Introducing My New Podcast! Health Hacks with Mark Hyman, MD

[Speaking of] Imagine being able to enhance your mood, your mental acuity, your overall cognitive function just by what you choose to put at the end of your fork. You see, food is not just sustenance or energy to fuel our bodies. It's one of the most potent forms of medicine that's available to us, literally medicine. In today's episode, we're exploring the impact of food, five specific foods. We call them superfoods, but really they're just foods that help boost our mental health, reverse brain aging, and protect us from chronic, ever more common neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and dementia and Parkinson's. Hi, I'm Dr. Mark Hyman and welcome to Health Hacks. The typical American diet, which the vast majority of Americans eat, is loaded with sugars, starches, ultra processed food like substances, science projects basically, and inflammatory fats which can do the exact opposite, drive inflammation that harms our physical health and clouded our brains, strips us of our zest and vitality for life and makes us prone to sadness, anxiety and depression. It literally breaks our brain. And that's why so many of us are walking around with a broken brain. Now, in previous episodes of the podcast, I've discussed in depth how food influences our mood and mental state, which I I strongly encourage you to check out and I'll link to them in the show notes. However, today I want to zero in on the research behind five specific foods that you can add to your diet for tremendous capacity to support your brain and health and make us feel, think and perform better. Now, some of you may be familiar with a few of these foods, but others may surprise you. So let's jump right in with the first food that can literally change the way your brain works for the better. The first is dark green leafy vegetables, and specifically a category called cruciferous vegetables, also known as brassicas, basically the broccoli family. Kale, collards, spinach, arugula, Swiss chard, collard greens, mustard greens, bok choy, romaine lettuce, turnip greens, beet greens, watercress, endive, escarole, broccoli rabe, dandelion greens, radicchio, watercress, lettuce, chicory, pretty much anything green, right? How good are they for our brains? And what does the research say? Well, the data on nutrients and bioactives in green leafy veggies and cognitive decline is very impressive. An observational study from Rush University in Chicago and the Tufts Human Nutrition Research Center in Boston followed 960 participants aged 58 to 99 who enrolled in the Rush Memory and Aging Project. Now, researchers wanted to investigate the effects of specific nutrients found in green leafy veggies on cognitive decline in older adults over an average period of about five years, using the data from food frequency questionnaires and cognitive assessments. Now, Food frequency questionnaires are not the best tool, but they give us some sense of what's going on. And the findings were striking. They revealed that the higher consumption of green leafy veggies correlated with a slower rate of cognitive decline, meaning you're less likely to end up going into dementia. Now specifically, those with the highest green leafy vegetable consumption averaged about 1.3 servings a day, which by the way is low. You should be actually having two or three times that at least. They had an average cognitive decline rate equivalent to being approximately, now get this, 11 years younger simply with 1.3 servings a day of green leafy veggies compared to those with the lowest intake of green leafy veggies. Now, the protective effect was still there after adjusting for all kinds of variables like age, sex, education, lifestyle factors, things like smoking and exercise. Now, part of the problem with this data is it's observational. It looks at correlation, not causation. But we can still learn a lot from this study. Another study was entitled the Association Between Eating Green Vegetables Every Day and Mild Cognitive Impairment, which essentially is known as pre dementia. And it was a community based cross sectional study. It wasn't done in Shanghai. And the researchers investigated the relation between the daily consumption of green vegetable consumption and the prevalence of pre dementia or MCI. And what they found, they looked at about 525 participants age 55 and older as part of this longitudinal study that was called the China longitudinal aging study. It was done in Shanghai and used food frequency questionnaires to assess their diet. And the main findings indicated that participants who consumed green vegetables had a 78% reduced risk of MCI compared to those who did not. Now, it's not causation, but it's a pretty good association. And it was still there after adjusting for age, education, hobbies, internet use, sleep patterns, a lot of other things that can kind of mess up your cognitive decline. Now, again, this was a cross-sectional study, which cannot prove cause and effect, but what could be the mechanism, right? What is the mechanism of green leafy veggies and the positive effect on their brain? Well, there's a lot of reasons. Antioxidants and protective phytochemicals. Now, we don't think of phytochemicals as essential nutrients, but they kind of are. They're protective foods, right? We know harmful foods like sugar and processed food and so forth, but they're