflammation so green egcg
lowers that inflammation all right now
the other thing that EG CG and the other
polyphenols and green tea does is it
improves your endothelial health
remember the endothelium is that ice
skating slippery layer of cells lining
blood vessels you want it to be really
smooth blood just kind of goes like it
just cruises right through your brain
delivers the oxygen delivers the
nutrients green tea helps vascular
Health reduces the risk of vascular
dementia helps that blood get to where
it needs to in your brain so you
actually have better function all right
so drink coffee uh in the morning drink
tea at night now the third thing a habit
I'm I'm telling you that's good for your
brain health is to pay attention to how
you can improve your metabolism
throughout the day now metabolism is
basically how your body uses energy
which you have to get that fuel for your
energy by eating food right so you eat
food it gets turned into fuel the fuel
gets stored in your body and then your
body can actually run its activities you
know run it basic functions but you can
also run to the airport or do whatever
else you need to do um because you have
the fuel like gas in a gas tank that's
how your metabolism actually works and
how many calories you eat is exactly
equivalent in terms of concept into how
many gallons of fuel you actually put in
your fuel tank now obviously if you want
to put fuel in your fuel tank you want
to put good quality fuel nobody wants to
put crappy fuel in your fuel tank and
this is the same with the quality of
food that you load energy into your body
you want good quality fuel means you
have to eat good quality food so when we
talk about having um uh good Whole Foods
mostly plant-based eating and healthy
oils nuts and legumes and and seeds etc
etc this is what we're talking about
we're talking about good quality fuel
now just like a car every now and then
if you put some crummy gas because
you're running out of dollars you're
searching for the small change that you
could put a couple of gallons in your
tank look do that once in a while your
car is not going to crap out because of
that but if you put crappy quality fuel
fuel in your body day in and day out
week after week month after month year
in and year out you know what's going to
happen to your car when you put poor
quality fuel all the time into your car
it's not going to last long that engine
is not going to function as well the
fuel lines are going to get clogged same
deal in your body so to take care of
your your metabolism and by the way I'm
talking about brain metabolism being
super intense compared to your regular
body metabolism you want to actually put
good quality fuel in your tank and you
don't want to actually put too much uh
in your tank as well if you overflow
your gas tank what happens in like at
the gas station if you overflow your gas
tank that's like eating too much oving
too many calories in your body well at
The Filling Station if you put too much
gas in your gas tank the gas flows up if
you didn't have that clicker that would
stop the the the gas nozzle what would
happen the gas would overflow out of
your tank run down the side of the car
around the tires cool around your shoes
and now you're standing in a dangerous
harmful flammable mess right that's what
happens when you
overflow overfill your gas tank now
imagine if you did that uh with food and
this is what happens we overeat overc
consumption is one of the underlying
problems in Western Society including
America we overeat
uh you know it's a it's a product of
having a prosperous Society we've got
food everywhere there's no limitations
we eat as much as we want well sometimes
we want too much or we overeat we
addicted to eating or we're uh
conditioned uh or even fooled into
eating food uh that tastes really great
Ultra processed foods when we overeat we
are overloading our fuel tanks and that
is bad because it overloads our
metabolism we're storing too much fuel
now in our body we don't we can't just
uh spill out the fuel like in a like a
metal gas tank in a car what happens is
that our extra fuel gets stored into our
fat cells also called atpo cells you
fill up one atpo cell with too much food
that's okay you got another atpo cell oh
you're still eating let's fill that one
up too oh still eating you fill up
another one until you're running out of
fat cells now your body if you still
keep on overeating will call in stem
cells fat stem cells to make more fat
now you can make more FL fill up another
Fat cell and another one and another one
and you see this is why when you overeat
you're actually going to build up fat
all right this is actually how it works
our metabolism then our body's got to
burn it down but our body isn't going to
be able to burn things down naturally if
we overload it over a long period of
time and this is why we have to control
the amount of food that we eat okay so
