How to Keep Your Brain Healthy as You Age

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Transcript: How to Keep Your Brain Healthy as You Age

Season 7, Episode 3  | September 5, 2023

Jamie Martin:
Welcome to Life Time Talks, the podcast that’s aimed at helping you achieve your health, fitness, and life goals. I’m Jamie Martin, Editor-in-Chief of Experience Life, Life Time’s whole-life health and fitness magazine.

David Freeman:
And I’m David Freeman, director of Alpha, one of Life Time’s signature group training programs. We’re all in different places along our health and fitness journey, but no matter what we’re working toward, there are some essential things we can do to keep moving in the direction of a healthy, purpose-driven life.

Jamie Martin:
In each episode, we break down various elements of healthy living, including fitness and nutrition, mindset and community, and health issues. We’ll also share real, inspiring stories of transformation.

David Freeman:
And we’ll be talking to experts, from Life Time and beyond, who will share their insights and knowledge so you have the tools and information you need to take charge of your next steps. Here we go. Welcome back to another episode of Life Time Talks. I’m David Freeman.

Jamie Martin:
And I’m Jamie Martin.

David Freeman:
And today’s topic is Healthy Brain For Healthy Aging. Our brains age just like the rest of our bodies, but we want to do everything we can to support long-term brain health and ward off and reduce the risk of neurodegenerative diseases. The good news is that there are nutritional and lifestyle strategies that can help the effects of the brain aging and strengthening cognitive health.

Jamie Martin:
Awesome, and with us today, we have Edward Park. He is the founder of NeuroReserve, a preventative health and nutrition company focused on healthy brain aging. Ed’s background spans over 15 years in the fields of nutritional therapeutics, biopharmaceuticals, and medical devices, where he directed R&D testing and regulatory approval of products to treat people malnourished by cystic fibrosis, pancreatic cancer, and preterm birth. Ed holds a PhD in chemical and biomolecular engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he was a National Defense Science and Engineering graduate fellow. He also holds an MS and MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. That is quite the bio you have.

Edward Park:
I piled it higher and deeper, as they say, for PhDs.

Jamie Martin:
I love it. Well, we’re so excited to have you here. How are you doing?

Edward Park:
Great. Doing great. Thanks so much for having me on this. You know, Life Time, you…it’s a great organization. You have great reach and impact across the entire country. So, it’s just a real privilege to be able to speak to your audiences and cover a very important topic, which is brain health, and we’ll get into why that’s so important.

Jamie Martin:
Absolutely.

David Freeman:
Yeah. So, let’s dive right into it. So, we previewed a little bit in your bio, but you made a big transition in your career to get in the field of brain health because of your personal connection to it. Do you mind sharing a little bit about your story and your family history with neurodegenerative disease?

Edward Park:
Yeah. Yeah. So, a neurodegenerative disease, or you know, age-related brain disease, had a pretty formative effect on me, because my father was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, Lewy body dementia, at the age of 48. Around 48 or 49 for him. So, at that time, I was, like, 14. You know, like a young teenager. So, at that age, it’s just very confusing, confusing to see, you know, what was happening to my father. At first, obviously, dealing with some tremors and movement difficulties associated with Parkinson’s disease, and then later on, going into cognitive decline.

So, there was a lot of confusion for me. As a teenager, I don’t think I handled it the best way. You know, there was a lot of compartmentalization. I just didn’t want to think about it. You know, didn’t want to talk about it. You know, there was a lot of that going on and a lot of shame, you know, too, because, you know, it’s like, wow, you know, all the other dads are out there doing stuff, and my father was disabled, you know?

So, there’s a lot of that going on, but I’ve been reflecting. There’s two things I really learned from this. You know, one is, as my father progressed, he…I really realized how strong he was. Now, we’re talking, like, from the heart, from the mind, you know, extremely strong and how strong in faith he was. So, I mean, 19 years…you know, so, he had it for 19 years. Progressively got worse and worse and worse before he passed away.

It’s almost 20 years, and weathering through all that, hallucinations…because that’s what the Lewy body dementia does, is it creates very frightening hallucinations. Losing his cognitive faculties, that’s something to watch, but another thing to watch is how you handle it. So, that was very instructive for me, and then, on the other side of it was my mother, right, and my mother demonstrated to me what just amazing love and commitment is, okay?

She was his primary caregiver. You know, I went out to college and grad school out on the east coast across the country. I’d be flying back, and my sisters would be flying back for acute situations where my father would be in acute care, episodes like that, but it was really my mother who…she’s one of those types of people we just…she’s like, I’m not going to let him go. I’m not letting that as…no, no, no, I’m taking care of him, you know?

So, she was just taking…I’m not going to let anybody else take care of him, you know, that sort of a caregiver, and it was just amazing. So, you can see those kinds of formative effects, and it kind of…everybody has these experiences in our lives that define, for us, what love looks like, what we’re afraid of, right, and the fears that we have to face. So, the question is, just how do we deal with it, right?

Jamie Martin:
Absolutely. So, what was it about the experience…I mean, you have quite the background in the bio, the education. You know, what led you kind of from the space that you were in into preventive health and specifically the area of brain nutrition?

Edward Park:
Yeah. Because of what happened in my family, I was indirectly, I’d say, drawn to medicine and the healthcare field, and so, that led me into the pharma that you mentioned in my bio, right? So, I went into pharmaceutical R&D and did work there, and the thing is, though…here’s the fear factor, right? I didn’t want to touch neurology. I just did not…I’m like, forget that. Like, if I learn anything about that and find out if I’m going to get it, oh, shoot, you know? Like, I don’t know how I’m going to deal with it.

