 everybody we are live and you are in for a treat today I am you always hear me to say I talked to friends and that's what I do but today today is a really special day because these are two of if any of you have ever watched Anne of Green Gables one of my favorite movies and books of all time there's this thing called bosom buddies bosom buddies or or just sacred friends and these two women they're beautiful professional incredibly experts in brain health but more than that they have the heart of functional and integrative medicine and their dear friends in line and I am so excited to be here today with them today we're going to be talking about brain health and I will be trying to watch the feed on the side so if you guys have questions or comments or anything you want to know put it in the feed and if I don't get your questions we can go back later all three of us and we can pop in and answer your questions so feel free to comment add questions whatever you want to do in there and just a little housekeeping in a minute I will introduce both of my friends to you formally but if you need to find us you can find us at my website is Jill Carney hand.com you know where to find me also brand new YouTube channel where this will be played afterwards and if you just search my name on YouTube you'll find that and you can subscribe and Dr. Gadza her website is Suzanne GadzaMD.com is that right Suzanne? Yeah my GASTA integrative neurology. Okay thank you thank you thank you GASTA integrative neurology.com right and then Dr. Rusk I believe yours is your name right Eileen Naomi Rusk.com and the clinic healthybrain.clinic. Healthybrain.clinic and I'll put those in the comments so you don't have to remember that this is recorded so you can come back and watch it anytime if you like it please do share because I think we're gonna have some great tips on brain health and you know we talked a little bit forehand on what we're gonna do and I want this to be like you guys were sitting in on the coffee shop and us just talking about brain health so it's gonna be fun and casual but hopefully with some really practical tools for all of you so before we start I want to actually introduce these beautiful women Dr. Eileen Naomi Rusk on the upper left corner is a co-director of the healthybrain program in Colorado she has so many credentials so many things she's worked on so this intro won't even come close to doing her justice but what I love most is I'm gonna just talk from the heart and she is someone who is so science-based and yet intuitive and has really been an advocate for decades on trauma and the brain and trauma and illness and I love what she brings to Dr. Godz and I as more traditional allopathic doctors in the sense of understanding hope there goes a earring right out of the ear so she brings to us a lot of really great insight on how to help the nervous system change and how much that affects health and illness and I know as I've gotten to know her when I see patients now in the clinic they're so often where we reach a threshold of wellness and ability to get well and I always think of her it's like I have her sitting on my shoulder saying Jill have you thought about trauma because there's often a component of trauma to these illnesses like auto immunity and brain health and we'll dive into that today and then Dr. Godz she was in San Antonio and she recently moved here and we are so happy to have her in Colorado and she is a functional integrative neurologist which a lot of times my patients will ask for specialists like rheumatology gastroenterology neurology and the one to functional or integrative trained doctor and it's actually hard to find great functionally trained specialists so we have such a gem here with Dr. Godz both of her and I really believe in the power of immunoglobulins and hopefully we can talk a little bit about that today so go to their website they have so many more credentials than I shared but I love to get the personal bit in there and Dr. Russ let's start with you I'd love to hear just a little bit about your journey into brain health and neuropsychology like how did you get started what got your interest going your story you know what I look back first I'm so happy to be here it's fun it does feel like a little coffee clash so thanks a lot for inviting me you know when I think back I think of a pivotal moment in my own life when I was really electrocuted actually I was in a cabin in Northern Ontario I was young I was in my early teens and lightning struck the cabin I was in and it was partly in water and I remember that feeling of electricity going right through my body and the next few days were actually horrendous I guess I dissociated I didn't know it at the time I hallucinated a bit and I felt at that time I was kind of reconfigured in a way and it it led me to try to understand really more about how the brain works and how mental health works because that hallucinating for a few days was not fun so that was a pivotal moment for me a watershed time when I think I found my faith because I have a deep spiritual practice as well which I consider actually an important component of brain health so that's what integrated by my interest in science I actually became convinced I learned more about brain health at that time and I was very very young so I became a neuroscientist then I became a neuropsychologist interested in integrating brain mind and body but there was always a spiritual thread when that day when I was hit by that lightning bolt in that cabin I was like I found faith I remember that was kind of one of my first big prayers so that's a small story oh thank you so much for sharing isn't it funny how often the trauma suffering very strange experiences are the drivers to push us in a direction we maybe wouldn't have taken otherwise I don't agree that your gods I'd love to hear you as far as how did you get interested in neurology and even medicine way back then as far as medicine then neurology how the specialties goes tell us a little about your journey well I do want to thank you Jill for this opportunity for us to gather to share but also this incredible opportunity to work with