Improve and take care of your brain!

One of the last course I completed this year is “Biohacking Your Brain’s Health” provided by Emory University on my beloved elearning platform Coursera.
The main reason I was not skeptical about a course with “biohacking” in the title is because the course is held by Prof. Karima Benameur, MD, teaching neurology in that US university, so not a so-called (by theirself) “guru”, without proper competence (people that sometimes want to sell us their useless products and supplements – useless when not harmful).
As expected, in fact, the professor provided also a lot of evidence (e.g.: scientific papers, analysis and so on).
If I have to recap the course in one imagine, this is it:

The 4 main components to focus on to improve our brain health: nutrition, physical exercise, meditation, sleep.

I’ll quickly summarize here the main points, with the “actionable items” we can focus on, but I really think the course it’s worth the time (approx. 14 hours for the main concepts, plus the time to elaborate on and losing yourself in the rabbit holes of the concepts you like more, as I often do). At the end of this post, you’ll also find some links to useful resources. NOTE: I added some personal notes derived by my previous studies and consdierations (I wanted to write it to be sure you don’t take all this post as “100% derived by the course” because it’s not).

Before starting, just a quick recap on the basics: the brain

This is not a comprehensive explanation of the brain (it takes years even to understand the “basics”, since we still can’t explain the vast majority of the functioning).

As a broad concept to imagine the overall brain structure, we can still use an approximated model elborated by Paul MacLean in the 1960s, the “Triune brain“:

Reptilian complex – for the “basics functions” to survive like respiration
Paleomammalian (Lymbic) Complex – for emotions, social interactions
Neomammalian (Neocortex) Complex – the “newer” part, involved mainly in abstract thinking, language

Another way to model our brain is the subdivision in emispheres: the right one more creative, the left one more analytic.
More precisely, we can study the brain in lobes: frontal, temporal, occipital, parietal; with frontal anterior lobe more involved in behavioral control, personality, emotions and thinking/planning.

Essentials: fundamental units are the neurons that consist of single cell body, dendrites (or “branches”) and axon; hundreds of short processes come out of the cell body.

Axon is like an electric/telecommunication wire: it carries signals (“action potentials”) from the neuron towards others. These signals are converted into chemical messages to interact with recipient neuron or effector.

Most of the chemical neurotransmitters are:
– Glutamate (excitatory: accelerator)
– GABA (inhibitory: brakes)
– Serotonin (“famous” because involved in depression and similar mechanisms)
– Norepinephrine
– Dopamine (reinforcing behavior, addiction, motor modulation).

Don’t worry, I’m almost done, I promise! Before concluding this part, just remember that other very useful cells that “cooperate” are the glial cells, that:
– surround neurons and hold them in place;
– supply nutrients and O2;
– insulate one neuron to another one;
– destroy pathogens and remove dead neurons.

Of course there is much much more, from a functional anatomy perspective, like the visual pathway with the visual cortex, the motor cortex (signal modulated by basal ganglia and cerebellar loop), the speech area (sensory + motor area, with the Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas) and many others. One last important thing: the cerebellum occupies just 10% of the brain’s total volume, but it contrains 80% of total neurons! It’s involved in cognition but also in motor and… wait, by the way, talking about movements: did you know that actually in artificial intelligence, contrary to traditional assumptions, reasoning requires very little computation, but sensorimotor and perception skills require enormous computational resources? This is known as Moravec’s paradox. You can say: “But you are now talking about artificial intelligence and robotics, not the human brain, this is not in the course!” …well, welcome to my world, full of rabbit holes! 🙂

Let’s see now the 4 fundamental parts that impact our brain, highlighting what we can do to improve our brain health and keep our cognition and memory also in a late age.

Nutrition

Everybody know (I hope) that there’s a correlation between high BMI and risk of strokes (as well as with other diseases). A lot of studies were conducted across the world by Dr Keys starting in the 50s (e.g.: the Seven Countries Study). Before talking about diets, remember that food get transformed by our body as follow:
– Protein > Amino acids
– Carbs > Glucose
– Fat > Fatty acids
– All of them forms Aceytl CoA that, with Krebs cycle, get into ATP.

