How to Protect Your Brain as You Age: The Daily Habit That Actually Matters

Cognitive decline doesn't wait until your 60s. The changes that affect your processing speed, memory, and mental clarity can begin as early as your 30s and 40s — quietly, subtly, and mostly without warning. The good news? There's a lot you can do right now, and most of it is simpler than you think.

In this episode, Kelly sits down with Dr. Michael Elstein — Sydney-based anti-ageing physician and author — for a genuinely practical conversation about brain health. Dr. Elstein has spent decades working with patients who want to stay sharp as they age, and he brings both the clinical depth and the plain-speaking clarity that makes this stuff actually usable.

They cover the key nutrients your brain needs and how to know if you're getting enough, the blood tests most GPs aren't running but should be, why sleep is doing far more for your brain than you realise, and the single morning habit that takes six to ten minutes and costs nothing.

If you've noticed your memory isn't quite what it was, you're losing words more than you used to, or you just want to get ahead of the decline before it starts — this one's for you.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to Wellness Simplified. I'm Kelly Nichols, and this show is for busy people who care deeply about their health, but are drowning in conflicting advice and don't know where to focus. Every episode, we simplify one area of health, one habit, one simple experiment, one clear next step that will actually fit into your life. Together, let's optimize our health. One simple step at a time. Today I'm talking to Dr. Michael Elstein. Michael is a Sydney-based integrative doctor, author, and someone who has spent decades looking at what actually protects the brain as we age. And what I love about this conversation is how practical it is. We're not talking about expensive interventions or complicated protocols. We're going and looking at the things that are free, simple, and backed by evidence. We get into key nutrients your brain actually needs, the link between your immune system and your brain, why sleep is so much more powerful than most of us give it credit for, the role of exercise and which type, and how to continually challenge your brain as you age. And of course, we end with the one habit Michael says you can start tomorrow. If you've ever worried about your memory, your sharpness, or what your brain is going to actually look like in 20 years, this one is worth listening to. Let's get into it. Hi, Michael. Thank you so much for joining us. I really, really appreciate it. I'm um personally have a very deep interest in cognitive long-term health and preventing cognitive decline. It's something that has uh definitely um affected my family. So it's a very strong personal interest. So I can't wait to have this chat. Um, before we jump in, I'd love to, I always like to let listeners kind of get a sense of our guests. So I'd love to hear how do you start your day? Like, how do you set yourself up each morning for success?

SPEAKER_01 2:08

So I I go to work often early in the morning. Um, but the times when I don't always have time to do a whole lot of stuff before I go to work. But I always make sure because I catch public transport, if you ask me a thing that is I do every day and I make sure I do it, is I take a lot of immune-boosting nutrients because I want to protect myself and not get sick. And as as we get older, and as I get older, I'm a bit more horrible, especially on the bus, um, with everybody coughing and sneezing, and and and I think I'm the only one wearing a mask on the bus. So it's a bit frightening. So so boot so having a strong immune system is very, very important to me. And most people don't realize, but the immune system is connected with the brain. Uh, every part of the body is interconnected with other parts. So if I'm looking after my immune system now, protecting myself, I'm not going to get sick, hopefully. And so that's what I do. And on days where I have some time, I also do some yoga and get outside in the sun because uh, as you might or might not know, the sun is very important to regulate our production of a very important hormone called melatonin, which we make at night and helps us sleep and is also brain protective. And if we're getting some sun in the morning, then we are turning on our body's natural production of this very important hormone, melatonin. And also the yoga is quite enjoyable doing it outside, somewhere uh in the sun. So I'm getting the benefits of both of those things.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

Yeah, absolutely. Um, I believe it's like is that enough of the way I'm no, it's great because it's practical, right? Like we're busy people and my audience are busy people, and so it's whatever you can do with inside your busy life to make those small little changes. But I'd love to dig into a couple of things you mentioned. First of all, that morning sunlight, because that is really crucial. Is it true that you want to get that as early as possible? Like ideally, you wake up and the first thing you do is get a bit of morning sunlight.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

I don't think I don't think the time matters. I just think we need to get some morning sunlight before nine. So I'm not sure that you have to jump out of bed and bathe yourself in the sun's rays. But but I think this is some sunlight before you go to work. So a lot of us get in a car, you know, no exposure, go in the office, uh, we park in the office, uh, and so there's no sunlight exposure at all. So I think we need to ensure it in some way. If we don't do it at the crack of dawn, because not everybody wants to go out of their house, meditating into a yoga, uh, and and like like I love doing when I have the time, but not everybody does it. So it's something exposure in the early morning, but it doesn't have to be at the crack of dawn, I don't think. You need about six to ten minutes of sunlight, but it doesn't have to be as it's not as the moment it sunrises.

