Regrow Your Hippocampus: The Science of an Invincible Brain | Dr. Majid Fotuhi – EP 764

28:36Sleep is important because during deep sleep, your brain goes to a natural rinsing and cleaning process. It's called the glymphatic system. During the sleep, the fluid in the brain called CSF, which usually lives around the blood vessels like a sleeve around blood vessels gets pushed with each pulse of the heart and the brain it's beautiful how it's designed i'm fascinated how it works the pulsing of the heart causes a vibration of the arteries inside the brain and with each pulse the fluid that lives around them like a sleeve around the blood vessel it gets pushed into the brain milieu brain environment and then on the venous side, the fluid which rinses the brain and collects any junk or trash, things like the metabolic byproducts of chemical reactions that need to be cleared, or things like amyloid, which is a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease, gets cleared, gets rinsed with each pulse, and gets collected in the sleeve around the vein, and then it goes to the top of the brain and gets cleared through what's called spherous as the sinus and the lymphatic system, you get out of the brain.

29:51So with each pulse, your brain gets clean. And for some reason, this happens better and more effectively during sleep than during the day. When you don't get enough sleep, you are preventing this rinsing process. You're preventing the garbage collection that happens in your brain throughout the night. And imagine if was no garbage collection in New York for a month. Just imagine what an ugly environment situation would be because dirt that doesn't get collected actually affects the neurons. And so it's extremely important to sleep seven to eight hours a night because you need to have that process to happen in order for your brain to remain fresh and vibrant.

30:39When you don't get enough sleep all the junk accumulates it affects brain cells the brain cells can't function when it's dirty around them but they can't function when there's too much magnesium calcium all the different enzymes they need to be cleared neurons are very fragile are very delicate and so when the garbage accumulates around them they can't function anymore and how do you know they can't function you feel like a brain fog you feel like you're not quite sharp and many people actually feel better when you have a good night's sleep, feel much better than if you have not had a good night's sleep.

31:13I mean, even from your own perspective, you can tell that you feel better if you had a good night's sleep. When these things happen for a year or two, your brain can recover and things get back to normal. But when you have had insomnia, which means sleeping fewer than six hours a night for 20 or 25 years, the size of the hippocampus, which is the part of your brain from memory is reduced to almost half its original size and that's a major risk for stroke and for Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's disease happens when this part of brain called hippocampus shrinks. Hippocampus is the size of your thumb, you have one on the right one on the left and this is the ground zero for learning a memory.

31:57When the hippocampus shrinks your memory worsens and when people have had insomnia for two decades the hippocampus is almost half its original size and their memory and learning ability is half the traditional capacity. And I wanted to just ask a follow-on question about this. I had a guest on the show a couple months ago who was saying that there was some new scientific evidence that the amyloid plaque isn't the issue, but the issue was more related to vagus nerve stimulation or distimulation. Have you seen any correlation to vagus nerve functioning related to this memory loss? Yes. Your guess was right in that the hallmark of Alzheimer's being these proteins that aggregate at the amyloid plaques and tail tangles, which cause inflammation and cause problems.

32:51For a long time, scientists have focused too much on these and not on these other things that cause brain shrinkage, things like diabetes, obesity, anxiety, sedentary lifestyle, all those things, poor blood flow to the brain, all of those things individually can affect the brain and make it shrink in parallel to plaques and tangles that can shrink the brain. And studies that have evaluated eliminating amyloid in the brain, such as the new Alzheimer's drugs, have been minimally effective because amyloid is not the full story. Amyloid is just part of the story. And it makes sense that if you remove amyloid, you won't be curing someone's Alzheimer's disease.

33:37We've now seen that in human studies. What I have done over the years is to work on these treatable components of brain atrophy. And one way to improve brain function is to increase blood flow and reduce cortisol levels. Cortisol is toxic and it gets higher when you have stress and anxiety. So one way to reduce the levels of cortisol and improve the brain function is through activation of the vagus nerve. Now you don't need a vagus nerve stimulation to reach that point. You could do something called HRB biofeedback. feedback. Heart rate variability by feedback is formed by a feedback where you sit down and breathe slowly for 10 to 30 minutes.

