WWC 107 - FULL AUDIO
===
Christa Elza: [00:00:00] I say this and I'll never stop saying this. You have to be intentional about your health and don't forget your brain. I mean, that is the core. And I think, Alzheimer's and heart attacks, those are certainly things that most of us do not think about in our twenties for sure.
We typically don't think about it in our thirties. And sometimes we start to think about a little bit of that in our forties because maybe our parents are getting older, you know, aunts and uncles. So then it starts to become in your awareness. But the truth is like. need to start looking at that in our thirties and our forties and even in our twenties to say, I'm gonna be intentional about these aspects of my health because eventually my future self will.
Absolutely thank me.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Wild and Well Collective Podcast where we believe empowered health is your superpower.
Speaker 3: We have combined our expertise in medicine and nutrition to bring you the latest research expert insights and success stories of people on a mission to live a big life.
Speaker 2: So buckle up and get ready to learn how to live wildly well.
Christa Elza: Welcome back to another episode of the [00:01:00] Wild and Well Collective. Today we're gonna be talking about cognitive health and brain optimization. And you know, the brain is central to absolutely everything. How we think, how we feel, how we move, how we connect. And even though it's only 2% of our body weight, it consumes 20 to 25% of our daily energy, which I think is wild.
How much our brain. Is actually like the head of everything, right? Protecting cognition early is really the key when it comes to not only supporting our memory and our creativity, decision making, mood and resilience, but also protecting against later diseases like Alzheimer, Parkinson's, things like that.
So we want to stay ahead of this. This is something you wanna be thinking about in your thirties and forties, not when you start to develop symptoms later in life. So let's just dive straight into it. I think, you know, the first thing that I wanted [00:02:00] to talk about is sleep with the brain, because we also underestimate the power of sleep.
And I think, you know, when we're laying there, we're like, oh, our body's just resting. It's not doing much. But that's actually really far from the truth, sleeping or laying there. But the body's actually very, very active during that time and it's really A period of each 24 hour period that is very active for even the brain and like filtering out not only emotions and things like that, but also the glymphatic system with toxins and things like that can, we can accumulate just naturally.
Sleep is probably the most underrated neurotropic, and we're gonna talk about neurotropics, like things that you can take to, like, help with clarity and mood and things like that. Sleep actually is more impactful than any supplement that you can ever take, better than any peptide, et cetera. You know, we have different stages of sleep, and it's important, you know, if you've worn an ora ring or you're wearing some kind of device, you can see the different [00:03:00] stages of REM sleep, rapid eye movement or deep sleep.
It's the deep sleep. Where we really do that cleaning out, you know, we're flushing out the waste proteins like beta amyloid that we know are present in diseases like Alzheimer's. So that deep sleep is really important for that. The REM sleep is crucial for creativity, for problems solving for.
You know, all of those kinds of things that we want to show up and feel like, man, I don't have brain fog. I'm, you know, I'm really killing it today. That comes in part from that REM sleep. And then deep slow wave sleep strengthens that memory and that learning. So we have to have all of it. And honestly, you get more deep sleep like the earlier.
In the evening, the earlier in the night. So a lot of that deep sleep actually happens before midnight. So just keep that in mind. How late are you going to sleep? The timing does matter also. And honestly, one bad night of sleep affects our insulin sensitivity. It affects so much, and insulin sensitivity and blood sugar affects our brain as well, so.[00:04:00]
I just, you know, kind of high level, we could talk an entire podcast on the power of sleep and the impact on the brain, but we have a lot to go over today when it comes to cognitive health. But I, I do wanna start it out with just reiterating the power of sleep before we kind of get into the other things.
Because at the sleep, which is foundational is not there, then everything else that we talk about today is not quite as powerful.
Sheree Beaumont: Yeah. And I think one of the key things like to understand is just. And I can literally attest to this, check my aura ring. And I was like, I was so tired waking up this morning and I could not figure it out why, like I had a lot longer sleep than I normally would.
