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How Diet and Exercise Affect Your Brain Health and Dementia Risk · Stacked Intent: Your Guide to Authentic, Intentional Living

• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: And this is something that I'll check out the clock or about the code.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: And the third option is important in the code.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to backwards.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: And today we're going to talk about health on the brain with our current actors.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: So let's get started and ask what are our three objectives for today's conversation?
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, I'm Ashley, and today we are going to be talking about health on the brain and health within the brain specifically.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_02: So our objectives today are going to be to define dementia.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_02: We'll talk about how to identify the differences between your modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors and also what those are.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_02: And then we'll explain how diet and exercise can affect your brain.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: So our first topic, we're going to kind of dive into dementia and what it is and how you might be able to prevent some of it.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: So what is dementia?
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_02: Dementia is a common term that we use, but it may not be a term that your doctor uses.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_02: So when we think about dementia, sometimes we give it as an umbrella term, and we may use it interchangeably when we're talking about somebody that has like Alzheimer's disease.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_02: But Alzheimer's disease is just one form of dementia.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_02: So dementia may be a familiar word for changes in your cognitive health that have gotten to be noticeable by you or maybe by those around you.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_02: People living with dementia have several problems with certain kinds of cognitive function functions like planning, remembering, focusing, following directions.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_02: And there are certain types of diseases that can cause symptoms of dementia like Alzheimer's disease, but there's also Louis body disease, vascular dementia, which that typically happens after a stroke, frontotemporal dementia, and then Parkinson's disease.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_02: But the most important thing about dementia, regardless of the disease, is that it causes those that have it to have losses in cognitive ability that may interfere with your ability to live life the way that you want to live.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_02: So the big takeaway is that dementia and dementias are not a normal part of aging, contrary to popular belief.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_02: They are diseases just like heart disease, arthritis, and cancer.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_02: So, Becca, do you know anybody that has dementia or that maybe have has Alzheimer's Alzheimer's disease or Louis Body or any of the other ones?
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: I've known some people to have some form of dementia.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: I've known lots of people that like their mothers have had it and it drastically affected them being able to be a part of their parents' life because they either didn't recognize them or one person did most of the care or different aspects like that, or it just totally changed how they interacted or remembered things.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_02: My grandmother, she she has recently been diagnosed with dementia, but her doctor's not a specialist.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_02: And so they just said, oh, she's got you know dementia, but they didn't they didn't specify what type.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and we do know that the type of dementia does is dependent upon the the type of care that you receive.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so but there there are ways to prevent all of these different types of dementias, um, which we'll talk about today.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_02: But again, it's not a normal part of aging.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we do know that there is some cognitive decline the older that we get, but there are some things that you can prevent.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_02: You can prevent your cognitive decline from happening and to the point where it becomes dementia.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_02: So, like I said, dementia is just the umbrella term that's used to describe several conditions that result in that cognitive decline.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_02: So Alzheimer's disease is the one that we we recognize the most because it's the most common.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_02: And about 60 to 80 percent of all cases of dementia are caused by Alzheimer's disease.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_02: Dementia is not limited to one condition at a time, though.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_02: And a person can develop multiple forms of dementia simultaneously, like Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia after a stroke.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_02: So I don't know.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I've obviously grandma has not gone to, she's not gone to a specialist, um, but I do know that the UGA care lab in Athens um is the cognitive aging research and education lab, they actually can help to identify the specific type of dementia and then can help come up with a care plan based on that.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_02: So that's really cool.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: That's really that is very cool.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: So that would, yeah, it seems like if you it's like anything, if you don't put care behind it, then you're not gonna be able to figure it out.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and a lot of people just don't, I mean, it goes undiagnosed oftentimes because people just assume it's part of aging.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_02: And um, I think that's why Alzheimer's disease is is sometimes jokingly called Ozheimer's disease, but um you can have Alzheimer's or early onset um not being an elderly person, but it is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that usually starts with memory loss.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_02: So if you you see somebody or start noticing your own self having you know substantial memory loss, I'll say sometimes I forget like, gosh, what did I what did I eat for breakfast?