SPEAKER_00 5:12

And I love that six to ten minutes, like that's so easy. You make yourself a tea or you're chatting to your kids, like whatever it is, and you just shift that to be outside. Like that's something really, really simple that people can do. So I love that. I'd love to. Um, you mentioned about the supplements you take to prevent yourself from getting ill and the importance of the immune system. And you've written an entire book about the immune system. And even though that's not exactly what we're talking about today, I'd just love to hear a bit more. Like, if you don't mind sharing, like what are some of those supplements that you think are really important to boost your immunity?

SPEAKER_01 5:44

So, one of the most important supplements for the immune system is zinc. Zinc is very important. A lot of people are not getting enough zinc because zinc is found in red meat and oysters, and we try to encourage people not to have too much red meat, and obviously nobody has a lot of oysters. You can also get zinc in nuts and seeds. But zinc is a very important nutrient for the immune system. And then I also take vitamin C, which is also very important for the immune system, and then uh herbs like echinacea and andrographis, which which people have heard of echinacea, but there's another herb called andrographis, and those are also herbal herbal remedies that boost the immune system. And I take them every day to to protect myself. And I think it's it's very important as we get older and our immune system becomes weaker to do that, and and don't wait until you get sick, and then you take all these things or rely on antibiotics, it's best to boost your immune system so you don't get unwell, which is what I'd like to achieve, hopefully, by doing that.

SPEAKER_00 6:44

Absolutely. Andrographis, I've never heard of that. How do you spell it for the audience if they want to look it up?

SPEAKER_01 6:50

So Andrographis is A-N-D-R-O, G-R-A-P-H-I-S, Andrographis. Now, now there is there is a uh a company called Bioceuticals, which has a product called Armor Force. Have you heard of Armour Force? You might or might not have heard of it. So so some people take Armour Force, but uh what I do is I take two of those tablets every day because Armor Force has got Andrographis and Echinacea and other things in it, which boost the immune system. So that's that's one way to do that in one tablet.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

Okay, beautiful. Awesome. And so today we're talking specifically about brain health. Um, and I'd love to hear for your life personally, whether it's throughout your day or something you fit in, what are kind of some of the key habits that you personally integrate into your week for specifically for brain health?

SPEAKER_01 7:46

Well, um I'm uh 72 years old now, so I'm especially attached to looking after my brain becomes scary as we get older. Memory declines, and I'm noticing that some of the things I used to remember, the names of celebrities, I don't have easy access to the way I used to. So so I ensure that I'm having a healthy diet. So diet is so very, very important to look after the brain. And we need to get enough protein, uh, which is vital for the brain, and also good fats, which are very important for the brain. So I I'm I'm a vegetarian actually, and vegetarians can be in trouble in terms of getting enough protein. So I like to ensure that I'm getting enough protein and I have uh actually a protein smoothie, and and I take some fish oil capsules in the morning as well uh to look after my brain, and then I ensure that I have olive oil with my meals, other good fat, and avocado, uh also good fat. So I ensure that I'm getting enough protein and healthy fat to look after my brain. And there are also other nutrients that are important for the brain. Magnesium is one of them. Uh magnesium is found in greens, vegetables, and nuts. Um, but a lot of patients that come to see me are simply not getting enough magnesium, uh, which is important for the brain and helps the brain to relax. And another nutrient that I interrupt is vitamin B12. So, vitamin B12 is also very important for the brain. And vegetarians don't get enough vitamin B12 because vitamin B12 is found in eggs, meat, and fish. We don't eat those things. So I take B12 supplements, and I also measure these things regularly. So it's important to know anybody who wants to look after their brain needs to know if they're getting enough protein and fat and magnesium and B12, all these vital brain nutrients. And sometimes we need to even do blood tests to find out if we are getting enough of these special nutrients.

SPEAKER_00 9:46

Yeah, absolutely. Um with so with that, I agree with the amoeba, like the you talked about the healthy fats. I personally have actually noticed a real, I did a um Amiga index. I don't know if you do that with your patients, and it showed that my um like my levels were off. And since taking kind of higher dose amiga supplements, I've actually really noticed a difference in um kind of my sharpness or lack of brain fog that I was getting. Um, so do you do that test with your patients?

SPEAKER_01 10:18

Yeah, you can. So you mentioned the amygdala index. So you can do a blood test, but not conventional laboratories. So if you ask your routine laboratories to do that, most doctors don't know about this, and most conventional laboratories won't measure that. Um, but you can get a laboratory in Melbourne to measure, uh, to measure your omega-fatty acids. And we need to ensure, as you've indicated, we're getting omega-3, which is found in fish, and some of us eat fish, but but a lot of us don't eat enough fish. You need to have two or three a week, and you also need to be careful that you're not exposing yourself to too much mercury in the fish because mercury is not good for your brain. So you need one to have the smaller fish rather than the larger fish, which contain mercury. Um, but but and in addition to those, you also need to do the test to ensure you're getting the other nutrients. So that's a good test to do together with the other nutrient tests that are the more conventional nutrients, and that's what conventional laboratories actually do.

SPEAKER_00 11:18

And so those key kind of what are those key markers that you test? You mentioned B12, the Omega index. What other things do you test?

