RACHAEL O'MEARA:
Welcome, everybody.
Thank you for coming today.
How's everyone doing?
Good.
AUDIENCE: Great.
RACHAEL O'MEARA: Are
you ready to learn
how to make your brain expand
and have more capacity?
I am.
I am.
Thanks for coming.
So I'm Rachel O'Meara.
I'm based in San Francisco.
And I'm a volunteer for
the internal mindfulness
program, gPause.
My contribution is to
help bring in speakers
who I think have helped us
raise our own awareness,
and emotional capacity,
and facilities.
So today, I'm really excited
to bring in Dr. Brant
Cortright, who wrote the
book, "The Neurogenesis Diet
and Lifestyle, Upgrade Your
Brain, Upgrade your Life."
And just a few words about
Brant before he jumps in.
Brant is a clinical
psychologist and professor
of psychology at California
Institute of Integral Studies,
right in San Francisco.
And he works full-time
on this, where
he's working on
cutting-edge brain
health and neuroscience-informed
depth therapy.
So today, we're going
to learn about how
our lifestyle and our
choices help influence
what our brain is capable of.
So without further ado,
please welcome Brant.
And we'll take
questions at the end.
Thanks.
[APPLAUSE]
BRANT CORTRIGHT: Hi, everybody.
Thank you for coming.
And thank you, Rachel,
for organizing this.
I'd like to talk to you
about neurogenesis today.
And neurogenesis is one of
these pretty rare actual game
changers in neuroscience.
It's really upending many of
the conventional views of how
we thought about the
brain, and brain growth,
brain development, aging.
So it was considered
as established fact,
up until the late 1990s, that
the brain stopped growing
once we hit our early 20s.
And after that, it was just one
slow die-off into decrepitude.
And then in the late 1990s,
they realized that's not true.
Actually, the brain
makes new brain cells
throughout our entire life.
So that's what neurogenesis is.
It's the process of
making new brain cells.
It's the genesis of new neurons.
So we've known about brain
plasticity for 50, 60 years.
But this is very, very new.
It's less than 20 years old.
And when they discovered this,
that actually the brain does
make new brain cells
throughout the entire lifespan,
up until we die, they didn't
know the meaning of it.
They thought initially,
just, well, OK, we thought
the brain stopped growing.
And now, it does grow.
But in the last two
years, it's become clear
that actually our
rate of neurogenesis
has a huge impact on the
whole quality of our life,
at every level.
So it turns out that a
low rate of neurogenesis,
that is a low rate at which
your brain is making new brain
cells, is associated
with cognitive decline,
with memory problems,
with anxiety and stress,
and with depression, even
with lowered immunity.
And a high rate of
neurogenesis, that
is a high rate at which the
brain is making new brain
cells, is associated
with the opposite,
with cognitive enhancement,
with rapid learning,
rapid problem solving, and
robust emotional resilience,
protection against stress,
anxiety, and depression.
And so your rate of neurogenesis
is the most important biomarker
for brain health and probably
other types of health
that most people
have never heard of.
And it turns out
just about everybody
can increase their
rate of neurogenesis
by five times, probably
even more than that,
with quite profound changes
in every level of your life,
every level of consciousness.
They did this one
experiment with mice,
where they gave them a
holistic treatment, that
was their word for it.
They called it an
enriched environment.
But things like a great
diet, running wheels
to exercise on, lots of
materials to explore,
lots of other friendly mice
to play with and mate with.
And they found out that
they increased their rate
of neurogenesis by five times.
And that these mice had
big cognitive advantages
over their normal
neurogenesis-ranked peers.
Again, they learned faster.
They were smarter.
They figured things out faster.
And although they
weren't totally
immune to stress--
scientists have gotten really
good at stressing mice
in these experiments--
they had protection from it.
They weren't quite
supermice, but almost.
They had one sixth more
neurons in the part
of the brain that
produces new brain
cells, in the hippocampus.
That's a lot of computing power.
So this is a holistic approach.
The book is really a holistic
approach to brain health
and to increasing our
rate of neurogenesis.
Because it turns out that
when we approach this
from a multi-dimensional
perspective,
from many different facets,
it's much more powerful
than doing one or
two things alone.
So every level of
our consciousness
comes to us through the brain,
body, heart, mind, spirit.
Every level of our
consciousness we
experience through the brain.
So the quality of
our brain really
determines the
quality of our life.
And it turns out that we live
in a really neurotoxic world.
To go through a day without
experiencing and doing
things that are
pretty neurotoxic
and would slow down your rate
of neurogenesis is difficult.
It's like an obstacle course.
It's like you need to just
duck bullets all the time.
And we've all just kind of
stumbled into this innocently.
Nobody knew this up until
just very, very recently.
We didn't know neurogenesis
existed, let alone
that it could be
enhanced or slowed down.
So this is really a
two-fold approach,
a two-pronged strategy.
We want to do those
things that increase
our rate of neurogenesis.
And we want to stop doing
those things that slow down
our rate of neurogenesis.
Otherwise, it's like stepping
on the gas and the brakes
at the same time.
We don't get much
benefit from it.
