6 Natural Medicines for Brain Health | Jim Kwik

When you want to improve your cognitive performance, the

health

of your

brain

is not just your neurological networks, it's your social networks, who you spend time with, it's who you become or you have these mirror neurons, we constantly imitate the people around us and We started developing the same. habits of the people around us the same behaviors the same language and thoughts and standards and character just in 2018 there was a joint study conducted by New York University and Virginia Tech and they discovered that 13 minutes of meditation for eight weeks not only improved state mood, but it also improves things like concentration and working memory, just 13 minutes a day for eight weeks, welcome back to the fast

brain

program.

I'm your host and your brain coach, Jim Quick, and what are we going to talk about today? I share with you six

natural

medicines

to improve your brain and have higher levels of intelligence, higher levels of income and higher levels of impact. Some of you heard this meme or this quote somewhere on social media that says the six best doctors in the world and No one can deny that it is what Sunshine, water, rest, air, exercise and diet are right, and it is true, If you want

natural

ways to be able to be

health

y so you can improve your learning and your life, those things are there and in addition to the diet things.

They're really free, they could come at no cost now I'm going to go a deeper level. I'm going to share with you six medications that are actually natural, they're not real medications, but I'm going to give you an acronym for six things you can do when you feel stressed when you feel overloaded, overwhelmed, like you don't know where to start . I want you to choose one of these six things, so what are these six natural

medicines

? I want you to think about this acronym meds meds meds are about brain power was on our podcast and he said RX medications, so there are six things you could do to be able to take advantage of them and I want to share with you simple things you could do that are easy and mostly free.

They just take your time. m-e-d-s-r-x and RX are usually like those pharmaceutical medications, but they have no side effects. Best of all, they require very little time, very little money, so what does the m for m mean in medications? RX means meditation. Now in this podcast we'll link all of them. By the way, in the notes, make sure you always go to jimquick.com. Notes with forward slash. It's invaluable information, it won't cost you anything, you just have to pay attention, which is why the m stands for meditation. We've done so many episodes. 300 episodes in total, but many of them are about the power of your mind through meditation and mindfulness.

We've had guests like Emily Fletcher share her process on how to meditate, so I'm not going to explain it in this. podcast, be sure to follow the links right now. Meditation is great for the brain. Sometimes we have to disconnect in order to reconnect with ourselves. It's like a little stop or pause. For me, I meditate twice a day. It's non-negotiable because you know your brain isn't meant to go fast all the time. You need these little breaks. You take a deliberate break and that's where you can really consolidate information. Take your short term and turn it into long term memory.

In fact, it can help speed up learning. In 2018, there was a joint study done by New York University and Virginia Tech and they found that 13 minutes of meditation for eight weeks not only improved mood but also improved things like concentration and working memory in just 13 minutes. one day for eight weeks, this study also concluded that it helped decrease things like anxiety and improved emotional regulation. So are you taking the time? Do you schedule your meditation every day? Remember that when we talk about routines and habits, first you create your habits and then those habits create you, so schedule it, put it on your agenda.

The number one productivity tool you have for peace of mind is your calendar, so remember, when you go, sometimes you feel like you're exhausted. You're exhausted not because you're doing too much but because you're doing too little of the things that make you feel alive, so take that break once or twice a day and post it on social media. Let me know if it's working. Now, the e in meds RX stands for, you can probably guess the exercise. Now we've done many episodes on our podcast about the power of what movement. We've had people like Sean Stevenson talking about brain exercises that we've had episodes with.

Aaron Alexander, who wrote a talk on alignment about the power of movement and how to maximize your body for a better brain, so in many episodes be sure to check out jimquick.com, with slash notes and there have been many studies done on the power of exercise, probably more than any other. another area that when you move your body while your body moves guess what grooves your brain has when you move your body you create neurotropic factors derived from the brain fancy word b dnf which is like fertilizer for your brain and we live in this very sedentary lifestyle many of We, myself included, sit behind a computer, we sit behind a screen and they say sitting is a novelty in smoking, so do you take the time to move?

There is a study done in 2015 at the University of Cambridge where they took participants, they did a baseline in terms of cognitive. capacity and tests and they had part of the group exercise, they did aerobic exercise in this case and part of the group watched videos of people exercising and then they followed up and those who actually exercised there was increased activity in the prefrontal cortex and this lasted for hours , so if you're feeling stuck during the day, if you're just studying and cramming information and you're at work, make sure you take those brain breaks. Take 5, 10, 15 minutes and go for a walk, clear your mind. move your body, we know that people when they listen to our podcast or our audiobook or listen to something when they do something rhythmic maybe they're on an elliptical maybe you're walking the dog and What you're listening to really helps you improve your information retention and your understanding, so move your body, exercise and that's the e in meds RX.