SPEAKER_01 11:29

So, so so anybody who wants to uh know how their brain is is functioning and to know that they're getting all the things that they need for their brain to be working optimally needs to ensure that they're getting enough protein, uh, and you can do a blood test for protein. Uh a lot of doctors don't even look at that or don't even actually ask their patients what they're eating, sadly. Uh so you can do a blood test for protein, you can also do blood tests, obviously, for vitamin B12 and magnesium and and for zinc. Uh, and then you also need to do blood tests to see whether you're eating the right foods for you. So some people have food intolerances that they don't know of. Uh, so you need to ensure that you're not reacting to gluten or dairy. A lot of people have lactose intolerance. And there are tests that you can do to ensure that you don't have a lactose intolerance or gluten intolerance. Uh, and then you need to look at things that can harm your brain. So you need to ensure that your sugar metabolism is optimal. If you have high blood sugar levels, which you might not know that you have, then this can also be bad for your brain. Uh, it switches on uh inflammation in your body if your sugar levels are very high, which you don't know. And brain inflammation is something very silent. So most people, inflammation is chemicals in your body that you're switching on that harm you and can harm your brain. And there are blood tests for this, but most people won't know that they have too much inflammation unless they do blood tests to see if this is the case. Uh, and what's also very interesting is there's a chemical in our body called homocysteine. I don't know if you've ever heard of homocysteine. So, homocysteine is like cholesterol. We we all make homocysteine. We make homocysteine the moment we eat protein, but too much homocysteine can increase inflatation, which can damage the brain. And the way we understand this is by doing a blood test which measures homocysteine. At the same time, we need to do a blood test which measures our vitamin B12 levels, because vitamin B12 is the vitamin which metabolizes homocysteine or ensures that it doesn't harm us, but we might know all these things unless we do these tests which find out about it.

SPEAKER_00 13:49

And some people have a particular sensitivity to homocysteine, correct?

SPEAKER_01 13:54

Well, some people have high levels of homocysteine because they're not getting enough vitamin B12 in their diet, or they have a gene which compromises their ability to use vitamin B12 to metabolize the lower homocysteine. So when you have a blood test, which should be part of any brain aging assessment, you want to be looking at homocysteine together with all those other things I mentioned. Then you need to look at your vitamin B12 levels together with your homocysteine levels. And your homocysteine levels are very high, and your vitamin B12 levels are quite reasonable, then you look, you need to look at the gene test, which will tell you how effective your vitamin B12 is in actually lowering homocysteine or metabolizing it.

SPEAKER_00 14:39

But with genes, is uh if people do have that gene, there's still yeah, it's called the MTHFR gene.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

Sorry, Kellyanne, to speak the gene is called the MTHFR gene. Uh and that's a gene test you can do. That's about it.

SPEAKER_00 14:55

And then they just need to have specific kind of methylated um B's, vitamins, correct?

SPEAKER_01 15:01

Yeah, so so what you're talking about is what some people might not understand, but if you have this gene called the MTHFR gene, then you need to take activated B12. So the B12 you're taking as a supplement has to be a special form of vitamin B12, as you've indicated, called methylated, which means activated B12. So it's the B12 people in an effectively low homocysteine, even if you have that gene.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

Yeah, great. Okay. Maybe let's take a step back. And I'm keen to understand at what age does cognitive decline actually start? I mean, I think people have the perception that, you know, this all happens in older age, but what at what age would you say that starts? Um, and is it actually different from men and women in general?

SPEAKER_01 15:47

It's it's very it can start in a very subtle fashion in our 30s and 40s. Um when we may have when things like processing speed or the ability to understand things and grasp them really quickly, it might decline a little bit. But the the changes that happen in your 30s and 40s, maybe even in your 50s, around the tunnel. So you might have simple memory changes, but they're not always that noticeable or obvious. But when you start getting to 60 and beyond, that's when your memory changes start becoming a bit more obvious to you. And we all undergo some memory loss as we get older. This is inevitable. You you can't you don't have the memory of a 30-year-old when when you're in your 60s. But uh if uh but that becomes problematic when this when this memory loss becomes quite significant, and you find that there's it's affecting your daily life, people are noticing you're not remembering, you're remembering less than people of your same age, it's compromising your work situation. Um, you have trouble building, making sentences, you can't find the words that you'd like to access. Uh, that becomes problematic. That's more accentuated. But um, and that can indicate that you're in a little bit of trouble with with with your your cognitive function. But but these things are actually quite mild but accentuated uh uh after you go through after you're 60 years of age.

SPEAKER_00 17:25

So for people then who are like in their 40s or 50s, like to what extent is this decline preventable?

SPEAKER_01 17:34

Well, at that stage when these things are very subtle and and not obvious, you need to do things like have have a healthy diet. You know, we mentioned getting enough protein and fats, making sure you're getting all the minerals you need for your brain, like magnesium and zinc and then vitamin B12, the vitamins your brain needs. But you also need to do other things like exercise, which is really, really important for the brain. I don't think people realize how important it is. People say exercise is a way to have a better body to look better, but it's it's also a way to enhance your cognitive processes. And this includes aerobic exercise, but also resistance training, doing weights can also be very brain-building and switches on chemicals that that that increases what's called neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is forming new brain connections. I don't think people realize that when they're doing weight training, even though they're they're pumping iron and things is making them have wonderful bodies, but it's also improving their cognitive function. So that's very important.

