Hi, I’m Lucy. Welcome to Functional Medicine Associates

1. Nutrition: The most effective nutrition for support of brain health and prevention of cognitive decline includes a mildly ketogenic, plant-rich, highly nutritive diet combined with nightly fasting of a minimum of 12 hours with at least 3 before bed. This approach is summarized as the KetoFLEX 12/3 diet—a heavily plant-based, nutrient-dense, whole foods diet, that emphasizes local, organic, and seasonal non-starchy vegetables from every color of the rainbow, combined with an adequate amount of protein, and generous amounts of healthy fat—and utilizes multiple mechanisms to support brain health, such as increased energy (via ketosis), insulin sensitivity, reduced inflammation, improved vascular health, and detoxification. Learn more at NUTRITION: KetoFLEX 12/3 Nutrition Summary.
2. Exercise: Increase your movement throughout the day. Avoid sitting for extended periods. Incorporate a daily walk, preferably outdoors, work up to a minimum of 30 minutes. Walk with a purpose, as if you were late to an meeting. Vary your speed and add variation of walking steps. Additionally, adopt a strength training program 3-4 times per week. Exercise increases cerebral blood flow and brain-derived-neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which has important cognitive support effects. Exercise also helps to improve oxygenation, improve sleep, reduce overall stress, optimize BMI (body mass index), improve insulin sensitivity, and improve overall brain and body physiology in numerous ways. Exercise is one of the best ways to protect cognition and is also an important part of the protocol to reverse cognitive decline. See EXERCISE: “Just Do It” for detailed information.
3. Sleep: Adopt a sleep hygiene program that allows you to get 7-8 hours of quality restorative sleep every night—without noise, lights, or Wi-Fi. Sleep is vital for memory consolidation and optimal functioning of the glymphatic system to clear cerebral toxins including amyloid-beta. Additionally, sleep promotes metabolic health, reduces inflammation, and upregulates the immune system. Obstructive sleep apnea, and other causes of reduced oxygenation, are emerging as important risk factors for poor cognitive health. Rule these out by checking your nighttime oxygen saturation, which can be done with a continuous pulse oximeter. If you are found to have sleep apnea, continue periodic monitoring to ensure that your treatment is effective. See tips and tricks to optimize your sleep and much more at SLEEP: The Antidote.
4. Stress: Stress, especially chronic, unresolved or severe stress, may be a key contributor to cognitive decline. While stress is unavoidable, you can learn to control your reaction to it. We encourage you to adopt a daily stress management practice that could include any of these: mindfulness, meditation, Neural Agility, Dynamic Neural Retraining System, HeartMath, prayer, tai chi, qigong, or yoga. Additionally, you can build daily stress management habits that include time for self-care, not over-scheduling, using lists, unplugging from technology, avoiding multi-tasking, exercising, and getting adequate quality sleep. Learn much more plus tips on how to build stress management habits into your daily routine at STRESS: Just Breathe.
5. Brain Stimulation: It’s important to stay mentally active, to “upsize” our brains. Our brains continue to develop new neurons throughout our lives in response to social and mental stimuli as well as healing from trauma or injury . You can upregulate this by staying socially active, building a support system, having a strong purpose in life, and engaging in lifelong learning opportunities. Additionally, even simple pleasures like listening to music and dancing can help to promote new neural pathways. Consider daily brain training to keep your brain challenged. Use Brain HQ or any similar program. Keep it fun and challenging with sessions lasting no longer than 20-30 minutes, 3 times per week. See details and much more at BRAIN STIMULATION: Upsizing.
6. Detox: Avoidance of “dementogens”, chemical agents that impact our cognition, is a vital part of optimizing brain health. Ensure that the air you breathe, the water you drink, the home you live in, the food you eat, and the toiletries, cosmetics, and cleaning supplies that you use are as toxin-free as possible. It’s especially important to avoid exposure to mold, which is turning out to be a major contributor to cognitive decline, especially in genetically susceptible individuals. Additionally, practice good hygiene to reduce inflammation and maintain internal intact barriers (gut lining, blood-brain barrier, oral, nasal) as well as external (skin, nails, hair). Oral health, of your teeth, mouth, and lips is emerging as an important opportunity to intervene to protect cognitive health if mercury is high from dental amalgams, you experience frequent cold sores, or have any sign of gum disease. See DETOX: Beware of Dementogens for tips on creating a toxin-free lifestyle while concurrently upregulating your detoxification pathways.
7. Supplementation: Supplements are supplemental, but if you’re suffering from a specific nutritional deficiency that affects your cognitive health, they can be a very important contributor to healing. In fact, Dr. Bredesen has specific biomarker goals for the nutrients that are necessary to optimize brain health. Given your unique genetics, level of stress, and other environmental impactors, your need for supplementation may change over time. In general, we find that the longer people practice the protocol —combining a nutrient-dense diet with a healing lifestyle—their need for supplementation decreases. Read Supplements: Are Supplemental! for detailed information about how to use supplements.

Next time the protocol feels overwhelming to you, please remember the B7.  It’s just seven simple strategies—a different way of eating, living, and being— that leads to overall health optimization and improved cognition.