scienceofprevention Day 8 https://is-tracking-link-api-prod.appspot.com/api/v1/click/6065314764161024/5075654499893248 Host: David Perlmutter, MD, Board-Certified Neurologist & #1 NYT Bestselling Author EPISODE 8 OCTOBER 16: Stress and Alzheimer’s - multitasking might seem like an efficient way to manage your time, it’s likely a hidden cause of stress in your life. - “multitasking is just doing multiple things badly”, but you’re not only doing a poor job of the tasks you’re trying to accomplish, you’re actually accumulating stress at the same time. It’s a lose-lose situation. - attempts to multitask are just one way that modern living creates chronic stress in our lives. And chronic stress is critically important - not just because it's generally bad for your health - but because it may increase your risk for Alzheimer's disease. - how chronic stress is linked to an increased risk for Alzheimer's disease, and then we’ll provide stress reducing techniques. ================ in this episode: - Why our stressful modern lives are compromising the health and function of our brains - The stress-cortisol connection and why chronic stress increases your risk for Alzheimer’s disease - Easy to use stress reducing techniques to protect your brain and improve your quality of life ================ - the key takeaways here will help you live a better life today, tomorrow, and in the future. - if you put into practice even just a few of the recommendations then you’ll be feeling calmer, thinking more clearly, and you may even find yourself in a lighter, happier mood. ================ chronic stress is toxic to your brain stress makes it harder to sleep it upsets the balance of gut bacteria stress changes the equilibrium of various hormones wi/ the body stress can be the main initiator of infl not just in the body but in the brain chronic stress: - in past ancestors stress was from threat of wild animals - this is not a system that's supposed to be turned on all the time, it's for an emergency situation - multitasking is stressful, accumulate microstresses, over time contribute to chemical imbalances in the brain over 5 to 10 years and contribute to significant immune disorders and cancer and things of that nature - the brain is a linear processor - sooooo... quit multi-tasking, create clear lines of behavior and outcomes how chronic stress leads to alz - there are 4 main concepts to grasp to understand why reducng and managing stress is so important for the health of your brain - 1. stress alters your gut microbiome - - the mb helps reculate all maners of metabolism w/n the body and has a key role in how we handle sugar and other forms of carbs, how many calories are extracted from our food and whether we feel hungry or satisfied after a meal - - plays a pivotal role in the regulaion of neurotransmitters that effect our mood from one moment to the next - - plays an important role in brain health - - the mb's role changes under stress; under stress signals go to the heart and to the microbes and changes their gene expression and behavior, so if you are stressed, then the microbes are also stressed and produce substances they would not normally produce - - regulatation of how stress is handled w/n the brain has an impact the mb, e.g., brain telling mb to turn down its stress level as well - - there exists a relationship btwn stress reducing trchniques and the brain/gut-mb communication - - decreassing stress helps create a healthy gut mb which is important to the healh of your brain - 2. stress dramaticallu mpacts your hormones - - viz., cortosol; chronic stress leads to chronically increased levels of cortosol and that is directly toxic to the brain - - cortosol is related to fight-or-flight response - - if elevated chronically has negative effect of many organs including the brain - - - if the stress is transient, if the effect is transient on the nerve cells then it effects the number of nerve cells in the hypocampus - - - esp for women, if mother, in menapause, taking care of parents - affects women's brains - - - as cortosol is increasing, oxitosin (the love or hugging hormone) is decreasing - - - do things to increase oxitosin causes cortosol to decrease - 3. chronic stress increases levels of infl and the damaging effects of free radicals called oxidative stress - - stress can cause the same things to happen in the brain as eating the wrong foods cause - - having some stress sometimes is fine, but prolonged stress, chronic stress, e.g., in a bad relationship or a difficult financial situation for years, or a difficult loss - - important to lear ways to relax and have healthy relationships and spending time dong things you enjoy - - oxidative stress leads to infl state which leads to insulin resistance and cognitive impairment - - relaxation would reduce these kinds of inflammatory conditions that add to the burden of disease that leads to alz - - bad stress ultimately sends messages to the pitutary that raises the cortosol level, lowers the oxitosin level and releases infl thus altering the immune system on a minute by minute basis - 4. stress increases blood sugar - - cortosol is fight or flight hormone, cortosol raises blood sugar, want body floded w/glucose, want all that energy in that acute moment - - in the modern era what we dont want is our body marinating in cortosol all day and dont have life threatening emergencies - - could have a rise in cortosol from a traffic jam or fight w/spouse so get flooded w/glucose from the cortosol but we're just behind the steering wheel or sitting on he couch stewing in anger and the glucose has nowhere to go, so mechanisim which was super protective 1000 years ago is a liability in the modern world, but, we need cortosol, it's an important hormone just like insulin because some is good, just dont want to have it high levels all day every day - - the connection chain btwn chronically high stress and blood sugar and alz IS stress increasses cortosol which raises the blood sugar and increased insulin in response to the blood sugar is a major risk factor for alz stress management is essential for protecting the brain and reducing the risk for alz - stress can cause gthe same kinds of cellular damage over time that eating the wrong foods can - people w/trama history or stress in childhood tend to have a smaller hypocampus - everybody experiences stress - key is not whether you experience it or not, rather, it is how you deal with it - stress: the perception, not necessarily the reality, a perception of a real ori magined threat to your body or ego - - e.g., a tiger chasing you, or imaginary - think your wife is cheating on you but is actually not but still get the same response as if the tiger was chasing you - - there once was a lady from Niger - - There was a young lady from Niger, Who smiled as she rode on a tiger. They came back from the ride With the lady inside, And the smile on the face of the tiger. --William Cosmo Monkhouse - - what that stress does in your body is send a cascade of events that causes rapid aging, disease, muscle loss, dibedes, high blood pressure, shrinkage of the memory center which also shrinks when you get alz - - stress can cause cognitive impariment, depression - - even a damaaged brain can repair and recover if you change those conditions - - meditation is critical for repairing the brain, reducing infl, increasing stem cells in the brain, for growing hypocampus - - need to actively engave the parasympathertic system, a healing system to repair the brain - - - can be done thru meditation, yoga, masasge steps to take to lower & manage stress in your life - going to nature connects you to your roots (walk in the woods, on the beach) - - we evolved in nature, yet in modern world we are disconnected from nature - meditation is effective, esp,. in women - yoga - exercise - healthy diet esp. vit b12 & vit b5 - need to turn of stress around us... - diaphramatic breathing, a form of meditation where you just focus on your breath, in and out - healthy relationships reduce stress - - if going thru something difficult then h.relationships act like a buffer - create an alacart menue of 5 to 10 things that can help regulate stress - - yoga (even just a 5 minute pose), meditation (aps: 10%happier, headspace, calm, pelaton ap has guided visuals), getting together w/girlfriends - - - if a dude and want to improve your health then be w/a woman - - - if a woman and want to improve your healh then be w/your girlfriends - supplements: osvagonda (chinese herb) - food stress, heal your gut, elimination diet - elimination provocation, giving up most common food intolerences like dairy & glutin - exercise, perhaps most important buffer - worst thing for women is high stress and sedentary activity - a really bad negative combination - laughter, making jokes increases oxitosis - be in good community - playing w/ pets - SEX! intamicy, hugging, kissing, playing, pleasuring - smiling, generosity (giving, an act of kindness) practical things to help decrease stress in you life: - meditation - mindfulness practices - diaphtragmatic breathing - spending time in nature - cultivating healthy relationships - yoga - exercise - good quality sleep - seek joy in your life through time w/family and community - playing musical instrument - fixing things around house of in garage KF!