Brain Health Longevity with Dr. Kay Linker, PhD
Today I'm speaking with Dr. Kay Linker on the Longevity Optimization Podcast. In this episode, we delve into the intricate relationship between neuroscience, nutrition, and longevity. Together, we explore the differences between male and female brains, the importance of brain health, and how diet and exercise play crucial roles in cognitive function. The conversation highlights the impact of neurotoxins, the significance of the blood-brain barrier, and the vital connection between gut health and brain function. We also discuss the detrimental effects of alcohol on the brain and the benefits of walking for cognitive performance.
Dr. Kay Linker is a leading expert in neuroscience and nutrition, dedicated to understanding how lifestyle choices influence brain health and longevity. Throughout our discussion, we cover various aspects of health and fitness, emphasizing the importance of cardio and strength training, the benefits of morning sun exposure, and the significant impact of sauna use on brain health. Dr. Linker introduces emerging therapies like photobiomodulation and hyperbaric oxygen therapy, while also addressing the reevaluation of Alzheimer's research and the importance of holistic approaches to brain health. Additionally, she shares insights on supplements like spermidine and rapamycin, underscoring the need for a comprehensive approach to health that integrates lifestyle choices and dietary considerations.
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Timestamps
00:00 Introduction to Longevity and Neuroscience
01:46 Understanding Brain Differences: Male vs Female
04:33 Brain Health Basics: Nutrition and Exercise
10:26 The Impact of Diet on Longevity and Brain Health
15:54 Neurotoxins and Their Effects on Brain Health
20:23 The Blood-Brain Barrier: Function and Importance
23:58 Gut Health and Its Connection to Brain Function
28:09 The Role of Alcohol in Brain Health
30:01 Exercise and Cognitive Performance
30:59 The Importance of Morning Sun for Health
34:12 Sauna Benefits: A Game Changer for Brain Health
38:43 Exploring Photobiomodulation and Brain Health
40:09 Reevaluating Alzheimer's Research and Its Implications
44:31 Emerging Therapies: Hyperbaric Oxygen and Brain Health
46:48 Nourishing the Brain: Supplements and Lifestyle Choices
Transcript
[00:00:00.320] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
Welcome to the Longevity Optimization podcast, where we discuss longevity, optimal health, nutrition, peak performance, cognitive excellence, and so much more. All right. So, Dr. Kay, it's a pleasure to have you here with me today.
[00:00:14.700] - DR. KAY LINKER
Hi. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.
[00:00:17.410] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
Yeah. Thanks so much for coming. Glad it wasn't too far of a drive.
[00:00:21.540] - DR. KAY LINKER
Yeah, I'm very close. I love it.
[00:00:22.840] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
I know. Well, it's exciting because you're in LA, I'm in LA. We're both obsessed with longevity, anti-aging, all Everything's female, so we're going to get to be real friends now. I love it.
[00:00:34.250] - DR. KAY LINKER
I love it. I'm excited.
[00:00:35.530] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
Yeah. It's going to be fun. Today, we're going to be talking about a variety of different things, but I'm excited about all of them. So you have a background in neuroscience. So I certainly want to cover the brain. And then we're going to go into some compounds maybe for longevity, maybe even a little bit of skin stuff. I love that you have a very diverse area of interest when it comes to longevity.
[00:00:59.090] - DR. KAY LINKER
Yeah, I love it all. I'm obsessed with everything, but my background is neuroscience. And for me, that is probably number one in terms of what I want to help prevent in terms of decline.
[00:01:08.640] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
I love that. What made you interested in studying neuroscience to start?
[00:01:13.320] - DR. KAY LINKER
It was honestly a winding road. I did grow up around scientists. My mom is a neuroscientist, my dad's a physicist, and my brother is actually now a physicist. But growing up, I was very rebellious, and I didn't want to do any of that. I actually went into the visual It's a good science. Okay. And was studying that. But then in college, I accidentally had a pretty intense psychedelic experience, and it just shifted my whole worldview. And I wanted to go into something that I knew was going to help other people. To me, that was the health sciences, and I wanted to pick something that I thought was the most interesting health science, and that was neuroscience.
[00:01:54.600] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
Yeah, that's a really good point. I love that. When it comes to the brain, are Are there differences between the male and female brain?
[00:02:02.730] - DR. KAY LINKER
Yes, there definitely are. We have major differences beyond just our sex organs in terms of the receptors that we have around the hippocampus and also the estrogen and progesterone that's available within the brain. Obviously, it's different within our bodies, but also that transfers to our brain. We have different types of memories that we can form around our menstrual cycle. Certain things are more available to us. For example, in our follicular phase, we have better spatial memory than around our luteal phase. This also goes beyond to different types of cognitive functions. Women tend to be better at chronic functions, so things like words, verbal memory. It's obviously on average, everyone is their own unique person, but we definitely have differences beyond just our sexual organs.
[00:02:57.740] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
For anyone listening, what is spatial So spatial memory is the ability to navigate your way through a space.
[00:03:04.900] - DR. KAY LINKER
This is done by the hippocampus, and it's your memory for turning left versus turning right, and also understanding globally, if you're looking at a space, where's West, where South. And that varies depending on our cycle.
[00:03:20.430] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
Interesting. Well, we just had a conversation about north, west, south.
[00:03:24.400] - DR. KAY LINKER
Men also tend to be better at that than us, but we still can be good.
[00:03:30.010] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
It's just not... I was telling you, it's like, I always tell my husband, I only have so much space in my brain, and I want it to be very singular, maybe just multi-matter. I don't want... He's interested in so many different things, and I'm like, It's health or longevity and it's marriage and being a wife, and those are the two areas of my life that I'm interested in learning more. I feel like everything else just comes in, and then I let it leave because I don't even want it to stay.