both of you to try to change the lives of patients that are struggling so much so thank you so much both of you well you know I started off becoming a coach and I never thought I was smart enough to be a doctor and maybe I'm not I work really hard though I went to pharmacy school got my pharmacy degree and then said no I want to become a doctor and I remember going to speak to the Dean of the medical school and I said Dean Pastano what can I do to get into medical school I want to be a doctor I want to help people and he looked at my transcripts and he said you have a snowball's chance in hell of getting into medical school so the reason I tell that story is you know I think the reason I'm here today is it's it's God's grace it's the power of the universe it's how we are drawn to be and to do what we are called to do and live out our lives purpose so and I got interested in neurology I did love neuroscience I love the brain but back then you know neurology was the specialty of diagnosis and adios but I would be I'm happy to tell you that that has changed and then going into integrative neurology hasn't been a very long journey but I just began to see that we have to find other ways to help people got interested in root cause and a lot of because of you which how you help my daughter heal from a mold related illness and what I learned from you really brought me to where I am sitting right at this moment I'm very grateful and so my I feel like you too are some of the biggest blessings in my life because one thing I see in both of you is just the humility and the the thing is the more we know the more we realize all of us that we don't know right and yet you both are so beyond brilliant in what you bring in the dedication and how you view the patient and I know we all like when we're sitting in front of the patient to me that that is the ultimate humbling experience because the cases that we see are so complex and if you're listening out there and you're suffering or you feel hopeless I know one of the things we all talked about even before and I'd love to hear your comments on for those people who are listening and feel like whether it's the pandemic that's caused a lot of disruption in their life or whether they're dealing with a brain illness or a neurological illness or another type of autoimmune disease or toxic mold or Lyme disease or any of these things it's scary to be unwell and to not know especially I've found personally when my brain wasn't working I literally prayed to God with tears rolling down my face and said God can take anything please don't take my brain and I know if you're listening some of you can relate to that and thank goodness somehow he protected me and I've had times of brain fog and word finding and all the things that you might be experiencing but let's talk about that for a moment about the feeling that these people listening might be friends family or you as a listener if you're suffering what can we do to give hope and courage you want to start Dr. Gaston well yeah I've always said and I'm probably not the one don't quote me on this because I'm sure many people have said this but I've always said without hope no one could survive and that what is missing I believe in a lot of medical practices we have brilliant colleagues with brilliant physicians but it's the power of the heart and I think that's one thing for sure the three of us have is we are very heart centered and when our patient sits across from us I really think that that is a powerful healing force that is remarkable because maybe that's just the foothold that they need maybe that's just that one little piece that they can hold on to is I know Jill that's how people feel when they come in your office and Dr. Rusk in your office as well but absolutely we are in a time of that we need this more than ever Dr. Rusk we need love more than ever and I feel the same way about both of you I love sending patients to you and working with you with patients because I know they're taking care of really heart mind soul spirit and just being seen and just being held in that way is incredibly healing for people to know that there are people out there who really hold love and see their unique gifts qualities wounds and help turn those wounds into healing into their own wisdoms that they can then share that's that's how I feel when I see patients as well and you both do such a great job of that like I said I feel the same as like I know that when we share collaboration with patients I know that they're going to be so loved and taken care of and I know like Suzanne and I we recently had a gentleman that we both saw and he literally I think you asked him about what brings you joy and he wept and he said this poor man is lost hope and we are hopefully going to do some things that will give him hope again. Dr. Rusk any experiences or patients that come to mind we can obviously keep it confidential but just an experience that would would kind of bring this home as far as giving hope or or even some practical things you could do when you see someone like really really at the end of their rope. Yeah it's hard to talk about specific patients but yesterday a patient said to me that she felt actually I shared this with Dr. Jill yesterday a patient said you know I feel like I've only met a few really really special people in my life people who've come to me from the universe from God from source in a way and they they introduced me to Dr. Jill and they introduced me to you because you're the one who's you're the ones who are going to buoy me to hold me up and to usher me through this you're the ones who've given me hope again and I think it's true that a lot of our patients are at their wits end they've seen sometimes a hundred providers we've all seen patients who've seen a hundred providers who can't really get to the root cause or haven't looked for root cause yet so I feel in that way too we're willing to investigate we're willing to do the deeper study and more importantly we're willing to take the time to see all of them and and be on the journey with them so it's it's personalized it's beautiful and I'm so so grateful to work with you