419: Neuroscience Hacks: Improve Focus, Creativity & Boost Your Brain Power

ELLA: 00:00:03

Welcome, you're on air with Ella, where we share simple strategies and tips for living a little better every day.

If you're interested in mindset and wellness or healthy habits and relationships, or hormone health, aging well and eating well, honestly, if you're into just living better and with more energy, then you're in the right place. We're not here for perfect. We're here for a little better every day. Let's go.

Hey, you're on air with Ella, and I am joined by the brilliant Therese Houston. Hey, Therese, how are you?

Dr. Therese: 00:00:34

Oh, it's such a treat to be here. Thank you, Ella.

ELLA: 00:00:37

I am dying to talk to you. I have so many questions for you. Will you please, before I jump in, tell everybody who you are and what you do?

Dr. Therese: 00:00:45

So My name is Dr. Therese Houston. I am a cognitive neuroscientist at Seattle University.

And what I want to do is I want to give more people the gift of their very best day. There are some days when you wake up and you feel like you're firing on all cylinders.

You've got focus, you've got creativity, you've got exactly what you need to do the work that you're setting out to do. And then there are other days when you are not firing on all cylinders, but you need to.

And so what I am trying to do is take the best of neuroscience research and translate it into how do you get more focused? How do you get more creative? How do you show up when you're not feeling inspired? And I do that through my writing.

I have a book that is just about to come out called Sharp, and it's simple ways to improve your life with brain science. But I also give talks. I do consulting.

Basically, I try to find wonderful people like you to help get the word out so that more women can have the strategies they need on the days they need them.

ELLA: 00:01:42

Well, one of the things that you do so brilliantly is you are making neuroscience more accessible. Sometimes I get a little evangelical about books. Yours is one of them.

I cannot wait to share Sharp with my listeners because you give such genuinely gems.

You give us so many hacks, if you'll forgive the word, and so many little things that we can do to sharpen our brain, to help us focus again and to help us get more creative when we might be leaning towards fuzzy. Therese, is this something that you find, like, personally useful?

Dr. Therese: 00:02:18

I do. In fact, one of the motivations to write this book came during Peak Covid. I don't know about you, but I found myself checking the news every morning.

I wanted to see the maps, I wanted to see where were there spikes. You. Is it getting worse in my state or, you know.

So I developed some very bad habits during peak Covid of checking the news cycle far too often throughout the day, not just at the beginning of my day. And I needed tools for focus. And so I started doing, I started dipping into the neuroscience research to find out the literature.

What does it tell me about improving focus? And when I began to discover, oh no, neuroscience actually has tools for this, I thought, wait, what else does neuroscience have great tools for?

I read this literature all the time, but I wasn't looking at it from a practical angle. And I was delighted to discover that there are wonderful research tools out there that can improve the lives of everyday people like you and me.

And, and I just, you know, we need to know about them.

ELLA: 00:03:12

Let me ask you a, a bit of a loaded question.

Are there any reasons why the subject of sharpening your brain, of being able to sharpen your focus, of being able to manage stress, all of the things. Are there. Are there any reasons why this topic is particularly germane to women specifically?

Dr. Therese: 00:03:30

I think that it is in terms of, I know for most women, multitasking is part of everyday life and it can be a source of pride for women. I often have women tell me, oh, my husband or my partner is terrible at multitasking, but I'm so good at it.

So it can be a source of pride, a sense that this is how I show up and do my best work every day. And we can get into multitasking and the downsides to that. So that's one reason.

Another reason that I think this is particularly helpful to women is that as our bodies are changing, we have much more dramatic changes as we age than men do because of perimenopause and menopause. And that and having, having tips and tricks that you didn't need a decade ago is essential to adapting to the way your body is changing.

ELLA: 00:04:20

Well, tell me about that. What does neuroscience suggest about maintaining like mental sharpness as we get older, especially for women who do juggle multiple priorities?

Or we can go gen free. Whatever suits you.

Dr. Therese: 00:04:36

Sure, let's, let's first talk about those multiple rules because so many of us are juggling schedules and we're juggling responsibilities and we feel everyone wants a piece of us in, in your, you know, you begin to wonder, doesn't anyone else notice the trash needs to be taken out? Right? Like, ah, too much. Too much. So, so two things that I would point out. One is that chronic multitasking is really bad for your brain. Chronic.

And by. And I don't just, you know, we all have to. We all have to shift our focus.

ELLA: 00:05:05

Sure.

Dr. Therese: 00:05:05

You know, we're working on one thing and we got to do something else. So shift. You can't just do one thing continuously all day. You'd get bored even if you tried. But constantly multitasking.