34:24You just breathe in with a count of six, hold for a count of three, and breathe down for a count of six. When you do that, you slow down your heart rate. You also increase the variability from beat to beat. See, let's say your heart is beating at 60 per minute. but it's not exactly one per second. One is 1.1 second, the other one's 0.98 second, the other one 0.97, the other one's 1.2. There's a real variability on the time between one heartbeat to the next heartbeat. And that's a natural and a good thing to have. It means that you're sympathetic and parasympathetic are balanced. And then when you breathe in, your heart goes a little faster and you breathe out, your heart is a little slower.

35:11It means that you're in tip-top shape. When somebody is stressed out, this heart rate becomes rigid. The sympathetic system overwrites the parasympathetic system and your heart rates become rigid. It beats exactly at the same time. There's less variability. Now, when you do this slow breathing, you increase heart rate variability, you increase the activity of parasympathetic nervous system, which through your vagus nerve, go to your brain. And it sets a tone in your brain. Your brain literally calms down and the cortisol levels are reduced and the blood flow is improved. So I think that the vagus nerve stimulation through things like heart rate variability are good for the brain, but I wouldn't go as far as if you put a stimulation of your vagus nerve that it can reverse Alzheimer's disease.

36:03Studies have shown that the vagus nerve stimulation can help depression, which is wild in my opinion. You put something that stimulates your vagus nerve, which goes to the brain and somehow improves your mood, which is great. Again, it improves the blood flow to the brain and reduces cortisol, which then makes a person feel better. However, in order to have a healthier brain, you really need to have those five pillars of brain health and not just one. Yes. Thank you for going through that and for explaining that about the vagus nerve, because I think it's an important thing for our listeners to understand.

36:41So I think we should talk about the next pillar and I'm walking through the ones that people experience probably the easiest in their life. So the second one after sleep for me would be your food intake. So what is the number one food most people aren't eating enough of? And why does it matter so much for inflammation and cognition? Fruits and vegetables are extremely important for reducing inflammation in the brain. The standard American diet, unfortunately, is very pro-inflammatory. Studies have shown that people who eat a standard American diet, which is a lot of sandwiches or French fries and sodas, have a smaller brain.

37:23and the worse the diet, the smaller the brain size. And multiple studies have shown that. And it makes sense because, you know, you need to have blood flow to the brain. And when you have these things that increase number of plaques in the arteries, it reduces blood flow to the brain. And there's less blood flow, the brain can't function. Neurons need blood. They need oxygen and nutrients. So the counter to that is eating a Mediterranean diet, and especially fruits and vegetables. Most fruits and vegetables have a whole range of vitamins and minerals that are really good for you, from magnesium to iron to thiocyanides.

38:06There are lots of vitamins, natural vitamins, in fruits and vegetables. I do my best every day. I hardly ever eat any junk food, like maybe once a week. would I indulge in ice cream or have a french fries? If I have french fries, I have just one little piece. I will never sit down and have a whole bag of french fries. I think that people need to be mindful of the role of diet in their brain. Many people don't think that the food they eat affects their brain, but it does. The food they eat affects their heart, their kidney, their guts, their eyes, their skin, and their brain. The junk food that we see in fast food chains is horrible.

38:51It's not food. It's highly processed, mesh of things that have been put together, and then some spices have been added to them to make them taste good. So they may taste good, but in most cases, they have very real nutritional value. Of course, you can always get salad wherever you go, but the things that are advertised on television. Whether it's slots or live dealers, SpinQuest.com has the fun and action you're looking for with SpinQuest exclusives, blackjack, roulette, baccarat, and even live dice with craps and bubble craps. The games never stop, so you don't have to. And right now, new users get$30 coin packs for just$10.