it's like finding sisters. Yeah I agree it's it's all sisters thing. So let's talk about practical you know again like I said I know I always my brain is my most precious organ so I and people I think take it for granted because we think about oh I got a scab on my arm or I got a heart issue I think we they forget and they also forget which will dive into this the brain is connected to the body which means if you have inflammation if you have auto immunity if you have infection if you have toxic exposure any of these things your brain it can be affected and what I found so let's dive first into say we're let's talk about like subjective cognitive decline that's a fancy word that we medical people use for when you have some memory issues or you have some you feel like you're not quite as sharp as you used to be and I would love both of you to kind of let's talk to the general person who's having some trouble what would that look like when should they be concerned to come call one of us or another doctor in their life what kinds of signs or symptoms would you say hey these are serious take them seriously Dr. Godz let's start with you what kinds of things would you recommend hey go see someone about those things well I always say that time is the essence when it comes to neuroplasticity and that we shouldn't wait until we're having a big problem right to try to do something about brain health and I just don't agree with when a patient says oh honey it's just I'm just getting old and I think we should have vivid vibrant movies memories into old age you see it in the blue zones right the people that live in the blue zones live in into old age and are not developing dementia so I think we should be concerned if we're not a short term memory of course word finding is probably the most common thing but every single day we should be working on improving memory we work we work out the exercise we want to have our bodies be fit we should be also creating a protocol for brain fitness when I was in neurology you know years ago we were taught that the brain was you got what you got it couldn't teach an old dog new tricks right and that if you had a stroke if you got a mess if you had a traumatic brain injury so sorry too bad diagnosed adios but in the 90s which was the decade of the brain that radically shifted and now we know that no that's really not true the brain really can heal itself and that that's my goal in this next decade of my career if God gives me those years is to really give people that hope that you may have been suffering for a long time but there are definitely things that we can do to improve your brain function we can build better brains every single day I love that because that is the core message of hope and I know like I'll talk just real briefly about some of the practical and then Dr. Rusko and I know next from you what kind of tips could people do to improve brain health and this could be simple lifestyle things I know we're all a big fan of simple and I've said this probably almost every time I talk but I think like we start with clean air clean water clean food I remember hearing Walter Korean quote maybe a year or two ago before he passed away that 80% of our toxic exposure environmentally is air nanoparticulate so from fumes and gases and and then of course in door air quality with like mold and other chemicals like off-gassing on the cabinets for meldehyde fluorine laminate fluorine there's so many things and people think oh new house I'm gonna be great new house is sometimes the worst for off-gassing the chemicals and then your old houses have mold so really thinking about air quality clean air clean water so drinking pure clean water out of non-plastic containers and clean food and again food is like oh does that really have to do with brain health I always feel like that's a foundation and I never have a one-size-fits-all diet but what I like to do is blow people's minds plant-based paleo because people think of this like bacon and butter paleo and I eat paleo diet but I am a plant-based eater I only need three times a week potentially I don't need any red meat and not everybody has to have this diet but I feel like the plants are so critical there are some people who get by with not a lot of animal protein and that's okay but I do find adding the eggs the fish clean you know grass for a free-range chicken also really critical for most people what do you guys think let's talk real quick about diet and then dr. Ruskin want to get to you about the special tips what's your opinion on diet dr. Ruskin what kind of a diet would you say is best for brain health you know plant-based diet is is data driven and best for brain health if people can get their guts assessed and get a sense of what's going on in their microbiome do they have parasites pathogens fungus candida I feel like that there's so much very very strong literature now on the the health of the gut and the impact of the vagus nerve which is that very long snaggy nerve that that travels from the gut to the brain and the brain to the gut very important people think about it as a as really a highway the highway between the gut and the brain and there's so many ways to stimulate the vagus nerve and in positive ways for both emotional health and and for gut health and for brain health so I know that wasn't your question but I just want to mention that as it pertains to perfect but also Vegas what what could they practically do for that because I get that question all the time what do I do for the vagus nerve well I know the two of you are hysterical because you always have gadgets you're the gadget girls this gadget well I really wasn't raised in the world of gadgets I was raised more in the world of what can we do in terms of social engagement in terms of cognitive strategies in terms of behavioral strategies and so you know the social engagement network as the vagus nerve there's a ventral and dorsal part of the vagus nerve and so social engaging in a very calm and loving way engages the vagus nerve humming engages the vagus nerve singing does to singing in community does to there's a one of my mentors Peter Levine who's one of the