Latest / Resiliency Radio with Dr. Jill Carnahan, MD / 333: Resiliency Radio with Dr. Jill: Vision as a Gateway: How to Optimize Focus & Resilience with Dr. Meenal Agarwal

Transcript

333: Resiliency Radio with Dr. Jill: Vision as a Gateway: How to Optimize Focus & Resilience with Dr. Meenal Agarwal · Resiliency Radio with Dr. Jill Carnahan, MD

• 0:01
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Welcome to Resiliency Radio, your go to podcast for the most cutting edge insights integrative and functional medicine.
• 0:08
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: I'm your host, Dr. Jill and with each episode we dive into the heart of healing and personal transformation.
• 0:14
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Join me as I interview medical experts, world leaders, innovators of all types bringing you information to help you on your way to optimal performance and longevity and overall just better health and more joy in your life.
• 0:27
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Today we have an eye specialist, optometrist, Dr. Meenal Agarwal and I am super excited to introduce her in just a moment.
• 0:35
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Before I do, I want to remind you that we are accepting new patients at Flatiron Functional Medicine in Boulder, Colorado.
• 0:42
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: If you're interested in becoming a patient, you can give us a call at 303-993-7910.
• 0:49
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: You can also go to info flight@iron functional medicine.com if you'd prefer to email.
• 0:54
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: And we would love to see you and help you on your way to optimal healing.
• 0:58
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Or if you have a complex medical mystery, we're great at solving those mysteries.
• 1:02
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: We would love to be of service to you.
• 1:05
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• 1:18
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• 1:42
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• 1:57
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• 2:04
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: If you don't know where to start there, check out the Dr. Jill favorites and that's all at Dr. Jill health.com okay, let me introduce our guest.
• 2:13
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Dr. Mel Agarwal is a board certified optometrist and spatial awareness expert who takes a holistic approach to vision as a gateway to brain health, focus and overall well being.
• 2:22
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: She integrates optometry, neur science and lifestyle medicine to address root causes of visual problems and their impact on cognition, neurodegeneration and daily performance.
• 2:32
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: A vocal advocate for reducing digital overload, she helps people restore sharper focus, balance and presence in a tech driven world.
• 2:40
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: She hosts a uncover your eyes truth about health and wellness and her insights have been featured in Time, Forbes and Fox news.
• 2:49
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Let's welcome Dr. Agarwal.
• 2:52
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Me know I am so happy to have you on Resiliency radio and talk about something that actually is very personal to me and it's how vision has so much to do with overall health.
• 3:02
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: We're going to dive in and hit this and you're going to give us all the beautiful pearls that you've learned in your journey.
• 3:07
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: But before we do, I always like to know the person behind the information and I'd love to know a little bit more about your journey into this field.
• 3:15
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Yeah.
• 3:15
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Thank you so much, Jill, for having me today.
• 3:17
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: It's an honor.
• 3:18
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So thank you.
• 3:18
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: You're welcome.
• 3:20
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So I, you know, I, I always wanted to be an optometrist actually.
• 3:22
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: I know it sounds cliche, but actually since I was 11 years old and it was because I was diagnosed with glaucoma when I was 11 years old by my own optometrist.
• 3:32
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And you know, at that time we didn't have a lot of treatment options.
• 3:35
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: I was put on 11 drops a day to reduce my eye pressure.
• 3:39
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And at that time also we didn't know a lot about the disease.
• 3:42
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: The disease was thought to be just of high eye pressure.
• 3:45
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So not a lot of, you know, options on treatment, especially kids.
• 3:49
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So, you know, there's not a lot of juvenile glaucoma going on.
• 3:52
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So I was seeing my eye doctor and a specialty hospital in Toronto that's for kids, it's very specialty.
• 3:58
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And I was bouncing between everybody like every couple of weeks because, you know, I was the case and the care that, you know, my optometrist invested in me and my family for the fear that I would go blind.
• 4:11
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And you know, just the preparations and, and the hand holding.
• 4:17
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: But also the research that he had done behind the scenes, you know, in whatever way he could help me was, it was just so touching.
• 4:25
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And so, you know, since I was young, I said this is what I want to do for someone else.
• 4:30
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And it's not that as a practitioner, you know, people always say, you know, you must think you know everything or you should know everything.
• 4:36
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And I always tell my patients, especially when they Tell me what meds are on, or if there's cross interaction, I say, I don't know everything.
• 4:43
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: I.
• 4:43
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: You know, I'm not an encyclopedia.
• 4:45
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: I'm not go.
• 4:46
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: I have to look this up, and I have to research, and maybe there is a correlation or maybe there isn't, but you'd have to give me some time.
• 4:54
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And I think that's such a great indication of a practitioner that you should go to.
• 5:03
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And he was that for me.
• 5:05
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And that's who I wanted to become for somebody else.
