In this episode of the Brain Health 365 Podcast we explore the effects of light on brain health, focusing on natural light, innovative therapies like red and the detrimental effects of too much blue light. Recent research highlights how light and light therapy can enhance cognitive function, improve recovery from brain injuries, and support overall mental well-being. Join host Brian Browne and co-host Lizzy Rasmussen as they delve into this under-discussed topic.
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Timestamps
1:40 The role of natural light in regulating the body
4:15 Natural light versus artificial blue light
7:20 The effects of light on mental health
10:42 The effects of light on cognition
13:18 Relationship between natural light and dementia risk
14:25 How much sunlight is “enough”?
18:20 Light and fall risk
20:35 The effects of light on cardiovascular and metabolic health
21:30 Benefits of red light
27:27 Less stress tip
28:30 Fun food fact
Medicare has introduced the new GUIDE program that focuses on comprehensive, coordinated dementia care and aims to improve quality of life for people with dementia, reduce strain on their unpaid caregivers, and enable people with dementia to remain in their homes and communities.
Unfortunately, there's not a lot of people living with dementia and their caregivers that know anything about the program and its benefits. Hosts Brian Browne and Lizzy Rasmussen are joined by David Dlesk of Embrace Prevention Care. They discuss all the benefits of the program and what providers; Medicare recipients and caregivers need to know in order to participate.
For mor information about participating in the GUIDE program as a patient or provider contact:
info@embracepreventioncare.com
Caffeine has been widely used for enhancing athletic performance as it acts as a central stimulant that enhances psychomotor functioning, particularly during physical fatigue. But does caffeine have a positive impact on cognition and brain health? Host Brian Browne and co-host Lizzy Rasmussen discuss the science of caffeine and how it stimulates the brain and central nervous system and uncover whether that morning cup of coffee or tea is helping or hurting your brain.
Dehydration and chronic dehydration pose significant risks to both short and long-term brain health. Cellular and structural brain changes can lead to cognitive changes, cognitive decline, and increased risk of mental health issues. Unfortunately, hydration is not a part of the larger conversation about what can focus on daily to promote brain health and overall wellness.
In this episode of the Brain Health 365 Podcast, host Brian Browne, and co-host Lizzy Rasmussen tackle the science of this topic and challenge our audience to incorporate mindful changes to their hydration daily routines.
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@liztalksscience
@brainhealth365
Timestamps
2:00 Why is water crucial to brain health?
3:20 Water and other physiological functions: temperature regulation, oxygen and nutrient delivery, neural communication, and more
7:58 Role of water in dopamine and serotonin production and function
9:00 Hydration and waste material
11:00 Dehydration, brain volume, and headaches
13:56 Dehydration and cortisol
15:15 Role of chronic dehydration and pseudodementia, concentration, memory, processing speed, and more
20:30 Mood, sleep disruptions, and mental health
25:45 Energy maintenance
26:39 Signs and symptoms of dehydration
29:40 Risk factors for dehydration
30:52 Caffeine and alcohol
33:00 Impact of activity level and climate on daily water intake
33:52 Strategies to improve water intake (including Fun Food Fact)
36:35 Recommended daily water intake and additional strategies (including Less Stress Tip)
More research has come out exploring the importance that diet has on brain health. Oils and fats are a necessary part of a healthy diet, however, seed oils, particularly those high in omega-6 fatty acids, are hidden buried in common foods consumed every day. What are seed oils? Are seed oils bad for you? What are the questions I should be asking about seed oils?
Join our host Brian Browne and co-host Lizzy Rasmussen in this episode as they break down the research surrounding seed oils and their relationship to cognitive health.
