Podcast Sponsor/Guest Host (6:52)

You guys know how important blood work is. I mean, I talk about this so often. It's the foundation of optimization. If you don't test, you're guessing. That's why I use Function Health. It's the only health platform that gives you access to over 100 different biomarkers, everything from hormones and inflammation to thyroid and liver function. And it tracks them all over time so you can see the full picture of your health. For me, it's not about chasing disease. It's about understanding my body at a deeper level. And that's what's helping. So I am making data driven decisions every day. If you don't know what your vitamin D level is, then you shouldn't be supplementing with vitamin D. You should be looking at what's under the hood. And that's what comprehensive blood work does. If you have the same insight and you want to check your bloods, go to functionhealth.com louisianicola or go to functionhealth.com, use gift code NEURO100 to sign up to your own health and get $100 off. When I talk about recovery, most people think of muscles or sleep, but mental recovery is what I'm actually talking about because this is what is teaching your nervous system to downshift. It is so essential, and it's so essential to building muscle and having a healthier performing brain. That's where Calm has been a game changer for me. I use it between meetings or or flights to reset my stress response in under 10 minutes. Their guided meditations and breathing sessions bring your heart rate down and help restore focus faster than caffeine ever could. So if you have a racing mind and you're really not good at sitting there for 10 minutes in absolute silence or even meditating, then you have to use calm. And if you're someone who lives in high gear, then give your brain the opposite of stimulation. Give it stillness. If you want to try this out, go to calm.com louisa for 40% off your calm Premium subscription.

Louise Nicola (8:55)

The first thing that I want you guys to think of is I want you to stop outsourcing your brain to luck. And this is just because I've come across tens of thousands of women on social media who really rely on luck. As I mentioned, Alzheimer's disease is not a disease of old age. It's a midlife disease with old age symptoms. So if you are 40 to 60 and you're coasting through life, sleep deprivation, not exercising or not exercising adequately or properly dehydrating, which is very common, living on processed foods, ignoring your hormones, you are writing a prescription for your own decline. Luck is not a plan. Preparation is. Let's talk about the neurological event that occurs and will occur between every single one of us who is listening. If you are female and if you are lucky enough to get to that age, and that is menopause. Menopause is not just a reproductive event, it's a neurological event. And I think it's getting spotlighted right now. If you've seen on social media, you probably have. Whether it's mine or whether it's somebody else in the space, hormone replacement therapy, it's completely spotlighted right now. Why? Well, that's because over the last 20 or 30 years, millions upon millions upon millions of women were scared out of taking and they were robbed out of being offered hormone replacement therapy in fear of increasing their risk of getting breast cancer. And that was because of the Women's Health Initiative, which was a fraudulent study, in my opinion. That scared so so many millions of women, my mother is one included, out of taking hormone replacement therapy. We now know that that has been debunked. We've seen so much data to suggest that hormone replacement therapy is extremely important to reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer's disease. I'll tell you why. Estradiol, which is a form of estrogen, this is the one that starts to deplete during this Neurological event known as perimenopause. That's when it starts to decrease. And then menopause is the complete cessation of producing our own endogenous estrogen. So we don't produce any estrogen anymore. Then you gotta think, well, Louisa, why is it so important? Well, it turns out that we have estrogen receptors all over our body. Receptors are. And hormones are like keys and locks. So we've got this receptor, let's imagine on the cells of our brain and imagine this circulating estradiol going around and it lodges onto that receptor. And when it does that into the brain, in the brain, it opens up the brain cell to function better. That's all you have to know. Estrogen helps the brain cells function better. Specifically it helps it with regulating glucose. Glucose is the brain's main energy fuel source. And when it is dysregulated, that's when we see a whole bunch of issues happening. In fact, this is exactly why Dr. Lisa Moscone and her group found a 30% reduction in brain glucose metabolism at the point of perimenopause and menopause, which I think is wild. And she found this on PET imaging. And I thought that that was so wild to know. Why do women in this state have a 30% reduction in brain glucose metabolism? It's because of estradiol. What else does estrogen do for the brain? Well, it's neuroprotective. You've probably heard me talk about creatine being neuroprotective. Estrogen is also neuroprotective. And when I say neuroprote protective, imagine the 86 billion neurons in your brain floating around being at the mercy of insults. An insult to your brain is environmental toxins, ultra processed foods, stress, lack of sleep, which by the way, I am also at the mercy of. And I don't want you to think that I'm sitting here with the most perfect functioning brain. We are all women and men especially. Like we are really at the mercy of so many harmful insults just on a day to day basis. Because we are living in 2025 and the rise of social media, environmental toxins, spending 95% of our time indoors. Our brain really has to put up with a lot. So when we think about neuroprotection, we're thinking about the protection on our brain cells. I like to think about it as helmets on our neurons. It protects the neurons. So when we don't have estrogen available, that protection is gone. So just think about that. Every decision we make around health comes.