So, I’m making kind of light of it right now, but it’s a serious thing. A lot of people…oh, there are so many people, you know, who are terrified of neurodegenerative diseases because of their extremely outsized impact to the family and to the patient. So, but ultimately, there were a couple things that happened along the way. You know, one thing is that I had some health issues of my own, and I realized…I actually changed a lot in my nutrition.

I realized that I had some autoimmune disorders, but that really forced me to think a lot about my brain health and say, okay, Ed, you’re either going to face it or not, you know? So, let’s go face it, right? Everything happens for a reason. I mean, so…and everything happens for a reason, and it’s our responsibility to address it, because that could be turned into something very positive, and that’s an opportunity to turn it into something positive.

So, you know, about six years ago, I started looking more into where the science and the medicine is at for brain health, and brain health with respect to aging, in particular, and there’s a lot going on in the pharmaceutical space that’s great, but a lot of failures going on, too, but at least, you know, for every time they fail, they might learn a little bit more, right? So, that’s great, but one thing I did notice, in particular, inside, in the nutrition side, as I went to conferences and sat in on those lectures, is that there is a small group of people very focused on nutrition and how that could affect long-term brain health outcomes, you know, that long-term brain health aspect.

And when I was looking at myself…and at the time, I was working really hard to change my diet, which really wasn’t the best. So, I was working really hard to change my diet, and you know, I was thinking, okay, working on that, but what can I do to supplement? What can I use as a nutritional product that can help me close gaps? And that’s where, basically, you know, I realized, well, there isn’t really too much out there that…nothing, really, that goes and looks at it from a long-term brain health perspective and a risk-reduction approach for neurodegenerative diseases, like Alzheimer’s, like Parkinson’s and Lewy body dementia and related dementias, and what occurred to me as a vision, right…

And you got to be a little bit delusional to start a company, right, but you know, got to be a little bit like, oh, yeah, I’m going to change everything, kind of, you know, but one thing I did realize, and the direction we’re heading with brain health and nutrition and the science in general is that, within the next 10 years, there is going to be a new preventive standard of care. Just like when a person has a disease and there is a standard of care, they call it the SOC, right? The standard of care.

What do we give as our gold standard? There will be a gold standard in the preventive standard of care to help people avoid neurodegenerative disease, and I said, you know what? That’s the genesis of NeuroReserve. You know, why I jumped in and formed the company that I founded is to become a part of that…to help define that, to make some breakthroughs in that area, and to leave that long-term or maybe even kind of immortal mark, you know, on the world.

Jamie Martin:
Absolutely. Well, one thing I wanted to just jump in with is just some of the statistics around neurodegenerative diseases. We talked about that being a hard word to say before we hit record.

Edward Park:
I know. It’s such a hard word.

Jamie Martin:
Okay. That was, like, an exercise.

Edward Park:
I have to practice that over and over again.

Jamie Martin:
Oh, okay. So, can you speak to a little bit about the stats around the neurodegenerative diseases now, whether it’s tied to Alzheimer’s dementia, Lewy body, like you mentioned? Like, where are we at with that currently?

Edward Park:
Yes. You know, that’s something that’s…that’s why this is such an important topic, because brain health is extremely unique among other health and disease areas that we experience, you know, especially here in the United States. So, just looking at the US, about every 30 seconds, a person is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. So, we got 7 million people, you know, 6 to 7 million people, affected by Alzheimer’s, and Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia.

So, we got 6 to 7 million in the United States affected by Alzheimer’s. For every one of those people, you know, the direct medical costs associated with it are upwards of, like, 400 thousand dollars, and most of it’s not covered by medical insurance, because a lot of it is nursing home. That’s outside the purview. So, the financial impact on people, on the families and the caregivers, is huge. For Parkinson’s, you know, there’s about 1 million in the US.

But I think the most compelling and the most, I guess, impactful stat to say is that when you look at these other disease areas that we have in the country that are big, say, heart disease, diabetes, even HIV and some major cancers, right, like breast cancer and prostate cancer, if you look at all of those disease states, those as a cause of death have actually been dropping or staying flat for the past 20 years. I mean, it’s amazing.

We’ve done a great job at handling those diseases and kind of bringing them into check, but when you look at Alzheimer’s disease, that’s where that flatness in the curve shoots up and we have 145% increase in Alzheimer’s disease as a cause of death. We have over 65%, you know, increase as cause of death for Parkinson’s, and by 2050, we’re going to have triple the amount of people with Alzheimer’s disease, and we’re talking about trillions of dollars of burden in our economy, but that doesn’t speak anything about the emotional impact on families.

You know, so, what we have right here going on, it is somewhat of a hit-the-panic-button type of situation that’s happened with the federal government at the NIH, right? They’ve been starting to pour a lot of money into research there over the past 5, 6 years, but also, it’s just so unique amongst these diseases. I can go on and on. We have no good biomarkers. You know, A1C is great for diabetes. LDL and HDL are great for cardiovascular health, but what do we have for Alzheimer’s?

What do we have for Parkinson’s to tell us whether or not we’re on the way or at risk or not, right? So, there’s a lot of ways to go there, you know, but we’re right there at the edge. We’re about…if we were to take where we are now with brain health and compare it with cardiovascular and diabetes, we’re about, you know, like, where they were about 30 to 40 years ago, but that’s actually a really nice thing, if you think about it, because that’s when all the breakthroughs started really happening.

David Freeman:
So, obviously, you just kind of layered it in so many different ways as far as how important the brain element is and how it plays within our everybody life. So, when you speak about brain aging, I think just breaking down the details for those that are listening in right now, what exactly is brain aging, and what causes it?