So email, talking to your kids, email check, checking on Instagram. You know that constant multitasking is going to. First of all, it actually raises cortisol levels. Cortisol. A little cortisol is a good thing.

A lot of cortisol is a bad thing. By doing a lot of chronic multitasking, you're actually raising cortisol levels.

And researchers find that people who multitask a lot, this isn't just true for women, but for men as well. If you multitask a lot, it becomes harder to do deep focus later.

So when you really need to, you're still going to be pulled out of the task that you're trying to focus on. So you're reducing your ability to think deeply when you need to. If you do a lot of multitasking.

ELLA: 00:05:56

Are you saying that multitasking hurts future performance?

Dr. Therese: 00:05:59

Yes. Yes. So multitasking doesn't just hurt. Right.

If you multitask all morning, when you get that two hours of focus time, chances are you're still going to feel scattered.

ELLA: 00:06:10

Let me prove this. Through a study where n equals 1, I have completely shot my ability to focus. I think because of. I don't even know if we can call this multitasking.

It is really, though, because of this small computer that I'm holding in my hand at all times. We call it a phone. That's an innocuous term for what it is.

It is a portal to every single thing in the entire world, including my email and my text messages. And I don't care if I have every notification turned off. Therese, this.

This little small computer that I'm carrying with me at all times is putting me in a multitasking situation in a multitasking environment, like a hundred percent, just by definition. And when I was reading your work, I read that there was a study where they were studying multitasking and it's effects and brain activity dropped.

Brain activity. Let me just repeat that. Brain activity dropped by a whopping 37% for the task you're doing. And then mistakes went up by almost 50%.

That's the world I'm living in. And I. I need your advice on how to walk away from this small computer that I think I might actually be tethered to.

Dr. Therese: 00:07:26

Thank you for bringing those statistics to life. So think about that. Brain activity actually goes down. Mistakes go way up.

And if it's something that matters, whether that's work or family, whatever it might be, that really matters to you, you don't want to be making mistakes. That's just going to make it harder down the line. And you're right. I agree that the phone. Is this necessary evil.

I don't know about you, but I love being on a long flight for that very reason. My phone can't pull me out. Can focus for three hours on a long flight. And so would you like some strategies then?

ELLA: 00:07:59

Because.

Dr. Therese: 00:07:59

Yes, please.

ELLA: 00:08:00

Because it's not. It's not just. It's obviously not just our phones. You know, so many of us work from home or we don't turn our work off when we get home.

And so maybe we're talking to Junior whilst finishing our emails, or maybe we're cooking dinner and using our thumbs to get through the last remaining emails of the day, like, you name it. There are so many different scenarios.

So I'll open up the scenarios very broadly and I'll take all the tips you have for helping us improve our ability to focus and build our defenses against distraction.

Dr. Therese: 00:08:35

So I'll get to strategies in just a moment because I've got several. But if you don't mind, I can imagine there are people who are listening right now that are thinking, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

You may not be so great at multitasking, Therese, and maybe you're not, Ella, but I, you know, I am. I'm better than anyone in my house.

So let's do a quick demonstration of how hard multitasking can be, because you can convince yourself you're better at this than you are. So let's do this. Ella, if you don't mind playing along with me. People can play along. Okay. Be my guinea pig. Okay.

What I want you to do as fast as possible right now, Ella, I want you to count from one to seven out loud. Go.

ELLA: 00:09:05

Okay? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

Dr. Therese: 00:09:07

Fast. Beautiful. Great. Now I want you to do the same thing. I want you to say the letters A through F out loud as fast as you can go.

ELLA: 00:09:15

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H. Oh. Got there.

Dr. Therese: 00:09:18

It's all good. Both of those were super fast. Both of that. In both cases, you were single tasking. You were just doing one thing.

Now we're going to have you multitask and I Want you to alternate. I want you to say a number and then say a letter. So it would be like one A go.

ELLA: 00:09:33

Okay. My brain just broke, but let's try.

Dr. Therese: 00:09:36

Sure. There you go.

ELLA: 00:09:37

1, A, 2B, 3C, 4D, 5E, 6, F, maybe 7G. There you go.

Dr. Therese: 00:09:45

There you go. Brilliant. But.

ELLA: 00:09:47

But I had to, like, that took so much more muscle.

Dr. Therese: 00:09:51

Yes, yes. For those of you who couldn't see, Ello. When she was doing the Alphabet single tasking and the number, she was looking. Right.

Right in my deep into my eyes. But when we got to the multitasking, had to alternate. What happened? Your eyes go to the ceiling.

ELLA: 00:10:05

Yep.

Dr. Therese: 00:10:06

You're probably gripping your chair.

