← The Neuro Experience
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I'm Louise Nicola and this is the Neuro Experience. Hi, everyone. Before we go into the Christmas holidays, I wanted to record this episode just to remind you to take a breath. Remember that we're going to a new year next year. And I actually wanted to do an episode solely focused on some of the tools that I use to optimize my health, optimize my longevity, and optimize my brain span. We hear this word a lot. You know, we hear the word longevity, lifespan, and I am really focused on brain span. Right. As a neurophysiologist focused on Alzheimer's disease, I always think to myself, why don't we talk about the brain more often? And it's for many reasons. It's one, it's very hard to study. We don't know a lot about it. And when you do anything worthy of optimization per se, we don't see the results. Right. You know, you can go and do a VO2 max test and you can keep doing this, go and do training in the protocols to improve your VO2 max, and you can see the results. It's very hard to see the results of your brain. But let me tell you, being the most important organ in the entire body, being responsible for everything you are, it is probably the one organ in the body that you should start optimizing today. So I just wanted to say I hope you had an Amazing, amazing year. 2025 flew by. I. I learned so much this year, and with next year coming, I'm so excited to bring in all of the new guests that I have on the roster. And I wanted to kind of also use this as a, maybe a gift guide per se. Like, you know, Christmas is coming, the holidays are coming. It's like, what am I going to buy somebody? I'm going back to Australia and I've already bought my. My gifts for everyone back home. My parents, my. My brothers, their kids. And it's actually, funnily enough, all related to health and performance. So I've broken this up into my rituals, which are comprising of five pillars. It's the foundational tools that I use for improving mitochondrial energy. I'll tell you what that is when we go into it. The second pillar is light, environment and circadian rhythm. The third one is, believe it or not, lymphatic drainage, and that actually relates to brain health and Alzheimer's disease. I'm talking to all of my midlife women who are here to get rid of the brain fog and improve their brain performance to stave off Alzheimer's disease, lymphatic systems matter. Then I'm gonna talk to you about my sleep rituals and what I use to protect my sleep. I'll look at microhabits that keep the brain stable, sharp and resilient. Then I'm gonna talk about blood work because I'm sorry, that is like silent information that we need to know. So everything I share today is inside my brain code program as well. So if you are a midlife woman who's struggling with cognitive deficits, memory deficits, you've got hot flashes happening at night, and maybe you've got an increased risk factor of Alzheimer' disease, everything that I talk about today is inside that five module course. And I'll link that below. Let's get into it. Foundational tools for cognitive support. So this is how I actually support my mitochondrial function from a cellular level. So let's talk about mitochondrial function. I know you guys have heard of it. I know you've heard of mitochondrial function, whether it's on my podcast or whether it's on Instagram and the latest influencer or biohacker spoken about it. Mitochondria are those tiny little organelles that live ins our cells. We've got trillions of cells in the human body and in the human brain, 87 billion neurons. Now, these mitochondria live inside the cell, inside the neuron cell body, and there's thousands of them, and they are responsible for energy. That's where we have the ATP production occurring and that's what gives us energy to wake up, to do things, to fight diseases, to do everything. We need energy, right? And we've got, we can have thousands of them per cell. Like I can have 3,000 or 20,000. It's dependent. But over time, the mitochondrial function, or mitochondria kind of either die off or become dysfunctional. This happens due to age, it happens due to stress, lack of sleep, lifestyle factors. So it's really important that we keep our mitochondria healthy. And I'm going to give you the tools that I use specifically to keep my mitochondria healthy. Now, there's lifestyle interventions that I do, such as light and sleep, because everything affects mitochondria. But I want to talk to you about a molecule that I've become fond of. And this molecule is called urolithin A. And it's so phenomenal, you should actually research it, you know, go through. There's a lot of actual clinical reviews on urolithin A. But from a broad overview, urolithin A shows in the research that it supports mitophagy, which is the clearing out of damaged mitochondria. So when you have urolithin A, it clears out all of the damaged mitochondria. And by the way, mitochondria can grow and renew. So once it clears it out, it clears out all the dead ones and it enables us to form new mitochondria. So that's really cool. Urolithin A improves mitochondrial energy output, it lowers inflammation, which can erode mitochondria and it produces a more youthful immune profile. And they've been shown to do this in healthy adults in just a four week period. And the best way to actually get urolithin A, it's found in pomegranates, right? But you have to have a lot of pomegranates and pomegranates are messy, you have to have a lot of them. I actually