Got Brain Fog, Memory Issues, or Mood Disorders?

How's Your Brain Health? 

I think the importance of brain health is overlooked.

Avoiding the nastiness of dementia, depression, poor memory, and cognition should be a pretty big priority.

And although we're onto the gut and hormone's role in these conditions, we don't seem to be working directly on brain function enough.

I think it's important to note, that hormones start in the brain and your brain is a major part of your nervous system. These messenger systems create all the actions in our body, so optimal health of a vital organ in both systems is essential.

The basics of how it works...

Neurons send and receive information via neurotransmitters in the brain, and mitochondria are the powerhouses of our neurons, they work out what's going on in your environment and then make electricity, hormones, and neurotransmitters, and act as a battery for our cells.

Essentially, neurons form connections via synapses and the mitochondria talk to each other to create what's needed to respond to its environment.

For a little perspective, most body cells have a couple of hundred mitochondria, neurons have around 15,000.

What goes wrong?

Toxins, nutrition, and hormones impact mitochondria. Their performance decreases by 50% between ages 30 - 70 so the brain's ability to create energy and send and receive information decreases with age.

Without intervention, our brain power will decline with age and environmental stressors. But this doesn't need to be the case.

Many things impact brain function; chronic stress, environmental factors, poor diet choices, toxic mold, and other lifestyle choices such as being sedentary.

Blood can be limited to the pre-frontal cortex and impact logical thinking, reasoning, and decision-making.

Signs that your brain isn't working as best it could...

• Forgetting what you're doing halfway through an action (opening the fridge or picking up your phone and forgetting why)
• Difficulty focusing
• Moodiness
• Low energy

What can we do to improve brain health??

If we can strengthen your mitochondria, you’ll have more brain energy for focus and higher states of consciousness in meditation and breathwork.

We need to focus on neurogenesis and neuroplasticity to improve brain function.

Neurogenesis

Neurogenesis is the ability to build new neurons. This mostly happens in embryos but continues throughout our lives.

Neuroplasticity

Is the adaptability of your brain. Your brain is designed to change its activity based on stimuli by reorganising its structure.

BDNF (Brain-derived neurotrophic factor) and NGF (Nerve growth factor) cause a young and neuroplastic brain.

Since the brain is made up of healthy fats and cholesterol (only oxidised cholesterol is bad for you, as it's burned) adding these to the diet can improve neurogenesis.

Good cholesterol is found in;

• Runny yolks
• Butter
• Grass-fed beef

On the other hand, Omega 6 is not good for neurogenesis (safflower and sunflower oils). High-sugar diets also slow your brain's ability to build new neurons. Sticking to a low GI diet is helpful.

Other things you can do to support a healthy brain;

• Intermittent fasting
• Movement and exercise
• Avoid heavy metals, solvents, additives, and man-made chemicals where possible
• Have fun and lead a fulfilling life
• Enjoy loving and playful sex life
• Ketosis (you don't want to stay in ketosis, we need metabolic flexibility)
• Inversions, roll downs, and cat cows (practice Pilates and Yoga and you'll be covered here)
• Gotu kola, Ginseng, and Brahmi are herbs that support cognition

It's also good practice to keep the brain running. Learning a new instrument or language, puzzles, games, and reading are helpful activities.

It's so important to keep our hearts open throughout our lives, but keeping our brains chugging along can also give us a better quality of life.

Big brainy love to you

Melinda x

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