SPEAKER_00 18:41

And could you explain, um, because yes, I think people read this, but they probably don't understand the mechanism. So could you explain as simply as possible possible what's the actual mechanism by which when people are lifting weights or they're doing cardio, that that's improving their brain?

SPEAKER_01 18:58

Well, they are increasing the blood supply to their brain, their brains. Uh also when you're engaging your muscles, the muscles send chemicals to your brain, which enhance brain function. And what exercise does, both aerobic and weight training, it switches on a substance in the brain called brain-derived neurotrophic factor. So brain-derived neurotrophic factor encourages new connections between nerve cells or what we call neuroplasticity. So it's it's uh very important to switch this on. And what exercise also does, especially weight training, it increases uh a hormone called IgF-1. And IgF-1 is a growth promoting hormone. It's connected with growth hormone, so it encourages new brain cells to grow to grow. Uh and so all these sorts of activities uh are causing chemical changes in the brain, which enhance cognitive function, without you realizing it when you're doing all this stuff in the gym.

SPEAKER_00 20:02

Perfect. You're getting a good body and a good brain, right?

SPEAKER_01 20:06

Two for the plus of one.

SPEAKER_00 20:08

Um, okay. Perfect. We like that, right? Um, and uh obviously sleep is really important. Could you talk to us a little about um how poor sleep affects cognition, not just short term but long term?

SPEAKER_01 20:23

Yes, uh so sleep switches. When we when we get sleep, we we're switching on a hormone called melatonin, which helps our sleep. And melatonin is a very powerful antioxidant, and antioxidants protect our brain against free radicals or chemicals, which when we have too much of them, they can be damaging. Uh and and melatonin also has powerful anti-inflammatory effects. So inflammation is something we get from from toxins, even from alcohol. Uh having too much alcohol is is bad for the brain. Uh, and that's not talked about very much because we live in a culture which which embraces alcohol consumption. Uh possibly to the to our detriment. Yeah. And so we're hosing down inflammation by having uh enough melatonin. And also when we get good sleep, we're also getting rid of chemical poisons or toxins which can harm our brain, setting us up to develop dementia. So it's when we sleep, we get rid of this chemical garbage, which if we don't sleep, it accumulates and harms our brain. And there's some connection between that accumulation and the development of dementia. So it's very important to clear our brains of these things by by enjoying regular sleep.

SPEAKER_00 21:43

Okay. And as far as like when you're talking to your patients about how to optimize their sleep specifically for the brain, are there any steps that you tell them? You already mentioned one at the start about when you get up trying to get some at least, I think you said six to ten minutes of natural sunlight. Are there any Other steps that you recommend?

SPEAKER_01 22:02

So we need to switch off or yeah, so we need to turn off our exposure to blue light, which is any screen exposure on our phones, uh, our computers, television. We need to stop. We ideally we shouldn't be exposing ourselves to much of this at night at all, because in old times we didn't have all this chemical and electrical stimulation artificial light. Uh, and so we need to reduce our exposure to this artificial light as much as we can. So switching off all our devices, uh, computers, and television round about nine, nine thirty, because we start producing melatonin at 10 o'clock, and melatonin, melatonin is a hormone which looks after our brain, it looks after our sleep. And so if we expose our brain to too much artificial light at night, after 9, 9.30, we are switching off this natural rhythm of making melatonin, our brain's capacity to do this, and this will compromise our sleep. So if we can, don't expose yourself to any artificial light at night, and also ensure that um your extremities are warm. So you need warm hands, warm feet, because the the warmer our extremities, the more our uh essential part of our body, our brains are able to cool off. So our brains need to be cool, and and if our extremities are warm, we increase our blood supply to our extremities, which cool things down in our brain, and tells our brain it's it's time, you know, you can switch off, you can turn off your heater and turn off your activation, uh, which allows our brain then to relax and start sleeping. But if our brain is heated up uh by all this exposure, and and our extremities are cold, we have cold hands and feet, it's much harder for our brains to cool down and to deactivate.

SPEAKER_00 23:58

That's interesting. I've never heard it explained like that. I mean, I hate the feeling of cold feet. Um, a few nights ago I woke up because my feet were freezing, but I've never heard it linked directly to the brain like that. That's fascinating. Um, and you mentioned about melatonin. I mean, some people who have like a lot of uh difficulties sleeping, do you ever recommend supplementing with melatonin, or you don't think that's a good idea?

