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- [00:00]
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- [01:26]
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- [01:33]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
That sounds like a threat.
- [01:34]
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- [01:35]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Unlimited talk, text and data for just $25 a month for the rest of your life?
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I don't know.
- [01:41]
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- [01:43]
Noah Michelson
What if we just say forever?
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Forever.
- [01:46]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Get unlimited talk, text and Data for just $25 a month with Boost Mobile Forever. After 30 gigabytes, customers may experience slower speeds.
- [01:53]
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- [02:03]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Hi, I'm Raj Panjabi Johnson, Head of identity content at HuffPost.
- [02:07]
Noah Michelson
And I'm Noah Michelson, director of HuffPost Personal.
- [02:10]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Welcome to Am I Doing It Wrong? The show that explores the all too human anxieties we have about trying to get our lives right.
- [02:17]
Noah Michelson
So Raj, I just want to address right up front that I have a bit of a cold. This is why I sou this way.
- [02:22]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Sounds sexy.
- [02:23]
Noah Michelson
Thank you. But today I want to know, are you taking care of your brain wrong, Probably.
- [02:32]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Sure. I have so many other body and mind things to worry about every day that I feel like I don't know enough about brain health. Now that I've reached grown lady age, which will not be revealed until later, I think it's time for me to really start thinking about keeping my brain healthy.
- [02:49]
Noah Michelson
Yeah, same. I never think about my brain other than I did a lot of drugs when I was younger, and I know that probably rotted my brain. I have a hard time remembering things or big parts of my life I can't remember at all. But otherwise, I don't think day to day. Like, is my brain healthy? How am I keeping it healthy?
- [03:05]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
It does everything for us, I feel like.
- [03:07]
Noah Michelson
Everything. Yeah. So we should probably start thinking about it. You know who does think about it, though? Dr. Rita Achary. She's a neurologist in independent practice for 30 years. She specializes in preventative neurology, focusing on brain health through nutrition, which I think is so interesting, and also cellular health. She's also a clinical associate professor in the department of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the McGovern School of Medical Health. I know.
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Raj Panjabi Johnson
Let's go.
- [03:34]
Noah Michelson
Bring it on. Dr. Rita, thank you so much for being here.
- [03:53]
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Thank you for having me. I'm so happy to be here.
- [03:56]
Noah Michelson
So our brains are responsible for so much. I mean, I nerd out on those documentaries, you know, on Netflix and everything. They show all the different connections, and it's just incredible.
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Raj Panjabi Johnson
Yeah.
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Noah Michelson
I want to start with, though, like, what does a healthy brain look like and function? Like, how do you define a healthy brain?
- [04:14]
Rebag Ad
That's an amazing question. Because we talk about brains which are up there in our skulls, but those cells that are there and all the connective fibers and things that are there also connect through axons and nerves to every. Every little bit of our bodies. Right. So one of the things, when I guess asked, well, you know, what does a neurologist do? My husband's answer was really the best, I think, which is they deal with nerves, and you have nerves everywhere. Right. So although we think about the brain in terms of higher cognitive processes. Right. So thinking and being and, you know, it's the center of mind. It also is the control for everything that we do. So we have to think about the brain and the nervous system really globally. Right?
- [05:05]
Noah Michelson
From.
- [05:05]
Rebag Ad
From moving our little finger to having a thought to smelling, to remembering something. All of that is controlled by the nervous system. I know that's a big, big thing. But the brain does a lot of work throughout our lifetimes. We start off, when we're born, our brains aren't even completely formed. So it's the myelin, which is the coverings of the axons, the wires in the brain, continue to actually form and become healthy even after we're born. So we're not fully formed. And then as we continue to age in different phases of our lives, different things happen. We are always concerned about as we age, the fact that it takes us a little bit longer, longer to come up with something. When, you know, when you were 30, it was really easy to come up with the word, the fact, whatever. And then when you're 60, it's a little bit longer, just slight slightly longer. And we think of that as somehow being unhealthy, but it's not. It's normal aging of the brain. Right. So if we. If we think about the brain as a hard drive, the more you store on it, it's going to be just a little bit slower. So from 30 to 60, by 60, you've got 60 years of stuff up there.
- [06:23]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Love that.
- [06:24]
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Memories, right? You've got memories, you've got facts, you've got work experience, you've got life, you've got emotions, you've got all that up there. So when you can't find the exact name or the exact word and it comes to you a little bit later, it takes a little bit longer. That latency is a little bit longer. That's not necessarily unhealthy. Right. So these are the normal processes of aging and the aging brain that we, I think, as society, need to embrace rather than be afraid of.
- [06:56]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Yes. Slay.
- [06:58]
Noah Michelson
That is blowing my mind. I've never heard anyone talk about it in this way. And I think that is such a healthy way to think about it, because especially we did an entire episode on aging and just this, the idea in our culture especially that getting old is a bad thing and it doesn't have to be, or it can just be a normal thing. It doesn't have to have any kind of value judgment placed on it.