[00:03:56.760] - DR. KAY LINKER
Yeah, same. I honestly, I feel like I just I don't have enough space for everything that I used to when I was younger. And so I just focused on things that really make me happy, which is health, wellness, and longevity. And yeah, I push out everything else.
[00:04:13.820] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
I love that. In terms of brain health basics, because we live in a time, and actually, years ago, I can notice this. I was like, We're so focused on what we see, right? Which there's no issues with that, and you and I are both obsessed with skin and antiaging and all that stuff. But When I think about health, I always think about putting the brain first. How can we do that? What does just nutrition look like? What are some of the brain benefits of exercise? So that people, when they're dragging themselves to the gym and don't want to go, they can remember how amazing it is for their brain and their cognition.
[00:04:46.790] - DR. KAY LINKER
Yeah. So I think one important fundamental of the brain that's useful to remember in terms of how everything in the body connects to your brain health is that 90 % of the vessels in your brain are thinner than a strand of So your brain is mostly these really tiny capillaries. And because they're so small, you are walking on this tight rope of teeny tiny blood vessels that need to be extremely healthy in order for you to have great cognition now and throughout your life. To do that, it's really about helping your heart and helping your endothelial function. At the gym, you really want to be pushing zone 2 and zone 5. These are heart rate zones, and it goes one through Zone 5, 5 is the highest, so you're pushing yourself to the max. Zone 2 is pushing yourself on this edge of anaerobic versus aerobic. These are two different types of creating energy for output. Anaerobic aerobic is you don't have enough oxygen to make the ATP, so that's your zone 5. So you're pushing this type of anaerobic state. And aerobic is you do have enough oxygen, and that's your zone 2. And that's why in order to push your aerobic physical activity, you have to do zone 2 for a long period of time.
[00:06:06.640] - DR. KAY LINKER
That's why you hear those protocols where they're doing zone 2 for an hour to 2 to 3 hours per week. Those two types of cardiac protocols are really good for brain health, as well as supplementing with omega-3s, specifically DHA has been shown to reduce dementia risk, and supplementing it can also reduce some cognitive impairments. And in terms of nutrition, you really just want to stick to an anti-inflammatory diet, which sounds so broad, but non-processed foods, meats, veggies.
[00:06:41.240] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
Do you eat meat?
[00:06:42.230] - DR. KAY LINKER
I eat meat, yeah. I think meat is incredible for your health.
[00:06:45.510] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
Okay, good. I could talk a little bit more about it.
[00:06:49.070] - DR. KAY LINKER
I mean, if you don't eat meat because you have moral issues, I understand that more than health issues. There's really no reason to think vegan is a healthy diet because it's not. I mean, eating meat, being an omnivore is the healthiest diet, and meat has incredible benefits, not just in terms of these complex proteins, but also the phytonutrients within meat that help our muscles grow, which also helps our brain health and just helps your longevity overall. There's no question you should be eating meat if you care about your longevity.
[00:07:20.760] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
I love to hear that. I have two grass-fed, grass-finished wagyu ribais in the Sous vide. I don't use a plastic bag, I'll be clear. I use a silicone lasher bag. And it makes it easy, really quick to do for me because it'll take 30 seconds on the cast iron to just sear it a little bit. Amazing. And dinner will be done in no time. So I love that.
[00:07:41.600] - DR. KAY LINKER
I'm hungry now.
[00:07:42.650] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
I love to come over for dinner sometime and I make that I love that. Yeah. So what is a typical day of eating for you look like for either longevity or brain health? And let's probably assume that they're one and the same, right?
[00:07:53.760] - DR. KAY LINKER
Yeah, they are. So typically in the morning, I can't eat. I like to eat something sweet in the morning, which is a problem if you don't want to eat sugar. So I like to stick with a Greek yogurt. And then sometimes I'll put in a little bit of monk fruits with berries and sometimes a little bit of almond or nuts just to give it a little bit of hardiness and keep me throughout the day. If I skip breakfast, which sometimes I do, and have a big lunch, then I like to do three to four eggs with something like brocolini or even spinach etched on the side, keeping it really protein and veggies-focused. And then dinner, I love a fish. So doing shrimp or salmon or even cod. And you can really alter the flavor profiles of those more than a steak. And yeah, pairing that with aspergus or broccoli or any other veggies. Salad on the side. All those salads, I get I feel like they're hard to make.
[00:09:01.470] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
It does take a lot of work. I've been prepping. There's this amazing CSA that does regenerative produce that delivers every Friday. It's called Flamingo Estate.
[00:09:10.770] - DR. KAY LINKER
Oh, I love them.
[00:09:12.150] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
It's amazing. Yeah, I'm upset.
[00:09:14.160] - DR. KAY LINKER
They also have incredible candles. I don't know where you at in your candle journey, but they have great candles.
[00:09:19.970] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
No, so they do. And it's on my list to research deeper. Maybe you can just clarify this for me because I got rid of all candles completely. Haven't used them in a decade, but my husband love smells. We had to go through all of his fragrances and stuff, and we got healthier ones. So candles were a complete no-go. But this brand is very high quality. They very much so are into regeneration. So I have the rosemary one upstairs, and I'm just needing to research it a little bit more, but maybe you have.
[00:09:47.260] - DR. KAY LINKER
I haven't yet. So I am not... I like to tackle things one at a time. When I was younger, I was not health conscious at all. I was parting all the time, and it was really... It was a journey to become where I am at today. So I like to tackle one thing at a time, and I haven't gotten to the scent yet. Although I will say I've started using cinnamon oil instead of perfume, and it's clean and smells good, and I highly recommend.