Podcast Sponsor/Guest Host (14:11)

Down to one thing, cellular energy. It is the currency that fuels focus, performance and longevity. Timeline's Mito Pure is the one and only supplement that actually works at that level. It contains called Urolithin A which I am obsessed with because it's been clinically proven to recharge mitochondria. These are the powerhouses of your cells so they produce energy more efficiently and they don't become dysfunctional. Dysfunctional mitochondria is at the seat of almost every chronic disease. I've been using the Mito Pure daily supplement and I have noticed that I am recovering better. I have sharper cognition and let me tell you, my workouts are stronger. If you care about long term brain health, this is where you start. Visit timeline.comneuro for 20% off your order. There's two things that you can have there, guys. There's a supplement version or the gummies. I'm actually having both because the gummies are like a sweet treat for me, but they're not packed with sugar. That is timeline.com neuro for 20% off. Okay, so let's talk about joggers and what you're actually putting on your feet. Because I think that somebody like me, like I'm always in activewear. When I go to the gym, I always have to run out somewhere afterwards. I live in Manhattan, so I'm always in joggers. And one of the biggest things that's changed for me is I started wearing the Vori's performance joggers. It's been insane because they're made with something called their dream knit fabric. They are the softest thing that you'll.

Louise Nicola (15:46)

Ever put on your body.

Podcast Sponsor/Guest Host (15:47)

They're lightweight, breathable and built to move with you. I wear them everywhere, literally. On flights, to the gym, when I'm running to coffee, when I'm running to the office, I literally wear them all, all the way up and down Manhattan. They're versatile, they're minimal, and they actually make you want to slow down between hard sessions. I think that everyone should really, really put time and effort into their footwear because it's an actual investment. You should go and check out Vuori because they have been absolutely phenomenal for me over the past three months. For listeners of this show, Vuori is offering 20% off your first purchase at Vuori.com neuro that's V U.

Louise Nicola (16:30)

Neuro.

Podcast Sponsor/Guest Host (16:31)

You'll get 20% off plus free shipping on US orders over $75 and free returns.

Louise Nicola (16:38)

And when it comes to hormone replacement therapy, we now have available to US bioidentical hormones. It's still being studied, but we have seen an association between hormone replacement therapy taken within the 10 year window of menopause onset and cognitive decline. Meaning that women who were tracked over several years, those who were taking hormone replacement therapy in that magic window, decreased their risk of cognitive decline and decreased their risk of getting Alzheimer's disease. Go figure, right? By the way, progesterone as well is really beneficial for the brain. And another hormone that we don't really talk about is testosterone. We think about testosterone as the libido hormone, right? Women actually have more testosterone than estrogen. And guess what? Testosterone in the brain is wild. And we've seen patients who have had a low testosterone and that could mean anything, because remember, testosterone is a receptor hormone, meaning that it can fluctuate 24 7. Like if you've been sleep deprived and you've been traveling, maybe your testosterone will.

Podcast Sponsor/Guest Host (17:49)

Be low, but if you do it.

Louise Nicola (17:50)

The next day, maybe it'll be high. But women in perimenopause who actually takes testosterone therapy just putting testosterone cream on the inside of their ighs, report in one week increases in mood, happiness, vigilance, drive, and they start to feel like who they are actually, and I quote, so many women say, I feel like me again. So just what I've just told you, this should really spark an intrigue in, in the beneficial effects of hormones, as it will. I'm not telling you to go and take them, I am just telling you that that's what the evidence is. Let's move on to sleep because I.

Podcast Sponsor/Guest Host (18:34)

Am actually teaching you.

Louise Nicola (18:36)

This is kind of a mini masterclass on all the things you can be doing to decrease your risk. We've known for years that sleep is really powerful for the brain and body. Just one night of sleep deprivation can increase your amyloid in your brain. Now let's think about this. What the hell is Alzheimer's disease? Well, Alzheimer's disease is different from the other dementias slightly. We've got Parkinson's dementia, we've got dementia with Lewy bodies. But with Alzheimer's disease specifically, we see two proteins in the brain. We see amyloid beta. Then we also see another one, which is called tau proteins. Now, amyloid beta lives outside of the neuron within the cerebral spinal fluid. So you've got all your little neurons, 86 billion neurons. You've got other specialized cells. We've got different types of neurons, right? We've got different types of brain cells.

Podcast Sponsor/Guest Host (19:35)

We've got other ones called glial cells.

