2025 05 04 The Top 7 Ways to Boost Cognitive Function (according to science)

What are the most important things to consider when it comes to Improving cognitive function a lot of people want better focus. They want to be more productive. They want to improve their mood They want to do all of those things like What are the big movers? when we think cognitive function So there's what I like to think of as there's definitely big movers There's things that require effort And there's like lower hanging fruit, right? So this is things that like you could take a supplement perhaps And I would say the big movers are the ones that of course are going to require more effort like that's always how it is right and It's pretty clear now.

I don't think I think it's pretty scientific consensus that Exercise and particularly vigorous exercise is one of the best ways that you can get a cognitive enhancement You know memory executive function processing speed So there have been studies that have been done in older adults in middle-aged adults in children Like across the lifespan and it's just undeniable that Getting your heart rate up, you know getting getting your heart rate up and blood flow up and sweating Is going to make you smarter and feel better. It's going to make you both. So, um Like there was there was even one study that was done in older adults And this was like a classic study that I just remember I talked about it for years But other cities have like repeated it since then but it was like 2011 or 20 2012 published in pnas and um This this researchers took these older adults and they put them on a year-long intervention exercise program and there was a lot of Um more vigorous intensity.

So they're getting up to about 80 percent max heart rate 75 80 percent max heart rate And for one year they did this intervention um, and after that year they had a two percent increase in their hippocampal volume, so Hippocampus is a part of your brain that's highly involved in learning and memory and they increased it by like two percent So people that in that age group lose between one to two percent of their hippocampal volume per year So they essentially countered that loss that atrophy that they're they're age-related, you know experiencing each year and um And so part of the reason that happens is when you're doing a vigorous type of exercise You are increasing brain derivative neurotrophic factor bdnf and that is responsible for growing new neurons in the hippocampus it's responsible for neuroplasticity, so that's the Ability of your brain to like adapt and change to the changing environment Which is what older adults don't do very well, right? Your brain's much more plastic when it's younger like you can adapt to things That's why that's saying you it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks, right? I mean, that's kind of where it comes from so bdnf plays a role in that So you want more bdnf like you an exercise and particularly vigorous exercise If you're working your muscles so hard That they can't get oxygen to them fast enough. And that's why I say vigorous um, then they're forced to basically make energy without oxygen and that happens by just using glucose and then you make lactate as a Byproduct and lactate is what is signaling and increasing that bdnf and lactate's really I mean you can measure it There's you know things out there that you can buy and measure it, but I don't think you need to I think you can Just measure your heart rate and if you're getting if you're doing a vigorous intensity exercise 10 minutes. That's all it took was 10 minutes to have improvements in cognition executive function processing speed So even just a 10 minute workout and like I did one before I was came here Like that's like that's my thing.

I do, you know, it's like I want to be on top of my game So you just can do a 10 minute, you know workout it could be high intensity interval training where you're shifting between periods of vigorous exercise and then kind of Resting a little bit and then so you do these intervals Or it could just be like i'm gonna do a 20 minute like and run and i'm gonna go You know i'm gonna do it. So, um Exercise exercise is the number one. I would say big mover as you said It's also the most requires the most effort the other things and this is where I kind of like i'm smiling because There was very recently a new study one out of three very large Randomized placebo controlled trials where they're giving one group a placebo and another group a multivitamin.

Okay. This is a multivitamin, which is The micronutrients i've been talking about magnesium b vitamins folate vitamin k is just Stuff people aren't getting enough of they're not getting enough from their diets And they gave older adults. So these were people that were 65 and older and um There was three different trials of this study It was called the cosmo trial and there's about 5 000 participants in total And the evidence was clear that just giving them a multivitamin improved cognition And it slowed brain aging which was it was estimated to slow brain aging by about two years And I this is like it's so it's it's funny because 10 years ago I was like doing I was out there podcast talk, you know talking on podcast about Huge studies that were coming out saying enough is enough multivitamins are a waste of money Don't buy them and they were saying the exact opposite and they were terrible studies and I like tore them apart But here we are 10 years later Full circle what's the easiest thing you can do like does that mean a young person can take a multivitamin? It's going to immediately make them, you know, I probably not but it's insurance Yeah, it's it's something that you can start now and certainly older adults.

It made a difference. So that that's one um, another one is Again, I mentioned that there's other these phytochemicals in plants that are beneficial. They're in vegetables and they're in fruits.

So blueberries And blueberry extract or even the equivalent of one cup of blueberries This has been done like the equivalent of one cup of blueberries improves cognition executive function It includes memory um also processing speed so that's something like if you're Like, you know fast reaction time. I guess it's more relevant for like maybe someone who's athletic but you know Fine motor coordination things like that. Um multiple studies showing this.