39:37Play now at SpinQuest.com. SpinQuest is a free-to-play social casino. Void where prohibited. Visit SpendQuest.com for more details. It really makes me nauseated just to look at them. When they show that you get these fried chickens and a bag of chips and a big soda for$5, I think, oh my God, don't do that. Don't do that. It's horrible. It's horrible. So Mediterranean diet has extensive data to show to reduce the amyloid levels of amyloid plaques and tau tangles in the brain to make your brain up to 18 years younger. If you eat a Mediterranean diet regularly, it reduces inflammation, improves blood flow.

40:23It's just, it's a big difference. For someone who might be struggling with their diet, are there a few simple food swaps they could implement that could reduce? Yeah. I think you should think of junk food like cigarettes. We used to say people smoke all the time, and now they don't. Most people don't. I think you should look at junk food like smoking. It's really bad for you. So if it's a cookie or a donut or a bag of chips that you know deep in your heart, it's junk food. You don't have to be a nutritionist or dietitian to know junk food from real food. Real food is from farmer fruits, vegetables, things that are fresh.

41:05There's very little processing from where they're produced to when you eat it. Like orange is always an orange. You can't process it as an orange. Or a banana is a banana. So try as much as possible to avoid things that come in boxes and cans. If there's fresh vegetables, you buy frozen vegetables in a package. I think that's okay because still it's real vegetables. It's not processed and gone through several stages until you see it. So realize that the food you eat makes a huge difference in your brain and don't put junk food in your mouth. And fortunately, it's very difficult. I was in a train station in New York and I wanted to get something to eat.

41:48So I just walked around looking at restaurants and what the people eating to see which one to go. I couldn't pick a single restaurant to go to because they all look bad. They all look bad. And it's unfortunate. Like if there is a fare and all the food from hot dogs to hamburgers to funnel cakes, everything they sell is high sugar, high fat. It's you can't find healthy food. And I really feel horrible about that, that we have a system that cheap food dominates and cheap food is cheap because it's made with chemicals. Most of it is not real food. I feel horrible that a bag of grapes, I love grapes, so you want to buy a pound of grapes, $2 a pound.

42:34So a bag of, a two pound bag of grapes is$4 or$5, which is comparable to what you would get for a sandwich, French fries, and a soda. People who don't have financial means maybe thinking like I can get a whole meal that fill me up versus something that can be only a dessert and but unfortunately it is what it is and we just have to be mindful of how important it is to eat healthy and go through the extra pain of finding some food and avoiding junk food when I go abroad and I travel, I usually go to the supermarket, I buy a whole bunch of foods and I buy some real food and I stay in places that are Airbnb and actually cook.

43:26I avoid going to restaurants as much as possible. Unless there's a good restaurant. There are a few restaurants, I know the food is good and I recognize that it's well prepared, it's not too salty. I'm not saying I've never with restaurants, but I will pick the restaurants that I will go to carefully. And the next one I wanted to touch on is you mentioned how you were running and the 80-year-old was keeping up with you and you're seeing more active elder adults who are at the gym. How does our fitness level play into this? Of the five pillars of brain health, I will put exercise as number one.

44:09Exercise increases the number of mitochondria, these energy-producing organelles inside the cells everywhere in our body, in our heart, in our kidneys, in our eyes, our skin, everywhere. It also reduces inflammation and also increases blood flow. It increases levels of protein called BDNF, brain drive neurotrophic factor, which is like a brain fertilizer. And it reduces levels of amyloid plaques in the brain. Studies have shown that people who walk 3 ,000 to 5 ,000 steps have lower levels of these plaques and tangles in the brain. That's incredible. Exercise increases the number of neurons in the hippocampus.

44:51People used to think that you die with as many neurons you were born with or fewer because some of them die. We can't generate new neurons. We now know for a fact with certainty that adult humans are producing new brain cells all the time, and there are things that increase it, such as exercise. So I strongly recommend exercise above all the other five pillars of brain health. Exercise is really the fountain of youth. if you want to have if you want to do one thing and one thing only it would be to exercise about three hours a week and maintain a level of fitness you should be able to go up two flights of stairs like that you should be able to walk three miles like that it shouldn't be a big deal to do these things you should have flexibility in your body whether it's yoga or tai chi or just stretching that you could do by yourself to make sure that your body parts are lubricated and not stiff because as you get older you may be at higher risk of falls when you exercise with weight training you strengthen your muscles and you increase myokines which are proteins from the muscle which go to the brain and have neuroprotective properties so my exercise is a no-brainer there.