[00:10:14.000] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
Love that. Well, I can also help expedite some of that stuff for you. Okay, please. I mean, it wasn't an overnight journey for me either, but I have been doing this and been in this space for the last decade, so it's been a slow build, right? It didn't go from zero to hyperbaric chamber every day. It went from changing nutrition and then diet and then what does Sauna's do? But definitely, beauty products, all that stuff. It's just something that does take time, and I think that can be really daunting for people. But I think the EWG is a great resource for women looking to upgrade their products. I love your approach, though, doing one thing at a time, because I think that sometimes women are just too overwhelmed with all the things to do and then maybe don't do anything.
[00:10:58.330] - DR. KAY LINKER
Yeah, one thing I will say The thing about the EWG that I find somewhat frustrating is that it doesn't always incorporate the concentration parts per million or density of the particles within the studies that were harmful and within the compound or within the skincare product, Because if something is like one-tenth is harmful, I would consider that toxic within a product because you're using it all the time. I agree. But if it's one-thenth and one-hundred thousandth, it starts to get on the edge of, is this meaningful? I wish there was a better discrepancy for that. But overall, the fact that they're doing it at all is useful.
[00:11:38.220] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
Yeah, I agree. No, I mean, that's a good point. I probably veer on the side of just like, I'll be like, okay, I'll just skip it totally unless it's something I really, really love. But yeah, I mean, I think that refinement in those types of apps is important. But the unfortunate thing is you'll find a pretty good one because there was an app I used to use even before the EWG, and then they got purchased by Johnson & Johnson. So it's like, okay, well, I can't take anything that you say seriously now because the rating system just changed and your products... So it's definitely difficult. But actually, it's a good segue. So What are some of the neurotoxins that we are encountering on a day-to-day basis?
[00:12:18.940] - DR. KAY LINKER
Unfortunately, living in LA, a lot is in our air. Just being outside, even though there's so many incredible benefits to being outside, has a lot of pollutants that have been shown to be neurotoxic. But one thing that's interesting is that they did a study with your levels of omega-3s, and they found that people that lived in cities and had a high omega-3 index actually had lower cognitive decline compared to others within that same city. Also, people within those cities still had more cognitive decline than people in more rural areas, but it still was able to buffer it a little bit, which I think is it's better than nothing. In terms of other neurotoxic substances, I think the word neurotoxic is hard because it doesn't mean that the neurons are dying. That takes a lot, and most things won't do that. But in terms of really harming neurons, anything that is inflammatory or releases inflammatory cytokines is going to have a negative impact on the networks that you need for cognitive function.
[00:13:23.380] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
What do you feel like are outside of the definitely the air? I mean, probably tap water, right?
[00:13:28.670] - DR. KAY LINKER
Yeah. I mean, so So the microplastics is terrifying. And I think we've now, most of us have heard the statistics that 0. 5% of your brain is microplastics, which is, I mean, absolutely scary. But in terms of getting a great filter for your top water, I think you probably have an incredible recommendation. Yes.
[00:13:54.060] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
I can jump a couple of recommendations in the show notes.
[00:13:58.260] - DR. KAY LINKER
Yeah, is a great first step for that.
[00:14:02.080] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
Do you think that things that we're using on a day-to-day basis, like personal care products or shampoos or fragrances, do we think that that can pass the blood-brain barrier at some point?
[00:14:12.990] - DR. KAY LINKER
So the unfortunate thing about getting older is that blood-brain barrier declines. It gets more and more leaky. As we get older, that barrier allows more and more stuff in. It's not going to be to the level that it's in your blood So like a skincare product, many of those molecules do get into your blood, unfortunately. But luckily, the brain is still relatively protected, and there hasn't been much data to show that it's gone into the brain for any of those.
[00:14:45.820] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
How are the microplastics getting in there?
[00:14:48.210] - DR. KAY LINKER
They're so small. My hypothesis is they're so small that they're able to pass through by diffusion or osmosis. Not osmosis. But I think the reality is they're so much smaller than a lot of the molecules that we're traditionally thinking about in terms of health and bypassing these certain gates, that it's a really scary new field that there's still not much data on.
[00:15:15.170] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
It is so scary. I saw there was some figures going around essentially saying that microplastics and nanoplastics in the brain are accumulating at even a more rapid pace than other organs.
[00:15:29.210] - DR. KAY LINKER
That would make sense because the brain is not as good at clearing things out. Part of that is, is most of the cells in the brain are, of course, neurons. Neurons are postmitotic, meaning they can't divide anymore. The neurons that you have now are the neurons you're keeping. In order to clear those out, you have to have really strong processes called autophagy. There's ways to stimulate that with fasting or with spermedine. But that would make sense considering the function of the brain compared to others, like your liver it's constantly regenerating. A hepatocyte is not a neuron. A hepatocyte are constantly regenerating and dividing off, and neurons stay the same. It's much more likely that they are going to accumulate negative toxic compounds, including these microplastics.
[00:16:16.680] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
And the brain uses so much energy, right?
[00:16:19.840] - DR. KAY LINKER
Yes. For the weight that it is, it uses so much more ATP than any other organ. It's incredible.
