Episode 60 Diet and Lifestyle to Support Brain Health

In 2023, it was estimated that there were 411,100  Australians living with dementia. Based on estimates, this is equivalent to 15 people with dementia per 1,000 Australians, which increases to 84 people with dementia per 1,000 Australians aged 65 and over. *

As a 52 year old who lives with brain damage causes by some small strokes in my 20s, brain health is really important to me. Based on the statistics for people living with dementia, I encourage you to focus on your brain health too.

This episode focuses on diet and lifestyle choices that reduce inflammation in the brain and support brain health and cognitive function overall.

References:

*Australian Institute of Health and Welfare estimate (AIHW)

The main study I reference in this episode is discussed in this blog post: https://informedhealth.com.au/combine-these-six-healthy-lifestyle-choices-to-slow-memory-decline

Learn more about booking a nutrition consultation with Fiona: https://informedhealth.com.au/

Learn more about Fiona's speaking and media services: https://fionakane.com.au/

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Credit for the music used in this podcast:

The Beat of Nature

Music by Olexy from Pixabay

Transcript

Fiona Kane: 0:32

Hello and welcome to the Wellness Connection Podcast with Fiona Kane. I'm your host, Fiona Kane, and today I'm going to be talking to you about something that's a big interest to me, which is brain health. So, for those of you who don't know or haven't listened to other episodes, I had a couple of strokes a couple of small strokes when I was in my 20s, so nearly 30 years ago, and I'm partially blind because of that, and I have some other issues as well that I don't always talk about. But anyway, I do have permanent brain damage from those strokes. And in the last few years I went back and had some more scans and there was one stage where I wasn't sure if I kind of had some active inflammation happening in my brain, some active damage happening. The reason is that what happens is MRI scans have improved so much now that if I have a scan now and they compare it to my scans from 30 years ago, you can see a lot more. So it was really hard on the scans to see wow, okay, so is there something new happening or is this just a really better picture of what happened in the past? And so for me, I had about 12 months where we had to sort of just wait and re-scan, where I was quite concerned about what might have been happening with my brain. So I started thinking about brain health even more. And then of course, I'm 52, I'll be 53 next month, so I'm also just aware of, in general, brain health, memory and all of those things. So I wanted to talk to you about brain health and there's a few things I will have to refer to, a few written things. So sorry for those who are watching if I'll be reading a little bit. Few things I will have to refer to a few written things. So sorry for those who are watching if I'll be reading a little bit, but I just want to make sure I include these bits and pieces.

Fiona Kane: 2:22

Now, this information about brain health. Look, it's a general me putting together the things that I've learned and the things that I know. It's by no means the most comprehensive list and this isn't instead of anything that you talk to your doctor about. I'm just generally talking about lifestyle factors that will affect brain health. So I might just begin by referring to a study. I put this on my blog at informedhealthcomau. I put this on my blog. I think it was last year.

Fiona Kane: 2:52

So there was a study published in the British Medical Journal in January 2023. And they found that eating well, regular exercise, playing cards and socializing at least twice a week may help slow the rate of memory decline and reduce the risk of dementia. Researchers analyzed 29,000 adults over the age of 60 with normal cognitive function who were part of this China Cognition and Aging Study. So what they did is they measured things like they looked at, let me see, people were checked for risk factors for Alzheimer's disease, as in genes, the ApoE gene in particular. They were also monitored for 10 years with periodic assessment just to check their cognitive levels, and what they actually found was there were six factors that they said contributed to these people having better cognitive activity, better memory, and the factors were. I mentioned some of them before, but they were healthy diet, regular exercise, active social contact, cognitive activity so using your brain for some sort of activity and then non-smoking and not drinking alcohol. So all of those things were the factors. Now, they said, after accounting for factors likely to affect their results, they found that each individual healthy behavior was associated with a slower than average decline in memory over 10 years, with a slower than average decline in memory over 10 years, a healthy diet had the strongest effect on slowing memory decline, followed by cognitive activity and then physical exercise. Overall, people with four to six healthy behaviors, or two to three, were almost 90% and 30% respectively less likely to develop dementia or mild cognitive impairment compared to those who had the least of these healthy habits. So that is huge. That's a very big study and essentially it's showing that if you have all six well, I think it wasn't even all six, it was four to six of those behaviors 90% reduced chance of having those cognitive changes happen over time.

