Everything You Need to Know About Aging Well After 40

Opening on Gratitude and Brain Wiring 0:00

But I do know that the way God designed our brains is, if I recognize it, I see more of it. And so the more good I'll see, the better I will see. Amen. That is so, so true. and that's how we're wired. that is how were meant to live. Whatever we sow, we reap. So if you're sweeping, sowing gratitude, you are going to reap all the benefits from that gratitude back. Even if your not a believer, If you sow gratitude you will still get good things back So the law, it's just the Law of Humanity. It is.

And I love that you say that because there are laws of humanity and some of their invisible. They're just like the laws gravity. If we do those things, just, like you said, we don't, someone doesn't even have to agree with where we come from, from a worldview perspective to know that that gratitude is life changing. Yeah, absolutely. Welcome to Take Back My Brain with Lori Hammer, where real healing starts in the brain. I'm Lori, a functional nutritionist and mom who's walked the path from anxiety and burnout to clarity and calm.

Each week, we're going to dive into brain-based tools like amino acid therapy, gut health, fasting and faith to help you reclaim your energy, emotions and sense of self. Welcome back, everyone. I'm your host, Laurie Hammer. So excited to have you on the Take Back My Brain podcast today. And I have Lisa Smith with me today, she's a functional medicine dietician, gut health expert, and the founder of LisaSmith Wellness.I got to meet Lisa

Podcast Introduction and Guest Welcome 1:35

at the last conference I was at and we were just like super kindred spirits. And so, I feel like she's not only my sister in Christ, but just like sister, in like this holistic nutrition world. And, so I, feel very blessed to have Lisa on today. We're going to dive into brain health, gut health hormones, and so much more. So, Lisa, welcome to the podcast. Laurie, thanks for having me. I am so excited to be here and, So excited, to talk with you because we definitely instantly connected and became Fast friends, very fast friends.

And I love how God does that. We are in the right place at the time and just open to whatever He has for us, which is a beautiful place to be. Mm-hmm. Amen. Yes. Oh, and before I forget to mention, Lisa has a top 2% podcast. It's called Pretty Well Podcast. And so make sure you check that out as well. I'm going to be on her podcast, so you want to make you catch that interview for sure. That's right. So we're in this age. How old are you Lisa? I am 59. You're 59, So, we are in menopausal transition, well, you're probably post-menopause by now at 59. But we're always looking for longevity.

And I know so many of my listeners are thinking longevity, and we were like, okay, what's the next biohack we can do? What's next? Whatever it might be. I'm always telling people we have to go back to those basic foundations, because it doesn't matter if you have a bio hack, a red light machine, or a hyperbaric chamber, which are all good. But if you don't have your foundations covered and your gut health isn't good and you're brain health, isn' good, none of that other stuff matters. And I know you were on that same page.

It's so, I would love for you to share with the listeners. What are some very foundational pieces that we need to be remembering if we want to have this longevity? Hmm. That is the question, Lori, in this day of longevity, just taking the wellness community by storm. I believe what gets swept away or swept under the rug is health span, which to me is every bit, if not more important than longevity. Because what is being shown right now is that we can live, like we make it a goal to live very long lives.

But what we're seeing is the last 15 years of a person's life in general, on average, it's not good. They don't have health, and they're either bedwetting or they are not walking well or using some assistance to walk or wheelchair. And that defeats the purpose. We can talk about longevity all the time, but I believe that that gets under the umbrella of anti-aging and that's what we all want. You and I are believers and, I bet you would agree with me that we believe that the Lord has numbered our days, but we want those days to be vibrant.

We want to go out with our boots on, right? We wanna go at the very end giving it everything we've got and not be that average. So the foundational pieces, Laurie, That's the key to that. If we get the foundational pieces in, all the other stuff is amazing the way it can maximize and optimize.

Longevity vs. Healthspan Foundations 5:20

So let's talk about, it's not sexy. It's, the pillars of about five pillars. Its nutrition, its activity, sleep, fresh air, stress management, relationships and community. And of course, a strong spiritual life. When we look at those foundations, we can start to break them down. And we get a little, our eyes glaze over because we hear it all the time. We're like, yeah, I know, all of the things, right? Did you know that your microbiome in your gut can literally change within a couple of days? And that change will affect your brain health and that will change how quickly you age.