So there's a chapter on
each of these things.
There's a chapter on the body
and physical things we can do.
There's a chapter on the
heart and emotional factors,
of which there are many,
for increasing or decreasing
neurogenesis.
There's a chapter on mind
and mental things we can do.
There's a chapter on spirit and
different spiritual practices
that seem to have an
effect, actually quite
a powerful effect, on this.
But there is one chapter
just devoted to diet.
Because diet is
incredibly important
when it comes to this.
So the book goes
into a lot of detail
about particular nutrients that
we can do, that we can ingest,
that increase our
rate of neurogenesis.
So things like certain
bioflavonoids, like chrysin,
or apigenin, or luteolin,
things that most people haven't
heard of or it doesn't roll
off the tongue for most people.
Also hesperidin is another
one, a bioflavonoid.
And then there's other
foods that increase it,
like turmeric; or curcumin,
the curry spice; green tea;
mulberry; red sage; or salvia;
goji berries; things like that.
But what is huge in this are
omega-3 fatty acids, fish oil.
So to build a beautiful
high-end house,
we need to use
high-quality materials.
We don't use rotting
wood or old lumber.
We use good quality materials.
And it's the same
with the brain.
To build a
high-quality brain, we
need to use good
building materials.
And the best are
omega-3 fatty acids.
So the brain is made
up of about 2/3 fat.
And of this fat, one
third of it is DHA.
Now, DHA is one of the
three omega-3 fatty acids
and the most important
in terms of the brain.
So we need a diet that is high
in good fats, healthy fats,
and low in bad, unhealthy fats.
So let's talk a little
more about the omega-3's.
So they did one
experiment with monkeys
where they raised
a group of monkeys
on a low omega-3 diet, an
omega-3 deficient diet.
And they raised another group of
monkeys on a high omega-3 diet.
And then they looked at
their brains afterwards.
And the monkeys on
the low omega-3 diet
had very simple,
undifferentiated brains.
But the monkeys on
the high omega-3 diet
had very complex, richly
differentiated brains,
almost like human beings.
Complexity is good when
it comes to the brain.
We want to see complexity.
So doing probably between 1,000
and 1,500 milligrams of DHA
every day is something
probably just about everybody
in the world should be doing.
It's probably the
single most powerful way
to increase your
rate of neurogenesis.
You increase the rate
of neurogenesis 40%.
And you're giving your
brain these building blocks
to build complexity.
Now, good healthy
fats are unoxidized
fats and bad unhealthy
fats, are oxidized fats.
So there's a lot
of talk these days,
as we kind of switch from an
American high-carb, low-fat
diet to increasingly seeing
that that is actually
a disaster for the brain
and for many other things.
That diet, as probably many
of you know by this point,
is coming under a lot
of attack and was really
based on some flawed
science back in the '50s.
And that high
carb, low-fat diet,
it seems like it's more and more
behind the obesity epidemic,
the diabetes epidemic, the
heart disease epidemic,
probably partly the
Alzheimer's epidemic as well.
It's a disaster for health.
So more and more,
the conversation
is switching to
fats versus carbs.
But that's really
not quite it either.
It needs to be
what kinds of fats?
Because some kinds of
fats are not good for you.
They're terrible for you.
So oxidized fats are
really bad for you.
They're really
bad for the brain.
So an oxidized fat
means its gone rancid,
either through heat, or
light, or exposure to oxygen.
So, for example, cooking with
vegetable oil, terrible idea.
Nobody should be doing it.
What happens is that
the fats oxidize
almost immediately
when they're cooked,
at very low temperatures.
And when those oxidized fats
get into your bloodstream, what
they do is they
oxidize the cholesterol
in your bloodstream.
And that oxidized cholesterol
produces heart disease,
produces atherosclerosis,
and inflammation.
And inflammation is a
disaster for the brain
and for neurogenesis.
It just almost shuts off
the process of neurogenesis.
So eating burned foods,
like burned meat,
cooking with vegetable
oils, terrible ideas.
What we want to be doing is
cooking with saturated fats.
We want to be cooking
with things like butter,
or ghee, or coconut
oil, even lard.
We want to be eating a
lot of good healthy fats,
things like avocados,
nuts, wild-caught fish,
grass-fed beef, grass-fed dairy,
milk, cheese, things like this,
pastured eggs, Pastured eggs
are one of the very best things
you can do for your brain.
When you look at
pastured eggs, or you
look at grass-fed meat
versus conventional meat,
you look at the
fatty acid profile.
So evolutionarily,
humans evolved
with a ratio of, like, 1
to 1 or 1 or 2 of omega-3
to omega-6s in the diet.
But the contemporary modern
diet, it's more like 1 to 20,
or 1 to 30, or 1 to 40, which
is a very highly inflammatory
diet.
So with grass fed beef, we get
a 1 to 1.65 ratio, almost ideal.
With conventional beef,
it's closer to 1 to 5,
very inflammatory.
We don't want that.
Another thing that we
want to avoid is sugar.
And again, everybody
probably knows this.
But it goes along with
this high-carb diet.
Because carbohydrates eventually
get converted into sugar.
