Brain Fog After 40? Fix Your Blood-Brain Barrier with Neurologist Dr. Titus Chiu and JJ Virgin

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That's why I created the well beyond 40 podcasts to synthesize and simplify the science of health into actionable strategies to help you thrive. In each episode we'll talk about what's working in the world of wellness, from personalized nutrition and healing your metabolism to to powerful aging and prescriptive fitness. Join me on the journey to better health so you can love how you look and feel right now and have the energy to play full out at 100. Don't miss an episode. Subscribe now@subscribetoj.com to start unlocking your healthiest, most energetic self. I've been waiting a long time for this interview with Dr. Titus Chiu. He has been a godsend for me with my son Grant who suffered a traumatic brain injury and then got another traumatic brain injury. And Dr. Titus Chiu was one of the people that I called and got help from. He's super innovative and you're gonna learn why during this interview. He's a two times number one best selling author. He's an award winning international speaker and a holistic brain expert. And he got into this from his own story of having his own concussion and then really got interested in in this concept of leaky brain. Now you know how much I love leaky gut and talking about all things leaky gut. That's what the Virgin Diet was about. So I was fascinated as he started to talk about that. We're going to be unpacking leaky brain today and also unpacking what it means as we age. As you go into perimenopause, menopause, post menopause, what's it mean for your brain? Is it aging? Is it normal? Is it leaky brain and what can you do about it? And he's going to talk about his five step protocol but also his Brain Save quiz which was one of his books. He has the the book Brain Save and the book Leaky Brain Fix. He'll be talking about the Brain Save quiz. We will put that, by the way, @jjvirgin.com BrainSaveQuiz so that you can take it too. Because what he does is teach you very specific brain training based on that quiz. So it's a super cool thing that you will want to do. You're gonna learn about his passion for helping health conscious people with the knowledge, insights and practical actions needed to heal their brains and reclaim their lives after concussion. And what you're also gonna learn is how many of us have this going on and don't even realize it. So I am super excited to welcome Dr. Titus Chew to the show. Stay with me. I'll be right back. Hey, jj, Virgin here. Okay, real talk. So often the holidays sneak up on me. Travel gifts, hosting, you know, all the things. And suddenly it's like, wait, who spent what and where? And I know I'm not the only one who's looked at a bill in January and thought, wow, that escalated quickly. If you want to keep your finances under control this holiday season, you need to be using Monarch. It's rated the Wall Street Journal's best budgeting app of 2025. 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Your headphones haven't been connected this whole time. Awkward. Discover top brands at unexpectedly low prices. Sierra, let's get moving. Dr. Titus. Chew. I have been waiting a long time for this interview with you.

Me too. Yeah, it's been a long time in the works, so it's great to be here.

Well, we've got women 40 plus. And when you look at the symptoms, what things start to happen as women get into perimenopause and menopause and beyond. Brain is a Major focus. Brain focus fog. Especially the way I describe it is walking into a room going, why am I here? What was the reason for that? Right?

Yeah. Hey, jj, have you seen my glasses?

Yeah, exactly. I literally have done that, too. For those of you that are listening, he's got his glasses on his head, and I have literally been that person walking around with my glasses on and my sunglasses on my head, asking where my sunglasses are.

So it happens. It happens to the best of us.

Yes, I know, but I think in our brains, we're going, am I getting dementia? Is this men? Like, we're kind of going through all of what it could be, and one of the things it could be, and one of the places I'd love to start, because, you know, I wrote the book on leaky gut, the Virgin diet, and you've coined the term leaky brain. And, I mean, the minute I heard that, I was like, what is that besides the obvious? So where'd that come from?

Yeah. So my whole journey exploring and researching this thing called leaky brain, it actually started many years ago when I suffered a concussion. I was in a terrible car accident that nearly took my life. I was hit by a car on my way to work. I was actually on a scooter. So I flew off, broke three ribs, dislocated my shoulder, and suffered a concussion. And so I was dealing with brain symptoms and body symptoms. At that time, I had no training, no understanding of either of how to take care of a brain or body. And so everything that I tried within conventional medicine just didn't work. And so I decided to go outside the box. So I got a postdoc in clinical neurology. I did a master's in nutrition. I studied chiropractic, acupuncture, energy medicine, anything that I could get my hands on to uncover why I was having these brain and body symptoms. And I'm so glad that I did, because along the way, I would experiment with all the things that I learned in school, at the workshops, at the conferences, scientific articles and books that I'd read. And some things didn't work, unfortunately, but many things did. And so through that entire journey of trial and error, I was actually fully able to recover from my concussion. And so at the time there that. I mean, this was over 20 years ago, there really wasn't anything out there in terms of concussion care. I think the.

Not that much yet. Still.

I was about to say there hasn't been, especially when it comes to the standard of care when you go to your doctor, but not just Concussion care, but brain health in general. And so my point, though, is, through that whole process, one of the things that I discovered that really kept people back when it came to recovery from concussion was this thing called leaky brain. And so I dove deep into the world of leaky brain, AKA the blood brain barrier and breach of the blood brain barrier. And I was shocked because I found through the research, not only was leaky brain associated with. With a lot of the patients that I work with, with concussions and poor concussion recovery, leaky brain, all the research was saying, was the gateway to virtually all serious chronic neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's, dementia, Parkinson's, stroke, Ms. and much, much more. It was like Pandora's box burst wide open.

And.