We've influenced a bit of a change with our training routine and I'm like. Having a rest day. So I was like, okay, let myself sleep in a little bit. I got way less REM sleep. I got way less deep sleep. Cannot figure out for the life of me what caused it. And I'm literally on my second cup of coffee today, which is very unheard of for me.
'cause I'm like, I need to be on for this podcast. I need to be on and need to be sharp. And I think we often forget just how much. Our brain relies on these [00:05:00] foundational things, and if we are thinking about sleep, Krista, I'd love for you to share one of the things that we don't really associate with poor sleep.
We think it actually helps with sleep, and that is the effect of alcohol and how that then impacts our brain and cognitive function, right? It's not just from a sleep perspective, but in terms of our brain health and actually Optim like being at optimal level for optimal performance, which is what we know you guys are here for.
hate to say it, but alcohol's one of those nasty ones that we don't want around.
Christa Elza: When I wear my aura ring, it's very, very clear that. Alcohol negatively impacts my sleep. And so I've definitely seen that with myself. But it's true that alcohol blocks restorative sleep. And that happens because it reduces that ability to have deep sleep. It also reduces the REM cycles, the time.
Like we have 90 minute cycles basically. And so it reduces the length of those cycles, which is not how our body naturally works. Also [00:06:00] alcohol creates inflammation in the brain and more oxidative stress. And so it's more of a stressor. And so if on top of you not getting good deep sleep, you also have more toxins that aren't getting cleared out.
Because during that deep sleep is when our brain and complete body, you know, our immune system really helps to kind of clear toxins out. So. You know that's kind of where, even moderate, unfortunately alcohol intake, like one to two drinks per day can be associated with brain shrinkage.
Like it's particularly in the hippocampus, which is where our memories are. And so when you think about it like that, it's like, well, yeah, I can't perform as well. My day-to-day tasks, if I'm consistently, you know, drinking alcohol during the week, that's just not gonna help you be the best version of yourself showing up.
And so. I think we like to blame other things because we don't wanna blame you know, maybe a habit that we really don't wanna give up, but you have to look at it and say, okay, yeah, alcohol does really affect my ability to reach goals and to move the [00:07:00] needle, whether it's in my relationships or in, you know, tasks day to day, what you're doing with work you know.
It. The thing is like people say, oh, well red wine has rol and it's gotta be healthy. There's been studies that show that it's healthy, and the truth is you have to drink a lot of red wine to get the amount of rol that may or may not make an impact. So, you know, if that's really what you're after.
Don't feel like you can only get it from red wine. Right? So, just a little tidbit on cognitive health and that, I mean, track recovery. If you're really curious about it, wear something, wear an our ring, wear an Apple watch and like test it out for yourself. Don't take my word for it, but what I have found is it really does affect it.
And if you are gonna drink, just make sure you're hydrating. Well space out the drinks. You wanna up, up regulate NAC. Glutathione molecular hydrogen if you have access to that, but you wanna blunt that oxidative stress, that can be something that helps. But ultimately you just wanna kinda [00:08:00] remove what's getting in the way, which alcohol, for the most part, has very poor impact on the brain.
Sheree Beaumont: And we know when it comes to brain health, like one of the first things we think of is, okay, well I'm getting older so just naturally my cognitive function's gonna decline. And you know, I really think both you and I advocate for. Let's rewrite the narrative. There's so much we can see now, especially with the how fast science is moving and what research is showing that there are so many things we can do to optimize our longevity, and a huge part of that is without cognitive health.
And so I'm really curious. I know you work with a lot of clients, a lot of patients around. Implementing things like HRT and what the impact that can have on our cognitive health because we know estrogen has a massive, massive role that plays in our brain function. And as we start to age, especially as women, we start to see that estrogen decline.
So what are some of the things we can do around that to support brain and cognitive function?