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Raj Panjabi Johnson
Yeah. When we did the episode on Vision, the doctor kept saying, congratulations, you're aging. Like, true, you're not dead. That's awesome.
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Noah Michelson
Right? You're still here.
- [07:25]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Yeah, that's right.
- [07:26]
Rebag Ad
That's exactly right. And I think I'll just tell you from my own experience, right? When I practiced neurology with my father for 25 years, and I remember when I was 40 and he was 60 something, I would ask him a question when I was a child, my dad's response, the only response he ever gave me when I asked him if I could do something was, we'll see. So it's always funny. When I started working with him, I asked him a question, and he started in one place, and then he meandered and meandered and meandered and he kept going. And in my mind I'm thinking, has this man forgotten the question that I've asked him? But he's my dad, so I'm going to just be respectful and wait. Well, what I realized is he brought it back to the exact question that I had asked. He answered it perfectly. But that journey that he took me on, I understood the whole history of the question that I had asked. Not just the fact, but the whole history. And I know now that I've just done that to you. Right? Which is I've given you a meandering answer for it's okay for things to take a long time, things that are unhealthy. When we really start to have problems where we cannot remember, we cannot remember the conversation that we had yesterday, we cannot remember if we're an organized person, where we put things where we cannot remember how to make something work, that should be easy for us, right? Those things are troubling. Those things are of concern. But things taking a little bit longer as we age, that's normal.
- [09:01]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
I do have a question about something. You said that, you know what? Babies, brains are not fully developed. When are our brains fully developed? Because I have a cousin who's a neurology student, and she's like, oh, she's always talking about these douchey guys she's dating in her 20s, and she's like, his prefrontal cortex is not developed yet. And I was like, cracking up. And like, how true is that? Like, are we fully developed in our 20s or like, you know, teens? When does that happen?
- [09:26]
Rebag Ad
So, you know, we continue to develop, right? When. When the thinking. When I was a young neurologist in medical school was once, you're at about 18, 20, your brain is fully formed. We're understanding that that's not true. Probably into our late 20s, early 30s, things are still developing. Wow, that's crazy, right? I mean, you're not fully. You're still learning, you're still doing things. I'm going to take you into the electrical world of the brain. That brain, all of the electrical signals change over time. And probably somewhere between 26 and 30 is when we see complete, kind of stable patterns, right? So it's a long time. And we also know that as we age if you get damaged to a part of the brain. We have actually seen the birth of baby neurons Right. After a stroke. Even though we think what we've got is fixed. Not true. And we're always remodeling. Right. Those connections are also becoming stronger and moving around. Right. So we're a dynamic process. And the brain is that way too beautiful.
- [10:33]
Noah Michelson
So cool.
- [10:34]
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Yeah.
- [10:34]
Noah Michelson
We really want to get into how we keep our brains healthy. And one of the reasons that I was so excited to have you be a guest is that you've done so much research into nutrition and the brain. So let's start there. When it comes to nutrition, what have you seen that actually has an effect on helping the brain stay healthy? What are some of the most exciting things that you've seen?
- [10:56]
Rebag Ad
So, you know, I see a lot of people who come to me with problems that are not solved on an MRI or another test. Right. There's not something obviously wrong that a neurologist can say, here, here's the problem. So people have things like brain fog and numbness and tingling and other situation. I'll tell you a story. My first. I had a scurvy patient. Right? You're thinking about scurvy in the United States. So it was a young lady who had epilepsy, and she was convinced the medicines were giving her this rash and joint pain. Well, it wasn't the medicine. It turned out that she had no vitamin C in her system. She'd graduated from college, was working in a bar, was not eating very well, just canned soup, and all it takes is about four weeks of no fresh fruit, food and vegetables to develop scurvy. What happened to her? So, and she had stopped taking her epilepsy medicine. So she was having seizures.
- [11:54]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Right.
- [11:55]
Rebag Ad
So it was a crazy thing. So that started me on this journey of, wait a minute, are we not nutritionally healthy? And over time, what I've discovered is the number one reason for all these kind of neurologic problems that aren't huge are that we are nutritionally deficient. Wow. And the data is bearing that out. So we are. We. We suffer in the United States from something called high calorie malnutrition. Right? So that is, we are drowning in a sea of calories. We are malnourished in a sea of calories. And if you think about how to keep your brain healthy, the brain has to have a balanced diet, Right. The brain has to have. We think of macronutrients, right? We think of protein, fat, carbohydrate, but really what those protein, fats and carbohydrate. What food gives us is a complete set of micronutrients. And what are micronutrients? Those are vitamins, minerals, salts, all sorts of things. But vitamins are things that our body does not make that we have to have from food. So when we're thinking about how do we keep our brains healthy, we need to talk about consuming a balanced diet every day. We don't make vitamins and minerals. We store now a little bit of vitamin D in our skin. Maybe we may store a little B12 in our livers. Up to 5,000 years ago, get this, we used to make our own vitamin C. Our bodies made vitamin C. That's how important it was. And as we develop the ability to go out and we had agriculture and we could get fresh fruits and vegetables, our body said, okay, we don't need to make this anymore. But now we're not eating in the same way that we used to eat. So for brain health, you need a completely balanced diet.