Louise Nicola (19:37)

We've got astrocytes. And they all function for different various reasons. The glial cells actually live between two neurons. They're st are the immunity cells. So our brain has its own immune system. Go figure. It's so interesting because amyloid is actually increased when we activate our innate immune system. So every time you get stressed or every time you activate that immune system within your brain, amyloid builds up. But here's the amazing thing. We can wash that out during sleep. And it gets washed out specifically during deep slow wave sleep. It's also known as stage 3 non REM sleep. Sleep is so fundamental for the human brain and human body. And we should be aiming at getting at least one hour of deep sleep per night. You can measure this on various types of wearables, the oura ring, the whoop strap, whatever you want to do. The eight sleep mattress. But you should be aiming at getting that because during deep sleep, those glial cells, they shrink. And what happens when they shrink? That means the cerebral spinal fluid can wash away and actually is really beautiful when you see it. It's like synchrony. It's washing, like a washing and pushing it down in these perivascular spaces and getting rid of all of the toxin and the debris that occur. So please, if you can try so hard to optimize your sleep. Let's move on to my favorite topic. Muscle is a cognitive organ. Skeletal muscle is not just for esthetics. It's a metabolic and endocrine organ that dictates how your brain uses fuel. Strength training and sprint work is increase insulin sensitivity. The way I want you to think about it is the more muscle you have, the better the glucose control. The better the glucose control means more stable brain function.

Podcast Sponsor/Guest Host (21:34)

What you put on your skin matters. There has been so many insights into skin health and the fact that whatever you put on your skin, from makeup to sunscreen, seeps into the bloodstream, and it can obviously cross many organs and go into those organs and cause disruption. This is why what you put on your face matters so much. I use Jones Road Beauty. Their products are minimal, super clean, and designed to work with you. I'm so bullish on really clean products. I don't want to be putting any extra chemicals on my body. I use almost everything they have. It feels so good. It smells so natural, and I always look clean and polished and natural after I wear it.

Louise Nicola (22:21)

Guys, go and check this out.

Podcast Sponsor/Guest Host (22:22)

Honestly, one of the best things that I've ever had. And I'm actually buying their face wash and their moisturizer I'm doing everything I can to make sure that my skin gets the purest form of absolutely anything I put on it. So head to jonesroadbeauty.com use code NEURO for a free cool gloss with your first purchase. Jonesroadbeauty.com Use code NEURO TEAM there's toxins everywhere. From dry cleaning products to what we put on our skin, to how we're actually cleaning our environment, to even the air.

Louise Nicola (22:57)

So how do we minimize this?

Podcast Sponsor/Guest Host (22:58)

Well, we have to choose brands that are toxin free and household cleaning products are one of the biggest hidden sources of endocrine and neurological disruptors. And that's why I use Branch Basics. Their all in one concentrate replaces dozens of toxic products. Fragrance free, plant based and made to.

Louise Nicola (23:20)

Protect your environment and your biology.

Podcast Sponsor/Guest Host (23:23)

I use it for everything, kitchen counters, laundry, even washing produce. If you want a healthier home, start here. Even go and research it. They have so much information on their website, go and look it up. Branch Basics.com you can use code NEURO to get 15% off their premium starter kit.

Louise Nicola (23:46)

That's how I got started with them.

Podcast Sponsor/Guest Host (23:48)

Branch Basics.com use code NEURO I really.

Louise Nicola (23:53)

Want to hone in on this because I'm seeing how hard it is and how difficult it is to lift weights. Maybe you've got demanding careers, maybe you've got a spouse at home, maybe you've got kids. I get it. Life is freaking hard. I get that. And I know that it takes so much time and energy to get to the gym and to lift, let alone knowing what to lift, let alone to lift hard. But let me tell you, there's no easy way out and there's no easy way of saying this. You have to love strength training. It will change the way your brain functions and it will save you from cognitive decline. Out of every intervention I can think of, exercise is by far the number one elixir for brain health and brain span.

Podcast Sponsor/Guest Host (24:41)

I'm going to be doing more deep.