fathers of modern trauma therapy has a sound that he uses he may not have developed that sound but he says it's the voo sound so humming or vibrating this area is very very peaceful for the nervous system and stimulates the vagus nerve you guys have gadgets because I know Dr. Gas to actually just gave you one which I tried which I really liked so let's think about how we can combine these things these traditional social interaction cognitive behavioral trauma release strategies to make the vagus nerve healthy which directly ties to gut health and then directly ties to brain health and all the other ways and I want to actually go back to an important point about subjective cognitive impairment if that's okay because Dr. Gasti you answered that question really beautifully and then spoke about neuroplasticity but I guess my answer to the question even though you didn't ask me particularly is that I feel like it's important not to wonder people wonder and worry and worry and wonder for ever so long and no I don't think cognitive decline is part of normal aging and we know from a data-driven definition lexicon point of view there's subjective cognitive impairment that probably many people who are watching this have maybe experienced at times we have subjective cognitive impairment when we're like super anxious when we're super depressed our thinking isn't right because there's this very beautiful relationship between how we think and how we feel so sometimes you're you have subjective cognitive impairment as you age and it stays that way goes away or what's the word it modifies day to day that doesn't then lead to the next stages in progression which ultimately can lead to Alzheimer's disease but certainly don't necessarily the next stage is mild cognitive impairment which sometimes leads to which sometimes leads to dementia but the best way to find out is to get assessed to see a good neuropsychologist and just get some data get a baseline get baseline data don't start once you're really impaired so that's kind of a call for an invitation for everyone to sort of just get get serious about your thinking and nurture your your mind and care for your brain in that way by getting diagnosed I love it and I love that you're here Dr. Russ because Suzanne and I both you know allopathic model we haven't been taught to give all the respect that's deserved to your field but I love that you've taught no it's so important I love what you've taught us because we realize the critical component of a neuropsychologist in the game in the assessment and I know both of us like we couldn't do what we do without you because you give us that assessment and you can recommend a neuropsychiatric evaluation and some of the other tools and then even just the practical stuff like you said whether it's humming or breathing you bring this integral part and I love that with the Vegas nerve you're right we have gadgets I ran over to get one I'll show you in a minute so you can all laugh at me but but what I was gonna say is some of these things are free and really practical you don't have to have a couple thousand dollar device to do it so I love that Dr. God I want to give you a chance to chime in on Vegas nerve and food because the practical things what would you advise your patients with some sort of cognitive issues on diet first and then they go nerve or any sort of practical tips I wouldn't change the the recommendation that you have I love it you know we know now a healthy gut means a healthy body and a healthy brain leaky gut means leaky brain the blood brain barrier is very affected by gut health and we know that some neurodegenerative diseases maybe all for sure Parkinson's disease probably begins in the gut and then travels via the Vegas nerve to the brain so absolutely diet is the foundation of health and so is exercise you know movement increases some neurotrophic factors BDNF it's kind of the miracle grow for your neurons sleep is so important and nobody most people don't get enough sleep you can say I'll sleep when I die but you really will die younger I'm afraid and sleep disorder breathing is also very common as you age so we've got to know what our oxygenation levels are and I agree with you too it is the perfect storm that brings down the brain it's never one thing and Dr. Bredesen has shown us that right that it's the 36 holes in the roof it's your environment so it's your epigenetics it's your diet it's your gut it's how you handle stress it's your relationships it's all of those things and that's why it's so complicated they'll never be a pill we know that for Alzheimer's disease so we have to be taking these steps and following these foundations of health early because we know that Alzheimer's disease there are 30 million people in America suffering not from Alzheimer's but from cognitive impairment it probably begins at least two decades before presentation yeah so if we could get patients in our office in the 30s and 40s I get so excited when I do get these younger people and I tend to have a practice more in deep toxicity issues so chemical toxicity heavy metals and definitely mold which is so toxic to the brain I want to specifically talk about mold but we'll table that just for a second I'm getting so many fun ideas as I hear you guys talk because I want to talk about trauma too so I want to talk about trauma we'll come back to that we'll come back to mold one little thing on the diet when I mentioned a paleo paleo if you don't know is grain free again not everybody needs to be grain free a lot of people can tolerate like quinoa and rice and some of the non-gluten grains I recommend nearly 100% of my patients go gluten free dairy free sugar free alcohol free that's kind of a baseline for my patients because I see so many inflammatory complications from those foods those foods actually have the ability to create gluteal and casey amorphine which acts like a drug on the body if you have a permeable gut so because I just think that's a pretty simple basic thing to do in the beginning I'll usually start there and I wanted to mention one of the reasons I think paleo is so successful is not just because it's grain free