How can good fats improve brain function?
Good dietary fat is a rich source of energy for the cells in our brains, which along with exercise can stimulate the growth of new brain cells and improve memory. Watch neurologist David Perlmutter, MD, explain how eating fat improves brain function.
Transcript
So let's explore a little bit further why fats are so fundamentally important for the brain. [MUSIC PLAYING]
Just from a structural perspective, your brain is 60% to 70% fat, so it's
made from the fats that are in your diet. And it's as plain and simple as that. So eating the wrong fats will make
a brain that is not very functional and also increase inflammation, which will damage your brain to start off with.
But also understand that the reason we eat fat and we've gravitated over--
of the time on this planet we've been here we've gone to eat fat is because it's very high in calories.
So fat is an incredible energy source. Now I want to get a little bit technical here because it's really very important.
The parts of the cells that make energy are called the mitochondria. When you power the mitochondria with carbohydrates,
you dramatically increase the production of what are called free radicals. These are chemicals that damage your tissues.
They damage your protein. They damage your fat. They even damage your DNA. When you power the brain's mitochondria with fat,
far less free radicals are produced. It creates a beautiful environment for a flourishing brain.
It even allows your brain, believe it or not, to grow new brain cells. What a notion.
Years ago-- I'm not gonna reveal how many years ago that was-- but when I was in medical school, we were told that we were given 100 billion brain
cells by the time we were 18 years of age, and that was pretty much it. And then every time you had a beer you'd lose 20,000 or 30,000 brain cells
or something along those lines. But now we know that the human brain has this remarkable ability to grow back new brain cells.
It's a process that we call neurogenesis. It's an amazingly beautiful word, neurogenesis.
And we stimulate neurogenesis by cutting back on carbohydrate, increasing dietary fat, and getting more aerobic exercise.
Just 20 minutes of aerobic exercise each day has been demonstrated to turn on the parts of DNA on chromosome
number six that makes a brain growth hormone called BDNF. And that stimulates the brain's memory center called
the hippocampus to actually grow new brain cells, and the new research is showing it's actually
been shown to improve memory. Aerobic exercise grows new brain cells in the brain's memory
center, and that translates into improved memory. And I will remind you that there is
no pharmaceutical agent available on the planet that can make that claim. [AUDIO LOGO]
brain health nervous system
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