Edward Park:
Yeah. So, the first thing is, is that the brain does age. So, really glad you’re bringing this up, David, because, just like other parts of our bodies, whether or not it’s our skin, which we see really well, obviously, and we see that age, you know, over time, or our joints. We might feel that, you know, as we age. Our brains are a lot more subtle when it comes to aging, but they absolutely age like any other organ in our body. So, what causes that is the standard wear and tear that all the other parts of our bodies endure, right, and that is oxidative stress. That’s chronic inflammation.

That could be trauma for some people, of course, but those little things every day…now, every day, our bodies…and you know very well from all your work in Alpha, right, and all that work there, you know about recovery. At some point, for the brain, whether or not it’s inflammation or oxidative stress, it happens faster than the brain can compensate for it and recover, and when you get to that tipping point, then that’s where you start to have brain aging, or the effects of brain aging start to take place.

So, there are aspects there that are just kind of the general wear and tear. There are aspects that could cause people’s brains to age faster that are genetic, and that’s…some people might’ve heard of, or maybe they’ll hear about it for the time here. It’s a genetic allele called APOE4. So, that’s one where you have accelerated aging. It doesn’t mean that it’s going to happen, like, no doubt you’re going to get Alzheimer’s and things like that, but it’s a risk factor, and it can be effective, you know, if you live a brain-healthy life.

And I just wanted to mention one thing, because when it comes to brain aging for women, menopause is a very big, big period of time, and one stat I didn’t mention earlier is that Alzheimer’s disease prevalence is about two-thirds women and one-third men, and so, we might think of, well, what is it about menopause and that aging process that can make a person vulnerable for dementia, and the reason is because of estrogen. So, estrogen is a sex hormone.

That’s one thing, but you know, another thing that it is, and what it really should be known for, in my opinion, is a neuroprotective hormone, because what estrogen does is amazing. I mean, it helps the brain use energy, and it helps create new connections, and another thing it does is it helps tamp down on that oxidative stress. Very potent for that. So, when estrogen levels drop during perimenopause and menopause, then, all of a sudden, there is this crisis, if you will, going on in the brain as far as its ability to process energy and to, you know, create…actually, you know, power itself.

That leads to a lot of the symptoms when it comes to brain fog, word finding, things like that. So, and we can go into a lot of that there, but menopause is very important. The brain is very energy hungry, okay? So, I mean, yeah, look at these big guns, here. I mean, you see strain here, right? You know, these big guns, right? Yeah, you see that?

David Freeman:
I see them.

Edward Park:
And you might think my giant biceps, you know, are the organ in my body that’s using up the most energy, because I’m just pumping them, you know, off and on, but really, the brain, it’s only 2 to 3% of our body weight, but it uses 25 to 30% of our energy. It is the most energy-hungry organ in our body. It is constantly burning. It’s an engine that’s constantly running, and so, glucose is extremely important, for it to access glucose, and estrogen’s very good at helping that happen, and when you have a drop in estrogen, then there’s an issue, you know? So, anyway, so, there are some causes.

Jamie Martin:
It’s so interesting you bring that up, because another episode we just recorded that will be in this season, as well, is all about menopause, and we did talk about cognitive function in there, but I think this just really does a nice job of building on that and adding. So, thank you for kind of going into detail with that.

Edward Park:
Oh, great. Yeah.

Jamie Martin:
That’s awesome.

Edward Park:
Wonderful topic, it is. Yes.

Jamie Martin:
Yeah. So, what you’ve been alluding to is kind of the idea of normal brain aging and then abnormal brain aging, and so, I’m just wondering, you know, most of us probably want to be in the category of normal aging, right, but can we talk through a few things? Like, you know, what does bring aging look like in the everyday life?

Edward Park:
Yeah. So, when it comes to brain aging, I guess what we call normal brain aging, right, most people will start to feel…now, as all that wear and tear builds up over time…and hopefully, we’re doing great things, and we’ll get to what we can do, but hopefully, we’re doing great things to slow it down. There are aspects of it that are going to slow, like processing speed, being able to react to things, intake information, and then be able to process and react, right?

There’s working memory. There’s things like, literally, if someone tells you a telephone number and you need to write it down, you’re using your memory, at least in a working capacity in that moment as you’re calling. Long-term memory and episodic memory, right, those really long-term things that we remember, navigation, spatially where am I, you know, things like that, all those things start to add up a little bit.

And what you start to see with kind of normal aging is, okay, you’ll forget a name here or there, right? You’re going to forget a name or an appointment, you know? You might have trouble finding some words. It’s just going to be, oh, dang, what was that word I’m trying to get? It’s not at the tip of my tongue anymore. A little slower at recalling and accessing that, right? You might misplace things, but you’ll be able to maybe kind of retrace, like, okay, I think I was here or there.

And eventually, you’ll be able to find something, right, like your keys. That’s classic, and every so often, you might be a little bit more confused about, oh, shoot, what day is it of the week? Oh, it’s late. Oh, Thursday. Is it Tuesday? It’s Tuesday. You know, so that sort of thing. So, those are kind of normal aging…I guess you can call them symptoms, but I would say more like, you know, the typical daily encounters with normal aging, I would say.

Jamie Martin:
Yeah, and then building from there, I mean, going from there then, what does abnormal brain aging and disease look like? I mean, you’re experiencing some of the normal parts of it, right, but then when does it become abnormal and something to be kind of concerned about and probably get some insights around and hopefully some help, potentially?

Edward Park:
Yes. Yeah. So, when it becomes abnormal, then we start talking about impairment, right? Cognitive impairment and maybe even disease, and so, one of the ways that we can raise the alarm a little bit with ourselves or maybe with others is in planning and executing complex tasks, right?