use timeline nutrition and I've been using timeline nutrition for quite a while. They've got gummies which they taste really good, which is packed with urolithin A and they've actually been clinically proven to have urolithin A in them. But they've also got supplements that you can take. So usually the dosing from timeline specifically and I'm, I'm saying timeline guys, because I use it and I don't know any other company that's actually producing. I take two of these and yes, it helps with immune support. So I'm taking a lot of it in, in the wintertime. But I have a hypothesis. I found that when I take timeline nutrition, it's made me feel better after going and doing a huge leg workout. So it's actually helping with doms delayed onset muscle soreness. Why is this? Well, my hypothesis is because mitochondria is so densely found in the cells of the muscles, of the muscle cells. So I think to myself, well, if I'm helping the mitochondria inside the muscle, then obviously it's going to regenerate faster and make me feel better. So that's what I found. Now I love timeline as well because they've actually, this is new, they've actually got skin care now. So the urolithin A that they've formulated is actually in their skincare. So I've started to use their moisturizer and they've got this exfoliant. So I'm using that right now for mitochondrial health. There's another thing that I touched on earlier, light and circadian rhythm. This segment I'm going to talk to you about is going to touch on why. Managing light exposure is probably one of the simplest way for you to improve your brain health and your mitochondrial health. So cognition lives downstream of rhythm, not motivation. So if your circadian rhythm is off, your cognition will be off no matter how hard you try. Your circadian rhythm isn't just about sleep. It's the master mechanism for cortisol, serotonin, dopamine, melatonin, melatonin regulation, emotional stability and focus and reaction time. So one of the ways that I protect my brain is through light discipline. What does that mean? Well, setting my circadian rhythm at the same time every day, like sleep regularity, is really important, which means that we have to set our circadian rhythm at the same time every day. How do I do this? I get natural sunlight. Well, hey, but Louisa, you live in Manhattan and it's covered with buildings and sometimes it's not a lot of natural sunlight. Correct. I use, and I get this tool specifically on Amazon. I think it's around 25 bucks, guys. It's called the Happy Light. The Happy Light I bought because it actually emits 10,000 lux of light. And this is said to mimic the sun and actually kick in your circadian rhythm. So I turn that on every single morning, right? It's December, guys, it is cold in New York City. There is no sunlight, really. Um, and so I kick start my circadian rhythm and, and I turn that on at seven in the morning and then I go out and do my natural sunlight. Now what do I then do? I try and get as much natural sunlight during the day as possible. I try and get around three hours per day. But this is actually the key. What do I do at night to enable myself to have deep restorative sleep? Well, that actually starts at 8pm, right. I want my natural secretion of melatonin to start kicking in at 8pm of course, I have to then like do something, optimize my, my environment at home. And I do this in two ways. The first one is I actually change my bulbs at night. So my evening light, I change the bulbs. Now I get these specific bulbs from a company called Bon Charge. I dim the lights and I shift everything to warm tones. And I use blue light blocking glasses. I also get these from Bon Charge and I get them from Bomb Charge because I, you know, why wouldn't I get my blue light blocking glasses from Amazon? I get them from Bone Charge because they're clinically proven to actually block out the blue light. So if you want blue light blocking glasses, guys, by the Way they are a godsend because I can still be on my my laptop answering emails or doing some work, maybe watching some TV. After 8pm it's that two hour window, 8pm till 10pm But I'm blocking the harmful blue light that's coming out from these screens that are telling my brain that I'm awake. So I use the Bon Charge ones because they're so much better than the Amazon ones. So that's part of my rituals to kind of help the natural secretion of melatonin come in. All right, guys.
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I talk endlessly about mitochondria because your energy, your mood, your focus, your aging trajectory, all of it comes down to the cellular energy. It comes down to mitochondria. Mitopure from timeline is one of the few things that I take daily because it directly targets that it contains urolithin A, which helps renew and repair your mitochondria. And you really feel it. I do two things. I take the gummies, the mitopure gummies, and I also take the capsules. I take the capsules specifically because I find that when I do it, it helps me repair my muscles after I damage them at the gym, especially when I do lower body. So it really helps with doms. And, and if you are thinking, okay, well what else can I get to recharge my energy? You can get timeline. And guess what? You can get 20% off at timeline by going to timeline.com neuro 20% off timeline.com neuro so I've been experimenting with red light therapy for a while because of its impact on cellular energy. But oh my gosh, I have now become obsessed with Bon Charge's red light face mask.
