Latest / Your Thoughts Your Reality / Empowering Brain Health: Gina Iovino’s Insights on Nutrition, Longevity, and Wellness for Veterans and First Responders

Transcript

Empowering Brain Health: Gina Iovino’s Insights on Nutrition, Longevity, and Wellness for Veterans and First Responders · Your Thoughts Your Reality

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to your Thoughts, your Reality with Michael Cole, the podcast that shines a compassionate light on the journey of veterans battling through life's challenges.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Michael is a dual elite certified neuro encoding specialist in coaching and keynote training presentations dedicated to guiding military veterans as they navigate the intricate pathways of post deployment life.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Join him as we delve into the profound realm of neuroencoding science, empowering these brave individuals to conquer universal battles procrastination, self-doubt, fear and more.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Together, let's uncover the strength within you to re-engage with families and society, forging a new path forward.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Hello, hello, hello everybody.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: We have our special friend here.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: She has been on the show multiple times and so grateful she is back to spread some more golden nuggets and wisdom.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: So we have Gina Iovino back again and you know, we might as well like just live next door to each other at this point.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: It's awesome.
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, or just get on every day.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: I know right, let's just do it every day.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: So a little bit about Gina For people that don't know.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: Gina Evino is a functional nutritional coach specialist and a dual elite certified neuron coding specialist.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: She holds the title of a neuro wellness coach, emphasizing holistic approach to health.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: She has three Marine brothers, which brings her very close to her heart, with veterans, obviously, and, of course, first responders that she works with.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: You're supporting veterans in their health and their wellness journeys, which is really awesome.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: I love every time you come on here, and we're going to be talking today about Dr Amen's Bright Minds Principles, and I'm excited for that.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: So, gina, why don't you tell us a little bit more about yourself and then we'll dive in?
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: So I started my journey getting into functional nutrition because I had my own health scare.
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: So once I had resolved what was going on, I was like you know what more women need to have this information?
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: Nobody needs to suffer.
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: This way, health is possible.
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: We can reverse so many things that are wrong.
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: And so I just jumped in, continued my education and so here with functional nutrition and then from there, because I do a lot of volunteer work for veterans, first responders and their families, it was very important to me, with also having my bachelor's in psychology, that I continue my education and really understanding what is going on with the brain.
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: As far as the TBI, ptsd, we've got depression, anxiety and those type of things.
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: So I wanted to see what was going on mechanically in the brain and how I can use nutrition with some other tools to help them as far as having some resiliency and some also recovery.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's fantastic and thank you for what you do.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: It's so important for civilians and veterans alike, obviously, but it is a fantastic work we're doing and always an honor to have you on the show.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: Before we get started, before I forget, on top right corner top right corner the blue QR code.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: There we go.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: Please scan that.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: It goes to Empower Performance Strategies.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: There are all kinds of valuable tools.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: There are some e-books that I've written.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: There are a couple of Facebook groups one for veterans, one for veterans families and just get involved in the community.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: Reach out, there are resources available to you.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: So, again, blue QR code.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: Slow down, ourperformancestrategiescom for those listening on podcast forums later on.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: So, gina, I know we got a lot to go through.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: Gina has prepared a presentation, so we're going to kind of skip around with questions and so on.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: She, gina, I know we got a lot to go through.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: Gina has prepared a presentation, so we're going to kind of skip around with questions and so on.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: She's going to be very detailed for people that are on the podcast forums later on, so that you understand what she's talking about, and, of course, you can jump back onto social media and see these later as well.
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: So, gina, yeah, no, this is perfect, and also the reason why I do this too is because I'm also a visual learner.
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: I like to see also as I'm listening and being able to kind of go back and oh, what was that?
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: So that?
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: And he did this concept because he really he is actually on a mission to save people's brains, and so what better way?
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: He came up with bright minds in each one of these letters, and today we're going to go to the first four and go through what those are, and then this is a way that you can kind of, as you're going through you know your day, your weeks, your months, your whole year you can keep bright minds in the back of your mind so that way that you can have a healthier brain, you can live healthier, happier, have more longevity and be very more productive.