ELLA: 00:10:09

And I had to use my fingers. Did you see I was like, ticking letters and numbers off with my fingers?

Dr. Therese: 00:10:14

Yes, right, Exactly. Yep. So what ends up happening? It was harder. People probably noticed you were slower as. As when you were single tasking.

Usually people get three times as slow. Some people get four times as slow. So the.

The point being, compared to single tasking, you might feel like you're getting a lot done, but you tend to make more mistakes and you tend to be. So it would be much better to single task. I'm just going to do numbers. Done.

I'm just going to do letters as opposed to alternating and trying to do them back and forth. And so it's just a nice illustration. Some people are better at multitasking than others.

So if you have a lot of practice at it, you get good at multitasking. Of course, we've already talked now about the downsides, and that is when you get good at multitasking, it's harder to focus deeply later.

ELLA: 00:10:57

Yeah. And some people are better at aggressive driving than others, but that doesn't mean it's recommended. Right.

Dr. Therese: 00:11:03

That's such a brilliant parallel. Yes, exactly. Exactly. All right, so let's give you some strategies for focus. Right. How can. How can I single task effectively, Tariq? So one strategy.

Have you ever played with binaural beats? Do you know about binaural beats?

ELLA: 00:11:17

Oh, my gosh. I am so happy you brought this up. It's like a secret that I've been keeping for so long, but I don't think I'm using them correctly.

I have been downloading binaural beats before every flight I've ever taken for 15 years. But I did not realize until I read your book that I can be using this to drive focus. I've been using it to put me in, like, a theta state.

Dr. Therese: 00:11:40

Yes.

ELLA: 00:11:40

So that because I can't I can't sleep on airplanes. And so it puts me into more of a meditative zone out state. So that's been a cheat code for me for a while.

But would you please explain how that helps with focus? Because I was fascinated by this.

Dr. Therese: 00:11:54

So binaural beats binaural. So this is Latin for two years for those of you who like etymology. So binaural is two ears. And the idea is you're going to need headphones for this.

So this would be something that you're trying to do if you're trying to focus on your work and ignore the slack channel or ignore other tasks that are impeding on your ability to get things done. So you put on headphones or AirPods, whatever your headset is of choice, and you can go online, you can go to YouTube and search for.

You want to search for binaural beats, 40Hz. I also think Spotify has binaural beats at 40Hz. You can look there as well. And what's happening when you listen to binaural beats?

You're actually going to be listening to two different sounds in your ears. Each ear hears a tone at a different frequency, and that might sound like, oh, my gosh, Teresa, that sounds so distracting.

But actually what happens is your brain cancels them out, subtracts the two, and as a result, you only hear one sound. So. And so it's not as distracting as it sounds.

But what will happen is if you do 40 hertz, what's happening is researchers find this does something called entrain the brain. And it. And it's basically getting the brain to fire in harmony with that frequency.

And this is important because 40 hertz is what's called an alpha frequency. And that's when your brain is achieving kind of peak focus.

So what ends up happening, you turn on these tones, you're like, teresa, this isn't doing much. You turn down the volume a little bit. I promise you, within five to ten minutes, you will feel so focused, you won't be hearing the sound anymore.

You'll just be so focused on your task, you'll all of a sudden realize, wait, what happened? And you can just keep going on the TAS because it basically, it sinks you into a deep state of concentration and focus. But the 40 Hz is important.

If you do lower, like, theta would be below 10 hertz. That would be, I think, in like the 5 to 7 hertz range.

And that's gonna make you feel very relaxed and, like you said, can help you get into a sleepy state. 40 Hertz is optimal for focus.

Set a timer, listen for 15 to 20 minutes that first time, and I promise you, when that timer goes off, you will feel like, whoa. I didn't even notice that the timer had started right. Because you're just so deep into focus.

ELLA: 00:14:02

It's a.

Dr. Therese: 00:14:02

It's a fabulous trick.

ELLA: 00:14:03

I find this fascinating and just another little life hack, everyone.

There are Binaural Beats podcasts, and the intro to them is very quiet and there's no outro, and they get right into the Binaural Beats and all the titles list what hurts. They are. The podcast app is actually a great place to find Binaural Beats, so I'll link to some that I particularly like. Thank you.

I did not know that a time limit was useful, but you are particularly talking about finding a duration that suits you to put you in a zone of focus. Is that correct?

Dr. Therese: 00:14:36

That's correct. You're. You're looking. And like I said, you could use these. You use them for sleepiness.

Your researchers have tested these thoroughly, so that's one of the reasons I can recommend it. When researchers use them in the lab, they use pure tones.

And by that I mean if you look online and probably in these podcasts, there might be talking or there might be music behind the sounds. I would recommend the first time. Yeah, the very. At least the very first time you do it, just use pure tones where there's no music, because the.