So it went off with sugar.
But most people want to cut down
on their carbohydrate intake
because a high carbohydrate
intake produces
insulin resistance and
high glucose levels.
And right now, 80% of
America, it's estimated,
has some degree of
insulin resistance.
Insulin resistance is not good.
In fact, it's very
bad for the brain.
So you need insulin to
make use of the glucose.
And when we have a
lot of carbohydrate
over the years, a lot of
sugar and carbohydrate,
eventually the cells stop
producing insulin receptors.
That's called
insulin resistance.
So you need more insulin.
And insulin is damaging to just
about every organ of the body.
That's why people who
have diabetes often
have complications
and die earlier.
It produces glycation.
And glycation
cross-links proteins
in all different
systems of the body.
When we have a high blood
sugar and high insulin levels,
this high degree of glycation
is like a faster kind of aging.
And it also is a
disaster for the brain.
If you look at
blood sugar levels
and you look at
cognitive decline,
they track each other
just about perfectly.
High blood sugar levels
and high insulin levels
and cognitive decline, they
track each other almost 1 to 1.
It's quite amazing.
So anybody who's
getting a physical, when
you go for your yearly
physical, a good test to get
is called the hemoglobin
A1c, the hemoglobin A1c.
And what that does, it's like a
snapshot of your glucose levels
over the last three months.
And if it's elevated, which
I would bet that 80% of just
about any room, it's going to be
elevated, you would be advised,
well I think, to try to reduce
your carbohydrate intake
and try to regain insulin
sensitivity, which
means switching away
from those yummy carbs
into more of a
high, good fat diet.
Some people think this is hard.
And I found it hard
over the years.
I've made numerous attempts.
And at certain times it was,
oh, my God, I got to do this.
And as you do it,
after a while you
realize my eating
habits are just habits.
And I can learn new habits.
And actually, there's
a whole new world
of eating that opens up
when we give up things
that we are quite attached to.
It turns out that
a high sugar diet
will cut your rate of
neurogenesis in two.
That's pretty
astonishing in itself.
When you think about
the average diet,
of like the American
child, it starts out
with, I don't know,
like sugar Frosted
Flakes and orange juice.
I mean it's all
sugar and bad fat.
Like, you can't grow a
very good brain with that.
It's just not possible.
There's one other
part about diet
that I am hesitant
to mention, just
because it's such a
big bummer that I hate
to be the bearer of bad news.
[LAUGHTER]
When we look at
wanting to cut out
things that reduce neurogenesis,
two of the big ones
are alcohol and caffeine.
I know.
There's a groan that just takes
place throughout the room.
This has been investigated
by a whole generation
of neuroscience graduate
students at this point.
Neuroscience labs basically
run on the stuff, on caffeine.
And there's been experiment,
after experiment,
after experiment trying to
show that caffeine is actually
good for neurogenesis.
And it's all shown the opposite.
What they've
discovered is that even
under the minimal
biologically active dose,
there's a reduction
in neurogenesis.
That means anything you
can feel is slowing down
your rate of neurogenesis.
Now, caffeine and coffee
are these mixed bags
when it comes to the brain.
On the one hand, the
polyphenols in coffee
are really good for your brain.
They're antioxidant,
anti-inflammatory.
They're good.
And caffeine produces
some short term gains.
Some short-term
memory is increased.
But over the long
run, you're actually
decreasing cognitive
function with caffeine.
I'm sorry.
[LAUGHTER]
Getting off caffeine actually is
not that difficult. It's again,
a habit.
Your body is in the habit of
using that to wake itself up.
But when you stop, you go
through a little bit of a low.
And then pretty soon, your
body learns to wake itself up.
And it's like you
don't even miss it.
You also might want to
do things like extra B12
or B6, pantothenic acid.
These are psychic energizers.
If you drink a lot of coffee,
you might to just reduce it.
I'm not saying you need to be
as pure as the driven snow here.
Hardly anybody is.
But just in looking
at all of this,
that's one thing to just
factor in to all of this.
OK.
So in terms of the body--
let's switch to the body.
Again, this comes
out of a number
of experiments, where they
try intervening on one level,
with one particular
nutrient or one
particular form of environmental
enrichment, and then two.
And they discover that
really all of these things
work together, body,
heart, mind, spirit.
It's synergistic.
There's a kind of a
multiplicative effect
that happens.
So one of the most
powerful things
you can do to increase your rate
of neurogenesis is exercise.
Now, all kinds of exercise
are good for your brain,
yoga, strength training,
aerobic exercise.
But when it comes
to neurogenesis,
there's only one kind
that's effective.
And that is aerobic exercise.
Aerobic exercise
is anything that
gets your heart beating fast
and gets you breathing quickly.
Aerobic means living on air.
So running, biking, walking
quickly, fast dancing,
swimming, anything that
gets you breathing hard
is really good for neurogenesis.
It's the single
most powerful thing
you can do to increase
your rate of neurogenesis.
When they do lab experiments,
they just put a running mill
on there, to get them up.
Now, the problem with
running, some people
ask, well, what about interval
training or this high intensity
training that is
very popular now?
