Positive and Negative Neuroplasticity | Weekly Update Upload

What if your brain is not “done” changing?

In this episode, Dr. Wes Center breaks down one of the biggest myths about brain health: the idea that the brain stops growing after childhood. Instead, he explains how neuroplasticity continues throughout life, how learning physically reshapes the brain, and why the habits we practice every day can either support or weaken our brain’s ability to adapt.

Dr. Center walks through the science of myelination, neurogenesis, apoptosis, memory, lifelong learning, sleep, diet, exercise, and the brain-body connection in a way that feels practical and easy to understand. He also shares why things like social connection, movement, hydration, omega-3s, and protecting your sleep can play such a powerful role in long-term brain health.

If you have ever wondered whether it is too late to change, learn, grow, or support your brain in a deeper way, this conversation is a hopeful reminder: your brain is still listening, still adapting, and still capable of growth.

Email us with questions, comments or suggestions at solexpodcast@solexllc.com.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Welcome back to the Solux Podcast, the show where we talk AO scan, frequencies, woo-woo, and all the weird wellness stuff in between. If you're not always sure where the science ends and the woo-woo begins, this is the place you want to be.

SPEAKER_02 0:20

Hey, I'm Dr. West Center. I'm a brain health and wellness specialist. My formal title is psychophysiologist, but that's a mouthful. And it really doesn't give any great insight into what it is that I do. So I help people leverage what we call positive neuroplasticity, that is, help their brain to change in a positive way. And a lot of that's done through the dispelling of myths. One of the most commonly repeated myths that I hear is that brains stop developing or growing, you know, after childhood, early adulthood. And there is some sense in which that's partially true, but it's not completely true. So what part is true? So the brain has its most explosive growth prenatally and in that first two years postpartum. And then the growth of the brain in terms of its uh neurons and connections between the neurons slows down a little bit. So the primary maturational process that's going on after age two and then continuing into early adulthood or late adolescence, defined by about ages 25 to 27, is called myelination. So myelination is the laying on of fat cells along the length of the axons, that's that long connection, fibrous connection between the cell body and then the distant end, which we call the axon terminals. And that long fleshy thing is covered with these little bitty flat fat cells we call swan cells. So that part of development reaches a peak at about ages 25 to 27. And the frontal lobes are the last part of the brain to fully myelinate. So when you hear people say that the brain is matured at age, you know, 25, 27, and the insurance companies know this because they drop your rates at that age, is because the frontal lobes are more fully developed, but they're not finally developed. And so what happens after that? So between the ages of about 25 and 35, the brain is habituating the networks that it's going to use for the rest of your lifespan. So the attention networks, dorsal and ventral emotional attention networks, salience network, the what's important network, the default mode, which is probably the most important of all of our brain health networks, because that's what your brain is doing when you're not doing anything with it. So all of those networks reach their connection potentials and they optimize for electrical activity around age 33, 35. So the brain isn't finished functionally optimizing until about that age. But yet we are constantly turning over neurons through programmed cell death, a process that's called apoptosis. So programmed cell death, where a neuron reaches the end of its lifespan. So the brain recycles those parts, these big cell-eating cells called macrophages. Macro meaning big phage comes from the word phagus, which means to eat. So these big cell-eating cells come in and eat those neurons and then recycle their parts, the organelles, to create new neurons. So this process is constantly going on. Each cell, each nerve cell has a born-on date and a projected end of service life. And so those macrophages come out, consume those before those neurons start to act up because they're senescent, too old. That's what cellular senescence means. The cell has gotten too old to replicate properly. So the macrophages come in clean it up, we grow new neurons, and then they have to grow axons, and then they have to connect to neurons like happened early on. But this is done on an individual basis rather than an enMOS basis, you know, a bunch of cells doing that at once. So this leads to the process that we call positive neuroplasticity. And if there's positive neuroplasticity, there's got to be negative neuroplasticity. So what is positive neuroplasticity? That's growth that happens in the response to learning. So whenever we learn a new thing, the existing neurons try to make the connections between the neurons where that information is stored. And then sometimes it causes the release of dopamine. Learning causes the release of dopamine, as so does the anticipation of reward. And dopamine is a signaling chemical to tell the brain to either make new connections, new synapses, new synaptic connections between neurons, or in the case of there's an overburdened system already, it'll grow new neurons. So when a new