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Brain Foods To Boost Your Memory | Nutritionist Explains | Myprotein
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Jan 30, 2025
Can the food you eat give your brain a boost? Expert nutritionist talks about why brain health matters. In this, Nutritistions Explains Dr Richie Kirwan talks about protecting one of the most important organs in your brain. Nutrition is a huge key to keeping your brain in top condition. Richie will also talk about one particular supplement that you might be surprised is especially good for brain health. Some of the best things you can do to lower your total and LDL cholesterol are: 1. Replace saturated fat from sources like fatty meat, full fat dairy and coconut or palm oil, with unsaturated sources like nuts, seeds, avocados, olive and other unsaturated oils. Keeping total saturated fat below 10% of total calories seems to be a good target 2. Increase your fibre especially soluble fibre from foods like beans, peas and lentils, wholegrains like oats and barley, and plenty of fruit and vegetables. 3. Reduce excess body fat and maintain a healthy body weight by not eating excess calories, especially excess calories from saturated fats and refined carbohydrates and sugars *** Chapters: 00:00 - Intro 01:23 - Omega 3 03:50 - Polyphenols 06:55 - Cholesterol 09:50 - Mediterranean diet 11:15 - Creatine
View Video Transcript
0:00
can the food you eat give you a brain
0:01
boost let's talk about
0:06
that how's it going guys my name's
0:08
Richie Kerwin and today we're going to
0:10
talk about protecting one of the most
0:12
important organs in your body and before
0:14
your imagination runs away with you
0:15
we're talking about your brain we'll
0:17
talk about why brain health matters if
0:18
that wasn't already pretty obvious and
0:20
we'll talk about some specific nutrients
0:22
that might be really important for
0:23
keeping your brain in top condition
0:25
we'll also talk about one particular
0:27
supplement that you might be surprised
0:29
is a especially good for your brain
0:31
health at the end of this video you
0:32
should have a much better understanding
0:34
of how the food you eat affects that
0:37
supercomputer in your head so let's get
0:39
started so this might come as a bit of
0:41
surprise to many but dementia which is a
0:44
term used to describe a group of
0:45
symptoms affecting memory thinking and
0:47
social abilities and Alzheimer's are the
0:50
leading cause of death in the UK that's
0:53
pretty amazing considering heart disease
0:55
has been the leading cause of death for
0:57
decades but dementia and heart disease
1:00
may actually share a couple of traits
1:02
that we'll get into later and just in
1:04
case death isn't scary enough maybe the
1:06
thought of not being able to remember
1:08
who you or your family and friends are
1:10
in later life is enough to make you
1:12
realize how important brain health
1:14
really is so that said what can you eat
1:17
to keep that big wrinkly mass of gray
1:20
matter in tip toop condition let's start
1:22
off with probably one of the most
1:24
well-known foods for brain health and
1:26
that's longchain omega-3 fatty acids
1:29
which are found in good old fish oils so
1:32
your brain consists of over 60% fat with
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a massive proportion of that being made
1:37
up of essential fatty acids and one
1:39
fatty acid in particular doosa hexonic
1:42
acid or DHA makes up the majority of
1:45
those omega-3 fats now for a single
1:48
fatty acid to form such a major
1:50
proportion of our brain gives a hint
1:52
that it might play a pretty important
1:54
role in brain health and we now know
1:57
that it plays a massive role in brain
1:59
development
2:00
especially when babies are growing in
2:02
the womb now you may also have heard of
2:04
another fatty acid called aosa pentanoic
2:07
acid or EPA it's also found in fish oil
2:10
and has been shown in some studies to
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help improve some symptoms of depression
2:14
and low mood but as we're talking mostly
2:16
about cognitive function here we leave
2:18
that topic for another video now back to
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DHA and like I mentioned it's essential
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for proper brain development and
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function before we're even born we know
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from populations studies that people who
2:30
get more DHA in their diet from fish
2:33
have a lower risk of declining brain
2:35
function as they age but if we want to
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know if supplements can help with brain
2:40
function we need to look at intervention
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studies these are experiments where we
2:44
give a specific group of people a
2:46
specific supplement in order to see if
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it has a specific effect so in one such
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study in older people with mild
2:53
cognitive decline high doses of DHA
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specifically and around 2 G per day
2:59
helped to reduce the brain shrinkage
3:01
that normally occurs with Advanced aging
3:04
there's even some evidence to suggest
3:06
that fish oil supplements in general
3:08
might be able to help improve memory
3:09
function in older adults too however as
3:12
with a lot of research we don't have
3:14
enough evidence to say that DHA will
3:16
reduce brain shrinkage and improve
3:18
cognitive function conclusively that's
3:20
said because fish oils in general seem
3:22
to have a number of other beneficial
3:24
effects such as helping control
3:25
inflammation improved recovery from
3:27
exercise and lowering triglyceride
3:29
levels
3:30
it might not hurt to include them in
3:32
your diet anyway so consider eating oily
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fish like salmon mackerel sardines or
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trout more regularly or take a high
3:39
strength fish oil supplement and if
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you're vegan or vegetarian you can also
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get EPA and DHA from algal oil
3:45
supplements now the next nutrient or
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group of nutrients I want to mention are
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polyphenols you've probably heard that
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word before without being sure what it
3:53
is but polyphenols are a very diverse
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group of plant chemicals that seem to
3:57
play a major role in human health
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phytonutrients can be found in a really
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wide variety of plant foods such as
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green leafy vegetables dark chocolate
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red wine berries coffee and tea one of
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the ways we think polyphenols work is by
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increasing the body's own antioxidant
4:13
defense systems and controlling free
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radicals and inflammation that are
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produced as a part of our normal
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metabolism some polyphenols also help
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improve the endothelial function of our
4:23
