Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN correspondent, frequent traveler and practicing neurosurgeon, considers himself a healthy man: he exercises and leads an active lifestyle, keeps his mind stimulated and eats well. But like millions of Americans, he has a family history of Alzheimer’s disease. So when he began filming his new documentary, “The Last Alzheimer’s Patient,” Gupta wanted to know how high risk he was and whether, at age 54, he was starting to show signs of disease.
He underwent hours of high-tech evaluations with a neurologist and embarked on a mission to maintain his brain health — not with drugs, but with surprisingly simple changes to his daily routine. Here are Gupta’s top tips for keeping your brain healthy.
1. Cut the meat
Gupta always made sure to eat a balanced and nutritious diet. But after visiting pioneering neurologist Dr. Richard Isaacson at the Florida Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Gupta cut out meat altogether. “The big differences I’ve made are really about diet,” he told Yahoo Life. “I do not eat meat. I eat mostly plants, whole foods and don’t overeat. In fact, Gupta says her diet is now mostly vegan.
This is because certain foods, including dairy and meat, especially red meat, contribute to inflammation throughout the body. Inflammation wreaks havoc on the brain, according to Harvard Health, contributing to the development of Alzheimer’s plaques. Even before signs of dementia appear, inflammation can impair the brain, particularly its executive functioning, or its ability to control and coordinate thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.
Inflammation has many causes, but, in Gupta’s case, “the inflammation in my body was almost entirely due to my diet,” he says. Gupta was surprised by the results of the blood tests he underwent. “It’s sort of proof of the pro-inflammatory nature of meat,” he adds.
2. Wear a weighted backpack on walks
Isaacson encouraged Gupta to continue his daily walks with his three dogs, but told him to step up his efforts by wearing a weighted backpack (an activity nicknamed “rucking”). According to the Alzheimer’s Society, exercise is great for brain health, but rucking has some unique benefits. Adding weight to your walk makes it both an aerobic and strength workout, which combined are helpful in reducing what’s known as visceral fat. It also strengthens the trunk and spine.
According to Gupta, a “big problem” contributing to Alzheimer’s disease is visceral fat. “It’s the fat inside the body that you couldn’t pinch,” sometimes called deep belly fat, although it also develops around organs, he explains. A landmark study in 2023 found a strong link between visceral fat and Alzheimer’s disease. “So using a backpack and walking with weights helps reduce visceral fat and increase bone, and all of these things make you less resistant to insulin.”
Some doctors, including Isaacson, suspect that insulin resistance is one of the causes of Alzheimer’s disease because it can trigger the development of the disease’s telltale amyloid plaques. “It’s really insulin resistance that is probably the most objective and important outcome measure that Richard (Isaacson) was looking for,” Gupta says. Insulin resistance can also hamper executive functions. Therefore, controlling it through exercise and a healthy diet can improve your daily brain health and help reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
3. Consider tracking your blood sugar spikes
As part of the study he is participating in through Isaacson’s clinic, Gupta began keeping a food diary and wearing a continuous glucose monitor, a wearable device that tracks changes in his blood sugar (or blood sugar) levels. All day long. Spikes in blood sugar can contribute to insulin resistance and therefore the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
“There were foods that definitely raised my blood sugar that surprised me, and others that I thought would raise it but didn’t,” says Gupta. He discovered that chapati — a wheat and ghee flatbread that has been a staple in Gupta’s Indian-American family his entire life — is a major trigger for him. “More than anything else, including ice cream,” he says. Gupta has stopped eating chapati, but says cutting out everything he enjoys that can spike his blood sugar isn’t necessarily the solution. “I understand that sweet spot,” he says.
4. Try toe spacers
Speaking to Yahoo Life, Gupta walked around his office wearing a set of toe spacers, which to him look like “toe rings.” The goal of his new accessory is to keep his brain and feet in active communication.
“The nerves that run from the spinal cord to the legs and feet are among the longest in the body,” says Gupta. “Because most of us walk around with shoes on, we don’t simulate those nerves — even walking barefoot would make a difference — so (the goal is) to try to keep those nerve pathways active.” This helps preserve proprioceptors, which are nerve endings in the brain responsible for our sense of balance and coordination – something that can suffer as we age. Gupta wears the toe spacers for about 10 to 15 minutes a day and plans to progress to longer periods of toe stimulation.
5. Talk to your doctor about supplements that could improve brain health
Isaacson’s tests showed that Gupta’s balance of levels of two fatty acids – omega-3 and omega-6 – was unbalanced. Her omega-3 levels were high enough on their own, but they were too high for her lower omega-6 levels. The two fatty acids, which together play a crucial role in brain development and health, help counteract the effects of inflammation and cellular damage due to oxidative stress.
At Isaacson’s suggestion, Gupta now takes omega-rich fish oil to optimize her levels. Questions have recently been raised about whether fish oil supplements live up to their hype, and many have recently been found to be rancid. Gupta himself was skeptical about the benefits of supplements for heart health, but was convinced by the potential benefits of supplements for the brain.
Even for a neuroscientist like Gupta, having his brain inspected was nerve-wracking. “It’s intimidating and very meta to have your brain assessed,” Gupta says. And, until recently, Alzheimer’s risk assessments before symptoms appeared especially daunting, because it was easy to think, “What would I do about it even if the tests showed abnormalities?” “There was no clear path forward,” says Gupta.
But now, thanks to preventative neurologists like Isaacson, there are a number of steps that can be taken to maintain brain health, and most of them can be done from home at relatively low cost. “These lifestyle changes…it’s not nothing, but it’s doable,” Gupta says. You can even take a number of the cognitive tests that Gupta took by joining Isaacson’s study through an app developed by Isaacson and his team called Retain Your Brain.
It’s too early to tell what difference Gupta’s new habits are making to his brain health, but he’s hopeful. And for good reason: some other patients participating in the trial saw not only improvements, but also a reversal of the signs of Alzheimer’s disease within 14 months. The possibility is tantalizing: “Want to have a sharper brain by the holidays? You could do it without therapy or drug intervention,” says Gupta.
News Source : www.yahoo.com
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