neuron comes on board, it has to then grow axons, and then it has to grow connections to other neurons that are associated with that information. So that positive neuroplasticity causes to grow new neurons and new connections between neurons. So the growth of neurons, new neurons is called neurogenesis, so neuroneuron genesis to start or to begin. So new neurons are new synapses, synaptogenesis. And so that process of neurogenesis, synaptogenesis leads to the uh the growth and habituation of new neurons. So essentially, knowledge, what we possess is new information and things that we know, actually creates physical connections in the brain for that information to travel in. And the more often that we use that information, the more the nerve cells that are involved in that process become habituated. And so we think of learning as the process of habituation, the habitual use of a pathway involved in the transfer of information between neurons. So the brain is organized functionally. Certain parts of the brain do are largely responsible for certain functions. So the back part of the brain, the occipital lobe, is largely responsible for vision and visual processing. The parietal lobes are largely responsible for things like sensory integration and sensory processing, handwriting, math, certain aspects of language, but a lot of languages in the left frontal lobe, spatial relationships are done in the parietal lobes, as well as self and other processing. The frontal lobes are largely decision-making, planning, control, and inhibition. So the frontal lobes are stopping. They have our brain's breaks. The limbic system is the engine of behaviors which driving things. The temporal lobes, primary auditory cortex where we process sounds, but also memories are stored there. And then other parts of the brain do different things. The limbic system functions to not only drive behavior, but so a lot of goal-directed behavior is in there as well. The anterior cingulate cortex helps us to shift between states of arousal. And all of those things work together for us to have function. The cerebellum does autonomic nervous system kind of activities, breathing, breath rate, heart rate, blood pressure, those are moderated by the cerebellum. There's a thing called cerebellar depression. And part of there, there's a cerebellar executive function network. So the cerebellums, meaning little brain, also does some functions typically associated with the cortex. The word cortex is a Latin word for bark, just like the outer part of a tree is bark, the outer part of the of the brain is the cortex. And so the cortical functions are most highly developed in humans, and actually our frontal lobes are 20% larger than the nearest mammal relative. And it's again because decision-making, planning control, and inhibition of action. So throughout the lifespan, all of those functions that we've talked about can not only be maintained but grown through lifelong learning. So as long as we're learning, we're growing new connections between neurons. One of the greatest studies in all neuropsychological literature has to do with the nuns that used to teach in the Chicago parochial school system. When they would retire, they went to this very pastoral lifestyle where they would uh grow their own food, make their own wine, beer, cheese. They would work together in the kitchens and then doing all the things that are required to maintain, you know, a large kind of lifestyle like that. But they would sing together, pray together, they would read scriptures together, but they also taught each other the subjects that they taught in the school system. So the art teachers would teach art, the history teachers history, math teachers math, and so on and so forth. And they would continue learning. So many of these ladies lived into their late 90s, early hundreds with no evidence of any uh neurodegenerative disorders. And yet when they passed, they would donate their brains to the University of Wisconsin Medical School system, and they studied their brains. They found this amazing thing that these ladies had sometimes advanced signs of neurodegenerative disorders, but in their lifespan, they didn't have any symptoms of that. And when they looked very closely, they noticed that they had new neurons and new connections between those neurons, many times wiring around areas of damage. So that kind of set everything that we thought about brain uh health, growth, and new neurons on its head. Uh, no pun intended. Uh, we we discovered that you could continue to grow uh new neurons well into late uh adulthood. And, you know, in the 70s, maybe even as late as the early 1980s, we suspected that uh new neuron growth was not possible after the mid-50s, early 60s. And so what we've learned from these ladies is that staying engaged mentally, uh, moderate levels of exercise, a moderate uh dietary uh consumption, low sugar, high proteins, low simple carbs, and this lifelong learning that they engaged in can uh really defeat this idea that um the brain stops growing. So, what are impediments to the brain doing that? Well, if you don't uh exercise your your brain's capacity for learning, you're putting it essentially in idle. Uh you're you're inducing a low turn turnover of neurons because you're not placing a demand on the brain to make new ones. Um, a diet that's low in polyunsaturated fatty acids, so some people call them PUFAs, but you know, really the omega-3s, and diets that are too high in omega-6s and omega-9s, which are pro-inflammatory. So those old fat cells I talked about earlier, the Schwann cells, so they require omega-3s to grow. So it's