blood vessels which can improve blood
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flow in different parts of the body and
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considering blood flow is also essential
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in the brain that might be one way
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polyphenols improve cognitive function
4:33
and we'll mention that a little more in
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a moment again just like most nutrition
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research the first indications that
4:39
polyphenols might help with cognitive
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function came from population studies
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where we look at what people eat and how
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their health changes over the years
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people with higher polyphenol intakes
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from food seem to have slower rates of
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brain aging and cognitive decline now to
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back that up some intervention Studies
4:56
have shown similar results remember when
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intervention studies studies and other
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mechanistic studies back up what's seen
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in population studies it's a good
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indication that a certain nutrient is
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beneficial or otherwise so for example
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in one experiment they gave a group of
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older adults a blueberry concentrate
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drink with 387 mg of anthocyan which are
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a type of polyphenol and they gave a
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control group a placebo with the same
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calorie content after 12 weeks the
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blueberry group showed improved memory
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recall and the researchers also used MRI
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or magnetic resonance imaging to to
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observe that the blueberry group had
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greater activation of certain brain
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areas and improved brain perfusion or
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blood flow so not only did it show a
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benefit in terms of an outcome memory in
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this case but it also gave some evidence
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as to how it might work too and that is
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by increasing blood flow to the brain
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another similar study using Wild's
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blueberry powder for 6 months in older
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adults with mil cognitive problems
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showed that the blueberry group had
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improved cognitive processing speed
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compared to the control group and even
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even restored their processing speed to
6:01
a normal reference level but it's not
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just in older people high polyphenol
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foods have been shown to improve
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cognitive function in children and young
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adults too and while I've mentioned
6:11
blueberries a lot here there is research
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showing improvements in cognition and
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brain function with other high
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polyphenol foods like green leafy
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vegetables strawberries dark chocolate
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orange juice green tea and good old
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coffee all in all there seems to be
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plenty of research indicating that
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cognitive Health can be improved by
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getting more fruit and veg into your
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diet and it's possibly due to all the
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polyphenols and the other nutrients that
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they contain generally the more deeply
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colored a fruit or vegetable is the
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higher it is likely to be in polyphenols
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and the more different colors you eat
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the wider the variety of polyphenols you
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get which is why you often hear people
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recommending to eat the rainbow oh and
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don't forget your tea and coffee which
6:48
are the main sources of polyphenols for
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most people around the world now I
6:52
mentioned earlier that heart disease and
6:53
dementia actually share something in
6:55
common so I want to talk about that
6:57
interestingly there is quite a lot of
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evidence from population studies that
7:00
shows a link between high levels of LDL
7:03
cholesterol and total cholesterol with
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the development of certain brain
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conditions like cognitive decline
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dementia and Alzheimer's disease this
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link has even been confirmed by
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mandelian randomization studies which
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use data from population studies where
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we have genetic information on the
7:18
participants to create the equivalent of
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a giant randomized control trial these
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have shown that low LDL cholesterol may
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actually help lower the risk of
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developing Alzheimer's disease also
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interestingly these studies tend to show
7:30
that it's cholesterol levels in midlife
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and not old age that matter and this
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makes sense because we know high levels
