Recap: Maintain brain health as you age | Dr. William Li
12:49 Share

Hello and welcome to Zoe Recap, where each week we find the best bits from one of our podcast episodes to help you improve your health. Today we're putting the spotlight on our brains. As we age, certain behaviors often become more noticeable, misplacing keys, struggling to recall names, or forgetting why you walked into a room. Most of us have likely seen this happen to someone close to us and may have even seen these patterns develop into more serious conditions like dementia.

But are these behaviors just an inevitable part of getting older? Or is there something we can do to prevent them? Dr. William Lee is here to outline the connection between our lifestyle and the health of our brain. We start by getting some definitions straight. Will, what is dementia and is it the same as Alzheimer's disease? You've just asked a huge question because dementia is one word.

that represents the end result of many different processes, problems that impact our brain. And so it's sort of a final result of different types of disease states that can actually happen to us. And people tend to underestimate that.

how complicated and how different types of dementia actually exist. So you asked about Alzheimer's disease. Well, you can call it Alzheimer's dementia. It's the type of dementia that we attribute to Alzheimer's disease. And even Alzheimer's itself, we're beginning to realize there's different flavors or different types of Alzheimer's disease, and it's not one size fits all. So, you know, we've kind of moved from a...

table of contents on dementia where we have simple chapters of understanding the brain to really beginning to understand. This is a dictionary, and there's a lot of different definitions that need to be precisely understood in order for us to be able to better prevent, better treat, and

indeed better reverse the condition. Okay, so we're sort of discovering it's a lot more complex than maybe many of us listening had understood in terms of it's not just one disease. There's many different ways and underlying explanations for why this happens. And if you were gonna just sort of summarize, I guess, the symptoms that would distinguish someone with dementia from someone who's just getting older, what are they?

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

We say these are the symptoms I mentioned. Now, it can get even more serious. There are, you know, well-known figures like the Bruce Willis of the world who have lost the ability to speak. That's aphasia. That's another, you know, process. Our ability to speak is driven by the brain. And so when we actually have a misfire or derailing of those processes that allow our brain to normally function, it can happen through our ability to speak and our ability to think.

but also our ability to breathe and our ability to eat, which is fundamental to life itself. This is one of the reasons why dementia itself makes people feel apprehensive.

You know, you sort of lose everything is the impression. If this is happening to you or someone you love, you should absolutely be going to doctors and really pushing for what's possible. What about the non-medical side of this? So the things that you could, you know, be doing at home yourself? We know that exercise is helpful.

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

It's one of the laws of physics, right? A body that stays in motion, is in motion, stays in motion. So it's one of the things that we actually need to do. Working out, being deliberate about our exercise is good. Cardio is great. If you want to actually, you know, go for spinning or you want to go jump rope or you want to actually go swimming or you want to go ballroom dancing, those are all things that actually are good cardio, all right? And what happens when you're actually getting a really good workout? Okay, for those of you who might be jogging or running or training for a marathon, you

you're actually getting your heart working to pump blood. The heart pumping blood through that 400 miles into your brain is going to be better at delivering oxygen and nutrients to that engine, that mastermind that's inside your skull. So exercise is good for the brain. But there's more to it than that. Exercise also winds up triggering stem cells.

You wanna get stem cells to actually help repair your organs and you wanna get a jump on that. You wanna actually get a little more juice out of your stem cells. You wanna exercise. - Wow. - Exercising helps your bone marrow release these stem cells, regenerative cells into your bloodstream. And guess where they go? They go wherever there's something that needs to be fixed.

Stem cells are very smart. Your brain needs to be repaired. It's going to go to the brain. Your liver needs to be repaired. It's going to go to the liver. You want to get a little more juice out of the system that's already set up in order to fix you from the inside out. Exercise is really important. That's right. So we had another guest on the podcast talking about he believed the reason why exercise works in a sense is the exercise directly might cause some damage in your body, but it triggers all of these healing mechanisms. And it sounds like you're now sharing like a particular...

way in which we might be starting to understand how that's happening. That is exactly it. So let me demystify exercise for people, right? So if you, and let's think about it from a young person's perspective, you want to actually be in really good shape. You want to look really good in the mirror.

Okay. You wouldn't have- You sound just like my son now. The six pack, the cut pecs, the biceps, right? The definition, right? So think about it. You got to work at that. You're lifting, you're doing your cardio. Let me tell you what happens. When you're exercising, you are straining your muscles. And in order for your muscles to get bigger,

They have to regenerate. So you're straining them. They're breaking down a little bit. That's okay. That's what they're there for. You're breaking them down. And then it's triggering the repair system, which includes stem cells, to build more muscle. So when a young person wants to build bulk muscle,

and get more muscular, they're breaking down their muscles so their own body can build it back up, including using stem cells and better circulation, by the way, so you get better blood flow and more stem cells into your system. Now look, what's good for the biceps is good for the brain. And so as we get older,

You know, not everybody is going to be of the mindset of actually going to the gym and working out. But this is where even a moderate amount of exercise can help. Even going for a walk for 30 minutes after dinner actually can be really useful. And as you're getting older, if you wind up actually having knee problems, hip problems, back problems where you're not quite as mobile.