• 5:07
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And for me, the fear of losing vision or possibly, you know, becoming blind was.
• 5:15
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Was so scary.
• 5:17
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And I could just see, kind of like people say, we see her life flashing ahead of us.
• 5:21
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: That's what I felt at such a young age.
• 5:24
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And, you know, in a nutshell, I don't want to take up so much of your time on that, but that's why I wanted to enter in this field.
• 5:31
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: You just mentioned some really beautiful qualities.
• 5:34
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: And almost all of my guests, I always get so excited because that curiosity, that willingness to go and.
• 5:39
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: And not just.
• 5:40
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Just tell the patient, oh, well, that doesn't make sense.
• 5:42
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: So we don't know what's happening, but instead say, well, that's interesting.
• 5:45
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Let's together see if we can figure this out.
• 5:48
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: And I think that's so powerful because every patient is so unique.
• 5:52
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: I learn stuff every day from my patients just because I'm listening, and it doesn't always make sense, but I'm like, well, let's figure this out.
• 5:59
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: And I see that in you.
• 6:00
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: And then I also.
• 6:01
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: I'm sorry that you had to go through that, but so often the most beautiful practitioners have gone through their own journey, and they know what it's like to sit there with fear or uncertainty or not really know what their life has in store.
• 6:14
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: So I really love that you've used those things to catapult into what you do today.
• 6:20
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: So I want to talk a little bit about how the eye and the retina is a portal to so many other parts of the body.
• 6:27
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: I've done some work with glasses, with prisms and things, and they really changed.
• 6:31
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: And it wasn't my vision, it was my brain.
• 6:33
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Right.
• 6:33
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: And our title today is about how to optimize focus and resiliency.
• 6:37
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Do you want to talk just a little bit about how vision is just one part of what you do, but there's this other portal that we have access to through the eye to the brain that can actually change functioning in other ways?
• 6:48
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Absolutely.
• 6:50
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: You know, vision, when we talk about vision, 2020, that's just a number.
• 6:55
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And honestly, that's dictating this central five degrees of our vision.
• 6:58
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And we have like 200 degrees.
• 7:00
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Yes.
• 7:01
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So the 2020 number is the smallest portion of our, you know, consideration in an eye exam.
• 7:08
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Really.
• 7:09
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: We should be looking at the entire retina or the entire scope of our vision or our spatial awareness, as I like to call.
• 7:16
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: The biggest thing is people, you know, don't always realize that the retina is embryonically brain tissue and our optic nerve is part of the central nervous system.
• 7:27
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: That's huge.
• 7:28
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And so it is a big indication of our brain and our systemic issues.
• 7:35
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: The eyes also have a very dense supply of blood vessels and intricate supply of blood vessels.
• 7:42
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And so a lot of our metabolic conditions can show up in the eyes even before they show up systemically.
• 7:49
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: There's also neuro conditions and, you know, cognitive conditions that are started a lot of research starting to be done on early cognitive protein changes in the eyes that we can now detect on scans and early retinal scans and early, you know, other types of scans.
• 8:07
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And I think that's so important that we used to say this phrase that our eyes are the window to the body or the soul, but they truly are now.
• 8:15
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And more and more emerging research is saying that.
• 8:19
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And I can't you, Jill, how many patients I have seen where I have sent to the ER saying, you're about to have a stroke, you know, or I mean, could it be tomorrow, could it be in the coming days?
• 8:30
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: I have no idea.
• 8:30
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: But you're about to have a stroke.
• 8:32
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And there's one patient in particular in her 40s that comes to mind.
• 8:36
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And she said to me, I'm on no medication, I'm very healthy.
• 8:39
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And I saw a mild looking plaque in one of her peripheral or side blood vessels and I think I almost could have even missed it.
• 8:48
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And it was so small and so mild.
• 8:53
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: I said to her, when did you have your last, you know, family doctor checkup where you have your cholesterol and, you know, everything checked?
• 8:58
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And she goes, oh, just recently and everything's great.
• 9:00
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: I said, okay, I don't want to do this to you.
• 9:03
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And I know you're gonna think I'm crazy, but I need you to go to the er.
• 9:06
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Wow, good for you.
• 9:07
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And she was actually, you know, became an inpatient.
• 9:11
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: She was there for a few days, worked up, and they, she was put on all sorts of medication.
• 9:15
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Her heart was tested and they did feel that she was an early stroke patient candidate.
• 9:21
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And, you know, it's patients like those where, you know, that gives us satisfaction in knowing that I did something before it actually happened, or like, preventative medicine in a way.
• 9:33
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: But that is how important the eyes are in having that eye exam, because your labs can be normal.
• 9:39
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And I know we say this in every profession, but there could be other signs or other symptoms, and.
• 9:45
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And we want to check every.
• 9:46
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Every part of your body.