The music might work for you, but you're going to, you know, you're going to be able to dial in your focus if you don't have the music. So that's be my suggestion that first time. Out of all the suggestions I offer to people, this is the one that they write to me. I.

People will seek me out. Send me an email. Therese. That is a game changer.

ELLA: 00:15:19

Um, Therese, can I ask you about one that I'm specifically interested in? You. You talk about fixation focus training, and it's another one that's super, super simple.

And I would just love for you to elaborate on what that is. Fixation focus training. How do we do that?

Dr. Therese: 00:15:34

Fixation focus training is coming. It actually comes. Originally, the research was done in China. There are now labs in New York that are also exploring this.

And the idea is that you are practicing the experience of putting your focus in one place, but you're going to be doing it visually, which seems a little surprising. It seems like. But I don't need to focus visually. I need to, like, focus in my thoughts.

But the practice of focusing visually can actually improve Your ability to focus mentally. So this is very simple. When they do it in China, in the labs, they have people stand up and look at a light switch.

What I've done and what the researchers in New York are doing is they simply have people put a little cross hatch in the middle of a computer screen. And you're going to set a timer for two minutes and you're just going to look at that little X or the little plus sign for two minutes.

And you can blink. You don't have to stare. You know, this isn't a staring contest, but the idea is you're trying to keep your attention in one place.

And what typically happens when those two, you know, the timer goes off in two minutes.

Now you return to whatever task you need to focus on and you will find that your attention, it's like laser focus that, that focusing of your visual attention focuses your mental attention.

ELLA: 00:16:51

Okay, so as a non neuroscientist, may I build on that?

Dr. Therese: 00:16:56

Please do.

ELLA: 00:16:57

I love the idea of looking away from your computer screen, but like toward a piece of art or a spot on the wall or something that is in your space so that you're not looking at LED specifically. And I wonder. I'd be super interested in any research on that. But I'm.

As you were saying that I was thinking, one of the things I'm trying to do to train my brain back to where it used to be is instead of reading my phone, I'm trying to read books made of paper like our ancestors did. And you just gave me this brilliant idea to actually use the book as my fixation focus before I read.

I bet that would help me calm down the monkey mind before I start to read my book is to actually use that exercise. Because you're just talking for like a few minutes, right? Right.

Dr. Therese: 00:17:44

Oh, yeah. Two minutes is, is what they do in, in the lab. Right. So, so very brief. Yeah.

So you could hold a book out, you know, maybe set it down so your arm's not getting tired, just set it down and just stare at one letter. So what, what might be tricky with the book is you might be right. And the idea is to just keep your focus in one place. Zoom.

ELLA: 00:18:03

Okay.

Dr. Therese: 00:18:03

Right. And so, you know, if, if the first word on the COVID of that book is an S, you just look at the S.

But I love this idea of like, because so often I don't know about you, but I'll sit down to read a good book and I'll get a page through and I won't remember what I just Read. My mind will have jumped around because I'm not in the zone yet of reading. Even though I want to read, I'm not there yet.

So I like this idea of trying it. But you're right, you can look at something in your environment.

In some of the research studies, they find that it's even better if you also try to play with your balance. So stand on one foot, then stand on the other foot, then crouch down.

You know, basically try to throw your balance off while you're trying to maintain your focus. You're basically testing your ability to keep your focus despite physical distraction.

ELLA: 00:18:47

These are so good and they're so accessible. This is why I love what you do so much. So, Therese, let me ask you this.

Are there any tips you would give to help us break out of not just like a distraction, a state of distraction, but any tips that you would offer in a similar vein when we need to spark creativity? So it's not just about focus, it's like we actually need to start generating and that's a different energy.

And I wonder if you have some specific hacks again, if you'll forgive the term, to help get us there and like switch us out of either, you know, autopilot state or a state of distraction and help us focus on being creative.

Dr. Therese: 00:19:30

Great. I'm glad you bring up creativity because it's something that so many of us need either in our home lives or in our work lives. And you know, even.

Even something like figuring out why something isn't working, that takes creative mind. You can't just come up with one reason something's not working. You have to come up with multiple reasons first.

One thing that is is bad for creativity is to go from something that takes a single right answer to something where you need to think up multiple answers. So this is fascinating research that's so interesting.

ELLA: 00:20:00

Sorry, I just interrupted you to just express how mind blowing that is. Will you say that again?

Dr. Therese: 00:20:06

So something that impedes creativity is if you go from something that takes a single right answer where you're trying to find one right answer, and then you switch to a creative task where you're trying to come up with multiple right answers that will make that creative task much harder than it needs to be.