And the thing was, though, when I discovered this, I was even more shocked that more doctors, including neurologists, didn't even talk about this. So that's actually why it was my mission. The second book that I published that I just released last year, was all about leaky brain. I wanted to get this information out to everybody that needed it. Because the great news is, even though it sounds very scary, leaky brain, just like leaky gut, can actually be healed. It can be fixed. And so, in answer to your question, a great way to understand leaky brain is very similar to leaky gut, right? Just like all throughout your body, you have these barriers that protect you. You have the gut barrier, you have the lung barrier, the skin barrier, and you have what's known as the blood brain barrier. And so the blood brain barrier, its main job is protection. It protects us from things that shouldn't get into our nervous systems. So it's actually this similar to the gut barrier, it's made up of a single cell layer. There's these cells called endothelial cells, then there's different types of brain cells we call astrocytes or glial cells, that also make up the blood brain barrier. And then there's cells known as parasites. And then really kind of tying it all together, similar to the gut barrier, are what are known as tight junctions. So these proteins that actually help keep those cells intact. So you can imagine the blood brain barrier is like this gate. It's like a wall, and these tight junctions are like the glue that keep the gate together. And so the thing is, thankfully, because our brains, as you probably know, our most precious and sacred organs, that blood brain barrier is so important, like I said, to protect us from things like toxins, bacteria, viruses, even dietary proteins, like immune responses from things like food triggers, right? That Blood brain barrier is there to protect us from those substances entering our nervous system. In addition to protection, the blood brain barrier is actually very important for selective entry. So it allows things that should get in, so things like glucose and nutrients, oxygen, and then like I said, at the same time, it keeps things from getting it that shouldn't be there. So I look at the blood brain barrier, kind of like the security guards, right. At a nightclub, you only want the exclusive people into the club and you don't want the riff raff and the people who don't have tickets or who aren't on the guest list.

So you've got your bouncers. How do you know if the bouncers have gone on a break? Like how do you know if you have leaky gut or. I'm sorry, leaky brain. I know leaky gut. You can now test for it. And I'll tell you, Titus, when I first started in the food intolerance world, there was no such thing as it. So it's not surprising that people don't know about this leaky brain, because leaky gut, up until what, maybe 10 years ago didn't exist either.

Yeah, I remember, yeah, years ago when I started in this foray into natural medicine, you know, learning about, you know, intestinal hyperpermeability and it being so, like, you know, far out and esoteric. And now everyone's talking about it, thankfully. Right. Because as you know, it's such an important topic when it comes to not only digestive health, but immune health and brain health. But yeah, the same thing goes for leaky brain and the blood brain barrier. And so there's a lot of different clues of that you might have a leaky brain. So some common symptoms are things like brain fog, mental fatigue. I also find a lot of times one of the biggest clues I find with people who have leaky brain is that they have brain symptoms. Maybe they have brain fog here and there, but it kind of comes and goes. So they have these random flare ups or triggers that seem to come out of nowhere and all of a sudden their brain can't function or they feel like maybe they didn't sleep very well one night and then the next day they feel totally brain fog. They can't multitask, they're forgetful, they have no idea where they put their glasses. Hey, have you seen my glasses? Oh, here they are. They're right on my head. So those are some clues. And that's the thing about leaky brain is a lot of the symptoms of leaky brain show up almost as these, quote unquote, healthy aging symptoms of the brain as well.

Yeah, I was gonna say some of those things sound like perimenopausal symptoms. Like, the good thing with leaky gut now is that you can actually do a food sensitivity test and see if things are really going kind of crazy. And, I mean, when you start to dig into it, go, wow, all these things. Cause it. It's like, of course, if you're not actively working on this, you're gonna have an issue with leaky brain. One of the things that I discovered when Grant got his super bad concussion. Well, I'd had a concussion prior to that. He had a traumatic brain injury, as you know, and I actually had one a couple years before. But I think for most of us, me included, you don't realize what you've done, because unless you've, like, passed out or, you know, you just don't tend to think anything about it. But I love what Dr. Daniel Amen says, if you hit your head, you hurt your brain. And I think that we don't take this seriously enough. So is concussion. Does that cause leaky brain? Is that one of the things that cause it?

Oh, yeah. So trauma is one of the causes of leaky brain, and that's documented in the literature. And that was also my personal experience, as well as a lot of the experiences of my patients, like I said, who weren't recovering from concussion. But that's the thing. In addition, just like when it comes to concussion, there's so many myths, and. And that's the thing. What Dr. Amen said is correct. And if you hit your head, you can have a sustained concussion, but guess what? You can actually not even hit your head and sustain a concussion, because you imagine your brain is floating around this fishbowl, and it's surrounded by what we call cerebral spinal fluid. So your brain is just kind of floating around this fishbowl. So I've had patients who fell off a bicycle, landed on their back, didn't hit their head whatsoever, or landed on their shoulder, and they developed a concussion, because the force from that trauma can transduce up the body and then shake the head around and shake the brain, creating concussions. So that's why I think concussions are one of the most silent epidemics out there. I think a lot of people. Yeah, absolutely. Are walking around. And that was the thing for me, because when I was hit by that car 20 years ago, after breaking my bones and dislocating my shoulder, I had chronic neck and shoulder pain that was the focus of my recovery, like, little did I know that I had sustained a concussion. And so that's the thing. I didn't. Another myth about concussions, too, is you don't need to lose consciousness to sustain a concussion. Like when I hit the ground, I, you know, from that car accident, I got the wind knocked out of me, but I didn't lose consciousness. But sure enough, I sustained the concussion. So that's the thing. There's a lot of different myths. Again, number one, you don't even need to hit your head to sustain a concussion. And then, number two, you don't need to blackout or lose consciousness. So. But going back to your original question, yes, trauma is one very common cause of leaky brain. But that's the thing. It's not just trauma. Similar to leaky gut, There are other root causes you can have. Exposure to toxins can lead to leaky brain stress. So emotional stress research has shown that acute bouts of emotional stress can actually trigger a weakening of that blood brain barrier, leading to leaky brain. And especially for the topic of this conversation here, when it comes to longevity and brain ag, research also shows simply the aging, the normal healthy aging process can also contribute to a weakening of the blood brain barrier, AKA leaky brain. So that's why I think leaky brain is such an important topic, and the health of the blood brain barrier is such an important topic when it comes to the health of our brain and keeping our brains feeling healthy and youthful.