It turns out that's not
effective for neurogenesis.
It only seems to be
sustained if, like, you have
a 20, 30, 40-minute workout.
The brain just explodes
with new neurons.
Now, the problem with
just doing running though
is that about half of those
neurons die off pretty quickly.
The brain is always
pruning for new connections
that aren't being
used immediately.
So that's why we need to
do other things to keep
those new brain cells alive.
So the bioflavonoid herperidin,
for example, what it does
is it keeps new
brain cells alive.
So if we're doing omega-3 fatty
acids, if we're working out,
we're getting a lot
of new brain cells.
If we also do hesperidin,
we're getting an almost 100%
survival rate of
these new brain cells.
Another really important driver
of a neurogenesis is sleep.
And sleep has been one of
these underestimated things
in health for a long time.
So when you don't
get enough sleep,
you have lower
rates of melatonin.
And melatonin
increases neurogenesis.
And the rate of neurogenesis
slides off very quickly.
Sleep is important, not only
because it helps cognition,
like if you have one
hour less sleep in a day,
there is measurable
cognitive decline.
You don't remember things
as well, measurably.
But also sleep cleans the brain.
They didn't understand how the
brain cleans itself of toxins
very recently, just a
couple of years ago.
The lymph system cleans
out toxins in the body.
But the brain is its own thing.
And the lymph system didn't
seem to interact with the brain,
to cross the
blood/brain barrier.
When they discovered something
called the glymphatic system
in the brain.
And the glial cells in the
brain, which are connective
neurons and also have
housekeeping functions
in the brain, when we sleep,
the neurons actually shrink
by about a third or to a half.
And the brain is flooded
with cerebral spinal fluid,
that just cleans it.
And the glial cells go
and they just pick up,
particularly the beta amyloid.
Now, beta amyloid plaque is
what accumulates in Alzheimer's.
It's something we want to
get rid of in the brain.
It's not something we
want to accumulate.
So when we sleep, and we
have a full night's sleep,
and this comes towards
the end of the night,
so a little bit of
sleep isn't so good.
In fact, if you only
sleep, like, three or four
hours a night, you
wake up the next day,
you feel kind of yucky.
You take a shower.
And you still kind
of feel like you
haven't had a shower, that
kind of yucky feeling?
Well, you're clean.
But that dirty feeling
affects your brain.
That's toxins in your brain
that haven't been washed out
during the night.
And that beta amyloid is
something that, it also
reduces neurogenesis.
How are we doing on time?
Let's go for about
another 15 minutes
and take some questions.
There's a number of
things that the book
talks-- but there's many
different physical practices
that are helpful to
integrate into our lives,
and a number of things
to avoid as well.
When it comes to
the emotional level,
it turns out that our
emotions are a big player
in how the brain regenerates.
So it turns out that
stress slows neurogenesis
to a crawl and particularly
the sort of stress
that most people are dealing
with, which is chronic stress.
Now when we talk
about stress, it's
easy to talk about stress
as just a bad thing.
But actually there's good
stress and there's bad stress.
Good stress is short
term and moderate stress.
We need short-term,
moderate stress.
When we're stressed
in that way, we're
challenged by the universe.
And we have to come up with
a new way of responding.
So new capacities come
forth, new abilities.
When we're challenged
in this way,
we become ourselves more fully.
We need a kind of
moderate ideal stress
or challenge in our lives
because that engages the brain.
And when it's engaged
in an optimal way,
neurogenesis is enhanced.
But that's not
the kind of stress
that most people
are suffering from.
It's like working
out with weights.
When you stop working out,
the muscle breaks down
and then it builds up stronger.
If you keep working
out, you just wear down.
It's not good.
The type of stress that most
people are suffering from
is chronic stress, and
sometimes just extreme stress,
but particularly chronic stress.
And chronic stress
degrades the brain.
It turns down the
rate of neurogenesis.
And it actually
produces glucocorticoids
that are neurotoxic,
that actually
begin to kill some of the
cells in the hippocampus.
So where neurogenesis happens
is in the hippocampus.
And the hippocampus is this
really interesting structure
in the brain.
It's this crescent
moon-shaped structure.
Actually, we have
two hippocampi,
one on each side of the
brain, right and left.
But it's usually
referred in the single.
And one end of
the hippocampus is
involved in emotion regulation,
particularly the regulation
of anxiety, stress,
and depression.
And the other end
of the hippocampus
goes into the cognitive
areas of the brain
and also are involved in
body awareness and spatial
relationships.
So involved with the body,
involved with cognition,
and involved in the
processing of new memories.
Now, the hippocampus
doesn't store memories.
But it processes new memories.
So that our ability
to make new memories
is dependent on the hippocampus.
So in Alzheimer's, for example,
which massively attacks
the hippocampus, you
see that the capacity
to form new memories
isn't there.
And the person isn't there.
Memory is sort of a
linchpin of the whole self.
When memory goes, you
can see-- if you've
been around somebody
who has Alzheimer's,
a parent or a grandparent, you
see their whole sense of self--
it's like the rug has
been pulled out from it.
It's like the self is full
of-- it's like Swiss cheese.