Fiona Kane: 5:22

So it is worth exploring this and exploring nutrition in regards to brain function and also, as I mentioned there in the study. So they were talking about cognitive function, using your cognition, so anything that's using your brain. So it could be word games or it could be maths games, crossword puzzles, it could be work, it could be the work that you do. It might be reading books, that sort of thing, but anything that's kind of actively using your brain. And they also talked about connection and being sort of I think there was like social outings twice a week or something like that was in there and we can't underestimate that. I say this over and over again, but when I'm talking about studies, so we know that the diet that is most popular in studies is the Mediterranean diet, is the most studied diet and it's the one that we talk about the most. And I always say besides the diet itself and I'll talk about the nutrition in the moment but besides the diet itself.

Fiona Kane: 6:23

If you think about when they did these Mediterranean diet studies, a lot of them were done in the 50s. They were done in Pioppi in Italy, and if you look at the sort of places and even the places where they have other longevity studies, what do they have in common besides diet? What they have in common is they work pretty much until they die, or even if they're not working in a job, job they're working on the family farm. So they are very fit. Some of those Greek islands and Italian islands and things like that, they're walking up and down hills and up and down stairs and they're servicing the olive trees or in China they're dealing with the rice paddies. Whatever they're doing, but these people are very physically active right up until they die. They are very much involved in their community. So they're either acquired in a workplace or they're an elder in their community or they somehow they've got a big part. They're a strong matriarch or patriarch of their family. But these people are very much connected to their community or they might be going out playing cards or doing Qigong or doing something active those towns where the people are out playing games in the town centers and things right. So that's something that they all have in common. So they're moving their body, they've got their mind engaged and they're also connected to the community and involved in the community all of those things. So we can't underestimate how important that is.

Fiona Kane: 7:53

Even in the, there's a longest longevity study done, and it was at Harvard. I think it might still be continuing. I wrote about this on my website once as well. I can't remember all of the details, but what I do know is I followed a bunch of people and they've been following them for 80 years or some really really long time and what they found because they thought they were going to find the most important thing for longevity was your cholesterol number. It so was not your cholesterol number. What it was, it was connection. It was someone having your back and it was good relationships. So that's what they found, and it wasn't just longevity, it was also cognitive function. So people in healthy, happy relationships were more likely to sort of keep their marbles to an older age, whereas people who were in combative relationships or didn't feel safe in their relationships were more likely to lose that cognitive function and lose their memory. So I just can't emphasize enough how much all of those lifestyle related connection being involved in community, all of those things are so very, very important when it comes to brain function and cognitive function.

Fiona Kane: 8:59

The other thing that's really really important to note now, going back over to nutrition but actually other factors as well, is metabolic function. So metabolic function is related to things. When I talk about that I'm talking about things like blood pressure and diabetes and cholesterol, as it relates to those other things and those kind of heart function factors, because the metabolic and weight wouldn't be involved in that as well, particularly your waist size. So essentially those metabolic markers also will drive dementia. So there's kind of two main. I don't have it in front of me, but let's just I'm pretty sure there's two main kinds of dementia.

Fiona Kane: 9:42

So there's Alzheimer's, which is a particular disease, but then there's just generally dementia, and dementia usually relates to if it's not Alzheimer's, it usually relates to metabolic syndrome, metabolic issues. So it's kind of what happens over time is people have lots of little strokes and every time they get that brain damage a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more. And so that's a very, very common form of dementia that people have, where they might not specifically have Alzheimer's, but they or Alzheimer's, is that how you say it but they do have these regular little injuries that happen to their brain that, over time, will start to drive dementia. And so when we think about dementia or when we think about brain function, what we have to consider is our metabolic syndrome risks. So we certainly do have to look at and please go back and look at some of my previous episodes as well but we need to look at things like metabolic function, so things that will affect our weight, things that will affect our blood glucose, our blood cholesterol and our blood pressure, and it is really, really important to eat in a way that is supportive of your healthy metabolic function. So if because if you're reducing that heart risk, you're reducing that brain risk, the thing they go together.

Fiona Kane: 11:00

We need our heart to be functioning well, to push the blood around our body so that we can get oxygen up to our brain right and all of the nutrients up to our brain. So when you've got great circulation, what's happening is not only are you getting the oxygen to your brain and other nutrients, but you're also able to. It's an exchange system with your circulation system, so it removes things from areas and sort of it's like a detoxification or, you know, like almost a rubbish removal or is a rubbish removal, so it will add things and take things away, and so essentially your circulatory system is doing that. So all of that circulation going around in your body, your blood, your lymph and your blood vessels and your capillaries, and all of that, it's a whole system of getting nutrition to all the right places, getting oxygen to the right places and removing stuff that doesn't need to be there right. So that requires good cardiovascular function, because you need your heart to be working properly and you need all of those arteries and capillaries and things to all be functioning well. So to do that, you need to have good metabolic function, because once you start having problems with diabetes, blood sugar issues, insulin resistance, then what will happen is you will start having problems with arteries and circulation and all of those things, and then that's what will drive the brain function issues.

