Protecting Your Brain Part 2 with Dr. Lisa Mosconi & Jim Kwik

Welcome back, Kwik Brain, to part 2 of the conversation we're having about how do you protect the female brain. And if you haven't listened to the previous episode, make sure you do so. This is a very special 2-part episode. We're here back with neuroscientist Dr. Lisa Mosconi. This is our 5th episode together now.

Wow.

Now our most popular guest, and we are having a conversation about her brand new book, called XX Brain. And so in the previous episode, we talked about how women experience more anxiety, depression, brain fog, insomnia, twice—

Almost twice as likely to be diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. And so headaches and migraines. And depression and anxiety and meningioma.

Right. So we had this in-depth conversation and we started to go through her acronym on how to protect your brain. And we went through the first 3. We're not going to review it right now. You should go back and re-listen to that or listen to that episode. But we left off with, uh, with S for sleep.

S for sleep. We had a double S.

Right.

Sleep and stress.

Yes.

So it is accepted that women sleep worse than men. And again, it's not about comparing women and men. The point is that women don't sleep well overall. We have a harder time falling asleep and staying asleep. And the problem is that disrupted sleep has been associated with all sorts of medical issues, and more recently, also with a higher risk of Alzheimer's or dementia later on in life.

Sure.

We sort of understand the connection in that sleep is that stage of your brain's life where the brain has a chance to just clear itself out of toxins and waste products. So if your sleep is impaired, the brain just doesn't have a chance to take care of itself. And in the end, that leads to oxidation, inflammation, inflammation, accelerated aging. So it's really important to try and get sleep. I know you don't sleep a lot.

Right.

Right. Some people can get by with very little sleep. Some people like me just can't.

Right.

So it's important, I think, to prioritize sleep as well, which goes in tandem with stress.

Sure.

Stress is a major issue and is really a major cause of And it can be career stress, financial stress, emotional, relationships. Emotional stress, family stress, hormonal stress as well, right? So stress is really an issue for men and women, of course, although there is evidence that the consequences are more severe for women's brains.

What way?

There are these big brain— oh, so the evidence has started with brain scans If you look at the brains of men and women under chronic stress over time, that seems to really correlate with increased brain shrinkage before you even turn 50.

Wow.

Only for women.

Wow.

So women seem to be more vulnerable to stress. And I think one connection is that stress is, Basically, there's this hormone cortisol, which is the main stress hormone that works in tandem with your estrogens.

Mm-hmm.

So if your cortisol goes up, your estrogens go down. If your cortisol goes down, your estrogens go back up. So if you're constantly under stress, the body will try to steal the precursor to both cortisol and estrogen, which is called pregnenolone. And shift the metabolism towards cortisol production. So it sinks your estrogens to make more of the stress hormone, which is fine as long as the stress is temporary.

Right.

Once it becomes chronic, then you starve your body of your sex hormones that are so important for brain health, energy, and vitality.

And so as part of self-care, what, what, what do you recommend? What are some of the things people could do to cope with stress?

Yes, there are actually some things that are scientifically proven to work, which were surprising to me, like meditation. I'm a scientist, so these things sound very foreign to me, but there is quite good research showing that having a consistent meditation practice actually lowers cortisol levels and normalizing, normalizing brain waves in a way that turns out to be like a natural antidepressant.

Amazing, amazing. So let's review the acronym. So far.

Yes. So the acronym is Mens Sana.

Mens Sana.

Yes, it comes from Latin. It's a Latin expression. It's very popular, at least in Italy. And it's Mens Sana in Corpore Sano, which means a healthy mind in a healthy body. So I thought that using the first part, Mens Sana, could be really helpful to provide an acronym to describe or detail these 8 Pillars to Alzheimer's prevention for women.

Sure.

So M was for mental stimulation, E for exercise, N for nutrition. Now we're talking about sleep and stress.

Yes.

And then we're going to move on with A, which is avoiding toxins.

Avoiding toxins.

Yes. This is something that as a neuroscientist, I kind of underestimated for a little while when people were coming to me and saying, oh, should I eat organic? I honestly thought it's just marketing. It turns out it's not. So now there's actual solid evidence that there are endocrine disruptors in many of the chemicals that surround us. They're called xenoestrogens.

