Ep. 107: Optimizing Your Brain With Dr. Matt Dawson- Physician, Author and CEO of Wild Health

On this episode, we are excited to share our recording with Dr. Matt Dawson from our Co-Mindfulness 2020 Virtual Summit to talk about the three big factors in brain health and optimization. Dr. Dawson is a physician, the author of two iBooks, Volume I and II of Introduction to Bedside Ultrasound. Currently he is the Founder/CEO of a genomics based personalized medicine company called Wild Health, where they specialize in providing holistic treatment based on individuals' DNA and other biometrics. As the CEO and Co-Founder of the Kentucky Castle, he dedicates his life to bringing care, attention, and wellness to all.

FOLLOW HEALTH GIG:

Learn more about BB&R and Achieving Optimal Health Conference by visiting BBRconsulting.us

Show Notes

[3:02] Nothing that's important, especially as important as brain optimization, is going to be a quick and easy fix. But you can do it.
[3:13] The first step to truly optimizing our brains is to stop thinking in terms of just the brain itself. We really have to take a holistic view of health in general and optimize the entire body and mind.
[4:27] 90% of health and brain optimization comes from a real core set of basic things that we kind of already know about.
[4:53] It's a cliche to say you are what you eat, but you literally are. Every cell in your body is made up of what you put in your mouth and what you consume, so when we talk about how to eat optimally for your brain, it's a personalized thing. Every person should be on a different diet.
[8:43] Sardines are fish that I love to talk about and I consider to kind of be the perfect food for your brain.
[10:26] Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.
[10:43] You should consider food as your great great grandmother would recognize it. But if she wouldn't recognize as food, it's probably chemicals and calories.
[11:14] If you're able to just eliminate those kryptonite foods of gluten and sugar, and maybe add some more fish and more plants into your diet, you're going to be doing better than the vast majority of people on your way to an optimized brain.
[11:55] For every increased amount of physical activity, at one standard deviation above, they found a 31% lower risk of dementia
[12:33] So moving makes you younger.
[12:55] With exercise we know you're going to have some side effects, things like better physical performance, looking better, losing weight and just feeling better and younger. So if you're okay with those side effects, then maybe you should be choosing our tennis shoes more than pills when it comes to affecting mood and depression and anxiety.
[18:57] Sleep is basically like a washing machine for your brain. All the toxins that accumulate overnight get washed out through the lymphatic system at night. And what we've found is that if you don't get adequate sleep, it can lead to permanent brain damage.
[21:25] We're not going to sleep in a cave. We're not going to do that perfectly. But the more you can do similar to that, the better off you're going to be.
[22:06] Mindfulness is really powerful and it can truly change the brain.
[23:07] After eight weeks of consistent mindfulness practice, that was enough to change the grey matter of concentration in regions of the brain involved in learning and memory, emotion, regulation and perspective taking.
Thank you for joining us on Health Gig. We loved having you with us. We hope you'll tune in again next week. In the meantime, be sure to like and subscribe to this podcast, and follow us on healthgigpod.com.

“The first step to truly optimizing our brains is to stop thinking in terms of just the brain itself. We really have to take a holistic view of health in general and optimize the entire body and mind.” - Dr. Matt Dawson
“Nothing that's important, especially as important as brain optimization, is going to be a quick and easy fix. But you can do it.” - Dr. Matt Dawson
“It's a cliche to say you are what you eat, but you literally are. Every cell in your body is made up of what you put in your mouth and what you consume, so when we talk about how to eat optimally for your brain, it's a personalized thing. Every person should be on a different diet.” - Dr. Matt Dawson

Keywords

#DrDawson #DrMattDawson #Health #Wellness #HealthGig #Pandemic #COVID19 #TriciaReillyKoch #DoroBushKoch #MentalHealth #PhysicalHealth #Wildhealth #TheKentuckyCastle #HealthyEating #Diet #Exercise #Wellbeing #Sleep #Meditation #Genomics #Genetics #BrainOptimization #CoMindfulnessSummit #CoMindfulnessProject #Performance