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_02: Or I sometimes I can't remember um somebody's birthday, but not that kind of memory loss.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_02: When we talk about substantial memory loss, it's like the big things that you should remember and consistent patterns of memory loss.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but that meant it starts with memory loss and then progresses to loss of other cognitive functions, like your ability to pay attention and plan.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but when it comes to Alzheimer's disease, there's a common misconception that it's just a thing that happens when we age, but it's not.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_02: And if you live your life and you start to notice changes in your cognitive function and recognize that things are not normal, um, it's it's probably time to talk to your doctor.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: So do you think sometimes the recognizing comes from family not wanting to acknowledge that there's a dementia disease in play?
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah, yeah, definitely.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_02: I do think um, just from from personal experience, sometimes there's there's a sense of denial.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, some people think it's an inevitable thing that you know older people just get Alzheimer's and they just get dementia, but um, and then when they start to recognize that grandma's, you know, having a hard time remembering things, or grandma can't remember what my name is, or she's having a hard time remembering how to get to the grocery store, um, or that she even went to the grocery store.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes I think family members can be in denial, but other people can start to notice.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_02: So I know there was a an instance that this lady shared with me a couple weeks ago about she was a bank teller, and she said that she started to notice a regular customer and a lady that she's known.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_02: This is an elderly lady, and she's known her and her family for a long time.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_02: And and the elderly lady started coming in and taking out large amounts of money a couple of times a week.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_02: And so the bank teller noticed that this this was not a normal habit of this lady.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_02: And so again, she knew the family, so she was able to call and say, Hey, this is this is going on, just wanted to check, make sure you you guys were aware.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so they actually ended up bringing in um, I think it was their power of attorney or or someone to to get someone else's name on the account so they could kind of keep track on on what the lady was spending and why she was taking out so much money.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_02: And it came down to she didn't realize and she forgot that she had already taken that money out that week.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: So um it does that's cool that a pattern of what you've done, your faint teller is able to tell that you exactly.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_02: And you think about just the people that you come into come into contact with or that you interact with on a daily basis, and it's uh a perk of being in a smaller community, but it does help to have someone that can can take note of those things when they realize that something's not normal.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I think that that's what one aspect of this that's important is the recognizing that there may be a problem.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: And it may not be something that's huge, but it could become huge.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_02: Taking care of it early and um and taking those steps to to either change the lifestyle patterns or to modify some of those risk factors.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and we'll talk more about that shortly.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: So in our second topic there, what is the difference between the modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors that we have?
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_02: Well, we do know that anyone can get any of the type of dementias that we've already mentioned.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_02: You can do all the right things and still get them.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_02: But that being said, we can change our behavior and change our risk.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_02: So you may be at a predisposed higher risk than others, but just know that there are some things that you can take to either lower your risk or change your risk.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_02: So there are two major different types of risk factors for dementia.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_02: There's your non-modifiable or the things that you can't really change, or there's your modifiable risk factors and the things that you do have control over and the things that you can change.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_02: So your non-modify non-modifiable risk factors are those like your gender and your um ethnicity and your family history.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_02: Those are things that you can't really change, or that you don't really have a lot of control over, and even your age.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but your modifiable, the things that you have control over and the things that you can change are your diet, your cognitive novelty, and we'll talk more about that later, your stress management, ways that you cope with stress, your sleep health, how good you're sleeping at night.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_02: We know our sleep is important, um, the amount of exercise that you participate in, your proper medication management, your cardiovascular health, weight management, and smoking.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_02: So today we'll talk just about a few of these.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: So our so we can, just like anything, kind of put, do something to help our risk by our lifestyle.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: So healthy diet.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: What's a healthy diet even mean and look like?