also protective foods and we want to eat more of those and less of the harmful foods. Now, green leafy vegetables, polyphenols contain anti-inflammatory molecules and antioxidants, things like vitamin C and E, carotenoids, which are the green, orange things actually also, but they're in the green vegetables, lutein, which is great for eyes, alpha-linolenic acid, which is plant-based Omega-3s they contain polyphenols, which are these plant-based anti-inflammatory chemicals, flavonoids, things like camphor all these things reduce oxidative stress, which causes inflammation, and then reduce more importantly, neuroinflammation, which is inflammation of your brain. Now oxidative stress damages your cells and it can contribute to the formation and accumulation of something called beta amyloid plaques. And you might have heard of amyloid theory of Alzheimer's. And amyloid, just to be clear, is not the cause of Alzheimer's, although many, for many years thought it was, and we spent billions of dollars studying research to prove that it was, but we never could be successful. It's sort of a side effect of inflammation and it's the body's attempt to deal with a bad set of circumstances. so it's sort of a bystander in the process of dementia. And it does gum up your brain, but it's really not the issue, it's the inflammation that's driving the amyloid development. And some of these foods can be protective, right? So some studies suggest that polyphenols can inhibit the formation of beta amyloid fibrils, which are these plaques that are common in response to inflammation in the brain. And they gum up the brain that ends up causing dementia. Now, they also promote clearance of these plaques in the brain. So these polyphenols actually help the brain clear amyloid, which is great. this explains probably maybe some of their effects on the cognitive function that we're seeing. There's also other nutrients like vitamin K, philoquinone, that plays a crucial role in regulating calcium and activates proteins that help keep calcium out of areas where it shouldn't be, such as the brain's blood vessels. Vitamin K also has anti-inflammatory effects and that can reduce neuroinflammation. It's also involved in the synthesis of important fats called sphingolipids, doesn't matter what they call them, but basically it's a class of lipids that are crucial of your brain cell membrane. So your brain cells have membranes and they have to be made of the right fats. And if they don't have the right fats, you end up with more inflammation. Now these lipids play a role in cell signaling and they maintain the integrity and the function of your brain cells. Really important. So what else is in green leafy veggies that could be helpful? Well, folate. Green vegetables are rich in folate, not folic acid. Now where does the word folate come from? Foliage, right? Foliage, green foliage. That's why, 'cause they're rich in folate. And these are really essential for breaking down something called homocysteine in the blood. Now, this is an amino acid that accumulates in the blood in the absence of the right amount of the B vitamins like folate, B6 and B12. And it goes up when you're low in these vitamins, B6, B12 and folate. And that is linked to an increased risk for heart disease and Alzheimer's. In fact, everyone should have their homocysteine measured. It's not part of your routine checkup when you go to the doctor, but it's essential because if your level is over 14, your risk of dementia goes up by 50%. Now, Function Health, which is the company that I've co-founded to give you access to your own health data and lab measurements, it's part of the 100 plus lab tests that you already get. So you can access it at functionhealth.com/mark and skip the 200,000 person waitlist if you want to get your homocysteine checked. And there's many other tests you need to do, too. We'll talk about in that podcast today. Also, greens have B vitamins. Now, many leafy greens are also rich in other B vitamins, including B6 and B12, which are also vital for brain health. Now, these vitamins are really important because they're involved in neurotransmitter synthesis, right? The little messenger chemicals of your brain and in the metabolism of your brain. And they help support overall brain function and reduce the risk of cognitive decline. Now, I had this 85 year old patient once she was diagnosed with pre-dementia and she was told to get her affairs in order because according to traditional medicine, it's a one-way street. You have pre-dementia, you're heading all the way to dementia, and it's a slow, slippery slope. or maybe sometimes fast. Now, as people get older, their stomachs don't absorb nutrients so well, especially B12. And it turned out she was really low in B12 and folate, which we measured by checking her homocysteine in her blood and a special test for B12 that most doctors again don't check called methylmalonic acid. It's a much better indicator of your B12 status, and it's also part of the function health basic testing. Now, we gave her the right forms of the nutrients, and guess what? her pre-dementia went away. And she called me a few years later and I thought, oh, maybe she's sliding. I don't know what's happening. She says, well, Dr. Hyman, I'm just going trekking in Bhutan. I want to know what I should take to protect myself when I go away. I'm like, oh, great. This is a fabulous story. She's not going