How Can We Best Help Our Brain Stay Sharp Till Our End w/ Neuroscientist Dr. Majid Fotuhi

Welcome. I'm Kevin Miller. This is a podcast to elevate your experience of life and experience

you're creating. In this episode, how can we best help our brain stay sharp till our end?

You know, we're in an information age and I don't feel there are any or many new topics

and that there's little actual new information, but we can discover new insights and new angles

and information that's I think more relevant for our current culture and ourselves. And sometimes I

interest myself in a specific individual and their role within a topic and I want to hear their

take on it. So with that said, in this episode, I'm with Dr. Majeed Fautouy. So Harper Collins is one

of the biggest world's biggest publishers, one of the top five and they sent me a galley copy,

which if you're watching the video, that's the books that are over my shoulder here. It's a pre-copy

in essence before the books actually published. So send it to me to review and the books called the

Invincible Brain that clinically proven plan to age-proof your brain and stay sharp for life.

Well, I'm very interested in brain health just personally. I mean, I want to be cognitively sharp

and able until my last breath, if at all possible. And I'm interested in Majeed's background.

He earned his PhD in neuroscience from Johns Hopkins University and in his medical degree from

Harvard Medical School. So two institutions I greatly respect. Majeed is currently an adjunct

professor at the Mind Brain Institute at Johns Hopkins University while also teaching at

George Washington University and Harvard Medical School. So he's got 37 years of experience

in teaching, clinical practice, and neuroscience research. Majeed's really just a pioneer

in enhancing brain vitality and cognitive performance. And he actually developed a brain

fitness program. We're going to talk about pieces that today that are in his book.

And it targets lifestyle optimization and cognitive stimulation to improve memory, focus,

and overall brain health. The program's delivered measurable success. This is where my interest is

for patients dealing with memory loss due to aging, concussions, and ADHD. I'm just interested

for my own aging. I'm doing all that I can, but what can I do specifically for the brain? I think

anything I do for my health and wellness, my overall well-being is going to aid my brain, but what's

specifically focused on this muscle I have of brain? So coming up next, my conversation with Dr.

Majeed Fautouy to discuss his findings as he works to keep his own brain invincible and

help you and me do it as well. So let's elevate our experience of life.

Majeed, when this book, your topic here came across my desk, the idea of an invincible brain.

One of my core motives for my own health and wellness and well-being pursuit is just that. I do,

I want my health span to equal my lifespan. And I would, I'd rather die younger, but have full

cognitive abilities than linger without those. So I'm well aware of that, but it brought me to,

it's actually page, well, I may have a galley copy here, but in mine, it's chapter three at

least of your book. And you start off right there with why would you want an invincible brain? And

I know later in the book, and we'll get to it, you talk about purpose, but I wanted to start there,

just the motive because it's easy to assume that doesn't everybody want an invincible brain.

But we look at that and I felt it was a good time to audit. What do I really, and why? Does that

feel like the crux really of our of our of our getting off on this path is figuring out why?

I think that many people share your ideas in that they want to grow old, but they don't want to live

life if they're demented. In my experience of seeing thousands of patients, this is a very common

expression I hear from my patients. They say, I'm going to live a long life, but I don't want to

live life if I'm not with it. If I don't have my marbles, I don't want to live life at all.

And the good news is that we can help people maintain their level of cognitive functions

well into their 90s. For the first time in decades, we have scientific evidence that it is

possible to keep your brain young as you grow older, just like you, Kevin, are keeping your body

strong. And in the old days, let's say you are in late 40s or early 50s, someone in 50s would

not be as good a shape as you are now. And look around you, especially in Colorado. When you go

with skiing, you see a lot of people ski really well in their 80s. I don't know about 90s.

When I come there and I go skiing, I love it when I go on ski lifts. I know I see older adults

who are just giggling like teenagers getting off and on the ski lifts. And so we know

based on this new generation of older adults that it is possible to keep our brain sharp. And I

look forward to getting older and keeping my brain sharp. Okay, on that possible to keep our brains

sharp. I have for a long time now felt that we as a culture have this misperception that our

brain is separate or compartmentalized from the rest of our body that we can sit here at the

computer and just be brilliant and never move. And maybe our body starts having problems, but our

brain is going to be intact. And I just I'm not the doctor. I'm not the scientist. I'm not the

researcher, but I have not seen that when you talk about Colorado. Yeah, I'm out here. And if I

show up to a running race or a cycling race or go skiing, I'm used to seeing people. Yeah, 80s and

90s who are obviously by proxy of being in that physical activity. They're physically fit. I have

not encountered. I want to say it all, but I have I don't recall encountering somebody who was

physically well, who was not also mentally well, but I do feel like we don't honor that association.

Yes, you're absolutely right. It's all saying healthy body, healthy mind, and that's so true.

What most people don't appreciate is that your heart impacts your brain. That's an obvious one,

right? Because the stronger your heart, the more blood flow you will have in your brain, your brain

will function well. But most people don't appreciate that muscles generate proteins and hormones

called myocytes. And these myocytes have direct neuro protective benefits for the brain.