SPEAKER_01 24:22

Oh no, I do. I I I definitely I take melatonin most nights. So um uh it it's I don't rely on my body's natural production of melatonin because when we get older, our body produces less melatonin incrementally as we age. So we need to possibly take a supplement of melatonin. Uh and so I I encourage people to think about that. It's much better than a sleeping pill, because sleeping pills, you know, we can get addicted to them, they can give us hangovers, that they they don't, they're not stimulating, they're not putting us down in any protective way, they're just artificially uh switching our brain up with chemicals. So I encourage people if they're not making enough melatonin by by exposing themselves to enough sunlight and switching their brains off at night, then and they struggle to sleep and have insomnia, then one of the one of the ways they can remedy that is to take some melatonin uh together with natural remedies, the natural level remedies, which which I use together with melatonin, rather than Valium or benzodiazepine or any of the sleeping tablets, uh medications, those are my preferences for treating people with insomnia, but also for encouraging people to have good sleep.

SPEAKER_00 25:37

And I'm keen to hear what are some of those supplements. My partner definitely fits into this bucket. He has a very, very overactive mind, so he finds it hard to turn it off at night. So, do you have other supplements that you recommend to help people with um sleeping who have that kind of overactive mind?

SPEAKER_01 25:56

Yes, so so some of the things you can do aside from taking melatonin, and and there are herbal remedies. There's a herbal herbal remedy uh called redorman for R-E-D-O-R-M-I-N, radorman forte F-O-R-T. And that's called that contains herbal remedies like like valerian and some other herbal remedies, which help us sleep. Magnesium is obviously one of the minerals that help with the body, the brain to relax. So it's it's important to optimize your magnesium levels, and sometimes you might need magnesium supplements. And and then if you want to de-stress, switch off your stress hormone called cortisol because people often have very high levels of this hormone cortisol. So cortisol is a hormone which we we naturally produce in the morning. Our body produces a lot of cortisol to get us out of bed and to activate us. But you want that cortisol to be not high at night. You don't want your brain to be activated at night with too much of this hormone. So if if you're used to being very active and doing a lot of activities at night, possibly you may be too much cortisol. And the way to switch off cortisol is is a supplement called, and this is a long name for phosphatidyl serine. So um phosphatidyl serine is ph O S P H A T I D Y L serine S E R I N E. So phosphorus for P H A T I D Y L S E R I N E. Phosphatinyl serine. So that's a natural way to lower your body's cortisol levels, yes.

SPEAKER_00 27:40

I've tried um, I think uh uh PS and I definitely have found some some improvements. Do you have any brands of that that you specifically recommend? And do you recommend in that case seeing as you're saying um for sleep? Do you recommend taking it at night?

SPEAKER_01 27:57

Yes, I do. So so either there's a there's a company called uh Orthoplex, which is an Australian vitamin company, and they have a product called Phospholipid Complex, so phospho PH, it's PHO, lipid complex. But I'm looking at a a supplement on my desk from Life Extension Foundation. I don't know if you're aware, they are a vitamin company, they're an American vitamin company, life extension, and you have to go online to get their products, and they have a product called Cognitex Elite, Cognitex C-O-G-N-I-T-E-X, Cognitex Elite by Life Extension, and this has a whole lot of things in it which are good for the brain and good for sleep. So it has uh a herb called sage, and sage is is very good for for brain health and brain wellness. Sage, we can get sage in Australia, obviously, as a separate uh supplemental herbal remedy, and also blueberries, and if we talk about things that are really good for the brain, blueberries is one of those nutrients that has been researched uh to show that it can help to prevent dementia and also enhance cognitive function. Uh, so blueberries product, um, and then it's got other things in it, but one of the one of the things in it is phosphatidyl serine and also another brain-boosting product called uridine, U-R-I-P-I-N-B, uridine or uridine. So a lot of things in cognitive technique for the brain. I think this is most nice uh to switch off my brain, to give me a special boosting uh effects of stage of delivery and other things in this product that are good for the brain. Hopefully it's helping me. But but as I said, because magnesium is very important as well, and and those natural herbal remedies for sleep together with melatonin.

SPEAKER_00 29:58

Great. And just for the audience, we'll put all these links in because obviously there's some big names that you've mentioned. So I'll grab all those links from you and make sure that they're in the show notes. Um, that's excellent. Maybe we could go to um you've also written about the importance of social connection for the brain. Now, people would have heard a lot about social connection for longevity, but maybe not specifically for the brain. What um what's the research actually say in that regard?

SPEAKER_01 30:28

So, so we talked about the term neuroplasticity, that that's switching on new new nerve connections. So the more connections we make between nerves and the more new connections we make between nerves, the more we looking after our brain. So so simply social connections and and connectivity that are positive, we want to make sure our interactions with others are nurturing and and and beneficial rather than adversarial. Uh so these sorts of positive connections actually encourage neuroplasticity, would you believe? So you don't have to learn a new musical instrument, which is another thing that stimulates neuroplasticity. You don't have to play the violin or the piano or learn French or Italian to switch on neuroplasticity. Social connections at least every week, not being isolated, um, seeing your friends, also being parts of committees and big or bigger organizations where we interact with other people outside of our immediate circle, uh, in it, obviously, in addition to our social circle, all of those sorts of uh interactions switch on neuroplasticity. And they've shown the converse that people who are isolated, their brains actually shrink. The hippocampus, that's a lot of brain, is very intimately connected with memory and and dementia. The hippocampus actually shrinks if you're isolated, which is quite scary, but it's quite a terrible thing. So social isolation is a brain care actually, and it's a major promoter. So we need to be careful that uh we are regularly connected with people we we love, but also other people that we we we see as as associates and friends as well.