This was an extreme synthesis (no pun intended), hope no nutrition experts will die reading this. A protagonist with a key role is insulin hormone that basically tells our body to stop using fat if there is already glucose (technically: inhibits lipolysis – breakdown of fat – so tells the liver to stock up on sugar in form of glycogen); insulin regualtes also retention of sodium (hence, water). When we ingest too many carbs (so, sugar), pancreas tells (increasing insulin level in the blood) to store this too much sugars into fat (lipogenesis, fat creation). When fat tissue cells are too big, fat accumulate also outside, in other organs (ectopic fat deposition), starting accumulating first in the (fatty) liver and causing inflammatory response by immune system. So we understand that insulin resistance is something to consider, since it:
– interferes with metabolism;
– promotes inflammation;
– correlates with depression;
– in a few years, can lead to diabete;
– inhibits brain’s waste removal process (that can cause difficulty to remove A-beta and Tau protein responsible in Alzheimer’s disease and lead to Parkinson’s disease due to dysfunction in the mitochondria, the “energy factor” of the cell) and can even cause damage to DNA.
When we take care of the normal functioning of the insulin, it functions well in the brain:
– promote cells formation;
– inhibits cell death;
– balances mechanisms for learning and memory;
– adjusts inflammation response in glial cells;
– enhances blood flow to the brain.

Now that the mechanism and its effects are clear, before talking about diets, just a short sentence on supplements: unless you have some disease or particular condition, they are useless, if not harmful – if there’s no medical reason, please don’t use them.

About diets (that, just to remember, doesn’t mean “eat less”, but it refers to the way we consume food), the main concepts to highlight are:

Mediterranean diet (mainly whole grain + vegetables + fruits, seafood, milk, small meat) is good for health, especially heart – but make sure to consume whole cereals and don’t exceed in calories;
Ketogenic diet (70% fat, 20% protein, 10% carbs), but it’s extremely important to understand that it’s not just “generic fat”: no fast food or comfort food, but mainly vegetal fat (and also from cheese and good fish), protein from eggs, fish and organic meats. As fruits only berries and low-glicemic; once it was considered as the best remedy for epilepsy, this diet is effective against insuline resistance and leads to improvement in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease;
Intermittent fasting (this one is not about the kind of food, but on when eating):
– Eat only in a restricted time window (e.g.: eat within timeframe of 8h, then 16h of fasting, like dinner at 18:00 and no food intake until breakfast at 10:00);
– It mimics our “expected” behavior (nature didn’t provide food h24 in the wild);
– In isocalorical comparisons, only intermittent fasting (2 days per week) shows improve/lowering hormonal level going to reduce insuline resistance and so better health condition;
Observed: Norepinephrine increase > metabolism high; growth hormone increase > keep muscle; improve memory;
– Better than caloric restriction (that instead goes to a plateau against insuline resistance).

So, in a few words, it’s not only about the quantity, as the Swiss medical doctor Paracelsus said: “Omnia venenum sunt: nec sine veneno quicquam existit. Dosis sola facit, ut venenum non fit.” (everything can be poison, it depends on quantity)

Physical exercise

As per the nutrition concept before, also here there’s some misconception: for “exercise” we talk about the way we consume calories (daily). It’s considered “sedentary” lifestyle when we take less than 5.000 steps per day (active when more than 7.500). The absence of medarate activity is observed since 90s.
Brief info: to mantain our vital functions (homeostasis), liver says to consume glucose. During exercise, we go to ipoglucose, so epinephrine, adrenaline and norepinephrine go up, heart rate increases, breain increases production of neurotransmitters. Pancreas stimulates liver to produce glucagon (storage form of glucose) and insuline goes down.
In the brain: cyclic AMP and irsin swim up to the brain to produce more serotonin and epinephrine neurotransmitters + IGF (insuline-like growth-factor), VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor) and BDNF (brain derived neurotrophic factor).
BDNF is a protein that promotes growth and formation of neurons, it’s key to learning and memory (issues with BDNF leads to Alzheimer’s disease).

In animal studies, mices involved in physical exercise grow more new cells and learned faster compared to mices in “enriched cages” (with toys that stimulates brain). You can imagine an “enriched cage” like our room where we binge-watch TV series: the brain benefit more from a walk, please keep it in mind. Also, daily activity not only improved BDNF more than intermittent activity, but lasts much longer (decline in longer period). Exercise increase neurons and also make the existing ones more efficient (bushier). More efficient in eliminating toxic proteins in the brain (so, again: good against Alzheimer’s). Effects in frontal cortex and hyppocampus (memory and execution), so prevents also Parkinson’s, too.

What we know from human studies? We can divide in experiments with people with or without disease:

People without disease:
– Old people who exercise appeared 3 years “younger” (talking about brain), since physical activity improves planning, decision making, multitasking, spatial recognition and processing speed;
– Walking group had higher brain volume compared to the stretching group (better memory and cognitive functions);
– Intensity resistance training improved in spatial and verbal memory;
– 90% decrease in dementia (and appeared on average 11 years later);
– EEG showed (after 12 weeks of yoga) more active left emisphere (positive moods) and increase in blood flow in prefrontal cortex + amigdala and sensor motor, effects on brain volume – since yoga has also a meditation component (see in the next chapter), at the same time improved visual cortex volume and prevention of strokes (restore blood pressure).