Fiona Kane: 12:23

So what we do know is that dementia can, and sometimes is, being referred to as type 3 diabetes. I think they might be calling it I can't remember if that's for sure, but anyway, a type of diabetes essentially is just saying that the blood sugar regulation issue is damaging the brain. So that's a simple way of saying it, even if I didn't get the actual wording right. So we do need to look at balancing our blood sugar levels and eating well to do that and, as I've said many, many times before, we need to eat protein for that. So protein with every meal. So much of our body is made from protein, including the neurotransmitters in your brain, the ones that make you feel happy or sleep, all of those things. So what we need to do is we need to eat protein, and the protein also will balance your blood glucose levels. So, whether it be eggs or meat or some vegetarian, proteins are fine as well, but in my opinion, animal proteins are the best. May also include cheese for some people, and milk and those sort of dairy foods if they sit well in your body. Essentially, when we're having the proteins balancing your blood sugar levels and the nutrients that you need to make so many things in your body, including the neurotransmitters in your brain.

Fiona Kane: 13:39

But then next we need to look at how much sugar we're having in our diet and that's where people really come undone, because it's these really really high sugar diets that will damage or cause all of the metabolic syndrome stuff. So the diabetes, insulin resistance, the heart disease and the big waste area, and the metabolic syndrome also includes fatty liver disease. I didn't mention that before and fatty liver disease used to be a disease known as like an alcoholic fatty liver disease, but now it's known more. What we see more is non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and that is being caused by high sugar in our diets. So too much sugar in a diet or too much alcohol in your diet will also drive that metabolic syndrome. And you saw, like that study that I was talking about before was talking about alcohol and it really can have a detrimental effect on the brain.

Fiona Kane: 14:24

Now there's antioxidants in things like red wine, so you might argue that something like resveratrol, which is an antioxidant in red wine, is good for the brain. Alcohol is bad for the liver, potentially bad for the brain, I don't know. It's probably one of those things that depends on your overall health what the rest of your diet looks like and maybe a small amount because certainly again, mediterranean studies and all of that they were drinking things like red wine. So I think in its place, in small amounts and is part of an overall healthy diet, that something like red wine might work really well for some people, not so much for others. It does not work well for me. I can't drink alcohol. It makes me very sick and I'm quite reactive to grapes, so not a good idea for me but maybe a great idea for some other people.

Fiona Kane: 15:13

So also with nutrition, as I always say, it just kind of comes back to what works for you. It's not necessarily as simple as everyone should do this or everyone shouldn't do that Excuse me, I'm just going to have a sip of water. And so, with nutrition and brain health, the other thing we need to consider is good, healthy fats. So we're limiting those poor quality fats which are the sort of things that come in junk foods and packaged foods and those kind of cheap vegetable oils and things like that that you get on the supermarket shelf. So, whether it's canola oil or cottonseed oils, those oils that are in kind of, they're usually in clear plastic containers and they're usually quite cheap and they're reheated a lot. Those kinds of oils are very bad for you and very bad for your circulation and quite inflammatory. And what we want to stick with is our olive oil and, of course, our fish oils all of our oily, like oily fish that kind of thing. So you know your sardines and your salmon and that kind of thing. So plenty of oily fish, that kind of thing. So your sardines and your salmon and that kind of thing. So plenty of oily fish.

Fiona Kane: 16:19

Also, things like the yolk in eggs, that beautiful oil in there that has choline in there, and choline is a really important nutrient for brain health as well. So it's really great to have something like your egg yolks that have choline in them. There's also choline in I was just double checking here because I just dropped out of my brain basically I forgot. But it is in some other foods as well. Here we go. So broccoli, okay, so broccoli also has choline. I knew I'd seen it listed in another food here it's more than one food has choline in it, but choline is a really important nutrient for brain health. So the other and actually that's one of the reasons why it's added essential fatty acids like fish oils and choline very, very recommended for women who are trying to get pregnant. So preconception and also during pregnancy and afterwards, because essentially they're really really important part of building a healthy brain in the child. So that whole spinal cord and brain requires the choline and there's that sort of good fats and those good fats, so they're building blocks for brain, but they're also reducing inflammation in the brain as well, or reducing inflammation in the body. So they have quite a few different effects I'm just going to refer to. I've just got a list here of a few other kinds of foods.