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_02: So sometimes when we say like a brain food or we say, you know, food for thought, those are kind of common terms that or phrases that we use.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_02: But truthfully, what you eat does have an impact on your brain, not just how you feel, but also like the actual physical structure of your brain.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_02: So your diet is perhaps one of the most important behaviors for your overall health, and that's something that largely you have control over.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_02: And as you probably already know, um, a healthy diet improves your overall cardiovascular health, but what's good for your heart is also good for your brain.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_02: So a healthy dietary pattern also contributes to your brain structure and function as well as your heart health.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_02: So the first thing that I always like to talk about is to debunk the idea that diet means that you are living limiting your calories.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_02: So I think social media and just media in general has created this diet culture, and oftentimes that comes with the notion that we are limiting or restricting our calories and the amount of calories that we eat.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um but in this instance, we're gonna talk about diet as a pattern of your eating behaviors, which means your total food, beverage, nutrients, and your habits surrounding what you eat.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_02: So your diet is the all-encompassing term, which means what you eat every day.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_02: It's based on your family, your culture, your lifestyle, and your preferences.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but it's it's the the pattern of how, when, and what you put into your body.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_02: So nutrition is based on what foods do once they are in your body.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_02: All foods have nutrients like vitamins and minerals, but some have more nutrients than others.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_02: We call those foods with high nutrients nutrient-dense foods, but some foods have less nutrients and a lot of calories, like a donut, which is considered a calorie dense, not necessarily a nutrient dense food, which just means it has more calories than it has nutrients.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_02: So, not that these things are are necessarily bad for us in moderation, um, but we we do want to get more nutritional bang for our buck when possible.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_02: So what are some, I do want to know, Becca, what are some nutrient dense foods that you prefer?
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_02: Because I know your diet is is pretty specific, um, and the the your pattern of eating has to be specific, but what are some nutrient dense foods that you enjoy?
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: Probably I mean also would be one.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um that's and then rice, those are two of the bigger ones there I eat.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: And other than that, it right now it's strawberries and peaches, but those are literally there, but strawberries and peaches because you're in season of that now.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we putter in season is what I'm eating part of it and putting part of it in the freezer.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_02: There you go.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'm ready for it to be peach season here.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_02: They have started putting these I don't even know what they call them, I want to say nectarines, which I always thought like a nectarine was an orange, but um they put them in the peach, they look like peaches.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_02: They're just but they're not peaches, like they're not the same.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm ready for it to be peach season here, but we probably won't get them until like full on summertime.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: Probably.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: These are the first ones, which aren't always my favorite, but they've still been good to eat.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_02: South Carolina peaches are the best thing.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: What are some of your high nutrition foods?
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I really like sunflower seed butter, which I know we've talked about that before, but any type of like nut butter is good for um it's it's got high amount of like their good fats in it.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_02: It's got a good amount of protein in it.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you do have to be kind of careful because the the serving sizes there can get you in trouble if you eat too much.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_02: It is it is fairly high calorie, but I also love you're talking about like rice.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I love quinoa.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_02: So quinoa is a really good nutrient-dense food because it provides all of the essential amino acids that you need and is a complete protein in and of itself.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_02: So again, kind of those those more bang for your buck in terms of nutrition, where you're getting more nutrient value versus um like a donut or good old pastry item where it's more calorie dense instead of nutrients.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but yeah, so our vitamins and minerals back to those, they support our healthy organ function, like our brain.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_02: So eating a diet that's high in nutrients means that you're getting the vitamins and minerals that you need for your brain.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_02: In order to get a balanced variety of nutrients, you need to eat a balanced diet.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_02: So eating a well-balanced diet can be a little daunting where we don't really know where to start.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um I've I've spoken with people before that feel like they need an actual calendar or a plan or like a recipe book or something to go off, to go based off of.