Do you have too much to read but too little time? Do you have shelves full of books that you have? You don't read yet and you become a helper on the shelf, not a self-helper, and that's why I created the speed reading course 15 Minutes a Day 21 Days Will Transform Your Life Completely. Just go to quickbrain.com forward slash reading, use the code podcast 15 and you'll get instant access now the D you'll probably guess correctly is your diet, right, we talked about this on our shows, we did a whole episode on Limitless on neuronutrition, you Your brain consumes energy, it only makes up two percent of your body mass, but it requires 20 percent of nutrients and your brain actually requires different nutrients than the rest of your body, so I'm not going to go over our brain diet, we've done a lot of episodes on that and we'll link the slash notes from jimquick.com to our interviews. with people like Dr.

Lisa Moscone, talking about the best brain foods, Dr. Uma, talking about the best brain foods, supplements, and nutrition, you want to be able to fuel this machine because what you eat matters, especially for your gray matter, my team just sent me this study in 2015. There was a study done by Dr. Drew Ramsey, the Journal of Missouri State Medical Association looks in detail at the benefits of nutrients and brain health, specifically deficiencies serious nutritional deficiencies in vitamin B12, B9, which is folate, and zinc, which can cause things like low depression. mood fatigue cognitive decline and irritability Eating nutrient-dense foods reduces inflammation, which is linked to higher rates of mental illness, increased risk of depression, mild cognitive impairment, and ADHD, so in short, you can control your mood and mind, even your memory, through the food you eat. decide to eat because food is information, there is a lot of junk food out there you want to reduce processed food you want to reduce sugar because sugar is very harmful to the human brain we did an episode with Leanna Warner Gray talking about freedom from anxiety foods Foods that could take so you can reduce anxiety and stress because chronic stress has been shown to shrink the human brain so make those wise decisions every day because food is information and there is no such thing as junk food, there is junk food and then there is food scrap. real food, eat that food, the s in meds RX, you can probably guess what sleeps and we've done several podcast episodes on how to master your sleep when you're not sleeping well at night, how's your brain the next day? energy How is your memory?

How is your ability to solve problems? Make good decisions. Every function is affected by lack of sleep. When you sleep specifically for your memory. I know many of you join us because you want to improve your memory. Improve your ability to learn. By sleeping, you consolidate short-term memory and long-term memory, just when you sleep, you can potentially clear that amyloid beta plaque that could lead to brain aging problems and so, are you getting enough rest? Visit jimquick.com, scroll through the notes and listen to the episodes. or watch on our YouTube, many of you subscribe to our YouTube channel, about a million of you have our episodes with Dr.

Michael Bruce, the sleep doctor, with Sean Stevenson, who wrote Sleep Smarter. We've done so many episodes, probably a dozen episodes on how to master your Soul Jump, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society, published this study recommending that adults get a minimum of seven hours of sleep a night to avoid adverse health problems, such as weight gain, obesity and we know that as the waist increases, the brain actually gets smaller. correct diabetes hypertension heart disease stroke depression it has been shown that people who sleep less than seven hours experience impaired immune function greater pain lower cognitive and physical performance we are prone to making more mistakes during the day and have a higher risk of accidents like this make sure you prioritize your sleep, we have a lot of brain tips on our podcast, you know, starting with getting sunlight first thing in the morning, resetting your circadian rhythm, a proper sleep environment that's cooler because the triggers for produce melatonin, which helps you relax, there are two things, what are they?

This is like me asking you a quick question. This is your quick temperature recovery and some of you know that when they lower the temperature, I use a mattress topper to help reduce the temperature which could actually regulate the amount of temperature that you have and also reducing the lighting, sometimes our Screens keep us awake because they imitate sunlight and it's not like you're tricking your mind. I think it's still daytime so you want to sleep in a dark environment, ideally with these blackout curtains for some people. wear an eye mask but remember the temperature and light and if you want more read Limitless listen to our podcast we have all the links on jimquick.com slash notes but make sure you prioritize your sleep you have a wake up alarm you have a go away alarm to sleep your brain loves coherence now the RX part I received from our friend Brendan Burchard again the r stands for relationships.