Louise Nicola (24:43)

Dives into the beneficial effects of strength training, but I really want to move on to one that I hardly ever speak about and that is sprint training. It's the forgotten weapon. Sprint training doesn't get looked at and it should, and it really falls under the line of hiit training if you will. But I actually want to move away from that and just talk about sprints specifically. Here's what most women get wrong. They confuse high intensity training with endless boot camps and circuit training. Let me tell you, it leaves them drenched. It leaves them in a bath of cortisol and inflammation and fatigue. Fatigue in midlife women elevates cortisol. And elevated baseline cortisol means more belly fat, poor sleep and inflammation that refuses to go down. True high intensity training means polarized training. When you go hard, you go very hard. I'm talking 80 to 90% of your maximum effort for a minute or two, and then you go easy. And when you go easy, you go easy. Sprint training, guys, is phenomenal. You only have to do it once a week. We hear about VO2max testing or VO2max, which is a measure of your peak respiratory fitness. It's the greatest predictor of longevity. Basically, it means that the fitter you are, the longer you're going to live. We have seen this, and this is not just correlative data, association data. This is literally, I've seen this in studies, in clinical randomized control trials. So the fitter you are, the longer you'll live. And in order to keep increasing your fitness decade after decade, the general gold standard rule is to do something called the Norwegian 4x4, which is really freaking, which is like literally where you're going hard out 80 to 90% of your maximum heart rate for four minutes and then having a complete four minute break. I actually want to eliminate that because it's scaring so many people out of actually performing the exercise itself. So instead, let's think about sprints as one minute on, one minute off, or two minutes off at sprinting at your 80 to 90% and then having a complete two minute break. So that's what you have to be doing. And if you want to do that protocol, the two minutes on, two minutes off, I would suggest doing this around 10 times. That will give you the maximum benefits to not only improve bone mineral density, increase type 2 muscle fibers, improve the functioning of your heart, but you're going to be releasing myokines, which are muscle based proteins that get released during strength training. You'll also release them when you sprint. They go into the brain and they fertilize your brain in a really good way. They help with memory consolidation, they help with better functioning of the brain. Those synapses that I mentioned earlier, you can help with the spines and the dendrites. You can grow new dendrites, you can grow new synapses. It's called synaptogenesis from sprint training. And what does that do? It gives you a better functioning brain so you can stave off dementia and Alzheimer's disease. You don't need a tracker. Sprinting literally can mean battle ropes. When I say you don't need to track it. I'm meaning like you don't need to go on a running track. You can literally just get your heart rate up for two minutes. I do it on the StairMaster. I have an intimate relationship with the StairMaster.

Podcast Sponsor/Guest Host (28:23)

Food.

Louise Nicola (28:24)

Let's view food as molecular information. Food is not calories, food is a code. A whole food Mediterranean style diet such as vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, olive oils, delivers anti inflammatory fats and antioxidants that stabilize synapses and vessels. If you have a look across the board when it comes to the best diet for Alzheimer's disease, it would be one that is high in plants. And that is because you really want to protect the blood vessels of your brain. Which means that we really want to protect the lipid profile, we want to maintain a low saturated fat anti inflammatory diet because we know that we need to protect the blood vessels within our brain. Just like the blood vessels in your heart related to cardiovascular disease, you want to take the same approach because what's good for the heart is good for the brain. So increasing the amount of fiber you have. I'm an omnivore, I have a lot of plants in my diet. I think around my diet is around 80% plants and 20% red meat, fish. I always have a lot of protein as well. I have everything. I'm not 100% plant based but that seems good enough and that's what these studies point towards. Last but not least, I want to touch on one other thing that you can be including and that's quality relationships. We don't get taught that often but if you've ever known somebody with Alzheimer's disease, you will see over time that they become very reclused from society. They stop talking to people and that's because their brain has dec to downsize. And when your brain decides to downsize, it doesn't want to spend energy communicating with other people. But let me tell you, one of the most beautiful things you can do for your brain is investing in quality relationships. And that starts today. And not putting energy into relationships that drain you of your energy. So being able to have beautiful conversations with other people and really investing in long term relationships safeguards to your brain because it tells your brain that somebody is there for you. And that's not spoken about. But I predict that that's going to be a biohack in the next five years once we get more information on it. That brings me to the very last thing, which is brain code decoding. A woman's risk of getting Alzheimer's disease. I'm so excited for you guys to have access to my very first digital product which is a five module course for a woman 40 years and above to reduce their risk of getting Alzheimer's disease. It is my greatest work ever and it's available to you. It's not just a Pinterest board, it's a system where you will learn how to test your biomarkers, build muscle with heavy lifting, training intensities with sprints, how to protect your sleep, how to feed your brain the right code, and how to evaluate hormones with evidence. This is not an optional self care, this is your cognitive Olympics. So if you want to go to that, you can actually click the link below or you can come over to my Instagram. Braincode is everywhere and like I mentioned, it is my life's best work and it's only going to grow more and more. So if you are a woman in midlife who wants to protect her brain, whether it's because you've had a close family member that had Alzheimer's disease, or whether you just don't want to succumb to this disease because like I said, it's 95% of Alzheimer's disease cases are preventable, then come and join me in brain code. As always, thank you for joining me on the neuroexperience podcast.