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_02: But the reality is you just need to eat whole foods, and the more colorful that they are, the better.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_02: Not like the grocery store whole foods, although they have good things, but um, but food that is in its whole state.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_02: So what I mean by that is like fruits and vegetables, beans, peas, and lentils, rather than chips and pastries and ultra-processed foods like sugary cereals and ramen.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you're talking about peaches, like a whole food, that would be a whole food where you can go out and pick it right off of a tree.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and if you can find them in season, which is part of the beauty of right the second, then you get to you get it at its peak and its best.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: Which is if you can't find it as a fresh produce, a lot of times you can buy it frozen and they are frozen at their peak of nutrition.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'm I'm totally with you though.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_02: If you can if you can get them in season and then freeze them yourself, it is so much more economical.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_02: Because I went to the grocery store the other day and bought like a a frozen berry blend and it was like eight dollars, which was just I couldn't believe it.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_02: Because you could get, I mean, I was thinking about like not like now blueberries are in season, and how many blueberries I could get for yeah, a lot of blueberries for eight dollars and freezing myself.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: But anyways, well I mean here's if you can find it local, you can support your local farmers' markets.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, living living over here in the southeastern part of the state, there are a lot more blueberry farms than were in Thomas County.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: That sounds yummy.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I know we love blueberries.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but speaking of things being expensive, our brains are especially expensive in terms of nutrition, meaning they need a lot of nutrients.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_02: So your brain requires about 20% of your overall calories.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_02: But if you want it to run well, kind of like your car, you need to put good fuel in it.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_02: There are some nutrition supplements that can be beneficial, like vitamin D, but your nutrition can really only be supplemented by a pill.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_02: Dietary supplements are not meant to provide you with the bulk of your nutrients.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_02: So, what I meant by that, they can't really only be supplemented by a pill.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_02: So your dietary intake, the foods that you eat should really provide the bulk of your nutrients versus if you were to just take it in the form of a pill.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um, there are, you know, of course, talk with your doctor, and if they recommend you take supplements to help out with your, like if you're vitamin D deficient, um, oftentimes you can just go spend a little more time in the sun.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_02: But if you don't have that opportunity and your doctor recommends a dietary supplement, follow their recommendations.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_02: But for the most part, you can just get it in the foods that you eat.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: Which it's better in the foods that we eat.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: It means we get it in its more natural form.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yep, and you get more nutrients with it too.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_02: When we think about like milk, milk is high and like dairy products are high in vitamin D, but they're also high in calcium, and they have other types of nutrients that are um that are in milk too.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_02: So you're getting you're getting kind of a mixed bag of nutrients versus just having a high concentration of just simply one.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: So what is follow the mind diet?
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: What is this?
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so so again, thinking about the the term diet, and and here we're going to talk about more of the the pattern of eating, but there is strong evidence that supports eating a dietary pattern is more powerful for brain health than single foods or nutrients.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_02: So, like we just said with the supplements, rather than just taking one pill that's highly concentrated with one vitamin or mineral, um, if you can eat a variety of foods, you're gonna get more bang for your buck there.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_02: So the mind diet is the Mediterranean dash intervention for neurodegenerative delay, which is a really big word and a very long phrase.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_02: But basically, it's just an example of an especially effective dietary pattern to reduce the risk for cognitive decline and other dementias.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_02: So people have done lots of studies, and um, people that make a lot more money than I do have spent time and energy and effort with studying this pattern of this specific pattern of eating.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: And how it affects your cognitive function.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_02: So the mind dietary pattern prioritizes unsaturated fats, lean meats, whole grains, and fruits and vegetables over saturated fats, processed foods, and red meat.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_02: So you're gonna you're gonna get more of those unsaturated fats, lean meats, whole grains, fruits, veggies, and less of the saturated processed red meat.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_02: So those are the studies that show people who eat the mind dietary pattern were up an equivalent of seven and a half years younger compared to those who did not follow the pattern.