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: Especially for our veterans right that are transitioning out, we want to keep them just as resilient as they were going in as they are coming out.
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: So, before you start, gina, anybody that can, especially if you're on the podcast, but regardless grab a pen and piece of paper, take some notes.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: You know this is going to be fantastic information for you that we're bringing.
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: We're just bringing value.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: So, Gina, please, Absolutely All right.
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: So we're going to jump into it.
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: And the first one is it double skipped me so I'll go back.
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: But the first one is blood flow.
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: And now that is super important when we are talking about the health of our brain and also the longevity of our lifespan too as well.
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: Let me get back in here Excuse me, thanks, cursor.
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: Double click there.
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: And blood flow when we think about it, it is very critical to our life, right?
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: It carries things like nutrients or oxygen and also removes toxins out of the body, and flow does matter.
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: So you know, if you have good blood flow, you also in the brain as we're going to be going through taking, as I'm going to be showing you later is there are complications that can come from having low blood flow.
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: Just a little bit of history on the brain, which is really pretty cool and interesting.
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: That I learned when I was studying under Dr Daniel Amen.
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: As I didn't know, our brain is as soft as butter, like if you left it out all day on, that lukewarm kind of mushy, gushy feel.
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: That's how soft your brain is.
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: So it's very delicate and it's encased right in a hard skull, and so we have to be very careful on what we do to protect that supercomputer right, that's on top of our shoulders, and the average of everybody has around 80 billion neurons.
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: Some people can obviously have more, depending on how you were grown up, depending on your genes, how healthy your mother and father were when they conceived you, so there's a lot of things that go into it, but the average is about 80 billion neurons, and that's a huge number, right.
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: That's a lot of connections, that's a lot of electricity, a lot of power and a lot of energy that you are producing every single day.
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: So I wanted to put that in because I really wanted you to see actually how amazing and beautiful your brain actually is, and one of the biggest things that we have to talk about is hydration.
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: And one of the biggest things that we have to talk about is hydration, because our brain is made up of 80 percent of hydration of water.
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: So we need to make sure that we're staying hydrated and that we are keeping that brain that buttery, silky, delicious brain very plump and alive.
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: So a couple of things that I had listed here for you that you would need to have healthy blood flow.
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: Okay, for life is one is remember.
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: We just talked about hydration, but I also want you to get your heart checked.
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: And why is that?
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: Because we normally know that if we have problems with our heart, we probably also have problems with hypertension and blood flow and some other things.
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: Plaque and stuff could be going on.
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: So knowing that is very, very important in how you're you know how you're functioning.
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: Knowing again your blood pressure is another great example, and we want to make sure that we have a good balance of a diet high in omega-3.
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: Our brain really loves the nutrients from those omega-3s, and so that's something that you can start incorporating.
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: You can get that from fish, seafood If you also you know, if you're the kind of person that doesn't want to eat animal too, dr Daniel Amen.
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: If you go on his site, he has an amazing amount of supplements on there, and he also now has a vegan version of the omega-3, which you can take and is very, very impactful and helpful.
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: Oh, that's fantastic.
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but those other foods, just if you're looking for something like what can help me with blood flow, to increase my blood flow, you know, things like rosemary was one that we learned about beets, youets, cayenne pepper, really dark chocolate and those polyphenol pumpkin seeds, and we also learned he told us a story about some testing that they did with military in their emotional health and helping with that, and a hyperbariatric chamber with oxygen was really helpful in doing that too as well, in reducing inflammation in the brain.
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: So that's something that you might want to look into and consider too as well if you've had anything like tbi, ptsd a lot of concussions absolutely uh, literally we're just talking about that.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah it, yeah.
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: It's amazing.
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: Well, a lot of us notice that we do a lot of shallow breathing during the day or really not getting in a lot of oxygen.
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: We can go into this some other time, but belly breathing is really becoming super popular for functionality and cognitive functioning.
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: So really some really cool stuff.
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: But we also to with blood flow.
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: We want to think of some things that can hurt our blood flow.