46:10My parents are both now in their 80s, and they go to the YMCA four to five times a week, and they're both sharp as a tax. Yes. See, this is what we need to advertise. This is what we need to tell more and more people that if you maintain a level of fitness and have a decent diet and make sure you sleep well, you get your 80s and you enjoy life. It's not just you live longer, you're actually enjoying your 80s because you can play pickleball you can go with hiking with your friends you can go skiing I went skiing in Aspen last year and I was waiting to go and lift a chair and I saw these three ladies and I thought they're you know college students and as it turned I saw them like there were three ladies in their 80s but they were all like thin and all nice ski outfits and giggling.

47:05And I thought, this is the way to do it. You want to get through your 80s and enjoy life. You don't want to be dragging yourself through 80s and die with fear that you have Alzheimer's disease. The problem with telling people that you have Alzheimer's disease or that you're going to get Alzheimer's disease is that when they have memory problems, they say, oh, Alzheimer's is kicking in and they withdraw from social gatherings, from doing things because they feel like I am the beginning of the end. And the less they do, the more their brain shrinks. Your brain is like a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it gets.

47:43I think people need to appreciate that, hey, I can always get better at any age. I can get better in 12 weeks. If I change my habits a little bit. It may take me six months, but the things I have to don't require any equipment, don't require any magical supplements, just normal daily habits can make a huge difference on the trajectory of whether you end up someone sharp or end up someone who's becoming demented. And I know, indeed, one of the things that was a real barrier for me earlier in my career was stress. And so when I went down a different career path, I used to be a senior executive in Fortune 50 companies, and my stress level was, I can't even tell you how high.

48:32That reduction of stress in my life has played such a huge difference, which is why I'm such a big fan of biofeedback and mindfulness practices. But for a listener, why is reducing their stress level so important? When you're stressed out, you increase levels of a hormone called cortisol and a limit of spike in cortisol levels with day-to-day stresses is a part of life. If you're late catching a flight or somebody is really ill in your family, it's okay to be stressed out and have cortisol levels. It is what it is. When you're in a dangerous situation, the high cortisol levels allow you to run faster and breathe faster and deal with emergencies unfortunately some people's careers like the one you had the cortisol levels are made high all the time it's like cortisol goes up and come down and life continues we were talking about sympathetic versus parasympathetic nervous system earlier when you stress out your sympathetic system, the fight or flight system is up and is intended to be up for minutes, maybe a couple hours, not constantly.

49:47People who are in high stress jobs, they're always stressed out. I was in a national television earlier this week and the stress of people walking around, it was just crazy. Just looking at them, trying to get everything. It was live show with Kelly and show and i felt bad looking at these people i was stressing out to make sure this live television go without any glitches the way it's supposed to so bottom line is that these high cortisol levels can kill brain cells cortisol is toxic to the hippocampus and the higher a level of stress you have the more cortisol you have and the more your hippocampus shrinks i know that now and it really takes a lot to make you stressed out a lot of things happen that i used to get stressed out things don't work out you spend a lot of time on an app and then at the end they say sorry we can't do this and you can say what do you mean you can't do this well we can't well you said you could well that person who told you you could made a mistake we can't and you spend so much time doing it and now you have to start from scratch or so many things happen that are really stressful and unfortunately a lot of people have financial stresses which really can be significant however you have to realize your brain is the most important treasure you have and you can't waste it and you can't destroy it with cortisol my younger daughter told me one thing i never forget she is not in college but i have two daughters in college and the younger one when she was like second grade was preparing to read a book and write a little paper about it, the summary of it.

51:34And I remember telling her, sweetie, this book review summary you're supposed to write is due in two days, and you haven't even read the book yet. I just said, Dad, you're stressing me out, and that's not good. I'm here with SpinQuest, where you can play and win from the comfort of your own home with hundreds of slot games and all of the table games you love with real cash prizes right now$30 coin packs are on sale for$10 for new users it's all at spinquest.com that's s-p-i-n-q-u-e-s-t.com spinquest is a free to play social casino void where prohibited visit Visit spinquest.com for more details.