[00:16:28.010] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
Yeah, absolutely. Hi, Guys, I'm going to interrupt this episode for a brief announcement. As you may or may not know, I started a community for females by females, and it's a female longevity optimization community. This is a place that you can connect with like-minded women. We are all here to support each other, and there's a variety of different benefits to being a member. You get a monthly Ask Me Anything, so submit your questions and I'll answer them directly. We also have an entire library of courses on all of the important components of longevity such as labs, nutrition, exercise, sleep optimization, longevity optimization protocols that I'm doing, along with real-time updates to my personal protocols. There are so many benefits of being a member of the community We'll also be doing in-person live events here in California and virtual events for anyone that can't attend. But if you're interested in joining the community, I would absolutely love to see you there, and I will include a link in the show notes. Okay, so you talked about the blood-brain barrier Can you tell the listeners, what is the blood-brain barrier? How can it become permeable or leaky?
[00:17:36.490] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
And then what can we do to potentially improve the strength of the blood-brain barrier?
[00:17:41.890] - DR. KAY LINKER
Yeah, so the blood-brain barrier is a complex mini organ or structure or architecture that comprises of a few different cells, but the big ones are perisites and endothelial cells. So endothelial cells are basically lining the blood vessels. And the perisites are like astrocytes, and they physically grab on to the endothelial cells and let things come in and out through a series of receptors and gated channels that allow things to come out with a lock and key type mechanism with ligands and other receptor binding molecules. This ends up degrading over time because these parasites lose their attachment to the endothelial cells. They're physically lifting off of them. There's no more gate keepers anymore, and more things can come through from the blood vessels to the brain. I know I've already mentioned omega-3s, but those have been shown to... There's a DHA receptor on the pericyte that goes down as we age, and you can supplement that with omega-3s, and that can improve the pericyte binding as well as the blood-brain barrier.
[00:18:51.920] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
Interesting. Is there any relationship between the gut, like a leaky gut and a leaky brain?
[00:18:58.270] - DR. KAY LINKER
So indirectly, yes. It sounds like how could those two be related? Because leaky gut versus leaky brain, they're so far apart. But what the leaky gut allows for is a lot of inflammatory cytokines entering your bloodstream, which have a negative impact on pericyte. Pericytes are like a type of astrocyte, which are these glia cells within the brain. These are like the brain's resident immune cells, so they're extremely responsive to inflammatory cytokines and not in a good They tend to turn off their functions that are helpful and turn on more inflammatory and procytokine molecular signatures and pathways. It's really dialing down their function and dialing up this vicious cycle of an inflammatory cascade.
[00:19:49.730] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
That makes a lot of sense. I just feel like the gut is the foundation of health. It's crazy.
[00:19:54.670] - DR. KAY LINKER
The amount of data that's now coming out showing how much your gut contributes to your overall health is every single organ, your brain, your skin, every organ you can think of is impacted by the microbiomes that live in your gut. Things that we wouldn't even previously consider ourselves as us. They're not eukaryotic cells, they're microbes, but they really play such a pivotal role. Now there's more data coming out showing that certain species are correlated with longevity. Have you heard of acromansia?
[00:20:27.590] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
Yeah. I'm not taking it right now.
[00:20:29.010] - DR. KAY LINKER
Oh, you are? Okay. Yeah. So acromansia is a microbe that lives in the gut of centenarians or people that live for a very, very long time. And it's been shown to have cognitive benefits as well as just be associated with long lives and healthy lives.
[00:20:43.740] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
I love that. It's interesting. So we do a lot of gut... Well, I've done a lot of gut testing personally, and we do a lot at my clinic. Some of the labs that we run, it'll actually show correlation between a variety of... There's hundreds of different bacterias on this lab, and it'll show a lot of the negative correlations as well. If one strain is too high, it could be related with Alzheimer's or Parkinson's or something of that nature. I just think as we learn more about the microbiome, we're going to realize that so many of these symptoms or manifestations of disease could be very highly correlated with the gut, because we pretty much never see a great gut test. It is so rare. Also, I had one of the best, probably the best gut test we've ever seen. I did this amazing protocol, had great gut health. Then I got an explant, and I had to take some antibiotics. And it was, of course, I was like, Oh, I don't want to do this, but I had to. So I was like, Okay, well, let's make an experiment out of this. Let's see what happens.
[00:21:45.590] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
So I did a gut test before and then right after, and it is wild. Oh my God. I mean, some of the stats are insane. Taking one round of antibiotics can increase your risk of depression by 60 %. It's wild. But to see the before and after was really eye-opening. And yeah, I just wiped out my good bacteria, allowed some of that bad bacteria, we'll call it, to grow. And I'm on a whole new protocol now, and I'll be able to fix it. But the problem is, if you don't know, you can't fix it. Yeah. And also, I mean, my opinion, and tell me if you think differently, based on what we see in the clinic, probiotics are not necessarily one size fits all, because I could have a significantly reduced good strain, and so I would have to target supplement with that versus if you had it, you can have a different one, right? So it's really nice to know the data and then be able to target supplement.
[00:22:38.410] - DR. KAY LINKER
So true. It's one of those things where personalized medicine is key because what could help me could harm you and vice versa. There was also, did you see or hear about this Mayo Clinic study with kids and antibiotics under one?
[00:22:52.760] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
I didn't see the one under one. Actually, I did, but please refer for a fresh one.
[00:22:56.850] - DR. KAY LINKER
Okay. I'm pretty sure they were under one. But Basically, they did this really long-term study, I think it was 10 or 15 years, following these kids that either got antibiotics under one because they had an infection or didn't. They were able to show that having antibiotics under one increased the likelihood of obesity, ADHD, depression, many of these incredibly negative health outcomes that we're seeing more and more of today. The craziest thing was they saw a dose response. The more antibiotics they got, the more likely they were to develop obesity, ADHD, and depression.