- [13:59]
Noah Michelson
It's so funny because when I think of scurvy, I think of like a pirate from the 18th century. And I'm imagining most people, Dr. Rita, aren't suffering from something that severe. They don't have, you know, it's not like they're not taking in any vitamins. But I'm imagining that most people are deficient in a lot of ways. Like you said, they're eating high calorie diets, but those calories are from fast food, processed foods. They're actually not getting the vitamins. So for you, what are the vitamins that people should be looking out for the most when it comes to brain health?
- [14:30]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
And what can we get those vitamins? And I know it's better to get it from food than like pill, like supplements.
- [14:35]
Rebag Ad
Ideally, we would have a plate, you know, twice a day, or we would eat twice a day. And I'd like to come back to this, by the way. Eating means chewing. You know, this, this new culture of smoothies where everything goes into the gut before your teeth have ever chewed it. Right? Teeth are the first part of the digestive system when you start chewing. And all those lovely enzymes, amylase and tylase, are acting on that food. It's waking up the rest of your gut, it's waking up your microbio to get ready, right, to consume and absorb all the things that we need to absorb. So chewing is really important in terms of what vitamins again, inside the cell, all those vitamins, each of them does something and it's like a finely tuned Machine. So you can't just fix one part. Right. It's like the car. If everything's great, but one tire is flat, the car is still not going to go. So the goal is to get all of it together. And I know it seems really overwhelming when we think about it, but the idea of eating the rainbow. Right. So lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains. Right. This is. We consume, I think 90% of us or something consume most of our grains in ultra refined form. We need to kind of go back to whole grains, whole foods, meats, fish, poultry. That is whole. Right. And you want some dairy and you want some nuts and seeds and you want, you want all of that and you want to try to, throughout your day, kind of get all of those things.
- [16:20]
Noah Michelson
Yeah.
- [16:21]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
It's always the same answer from like the smartest, most enlightened physicians because, you know, just like the Wellness Industrial Complex will try to sell us an idea like, celery is going to save you, blueberries are going to save you, you. But the truth is, like, get some stuff in every day. But that's harder. That balance is harder.
- [16:39]
Noah Michelson
No, it is. I'm wondering, what do you think about those brain supplements? Whenever I watch Jeopardy, there's always an ad on Jeopardy for Prevagen, which I guess is like a brain supplement that's supposed to help. Do you think any of those supplements actually do anything? Should people take those?
- [16:55]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
And I want to add like nootropics and cognitive enhancers. Like, I've heard that those are just like mostly caffeine.
- [17:00]
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So. No, they don't help you, they don't help you. And one of the most interesting parts of the Wellness Industrial complex, you know, we have the food industrial complex, the Wellness Industrial complex is this weird idea that somehow we are smarter than our bodies.
- [17:21]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Right.
- [17:22]
Rebag Ad
We're not. We are not smarter than our bodies. Our ancestors lived a certain way, they ate a certain way, they did certain things. And that's the reason we exist today. Right?
- [17:33]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
They evolved. Yeah, yeah.
- [17:35]
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So the, the concept that all of a sudden a cyberry is going to be the answer to all my woes is. Is just wrong. I always come back to this. So I am third generation doctor, right. And my grandfather was the town physician in a small village in India in the 50s and 60s. This is before Tylenol, this is before Advil. Right. This is before most things. He was able to cure people. Right. I keep thinking that it's like, how the heck did he do that? I've got 22,000 FDA approved drugs and my Patients are sicker now than ever. Damn. And he did it. I used to sit on his lap when he was seeing patients, but he did it with food and the small amount of medications that he had. He had to actually go make pills for people. This is how long ago this was, but you could do that. And he fixed people with limited amount of medicine, but with rest, with clean water, with good food and community. Right. All of that. There was care involved. Not a pill care.
- [18:47]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Let's take a quick break and we'll be right back. This episode is brought to you by Quince.
- [18:53]
Noah Michelson
You know, Raj, I used to think that elevating my style game meant spending so much money.
- [18:58]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Yeah, I know. It used to seem like I had to go into crushing debt to get clothes I really wanted.
- [19:03]
Noah Michelson
Well, not anymore, thanks to Quince. Quince offers a great selection of clothes that are great to wear and great for my wallet.
- [19:10]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Agreed. Now I can upgrade my style by snagging killer luxury essentials that go with my vibe and my budget.
- [19:17]
Noah Michelson
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Raj Panjabi Johnson
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Noah Michelson
And they've got must haves in stock like Mongolian cashmere sweaters from 60 bucks and comfortable pants for any occasion.
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Raj Panjabi Johnson
And Quint's only works with factories that use safe, ethical and responsible manufacturing practices along with premium fabrics and finishes.
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Noah Michelson
Plus, they partner with them directly, cutting out the cost of the middleman and passing the savings right on to you.