but because grains are the most kind of common food source contaminated with mold toxins and I actually think part of the reason we see such success with paleo diets is the fact that you're actually eliminating a major source of mold in your diet let's talk trauma like I'll just show you really quick this is my gadget be a light and I won't put this on funny I like so if you can see a little red lights those are stimulating my mitochondria in the brain I use this I used to use it every day when I had mold now he's it maybe once a week if I have like I probably should have used it before this interview and I wouldn't be so silly but anyway that's all the be a light if anyone wonders and you can get those they're kind of expensive and I don't think you all need them there's other ways like Dr. Rusk and Dr. Godz said that you can that's not a vagal nerve stimulator just to be clear that's our red light therapy that goes right through the skull there's a piece I didn't show you that makes it even more funny right after it goes right up your nose and there's a light that shines right into my brain but I'll tell you what just me personally that's an alpha be a light has really when I was in the midst of mold I tried a lot of things like binders and clay and charcoal and stuff and that device actually for me really really helped to turn on my brain without a lot of with no drug or chemical effect and it doesn't work that way for everybody but we have studies on red light and do either one you want to comment on the red light in the brain I know you've both seen all the research yeah and I don't know Dr. Gast if you have any violites in your office but we do we have the gamma they have one now that's an alpha and gamma you know I like to use that again as like a tertiary thing I feel like all the things in people's lives internal factors that are root causes for dementia or cognitive problems external factors that are you know that are that are root causes as well I like to deal with those first and I considered this like a tertiary treatment even though it's so super fun but yeah we use the gamma for patients who have Alzheimer's disease or any type of neurodegenerative illness and I don't know the indication for other neurodegenerative illnesses but I do know about it for Alzheimer's disease and there's some very good data now actually with Parkinson's disease as well so I like to pair it with cognitive stimulation one of the neuroplasticity exercises I like to pair things for to optimize neuroplasticity I like to pair something like photobiomodulation with cognitive exercises or pair meditation with exercise or cognitive training after you've oxygenated the brain and increase the brain derived neurotrophic factors then to exercise so that's another brain health tip that I think people can can take into their lives think about pairing things I love it and I know if you notice she threw in a word there it's called biophotomodulation that's the name of that the technical term doctor got any comments on biophotomodulation or any other like vagal nerve stimulation anything technical that's fun and progressive but you may be more advanced well I remember one time you sent us a picture of you wearing your device while you were driving to the coffee shop I thought that is so smart just she's a time saver the other day I had a mask that looks like a Friday the 13th movie and the V light I'm like I'm going to walk the dogs and I don't care what people think of me and my neighbor she looked at me and I don't know what I was thinking but I think my neighbors think I'm a little crazy but it was fun to see the reactions oh your dogs love you well it's an exciting field photo bio modulation I think we're just scratching the surface and and what this may offer so I agree with both of you the neuro gamma device and the studies that they via light has done may reducing amyloid plaque reducing neuro inflammation so I totally think we should keep it in our toolbox you know breath work also is an easy way for to reset your vagal nerve I mean anybody can do that they treat train the Navy seals that on day number one is how to do breath work so but definitely it's important because you know I think COVID has cast upon us it may be a tsunami upon a tsunami now we were already dealing with high levels of neurodegenerative disease neuro psychiatric disease and Dr. Rusk and you and I have talked about this is that are we ready for what will what COVID will bring so all of these all of these tools are going to be very very much needed very needed and you know it's interesting with the vagal nerve one thing that people may not be aware of and I was actually surprised in understanding this recently tick-borne infections and viruses can actually infect the vagal nerve and so we often years ago I would see a lot of cases of small intestinal bacterial liver growth in Lyme disease or chronic infection and I knew that there was a correlation but I didn't really understand exactly how that worked and now I'm understanding that or Likia and certain forms of Borrelia and certain viruses like CMV can actually infect the vagus nerve and the vagus nerve it deals with the motility of the small bowel and so if you have that altered motility due to the infection in the nerve you have a stagnation it's like a pond that has no outflow and then pond scum builds up and that's when you get this overgrowth of things in your back in your small bowel then that affects your digestion and ability to get nutrients and causes all kinds of things creates some toxic waste that goes to your liver and then can go and have problems with the brain so it really is a cascade of events and you wouldn't necessarily think like what does Lyme have to do with vagus nerve but a lot of patients who have Lyme disease co-infections other viruses they actually have a lot of vagal dysfunction and so we're treating the gut but I love that we're talking about the vagus nerve because a real root issue is the vagal nerve dysfunction so I love that we're talking about that. Dr. Rusk you're an expert in trauma and I love that again you've really brought an awareness in my life to this and