So, here, the classic example is being able to make a recipe that you’ve always made in the past, and so, that’s why the holidays, actually, are the time when people really start to notice things in parents maybe, in our grandparents. It’s because we see them for the first time in maybe a year or maybe six months or whatever it might be, and then, on top of that, they’re making a recipe.

And all of a sudden, wait. Maybe they don’t know how to make it anymore. Maybe they get lost in the sequence. They just forget, you know, or they’ll literally have trouble getting through step 1 through step 2 though step 7, and it’s something they’ve made before, and that’s the key. They’ve made it many times before. So, and similarly, when you get lost in a place that you’re familiar with either being in or going to. So, you’ve been going to, or a person’s been driving, or a person’s been walking to a location every day for…you know, hundreds of times in their lives, and then, all of a sudden, they’re lost.

Not only that, contrast that with what I mentioned to you as normal, where you might lose something and you’re retracing your steps. In the abnormal side, there’s no way to retrace steps. All of a sudden, you can’t retrace your steps, right? So, that’s a telltale sign of abnormal aging, and I think one of the most, I guess…one that runs under the radar, but is very telling, is the ability to join a conversation and to maintain conversation. Believe it or not, I mean, they might come naturally to you especially, because you’re doing podcasts a lot.

You’re having conversations, and they’re complex conversations, and you’re feedbacking against each other. I mean, a conversation works so many sides of our brains, whether or not it’s our processing speed so we can react quickly to somebody, be witty, right? Whether or not we’re recalling what they said and then being able to access, you know, information of our own to feed back. I mean, it is very complex. It uses language, our language side, our communication.

So, it’s just…these are very complex tasks, and so, if a person’s having trouble getting into a conversation…let’s say they’re walking in, people are in the middle of something, and they’re very quiet and they’re not engaging at all, that could be a sign, you know, if it continually happens like that. So, those are some thoughts for people to have about normal versus abnormal aging of the brain.

David Freeman:
Solid. Okay. Let’s talk about some positive routes that we can take in this space, and we actually…I remember having both Brie and Barbara Powell on talking about neuroplasticity and brain regeneration. So, this is a topic that we’ve touched on before, but would love for you to kind of dive into how this can help provide us an opportunity within this space when we’re talking about the brain.

Edward Park:
Yeah. Yeah. So, it’s good news, everybody. This is good news. Let’s get us some good news here, yeah?

David Freeman:
Right.

Edward Park:
So, the good news is that, you know, maybe you got somebody 20 years ago or so, any of the major researchers in the area, 20 or 30 years ago, they’d be like, oh, you know, I don’t know if the brain can regenerate. There’s not enough evidence out there and things like that, but you know, as it crossed into the new millennium, a lot of great research started coming out about not only how the brain forms when you’re a baby, right.

But also, what we call adult neurogenesis, the birth of new cells, new neural cells, and new connections as an adult, and it’s become a very exciting area, and it’s no longer, like, a fringe kind of area of research. There are stem cells in the brain that will convert themselves into neurons or into any of the two other types of major cells in the brain. They’re called astrocytes and macroglia, but believe it or not, I mean, the brain has a few different types of cells in it, and neurons are one type, right? But they can convert into neurons.

So, there are stem cells right in there, and there’s this awesome study that was done in 2013, and it was a Swedish research group, along with, I think, Lawrence Livermore National Labs, and they showed…and it’s crazy. I mean, they showed, in humans, right, that there was a birth, a birth of about 700 new neurons in the hippocampus every day, and the hippocampus is that area of the brain that helps convert short-term memory into long-term memory.

It’s the part of the brain that helps us with spatial navigation, right? It’s that first part of the brain that’s affected by Alzheimer’s, by the way. So, they’re saying 700 are born every day. Now, that’s a turnover of about maybe 1.75 to 2% of your entire hippocampus every year, and you can see that turnover happening, and they got to replace and regenerate and rewire, and so, anything we can do to encourage neurogenesis and new rewiring, basically, is extremely important for brain health.

Jamie Martin:
That’s awesome. So, let’s talk about that, because there are many nutritional and lifestyle strategies that, you know, we do have control over in our day-to-day life that can support that neuroplasticity and that brain regeneration. So, let’s talk through…I know you’ve got, obviously, diet and nutrition, but also exercise, sleep, cognitive fitness, your relationships, cardiometabolic health. I just listed all of them that, you know, we know are there, but let’s touch on each of them briefly, because I think, you know, we can do things here. Like, I have a choice in my day-to-day life.

Edward Park:
Absolutely, and that is another thing. It’s not only do we know that the brain can regenerate itself. It can repair itself, right, but also, we know…we have strategies we can take, and that has started coming out around like, you know, early 2010s, and it’s just been really accelerating since then. In the medical field, you know, 5, 10 years is like yesterday because it moves so carefully and slowly, you know?

So, it’s like, wow, it’s like yesterday. It’s still blazing hot news in the field, so this is really important. Everything you just mentioned there is very important, and just to touch upon those, like you said, you know, for diet and nutrition, it’s one of the most well-studied areas. They’ve been locking in on it more and more, but one thing I would encourage everyone to pursue is what we call a Mediterranean type of diet, and in particular, something called the MIND diet, which is a type of Mediterranean diet.

Everyone might’ve heard of the Mediterranean diet from maybe cardiovascular health, or you know, at some point, they might’ve heard of it, hopefully, but researchers at RUSH University, around 2015…like I said, it seems like yesterday for the medical field, but in 2015, RUSH University researchers out in Chicago, they developed what they would call the MIND diet, and that’s an acronym, and this is a long one. Get ready. Here we go. It’s Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay, okay?