It's like there's
holes in it everywhere.
The person isn't who they were.
So the ability to
process new memories,
and to deal with memories,
to process memories,
is critical for everything.
It's critical for
executive function.
It's critical for the
higher mental centers.
It's critical for
a sense of self.
So the hippocampus is this
very critical structure
that is involved body, heart,
mind, and spirit as well.
Spiritual practices have
a very robust effect
on the whole hippocampus.
So what stress does is it
slows down neurogenesis
and it actually attacks the
cells of the hippocampus.
It's neurotoxic.
And Alzheimer's is an
epidemic at this point.
Right now, one third
of seniors who die,
dies with either Alzheimer's
or some other form of dementia.
And right now, 42% of people
who reach the age of 85 have
Alzheimer's.
And pretty soon, it's going
to be 50% of the people who
reach the age of 85.
Since most of us are
expected to live to be 85,
that's a pretty
alarming statistic.
And right now, according to
the Alzheimer's Association,
according to their website,
Alzheimer's is the one disease
for which there is no drug.
There is no treatment.
There is no cure.
There is no prevention.
We have some drugs which
help with the symptoms
for a few months.
But that's all.
And the pharmaceutical companies
have spent billions of dollars
right now on hundreds
of drug trials,
trying to come up with the next
new billion-dollar drug to help
with Alzheimer's.
And so far, it's been a complete
failure, a total failure,
abject, zero, zip, nothing.
There's nothing right now.
So this is a pretty discouraging
picture at the moment.
But in the last couple
of years, there's
actually been some research
done from a holistic perspective
that shows promise; in fact,
shows incredible promise.
So there isn't a
lot of research done
from a holistic perspective
because most of the research
agenda is driven by
pharmaceutical companies
or academic researchers looking
to discover the next big drug,
patentable drug.
And holistic research,
it's like most
of the stuff there is free.
There's nothing that
can be made money from.
But about a year and a half
ago, the Buck Foundation,
up in Marin County,
published a study
that showed that
they actually were
able to reverse the
cognitive decline associated
with Alzheimer's using
a holistic approach.
So it's basically a kind
of simplified version
of what was in the book.
The study came out
just a couple months
before the book came out.
So I mentioned it in there.
But it's body,
heart, mind, spirit.
So there's physical
dimensions to this.
There's dietary
dimensions to this,
emotional, mental,
and also practicing
certain kinds of
spiritual practice.
And what they found
is that people
who have had to stop working
because of memory loss
were able to go back to
work for the two years
that they followed
them on the study.
And then in the
middle of last year,
there was a Finnish
study, which was
the first randomized
control study,
of 1,200 Finnish and Swedish
at-risk people, seniors,
at risk for cognitive
decline, that also showed
they were able to prevent
cognitive decline with a very
simplified version of this body,
heart, mind, spirit approach.
So right now, it looks as if
that this kind of holistic
approach is the only
evidence-based approach
to preventing and even reversing
the cognitive decline that we
see in Alzheimer's.
So that was a long
detour around stress
because Alzheimer's is
party caused by stress,
partly caused by
inflammation, partly
caused by a dysregulation
of sugar metabolism.
It's been called type 3
diabetes by many people.
So if we have chronic
stress in our lives,
and many, many
people do, one thing
we need to make sure to do
is to take breaks from it.
We need to exercise.
We need to meditate.
We need to laugh with friends.
We need to get downtime.
We need to do something
that gets our body back
to a homeostatic balance,
where we can go, ah.
We can relax.
We can reset the
internal chemistry,
so we're not just recycling
stress hormones all day long.
That's hugely
damaging to the brain.
We need to have
some kind of break.
We need to get
offline occasionally.
We need to just not be
always on, always available.
So stress is huge in this.
And there are certain kinds of
relationships that are helpful
and certain kinds
that are hurtful.
Obviously, broken
relationships are not fun.
And it turns out they
also are very damaging
in terms of the brain.
Neurogenesis slows way down.
Chronic anger slows
neurogenesis way down.
And loving, supportive
relationships
increases our rate
of neurogenesis.
We secrete certain
hormones, like oxytocin,
which have a very strong
stimulating effect
on the rate of neurogenesis.
In terms of the mind, what
we need to do to stimulate
neurogenesis is to
learn new things.
We need to be ongoing
lifelong learners.
There's two times in life when
there's a measurable cognitive
decline.
One is graduation from college
and the other is retirement.
Unless, after you graduate from
college, you get into a career
where you are a
knowledge worker,
or where you're a
teacher, or you're
something where you're using
your brain in some way.
And maybe you're using it
in business in some way.
And maybe you're a
professional of some sort.
Then there is no
cognitive decline.
Same with retirement,
often people
just go and play golf, a
rapid fall-off of brain
functioning after that.
But if you're a
lifelong learner,
if you're learning new
things, if you're reading,
if you're writing, even
if it's just email,
even if you're just reading
stuff on the internet,
if you're keeping
your brain active,
that's what is important.
And in your earlier years,
if you're using your brain,
you're building something
called cognitive reserve.
And cognitive reserve,
then when beta
amyloid, if it does
begin to accumulate,
you are protected from it,
for a very, very long time.