SPEAKER_00 32:17

And I love that, that that's um, you know, just something enjoyable that you can do, maybe in addition to whatever learning the language or the musical instrument or whatever. Or you could do those things with a friend, double the double the points.

SPEAKER_01 32:32

Yes, so dancing would be a perfect way.

SPEAKER_00 32:34

Um you talked about neuroplasticity.

SPEAKER_01 32:36

Yeah, dancing dancing. Do you dance? I'm not a very good dancer. Do you go dancing with your partner?

SPEAKER_00 32:41

I dance. You're speaking my you're speaking my language, Michael. I love dancing. Love, love, love dancing. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 32:48

Oh, that's right. For the brain and for your partner.

SPEAKER_00 32:51

So it's boosting my brain. Okay, excellent. Yay. Is that because of the crossbody kind of connection, or why why is dancing so good for your brain?

SPEAKER_01 33:03

I think it's a combination of getting you to do things that are a little bit difficult. And that switches on neuroplasticity. It's also the show social connection you have with your partner. So there obviously intimacies and and and hormones that get switched on by that connection. Uh so but all of those things uh are brain protective.

SPEAKER_00 33:25

Let's dive a little bit deeper into neuroplasticity. So is that capacity something that we have throughout life, or does it decline with age and then follow up to that? And if it does, does it have to? Like to what extent can we reverse that?

SPEAKER_01 33:42

So kids, so so children and and babies and have a huge amount of neuroplasticity. That's why they can teach a language uh when they're very young, one or two years old, they can pick up all these languages and you speak to them. That level of neuroplasticity is harder to access as we get older. So it's much harder to learn a language when you're 60 or 70 uh uh compared with when you're a one or two-year-old. But neuroplasticity or the the ability to make new brain connections, that that we can do throughout our lives. So you can always challenge, there's always your capacity to do that by challenging your brain to do new things. So you can always learn a language that might you might be much slower than it than a one or two-year-old, but you always have that capacity to promote or encourage neuroplasticity by doing those things that are slightly difficult to do. So a lot of people aren't interested in learning a new language when they're 60 or 70, or learning a musical instrument 20 or 70 years old. But there was there was an item on television the other day which showed a 104-year-old man in America who started doing pottery when he was 94. And he's actually ready, he's top of his class. He's in a pottery class, so he's interacting with other people. He's very good at doing pottery, and he's still doing his pottery after he's a centenarian. So we all uh and and I regularly see people on the um there's Gardening Australia, which is a wonderful ABC show on Friday night, which looks at how people uh look after their gardens, have incredible gardens and grow vegetables and beautiful flowers. And you see people on the show are in their 80s who are active gardeners and feel very vibrant and feel very good about themselves, both physically and mentally, because they are staying engaged and they are doing all these things and encouraging neuropacity when they're old, when they're when they're biologically old, but but they're but but they're not um you know, chronologically old, excuse me, but they're not biologically old because they can constantly constantly stimulating their biology by doing this sort of activity.

SPEAKER_00 35:48

Great. Um and that's like a I I mean, I personally love learning new things. And I think so. You what you're saying is learning new things, having connection with people, and just keeping your brain active. Because I suppose people can tend to fall into a rut of like this is my routine, this is what I do, and they do the same thing every day. You're saying challenging that a little bit, trying new things, fun things that keep that, keep your brain active.

SPEAKER_01 36:16

Oh, absolutely. And this is a big challenge for most people because a lot of people, as you say, are habitual creatures, we all do things that we're used to doing every day. It's comfortable, and it's very hard to step out of that comfort zone and do these sorts of activities.

SPEAKER_00 36:29

Yeah, absolutely. And I suppose even like doing the same things that you've always done, but trying to do them in a different way, I've also read, can help from ridiculous things like brushing your teeth with the other hand.

SPEAKER_01 36:41

Sure, yeah, yeah. So you can brush, so that's what I do. So I I shave with my country, I shave with my my other hand as much as I can. I brush my teeth with my other hand.

SPEAKER_00 36:50

That's dangerous.

SPEAKER_01 36:51

Yeah. I colour my hands as brush as I can with my other hand while also standing on standing on one leg is also really good for you. So if you brush your teeth or shave or do whatever, and you can stand up and balance yourself on one leg without obviously falling over. That's also good for your brain. And stand on your one leg as as for as long as you can.

