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Tommy Wood (2026) - Cognitive Longevity and Futureproofing the Brain · The Joe Rogan Recap

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  Welcome to the Joe Rogan Recap and before we get going, please
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  follow us right here on Spotify to make sure you get sight of
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  our latest episodes in your feed.
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  It makes a huge difference for the show, so today we're taking
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  a look at a conversation that I think fundamentally challenges
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  the way most of us think about aging.
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  Yeah, it really does. We're breaking down Joe Rogan's
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  discussion with a doctor, Tommy Wood.
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  And Doctor Wood is he's a fascinating guy.
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  He's a neuroscientist, but his client list is, well, it's
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  pretty out there. It's.
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  Bizarrely diverse, right? On one hand, he's working with
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  some of the most vulnerable people imaginable.
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  Premature infants who had brain injuries.
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  The elderly who are facing cognitive decline.
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  And then on the other hand. He consults for Formula One
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  drivers. I mean these are basically
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  cognitive super athletes. It seems like a total
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  contradiction, but that's kind of his whole point.
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  Wood argues that the Physiology connecting that premature baby,
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  an 80 year old with dementia and an F1 driver going 200 miles an
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  hour, it's all remarkably similar.
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  So the inputs you need to build a brain or maintain it, or even
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  repair it, they don't really change.
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  Not fundamentally, no. The context is different, but
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  the biology's the same. The central theme here, the
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  mission of this deep dive, is this idea of future proofing
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  your brain. And the big question they really
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  dig into is whether cognitive decline, you know, getting
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  slower, foggier or even developing dementia.
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  Is that inevitable? That is the trillion dollar
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  question, isn't it? Yeah.
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  I mean, the story we alltel ourselves is that dementia is
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  this random, terrifying lightning strike.
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  You get old, your brain wears out, and that's that.
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  Just bad luck. Exactly.
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  But Wood's new book, it's called The Stimulated Mind, argues
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  that, well, genetics definitely play a role, but we have so much
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  more agency than we think. So let's get right into the
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  numbers, because they are, they're staggering, he says.
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  A massive chunk of dementia cases are preventable.
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  He cites The Lancet Commission, which is a huge deal in the
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  medical world. They suggest about 45% of
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  dementia cases are preventable just based on modifiable risk
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  factors. Things we can actually change,
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  right? But Wood thinks even that is a
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  conservative number. He pushes it closer to like 70%.
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  70%, that's a huge claim. I mean, if that's true, it
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  implies that the majority of people suffering today are in
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  that position because of lifestyle and environment.
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  To a large degree, yes, he breaks dementia down.
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  It's not just, you know, forgetting your keys.
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  To get a clinical diagnosis, you have to have lost so much
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  cognitive function that you can't care for yourself anymore.
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  And most of that is Alzheimer's. Right, about 60 to 80%.
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  Then you have vascular dementia, which is basically a plumbing
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  problem. Not enough blood flow getting to
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  the brain. But OK, we have to talk about
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  the genetics, the elephant in the room, the APOE 4 gene.
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  Of course. Because I know people who've
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  done those 23 andme tests, they find out they have a copy of
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  this gene and they basically just think, well, game over For
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  me, it's. Such a common reaction, but it's
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  a total misunderstanding of how that gene works.
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  Wood explains that APOE 4 is not a dementia gene.
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  It doesn't just give you the disease.
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  So what does it do? It's an inflammatory amplifier.
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  It just turns up the volume on inflammation.
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  Exactly. Think of it like a risk
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  multiplier. Yeah.
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  So if you have one copy, your risk of Alzheimer's might be two
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  to six times higher, 2 copies it could be up to 20 times higher.
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  But, and this is the part everyone misses, it multiplies
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  the signal from your environment.
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  Meaning if your environment and lifestyle are bad, the gene
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  makes it so much worse. So much worse, but the opposite
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  is also true. This is the key insight.
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  Because the gene makes your system more sensitive, people
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  with APOE 4 can actually respond better to positive lifestyle
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  changes, no? Way so if you have the gene and
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  you exercise and eat well. You get a bigger protective
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  benefit than someone without the gene.
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  So it's not a death sentence, it's more like a high stakes
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  game. You have less room for error,
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  but you get a much higher return on your investment if you do the
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  right things. That is the perfect way to put
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  it. It's a sensitivity setting, not
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  a destiny setting. OK, so let's get into the
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  mechanism. How do we actually keep the
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  brain healthy? Wood talks about use it or lose
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  it, which, you know, sounds like a cliche.
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  It does, but he breaks it down into something he calls the
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  stimulus paradox. And this is fascinating, right?
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  Because we all feel like our lives are incredibly
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  stimulating. We're just bombarded all day
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  social media news notifications. We feel mentally drained by the
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  end of the day, but Wood's argument is that we are
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  simultaneously hyperstimulated and under stimulated.
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  Explain that how can you be? Both.
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  Well, the hyperstimulation is all passive input.
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  Just scrolling, listening, watching.
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  It's like being a traffic cop for information.
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  It's tiring, but it's not building anything.