• 9:47
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Just like you go to the den, you go to the family doctor.
• 9:50
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: You need to have your eyes checked.
• 9:52
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: I could not agree more.
• 9:53
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: And in my experience, so I do, complex chronic illness, environmental toxicity, and the eyes can tell you so much.
• 9:59
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: I've seen effects of autoimmune uveitis from bartonella, and then I've seen things like.
• 10:05
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: I'd love for you to talk a little bit about visual contrast, because I am layman as far as compared to you in this.
• 10:11
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: But from my understanding, obviously, these small, tiny vessels in the retina affect the contrast.
• 10:17
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: And when what we've seen is biotoxins, including like, mycotoxins, toxins, and mold, can affect that blood flow.
• 10:23
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: And it's one of the first early ways you can see these changes in the ability to detect light and dark.
• 10:28
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: And again, maybe you can explain it better than I can, but if I recall, it was back in the 1940s of people that were like, you know, veterans or people that then maybe exposed toxins where they would actually check visual acuity and say, oh, there might have been an exposure.
• 10:42
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Now, it's not diagnostic, but do you want to talk a little bit about visual contrast?
• 10:46
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: And what can I tell?
• 10:47
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: I'm so curious.
• 10:48
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Yeah, so there's a lot of, you know, medications, drugs, chemicals, you know, whatever we want to talk about, you know, we can call it any class that can cause changes in the retina before anywhere else.
• 10:59
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: There's also, like, heart medications that can cause changes on our corneal surface.
• 11:04
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And sometimes we have to tell their doctor, you know, they have to get off these medications.
• 11:07
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So a lot of these medications deposit things in the retina.
• 11:11
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: You know, there's tamoxifen, a very popular drug for breast cancer, that it deposits in our retina as well.
• 11:17
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So there's a lot of, you know, retinal changes that can happen.
• 11:21
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Whether it's.
• 11:21
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: And you see these on exam.
• 11:23
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Yes.
• 11:23
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Oh, yes.
• 11:25
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Whether it's blood flow, whether it's pigment changes in the retina, they will eventually decrease your visual acuity.
• 11:32
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: But, you know, to go back to contrast sensitivity, sometimes that is the first sign because it's much more subtle.
• 11:39
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So I think, you know, checking contrast sensitivity for a lot of patients, it's not an easy test to do.
• 11:45
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: No.
• 11:46
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: And I'm doing it.
• 11:48
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: But you know, I think a lot of the specialty clinics where they're really trying to crack down on little details, they will measure, you know, contrast sensitivity where we're measuring the changes in the shades, you know, of black, you know, going to gray and then not being able to tell any contrast.
• 12:05
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And I think those are just very early indications of visual acuity or, you know, changes in our vision.
• 12:13
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: I still feel that they're very much central related.
• 12:16
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And I think that again, it's not a tell all sign.
• 12:20
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: I think a big portion of these, you know, again, chemicals, drugs, whatever you want to call it are seen based on the examiner seeing deposits and things like that in the eyes is probably the earliest sign.
• 12:35
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Hey guys, just a quick commercial interruption to remind you that you can get all kinds of products and services even for your eye health.
• 12:41
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Yes.
• 12:42
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: @Drjill health.com one of my favorites.
• 12:44
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: I've been searching far and wide for those of you suffering from dry eyes.
• 12:47
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: And I found an incredible product that we carry called DE3 Dry Eye Omega.
• 12:52
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: You can find it at drjillhealth.com Just search Omega Dry eye formula and you will find it there.
• 12:59
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: It's called DE3 Dry Eye Omega and it is profoundly beneficial for those of you suffering from dry eyes.
• 13:06
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Okay, let's get back to our show with Dr. Meenal.
• 13:08
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Amazing.
• 13:09
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Yeah, thanks for clarifying because again, I am not the expert, but I've been so fascinated by how much that you know from an expert like you that we can tell and know and see.
• 13:17
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: One thing I want to talk about is we are all on screens and we're all having blue light all hours of the day.
• 13:23
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: And I mean, so many people have heard about blue blockers and limiting screens.
• 13:27
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: But from your perspective, tell us about how this is affecting not only our vision, but our brains.
• 13:33
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: And what's your thoughts about limiting screen time using.
• 13:35
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: But like, what would you recommend to the average teenager who's on screens 24 7?
• 13:41
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So I'm going touch on blue light first because it's one of my favorite topics.
• 13:45
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And it's so blue light is, you know, the part of the visible wavelength of light.
• 13:51
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So it's visible light, but it is the shortest wavelength.
• 13:55
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Because it's the shortest wavelength, it tends to have the highest energy.
• 13:59
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So kind of the opposite shortest wavelength but highest energy.
• 14:03
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So it tends to scatter the most of all the other colors of the visible light spectrum.
