Hey guys, Dr. Josh Axe here. Welcome to Ancient Medicine Today. Today, we will be talking about the Top 10 Brain-Building Breakthroughs, including the best supplements, diet, exercises, essential oils, and a whole lot more to help take your brain to the next level. There’s a lot of people today I know struggling with issues related to the brain. It could be ADHD, it could be autism, it could be dementia, Alzheimer’s. It could be you struggle with brain fog on a regular basis, poor memory or just lack of motivation. All of these things can be related to you’re not getting the proper nutrients and not doing the right activities that can really help improve your overall brain function. So what I’m going to do is go through all of the things you can do today that are going to be incredibly beneficial for your brain but also for your entire body.

And also, hey, help me spread this message. There’s a lot of people today, think about all the people who are struggling with kids who have been diagnosed with ADD and autism who need to know this information. Think about all of the people who are struggling with dementia and people taking care of them who just . . . they don’t know what to do, they don’t know the natural alternatives. So hey, take a minute right now, help me spread this message that food is medicine, punch that “share” button, click that “like” button, and let’s dive right in. So here we go, number one here is yoga. Now, I want to mention this, when it comes to yoga. I believe yoga can be a very therapeutic practice for the brain and practicing, you know, really focusing on your body, and really that brain-muscle connection. Now, I know there’s a lot of people in a lot of different religious circles who feel different ways about yoga. Now, my belief system is that yoga can be greatly beneficial. I know there’s some people, though, that believe that it is a spiritual practice that started in Asia or actually India, and people may have religious issues with it.

But let me just say this, for me and in having a Christian faith, for me when I’m doing a certain pose, you can do that to whoever you want, in my opinion. I can be bowing before Jesus and before God, and doing it that way. So just to let you know, it’s all about your intention with what you’re doing with your yoga poses. So that being said, yoga can be greatly beneficial when it comes to obviously improving your flexibility. But here’s a big thing, when you’re doing something in yoga . . . I do a class called Hot 26 where I’m balancing on one foot. In order to do that, I really have to use my brain and really focus on firing certain muscles in the body. It’s also increasing something called “proprioception” in your body. And proprioception is your brain working with your ligaments, and tendons, and muscles, and actually it’s improving your brain to body connection. So yoga, especially doing those proprioceptive balance exercises, has tremendous benefits, actually boosting brain activity.

And also when you’re focusing on doing something, some of the activities and taking deep breathing, that’s another big benefit of yoga class. As you work on deep breathing in and out of your diaphragm, that’s actually been shown to help oxygenate your brain. So again, yoga can be greatly beneficial, and hey, if you don’t want to do yoga then practice deep breathing and proprioceptive exercises. Now, juggling, very similar. Juggling has been shown to improve your levels of concentration. If I had a few tennis balls here, I learned to juggle when I was younger, I would show you how to do it. But juggling is greatly beneficial because you are focusing on multiple things that are moving very, very quickly, and it’s actually helping increase your focus, concentration, and your hand to eye coordination. And there are studies showing, people that have improved hand to eye coordination also actually helps improve your memory and learning skills. So juggling can be greatly beneficial there as well. And when you start juggling, you start with two balls, and you start with one hand and then you add in a third ball and that’s kind of how you work your way up.

Number three here, meditation. Now, meditation can mean many things to many people. Now, whether you are . . . really no matter what your religious background is, for me reading the Bible. When I read the Bible, meditation is something that many of them did. What I do when I meditate is I’ll spend some time in the morning reading a Bible or a devotional or a personal growth book, and I’ll pull out a principle I learned there. Love your neighbor as yourself, there’s a good example. And then, I’ll really sit there, I’ll spent some time with God and just praying, and then, what I’ll do is I’ll really reflect on what does that mean, and how can I apply that to my life. That’s one of the things I’ll do when I meditate. Love my neighbor as myself, what does that mean? That means I’m going to do something very kind. My closest neighbor is my wife, so I’m going to do something for her today. Maybe, love my neighbor herself. Now, I don’t want flowers but she does, and so again, love her as she wants to be loved.

Another similar thing, love your neighbor yourself. Think about people in your workplace. Think about the people that you can love and do something for them. And actually, that type of meditation, really thinking deeply, is a principle of the Bible. It’s also a principle of ancient Chinese medicine where they believe that that actually increase your body’s chi, your life force, your vital energy that thing that . . . Do you ever notice there’s some people they just sort of look down and dreary. Some people they almost have this light in their eyes, this glow about them. Well, in Chinese medicine they call that your chi, your overall energy, people that are just sort of like just want to go out and just have very high spirits. When Chinese medicine what nourishes your body’s chi is actually reflecting on these things where you’re going to go out there.

It’s really meditation, meditation deep thought and thinking, actually doing that internally overall helps increase your chi and your energy outward. Number four here, jumping to some advanced nutritional principles, rosemary and rosemary oil are one of the most powerful nutritional plants in terms of improving your brain. In fact, there are medical studies showing if you use rosemary essential oil, it greatly increases your memory and your focus, all at the same time as thickening your hair if you’re using it in your hair. So rosemary contains rosmarinic acid. It’s also anti-inflammatory, but it’s great for boosting the memory. What you’ll do is, take about five drops of rosemary oil and rub it on your temples or massage it in your scalp. But rubbing it on your temples, rubbing a little bit under your nose or deep breathing it in and out is great to help improve focus and study. Now number five here, omega-3 fatty acids. So many people today are deficient in omega-3s.

Omega-3s are crucial for your cells, and it’s crucial for reducing inflammation of the brain which a lot of people have. So you want to get more of these omega-3 fats from wild caught salmon, tuna, mackerel, sardines, anchovies, just any type of fatty fish is going to be loaded with these omega-3 fats. So get omega-3s every day. And if you’re not getting them from wild caught fish, get them from a fish roe or caviar supplement, a fish oil, a cod liver oil, but make sure you’re getting omega-3s every day. And another fat I want to mention here are animal fats.

