Podcast on balance with Libby Lykins, author, clinician and creator.

If you have been following what’s going on in the wellness or preventive health measures movement, you most likely noticed the popularity and momentum gained by any type of mindfulness practices. Many of the practices moved totally in the virtual and app space. I have been exploring them for some time now.

When I think about nutrition for the brain it would be so simplistic to write: eat dark chocolate, blueberries, concentrate on reducing saturated fats, eat frequent nutritious meals, but allow 8 hour fast (if your health allows that)and make sure not to skip meals for longer than needed. 

However I think it is very crucial here that we think about how we live, where we live and what season of the year we are observing to choose the healthiest brain recipes. 

Elizabeth Goldberg, MD agreed to talk to me about very interesting aspect of aging and brain/sensory related changes in nervous system that may cause falls. As a rheumatologist I vividly see how drastic life of my patients changes after falls. Aging skeleton is one of factors that predisposes to falls, but it really is multitude cognitive and other components that we have power to change, or at least understand and adjust, to prevent the unfortunate events of falls.

In part one and two I introduced and expanded on the concept of brain health, the importance of stress reduction and weapons we all can use to prevent brain decay - exercise and its biology. Today I will keep explaining additional brain benefits of exercise. I will also tackle a few ideas how stress hormones can contribute to brain damage and what to do to prevent that.

This weekend I tuned into Rhode Island’s BrainWeek Conference that just came to the end, but is available on the website. There is even virtual theater performance with topic, brain of course. The YouTube videos of events will be available as well.

One of the most potent weapons we have against aging of our brains and improving its function comes from exercise and the most compelling evidence about it comes from animal research, and few human-based studies.