The Brain-Healing Foods That Prevent Cognitive Decline

Brain Degeneration and Early Warning Signs 0:00

Today, I'm talking about the most powerful daily strategy to heal your brain. See, brain degeneration is on the rise. We have conditions like dementia, Alzheimer's, and these are growing every single day. And then people that are younger are dealing with some of the early warning signs, like poor memory, mood issues, depression, anxiety, trouble sleeping. And so there are so many people out there that are dealing with different states and stages of brain degeneration. You don't just wake up one day with dementia.

That's literally a 30 to 40 year disease process that's taking place in your brain. And for many people, it starts in childhood, right? And in their teens, where people are starting to have these types of effects, where they have poor short term memory, they are having anxiety, they have depression, they have fatigue, they feel lethargic, they're not sleeping at night. And over time we get more and more oxidative stress and inflammation impacting the brain. So we really need to live a lifestyle that brings great brain health, that allows our brain to function and thrive at its highest level.

And I found that the best, simplest strategy to apply

Why Intermittent Fasting Helps the Brain 1:18

when it comes to improving your brain function is having an intermittent fasting lifestyle where you're practicing some level of intermittent fasting. And I can talk about movement. Walking is so critical. To helping drive more blood flow into the brain. And there's great research now on walking, just even walking and how that impacts the brain. Blood sugar stabilizing diet is really, really critical. Reducing toxin exposure is super critical. But one of the simplest, easiest things you can do is eat your meals in an eight hour eating window, right?

Or perhaps even less. And that means eating your meals, let's say starting at 10 a.m. and finishing at 6 p.m. and there was a 2024 review article, and its title is Neuroprotective Effects of Intermittent Fasting in the Aging Brain. And this study actually went through all the effects of what happens when we start doing intermittent fasting on a regular basis, and how that impacts the brain. And so one of the big things is when we do intermittent fasting, it brings down insulin levels and it stabilizes your blood sugar.

And that's so critical because we know that brandy generation, much of it is metabolic, meaning that when we have high insulin levels and we have poor blood sugar regulation that ends up causing damage to the mitochondria, and our brain is incredibly dense in mitochondria. And so as those mitochondria become damaged, we start getting more inflammation in the brain. And that starts driving up, oxidative stress, inflammation, this whole cascade, when one neuron dies, it actually spills out its contents and it damages all the cells around it.

We call this neuro cytotoxicity. It's kind of like a domino effect when one neuron dies, it actually poisons the neurons next to it, which ends up causing all of them to go down and die like a domino effect. And so this is really, really a big thing that's taking place in many people's brains and bodies. And what happens is we end up with this beta amyloid plaque that forms.

Ketones, BDNF, and Reduced Inflammation 3:18

It's almost like scar tissue in the brain. But when we never turn off the metabolic damage, we just get more and more of this scar tissue, more and more of this parking. What intermittent fasting does it brings down insulin stabilizes blood sugar. And when sugar goes down and insulin goes down, our body starts to increase the amount of ketones beta hydroxybutyrate in the bloodstream. This is an alternative fuel source. You see we can't get fatty acids across the blood brain barrier to be used for energy.

So the liver takes fatty acids, converts them into a smaller, water soluble molecule. We call that a ketone, in particular, the one that we measure in the blood is called beta hydroxy beta eight. That beta hydroxy beta eight gets up into the brain, where it acts as what we call a epigenetic modulator. So it actually modifies genetic pathways in the brain, and it increases something called Bdnf brain derived neurotrophic factor. Bdnf is like miracle gro to the brain. It helps strengthen the different neuronal pathways and the synapses, right.

So it helps to create new proteins in the neurons. On top of that, it shuts down the inflammatory pathways. Right. And so we end up when our brain is inflamed, there's an activation of something called the neuro inflammasome. So it's almost like a, you know, large alarm system where all the different cells are being activated, all the different glial cells and micro glial cells and inflammatory compounds are being activated. When we shut that down, it quiets down inflammation throughout the whole brain.

Think about it like a you know, if you're trying to get your radio station on and all you're getting is the feedback, okay, it's not actually working. And then all of a sudden you turn it, just you turn that knob just a slight bit and you get perfect, perfect sound coming in. That's what happens when you turn off the neuro inflammasome. Now that inflammation shuts down. Now we're able to rebuild the proteins inside of those neurons. The Bdnf will help stimulate that. The, beta hydroxybutyrate helps activate something called a Ampk pathway, which Tert, which basically increases the amount of my autophagy.