there's two types of trauma there's the trauma like a concussion like a physical trauma but there's also the psychological trauma and I'd love for you to dive in and I'll just frame it because I'm just really simple and especially the way I started I thought oh I'm fine I had a great childhood no trauma right but I want to frame it for you listeners because often you can have a great childhood wonderful parents and we all have some trauma and that could be your perception at a certain age of a some sort of a situation and how it affected you and how you felt about yourself or the world or whatever but I'd love Dr. Rusk if you want to talk just a little bit about trauma in the brain because I feel like this is a missing piece in functional medicine. Yeah I will I will speak to that just a little bit I guess I want to say that we all have adversity and we all have challenge and some people in the field call them microtrauma some people call them microtraumas and macro traumas big T little T so I think Dr. Jill what you were speaking to is yeah we all have family members maybe parenting that we had when we were younger maybe even birth trauma experience that didn't really jive with our own individual nervous system and I think I'll start there sometimes of course it can be more extreme sadly with children who are neglected which is a big type of trauma and people don't often look at neglect but but being forgotten about and not being seen I think that like both Dr. Gazda and you Dr. Jill agree that one of the biggest healers is to see people yeah and sometimes they've come to us just to be seen or their longing is just to be seen I think that's true for all of us so sometimes neglect and childhood can can actually leave the imprint of a very big trauma and I think a new relatively new field that I've been interested in for several decades is intergenerational trauma or ancestral trauma because we do carry imprints both physiologic in terms of illness states in fact I was just reading an article today on any myalgic and cephalomyelitis and the impact that that it brings with it an ancestral piece sometimes so I think it's good to just consider that we are just one link in a long chain and that sometimes we do bring trauma with us as well yes from early childhood so I think a lot of functional medicine and integrative practitioners should have a trauma-informed eye on their patients and some tools and also just for for listeners and for everyone to be more sensitive to our reactivity how angry we get how sad we get those can all have roots and trauma and trauma yes directly in fact it impacts the gut directly impacts the brain and the relationship and conversation between the two yeah and again I feel like functional medicine does a great job of looking for root cause so toxicity or infection or inflammation and they give credence to trauma but to me it's it's not just a side thing it's maybe one of the most important things we could do it's like the soup I see it as kind of like the stew that everything else brews in the immune system our inflammatory reactions the permeability of the gut it's like the stew the soup the broth that everything kind of stews in that somehow a blind spot sometimes yeah I'm gonna actually share a thing that you sent me right before our it's just like a beautiful diagram of the whole functional medicine view of the brain and trauma and then I'd love for both you to comment because they get a little much no it's beautiful fun hopefully you can also can you guys see that yes I won't leave it up for a long time because then you can't see us talking but um Dr. God's I you've just seen this now I'm sorry to put you on the spot but you're an expert isn't this a great way to look at this from Dr. Rusk and I would love to know any comments on this but I mean this really gives us like an overview of how we're looking at our patients and then Dr. Russ too I love for you both to comment on this great diagram Dr. Rusk this to me is the perfect storm right here it's all of these things that can lead to neurodegenerative disease or brain health reasons so I mean we could talk for an hour on each one that's right they're individually equally as important depending on the patient mm-hmm and let's use an example I mean I think that if we look at this model as doctors as Dr. Gaston says they're all relevant but some are going to be bigger or stand out more with certain people so some listeners might be say it might be like oh I'm very toxic I have a lot of toxins in my environment and that's really what's leading me to have my cognitive or brain health issues or put me at greater risk for brain health issues later on some people might say oh I've had I had a patient this week had maybe 13 head traumas that's going to kind of be the the lead magnet that is the focus that any of us will focus on as we look for root causes and I want to give credit to our mentor certainly a mentor of mine and I know yours Dr. Bredesen who really helped take make us look at the bigger picture we all felt it we all knew it but it's this approach that I think was inspired and you know fertilized by him looking at brain health from a functional medicine point of view and he changed things around with his aging paper in 2014 I think that was the date of that yeah and great recall and thanks for sharing you know what this first of all this is great I was so glad you shared it because I think it really gives our listeners a visual of the kind of like what we're thinking when we see them and how we're really looking at all the pieces of the puzzle and we like you said we may start what I always do is like oh my goodness there it might be a major infection or there's mold in the house so we'll start with those big players and then kind of as those things get resolved go into the mixture well sleep is a pretty big player food is a pretty big player so at the same time we're looking at all those factors and it's not a magic pill it's literally how many hours of sleep do you get for night what are you putting in your mouth for food and water it's really and it's kind of exciting because you don't have to pay $10,000 for a pill you