um you got to watch your metabolism not
overfill your tank now habit number four
is you want to eat food foods that
activate your metabolism to burn down
fat now I write about this in my book
Eat to beat your diet and if you guys
haven't seen it this is what it looks
like all right eat to beat your diet um
it's got a lot of pages but the key is
that there's a lot of tables and charts
of foods that can activate your
metabolism so yes you can eat to burn
down harmful body fat and elevate your
metabolism all right so I'm going to
tell you that some of the foods that you
should be eating to activate your
metabolism are beans legumes uh White
beans kidney beans red beans Pinto beans
uh you name it gigantic fava beans all
great okay uh soybeans chickpeas lentils
these actually um uh these Foods these
beans and legumes can actually activate
your metabolism another category of food
that can activate your metabolism are
Brasa vegetables Brasa vegetables are
the ones that have a slightly sulfurous
taste you know broccoli kale
Buck Choy cabbage cauliflower all those
types of um Swiss chard those types of
Braska uh really do a great job uh of
activating our metabolism they activate
our Brown fat which burns down harmful
white fat so you're B you're you're
you're charging supercharging your
metabolism I have a video on uh many
videos actually talking about Brown fat
and white fat in a nutshell Brown fat is
good fat white fat can be bad B fat if
we overeat it it grows up too much and
when we eat foods like Brasa that
contain a bioactive called s suanes they
activate the brown fat it's just like in
a a kitchen where you've got a gas range
you go click click click whoosh now you
can cook your soup or boil your water
all right well in your brown fat when
that happens click click click whoosh
you're eating the broccoli so fanes are
activating the brown fat that brown fat
like your uh range is on fire it's
generating heat it's called
thermogenesis now on your stove in order
for your uh gas range to generate heat
click click click whoosh it's got to
draw gas from someplace it gets it from
the gas line maybe you got a tank in the
side of your house or maybe you've got
gas coming from your street lines well
in your body when your brown fat goes
click click click whoosh because you've
eaten Brasa vegetables with the sophanes
it's it's heating up thermogenesis
where're is the fat Brown fat drawing
that energy from the fuel from well it's
drawing it from your white fat
specifically your visceral fat so Brown
fat can burn down white fat Brown fats
good fat burns down excess bad fat white
fat and Brasa can actually activate that
and so can onions onions are alium alium
actually belongs to a whole category
it's a big umbrella onions scallion
shallots garlic they all fall in this
category they actually contain quatin
quatin is another bioactive that you got
it activates your brown fat click click
click whoosh draws down that um uh
energy and fuel from a harmful excess
white fat tea can also do the same thing
the cakin and tea so we're talking about
egcg and uh turns on your brown fat to
burn on your white fat uh and uh it's
not just green tea not just matcha but
it turns out that Wong tea which is the
kind of tea you get in a Chinese
restaurant often times jasmine tea can
do the same thing even black teas like
pu tea which is a fermented tea or Earl
Gray tea black English breakfast tea
they will all do the same thing so they
can actually turn on your brown fat to
burn down your white fat and guess what
so can coffee with chlorogenic acid
again back to the coffee back to the
thing you start the day with and the tea
end the day with now I'm telling you in
the middle when you're eating choose
some of these Foods the beans the Brasa
the onions the carrots the tea the
coffee and you're actually going to be
practicing uh habits that are better for
uh brain health as well okay now I can't
let you forget that your gut health is
connected to your brain health so if
your gut isn't healthy your brain's
probably not healthy as well uh and gut
inflammation is such a huge deal and
this is one of the reasons why you want
to cut down on uh Ultra processed foods
because many Ultra processed foods
actually damage your gut bacteria which
then makes unhealthy gut which then
makes it difficult to have a healthy
brain now what about a snack uh we
talked about other Foods you want a
brain healthy snack try eating tree nuts
tree nuts uh of course if you're not
allergic but most people are not tree
nuts you know pecans almonds walnuts
cashews macadamias even pine nuts all
right nuts are a healthy source of of
healthy fats good source of healthy fats
and a source of dietary fiber good for
gut health good for brain health all
right and nuts definitely improve the
microbiome and this and a good healthy
microbiome guess what lowers
inflammation lowers inflammation also
good for the brain and good healthy gut