• 14:09
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So when we're looking at a screen, blue light tends to scatter the most.
• 14:13
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So it gives us more reflections, can make us, you know, anecdotally have more eye strain, more tiredness, that kind of thing.
• 14:20
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Back in the day, we didn't care.
• 14:21
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: We were looking at blue light everywhere, but we didn't care because weren't staring at something all day for eight hours a day where that scatter mattered.
• 14:29
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So is blue light gonna cause disease?
• 14:32
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: No, I wanna debunk that today.
• 14:34
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: There is no study that claims, and no research that claims that blue light causes, you know, glaucoma or causes certain diseases.
• 14:43
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: But we do know that it has the highest scatter.
• 14:46
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So it tends to give us a lot of visual strain.
• 14:49
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So there are patients where, you know, they can't take breaks for eight hours on a screen and they've gotta work from home and they just can't do it.
• 14:57
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And I will tell them, do you want to try blue light glasses?
• 15:00
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: I mean it's not going to solve the whole issue, but if they would like to.
• 15:04
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Anecdotally, some of my patients have said it helps them.
• 15:08
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: I have tried it, I don't feel it helps me.
• 15:11
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: But I'm not typically on a computer eight hours a day.
• 15:14
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So it's person to person dependent, you know, if they feel it's going to help.
• 15:18
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: But one caveat is not getting these random blue light blocking glasses from, you know, sites like Amazon or, you know, Sheen.
• 15:28
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: You want to look at the amount of UV blue light blockage that there is.
• 15:33
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So typically the best ones on the market filter about 30 to 40% of harmful blue light.
• 15:39
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: You know, the ones that are just bought for 5, $10 are typically filtering 5%.
• 15:44
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: The problem with those is they don't typically have anti reflective coating on them.
• 15:49
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So you're adding a blue light blocker to decrease the high energy and the scatter.
• 15:54
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: But then you don't have anti reflective coating that's getting rid of the general scatter from a screen.
• 15:59
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So it's counterintuitive to me.
• 16:01
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: It makes no sense.
• 16:02
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So I would rather you not wear anything if you're going to choose to get those.
• 16:05
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: But if otherwise you're going to choose to get a proper, you know, blue light blocking glasses, they should have anti reflective coating.
• 16:11
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Typically the higher priced ones or from your optical store, doctor's office, then sure, try it.
• 16:17
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: But I don't think it's absolutely necessary.
• 16:20
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: I don't wear them.
• 16:21
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: My kids don't wear them.
• 16:22
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: So, you know, I love that perspective.
• 16:26
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: I'm so refreshed to hear it because I happen to agree.
• 16:29
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: And there's a lot of biohackers, longevity experts that telling everyone to wear these, wear them on the plane, all of that.
• 16:35
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Oh, yes, I've seen that.
• 16:37
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Right.
• 16:37
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: I want to tell you a couple things of my just this, my personal end of morning.
• 16:41
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: But when I really want to focus, I turn the light all the way up the blue as high as it goes on my screen and it's almost like a stimulant to me.
• 16:49
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Which makes sense, right?
• 16:50
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Because it's.
• 16:51
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Yeah, I don't do that all the time.
• 16:53
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: And I'm not like you.
• 16:54
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: I'm not on screens all day long, thank goodness.
• 16:56
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: I'm seeing patients face to face and doing a lot more interaction.
• 16:59
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: So maybe it's a little different than someone.
• 17:01
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: But it's interesting because I actually use it in the right proper doses to help me focus.
• 17:05
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: And I find that when I have that bright blue light, I actually focus better versus I feel kind of.
• 17:10
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: If I put the yellow glasses on or you know, the blue blockers, which are yellow screen.
• 17:14
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Yes, yes.
• 17:15
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: I don't.
• 17:16
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: I have less focus, I'm more distractible, which it kind of makes sense.
• 17:19
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: And again, I use makes sense with.
• 17:20
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Your circadian rhythm too.
• 17:21
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Right.
• 17:22
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Like you're getting rid of the blue light, so you are getting more sleepy.
• 17:26
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So that's another thing.
• 17:29
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: If you're going to be on your device at nighttime, there's a whole circadian rhythm element to the blue light.
• 17:35
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: If you're going to be on your device at nighttime and you have to work till 1am on your device again, there's no harm in trying it because maybe it might help you sleep better.
• 17:43
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: But what I don't understand is the wearing it all day because in the morning you do want your cycle to wake up and you want, you know, your cortisol to be released.
• 17:53
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: You want to be up and awake in the morning.
• 17:55
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So wearing it all day does not make sense to me.
• 17:57
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: But wearing it, you know, at nighttime because you got to work till 1am makes sense if you want to try that.
• 18:04
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So I think the problem with the world now is we have one pill or one hack and we overuse it.
• 18:12
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And it should just be about balance.