So that's when the foundational stuff gets exciting. That is so exciting, so what should a person be? Let's go through those pillars, let's through food. What would be foundational things that people need to think about for food? Well, let's talk about, we always hear about what we need to get rid of. And we're going to talk that. Most of the things we talk are going come as no surprise. Let's take a different approach. What we should be adding in. I'm tired of the restriction conversation. I can't eat this and I have to stop eating by this time and can start eating until that time.

Let's just enjoy food, but let's talk about what should we add in. Here are the keys that we should add. And I had a guest on Pretty Well and she, I loved how she put it. She said, we should make sure that every meal we anchor it with protein and we wrap it fiber. There you go. Just remember that. That is to simplify that foundation that it's not, you know, what should you cut out? Should your calorie count? should your macro count forget about it? Get good quality protein, wrap it in good-quality fiber, and you are way ahead of the game.

So from a nutrition standpoint, let's start there. And what does that look like? Good quality, protein looks like this. It's any kind. If you eat animal protein. Let's just assume that for a second, it's kind of animal, literally any. Better. There's a good, better, best animal. Protein. is better in a sense than if you're a vegetarian, only because you are getting the complete protein and you aren't having to be so intentional with combining plant sources to get the completely protein, right? So that's good.

Better would be your source of protein. So you want even best. You want beef that is grass-fed, local if possible. If not possible, look for organic. Same goes with your chicken, your turkey. You know, pasture raised grass, you know they can eat the grass. They can roam freely. You don't want them raised in those horrible commercial lots where they're, they don' see the light of day, right? So what's good for the animal is good. For our body too, for what we eat. So that's, that' kind of what it comes to with.

protein, and then if it's a seafood, always, wild-caught, not farm-raised, farm raised is eight times higher in toxins. So that's the protein. Then fiber, we can always take a fiber supplement, but there are so many great ways to get it. All kinds of vegetables. And then, if we really want to dial in the good, better, best thing, We want fibers that feed our gut bacteria. Those come from really delicious foods like onions, leeks, garlic. asparagus, artichokes, avocado, apples, bananas, kiwi, those are all great ways to get raspberries, pears.

Those are great way to to good fiber. Yeah. Yeah, I love that. And it's so easy, right? There's like, ooh, two food groups here. Well, three if you're going to do fruit. But, and then add in those healthy fats, add-in those health fats. That's not corn, canola, soy, sunflower, safflower, you know, don't want to add those in. We want good butter. we want tallow, we wants avocados and, raw nuts and seeds. You want get in, those really healthy facts because that feeds our brain. So if we have that covered, then you're like super fast on your way to this, you know, aging really, really well, right?

Exactly, exactly. And you can't, You make such a good point. You can leave out the fats. I was just hitting the first two, but the brain is so much fat. What percentage is it? It's a huge percentage of it is 70% fat, so we've got to make it. The fat we eat is the fat that builds our brain and builds ourselves. So we got make sure it's not those seed oils, like you said. Yeah, absolutely. So second thing to build an aging well body, what would it be? We've got good food. What's next? Yeah. And let's just talk for a second about what to take away.

Take away the heavily processed foods, ultra processed food, the sugar, because blood sugar is key.

Nutrition Basics: Protein, Fiber, and Healthy Fats 10:20

That is a foundation to ageing well and brain health, right? Right. regulated blood sugar. So those are the things I'd recommend you avoid. Moderate alcohol if you drink, and of course, decreasing anything inflammatory like smoking. You mentioned bad oils, trans fats, those kinds of things. Now, what was the second piece? The second peace leads me into thinking like this is your area of expertise into the gut microbiome. What you're eating clearly is affecting your gut micro biome, What else do people need to pay attention to?

For the microbiome specific? Oh my gosh, such a good question. So food of course is a huge, that's the biggest rock in the jar. But the second thing that super important is where our cortisol levels are. A couple of things coming into play here, but elevated cortisol consistently, which is just the same thing as saying chronic stress. Right. What that does is it ends up poking some holes in our gut, and now we've got a whole new ball of wax we got to deal with. So elevated cortisol, of course, comes from ongoing stress that we just don't resolve.