Bones, bones make something also that produces his hormones that are good for the brain. And of

course, most people have heard about the link between the guts and the brain. And of course,

it goes without saying that if your lungs are nice and strong and fresh, you'll be able to

supply fresh oxygen to your brain. And of course, if your liver is functioning well,

you're detoxifying all the chemicals in your blood, which means you're protecting your brain from

exposure to potential toxins. So we are learning more and more that our muscles, our bones,

our liver, our gut, and our heart are intimately connected with our brain. And in order for us to

have a sharp brain, we need to have a strong body and vice versa. Because when you are a sharp

person, you appreciate that you need to take care of your body. So instead of sleeping in,

you go for a walk, instead of eating french fries, you have frozen vegetables and a bowl of yogurt.

So it goes both ways. When your body is healthy and strong, it produces hormones that are

protected for the brain. And when your brain is strong and healthy, you make decisions that keep

your body healthy and strong. My career bio showcases me starting 19 different business initiatives

about to launch another one. And I'm never perfectly confident. There's always some risk,

always some insecurity. But at this point, every effort has provided me with some value. And some

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I am curious. I'm curious, Majid. If you had to, it's not a fair question, but I'm going to

ask it anyways. If you had to veer on one side or the other that today you can, or for the next

week or the next month, you can attend to your body. You can sleep well. You can eat well. You can,

you can, you know, try to have less stress even in what you're doing. Or you can do brain games.

You can work on some cognitive things, memory as and which we'll talk about shortly and things

like that. Where are you going to ebb first? Because I sometimes question that if my body is in

disarray, I can hardly get myself cognitively to engage. And so thoughts.

This is an excellent question. And this is a question that I've heard many, many times. People

have limited time to take up their brain. And so if they have an hour or a day or 45 minute

a day, what would the best thing they can do during that short period of time to have the highest

benefits for their brain? And the short answer is exercise. Physical exercise is the single

most effective way to keep your brain young. I have developed what I call the five pillars of

brain health. Exercise, sleep, nutrition, stress reduction, and brain training.

And that order is almost the order that I believe is helpful for the brain. In other words,

I think exercise is the number one thing you could do to keep your brain nice and fresh and

strong. And brain training is good for you. It definitely helps to increase the number of synapses

in the brain, increase the number of connections in the brain, and keep your brain sharp.

However, if I had half an hour only, and I had a choice of going for a run or sitting down

and doing Sudoku, I'll go for a run. Ideally, you want to have a schedule where you attend to all

these five pillars of brain health. You could exercise 45 minutes or an hour through four days a week.

And then on the other days, spend no half an hour doing brain training and spend maybe 10 minutes

every other day to do meditation. And then on a daily basis, watch what you eat and make your

sleep a priority. You don't need to put extra time for your sleep. You just need to find out

what's preventing you from having a good night's sleep and addressing it. And so take care of your

sleep is doesn't take time. You just have to have a setup. You need to have a plan of what you're

going to do about your sleep. Your diet doesn't take extra time. You just have to make right choices.

So you're going to spend time on exercise and you're going to need to spend time on some kind of

meditation, stress reduction, slow breathing. I need to spend some time on brain training.

And if you spend an average an hour a day, you can attend to all this things. It's not that complicated.

Okay, let's talk about that. The complicated. This has been another thing that has

I have experienced somewhat. And then I actually have somebody's going to be on the show soon

with a new book. They have a facility over in Switzerland where the rich and famous come

for help. Interestingly, though, these rich and famous, these are people who are pursuing health

and wellness to a huge degree. They have infinite amount of money and time to spend. So they've

got their trainers and their cooks and their therapists and their meditation gurus and they've

got all this stuff and they're doing all the things. And yet they're not well and finding that

the stress, even the anxiety around managing and being healthy is deteriorating their health.

Okay, that concept, oh, I bother myself with because I relate the effort to keep it all going

and to eat right and to get the right stuff and to exercise and to do the training and do all

the things in my anxiety is up just around those. And I feel like I'm doing all those right things

and yet those termites are wearing me out and I am just tired. And that's what I keep hearing with

people, even these people with great biomarkers overall and that they're tired and exhausted.

And I wonder about one, the effort and the anxiety around sometimes are our perspective.

You know, as sometimes sabotaging all these good efforts. Your experience?

Excellent point. I think it's not healthy to be obsessed about longevity.

You need to add life to your years as you add years to your life. You need to enjoy your day

today and tomorrow and next week before worrying about what's going to happen to you 20, 30 years from

now. So I think, you know, the way I would approach that is relax. You know, it's not that

complicated. You need to exercise and be fit. That's not complicated. I mean, you're doing it.

You ski, you exercise. So box checked. That's not complicated. And you know, again, I usually

recommend about three hours a week. But if you can do a bit more, great. If not, that's fine. Three

hours a week is plenty. And then sleep. Most common cause of insomnia is anxiety. And the fact that

people are worried about things in their life. And I think it's important for people to sit down,

write down the list of their problems, and then take ownership of their problems. A lot of stress

comes from people thinking that the problems have to do with other people not doing the right thing.

Usually they think that only if my spouse did this and this and this, my life would be so much

better. Only if my teenage kids would do this and this and this, my life would be better. You

know, if my boss was nicer, I would be better and so forth. I think people need to take ownership

of their problems and realize this is their problem. They can't blame it on others. And then try

to work on themselves to handle the problems they have. Make a list of things that are bothering

them and for each one have a strategy, a plan, not necessarily a solution right away, but a plan

to solve those issues. And so I think that's a great way to ease your mind to be able to go to sleep.