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: Okay, so really cool stuff.
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: But we also, too, with blood flow, we want to think of some things that can hurt our blood flow, okay.
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: So here are some things that we should probably reduce, which is caffeine.
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: I know we all love caffeine you still can have it in moderation but having a whole pot of caffeine is not going to be good for you or for your brain, and the reason why is, too, because caffeine can last anywhere, depending on you know.
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: Your tolerance can last anywhere from from an excess of six to eight hours, and if you have it later on a day, like, let's say, around four o'clock, you know you could be causing yourself at bedtime, when you're supposed to be resting and digesting and sleeping and repairing, you could be still feeling those after effects of caffeine, which will cause you to not have a great, you know, sleep quality.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: That's a great tip as well.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so eliminating that.
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: Also to alcohol we don't want to have an excess of alcohol because it does do a lot of you know damage to our system and that sad American diet, which is hyper palatable foods, really bad oils, excess of sugar and also you know salts too that aren't really really good for you.
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: And then again to reducing that hypertension that we talked about, that blood pressure.
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: So you can do that in with having a very good diet and then things will eliminate.
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: You know, when we think about our blood flow, you want to make sure that you are not setting yourself up for heart disease.
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: And actually surprisingly too I was surprised to kind of hear this that women that's like the highest rate for women as they get older is heart disease.
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so shocking.
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: So we want to make sure that we are aware of that Also too.
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: The next thing is having a sedentary lifestyle.
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: They're saying that sitting is the new smoking.
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: We're just constantly sitting all day.
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: We are not moving our body, and when we don't move, our blood doesn't flow either.
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: So we want to make sure that you're getting up and that you're not constantly just kind of sitting all day.
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: It's kind of great to have, like you know, a watch or something to kind of see what kind of steps you have going on, kind of like some motivation to push yourself.
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: But yeah, that's one thing.
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: And, as we all know too, smoking.
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: But I put vaping on there with exclamation mark because the toxins that are in vaping are just so detrimental.
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: One of the studies that I just recently was looking at was how they are now.
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: Some of the neurotoxins in it are actually eating away and deteriorating your bone.
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: Wow, yeah.
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: So that's something that definitely, if you are doing it, I would stop ASAP.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: Going to be interesting in about 10 years.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: What comes out about all of that?
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah.
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: And not as surprising too is, you know, the number one factor of Alzheimer's is low blood flow to the brain.
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so, with all the scans, dr Daniel Amen, when I was first teaching or learning with him, at that time he had done something of like 290,000 brain scans across the globe and I'm sure now too he's well over in that 300,000.
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: So this guy knows, knows what he's talking about and when he does, especially all the research that he has done on Alzheimer's, that was one of the big predictors of how you are going to not only have Alzheimer's but whether you turn that light switch on or off, is brain flow so very, very important for longevity?
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and the other thing there is, you know, to think about is diet and exercise and making sure that we put that in there.
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: And a bad diet I just want to kind of emphasize on this it deteriorates.
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: So we have, like I just talked about, we have all those billions of neurons in in our brain and to keep those healthy and strong.
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: You know sugar deteriorates those vessels and so when you are eating a sad American diet, a diet high in processed foods and especially in extra sugars, you know you are going to start deteriorating those vessels, which is going to eventually lead into type three diabetes, which is Alzheimer's.
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: And the other best way that you can get in, which is research is so showing, is a lot better cardio for the brain, which is Alzheimer's.
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: And the other best way that you can get in, which research is so showing, is a lot better cardio for the brain, which is like the zone two cardio, where that's kind of like if you're out and about, you're walking and you're at a pace where you're feeling your heart is racing, but yet you can still kind of carry a conversation, and that was shown to actually increase.
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: Walking was actually shown to increase the longevity of your health and your brain.
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: So really, really good stuff, yeah, yeah.
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: So, and then moving on to the next one that we have here too, which is R, which is the next letter in bright minds, which stands for retirement and aging.
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: I actually love this one.
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: I found it so fascinating because we don't think about I mean, we were like we wanted to get to that point when we want to retire, but then we don't realize, and I didn't even realize it until, like I said when I was with Dr Daniel Amen is, you know what happens to people when they retire.