ELLA: 00:20:22

Fascinating, right?

Dr. Therese: 00:20:23

It is. It's fascinating. So what might this look like in regular life? So you are. Maybe you are doing your taxes because we happen to recording.

Be recording this right around tax season.

ELLA: 00:20:33

Trigger warning.

Dr. Therese: 00:20:35

Trigger warning. Well said. That's there. There's math to be done. There's one right Answer for each line of those tax forms.

If you then were to go from that to, oh, great, now I need to do a little brainstorming for the vacation that we're going to be taking. You are going to have so much trouble to make that switch. We get into very, what's called convergent thinking.

One right answer, one right answer, one right answer, and then you try to go to something that requires creative work, you're going to have trouble. So what's better if you're doing something that requires one right answer, just take a break. Better yet, go for a walk.

What researchers find is that walking spurs creativity, particularly if it's a random walk. Now, I don't know about you, but often when I go for my walks, especially in my neighborhood, I do the same walk every time, same walk, pretty much.

Because you know how long it takes, you know what to expect. What's interesting about that is that is that is better than sitting still in terms of getting the creative juices flowing.

But if you really want to be spark creativity, go for a 10 minute random walk, walk out of your house, make a turn, and then make an unexpected turn. And then maybe you have to turn around and you go a little ways and you make another unexpected turn.

Just what that will do is when you come back to sit down at your desk, you, first of all, you might come up with some creative ideas on the walk, but when you come back to sit on your desk, back at your desk, start up that task where you need to be creative, and you will find that it's easier to be creative than it was when you left.

ELLA: 00:21:55

Therese.

Another thing that I found absolutely scintillating was you talk about the role dopamine plays in creativity, and that was all new information for me, as well as how we can boost our dopamine. Can you, can you explain to us what role dopamine levels play in how creative you're feeling?

Dr. Therese: 00:22:17

So dopamine is important because you probably there's so much about dopamine right now, but one of the things that dopamine helps you do is it's the let's do this chemical.

You know, we can think about it as a chemical for motivation, but it's also a chemical for creativity because it makes us want to work on something, it makes us want to try, and it makes us feel rewarded. And that can be part of the challenge for so many of us with creativity is we don't feel rewarded. We feel like we're just bumping up against a wall.

And. But dopamine can help feel creative as well as rewarded. And so how do we get more dopamine? There are a number of different ways that you can do this.

One is cold plunge. Right? There's so much about deliberate cold exposure right now. So people might have already heard about things like, you know, taking a cold.

ELLA: 00:23:06

Shower, but the research is really male focused and there's new research coming out, or there is also research about how that's, like, not great for women of a certain age. And I can't quote the age because I'd be making it up and how that actually can be. Can be deleterious for some women.

And I find that super, super interesting because shocking and surprisingly, the research has been really male driven and male centered, I should say.

So I just, I just want to flag that because it is all the rage and all the talk by the podcast bros, and I just want to put a little tiny yellow flag on that and say, it might not be for you.

Dr. Therese: 00:23:49

This is really fascinating that there might be a gender difference on it, but some of the classic research, when I think about it, they've done, they've had men sit in pools of cold water. Men, Right. Sitting in pools of cold water. So I hadn't thought about the fact that even the research was done on men, not on women.

And I'm sure there was some reason on the researchers part why they used men. But it's the sad truth that so often research studies are only done with men.

ELLA: 00:24:11

Yeah, fair enough. Okay, so that's one. Tell me more.

Dr. Therese: 00:24:15

So that's one. There are other ways to increase your dopamine. One way to increase dopamine that I really like is to ingest something called L tyrosine.

So L tyrosine is an amino acid and it's found in protein. So you can take L tyrosine as a supplement, which, which is fabulous, but I prefer to just get it through protein sources.

So if it's a day that you know you need to be creative, make sure to have a high protein breakfast. Don't just have carbs and fat, have, have a good amount of protein, whether that's eggs, a protein smoothie, whatever it might be for you.

I like Greek yogurt myself. Or at lunch, if you know that you're gonna have a brainstorming meeting when you get back to the office, that's your first thing in the afternoon.

ELLA: 00:24:56

Or.

Dr. Therese: 00:24:56

And if you're a vegetarian, which I believe you are, it's one of the things I've learned on your podcast.

ELLA: 00:25:01

I'm a very Bad vegetarian. Yes.

Dr. Therese: 00:25:04

You know, you don't have to be a flag flying vegetarian. You know, edamame is high in L tyrosine. Animal sources as well as vegetable. Non animal sources are high as well.

ELLA: 00:25:14

We have talked, we. I've done an entire show on amino acids and this is new information to me. So this is, this is so brilliant. I did not know you could e.

