My Evidence-Based Braincare Routine

Junk food, binge drinking, mindless scrolling. Do you ever wonder what it's doing to your brain? For some reason, we remember to look after our skin, our appearance and our fitness, but we never think to look after the thing that we actually rely on most, the thing that makes us human. So I've been diving into the science of brain health for a while now, to build the ultimate brain care routine. Because firstly, I want to minimize the risk of cognitive decline as I age. Our brain is our single biggest asset. And so for me, I want to improve my own focus and reduce brain fog and just generally increase my mental performance. But even as a former doctor who's literally studied this stuff for years, it can still get pretty confusing with all the different evidence, supplements and everything else that's out there So after going through a ton of research from papers and books and podcasts, I've kind of realized that there are five key areas that we need to focus on if we want to optimize our brain performance today, but also our brain health in the long term and the short term. Part one, the fuel. Now, as with lots of self-help advice, there is usually an old Greek dude who said it first 1,000 years ago. One of the great scientists of the Middle Ages, Maimonides, said, no disease that can be treated by diet should be treated with any other means. And our brains are no different because what we eat makes a huge difference to our brain health and performance. And even though the brain is only 2% of our body weight, it actually uses up and consumes around 20% of our total energy expenditure. Now, through what's known as the gut-brain axis, our brain and our gut are closely connected and they're in constant communication. And I recently interviewed one of the UK's leading dietitians on gut health, If you wanna learn more about that, that'll be linked down below. But the moral of the story is that taking care of our brain really begins with paying more attention to what we feed it. Now, back in the day, I used to eat really terribly, especially as a student and a junior doctor, where I didn't really have the time or the motivation to cook for myself. And I couldn't afford to have healthy takeout meals all the time. And this is actually largely known as the, quote, Western diet. Now, the Western diet is low in fruits and vegetables and very high in saturated fat and sugar and salt. And it's basically poison for our brain. And on top of increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease and obesity, there are studies that show that the Western diet leads to decreased cognitive function. brain damage and can even contribute to neurodegenerative conditions like dementia. So taking a look at my dietary intake was the obvious starting point when building a brain care routine. This meant putting an end to the burgers and the soft drinks and the other tasty stuff and transitioning to what is known as the Mediterranean diet as much as I can. Now, the Mediterranean diet is unsurprisingly inspired by the food habits of people who live in and around the Mediterranean. And actually, when researchers have looked at the so-called blue zones, which are the areas in the world that have the highest proportion of centenarians, i.e. people over the age of 100, and then they analyze what they're doing in terms of their diet and their activity They find that broadly, all of these people are basically following a Mediterranean diet. And the Mediterranean diet consists of a lot of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts, fish, olive oil, beans, lentils, tofu, chickpeas, eggs, oatmeal, avocados, and other generally plant-based foods. And in complete contrast to the Western diet, the Mediterranean diet has actually been linked to a host of health benefits, including reducing the risk of diabetes and cancer. But the cognitive benefits are what make the Mediterranean diet the ultimate brain care fuel. And following the Mediterranean diet is associated with better memory, Lower risk of neurodegenerative conditions and improved cognitive function all around. It's kind of like premium oil for your brain, which improves your brain performance in the short term and it fights off cognitive decline, hopefully in the long term as well. And initially when I discovered this Mediterranean diet stuff, I was like, hey, cool, I'm gonna make a list of all these foods and gonna make sure I eat all the foods. But broadly, we all know what healthy eating is. We all know what eating like an adult actually is. And so the simplest heuristic that I found when I go to a restaurant or when I order takeaway is just, do I in my heart of hearts know that this thing is broadly healthy? If the answer is yes, I'll order it. And if the answer is no, then I will... Broadly try around 80, 90% of the time to not order that thing and go for a healthier option instead. Now, this is a bit anecdotal, but I found that, for example, for lunch, I've noticed a significant difference in the way that I feel when I eat something that's broadly Mediterranean versus something that's Western. So sometimes, for example, for lunch, I'd be like, you know what? I'm gonna have a bender. I'm gonna go for a burger and chips. And then I have this like brain fog and tiredness for the rest of the afternoon. Whereas if I go for something like a chicken or a fish salad, then generally I'll just feel way better throughout the day. Now, when it comes to diet, a lot of people have questions around supplements. In the US in particular, Supplements