It could just be tapes playing in your head, it could be past trauma, complex trauma. A stressful job, a stressful relationship, whatever. But also, get this, poor sleep raises cortisol levels too. So those two go hand in hand with moderating the amount of cortisol. Cortisol is amazing. It's not a bad thing, but it's meant to spike, right? When we see the tiger in the street or we slam our brakes on because someone ran in front of our car, and then it is meant come back down. In our lifestyle, we find that it goes up and it just stays up.

And that's when it becomes problematic. Right, so what are some things we can do to mitigate that cortisol response? Yeah, some really good things. First of all, and this is something that's very personal to me because this past year I've really been working on What, you know, how to bring that stress response down, How to be more resilient and switching out of fight or flight. So I've been focusing on that pretty deeply. And number one is, is your breath work? And here's the super fast thing to do.

You know we hear deep breathing and we're box breathing all very, very good. But here's a super easy thing to do. You breathe in for a count that's natural. Say you breathe them for account of four or five or six, and then you exhale longer. The long exhale sends the signal to our brain that it's time to come out of fight or flight. So if you breath them four, six should breathe out for eight. If you bring them before you, breathe that for six. Whatever it may be. There's no hard, fast rule, but just that longer exhale.

I love that. I was trying to teach my husband that yesterday, because he had a knee replacement, so he hasn't run for a long time. Anyway, it's been a couple of years and stuff, and he's trying run again lately. And I said, hey, how'd it go? Because he is doing great. He goes, my lungs. It's not your lungs, but your diaphragm. Because you know, he has been sitting forever because you haven't been able to be super active and laying down and all those things. And so I'm trying to teach him how to inhale and expand his belly.

And then just do like those short quick breaths at the end, you know, they're like... really fast and he couldn't figure it out. So it was a little too complicated for him. Then I finally just told him what you did. Just breathe in for four, try to go out for eight, and try and do it from your belly. Let's work on it form there. He's like, this is really hard. I said, yeah, because when we're breathing from our chest all the time and we are not using our diaphragm, we were sitting too much and were crunched over.

It's just like any other muscle, it's going to get weak and atrophy and we have to build it back up. Just like you're lifting weights again, your muscle gets really tired and it is hard to start with. So I just want to encourage everybody, you know, as you're doing what Lisa's saying, with breathing in and breathing out longer, it might feel more challenging, but don't stop doing it because you are going to build that diaphragm muscle again and then you going have better lung capacity and you gonna have energy and all sorts of other things.

You know, Lori, that's a point people leave out, is that diaphragm piece. That's such a good point, because we don't really think about that part of it. But I, physical therapists tell me, can you, like the diaphragms is huge. It's this huge that spans from, you know one side of you to the other. And it has so much power. in so many different ways to be able to affect your posture, your breathing, so that's a great point. Yeah, if your diaphragm is weak, you bowel movements are going to more difficult.

Oh my gosh, I never even knew that. Yeah, so you need that muscle in order for a better peristalsis because you're expanding, you know, your belly. And as you expand your bell, that helps with peristasis. So you can't expand you belly if your diaphragm is weak. That makes so much sense. Okay, now some more things that you could do in addition to breathing. that's an easy one you do anywhere. You can do it in your car, in a difficult conversation, wherever. Another one is to activate your vagus nerve.

So that vagous nerve, I know your listeners know this, but for the sake of just saying it, you know, it's the longest nerve in the body. It runs from our brain down through, uh, You know it hits all of our organs down for our gut and some really good ways to active that a really simple way is humming. Now I've read, if you're in a difficult conversation, do the big inhale and then you can exhale a hum. I don't know about you. If I'm having a heated conversation with my husband, I That might not work.

That may not be the way to go. But that is a great way on your own, because you're activating that vagus nerve. Another really cool thing that I've learned is that when we tend to feel very anxious, and it's just this baseline level of anxiety, we're putting ourselves in one of two places. We're either putting yourselves in the future. What if this happens? We are future forecasting. Like, what about this? What about that? And it's making us very nervous.

Reducing Inflammation and Supporting Gut Health 17:20

But we are looking back on the past and we When X happens, this always happened in the past, that caused me stress, so we're not living right now in present. So to bring ourselves back and embody the present, and we can do that a few ways. We can press our feet into the ground, we do some pressure, like press your hands together, We pick up a glass of water and hold it so that we feel the cold. Any of those things remind our body and our subconscious I'm present and I am safe right now. Bring it down.