So, that’s MIND diet, and what it is, is it’s a diet that focuses on specific types of foods that are targeted for the brain from the Mediterranean diet, and those would be green leafy vegetables, like dark green leafy vegetables, and berries, an emphasis on olive oil and cold-water fish and specifically beans, and then there’s a few others there, but then they also focused on what you need to cut out, and that comes down to, you know, red meats, saturated fats, certain processed foods, and they tested it.

They said, okay, let’s look at this. Let’s follow 1,000 people, you know, over 5.5 years. Let’s do that and see how it turns out, and it turns out, the people who followed the MIND diet the best had a reduction in risk of Alzheimer’s of over 50%. It was a 53% reduction in risk of Alzheimer’s. So, when you can cut something in half, risk in half, that’s a big number.

And so, that’s a huge, huge piece of information to tell people, is to research the MIND diet. Look it up. You know, there’s places that…resources for it, but you know, just from my own perspective, for NeuroReserve, you know, my company, we based our product on the MIND diet and the research that comes out of it, because the evidence there is just so wonderful, and the Mediterranean diet, as well. So, that’s the diet and nutrition piece.

Yeah, and exercise, I mean, it’s just exercise is the thing. There is great evidence out there that shows that exercise, the contraction of muscles releases signals straight up to the brain that stimulates neurogenesis. Direct path, right? So, exercise is extremely…when you take the combination of nutrition and exercise, it’s a potent, potent combination for brain health, because exercise is key, you know, and are you ready to hear my completely unfounded scientific, semi-scientific thoughts on that here?

Jamie Martin:
Yeah.

David Freeman:
Yeah.

Jamie Martin:
Go for it.

Edward Park:
I just feel like the nutrition and the exercise piece are linked together, because if you take us back to when we were just, like, hunting and gathering, I mean, you needed to be not only…you needed to be smart and sharp and on top of it to…and physically fit to go out there and chase down your food, right, or to find it, to forage, to go hunt out and seek whatever, you know, we’re going to eat, right? So, it’s intricately linked. You know, high exertion from the standpoint of physical activity and the nutrition side that kind of go hand in hand, but anyway, you know, that’s just my theory, though, so.

Jamie Martin:
I know we’ve talked about this on other podcasts that we’ve done, but in terms of exercise and nutrition…is it BDNF, brain-derived neurotrophic factor?

Edward Park:
That’s right.

Jamie Martin:
Isn’t that kind of like the brain fertilizer, but exercise helps to stimulate that, if I’m right, right? So, it’s helping our brains?

Edward Park:
That’s exactly what I was speaking about. Exactly. Yeah, BDNF. Yeah. So, that neurotrophic…trophic means growth. So, you know, that neurotrophic factor is what’s produced and is basically secreted or released in the brain, right? So, that’s a signal out there that says, hey, let’s grow new neurons. So, it’s a wonderful way to counteract the effects of aging and cancel it out. You know, keep exercising and have good food and things like that. Yeah, but then there’s sleep.

Jamie Martin:
Yes.

David Freeman:
That’s what I was about to say.

Edward Park:
Yeah. Sleep, yeah.

Jamie Martin:
This is the one I point to my friend over here. I’m like, this guy needs to sleep more.

David Freeman:
Yeah. I do.

Edward Park:
So, sleep, I’m going to say sleep is, like, extremely important. I mean, the evidence tells us that…well, there are two things that sleep does that are very important for brain health. The first is that it clears the junk or the waste out of the brain. At no other time during the day, that’s more important than sleep for the brain’s debris and waste-removing machinery to get to work. That’s when it happens, is during sleep, and then, on the other end of it, on the kind of creation side, is the side that, that’s when memory formation takes place. That’s where you consolidate memories, is when you’re sleeping.

You can go…I mean, there are studies…at short time scales, there are studies where, if you engage in a cognitive task, like trying to memorize something, and then you rest and then you try to recall that, you can do it better than if you don’t rest, right, and you try and recall it hours later. That rest aspect is extremely important for that consolidation to happen. So, sleep is super important. So, yeah, David, yeah, you know, I don’t know. I don’t know what your sleep situation is, but I know mine’s not great. That’s all…because, you know, you got the three-kid thing going on, and you know.

David Freeman:
Yeah. No, no, no, definitely had my little wakeup call from dehydration and obviously, exhaustion just from doing a lot of the traveling, pouring into a lot of individuals, but kind of neglecting my own self-care, and I found out the hard way that, obviously, when you don’t take care of yourself, you might pass out. So, that’s something you definitely got to make sure you take care of, so I’m right there with you on that one.

Jamie Martin:
So, then let’s jump into cognitive fitness and what you mean by that.

David Freeman:
Oh, yeah, so, cognitive fitness, it has a lot to do with the wiring of the brain and making sure that we’re continually developing new wiring and alternate pathways, right? And what that really just means, at the basic level, is learning and curiosity and new skills, and so, I guess, you know, we could say that, okay, if I want to pick up a new language or I want to pick up a new musical instrument, that’s great, and that is cognitive training right there.

And the key to cognitive training, whether or not it’s a new hobby, you know, like a…let’s just say I want to get into playing Bridge. I have no idea how to play Bridge, right? I have friends who know how to play Bridge. No idea. It looks really hard, okay? But like, you know, if I want to get into that, I’m going to hit a threshold, and this concept of threshold is very important. I need to push myself to hit a threshold where, basically, I am feeling very uncomfortable. I’m feeling, basically, like I’m dumb, right? I can’t do this.