are an absolutely huge industry. And the general idea behind supplements is that, yes, of course, it is better to get everything from your normal diet. But if we look at studies in the UK, for example, they show that like 99.9% of people do not follow the gold standard Mediterranean diet. And I know I certainly don't 100% of the time, which is why I personally take some supplements in my life. And the evidence-based one that I recommend is in fact Heights, who are very kindly sponsoring this video. Now Heights is a fully evidence-based brain care smart supplement. It's two capsules that you take every morning. And in those two capsules is a ton of micronutrients like vitamins and minerals that are associated with improved brain function, but also a few more things that you might not be familiar with, like blueberry extract, and it's got some algae-based omega-3 oil in it as well, which again, has loads of evidence. Now, I've been taking Heights for over two years now. I've interviewed a bunch of their team, the scientists behind them, on my podcast, and what I love about them is that they're so evidence-based in everything they do. Like on their website, they literally have an article for every single ingredient that's in the smart supplement, and it tells you exactly what the evidence base is, it tells you how strong the evidence base for that particular recommendation is, and it explains and justifies why they've picked the particular dose. of micronutrient that they've got in the Smart Supplement. And for the last few months, I've also been taking their Smart Probiotic, which is for gut health. And again, on the website, they've got tons and tons of evidence and papers and links and everything. They've got experts behind it around like why this is actually a really good thing to take. And if you decide you wanna sign up and you use the coupon code at checkout, then you will get an extra 15% off the already discounted quarterly subscription. Anyway, if you're interested in potentially trying out a Smart Supplement or Smart Probiotic, or if you just wanna see the evidence-based behind it, then check out the link in the video description. And thank you so much, Heights, for sponsoring this video. And let's move on. Part two, the body. So we've cleaned up our diet at this point and now we need to get our brain and our body working together. And it's really all about movement. And we usually think of our mind and body as separate, but they actually affect each other quite a lot. Studies have shown that physical activity strongly affects your cognitive function. So taking charge of our bodies can help our brains operate better. Now the science of the effects of physical exercise and brain health are actually pretty well understood, but in short, physical exercise literally changes the neuronal connectivity of your mind. And this happens through a protein that's produced in the brain called BDNF, Brain-derived neurotrophic factor. This little molecule is active in the key areas of the brain, which are involved in learning, memory, and higher thinking. And BDNF also modulates some of the pathways in the brain that regulate the structure and the function of the neurons themselves. Now, what a bunch of studies have found is that physical activity increases the production of BDNF, which is probably why physical activity has been found to improve cognitive function and memory acquisition and retention and learning. Now, the amount of BDNF produced is actually a function of the volume of physical activity. And this is the maths equation that works this out. Essentially, the exercise volume is a function of the intensity of exercise. exercise, the duration of exercise, and the frequency of exercise. So all of those things are important for boosting up your BDNF. And there's also some literature that suggests that exercises that include open skills like badminton, where you're sort of reacting and responding to things, increase BDNF more than closed skills like running, where you're kind of repeating the same action over and over again. So if you're thinking of exercise as being like, oh, I've got to go for a two hour run, No, you don't necessarily need to do that. You actually can just play football or badminton or do whatever sports or basically do anything that moves your body that gets you this exercise volume. And so for me, what this looks like is that firstly, I try and lift weights about three times a week. And I do that with a health coach called Dan. I'll link him down below if you wanna check him out. And then on top of that, I've recently started taking kickboxing lessons, which I do a couple of times a week. And on top of that, I'll have the occasional game of squash or badminton with a friend. And I'll try my best to get that magical 10,000 steps in every day. We just need to incorporate more movement into our lives because it's good for our body and it's also good for our brain. Part three, sleep. So we spend a third of our life sleeping and so optimizing this time is key if you want to make the most of the other two thirds of your life. We all know that being constantly tired isn't great for you and in general just sucks, but how bad really is it? Well, it turns out that chronic sleep loss puts you at an increased risk of hypertension and diabetes and obesity and stroke, which are all pretty bad. And there's even suggestion from studies in mice that prolonged sleep loss can lead to brain damage. Now all this to say that sleep is super important for your brain and your body, which as we've