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: And you know, if you don't use it, if we're not using our brain, then we lose it.
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: So we want to make sure, when we retire, that we're still staying active.
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: And what I really love and that I learned is that you are not stuck with the brain that you have.
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: You have at any time in your life to change the brain that you have and to give yourself those years back, which is absolutely fabulous.
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: So it's not, you know, you're not stuck with the destination that you think and the path that you think that you're on.
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: You have the ability to change that.
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: So really, really fascinating.
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: That's fantastic news.
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: Yes, yes, especially too.
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: I know, I remember that he he did a study.
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: He was one of the people that helped football players when they were going through cte and experiments that he did with them.
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: You know one of the guys, one of the football players says I will only do this experiment with you if my wife comes.
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: She is severely um at her, her stage of alzheimer's pretty soon.
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: The doctor said she's not going to remember my name.
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: So if this is good for me it has to be good for her and I want you to do this with her.
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: And she did.
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: She did Did Amon's protocol and she reversed her Alzheimer's.
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was phenomenal.
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: And to be able in class to see those scans of what they, what it looked like before and what it looked like after, was phenomenal.
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: And that was enough for me right there to see the proof in the pudding that we can change.
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I've seen those scans that they're they're intense to see the differences.
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: I mean it's intense in a fantastic way though.
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: Yes, so when we are going through retirement and aging, and even too I even think, think of this too is the ones that are transitioning, right, because there's also that little bit of lapse if you're in the military where you're transitioning and you're in a space where you're not sure yet careerized where you're going to go, so you're kind of in a little bit of a retirement phase, a little bit, a little bit, and so you want to also be aware of this, because you don't want to get in a rut either, because you know that could be detrimental to you know, your progress moving forward.
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: So things that protect you and protect the brain, specifically as we are aging, when it comes to retirement, as you always want to make sure that you're doing new learning.
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: New learning keeps the brain questioning what you're doing and it keeps you very inquisitive and keeps the synapses and the strength of you know those, those neurons really strong of not being isolated, which can happen with retirement and also aging, as people tend to stay in more, they stop being social and that had a high link to depression and anxiety and so that also to having depression and anxiety and those kind of emotional, you know, barriers also weigh on the brain and lower that blood flow and can be detrimental as you age.
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: So volunteering is a perfect way to get out there, still be a part of your community, still be engaging and feeling that you have some self-worth as you're aging.
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: We also want to have quality in our relationships.
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: Those are great and as far as the community, too, we have.
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: I always like to say, like, when my kids will come here, I need to get my oxytocin.
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: You know, um, and I like to grab onto my kids, um, but that's that feel good chemical that makes you feel connected not only with with yourself, but with with others and the ones that you love.
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: So being able to challenge your brain, yeah.
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: Super important for retirement, but every day you know, especially veterans coming in during the transition period and their families, you know, be involved, celebrate, dance move.
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: All these things are important, whether it's retirement or you're just transitioning out, as you said, mini retirement if you will.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: Before you know, you're purpose driven and you move forward.
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: So I just wanted to add that in, please.
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, no, it's perfect.
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: And then just some foods that can kind of help in this process is just making sure that you're keeping up on a multivitamin.
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: We also know that you know this could also happen with people that are transitioning.
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: In that transition period you might be coming home.
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: You want to start eating those things that you haven't eaten in a long time, either being on base or being overseas, whatever it is.
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: And so you know, as long as you're still at least getting in a multivitamin, we know that we're getting in those nutrients and vitamins and minerals that are very essential to keeping our brain healthy.
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: A turmeric is great.
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: It's been known to lower inflammation and we want to keep that inflammation down in the brain.
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: And then fasting there's so much information on fasting and what it does.
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: I kind of like to say you know, I feel like this summer, with my kids being home, I literally felt like I've been in the kitchen like every single day.
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: So, yeah, I get done.
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: It's kind of like this is how your body must feel.
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: I just I had this thought.
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: I was like this is how your body must feel.