Still, there are times that a person goes through a crisis. A person may go to a divorce. A person

may have a family member with cancer. You know, bad things happen. People's house is getting

and it's okay to have a period of crisis and during that time you're stressed. That's life.

However, what's not normal, what's not optimal is to be stressed all the time to the point

that you can't sleep at night. There are many, many things people can do to optimize to sleep.

What I find interesting is that a lot of people feel that insomnia is a common problem and so it's

okay for them to have difficulty sleeping because everybody else has difficulty sleeping. That's

not a good attitude. You need to realize that sleeping well is achievable. It's not like, oh my god,

my life is so chaotic that I can't sleep at night. Well, try to get your life together. And if you

find it difficult, I suggest that people see a therapist and receive what's called cognitive

behavioral therapy. Cognitive behavioral therapy is different than usual therapy in which a

person just listens to your problems. With cognitive behavioral therapy, the therapist tries to help

you to appreciate how you view life. What kind of narrative you have created for yourself?

Are you following the narrative in your brain that, you know, my life is a mess and then every day

you're expecting them mess to happen because that's your narrative. You need to change that

narrative and it's possible to change that narrative. I find it's interesting that many people

would resist seeing a therapist because they say, I don't want to say shrink. However, I think if

you're intelligent and you realize that you have not been able to manage your stress and seeing

a therapist is a good idea. So we talk about exercise, which you can do. If your sleep is fragmented,

if you wake up in the middle of the night, if you have difficulty falling asleep, I have a lot of

information in the chapter for a sleep in my book, but there are plenty of information. And of course,

you can see a sleep specialist. Sleep specialist have a whole protocol of things to do or not to do.

And, you know, it's a treatable, flexible condition. You can't really go on with life having

poor sleep every night. And when it comes with nutrition, that really doesn't require extra time.

It requires choices. Like, you know, are you going to make some, you know, vegetables and have

some grilled chicken for dinner or just going to stop by a McDonald and have a hamburger? That

is a choice. And I don't think that eating healthy requires much more time than eating poor

highly processed foods. So, you know, I don't think eating should take extra time.

And then when it comes to stress reduction, we just talked about it. One thing that I helped

is slow breathing for 10 minutes a day. It's incredible how effective it is to just sit there,

don't do meditation, don't do anything exotic. Just sit there and breathe slowly for 10 minutes.

What I recommend is to breathe in for the count of six, hold for the count of three, and breathe out

for the count of six. Set a timer and stick with it. It's not as easy as it sounds because the moment

you start breathing, your body comes down, you realize, oh, I haven't called that person. Oh,

I need to respond to that email and so forth. Resist doing things. Now, set aside every other

things that can distract you and just breathe 10 minutes slowly. And you know what? Research studies

have shown that this slow breathing, which is called H-R-B by a feedback, actually reduces the

amount of amyloid in the brain. It actually reduces the footprints of Alzheimer's in the brain.

Isn't that incredible? You just sit there, breathe slowly for 10 minutes a day and you will have

less Alzheimer's pathology in your brain. I mean, that's incredible. That's incredible. So it's

definitely worth that 10 minutes a day. And at finally brain training, I mean, you're at home,

you're at night, you know, checking your Instagram, just do a seducal. That's what I do. You know,

if I go to bed before fall asleep, I may read a book or I may do some difficult seducos and actually

that makes me sleep and I fall asleep. So here we go. And about an hour a day, you can really attend

to those five pillars of brain health without any expensive equipment. You don't need any gadgets.

Just realizing that these five pillars of brain health are going to help you to keep your brain

healthy and strong. Many factors shrink the brain, things like stress, insomnia, poor diet,

sedentary lifestyle, diabetes, obesity, smoking, all of them shrink the brain. But these five

pillars of brain health, exercise, sleep, nutrition, slow breathing, mindset, and then brain training

literally grow their brain, literally make the parts of their brain called cortex and the

campus larger.

Masjid, you in the topic of insomnia, you said we have somewhat normalized that pathology.

We're talking here about the invisible brain, about brain health, about in referencing Alzheimer's

and dementia and cognitive decline. In my lifetime, so yeah, I'm 55 years old. I don't remember

that being a topic of my youth, of my childhood or my youth. It seemed rare. A lot of things,

course pathologies we have today, seemed rare that now are so common. And it feels to me like

that we have normalized cognitive decline. It's just an expectation. We've normalized it.

And it seems to be just proliferating like crazy. It feels like it's going on and on and on.

And as you know, when you talk about in the book a lot of focus, we give to genetics,

which to me makes no sense. Why would we genetically be creating and falling into more and more

cognitive decline, which then you get into talking about lifestyle. And where would you

on that aspect of normalize? What are you attributed to? Let's just go there. That's big topic,

elementary topic, but a big one. We've got more. It seems like more of these cognitive issues than

ever. Why? I think there is more talking about it. I don't think that people on average

are experiencing cognitive decline anymore, so that they did 100 years ago. I think people are

more cognizant of their cognitive functions and people are worried about it more so than in the past.

In fact, several studies have shown that people who live in Western European countries

and parts of the United States are having better brains than the previous generations.

For example, study in Framingham in Massachusetts showed that each generation of people from

1930, born in 1930s until 1960s has a slightly larger cortex and hippocampus.