Christa Elza: Yeah, there's been a lot of conversation now, which is great [00:09:00] around menopause and the impact that estrogen has on the brain, which is really fascinating and really sad that this wasn't studied much earlier because I know there's a lot, like women are more susceptible to Alzheimer's, and that is kind of being traced back now to the fact that we lose estrogen in menopause.
Hormones act as neuro steroids basically. So when we lose it, we have some atrophy. We have you know, physical changes that you can see on MRI that happens to the actual brain structure itself, which is wild. But the estrogen does multiple things in our body. But since we're focusing on the brain today, it protects synapses.
It actually boosts. Things like serotonin and dopamine and it maintains like a good amount of blood flow. It's very cardiovascular protective and keeps some of that flexibility in the arteries, including in the brain. So you can have more brain fog because of the lowering then of neurotransmitters and then.[00:10:00]
You know, lowering a blood flow to the brain. So estrogen plays a huge role in that, which is incredible. To finally see that progesterone supports the GABA receptors. So GABA is responsible for calming better sleep. So sleep can become a big problem in menopause as well. And so that's a problem because we've already talked about sleep, right?
Like if we're not getting good sleep. We've got downstream problems, but without a good amount of progesterone in the body, that can become more difficult and insomnia becomes more common. Testosterone de declines as we age in both men and women. So this one could be applied to both. Testosterone helps with like drive and motivation and memory and so, and muscle support.
And we're gonna talk a little bit about muscle mass and why that's important. But things like cortisol. That's not a sex hormone. So both men and women both have cortisol and it's needy needed in like healthy pulses, right? We don't want too much, we don't want too little high [00:11:00] levels of cortisol.
That particular hormone can actually damage neurons. And so that's another kind of plug for needing to get better sleep and better stress resilience. Because that particular hormone can be detrimental to the brain as well. So it's not like hormone replacement isn't just about like the hot flashes and sex drive.
It's about cognition. It's about neuro, like protecting the brain as we age. So if you're a candidate for it, obviously some people aren't a candidate for direct hormone replacement depending on cancers, et cetera, and clotting risk factors. But if you are a candidate, I would definitely recommend.
As soon as you start to enter menopause. So late forties, early fifties, for most women, or if you're a man replacing testosterone if it's low that is protective of the brain and so it is something you wanna think about early on.
Sheree Beaumont: It's interesting, it's very similar to, , when I think about muscle mass in the sense that we wanna be always depositing [00:12:00] like optimal levels, whether it's hormones, whether it is muscle mass, which we'll get to in a second.
And I think about this in terms of before we get to even the HRT picture for females, it's. Making sure you are ovulating every month, every ovulation is supportive of those optimal hormone functions, you know? And so it's what we're doing now to really support ourself in later years. That's part of this longevity picture.
And the other thing is, okay, yeah, we'll talk about, talk to the muscle mass, but the exercise component, you know. A lot of the times we have been trained with this belief that it's for our physical bodies. And yes, it is. Don't get me wrong, you're gonna get a lot of cardiovascular benefits, you're gonna get a lot of strength, benefits, power, all that sort of thing.
And I notice that exercise is one of those things that just drop off. In fact, a lot of people, once they leave school. It's gone unless you've created that habit. And I say to people now, I didn't realize it at the time, but the main reason I exercise and the, the reason I crave it so much is yes, my body and [00:13:00] our bodies are designed to move, but the mental health benefits, like the clarity I get from doing movement in the morning, the clarity I get from having my body being challenged a little bit, the.
Mental health benefits, not just from the endorphin release, but the, you know, actually all the biochemistry that's going on in my brain as a result of doing the training is phenomenal. So I always say to people, like, I literally train for my cognitive health far more than I do for my physical being and my physical body.
So can you talk to that a little bit and how much it really supports that cognitive function?
Christa Elza: Yeah. It's interesting you say the brain clar, the clarity, and that's the same for me too. Like, it just, it moves energy, right? But exercise is also a natural nootropic, so it naturally boosts the hormones and the catecholamines and things like that that help us literally like think clearer.
