Enhancing Cognitive Functioning: Quickstart Guide

Hey there everybody, and welcome to this video on enhancing cognitive function, the Quick Start Guide. I'm your host, Dr. Donnelly Snipes. In this video, we're basically just going to talk about some strategies that may help you enhance your cognitive functioning. We're not going to go into a lot of the reasons why it may not be optimal. So first step you want to look at or first area you can look at are physical strategies. Sleep is important quality and quantity. Even adults need seven to nine hours of quality sleep. That means sleeping through the night. That means controlling for any obstructive sleep apnea. That means not getting up throughout the night to go pee. You need that good quality, quality, solid sleep. And I have lots of videos on the YouTube channel on sleep. Circadian rhythms. That's not the same as sleep. Circadian rhythms actually regulate a lot of stuff in your body. And when your circadian rhythms are out of whack, it is going to impair your sleep, but it's also going to impair your immunity and your cognitive functioning. When you're not getting quality sleep, when you're not getting enough deep sleep, then your body isn't able to clear out the adenosine from your brain that builds up throughout the day, which leaves you feeling kind of groggy and foggy the next day. Nutrition and hydration are also really important for cognitive functioning. Dehydration, even as little as 1%, contributes to a decline in cognitive functioning. They've also found that B vitamins, which are water soluble and omega 3s, tend to be very important for nutrition for cognitive functioning. Along with that, and I'm going to jump down to inflammation. Is eating an anti inflammatory diet. Inflammation contributes to activation of the HPA axis that contributes to physical stress. It contributes to oxidative stress, which causes more inflammation. And that can cause the depletion or the paring back of neurons because it creates a neurotoxic environment. So you want to eat an anti inflammatory diet, you want to control inflammation as much as possible. And finally, oxygenation. Your brain needs oxygen to function. When you yawn, a lot of times it's because your brain's not getting enough oxygen. It's not so much that you're sleepy. So it is important to practice deep breathing. Two benefits to that. Number one, oxygenation. But number two, if you take a moment periodically throughout the day to take a few deep breaths, breathe in for four or eight, hold and then exhale for four or eight, it slows your breathing and triggers the relaxation response which slows down or Counteracts the stress response. The next area you can look at is your affective or your emotional strategies. The first one is HPA axis regulation. Now remember, HPA axis is your stress response system. And again, more videos about that on the YouTube channel that go into depth. But what's important to know is when your stress response system is activated, when that fight or flight system is activated because of emotional stress, cognitive stress, environmental stress, whatever kind of stress, you are in a fight or flight mode. That means you tend to have more tunnel vision. Your brain is not focused on focusing on anything except for getting safe and getting away from the threat. So if you need to concentrate, it's going to be more difficult when you are under stress, even chronic low grade stress. When you're depressed, when you're anxious, when you're angry, or even when you've experienced trauma or grief. When you are in a dysphoric, as we say, frame of mind that often indicates the HPA axis is activated, that threat response system is activated. So you're going to have more difficulty focusing on other things. Your memory is not going to be all that it could be because guess what, your brain is focused on fight or flee. Anything that you can do in order to address some of those affective things that prevent you from being able to use your energy to focus on the things that you want to is going to be helpful. Another affective component is a part of the learning process. And when we learn, we need to get the information into our brain. You know, we need to get it in somehow. Then we need to conceptualize it, figure out kind of what does it mean to me. But in order to commit it to memory, in order to be able to really use it effectively, we have to care about it. Think about the stuff that you learned in high school or in college, when you were cramming for a test, you didn't care about it. You just wanted to remember it long enough to pass the test and then it was in one ear and out the other. Same thing with phone numbers these days because it's all stored in our, in our mobile devices. A lot of us don't care enough to memorize phone numbers because we know that it's going to be somewhere where we can look it up. In order to trigger those aspects of your brain that are engaged in committing things to long term memory, you need to figure out why it matters. Why do you care about this? Why is it important to remember these things? So a journaling prompt before we go to the next slide. In the past when you were able to think clearly and focus more easily. Problem solve what was different? The next area you want to think about for enhancing your cognition is guess what? Cognitive get the information in your preferred learning style. If you're trying to learn how to operate machinery and you do best by hearing it well, find a YouTube video. If you do best by reading, get the manual. If you do best by getting someone to show you how to do it, well, go back to that video again. But it's important to try to take in information in the way or ways that you learn best for more complicated things. Sometimes you may benefit from the use of acronyms or mnemonic devices that prompt you to remember a list of different things. For example, for secure attachment, we use the mnemonic device craves consistency, responsiveness, attention, validation, encouragement and support. So I can always remember those three things or I'm sorry, those six things by using that mnemonic device. Another way you can enhance your memory and your cognition and even your problem solving is to relate it to something you already know. So how have you solved a similar problem in the past and what might you be able to use from that experience to help you now? The next one is flex your mental muscle. And yes, your brain is not a muscle. However, researchers have found repeatedly that when you engage in cognitively stimulating activities, it can be arts and crafts, it can be playing chess. Anything that's listening to music. Anything that stimulates your brain and especially stimulates your brain in different ways builds up what they call cognitive reserve. So you're using more of your brain, you've got more to work with. One suggestion that I encourage you to do and one I do for myself, I tend to be more on the creative side and less on the analytical side. So some of the activities that I engage in for hobbies tend to be more analytical. Playing checkers, doing games on my mobile device that tend to be more analytical in nature. Like Minesweeper. Yes, I know that's a really old game, but it gets the job done. Finally, environmentally eliminate distractions. It's really hard to focus if you are getting bombarded by all kinds of stimuli and all kinds of information. So eliminate distractions so you can focus on on what is important. I don't have it on here, but break it into chunks. Sometimes it's better to do multiple 15, 20 minute segments than to try to sit down and do something for four hours straight. Most people find it easier to chunk it and that can help a lot with improving your memory and retention. Add reminders or Write it down. Sometimes life is just happening and you can't eliminate the distressful things. You can't eliminate some of the sources of stress. So instead of getting frustrated because you can't remember everything, which is not a real realistic thought anyway, add reminders. It can be on your mobile device or just write it down. Make lists. Write things down to remind yourself what you need to remember. And finally, essential oils. Now remember, with essential oils you do not need to imply them and you do not, should not ingest them. Essential oils function through their ability to trigger the pineal gland when people inhale them. So all you need to be able to do is detect the aroma. It doesn't even have to be strong, you just need to be able to detect it. And again, there have been multiple studies on that that you can find on PubMed, but lavender, eucalyptus, jasmine, forgot the E on that one. Rosemary, black pepper and peppermint have all been found to be extremely helpful in improving cognition in both humans and animals. Your final journal prompt what things currently impair your cognitive functioning and how can you address them? So going back through this list of things that you can do to help yourself, which ones aren't you doing right now and what can you do or what are you willing to do to try to improve even two or three of them? More in depth videos can be found on the YouTube channel. Preventing Cognitive Decline is available at allceus.com dementiaprevention now this talks about a lot of different things that you can do to maintain healthy cognitive functioning. It's not just for people who have dementia. And the second one is the neurobiological impact of psychological trauma. And that is@allceus.com PTSD, neuro and that one helps you understand the impact of chronic stress and or trauma on your brain and how those things can impair cognitive functioning.