Timestamps:
2:20 Chemical makeup and processing of seed oils
6:00 History of processed alternatives: high fructose corn syrup
7:25 The invention of synthetic fat and seed oils
9:40 Ultra-Processed Foods (UPF)
12:15 The seed oil controversy: nutrients and processing
14:28 UPF, seed oils, and health outcomes
18:45 Abnormal cellular aging
20:15 Increased likelihood of overeating
22:22 Omega-3/Omega-6 fatty acid ratio: relation to brain health
27:55 UPF and dementia risk
28:40 Eating for convenience
31:00 Traditional diets versus UPF diets in health outcomes
34:30 Alternatives to seed oils
38:15 Less Stress Tip
40:05 Fun Food Fact
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders of childhood, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). While most of the focus on ADHD is placed on children, there is a growing number of people living with it as adults including many who have had a first-time diagnosis in adulthood.
Does ADHD affect your cognition or cognitive processes in adulthood? Does an ADHD diagnosis in childhood or adulthood increase your risk for dementia? In this episode host Brian Browne and co-host Lizzy Rasmussen discuss and uncover what the research is telling us about ADHD and cognitive risk. Join us for this informational and thoughtful episode of Brain Health 365 – The Podcast
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@brainhealth365
Timestamps
1:45 What is attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)?
2:43 Symptoms and diagnosis of ADHD
5:15 The misconceptions of intention
6:10 Impact of ADHD on home, school, work, and social life
10:44 Prevalence of ADHD
13:20 The potential role of technology in adult-onset ADHD
15:05 Potential discrepancies in seeking ADHD diagnosis in adults
16:20 Does ADHD affect cognition?
17:50 The five cognitive domains of the brain
18:36 ADHD and executive function (working memory, prioritizing tasks, following directions, impulse control, planning, and more)
25:40 Inhibition and disinhibition in ADHD
28:23 Is there a relationship between ADHD and the risk for developing dementia later in life?
31:15 Overlapping risk factors for ADHD and dementia
32:55 Treatment and other strategies for promoting cognition
36:26 Less Stress Tip
38:05 Fun Food Fact
Napping can have both positive and negative effects on brain health, depending on factors like duration, timing, and your age. Many of us get tired during midday and struggle to maintain energy and focus throughout the day. Is taking a nap the solution? Before you make your decision, check out this episode of the podcast. Host Brian Browne and co-host Lizzy Rasmussen delve into the science of napping and discuss cognition, sleep inertia, and its impact on productivity. Food for thought as you consider incorporating napping into your daily routine.
Understanding how patients and caregivers navigate the growing complex nature of healthcare, underscores how broken our healthcare system can be. Our current healthcare system demands patients have a college degree in health literacy, superior medical communication skills, extraordinary illness management skills, disposable time to make it to inconvenient multiple appointments and someone waiting in the wings to manage multiple medications. Without adequate help and support, the burdensome journey to seek care can be the cause of unintended complications.
If you’ve been a patient or a caregiver, this may sound all too familiar to you. In this episode, host Brian Browne and cohost Lizzy Rasmussen are joined by Samantha Whitman an expert in patient burden/obstacles. Join us as we discuss the unintended consequences for patients and caregivers as they navigate through a less than friendly system.
Timestamps
0:50 Obstacles for caregivers and patients
2:08 Defining “patient work” and discussing patient obstacles
9:12 Impacts of patient work on patient and caregiver health
14:30 Patient work in acute versus chronic illnesses
18:00 The obstacle of limited time for patients and caregivers
21:10 Identity and Stigma associated with being a patient
22:15 Tools to mitigate negative effects of patient and caregiver work: social support, advocacy, and community
28:40 System-wide changes to reduce patient work
Unhealthy snacks are linked with higher BMI, higher visceral fat mass and higher rates of chronic disease. However, not all snacking is unhealthy. Snacking is actually a healthy way of achieving optimal cognition, weight, and wellness goals. In this episode, host Brian Browne and co-host Lizzy Rasmussen delve into the data and research and discuss the Why, What, When, Where and the How of healthy snacking. Send us your feedback.
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1:49 What is snacking?
4:58 Is snacking beneficial?