52:16For my hippocampus. So she had come to many of my lectures and had learned about hippocampus, and she just told me something that was true. So I think we should always ask ourselves, is this event, is this deadline, is this situation worth our hippocampus, which is really the most important part of our brain that determines whether we stay sharp or we get Alzheimer's disease. When it shrinks, people lose their ability and ask the same question. When somebody asks the same question 40 times, it's because hippocampus is not there. The information is not registering. It is coming here. It's not consolidating.

52:56It's not registering. And it goes out. If that part is not there, it's like somebody doesn't have an arm, they don't have an arm. They just don't. They may have all the other body parts. They just don't have an arm. And the things that they would do with the arm won't happen. And somebody who doesn't have a pecanus, they can see and they can walk and they can talk, but the part of brain that registers and consolidates and saves the events is not there. So they asked the same question 40 times because it never registered. That part was not there. Earlier in the conversation, you were talking about a gentleman who gave you$100 because you were able to improve his memory.

53:37And this is where the fifth pillar really comes in, which is brain training. And this is something that I saw play out very effectively with my paternal grandmother. She lived to be 101. And to the day she died, she was as sharp as a pack. And one of the things that she always said was the reason for this is she was huge on playing card games. And so she would constantly play solitaire, but with a group of her friends, she was playing bridge or pinochle or other games all the time, constantly trying to stimulate her brain. And she also loved to read books and do things like crochet and other things.

54:22So she had always thought that her not being one of the types who just sat there and watched TV, but trying to stay active with her mind was a huge thing. and this is something you highlight as well. So why is cognitive challenge such an important thing? When you challenge your brain, the parts of the brain that are important for that function literally grow. There's a part of brain called the cortex, which is like a blanket that covers all other brain areas. And this part of brain is important for your cognitive abilities to read, write, type, do your taxes. All your higher brain functions depend on cortex and the memory and learning depends on the hippocampus, which is actually an extension of the cortex.

55:10So cortex and hippocampus are important for all your cognitive abilities. And a unique feature of cortex and hippocampus is that they grow when they're stimulated. Just like when you lift a heavy weight more than your comfortable level, you increase the volume of your muscles. When you do something that's difficult and makes you think, you increase the volume of the cortex and hippocampus. And the more of it you do, the more it grows. And it's not something that applies only to children or young adults. They did a study in college students, and they showed them how to juggle three balls. And it took about a week for them to learn and to practice it every day for three months.

55:55They did MRIs of their brains at the beginning, after three months, and then three months after when they had not practiced the juggling balls any further. They saw a significant improvement in brain areas for hand-eye coordination from zero to three months. So these college students had increased the volume of the hippocampus in areas that important for keeping eyes on the ball and maintaining their balls in the air. And when they didn't have practiced for three months, that volume had gone down, but not to the same level as baseline. So it was one notch higher, but that increase in brain volume that happened during three months was like down by 70, 80%.

56:37They did the same thing in people in their 70s, and they saw the same thing that these older gentlemen, older participants, It took him longer to learn it, but after three months, they had learned and they had become good at it. The part of brain, those same parts of the brain, increase in volume. And when they didn't for three months, it went back down. So your brain's ability to grow and become bigger and stronger remains in place throughout life. And you can take advantage of that by doing things that challenge your brain. If you read something, it's good for you. It challenges your brain because you have to sustain your attention and keep track of the plot as you're reading the book.

57:26But things that are more challenging will be even better for you. So if you learn how to dance, if you learn how to go fishing, if you learn a new hobby, if you learn how to fix things around the house, anything that makes you think, anything that makes you frustrated, it, like it's not working. That moment of frustration is when a new synapse is born. Just like when you go through pain, they say no pain, no gain in bodybuilding. Same in the brain. When you go to the moment of frustration or you're playing the piano or a guitar or any instrument that you're learning, you make the mistake and you do it again and you do it again and you finally get it.