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: I just I had this thought.
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: I was like this is how your body must feel Right.
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: So I'm in the kitchen, I make breakfast, I just get done cleaning up and I have a kid that comes in and goes I'm hungry, right.
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: And so if we get into that and we repeat and we remake a mess, your body is like concentrating on all that food and on that mess and not concentrating on other things like anti-aging, cell repair, you know getting, you know autophagy, you know getting rid of some of those bad cells.
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: So we really need to have a time where we give our body time to rest and digest and so that way it can go through those processes to keep us from aging right, because we don't want to, don't really want to age right, we want to go backwards.
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: So, yeah, fasting is a great tool.
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: And then another great link to longevity and brain health was some of these challenges that you can do.
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: One of those is doing brain games.
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: You know doing, you know maybe word puzzles, something that really gets you into processing and trying to put things together like a puzzle.
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: Um, one of the ones that dr amin loves to do is he loves playing ping pong, because it has a little bit of everything.
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: You gotta have speed, agility, coordination and your eyes.
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: Your eyes.
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: That are an important part of being connected to our brain is one of the senses.
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: And you know the balls going back and forth really fast, so, um, doing things like that are just really really.
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: And you know the ball's going back and forth really fast, so doing things like that are just really really helpful, you know.
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: And having those new experiences too, and making sure that we're moving again.
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: We don't want to be sitting and being sedentary so important especially as you're.
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: You're aging too.
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: We don't.
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: Um, I don't think we really appreciate as much our mobility and our flexibility until we get to that point where we're like, oh, or I have my leg or I can't tell my shoe.
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: This is where you really want to make sure, as you continue age, that you're keeping up on that flexibility and mobility, because you're going to have more longevity, you're going to be able to like, even if you want to go take road trips or go go to other places'll be able to have the physicality to carry you to go.
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: Do that Absolutely.
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: This is something that's been coming up for me and I know for Susan as well.
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: You know we're getting, you know older Not old, but older.
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: You know it's what's our life going to look like in 20, 30 years.
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: It's take care of yourself now, yes.
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: And, like Joseph, 20, 30 years, take care of yourself now.
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: And like Joseph says, right, when I plant that tree, you should have planted it 20 years ago, but the next best time is right now, so we can plant this tree for our brain right now.
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: So, yeah, yeah, and so, just going on to like the cerebellum, we want to keep that very strong.
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: That's in the back of your brain, there, which has to do with you know, that mobility, that functionality, and is connected to the prefrontal cortex.
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: So we want to keep both of those really strong and again, get off the couch, find things to do, get a hobby and move around, because there's that saying, right, if you sit too much on the couch, you become a couch potato and we don't want you to feel that way as you get older.
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: So, and the older you get, the more dialed in that you have to start getting, unfortunately, because for a lot of people I've seen a lot of those scans and just even in a matter of five years and even in 10 years, the rate at which the brain can age can be so rapid.
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: So, as you are getting older, it is great to just be aware that you know what I really got to kind of stick to these lifestyle changes and so that way, you know, I have longevity as I age, yeah, and the next letter reminds us inflammation, this one.
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: The Latin word for this is actually to set a fire.
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: So I thought that was really interesting.
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: And, like Dr Amen says, your level of fire he was telling us this one time your level of fire is destroying your organs, this one time that your level of fire is destroying your organs.
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: And it's so true because what happens with inflammation is, you know, your immune system goes into overdrive and it starts to say, oh my gosh, I have inflammation here, I need to attack, attack, attack.
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: And so it starts to, you know, attack and destroy those organs in the body, which is what we don't want, because then that causes aging and other other things that follow.
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: So getting your inflammation down can absolutely help you as far as your longevity.
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: So some of the risks when it comes to inflammation that you might want to think about they can cause things like dementia, depression.
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: We kind of talked about that earlier, especially the anxiety.
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: But here's another one which is leaky gut syndrome.
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: I know that word's been kind of in the last few years, has been thrown out a lot.
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: But we do know that what comes into our body, depending on whether it's good for us or bad for us, takes these tight junctions that are locked around our stomach like this, and over time what it will do?