already talked about are closely connected. And over the last couple of years, I've interviewed so many sleep experts on my podcast and listened to a bunch books around sleep and they all basically agree that sleep is the single best high performance drug that we've got. And if you're interested in learning more about how to build an evidence-based sleep routine, I have done a video where I compile all the evidence and that will be linked down below and up there as well. Part four, exercising the mind. All right, the next part of the framework is one that can really make a difference in your brain health, especially as we get older. And just like we can train our body, we can actually train our brain as well. And challenging your mind is actually one of the most important ways that you can keep your brain healthy in the long term. Now, it's pretty amazing how the brain can reorganize and regenerate itself even in adulthood. And it does this through a process known as neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is the ability of neuronal networks in the brain to change through the development and organization of neural circuits. Basically, to cut a long story short, your brain can rewire itself. And this can really make a difference. in brain health, especially in later years. And the way we activate neuroplasticity in our brains at any age is by challenging ourselves in a few different ways. Now, there've been lots of studies that have looked at the effects of cognitive brain games, musical training, and language learning on the brain. And these have broadly found that all of these things lead to improved attention, memory, brain connectivity, and processing speed. And there's even a really interesting study that looked at adults across 14 years, and it found that the adults that even read just once a week had a reduced risk of cognitive decline as they aged. There's also evidence suggesting that continually educating yourself, Whether it's in the classroom or self-taught can lower your risk of dementia and cognitive deterioration. Now obviously, feel free to choose whatever works for you, but generally we wanna be making it a priority to have some sort of daily routine or passion project or a hobby that can challenge our brain. Now for me personally, I try to make time for reading on my Kindle for about half an hour before bed every night, and generally when I'm on the toilet and I'm not replying to comments on social media, generally I am reading something. And actually one of my favorite ways of reading is an app called Shortform, I'll put that down below. It's basically the best book summaries in the world. And so if I'm curious about a book, but I don't necessarily wanna devote all the time to reading it, I'll just blitz through the short form summary. And then if I like it, then I will buy the book and then read it properly. Part five, lifestyle. Now, most of this framework is built on morning routines and diets and habits that are supposed to improve our health and performance. But it's not uncommon for the greatest gains in our brain health to actually come from just avoiding negative things. In Latin, they call this via negativa or the negative way, which basically means removing negatives from your life instead of looking for more positives. Now, alcohol is one of those things that's so pervasive, especially in Western society, but no one questions the effects it has on the brain. But for example, in this nationwide French study with over 31 million adults, almost 40% of early onset dementia cases were alcohol related. have only one or two drinks a day can show negative effects on brain structure. So when it comes to drinking, the best amount of alcohol is no alcohol at all. But if you're set on drinking, you can avoid most alcohol related consequences with maximum one or two drinks per week. And yes, there is some amount of evidence around red wine being good for you. And actually in fairness, a lot of these blue zone areas do seem to drink quite a lot of red wine, but that's complicated. The evidence for this keeps on changing and people keep on coming up with new conclusions and stuff. So we're not gonna touch that. Generally, it's safe to just not drink too much alcohol. Now, another element of our daily life that interestingly has a big impact on our brain health is actually our social life. Like we humans are social animals and our brains can suffer when we are socially detached and being socially connected, especially in our later years can actually reduce our risk of dementia and cognitive decline. So for me, I try not to get too caught up with work because it's such an easy thing to just default to all the time. And I try my best to at least make time in the evenings for date nights with the girlfriend or like hanging out with my family or like having friends over for dinner. It's like, you know, the whole social connection stuff generally. Relationships are the single most important thing in life. And we want to make sure we are spending our time with the people that we love and having experiences that are Meaningful and fulfilling. So those are broadly the five big areas of evidence-based strategies when it comes to brain care. And if you enjoyed this video and you wanna learn more for evidence-based strategies to improve your health and happiness and stuff, then check out this short playlist over here, which has my evidence-based sleep routine and my evidence-based skincare routine. So thank you so much for watching and I'll see you hopefully in the next video. Bye-bye.