In this episode 23 protocols
▶ 24:17 Goal Management Training Behaviors “For example, there's a therapy called goal management training, which is developed by Brian Levine and colleagues at the Rotman Research Institute in Toronto, where they've been very successful in teaching patients how to improve your executive function and how to make that translate into your real world. But it's very hard work. It's very therapist-driven. It requires a series of trainings.” ▷ 59:55 Bromocriptine Supplements “Those that have the low dopamine, we will make them better. And those who have sort of baseline high dopamine will make them worse. Super interesting. Maybe we could talk about bromocryptine a little bit... We give them in such low doses to healthy individuals, they don't even know, they can't even tell the difference between the placebo and the drug.” ▷ 1:04:10 Cabergoline Supplements “Bromocryptine is but one of the dopamine agonists. You can think of a few other, cabergoline, like other things like that... But other agonists work similarly.” ▷ 1:04:49 COMT Inhibitor Supplements “There's a drug that's developed by Parkinson's, which is a COMT inhibitor, which actually inhibits this enzyme that we're talking about, and that also will improve, will have the same function.” ▷ 1:07:05 Guanfacine Supplements “The one that we've used that's most used is guanfacine, which is actually a blood pressure medication. So that's starting to gain some traction. In fact, I think there was a study with brain fog for COVID showing that improved symptoms with it.” ▷ 1:15:25 Coffee Diet “But a cup of coffee is a bit of a noradrenergic agonist. Absolutely. And certainly improves my focus as long as I don't drink too much of it.” ▷ 1:17:14 Avoid Adderall or Ritalin for Cognitive Optimization Supplements “If I had my choice, you know, drugs that boost up multiple systems, all the catecholamines, the ones that boost up dopamine, epinephrine, and norepinephrine, I would steer away from those because you have no control over how you're modulating the system... then I wouldn't use Adderall or Ritalin as the drug that I think would help.” ▷ 1:18:19 Optimize Sleep Behaviors “I would say sleep is the bedrock. It's the foundation of mental health, physical health, and performance. I mean, without that, pharmacology might bridge you for an afternoon, but you're going to pay the piper somehow.” ▷ 1:28:41 Optimize Nutrition Diet “So optimizing sleep, obviously optimizing nutrition. There's a question about activity.” ▷ 1:28:59 Gradual Return to Activity After Concussion Behaviors “But now it's the idea that you should really get up and moving. You got to do what you can tolerate. You don't want to give yourself more of a headache or more light sensitivity. But as much as you can tolerate is the thought these days about sort of promoting recovery.” ▷ 1:29:59 BrainHQ Tools “But now we talked about technology, things like Brain HQ. Do you know about Brain HQ? So Mike Merzenich, which I know you've talked about with Eddie, developed a company called Posit Science where it developed these brain training” ▷ 1:30:10 Brain Training Games Behaviors “It developed these brain training games that can help improve specific cognitive functions. And they're very easy to do because they're online and there's science behind them and you can do them.” ▷ 1:35:57 Sustained Reading Without Phone Distraction Behaviors “I love the idea that through simple practices, like forcing oneself to read a book chapter, start to finish without looking at one's phone, even if it takes twice as long as one would like, redirecting one's focus when one focus moves away is a way of keeping working memory and cognitive function online, maybe even strengthening it, as you said, optimizing it.” ▷ 1:36:38 Walk Behaviors “But also, you know, most people realize they should probably at least walk.” ▷ 1:36:45 Resistance Training Behaviors “Getting some heart rate up a few times a week or more, maybe doing some resistance training a few times a week or more.” ▷ 1:36:45 Aerobic Exercise Behaviors “Getting some heart rate up a few times a week or more, maybe doing some resistance training a few times a week or more.” ▷ 1:46:44 Do Goal-Directed Activities That Require Sub-goals and Filtering Distractions Behaviors “Absolutely. I mean, anything that requires you to have, you know, where there's a goal and you've got to break it down to sub-goals and you've got to do it simultaneously and you've got to filter out distractions.” ▷ 1:56:34 Nicotine Supplements “But there is some interest in the use of nicotine as a cognitive enhancer... The cholinergic system is dysfunctional in Alzheimer's disease and boosting the cholinergic system probably is beneficial.” ▷ 2:03:57 Recumbent Bicycle Tools “But now with, you know, recumbent bicycles, and now there has been studies with 7-year-olds with just putting them in, mostly with recumbent bicycles, it's sort of designing. We have to think about ways to design exercise that can get aerobics up.” ▷ 2:04:46 Mindfulness Training Behaviors “A lot of these studies also, if they add mindfulness training to the hardcore goal management training, it's better than just the executive training alone. Just learning skills to stop, relax, refocus kind of gives this sort of boost to executive function as well.” ▷ 2:07:39 Non-Sleep Deep Rest (NSDR) Behaviors “There's a very specific practice that I've used since 2017 that's really benefited me so much, which is what I call it non-sleep deep rest, but it's based on a practice called yoga nidra, where you just lie down... And I emerged from that with much more mental and physical vigor than I did prior. And this only takes maybe 10 minutes. There's also a 30 minute scripts.” ▷ 2:08:20 Mindfulness Meditation Behaviors “And then I do a mindfulness meditation. The thing about mindfulness meditation that the biggest impact for me has been the problems of my life. Get re I get a different perspective.” ▷ 2:09:04 Put the Phone in Another Room Behaviors “For focus, the best tool I know is to, you know, put the phone in another room.”