difficult to grow new axons, particularly after damage to the axons, if you don't have a diet rich in omega-3s. We also need acetylcholine. And so choline can be gotten dietarily from many sources, but it's particularly rich in pasture-raised non-caged uh chicken eggs. And duck eggs are really loaded with omega-3s and choline. And so having a diet rich in choline, which is a precursor to acetylcholine, which is a neurotransmitter in the brain that's essential for memory and for learning, but it's also essential in the communication of smooth muscle neurons. So those neurons that communicate with the gut and the diaphragm largely are innervated by norepinephrine and acetylcholine receptors. And so having a diet rich in omega-3s and uh choline will help maintain those pathways. Um exercise, making sure that we're getting enough movement uh to allow for uh good cerebral blood flow and oxygenation, also critically important. Uh watching your weight. We we actually call Alzheimer's disease type 3 diabetes because it's associated with sedentary lifestyle, uh pro-inflammatory diets, and uh poor sleep, uh, alcohol use, smoking, and other, although smoking actually isn't associated with Alzheimer's. People who smoke have lower risk of Alzheimer's than people who don't, but that's because of nicotine. So the brain is loaded with nicotinic receptors, and uh one of our frontline interventions actually with mild uh uh early uh mild cognitive impairment is actually a nicotine patch. With a lot of our uh first diagnosed Alzheimer's disease uh patients, uh, our neurologists that we work with and other functional medicine practitioners will use nicotine because nicotine is a stimulant, and that stimulant helps to overcome that tendency of the brain to become sedentary. Uh, hydration is also critically important to brain health, brain growth, and brain development because we need to be able to move things out of the body, and the the kidneys and urinary pathway is the primary means for excreting toxins and waste, bio wastes, as a result of uh cellular activity and metabolism. So it's extremely important, and again, these things couple together to work. So uh a good diet, uh, good hydration and exercise work together to increase cerebral blood flow and oxygenation, which increases the brain's ability to move toxins out of the body. Uh, staying hydrated allows the kidneys to filter out the toxins and to move them out as waste, also to move things out through sweat as waste, again, exercise and water. So these things work together uh to bring about um the brain's ability to remain plastic. So I talked about negative neuroplasticity. What's an example of that? So when we first are learning to walk, we we learn to walk with our head upright, centered over our body's natural center of gravity. And uh when you watch a child, they very rarely, when they're learning to walk, will fall forward. They almost always sit. So they they they sense that they're gonna fall, so they just sit. And that's a natural way to handle falling. But as we age, our heads no longer stay in line with our center of gravity. And when we're walking, we tend to drop our head down while we watch our feet, particularly when we're moving downstairs, and it throws off our center of gravity. It actually pushes it forward. So it makes it more likely if we do trip or if we do lose our footing that we're gonna fall forward because we've changed our center of gravity. That's an example of negative neuroplasticity. So uh, what do we want to do to maintain our brain's ability to grow new neurons? So we've talked about diet, including hydration. So increasing omega-3s, increasing uh protein, high quality, dense protein, uh, increasing hydration, decreasing simple carbs and refined sugars, uh, particularly sugar, sugary drinks. Those are just absolutely devastating to the brain. So that's the things we can do dietarily. We talked about exercise. So walking as if you're late, 20 to 40 minutes a day, about three to five days a week. Um, the younger you are, the less you need to do, the older you are, the more you need to do. Um, and then once you reach the age of about 45 to 50, somewhere in there, and again, in discussion with your primary healthcare physician or your wellness coach, um, you should shift from cardio to more core and uh weight-bearing activities. So uh at 65 now, I do very little cardio compared to what I used to do. So almost everything that I do is groundwork involving core. So just going from laying on the ground on my back or on my face and getting to a standing position, or going from a seated position and standing up without using my hands to stand as many times as I can in a minute, those things strengthen the core and your legs and also make you resilient uh to falls. And then anything that you can do for weight bearing, particularly on your your um your thighs, your calves, your ankles, and your feet, uh, doing toe raises, toe curls, getting up against the curb and doing uh uh curl-ups uh it strengthens your calves and your ankles. Those are the kind of things that induce positive plasticity for your brain, and also make sure that you're insulating yourself against the effects of aging. And that kind of plays into another one of these things about, you know, the brain doesn't grow. Another related myth is that uh memory loss is a normal part of aging. It is not a normal part of aging. People do lose memories as they age, but it isn't normal. That's not the way it should happen. Again, one of the reasons they lose is this negative neuroplasticity. They don't rehearse information, so they don't recall. They rely