Animal fats, make-up our bodies, and so getting good organic tallow, schmaltz, bone broth oil, these things on a daily basis is beneficial as well. Another great thing in order to improve your brain, and there are studies on people who struggle with Alzheimer’s on this. If you are learning something new, it actually can prevent dementia and Alzheimer’s over time. So learn something new, maybe it’s a new language, maybe it’s a new skill—juggling is a new skill—maybe it’s a new type of activity, maybe it’s indoor climbing or, practicing a type of exercise, or doing puzzles, or crossword puzzles. Doing things where you’re learning and activating your brain. A lot of people, especially people that start to age, and once they stop to work, they stop having to solve problems.

They get in the same daily habits day after day where literally their body can do things repetitively without ever thinking. So again, doing things to where you’re actually activating your brain, certain areas of your brain, learning something new, it is crucial for improving your overall brain health. Number seven here is walnuts. Now, if you ever look at a walnut, think about the way it looks, it actually looks like a brain.

It literally looks like half a brain. If you have a half of walnut there on the other side it makes up a whole brain. Within Chinese medicine, we know that when you consume a food that looks like an organ, it typically supports that system. So in Chinese medicine, doctors recommended people consume walnuts to help improve the brain. Well, today we know through medical research, walnuts are packed with omega-3 fatty acids and magnesium which both support the health of the brain. So consuming walnuts, maybe with some raisins, those two things together everyday, a great natural snack for the brain. Number eight here, getting your runner’s high. Now, you don’t have to run to get a runner’s high. You can do that with burst training. You can do it with cycling. You can do it with swimming, but things where you’re really going for a long period of time. You’re really increasing your circulation. That’s the key. When your body gets a flood of circulation, you’re . . . actually, this might surprise you, your small intestine, not on your brain, your small intestine starts producing loads, and loads, and loads of serotonin and other neuropeptides which boost your mood but also keep your brain healthy.

Think about this, if you are sitting all day and you’re not getting circulation, your body is like a swamp. You’re not getting certain nutrients out to various areas of your body, especially that are distal such as your brain. So again, getting a lot of circulation all the time can actually help feed the brain, bring it nutrients, helping you heal your body naturally, improving focus, memory, and a lot of issues over time. By the way, if you’re enjoying this live training with me, do me a favor, take a second now, punch that “share” button and click that “like” button. Help me spread the word that food is medicine because there are a lot of people watching who do not know these truths here as well.

And by the way, as well, if you are a person who is doing a practice or you know of a practice that I haven’t mentioned here that helps improve brain health and function, hey post that right now on Facebook Live and YouTube Live, I’d love to hear it from you, some of your best tips for improving brain health. Number nine here, intermittent fasting, can actually help clear the brain. Now, fasting is something that was used in reference biblically for overall health, and it’s even in medical studies today that intermittent fasting can help improve brain function.

Now, when you’re eating, you’ve probably heard of not just the brain-body connection but the brain-gut connection, okay? Your gut is connected to your brain. So, if you have something going on in your gut called “leaky gut,” proteins, and toxins, and bad bacteria can leak through the bloodstream, circulate and cause brain issues. This is very common with a condition like autism where a child is having an outburst. If they consume gluten, they have leaky gut, goes through their bloodstream, affects the brain like opium would actually, like an opioid causing these behavioral issues.

Now, some other thing that if you’re fasting and not eating, you’re not having that issue and that’s actually giving your gut more time to regenerate and heal and seal that gut lining. So again, intermittent fasting, so skipping breakfast, and lunch, and eat or at least skipping breakfast and just maybe consuming a meal at noon, three and six and not eating those other hours of the day can be greatly beneficial at improving your brain health. And also 10, many different types of mushrooms. Lion’s mane mushrooms, one of my favorite mushrooms for boosting your brain health. So, again lion’s mane mushrooms. You can see here some of the different types of mushrooms here. There’s a lot of psychedelic mushrooms which are beneficial but especially lion’s mane mushroom, one of the best for boosting your overall brain health. So remember some of these tips. Number one, using yoga. Again, you use the right type of intention when you do the poses. Number two here, juggling. Meditation, rosemary, omega-3 fatty acids. Learn something new. Walnuts, because of their omega-3s and their magnesium and minerals.

Getting your runner’s high, again, any type of circulation is good just getting movement and blood flow. A mini tramp is actually great thing to do too. A mini tramp is actually good for getting that going. Intermittent fasting and lion’s mane mushroom, all of these things are very, very beneficial at improving your brain health. And again, I would love to hear from you what are your top tips for boosting overall brain health. And listen guys, there are a lot of other things I could have covered here as well. Again, we could have covered things like animal fats and their benefits. We could have covered other oils like rosemary, not just rosemary, vetiver essential oil and cedarwood oil have tremendous benefits for the brain as well. But again hey, if you know someone you love, or you yourself or a child is struggling with some of these issues of the brain and really need brain-boosting benefits, hey, start applying these things in your life today or take a minute and share this with someone you love. And remember, every Monday through Thursday at a.m., Central Time, myself and my business partner Jordan Rubin, we are coming to you live talking about how to use food as medicine.

Every Friday we’re doing pop ins. And if you don’t want to miss one of the great pop ins we’re doing in the future, in fact, myself and Jordan are traveling to Florida soon, actually, Atlanta, California, going all over the place, and you want to see our favorite restaurants, things we do, places we eat, hey make sure you subscribe here as well on Facebook and YouTube Live. I want to say hey, thanks so much for watching. This has been me, Dr. Josh Axe talking about brain-building breakthroughs..

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