In this introductory episode of the "Unhack Your Brain" series, host Speaker A interviews Dr. David Perlmutter about findings from his BrainWash program that link nature exposure to brain health. They discuss how modern indoor lifestyles—spending about 87% of time indoors and another 6% in vehicles—drive chronic stress, elevate cortisol and inflammatory markers, and impair decision‑making. The conversation highlights research showing that even brief, accessible nature experiences (urban parks, houseplants, essential oils, bird feeders) can lower inflammation, reduce stress, and restore attention, supporting better cognitive function and choices. Dr. Perlmutter shares personal habits such as feeding backyard birds, while Speaker A recounts using plants and essential oils during Pacific Northwest winters. The episode emphasizes the practical message that nature benefits are attainable for city dwellers and are a powerful, low‑cost tool for improving brain health.
Chapters
You know, one of the things about BrainWash is we got to look at so many topics, and nature is one of those things that we kind of always knew was good for us. But what's been the most surprising part about the research we did for BrainWash for you?
Yeah, I think that I never realized, I personally never realized how valuable nature exposure is to helping reduce inflammation. And what we talked about in BrainWash is how inflammation is Really crippling our ability as it relates to good decision-making. So what's happening around here then is we're lowering our inflammation. That's a good thing.
Absolutely. And it seems like the way this might be happening is actually by reducing stress. Because we know that chronic stress, basically modern life, leads to inflammation when it's left unchecked. And when we go out into nature, it destresses us. Cortisol levels come down, inflammatory markers also come down, and these are things that support Good thinking.
But do you have to be in a park or live near a national park? How do you make that happen?
Yeah, that's been something that's been very exciting for me to see because as much as I'd like to tell everyone to go out to some beautiful national forest, it's not available. And unless you live really near some sort of amazing scenery, it's just not viable. But the research has actually shown us—
That's for sure.
Yeah, that you can go out right outside of your house, find a local park, even an urban park. And I think it's Such an important message for people who live in cities like us.
Yeah, and truth be known, right now we're only about 2 blocks from a major street, and there is a blue jay in the background, so that's offsetting the big street. And, you know, the research shows that even just having a plant in your home brings nature into your home and has really some very positive benefits. So what was it like for you out in the Pacific Northwest?
Right, so when I was living out in Oregon for the last 4 years, The winters would occasionally get a little bit dismal. And I love the Pacific Northwest, but sometimes you just didn't want to go outside. And so what I discovered is, through this research, you can basically just bring a plant or even an essential oil from a plant inside your apartment, and you'll be benefiting from all of these wonderful, amazing health benefits that come from nature.
And for me, truth be known, I, every morning with my wife, we like to watch We have 2 bird feeders in the backyard. It's a thing, and I love it. We know every bird that comes. We know the order that they come. We know when they leave. And I just, it just lights my day up. It's really great. Well, we do, as you know, spend a lot of time out in nature. And, you know, again, the point that we made in BrainWash that we're making moving forward is that this is yet another powerful tool for you to reduce inflammation and improve your ability to make So
it seems like such a crazy thing that we're spending 87% of our time indoors and another 6% of our time in enclosed vehicles. We're obviously not getting into nature as much as we used to be.
That's our challenge. I mean, our challenge is then to get the word out that nature really matters in terms of your brain health, in terms of your general health. And that statistic is huge because it means that by and large people have lost the And why
does it— I mean, why does that matter so much? Because you think maybe it's better for us to be inside all the time. We can be more productive on our computers and on our TVs and on our mobile phones. So what do we lose?
I submit that you're not as productive when you're doing all that because it's bad for your brain, you know, not just your cognitive function, but I think more importantly, your decision-making. I mean, that's one of the central themes in Brain Wash. is that your decision-making is related to inflammation. Higher levels of inflammation threaten your ability to make decisions that are important for your health and your life, and that being out in nature like we are right now is a real important way to lower that inflammation and other things.
And to build off of that, this is the whole idea of attention restoration theory. The concept is when you get out into nature, it resets you so that you can maintain your focus on other things. It seems like when we're always indoors, when we're always in the city, we lose focus, and nature helps to reset us. So, so important.
Yeah, and you know what Austin said a moment ago, asking about, well, what's so bad about the 86% of our time spent indoors? It's been said that, you know, when you're doing one thing, you're not doing something else. If you're indoors all the time not paying attention, and then another 6% of your time in your car, Then you don't even leave yourself time to get out in nature. And this is, this is doing us a lot of good. This is reducing inflammation and, you know, ultimately helping us make better decisions.
Yeah, that's the key. You can benefit from nature from literally just getting outside.
This is one of the important tenets of the BrainWash program, so we're hoping you're going to take advantage of it.