Mm-hmm.

And even the American Endocrine Society has put out a warning label for many of those, of these compounds because they mimic the action of estrogens inside the bodies, but they have a disrupting effect, which is especially toxic for children, all children, and women, especially pregnant women, but also women across the board.

Sure. And where, where's that often found?

In plastics. So plastic would be the number one thing that we should really stop using, not just because of the environment, but also really for our health. The problem is that most plastics contain compounds like BPA that really leak into your foods or beverages or the water you drink, especially when you heat up the plastic. And we all know that people do this all the time. We have ready-to-serve foods that come in plastic containers that you put in the microwave and you just heat them up, but the plastic leaks inside your foods.

Sure.

Right. You have these plastic water bottles where you put warm water or tea.

Right.

Not the same ones, but the actual bottles that people use all the time at the gym or just— those are really not healthy. Much better to use a glass bottle. So if you can, you invest in a glass bottle and then use it for life, and that is much safer.

Sure, and it's good for—

Your food that comes in Styrofoam.

Right. It's gotta go.

Or takeout comes in plastic containers most of the time and it's hot.

Right.

Right, so something really helpful is to just take it out of those containers, put them in a plate, and then use the plate for eating the serving and reheating if needed.

And so avoiding, avoiding the plastic is not only good for your, the environment, but also your internal environment also as well.

Very much so. And your brain.

And your brain.

Yeah, so that is really important. And at the same time, I think food is a major source of pollution, right? So foods that are not organic are sprayed with pesticides all the time, and we know that pesticides have an effect on your body and brain.

Okay, so that's the A.

That's the A. Then we have an N.

Yes.

For networking.

Networking.

Networking is very very important. For the female brain? Yes, also for men. Men and women should all really benefit from these lifestyle practices. There is evidence, however, that these are particularly important for women's brains.

Is this socialization?

Socialization and really feeling supported. What the research has shown, which is not my research, it's more like psychology, but what this field has shown is that Women tend to give a lot and provide a lot of support, and they don't get as much support back.

Okay.

For example, in terms of caregiving, right? So many women provide care for a family member affected with some disorders, including dementia.

Right.

And they tend to become very isolated because it's just so overwhelming. You have young kids, your parents are sick, you're working full-time most Most of the time, sometimes you can't even hold on to your job. You may have to quit it. So you lose financial stability and that increases stress enormously and then you end up being you taking care of other people. So it's really important, I think, for women to acknowledge that we're not superhumans, that we need help.

Yes. And then finally—

And finally, A is for assessments. You need to go to your doctor. There are so many medical conditions that that are known to affect the brain in a way that can be just accelerating brain aging all the way to actually increasing risk of dementia.

Okay.

And what we usually talk about is heart disease, really important to really prioritize heart health as well. Diabetes is a big deal for men and women, as is obesity, of course. For women, however, depression seems to be a major medical factor that can increase risk of cognitive decline and dementia later in life, especially depression in midlife, which is something I, I would like to talk about for just a second because we talk about depression as if it were just one thing.

Right.

However, the root causes of a depressive syndrome or symptoms can change. It can vary. For some people it's genetic, right? Some people, in part genetic, not entirely, but there's a stronger genetic component. For some women or men, it's situational. Something happens in your life that makes you feel depressed.

Sure.

For many women, it's hormonal. And what we, what we tend to do is to wait until women are in menopause and say, oh, okay, you have menopause. That's That's why you're depressed. Again, here's the antidepressant. But in truth, becoming menopausal takes years, right? It could take between 2 years and 10 years for some women.

Right.

And the change could be gradual and mild, or it can be quite a thing to experience. And that could lead to mood swings and the symptoms of depression as well. So it's really important to understand if you are feeling depressed, why, right? Do you have enough insight to see if something happens in your life that could cause depression, or could it be hormonal, or could it be something else? Because the treatment should be differentiated based on the root causes of your symptoms. Then thyroid disease—

Okay.

Is something that is also really important to address because it can lead to brain fog and dementia-like symptoms. symptoms, and is obviously addressable by appropriate medical care. And we know that hypothyroidism in particular can increase—

Sure.