But there's, you know, one of the challenges, I think, with concussions. First of all, when I got my concussion, where I was literally hit head on and rear ended on the freeway. Wow. Like a car spun out, hit me in the front, and then this car hit me from the back and took a Lexus SUV and basically, you know, kind of cracked in half, which is pretty impressive, right? And I just did really bad whiplash. So that's what happened there. But I remember going to the doctor and this was an integrative doc, and he told me that how they healed, this was a tincture of time. Now I was like, yeah, I'm not patient. And I'm pretty sure there's other things. I mean, I threw the supplement protocol at it, but I learned a lot more, of course, after Grant got hit. But I didn't know about the other things. Is there any way? Because one of the challenges I saw back then, and even with Grant, is it's hard to see this. Like, how would you know if you have a leaky brain? How would you know to the Extent of it. And then how do you know if you're getting better? Is it all symptoms?

Yeah. So, great question, but before I answer that. Yeah. I can't tell you how many times patients have told me, you know, they had a concussion or some type of trauma and they went to their doctor and the doctor's like, ah, you know, just wear some sunglasses and take some aspirin. Right. Time heals all wounds.

Yes.

Fortunately, it sounds. It's a very poetic saying. It simply is not true. When it comes to the brain. And, you know, just like you've learned through your journey and the journey of with Grant, there are a lot of things that you can do, and I find it tragic because the research actually shows time doesn't heal all wounds. And the sooner you get treatments for any type of trauma or concussion, the faster the recovery. Literally exponentially. But, yeah. Anyways, the great thing is, even though a lot of doctors, and therefore a lot of people and patients haven't heard about leaky brain, there's a ton of research out there. And there are actually ways of testing for it. There are more invasive ways. So things like lumbar punctures and checking the cerebral spinal fluid, which I talked about earlier, that, you know, that fluid that cushions our brain and nervous system. There are MRI technologies that could check for leaky brain, But a lot of these are not only experimental, but they're also cost prohibitive. Right. They're mainly for research purposes. The great news is there are actually more and more these days, blood tests coming out, simple sometimes at home, blood tests that you can do to check for your risk of leaky brain. And one of the tests out there that they're, you know, one of the biomarkers that scientists and researchers are looking at is this test called S100B. And what S100B is, it's a protein that's normally found in high amounts within the blood brain barrier in the brain. And so if you draw your blood, you shouldn't have levels or high levels of S100B. And if you do, what that means is that there has been damage to the brain and nervous system as well as the blood brain barrier. And what ends up happening that S100B, that protein that normally is found mainly in the nervous system, it can then end up in your blood. But the challenge with S100B is that when you measure it, there's a time window. So they find that the S100B protein, it has a very short half life, meaning it degrades. So they're finding it works, it's not very practical because yeah, maybe if they can develop better technologies for athletes on field and quick ways of measuring it, if somebody gets a hit, then it could be beneficial. But after a couple hours and especially 1, 2, 3 days, the levels of the S100B go back to normal. So that's one of the challenges that researchers are finding. But one of the tests that I use and technologies that I've stumbled across is also a blood test. But instead of just measuring for the absolute levels of the S100B, we can actually measure the immune response to the S100B. So we can measure what are known as antibodies, like IgA antibodies, IgG as well as IgM. And what's pretty cool is the IgG and IgA versus the IgM antibodies can actually give you a timeline, meaning the IgM antibodies, as you know, they're produced by our immune cells more rapidly. So it's kind of like a fresher injury. Whereas if there is IgG or IgA antibodies to that S100B protein, you can kind of get a sense. They're like, oh man, this wasn't just recent, this is a more chronic injury issue.

And how long could it be? Because I'm looking at this and I think another important concept is that, you know, you, you hit your head, you hurt your brain, and little things can do it. Like you think of all the times in your life you've hit your head, right?

Oh yeah.

And it's cumulative, like your body's a history book. So for the igg and iga, how long is it a couple months or is it years? Will it show?

Well, that's the thing. If it's there and it's continuing to be leaky, then you can suppose like it's been there for months or years. And the way I identify that, I never, you know, make any clinical decisions just based on one lab test. Always take the entire patient's history right to in mind, just like you said, it's this entire kind of scrapbook of memories and stressors and unfortunately traumas.

Although most people don't think about these times when they, they wouldn't have thought about the little whiplash or they just don't think about hurting their head.

Yeah, and that's the thing. I think awareness is one of the most important things. Right. So whenever I work with patients, I always, one of the first questions I ask them. You know, one of my specialties is post concussion syndrome, helping people recover from chronic concussion symptoms. Symptoms. But I work with A lot of other patients who just have memory issues or struggle with anxiety, depression, brain fog.

Which could be concussion syndromes.

Can be. Yeah, exactly. That's my point. So patients, many times who come to me not knowing they had a concussion, when I explore with them, I ask them, hey, have you ever had a concussion? Like, no. You know, I've never lost consciousness. I've never blacked out. I'm like, well, I saw here that you used to play amateur soccer when you were in college, Right. And as you probably know, jj, for women who play soccer, that's one of the biggest risk factors for concussions. Again, those micro traumas in the headers or even, like you said, car accidents or whiplash. So I always explore my patient's history, you know, not even just, like, at the time of when their symptoms started, but I go way back, sometimes even exploring, you know, the health of their parents when they were, you know, in utero, those different types of things, depending on how complex the health challenges are. But, yeah, point being, it's really important to have that awareness. So if you can recall, were there any, you know, car accidents in your past? Did you play contact sports or sports like soccer growing up? Or did you ever have, like, a fall or a spill from a mountain bike while exercising? Those are really important things. And that's kind of how my brain works when I work with patients. It's like, okay, it's probabilities, right? So it's like, okay, their symptoms began after they had that snowboard accident. Boom. It's like, okay, that's pretty obvious to me.