- [19:51]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
That means Quint's Items are priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands, so you can update your look without breaking the bank.
- [19:58]
Noah Michelson
I can't wait for you to see the cute sweater I got. I'm getting compliments from absolute strangers on it.
- [20:03]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Oh, I love that. And I got the cutest skirt from Quince that makes me look a lot richer than I actually am.
- [20:08]
Noah Michelson
Indulge in affordable luxury. Go to quince.com wrong for 365 day returns plus free shipping on your order.
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Raj Panjabi Johnson
That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com wrong to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com wrong this show is sponsored by BetterHelp.
- [20:27]
Noah Michelson
Raj. We talk about relationships a lot on this show. What are some of your relationship green flags that you look for in people?
- [20:35]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
I love that. Okay, for me, green flags would be loves to eat, loves to cook, not into football. And understands what sex positive is.
- [20:44]
Noah Michelson
I will co sign all of that.
- [20:45]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Nice.
- [20:46]
Noah Michelson
But the truth is we usually hear about red flags we should avoid in people or in other words, what they're doing wrong. But what would happen if we focus more on looking for green flags in friends and partners, AKA what they're doing right?
- [20:59]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
If you have trouble even identifying what your green flags are and what they should be, therapy can be immensely helpful for it. It's an extraordinary tool for organizing your values and prioritizing health in relationships. It's especially helpful for learning to practice the character and integrity you're looking for embodying the green flags yourself.
- [21:18]
Noah Michelson
Raj and I have both been in therapy for years. It's given us the tools to understand ourselves and our own boundaries so much better. And yes, therapy has taught us how to look for the good in others and ourselves.
- [21:30]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Love that. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give better help a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and you can switch therapists anytime for no additional charge.
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Noah Michelson
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Raj Panjabi Johnson
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Noah Michelson
That's betterhelp H-E-L-P.com doingitrong.
- [22:02]
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- [22:41]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Welcome back to Am I Doing It Wrong?
- [22:44]
Noah Michelson
Here are two of his favorite things and I love to tease her about this. When it comes to brain health, what are your thoughts on having a martini or smoking a joint? How are alcohol and cannabis affecting our brains?
- [22:58]
Rebag Ad
Oh my goodness. Okay, I'm gonna start with the alcohol.
- [23:02]
Noah Michelson
Okay.
- [23:02]
Rebag Ad
Right. I'm gonna start with the alcohol. So there's a big focus on it right now. Right. The whole idea of no drinking and so I'm going to go back to the ancients. I'm going to go back to the ancients where biblically we turned water into wine and that's supposed to be a good thing. We have used wine in religious and celebratory functions for thousands, tens of thousands of years. The Egyptians used it. I just was in India for a neurologic society meeting and discovered that the moguls had wonderful vineyards and a viticulture. So all over the world, wine has been part of human existence and we haven't, we're not, we're still here. So it didn't destroy us.
- [23:52]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Yeah.
- [23:53]
Rebag Ad
Now that doesn't mean that people don't have problems with alcohol. And excess consumption is not great. Fifteen years ago there was a study that said one drink a day, if you do that for a year, your hippocampus, your memory area starts to shrink. So we know this is not great in terms of regular use. So what I tell my patients and what I do myself is. And by the way, I love a good martini. So if I have a martini, then probably the next two days, you know, I'm going to have it with food the next two days I'm probably going to let the alcohol completely get out of my system.
- [24:33]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Okay.
- [24:34]
Rebag Ad
Right. 36 hours, completely clear. Be fresh, let the cells be healthy again. And then, you know, if you want a glass of wine and all of these things, certain people will have, they just have problems with alcohol, those people. You know, it's like problems with anything, whether it's problems with eating, obsessing about anything. That situation, the neurobiochemistry of that situation, it's very hard for those people. So they should definitely stay away. Right. But alcohol in general in, and I'm going to sound completely unlike everyone who's talking right now, but in moderation, given time for the body to clear it all is a good thing. I also think not so much dry January, but periodically, take a couple of weeks, take a month and be alcohol free and see how you feel.
- [25:25]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Totally.
- [25:26]
Rebag Ad
Right. And then you kind of know what's going on. And if you have a glass of wine or two glasses of wine because you're having a beautiful dinner with friends, which by the way, also is great for your brain.
- [25:38]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Yeah, yeah, right.
- [25:39]
Rebag Ad
That connection, community, conviviality, that's all really important. It's just trying to keep it in a controlled way so that you're healthy. So I'm not an anti alcohol person, but I do think giving time to clear it from your body is important.
- [25:58]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
That's genius. Yeah.
- [25:59]
Noah Michelson
What about cannabis? I smoked a lot of weed when I was about 20 till about 35. And I will say I don't have, have a very good memory. I don't remember a lot of my life now. Is that a real thing? Am I imagining that? Am I still stoned? How do you feel about people?