Yeah. Well, that makes a whole lot of sense because how many times are you anxious? You're like, I don't need to do with my hands, right? And then people are wringing their hands. But I can see why they're doing that now because you're trying to find that grounding space. Yeah, yeah, never thought that either. Yes, it makes so much sense. So maybe just kind of like put your hands together, but now you are doing it intentionally. It's not a nervous. I'm squeezing something together because that pressure.

tells our brain and our body, I'm okay. At this present moment, there is no lion. No one is running in front of my car. I don't need to future cast because that might not happen. So I am wasting this one moment I have in life that it's the only one I've guaranteed right now. And I wasting that by thinking something, anticipating something bad happening that may not ever happen." Right. Is that why we put our hands together when we pray? So that we're like present? Do you think that's why? I don't know.

I'll think about that now. That's a great question. We'll have to look it up. But that kind of makes sense. Yeah, that is grounding. There's no doubt it's grounding, so anything like that that grounds us in the moment is very powerful. Yeah. Well, speaking of grounding, what are your thoughts on grounding? I love grounding. Walking out in your bare feet, in the grass or on the beach. Now I have moved to South Carolina in past two years and in Pennsylvania, the grassroots was soft and wonderful. Here there's been a weird weeds that feel like bars that stick in my feet.

So I don't do much grounding on my grass anymore, but it is, it It's one of those things that's a little controversial because then you have people who say, yeah, but you can get parasites. Yeah. I don't know. Then the terrain in your body is off. So you won't get an overgrowth of parasites if your terrain is good. Right. This is a whole other topic, so I'll go off on that one. But grounding also helps your vagal nerve. Yeah. No, what about you? Have you used, I don't have a PEMF match or anything like that.

Do you have one or do you use anything? I do. I have this one. Oh, so cool. Tell us about it. Well, it's from Zeolite Labs and this isn't on their website yet. So this is a new one, they're just launching it, but it has PMF. It's also quantumly charged, meaning it as a grounding effect already, even if you don' t turn it on for the PMS. Really? It's so cool. Yes. And then it's heated. So what do you feel? Is this extremely relaxing or what are you? Extremely relaxing. I sleep better when I use this.

It also comes with a belt, which is actually in my living room. You can sandwich yourself in between because these are stones. This is carnelian and tourmaline, I think. oh my goodness yeah anyway and then some shungite so there's three different kinds of stones which are already charged so they already have a grounding effect so They already give you a good frequency so me just having this in my office without it being on, it's already good. And then they've charged it quantumly, so they put it in the quantum charger.

So then it'll at least stay charged for five years, the pieces that aren't stone. Then it enhances the stone charge, and then you add the PMF in middle of it. You've got a little infrared, a magnetic therapy, And it is like this magic mat, which is really what I think you should call it, is a magic rat. Oh my goodness. Now, I definitely, are you eventually going to have the link in the show notes for that? Oh yeah, this will be in a show note for sure. This will in my special discount and everything.

So yeah. He's doing a pre-sale right now. By the time this comes out, the pre sale will done. You just have to go to the notes, but I will send you Lisa. Thank you. Thank you. That looks amazing. It is amazing and you want to get the belt that goes with it because it's really it'll cover your whole torso so you're like really sandwiched in and sometimes I'll just sit here at my desk and just wrap it around me without it being on because is still charged and it is just really lovely. That sounds really lovely.

So it's a really fun biohack, but it just stones. It's all good. Yeah, that sounds amazing. That's so cool. I love it. So the non-stone parts, five years, and they're still- Yeah, they are still charged.

Stress, Cortisol, and Nervous System Regulation 22:40

... what they doing. Yeah. Pretty neat. And price point is amazing. He had a Q bed, which is a quantum bed. Those are like, I don't know, 50, 60 grand. Oh, wow. His idea was to make something that's 90% as effective for 90 percent of the cost. wow and he did so cool and yeah and so he could easily charge probably three times as much for the mat but he won't because that's just who he is because he wants every home to have one and So he keeps the price point really amazing. So I love this company.