• 18:14
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And I think that's the problem with society.
• 18:16
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: I love it.
• 18:17
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: In fact, one of my favorite recommendations, recommendation for patients who are not sleeping well is within 30 minutes of waking up you get bright sunlight to your eyes, your retina, because that helps that cortisol curve, the circadian rhythm.
• 18:28
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: And it's so powerful, even from say, 6am as the sun is rising, to your bedtime, because you just lock that in.
• 18:34
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: And I found with jet lag and travel to Europe and other countries, my most powerful thing is using light to help my circadian rhythm.
• 18:41
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: So, like getting that light in my eyes in the new space.
• 18:44
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: And so powerful.
• 18:45
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: So let's talk more about visual function contributing to.
• 18:49
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: People often complain in my clinic of brain fog or headaches or dizziness, fatigue, anxiety, difficult focus, concentration, all of these things.
• 18:58
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: How often do you see issues with the retina, with the vision, with the eyes in general, that are actually contributing to some of these symptoms?
• 19:07
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So often, you know, I think so for me, the biggest thing that has come up over the last, you know, I want to say, five years has been our lack of spatial awareness that is contributing to a lot of anxiety, you know, and I don't want to say it's a sole contributor, but anxiety, mental health, issues, wanting to not interact.
• 19:30
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So our introversion.
• 19:31
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Yes.
• 19:32
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And, you know, that's what I've written.
• 19:33
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: My.
• 19:34
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: My recent book that's coming out called Stuck in a Flat World, is I feel we are literally stuck in the central 5 degrees of our vision all day, which is that 2020 vision that we're just looking centrally and we're not using any of the other 200 degrees of our vision.
• 19:50
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And what happens is we are not triggering an entire area of our brain called the parietal lobe.
• 19:56
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And the parietal lobe gets all the information from our peripheral or the rest of the 200 degrees of our vision.
• 20:03
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And because we're stuck in this flat world, it's not stimulated enough.
• 20:07
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And so it's not.
• 20:08
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: It can go to sleep.
• 20:09
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: It doesn't need to work.
• 20:09
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: It's not being used.
• 20:11
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And there's so many other things in that brain that need to wake up or be used like a muscle for the rest of the areas of our brain to function appropriately.
• 20:20
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: For example, if we are sitting on a device all day and we're not stimulating that parietal lobe, our amygdala, which is our fear center of our brain, kind of goes on high alert or threat mode.
• 20:30
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And that is my theory on why people who are constantly on a device or up close are not wanting to interact with others, because there's that sense of fear, because the parietal lobe is not being stimulated.
• 20:45
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So for me, a lot of the issues that we have today are literally right in front of us.
• 20:52
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And I, you know, urge people to expand their awareness because that is part of their vision and their brain function.
• 21:00
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Again, a big portion of their brain, which is the parietal lobe.
• 21:04
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Oh, that makes so much sense.
• 21:05
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: I've noticed just one of my favorite things in the evening after work is to go on a walk.
• 21:09
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: And while I can wear headphones, I different, I'm not like watching anything, so there's no visual there.
• 21:14
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: But that, that lateral movement is soothing.
• 21:17
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: And do you have any thoughts on.
• 21:18
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Because I think there is actual science on like walking, moving in our environment, saying hi to people, looking around.
• 21:24
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: And I, I find that for some reason it's one of my most beautiful, calming nervous system resets.
• 21:30
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Among any other thing that I could do is just taking a walk without any stimulus, without any headphones, without any devices and being in that movement.
• 21:38
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Any thoughts on how that affects our visual field?
• 21:41
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Yes, absolutely.
• 21:41
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So, I mean, one of my first exercises that I tell parents to do for their kids who are on devices all day is walking and talking.
• 21:49
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So, you know, because it's so simple, but it's so powerful because when you are walking and talking, you know, unless you're looking around and you're an adult, but if you're talking to your child, you're developing spatial navigation, you're developing that spatial area and you're looking at things that are in your peripheral vision that are stimulating that parietal lobe.
• 22:11
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: That's also where problem solving happen.
• 22:13
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So, you know, I think it's building skills for ourselves, sure, as adults, but more importantly, it's helping the next generation navigate space.
• 22:22
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: They are losing navigational skills, so they can't even navigate their social life because they don't even know how to literally navigate their, their, you know, physical life, you know, or physical space.
• 22:34
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And I feel we focus so much on attention, but we focus zero on orientation.
• 22:41
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Where am I in space?
• 22:43
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Where am I in relation to others?
• 22:45
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Is so important for us to ask ourselves.
• 22:49
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Wow, that makes so much sense.
• 22:50
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: One of my, one of the optometrists I worked with years ago talked about, often people are either laser focused like a spotlight, or they're diffuse awareness.