So we break down old damaged mitochondria, and we form a new healthy mitochondria within the brain cells within the neurons. And now those new healthy mitochondria, they're very stress resilient.

Glutamate-GABA Balance and Mental Clarity 5:48

So they're able to function at a high level. They're able to produce cellular energy at a high level. And that gives us better overall brain function on top of that, when we have elevated beta hydroxybutyrate because we're now fat burning and our insulin levels are down, we end up balancing the glutamate to Gaba pathway in the brain. You see, when the brain is inflamed, it over activates the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate. It's like the gas pedal of the brain. And so when we're stepping on the gas too much, we end up just like driving a car.

We end up getting in car accidents. We need a good balance between glutamate and Gaba. Glutamate helps us think sharply and quickly, but when it's out of control, we end up with more oxidative stress and inflammation, more anxiety, more irritability, hypervigilance, less able to to focus and have control when we have the right glutamate to Gabba. Gabba is like the brakes on the brain. The right ratio allows us to think sharply and quickly, but also be calm and under control, not have anxiety, not be easily triggered.

And that's the one of the great effects of having the right amount of insulin. And also getting elevations in beta hydroxy beta eight balance. Is that glutamate to Gaba pathway or ratio, I should say. And when we get that proper ratio, the proper balance of glutamate to Gaba, we're going to think sharply, quickly, but also be nice and calm and relaxed, not have the anxiety. And that's super critical. So we get less inflammation better glutamate to Gaba pathway. This is why people notice that they perform better when they're in a fasted state.

In fact, people that are doing extended fasts,

Preparing for Fasting with Diet and Movement 7:27

and you may have heard this in religious circles where people will do extended fasts and they'll notice that they have better creativity, better or better, innovation, that they come up, you know, they just have better intuition and better. And they come up with a lot of different creative ideas because they have less of this kind of static feedback in their brain. So they're able to have better overall complex thoughts, you know, better, better, better connections between different parts of the brain.

It's really, really powerful. What actually happens. And doing this sort of intermittent fasting is a really great anecdote to the metabolic damage that so many of us have had, from blood sugar imbalances and from high insulin levels. And so what do we want to do before we start fasting? I always recommend to prepare your body properly for fasting. Make sure you're doing a high protein, blood sugar stabilizing diet. What is the blood sugar stabilizing diet look like? Well, it's going to be high in protein, eating 30 or more grams of protein in each meal.

Why is that so important? Because the protein will create satiety and it will lower the insulin release for the meal. So you'll be more satiated and it will turn up fat burning. So get the protein right. Focus on making sure getting at least 30g of protein in a meal. Add in healthy fats. Now, a lot of times your fats are going to come in your protein foods, right? So if you're eating grass fed beef, if you're eating, pasture raised eggs, wild caught seafood, you've got fats in there. But in some cases, you might need to add in some high polyphenol extra virgin olive oil, which is incredibly powerful for the brain.

It has also cantors and hydroxyl cells, these powerful polyphenols that help clean up, damaged brain tissue and help reduce inflammation, oxidative stress in the brain. So we can add that in there. But make sure you got your, your protein, your healthy fats, and then lots of colorful fruits and vegetables. So it's colorful fruits and vegetables have unique phytonutrients that support and reduce oxidative stress and support, overall healthy brain tissue. So make sure you're doing that.

Sleep, Melatonin, and Brain Repair 9:27

Make sure you're getting good movement and exercise on a regular basis, and make sure you're really prioritizing good sleep, right? Sleep is when your brain detoxifies right. That's when you drain the brain. And so you got to make sure you're prioritizing really good sleep. I recommend trying to be in bed by 10 p.m., if at all possible, making sure you're getting out of, you know, any sort of bright lights after dark. You can wear blue light blocking glasses. You can dim all the lights in your house that will help prepare your body.

It will produce more melatonin. Melatonin is this amazing sleep hormone, but also an antioxidant that protects your mitochondria. And so you need optimal melatonin release in order to have really good growth hormone release. And when you get the combination of melatonin and growth hormone, that's going to really help clean, heal and repair your brain tissue and your whole body, all the different tissues in your body, it's going to help clean, heal and repair them all the different mitochondria. So you can really function at your best.

So intermittent fasting, incredible research behind it for supporting overall brain function and brain healing. I think it's the easiest strategy to apply. But also make sure that you're on that blood sugar stabilizing diet, getting really good movement and making sure you're prioritizing sleep so you can have really good brain health and prevent brain degenerative conditions.