Anybody else? You know, you've heard Jeff from ZeoCharge, from zeolightlabs. And I talk about the zeo charge all the time. This is Jeff. this is just loving out all of you and giving you an amazing product at an Amazing price. So check the show notes for that link for sure. So good. It is so good, especially if you're in Iowa and places or you can't ground because your ground is stinky. You can at least lay on a mat. Hey friend, just a quick break to remind you if calming your brain is the missing piece in your practice or in you home, my Mind Thrive certification course teaches you exactly how to do that with targeted amino acid therapy.

So it's real science, real results, no band-aids. Enrollment is now open. Link is in the show notes. Back to the Yeah, so that's a great way to get that grounding and get the vagus nerve, just like you said, get it starting to calm down and gets you out of fight or flight. Yeah. So those are some pretty key ways to bring that cortisol down. I know you talk a lot about gratitude, which is another way you bring the cortisol. What do you have to say about vitamin G? Oh my goodness. It's something I'm still working on doing consistently as a practice.

I think just through my day, I am always grateful for things like, oh my God, look at that sky today, or oh wow, this went so well. But to have a formal practice is also beneficial and life-changing. So I've been really trying, I have a journal, if your listeners want it, it's free. It's created this journal. I made it for myself and then I started working it and I revised it. And now I think it is the best journal out there. Actually, just started looking at how do I put this into a book format because right now it a PDF.

But it really good. What I do is I put the gratitude in at the end because when we're programming our subconscious and rewiring our brain, we want to especially pay attention to right before we fall asleep and right when wake up. We're still in a brainwave state that's very malleable. So as we are practicing gratitude and those times, like when you wake or right right, before you fall sleep, what I'm grateful for, It's literally programming our subconscious to then look for more to be grateful for.

You know, the Bible tells us that he inhabits our praise, right? Praise is gratitude. And so, you can't have a bad day if you're in gratitude and you are praising God. So, developing that practice I think is key to not just longevity, aging well, but just your mental health and your relationships. And all of those things, it's, I think it is more important than supplements, is still gratitude. It is. And, you know, to your point, the Bible also says what we think about, we become. You know what our thoughts are.

So if our thought are anchored in what were grateful for, then what are reminding ourselves under the surfaces, God's faithfulness. Every time we're like, thank you for that. We're thanking God, we are not just blatant, like we aren't just blurting out into oblivion. Thank you, I recognize your faithful, your grace and mercy that I don't deserve, but boy am I thankful for it. and it programs us. So we have this, you know this because you're a brain expert, but the reticular activating system is what recognizes in our environment something that has become important to us, so if I want to buy a white Volvo SUV, all of a sudden, what am I seeing?

And that's the Reticular Activating System. Well, it works the same with gratitude. If I'm telling my, I am so thankful for fill in the blank. Guess what I recognize more? My reticular activating system says, she really likes it when this happens. So, you know, in, the abundance manifestation mindset, people are thinking, I'm creating this and, that's bigger than my brain goes, like that quantum part. But I do know that the way God designed our brains is, if I recognized it, i see more of it. And so the more good I see, Amen.

Amen, that is so, so true. And that's how we're wired. That's the way we were meant to live. Whatever we sow, we reap. So if you're sweeping, sowing gratitude, you are going to reap all the benefits from that gratitude back, which is, even if your not a believer, if we are sown gratitude you still going get good things back. So the law, it's just a law of humanity. It is. And I love that you say that because there are laws of Humanity and some of their invisible, you know, they're just like the Law of Gravity.

If we do those things, just, like you said, we don't, someone doesn't even have to agree with where we come from, from a worldview perspective to know that that gratitude is life changing. Yeah, absolutely. So food, grounding, the vagus nerve, gratitude. Well, and a lot of those things, I said fresh air and sunshine, you can do that with grounding. You can that your physical activity, so you have it stack these. But those thing that start to improve our sleep. You can be doing all the things right, but if you're not sleeping well, you just don't feel well and you have mental fog, memory issues, weight gain because your cortisol is elevated.