actually can just change your diet and get some traction on your brain health and to me that's exciting because it's accessible to everyone it's really really accessible yeah so let's talk in the last few minutes what about resources no I know Dr. Rusk both of your websites are loaded with resources and I'm going to be sure that in the notes and in the chat box here we will have all of those websites but any favorite books that you recommend for patients you mentioned Dale Bredesen's book if you look at Bredesen on Amazon you'll find it what's the name of his book the end of Alzheimer's is this first book I think there's another one coming out though yeah his second book just was released I think it's called it's a program yeah Bredesen the Alzheimer's protocol or something like that definitely recommend those two Eric yes I just want to say Jill and Naomi I think what we're dealing with we are living in the 21st century of immunodeficiency and it's shocking to me how impaired most people's immune system is I mean COVID showed us that right you know why why should you get COVID obviously you were immune impaired for some reason it just wasn't bad luck but even look at autoimmune disease one in five Americans has autoimmune disease now that and and this new disease pans and pandas neuropsychiatric disease that and even a new specialty now psychoneuro immunology that's right that we have really got to get our immune systems healthy and this is more important than ever before and it's really because we live in such a toxic environment our immune systems are just totally overwhelmed and yes it's stress and yes it's trauma travels it's all of these things and knowing all of these things is truly how we can help people heal I love that and I love that this way I always say we're swimming in toxic soup and I always compare 20 years ago when I first started doing functional medicine we don't patient come in with Hashimoto's or menopause symptoms I do a little hormone work maybe a slight change in diet take out gluten they get better I don't see that anymore period it's really scary I really feel like people need to be focusing on you're the first person who said it it's simple enough clean air clean water clean food and I also like to say clean thinking I mean how our mindset is so important in this equation and we sometimes forget because we are in a toxic soup we also have choices about you know our thoughts yeah well you know that's a great way to kind of wrap our last you know five to six minutes or so let's wrap up with stress and the stress effect first of all I'd love if you guys have any studies or ideas or just background stress people like yeah everybody's stress right what what how does that affect our bodies and our brains because I think this isn't talked about enough Dr. Gasta you go first yeah go ahead rest you're the expert I am not yes yeah but I'll just briefly say you know stress is as bad as smoking you know it's really it's something that needs to be greatly recognized and again not to not that this is a discussion about COVID-19 but I think stress and fear are now at a higher level collectively across the globe and if we don't deal with stress then we are that's a great way to bring down your brain no question about that Dr. Ross can you comment yeah stress science has revealed that it has an incredibly impactful effect on our immune systems our cardiovascular health our obesity and and of course our brain health there's a very interesting new paper on how we think negativity negative thoughts it's actually I think a 2019 paper on patterns of negative thinking I just wrote a little blog on it and increases in amyloid and tau some proteins that are markers for the development of Alzheimer's disease so what was found was that patterns of negative thinking and just a quite a recent paper patterns of negative thinking as opposed to positive thinking and I'm not suggesting that you change your mindset and you change your thoughts automatically because that's a superficial not possible thing override to do we are who we are we have to be compassionate and gentle with how we think but to become more aware of our thoughts because in this paper what I was saying was that they showed in patients who didn't have Alzheimer's disease or any diagnosed neurodegenerative illness there was an increase in amyloid and tau if you both know the paper I'm not sure in people who had negative thoughts repetitive negative thinking so I think our our mindset our thoughts hold so much power and that's why I'm a firm believer in getting to know your mind nurturing your mind managing your mind with things like breath work mindfulness practices prayer manages your mind to settles focuses and is allows you to have some empowerment over what you think include that in your everyday neuroplasticity protocol I love it what about like I would love to know I know very always is it's funny because I'll get calls at the office what washing machine to use Dr. Jill and like who cares what washing machine I use but you want to know for you too and for me what do we do what do we do to combat stress what do we take so I'm gonna give you guys the opportunity to talk just briefly about like mind-body things and then if there's any like basic supplements that you wouldn't go without or basic practices what's your daily practice that you would never never or you you know really try to incorporate that your God said do you have any tips or things that you always try to make sure that happen every day for you well now that I'm here in Colorado I can say I'm so grateful that I can get out in nature every day there's something incredibly healing about the connectivity of nature and realizing that every little living thing matters good sleep don't call me after 10 I'll be in bed I'll be asleep Dr. Rusk I love it one night out in the crew and can you guess that is I love to the ends of my every every ounce of my being I'm a giver I guess my weakest link is self-care I need to do a better job of really nurturing myself but supplements oh gosh vitamin D3 now vitamin C cursitin omega-3 making sure my vitamin D levels are good a few others but