5:35 Snacking and glucose regulation, concentration, mood, and hydration
12:00 Snacking to promote nutrient-dense eating habits
14:45 Overconsumption versus satiation
16:18 Ultra processed snacks
20:33 The “who, what, when, why, and how much” of snacking
21:12 Who: individualized approaches to snacking
22:20 What: the importance of snack composition
25:18 When: timing of snacking
28:53 Why: physiological hunger versus emotional eating
31:56 How much: why quantity matters
34:28 Protein-based snacks
36:28 Carbohydrate-based snacks
37:53 Healthy fat-based snacks
Yoga is the most popular complementary health approach practiced by adults in the United States and throughout the world. There is evidence that yoga slows down age-related and neurodegenerative brain decline. Yoga also creates better balance, flexibility, and mental health. How does yoga play out for an aging population? Join host Brian Browne and co-host Lizzy Rasmussen along with Jennie MacGoy, a yoga professional, as they discuss how yoga can benefit an aging population with unexpected health and wellness gains.
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Timestamps
1:08 Introduction to yoga expert Jennie MacGoy
2:40 Jennie’s journey to teaching yoga
3:53 The universality of yoga
6:08 Components of a yoga practice
10:20 Adaptive and accessible yoga practices
16:17 Yoga and brain health
17:40 Yoga and sleep health
19:00 Power vinyasa, yin, and restorative yoga practices
21:29 Meditative aspects of yoga: is the mental aspect more difficult than the physical?
23:52 Stigma surrounding the practice of yoga
29:29 How to implement yoga into your (busy) life
Science, research, and innovation has been integral in providing us with better health, disease reduction and longer lives. In fact, we are living longer, and most adults can expect to live many more years than their predecessors. However good this trend of longevity is, it is met and rightly so, with pushback.
What is the purpose of longevity if it’s not met equally with Quality of Life. What is quality of Life? It’s the meaning, value, and the WHY we place on how well we live our lives and how satisfying they are.
In this episode of the Brain Health 365 podcast, host Brian Browne and co-host Lizzy Rasmussen tackle “What is quality of Life?” And, “How does Quality of Life impact my brain health and overall wellness?” We invite you to listen to the episode and join the conversation.
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Time stamps
0:55 Defining Quality of Life
6:08 The Physical Domain: pain, energy, and sleep
11:20 The Psychological Domain: attitude, mood, and self-esteem
16:50 The Social Domain: social support and personal relationships
22:24 The Independence Domain: level of independence, activities of daily living, work, and self-medication
28:20 The Environment Domain: freedom, physical safety, home and neighborhood environments, social determinants of health, ability to learn, and more
33:37 The Spirituality Domain: religiosity and spirituality
37:39 Less Stress Tip:
38:33 Fun Food Fact:
Providing a good quality of life and a creating moments of joy are the gold standard those living with dementia and their caregivers. Imagine using a simple app that provides a sense of familiarity, accomplishment and produces positive dementia behaviors as a byproduct. In this episode, Brain Health 365 host, Brian Browne has an inspiring discussion with Bruce Elliott, cofounder, and CEO of Memory Lane Games. Memory Lane Games has created a digital health platform for monitoring and managing cognitive decline with games. Find out how two guys having a drink in an English pup led to the creation of an award-winning technology creating a meaningful impact for caregivers.
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brainhealth365.com
While there are some risk factors you cannot control for dementia, such as age, gender and genetics, reducing major risk factors that can be controlled is the gold standard. While heart disease remains the number one killer in the United States, it also heavily impacts your brain health risk for dementia. Host Brian Browne and Co-host Lizzy Rasmussen guide this episode of the podcast with some detailed insights and recommendations to keep your brain, dementia risk and your cognitive health in good shape as you age.
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“Functional Movement” refers to movements that occur in activities of daily living and real-world situations such as putting on your shoes, standing up, walking, bending down to pick something up, and climbing a flight of stairs. The ability to maintain functional movement with age is an integral part of healthy aging and is associated with increased longevity.