Your dopamine, in effect, and so you, you even provide a chart of foods. And I will just read off a few more. You've mentioned many and these are fantastic, but tuna has a really high amount of L tyrosine.

Edamame, you said tofu, cottage cheese, cheddar cheese, which was a delight to see. Greek yogurt, you mentioned chickpeas, almonds. They have, you know, a material amount of this amino acid.

But you're the first person in the entire world to tell me that I can eat my dopamine. And of course, I'm oversimplifying, but that is the net effect and I think that's absolutely fascinating.

Dr. Therese: 00:26:01

What, what I recommend is think about those protein snacks. It's gonna keep your CRO, your cre, your creativity up. And that's. It's not directly dopamine, but it's a precursor to dopamine.

It's going to increase your dopamine levels. And if you're someone who is saying, therese, I love this idea, but my life is complicated and I don't get my protein met.

You can get L tyrosine as a supplement. About 200 milligrams is what you want to aim for. That's what they use in the lab.

They'll use a supplement rather than, you know, actually handing someone a can of tuna.

ELLA: 00:26:32

If you're here, then I know you're already interested in being the best that you can be and getting the most out of this one Life we have, and podcasts are obviously great for inspiration and information, but true transformation requires action.

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If this is the season where you are ready to invest in your next step, let's talk when we talk about improving our ability to think, when we talk about improving our ability to focus and our predilection for being creative that day, you, you make an extremely controversial statement, Dr. Houston, that I would like to raise with you. And you say, and I quote, when it comes to focus, tea is better than coffee. Sorry and end quote.

I hate that. You're right about this.

Can you talk to me about this other amino acid called L theanine and why if we're going to really try to stack all the cards in our favor, why we might want to lean more toward tea or matcha rather than a cup of coffee.

Dr. Therese: 00:29:00

There are going to be coffee lovers out there and I respect you and you know, more power to you. But when it comes to focus, yes, tea is better than coffee and here, here's why.

So coffee and tea both contain caffeine and caffeine will give you a jolt of energy. In terms of the neuroscience, it blocks something called adenosine receptors.

So if you, if you're feeling fatigued, coffee and tea can be especially helpful at get reducing that fatigue because adenosine makes you feel sleepy. Caffeine in any form, and maybe that's Red Bull for some of you. Whatever, however you like. Mountain Dew, however you like to get your caffeine. Yeah.

Please, no, thank you.

ELLA: 00:29:37

Please, no.

Dr. Therese: 00:29:39

However, what tea contains that coffee does not is L. Theanine and L. Theanine is another amino acid.

And what researchers have found is this combination of caffeine plus L Theanine is very powerful in improving focus. And they believe in terms of the brain, what they're seeing is it reduces activity in something called the default mode network.

The default mode network is active when you're daydreaming, when you're mind wandering. You know, when you're, when you're, you're planning your grocery list, whatever it might be, right?

Planning a vacation, your, your, your mind is kind of bouncing around like a little pinball. That's when the default mode network is active.

That is great for when you, when you have, you know, 20 minutes and you're standing in line somewhere, that's great. When you're trying to focus on another task, however, that mind wandering gets in the way.

And so one of the things that caffeine and L Theanine do when you take them together is it reduces mind wandering and allows you to focus. So some of you might be thinking, I hate tea trees. I've tried it. I haven't liked it. Okay, so you can take L.

Theanine also as a supplement that's also available out there. But if you can learn to, if you can find a tea that you like, there are other benefits to tea because it's high in bioflavonoids.

So there are other real benefits to tea. So if you can stomach it, tea is going to help you out long term.

ELLA: 00:31:00

I found this interesting, even though I would prefer to immediately disregard it, if I'm being honest.

This was really fascinating to me because you said that researchers find that caffeine alone increases alertness, but caffeine combined with L Theanine allows people to resist distraction and perform tasks faster. So it's, it's like you, but it's, it's you on focus, you on point.

Dr. Therese: 00:31:22

Yes, exactly. For those of you know, we just talked about the hazards of multitasking. One of the things that researchers find.

For those of you who are like Therese, I have to multitask. Give me another way to approach this. Caffeine plus theanine. Researchers find you multitask better. So if you. Absolutely.

It's going to be a day where you need to multitask and there's no way around it. You need your L Theanine and with your caffeine.

ELLA: 00:31:43

Yeah, that's exactly where I was going with that. I literally have this highlighted on page 32 if anyone's interested. Caffeine +L. Theanine is especially helpful when you need to toggle between.

Between tasks. I thought that was super, super interesting. And you say tea.