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  So what's the other side? The under stimulation.
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  That's the lack of active calculation of problem solving.
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  True stimulus, the kind that builds and maintains neural
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  tissue, requires you to actually formulate an idea, test it, and
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  then refine it. And he brought up a study from
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  MIT about AI that illustrates this perfectly.
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  And I think this is going to hurt some feelings.
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  Oh, the essay writing one. Yeah, the essay writing one,
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  they had students write essays. One group did it the old
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  fashioned way. The other group used things like
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  ChatGPT to do the heavy lifting. And the results were pretty
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  stark. The students who use the AI?
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  Their brains showed way less activation in the areas for
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  critical thinking. Because the AI did all the
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  thinking for them the formulating.
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  Exactly. And as a result, those students
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  retained less of the information.
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  The brain is an efficiency machine.
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  If you outsource the hard work, the brain just says great, I
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  don't need these circuits and it lets them weaken.
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  But he's not saying, you know, smash a computer.
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  He has a solution. He calls it the orthotic
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  approach. Right, like a crutch or a back
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  brace. You use it for support, but if
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  you rely on it all the time, your own muscles waste away.
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  His advice is you have to do the hard thinking first.
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  Write the rough draft yourself. Solve the problem yourself, then
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  use the AI to check your work. Find your blind spots.
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  Use it to extend your ability and not replace the effort.
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  Precisely because the effort is the medicine.
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  And this flows right into neuroplasticity.
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  We hear that word all the time, But Wood has a pretty aggressive
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  take on what actually triggers it.
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  He basically says if you aren't sucking at something, you're not
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  changing your brain. He's talking about the raw
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  biochemistry of learning. Neuroplasticity is a response to
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  error. When you try to do something
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  new, play an instrument, speak a language, and you get it wrong,
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  you feel frustrated. I know that feeling.
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  We all do. And that frustration is actually
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  a chemical signal. It's noradrenaline and
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  acetylcholine flooding your brain, telling it, hey, there's
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  a gap here between what we expected to happen and what
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  actually happened. And that gap, that's the
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  trigger. The gap is everything.
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  That chemical signal literally tags the specific synapses that
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  need to be remodeled. If you only do things you're
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  already good at, there's no gap. No gap, no signal, no growth, no
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  growth. So when you're trying to learn
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  guitar and you're getting angry because your fingers won't
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  cooperate, that feeling of anger is literally the sensation of
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  your brain releasing the chemicals required for learning.
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  And we all interpret that feeling as I'm bad at this, I
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  should quit. When really it's the proof that
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  you need to keep going. That's the sweet spot.
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  That's where the future proofing is happening.
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  He used a great analogy for this called headroom.
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  This really helped me visualize it.
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  The leg strength analogy, yeah, it's brilliant, he says.
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  You know, to get off the toilet you need a certain baseline
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  amount of quad strength. Just for daily life, right?
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  But if that's all, you have just exactly enough strength.
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  You're functional, but you're incredibly fragile.
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  Because if you get sick, if you get the flu and lose 10% of your
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  strength. You're stuck.
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  You literally can't get off the toilet.
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  But if you train your legs to squat, say £300, you have this
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  massive reserve, you have headroom.
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  You can get sick, you can have a bad week, you can get older, and
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  you still have more than enough strength to function.
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  And the brain is exactly the same.
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  This is the whole cognitive reserve idea.
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  If you spend your life building this dense neural network by
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  doing hard things, then later in life if you get some amyloid
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  plaque or go through a period of intense stress, you have so much
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  redundant capacity that you can keep functioning normally.
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  So the goal isn't just to be smart enough for today's
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  problems, it's to build a buffer for the hits that are definitely
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  coming later. You are banking cognitive
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  function for a rainy day. OK, let's shift gears to the F1
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  drivers. This is where it gets really
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  practical. These guys are interesting
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  because their problem isn't a lack of stimulus.
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  Not at all. Driving an F1 car is about as
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  stimulating as it gets. Their whole problem is recovery.
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  And specifically, travel constant jet lag.
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  Wood laid out a protocol for this that was so specific.
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  It's not just go get some sunlight.
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  No, it's way more nuanced. It's based on the idea that you
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  don't just have one biological clock in your brain, you have
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  peripheral clocks in your organs.
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  Especially the liver. This is the part I'd never
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  heard. The liver has its own clock.
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  It does, and it's set by food. Your main clock in your brain is
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  set by light, so jet lag is basically when your brain and
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  your liver are in a huge argument about what time it is.
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  So your eyes see the sun in Tokyo and say it's morning, but
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  your liver is still on London time.
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  Exactly. And your liver clock is dragging
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  you back. So the fix, according to Wood,
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  is fasting. On the plane.
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  He is adamant about this. Do not eat on the plane.
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  You fast during the flight which basically put your liver clock
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  on pause. Then when you land, you eat a
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  normal meal at a normal meal time in the new time zone.
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  And that meal resets the liver clock to match the brain clock
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  it. Snaps them into alignment, but
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  that's only Part 1. Right, because when you land,
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  most people just want to crash. Take a nap.