And so that's such a great perk to working out. And so I think when you recognize that, you're like, oh, it really does impact my [00:14:00] brain. The other thing that exercise does is it improves insulin sensitivity. And we know that. You know, dementia has been called Type three diabetes. That's because when we have higher glucose levels, eventually that does affect the brain as well.
And so, you know. It, it affects the brain. Although blood sugar, I mean, we have to have the glu, we have to have energy in our brain. Like if back in my ER days when someone would come in unconscious and they didn't know why, the first thing we would do is check blood sugar, because if the blood sugar's too low in the body, then the brain cannot function.
So, you know, we would have people that were just literally unconscious because their blood sugar was. 30, right? That is not how the brain, it cannot function without good blood sugar. Alternatively, if your blood sugar is chronically high, then that can negatively impact your brain as well. So strength training improves that insulin sensitivity, it lowers the dementia risk.
We've seen that in studies. Aerobic activity then [00:15:00] helps with circulation and overall oxygenation, and it also increases BDNF, which is, helps the neuroplasticity of the brain, helps you learn better, helps your brain recover if you have any kind of brain injury. So it's almost like fertilizer for the brain cells, you know, like we're just, we're moving more nutrients through that blood brain barrier.
Muscle mass itself is protective because metabolically active tissue is automatically like a dump for glucose and we really want to be reliant more on. Movement and on muscle mass to be dumping our glucose stores rather than focusing on insulin to do it. And in order for that to happen in the body, we've gotta be metabolically healthy.
You've gotta be you've gotta have good muscle mass, right? So it doesn't have to be complicated. Like even daily movements, like I mentioned, if you eat and you go on a walk. You're using that to kind of clear glucose rather than just sitting there and relying completely on insulin to clear [00:16:00] that.
So if you go on walks or if you like to dance or if you do yoga, or if you like to go to the gym and lift all of those things, it doesn't matter necessarily. Just do something that will en help, that will improve your focus, it can improve your mood and ultimately you're setting yourself up for a healthier brain.
So yeah, it kinda comes full circle.
Sheree Beaumont: I love that you touched on the neuroplasticity side of things and you know, if that's a new term for you, understanding that our brain is highly adaptable, highly malleable. And if you are someone listening to this going, holy shit, like I should have done some of this work a little bit earlier. It's not too late.
It's not too late to do any of the lifestyle factors that Chris has just talked about. And I'm gonna pivot and talk slightly a little like more on dietary changes and supplements. And I'm gonna start off with my apps. SL favorites. You know, if you have been listening for a while or you have any idea who I am, you're gonna know that I love mushrooms.
I love all things mushrooms including like little cups and stuff, but that's beside the point. When it comes to these mushrooms, I look like I love them because [00:17:00] they're very adaptogenic and they provide so many more benefits than just brain health, but they are one of the most beautiful. Nutrients to be supporting our brain.
If we think about something like Lion's Mane, which is one you may have heard, it's become very, very popular in recent years because it stimulates your NGF, which is your neuro, your nerve growth factor, which essentially means it's helping those neurons in your brain not only repair, but actually grow new connections.
So we're optimizing the ability for that neuroplasticity and those new neural pathways. So it's giving the brain the tool to essentially rebuild yourself or itself, I should say. And if you're someone that is struggling with brain fog or if you're str someone that is struggling with the ability to concentrate or focus, or even learn new things, this can be something you could add in.
Like I have this along with Quarter sips, which is another beautiful mushroom that helps with energy, endurance and stamina, and so. Adding those two things, I add them in my coffee each day. Really just takes my thinking, [00:18:00] my optimal performance, my focus to this next level capacity. The other mushrooms that I'll mention mention are your reishi and your Chaga, and both of these are really rich in antioxidants and like Krista mentioned before.