[00:23:34.670] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
I mean, I'm not surprised at all because the gut literally is controlling so many things and impacting our hormones, our brain, everything. So I'm not surprised, but that's shocking. I read some stats, too, and correct me if you've read otherwise, but that even just one dose of antibiotics, it can take over a year to repopulate that gut. So if you're on antibiotics, I had to take a round of, but then I'm being so aggressive with how I heal and optimize the gut again. But if you don't do that, it can take so long. And again, dose dependent. The more doses you take, the longer it takes for the microbiome to come back to homeostasis or back to more of an optimal condition.
[00:24:15.240] - DR. KAY LINKER
And a lot of the things that we're eating, if we're eating processed foods, if we're eating unhealthy, that's also destroying your gut. So you've just wiped it out, and then you're degrading it little by little every day if you're eating unhealthy or you're not eating probiotics or prebiotic food. And so it's this just torrential downpour of terrible gut health.
[00:24:33.930] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
I know.
[00:24:34.700] - DR. KAY LINKER
It's so sad. I know.
[00:24:36.080] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
But I'm glad it's becoming more known.
[00:24:38.480] - DR. KAY LINKER
Yes.
[00:24:39.320] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
Okay. What do you think about alcohol in the brain?
[00:24:43.410] - DR. KAY LINKER
It's terrible. Unfortunately, because I love a good martini, but there's no way on Earth it's healthy for you. It's been shown to produce atrophy in the brain, which means it's shrinking your brain. It can increase mild cognitive impairment. Treatment, increase the likelihood of dementia, increase blood-brain barrier leakiness. I could go on and on. It's just absolutely terrible for your brain.
[00:25:09.930] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
Remember when in the health industry, we used to try to make alcohol be healthy because of resveratrol?
[00:25:15.510] - DR. KAY LINKER
Well, I also think resveratrol is total BS.
[00:25:19.130] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
It's been debunked completely. I'm not sure. Chatgpt still thinks it's. I know. It's like, ChatGPT, get up to speed. This is so old news. So So resveratrol, no go on longevity supplements. But also the comical part is how much wine you would actually have to drink even to get a clinically significant dose of resveratrol.
[00:25:41.760] - DR. KAY LINKER
You're basically a drunk at that point. You're just like, a Or dead.
[00:25:45.670] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
Yeah. It's an insane amount of wine. So that's good to know. Brain healthy habits versus negative things that are impacting the brain.
[00:25:57.030] - DR. KAY LINKER
Yeah. So I think one thing that is overlooked is walking is so beneficial for the brain, not just for cognitive decline, but also cognitive performance right now. There's been a lot of studies that show walking, and even sometimes cycling on a bike, if you're under a certain RPM, can improve ideation and creation. They've been shown to have 20 to 30 minutes of these small exercise bouts. They're not super intense. It's just going for a short walk or going for a light bike ride can help you come up with better ideas after. So Leveraging that throughout your day, taking a walk as a break, is a great way to improve your cognitive performance. And also your day will be better, I promise you.
[00:26:38.660] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
Do you think the mechanism is because of the increased blood flow, or what do you think the mechanism is?
[00:26:43.450] - DR. KAY LINKER
No, I don't think so, because there's not that much increased blood flow compared to like... Because they did the comparison of an intense workout, an intense run, and that didn't increase the ideation creation because you're just tired. I think it has to do with this switching off of circuits that are wiring constantly when your eyes are focused down and you open up your peripheral vision and you're able to have, they call it this default mode network, turn on and you're able to basically spread the activity of your brain throughout the brain instead of the traditional circuits you're wiring while you're working, typing away at the computer.
[00:27:21.670] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
I love that. So I agree. How many steps a day do you aim for?
[00:27:25.110] - DR. KAY LINKER
Honestly, like 15 to 20,000.
[00:27:26.930] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
Yeah, me too. I love taking walks It's like through here because it's like zone 2 or like long- Yeah, you're in the hills.
[00:27:34.280] - DR. KAY LINKER
Oh, my God. See, I have to do zone 2 at the gym because I live in the flats. And for me, the easiest way to hit zone 2 is a hill. But you're in the hills. You can head outside. That's amazing. Yeah.
[00:27:43.490] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
Come over. We'll do it. It's more challenging. Running is very challenging up here. Sometimes I'm like, Am I really out of shape? Or like, just these hills are kicking your butt, and it's super hot. Yeah, it's all that.
[00:27:56.490] - DR. KAY LINKER
Yeah, I love that.
[00:27:57.530] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
So okay, like 15,000 steps. When it comes to your cardiovascular, intentional cardio training, what are you doing per week? And is that delineated between a VO2 max training and then general cardio?
[00:28:11.420] - DR. KAY LINKER
Yeah. So honestly, I do two VO2 max trainings where I do four minutes all-out sprint, four minutes of active rest walking four times. And I do that twice a week. And I noticed that that had a significant impact on my resting heart rate. And I'll do zone 2 on top of that, but the rest of my workouts is strength.
[00:28:34.860] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
Love that. I mean, so many similarities. I'm doing the same thing. Sometimes I do. I have a Carol bike, too. So I'll do one 4x4 VO2, and then the other day I'll do this They call it a re-hit workout. I'll have to show you the bike. It's pretty cool. It's like an AI-powered fitness bike. So cool. And it pushes against you to your max. So they really are just pushing yourself hard. That is so cool.
[00:28:57.640] - DR. KAY LINKER
Yeah, too. I want to get back into biking because I feel like it provides more thigh strength versus running. I noticed when I was in my SoulCycle era, I just had better thigh muscles than now that I'm in my running era.
[00:29:12.400] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
Yeah, and that makes a lot of sense. So you're doing that twice a day, you're doing the 15,000 steps, and then you are doing strength training how many times per week?
