How to Keep the Brain Healthy - YLAM240010

SPEAKER A This programme presents ways to optimise health and wellbeing when considering lifestyle changes. Please consult with your health care provider to ensure they are suitable for you. SPEAKER B Hello and welcome. I'm Kaysie Vokurka. According to data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, mortality rates for all nervous system diseases in Australia has more than doubled over the past 50 years. Caring for the brain and nervous system has never been more relevant. Stay tuned as we discuss this important topic. SPEAKER A This is your lifestyle as medicine, a production of 3ABN Australia television. SPEAKER B I'm glad you've joined us today on this programme, where we explore ways that you can shape your lifestyle as medicine. Today we have a very special guest joining us from the Australasian Health Research Institute and Avondale University. Doctor Ross Grant is a clinical biochemist and neuropharmacologist and an active researcher who is passionate about understanding how people's lifestyle factors influence their biochemistry, especially in the brain, towards health or disease. Welcome to the programme, Ross, so glad to have you with us today. SPEAKER C Thanks so much, Kaysie, it's great to be here. SPEAKER B Yes, yes. So happy to be able to speak with you today and tell me you're very passionate about researching the brain. How long have you been in this topic and why are you so passionate about it? SPEAKER C Yeah, look, I mean, I think I've certainly been in it for probably about 25 years. Look, the reason behind it is the brain actually sets us up for everything else. If the brain's working well, then it influences the way the body feels. Now, it goes both ways, but the brain is just such an important part of who we are. And you can see, as time goes on, not only is our performance affected if it's not working well, but also, as people get older often, but can happen younger and it starts to degenerate, it takes away the very personality of someone. So being able to affect that is extremely important for me. SPEAKER B Yeah, yeah. It's influencing really the whole person, isn't it? Touching on that main point, yeah. So tell us a bit more about the brain. What is it, how it works. I mean, I know we have a basic understanding of that, probably, but just give us some input there, a little. SPEAKER C Bit of background with the brain. I mean, the first thing is it uses up about 20% of our oxygen, so about 20% of the energy, in fact, that the body uses. And yet the brain is only about 2% of the body weight. SPEAKER B Wow. SPEAKER C So if you think about it, you could say, compared to any other tissue, on average, it's working about ten times. SPEAKER B As hard that's amazing. SPEAKER C Yeah. So most people think, oh, you use a lot of energy within your muscles. Well, you do, but the brain is actually the highest per gramme user of that oxygen and of that energy. So it means a lot of stuff is happening up there. Absolutely. So, and the brain itself, what's it made out of? Well, a lot of fats and needs a lot of moisture. So it's about 60% to 70% moisture. And then after that, most of that is actually just fats and proteins and things like that. So it requires a whole range of things, and I guess we'll get onto that a little bit more. But it actually requires a whole range of things to keep it healthy. And our lifestyle plays a big role in that. We haven't appreciated that as much over the years, but I think people are starting to understand that that really is such an important part of it. SPEAKER B Absolutely. SPEAKER C And of course, let me just say, I mean, when it comes to the brain, if, you know, if the brain's not working well, you're not feeling so good. SPEAKER B That's so true. SPEAKER C You're not performing so well. And it also, as I said, I mean, it coordinates a lot of the functions, producing hormones and that sort of thing that affects the way the rest of the body works. We really do want it to work well. SPEAKER B Yeah, absolutely. Well, let's just dive straight in there and tell us what are the key things that we need for the brain to really thrive and function well. SPEAKER C Yeah, look, I think we've got a slide on this one, which is probably worth bringing up. As I mentioned, it uses 20% of the body's oxygen, so it needs to get a good oxygen supply. To get a good oxygen supply, that's got to be coming largely from the blood. So not only do you have to be breathing deeply, but you need to have the blood vessels in the brain open and working well. Most people think that heart disease is limited to the heart. Well, it's not if you're blocking off arteries in the heart, though. They're very sensitive, almost certain that you're starting to block off arteries elsewhere. And some of those small blood vessels, particularly in the brain, can be affected. And so that can certainly affect the ability of the brain not only to get that good oxygen, but also to get other nutrients as well. So that's a particularly important one. The