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_02: So that was interesting to me.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_02: And that was a study by Morris back in 2015.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_02: But the the general recommendations of the mind diet or dietary pattern are to eat more green leafy vegetables, berries, nuts, olive oil, whole grains, fish, beans, poultry, and eat less butter margarine, cheese, red meat, fried food, pastries, and sweets, which sounds like Sunday lunch at grandma's house.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_02: Lots of butter, lots of cheese, probably some barbecue, some fried chicken, and then of course you gotta have pie or some type of cake.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: But um what you have to look at is that balance.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: Is it if you're not eating that Sunday lunch every day of the week, then it's okay to find the balance of being more intentional of what you're eating.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'm eating the green leafies, the berries, and the fish all week long because I know on Sunday lunch this is what I'm gonna go consume.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it's that I think that people go all or nothing one way or the other, but really it's okay to find that somewhere in between that gray area of eating.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and and when I say eat less, um these are that's like you were like you were just saying, kind of find finding that balance and eating those things in moderation.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_02: Um and it could just be simply changing the way that you cook.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_02: So rather than cooking with butter or margarine, you can switch to cooking with olive oil or sauteing something versus frying it.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but truthfully, when we think about like I think about going out to eat, and what probably looks the most appealing to my husband would be something that has a lot of cheese in it.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um but like cheese is one of those things that we want to try to limit, but that doesn't mean that we can't ever eat cheese.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_02: But it just means that we need to be aware of how much cheese we are consuming, um, and and like those other things too, red meat, fried food, pastries, and balance the traditionally delicious items like cheese and butter with equally delicious but more nutrient-dense, like Arlene, poultries, whole grains or your whole grains.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so like you said, finding that balance and finding out how you can make little shifts in your current diet to eat healthier and the ones that you're gonna be more likely to maintain over time so you can be healthier and active for longer.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_02: Because if you can't maintain it, there is no point in you trying to implement it into your life.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: No, I think one of the things is I had tried at one point just to totally cut out all or limit most carbs.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: And what I found is if I would just decide, okay, I'm gonna have tortillas this week, or I'm gonna eat bread this week, or rice is my carb, I found that I did better instead of going, oh look, there's delicious bread, I'm gonna eat all of it.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: And then I was like, okay, I can only eat it, I'll eat a slice of it.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I found that balance of allowing myself to still have a little bit, even though finding the balance of eating it.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: You talked about your husband and something that has tons of cheese might look good.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: My husband went out just last week and we went to a burger place and he ordered a beef burger with bacon and a buffalo sauce, and I just laughed at him as he was ordering because it was just funny.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, so I see that you're missing having bacon and burgers at home because it wasn't a lot of red meat, and so it was just funny because it's like what looked good to him on the menu is definitely not what looked good for me on the menu.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_02: Well, and that's funny too, because every once in a while, like I'm I'm kind of the same way.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_02: We don't we don't eat a ton of red meat, but like if I want a hamburger, I mean I'm gonna go all out and get the the best looking hamburger I possibly can, but that's not something I eat regularly.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_02: So it is truly a treat.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um and I and that just kind of goes back to think of thinking about it's hard to eat a healthy diet all of the time, and ultimately it's it's kind of unrealistic to ask everyone to do so because there are things that we we are naturally inclined to like sugary things and to to like things that are higher in saturated fats and maybe things that are not so good for us because they're designed to be palatable.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but it you're not saying that you can't ever have those things.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um we just tried a good way that I like to break it down is to break it down in the 85-15 rule or the 80-20 rule.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but it this breaks it down into a more realistic approach.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_02: But specifically, the 85 per 85-15 rule is that 85% of your calories come from healthfully nutrient-dense foods, and the remaining 15% of your calories can come from kind of a combination of added sugars, oils, or alcohols.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_02: But if you strive to eat healthy 100% of the time, and realistically you're not gonna do it 100% of the time, you're gonna fall right into that 85-15 rule.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_02: But this is kind of where those cheese, that cheese and the brownies come in, and we know that life is more enjoyable with these items.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_02: But again, moderation is definitely key.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: But I think it goes back to what you just said a couple minutes ago is your burger's a treat.