[00:29:19.690] - DR. KAY LINKER
I'll do strength training three to four times a week. Yeah. And honestly, so a big part of strength for me is improving my yoga practice. I love to do handstands and arm inversions, and that is a big motivator for me. Obviously, health is a motivator, but when you have something that you're working towards, it's almost this extra level of motivation that I just absolutely love. And so I'll do anything from weights to handstands against the wall. Sometimes I'll take a class, although I found those aren't as effective sometimes because you're doing these medium weights for a longer period of time, which isn't as It's great for gaining the most muscle or gaining the most out of your session. But yeah, I would also sometimes throw in a Pilates class. I do like Pilates. I feel like it hits muscles that just doing weights doesn't. And yeah, I like to switch it up.
[00:30:20.050] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
I like that. I've been thinking about doing Pilates.
[00:30:23.200] - DR. KAY LINKER
Yeah, it's fun. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:30:24.920] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
I always see the Pilates line while I'm doing weight training. And I'm like, I should do that one day. And And I like to be able to work out at my own schedule exactly. Me too. So then sometimes that doesn't work out, but I might try it soon. That is fun. Okay. Morning Sun, you have a background in neuroscience. You got to talk to us about this. Yeah.
[00:30:46.650] - DR. KAY LINKER
So morning sun is absolutely critical. And you will notice within three days that you're going to be able to rise more easily if you see the sun in the morning. And And part of this has to do with the neurotransmitters that are going to be active while you see the sun. So when you get a certain amount of photons within your eye, it's able to start to drive the circuits like cortisol, which sounds negative, but it is supposed to go up in the morning, as well as dopamine. It also helps regulate our estrogen throughout the day. So we have estry cycles throughout the month, but we also have them throughout the day. And you want it to rise in the morning. And those circuits that are going to be wiring while you see the sun, it's going to help that hormonal shift as well.
[00:31:34.270] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
I love that. I've been doing morning sun for quite a few years, but it's been fun to watch since my husband and I have been married. He used to go to bed much later than me. He would be up like, well, he would eat his last meal at 10: 00 PM. Oh my God. Then it's completely different now. But he always struggled to go to sleep, right? Because he didn't have the morning sun as the practice, and his just circadian rhythm was so off. Now we're doing that together. And naturally, you should be getting tired. I'm tired at 8: 15 and ready for bed. That's why I'm in bed by 8: 30. So now it's been such a blessing to watch him now actually get tired and be like, Okay, I'm ready to go to bed at about the same time as me, 8: 15.
[00:32:17.060] - DR. KAY LINKER
I also used to have such a hard time going to sleep, and just my sleep cycle was so off. Part of it was sometimes I sleep in blackout shades, and sometimes that almost would make it worse because I just would have no idea when the sun was rising. And incorporating the morning sun, I've been doing it past few years. It's absolutely a game changer. Nothing has helped my sleep more than that.
[00:32:41.560] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
I love that. Yeah, same. I'm so excited because my body just knows what time it is, so I don't use an alarm clock, and I just wake up naturally pretty much same time every day and get tired at the same time every day. And it's very nice. I also have, I showed you, but the sunsets right here. So it's another reason why we got this place, because we get evenings, evenings done viewing.
[00:33:01.740] - DR. KAY LINKER
That's also amazing, too, because that helps your body recognize that it's also time to wind down. And it also helps interact with if you see your screen after, if you see the low hanging sun, it's going to help that blue light have less of an effect on your circading system. So still don't want to see blue light, but sometimes it happens.
[00:33:24.000] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
I just switched all the lights at sunset to red. And I didn't really I don't watch television before my husband, but there's a filter. You can go into accessibility and then filters, and you can turn the TV red, too.
[00:33:37.190] - DR. KAY LINKER
Oh, amazing.
[00:33:37.980] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
It's pretty amazing. I do the thing on my phone, too. We're three groups on the side. It's totally red. So, yeah, we don't have too much blue light exposure, which has obviously, I feel like, been immensely helpful.
[00:33:48.740] - DR. KAY LINKER
Yeah, that's key.
[00:33:50.510] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
Yeah. Okay, what else is great for the brain? Or maybe go into some of the other benefits of exercise. We've been talking about that a bit.
[00:33:58.460] - DR. KAY LINKER
Well, we haven't talked about sauna yet. Should we talk Yeah, we should definitely talk about sauna. Yeah. So sauna use, I mean, it's incredible. There was studies that showed after four times of use, you get a 67% reduction in dementia. And even with 2-3 times per week, you get like a 32%, so you really want to hit that four times of sauna use per week. But a 67% reduction is, I mean, that's insane. There's no drug on the market that can do that. People would pay billions of dollars for this drug, and it's just doing the sauna four times a week. There's two mechanisms that I think people think how this is working or there's evidence for. One is through heat shock proteins. So heat shock proteins are these chaperone proteins, and chaperone proteins help proteins fold. In neurodegenerative disorders, a big issue is protein misfolding. So A beta plaques, Tau tangles, even in Parkinson's, you have these Alpha-synuclein plaques, Huntington's disease, you have plaques. So pretty much every neurodegenerative disease has plaques. What these strapper and proteins do is they help the misfolding as well as help clearing them. By driving the heat shock proteins in the sauna use, you're able to jumpstart that machinery to help prevent those plaques from forming.
[00:35:14.940] - DR. KAY LINKER
As well as the vasculature. Improving your vasculature through sauna use because your blood is pumping, it's really hot. That has incredible benefits for the brain because you have mostly capillaries in the brain, which are teeny tiny and very subjective to any type of vascular decline.
[00:35:33.540] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
I love that. What is your current sauna protocol or what's your recommended protocol?