other thing that's needed, we know when the brain works, and I can't get into too much of the chemistry here, but it's all about, people know about neurons firing and sort of connecting to each other electrically? Well, they do do that. They send signals down each axon down to sort of the synapse, and then across the synapse there's a lot of modulation of how those electrical signals are actually sent. And you do need some essential things to do that. Two important ones are things like magnesium and zinc. And I've pulled those two out not because others like iron and copper and other things aren't necessary, because they are for different proteins, but the magnesium and zinc are actually needed for that synaptic connection. So to modulate some of that connection between the brain and we can talk about a little bit later, but, you know, people who are depressed will often be low in things like magnesium, potentially even zinc, so they can be hyper excited without those. And then, of course, you've got all of the vitamins that are necessary to help you make the neurotransmitters. So between the two neurons that are trying to sort of connect together, you have some very important neurotransmitters that are produced. And you need things like B vitamins, not only to produce neurotransmitters, but also to keep other parts of the body working or other parts of the neuronal tissue working well. So, yes, having lots of B vitamins is necessary. SPEAKER B So this is pretty much giving the essential building blocks, or the building blocks, basic things you need to just function. SPEAKER C Exactly, isn't it? Yeah, exactly. I mean, I'll make a comment at the end, but I'll say it now as well. There's only three things you need to do with the brain. You need to give it a supply of everything it needs. You need to make sure that you don't put anything in there that's going to damage it or get rid of anything that is damaging, and then you need to make sure that you stimulate it. SPEAKER B Interesting. Yeah, that's good. Those three things to keep in mind, that's very easy to remember, just three. SPEAKER C And you can fit all of these in there. So as I mentioned, the brain actually has a lot of water in it and it needs that in order for the cells to be able to work and the neurons to work. So you need to make sure that you keep a good water supply. People often dehydrate, and particularly as we get older, you're less inclined to recognise dehydration. Skin's a little thinner, not drinking as much, so you can lose water. And I know that there's a lot of complications with drinking too much as you get older as well. But look, your brain really does need water, so get as much moisture in as you can. Also needs lots of good fuel. So it needs a fuel supply. Obviously, if it's, you know, using up lots of energy, it's going to need fuel supply. It might surprise people to know that glucose is actually what the brain likes to use most. So it is important, however, and we've got to be careful. I don't take too much time on this one, but you don't want to have high blood sugars, because high blood sugars themselves start to do damage, not only to the damage elsewhere in the body, but certainly in the brain. And we probably don't have time to go down the insulin resistance side, but that can certainly happen in the brain. You don't need insulin in order to get glucose into the brain cells. You'll actually need it for other things. But if you've got insulin resistance in the rest of the body, it can actually influence insulin resistance in the brain as well. So people talk about using different fuels, like ketone bodies. The body can use about 25% of its energy. Oh, sorry. 75% of the energy can come from ketones. If you go onto something like that. These are people who go on to sort of like a high fat diet in order to get increase in ketones. The trouble with some of that, there can be some benefits. It actually helps to downregulate some of the brain activity, which is why people with epilepsy, that can be of benefit. But the brain itself works best, actually on glucose, but glucose within a normal range. SPEAKER B Does that make sense? Yes. Stable levels? SPEAKER C Stable levels. You don't want to get them too high. So high fat and high sugar diets certainly are not very helpful to the brain. They don't like them. SPEAKER B So more complex carbs that are just slow release energy, as. Exactly. SPEAKER C And the complex carbs also come with all of those additional nutrients. SPEAKER B Yeah, we need them so they kind of fit together. SPEAKER C Perfect food for the brain, and we don't want to put in things that are going to damage the brain. So, you know, obviously, if you're a professional football player or professional boxer, you know, there's going to be the potential for a lot of head injury. And so head injuries are something that we do need to protect the brain against. And I will make a comment, particularly a developing brain. So the brain doesn't fully develop, particularly the frontal lobes, until males, about 