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: Those toxins they loosen those junctions and then those chemicals get through and then they leach out into the rest of your body, they plant themselves somewhere and they cause this inflammation, which causes then your immune system to go into overdrive.
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: So having a very healthy gut and a very healthy lining the gut is also going to help you too.
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: This was really surprising for me when Dr Amen talked about having gum disease, but as we know now too that the gut starts with the mouth, and so that's your first line of defense.
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: So having a very healthy mouth, healthy gums, is going to keep a lot of those bacteria and organisms that we don't want to travel into the gut.
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: And then you know other parts like the small intestines or lower intestines, or we don't want those bugs to be.
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: So having good oral health is very beneficial for protecting your gut.
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: And then again, staying away from you know they had that standard American diet which, again too, like I was telling you, just really loosens up those junctions and causes that leaky gut which then causes a lot of the information.
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: So a lot of research has been done and one of the best diets out there is the Mediterranean diet, which keeps things very low in inflammation, very brain healthy.
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: Curcumins are great for anti-inflammatory.
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: And again, fasting.
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: Fasting is so, so, great, so it's definitely something.
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: If you haven't implemented it before, I would definitely suggest that you just give it a try and just start somewhere.
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: It's a huge difference for Susan and I.
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, fasting, it's like night and day difference.
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, thing, it's like night and day difference.
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: Another thing really quick is when you start cutting out the bad foods and then you try them again.
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: It is amazing, even though you're tested for you're not allergic to it, how all of a sudden you realize you are and the difference it makes in your body.
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: It's pretty amazing.
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I don't know if you've had this experience before, michael, but I know like I've taken things out of my diet and then I'll reintroduce something that I had, maybe when I was a kid or something Like, let's say, for example, like a Twinkie.
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: You're like, oh my God, I remember those as a kid, they were so amazing.
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: And then you take a bite and you're like something tastes like plastic.
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: Because it is.
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: Right, but I mean you really notice your palate changes is what I'm trying to get at.
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: It's just amazing how your palate changes and then when you really go back to eating some of those things that you go whoa, you know I can really sense the toxins that are in there.
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, yeah, absolutely, and you see that with lots of foods.
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: So when you start changing your diet, your body wants those good foods, it wants those old foods and you know not.
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: You know three ounces of salad dressing, just the nice fresh orange juice, a little bit of honey in.
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: It is amazing, you know.
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's really crazy how it changes.
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: Just like you said.
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: Yes, yes.
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: Hey, gina, so we only have a couple of minutes.
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, I think I know Right, I think we're let's finish this slide and then we'll pick this up next time, so we can just go.
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and then we'll go to the next one last time.
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: So, yeah, so to finish it off, I would definitely suggest, when it comes to inflammation is knowing your numbers is going to be very helpful.
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: Of where you're at, you can do a waist check.
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: That's something super easy that you can do at home.
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: If you are a male and your waistline is 40 inches or above, that's an indicator that you have some inflammation going on, and for women it's 35 and above.
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: So always getting an allergy and a gut test is a great place to start too, because sometimes we don't realize that we could be eating a food and even though we're not going anaphylactic or it's not causing hives, it could be a low grade inflammation, but over time it is build up.
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: So what is the gut check?
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: I'm sorry.
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: Did you say get a gut check?
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, a gut test test Sorry, thank you.
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: So is it the same.
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: What is a gut test?
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: I've not heard that before.
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, a gut test is going to tell you.
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: Now, our gut has its own colony of species in there.
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: We want that species to be very diverse, and so you will be able to tell by taking this test.
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: It's a stool test and it comes to your house, you can take it, you can send it off, and it is really amazing because it will tell you what kind of species you have in there, what your colony looks like, what you're low on and what you can start introducing into your diet, so that way you can kind of bloom a better colony inside of your gut yeah.
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's fantastic yeah.
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: The more diverse and more rounded that your gut is, the healthier and that you're going to be, and the better you're going to age and the longer your life expectancy is too.
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: I'm ordering one today.
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: I did not know, yeah, and.