I actually prefer matcha, which of course is a type of tea, but it's a slightly different animal and mush as well. Like the normal regular mushrooms you buy at the grocery store, they also contain L Theanine, but nothing beats tea or matcha.

Have to say nothing that I know of except for a straight up supplement. Therese, so I'm curious.

Dr. Therese: 00:32:18

When you, when you take Matcha, do you compare because it sounds like you're also a coffee drinker. Do you find that you. You feel more steadiness, like a calmer energy compared to coffee, or you don't see that difference?

ELLA: 00:32:29

I don't know what my life looks like without coffee and Matcha only I've never had that experience before. So I have only relied on Matcha after I've had multiple cups of coffee in the first half of the day.

And then if I want a little pick me up in the afternoon and. And I'm being disciplined, then I will have Matcha mixed with like warm oat milk or warm almond milk or something.

Dr. Therese: 00:32:52

Sounds. Sounds yummy.

ELLA: 00:32:53

It is yummy if you put some honey in it. Otherwise it tastes like your yard. But I. I do find that it is more brain friendly and much less jittery. And it does, I have to be honest.

It definitely does not give me like a sort of a j. Jittery tense response that, that a third cup of coffee at that point would do, or. Who am I kidding? Fourth?

Dr. Therese: 00:33:18

And then, and the research holds, holds up what you're saying, and that is that people feel less jittery when they have L. Theanine combined with caffeine. So it's that combo that seems to make the. Especially when the caffeine starts to wear off, there's less.

There's also less of a crash afterwards if you've had L. Theanine.

ELLA: 00:33:33

Okay, fine. Therese, I cannot believe where the time is going. Can I just rapid fire a couple, couple of questions with you? Just sort of lightning round.

Dr. Therese: 00:33:44

Go for it. Let's do it.

ELLA: 00:33:45

Okay, tell me, what role does exercise play when it comes to enhancing our cognitive function? And is there a particular type of exercise that you would or would not recommend?

Dr. Therese: 00:33:55

Exercise isn't just good for your body, it's great for your brain. And strength training is probably good for your brain. But there's way more research indicating that aerobic exercise is. Is fabulous for your brain.

It can actually help you rebuild neurons when you lose them, because as we age, we actually parts of our brain shrink. And exercise is one of the few things that can help you grow new neurons. It's like miracle. It's like miracle grow for your brain.

And it's aerobic exercise that has been most documented in this. And kind of the optimal prescription would be you want to be doing aerobic exercise about 40 minutes at a time for two to three times a week.

So that's.

That's perhaps very different than other recommendations that people give in terms of, you know, strength building and all those things are very important, too. But if what you're trying to do is stay mentally sharper as you age, aerobic exercise is your new best friend.

ELLA: 00:34:48

Would you count walking in that vein?

Dr. Therese: 00:34:52

Yes. So for particularly people who are sedentary, going from being sedentary to walking is going to help it. Actually, you see new hip.

There's great research, actually, just in the past two years showing that you get more neurons added to your hippocampus when people start walking. And it can completely counter. Counteract any loss of brain tissue in the hippocampus. So walking helps.

ELLA: 00:35:14

Wow.

Dr. Therese: 00:35:15

But, yes. So even just walking, a year of walking, and you will gain back at least 2% of. You will gain 2% of neurons that you might have lost otherwise.

So walking is better than nothing.

ELLA: 00:35:26

Okay. But then when you talk about actually cardio helping brain function, cognitive function, I imagine you're talking about something where your heart.

Heart rate's getting up.

So if we're including walking in this, and we're not starting at zero, I'm going to go ahead and take a wild guess that we need to do, like, vigorous walking or something where it's almost hard to hold a conversation. So are you. You're talking about some cardio effort? Yeah, exactly.

Dr. Therese: 00:35:51

So, okay, what the researchers find is moderate intensity. So that's, you know, you can talk, but you can't sing. So that might be different activities for different people. Right.

Depending on where you're starting. So for me, what that has changed for me in terms of my everyday life. I now do a spin class at once a week, sometimes twice a week, because that.

That ensures that I get 45 minutes of moderate intensity.

ELLA: 00:36:13

All right, one more lightning round question for you, Therese, and that is about breathing, because I imagine, well, I know that how we breathe, and if we can do breathing exercises and that sort of thing, it can be very emotionally regulating.

What does neuroscience have to say about breathing techniques insofar as they improve our focus or help us reduce stress or any of the things we've been talking about?

Dr. Therese: 00:36:39

The two ways that deep breathing helps you, there are probably many ways, but the two that neuroscience to me is most convincing around is, one, it improves decision making. Believe it or not, it improves decision making, but also it reduces stress.

And so I can show you one breathing activity that will reduce your stress and improve your decision making right away. Do you want to try it?