30, females around about 20 to 25. And, you know, as it's developing, you want to make sure that you don't damage the brain. So being careful of that, you can injure it in other ways as well. You can have microbial infections, or you can have different chemicals that can end up in the brain, which can't be excreted particularly well. And some of those need to be really adjusted. So some of those are actually pesticides. So that may be a good talk for some other time. But, you know, you do want to make sure that you wash your fruit and veggies so that that's not getting into the brain. There is a good link between, and it has been for a number of years, between some of the pesticides and the development of things like Parkinson's disease. So being careful with that is always helpful. Heavy metals, another one. And heavy metals create their own oxidative damage, which I guess we'll get to talk about a little bit later on. So things like mercury, and we hear about that contamination in things like our oceans and fissures and all that sort of stuff. So while there can be good things coming from ocean fish, things like omega three s, you got to be careful it's not contaminated. Also with some of that mercury, even lead in different places where they've used it, we've taken out of the petrels now, so that's a good thing. So we've got to be careful with some of that. But then there's even some simpler things. What we call advanced glycation end products. SPEAKER B Mmm. Ages is confirmed. SPEAKER C Ages age you. They also age the brain. So you get ages from, as we mentioned, high blood sugars. SPEAKER B Yeah. Interesting. SPEAKER C And all of an age is an advanced glycation end product is just where a glucose molecule has actually bound to part of a protein molecule. And so it's when you've got high blood sugars, there's more glucose to bind, does a lot of damage, stops those proteins, which are the little factories of the cell, stops them from working well. And also with your food, if you're preparing it with high heat, you also with high heat, it actually stimulates the production of ages. So fried foods can stimulate ages production. And we've done a little bit of research in our own group and actually correlated the concentration of ages in the brain as people get older. And it certainly accumulates after about the age of 40 and probably harder for older brains to kick out. So you want to have less of those types of foods as you get older, and they can do a lot of damage. SPEAKER B Nice. SPEAKER C Yeah. SPEAKER B So you've covered a whole lot of things just there very quickly, and these are important things to consider. And so just wondering if we can move into just talking about some of the key processes that can sort of undermine the health of the brain. Can we just go over that in a little nutshell? SPEAKER C So, if you look at the neurodegenerative diseases, let's take Alzheimer's, about 75% of people with dementia will be of an Alzheimer's type. It is neurodegenerative, so the neurons are actually dying, and that process starts decades before you actually end up with clinical disease. So, Frank, dementia. But the process of that, behind it are two important processes. One is called inflammation, and the other one is called oxidative stress. So inflammation, as we know, we can get a sore finger and end up with, you know, turning red and getting blood supply there. Well, inflammation, this is what the body's immune system comes along, and it really comes to help two things. One is to clear away any debris, which is why you'll get the immune system activated if you've got damage to the brain, or it comes to clear away microbes, whether it's bacteria or fungus or virus. Now, the brain is fairly privileged. You've got a thing called blood brain barrier, which actually prevents a lot of things which normally might affect the rest of the body, doesn't get into the brain. But if you damage that blood brain barrier, you can end up with things getting into the brain, and so you can get inflammation starting within the brain. So we talked about advanced glycation end products. They're something that will actually cause damage, and therefore the immune system's got to try and get rid of it. There's also viral infections. We know things like cytomegalovirus, even Epstein Barr virus, even some of the herpes viruses can make it into the brain. And anything that actually causes the blood brain barrier to be compromised, I might mention it later on. But alcohol is one of those things that actually stop the blood brain barrier from being so tight and effective, and so different things can leak across into the brain. So the immune system gets switched on to try and clear that away. If it can clear it away efficiently, that's great. Often it won't cause. Either it gets reseeded because of possibly damaged blood brain barrier, or it has more of the inflammation switching on and it's got less of the molecules that can actually switch it off. I mentioned omega three S. Omega three fats actually do what we call they