So in this part of the United States, where people presumably are more conscious about their

health and their lifestyle choices, their brains are larger and the cognitive functions are

better. The incidence of Alzheimer's disease is about 13% less in that area than the previous

generation. Similarly, in countries like Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway,

they are having fewer cases of Alzheimer's disease than the previous generation.

And their level of cognitive functions is one notch better than people 10 or 20 years ago.

So we have come to appreciate that the new generation of elderly have caught on that

exercises good for them, that smoking is bad for them, that they need to really optimize the

that they should avoid junk food. So I'm looking at it the other way. I see in Horizon where the

next generation of people, including two of us, when we get to our 80s and 90s, we're going to be

sharp, we're going to be doing things, we're going to be skiing, we're going to be doing podcasts,

we're going to be reading, writing, joining book clubs, traveling, living a full life.

Yes, we may be slower than we will be, you know, when we are in 80s and 90s, we'll be slower than

when we are in 30s or 40s. But what's the rush? You know, there's no rush. I think to be realistic,

there will be a little decline, maybe two percent, three percent, four percent. I mean, you know,

when you're in 80s, you can't run as fast as someone in your 20s. You know, we need to accept that.

Let me give you a little sorry. I do try at lunch. And a few years ago, I was so proud of myself to

hit a new best time. And I was, I had done the swimming, I had done the cycling, and I was doing

the running, and it was about, you know, a mile or two before the finish line. And I was,

you're running thing, so proud of myself, and this L.A. gentleman, who clearly looked like he's

say, at least 70s, if not 80s, he was passing me, and I said, no way, I'm not going to let that happen.

So I was exhausted as I was. I tried to just beat this guy next to me. And I admired him. I said,

good for you. You're like 30 years older than me. And look at you. You're running faster than I

am. And you have finished the triathlon. You're just about to hit the finish line. So I'm going to

be that guy when I get to my 80s. And I think people need to set that goal for themselves. You need to

forget Alzheimer's disease. Again, to be fair and balanced, there are people who have good genes.

There are people who seem to do everything wrong, and yet they're in their 90s. The smoke can

never exercise. They eat, hold a drink, what they want. And they're in their 90s. Like, how did

that happen? Similarly, there are a small percentage of people who seem to have done everything right.

They have exercised, they have kept their brain active, and they're still becoming

demented in their 80s. In my experience, that accounts for 5% of people.

5% of people either have good genes and are doing exceptionally well despite having poor lifestyle.

And there are 5% who've done things right, and yet they become demented. And that's the

important thing to consider. It's not like you have good genes, and that's all it is.

And a genes play a small role for late life cognitive function. It's different than early

onset Alzheimer's disease. But early Alzheimer's disease, if your parents develop Alzheimer's

in their 50s, unfortunately, you have a 50% chance of getting it. But the late life Alzheimer's disease

is a super problem. It's not just plaxontangles. It's how much shrinkage you've had in your brain

because of poor blood flow, too much inflammation, and difficulty rinsing your brain at night.

Those factors, along with plaxontangles, are causing your cognitive decline. And most of those

can be slowed or reversed with your lifestyle choices. Let me give you one more information.

The other thing that we have come to appreciate is that even you have certain genes,

your lifestyle factors can impact your DNA. We call that epigenetics. So when you exercise a lot,

when you meditate, you can actually change the expression of genes on your DNA.

There are these things called metal groups, which are like small little tags.

And when you stress out too much for a long time, you put a lot of those metal groups,

metal little tags on the DNA, which suppresses the expression of genes. And when you meditate,

you reduce those meditations and you allow the expression of genes. So your lifestyle factors can

literally modify your genes. You can't blame it on your genes. I think you can't just say,

I have bad genes and that's the end of me. That will be a total waste, total mistake.

Well, you address that and talk about, you know, do our genetics matter. Sure, but a lesser

degree than what we tend to culturally give credit to. And you say, even more so what matters.

And I wanted to hit each of these family environment, education, work, social interactions,

hobbies, and dedication to learning and practicing. I feel like, I mean, these are the actionable

things that we can all address right now. I mean, you've talked about sleep and nutrition and

exercise and stress reduction. But these things, as you talked about before, we so often are prone

to giving responsibility somewhat to external things that we can't control. That list right there

are all things I control. So I want to go through that because if you say, okay,

gosh, your cognitive ability, my propensity for decline, dementia, something that has

relevance for that is family environment. Tell me, tell me about that one. Yes, I think family

environment is particularly important in childhood. If you live in a family where the average

food on a table is junk food, highly processed food, and, you know, fast food from restaurants.

And if you live in a family where anxieties, stress, and arguments are just a daily routine,

unfortunately, you're going to have difficulty developing your brain as well as it could otherwise.

So early childhood experiences can have a profound effect on brain development in the future.

The same goes with early childhood education. One reason that people who are born in 1950s and

60s have a slightly larger brain, about 6% than those people who are born in 1930s may have to be

the fact that later generations had better childhood education, that more and more people

finished high school in later generations. So early childhood education and environment

makes a huge impact on brain development. However, this is not to say that if you had poor childhood

environment, that you're doomed, that you're going to develop Alzheimer's disease.

