The Key Factors of Brain Aging and How Diet & Exercise Play a Role | Podcast Ep. 164

Hello and welcome to the Evidence Based Chiropractor. I AM your host, Dr. Jeff Langmid and we have a science packed episode today. We are talking about the hallmarks of brain aging, the metabolic states and how diet and exercise may play a huge role in brain aging. So you definitely gonna wanna check this one out. Also, if you saw the email that came across from me on Friday, you know I am excited to announce Adjust yout Marketing. It is my intensive workshop. It's happening in Tampa June 7 through 9 of this year 2019. So I wanted to be the first to tell you for a short time, you know we have 65% off ticket prices. So super early bird discount is going on right, right now. And if you are not familiar with Adjust, it is a live intensive weekend where we're going to work hands on one on one to grow your practice. We're going to talk about what's new, what's hot, what's working right now in digital marketing and how you can apply it to your practice. But as I said, this is not just a straight up lecture. This is deep dive one on one working together. We're going to shoot video that you can take home with you. We're going to write email copy, we're going to work through website updates and tips and tricks. It's gonna be awesome. But you can get 65% off a super early bird ticket. I had five of those tickets allotted for and a majority of them are already gone. But there are a couple left over. You can check it out@the evidencebasedchiropractor.com events. But as I said at the top, today we are talking about a paper that was released in Cellular Metabolism, I believe is the journal in June of 2018. And the title of the paper was, was Hallmarks of Brain Aging Adaptive and Pathological Modification by Metabolic States. So as I said at the top, this gets to be pretty interesting because when we look at brain aging, there are some correlative factors, I guess in terms of diet, in terms of exercise and how those play a major role in our brain development and ultimately how our brain ages as well. So within the next 30 years, the number of Americans living and diagnosed with Alzheimer's will more than double from the current number of 5 million to ultimately more than 12 million, which is pretty outrageous. If we take a step beyond that. We see between the year 2000 and 2013, the number of deaths from heart disease, cancer and stroke decreased by more than 10%. Great prevention there. But the number of deaths attributed to Alzheimer's increased by over 70%. So clearly, we probably all know somebody who has suffered from, whether it's Alzheimer's, whether it's Parkinson's, whether it's ultimately stroke. And these are very debilitating, to say an understatement. So when there are factors that could perhaps change that outlook, this becomes really, really exciting. The researchers found ultimately what they kind of call ten hallmarks of aging. And I'm gonna read all ten right now. Mitochondrial dysfunction, intracellular accumulation of oxidatively damaged proteins, dysregulation of energy metabolism, impaired cellular waste disposal mechanisms, impaired adaptive stress response, compromised DNA repair, aberrant neuronal network activity, dysregulated neuromal calcium handling, stem cell exhaustion, and inflammation. So some of those got very technical and I even stumbled over it. But there are some key factors there that we all could probably anticipate, right? Certainly when they're with the networks not working correctly, that's an issue. When there's waste disposal, that's not happening, that's an issue. Mitochondrial dysfunction, that's an issue. And then we see inflammation kind of creeping up towards the end there, which starts to get very interesting and peel into what we are gonna talk about. So as they talk about in the paper, brain imaging studies have documented reduced gray matter volumes in white matter integrity in multiple brain regions and reduced functional connectivity between brain regions in obese individuals, particularly those with abdominal obesity and insulin resistance. So abdominal obesity and insulin resistance. Okay, we're starting to piece together some things where researchers have noted with brain imaging scans, there are gray matter issues and there are white matter issues, specifically with people with abdominal obesity and insulin resistance. So I can probably imagine that your brain is already starting to turn, probably with a few patients in your practice and maybe even people in your family where this could play a role. Additionally, the researchers discovered and looked at previous studies with high fat diets and high sugar diets and that exhibit many of the cellular and molecular hallmarks of brain aging, including oxidative damage, neuroinflammation, impaired calcium homeostasis, impaired autophagy, and dysregulation of neuronal network activity. Now, again, these are getting pretty technical and starts to go over my head here. But when I start to break some of these things down, I say, okay, high fat, high sugar diet, we know that that's not good, but how does that impact. Well, they're saying, one, oxidative damage, two, neuroinflammation, we're talking about then impaired calcium homeostasis, we're then talking about DYSREGULATION of network activity. So these are all big, big factors in ultimately what precipitate aging. And they talk about the mechanisms by which chronic uncontrolled stress, ding, ding, ding. And metabolic morbidity compromise the ability of neurons to respond to stre similar and involve an acceleration of the aging process. So again, when they're saying they're uncontrolled, stress can result in differences in stress response and an acceleration of the aging process. How many people do we see in our practices each day that have