One of the biggest things we have to protect the brain against. It's not just what we put in, but it's what's driving inflammation. So how do we settle that down? And so those two mushrooms, the reishi and the chaga, are really, really protective. They're like your brain's little bodyguards. And so less inflammation is gonna equal a lot more clarity.
And so if you can add these in, it doesn't have to be all four of them. But finding something, like I said, a really easy way to. Stack it so it's already in your day to day. There's a protein powder I use that naturally just adds these in. I put that in my coffee and boom. I'm already supporting that mental clarity.
Christa Elza: Yes. I started shifting a little bit away from just coffee by itself in the morning, and I do a coffee blend that has some of these, like the lion's made to help with focus, but then like the rei, so I'm not like. Pinging [00:19:00] with the caffeine, but it's, yeah, it's, it makes it easy. It makes it easy to get some of these really medicinal mushrooms to help.
With brain function as well. And I find it to be more of an even keel with combining it with coffee. But yeah, I know it, it, a lot of protein powders have it too, so I think it's easier than ever to get these combinations. I mentioned a few times about nootropics. Tell us a little bit about your experience with them and like what they are and which neurotropics you combine.
My favorite is probably L-theanine because it just helps like put your feet back on the ground. But yeah, like what they are, you know? 'cause enhancing cognitive function. Again, we have to do the foundations first, but then like Yeah. Tell us a little bit about Neurotropics and what you can take on top of like, what we've already talked about with lifestyle.
Sheree Beaumont: Yeah, so I love Neutropics. I love, I kind of think of them alongside adaptogens. I almost put them in the same category if you ask me, because they've all both sound really [00:20:00] fancy in that. But it just means that you're supporting cognitive performance, that you are just optimizing the way your brain functions.
And so. Like you mentioned Altheine, and again, that's another one that I know I take alongside my coffee. It's not every day. It's only if I feel like, you know, I've had my second cup today, so we may be looking at popping and altheine a little bit later which is the calming compound that you'll find in green tea and puts your brain into that alpha wave which is where you feel calm, focused and really creative and grounded.
One of the other ones I love that is a new tropic is a, is ginkgo. I can never say these words. They're hilarious. It's hilarious. Okay, so just gimme some grace with this ginkgo below. But this one is more about circulation and blood flow. And like you were talking about, the more oxygen we can get to the blood, the better the brain power is gonna be.
And then if we look at some of the adaptogens, one thing you mentioned earlier is that we don't wanna be shrinking our hippocampus, which is the part of the brain that really controls memory. You know, as we get older, it's one of the [00:21:00] most common complaints that I hear from people is like, I walk into a room and I forget why I'm there, and.
I honestly say to people, it's actually not just age or it's not even age. 'cause I mean, I was getting that when I was women, 25 years old because my brain was just so overstimulated. I was living like on caffeine. I was constantly wired. And the thing is, it's this constant stress that shrinking your hippocampus.
And so if we can make sure we are regulating the cortisol. And getting our body into that natural rhythm where we're not constantly feeling on and wired, that is going to be really neuroprotective and also enhance your cognitive performance. So my favorite and I do take this every single day at the therapeutic dose of 400.
Milligrams is ashwaganda and it is probably the most famous adaptogen. Chances are you've heard of it, but it lowers your cortisol, it improves your memory, your memory, and it really does just help you feel less scattered and a lot more focused. I mean, I take this from hormonal perspective as well. It's really [00:22:00] great if you are someone that.
Is just on. I say to my clients all the time, look, I'm a highly functioning person. I am a high adrenal person. I know that I'm gonna be on all the time, and I know what my work demands of me, and so I can either just try and push through it and burn myself out. Or I can take things like these adaptogens and actually just give my body the extra support.
There's another one called Rola. If you feel mentally drained and you need to get through your day, this is great because it reduces your fatigue and keeps your brain function on when you're under pressure or there's holy basil, which is another anti-inflammatory. So I think it's really important to kind of evaluate.