bacteria help your brain secrete those
neurotransmitters like dopamine
serotonin oxytocin all helpful helpful
for you to have a better mood good brain
health good emotional health good mental
health mental mental Wellness as well so
gave you some foods that are actually
good I'll give you one last tip about
foods that are actually healthy are eat
colorful Foods uh colorful foods are uh
plant-based Foods you know you go to the
produce section you look at your red
bell peppers the green peppers you look
at the orange and yellow peppers uh
there's a whole variety of green that
counts too it's green isn't just one
color it's a whole bunch of different
colors you can see in the produce
section mix it up and the fruits of
course uh seasonal fruits have all kinds
of different colors just look at the
berry section amazing those colorful
bioactives in other words the natural
chemicals that give the foods their
colors actually activate your metabolism
burn down harmful body fat and the
polyphenols are good for brain health as
well okay now if you want a basic basic
basic beverage for B brain health I know
we talked about tea I know we talked
about coffee but but here is the most
important tip I can give you don't
forget to drink water water is the most
popular beverage in the world and it's
necessary to prevent dehydration of your
brain really really important when your
brain is really dehydrated okay it's in
big trouble so you want to actually
drink uh water enough water every day to
kind of keep your brain watered so think
about a plant that you might have in
your kitchen window cell you going to
put give it a little water you don't
want to be too water logged and that
that kill the roots um but you want to
have just enough to be able to actually
keep it alive and thriving in the
sunshine and the same thing of drinking
water now water is in a lot of things
waterers in coffee waterers in tea but
I'm bringing this point up because you
can just drink regular old plain water
now one little Caution about drinking
water these days that we know look
bottled waterers very very popular right
like you go to any place you know if
you're on if you're if you're taking a
vacation and you're a tourist and you're
going to go for a hike or you're going
to go to the beach or whatever what are
you going to get a bottle of water
plastic container with water now we now
know that the plastic sheds particles
billions of particles into bottled water
and that's not good so I urge you to
drink water out of a glass if you can
all right might not be possible and it's
true we're surrounded by plastic anyway
but that these this day and age if you
know that plastic is found embedded in
your blood vessels it's embedded in the
brain it's found in your bloodstream I
mean that's pretty scary and in fact
Recent research has shown that um having
plastic in the lipids that could be
blocking your blood vessels increases
your risk of heart attack or stroke by
four times and they've been able to find
plastic particles in testicles in seen
and in the penis as well all right so
that doesn't actually make you sit up
and take note of that plastic water
bottle I don't know what will hey there
I want to share another resource with
you my free resource on foods that can
impact on brain health specifically
Alzheimer's disease and dementias
important research is helping us to
appreciate that diet your diet can make
a market difference when it comes to
your brain health so I want to share
three foods that you can add to your
plate today that can help you avoid
cognitive decline check out my resource
available for free right now in in the
caption below now back to the video okay
so but drink water drink it out of a tap
drink it out of a glass that's actually
what you prefer it's good for your brain
that's good for brain health okay and
I'm telling you this because if you are
thirsty you might have the temptation to
reach for a soft drink a soda or fruit
juice and in every single case a glass
of water is going to be better than a
soda regular soda sugar Sweeten beverage
or a uh uh diet soda uh the water cup of
water is going to be better for you and
fruit juice look um who doesn't like
fruit juice every now and then there's a
lot of sugar in fruit juice all right
and so it's always better to drink water
every now and then you're going to have
fruit juice I actually tell you just to
have the whole fruit then you get the
dietary fiber and all the polyphenols as
well all right so we talked about have
coffee in the morning uh tea in the
evening we said watch your metabolism
trying to elevate your metabolism we
gave some specific foods that you can
actually eat to um and beverages that
you can to eat to uh enhance your
metabolism uh and good for brain health
fifth
exercise exercise movement okay is good
for the brain you know when they
actually found what kind of movement one