In this episode, host Brian Browne and co-host Lizzy Rasmussen discuss “The Big Five” of functional movement: strength, balance, flexibility, agility and endurance. They examine each component’s role in daily living and healthy aging and provide practical tips for improvement.
Timestamps
1:03 Introduction
2:18 What is functional movement and how does it change as we age
4:12 Assessing functional movement
5:00 “Good” functional movement: efficiency, coordination, mobility, and injury prevention
9:35 Importance of body awareness and core strength
12:38 “The Big Five”: a roadmap for assessing and improving functional movement
13:08 The Big Five - Strength
19:37 The Big Five - Balance
23:50 The Big Five - Flexibility
28:23 The Big Five - Agility
32:38 The Big Five - Endurance
35:54 The role of functional movement in healthy aging
37:15 Where to start to improve your functional movement
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The average person spends 26 years of their life sleeping. That is approximately one-third of our entire lives spent asleep. Yet, the importance of sleep in health is often misunderstood and under-appreciated. Sleep plays a critical role in overall health, impacting every major organ in the body, every physiological system, and every brain process. Still, many adults do not get the recommended amount of sleep every night.
In this episode, host Brian Browne and co-host Lizzy Rasmussen discuss the science of sleep, the role of sleep in brain and overall health, common sleep disorders, how sleep changes as we age and the link between sleep and Alzheimer’s Disease, how to optimize your sleep, and more.
Timestamps:
0:45 Introduction
1:14 Why do we sleep?
3:00 Sleep types and stages: REM & NREM 1-4
6:43 The Circadian Rhythm
10:55 Disordered sleep: working the night shift
13:56 Disordered sleep: the role of alcohol in sleep disruption
16:00 Disordered sleep: sleep apnea
17:52 Disordered sleep: insomnia
19:14 Impact of aging on sleep: reduced quantity/quality, reduced efficiency, and earlier melatonin release
23:14 Adenosine “sleep pressure” & the impact of napping
25:50 Impact of aging on sleep: age-related changes to the Circadian Rhythm
26:15 Sleep and brain health: memory, learning, concentration, processing speed
29:32 Sleep & Alzheimer’s Disease
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A common misconception is that dementia is a disease, but it’s actually a category of disease used to describe a group of symptoms that affect memory, thinking, navigation and even social abilities. There are many different types of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and more. In this episode, host Brian Browne and co-host Lizzy Rasmussen discuss the second most common cause of dementia: vascular dementia. They discuss the science of developing vascular dementia, signs and symptoms, modifiable risk factors, how to seek a proper diagnosis, and what life may look like if you or a loved one is diagnosed with vascular dementia.
Drinking alcohol has become a mainstream activity for adults all over the world. Over 70% of U.S. adults report drinking alcohol at some point in their lives. While we drink alcohol for a myriad of different reasons throughout our lives, one inescapable fact is that alcohol has a definitive effect on the brain as well as impacting other aspects of our health. In this episode host, Brian Browne and cohost Lizzy Rasmussen discuss the science of alcohol and its short-term and long-term effects on the brain and body.
Timestamps:
1:38 Culture of alcohol
2:30 Metabolism of alcohol
6:05 Effects of alcohol on the brain: cerebellum
8:36 Individual differences in alcohol tolerance
10:06 Effects of alcohol on the brain: prefrontal cortex
11:57 Effects of alcohol on the brain: hippocampus
14:15 Alcohol, stress, & the HPA axis
16:42 Alcohol used as self-medication
17:39 Effects of alcohol on other aspects of the body: blood pressure & pain threshold
18:50 The relationship between red wine and cardiovascular disease
19:15 Distilled versus fermented alcohol: impact on the gut microbiome
22:06 Populations with the greatest longevity and quality of life: “The Blue Zones”
25:00 Resveratrol
25:50 Psychological aspects: serotonin & dopamine alterations
28:12 Alcohol as a depressant
28:50 Dehydration
29:43 Impact on sleep
30:20 “Wet brain” & recommendations for alcohol intake
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If you’re interested in learning more, the episode Fact Sheet can be downloaded on our website by clicking here.