Okay. Where are we at? Like, am I driving inflammation or am I needing something to kind of calm my stress down? And it's not that you need to take the mushrooms, the adaptogens and the neutropics like, I mean, I like to because we're, you know, we're that we're those crazy type that two and if you want to by all means, but maybe it's just taking one of these and seeing how it impacts your.
Christa Elza: Yeah. Before we move on from this topic, I [00:23:00] wanted to address NAD because NAD has been basically it's become a lot more popular. Recently I found, and we carry it here in our clinic. I take it. As well. And there's a lot of like, well, do you take it orally? Do you take precursors? Do you inject it through iv?
Do you inject it at subq? I prefer subq and directly NAD. But there are precursors, NMN and NR that are required to make NAD. So if you're gonna take something orally, I would do those. But those fuel the mitochondria in neurons. So there's an, you know, that can be really helpful with things like brain fog and all of that.
So just another little drop for NAD because NAD is like cell turnover and skin health and you know, so many things, but it can be something important for brain health as well. So before though, we go to, I mean, I think I love to combine these things, but again, I wanna go back to foundations of like, what else?
Because if we're leaving off foundational lifestyle things we're [00:24:00] not gonna see the full benefit to taking things like adaptogens or neurotropics. Talk to us a little bit about, 'cause I know that you're a nutritionist and you, you know, you went to school for nutrition. So, tell us a little bit about nutrition and like keto, because that's another.
Kind of driver that's been in articles and whatever in terms of brain health, and I think keto is not for everyone. Maybe it's not forever, but what are the benefits to that particular diet around brain health?
Sheree Beaumont: This is so fascinating to me because you're right. When I was at university, this was huge, so I.
I was at a, a college that was at the forefront of the keto coming out, right? My professors were the ones writing the books. They were on the news, like talking about this. And I took a real fascination to it because I've always been a big fan of mental health and brain health and trying to figure out how to be optimizing my performance and my function.
But what really inspired me with this [00:25:00] was we're not just looking at it from a, okay, cool, my brain is switched on. They were studying and studies have found the effect that this can have on A DHD on seizures, on protectiveness against Parkinson's and things like Alzheimer's. And so for me, when I go.
Okay. I'm not, and like you said, keto isn't for everyone, but maybe it's looking at the amount of fats you're putting into your diet. We know the impact that insulin can have in a negative way. We know what can happen. We have naked carbohydrates, you know, we've got numerous podcasts talking all about this.
But when we are thinking about keto or ketogenic or higher fat, I'm gonna lean into more of that. It's very neuroprotective. In fact, there was a lot of studies done around the time I was at university that came into. Came to being published that showed it reduced people's, like it reduced people's incidents of Alzheimer's.
And there were kids that they started to put on more ketogenic diet and started to cut out the sugars that they were having all the time and. They were [00:26:00] able to focus so much more like the children with a DHD. I even had a client whose son was 13 years old and had chronic seizures at school. And it was really affecting him.
It was affecting his friendships, it was affecting his life. It was affecting my poor client. And I suggested going on a keto diet. And honestly, like he went like at least a year or so without having any. Seizures because your brain was relying primarily on those ketones. So if you are someone dealing with one of the.
I wouldn't say extreme or you're someone that's worried about Alzheimer's or you're someone that's worried about Parkinson's or you've got that genetically in your family history, it may be worthwhile not necessarily going a hundred percent keto 'cause we know the impact that that can have on females and our hormones, but.
Maybe it's looking at upping your fat content, making sure you've got really high quality fats going in, which I know we'll talk to in a second around, you know, your omega threes and your omega sixes and the difference that they can have, but putting in really good quality fats into your diet to help regulate [00:27:00] things.
I mean, A DHD is one of the most common diagnosis that are starting to happen now. I get women every day talking to me about it and how they're feeling, like their brain just can't focus, and part of me wonders if it's more of a dietary thing that's going on. Versus, you know, is it something that's, or you know, cognitive, purely cognitive.