Fiona Kane: 18:00

But before I do that, just in case I forget, I think it's already obvious and I think when I mentioned it in the study at the beginning where I was talking about those six healthy habits, exercise is part of this, right? Because, if you want, I talked about circulation. Well, what helps with circulation, moving your body? Right? Because, if you want that, I talked about circulation. Well, what helps with circulation? Moving your body right, and not only that, but moving your body. There's a whole bunch of factors associated with it, right? So we do know that when we move our bodies on a regular basis, that we do it is anti-inflammatory, it helps with our circulation. It helps with all of those feel good hormones. It helps you feel good, feel good about yourself, feel strong. So it helps us psychologically and physically. So we do know that that is a big part of this, and there are separate studies that just talk about exercise and dementia. So we cannot underestimate how important that is. We need to keep those nutrients moving around and we need to be using our body, our muscle and be. Our muscle and our bones need to be used, and just like our brain does, and they all work together.

Fiona Kane: 19:02

It's funny because sometimes we're encouraged to think of our bodies as can. We think of our bodies or think of our bodies as being separate. Things Like what's good for the heart is not the same thing that's good for the brain, or it's not the same thing that's good for the brain, or it's not the same thing that's good for arthritis or whatever. And, generally speaking, it's all the same thing that's good because it's all connected. I just got that song going through my head but I won't sing it. You know the knee bone is connected to the thigh bone. The thigh bone is connected to. You know that song.

Fiona Kane: 19:34

It's funny because we think of all these things as being separate and sometimes we talk about a healthy heart diet but then we say, oh, you know you can't have eggs because they've got cholesterol. But all the cholesterol is really good for your brain but it's really bad for your heart. No, it's not really bad for your heart, it's really good for your brain and your heart, the cholesterol that's in eggs. So you know you can't have a diet that's really anti-inflammatory and really good for your cardiovascular system, your heart, but really bad for your brain. It just doesn't work that way. Right, your body is all connected. So, generally, what's right for one is right for the other and actually the other thing. Before I just keep going with foods, I will probably explore a little bit more, depending on how I go for time.

Fiona Kane: 20:12

But gut health I know I talk about gut health health a lot, but this is again another time to talk about it because if you've got inflammation and we know that inflammation will, you know inflammation in the gut will drive inflammation throughout the body, including in the brain. We know. I think kelly brogan's book, I think, was called a mind of your own and she's a psychiatrist I think was talking about things like depression and anxiety and she talked a lot about how inflammation in the brain was the driver, and so it's looking at all of the things that cause the inflammation, and everything I've been talking about today are all things that contribute towards reducing that inflammation. So the exercise, the connection, the using your brain, your cognitive function stuff, all of the foods that we've been talking about, the essential fats, that sort of thing. So really we have to understand that our gut and our brain are very much connected.

Fiona Kane: 21:10

I've got over there. I've got brain and heart next to each other and irritable bowel. For those of you who sorry if you're listening to this, but I'm just pointing them out because I've got them sitting behind me the awkward yeti has great characters for this, but they are. Your gut and brain are very much connected and I've had clients before where they've said to me that when they have gluten they feel suicidal. I mean, that's quite severe, but that can be true for some people. I know when I have it it kind of puts me to sleep, makes me a bit sleepy, makes me feel a bit down. So that's sort of a mild version for me.

Fiona Kane: 21:44

So food and inflammation and leaky gut and if you're eating in a way that's not working for you. If you notice the way you eat affects your mood, affects your energy, then it's worth exploring that with someone like me and looking at what's going on with that and why that's happening, because you might be having a healthy diet but it might not be healthy for you if there's any issues with your gut and the bacteria in your gut. We do know they're very much involved in this your microbiome and your microbiome, those bacteria in your gut. We do know they're very much involved in this. Your microbiome and your microbiome, those bacteria in your gut. They make things. So they help make things like vitamins and things that drive energy and that sort of thing. So it's really really important to know that your bacteria is making things and whether or not it makes things that are beneficial, or whether or not it makes things that cause inflammation and pain and health problems, or whether or not it makes things that cause inflammation and pain and health problems depends on what you're feeding it and the whole the condition of that gut bacteria itself. So it's just really important to understand that all of these things are connected. So it is important to explore and look at the gut issues in relation to the brain issues. So to keep a healthy brain, we need to keep a healthy gut.