I mean there's been meta analyses showing it This is across the lifespan. There's been studies in kids There's been studies in middle-aged adults and there's been studies in older adults and it's clear Blueberries make you smarter and they make you feel better. At least they make me feel better So blueberries are the king of fruits.

I think I mean it's between blueberries raspberries and pineapple I think for like the top spot in my world of fruits blueberries. Yeah No, blueberries are so they have something in them called anthocyanins And it's what gives the blueberries their like pigmentation raspberries have them too blueberries are very concentrated in them Um, they also have so anthocyanins are a type of polyphenol. They're actually a flavonoid They're type of polyphenol polyphenols are a sort of wide class of phytochemicals and phytochemicals There's a lot of them lots of different types of them and they really are beneficial in humans And like I said, there's randomized controlled trials comparing giving this to a placebo and if it was bad for you Then it would be clear, right? It's good for you So, uh blueberries are are at the top of the list for that for improving cognitive function low-hanging fruit How easy is it to eat a cup of blueberries a day? I eat two It's literally hard to not eat a cup of blueberries.

It's hard not to yeah, so that that would be another one Um, I think another one on my list would be similar to that would be Cocoa polyphenols so like from from like dark chocolate um, they have another type of polyphenol called catechins and The best one So there have been studies lots of studies on this and it's mixed on this. So some studies have shown benefits They increase blood flow to the brain They increase, you know vascular flow so you can get an immediate effect Where you know if you increase blood flow to the brain, which is what exercise does, right? But we're talking low-hanging fruits easy to do take a pill that would be um something to do It is it's improved cognition executive function and there's a type called coco via and I have no affiliation with them But they've published their they they have studies published with their um proprietary blend which is again, one of the highest Concentrated I would say cocoa flavanols out there the catechins Consumer labs tested them and i've seen i've seen the data. It's it's very clear.

They're very high in in They just outcompete all the other brands out there and they also have the lowest contaminants. So they're really a good But expensive way to get those cocoa flavanols, which are really good And then the other one would be for cognition would be lutein which I mentioned earlier It's in egg yolks not very concentrated. It's in kale very highly concentrated in kale almost 24 Milligrams in three kale leaves and I say three kale leaves because that's what I put in my smoothie.

So i've calculated it but um So there's 24 milligrams of lutein. So lutein is a type of carotenoid like beta carotene Like lycopene and tomatoes you've heard of those things before well lutein is in that same category It is a carotenoid it accumulates in the rods and the cones of your eye It protects against singlet oxygen from blue light like this light looking at and also the sunshine when you go outside That damages our eyes. It causes macular degeneration.

And so lutein and zeaxanthin is another carotenoid. They're in Greens and they protect against that but they also accumulate in the brain And um, there have been a variety of studies so there's been observational studies correlating plasma levels of lutein and zeaxanthin with certain cognitive scores So like crystallized intelligence older adults that have lutein and zeaxanthin higher levels have more crystallized intelligence so that's the ability to use all the information you learned over a lifetime and like Use it um, there's been randomized controlled trials looking at giving eight milligrams of lutein I said 24 is in three kale. So they give eight milligrams of lutein And something like 23 milligrams of zeaxanthin to older adults and it improves neural neural efficiency so this is the ability to basically Your your neurons can function with less energy Which is nice so that obviously improves cognitive function because it's a very energy demanding process.

So so lutein Is another one yeah, I know it's in eggs choline. Yeah, you know cholinergics Generally very important for brain function. It is.

Yeah, it's it's an important. Um, It's important for brain and there's been studies actually, um with pregnant women if you give pregnant women about 500 milligrams of choline per day their children score better on The intelligence test yes so so I learned about this, of course when I was pregnant and I was like Well, I was actually before I was pregnant, but I was like figuring out like what i'm gonna do like what do I need? Yeah, and that's why I ate so many eggs during pregnancy because I also supplemented but now you've got like Mastermind babies I do. Yeah.

Wow, but so choline is also important Yeah, for sure brain function, but that comes down to again getting trying to get everything you need from your food Um, and then omega-3s there's been so many randomized control trials on omega-3s Improving cognition, especially when they're it's it has to be two grams or more That's where you'll get the the mixed data if it's like, oh we gave them 500 milligrams. It wasn't enough So the studies that are consistently showing improvements in cognitive function are at least two grams a day of the omega-3. So that's my that's my sort of I think low-hanging fruit for for cognitive function things you can do