We've done a lot of episodes where when you want to improve your cognitive performance, your brain health is not just your neurological networks, it's your social networks who you spend time with is who you become, right, you have these mirror neurons, we're constantly By imitating the people around us, we start to develop the same habits of the people around us, the same behaviors, the same language, thoughts, standards and correct character, so you must make sure to build your positive peer group. We all need people to encourage us. We all need people to pat us on the back to encourage us, challenge us to be kind to ourselves.

How do we tell if you have done it? I haven't found that person yet, be that person for someone else, especially be that person for who, be that person for yourself, right? We've done a lot of episodes about the power of belonging Mickey, we've done a lot of episodes about the power of connection and I even had Dr. Waldinger on the show, he talked about that study. It's an 84-year study, the longest on happiness at Harvard University and the power of being healthy andhappy. The number one taxpayer. It wasn't diet or exercise. It was the people around you because who we spend time with is who we become, so if you haven't listened to those episodes, make sure you go to gymquick.com.

I know I'm repeating myself because repetition is the mother. from memory, go and listen, dig into your favorite, follow it, subscribe so you don't miss it, because if you miss one of these episodes, you might find that you're missing a lot, so be really aware of the people you meet. you have around you if you are surrounded by energy vampires and they are draining your energy and you wonder why you are not motivated because maybe we are reducing our level of growth and the people around us might worry about us because maybe they are like why listen to podcasts all the time, why I went to those events and read those books, maybe because they are sincere, they don't want you to get your hopes up or maybe they don't want to lose you because you want to say. maybe you are changing and growing, they may be sincere but they may also be sincerely wrong and finally meds RX your diet is your food so it costs but you know you want to make sure you eat Whole Foods and you eat as pure as possible without toxins the S is sleep and hopefully that's free and the r is relationships and finally the x is anything any additional thing you want to put into it, you may have heard the episode on YouTube right now it has a quarter of a million views, we posted it. recently about the four elements of my morning and evening routine and they are all free too, but these are the extras, what were some of the things?

Well, I talked about the power of breathing well and that's free air, it's wonderful many times when you're tired it's because you're not getting enough oxygen because most of us have postures and we clap at the desk or when we're talking on the phone and you collapse, the bottom third of your lungs absorbs two-thirds of the oxygen, so you need to be able to take a breath, ground yourself first thing in the morning, you know, touch the ground if possible, get water, stay hydrated, wonderful for your brain, so that's all the extras. Some of the other things they do is get direct sunlight that we talked about.

That's free and things don't have to cost you in terms of money, they cost you your concentration and your time, and every day you know we're making these kinds of decisions, but I think every morning we wake up. We have a chance because we have options and you can make these decisions. You know simple things I do and the extras, hot and cold therapy. Did you hear me speak? We had Wim Hof ​​on the show. I met him more than 10 years ago. We were both speaking at an event ago in Boston, but are you taking cold showers to reduce inflammation?

Reset your nervous system. You know, doing it for 11 minutes total in a week. Many of you are familiar with Dr. Susanna. She will help us. she's also on the show and she talks about the 11 minutes of cold every week and the 57 minutes of sauna all week, obviously consult your doctor, your health professional, but in heat therapy, go to Asana and which heat shock proteins are best for you. get that hormesis effect and we've talked about it in many different episodes so these are the extras that you can add as a supplement, we'll also do a special episode on neuronutrition and some of the supplements and nootropics that you take too, we'll talk about brain nutrition , but these are the extras that go further and here is the important thing.

Remember that you don't have to do everything you want to make a little incremental progress because little by little a little becomes a lot, so again medications. RX follow these six things you could do, they are natural, you don't need a prescription to do these things, they probably have no side effects, so the side effects are probably positive for you too and make smart choices. Well, ultimately, you are the superhero on your own journey. Well, with the little things that you do, you are feeding your mind, you are feeding your body at the same time, but it really is common sense, but remember that common sense is not usually common.

Practice, what I'm going to ask you is to take a simple action. What could you do from these six to make a positive difference? Remember that question we talked about with Dr. Daniel Amen or change your brain, change your life, he says. This is either good for my brain or bad for my brain because those small choices add up to big choices that become habits that become our life. I want to thank you so much for listening to this episode, if you found it helpful be sure to share it. Share it with your family Share it with your friends Leave a review.

We read every review. Our team starts every day by reading the feedback you give us, so I want to thank you beyond this journey with us. I believe there is a Version of yourself waiting patiently. How do we know them? We show up every day until we're introduced to I'm Your Brain Coach, your host of the Quick Brain podcast. I'll see you on our next episode until then, be unlimited abroad.