- [26:17]
Rebag Ad
You know, you're not imagining it, right. Most of the things we experience, we're not imagining it. It's really happening. Right. You've got intuition, you've got. You've got experience over time. So that's how you're feeling. The good news, Noah, is that your body has a. A great way to kind of heal, and you'll probably recover from some of that. Right. We do a lot of things when we're young, and we still are here, we're still living. So the body, again, the body is smarter than we are. The problems with cannabis. I will start off by saying that cannabis sativa, the plant, was used to detoxify the soil at Chernobyl. Right.
- [26:59]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Whoa.
- [26:59]
Rebag Ad
Because that's kind of a big. A big deal.
- [27:01]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Yeah.
- [27:02]
Rebag Ad
What does cannabis do? Cannabis is excellent at extracting all of the heavy metals from the soil, and that goes straight up into the buds.
- [27:10]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Right.
- [27:11]
Rebag Ad
So it's sort of a difficult thing to deal with. In the 60s, when the cannabis was not as strong as it is now, not as potent as it is now, they did studies in Chelsea in England, in London, and those people who smoke cannabis on a regular basis actually had had some atrophy, so some loss of brain cells from the inside out. So, yes, it does affect the brain. I am concerned that we're. We don't know what we're doing. Right. We've never actually studied cannabis and its effects. Like so many other medications that can come from plants. There are probably some really good compounds in there that do help us. It's also used as, again, ritualistically, in. In worship has been since, you know, the BC times. So small amounts in controlled use perhaps is okay, but I don't know that. All I've got is studies that tell me what happens with regular use. And what happens with regular use is really not great for the brain. And we're seeing that in places in the United States where people are, you know, smoking cannabis. We are watching a slightly higher rate of psychosis in young people and teenagers, and we are seeing people who are having problems with their memories. So, again, a plant that is very interesting. I think maybe if we can get rid of the toxins and learn how to work with the THC and the terpenes and all the other fun chemicals that are there, it might be of great use. We use it, a form of cannabis in a medicine called epidiolex. We use it as an anti seizure Medicine in children. So it has brain effect, Right? So we have to be really respectful of this plant. It's really an interesting plant. And I'm not a yes or no person, right? I'm not. No. I'm not passing judgment on this at all. As a scientist and as a physician. I just want to know how to use it safely.
- [29:17]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Just a little bit on what else we're ingesting that could be harmful to our brains. Sodium. Sugar. Do you have anything to tell us about, like, you know, curbing intake of, like, a lot of salty or sugary foods for our brain?
- [29:28]
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Can I start with salt? Salt. Salt is really interesting. We need salt, by the way, too much, right? So if you've got high blood pressure or if you're tending towards high blood pressure, things that have too much sodium chloride in them probably are not a good idea. I want to talk about salt in a different way. Iodine. Do you guys know about. Iodine is really important for brain development and brain function. We iodized salt early in the 1900s because there was an epidemic of goiters, right? Which is thyroid swelling and the thyroid not functioning. And there were all these children born with developmental disabilities because they were born to mothers with inadequate iodine. So iodizing salt was a public health measure, right? But now everyone thinks that. That there's some kind of processing, and that's something wrong. So we are now all using kosher salt, diamond salt, Himalayan salt. We're using all these fancy salts that we think are healthier. And guess what I'm discovering. Iodine deficiency.
- [30:39]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Oh, my God.
- [30:40]
Rebag Ad
Because people have stopped using iodine. So I've got a little group of people with what they thought was Hashimoto's thyroid disease, right? Thyroiditis. It's really iodine deficiency. Getting back to iodine, the thyroid got better, right? You need iodine to turn something called for the thyroid hormones to happen. Iodine binds right there. And thyroid is important for everything in our bodies.
- [31:06]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Dr. Rita, I'm just gonna text you every time I'm at the grocery store, but here's my. Yay or nay.
- [31:10]
Noah Michelson
Here's my question, though, okay? Cause I am guilty of this. I have my Maldon salt. I have my kosher salt.
- [31:15]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
I have Himalayan.
- [31:16]
Noah Michelson
I love it. Is the only place that we're really getting iodine in salt. Are there other places to get it that. So if we're not gonna use iodized salt, we could get it somewhere else.
- [31:26]
Rebag Ad
Seafood is a great source, right? Seafood is a great source. And. No, you mentioned maldon Salt, Right. If your Meldon salt is really coming from and it's from the marshes and it's being harvested properly, you're probably doing okay. But I would still, to be certain, I'd keep one of those little blue canisters of iodized salt and put that as in your cooking. Right. And finish with your Maldon. Okay. Because it's so delicious. But put a little bit of that in your cooking. And I'm guilty of this. I mean, I was totally using every other fancy salt until about two years ago when my husband said, where are we getting our iodine? When I discovered someone with an iodine deficiency. And I'm like, oh, yeah, you're right, I totally did this wrong. So we, we now have our blue canister back so you can, you can use all the other salts to finish.
- [32:18]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
But yeah, the conversation in Dr. Rita's house is so much smarter than the conversation. They go, where are we getting our iodine from? That's their dinner time conversation. Mine is like, where are my blue socks? Like, I don't remember.