Research has uncovered trauma and traumatic experiences are powerful forces that possess an ability to affect your health and rate of aging. Trauma exposure is linked to a propensity for developing a wide range of conditions that can negatively impact health. Does your trauma history put you at risk for rapid cellular aging, changes in brain structure, higher rates of physical, mental, and cognitive decline? Join host Brian Browne and co-host Lizzy Rasmussen on this episode as they discuss traumatic experiences and their effect on aging.
Timestamps:
1:15 What is trauma?
2:48 Physical trauma
6:31 Emotional trauma
7:54 Signs of trauma, healing from trauma, & resiliency
9:30 A landmark trauma study: The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Study
13:38 Trauma & associated aging implications
14:18 Accelerated cellular aging & chronic conditions
15:55 Role of depression in abnormal aging
18:05 Trauma and health risk behaviors
20:29 Health risk behaviors as a coping mechanism for trauma
22:30 Trauma & physical health conditions
22:55 Assessing trauma & cognition in the clinic
25:22 ACEs-associated Alzheimer’s Disease risk
27:20 Physiological mechanism between trauma, decision making, & health outcomes
29:00 Role of HPA axis in traumatic experiences
29:46 Trauma as a root cause: how to recognize trauma & seek care
32:08 Epigenetics & intergenerational trauma
33:27 Importance of trauma awareness
If you enjoyed this conversation, please subscribe to the podcast, follow us on social media, and consider leaving a 5-star Apple Podcast review.
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If you’re interested in learning more, the episode Fact Sheet can be downloaded on our website by clicking here.
Feeling stressed is something that everyone can likely relate to, but did you know that your stress levels and how you manage stress can have a big impact on your health and aging? Unmanaged stress can contribute to many health problems and is associated with accelerated, abnormal aging. In this episode, host Brian Browne and co-host Lizzy Rasmussen discuss causes and types of stress, the stress response system, the role of stress in physical and cognitive health, implications of stress in aging, strategies to manage stress, and more.
Timestamps:
0:59 What is stress?
1:45 Overview of the stress response system
3:15 Common stressors
4:49 Stress response system physiology & stress hormones
7:38 Sex differences in stress management & treatment
10:55 Types of stress: acute, episodic, & chronic
13:08 Stress “toxicity”
15:43 Is all stress “bad”?
17:55 Stress throughout the lifespan
21:20 Role of maladaptive stress response in health and healthy aging
26:20 Strategies to manage stress
32:33 When to seek professional help
If you enjoyed this conversation, please subscribe to the podcast, follow us on social media, and consider leaving a 5-star Apple Podcast review.
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@brainhealth365 on Instagram
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If you’re interested in learning more, the episode Fact Sheet can be downloaded on our website by clicking here.
What we eat affects our brains just as much as our bodies. Because of convenience and lack of information, many people have poor, suboptimal diets, increasing the risk of disease and abnormal aging. Macronutrients are converted into glucose which is the main fuel source for the brain and body . Making wise choices for macronutrient fuel helps ensures optimal brain functioning. In contrast, poor choices cause impaired glucose and insulin metabolism which is linked to processes like oxidative stress and inflammation which damages the brain. In this episode, Host Brian Browne along with cohost Lizzy Rasmussen lead a conversation and give insight to help guide our fuel choices correctly.
Timestamps:
1:06 Introduction to macronutrients: how food fuels the body
2:35 What are macronutrients?
3:18 Types of carbohydrates – simple & complex
4:40 Simple carbohydrates
7:00 Complex carbohydrates
11:04 Protein
15:50 Types of fats – saturated, trans, & polyunsaturated
18:15 Target daily amount of each macronutrient
25:48 Animal protein versus plant protein
29:45 Discussion of food label
If you enjoyed this conversation, please subscribe to the podcast, follow us on social media, and consider leaving a 5-star Apple Podcast review.
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If you’re interested in learning more, the episode Fact Sheet can be downloaded on our website by clicking here.