You want to hit that. That is the point at which you are generating new connections in your brain, and if you think about it as adults and you compare it against children, there’s a big difference there, and now, I’m paraphrasing one of the medical advisors that I work with. His name is Tom Holland, and he’s over at RUSH University Medical Center, and if you think about when you’re young you are constantly pushing the limits. What about my fifth-grader? What about my first-grade son or whatever?

There, I mean, I look at what they’re learning, and they’re seeing it for the first time. Arithmetic, multiplication, division, reading, combining sentences, you know, synthesizing a question and an answer out of it and stuff like that. I mean, they’re seeing all that for the first time. They’re pushing the limits constantly. As we become adults, we can kind of start to pick and choose when we push _____ 00:37:14.9. You know, we can be like, well, I already know how to do that. I’m really good at that. That’s my job, you know? That’s what I’m an expert at. Things like that, right?

So, are we really pushing ourselves? It becomes a lot harder, actually, to do that, and that’s where we end up kind of falling away from that threshold, and so, that’s why it’s always very important to be pushing yourself in some new area and hitting that threshold where you feel like, oh, wow, I just don’t know how to do this, you know, and that’s a good place to be. It’s a good place to be, because it’s just the beginning of great new neurons and connections.

So, that’s clinically shown, and not only is it, you know, some people can use brain apps, like BrainHQ or things like that, too, and those are much more specific, right? Those are specific about, okay, we’re going to do a brain-training exercise that’s going to help you with processing speed and visual so that when you get older, you’ll be independent enough to drive longer, right, without getting T-boned on the side, which is one of the most common accidents that elderly people have, right, because they’re unable to process that peripheral to react.

So, you know, there are brain-training apps that can help people do that, too, in a very specific…or activity in a daily living way, you know, very specific use cases, but always hit that threshold. That’s the concept there.

David Freeman:
Okay. Relationships, that was another one that was a key factor. So, how would you dive into relationships?

Edward Park:
Oh, shoot. Yeah, I should get my wife on this hour.

Jamie Martin:
Bring her in.

Edward Park:
Is Ed doing good on relationships? She’s like, oh, I don’t know about that, guys. It’s like, shoot, she’d…yeah, so, when relationships…so, there are these places in the world called blue zones, right, and there’s five places in the world where people live super long. They’re, like, super happy. They have the lowest rates of dementia and the lowest rates of many other chronic diseases, okay?

We’re talking they’re just great, you know? And so, Sardinia, Icaria, Greece, Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica, Okinawa in Japan, and strangely enough, near Los Angeles, California, Loma Linda, California, okay? So, these places in the world…and relationships end up being a very big component that a lot of people theorize, right, that are very, very key to their brain health, and to me, it’s a component of two things. One is kind of the more mechanical side of things, in the sense that people interact with each other a lot more.

They’re typically meeting in places every day on a regular basis, you know, kind of different from a contemporary society where we’re in our cars or driving to work and back and things like that. You know, very common in western society, especially in the US, meeting with each other, and so, that social interaction, that social side, is cognitive stimulation, straight up. That’s like mechanically, boom. That’s the cognitive training, actually.

The other side of it, though, which is far deeper, in my opinion, is it gives people a reason for living. I mean, what are we, other than our relationships? Like, our brain was literally made to help us survive and thrive in the context of human relationships. That is really what we’re all about, you know? So, having relationships, it goes hand in hand with having a brain and having a heart. So, that’s so important, relationships there, you know?

Jamie Martin:
Well, and just, on top of that, I mean, we know that there is, like, a loneliness epidemic happening, especially after the last few years, and there was so much social isolation that was happening, for all of us, in many cases, but then, especially in our elderly community, this loneliness epidemic, this need to connect with people, and that’s why I feel like this component is so essential for all of us, no matter where we are and what stage of life we’re in.

Edward Park:
That’s right. Yes. It hit a lot of people hard. The elderly. I think a lot about, you know, kids very early in socialization, like kindergarten, and then also children who are going into adolescence, right, and of course, like you’re saying, the elderly. There is an isolation kind of epidemic that we’re just getting out of, and people should really keep that in mind and be very kind of mindful of that and the effects that are there that are real and how we should go about, you know, getting back out there and building upon or creating new relationships with people.

Jamie Martin:
Yeah.

David Freeman:
Solid. All right. So, are there any other risk factors we should be aware of to be able to take care of our brains?

Edward Park:
Yes. Yes, and the key thing here is that, as I was thinking about this beforehand, that risk factors and the understanding of risk factors means, to us, that, in the environment and how we live plays a huge role, an outsized role, you know, as much or more than genetics, for our brain outcomes. What is the fate of our brain? Is it our environment? The way we live has a huge, huge important role, and so, that’s when…you know, a couple years ago, and more recently, they updated it.

The Lancet, which is a big major…you know, it’s a major research journal. They laid out…you know, there are, like, these 12 factors of risk that play in, and these are all modifiable. Meaning that they’re not genetic, right? They’re all modifiable. We can modify them, you know, and so, those 12 factors, there’s your education levels.

There’s hypertension. There’s obesity and alcohol and whether or not you’re injured traumatically in the brain, how we handle hearing loss and addressing that early, smoking, handling depression, anxiety, those mental health aspects, the physical and activity side of things, the social interaction side of things, diabetes, and strangely enough, air pollution.

So, they kind of bucketed all this and they said, let me show you these 12 risk factors, and when you look at these and kind of group together into clusters, right, what you really see here, many of the things that we just spoke about, you know, if you group them together, you really say, really, what is hypertension, to some extent, obesity and diabetes? You know, there’s a huge dietary and physical activity component built into those chronic diseases. Huge, right?