produce these leukotrienes and prostaglandins, which actually turn off the immune system. But if you're low in omega three s, your off switch is not as effective. So inflammation just keeps going, it just builds up, potentially, and then when the immune system gets switched on, you start to generate free radicals, because the immune system is very good at producing things that are going to either destroy bacteria or virus or whatever it is, and they are free radicals. So there are molecules that are produced literally as weaponry. Now, the body can use them in different ways, but this is where you get large amounts produced. And when they do that bit like when you use hydrogen peroxide to clean your bench from bacteria, well, hydrogen peroxide actually just destroys cell walls and things like that. Your body, actually, your immune system produces things like hydrogen peroxide and superoxide and hypochlorous acid and a few of those things. And if they just produce too much, they'll themselves do a lot of damage. And it's one of those things that are recognised. There is a lot of oxidative damage or free radical damage in the brain of people who have the neurodegenerative diseases. That's interesting, and that is Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, frontotemporal dementia. It actually happens in quite a few. SPEAKER B So these processes are. They're really there for a purpose, but if they are left to get out of hand, they actually do more damage on top of their intended purpose. SPEAKER C Correct? SPEAKER B Correct. SPEAKER C And we'll talk about some links to lifestyle, which actually makes some of the things that the body tries to do work a whole lot better, because sometimes what we're doing in our lifestyle actually makes these essentials processes get imbalanced. SPEAKER B So you've done a lot of research about something called nadabilism. Yeah, yeah. Can you just give us a little nutshell of what that's all about and how that fits in with the brain? SPEAKER C Yeah, it can do. So, Nad is a molecule which is essential for generating energy. It's also essential for repairing DNA. So the very things that are being damaged within the brain is actually needed. We've got a little graphic here, which actually shows that quite nicely when you use NAd, NAd for energy. So we need lots of it in the brain, because the brain uses lots of energy. But if we come around clockwise and you've got DNA repair there, it's actually needed to use for the process that actually helps to repair, particularly damage to the DNA. So any oxidative damage, that free radical damage, needs that NAD to repair it. And we can use up NAD really quickly when it's doing that helps to modulate your sleep wake cycles. So there's a little part in the brain called the suprachiasmic nucleus. Only about 30,000 neurons. And NAD is actually the main kind of the levels of NAD actually flop backwards and forwards and it's really needed. It's called a little bowel clock reaction, but that is needed for your sleep wake cycles to work. So if you have low NAD, it might be more difficult for you to modulate sleep. Also need it for signalling within the immune system. There's some amazing things that it does there. You need it for over 400 different reactions, for different enzymes in the body and in the brain. You need it also for some of the enzymes that are related to living longer. You know, building up those. You know, there's bits on the end of the DNA, on the DNA which actually help you to, or help the cells to live longer. And NAD is needed in order to keep that working. And it's also a neurotransmitter. And lastly, it's actually needed for switching on and off genes. SPEAKER B Wow. SPEAKER C So if you don't have NAD, you don't switch on and off those genes quite as efficiently. SPEAKER B That's a lot of roles. SPEAKER C It's a lot of roles. SPEAKER B And they're such important ones. SPEAKER C Yeah, yeah. SPEAKER B That's a very important thing. SPEAKER C Sorry we didn't have more time to talk about that. SPEAKER B That's okay. So, yeah, so this is really doing so many things in your brain, this whole NAD process. SPEAKER C Yeah. And our group, if I just mentioned we're essentially the first to show within both animals and then again in humans, both the brain and the body, that nad decreases in the brain with time, so with age and in line with the damage that's occurring within them. SPEAKER B Interesting. SPEAKER C So the oxidative stress. SPEAKER B Yeah. Wow. So keeping the levels up for that is something important. And I'm guessing some lifestyle factors might feed into that. Absolutely they do, yeah. Yeah. So we'll talk about them shortly. So give us a little bit of an idea about what factors now drive neurodegeneration and so that we can identify that as if they're part of our lives. Yeah. SPEAKER C So I managed. I mentioned a few of those previously, just what's actually driving those neurodegenerative processes. And again, a little graphic is going to help us get it through nice and quickly. But I talked about