Christa Elza: I think the research behind keto and like epilepsy and things like that is interesting. I do think, just to reiterate, keto iss hard to stay on long term. It changes your gut microbiome. It's not for everyone. I think it, you know, maybe the Mediterranean diet is maybe a more well-rounded, easier to stick to day to day.
And that kind of goes back to the omegas, right? The, because Mediterranean diet is gonna be high in omega, like fish and olive oil and nuts, veggies. So you get a little bit more of that, which you do not get with a keto diet. Yeah. So I think it, it just, it depends. [00:28:00] I think it's good to know and say, okay, studies show that keto can be helpful for this.
But again, it could be like very difficult to stick to for long periods of time, and in some people more detrimental. I never think that there's one diet for every single person, but I think what we're trying to drive home here is that insulin and glucose are really, really important. So whatever diet you choose, right, is gonna be.
Ideally one that's gonna keep your blood sugar more regulated. Yeah. Anything else that you wanna add to that, that, I mean, I know nutrition is kind of your, your thing, so what else? Yeah, around that conversation with nutrition.
Sheree Beaumont: I think just a couple of other beautiful things. So to continue down the fat pathway, you know, a lot of the time we've been led to believe that, again, high fats aren't the key or the answer.
And again, and just to confirm, we aren't advocating for a pure keto, I normally say to my clients, okay, just make sure Majo like. Like some of my clients are even on 50% fats. There's no keto, but they've got a really good amount of fats. Like we are driving home that Omega-3, [00:29:00] but something else. And I go back to my coffee 'cause again, I'm a habit stacker.
I add MCT oil to my coffee. This is a. Medium change triglyceride, MCT that is being, is gonna really slowly release and slow down the caffeine release or the cortisol spike that happens, and it actually just keeps your brain in that optimal function. One of the other things that I add to my coffee, again, like you're probably like, what the heck does her coffee taste like at this point?
Is it even coffee? But the MCT oil just adds like a nice little fetty. Kind of taste. And the protein powder or the collagen that I normally add is, is, is some, most of the time unflavored or vanilla. So it's like having a little vanilla syrup instead of adding the sugar. But the other thing that I add is my creatine.
Now, this has gotten so much attention of like of recent, because of the impact, not only has at the gym, you know, there's so much misconception again out there about this beautiful supplement. It's one of the most research supplements in the history of supplements. Like it's amazing what it can do for your body.
And yet for [00:30:00] the longest time, myself included, I was like, it's just for the gym bros. And I mean, like I would count myself as a gym bro, but I was like, I don't want it. It'll make me retain water, like, et cetera. But what it does is it actually like, it's really, really supportive in creating a TP, which is Aden Tri Phosphate, that is your energy powerhouse that your body runs on.
And so. We need to give our brain this energy and creatine can really help with that. And it's the most recent studies that have come to fruition that are showing that we need to be hitting about 10 grams. So on average, even for weightlifting, we were talking about five grams daily. I've now upped my creatine intake, two 10 grams.
I do recommend slowly increasing it because otherwise you will, you know, you do need to creatine load. But that 10 grams is that sweet spot when it comes to brain function and really supporting against, interestingly enough, and a lot of studies have shown against brain injury or even neuro degeneration.
So it is one of those really, it's actually really cheap and cost effective too. So if you do wanna be optimizing your brain health, creatine is one of those simple things you can be adding. [00:31:00] And because it's stable in heat, you can also add it to your coffee.
Christa Elza: Maybe I should up my dose. I take five grams a day.
I think in those kinds of supplements too, in a powder form, you gotta be careful of like third party testing. Make sure you're not getting like, heavy metals and all that stuff. I always recommend Thorn. It's pretty, pretty good. Most people can get it anywhere. It's even on Amazon. Thorn is third party tested.