of the best kind of movements you can do
until you're really quite old is dancing
all right dancing happens to be
something if you've ever seen go to if
you look up on on YouTube
dancing in China you will see people who
are elderly doing ballroom dancing in
public squares in the evening it's
actually really delightful to actually
see all right so but any kind of
physical activity walking running you
don't need to actually belong to a gym
you don't need to actually hire a a
trainer you could all right and you
don't even need to own a bike or uh play
basketball with your buddies but you
want to stay in motion if you like to do
all those sporty activities please do it
play pickle ball whatever it is that
actually keeps you in motion walking
upstairs keep you in motion walking
around your house when it's raining cats
and dogs outside and you don't want to
get soaked walk around the house that is
staying in motion uh keeping in Motion
makes for good circulation better blood
vessel Health with better brain health
right a healthy heart means a healthy
brain all you need to do okay and this
is I don't mean by all that's the only
thing you need to do but what I'm saying
is that staying in motion stay stay
active do at least a 30 minute brisk
walk every single day that should be
your Baseline that's a great way to
actually stay in Baseline shape and the
reason I say that is because a lot of
people go you know what I'm not used to
working out I don't know if I can get to
doing it I don't want you to actually go
try to work out like crazy which might
not be good for your heart anyway um
suddenly and then say you know what a
week of doing it I can't do do this
anymore I quit I'd rather have you walk
regularly uh after dinner you know uh
just walk off with some of the food that
you ate um you'll actually be more
relaxed uh in the evening and may
probably get a better night's sleep
anyway um uh in the evening or you can
take a walk in the morning too if you
can squeeze it in your morning routine
that is a great way you know it's not
too hot yet you can go out get some
sunshine vitamin D all those kinds of
things some fresh air all right um
that's all good so uh these are just
little tips of staying active all right
we talked about five things are good for
brain health Five Habits now I just want
to actually close by saying a few things
that you want to avoid if you want to
keep your brain health things you want
to avoid for better brain health all
right first don't drink alcohol
regularly now I know alcohol is part of
our society so that's why I think I
don't I don't scold people about
drinking alcohol but you should know
that alcohol is a toxin and your brain
is especially sensitive it kills your
neurons so you kill a little brain cells
every time you have a drink look the
brain is pretty resilient it'll bounce
back but this is why you shouldn't be
drinking it regularly you don't want to
stun your brain every time you sit down
for a meal all right and or drinking
outside of a meal too all right so I I I
think that uh there's a myth by the way
that a glass of red wine is good for you
look here's what's the case red wine
tastes great it's part of it's a it's a
fine beverage to have you know for
social events but there's nothing
healthy about it the alcohol and the red
wine the thing that gives you a buzz
kills brain cells so if you want healthy
brains cells don't drink regularly by
the way Step Up A Notch to hard liquor
now you're talk about a really really um
hard-hitting poison for your brain all
right hard liquor whiskey vodka and you
know all those kinds of hard Liquors are
really a deadly toxin to your brain so
if you're going to have it what I say is
have it in company don't ever drink
alone uh have it in the context of
Celebration or recognition an event
that's actually fine I I think in
moderation a lot of moderation um but
don't drink regularly and don't drink
alone all right just remember alcohol is
a brain toxin there's no way around it
it just is second thing you want to
avoid don't eat too much salt now salt
tastes good salt you know you get
popcorn you going to put some solar it
that makes it a lot tastier and that's
why at a restaurant you ever watch in an
open kitchen pay attention next time
you're at a restaurant where they have
an open kitchen or maybe a Food Channel
and you watch somebody sprinkling salt
in chefs pick up a lot of salt and they
sprinkle on because they know salt makes
taste food taste good before it actually
gets too salty it just keeps on uping
the ante of making the food taste good
but here's the deal salt raises your
blood pressure raising your blood
pressure actually uh uh can damage the
lining that that ice skating rink of
your blood vessels guess what now clots
can actually form that's why high blood
pressure
hypertension is a silent killer it sets
you up for stroke okay uh increases your
stroke risk so just keep your Sal to