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's not making the things that should be classified as our treats everyday items.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's where the big because the other thing is if you talk about like toddlers, if you're introducing them to food, one thing that I learned from one of my friends recently was she gave her son vegetables that are depuraed and made for him because a lot of the store process has fruit added in with it.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so instead of starting his palate on a fruit sweetness, even just that natural sweetness, he started it on vegetables and that kid now will just take a handful of broccoli and eat it.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas not a lot of toddlers will.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's just I think that sometimes if our if our palates were started off with that sweet, it makes it hard to be okay with the more natural flavors of what our vegetables are, or removing the sugar.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but yeah, and and if you think about in your daily, just even your daily routine, that 8515.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_02: So uh if if you know that like you like a particularly you know sugar sweetened type of coffee creamer, he's just gonna go on.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_02: That's okay.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe he's driving to the other side of the room.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_02: Sorry.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we appreciate our fellow that cuts our grass very much so.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_02: But if you think about like your coffee creamer, um, and that that may have some added sugar in it, but that may be part of that 15% of your calories that are not necessarily the most healthy.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so you can do that, but that may be like your daily thing.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_02: And then maybe you have like a piece of candy in the afternoon, or maybe you have like um you cook with butter instead of olive oil, there or you add a little extra cheese or something like that.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_02: But but you can incorporate it into your daily routine, um, but just making sure that the bulk of your choices are ones that are like nutrient-dense options.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it sounds like it's just being mindful.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: Are you gonna where are you gonna take that 15%?
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: So it's just where are deciding where your 15% of your remaining calories is gonna come from, since the other 80-85% has been healthy.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: So we are gonna transition into talking about why does physical exercise and activity even matter to our brains?
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so all about a healthy lifestyle is a is a combination of choices, but the two big things that we like to focus on are your nutrition and your physical activity.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_02: So we've talked a little bit about what you eat, and now we're gonna talk about how you're how you move and why we like to move.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but largely moving your body is good for stress reduction.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_02: So there are there are plenty of studies that show that stress and its effect on your brain can have a negative effect.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_02: So we want to try to reduce stress as much as possible.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_02: But do you, and I know you do personally, because I know these are things that you like to do.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_02: But some general recommendations are to take a walk, to do some yoga, or to practice stretching when you feel stressed.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um, do you ever feel, Becca, the particular desire to move when you were stressed?
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I found that in the lapse of my transition from moving from Georgia to Alabama, the lapse of having exercise that was a part of it, or any time in my life that I've kind of seen it disappear since I've been an athlete since I was a kid, that exercise and movement in my day makes a huge difference with how I feel and what I do.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: So and really it's kind of as simple as okay, I got 20 minutes, I'm gonna go do a workout.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: And then I've also committed to myself over five days a week I have a workout that I'm accomplishing.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: So if it doesn't happen on Monday, then that means Saturday it's gonna have to happen, so that I still get about five out of seven days.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: But that doesn't mean the other two days I'm not necessarily moving.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like uh Sunday morning I took about a 45 minute walk with the toddler, which means you stop and pick flowers all along the way.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: But we were on a mission to try to find deer, which we failed at.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: But we took a walk, and so that even just that simple movement of breathing in the fresh air and moving, uh it definitely affects what the stress is and it looks like for the rest of your day.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_02: And and movement can kind of be a a proactive or a reactive um action.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_02: So to especially to stress.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_02: So proactive, like you were talking about, taking a walk or maybe even starting early in the morning and going for a walk, that can be a proactive thing to set your mind right and um to kind of get you thinking clearly and to clear your clear your brain and to clear your just make your body feel good before your day even starts.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but sometimes we do have that reactive approach.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_02: So I think specifically about the times that if I have felt stressed and I just wanted to go for a run and just needed to expend all of my energy in this run, and when I got done with it, my mind one, my body was exhausted, but two, my mind just felt clearer and better.