People with cognitive impairment:
– Better insulin sensitivity;
– Reduced cortisol (less stress);
– Better attention and decision making;
– Tai chi exercise improves conditions in Parkinson’s disease;
– After stroke, can improve balance and mobility, leading to more sense of independence;
– Prevent other strokes;
– In particular, people with psychiatric disorders can benefit, but note that people with severe anxiety and depression (often related each other) at the very beginning of their physical practice can raise their anxiety (e.g.: worried about their body responses, like heart rate going up), but then they shortly start to benefit only without countereffects.
One last note: even VR related activity can be good as long it motivates to practice activity.

Meditation

I already wrote why meditation is good for everyone, but anyway let’s recap focusing on effects on the brain.

This cycle can improve or damage us, it depends on our thoughts

Every thought alter our brain and gene expression. Moreover, behavior shapes the brain and the brain shapes behavior.
Jon Kabat-Zinn summarized mindfulness meditation in 2 main concepts:
– Present moment awareness and attention
– Attitude of non-judgemental curiosity.

Also here, I’ll start clarifying what it is and what is not: Mindfulness is not controlling our thought or escaping pain or quick fix to unpleaseant feeling (to meditate); Mindfulness is being present and be aware, decentering (learning how to relate differently from habits of mind – impartial observation vs. emotional reactivity, as discussed also in “The Happiness Trap”). For a lot of research papers on meditation, please refer to my previous post, but basically: Herbert Benson started studies in 70s, finding evidence on meditation to relaxation (so better “functioning”) and stress reduction; it improves chronic pain resistance, reduces anxiety and depression, improves conditions in some autoimmune diseases.
Dalai Lama also agree on the power of combining science and ancient culture.

Effects of meditation on brain structure:
– Increase size of gray matter (body of neurons) and hyppocampus (learning area);
– Prevent reduction in decreasing size (shrinking) of brain in older age.

Effects on brain activity:
– Gamma synchrony, so rapid brain activity detected in insula, amigdala and cingulate cortices (limbic system);
– After stress tests, people who meditate show less inflammation and less stress response;
– Mindful based meditation group show more activation of left prefrontal cortex (linked to positive emotions) instead of right one (negative emotions).

Moreover, MBCT (Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy) helps improvement during medication, it’s useful in menopause or quitting smoke, it’s considered one of the best treatment for depression and provides better insight and faster recover after allucinations.

Sleep

Also here, I already wrote about sleep after reading the great book “Why we sleep” by Matthew Walker. But I’ll quickly recap the main concepts here, starting from the most important statmente, in a toxic society that demands people always awaken for productivity at work and consuming a lot of enternainment: on average, adults need on average 8 hours of sleep. Remembering the basic mechanisms involved in sleep and awakeness cycle:
– Adenosine: protein accumulated when awake (note: caffeine interference in neuroreceiver);
– Histamine: neurotransmitter promoting wakefulness;
– Cycle in balancing Ventrolateral Preoptic Nucleus (Sleep) and Arousal Center (Awake);
– Homeostatic sleep drive (cortisol decreases, melatonin increases);
– Circadian rhytm (suprachiasmatic nucleus + lights influence).

During every REM and non-REM cycle (approx. last 90-110min) there are several effects:
– Restorative;
– Clears brain of neurotoxic waste;
– Improves learning and info/skill retention for both declarative (“conscious”) and non-declarative (like motor/visual) memory;
– Maximize growth and tyroide hormons (during REM phases).

Sleep deprivation (that is, on average, having less than 7 hours of proper sleep) is the “normal condition” for over than 50% of USA population (30% get less of 6 hours per night; 30% suffer of hynsomnia). First cause is actually not due to medical conditions, but simply not going to bed (for the “productivity” myth or maybe even worse for the impressive consumption of entertaniment, like social network and addictive series. Other causes include problem in brain, diabetes, cronic pain and every kind of breath obstruction that cause sleep apnea (caused for example also by obesity or some disfunction in breathing). Some effects:
– Obesity / hunger
– Live less
– Less productive
– More stressed
– More inflammation
– Depression
– Brain aging

For further details and advice, please read my previous article on sleep.

Key takeaways-advice

Brain is a really complex organ integrated with all the rest of the body, so please consider it for what it is: a part of us to take care.
As nutrition, choose a good and healthy diet like mediterranean or ketogenic, but pay also attention to include some intermittent fasting.
Be active every day, walking at least 7.000 steps daily.
Dedicate a few minutes per day to practice meditation.
Make sure you get at least 7h of proper sleep every night.

Reference and resources

Nutritional Research

Physical Exercise

Meditation

Sleep