ELLA: 00:37:01

Yes, please.

Dr. Therese: 00:37:02

Okay, good. So put your feet on the floor. We're going to get a little comfy here. Okay.

The goal here is to do an extended exhale, meaning your exhale is going to be longer than your inhale. That's going to activate your vagus nerve, which is going to help decision making and improve your ability to relax and reduce cortisol.

So I'm going to count out loud, I'm going to do a slow count of five, and that's going to be your inhaling to a count of five. And then you're going to hold your breath for two, and then we're going to exhale seven. So five, hold two, exhale seven. And if you find.

When I've done this with other people, they sometimes find that five count inhale is too hard, they kind of stop at 4. Just start holding your breath a little early. You won't. You won't. It won't hurt you.

ELLA: 00:37:44

Okay, Inhale for five, pause for two and release for seven.

Dr. Therese: 00:37:49

For seven. Yeah. And I'll. And I'll guide you through it so that we can do it together. Okay. All right, so exhale and inhale, 2, 3, 4, 5. Hold 2, exhale, 2, 3, 4,.

5, 6, 7. Again. Inhale, 2, 3, 4 million 5. Hold 2, exhale or 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. So we'll stop there. How was that?

ELLA: 00:38:28

I mean, I can't do that while I'm podcasting. It makes me too calm. Oh, you've put me. You've put me in a theta state. I love it.

Dr. Therese: 00:38:39

Oh, my God, you love it.

ELLA: 00:38:40

Calming. Everybody needs to hit the 32nd rewind right now and just do that one more time. That's so good.

Dr. Therese: 00:38:46

It's so good. And you, and you.

By the way, I want to point out to everyone, she knew exactly what to do, which is you purse your lips and you do a slow exhale through lips like you're drinking out of a straw, except you're pushing out. And that can really help slow your exhale. And it also helps gives your nerve system the message.

It gives your brain the message like, hey, there is no threat. Everything is okay. And your brain calms down. Your cortisol levels go down. In the research lab, what they do is they do two minutes of this.

So we just did about 20 seconds worth. 25 seconds worth. You would do it for longer, and you will. But even. Even 20 seconds worth, and you just immediately feel like, oh, I feel calmer.

But the research also indicates you'll objectively make better decisions which is just mind blowing. And my mind, oh, it's so good.

ELLA: 00:39:33

And this is if you're having trouble calming your mind at night when your head hits the pillow, or if you do the 3:30 wake up thing. What a great easy thing to do.

Dr. Therese: 00:39:43

And it won't be like you fall asleep before you reach. That's the end of the seven second exhale. But once you stop, it should be much. I do. I do this all the time. In the middle of the night, I do that.

I Unfortunately do the 3:30am Wake up. And this is one of my go to tos that can help me fall back asleep.

ELLA: 00:39:59

Listen, I'm thinking of starting like a book club for women at 3:30 in the morning. What do you think? We might as well use the time, Therese.

Dr. Therese: 00:40:09

We might as well connect with other people who are like, oh, yeah, I hear that.

ELLA: 00:40:13

So, okay, so try this technique again and I'll just repeat it one more time. We are inhaling for five, we are holding for two, and we are releasing seen steadily for seven. Have I got that right?

Dr. Therese: 00:40:25

You've got it right. And then how long a break you take between the exhale and the inhale is really going to depend on the individual.

That part doesn't seem to matter as mo as much as the. The exhale needs to be longer than the inhale. As long as you've got that part down, you're golden.

ELLA: 00:40:39

It's not just about calming down. You're saying it actually helps you make decisions?

Dr. Therese: 00:40:45

Yes. What scientists think, what there's part of it they know, part of it they're guessing.

So one of the things they know is that that slow exhale reduces activity in the amygdala. The amygdala of your limbic system. It does threat detection, but it basically just says, hey, hey, hey, pay attention. This is important.

This is important. And what that slow exhale does is it calms down the amygdala. And it basically allows you to say, okay.

Instead of my amygdala being on high alert, I can really think about what's really important in the big picture, not just what feels threatening in this moment. And suddenly kind of cobwebs clear out because you can really see what's more important.

ELLA: 00:41:18

Well, Dr. Terese, Houston, thank you for what you're doing. You guys, I want you to run out. Do not walk, which is good for you. We've already talked about that.

But I want you to slow jog to get Theresa's book that comes out on April 29th. If you're listening in real time and it's called Sharp. Dr. Therese Houston, thank you so much.

Dr. Therese: 00:41:40

Thank you so much, Ella. This was just a delight and you bring so much energy and goodness to the world. All of us. Thank you.

ELLA: 00:41:47

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