Yeah.

But the thing is, it's like. Like you said, it's like these cumulative stressors over time. And that's why leaky brain is so important to understand, because, like I said earlier, trauma is a root cause of leaky brain, but so is chronic stress, poor sleep, Right. Inflammation from leaky gut. Like leaky gut and leaky brain are actually very intimately related. I kind of alluded to that earlier in our conversation, jj, when I mentioned the tight junctions that make up the gut barrier. They look very similar to the tight junctions that make up our blood brain barrier. So if you have leaky gut and your immune system launches an attack against those tissues, many times, you can actually have collateral damage that also impact your blood brain barrier, leading to leaky brain as well. It's what we call molecular mimicry, where you have this reaction, a chemical immunological reaction to a tissue or even to a dietary food protein like gluten or dairy. Your immune system launches an attack against your gut barrier. And at the same time, those chemicals are floating through your blood vessels and they can reach the blood brain barrier and also cause damage there. So my point is, yeah, it's not just trauma or concussions that can cause leaky brain. It's these cumulative impacts. And I found for me, right, I thought that it's kind of interesting. That's again, how I really delved into this world of leaky brain. After learning all these things, going through school and studying concussions and specializing in that, I applied a lot of these different therapies to my own health and I was able to fully recover. But I found myself actually stuck on this roller coaster of symptoms where, just like I described earlier, some common clues of leaky brains. Like, I feel good one day and then the next day I'd have brain fog and fatigue and like fall asleep at my desk while I was in between, you know, patients and, like, what is going on here? And so that's when I discovered the whole leaky brain issue. And it wasn't until I really focused in on healing my leaky brain that I was able to finally get off that roller coaster of ups and downs with these flare ups and brain symptoms.

And this is really important to point out because again, I think of how many people, you know, here I was with an integrative doc, you said a tincture of time. And you know, it's like, as long.

As maybe if the tincture of time was a special homeopathic limit. Yeah, maybe don't do nothing. Don't do nothing, right?

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Oh, my goodness. So someone's listening. Because, you know, I think it would be very easy to confuse perimenopause with leaky brain. And it sounds like perimenopause. I'm thinking about what happens during perimenopause, where you have more anxiety, where you can't sleep well, where, you know, now you're becoming more inflamed. All those things would also create this problem. So what does one do?

So, I mean, that's the key is number one, if you identify. The good news is right when we talk about leaky brain, it sounds like this really scary thing that is like, oh, if you have a leaky brain and contrary to popular belief, if there is injury to the brain, regardless if it's a physical injury like concussion, whether it's a chemical injury like exposure to toxin, toxins, or whether it's an emotional injury from emotional traumas, contrary to popular belief, if there is harm, the harm is not irreversible. There are things that you can do about it. And the same goes for leaky brain. And the thing is, when it comes to leaky brain, it really is intimately associated with this concept of neuro inflammation or brain inflammation. And so a lot of the strategies that many of your audience and what you talk about when it comes to having a healthy body and other anti aging types of strategies to decrease inflammation can actually help a leaky brain. So that's the great news because that's the thing. Unless you actually do testing and, and you work with a practitioner to really understand if you have leaky brain or not, it's hard to distinguish, is my brain fog or mental fatigue from just normal brain inflammation? Is it from just normal aging? Is it from perimenopause and hormonal changes? Right. And so that's the thing. Without actually working with a practitioner, it's really hard to differentiate that. But a lot of the strategies out there are just as effective, right? Outside of a few more. You know, when it comes. If I actually diagnose someone with leaky brain, there are different types of strategies I focus more specifically on. But the foundational stuff, right, is pretty standard. And when I talk about healing the brain, whether it's just brain inflammation or leaky brain, there are some foundational steps and five foundational steps that I actually use on all my patients. Right. And step number one is addressing diet, right? Food as medicine. Step number two is, well, wait, wait.

Wait, wait, let's talk. Let's just unpack it a tad. Just addressing diet, are there some definite, like do this, don't do that types of things here? Some things you've really found are hurt the brain and some things like I think of leaky gut, you know, and going, okay, bone broth, go for it, you know, things that we know that will help he heal the gut. What about the brain? What is the absolute. No. And this would be great to include.