oxidative stress, so I talked about that free radical damage. So let me just go through that very quickly. If you're psychologically stressed, yes, there's reasons why the body actually switches on. You feel kind of like you're kind of feeling more excited when you're stressed, don't you? SPEAKER B Yeah. Yeah. SPEAKER C So the body's working harder. So you are actually producing more free radicals. One of the ways in which we produce that, when the body uses lots of energy, it's got to transfer different electrons onto oxygen. And when it's doing that really quickly, it sometimes doesn't do it as efficiently. And so you end up with free radicals produced as a side effect. And as we get older, you actually produce more of them. So being psychologically stressed is not great. So if we go back to that graphic again and just have a look, that's one of the things you can sort of down regulate. And interestingly enough, we'll talk about exercise later. But exercise is a great way of reducing that. I'll skip excitotoxicity. There are some things that you can put in your brain that actually stimulate the brain to work a little bit harder than it should. We'll leave that. We've talked about advanced glycation end products. I can leave those, the microbial infections, heavy metals, I've talked about those pesticides. And then inflammation, again, being switched on for the immune system, being switched on or off. Inflammation come down a little bit later on. I didn't mention much about things like high sugars and high fats, but they're effective ways of being able to actually increase your oxidative stress. So having high sugar and high fat, you want to have those in balance. We need them both, but we don't want to stimulate them high. And particularly as we get older, the body's much less resilient for that type of thing. So if we move over, then just onto the left, we talked about some of the poor nutrient supply. Some of those. You're getting those from basically some of you know, what we're taking in, in our diets. We need to be careful there. But I wanted to mention very quickly, one of the other things that's really important is the way the brain clears damaged products. SPEAKER B That's interesting. SPEAKER C And it does it by. And I've mentioned three things. Glymphatics, autophagy and mitophagy. Well, autophagy and mitophargy, they're just kind of like the rubbish removal systems within the cells themselves. Glymphatics is actually something that happens at night and when we're asleep, and you've actually got to have that deep sleep in order for it to work. It's literally like a flush cycle. SPEAKER B Wow. SPEAKER C So, and think about it, you know, the rubbishman usually comes at nights and clear away the rubbish when lots of other stuff isn't happening. So the same sort of thing with the body, it's got to do these sort of high energy things when the brain is not being used for other things. So you really need to get that good sleep, particularly that deep sleep, allowing for that flush system to clear away a lot of that debris. And, you know, with the glymphatics. Sorry. With the autophagy and the mitophargy, they happen best when we're actually in a fasted state. SPEAKER B Interesting. SPEAKER C So, again, fasting overnight, we don't have time to go into the detail, but it is really important, more effective and then effective stimulation. Of course, if the brain is interested in things, it stays healthier because it's a bit like exercising, doing something that you enjoy that requires physical activity. Not only is that physical activity good for the rest of the body, it's good for the brain. And the brain, when it's active, it stimulates it by producing chemicals that actually make the brain actually healthier and more resilient. So being mentally healthy and physically active, that's interesting. SPEAKER B And so I guess that's where I linked into that is the whole idea of neuroplasticity and your brain growing and developing and the fact you need to use it just like you need to use muscles physically very much to exercise your mind. SPEAKER C Using it or losing it. SPEAKER B That's it. SPEAKER C That's exactly right. SPEAKER B Yeah, sure. Well, why don't we dive right now into some of these lifestyle strategies? What are some key things that you would say are just critically important in the context of what we've discussed for really helping your brain to thrive? SPEAKER C Yeah. Now, I'm sure. Did we have another graphic to come up or was that. Yeah. So, key lifestyle factors. So, daily moderate exercise. So this is now taking exercise, but telling you how much and it doesn't matter what age group you are. Of course, as you get older, you need to cheque, probably with your doctor to make sure that you can do some of these safely, but you really need to get at least 30 to 60 minutes of moderate physical activity. What that means is that you're actually doing exercise that's going to make your face flushed. SPEAKER B Okay. SPEAKER C Should feel the heart rate up. You could potentially still be