Our brain has a high degree of neuroplasticity. Our brain can change. We are daily habits at

any age. So even if you had poor childhood experiences, if you start a lifestyle which focuses on

those five pillars of brain health that I mentioned, you will be able to reverse any damage that

had happened to your brain and have a fresh and strong brain in the future. One of the things

we mentioned is the importance of socialization. More and more studies show that people socialize

more often, have a healthier brain and live longer. We don't know exactly why. Part of it could be

because when you socialize, you have higher levels of dopamine in your brain. You enjoy yourself

and that reduces stress and reduces cortisol levels and that maybe the link has to why socialization

leads to better cognitive function with aging. Another factor could be the level of intellectual

stimulation during social events. When you are with friends and family, different topics come up.

You have to attend to those conversations. Think about what they're saying and think about what

you're saying. So you're challenging your brain a little bit and that maybe why socialization

is helpful. Or it may be something deeper that we haven't discovered yet. But definitely socialization

helps. Well, tell me about that there because as you talk about family environment and reference

childhood aspects. So today is for somebody who's in their 50s and social interactions and

still environment, I will always remember my best friend, Dr. Randy James, functional medicine

doctor. I mentioned that before we started and he had a patient. At one point, he said to this

lady, he says, I just don't know how I can help you as long as you are within the environment of

your family and your adult son that seems to be toxic to you and your husband. The stress that

is causing you, he said, I don't know if there's that much more I can help you with that's going to

supersede that. That's sabotaging everything. So when you talk about family environment and social

interactions, I think about how many people, well, and you do talk about work here are in a family

environment or a social environment or a friends environment or a work environment that the social

aspects of that are, I don't want to use overuse the word toxic, but they are they're causing

the person stressing themselves out as a result of their perceptions of these

environments. We're back to the circumstances and environments and as much as I want to control my

inner self regardless, I also choose to live in a national forest for a reason and I choose

good relationships for a reason and how often do you find that people who, again, who are doing a lot

of the things well, they're sleeping, they're eating, they're exercising and yet they have, as you

said, social interactions and environments, family whatnot that is sabotaging everything.

Yes, I think that people who work in toxic environment or have family members who are

sources of stress for them are in disadvantage because they're stressed and that stress is

affecting their brain. However, I think people need to be wise in how they handle the situations.

For example, one option is what you're doing. You try to choose and control your environment and

stay away from people who stress you out or make you feel uncomfortable. Another option is to

reduce your expectations. I think people who, honestly, decide, you know what, I don't expect

anything from anyone. I accept that people are not perfect. I accept that people have different

goals, different priorities than I do and a conflict arises when my expectations and my ideas

conflict with others around me and who is there to say that my way of thinking and my expectations

are better than theirs because I'm probably source of stress for them.

And so, one way to handle toxic environment is to really reduce your expectations,

accept that people are not perfect, accept that you're not perfect and expect and focus on improving

yourself. Focus on, let's say you're working in a working environment and your boss is rude and

your co-workers are not cooperating. Well, see if you can change jobs because as long as these

people are there, you're not going to be able to change them, so try to change jobs. Sometimes it's

possible to change jobs. You have a job that's perfect for you and you can't find another job,

so you just have to do working that environment. In that case, you just tell yourself that, you know what,

I'm going to be a nice guy around here. I'm going to expect that they'll be rude and they will not

do their parts and that I have to work more. I just accept that. And in doing so, you work on

yourself instead of stressing on why other people are not doing what they're supposed to do.

And that strategy is also very helpful in your relationship with your spouse or your children.

You try to have them cooperate and do the things you want them to do.

But if it's not working, you either step out and just leave or decide that you know what,

I'm just going to expect that they will do all the wrong things. I'm going to expect that.

I'm going to expect that they won't do anything around the house, that they spend all the money they

want, that they're not really listening to me and everything else is bothering you. Just say,

you know what, I'm going to expect that they will be like that. So any day that they're less than

that is a good day. It really makes a huge difference on how you view environment. One thing I tell

myself and others is if somebody stresses you, that's on you, because you are the one who are

perceiving what they're saying as inappropriate or not fair, you're the one who's perceiving what they're

doing is unacceptable. But you perceiving them, they're fine. So if you feel stressed because of other

people's actions, it's on you. So you need to change your mindset and realize that these things are

not worth your hippie campus. These things are not worth shrinking your brain. And so you need to

set the goal that I'm going to protect myself. And if protecting myself means to have much

low expectation from people around me, I'll do just that. I appreciate the perspective of,

yeah, somebody irritating me is on me. I want to take responsibility. I strive to take responsibility

for that. And to that point, I want to be Victor Frankl, right, who is found a piece or a security

within himself regardless of the circumstances. So I strive. So I'm working to do that. And

I also love Dan butner's blue zones where I'll paraphrase that. He said, it seems like it's

easiest if you just have people around you who support your way of life and whatnot. And I'll admit,

I've done that. I live in a national forest. I have people around me who are primarily at peace

and peaceable folks. And I live a lifestyle that makes a lot helps us be a lot easier for me.

Because when you get down to that, yeah, my expectations, I'd say I probably have high expectations.

And so I hear that I would say I probably veer on

crafting an environment best I can. And I would say I have a lot of control over

over creating my own blue zone, which my gosh makes it easier. And yet when I find myself in those

positions, like I will shortly when I'm on in the airport and dealing with the minutia of life,

I will need to call upon, I'll think about you and question my expectations fair.