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um but the desire to move when when you are stressed is natural.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_02: So when we get stressed, one of those big changes in our bodies um is an experience that we call sometimes fight or flight.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_02: So this is a response when we feel the need to move.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_02: So the beautiful thing about physical activity and exercise is that you can kind of kill two birds with one stone, which is a terrible phrase, and I really need to learn something better.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but right now it's what got so but thinking about fight or flight, when you think about like your adrenaline in your body, um, and again, like the that's kind of like the flight response, like in when I want to go for a run, like I just want to kind of literally run away.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but that physical activity is good for me, regardless of the reason I'm doing it, but it's an important part of a regular healthy lifestyle, so it's good for your muscles, your bones, but it can also keep your brain healthy and help to reduce stress.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but physical activity and exercise are not necessarily the same thing, although they are related.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_02: So sometimes we use them like interchangeably, these terms.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_02: So physical activity is just all of the movement that you do throughout the day.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_02: So, like anytime that you are burning energy or calories, so if I were to go take a walk around the block right now, or if I were to just kind of do some some general movements while I'm standing here, um that would be physical activity.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_02: So, like I'm just a combination of movement, but not all physical activity is exercise.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_02: So when we think of physical activity, we often think of exercise and like I said, use them interchangeably, but physical activity is much broader.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_02: Exercise is a planned, focused, repetitive, and structured type of physical activity that helps to improve your physical fitness fitness.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_02: So, like um going for a run or like going my gym class at 5:30 every day, that is my exercise.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_02: So it helps to make my heart stronger.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it's planned, it is focused, it is repetitive, it's hard, and that's like your jujitsu too.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um but exercise, that intentional exercise helps to make your heart stronger, but it also changes the function and the structure of your brain.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_02: So cognitive decline is almost two times more likely for inactive adults compared to active adults.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_02: So, with that being said, if you're not active now, it's never too late to start.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_02: And research shows that non-exercising adults who begin to exercise, whether in middle age or even older age, still show benefits to brain and improve cognitive function.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_00: So, does somebody with an active job need to still exercise?
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_02: So even though you are moving, um, of course, any amount of physical activity can help, but the recommendation is to get at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise or 30 minutes a day, five times a week.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but you can also do this in five to ten minute bursts throughout the day.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_02: So, like you're talking about an active job.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um, this would typically fall in the category of like light intensity activities, because if you're doing this for your job, oftentimes it's not like eight hours of strenuous, like you know, resistance training, something that's gonna keep your heart rate up for eight continuous hours.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um so, yes, they still need to the those light intensity things are still good, but you still need to be intentional about getting in the moderate intensity and like those vigorous intensity activities, these are gonna be the ones that increase your heart rate more and maybe cause you to feel like out of breath when you're participating in them.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_02: So jogging, lifting heavy objects like weightlifting or other things that are strenuous.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_02: And the more vigorous activity that you do, the less amount of time it has to be done for.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_02: But but yeah, even though you're you work an active job, you may be moving around, maybe picking up things, um, it's not necessarily that doesn't fit the the recommendation or the guidelines for for that vigorous intensity activity.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that makes sense.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_00: So what do you find helps you get at least this 150 minutes a week in?
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_02: So when I think about like the moderate intensity activity, um, well, I definitely I go to my gym class at least four days a week because I pay good money for it.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_02: And if I don't go, I hate to waste the money.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, but even if I don't get to go, I still try to to either take a walk like during my lunch break, um either, you know, take 30 minutes to eat and then take 30 minutes to go for a walk.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_02: Or um my husband and I, we live on a dirt road.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_02: So sometimes we like to walk on the dirt road.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_02: And even if even if I don't get to go to the gym that day, um, I still have some weights that I can do at home.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_02: So I still try to make an intentional effort to do at least 30 minutes of something.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_00: So do you find it better to do at the beginning, middle, or end of your day?