[00:35:39.350] - DR. KAY LINKER
Yeah, so four times a week. I like to do Sunday, Monday, and then Wednesday, Friday.
[00:35:46.740] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
How many minutes do you usually spend in there?
[00:35:48.780] - DR. KAY LINKER
20 minutes, and sometimes 15. 15 to 20 is good. And you want it to be 170 to 190 degrees Fahrenheit.
[00:35:57.170] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
What do you think about infrared on us?
[00:36:01.270] - DR. KAY LINKER
So infrared has been shown to have incredible benefits for your skin and your mitochondrial health, but a lot of them don't get hot enough. If they get hot enough, yes, absolutely. But a lot of them don't get hot enough.
[00:36:15.750] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
Would you define getting hot enough by perfusely sweating or only if you're hitting that 17?
[00:36:21.930] - DR. KAY LINKER
17 to 190. That's what all the research shows, and you got to go with that.
[00:36:28.060] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
Yeah, I mean, definitely. I with you all of the researches and these finish on us. But I'm excited because I may think, I feel like if you're sweating, this is just casual conversation here. I feel like if you're sweating and you are super hot, it should be having a pretty good benefit.
[00:36:45.860] - DR. KAY LINKER
I think so, too. I think for the vasculature argument in terms of how that's helping your brain, I think you will still get those benefits. But I think the heat shock protein needs to be active.
[00:36:57.470] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
We have heavenly heat saunas. I mean, I was telling you I chose them because crazy as it is, sauna brands are putting these wood glues that are then off-gassing VOCs into the sauna. So heavenly heat was made for people with chemical sensitivity. So there's no wood glues, there's no plywood, none of that. So we have a combo sauna. So traditional and. You can do traditional or you can do infrared, that's the one that's up there. And then I have just infrared with red light therapy built in in my So I'm excited to see the involvement of sauna, but I agree. It's like, and for detoxification, I think it's so critical. It's unfortunate, but I feel like everybody needs to be sauning these days. Yeah.
[00:37:42.240] - DR. KAY LINKER
And hopefully, I think it is becoming more accessible. You can even get these sauna blankets, which are not as good as a traditional sauna, but it's better than nothing. Some of them are a few hundred dollars, so it's really not that bad. And if you live in an apartment, you can use that. But But I think with the infrared saunas, I'm hopeful that the mechanics of that improve because infrared light has so many beneficial effects. If you combine that, doing red light therapy and sauna, two for one.
[00:38:14.480] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
Oh, it's amazing. Yeah, I have one up there. I'll show it to you. What do you think about photobiomodulation for the brain? So I have a device called the V-Light, and it is literally like intranasal photobiomodulation, and then through the skull also.
[00:38:30.450] - DR. KAY LINKER
What do you think about this? Yeah. So it's a budding field. It's really expanding. So what type of light do they emit through the nose?
[00:38:39.190] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
I'll have to find the exact length. I'll show it to you. But yeah, I have several of these devices, and most of them are just a helmet, essentially. So it's, I suppose, penetrating through the skull into the brain. Because one of them is Nurtronic, and then the other one, I'll show it to you.
[00:38:57.490] - DR. KAY LINKER
They're excited.
[00:38:58.720] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
Yeah, it's literally up your I feel great when I do it.
[00:39:03.260] - DR. KAY LINKER
Yeah. Well, I mean, now there's more... The first studies were done in mice with Alzheimer's patients, and they showed that it helped with some of the plaques. Now it's expanded to retina, and now there's even been some human data showing that red light and the retina and other wavelengths of light can help with glaucoma and other retinal diseases that involve decline of the neurons there. I think it's exciting, and it's also really cool because the brain's so hard. You can't open it up and do surgery on it if something goes wrong. We have to go through around these roundabout ways. Photobiomodulation is for sure going to be, hopefully, something in the future that we can all use and help with even nerve degenerative disease, crossing our fingers.
[00:39:47.810] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
I totally agree. Well, since we've mentioned Alzheimer's quite a bit, what is your take on the new found discoveries of some of these studies not being It's really depressing because it just makes the whole field look like a scam because there's a problem in academic science where incentives are not necessarily aligned with what the public wants.
[00:40:16.850] - DR. KAY LINKER
When you're an academic scientist, you want to publish, you want to get tenure. To do that, you have to publish in these high-impact journals. Not everyone does this, of course. Most scientists are good, but I think it causes some people to push the boundaries. And that's why you end up seeing things like big Alzheimer's papers and science being retracted because they faked data. I honestly think it's a system problem. Of course, there's bad eggs and bad actors, but the incentives in academic science need to shift towards helping the public versus advancing your career.
[00:40:53.340] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
Yeah. I mean, it's heartbreaking. I don't know. How else to put it? Because so many resources and brilliant minds have gone into this theory, right? You can expand what was the theory, what's now being called into question.
[00:41:08.840] - DR. KAY LINKER
Yeah. So the theory was that these plaques caused Alzheimer's. So in Alzheimer's patients, you have these buildup of these A beta plaques, and it was thought that this caused a lot of the cognitive decline that we see. But there were some caveats that started popping up like, wait, elderly people without Alzheimer's also have these plaques, and they look totally fine and act totally fine or healthy aging. It doesn't look like, at least in the human population, it's causal. On top of this, people started doing more and more of these mouse models where they were artificially driving these plaques and just these really contrived situations and building drugs off those which all failed, none of them worked. It's just clear we've come to a dead end. Then as we're reaching this dead end in the academic world, it comes out that the foundational papers for that these A beta plaques cause Alzheimer's, they fake their data. Those Western blots were faked. They made them up. They copy and pasted things that didn't need to be there, and they were retracted. Now we're here today after spending billions of dollars on this theory and many people dying and no drugs working.