See, I think that people who are perfectionists and have high expectations of themselves

forget that other people are not like that. See, you appear to be someone who has high standards

and you set up high standards for yourself and you're achieving them.

But you have to realize that other people have had different childhood experiences. They've had

different life environments, they have education, cultural backgrounds. And they're doing life

the way they know it's good for them, which is not necessarily the same as yours. And so

keeping that in mind helps a lot when you travel through the airports.

Well, again, this list that you gave with genetics being a factor, but you're going to minimize

the factor somewhat and you're looking at again, family environment, education, work,

social interactions, hobbies, dedication to learning and practice.

I look at that as these are addressing my activities, but really a lot of my world view,

my daily existence, again, that energy that I'm within every day. So, again, if we look at

exercise, sleep, our nutrition and these things that we can address, stress management, what not,

you do speak so much to these aspects that I'm going to bring around to what you get focused

to is purpose. How do we see life? Almost a, I don't want to put it into a positive,

negative, optimist, pessimist, glass, half empty, half full, but I feel like you're

tending to that a lot that even that is going to be doing a lot of the right things. But if we have

this undergirding world view, that may be more important than anything. Yes, I think it's

important to have a sense of purpose in life. I think if we decide that something gives

meaning to our life, then we have something to wake up for, we have something to work toward,

and that really simplifies life. Now, we've been talking about how to grow old and stay

sharp. But why? Why do you want to be sharp in your 80s? And that's where purpose comes in.

If your purpose is to, for example, help your grandchildren be successful in their life,

or if your purpose is to become rich, or if your purpose is to become famous,

or if your purpose is to be a good Christian, a good Muslim, a good Jewish person,

if your purpose is to help environment, if your purpose is to help others, whatever it is that

gives you purpose, allows you to have a reason to wake up in the morning and then go exercise,

and then eat health here and sleep better. And many studies have shown that individuals will have

a high sense of purpose in life, sleep better, eat better, stress less, live longer,

and are less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease. And these are based on scientific literature.

This is not just simple observations. Thanks to the work of Dr. Riff, who is a psychologist in

Wisconsin University, we have questionnaires that quantify your sense of purpose in life.

So, for example, a person may have one other 10 sense of purpose in life. This is a person who

just lives for pain, the mortgage, and maybe we'll go on vacation most of twice a year,

and really doesn't think about the future or why do I do what I do. They just live life to take care

of their routines. They don't even think about what's my purpose in life. And then you have someone

who's 10 out of 10, someone who let's say is religious and really

attends to his or her faith, goes to religious gatherings and helps with the community activities

and so forth. So, this is a 10 out of 10 versus one out of 10. Now, if you look at the brains of

these two types of individuals, you see that people who have a better sense of purpose in life

have better brains. Their brains are fresher, healthier. You know, people who have a sense of

purpose in life are 50% less likely to develop strokes, 50% less. And it's not because they exercise

more or you know, you adjust for those things. You adjust for how much exercise people are doing,

what they're eating, and so forth. Just a sense of purpose in life is associated with the 50%

less risk of developing strokes. And strokes are the number one cause of disability in

the United States, and they're the second leading cause of death in the world. So, if you define for

yourself what it is that excites you about life, what it is that gives you purpose in life,

that mindset without doing any extra work in no exercise, no extra diet, no extra anything.

Just the sense of purpose makes your brain healthier. And if you take two individuals who have

let's say 510 Alzheimer's pathology in their brain, person A, person B, they each have 510 Alzheimer's

pathology. Let's just make it simple. And you do cognitive tests on them. A person with a sense of

purpose would function better in a cognitive test. Their brain works better even if they have

Alzheimer's in their brain. And need this to say that people have a sense of purpose in life,

live longer. So, if you were asking me a hack to like have a better brain with doing very little,

is to define what excites you in life. And then think of that everyday. Set that as the carrot in

front of you that you are going to achieve. The reward that you like to achieve. For example,

I feel passionate about educating people about professional Alzheimer's disease and how they can

become brain super-aggers. They can become someone who reaches the age of 90 and is sharp and

independent. That's what excites me. Why, why it is? Well, you know, I've spent 30 years at Hopkins

and Harvard studying these things and seeing patients. And it is what it is. I enjoy it and I love

it. And that's why I'm here on your podcast. So, if you don't have a sense of purpose, you can find

it. In my book, I wrote like seven questions that you can ask yourself to define and find your

sense of purpose if you don't have it already. Things like, what would you do if nobody was looking?

What kind of daily life would you have if nobody is watching you? Would you read more? Would you

exercise more? Would you do more community work? And nobody is watching. And why? Why would you do that?

Express those things to find your sense of purpose. Another question is, what kind of job would you

do if nobody paid you? And that really shows what drives you from within, not from and outside

towards such payment, but from within. For example, I love to teach. So, even if somebody didn't pay

me, I still would teach because I just love it. I love being in a classroom. I love mingling with

students. I just love it. And it's different for other people. You know, somebody again may

enjoy going for walks and somebody else may take care of the grandchildren or somebody else may

do other things. So, these are some of the questions. Another question is, what would you want people to

say after you died? What would you want people to say in your eulogy? And that really addresses

what it is that you want to be. What it is that you want to be known with regards to other people.

So, asking questions like this can help you find your sense of purpose in life. And then pursuing

your sense of purpose in life is incredible. It's incredible how effective and helpful it is.