- [32:29]
Noah Michelson
Are gaining from it now. So I'm happy about that.
- [32:32]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Feel my IQ just.
- [32:34]
Noah Michelson
Yeah, yeah.
- [32:35]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Let's take a quick break and we'll be right back.
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Because you have nothing to lose.
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Raj Panjabi Johnson
Because you love wasting money as a way to punish yourself because your mother never showed you enough love as a child.
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- [34:02]
Noah Michelson
Folks were back in the.
- [34:03]
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Bottom of the six.
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Lorenzo's on the mound.
- [34:05]
Noah Michelson
His slider's been. Wait, is that a cat on the field?
- [34:09]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
That tabby's really moving. He's past second base.
- [34:13]
Noah Michelson
And coach Bakerfield's making a grab and.
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Oh, he missed.
- [34:17]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Incredible.
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Noah Michelson
Sign up for Lemonade Pet Insurance.
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But you can cover your pet now@lemonade.com incredible.
- [34:40]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Welcome back to Am I Doing It Wrong? Any thoughts on sugar?
- [34:44]
Rebag Ad
Sugar. So sugar, the less refined it is, the better it is for us. It we have in our brains, the amount of real estate that is devoted to taste and smell is huge. It lives right next to the area for memory, right? So you can smell and something reminds you of something. So it's all. And next to the insula, there's also that area where we feel we're comforted, we feel happy. Right. So all of those things are connected. So when I talk about sugar, we like sugar. Humans like sugar, right? We like sweet things. It's awesome. But we want to keep our sugar intake as much as you can in a non refined form. Right. So super refined is just not great. It's things that have something called a high glycemic index turns, you know, requires a lot of insulin. It's just not great for you. So if you can go towards demeraras and raw sugars and brown sugars, honey, lower sort of, you know, even maple syrup, right. Which hasn't been fully refined, those are better for you. A little bit of white sugar, it's okay once in a while, it's okay. If you're doing that three times a day, probably not so good. The other thing about sugar is our palates is true. With salt as well, our palates are sensitive. So you can eat a little bit less, a little bit less sweet, right. And you can train your palate to say, ah, I don't need quite as much and it still tastes great.
- [36:20]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Yeah, right.
- [36:21]
Noah Michelson
Can we shift to exercise?
- [36:23]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Yeah.
- [36:24]
Noah Michelson
How important is exercise to our brains? And what would you say is maybe the best form of exercise for our brains? Is there one?
- [36:32]
Rebag Ad
So exercise is critical for the brain and you know, you really should strive for, for about 30 minutes of continuous activity, mild to moderate. So whether that's on a bike, whether that's walking, whether that's, you know, jazzercising or dancing, whatever you want to do is fine. There have been studies done that for the heart, if you do 10 minutes at a time. The heart's great with it, but there's something about the brain that there needs to be some continuity. So that 30 minute mark, right? So, I mean, when I go for a walk, everybody knows I'm not going to stop to say hi because I'm walking. I'm not going to stop. That is really critical. So 30 minutes of mild to moderate sustained activity is great. If you can do 45 minutes. If you can do an hour, that's even better. There were studies done about, again, about 15 years ago that 30 minutes of sustained activity reduces your risk of developing memory disorder by 30%, 45 minutes, like around 50%. And then if you can exercise one hour continuously every day, you've reduced your risk of memory disorder by like 70%, which I think is huge.
- [37:51]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Wow. Yeah, I didn't even think about it for that.
- [37:53]
Noah Michelson
It seems like the more that I read about walking too, just walking seems to be so good for the body. And like you're saying now, too, for the brain, we should do an entire episode on walking, I think. But definitely, it's incredible. And I think people think, yeah, they have to be in the gym, they have to be sweating, they have to be, you know, going through all this pain. Yeah, go for a walk.
- [38:12]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Yeah, yeah, just.
- [38:13]
Rebag Ad
Yeah, go for a walk. And I think, you know, I will tell you something else, which is I think if you can go for a walk outside, right? Because when you go outside, to be in nature also lifts your spirits, right? Hearing birdsong, the human ear canal. I know you guys did a great episode on hearing. I loved it. But the human ear canal is perfectly tuned to bird song.
- [38:40]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Oh, wow.
- [38:41]
Rebag Ad
Right. So it actually makes us feel good. So if you can get outside, look at nature, be part of it. That's. That's great. And you don't, for a lot of people, I don't think you even have to use the word exercise. I just talk about going for a stroll right after dinner. Go and just take a stroll, right? Walk. It's great. It reduces your blood sugar, it improves your brain health, it gets you some good muscle tone, reduces your risk of osteoporosis. I mean, I could go on, but there's no substitute for exercise. There's no pill you can take for it, and I can't do it for you, so you've got to do it.
- [39:19]
Noah Michelson
Yeah.