downhill. She's going literally uphill. Now, what are the actual takeaways? How do you apply this science to everyday life? Well, the recommended intake of non-starchy veggies is five to nine servings. That's only about two and a half cups of cooked greens. One serving is about a half a cup of cooked or one cup of raw. But you have to understand that's just the minimum, right? If we want to use food to feel younger, to help our brain function better, we need to boost our diet to include eight to ten cups of veggies and fruit every day. Now, it sounds like a lot, but thankfully there's lots of ways to introduce more veggies in your diet. You can eat more soups, for example. Soups are a great way to get more veggies in your diet. You can make a vegetable by pureeing several types of greens and adding spices to it. You can make vegetable noodles. Did you know it's super easy to make noodles out of veggies? It's also a great low carb substitute for regular pasta. So you insert your veggie of choice into a spiralizer. It's a kitchen gadget that processes them into noodle like shapes. In fact, they're really cool. Choose healthy snacks instead of reaching for a bag of chips. Keep a stash of raw veggie sticks handy when you're looking to munch on something between meals. Bell peppers and carrots are great options for this, right? also hide your veggies in smoothies. Smoothies are great and they're great tasting and they add a significant amount of greens to your diet if you put greens in there. And, you can add any number of different veggies without compromising the fruity flavor of the drink. Now, my favorite includes spinach, kale, romaine lettuce, zucchini. And, I actually also love to make just a plain old green smoothie with just greens and cucumbers, celery, a little ginger, lemon, maybe half an apple. It's so easy to make, it's so yummy and you can get a lot of veggies in by drinking your veggies, literally. so what else besides green leafy vegetables is protective for your brain? What's the second big group of food or foods that can do this? Well, small cold water fish. Let me explain why. Now, I call these the smash fish, salmon, mackerel, anchovies, sardines and herring. Now, you might not like them, but they are the most nutritionally dense, the lowest in toxins and the highest in omega-3 fats. plus trout and oysters are also great. Now, why is fish good for our brains? What does the research actually say? Well, a new study published in the British Journal of Nutrition looked at the diet of 798 adults aged 65 to 97, and they looked at a 102 item questionnaire using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. Now, participants were categorized based on adherence to the Mediterranean diet. Now, we can argue, what is the Mediterranean diet? Is there a better diet out there? but it's basically a whole foods healthy diet, right? And, and, and it's not, and basically what is Mediterranean diet? It could be pizza and pasta, that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about whole foods, right? Lots of veggies, fruit, olive oil, nuts, seeds, fish, whole grains, beans, that's a Mediterranean diet. Now, the higher adherence to the diet was correlated with a 55% lower risk of depression symptoms. Increased fish intake was linked to a 44% reduced risk of depression overall and 56% reduction in women. Now, each additional gram of fish per day decreased a woman's depression risk by 2% and three or more servings of fresh fish a week reduced depression by 62%. Now, think of that in the context of our mental health crisis. I mean, we're all taking Prozac and being in therapy and doing all these things, but what if we just ate a can of sardines three times a week? Right? You might have no friends. They might like how you smell, but maybe you won't be depressed. Now, I'm just kidding. I love sardines and they're great and they're delicious. And I just came from Europe where they have fresh sardines are so good. Now, what they found was interesting. There was no effect with canned tuna. Now, tuna is also high in Omega-3s, but it's also high in mercury, which can actually cause depression and it can be a concern. So I would stay away from those big fish like tuna, swordfish, halibut. and so forth. Now, you can use the guide from the Environmental Working Group, ewg.org, and you can see their guide on choosing fish for the lowest amount of mercury. So just go to ewg.org and you'll learn about it. So just a quick note about women in the study of women, women who consume more monounsaturated, right, from olive oil, avocados, macadamia nuts, right, versus saturated fat. And they did this from fatty fish, olive oil, peanuts, avocados, almonds, pecans, all that cashews. hazelnuts, they had a 42% lower risk of depressive symptoms just by eating more nuts and omega-3 fats. Now, in men, fruit and nut consumption led to an 82% reduction in the depression risk. In other large studies that are observational studies have similar findings, right? There's an inverse correlation between fish consumption and the risk for depression. So more fish, less depression. And the lower your fish intake, the higher your risk for depression and poor mental health. Don't forget, there's a way to listen completely ad free with Hyman plus on Apple podcasts. You can enjoy every episode without any breaks. Just open Apple podcasts and tap try free to start your seven day free trial.