Risk of accelerated brain aging in some people, not all of them. And finally, hormones. We need to address our hormones. And so many women, so many of our patients ask me about hormonal therapy. And there's a lot that's being discussed right now because of bioidentical hormones, which are becoming quite a thing. So in the book, I have an entire chapter that really goes into hormonal therapy, the history of hormonal therapy, and the research and what we know and what we don't know.

Sure.

Right. So just to give you a quick summary, then hormonal therapy can be very helpful to alleviate symptoms like hot flashes, but it's not currently recommended for dementia prevention in women.

Okay.

That said, it doesn't mean that it wouldn't work. The point is that the research is not there. So clinical trials have told us what not to do when it comes to hormonal therapy. You don't want to start taking hormones more than 6 years after menopause because that can actually increase the risk of dementia in some women. If you start taking hormones within 6 years of menopause, there seems to be no side effects in terms of dementia risk, but also we didn't find benefits to memory performance or cognitive performance. What we and others are trying to do now is to test whether starting hormonal therapy at the right time, which is prior to menopause, right, can actually provide benefits. Especially long-term for dementia prevention.

I recommend everybody actually gets 2 copies of this book, one for themselves and then one to be able to gift to a friend or family member.

To your mom, your sister, your friend. There are so many women who really need help and don't know where to start. There's so much confusion. I think it's really up to women to make their brains A part of their thoughts, daily thoughts. It's something like, treat your brain like your best friend.

Yeah.

I think that's the bottom line.

Because what— how you move and how you think and what you eat and how you sleep, it all matters, especially for your gray matter. You know, one of our things is just building awareness. We created this show not only inspired by the 3 traumatic brain injuries I have had, and I'd love to come in to your clinic to get a scan also is, you know, the reason why I'm always pointing to my brain or wearing brain shirts is just what we see, we take care of. You see your hair, you manicure your nails or your skin, you take care of the things that you— your muscles, you take care of it. But we can't see the most important thing that we have, which is our brain. So I put it on the shirt where people have their emotions on their sleeve. You can have your Your brain's on your chest, just to say, hey, this is important, you know, to love your brain. And part of loving your brain, self-love and self-care, we know it's not selfish. And these 8 things are just solid things that I would recommend anybody.

Yeah.

Just start in the area because— and they're all important because you could be eating the best food and exercise, but if you're not sleeping, that's going to affect everything else. Or if you're doing all this and You're stressed, you know, there's challenges, and we have more control and influence, you know, with when it comes to our genetics and how it expresses than we think. Lisa, how do people stay in touch with you?

My website is a great way to get in touch, is lisamasconi.com.

Okay.

And on Instagram.

Yes.

Yeah, I don't do Twitter. So my Instagram handle is Dr. dr_mosconi, M-O-S-C-O-N-I.

Yes, so definitely, definitely follow her and actually take a screenshot of this episode as we do with each of our episodes or this video, whatever you're connecting with, and you can go tag Lisa, tag myself, share your big aha out of these 8 pillars. Which one do you feel like you're doing well in, and which one do you feel like you need to put a little more attention in to be able to do that? And that's great because when you share it, other people could benefit and you could be enhancing or even saving a life because of it. And again, we'll put everything in our show notes at jimkwik.com/notes, including links to your book.

Thank you.

And, and to your, your work and your social media. And thanks again for being on the show.

Thank you for having me.

Hi, Kwik Brain, it's your brain coach. I want to thank you so much for watching this video. 3 things to do. Number 1, make sure you share this, because when you teach something, you get to learn it twice. Update your learning so you can update other people's learning as well. Number 2, make sure you subscribe to this channel so you don't miss a thing, because if you miss a video, you miss a lot. And finally, make sure you hit that bell so you're notified and you find out when when we put out the latest and the greatest. One extra thing, if you want really close attention, then text me. Here is my phone number, 310-299-9362. Did you remember that number? 310-299-9362. Shoot me a text and we'll stay in touch. Ask me your burning question. And I wish your days be full of lots of life, lots of love, lots of laughter, and always, Lots of learning. I'll see you in our next video.