58:08That's when new synapses are born. and that's where the hippocampus and cortex are starting to grow. The stretching is the pain that you feel. It's a good thing. It's a good thing. So if you learn something new and you're frustrated, you should give yourself a patent back. My brother is a psychologist at University of Pittsburgh and he said that you should be proud of your mistakes. You should be proud of your failures because if you go skiing and you fall, you failed in a way you may think of it as a failure but you have then got up and then did it again and you didn't fall as much you could it's a necessary step to learn nobody can go to ski resort from day one and just zoom down it doesn't happen like that your brain has to learn your brain has to form new networks new connections need to be made for you to be able to come down the ski hill and just maintain good shape otherwise just go down to pizza and that's all you do and when you feel frustrated that you want to do it and it's not happening and then you learn and you do it and you're getting better then the corresponding parts of the brain are growing a lot of people who get older don't try new things because they say i'm too old and that's a huge mistake because they're depriving their brain of the opportunity to grow and become stronger.

59:38It's a huge mistake. Instead, they should enjoy their failure. They should put themselves in things that are difficult, which then makes them fall or have mistakes, which then they correct by doing it again and again, which then causes new brain growth, which then helps them stay sharper longer. So I think brain training and challenging your brain is one of the very important pillars of brain health. Again, if you have only one hour in a day, I would spend 15 minutes of it exercising and 10 minutes of it do breathing exercises, do the HIV-prior feedback and do the brain training later in terms of the weight of how effective they are.

1:00:21I think it's good that you have time for it and make it priority and hopefully do all five pillars of brain health every day. But in terms of priorities, I think exercise, sleep, stress reduction, diet are more important than brain training. Brain training is like a nice addition to top it off. So Gene, next I want to talk about Simon Sinek for a second. Simon is very famous for getting you to think about your why. And I have been in a entire series through the month of January on the meaning makers, trying to explore the importance of meaning and how vital it is to our lives. And this is something that you touch on towards the end of your book, where you show that people with a strong sense of purpose experience slower brain aging.

1:01:11So what's happening neurologically when meaning is present in people's lives? And why is this so important? We don't know the exact biological mechanism for why having a sense of purpose is so important. because we can't have a group of animals have a sense of purpose and a group that doesn't. We can put animals that exercise that don't exercise or eat something and eat an alternative option. So the biology of a sense of purpose is not known. But we do know that people who have a sense of purpose, people who feel passionate about something, people who find that there's meaning in their life, is that they're far less likely to get Alzheimer's disease, up to 40 % less likely to get Alzheimer's disease.

1:01:58They have a 50 % reduction in the strokes. 50 %! And it's not that the risk factors are the same. So when you compare people in longitudinal studies, you correct for everything else. There's a 50 % reduction in strokes. People who have sense of purpose have 50 % fewer strokes than people who don't. the 19 % reduction in risk of heart attacks. People with sense of purpose live longer, have less stress, sleep better, enjoy life more. The benefits of sense of purpose is just incredible. We don't know exactly why and which neurotransmitter systems are activated. There's some evidence that dopamine is activated when you feel that what you do today is in line with what you find meaningful.

1:02:50I love talking about prevention of Alzheimer's disease. I do so many podcasts and I enjoy each one of them. Because to me, it's great that, let's say a thousand people who listen to your podcast, decide, you know what? I'm going to change the way I look at aging. And from today, I'm going to do this five pillars of brain health. And I'm going to set the goal that I'm going to reach the age of 90 and be sharp and independent. I feel great that I contributed to a thousand lives. Now other person may have strong religious drives. They love the fact that they're spiritual and they are doing things that in line with their faith, whether it's Jewish, Christian, Muslim, or if they're Buddhist, or they have their own faith.

1:03:42having that faith enables them to feel good about themselves because every day they do something in line with their faith. And so it changes the whole tone of the brain. When we talk about blood flow to the brain, inflammation, we're talking about the biology of the brain. But with sense of purpose, it's like the whole brain as a whole, the entire brain's mode of operation that changes, not just nitty-gritties. It gives tone and direction to the whole brain. And having a sense of purpose facilitates following the five pillars of brain health. People, again, as I mentioned, who have a sense of purpose in life, they usually are more active, they usually sleep better, they usually eat better, they usually stress less, they usually are more engaged.