SPEAKER_00 37:12

Okay, everyone's heard it. Stand on one leg, do all those things with one hand, and don't blame Michael or myself or you cut yourself while shaving. Um, no, that's great. I have read that. I'll I will try that. I'll be brushing my teeth with my left hand tonight. Thanks. Um, let's talk a little bit about inflammation, inflammation, because I know that that is increasingly linked to cognitive decline and dementia. So, what are some of the things that drive inflammation, do you think?

SPEAKER_01 37:44

So, inflammation is the turning on of chemicals in your body, which can be quite harmful to especially your brain. So, you want to make sure that you you're eating the foods that are appropriate for you. So, if you're eating foods that you're incompatible with or have adverse reactions to, like gluten or dairy or other foods, that can switch on inflammation which over time can accumulate and harm your brain. And you probably don't realize it because this is a slow buildup of something in your brain that over time can be quite damaging, but but not it's not an immediate thing that happens and you you realize you don't know that you've got inflammation until it harms you in the long term. Also, if your blood sugars are are are not poorly controlled, so if you're overweight, uh oftentimes uh your blood sugar levels might be high without you knowing it. And and if you have high blood sugar levels, uh then that can also increase inflammation, which can also harm your brain. And so you need to have a test which looks at your sugar metabolism, even if you're not overweight, to ensure that your sugar metabolism is is efficient and your blood sugar levels are not high. You also need to look at uh homocysteine because homocysteine is a chemical or protein which can lead to inflammation when it's too high. So you want to ensure that your homocysteine levels are normal. And also the gut, the gut is very intimately connected with the brain. And if you have any balance of germs in the gut, which we call dysbiosis, imbalance of germs can increase inflammation uh and and harm your brain. So if you're having, if you find that you have lots of bloating and gas, and you have lots of uh of discomfort, uh abdominal discomfort, it could mean that you have in an imbalance of germs in your gut, and this dysbiosis or imbalance can then increase inflammation, which can harm your brain. Uh, and then alcohol is is a is a huge brain poison. Alcohol, when you have uh consume alcohol, and they talk about excess alcohol consumption being more than 10 drinks a week, um, which means a lot of people are having. So a lot of people have more than two a day, uh, and then they're having 10 drinks, which can be quite harmful for the brain, and switch on inflammation, and this over time can harm your brain as well. So people need to be very careful how much alcohol they expose them themselves to because it's it's very much embedded in our culture to drink alcohol. It's it's seen as a good thing, as a social lubricant, as as something that helps you to get along and de stresses you. Um, and I actually had a patient.

SPEAKER_00 40:28

What do you recommend to your Yeah?

SPEAKER_01 40:30

So I I just gonna say I had a patient the other day who was having a bottle every day and it was feeling fine. And and he's as his liver, is he had abnormal liver blood tests, and and but but these things you don't know, you don't feel an abnormal liver blood test, you don't know your liver's damage uh because it's not a feeling you get, but over time it's gonna be extremely harmful. So I'm I'm not I'm not I don't drink any alcohol at all, to be honest. Um, but um you you don't want to have more than one drink or maximum two a day. Uh even that can be lead to more than 10 drinks a week. So so we need to be very careful how much alcohol we consume, and it's just do too much of it.

SPEAKER_00 41:12

Absolutely. I also drink very, very little. Um excellent. Um finally, about what there's a lot out there as far as like brain training platforms and apps and all kinds of things. How useful do you think they actually are? And do you recommend any specifically?

SPEAKER_01 41:32

I I don't really. I I actually tried uh one of these brain training apps the other day and and and they just seem designed to hook you into subscribing. So so they give you an exercise to do, which I didn't uh you know, you need more brain reserve, you know, you know, obviously they're setting me up and they want me to to subscribe and and and do it on a monthly basis and pay for it. And then there's some research showing that these brain training exercises, all they do is make you good at the brain training exercise that they give you to do. So I don't think it'll encourage your residence as much as doing all the other things we can do to look after our brain, which is a healthy diet, um, the new for the brain, the exercise, social connection, always um being engaged with your job, so working or doing something, some sort of function which encourages you to stay engaged and active rather than sort of retiring and not doing anything. All these things will look after your brain, probably more than the brain training.

SPEAKER_00 42:32

Okay, and you offer a corporate brain training, brain power program. What do you include in that?

SPEAKER_01 42:39

So we we used to do a psychologist, and we used to do this together with a psychologist who uh at the moment we don't have that person working for us anymore. So we we we have a temporary hiatus. But a very important part of the brain, uh the the corporate uh program is to do an assessment, to do a medical assessment, to know uh to have a blood test which looks at if you're getting all these nutrients your brain needs, assessing your sugar metabolism, your homecysteine levels, looking at your cholesterol, looking at all these things, B12, uh that affect the brain, and then correcting those, so whatever you're deficient in, whichever foods you eat that are not ideal for your brain, uh correcting those uh together with then being engaged with exercise and doing all the exercise, aerobic and anaerobic to look after your brain. And the psychologist was doing mindfulness training and meditation because if you can be taught how to be mindful and to meditate, it's also very distressing and good for the brain.