Let me dig in with something on the purpose. You talked about purpose being a hack. If we want a hack

to cognitive wellness is purpose, but I want you to address our attitude about the purpose. Because

I have found people who do have a purpose and yet they're attitude about their purpose. Again,

I would say is sabotaging it somewhat here. You majid and you have the purpose to help people with

their cognitive wellness. You could, we could paint a picture over here of you waking up in the

morning and frustrating yourself. Now, why are people doing this? Why won't they listen? Why won't

they pay attention to it? It's in my book. Just follow it. And we keep seeing this cognitive

client and you could have a bad attitude. I see this depicted in the media. I see this depicted

somewhat in movies and TV shows that Hollywood's putting out and somebody who has a purpose and

they're pissed off about it. And yet we kind of uphold that and I don't like the promotion

of this. So, you said two or three times as you were just talking about your purpose and being

excited about it. And talk about that. I almost want to look at it as a hack of a hack. Not only

purpose, but then how your attitude is around the purpose. There? Yes. I think it's important to

keep it small in your face every day and take it easy and whatever you do. Because most things don't

matter. Most things that bother people really are trivial. And I always think about, is this

going to hurt my hippocampus? Let me give you a little story. I have two daughters who are in

college now. And when they were little, when they were in elementary school, they used to come with

me when I traveled and I've been like 40 countries, giving lectures in different places. And it would

come along and it was just something to sit and listen. And so my younger daughter Maya was in

second grade ones and she was supposed to write a review about a simple book. And I said, honey,

you haven't even started reading this book and it's doing two days. And she said, Dad, you're

stressing me out and that's not good for my hippocampus. And I think, and I should still like that.

I know she still say, Dad, it's not that deep. And I like that about her because it really makes her

put things in perspective and do her work without getting stressed out about it. And so that's

what I do every day. I always ask myself, is this situation worth my hippocampus? Because I have seen

so many studies that have shown that when you stress out levels of cortisol

increase in your blood, and cortisol is particularly toxic to your hippocampus.

They're very part of the brain that's critical for learning a memory and Alzheimer's disease.

So then if it's not worth it, I'm not going to stress about it. And of course, stressful things happen.

You can't avoid the fact that there's a car accident, there's a leak in the basement. You know,

you need a new thermostat, you need a new car, you didn't know that perhaps happened in life.

And so it's okay to have periodic stress. I mean, you know, that's life. However, you do

want to stress about everything, including as to why people are not doing what they're supposed

to do, and why am I not being able to achieve to do the things that are good for my sense of

purpose in life, because that would defeat the having a sense of purpose in life. I think, you know,

you need to keep a smile and always say, it's not that deep.

Well, I wanted to, I wanted to do justice to a statement that you said, you have this in the book.

And it brings up again, this, I'm going to keep expounding or maybe we'll anchor the show here

on expounding on again, the responsibility that we take for our brain health. You have in the book,

you may not think about your lifestyle and activities in terms of how they affect your brain.

That feels like a cultural disease to me, that we don't, we don't align those. And here's,

here's my example, meshyde. I have kids, I've got a bunch of kids and there are a lot of them are

at the driving age or beyond, but they're looking at cars and generally looking at a used car.

And they're prone to look at the brands, right? The brands and the models and see what the history

is, the longevity of these brands. Oh, this brand seems to last longer and this model seems to

last longer. It's a used car though. If you're buying a new car, great, but these guys are buying

used cars. And I'm, I'm looking at that, the brand kind of like genetics and like maybe you got

good genes, maybe got bad genes and going, I feel like what affects the car most if you're buying

a used car is how the person before you took care of it. How many owners did it have? How many

wrecks did it had? Look at the car facts. How is it taking care of it? I really don't care about

the model that much if you're looking at a 10 year old car or a five year old car as much as how

it was taken care of. Now, that said, we tend to think about a car and think about ourselves and

think physiological, right? We think physical, okay, yeah, if you banged it up and if you didn't take

care of it, you ate bad and you're smoking, you drank and you whatever. But what are the things? What

are the highlight things that we do to abuse our brain or did I just say it? It's still the lifestyle

choices. It is how we're banging up our body. Well, I think your analogy with the cars is right on.

If you have a good car and you haven't taken care of it, then it's really not a good car because

you know, you haven't changed your oil, you haven't really changed the kit tires and it's more

lucky to cause problems. If obviously it's the cars which have a solid base to begin with

are more likely to resist all the misuse and abuse that they have had. But on average, I think

if you have an old Chevy from 1960s and you're taking good care of it, it's still going to run.

It's still going to run and you know, it's still sometimes the C and the road is old antique cars

that are well taken care of and there is still driving quite well. And I think we can think

about brain the same way. If you take care of your brain, you really can keep it in top function.