talking, but you might be, you know, you might have to stop every now and again while you sort of catch your breath. SPEAKER B So the blood's really moving and you feel it. SPEAKER C Yeah, yeah, yeah. And look, I would combine in with that too, a couple of days of strength exercise. So we'll push that aside just for a little minute because we haven't got time to talk about it in detail, but doing physical activity, not just the aerobic, but also some of that strength building is really important for keeping healthy and keeping the brain healthy because you do produce more of these, what we call neurotrophic factors, things like brain derived neurotrophic factor. When you do exercise. SPEAKER B And these help your brain to grow, don't they? SPEAKER C They do well, they help your brain to, because they are neurotrophic. So they are going to help your brain to actually have all of the stimulation that it needs to make more connections and remember that not only when we are trying to form memories, but when we are actually trying to form different pathways for solving problems, we need to actually have connections made, new connections made. So that's what that helps you. So exercising, studying, working together, so balanced, whole food, plant based nutrition. I mentioned plant based, particularly there because there's a lot of things that come within the plant based that actually provide all of those extra things. And I didn't talk about some of the antioxidants, the phytonutrients that come through there, carotenoids and what we call flavonoids and all of those, they actually have antioxidant activity. And you can't just supplement with things like vitamin E and vitamin C and expect it to get everywhere because it doesn't make it into all parts of the cell. So these other ones that we're taking through from the fruits and veggies. So coloured fruits and veggies, particularly greens, oranges, reds, eat a lot of those. They'll be complex carbohydrates. They will generally do the body a lot of good. So as a principle, try and put more of those on the plate, more than you think you need, especially of the greens. SPEAKER B Okay. Yeah. And so these will help to drive down those inflammatory and the oxidative stress, stress effects and everything. SPEAKER C Yeah, absolutely. SPEAKER B Yeah, absolutely. SPEAKER C Play nicely into that. SPEAKER B Good. And so you had, I think, a couple more. SPEAKER C Yeah, there's a couple more. Here we go. And then. So nothing that spites blood sugar. We've mentioned that one. And certainly no fats. Probably don't have time to talk about some of the studies there, but reducing anxiety, psychological stress, exercise is really important. And look, honestly, that's a great way of being able to reset that stress response. But getting a good night's sleep and being really focused on getting a good night's sleep or giving you the time to get a good night's sleep is actually really important because when you sleep well, the body sifts and sorts a lot of the things from the previous day and you end up going through the day in a lot less stress state. If you get less sleep, you will actually start the day more stressed. SPEAKER B Interesting. SPEAKER C And so this is why I think, truly trusting in God, your creator. I mean, God really has promised to always be with us and to give everything to him because he cares for us, so we should. That's something that's great to take to heart. And then, as I mentioned, just sleeping at least seven to 8 hours, we need it to clear away the debris, as I mentioned, with things like the glymphatics and it sifts and sorts that information, getting us ready for the next day. And ultimately from there, our bodies are able to start the day a lot fresher, the brain is fresher, we're ready to go, and then ultimately, I think our performance is going to be better. SPEAKER B Wow. That's been such a whole plethora of information you've shared with us, and so practical as well, that we've come down to that. These are things we can all keep in mind to really enhance functioning of the brain, no matter what age you are. Really? SPEAKER C Absolutely. And if I just say very quickly doing that and really taking stock of it, it is absolutely true. So if you put those in practise. SPEAKER B It'Ll be a real blessing, won't it? Yeah. Well, thank you so much for sharing with us, Doctor Grant. Really, really appreciate it today. SPEAKER C It's been a pleasure. SPEAKER B Thank you. We've been talking with biochemical researcher Doctor Ross Grant about how to keep the brain healthy. And this is a very important subject and I'm sure you found it interesting to learn what causes neurodegeneration, as well as what things you can do to keep your brain in the best possible condition. If you have questions or comments about this programme, or if there's a programme you'd like to discuss, then contact us on [email protected]. Remember to shape your lifestyle as medicine. SPEAKER A You've been listening to Your Lifestyle as Medicine, a production of 3ABN Australia television.