1:04:33I teach a course at Johns Hopkins called Advances in Neuroplasticity and its Applications in neurology. And I give 26 hours of lectures about all the different things that affect the brain. And I teach for one hour. And I go over 30, 50 studies that have shown the benefit of sense of purpose in life. And I've written also a review article in a journal called Practical Neurology for Neurologists about the importance of having a sense of purpose in life. And if you don't have it, you can gain it. In my book, I have a list of seven questions that people can answer to find their sense of purpose. And Simon obviously talks about it too, but it's not that hard to acquire it.

1:05:19For example, you can answer questions like, what would you do if people didn't pay you for your job? What kind of job would you do that you would still do it and people didn't pay you? I do these things if people didn't pay me. I don't get any payment talking with you and I'm fine. I'm enjoying it. And so one way to find out, ask yourself, what would you do? What would you still do if people didn't pay you for it? And the other thing is to ask yourself, what do you want people to say to you after you pass away in your eulogy, in your memorial service? What do you want people to say about you? Do you want to say he was a great physician, a great philanthropist, a great businessman, a great father?

1:06:05What do you want people to say about you? Because that really taps into your deep values as to what things are important for you. And there are other questions that once you answer the question, a picture emerges that yes, this is my sense of purpose. And once that becomes clear, that becomes like a northern light that then you do things in line with it. Majid, since you're on the Passion Struck podcast and we were just talking about meaning and passion, what does it mean for you to be Passion Struck? I think it's great that I have found my passion and have found what makes me excited and to do everything in line with the things that are important to me.

1:06:52I think it's a gift to have had since I was a kid to like the brain and been teaching about it at Hopkins, at Harvard, and along the way. So I feel fortunate to have had this for a long time and get the opportunity to be doing everything every day. Other people may have a nine to five job that's administrative job, but they're really passionate about something totally different. And so they need to really find a balance to do the things that pay mortgage and then do other things on their own personal time. So I feel lucky to have this opportunity to be able to have my day job, to be what I feel passionate about.

1:07:34What struck me the most in today's conversation is that brain health isn't about fighting time. It's learning how to partner with it and to use these five areas that we've gone through today, plus this whole area of meaning in life as a way to structure your time more wisely so that you can take the proactive steps that can help prevent someone from ever experiencing this. And I want to go back to Framingham, Massachusetts, because it's a well-known study. But what strikes me about this town is that they're not under necessarily a microscope where this town is being told that you have to do all these things.

1:08:20And yet we're seeing people there reverse a lot of the issues that had been plaguing them. But for someone listening today, what are the biggest takeaways that you want them to get from the conversation? I think it's important for them to keep brain health a priority for themselves and realize they don't have to do huge things to have a healthier brain. To take care of your teeth, you brush twice a day, you floss, and you see a dentist three to six months. It's not rocket science. It's not that hard. And so for your brain, you just have to realize that there are five things that are important for it.

1:09:02And four of those five things are good for your heart, for your skin, for your liver, for your kidney, for every organ in your body. Exercise, sleep, nutrition, stress reduction are good for every part of your body. People sometimes talk about libido and sexual problems. And those four things will improve sexual performance and libido and enjoyment of sex. And skin is healthier. If you talk to a dermatologist, they say don't stress. They're dermatologists. And they tell you don't stress because stress affects your skin. If you see ophthalmologists or if you see a cardiologist or a rheumatologist, they all tell you to exercise.

1:09:43So exercise is really a fountain of youth. It's good for everything. You can't not do it. You can't. And then sleep, everybody tells you sleep is good. It is really good for you. Don't think that just because other people have sleep problems, you're just justified for you not to sleep. You need to figure out what's limiting your sleep. And if the sleep problem is too much stress, really make that a priority. You should not be stressed all the time. You shouldn't be. It's not normal. and it's not healthy. And eating healthy food is good for your skin. It's good for your heart. It's good for your eyes.