Grounding, Vagus Nerve, and Biohacks 29:20

So if sleep's not going well some of the thing we've talked about will change it, especially dietary. One of the sneakiest things with sleep is a couple glasses of wine in the evening can really help you sleep. Yeah. And I'm not saying don't drink. I've been in seasons where it's been a regular thing. Then when I stopped and changed into a new season, my sleep has changed dramatically. It disrupts your hormones. It really does. And that led to my next thought. If you're a woman in midlife, you might at some point have to clean up the diet and clean a couple of the other things if you need to.

You might look at like a bioidentical progesterone because once that starts falling off the cliff, sometimes our sleep can suffer with that as well. Yeah. And I would say, let's dive into the hormones just a little bit, Lisa. So when our progesterone, we're going to naturally dip. That's just the way it is. However, We've normalized like zero production or close to zero, production of our hormones. Yes, so we can do HRT. However, there's definitely things that we can do to support that so that, we don't need that.

So we actually, our hormone decline is worth the way it was designed to be. Can you speak to that a little bit and what affects that hormone to decline? I sure can. That just seems to hit at the perfect storm for a lot of us. When the hormones start, you know, the progesterone goes like this, it just is gone. It just drops off the cliff and you're like, what is happening? And then at the same time, estrogen starts bouncing, bouncing. Yeah. So it starts to feel like you are in someone else's body, but that tends to hit at same as empty nesting, aging parents.

You know, business changes, sometimes a relationship changes. It seems to be like the crap is hitting the fan and now I don't like how I look, think or feel. And so it's like, what is going on here? So that can be pretty tricky, but there are a couple of things. I am for the, for people who, who are interested in hormone replacement and who or have definite symptoms, I certainly support and personally am on bioidentical hormone replacement. It's not for everybody. But before that, there's some really important pieces because if these pieces are off, two things, either hormones will work, but you still have an addressed root cause symptoms which means they're going to rear up and bite you down the road.

Or two, the hormones just don't work. really important is going back to that gut health. There is a part we're all familiar now with the microbiome and you know how we have this ecosystem in our gut and it determines a whole lot of our health including our brain health But part of that ecosystem is called the estrobalome. And that's a part those bacteria, they're good bacteria that regulate how much estrogen we have. So when it's working well, it actually taking estrogen out in the trash for the most part and only allowing a little bit to recycle.

When it is off, its knocking the estrogen off the garbage truck and having a whole bunch of it recycle and then symptoms get kind of wonky. So first thing we want to do is make sure we really dial in that gut health. And so we talked about fiber wrapped or protein wrapped in fiber and good fats. But what we didn't talk about is making sure that we're getting those good bacteria in and that they're living so, we can take the probiotics But if we don't feed them those good bacteria, they just die off.

They're the good army, but they got to eat. So we got make sure we're feeding them. And those are some of the foods I mentioned earlier, very specific. fibers called prebiotic fibers. That's the leeks, onions, garlic, bananas, apples, artichokes, asparagus, you know, all those good things, kiwi, raspberry, pears. Those things they're delicious and our good gut bacteria love them and they feed on them, and as they grow, they crowd out the weeds. Think about when you garden, the more good plants you put in, That's what we want.

So when that's working properly, that is a friend to our hormones because they all work together. It's a beautiful symptom. Here's the second piece is blood sugar regulation. If we have insulin resistance, that means our blood sugar is too high. If our sugar's too low, we'll have receptors in the brain that are supposed to be estrogen receptors, but if our estrogen's kind of bouncing around and dropping off and our progesterone's dropped off, bloodsugar will lodge there in those receptors and they drive hot flashes.

Right. For people who say, you know, that HRT is not working for me, the bioidentical HRRT, it could be, we need to clean up your metabolic health,

Gratitude, Reticular Activating System, and Mindset 34:40

how much insulin is in your system, and how many blood sugars are in the system. Those are two really important factors. I think those are absolutely key, so I'm really glad you brought those up. Because having a flexible metabolism is definitely a key to aging well. Mm hmm. Yes. You know, they, I know I'm, i bet you know this and I bet a lot of our listeners today do too, but they now call insulin resistance or actually diabetes type three. They call Alzheimer's type 3 diabetes. Right. That's a big deal, you know, when you realize it's preventable, really.