on other things other than their memory. So using um overuse of your smart technology to keep track of appointments, to remember cell numbers and things like that, uh, phone numbers, addresses, and things. And a lot of people's attitude is well, if I can do it on my phone and it can remember everything, why do I need to? Well, you need to because you need to exercise your own memory systems. So the more you become reliant on technology to do that, the brain will go, well, I don't need to do that anymore, and it will stop doing it. Um there are things you can do for memory, like um look at pictures and remember face to name. So as you go through pictures uh and and places and remembering details about those events, that's rehearsing memories. Though those are those are good ways to do it. Um, remembering the lyrics to songs that you used to sing back in the day. You know, so sing old songs, or for me, it would be old hymns. My dad was a music minister in a Baptist church, so I practically knew the entire Broadman Baptist Symbol. So for me, remembering old hymns is a good way for me to rehearse uh memories. So there are all these kinds of memory uh devices that you can use to maintain memory as you age. And again, don't over-rely on technology to do what your brain is optimized to do anyway. So uh that's a good thing for uh positive neuroplasticity. Uh engage in lifelong learning. And if I could put a plug in here for Susan, the Solix University School of Naturopathy. Um, if you're not engaged or involved in that already, get involved. You don't have to finish the entire four-year naturopathic program, but I would encourage you to do as much as you're able to do because it's a part of lifelong learning. It's a way to take material that you already have an affinity for and to learn and expand that knowledge. And it doesn't matter how you know young or old you are. If you were a high school graduate or if you're in your mid-60s like me, I would encourage you to get involved in Susan because it's it's an aspect of lifelong learning that will benefit you personally, but also benefit your brain health. And then the other things you can do is minimize your reliance on smart devices, uh, read real books with real pages and real, you know, real hardback. Um, guard your sleep like a hawk. Don't let anything to interrupt your sleep. So really protect your sleep. Um, and then um engage in social relationships. As much as you can. One of the downsides about um smart devices is it's actually decreased the amount of social engagement the average uh smart device user has. So engage in uh you know classes that you can uh do art classes or music classes or uh some sort of craft classes, um, be involved in a faith community, a church or a small group. Uh get out and enjoy, you know, uh open areas, uh green spaces together. Meet with you know your family. Make sure that you're staying engaged as much as you can with your healthy family members. So uh that's another way of maintaining positive neuroplasticity. And then, of course, um we all have to have hope that our health is going to be maintained throughout our lifespan. I've often told my clients, you know, the idea is for your brain and your body to go on the same day. You don't want your body to continue, you know, for years after your healthy brain function is gone, such as a neurodegenerative disease. But you also don't want to have this really bright, sharp mind, but you've not taken care of your body, and then have a failing, you know, bodily system. Uh, unfortunately, if the body, the body health isn't maintained, it's gonna have a negative uh effect on the brain. And then the other thing is just be vigilant in your lifestyle for anything that promotes inflammation. Foods, uh lifestyle habits, you know, tobacco and alcohol are pro-inflammatory, but so are toxic relationships. I mean, relationships can promote inflammation in the gut and in the brain. And then make sure that when you are feeling sick, if you are feeling unwell, that you're using, you know, good health practices uh to uh get yourself back into a healthy uh spot. And most all uh physical illnesses, most all brain health illnesses uh can uh be uh remedied with the appropriate application of diet, sleep, and exercise uh um hygiene and rest. And so rest and sleep are not the same thing. Sometimes we need to rest mentally, sometimes we need to rest emotionally, but not necessarily go to sleep. And many people will use sleep as a way to escape from dealing with problems, and so I'm not encouraging that. What I am encouraging is is to is to rest and regenerate and restore, but not necessarily hibernate, you know. So um we want to engage with problem solving, we don't want to avoid. And so all of those things are really going to be benefit you in terms of uh brain health longevity. Um, I hope that these uh this discussion has been helpful for you. Some of the tips and tools and and the encouragement that your brain will continue to grow and development and develop as long as you challenge it by learning, by uh learning new things, not not relearning old things, but learning new things, and then by being vigilant about what goes into your body and what comes out of it. Thanks so much for your attention. Um I look forward to seeing it in another uh another discussion.

SPEAKER_01 25:39

Thank you for spending some time today with us. Follow along for more conversations like this. Keep exploring and keep learning, and let us know what you'd like to hear next. You can message us on our social media platforms or email us at solexpodcast at solexlc.com. We'll see you next time.