7:36
of cholesterol in the blood take many
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years or even decades to cause the
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buildup of plaques in our blood vessels
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and this can potentially happen in the
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brain that's why high levels of
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cholesterol throughout our life might
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gradually cause damage to our blood
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vessels leading to issues with brain
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function interestingly one of the most
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common groups of drugs used to treat
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high cholesterol statins have even been
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shown to reduce the risk of developing
8:00
dementia when used early enough and for
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long enough so it's possible that
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lowering high cholesterol via diet might
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be useful to help take care of your
8:07
brain health long term now I've done a
8:10
video on cholesterol which we'll link to
8:12
here so please check that out but in
8:13
terms of diet some of the best things
8:15
you can do to lower your total and LDL
8:18
cholesterol are replace saturated fat
8:20
from sources like fatty meat full fat
8:22
Dairy and coconut or palm oil with
8:24
unsaturated sources like nuts seeds
8:27
avocados and Olive oil keeping total
8:30
saturated fat below 10% of your total
8:33
calories seems to be a good Target
8:35
increase your fiber intake especially
8:37
soluble fiber from foods like beans peas
8:40
lentils whole grains like oats and
8:42
barley and plenty of fruit and
8:43
vegetables reduce excess body fat and
8:46
maintain a healthy body weight by not
8:48
eating excess calories especially excess
8:51
calories from saturated fats and refined
8:53
carbohydrates and sugars and remember
8:55
you don't need to give up animal
8:57
products like meat and Dairy entir
8:59
just choose the lower fat versions to
9:01
help keep your total saturated fat low
9:04
as for eggs and other foods that contain
9:06
high levels of cholesterol naturally in
9:08
general the cholesterol we eat doesn't
9:10
affect our blood cholesterol levels but
9:12
approximately onethird of people are
9:14
called cholesterol hyperresponders which
9:16
means yes dietary cholesterol does
9:18
increase their blood cholesterol so if
9:20
you have trouble lowering your blood
9:22
cholesterol and you eat a lot of eggs or
9:24
prawns for example which are really high
9:25
in cholesterol it might be worth
9:27
eliminating them for a month and
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retesting to see if that helps bring
9:30
your cholesterol levels down now besides
9:33
specific foods and nutrients it's worth
9:35
pointing out that entire dietary
9:36
patterns may have a benefit on brain
9:38
health too if you think about what we've
9:40
mentioned here already lower saturated
9:43
fat vascular function long chain
9:44
Omega-3s and lots of polyphenols one
9:48
dietary pattern that takes all of these
9:50
boxes is the Mediterranean diet the
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Mediterranean diet is full of
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polyphenols loaded with fiber low and
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saturated fat high and unsaturated fat
9:58
including longchain Omega 3s and has
10:00
plenty of evidence showing it can reduce
10:02
blood cholesterol levels and improve
10:04
vascular function on top of that there
10:05
is plenty of research that shows that
10:07
Mediterranean style diets or diets like
10:09
it such as the DASH diet which was
10:11
designed to reduce blood pressure are
10:13
associated with better cognitive
10:15
function and a lower risk of dementia on
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top of that a recent trial in Finland
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called The Finnish geriatric
10:20
intervention study to prevent cognitive
10:22
impairment and disability or finger
10:23
trial which use Nordic style diet
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recommendations which are very similar
10:28
to a Mediterranean
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found that after 2 years cognitive
10:32
performance in the intervention group
10:33
was better and their risk of cognitive
10:35
decline was lower in fact the difference
10:38
between the groups was evident in all
10:41
studied cognitive domains which were
10:43
executive function processing speed and
10:45
complex memory tasks the finger trial
10:47
wasn't just diet though it also included
10:50
exercise and cognitive training which
10:52
goes to show that there is much more to
10:54
brain health than just food getting
10:57
plenty of exercise maintaining healthy
10:59
blood pressure staying insulin sensitive
11:01
staying mentally active by using your
11:03
brain regularly and being socially
11:05
active and getting sufficient sleep are
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all incredibly important for maintaining
11:10
the health of your brain as you age but
11:12
if you care about your health in general
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you should be taking care of those
11:15
anyway right now just before we finish
11:17
up I said I'd mention a surprising
11:19
supplement for brain health some of you
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might already know this but many don't
11:23
know that creatine can be very
11:26
beneficial for your brain's function yes
11:29
that supplement that is so good for your
11:30
gym performance can also improve your
11:33
brain performance you see your brain is
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a very metabolically active Orient just
11:38
like your muscles and your brain can
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also use creatine just like your muscles
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to help Supply large amounts of energy
11:45
when it's particularly active also as we
11:47
age our brain creatine levels tend to
11:49
get lower making supplementing with
11:51
creatine even more important but it's
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not just in older adults it also seems
11:55
to show improvements in things like
11:56
short-term memory in young adults too
11:58
and creatine may be especially
12:00
beneficial for vegetarians and vegans
12:02
who have lower levels of creatine in
12:03
their brains than mediators as for the
12:05
optimal dose for cognitive function we
12:07
still don't have enough evidence for
12:09
that but taking the recommended 5 gram a
12:10
day which is the amount used for
12:12
muscular power improvements is what has
12:14
been used in a lot of the research to
12:16
date I've also got a load of other
12:18
videos answering some of the most common
12:19
questions about creatine so be sure to
12:21
go back and check those out too I really
12:23
hope you've learned something about how
12:25
the food you eat and the supplements you
12:26
take can benefit your brain health in
12:28
the long return as always if you have
12:30
any questions let me know in the
12:31
comments below and remember to like And
12:33
subscribe to the my protein YouTube
12:34
channel for more great evidence-based
12:36
nutrition
12:40
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12:41
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