those are probably the ones I would mention and having friends like you yeah Dr. Rusk what about you what are some daily tips that you do and then if there's any supplements if not that's okay too well I want to remind us that everything Dr. Gasta said was in this matrix of brain health really even even to the point of being able to rely on friends what I do I really need to move my body and I need to move my body in different ways and I need to do I love to do yoga and I love to walk and just be in nature and attune to the rhythm of nature I think that's what's most helpful to me to attune to the rhythm of nature and feel the kind of the rhythm of the earth I think that slows me down enough I take supplements I love my family I love my friends and you are the dearest and closest to me I pray I read a lot of sacred texts I try every morning to make sure that I I thank the universe and I thank all those mysterious forces for bringing me back into my body I say a special prayer after I wake up so those are some of the things I do I really really eat well and cook a lot I love feeding other people yes it reduces my stress I have to tell a little secret because people like these fun stories so sometimes Dr. Russ cooks for me and she gives me these containers they're all glass so there's non-toxic and on the lid she'll write special dinner and like one time the first time I happened I cried because you know how special that makes you feel when someone writes in permanent marker on a gift meal on her special glass dishes I literally was like this makes me feel so special that you wrote my name on it in permanent marker and she does she's a great cook and she that's one way she loves people is to feed them I and I've been privy to it because I forget to feed myself and she's like sweetheart are you eating today so I love it because you really do love people well that way have I cooked for you Dr. Gaston I guess she's so I've enjoyed I also realized that I have methylation issues in my family so I'm kind of I mean I'm pretty aware of certain familial issues speaking of ancestral physiology that I carry so I take a really good methylated complex and D3 I take K I have a little bit of heart heart disease early heart disease familial again so I take a lot of omega-3s C quercetin some lysine sometimes those kinds of things oh good these are fantastic yeah yeah oh and I would just echo sleep for me is like number one I can do anything I can be super human not really but you know if I get a good night's sleep and what's funny is years ago when I was so sick before you with Crohn's and all that and even before that when I didn't know I had celiac and I was eating gluten I needed like eight or nine hours of sleep now I can get six and a half or seven as long as I get lots of deep in rem and I get plenty like two hours or so I can actually feel really great six or six and a half or seven hours because the efficiency is so good so I think over my lifetime I've gone from you know probably very low efficiency at nine hours same amount of rem in deep now I can get six and a half or seven and like squeeze it in but you really need to look at not just the total time we I don't know most of us have an order ring which is a ring that tracks our sleep that's a great device there's other ones out there but this one's really cool because it can show you deep and REM and it can show you your heart rate variability which is a whole nother topic we'll have to come back to it can show you respiration rate your activity during the day I love it and I literally wake up and like how did I sleep even though I should know because I wake up I think a little coffee is good and I drink really really clean mycotoxin free coffee in the morning I love a spetal alkaline because it's a precursor of my favorite neurotransmitter a spetal choline and some is I'll combine that with herpazine which prevents the breakdown so I have more you know focus and concentration and then like they mentioned B vitamin vitamin D zinc minerals for me I tend to deplete in minerals because I don't absorb well so I love minerals and in some of the basics some of the basic detox stuff would be anesthetical cysteine and lipoic acid and milk thistle and glutathione and not everybody out there will tolerate all those and I don't recommend just getting everything we say you really need to individualize and there's no amount of supplements that can outwork a poor diet or lifestyle so that's why we didn't talk a lot about pills because everybody wants what supplement should I take for the brain and it's not that easy that's right so thanks for not thanks for not doing that because really it's a whole it's a whole life we can alter and change for positive neuroplasticity it is and I want to honor your time so we'll we'll close here in a minute but any last part in words of wisdom or hope giving to our listeners today I would just say that life should be good it should be full of joy we should have vibrant health it should be this constant state of enrichment we're always learning we're always growing and we're always loving more deeply and honoring our true sense of purpose and why we're here thank you that is so well said dr rusk I think that's a great that's a great summary of brain health because brain health is really lifestyle health emotional health mental health and so often we don't look like those and I want to invite people to really start thinking about their nervous systems and what they want their well how they want to feel how they want to think and I feel like that's not something we're taught about yet we're not we're not taught much about paying attention to how we feel but start just becoming more self-aware how we think how we how we feel and know that that's kind of the basis of beginning to take care of brain health yeah wonderful well said well thank you both so much for joining me I know we're gonna do this again sometime so you guys stay tuned and if there's things that you want to hear more about more topics more questions send them in because I will be sure and hear you so thank you both today for your time thank you so much for tonight so bye y'all bye