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  But he sends his driver straight to the gym.
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  Even if they're totally exhausted.
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  Especially then he wants a high intensity workout to send a
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  massive signal to the body that the day has now begun.
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  It forces the whole circadian rhythm to get with the program.
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  Speaking of getting pumped up, they talked about the Yerkes
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  Dodson law. Sounds complicated.
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  It's just a bell curve. Imagine the bottom axis is
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  arousal, how stressed or amped up you are.
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  The vertical axis is your performance at low arousal.
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  You're lethargic. Performance is bad.
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  As arousal goes up, you get focused.
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  You hit that flow state at the top of the curve.
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  But if you go past the peak. You fall off a Cliff, you get
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  too aroused, you're anxious, scattered, jittery.
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  Performance plummets and F1 drivers have to live right at
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  the very peak of that curve for two hours straight.
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  And this brought up a really interesting point about cold
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  plunges. Everyone's doing ice baths right
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  now to get sharp for the day. Right.
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  But Wood says be careful. A cold plunge is a massive
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  arousal spike. But if you go too hard, like 3
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  minutes in freezing water, you can actually push yourself right
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  over the top of that curve. Your brain just goes into
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  survival. Mode exactly.
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  So you might feel awake, but your cognitive function, your
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  working memory can actually take a hit.
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  For pure mental prep, he says a 20 minute jog is way better.
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  It warms you up, increases blood flow without the panic signal.
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  That is a relief. I would much rather go for a
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  jog. Me too.
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  So Wood ties a lot of this together in what he calls the 3S
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  model stimulus, supply and support.
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  We've talked a lot about stimulus.
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  Let's touch on supply. Supply is just the logistics,
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  the plumbing. Your brain needs blood flow and
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  nutrients to work. This is why things like high
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  blood pressure and high blood sugar are so devastating for
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  brain health. They damage the tiny blood
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  vessels. They cut off the fuel lines to
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  your neurons. So exercise isn't just for your
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  heart, it's literally keeping your brain fed.
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  And then the third S is support, which is mostly sleep and stress
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  management. And this is where that killer
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  mindset idea gets really interesting.
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  Yeah, I loved this part. We have this image of an elite
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  performer like a Michael Jordan who is just ruthless with
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  himself. The Mamba mentality, never
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  satisfied, beats himself up over every tiny mistake.
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  But Wood argues that the people with the most longevity, the
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  absolute best of the best, are actually incredibly self
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  compassionate. He used that statistic about
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  Roger Federer. I mean it's just mind blowing.
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  It is. Federer may be the greatest
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  tennis player ever, only 154% of the total points he played in
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  his entire career. That's wild.
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  It means he was failing 46% of the time.
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  He was losing almost every other point.
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  Exactly. So if he had that mindset where
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  he punished himself for every single error, he would have
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  burned out completely. He had to have this ability to
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  just delete the mistake and move on instantly.
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  Like those pool players, he mentioned the difference between
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  the Americans and the Taiwanese players.
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  Yeah, the American players would miss a shot and you could see
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  them spiral, slump, shoulders, getting angry.
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  The Taiwanese players were trained to show 0 emotion.
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  Miss a shot. Sit down, wait for your next
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  turn. Because the emotional reaction
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  is a huge waste of energy. It pushes you way too high on
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  that arousal. Curve.
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  It's just inefficient. Yeah, self compassion isn't
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  soft. It's a high performance
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  strategy. You can't afford the hormonal
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  cost of beating yourself up. So as we wrap this up, there was
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  one final piece of data they brought up that gives a lot of
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  hope, the Seattle Longitudinal Study.
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  A crucial study. They followed people from their
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  20s all the way into their hundreds.
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  And the big finding is that cognitive decline is not this
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  inevitable downward slope. It's not a given.
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  So what's the difference? What separates the people who
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  stay sharp from those who don't? The decline almost always,
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  always correlates with a reduction in demand.
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  It kicks in when people retire, when they stop solving hard
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  problems, when they stop socializing as much.
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  When they stop trying new things that they might suck at.
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  When the gap between expectation and reality just disappears from
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  their lives. Which brings us to the most
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  provocative thought from this whole conversation.
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  We spend our entire lives aiming for retirement.
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  The dream is to finally stop working, sit on a beach and do
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  nothing. The life of leisure.
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  But if we look at this research, is that dream actually a
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  cognitive nightmare? It really looks that way.
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  If the brain is a muscle that follows the use it or lose it
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  principle, then retirement is basically the equivalent of
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  putting your brain on permanent bed rest.
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  We have to completely rethink what our later years are for.
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  We shouldn't be aiming for leisure.
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  We. Should be aiming for a new
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  challenge. We should.
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  Be aiming to be bad at something again, to feel that frustration.
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  Because that frustration is the fountain of youth.
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  So the big take away for you today, the comfort zone is the
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  danger zone. Go learn something that makes
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  you feel a little bit stupid. Your future self will thank you
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  for it. That's it for this deep dive.
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  Thanks for listening and we'll see you in the next one.