Well, that's the thing. And we see such an uptick in the diagnoses of Alzheimer's, dementia, Parkinson's other neurological conditions. It feels like left and right, somebody's getting diagnosed with one of those things, especially when we live in this toxic world. I'm in Iowa. So everybody knows that because we're in news now with all the glyphosate issues and stuff going on. Finally, finally. But yeah, that's a huge issue. And if you're toxic, it's hard to regulate your blood sugar too. So there's just multifaceted pieces.

It's kind of taking one thing at a time going, okay, where do I need to work on this pillar and then work in that pillar? And then move to the next one. Elise, you make it sound so practical, which I love. Well, and thank you for that because that is That's always my, that's my main goal is to make it doable because great health does not have to be super expensive and it doesn't have be only for the elite and doesn' have so all consuming that everything else has to fall by the wayside. That is not good health.

When I look at these biohackers who are doing hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars in bio hacking, But they're not really living. They're just biohacking. Exactly. Who wants to live like that? I just want to enjoy my life and have lots of energy and feel great in my skin. Now, back to Iowa, because this is really important. I had a guest, Dom, recently, and her husband was diagnosed with early onset Parkinson's. And she was a business consultant turned scientist. She taught herself microbiology, chemistry, all the things.

Amazing. She's an amazing woman. But what she found is that there are certain strains of probiotics that neutralize glyphosate from Roundup. So very important to know, especially when you're exposed at such massive levels, that lactobacillus is one of the strains, but to get those in you regularly and then feed them with those prebiotic foods so that they grow and they start to dismantle some of that toxicity. Yeah, absolutely. We have a scientist here in the town that I live in, I'll go to Iowa, his name is Michael, and he's one of the developers of breaking down glyphosate in soil because he has developed microbes to do that, which is super exciting.

And I was just at a conference in Dallas and they were actually talking about Michael. I know Michael. Yeah, but it's exciting. There's definitely a lot more awareness. So yes, it has glucose regulation and its toxicity and it low hormones and all of that stuff plays into this brain health that we are trying to maintain and keep intact until we go home to be with Jesus. That's right. One thing we haven't talked about is community. As we age, I think that might be outside of gratitude, maybe one of the most important things, and I would love your take on that.

There is so much research, Lori, behind what community does for us. spiritual for sure. It's emotional and mental, but it's also physical, what it physically does for us. So it, my gosh, it releases endorphins. it tones the vagus nerve. Unless it depends on our relationships, can bring us at a fight or flight. And it makes us realize that when we're going through something, we are not alone.

Sleep, Hormones, and Midlife Metabolism 39:20

Right. so it bolsters us and encourages us You know, it It has this profound effect on our health and wellness. And there's so many studies on even people who are much older, the elderly who do well, they live so much longer. I think I might be making this up, but I it's like 15 years longer when they have. Yeah, I agree with you. So it can't be overstated. It's much better for us than isolation. Isolation is where we And it helps us get out of our loops. We all loop from time to time. You know, we go around and around on something that is not healthy.

And, it's so helpful to have a friend or someone in our life who we can share that with and they can say, oh, I've had that too. This is how I dealt with that. It just helps to recalibrate. It does. And I think in our country and, you know, other first world countries, especially United States, we're very quick to put the elderly in a home or separate them from community, which makes me super sad. Um, and if we look at the whole Chicago with COVID and everything and the, separation of people, that's what killed people.

That's how people got sick. If we would have been in community together, That strengthens your immune system. When I give you a hug and it's mutual and loving and positive, it actually strengths my immune and your system Right. Exactly. And so when we were separated from each other, and they did this in the Blue Zone study, the longest people lived in communities where they were always gathering. They ate together, they had a lot of exercises, They had clean food, but they community all the time.

Like the generations were separate. I feel like even in church we tend to do that. we separate the groups of people. If you're going into your home group, you know, here's the 20 to 30 year olds and here is the 50 to 60 year old and there's this 70 to 80 year-olds. And I'm like, I want to be with the 70, 80-year-old because I don't want glean from them so that I can be good when I am 70 or 80. So that is something we need to more intentional about in our society as a whole. You know what a great point.

I don't know if it's just started with our generation, but at some point we became so focused on striving and reaching and optimizing that we started to believe the lie that community was something that slowed us down instead of raised us up. And it is a lie. We're built for community, we're build for relationships. And, you know, that, again, we can go right back to scripture on that. You know? A cord of three is not easily broken. There's two, then three, and so we know that we're meant. Yeah, and Scripture says, don't neglect in the meeting together.

