"The Worst Thing You Can Do is to Starve your Brain of Oxygen"
The Alzheimer’s Hub of Hope has four sections: Heroes, Highlights, Headlines and Helpers/Caregivers. This post is aligned to the headlines section.
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I was watching this interview “I’ve Scanned 250,000 Brains” of Dr. Daniel Amen and his quote "The Worst Thing You Can Do is to Starve your Brain of Oxygen” stuck me. That’s a pretty strong statement. Is starving your brain of oxygen really the worst thing you can do to your brain? And if so, how does one ensure their brain gets enough oxygen?
You may know of Dr. Amen from his PBS specials, best selling books, NFL concussion consulting, work with celebrities (e.g. Justin Beiber, Miley Cyrus, Meghan Trainor and others) or my January 13, 2024 post on brain imaging technologies.
Dr. Amen focuses on the brain and is not an Alzheimer’s specialist but it seems reasonable that a strong, resilient, healthy brain is less likely to succumb to AD. You are encouraged to watch the above video even though it’s almost two hours long covering a wide spectrum of brain related topics and is not specific to AD. I’ve summarized his brain oxygen and blood flow comments below.
It is important to have good blood flow to the brain since blood carries the oxygen that the brain needs.
As a person’s weight goes up it lowers blood flow to the brain, so stay lean.
Breath work increases oxygen to the brain. He recommends breathing in for 8 seconds, holding the breath for 1.5 seconds, breathing out for 4 seconds, and holding for 1.5 seconds. Do this several times a day.
Sleep apnea restricts breathing, resulting in less oxygen in the brain, and should be treated since it triples a person’s risk of AD.
Exercise increases blood flow to the brain. He was silent as to what type of exercise is best.
Ginkgo Biloba will improve blood flow to the brain.
I decided to do some digging on what will increase brain blood flow and, therefore oxygen. Using the six resources at the bottom of the page I’ve assembled 37 brain blood flow improving items. Most of them have references or links that will allow you to review their support. I’ve included the resource(s) that the item(s) come from in parenthesis. This will make it easy for you to identify the ones you have an interest in and read their corresponding article(s).
The most surprising items to me are in the exercise category. The up and down motion of squatting pushes blood upward toward the brain as does aqua aerobics where the pressure of the pool water pushes blood upward toward the brain. This upward pressure appears to increase the likelihood of more blood making it to the brain.
Also, yoga was cited four times and is another form of exercise that helps compress and decompress your veins, thereby improving circulation and blood flow. Inversion poses such as legs-up-the-wall move blood to the brain (using gravity as its power source). Cold exposure is another one I wouldn’t have thought of. Perhaps that’s one reason why cryotherapy businesses are taking off; there are several within a few miles of where I live.
Below are the items that may improve blood circulation to the brain grouped by category with the resource reference(s) in parenthesis so you can read the full article if you want.
Exercise
Repeated squat stands (1)
Yoga (1, 4, 5, 6)
Sauna (1)
Aqua Aerobics (1)
Exercise Combined with Cognitive Activity (1)
High Intensity Interval Training (1)
Nutrition/Supplements
Ginkgo Biloba (2)
Vinpocetine (2)
Resveratrol (2)
Omega-3 Fatty Acids (2, 4, 5)
Acetyl-L-Carnitine (ALCAR) (2)
Piracetam (2)
Citicoline (2, 4)
Pyrroloquinoline Quinone (PQQ) (2)
Intranasal Insulin (2)
L-arginine (4)
Vitamin E (5)
Vitamin B-3 (5)
Other
Cold Exposure (2, 5)
Sunlight / Light Therapy (2)
Red and Infrared Light (2)
Meditation (2, 4, 5)
Acupuncture (2, 4)
Music (2, 4)
Cranial Therapy (4)
Massage (5)
Food
Dark Chocolate (2, 4)
Chewing Gum (2)
Nitrates - beets, red spinach, tart cherry, citrus fruits, berries (2, 3, 4, 5)
Drink Less Coffee (2, 5)
Ketogenic Dieting (2)
Blueberry Juice (2)
Pomegranate (3, 4)
Walnuts (3)
Cinnamon (3)
Limit Salt (5)
Limit Added Sugar (5)
It is important that the blood that makes it to the brain is rich with oxygen. I’m not sure how you can measure how much blood is making it to the brain but you can measure how much oxygen is in that blood via an oximeter. Simple oximeters are available at Amazon for under $20. Take a look here.
Twilight Zone
Like the Twilight Zone TV show of the 1960s, the Twilight Zone section of a post will have thought provoking paradoxes and surprises that makes one think deeply.
'I feel perfect!' 109-YEAR-OLD man who lives alone and still DRIVES himself around reveals the very unique secrets behind his longevity
Vincent Dransfield celebrated his 109th birthday with pizza and carrot cake. The retired firefighter credits his long and healthy life to:
Drinking milk everyday
Staying active
Remaining positive
Spending time doing what he loves
Allowing himself to indulge in all kinds of food
The story mentions his milk consumption ten times. Here’s a few quotes:
“And he has even convinced his family of the powers of milk, persuading them to all sip on a cold cup of Ovaltine during his 100th birthday party.”
“Vince makes sure he chugs a glass of milk to keep his bones strong.”
“Vince delivered milk for five years and frequently helped himself to a cold glass.”
“Vince makes sure he still includes the drink in his daily routine.”
I also found it interesting that he “never shies away from Italian food, hamburgers, chocolate and other sweets.”
I suspect he is drinking full fat milk but I don’t really know. I do know that 2% milk wasn’t developed until the 1940’s when he was already in the fourth decade of life.
You can read the full story here.
Full Fat Dairy vs. Low Fat Dairy Tidbits
Since Mr. Dransfield is living a healthy and active life at 109 by drinking dairy, I decided to do some research of the topic.
The results of a 12 year long Swedish study of 1,782 subjects concluded:
A low intake of dairy fat at baseline (no butter and low fat milk and seldom/never whipping cream) was associated with a higher risk of developing central obesity and a high intake of dairy fat (butter as spread and high fat milk and whipping cream) was associated with a lower risk of central obesity.
A separate eleven year study of 18,438 women concluded:
Greater intake of high-fat dairy products, but not intake of low-fat dairy products, was associated with less weight gain and a greater consumption of total dairy products may be of importance in the prevention of weight gain in middle-aged and elderly women who are initially normal weight.
I also found this article “Why we should be drinking full fat milk”which discusses the nutritional superiority of cow’s milk over nut milks but also discusses the brain healthy nutrition in full fat diary. Here’s a quote:
Full-fat milk may have three times the fat content but it also contains 90 times the amount of omega-3 fats as found in skimmed milk, and about twice as much as semi-skimmed (2%), not to mention that the fat-removal process rids the finished product of a host of vitamins, such as Vitamin A and Vitamin D.
We all have heard that we should eat omega 3 rich cold water fish like salmon for our brain health. Perhaps full fat milk is another valid option.