Fiona Kane: 22:53

Like I said, everything's connected and one of the other things that was in that list was stress management and, again, all of these things will support that. But there might be specific stress management strategies that you have. So, whether it's breathing strategies, meditation, music or just hanging out with friends, that kind of thing, but it is important to manage our stress the best we can. So I'm just going to mention a few more foods before I wind up. Like I said, this isn't going to be a absolute list of everything, but it's just a bit of some of the foods.

Fiona Kane: 23:28

The other food I'm thinking of straight away is avocados. Avocados have got lots of good fats. They've also got fiber and that fiber will actually do it. The fats and the fiber in it will help keep your blood sugar levels quite stable. This is a really good tip. If you have diabetes or insulin resistance. Adding avocado to your meals really helps balance things out, depending, of course, on what else you're having, but it really does help keep your blood sugar levels quite stable and stops you having those big spikes. So that's also from that point of view, that's good, because we know the metabolic health and the spikes in blood sugar are not good for the brain. But also those nutrients are just really good in general as anti-inflammatory, and there's just so many lovely nutrients in avocados Things like vitamin E, so avocado is a great choice.

Fiona Kane: 24:13

Things like chia seeds Chia seeds have omega-3s as well, so they can be added to smoothies or they can. Vegans will often use them as an egg substitute. You can make chia eggs and you can also just sprinkle them on your breakfast cereal that kind of thing. I don't necessarily recommend breakfast cereal for a healthy brain, but if your breakfast cereal was something more of like a paleo style, where it's kind of nuts and seeds with a little bit of oats or something and some berries or something, that's good. If your breakfast cereal is cornflakes, eh no, not a good idea. So if your breakfast cereal is nice and balanced with fats and nuts and seeds, then it can be good for some people. Some people do well with that. Other foods I mentioned here are things I mentioned before the broccoli. So the broccoli has choline, it's got vitamin K and so they're really important for things like. Like I said, the choline is important for those neurotransmitters in your brain. Broccoli is also a great source of fiber and essentially it's going to be feeding your microbiome.

Fiona Kane: 25:20

There's other nutrients in there as well. There's nutrients, different nutrients, in all of these. Things like nuts and seeds I mentioned before about the chia seeds, but also things like nuts and seeds I mentioned before about the chia seeds but also things like walnuts have a really lovely level of omega-3. So when I have a salad I will put things like pepitas and sunflower seeds, and you could do chia or you could do I do. I'll often crush up some walnuts and put them through a salad, and I often put through a salad. I'll put through some. I might have like the salad, might be like a chicken salad or a salmon salad, but I might put an egg in there as well. You know, I might put some olive oil in there. Quite possibly we'll put all of those things plus some avocado, so that when I'm making my salad I'm kind of looking at all of those nutrients. So it's a great way just to get loads and loads of wonderful nutrients to support a healthy brain.

Fiona Kane: 26:15

So I've just given you lots of ideas there about different foods that can help support a healthy brain. Essentially, if you're focusing on metabolic function, which is what I talk about all the time in regards to having a balance of protein, loads of colorful veggies, a little bit of fruit and the best fruit for this is things like berries, with all of those lovely nutrients in your berries and on that note too, I was talking about the red wine before you also get the same nutrients in those red colored berries. So the red and purple berries, so you don't have to have wine for that, so I can still get those nutrients even though wine's not on the menu for me. Essentially, healthy fats, protein and lots of different color vegetables, a little bit of fruit like I said, purple, red fruits, et cetera, and things like nuts and seeds and olive oils, that kind of thing. If you're including those things in your diet, then you're getting plenty of brain food.

Fiona Kane: 27:11

Looking at being connected in your community in some way, whether that's going to work or volunteering or going to visit your local cafe on a regular basis, going for walks with these different groups that walk around I'm in Sydney. I know there's different walking groups here, so look for those in your area, whatever it is but regularly moving your body, regularly using your brain, eating well, connecting with the community, all of those things stress management, and the other thing actually that I haven't mentioned that is an important part of this is sleep. So essentially, it's all of the pillars of health. They're all the pillars of good health, right? So, surprise, surprise, all the pillars of good health are all pillars for looking after your brain health. So I will leave it at that today, but I would ask you again if you could please like, subscribe, share I think it might be follow now instead of subscribe. It depends where you are, but I really do appreciate your support. I hope you have a great week and I will talk to you again next week. Thanks, bye.