#269 Optimizing Brain Health and Cognition - Dr Olli Sovijärvi, Teemu Arina and Siim Land

Teemu Arina (0:13)

Hello, ladies and gentlemen, this is the Biohackers live show on the Biker Summit YouTube channel and also Siim Land's YouTube channel and also on the Biking Book Instagram account. Welcome. If you have any questions, you're free to go on these platforms and put your comments, questions, whatever you have up there. We are here in the studio ready to answer your questions about how to maximize your brain health. All right. That thing right there between your ears.

How do we get the most out of it? In the biker community, nootropics are a huge topic and huge interest in people. How to enhance or oil better this neurological machinery. But there is also electroceuticals. You can use electric currents to activate also those neural pathways.

And also, nutraceuticals, nutritional products and so on that help you to run your brain better. But in the end, there is no magic pill because research has discovered that in the end, one of the best ways to enhance cognitive capability is actually to use your physical body. So things like, you know, heavy exercise, heavy lifting and so on, is more likely to trigger brain derived neurotrophic factors.

Dr Olli Sovijärvi (1:36)

And grow your brain.

Teemu Arina (1:37)

So, yeah, Olli is already jumping in. So here from the Bikers Studios. Welcome to the studio, Olli and Siim.

Dr Olli Sovijärvi (1:45)

Hello, I brought my twin.

What's up? How are you doing?

Teemu Arina (1:48)

You guys have a pretty nice 80s porn star look. So welcome to the studio.

Dr Olli Sovijärvi (1:53)

We are absolutely wearing these new Bikers day glasses because I actually want to protect my eyes from these very bright lights. And that's also part of the brain health. So we're going to be talking about also how to protect and improve your eyesight and your eye health.

Teemu Arina (2:13)

There is actually a comment on the chat that sleep for seven hours per night minimum is needed. That's all. So that's true also.

Dr Olli Sovijärvi (2:21)

All right. That's true. And we're about to leave.

Teemu Arina (2:24)

That's it.

That's all you need. The brain is such a greedy energy consumption machine. Yeah. I mean, the amount that the brain is using for simple tasks is just like massive. Do you guys even know about any of them?

Dr Olli Sovijärvi (2:41)

Yeah, it is like the basic usage. It's about 20% of energy use and it can get even higher if you're like focused on very like demanding task.

Let's say like a writing process or synthesizing information that you do and I do and Teemu does and quite many knowledge workers also do. So the metabolism can go up to like 25 I don't know, maybe even 30% of the total energy consumption. And that's also one of the reasons why the ketosis ketogenic diet and using these ketones as brain fuel has brought into that attention.

Siim Land (3:22)

And it's not like a big organ. It's a very small, 5% of your body weight is usually like in the brain.

So and it's also like valuable because why it requires so much energy is because it's so valuable, you know, like coordinates all the other processes inside the body and your cognition. And so, yeah, you need it for survival.

Teemu Arina (3:42)

Yeah. So when it comes to taking care of it, like neurodegenerative diseases are on the rise.

I mean, we live older than ever before, like, and with that comes degenerative diseases and brain-related diseases and illness and degeneration is a big issue, of course, Alzheimer's and dementia and so on. So I think that's pretty much one of the most important organs that you have that takes a hit as you age, if you're not taking good care of your body either, right?

Dr Olli Sovijärvi (4:14)

For sure, it's pretty devastating to see people go down, let's say, with Alzheimer's or any kind of dementia or Parkinson's disease, which is a horrible disease, in my opinion. I've seen in my previous workplaces a lot of Parkinson's patients that the performance, not only the brain, but also the overall health goes down. My grandmother, well, she passed a little over 10 years ago, but she suffered like 13 years from Alzheimer's disease.

I watched her go down into a level of a baby, but she seemed to be pretty happy because she didn't remember anything but the present moment because the functional and the working memory wasn't really working.

And I actually witnessed her death like two hours before she went to the other realms. That was kind of a relief, but also a beautiful experience. But I wish none of these to any person. And if we can prevent any neurodegenerative disease, it is always a win for people.