Yeah, absolutely. And like I said, the great thing is there's a lot of crossover when it comes to healing leaky gut. So just like you talked about in the Virgin Diet and your best selling book, a lot of Those things also apply to healing leaky brain. So some don'ts, when it comes to healing leaky brain or brain health are food triggers. Right? And you know, the most common ones that I've seen in my practice and that I actually have food sensitivities are gluten and dairy. Right? And that's the thing, a lot of people think that gluten, they say, oh, I don't have gluten sensitivity. My. I have an iron stomach. Don't you hear that all the time? It's like, I have an iron stomach. Well, great. There's actually what we call extra intestinal symptoms of gluten sensitivity, meaning these symptoms are outside of the gut. So you might not have bloating, you might not have gas or belching, but you have brain fog, anxiety, depression, mental fatigue, as well as mood disorders. Right. That can actually be a symptom of a brain symptom of gluten sensitivity. So, yeah, one thing, one big don't is avoiding food sugars. Something that you can do though, is eating more healthy fats, because your brain is actually made up of 60% fat. And so the fats that you eat. I remember when I was learning this in school, I was just so fascinated. It's like the avocado that you eat, the fish that you eat, your body actually breaks that down, absorbs those fatty acids and then embeds those fats into, into your cells, including your brain cells. Isn't that wild? So you literally are what you eat, digest and absorb. And so things like healthy fats like avocado oil, coconut oil, which is very high in what we call medium chain triglycerides, which are very easily absorbed by the gut. And research shows, there's actually research that shows that can be helpful for things as serious as dementia and Alzheimer's. But even if you don't have those things, it's fantastic for your brain. And obviously, if we're talking about healthy fats, we can't forget about the polyunsaturated omega 3 fatty acids and two of the most popular and important ones, EPA or eicosapentaenoic acid, as well as dha, which is docosahexaenoic acid found in high amounts in things like fish. And for you vegetarians and vegans out there, high amounts in things like algae. But in particular, when we talk about these healthy fats, EPA has been shown to be really helpful for decreasing inflammation, whereas DHA is extremely helpful for brain health. So one of the things that allows our brains to do what it does. And by the way, everything that we're able to experience in our lives, right? The ability to experience joy and happiness, the ability to plan and organize your day or your life or your week, right. All those things boil down to brain function and specifically the quality of the communication between your brain cells. So the better the quality of that communication, the better your brain, the better your life. And so specifically in the context of what I'm talking about here, dha, docosahexaenoic acid is extremely helpful for brain function because it's been shown to increase what we call synaptic connectivity. It's like where your brain cells talk to one another and the DHA preferentially goes to those endpoints. It's kind of like imagine the mouths of your brain cells where you're having the conversation. So DHA has been shown to be really helpful for brain function. So yeah, so healthy fats, definitely a big do. Further don'ts. So things like bad fats, when we talk about healthy fats, that's one thing, but you have bad fats. And by the way, as you know jj, not all fats are bad. That's an unfortunate demonization of fat. Right? There are very good fats that are essential for brain health, but there actually are some bad fats, things like trans fats, things like a lot of C seed oils and vegetable oils because they contain high levels of omega 6 fatty acids. And research shows, yes, all about that ratio, right? So yeah, so there's a lot of do's and don'ts when it comes to brain health. But a lot of things that you talk about, right, Clean protein sources, having adequate protein, right? Because proteins form the foundations for all our enzymes as well as our neurotransmitters, these chemical messengers that influence our thinking, our mood, our sleep cycle, all those things. So making sure you eat from clean protein sources. One of my favorites is grass fed beef and grass fed steak. Right? Because as you know, the cows that eat the grass are chock full of these omega 3 fatty acids. I would rather eat meat from a grass fed or grass finished cow than a fish that's farm raised. Because a lot of those farm raised fish again are super high in omega 6 fatty acids, very pro inflammatory, as well as other toxins from the farming process. So yes, there's a lot of things you can do. And one really important thing and what's really exciting when it comes to brain health and research is eating from the rainbow. And so eating as many different colors of fruits and vegetables as possible. Because what gives the things like blueberries or broccoli, those colors are what we call polyphenols, which are these very powerful anti inflammatory plant compounds. So things like curcumin found in resveratrol, or curcumin found in turmeric, which is a root that's been used in Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine for thousands of years. That's what gives it that really vibrant orange color. And then in broccoli we have a compound called egcg. Right. And that epigal, egcg, which I didn't.

Even try to say what those things are.

Yeah, exactly. Egcg, Sulforaphane. Just eat the green, eat the rainbow. Exactly. Sulforaphane found in broccoli and broccoli sprouts. EGCG found in green tea. All the fruits and vegetables, spices and drinks that have those deep, rich colors. Very, very good for brain health.

Isn't it great that the things that are good for your muscles and good for your skin are good for your gut, are good for your brain? All right, so that's pillar one, what's pillar two?

So pillar two is taking high quality supplements. And so for me, as you know, even though I invest a lot of time and effort in eating clean, unfortunately the food supply and a lot of the fruits and vegetables, they're raised in soil that is devoid of nutrients and full of toxins. So a lot of times I take supplements, or every day rather, I take high quality supplements to fill in those nutrient gaps. And even though I am a seafood monster, and I actually traveled throughout Europe recently just to go on an oyster tour.

Really?

Yeah.

I went to all these oyster farms in France and Brittany as well as the south southwest coast of France, just to eat oysters. Even though I'm a seafood monster and I eat a lot of oysters and seafood, I still take a high quality omega 3 fatty acid supplement, a fish oil supplement specifically, though the supplement that I take has a higher ratio of dha, which I talked about earlier to epa. So I get more of the brain boosting benefits. So that's a really important supplement. I also take a multivitamin that has chock full of different types of vitamins and minerals with activated B vitamins, which is really important for what we call methylation, as well as lowering homocysteine levels, which can cause inflammation and increase the risk for dementia. In addition, this multivitamin also has polyphenols in it. It has these plant compounds to help decrease inflammation. And on top of that, I also take probiotics Because a lot of research shows, again, that intimate connection between the gut and the brain. When you have a healthy, happy gut, you're gonna have a healthy, happy brain. But the reverse is true. If you have a leaky gut, it can also lead to leaky brain. So, yeah, I take probiotics and then I also a very important supplement as well when it comes to brain health, and I know you've talked about this in a previous podcast episode, is creatine monohydrate. Yeah, exactly. Boom. Right? So creatine monohydrate, as you know and you take every day. Right. Is not only really important for muscles, muscle growth as well as muscle endurance. Right. It's not just about for bodybuilders, but a lot of the latest research shows it's fantastic for the brain. As you talked about in a previous podcast episode, depression. It can improve symptoms of depression, short term memory loss. And specifically for my patients who have suffered from concussions and TBIs, it can actually help decrease symptoms of headaches, dizziness and fatigue, which are very common symptoms after a concussion. And one of my favorite benefits of creatine monohydrate, me being super high achiever and very busy and living a pretty high stress life at times. Creatine monohydrate has been shown to actually help maintain cognitive and brain function even after periods of mental stress, as well as poor sleep. So haven't you ever had a bad night's sleep and then you wake up?

I just used it for jet lag. It was amazing.

Oh, really?

I will tell you, though. Yeah, it's. There's some great. I got the research on sleep deprivation. I went, all right, let's try it. And I literally was bouncing between Europe and the United States all summer and Canada. So, I mean, ridiculous time zone shifts. And it was fine. I did great.

