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My Evidence-Based Braincare Routine

2023-03-31 · Long video (solo, talking head or whiteboard) · Ali · recording, 11:06 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Health, sleep and habits · mode: Explanation and tutorial · tags: Evidence-based framing, Sponsor segment present, His medical past

Ali sets out his evidence-based braincare routine in five areas: a Mediterranean diet, movement that raises BDNF, sleep, challenging the mind through reading and learning, and avoiding negatives such as alcohol while keeping up social connection.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Why look after your brain: cognitive decline, focus and brain fog

  • ★★ Ali built his braincare routine to minimise his risk of cognitive decline as he ages, improve his focus, reduce brain fog and raise his mental performance. — 00:00:00
  • ★★★ After going through research papers, books and podcasts, Ali says there are five key areas to focus on to optimise brain performance today and brain health in the long term. — 00:00:29
  • ★ Maimonides (quoted): Maimonides, whom Ali calls one of the great scientists of the Middle Ages, said that no disease that can be treated by diet should be treated by any other means. — 00:00:29

00:00:45 — Part one, the fuel: the Western diet against the Mediterranean diet

  • ★★ Ali says the brain is only 2% of our body weight but uses around 20% of our total energy expenditure. — 00:00:58
  • ★ Through the gut-brain axis, Ali says, the brain and the gut are closely connected and in constant communication. — 00:00:58
  • ★★ Ali used to eat really terribly as a student and junior doctor, with no time or motivation to cook and unable to afford healthy takeaways all the time. — 00:00:58
  • ★★ Ali calls the Western diet, low in fruit and vegetables and high in saturated fat, sugar and salt, basically poison for the brain: besides raising the risk of cardiovascular disease and obesity, studies link it to decreased cognitive function, brain damage and dementia. — 00:01:27
  • ★★★ For his brain, Ali gave up burgers and soft drinks and moved to the Mediterranean diet as much as he can: lots of fruit and vegetables, whole grains, nuts, fish, olive oil, beans, lentils and other mostly plant-based foods. — 00:01:27
  • ★★ Ali says researchers who studied the blue zones, the areas with the highest share of centenarians, found that broadly all of them follow a Mediterranean diet. — 00:01:56
  • ★★ Ali says the Mediterranean diet has been linked to a lower risk of diabetes and cancer, and is associated with better memory, a lower risk of neurodegenerative conditions and improved cognitive function. — 00:02:26

  • ★★★ Instead of listing foods, Ali's simplest heuristic at a restaurant or when ordering a takeaway is to ask whether, in his heart of hearts, he knows the food is broadly healthy; if not, 80 to 90% of the time he picks a healthier option. — 00:02:55

    “do I in my heart of hearts know that this thing is broadly healthy?”

  • ★★ Ali notices a big difference after lunch: a burger and chips leaves him with brain fog and tiredness all afternoon, while a chicken or fish salad leaves him feeling far better. — 00:03:24

00:04:05 — Sponsor read for Heights

00:05:13 — Part two, the body: exercise volume, BDNF and his weekly routine

  • ★★ Ali says physical activity increases the brain's production of BDNF, a protein active in the areas for learning, memory and higher thinking, which is probably why exercise improves cognitive function, memory and learning. (hedged) — 00:05:13
  • ★★ Ali says the amount of BDNF produced depends on the volume of exercise, a function of its intensity, duration and frequency. — 00:05:42
  • ★★ Ali cites some literature suggesting that open-skill exercise such as badminton, where you react and respond, raises BDNF more than closed-skill exercise such as running. — 00:06:11
  • ★★★ For brain health, Ali says you don't need a two-hour run: football, badminton or any sport that moves your body gives you the exercise volume. — 00:06:11
  • ★★ Ali lifts weights about three times a week with his health coach Dan, has recently started kickboxing lessons a couple of times a week, plays the occasional game of squash or badminton with a friend and tries to get 10,000 steps a day. — 00:06:40

00:07:02 — Part three, sleep

  • ★★ Ali says chronic sleep loss raises the risk of hypertension, diabetes, obesity and stroke, and studies in mice suggest prolonged sleep loss can lead to brain damage. — 00:07:10
  • ★★ The many sleep experts Ali has interviewed, listened to and read all basically agree, he says, that sleep is the single best high-performance drug we have. — 00:07:10
  • ★★ Ali says challenging your mind is one of the most important ways to keep the brain healthy in the long term, because through neuroplasticity the brain can rewire itself even in adulthood. — 00:07:39

00:07:47 — Part four, exercising the mind: neuroplasticity, reading and learning

  • ★★ Ali says studies of cognitive brain games, musical training and language learning have broadly found improvements in attention, memory, brain connectivity and processing speed. — 00:08:08
  • ★★ Ali cites a study finding that adults who read even just once a week had a reduced risk of cognitive decline as they aged, and evidence that continued education, in class or self-taught, can lower the risk of dementia. — 00:08:37
  • ★★★ Ali advises making it a priority to have a daily routine, passion project or hobby that challenges your brain. — 00:08:37
  • ★★ Ali tries to read on his Kindle for about half an hour before bed every night, and generally reads something on the toilet when not replying to comments. — 00:08:37 · Kindle
  • ★★ Ali calls Shortform the best book summaries in the world: when curious about a book he blitzes through its Shortform summary, and if he likes it he buys the book and reads it properly. — 00:09:06 · Shortform
  • ★★ Ali says the greatest gains in brain health often come from simply avoiding negative things: via negativa, removing negatives from your life instead of looking for more positives. — 00:09:06

00:09:20 — Part five, lifestyle: via negativa, alcohol and social connection

  • ★★ Ali cites a nationwide French study of over 31 million adults in which almost 40% of early-onset dementia cases were alcohol related, and says even one or two drinks a day can show negative effects on brain structure. — 00:09:36

  • ★★★ Ali says the best amount of alcohol is none at all; if you are set on drinking, a maximum of one or two drinks a week avoids most alcohol-related consequences. — 00:09:36

    “the best amount of alcohol is no alcohol at all.”

  • ★ On red wine, Ali says the evidence keeps changing and is complicated, though many blue-zone areas drink quite a lot of it; generally it is safe just not to drink too much alcohol. — 00:10:05

  • ★★ Ali says our brains suffer when we are socially detached, and being socially connected, especially in later years, can reduce the risk of dementia and cognitive decline. — 00:10:05
  • ★★ Ali tries not to get too caught up with work and to keep evenings for date nights with his girlfriend, time with his family or friends over for dinner. — 00:10:34
  • ★★ Ali says relationships are the single most important thing in life, and we should spend our time with the people we love and on meaningful experiences. — 00:10:34

In the description and comments

  • ★★ Ali Abdaal (channel): Asked for Book Club videos on The Pathless Path and The Art and Business of Online Writing, the channel replies that it is working on both. — creator comment · Book Club

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: brain health · Mediterranean diet

Also: People: Dan (trainer, mentioned from 2021) · Maimonides

Organizations: Heights

Concepts: BDNF · blue zones · cardiovascular disease · Dementia · Diabetes · gut-brain axis · neuroplasticity · stroke · via negativa · Western diet

Products: Kindle · Shortform

Only in the description or credits: Book Club · The Art and Business of Online Writing · The Pathless Path

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