SPEAKER_00 43:42

Yeah, I mean, we didn't actually touch on that. Thank you for reminding me, that's really important. Like the role of stress. And uh can you talk a little about a little about that?

SPEAKER_01 43:51

Yeah, so so when you have excessive amounts of uh unlimiting stress, you're switching on a hormone called cortisol. Uh, and this Hormone can be quite brain harmful to the brain having too much of this hormone. And so mindfulness and meditation and sleeping well and switching off cortisol at night when we don't want too much of it can be very helpful to prevent it harming us. Or even a saliva test. In fact, a live is probably a more accurate way to tell if you're making more cortisol, especially at night. You're not going to have a black test at 10 o'clock at night when you're at home. But if you have a saliva test, you can uh work out if if your body is making too much cortisol. Once again, not embraced by conventional medical practitioners. So it's not something that's that's measured routinely, but that's one of the ways to find out if if you're making too much of it. And then we've talked about ways to lower it. And meditation and mindfulness are some of the natural ways without taking any supplement to lower cortisol and prevent it harm. You use exercise. So exercise is also a good way to lower cortisol naturally, regular exercise.

SPEAKER_00 45:16

Amazing. And I love that like a lot of the things that we've been talking about are, you know, they're quite easy. They're not necessarily very expensive. I think there's a lot kind of of noise about the expensive, fancy things, but most of the things you've mentioned are very simple, not very expensive, um, which is great because they're accessible then.

SPEAKER_01 45:38

100%. Yeah. So so getting out into the sun is not going to cost you much. Neither is exercise, and you don't have to pay a huge membership to go out and enjoy regular exercise.

SPEAKER_00 45:51

Well, Michael, this has been amazing. You've covered so much. And every episode, I like to then take it all down and meet people where they are and just start with, you know, what's the one habit? Where should they start? Um, and maybe the top three habits in order. So let's start with if the listeners could just do one thing, if they only walked away with one thing from everything we've discussed, where would you recommend they start?

SPEAKER_01 46:17

Well, uh it's two things are so the one thing would be obviously gonna start with sun in the morning, which is kind of an easy thing to do. Uh, a more complex thing to do is to have a what about to look after your brain more effectively and you're concerned about your brain health, then have a test. Go and go find a doctor like myself who looks at all those things like hormones and nutrients and diet, uh uh holistically to see if you're getting all the things you need for your brain to work optimally.

SPEAKER_00 46:46

Okay, excellent. So starting with something simple that you can literally uh wake up tomorrow and do is get that kind of six to ten minutes of sunlight as early as you can. Um, you said definitely before nine, just to set your melatonin, as you discussed, and then start with that because that's easy. You can literally do that tomorrow. There's no barriers to that. Um, but then when you're able to uh look for a holistic doctor um who does like a holistic panel looking at your brain, and we can put in the show notes again, you've mentioned a number of those tests that you think are important because I think it's important to empower people so they can go to their doctor knowing what it is they're looking for. So we'll put those kind of key ones that you've mentioned in the show notes as well. That's great. Thank you so much. I really, really appreciate your time. You know, you've written a lot of books and have a lot of resources on your website. So could you just tell everybody where they can find you and what you offer and how you can help them in case they're interested?

SPEAKER_01 47:51

Yes, so I'm Dr. Michael L. Stein, as I'm sure you're gonna introduce me, but um, eternal health is my website. So eternal, like eternal forever, eternalhealth.org. And on it on eternalhealth.org, they will see all the books I've written. They're all available on Amazon, especially the book called Immune Apocrypha, which is very book to the extent you have naturally immune system. And there's also books there which deal with brain aging and how to put in brain aging as well. And they're all under the book section, and they're all available as ebooks on Amazon. And my practice is in the body function. Uh so if you google eternalhealth.org or just my name, you'll find my practice, and then that's how you'll find me. And I have a monthly newsletter as well, which people can subscribe to.

SPEAKER_00 48:36

Excellent. Well, thank you again. Uh, they were really practical, simple things, and I hope for the listeners that you try them out. Um, I definitely will be making a conscious effort to get that morning sunlight. And as I said um in the intro, I always pop these things on socials, tell people how I'm going, and I hope that you do the same. Um, and then if you're able to try to find a practitioner, and if in Sydney, you could go to uh Michael and get those basic uh that panel done because it all starts with knowledge, knowing where we are and what we have, and we can work from there, then you'll know the exact steps to take based on your unique data. So thank you again, Michael. Really, really appreciate your time.

SPEAKER_01 49:17

Thanks so much for having me. Really enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_00 49:20

Now it's your turn. Take what you've learned today and put it into action. Try the habit, run the experiment, and actually track how you go. I'll be doing it right alongside you and sharing on socials. So come find me there. Links are in the show notes. Tell me what's working, what isn't, and what questions are coming up. I genuinely want to know. And if today's episode helped, share it with someone who needs it. And if you haven't already, hit subscribe so we can keep optimizing our health together. One simple step at a time. Take care, and I'll see you next week.