It. This dissolves so easily that it's such an easy supplement to start taking. I take five grams every day. Maybe now I'm taking 10. But I take five and it's super easy to put in just plain water, a small amount of water even that I can take my morning. Supplements. And then it's easy. It's just done.
It's like not even a pill. I love that. I think we've covered a lot on how to optimize brain health and of course there's so many more deep topics, but we kind of wanted to keep this tangible, like where you could understand it, where you could, you know, actually take action on some of these things and just start to make it your normal lifestyle, right?
Like I think it's hard to make habit changes that feel overwhelming. [00:32:00] But ultimately, if we can kind of boil it down and summarize it, it's like, go to bed a couple hours before midnight, 10, 11, whatever. Get good deep sleep, avoid alcohol, keep it minimal, especially during your work week when you're trying to be productive.
Like it just does you no good for your brain. It literally slows detoxification down and, you know, really impacts your sleep. I think adding medicinal mushrooms and adaptogens, make it easy, find a coffee substitute or a mix of coffee and mushrooms like I have. I really like, it's called Daily Dose.
He lives in Austin, so he's pretty cool. The owner I like the flavor of it. It's cooking, it's easy. And then I get my mushrooms in supplementing with Omegas, which we didn't talk a lot about, but I think, you know, omegas. You wanna get a lot of that from your food, but you know, eat fish weekly, take a fish oil supplement, it helps with lipids, it helps with cell membrane and it certainly helps with your brain.
So like, you know, adding [00:33:00] omegas, adding NAD or one of those neurotropics, I think is so important. Strength training, like we talked about like a couple times a week. Make sure that you're really lifting those weights and you're. Eating enough protein so that you're optimizing muscle mass checking your hormones and optimize your hormones, whether you're a man or a woman, like making sure that those hormones which are cardioprotective brain protective, are optimized at all times.
And then really just eating whole foods. I mean, that's really what the Mediterranean diet is primarily is gonna be like adding just like healthier oils to your diet and avoiding processed foods and things like that that really deplete our detox pathways, et cetera. Would you add anything else and summary?
Sheree Beaumont: No, I think you said it beautifully. It really just, I think the key is coming back to your why. You know, like if this is for. Enhanced brain performance for work. If this is making sure that you are sharp as a tech when you're still 95, like if this is making sure that you know you wanna be, it's not just doing Sudoku [00:34:00] anymore, right?
Like I used to remember my grandparents doing like Sudokus and crossword puzzles and stuff, and those are all great to brain train. But imagine if we could not just. 30, 40, 50 and feel like our memory is declining and we are feeling worse. Like we have got so many tools at our disposal. Think about your deeper wires to why you're doing this.
And a lot of the time when we are protecting against, our cognitive decline. We're also optimizing our mental health, which as we've talked about, is like a huge passion of mine too. So, you know, if we're thinking about depression and anxiety, if your brain is able to function the way it should be, you're also gonna be protective against that, which I think is phenomenal.
And the things that we've shared today, we'll support in that too.
Christa Elza: Yeah, and I say this and I'll never stop saying this. You have to be intentional about your health and don't forget your brain. I mean, that is the core. And I think, you know, Alzheimer's and heart attacks, those are certainly things that most of us do not think about in our twenties for sure.
We typically don't think about it in our thirties. And sometimes we start to think about [00:35:00] a little bit of that in our forties because maybe our parents are getting older, you know, aunts and uncles. So then it starts to become in your awareness. But the truth is like. We need to start looking at that in our thirties and our forties and even in our twenties to say, I'm gonna be intentional about these aspects of my health because eventually my future self will.
Absolutely thank me. So I hope you guys have found this conversation helpful, useful applying some of this. If you ever have any questions, feel free to reach out to us. Our links are in the bio, and we'll see you in the next time.
Speaker: If you love this episode, be sure to leave us a review, download, and subscribe. If you know someone that could also benefit from this conversation, please share. That's how we Spread Empowered Health. We'll see you again for another episode of the Wild and Wild Collective.