So teachers have the lowest rate
of Alzheimer's as a profession.
They're using their brains.
As knowledge workers, you
guys are using your brains.
And that's going to be
very helpful keeping it up.
And also learning new things,
not doing just the same thing,
but learning new things.
And the last thing,
in terms of spirit.
So it turns out that there are a
couple spiritual practices that
appear to increase neurogenesis
along the entire axis
of the hippocampus.
So there are certain things
that only increase neurogenesis
along one end or the other end.
For example,
antidepressants-- you know,
when you take
antidepressants-- actually,
this is how they really began
to understand that neurogenesis
was important.
There's been this belief,
that's been marketed really
by the pharmaceutical
companies, that depression
means you've got low serotonin,
low serotonin transmitter
levels.
And it turns out
that's not true.
That the selective serotonin
reuptake inhibitors, SSRIs,
work not by
increasing serotonin,
but by increasing your
rate of neurogenesis.
So the pharmaceutical
companies right now
are making $16
billion a year off
of the different SSRIs, the most
widely prescribed psychoactive
drug in the world.
They've got a good thing going.
The cartels have a
good thing going here.
And they know it.
They're looking to
sell more product.
But they also know that
this serotonin deficiency
myth is that.
It's a myth.
That actually when you
start taking SSRIs,
your serontonin levels go up
immediately, within hours.
But there's no change in
mood for three to four weeks.
Well, that's how long
it takes new brain cells
to mature and to come online.
So the cartels know this.
They are madly at work
on drugs to increase
the rate of neurogenesis.
And when they come
up with them, we
will hear about them
nonstop, no doubt.
But there are a lot
of natural things,
that are very
inexpensive, that increase
your rate of neurogenesis
way more than SSRIs do.
I would love to do a
study around depression
and compare SSRIs with
a holistic approach
like this, if
anybody's interested.
So what SSRIs do is they
increase neurogenesis
along the emotional side
of the hippocampus, which
is why you don't get a cognitive
boost when you do SSRIs.
But certain types of meditation
and spiritual practice
appear to increase neurogenesis
along the entire length
of the hippocampus.
And the two types that
appear to have this effect
are A, mindfulness practices;
and B, heart-opening practices,
devotional practices.
So devotional prayer,
Bhakti practices,
Christian practices
of surrender,
different practices of
opening to the divine,
of calling on the divine,
heart-opening practices,
meta-practices also,
compassion practices, these
have a very powerful effect
on the rate of neurogenesis,
and also mindfulness practices.
So mindfulness, as
you all know, is
the process of coming into the
here and now, more and more,
sometimes focusing on
one particular thing
like the breath, or hearing,
or a particular sense
or a feeling; sometimes
focusing on just whatever
arises in consciousness, but
coming into the present moment
more and more.
This also, after as
little as eight weeks,
seems to have a
very powerful effect
on our rate of neurogenesis.
So when your rate of
neurogenesis is low,
it's like paddling upstream.
It's a lot of effort
for very little result.
And sometimes even, it's like
we're still moving backwards.
When your rate of
neurogenesis is high,
it's like paddling downstream.
It's not that there's no effort.
But the effort is
so readily available
that it's almost like
an effortless effort.
We still have bad
things happen to us.
But we bounce back
much more quickly.
There's more resilience.
Resilience is this
capacity to bounce back.
And we're not thrown as much.
We feel more on top of it.
So I would just
encourage you all
to think about
modifying, not just
your diet, but your
whole lifestyle,
so that it's a more
neurohealthy, neurogenic way
of living in the world.
And I'd make just one
suggestion for Google,
which is the different
restaurants in your food court.
I think it would be great to
have one that just focused
on brain health, that
didn't serve anything
that would be neurotoxic
or which would lower
your rate of neurogenesis.
And would only serve things
that are neurohealthy
and increase your
rate of neurogenesis.
It would make it
very easy, rather
than to have to navigate all of
these very complex food marts.
So let me just open
it up to questions.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
RACHAEL O'MEARA: Yeah.
Questions?
I'll pass the mic around.
AUDIENCE: Man, I've
got so many questions.
OK.
First, can you comment on
the multitude of studies
that show that drinking
coffee correlates
to a lowered rate of
Alzheimer's, stabilized
blood sugar, et cetera.
That's one question.
BRANT CORTRIGHT: OK.
Yeah.
The polyphenols in coffee
are really good for you.
It's the caffeine part
that's bad for neurogenesis.
AUDIENCE: So does that
suggest drinking decaf coffee?
BRANT CORTRIGHT: If you're
going to drink coffee,
drink decaf, absolutely.
Or you can do like an extract.
Like, you can green tea
extracts that are caffeine-free.
Those polyphenols are
fantastic for your brain.
They stimulate neurogenesis.
And you want, like
with green tea,
you want like the equivalent
of 10, 15 cups a day.
But you don't want
that caffeine.
So you want caffeine-free.
And the same with coffee.
The coffee polyphenyls
are great for the brain.
They're anti-inflammatory.
They're good for many things.