I love that. Yeah, I'll have to add that to my arsenal. I love how you just. Yeah. Test it out. That's.

Well, I saw the studies on my same mechanism. The one thing I will tell you, though, is I have been bouncing between two forms, monohydrate and hcl, because I met the person who created hcl and I am. I think any of these forms actually work great. There's this weird thing out there that you got to take monohydrate because it's the oldest form. I'm like, well, I'm not still using a dial up phone, so why do I have to do that, you know? So as I started to dig into.

It.

There'S some really good research on hcl Just being able to use a lot smaller dose. So it ends up being about the same price but a lower dose. And for the women, as I started to harass them literally about taking creatine, because I think for, like, this is a peri and postmenopausal woman's best supplement, I think, because the brain and the body. But they were all complaining about fluid retention. So this form does not have a lot of the impact you'll get. You'll still get some fluid retention to muscle, which is good, but you won't get some of that bloaty GI stuff that you can get from monohydrates. That's kind of fun. So I've been switching my tune over there. So what's Pillar three?

I love that because that's the thing a lot of the research shows. And I know you talk about this in your podcast, it's like, okay, three to five grams a day, depending on body weight. But a lot of the research looking at brain benefits usually even surpasses that. So I've seen, you know, but this is for like a study done with Parkinson's, but up to 10 grams. So that's awesome that you found potentially better source that doesn't require as high a dose.

We're actually, I'm actually having two major brain scientists right now are using it in a neurodegeneration study, in an Alzheimer's study. So stay tuned on that. All right.

For sure. Tips.

Yes.

Yeah. So, yeah, so those are, you know, when I, when we talk about brain health and keeping your brain youthful, those are some of the top supplements, obviously, too, when it comes to using supplements, you know, one man's medicine could be another woman's poison. So we want to make sure that we identify. So a lot of times I'll actually do lab testing to identify what those nutrient needs are. So, but yeah, those are some of the. You can't go wrong with these that I just mentioned. So, yeah, that's the second step. So first step is obviously food using food as medicine. Step two is supplements. This third step is having quality sleep. Because when you sleep at night within our brains. So you probably, many of your audience probably has heard of the lymphatic system. It's our body's waste disposal system. Well, guess what? We have a similar waste disposal symptom within our brain, and it rhymes with the lymphatic system. It's the glymphatic system with a G at the beginning. And so that's the waste disposal symptoms system of our Brain. And the great thing is we flush that every night when we have deep sleep. So that's why sleep, having high quality sleep, is so very important when it comes to brain health. Because otherwise, because just by the nature of everyday lives, we have toxins building up in our brains. And so if you don't flush this out every night, you can increase your risk for not only feeling bad the next day, but also increase your risk for things as serious as dementia and Alzheimer's. Now, one of the things I found, there's different levels and different strategies that I found when people start to try to hack their sleep, right? Obviously a lot of people, just because we've been brainwashed by the pharmaceutical companies, like, okay, take a sleeping pill, but that doesn't actually help you get the restorative sleep that you need. So I usually find that people who start off, you know, at the beginning stages of trying to hack their sleep, they focus on the evening rituals, which are very important, right? So things like avoiding technologies. One hour before going to bed, I actually dim the lights in my house. Two hours before bed, I start turning off or dimming the light, right? I also wear a sleep mask. And so these things are really important, right? Exposure to light. But one of the best ways if you're having trouble sleeping isn't doing things at night, it's actually doing things in the morning. Because sleep is just part of this 24 hour rhythm we call the circadian rhythm. And a lot of what sets our circadian rhythm is actually what happens in the morning. So one of the best ways to reset your circadian rhythm isn't just doing and having good sleep hygiene practice at night. It's actually getting natural sunlight in your eyeballs within the first 10, 15 minutes of waking up. It resets what's known as the cortisol awakening response. It's the stress response that your nervous system, your hypothalamus, it's just part of your brain and neuroendocrine system. When you get exposed, your eyeball gets exposed to light, it triggers this beautiful reaction that actually triggers a stress response. Because light is actually a form of stress to your brain, especially in the morning. Maybe that's why I like to snooze, right? But yeah, for a lot of people out there who are just chronic snoozers, it's probably because your cortisol awakening response, this healthy stress response, is blunted. And we can actually measure that in testing, right? You can actually measure the circadian rhythm. But point being, if you're a chronic snoozer Right. You like to snooze your alarm. And when you wake up and it's really hard for you to get going and it takes you a while, you rely on coffee. And when you wake up and you start to move around, then your brain starts to wake up, most likely you have a blunted stress response, this cortisol awakening response. And not only could that impact how you feel in the morning, but like I said, my point is it could impact your sleep at night. So one of the easiest things you can do, and it's. I mean. Well, actually, I'll say the simplest thing you can do, not necessarily easy, is within 10, 15 minutes of waking up, you get up, you do some gentle exercise. It can be something as simple as walking around. And if you can do that outside and just get that natural light into your eyeballs, that was one of the best things you can do, not only for your circadian rhythm and sleep, but for your brain and your mood overall.

Well, what do we do when it's daylight savings and we fall back?

Yeah, exactly. So in those situations, if I find people have. My patients have issues with that sleep circadian rhythm, that's usually when I recommend some type of lightbox therapy therapy. And it's the second best thing to natural sunlight. So lightbox therapy or full spectrum light bulbs, they can be a really great way to reset your circadian rhythm again.

Yeah, we got these amazing lights in the house. They're Philips hues. And you can set them at night, like you can set them on your phone. So at night they're red. In the morning we go to daylight, sunlight. So it's. It's been fantastic. We also got.

Do you also have it kind of come up slowly, like crescendo?

I had that, that alarm clock. Our buddy Alan Christensen got me turned onto that alarm clock that will wake you up by the light coming on like it glows like a sun.

Yeah.

And then it. It's fantastic. And then it starts to chirp.

And then if you don't wake up, it starts to shake your bed and then throw.