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It's honestly the thing that I look forward to when I wake up in the morning because I use it every single morning.
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It's gentle, it's comfortable, it fits right into my routine. Now let me tell you the science. Red light therapy supports skin health, circadian health, mitochondrial function, and for me, it's become a small act of daily recovery as well, because I also use the Bon Charge red light panels. So in the morning, for 20 minutes, I'm using the red light face mask. At night, I'm using the red light panels. And honestly, my skin is looking so much better.
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I used to get like these breakouts.
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Around my jawbone, but now it's fading away. I honestly, truly, truly believe in the science behind red light therapy. So if you've been thinking about getting any type of red light or incorporating it into your routine, you can get 25% off any. Absolutely anything. Just by going to boncharge.com. have a look through their products page right now for Black Friday, everything is 25% off only for a limited time.
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Then I do another thing at night. I always use red light therapy. Right? This is a new thing. I actually do this in the morning and at night, and I'll tell you why. Infrared wavelengths. Infrared, okay. Not just red light. Infrared stimulate melatonin production inside the mitochondria, not systemically, but inside the cell itself. Because infrared wavelengths can actually penetrate the skin and go into the superficial organs of the body. So they can actually get into the cells. We've got cells in our skin. They can get into the cells and stimulate the mitochondria, which is why I love infrared so much. By the way, we're using this in medical grade settings as well. Infrared beds are phenomenal for stimulating mitochondria, but we're actually using these intranasally to actually get to certain areas of the brain, which I really love. But let's talk about what this is actually doing for me at night. So this intracellular melatonin helps neutralize oxidative stress. It does this at the right site. In this cell, oxidative stress is what's eroding us. This is what's getting into the cell and causing a cascade of issues. We know that it's leading to chronic inflammation and chronic stress, and we don't want that. Infrared light is not cosmetic for me. It's actually biochemical. So light hygiene has been one of the highest ROIs of my cognitive toolset and of my mitochondrial toolset. Where do I get the infrared light from? Well, I do two things. One, I actually visit a red light bed, and I do this once a week for 20 minutes. But I have the bon charge infrared panel at home. I have this set up in my living room. It's so funny because if you're walking down the street like I live in, in midtown on Park Avenue, if you walk down the street, you can see my light of my. I live on. On the corner. So you can see the. The red light of my building. It kind of looks sus, but my whole apartment is beaming red light. So I use the bon charge red light panel at night to help me do that. The next thing I want to move on to are my sleep rituals. How I create the internal conditions for the best recovery guys when it comes to sleep, I know you've heard this so often. Sleep is the ultimate condition, performance tool that you can have optimizing your sleep environment will pay dividends in your cognitive health. Why? Because something happens during that stage and that is the activation of the glymphatic system. So I mentioned that I was going to talk about lymphatics. Right? Why? Because the glymphatic system is the lymphatic system in your brain. It cleans out all of the debris that has been occurring during the day. So for any of you ladies, and you've, you're feeling that you've got brain fog, which is that cloudiness feeling when or you can't think, you know, lack of clarity, it means that you did not activate your glymphatic system, which means that you didn't get into deep sleep properly. So let's talk about this. What do I do personally to optimize my sleep environment? Well, I'm using the blue light blocking glasses I mentioned earlier. I'm using the red light panels. I am also setting my room up in an environment that enables me to have deep sleep. I sleep on the 8 Sleep Pod Pro cover, which gets my temperature right. At night, I use blackout curtains to completely eliminate all the light. And the supplements I use, I'm using Myo Inositol, I'm using L theanine because I have caffeine during the day, so they kind of compete with each other and makes me calmer. On days where my mind is racing. I'm using gaba, which is gamma amino butyric acid. It's a chief inhibitory neurotransmitter. This calms me down. But something specific to deep sleep is I'm using magnesium L Threonate. It's a type of magnesium that penetrates the brain and central nervous system. It calms me down. I use this every second night, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday. I use this on repeat every second night. Makes me not get too caught up in it. My body doesn't get too used to it, but it also puts me into a deep restorative sleep. There's also another tool I use when I first wake up in the morning. And by the way, this is completely placebo right now because I don't know if there's actual data around this, but let me tell you, the placebo effect is real. And this