• 22:58
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: And it's almost like those two things, if they're not in balance, they're usually, you know, either like a autistic kind of presentation or an ADHD presentation with too many stimulants or too focused and they can't, you know, socialize.
• 23:10
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: And I think that's a really Good metaphor for kind of this vision thing.
• 23:15
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Do you notice when you're doing exams and doing the history and talking to someone, if they're more likely one or the other?
• 23:21
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: And what recommendations would you make to expand our ability to be both?
• 23:26
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So I, you know, I think, you know, one thing I'm going touch on is a lot of the ADHD kids, you know, you can tell because they are jumping the moment they get in your room.
• 23:36
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: They're hyper focused on different things.
• 23:39
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Again, these are people who have hyper stimulated their temporal lobe as opposed to their parietal lobe.
• 23:45
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So your temporal lobe is the front scent is processing the central 5 degrees of our vision.
• 23:51
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So you can tell that they, they are laser focused.
• 23:54
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Exactly what you said.
• 23:55
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: You know, they'll look at this and they'll go, here, oh, where's the D, where's this?
• 23:58
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Where's this?
• 23:58
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: What is this for?
• 23:59
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: What is this for?
• 24:00
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: What is this for?
• 24:00
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Right.
• 24:01
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So I think, you know, again, I can't label them.
• 24:04
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: That's, that's not in my scope of practice.
• 24:06
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: But I feel a lot of those patients are on the verge of a learning dis adhd and I think it's so important that they recognize the environment or parents recognize the environment they're in and they can change that.
• 24:19
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: But you know, on point to your, I, I want to say it's more about the eye muscle movement that you were talking about or weakness in eye muscle movements.
• 24:27
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So those can be.
• 24:29
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Yes, we're seeing a lot more of those and that is also from being hyper focused.
• 24:33
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Our eyes and our brain were not designed to look up close at 40cm all day.
• 24:38
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: They were not designed to do that.
• 24:40
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: They were actually designed to be looking out in space more often than they were up close.
• 24:45
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So we have a rule that we like to tell our patients and it is the 20, 20 rule.
• 24:50
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: For every 20 minutes for 20 seconds, look 20ft or far away.
• 24:57
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So every 20 minutes while you're on a computer or your child is, if they're able to look out a window or something, just far away for 20 seconds.
• 25:06
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And it doesn't have to be long.
• 25:07
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: It could be going to the bathroom as a quick break or going to get a granola bar, something really short.
• 25:11
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: But our eyes were designed to look far.
• 25:13
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Or if a child's on an iPad all day watching YouTube, get that on the TV because the TV is actually further now.
• 25:21
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: We, we grew up watching TV all day, you know, so I mean, it's definitely less strain on your eye muscles.
• 25:27
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: But it makes sense, right, Jill?
• 25:28
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Like, if you're constantly in focus up close, your muscles are going to be tired and eventually have an outward pattern.
• 25:35
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And that is the trend that we're seeing.
• 25:37
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: It's like a tight hamstring.
• 25:38
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Right.
• 25:39
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: I love the analogy because it's really very practical in the 2020 rule.
• 25:43
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: That's a pearl.
• 25:45
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: I want to shift this a little because so many people, whether it's.
• 25:48
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: We have a lot of practitioners who I'm sure will be interested because they can refer to optometrists like you, but also brain health.
• 25:54
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: So brain health is a big one, right?
• 25:56
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Aren't there early signs of Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, neurodegenerative diseases that you see in your eye exam or your history?
• 26:04
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Yes.
• 26:04
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So, you know, we, you know, there's a lot of stats that go around there, but one of my favorite kind of stats is 60% of patients with cognitive decline have some form of vision and, or hearing loss.
• 26:18
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And that is huge.
• 26:20
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And I always tell patients that your eyes are connected to your brain.
• 26:25
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So if you do not have good vision, and you know, with that respect, I want to say more, the laser focus, like a 2020 or you're not wearing your glasses because you feel they're going to miraculously.
• 26:34
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Your vision, your.
• 26:36
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Your vision is going to miraculously clear up on its own.
• 26:39
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Please stimulate your vision because that is a direct connection to your brain.
• 26:44
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And what happens is areas of our brain get lazy, if you want to call it, or that muscle is not working.
• 26:50
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And there are early cognitive changes that can happen.
• 26:53
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And I do see that in a lot of patients that are seniors.
• 26:56
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And I cannot tell you how many patients come in and tell me, I've had my mom tested for Alzheimer's, I've had them tested, you know, for dementia, my mom's just not listening to me, etceter, etc, And I see the patient and they have either not enough central vision or they've lost their peripheral vision.
• 27:13
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: One or the other point is, mom cannot notice you because they've lost some form of their vision.
• 27:19
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And so it's cognitively not processing.
• 27:22
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: It's all linked.
• 27:24
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And same goes for hearing, right?