- [39:20]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
You know, for me, the, like, lightest kind of exercise that makes me feel better immediately is yoga, like a little gentle yoga. And so I want to hear about what yoga and meditation can do. And just tell you guys that like about maybe 12, 10 years ago, I went through the hardest breakup of my life. I was so depressed for six months, and I joined a yoga studio. And I'm still great friends with the teacher. And told her, and she told me, come every day. Like, seriously, come every day. Like, this is gonna, like, make everything okay. And I was on the mat six days a week. Every day. I took a yoga class and I used to cry on the mat. It was a very safe space. Yoga every single morning. And I felt so much better, so much faster than I would.
- [40:03]
Noah Michelson
Yeah.
- [40:04]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Like, it's so woo woo and ridiculous. But, like, yoga saved me.
- [40:07]
Noah Michelson
I love that. But I also am curious, like, what is yoga's effect on the brain?
- [40:11]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Yeah, please tell us something.
- [40:13]
Rebag Ad
Okay, so guess what? There's actual biological MRI data to support everything you're saying, Raj. Okay, that's so cool. It's wonderful. This is new data to me. I was again at this meeting in India and there was a whole session presented on yoga and meditation and the biologic basis for this. Right. So as you said, said, it does sound woo woo. But here's the thing. Whether you are doing the ancient Chinese meridian system, the ayurvedic chakra system, and there's a Greek also central line through the body. Right. All these ancient cultures felt something about this. Well, turns out that, you know, your brain's one of them. At your throat, at your neck, there's a plexus in your chest, there's a plexus in your gut.
- [41:08]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Gut, gut.
- [41:08]
Rebag Ad
Microbiome. We haven't talked about that. So important for the brain. And then in sort of in the pelvic area, these are the main plexuses. And what you can show with functional MRI is increased activity in all these areas in people who do regular yoga.
- [41:24]
Noah Michelson
Wow.
- [41:25]
Rebag Ad
Right. So the nerves are actually more active. They are. Things are restful, things are coordinated, there's more blood flow. So all of this is happening when you do yoga. Yoga, Right. Tremendous information, real biology no longer woo woo. Okay. And when we talk about meditation, people who do a regular meditation practice, we know that the areas of brain responsible for anxiety and depression, those areas calm down. And the areas of where we have memory and coordination, sort of what we call executive function. You guys were talking about frontal lobes recently, but all of those areas become more robust.
- [42:16]
Noah Michelson
Wow.
- [42:17]
Rebag Ad
And we are seeing that on mri. So no longer just, you know, woo woo. Something that I'm just talking about real science behind what the ancients knew.
- [42:31]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
That is so cool.
- [42:33]
Noah Michelson
I mean, we could obviously do an entire series on just the brain, like we talked about in the beginning, because it controls so much of our body. We're sort of coming towards the end of the episode. What else, Dr. Rita, should we be doing for brain health? Maybe talk a little bit about sleep. I'm imagining. When you think about it, what are the key things, the other things that we should be thinking about in our routine?
- [42:56]
Rebag Ad
Sleep is critical. Sleep is the time of the brain where everything kind of gets. I think of the brain as, you know, during the day you are pulling out books, like in the old library way, right? You're pulling out books and you've got them on this giant table. Everything you do, everything you think, everything you smell, everything you eat sitting there in this giant jungle. Sleep is kind of like the librarians coming and putting all the books back, Right? So you can say, wait, what am I supposed to do tomorrow? And you can go and here's the book for tomorrow. And you know what to do. If you don't get enough sleep, those things don't get reshelved. You have no idea what you're doing tomorrow.
- [43:42]
Noah Michelson
Right.
- [43:42]
Rebag Ad
You're just kind of like, oh, my God, where am I looking? So sleep is critical for that. Sleep also is the time where many things that are just junk for the brain, so things like amyloid, which accumulate normally in our brains, gets cleared during sleep. Right. And amyloid is the protein when it becomes abnormal and then kind of stays accumulated, is associated with Alzheimer's dementia. Right. So sleep is critical. If you don't sleep, you can't remember, you can't learn, and you're grouchy and you get kind of emotional. Right. Sleep deprivation is a form of torture. Right. So sleeping is critical. So getting enough sleep. And I'm going to say that there's sleep, but there's a second thing which is rest.
- [44:32]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Oh, yeah, right.
- [44:33]
Rebag Ad
Sleep and rest are two different things. That's why they have two different names. So, yes, you can sleep, but when you've been super active, take some time to rest. You know, we have a hard time in our society doing nothing. Yeah.
- [44:49]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
You know, on my Sundays, my partner and I do a new thing. At 2pm we stop everything and we rot for the rest of the day.
- [44:57]
Noah Michelson
I love that.
- [44:58]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Just tv.
- [44:58]
Noah Michelson
No, that seems really healthy. Or read a book or take a nap or. Yeah. Hang out with a friend.
- [45:04]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Yeah. Play with the kitten.
- [45:06]
Noah Michelson
I think you're right, Dr. Rita, though, I have a really hard time with that. I feel guilty if my inbox is not at zero. If I didn't finish that thing, I feel like I punish myself and think, you can't. You don't get to rest.