Wouldn't that be great? Well, we have a new puppy, so there is. Oh, cute.

We have another one.

We have now got three. This is our. It's a Pomchi, a Pomeranian Chihuahua.

It's the cutest thing.

Bear.

Did you name it Goofy?

No, we did not. So now we have Daisy, the original. Call her the od, the original dog. She's a full Chihuahua. Then we got Daffodil, who's now Daffy. Who was our. She's our Ratchaw. She's a rat terrier Chihuahua. And now we have Dandelion, who's a Pom Chi, A Pomeranian Chihuahua.

Oh, got it. So you got the three Ds?

We do. All the flowers are represented. Okay. So now let's move on. So you've got the first three. I know you have two more. What's Pillar four?

Well, that was actually a perfect segue because step four is stress management. And what better way to manage your stress than to have a loving dog, Right? Yeah. I can't tell you, like, when, you know, I didn't grow up with dogs. The. The only pets I had were goldfish and toads. Right.

Yeah.

I don't care.

Goldfish as a pet.

That's a. Yeah, it's exactly. I would talk to. But I don't think it really understood. But. But yeah, having dogs, like, just within the past 10 years, I've had four dogs now. And, yeah, they are absolute. Absolutely love them. Right. And it's interesting, neurologically, there's actually a reason for that. Dogs have a high level of what we call mirror neurons, and so they can actually empathize with us. Right. Like, I remember when. When I. Our original dog, Koba, like, she's the od. She was Rhodesian Ridgeback and just so sweet. And I was living with her, and it was the first time I ever really lived with a dog. And I remember I was just really stressed one time and upset and just sitting on the couch and just, like, fretting, and she literally comes over, puts her head on my shoulder, and just, like, stays there. It was like, immediately my heart just went, oh, my. Yeah, exactly. So precious. So, yeah, they have this ability to really empathize with us. So, yeah, when it comes to stress, step number four of brain health, like, managing stress is so important. And, you know, there is the typical strategies, like breathing exercises, meditation, and prayer. But riffing off of what I was just talking about with dogs, having strong social connections is so very important. Research shows that if you have strong social ties, it is absolutely crucial for your brain health. They actually have done the Florida State University, so not too far from you, they did this study. Two studies, actually. One in 2018 and one just this year, where they looked at. The first study included over 12,000 participants, and they found that when people are lonely, their risk of dementia increases by as much as 40%. Wow. That's insane. Right? And think about this was in 2018, before the pandemic.

Yeah.

I mean, I think we have an epidemic of loneliness going on. So things like having a dog, right? Or even. And that's the thing, you don't need to be. You don't need to have a pet, but you don't need to be a social butterfly. But just having a small inner circle of people that you confide in or, you know, if you have a fitness group or a book club, anything like that, a kid, church. So important not only for our physical health, but for our mental health. And yeah, the Florida State University, they followed up, they did a meta analysis study of over 600,000 people worldwide. And again, they found that loneliness increased dementia risk by over 30%. So this is an absolutely real thing. It's not a match. It's. You're not imagining it. So that's why I absolutely love my pets. I love my inner circle, and I cherish those relationships. So. But yeah, other ways of, you know, managing your stress, having strong social connections, like I said, breathing exercise. One of my favorite ones is what I call what's known as the physiological sigh. And that's where you take a deep breath in, and at the top of your breath, you take another quick breath in and then you extend the exhale. And I love this because every time I do this, so simple, so quick, literally when I do it, I feel the effects immediately. There's actually studies that show that people who struggle with anxiety or stress just by applying these, you know, five minutes of these simple breathing exercises can really help reset their mood as well as their nervous system and stress resilience.

And that's an easy one. It's not like a going full WIM hof.

I love those too. Don't get me wrong, I love the WIM hof, where I could get into my primal self and, you know, release all kinds of stuff and feel into it. But yeah, it's so easy. Literally, you know, it's like just doing three of those, right? Physiological size, I call them the vagal size because it activates the vagus nerve, which is the. It puts the brakes on your stress response. Right? So just three or five of those can literally reset your nervous system immediately. So, yes, simple things that you can do.

All right, let's go to five and take it home.

Yeah. So step number four was stress management and stress resilience. And finally, step. Step number five is exercise, movement and brain training. So step number five is probably the most important step. No pun intended. Right. Because exercise can be a fantastic way of not only keeping your heart muscles and bones strong, but also your brain, because when you exercise, not only does it boost oxygen and blood flow to your brain, which is crucial, right, for brain health, but it also triggers the production of what's known as brain derived neurotrophic factor, or bdnf. It's like miracle grow for your brain. Remember when I was talking about those synaptic connections and communication? Research shows that BDNF is crucial again to lay the foundation for enhanced communication. So something. And it doesn't have to be intense again. It could be walking, it be could be light jogging. But for those of you out there again, who follow JJ and her, high intensity, right. High intensity interval training could be fantastic as well as weight training and strength training. But like I said, for those of you out there who aren't as conditioned, something as simple as Tai Chi or yoga can be wonderfully beneficial to your brain. There's a 2016 UCLA study found that people 55 and older who enrolled in a 12 week yoga and meditation program after 12 weeks, by sticking to this program, showed significant improvements in their ability to remember words as well as places and locations. So again, it doesn't have to be this intense thing if you're intimidated by exercise, Right. There's ways where you can gradually ease.

But I wonder with the intense piece, have you looked at all? Because I think it's really cool that we are starting to get into more testing that exercise. I always felt like the peasant in the healthcare system as an exercise physiologist. And now I feel like with all the focus on longevity, exercise is the star, right?

Huge.

When you look at exercise, it's been such a big, important part of my son's healing. But one of the things that I'm hoping we'll get a lot more research on is doing intense exercise, driving that lactate because of what it can do for the brain.

Oh yeah.

And mitophagy. So what do you think about that piece of it?