chronic stress? A lot of people out there. The researchers also cite sedentary and overindulgent lifestyles are directly correlative to, to accelerating the processes of age related brain diseases. So again, brain aging, brain disease processes. If there's a sedentary lifestyle, if there's overindulgence in caloric intake, AKA eating, these also play a huge role. And this research is really exciting to me because while an adjustment potentially doesn't impact a lot of what we're talking about, this is really about lifestyle and showcasing movement, showcasing potential, showcasing good diet. And that falls directly in probably with what you're already talking about day in and day out. But this is an interesting look at it. If you think about the impact that can be made long term with individuals when they make good choices. We know that. But taking some responsibility for being able to influence that, perhaps getting some information out across your social networks, certainly speaking to the people in your practice day in and day out, hopefully this lights a little bit of a fire onto you that it is not for naught. There is a great opportunity to make a huge impact with people. Research has also found, quote, intermittent energy restriction improves cognitive and motor performance and can protect neurons against dysfunction and degeneration in animal models of epilepsy, stroke, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. So again, exercise and intermittent energy restriction. Now they don't get into how many hours should you fast, how many hours should you not? But they talk about, hey, when you look back towards three meals a day in snacks, that's not the way that we traditionally pre agricultural revolution really sourced our food. And again, they take it one step farther and they say, okay, well how is that impacting things? And clearly when there is intermittent energy restriction, it can improve cognitive and motor performance. That's a big deal. Researchers also found regular aerobic exercise, which is necessary for the survival of many animals, can also enhance brain health throughout the life course. Exercise reduces anxiety and improves cognition in laboratory animals and human subjects. So reduced anxiety, AKA reducing chronic stress. And we've seen and talked about just on this episode in the last few minutes, all of the positive benefits that can come from that. And finally the research has kind of put it all together and said, quote, the evidence now justifies implementation by the medical community of strategies for enhancing the brain health of their patients by their prescription and active facilitation of daily and weekly patterns of meal consumption and exercise that result in intermittent metabolic switching. So again, it's not, you can't just eat 24 7. What they're showcasing here here anyhow is that by having the metabolic pathways, so to speak, switch on and off, AKA you eat, you have time between meals, you're not just eating all the time plays a big role. Now these things go hand in hand, right? Where if you're able to reduce calorie consumption overall, you're probably gonna weigh less. And now we start to take the obesity piece of it. And again, when they're talking about abdominal obesity and sedentary lifestyle, these things typically mix together. So I think this is just another example of the cyclical nature of how things work out. If you're overindulging in eating, you're probably eating significant amount or intaking throughout the day. So there's no metabolic switch, there's no fast even for maybe more than a couple hours or so. And you're gonna be more likely to be sedentary, you're gonna be more likely to have abdominal obesity. And all of these things have been shown to pretty much directly contribute to brain aging. Now the researchers talk about the fact that, hey, brain, there is a genetic component. It's so multifactorial that you don't want to get hung up just on one thing or the other. But with that being said, when we look at exercise, when we look at stress, when we look at how we move our body and what we put into our body, these are two or three areas that can make a huge impact in brain aging. So I'm going to put a, in the show notes, I'm going to put the citation to this research paper. I think it's, I mean this paper is like 40 some odd pages long. There is a lot of, there's a lot of chemistry, so to speak, that's probably over my head. But hopefully this gives you a good roundabout or a good overview of what they found. And again, my take home message for you today is keep talking about healthy lifestyle with your patients. You know, until, you know, the patterns of what we see in terms of obesity and sedentary lifestyles really swing the other way. It is necessary for us to keep our foot on the gas, keep talking about it, keep living it, keep showcasing it. Because not only can it help people get out of pain, perhaps quickly right now in terms of acute inflammation, but it can pay serious dividends down the road. And as you expand your impact, you know, as the old saying goes, right, you know, the impact of what you do today could affect the lives of millions tomorrow. And I like to think of that. I think it lights a fire under me and tells me, hey, keep my foot on the gas. Let's keep talking about the things necessary to live a healthy lifestyle and do everything we can to support the health of our communities and people ultimately at large. So I hope you have a great week in practice and I will talk to you soon.

We appreciate you joining us for this episode of the Evidence Based Chiropractor. Learn more tips for explosive practice development at the evidence basedchiropractor.com youm can also join the Premier MD monthly membership, enabling you to use what you just heard to maximize results in your office.