So, we’re really bucketing into diet, nutrition, and physical activity, and then when we think about the social aspects of educational or isolation aspects, that all comes down to a lot of cognitive stimulation and that relationship piece, as well. So, those all kind of bucket into these three major areas, that nutrition and diet, the physical activity, and the social or the cognitive stimulation aspect where relationships are really very key, but the key thing here for everybody to realize is, hey, it’s not all in our genes. There’s about 40 or 50% of it that we can change.

Jamie Martin:
Well, I mean, we know brain health is important to overall health, right, but it also is something that, if you have been…you alluded to caregivers. If you’re somebody who has had a family member who has had brain decline or brain degeneration, I mean, that can be a scary thing to even contemplate. I mean, I think what’s really been great about our conversation is that there are things that we can do, even if you’ve seen this happen, even if you’re worried about a genetic factor in your family. Again, there are things we can do to take care of our brains, and so, with that in mind, I mean, you are somebody who has a personal connection to neurodegenerative disease. What do you do, on a daily basis, to take care of yourself?

Edward Park:
Yeah. Just, you know, all the things that we discussed earlier, but more like my own personalized version, you know?

Jamie Martin:
Right. Yes. Exactly.

Edward Park:
You know, so, there is…nowadays, you know, I’m just trying to make sure I get out there and work out, you know, 3 or 4 times a week.

David Freeman:
Those biceps are looking…

Edward Park:
It’s not where I’d love to be.

David Freeman:
Those biceps are looking like you work out. Yeah.

Edward Park:
Do you like it?

David Freeman:
Yeah. Yeah.

Edward Park:
You like it? I wish this were video, because then people could see what’s going on.

Jamie Martin:
I do want to know, do you do Alpha? That’s, you know, David’s specialty…

David Freeman:
Yeah. You said Alpha.

Jamie Martin:
Is Alpha.

Edward Park:
You know, so, hey, one thing that just scares me about Alpha is when you say it’s Olympic training. I’m like, I don’t know if I could take that, you know, when it comes to lifting…

David Freeman:
Hey, we’re all an Olympic in some which way or form. Like, you’re an Olympian. Go ahead, own it.

Jamie Martin:
Absolutely. I did David’s class last week, and I survived.

David Freeman:
Yes.

Jamie Martin:
And I thrived, I will say.

David Freeman:
Thrived. Yes

Jamie Martin:
I did great. So, you could do it. You got it. Anyway, yeah, so you’re exercising?

David Freeman:
Yeah. Actually, so, running and swimming, and I must say, the Life Time in our neighborhood here has a wonderful saltwater pool outdoors. It’s like, you know, non-chlorinated. It’s got the saltwater, so it feels like you’re in the ocean. It’s so awesome, and also, for specific foods, you know, I’m focusing a lot, of course, on the green leafy vegetables. I just haven’t been getting enough of them lately. You know, just trying to pound the broccoli, like, that’s me nowadays. Pound the broccoli sprouts, and then also walnuts.

So, just, like, throwing walnuts into every cereal I have in the morning with my granola and stuff like that, but when it comes to other aspects, you know, in a young company…and NeuroReserve is young, okay, and it’s the first time I’ve ever been an entrepreneur. You know, first time I’ve ever gone around there and you know, done investors and all…you know, just that sort of thing. I’ve been focusing a lot on just making sure I have a thankful heart. It’s easy to see every day, everything that might be going wrong, right?

Really easy to look at the world through that lens and also from the standpoint of thinking about our children. Oh, what happened with them today? You know, oh, all this stuff. Oh, I’m so…I’m getting hit with all these things, right, and the thing is, is we got to cut through that, or at least I do, you know, with just being very thankful and just really, very intentionally, sitting down and saying thank you. You know, thank you, God, for all these wonderful things that I have.

I mean, that is so, so important, and it’s helped me, and it’s, now, we’re getting to kind of like, you know, Ed’s psychological kind of like…is there a therapist nearby to bring into this, but that thankfulness is a huge thing I’m working on, and it affects a lot of relationships. It’s a huge relationship driver, right? So, that’s the kind of thing, and it really affects…I’ve been very cognizant lately, especially my oldest who’s 11, and he’s about to go into that, you know, kind of adolescent regime.

And for the first time, I’m starting to hear a little bit of pushback from him, you know, things like that, and the question becomes, is am I causing that because I’m being unreasonable, or is it because of the way I reacted to him and things like that? Obviously, there are many times when you’re just straight up right. I’m right, you know? But you know, there is going to be…there’s a relationship that’s being built, and that’s changing between my children and myself.

David Freeman:
We hit on quite a bit. I want to make sure we haven’t missed anything. Is there anything else that you want our listeners to take away from today’s conversation?

Edward Park:
It’s to do something about your brain health. Just to reiterate from the very beginning, brain health is a very unique, unique health topic. It is extremely challenging right now. In fact, there really aren’t any good treatments. So, prevention really is the only really good treatment that we have.

So, it’s never too young…you’re never too young, and you’re never too old, because it happens gradually, so you have time to turn it around, right? Just go out there, and do something for your brain health. Your brain will thank you. You will thank yourself, and of course, your family. These diseases, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, frontotemporal, Lewy body, all those dementias, they are what many physicians and neurologists call family diseases.

They’re family diseases. Once one person has it in the family, the whole family is consumed into it, and it is not just…it can be a very long time. It can be a very long time, but that’s enough for negative reinforcement, everybody, and from the positive side, it’s about just having a wonderful, wonderful…being able to have an intact cognition so that you can continue to be a wonderful blessing in a relationship to all the people around you.