levels I would say enough to make your
food taste good don't put extra salt uh
down as a reflex by any means okay and
by the way you can also get low sodium
uh things if you're buying it from a
store and if you are eating in a
restaurant and the food is too salty
please send it back and tell the chef
that they put too much salt in it and
they'll bring you back another one that
doesn't have as much salt like I think
the chefs need that feedback uh uh and
uh in order to be able to give you a
healthy enjoyable meal all right you can
also ask the chef that cook make a low
low sodium low low salt version you
don't want to increase your risk for
stroke all right now the other thing you
want to avoid is eating Ultra processed
foods I told you about this already
Ultra processed foods damage your gut
health poor gut health as poor brain
health enough said uh there's a lot that
can be talked about with ultra processed
foods but you don't want to have that
disbiosis or sick gut bacteria which can
definitely impact on your um brain
health now the last thing you want to
actually avoid is screwing up your sleep
all right uh sleep is really important
for brain health there is uh a uh sewer
system in your brain called the
glymphatic system it's like the
lymphatic system it carries fluid in
your brain the glymphatic your system is
like the Paris sewers um which again in
Paris there's a an extensive series of
underground sewers that keep the city
above uh the street level clean all
right and what the what brain does too
with the glymphatic system is at night
when you actually are sleeping deeply
the sewer system opens up and you drain
your brain out of all the toxins that
have accumulated during day so if you
want good brain health you want to
actually have good sleep as well sleep
hygiene is a topic I'll I'll do for
another video but in order to sleep well
here's one critical tip and I know this
is difficult to do even for me all right
so I'm just telling you it's hard for me
but it's really important if you want to
get good sleep don't expose your eyes
and hence your brain right your eyes are
just part of your brain to Blue Light
that comes from a screen like a phone
before you sleep you kind of want to
actually like I said this is difficult
for me to do too you kind of want to put
down your screens for about two hours
before you go to bed at night I know
you're saying good luck ply but please
try to do that um and because it'll
actually help you get a better night's
sleep better night's sleep your
lymphatics open up you're draining the
toxin from your brain and then the next
morning you're actually going to feel
better all right that's actually um uh
really really important if you don't
you're going to have be brain foggy
right not surprising because you're
toxins are still uh in your sleep the
other thing you want to check out is
that you might actually have sleep apnea
that can interfere with sleep so if your
bed partner says that you're snoring all
the time doesn't matter if you're a big
person or you're a skinny person uh the
tissue in the back of your throat can
enlarge by the way excess body fat over
consumption uh one of the first places
that uh you can actually grow extra fat
is in the back of your tongue by your
throat you get a fat back of your tongue
uh when you're sleeping and relaxed it
can collapse and you can actually have
sleep apne you're not going to sleep
well because this fatty tissue is going
to collapse and you're going to wake up
startled and you're never quite getting
enough sleep because the fatty tissue in
the back of your throats um actually
blocking uh your ability to get enough
oxygen so you're waking up all the time
all right you won't even know it you're
just waking up all the time and you're
snoring at the same time because all
that fatty tissue is is just um creating
that funky snoring sound when air is
going in and when air is going out all
right this is a medical issue sleep
apnea you'd want to talk about it with
your doctor there's a sleep study and
sleep apnea is treatable so something
that you should um think about one thing
that you can do to reduce the
consequences of sleep apnea is to
improve improve your metabolism lower
that body fat uh and that actually can
actually improve sleep apnea as well now
I write in eat to beat your diet again
this book about um uh reducing tongue
fat it's an interesting little side fact
I'm not going to spoil it here you got
to read the book and check it out eat to
beat your diet um and I talk about um
how to actually how tongue fat actually
builds up uh even in skinny people so I
think that's it we talked about five
things to do we talked about a bunch of
things not to do for brain health I hope
you learned a few things I'll see you
again uh for the next video hi there
have you enjoyed watching this video I
know you'll love the next one stay here
and check it out and I'll see you there