But it's the caffeine that turns
down the rate of neurogenesis.
I'm afraid we're going to have a
lot of questions about caffeine
here.
RACHAEL O'MEARA: I'll just
take one more quickly.
AUDIENCE: Can you comment
on intermittent fasting
and neurogenesis?
BRANT CORTRIGHT: Yeah.
Intermittent
fasting also appears
to also be one of those
things that increases
the rate of neurogenesis.
Yeah, it's helpful.
It's helpful for bringing
down your blood sugar levels,
your hemoglobin A1c levels,
for increasing your insulin
resistance.
And it also is one of
these like mild stressors
that is good for neurogenesis.
RACHAEL O'MEARA: Question?
AUDIENCE: I have three things.
And I'll try to keep
them very short.
The first is do you
know of any research
into theobromine, as opposed
to caffeine, as a stimulant?
Just for the audience,
that's what's in chocolate.
The second is it possible for us
to measure our own neurogenesis
or is this like
self-surgery on our brains?
And the third, I've forgotten.
So I guess it's just two.
[LAUGHTER]
BRANT CORTRIGHT: Good.
Two good questions.
So the first one was
are there any studies
done on theobromine and the
effects on neurogenesis?
So theobromine is the
stimulant that's in chocolate.
People think of caffeine
being in chocolate.
But there's very, very
little, almost none.
There's something
called theobromine.
And theobromine is actually
very similar to caffeine.
But it's different and it has
a slightly different effect.
There are no studies
that I know of.
But just given that
caffeine has that effect,
I would bet, 99 to 1, that
it also lowers neurogenesis.
I wish they would make
a theobromine-free dark
chocolate.
But they don't.
So I don't know.
But I would bet that
it also lowers it.
And the second question was?
AUDIENCE: Ah, how
do we measure it?
BRANT CORTRIGHT: Oh,
how do we measure it?
So there are a number of
neuroimaging possibilities
for looking at
neurogenesis in the brain.
But the definitive way
to tell is on autopsy.
[LAUGHTER]
That's why in human
beings, they weren't
able to confirm this
for a long time.
They knew it happened in mice.
They knew it
happened in monkeys.
They knew it for a long time.
But they couldn't confirm
it in human beings
until the late 1990s.
But there are a lot
of other measures
that-- like looking
at blood flow,
looking at the use of glucose,
looking at synaptic growth.
There are other
things that go along
with it that often indicate it.
But they aren't absolutely
definitive for it.
So we really know
by how we feel,
I think, probably
more than anything.
If you're feeling depressed,
if you're feeling anxious,
if you're feeling
stressed, you probably
have a low rate of neurogenesis.
Yeah?
AUDIENCE: Is there
any difference
or what is the difference
between sources of DHA algae
versus fish-based?
BRANT CORTRIGHT: Good
question, really good question.
So I mentioned fish oil.
And that's what we usually
think of when we think
of omega-3 fatty acids and DHA.
There are vegetarian
sources of omega-3.
There's flax oil.
There's chia seeds.
There's algae.
So there's three fatty acids.
There's ALA, EPA, and DHA.
DHA is the one we're after here.
EPA is also really
good, anti-inflammatory.
ALA, it's nice.
But it turns out that
flax oil and chia seeds,
they have a lot of ALA.
And the brain
converts that to DHA
at a very inefficient level,
something like 3% or 5%
in healthy 18-year-olds.
And it goes down from there.
So they've tried to raise
DHA levels with flax oil,
with chia seeds.
You can't do it.
They see no increase
in rise in DHA levels.
However, with algae,
they have seen a rise.
So algae has EPA in it.
And EPA converts to
DHA much more readily.
So they've seen a
rise in DHA levels
from people who just
supplement with algae.
So if you're a
vegetarian or vegan,
be sure to do the
algae form of omega-3s
because the others
are not going to have
an effect on your brain.
And being a vegetarian, it's
going to hard on your brain.
And I was a vegetarian
for a period of time.
And I think it was
hard on my brain.
I think you've got
to really go out
of your way to get the
kind of supplementation
that you need, that
your brain needs,
if you're going to be a
vegetarian or a vegan.
AUDIENCE: The bottle says
DHA on the-- [INAUDIBLE].
It says the algae-based.
BRANT CORTRIGHT: Yeah.
It has some.
But also, it gets
converted into DHA.
AUDIENCE: OK.
So most of that DHA is coming
from the conversion, and not
necessarily outright?
BRANT CORTRIGHT: That's
my understanding.
Yes.
AUDIENCE: OK, thanks.
BRANT CORTRIGHT: Yeah.
AUDIENCE: Hi.
Thank you so much.
I have a question
about in those studies,
is there a difference between
genders, female versus male
in terms of neurogenesis?
BRANT CORTRIGHT: Mostly, no.
There's some studies
done showing that sex is
really good for neurogenesis.
However, there's a difference
between males and females here.
So for males, it doesn't
make any difference
how the sex happens.
Neurogenesis increases.
[LAUGHTER]
But for females, it
turns out that the female
needs to control the
timing of the sex in order
for neurogenesis to occur.
Women probably
already know this.