- [45:17]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Well, Noah's a lovelier person overall than I am. Cause I have no fucking problem at all doing nothing.
- [45:23]
Noah Michelson
I do. I feel guilty, but I think. I mean, I'm getting, literally, doctor's orders, where she's saying, you need to rest. So I'm gonna try harder at that. The last question we love to ask our experts is if there was one thing that you would never do or that you would always do to help with your brain health, what would that one thing be?
- [45:43]
Rebag Ad
Well, I've been talking about it and doing it all the time, which is feed my cells well every day. Day.
- [45:51]
Noah Michelson
I love that.
- [45:52]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Okay. Anything you would never do.
- [45:54]
Rebag Ad
I probably now would not put myself in any situation where I could have a massive head injury. Yeah, yeah, yeah, right. That. That's a. That's a big thing. So try to avoid accidents. As the daughter of a neurologist, I never understood why I was never allowed to have heavy mobiles and stuff on top of my bed. Now I get. Get it right. So avoid hurting your brain.
- [46:21]
Noah Michelson
Yeah. I had a friend, she recently just visited, and she's a roller skater. And she's in her 40s, like I am, and she's like, you don't roller skate. And I was like, no, I don't know how. But also, at this age, I just don't. That's not something I'm gonna try to do. I don't need a broken hip. I don't need a head injury. If you're a great roller skater, great. But, like, like you said, there are some things in my life I've decided are just not gonna be part of my life.
- [46:42]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
I was involved, invited skiing. I was like, you know what?
- [46:45]
Noah Michelson
Not.
- [46:46]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Not gonna start skiing at 40.
- [46:47]
Noah Michelson
Yeah. I think that's healthy.
- [46:49]
Rebag Ad
Yeah. These are very wise decisions. Right? Protect your brain.
- [46:55]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Yeah.
- [46:56]
Noah Michelson
Yeah. Dr. Rita, this has been amazing. I feel like I've learned. I say this every episode, but especially this episode. Reconceptualize the way that I think about the brain. And that's because of you. Thank you for that.
- [47:08]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
That, yes. So great.
- [47:10]
Rebag Ad
You're so welcome. It's been so much fun to talk to you. I hope. I hope I've given you some interesting information and hope it's been useful.
- [47:17]
Noah Michelson
Definitely.
- [47:18]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Absolutely.
- [47:24]
Noah Michelson
It's time for Better in Five. These are your top five takeaways from this episode.
- [47:28]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Number one, we learned today that your brain is Like a hard drive, as you age, it fills up more. So it might take a little more time to access things as you get older. And that's totally normal.
- [47:38]
Rebag Ad
Normal.
- [47:39]
Noah Michelson
Number two, skip the supplements. The best nutrition for brain health is, surprise, surprise, a well rounded diet filled with macro and micronutrients.
- [47:49]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Number three, keep a container of iodized salt in your kitchen. You do need iodine.
- [47:55]
Noah Michelson
Number four, studies show 30 minutes of continuous exercise is crucial for brain health. So get going. And once you get started, don't stop till you hit 30 minutes.
- [48:05]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
Can't stop. Most up. Number five, sleep is super important for brain health, but so is rest. So make sure you're getting in your Sunday rot like I do. Okay? So, Noah, have you been doing brain health wrong?
- [48:18]
Noah Michelson
So, like I said, my mind was blown several times in this episode, but actually, I don't think I've been doing it that wrong. Yeah, I eat pretty well, I get sleep, I exercise. The one thing I think I need to work harder on, though, is, and you seem to be great at this, is the resting, the rotting. I'm gonna try to not feel so guilty about not having that, you know, everything done that's on my to do list and really taking time to, like, just watch an episode of the Real Housewives or whatever it is.
- [48:46]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
I need to coach you.
- [48:47]
Noah Michelson
Yeah, I know it's a tough job. I'm gonna need that because it sounds like rest is really important for our brain.
- [48:53]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
It's beautiful. It's beautiful.
- [48:54]
Noah Michelson
What about you? What did you learn?
- [48:56]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
I'm actually gonna take a page out of your book and figure out how to eat more balanced. I think I'm doing okay. And, you know, everything else, I'm really big on good sleep, et cetera, but I feel like I'm not again, coming back from the gut microbiome episode. I'm not diversifying my diet enough. I just need to try new vegetables and, like, try new fruits and all of that stuff. And it's a constant quest for me. But our brain does so much for us. I owe it this.
- [49:22]
Noah Michelson
And it's like we heard from Kevin Curry in the meal prep episode last week or a couple weeks ago. Just trying one new thing a week. Maybe, you know, it's easy to. Maybe not easy, but it's not that hard to get more stuff into your diet if you just try something new.
- [49:35]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
I totally agree.
- [49:36]
Noah Michelson
Anyway, until next time. As long as there are things to get wrong, we're going to be right here to help you do them better.
- [49:42]
Raj Panjabi Johnson
I love you and your brains do.
- [49:45]
Noah Michelson
You have something you think you're doing wrong? Email us at amidoing it wrong huffpost.com and let us know.
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