You know, so, do something, and I know change is super hard. That’s the other thing that all the doctors say right there. Say, oh my gosh, you know, I tell the people, you know, we got to change, and they’re like, oh, okay, I’ll go change, and then they come back, and nothing’s changed, right? So, the thing is, change is super hard. We totally get it. Just take it in really small steps. I mean, here’s step number one, everybody.

When it comes to the MIND diet, you got berries in it. This is one thing that annoyed me so much, and I can’t believe I just finally figured this out, okay? Every day, I’d wash some berries in my hands, and I’d be upset about it because I’d be like, oh, this takes so long to wash these berries. I take them out, put them in the sieve, stick them underneath the sink. I’m running it, and sometimes they’re nor organic, right, so I’m going to put vinegar on them, but then I’ll clean them off better, you know?

It’s this big process, and all of a sudden, I realized, you know what? You could do a batch of them that could last four days in the larger sieve that we have, and so then all I got to do is reach for them whenever I need them, right? And that small change makes that sort of healthy eating for the brain that much more accessible. It’s those small things that you do in the infrastructure of our lives, you know? So, anyway, that’s, you know.

Jamie Martin:
Yeah. What are the systems we can build? And that sounds like that’s a system to help you…

David Freeman:
System.

Jamie Martin:
Yeah. Like you…

David Freeman:
It’s an acronym. Save yourself time, energy, and money.

Jamie Martin:
Oh, yeah, there you go.

Edward Park:
Oh, wow.

Jamie Martin:
I like that.

David Freeman:
I had that in the brain already.

Edward Park:
Oh, that’s great.

David Freeman:
I had that in the brain already, yeah.

Jamie Martin:
You’re always…he always has an acronym.

David Freeman:
Yeah.

Jamie Martin:
Anyway.

David Freeman:
Well, I got something else now.

Jamie Martin:
Yeah. He’s got one more question for you.

David Freeman:
Yeah, it’s that mic-drop moment. You ready for it?

Edward Park:
I’ve been dreading this. I don’t…

Jamie Martin:
Everyone says that.

Edward Park:
I’ve been hearing this on all…on your other podcasts. You do the mic drop, and some people are like, what? And other people are like, yeah, and other people are like, oh.

David Freeman:
This is going to challenge your cognitive fitness right now.

Jamie Martin:
Oh, I can’t wait.

Edward Park:
Oh, okay. All right.

David Freeman:
All right. You’re good. You’re good. All right. So…

Edward Park:
Lay it on me.

David Freeman:
Yeah. You gave two words to describe your father in the beginning, resilient and in faith. Your mother, you said love and commitment. Two words to describe yourself.

Edward Park:
Yeah, see, you got me. Oh, you got me good. Oh, you got me good. You know, oh, when you say those things, that…it’s an implicit challenge, right? It’s an implicit…everybody’s life experience isn’t my life experience. When I look at the way my parents handled that time of their lives and how they helped the children of our family, me and my sisters through it, that is who I want to be, you know?

So, it’s those…yeah, okay, I’m avoiding the question here a little bit, but it is those four words, right, when you look at that. It is resilient. It’s strong in the heart in the mind, right? Strong there. You know, those are the last words I told my father right before he passed away, and so, but and then that love. So, pardon me for a second here, but that love and commitment, and so, it’s a challenge to myself, you know? It’s like, can you do that, too, you know, and so, that’s what I want to do. So, love, commitment, strength, and faith, right?

David Freeman:
Yeah. There it is.

Jamie Martin:
Yeah.

Edward Park:
So, sorry. I said four, but I hope it works.

Jamie Martin:
Yeah, I think we take four. I think that’s a pretty powerful message and you know, quite an example that you had and a legacy that you’re working to have for your kids, too, right?

Edward Park:
Thank you.

Jamie Martin:
Well, Ed, we so appreciate you taking the time with us today to talk through this. As you said, brain health is one of these really unique areas in the health space, and the more we can do now, no matter where are, the better. So, we just want to thank you for coming on with us, and we want to let people know that if they want to learn more about your company, NeuroReserve, they can do that at NeuroReserve.com or by searching for NeuroReserve on Facebook and Instagram, and they can learn more about the work that you’re doing to really help people be more proactive and preventive when it comes to this area of our health and wellbeing. So, thank you.

Edward Park:
And thank you so much, Jamie, and thank you so much, David, and you know, for all that you’re doing and for all the information in this wonderful podcast, and thanks for having me on. I really appreciate it.

David Freeman:
Absolutely.

Jamie Martin:
Absolutely.

David Freeman:
Our pleasure. Thanks for joining us for this episode. As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts on our conversation today and how you approach this aspect of healthy living in your own life. What works for you, where you run into challenges, where do you need help?

Jamie Martin:
And if you have topics for future episodes, you can share those with us, too. Email us at lttalks@lifetime.life, or reach out to us on Instagram at Lifetime.life, @jamiemartinEL, and @freezy30, and use the hashtag #LifeTimeTalks. You can also learn more about the podcast at ExperienceLife.Lifetime.life/podcasts.

David Freeman:
And if you’re enjoying Life Time Talks, please subscribe on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you like what you’re hearing, we invite you to rate and review the podcast and share it on your social channels, too.

Jamie Martin:
Thanks for listening. We’ll talk to you next time on Life Time Talks. Life Time Talks is a production of Life Time Healthy Way of Life. It is produced by Molly Kopischke and Sarah Ellingsworth, with audio engineering by Peter Perkins, video production and editing by Kevin Dixon, sound and video consulting by Coy Larson and support from George Norman and the rest of the team at Life Time Motion.

David Freeman:
A big thank you to everyone who helps create each episode and provides feedback.