Again, 1960s Chevy is not going to keep up with a Porsche in a highway, but neither do you need to

go that fast anyway. You know, if you keep your brain healthy, there may be somewhere in

tear as you grow older. And you may be not as fast as when you were in your 50s or 40s or you

may not be a quick encountering numbers and you may still forget some names and you may have

what find difficulty, but those are minor. You know, those things will not prevent you to enjoy

life. They will not prevent you to read or to take on new hobbies or go skiing or cook or

try new hobbies. I think we need to do just that. We need to take care of our brain the same way

we would take care of a car. There are specific things you need to do. You need to change the oil,

you know, do the inspection, change your tires, and you know, be careful if there are

dents to fix them right away. You do those things, that car is going to run over a long time

and Sam applies to your brain. I ultimately find in going through the book, you giving great

content and helping me confirm, I need to take care of this body, this package. I need to take care

of this physiologically, but also psychologically as much as doing some brain activities and keeping

my brain sharp and growing my brain, you, I find myself bringing back to take a deep breath,

lower my shoulders, smile and be at peace. And if I can't be at peace, man, I am, I'm at risk.

I'm as your daughter said, I'm hurting my hippocampus and I, whatever it takes, I want to pursue.

So I'm just grateful for the content, grateful for the research and grateful for you for

bringing it to us in a palatable way. These are simple things that I can do. I feel like you did

that well and you said that. These are simple things. They don't take a lot of time and it could be

the difference between my, well, my health span, equally in my life span. And I want to be cognitive

as can be till that last breath. So I just thank you. I'm grateful. Sure, sure. Yeah, I think

your mindset really determines how happy you are on a daily basis. And mindset can change

just because you've had a certain mindset, it doesn't mean you have to stick with it.

See, that's what I find interesting about cognitive behavior therapy. We had many patients

who had a narrative in their mind about how their life is going and why things happen to them

the way they do. Let me give you an example. I had this patient who was in early 70s and came to see

me because she wanted to have better memory. And so we did our program and her memory was improving.

She was learning 100 words, which she couldn't believe. And in my first session, I said,

what bothers you? What are the sorts of stresses in your life? I should say that when she was in her

late 20s and early 30s, her parents died. And when it came to inheritance, her brother cheated her

on inheritance and took the house. And she never had her share of the house. And she is so resentful

of her brother doing that to her. And for decades, it's been bothering her. She's frustrated

because she feels like if she had that one million dollar back then, her life would have been

so different today. So I talked to her about that. I said, listen, you know, it's been a long

time since that happened. And you repeating that narrative is not helping you. So she worked

with a social worker in our team and did cognitive behavior therapy. She went over the effectiveness

of her regretting what happened to her decades earlier and how that's not helping her today.

If anything, that resentment, that anxiety is eroding her brain. And you know, this aha moment

doesn't happen overnight. After a several session, she came to realize that she still has a

full life ahead of her that her life is pretty good as is. Maybe we'd have been better if she had a

million dollars back then. But right now, she is doing fine. And then when I saw her for fall

six weeks later, she said, Dr. Futui, I wasted so much of my life being frustrated by what my brother

did to me. And I wasted so much time and energy on it. And now I feel liberated. I feel like a new

person. And I think that's what a cognitive behavior therapy can do to people. It can help people

change the narrative in their brain. See, there is no such thing as reality. What I consider reality

is my perception of the world. So you may be Democrat. He may be Republican. So from a view of a,

you know, Democrat or Republican, you analyze what you hear and see in the news. And you always

interpret things with that perspective in mind. Realizing that is your assessment of the situation.

It's not the reality is what you perceive as to why this happened or what that happened.

And that's what people do all the time. They have a mindset and narrative in their head as to how

life is. And then they interpret everything that happens around them in that perspective. Let me give

you another story. I was in Park City, Utah skiing. And then after skiing, how you going to

jacuzzi and just warm up and I was sitting there, I was actually skiing by myself in that trip.

And next to me was this gentleman who was very Christian, very devout Christian. And he kept saying

God helps him every hour, all the time. And so this conversation was going around five, six

people in the jacuzzi. And he said, God helps me all the time, all the time. Look at me. I'm here.

It's God's will that I'm here because I'm rich. I can afford it. I'm here in a jacuzzi

in a beautiful ski resort. God is helping me every hour. Look at me. I'm talking to you. God

put you here so I can enjoy talking with you. So in his brain, he was convinced that God is helping

him every hour. And he saw what he thought was the case. Or maybe maybe this the case. I can't

really argue with that. But the point is this, he was seeing what he was believing.

And that's the point. We create our narratives in our head and interpret the world. And then

everything we see is interpreted. And that's our reality, which is different. And that goes back

to how we're talking about the toxic environment and work and how other people do things that are not

in line with what we do. Because they're perceiving their realities in their own little minds.

And we're perceiving our reality in our minds. And these two don't coincide. They don't overlap.

And that's where the frictions come in. That right there. What you said, that's that's probably

the mic drop of the show right there. I have the opportunity to erode or grow and support my brain

and possibly the greatest thing is my narrative, how I see and then from how I see and perceive

how I feel. And it's really, that's the most, for me, the most motivating

construct right there. I do want an invisible brain. So I will chill out. How's that?

That's great. I'm going to do it. Thank you for being here. Thank you for your time.

Thank you for your guidance. I am a grateful student and excited to share this with everybody.

I can't. Yes. Well, thank you very much for reading my books so carefully. I really appreciate that.

I did and I will continue. Majid, thank you so much. My pleasure.

Well, thanks for joining us in this discussion. That again is Dr. Majid Fautouy and the book that's

just coming out is called The Invincible Brain that clinically proven plan to age-proof your brain

and stay sharp for life. Till next time, here's to you and me,

bettering our brain and creating a better experience of our lives.

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