• 27:26
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: There's a lot of patients you'll notice with hearing loss that have cognitive losses.
• 27:30
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So, you know, I don't want to say that we're the ones to diagnose that disease based on the vision changes, but I think I always tell patients that are not wearing their glasses or correcting their vision optimally that look at early cognitive changes.
• 27:45
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: We are going to start seeing them in the next wave of patients that believes in complete biohacking of vision by not wearing glasses or not correcting their vision.
• 27:54
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And I'm a firm believer in curing things naturally and holistically and I think there's a time and place for that.
• 28:01
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: But it's like saying if your sugar is out of whack, you're going to, you know, holistically treat it without taking any metformin or, you know, any medication.
• 28:10
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: I think put them in tandem and if you feel things are getting better, you can relieve, you know, the medication.
• 28:16
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So it's the same kind of concept, but you know, to the other point of it for more of our retinal changes or physical eye changes that we can see.
• 28:26
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So we're seeing a lot of studies come out now on a scan called the Optical Coherence Tomographer.
• 28:33
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So, you know, in short, it's an oct and a lot of doctors are offering it when you go in for your visit.
• 28:38
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So I urge patients to do it.
• 28:40
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And it, you know, we're starting to see that it can show early, you know, early changes in the retina or plaques or buildup that can be indicative of certain cognitive or neuro diseases.
• 28:55
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: I haven't seen any patients with it, but that is the philosophy and there's a lot of studies that have been done on it.
• 29:02
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So, you know, I'm yet to see my first, but I, you know, I wonder if we will.
• 29:07
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Yeah, I do think, and like even scans for melanoma, I think as AI gets involved in medicine, we're going to see a little bit more of this really cool stuff coming out.
• 29:15
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: So stay tuned for that.
• 29:17
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: So with our topic, you know, optimal performance and resilience, we've talked about all these amazing things.
• 29:22
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: I want to talk a little bit about what your recommendations.
• 29:25
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: If we had like 10 minutes a day to devote to our vision.
• 29:28
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: I'll just tell you know, how it is during.
• 29:29
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: I try to stay off social media, but when I'm on there for reasons of my own, you know, platform or whatever, often you'll see these, oh, ten minutes a day will restore your vision.
• 29:38
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: As, you know, like these things that are like promises, these silly little, I'm like, oh, that's kind of bogus.
• 29:42
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: But are there any science based things that you can do to improve vision?
• 29:47
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: I noticed I just hit 50 and so all of a sudden my phone, instead of being here, I have to pull it back, right?
• 29:52
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Yes, new to me.
• 29:53
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: And I don't wear corrective so I'm like, okay, this is 50, so what things can we do to improve our vision as we age?
• 30:01
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So I'm a firm believer in what is practical and what can we actually do.
• 30:06
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So number one, I'm gonna say for everybody, get that morning sunlight that is setting everything up.
• 30:12
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Your brain, your eyes actually release dopamine, like all sorts of neurotransmitters.
• 30:17
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: We have estrogen receptors in our eyes.
• 30:20
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Like your eyes are so important to get that circadian rhythm going.
• 30:23
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And your eyes is the only place that actually sets the circadian rhythm.
• 30:27
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So if you don't get that morning light, everything is dormant.
• 30:29
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Your, your super chiasmatic nucleus can't send the messages to, you know, everything else in your brain to get going and release all these neurotransmitters and things for our day and our hormones.
• 30:41
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So I think getting that morning sunlight is like your vitamin.
• 30:44
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So I would rather, you know, if you can take a vitamin, I think you can get morning sunlight.
• 30:48
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: The second thing I'm going to say is there's a lot of advocacy for eye exercises and I am a firm believer in eye exercises for people with weak muscles and you know, certain things, especially children, where we need vision therapy.
• 31:02
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: But I think for the average layperson, the issue is, we all know it's the up close focus and the stat is by the year 2050, 50% of the world globally will be into some form of glasses.
• 31:17
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So we know that there is a big issue and we know the reason for the issue is the shift in our modern lifestyle where we're focusing at something up close.
• 31:27
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So implement that 2020 rule rather than, you know, doing 10 minutes of exercises.
• 31:32
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: I would, you know, and I can give people exercises, we call them pencil push ups and all sorts of things, but I would rather you just look far away every 20 minutes.
• 31:40
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: I, I mean, I think it's more practical.
• 31:43
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: I'm not somebody like my physiotherapist and my Cairo always tell me to do all these exercises.
• 31:47
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: I never follow them.
• 31:49
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: I know, me too.
• 31:51
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So it's like just be practical and take breaks because we know the culprit is the up close focus.
• 31:56
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And then, you know, I think for me it's nutrition.
• 32:00
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Yes, A big piece of it is nutrition.
• 32:03
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: We have so much evidence, so much emerging evidence on all sorts of diseases like macular degeneration, even glaucoma.