Like, it's really important that we build each other up, not just even in a church community, but in any community. You know, like you and I are meeting at the conference, I think it is so important, that were so like-minded that, we continue to meet to build other each up. And to develop that structure and intentionality so that You know, we can grow and we could reach more people. So we just love on more. If you have people to love, then you would have the more capacity to because love expands.

And so whenever with anybody, it's kind of hard to expand and God told us to. Go to all the nations. You can't go to the all nations by yourself. Right. And then there's this synergy when we come together. So one plus one does not equal two in this economy. In the economy of relationships, one-plus-one might equal 50 because now we are coming together and we're finding so much more impact together than we would individually. Yeah, and we have such opportunity to be isolated. We're working at home, we're not together for this podcast, social media, like we are community, but it's not really community because we aren't together.

And I see a lot of young people, it is just easy to get isolated, I don't need to go to the grocery store because I can Uber eat it or I could, you know, whatever it might be. You know, even with my own daughter and she's 19, she was like, I don't need to go to the grocery store. I'm like yeah, yeah you do. Yeah, we do, but yeah. And it's just learning not to isolate ourselves because it is easy. Sometimes I see clients all day long online and I am like I do not want to to any party or anything else and sometimes you just have to make yourself go so that you actually get fed that good stuff.

Community, Grace, and Closing Takeaways 44:40

That's such a great point. I think we do get weary. And when we're weary, it's just easier to just to isolate. But what we don't realize is that there just might be the person wherever that engagement is, that helps us with something that we just need to be not weary anymore. Like they come alongside us and build us back up and you're like, actually, I feel so much better. Yeah, or we're there to build somebody else up and we get the focus off of ourselves instead of thinking we are so weary, we can actually focus on somebody.

And I think the older we guess, especially as women, a book and a movie might not be a bad thing. There are those days. There were those nights you think, you know, I could just kick back. Yeah. And that's not wrong either. Yes. We just need that balance. For sure. Lisa, is there anything else you want to leave the audience with? You know, Lori, that last statement, everything we've talked about, whether it's nutrition, probiotics, prebiotics, sleep, stress management, relationships, spirituality, whatever it is, if we approach it through some moderation.

So I always like to say like 80%, aim for 80% doing this. But make sure the other 20%, you've given yourself some grace because it's a performance. None of this is about in the wellness world. I personally have been here where I've gotten caught in a trap of performance, I didn't even know it, but I have to do this, take these supplements and eat this way and exercise. Oh my gosh, my deep breathing, gratitude, blah, and it gets to a point where it loses the entire point of wow-ness. So moderation, a whole lot of grace for yourself and for others, and just, you know, that focus on what brings me joy.

And this is one more thing. This is something I've learned this year as well. Really listening to your body. God gave you this incredibly wise body. It's not just a physical thing, it has fashion, has sensing, and it's able to communicate with your mind. So listen, because sometimes it knows something way before the mind knows it. If your body is telling you something, pay attention and Be kind to yourself too. Like I can keep going. What else do you want me to say? Make a serious and self-kindness too and literally only talk to your self the way that you would talk someone you cherish ever and be kind about it.

If you catch yourself saying something mean, then don't beat yourself up to youself. So you know what? No, I don' do that anymore. That's not my identity. I won't be myself up anymore." I love it. That's so important too. Lisa, thank you so much for being here today. Thank you for having me. I have loved it, it's been great. It's a fun conversation. And thank every single one of you, for listening. Make sure you follow Lisa. All of her information will be in the show notes. So make sure to follow her podcast, check out her website.

Hopefully some of will start working with her because she is amazing and I'm very blessed to call her my friend. I love each of you, God bless you. I will see you in the next episode. Thanks for listening to Take Back My Brain. If today's episode helped you connect with hope or direction, I want you to follow the show, leave us a review and share it with someone who needs it. And if you're ready to start your own healing journey, explore our courses and our coaching programs at lorihammer.com backslash store.

So until next time, remember you cannot medicate away a nutrient deficiency and healing your brain isn't just possible, it's powerful.