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I definitely not a beginning person.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_02: Mornings are hard.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I do, I will say when I worked from home during COVID, I like literally exercised beginning, middle, and end of the day.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_02: And it was awesome.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_02: But that was also because I was stuck in the same four walls for a very long amount of time.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_02: But um if I can honestly, the end of my day is a little easier for me just because of my schedule.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_02: It's easier for me to completely focus on like intentional exercise, like my gym class.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_02: But if I want to try to get those kind of bursts of activity throughout my day, um, middle of the day is pretty easy because even if I don't go for a walk outside, I can still go to a grocery store and maybe pick up one or two things, but like make it a whole 45-minute experience and just walk.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_02: You have to be careful with that too, though, because you may end up spending more money than you attended.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_00: But very true.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, I think I think that's what it is, is you're you're saying mornings are hard.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_00: So trying to add exercise in your morning would make your exercise hard.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it's finding the best time of day for you.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like for my workouts, the two my Tuesday, Thursdays are body weight because I do them after I finish teaching my jiu-jitsu classes and doing jiu-jitsu.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm already in clothes and things to do it.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so it makes me go, well, there's no excuse not to do it.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_00: But Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I found that if I can do it in the morning or around lunch, that it helps get that accomplished.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_00: But waiting until the end of the day, sometimes it makes it hard or my body's I'm just like, I really don't want to do this.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I find that earlier in my day I can make my exercise happen.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_00: And then you're talking about brisk walking.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, or when I worked with Extension, I did some of my phone conversations and walked.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_00: You can sit there and if you don't have to take notes or anything like that and talk, or you could end up with a 30-minute walk while you're talking on the phone with somebody.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_00: And that should still fit into a moderate activity.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_00: You might not want to do a vigorous walk because then you won't be able to talk real well, but that it's still give you some moderate exercise.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, those are all great ideas.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_02: And the most important thing is that exercise is good for your brain, so it can improve your cognitive health, which means it helps you to think, learn, problem solve, and also enjoy an emotional balance.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um, older adults specifically who do cardio activity do have greater brain volume than those who only stretch.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_02: So we think about kind of some physical limitations for older people.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but if they can physically participate in cardio activity where they get their heart pumping, um, it is better for their brain as well as their heart.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_02: But we do know that exercise has an immediate impact on your brain, which means that it immediately increases the levels of neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin, which can increase your mood after a workout.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_02: And neurotransmitters, it's a big term, but they're chemical messengers in your brain that carry messages from one cell to another.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_02: So when you think about your brain as a muscle, exercise strengthens your prefrontal the prefrontal cortex and your hippocampus, which are two regions of our brain that are most susceptible to neurocognitive diseases and normal cognitive decline and aging.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_02: So you have to work your brain muscle, and exercise is one way to do that.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_02: So even though you're not like you think about your brain, your brain is not participating in weightlifting necessarily, like you're not pushing your brain's not pushing any weight around, but it does have an immediate effect when we think about like the the chemicals that are released in our brain when we participate in exercise.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_02: So all in all.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_02: So today we have talked about dementia.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_02: We've talked about what it is.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we did talk about a few of the different types of dementia, and again, Alzheimer's is just one type.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_02: It is the most common, but um not to be used necessarily as the same or interchangeable with dementia because there's lots of different types.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we talked about the differences between modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_02: Modifiable are those things that you can change, like your lifestyle, what you eat, how you how you move, um, and your non-modifiable ones are like your family history, things that you can't necessarily change.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_02: And then we just briefly talked about how diet and exercise can affect your brain.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_02: We want to also encourage you with a call to action today.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_02: So I would like to challenge you to do something good to promote your brain health.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_02: So go for a walk, do a crossword puzzle.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_02: We didn't really get to talk about it today, but that's that promotes cognitive novelty.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_02: So do something new.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um, pick up an instrument, try to figure out how to play it, make a healthy swap.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_02: So rather than using margarine or butter, maybe do olive oil when you cook tonight.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_02: The changes that you make today can attribute to a lifestyle pattern of healthy choices.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_02: So a pattern means multiple over time, but it can start today.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_00: And we would love for you to share with us those healthy swaps you make or those walks or exercises you go on or the crossword puzzles.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_00: So you can just tag us on social media platforms that's backed intent, and we would love to see what those are.
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_00: So thanks for joining us on talking about healthy brands and defining what the mentor can look like, and maybe some ways that you can go for what you are.