This is where actually getting physical therapy to help you out, you know, ask your insurance company, ask your doctor to help you out to get a physical therapist. And maybe you have a neighbor or, you know, somebody who is already trained as a physical therapist to help you stay in motion. Get out of that chair, even if you need a walker or a cane, stay in motion. It's going to help your body. You know, you use the word breaking itself down.

You know, I like to be kinder and gentler to say that, you know, you're putting it through its paces and then afterwards it's going to build itself back up and repair itself because that's how we're hardwired. So much of this, Jonathan, we're talking about is the body's own hardwiring experience.

that actually does what it wants to do. We just need to allow our body to do what it's designed to do and not impede it. It feels as though what you're describing is sort of the same that you might be saying to me or you about what you should be doing. Is there anything sort of different for someone who is wanting to

to try and avoid this happening from somebody who knows that this is starting to happen but wants to try and delay or even maybe it sounds like potentially sort of prevent the progression?

Yeah, that's a deep question, Jonathan, because all of us want to avoid dementia, of all the things. I mean, maybe cancer is number one, but dementia would be the other thing that everybody would sort of dreads, fears, and is probably willing to do anything, at least to consider how they can avoid it themselves. Let me recap some of the high points of what we've talked about in this conversation, because these are all the things that can actually protect us.

Let's talk about exercise. Stay physically active, even 30 minutes of walking a day is useful. Get good sleep. You don't want those toxins to build up. All right, get good quality sleep. Very important, right? So what do you need to do to get good quality sleep besides, you know, being comfortable? Don't eat too close to bedtime.

Don't drink too much alcohol. Don't drink coffee at the very end of the evening. All of these things interfere with good sleep. Good sleep is required for the glymphatic system to drain toxins out of your brain. That's what's needed to be done. All right, now what about having good blood flow? Well,

Well, look, something very simple. It's never too late to stop smoking if you're smoking. It's never too late to stop drinking heavily, which can affect your blood vessels and your circulation as well, as well as directly pickle your brain. Alcohol is a toxin for the brain. Okay. Alcoholic dementia is a real thing. So cutting down or cutting out your drinking could be very, very important part of a lifestyle. And then we talked about the gut.

Gut health pays off throughout our lives for so many things, against autoimmunity, against cancer, against cardiovascular disease. Look, it's never too late to start thinking about your gut to protect your brain. Every neurodegenerative disease known, from Alzheimer's to Parkinson's to ALS, Huntington's disease, autism, you know, all of these brain conditions

have been tied to abnormalities of the gut or dysbiosis, meaning going away from a healthy neighborhood of gut-healthy bacteria. Now, we don't know the exact cause and effect. We don't understand exact mechanisms, but what we are really clear on is that there is a clear-cut connection between the gut and the brain

in terms of these terrible diseases that everybody wants to avoid. So, you know, and by the way, that's then tied to lifestyle and diet. Eat plant-based foods, eat dietary fiber, prebiotics, probiotics, eat fermented foods. Don't eat too much, by the way. Optimizes your metabolism. Don't add added sugar that overwhelm your metabolism. You want to lower inflammation. You want to stay physically active. You want to get good sleep. The old adage of live well to be well

is so true. And what's, I mean, it's always been true, but what's different now, Jonathan, is that we now have the power of science

And Zoe's doing some of it. I mean, I'm amazed when I read the papers that are coming out of Zoe. Oh, thank you. Published in Nature and Nature Medicine. I mean, these are the hard-hitting journals that I publish in, for example. I know how difficult it is to get it published in. This is like relentless, rigorous scientific data. I pay attention to it. And the connections that are being seen between gut health and brain health are incontrovertible. ♪♪

That's it for this week's recap. If you're hearing this, you're already on your way to making smarter food choices with world-leading science. Speaking of making smarter food choices, Zoe membership helps you to do just that with scientific solutions that let you listen to your gut. Listening to your gut starts with an at-home test kit that helps you understand your body's responses to food and the good and bad microbes in your gut. Then Zoe's app helps you build life-changing nutrition habits step by step.

Become a Zoe member today and give your gut the love it deserves. The first step is easy. Go to Zoe.com and use the code podcast to get 10% off. As a Zoe member, you'll get a comprehensive at-home test kit and personalized nutrition program. So go to Zoe.com and get 10% off with code podcast.