If the woman is not
in control, it's
not going to have the same
effect in terms of your brain.
If the woman has a
say in the rhythm
and has some control
in the process,
then, again, it's
a robust effect.
So men, take note.
RACHAEL O'MEARA: A question
over here, somewhere?
AUDIENCE: I think the food
cafe is a really good idea.
Would you be willing
to collaborate on that?
BRANT CORTRIGHT: I'd
be happy to help.
AUDIENCE: All right.
BRANT CORTRIGHT: It'd be fun.
AUDIENCE: First
of all, thank you.
This was really great and
very, very interesting.
Especially because a lot of
things that you mentioned,
I've been practicing
for a while.
And I could really
relate to a lot of things
that you were saying in myself.
And I'm also very glad
that you mentioned
the heartfulness
and the mindfulness
because I seldom hear that.
And I've been practicing the
Sufi meditation for the past 10
years.
And it actually includes
those two elements.
So that's really
great to see that.
My question now is
probably more geared
at the molecular
level in the brain.
Because we know that
the oxygen and glucose
are the only type of sources
for the brain to feed on.
I'm interested in
whether we know
what happens at the molecular
level, that the brain says,
OK, for example, if I'm
consuming omega-3, that OK,
this omega-3 now
is coming into me.
Now, I know I am
going to, for example,
create this neuron, where
it's going to be created,
and what the functionality
of it would be?
Because obviously
there are many things
with the brain
that we don't know.
And at that level,
how does that happen?
Do we know that or are we
still in the research process?
BRANT CORTRIGHT: You're
right at one of the cutting
edges of brain science here.
The brain can not
only use glucose,
but it can also
use ketone bodies.
In fact, neurons burn cleaner
and better on fat, on ketones.
So actually in
terms of brain fuel,
things like medium-chain
triglycerides, coconut oil,
is better for the
brain than sugar.
Sugar produces a lot of
other toxic byproducts
that are not so good.
But when, say, omega-3 comes
in or when the hippocampus
is producing new brain
cells, along which
end of the hippocampus
it's being-- it partly
depends on what is needed,
what is being stimulated.
But also they really
don't know this.
There's way more that we
don't know about the brain
than we know.
The brain is so complex,
the most complex thing
in the known universe.
And although
neuroscience is kind
of like bursting with new
knowledge at this point,
it's still oversold in
many ways, what we know.
There's kind of a
feeling that neuroscience
is being used to justify just
about any new theory du jour--
any new-- people can take
neuroscience and kind of run
with it.
So I think we need a very
sort of humble attitude
when it comes to
looking at this.
And right now, we know that
these new cells, these neurons,
as they mature,
they get integrated
into the existing circuitry
where they are needed.
So it really depends on what is
happening in the environment,
for the person.
But exactly how it's
happening, that's
being explored right now.
There's a lot to know about it.
Yeah.
It's a great question.
AUDIENCE: I have a
question about sleep.
So you mentioned
seven or eight hours
minimum, sleep is important.
Can you talk a little
bit about naps and what
if I got four hours of sleep
and then I had a couple naps,
or if I had-- oh, up for an
hour and then I go back to bed?
Is that the same?
BRANT CORTRIGHT: That's good
for getting through the day.
But it's not going to make up in
terms of the lost neurogenesis.
For that, you really need
more sustained sleep.
Yeah.
RACHAEL O'MEARA:
Any other questions?
We got about two more
questions, probably.
AUDIENCE: Another
sleep-related question.
So are there any studies that
show the actual dream time
that you have during your sleep
time is affecting neurogenesis
or not?
Because for mental
health, dream time
seems to be very important.
And there's lots of,
like, alcohol or lots
of chemicals that actually
reduce your dream time.
And you might think
you sleep enough time.
But actually, it's
not good for you.
BRANT CORTRIGHT: Yeah.
Yeah.
It's a good question.
I don't think they know
exactly which parts of sleep
are most critical.
Clearly, dreaming
is hugely important
for memory consolidation, hugely
important just for functioning.
We go psychotic if we
don't have enough dreams.
But it seems like this
deep cleansing of the brain
happens both during REM sleep,
as well as non-REM sleep
as well.
That's a good question.
I'm not entirely sure.
RACHAEL O'MEARA: Yeah.
One more question?
Anyone have one, one more?
AUDIENCE: So more of a
physiological question.
So you talk about
having two hippocampi.
Is there a reason
why people usually
refer to the hippocampus as a
single section of the brain?
Are there any studies as far
as symmetry is concerned?
BRANT CORTRIGHT: Yeah.
I don't know why.
You'd think that to be more
precise, they would say both.
But it's just the tradition is
to talk about the hippocampus.
And they each interface,
like with emotion differently
because the right and the
left brain process emotion
differently.
So they have slightly
different functions.
But they're basically
doing the same thing
in the right and left
versions of those things.
AUDIENCE: Thank you.
RACHAEL O'MEARA: Great.
Well, thanks Dr. Cortright.
It's been great.
BRANT CORTRIGHT: Thank you all.
I appreciate this.
RACHAEL O'MEARA: And there
are still some books.
[APPLAUSE]