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: Ongre is a great company I'm ordering one today I did not know, yeah.
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: And Ombré is a great company.
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: I've used them before with my clients.
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: They are a great company.
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: O-m-b-r-e they're fantastic.
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: Excellent, thank you so much.
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so is there anything else on this that we want to cover?
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: Not on this one, no, not on this one.
• 30:17
  Speaker 3: We're good I can stop sharing and we can you know.
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: Hold off for for next time too.
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: Sounds good.
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: Should we tease?
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: What's the next two?
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so the next one that we're going to be going into, which is going to be G, which is all about our, about our genes.
• 30:35
  Speaker 3: Then from there, we've got head trauma we're going to talk about.
• 30:37
  Speaker 3: T is for toxins, so you're going to have to just come back so you can get little little bits of this every single week.
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: I'll be here.
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'll be here for every show I love it.
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: I love it.
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: No, absolutely Fantastic information, gina, as always.
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much Um you.
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: You bring so much value when you're on the show, so truly, truly appreciate my friend.
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: Um.
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: How do people reach you?
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so they can first find me on Instagram, which is at, gina will show you.
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: I am also on Facebook at Gina Iovino.
• 31:08
  Speaker 3: You can also find me at health and mindset revolution, where I have a page there.
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: Awesome.
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much, and you know the drill.
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: Yes, I do, and I'm ready, I'm ready.
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: For veterans and their families to get them further faster.
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: First one I'm going to suggest for you, for Dr Daniel Amen, is this book, which is called Change your Brain Every Day.
• 31:32
  Speaker 3: This is a fantastic book.
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: It is three hundred and sixty six days of knowledge for you to get you further, faster.
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: Right, and what I love about this, too, is what he did was is each day you have one paragraph to read and then there's an action that you have to take.
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: So I know that you talked before on your podcast about waking up every day to positivity and what that can do for you, right, and how can it set the course.
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: So you're going to want to get this right here.
• 31:57
  Speaker 3: I don't want you going your phone, because you go to our phone, we get distracted with other things.
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: Wake up in you to go on your phone because you go to our phone, we get distracted with other things.
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: Wake up in the morning, turn on your brain by actually reading and give yourself a positive action plan and some steps to take.
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: That goes along with this whole concept of bright minds.
• 32:13
  Speaker 3: So that's my number one.
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: Love it, have the book.
• 32:16
  Speaker 3: Love it, I love it.
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: The second one is we talked about apps last week.
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: Download those apps.
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: You've got that fun llama app that can help you stay hydrated and if you're feeling a little stressed or anxious, that can also help you through meditation to get through that process.
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: So that's going to be two.
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: And if you want to go listen to that, you can go back on to your thoughts in your reality podcast and go watch.
• 32:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah, go watch and go listen to those.
• 32:41
  Speaker 3: That too, as well, because we gave some great tips there.
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: And the last one is I'm going to challenge you to sign yourself up for something and especially if you are transitioning back being a veteran, putting yourself into something, sign yourself up, whether it's for a new club membership or you're going to volunteer somewhere, because what that is going to do for you it's going to get you off the couch, it's going to put you into motivation mode, it's going to start helping you network with people and, again, it's going to help with blood flow, because we're going to be moving and we're going to be shaken.
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Love it.
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: Excellent.
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: Thank you for those tips.
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: It's weird You're all prepared for it, like you've been here before.
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: I love it.
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: I love it, Gina, as always.
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom, your brilliance and your time, Obviously most valuable resource we have as humans.
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: We don't get it back and the 35 minutes or so we've been here, you're such an honor to share that time with.
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: So, thank you All right, everybody.
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: You know what time it is we are out of here.
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us on another insightful journey of your thoughts your reality podcast with your host, michael Cole.
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: We hope the conversation sparked some thoughts that resonate with you.
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: To dive deeper into empowering your thoughts and enhancing your reality, visit empowerperformancestrategiescom.
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: Remember your thoughts shape your reality, so make them count.
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: Until next time, stay inspired and keep creating the reality you desire.
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: Catch you on the next episode.