makes me feel good. I use a vibration plate. I just get one. I've got one off Amazon, I think it was around $120. And I do this for lymphatic drainage. Now, the latest studies show that we can actually move the lymph around in our face. And when we do, we can clear out amyloid beta. And this is amazing. It's a lymphatic drainage massage that you can do on your own. And there is now trials in Alzheimer's disease patients which show that you can eliminate some of the amyloid in your face and in the vessels of your face and in your brain if you do a lymphatic drainage massage in the morning. So I am actually stepping on my vibration plate in the morning and I'm wearing the Bon charge red light mask because as I mentioned, infrared light can penetrate the skin, it can stimulate collagen production, but it can also improve the mitochondria and actually clear the, the debris. And I think it's amazing because I'm doubling up there. So I'm doing the lymphatic drainage all over my body wearing the red light face mask. And I kind of look crazy. If you come into the apartment around 7 to 8am, I kind of look crazy. So I just wanted to introduce you guys to, you know, some of the tools that I use. I'm also using these boots. Sometimes I do this when I have heavy leg days. I use the, the Normatec boots. I put them on my legs and sometimes I just watch a TV show just to zone out. And I get the lymphatic drainage in my lower body every night. I'd be remiss if I didn't bring up creatine. And this relates to almost every topic that I wanted to talk about because creatine helps with cell energy metabolism, so it's helping the mitochondria produce more ATP, but it's also helping with sleep deprivation. We've got great studies to show that if you supplement with 10 to 20 grams. I know it's a huge amount, guys, I know it's huge. But if we supplement with around 10 to 20 grams of creatine, guess what? We can actually eliminate some of the deficits that occur from a sleep deprived state. So if you've woken up and you feel quite crappy because you didn't sleep at night, maybe you're a new mother and you're struggling with sleep. Maybe you're only doing two hours sleep increments every night, if you supplement with creatine, it will help you immensely because it's really going to help you create the energy within the mitochondria of the cell, giving you your energy back and will make you actually perform a baseline or even better. Let's talk about some of the microhabits that I'm doing because these are things, you know, the small practices I use daily to keep my brain sharp and resilient can make a drastic difference and can actually compound. I know it's going to sound stupid, but hydration immediately after waking up and I'm actually having one sachet of electrolytes every single day. I have sachets of electrolytes because I know that my brain cells, in order to communicate with one another, we use a sodium potassium pump. As what? Sodium and potassium, they are electrolytes. So I wanted to actually put that out there for you guys. If you're not having electrolytes, you're probably not going to be thinking sharply. The next one is breath work and this is kind of new for me. I'm experimenting. I wear the OURA ring, I'm about to get a whoop strap. I want to aggressively check my heart rate variability and in order for me to do that, I am actually trying. I'm on this pathway to increasing my HRV and that involves breath work. So I'm doing 20 minutes of breath work per day and it's so hard for me. But this practice has actually shown to improve my heart rate variability. But it's also calming me down. The next microhabit I'm doing is of course I'm doing my resistance training. I'm doing only three days a week. Louisa used to be known for doing seven days a week. But I've pulled back. I'm doing three days a week of heavy resistance training and then I'm supplementing that with high intensity interval training. I'm doing my VO2 max sessions two days a week and on Sundays I'm walking around 20,000 steps per day as well. That's just, that's not part of my exercise regime. That's just incidental. I live in New York City, but on the weekends I'm doing my Zone 2. I don't like Zone 2 for actual training purposes. I'm just doing this incidentally just to connect with others. The second last one I wanted to introduce you to is my cookware. I learned that if you have, if you're using Teflon or if you're using cookware that is actually releasing pfas or harmful chemicals, you're just adding to the toxic burden. Right? So I actually swapped all of my cookware for caraway cookware. It's non toxic and it's, it's absolutely phenomenal. It's changed the way that I cook, the way that I eat and it's helping me lower my toxic burden. And caraway is amazing because they've got chopping boards, they've got cookware, they've got everything that you might need to live a non toxic lifestyle. Last but not least, guys, I've opted in for every every four months now I do blood work. So I use function health. You can't optimize what you don't measure. You need to know what's happening beneath the hood. Make sure this holiday, you gift yourself. I know it sounds crazy. Gift yourself, gift your mother, gift your father, gift your partner with blood work. It's the best way to say I love you. I really believe that because when you look at your blood work, you know that you are taking care of you. So, guys, with that said, that was a quick short episode just to show you what I'm currently doing. And I want to wish you the safest, healthiest and happiest holiday.