Oh yeah. And that's such one of my favorite topics in exploring this is when we talk about exercise. Just like you can do specific exercises to strengthen specific muscle groups, different exercises can impact different functions and have different benefits for your brain. Right. So for example, one of my favorite ways of exercising the brain, as you've probably seen in the conferences that we've been in together, is dancing. Yeah. There's actually a. Check this out, JJ. A 2003 study in the New England Journal of Medicine followed 469 seniors for more than 20 years and they found that dancing regularly, consistently reduced their risk of dementia by guess how much. 76%. Can you believe that? 76%. It's a. I'll. Yeah, I'll get the reference. It was in the New England Journal of medicine. Yeah, 2003. But regular dancing, I think part of it too is kind of what we talked about earlier, the whole dance or social connection. But also dancing activates multiple regions of your nervous system, your prefrontal cortex for timing and rhythm and planning, your basal ganglia, which is like the red light, green light of movements in your brain and nervous system. It activates your cerebellum, which is very important for core strength and stability. So many things are going on when you dance. And if you're enjoying it and you're having fun, it's also activating your limbic system, the part of your brain that deals with. With emotions. So yeah, that's the cool thing you could actually use. Look at exercise and use it specifically. Right. To activate different parts of the brain and have different beneficial effects. What's really cool, I think you're going to find this really fat. When I learned about this, you can be doing the same exact thing like walking, but if the way you. The intention that you bring to it can activate different parts of your brain and have different brain benefits. So for example, if you're walking, but you're more just kind of hiking around or meandering. So if you're for example, ever in New York City, you go to Central park and just meander around. In France, there's a neighborhood, my favorite neighborhood, called Montmartre. It's beautiful. There's all these little hills. Point being, when you're meandering around, it actually activates a part of your brain called the default mode network, which is all about insight, intuition, healing and creativity. And that's why a lot of times when you're just kind of like have no goal in mind and you're just walking around and you're not focused on anything, you're not focused on getting anywhere. All of a sudden what happens, you discover the law of gravity. The apple falls on your head and you have the insight. So it's cool because you could be doing the exact same physical exercise. But the way you approach it, if you're just being open and exploring, it totally opens up different realms of possibility within your brain.

That's very cool. Okay, we got the five. Now you've got a quiz, your brain save quiz that we are going to make available to everybody. Walk us through what they're going to learn by taking this quiz.

Oh, yeah, absolutely. So when it comes to exercising your brain. Like I said, there's things you could do, just regular types of exercise that are good for your brain, your body and your heart. But you can get really specific, too. Like, different types of exercise can activate specific regions of your brain. So things like advanced types of exercises like eye exercises could activate parts of your brain related to focus and concentration. You can do what we call vestibular or inner ear exercises that can actually open activate parts of your brain that deal with core stability. So if you have chronic neck or back pain, activating and strengthening your vestibular system could go a long way towards healing. That and other types of exercise like balance training, special types of movements. Now, the thing is, just like with actually what I call that the brain training is it's like personal training for your brain. So you want to specifically target different regions of your brain for different things that you want to improve. Just like if you want to strengthen your biceps, you're not going to do hamstring curls, right? You're going to go in and isolate and target those specific muscles. You can do the same thing for your brain. So this quiz that I've designed, you can actually identify the weak links within your nervous system. So again, it's like working with a personal trainer. They can identify which muscle groups you need to focus on. This quiz can help you identify which parts of your nervous system are the weak links that you can focus on. So when you take this quiz, once you finish the quiz and you identify the top weak link in your nervous system, I'm going to email you a very specific exercise that you can do that can strengthen that weak link. And so if you have issues with focus and concentration, you might find that your prefrontal cortex, you score high in that quiz. I'll send you an exercise that has been shown to activate and strengthen your prefrontal cortex and help with focus and concentration. Cool.

All right, I love that. So I'm going to have that@jjvirgin.com BrainSavequiz make it obvious, because that's what it is. I love that it's targeted and it's going to give people something specifically they can do that they'll notice a difference in. Very, very cool. And I appreciate too. And let me just say that one more time so I make sure Everybody gets it. Jjvirgin.com BrainSaveQuiz of course, there will also be a link in the show notes and in the podcast player, so you'll see it all there. You'll be able to get to it easy peasy but you've been just a wealth of knowledge too, in helping me. Once my son with the traumatic brain injury re injured his brain. Like, you know, in life, I'm like, what is it with your head in this, in this lifetime, sweetheart? Like, stop hitting your head. But I really appreciate all the work that you've done and you've turned a misfortune into a very fortunate thing for so many people.

Yeah, absolutely. It's been my pleasure. You know, I know what it's like to go through that and so it's my mission to help as many people as possible with their brain health.

Well, thank you very much. You're on your way. And again, we'll also put the brain save book in the show notes as well so people can grab that. And thank you.

Absolutely. Thank you so much. Jj, great to see you. We'll dance together again.

I sure hope so. Be sure to join me next time for more tools, tips and techniques you can incorporate into everyday life to ensure you look and feel great and are built to last. Check me out on Instagram, Facebook and my website, jjvirgin.com and make sure to follow my podcast@subscribetoj.com so you don't miss a single episode. And hey, if you're loving what you hear, don't forget to leave a review. Your reviews make a big difference in helping me reach more incredible women just like you to spread the word about aging powerfully after 40. Thanks for tuning in and I'll catch you on the next episode. Hey, JJ, here. And just a reminder that the well Beyond 40 podcast offers health, wellness, fitness and nutritional information that's designed for educational and entertainment purposes only. You should not rely on this information as a substitute for, nor does it replace professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. If you have any concerns or questions about your health, you should always consult with a physician or other healthcare professional. Make sure that you do not disregard, avoid or delay obtaining medical or health related advice from your healthcare professional because of something you may have heard on the show or read in our show notes. The use of any information provided on the show is solely at your own risk.

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