• 32:11
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: There's this new study that's come out on B vitamins and the high Link with glaucoma.
• 32:15
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And I was shocked to read that.
• 32:16
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So, you know, and I'm vegetarian, so I'm B vitamin deficient.
• 32:21
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And I was always, until I found out when I was a teenager or even after that, in my 20s.
• 32:26
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So, you know, for me, that hit home.
• 32:28
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Like, was that the reason I developed glaucoma?
• 32:29
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: I don't know.
• 32:30
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Right.
• 32:31
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And so there's a lot of emerging research on nutrition helping every aspect of our body.
• 32:38
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So for the eyes, the biggest classes of foods that are important is the colored or green leafy vegetables.
• 32:48
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So they have a lot of lutein, zeaxanthin.
• 32:51
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: These are pigmentations that actually are antioxidants.
• 32:55
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: They actually help our retina help, you know, process.
• 32:58
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And our retinal pigment epithelium, which is part of our retina, help to process, break down photoreceptors, regenerate things and help with blood flow.
• 33:07
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So I think eating vegetables and the berry class is, really, has great antioxidants as well.
• 33:13
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So your raspberries, your strawberries, and then the second class of food is your omega 3s, which I think everybody advocates for, I want to say.
• 33:20
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And for us, a big thing with that is, you know, decreasing inflammation and also helping with dry eyes, which is a big thing, you know, menopause, perimenopause.
• 33:30
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So, you know, those are, I think Those are my three things.
• 33:33
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: The morning light, the 2020 rule, and the good foods that I think everybody can just implement as part of a sustainable lifestyle.
• 33:42
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Well, I couldn't agree more, especially about the morning light.
• 33:45
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: And that's a great kind of way to cap our episode.
• 33:48
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: I want to make sure people know where to find your book.
• 33:52
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Do you have two books in the new book out or tell me more about what book?
• 33:54
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Just one book.
• 33:55
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Yeah, yeah.
• 33:56
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Where can you find you and find more?
• 33:57
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Yeah.
• 33:58
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So my website.
• 33:59
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: You can find me on my website.
• 34:00
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: It's drmel.com and I do have an early access link to my book that's coming out in October called Stuck in a Flat World, literally.
• 34:10
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And it's a lot about how spatial awareness that I like to call it is affecting our safety and our brain processes and just all sorts of personality traits that we have.
• 34:23
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So it was a passion project for me because I experienced, I feel a lot of spatial awareness loss in one point in my life, which I, you know, share in the book as well.
• 34:33
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So, you know, I hope people can resonate.
• 34:35
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And I've had patients that have come in, moms especially, come in crying and telling me and I, I truly believe they fit the same pattern as me.
• 34:42
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: So, you know, I hope it resonates and I hope people can make some changes.
• 34:46
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: There's a lot of great recalibrations that I like to call it for people that are practical to help them.
• 34:52
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: And then you can also find me on Instagram.
• 34:54
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: That's where I'm Most active at.
• 34:55
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Dr. Meenal Agarwal.
• 34:57
  Dr. Meenal Agarwal: Thank you so much though, Jill, for this.
• 34:58
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Oh, you're welcome.
• 34:59
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: This was so fun and so practical and I think such good information.
• 35:03
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: I love the 2020 rule.
• 35:04
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: 202020 Rule.
• 35:06
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: I love the morning sunlight.
• 35:07
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: I love this cruciferous and colorful polyph.
• 35:11
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: All these incredible tips that you've given us today.
• 35:14
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Thanks so much for coming on this episode.
• 35:16
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Hey guys, hope you found that episode with Dr. Meenall about eyesight and optimal brain health through our retina fascinating and full of practical tips.
• 35:26
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: I know.
• 35:26
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: I really love the 202020 rule and some of the things she shared.
• 35:30
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: One of my favorite things is when I'm doing international travel, getting that bright sunlight in the first part of the day within 20, 30 minutes.
• 35:38
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Awakening Absolutely changes jet lag.
• 35:41
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: In fact, I feel like I've totally hacked jet lag by using food and light when I travel to optimize the brain to get on that new cycle.
• 35:49
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: So hopefully next time you have a trip to Europe, you can do the same thing.
• 35:52
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Thank you as always for joining us on this episode.
• 35:55
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: If you are listening on any of your favorite audio podcast platforms, itunes or Spotify, please do stop and leave us a review.
• 36:04
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• 36:07
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• 36:11
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• 36:14
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• 36:17
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• 36:20
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• 36:23
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• 36:25
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: And as you know, we have new episodes out every single week.
• 36:29
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: Also, stop by Dr.jill health.com to see all the wonderful products and services that are available for your optimal health and performance there.
• 36:37
  Dr. Jill Carnahan: And I will see you again next week for another episode of Resiliency Radio.