1:10:20It's good for your kidney, your liver. Everything is better when you eat healthy. And so realize of the five things I told you, four of them is good for everything. And the brain training is like an added thing for your brain. And so every day, move a little, make sure you don't eat junk food. Don't stress too much. When you get something stressful, realize, hey, it's not worth my losing my brain over it and at home spend 10 minutes 15 minutes do a sudoku or join a podcast listen to a podcast that you learn something that counts or go hiking where you're talking with your friend about different things and you're walking and you're in nature so you're exercising you're reducing stress and you're learning or take a dance class you're exercising, you're learning, you're socializing.

1:11:09You can do things that sort of fit multiple buckets at the same time. But be mindful of that on your daily habits. And it's the daily habits that then determine the trajectory of your brain as a brain that's going to grow or become a little stronger every day, or brain that is becoming a little frail and more fragile every day. Those little daily habits would make a huge difference. And don't listen to these things that you see on elevators and everywhere else. Like in 1930s, most people have dental problems. I remember when I was a kid, most of my grandparents had dental dentures. And these days you don't find too many people in their 60s, 70s with dentures because people figure out that take care of your teeth stays healthy.

1:11:59This is not rocket science. And so I can imagine that in 1930s, there will be something in the elevator says that 50 % of people in their 60s will need dentures. Yeah. So just because this happens, it doesn't mean it should happen to me. I know better. I've listened to this podcast and this is not the first time somebody is talking about these things. the principles I've talked to you are the things that everybody's talking about I'm not the only person I have a lot of scientific backing for everything I say but the bottom line of eat well exercise don't stress are common sense things that people have heard so make those things a priority for yourself enjoy life don't make it don't make it into big production just keep it simple make them habits, and what's their habits, then you're good for life.

1:12:54Last question is for the listener who wants to learn more about you and your work, where's the best place for them to go? Yes, people can listen. The people can check my social media platform and Instagram, LinkedIn. I also have a website, drfutuhi.com is D-R-F-O-T-U-H-I.com. You can put their email and I send them a newsletter. And I would appreciate people, you know, buy and read the book because I think it will help them. It really helps to have all the information in one place to read from cover to cover and get the whole thing at once. It was such an honor to have you today. Thank you so much for joining us on PassionStrike.

1:13:40Yes, my pleasure, John. Take care. That brings us to the end of today's conversation with Dr. Majid Fatui. What stayed with me most is this. Endurance isn't always loud. It doesn't always look like pushing harder or doing more. Sometimes it looks like staying engaged when fear is trying to pull you away. Because when it comes to the brain, fear has a way of convincing us the story is already written, that decline is inevitable, that loss is just a matter of time, and that there's nothing we can do. But today's conversation challenges that at its core. Because as Majid showed us, the brain isn't fixed.

1:14:14It's responsive. It's shaped not just by time, but by how we live, how we think, and whether we choose to stay engaged with it. And that brings us to what's next week. In our next episode, we begin week two, which is focused on recovery in the Forged in Adversity series with Dr. Paul Conte and his new book, What's Going Right? Powerful new method for optimizing your mental health. Because once we learn how to endure, the next question becomes, how do we begin to rebuild? And how do we shift our focus from what's broken to what's still working? And the thought that a book about mental health would be about mental illness, right, is a natural thought to have.

1:14:51And I think it follows from how the system frames mental health. And it frames it just in terms of what's wrong with us. And there are enough numbers in the book of diagnoses to give all of us a whole bunch of diagnoses. What does that do? It just makes us, it creates fear and confusion in us. And we see mental health through that reflexive shame, what's wrong with me lens, as opposed to seeing, hey, I'm interested in this. I want to build good mental health, just as we build good physical health. If this episode resonated with you, share it with someone navigating uncertainty, leave a five-star rating or review, and explore more at theignitedlife.net.

1:15:32Until next time, remember, endurance isn't about having all the answers. It's about staying present when you don't. I'm John Miles, and you've been PassionStruck.

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