[00:42:19.450] - DR. KAY LINKER
It's just really sad.
[00:42:22.710] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
I find Dr. Dale Brettison's work really interesting, if you're familiar with it. But I mean, he has some great outcomes in terms of reduction or reversal of symptoms. It's really just basically functional medicine. It's like, why is the brain being harmed? Is it heavy metals? Is it, of course, the diet and the sleep and the exercise, all of that stuff together, but it's figuring out exactly why. I'm excited to see where that goes because to me it makes sense. If it works for every other organ in the body, if you identify what's the dysbiosis or the problem in the gut, and then you treat that and When you optimize it, then you feel better.
[00:43:02.520] - DR. KAY LINKER
Yeah. I'm excited, too, that we're now looking at it holistically and moving away from one pill to solve this problem and saying, Okay, we need to affect the gut and see how that is affecting things. We need to look at sleep. We need to look at exercise because all of these can mitigate neurodegeneration.
[00:43:21.260] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
Yeah. Was it also true that some of the drugs were actually removing the plaques, but they were still the same neptum.
[00:43:30.260] - DR. KAY LINKER
Yes, I think it's called aducunumab. I always say that one wrong. But that was the antibody that bind to A beta plaques and was able to remove A beta plaques from the brain. You could see it in the blood. It was being pulled out, but there were no impacts on cognitive function. Even when that drug came to pass, many people on that panel quit because there was no indication that this was actually going to help Alzheimer's patients. I think it was $100,000 a year or something for this drug. It's a really sad state of affairs, but more and more people are taking their health into their own hands, and you provide a lot of information that people can use so they can help mitigate their risk and really help reverse that decline or help prevent it from even happening, because honestly, we all just want to prevent it.
[00:44:21.970] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
Yeah, absolutely. What do you think about the potential of hyperbaric oxygen therapy in the brain?
[00:44:28.650] - DR. KAY LINKER
I don't know. To be honest, I haven't seen enough data for me to say here nor there. What do you think about it?
[00:44:37.950] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
I should connect you with my friend Dr. Scott. He's a physician, an MD, but he specializes in hyperbaric medicine. Actually, the first time I ever learned about hyperbaric was when I was studying under Dr. Daniel Amen, and he was using hyperbaric therapy to improve the brains of a lot of these NFL athletes who had a lot of brain injuries that were visible on the specs scans. It's not a very accessible therapy right now, but I'm excited to see also where the research goes with that. I mean, I anecdotally have great results, but my brain was already in a really good state. So I think the work of Dr. Amen, and that's just looking at activity in blood flow, though. We know that it's definitely improving the blood flow, which then seems to impact the brain in a positive way because it's like restoring activity, essentially. Yeah. Well, that'll be fun. I'll have to send you some studies as they come out because obviously I have a medical grade chamber up there, so now I'm always getting the notifications on hyperbaric research. I'm excited to see non-pharmacological interventions for brain health. As you said, prevention is the best way to do it.
[00:45:48.030] - DR. KAY LINKER
It's key. We'll see about the hyperbaric oxygen. I think, too, when you talked about the photobiomodulation that is on the cusp, I think that will be the future. Also, there's some Some emerging research with transcranial magnetic simulation. They've done some work with addiction and stimulating the prefrontal cortex to reduce addiction risk or reduce relapse. If you could hit a different part of the brain, like the hippocampus or memory formation regions within the cortex or facial recognition, then you could potentially improve those functions as well.
[00:46:26.030] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
That makes a lot of sense. What do you think about some Well, before we move on to molecules, what anything else that people should now do, don't do for the brain?
[00:46:38.890] - DR. KAY LINKER
Yeah, I mean, definitely try to reduce alcohol as much as you can. Ideally, no, none at all. Omega 3 is getting your exercise in, eating mostly meat and vegetables. That's honestly going to get you places.
[00:46:57.100] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
I would throw in there sleep, too, right? Sleep. Because the system that our brain does have to clear up that waist is most active at night, right?
[00:47:05.300] - DR. KAY LINKER
Yes, definitely. And your glymphatic system really clears out while you're sleeping. And so you want to make sure you're trying to get... Honestly, I like eight or nine hours.
[00:47:16.240] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
Yeah. I sleep more than my husband, too. I think women need more sleep.
[00:47:19.430] - DR. KAY LINKER
I definitely think we do. There's been some studies that show we need 30 minutes more, but I think it's an hour.
[00:47:25.870] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
I know. And I think it's even more so during specific phases. During menstruation, I feel like I need even more. So I know. I've seen. Sometimes they're 11 minutes and then they're 20. It's like, okay, 11 minutes.
[00:47:38.700] - DR. KAY LINKER
That's nothing. Yeah. My fiance can survive on seven and a half hours. I'm like, I thrive on eight and a half.
[00:47:47.380] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
Yeah, I agree. I love more sleep, too. Okay, so let's talk about some exogenous molecules. So you mentioned spermadine. If you don't mind, talk a little bit about that. Yeah.
[00:47:57.960] - DR. KAY LINKER
So spermadine is a a polyamine, or sorry, a natural polyamine that is terribly named, but it's because they found it in sperm. And of course, a male found it, but they have these incredible properties. So what spermadine What spermedine is able to do is it's able to promote autophagy. Autophagy is this clearing process. It's really important for cognitive function. The only other way you can really simulate it is maybe rapamycin or through fasting. Sometimes fasting can have negative consequences like muscle loss. It's also miserable. Spermidine can promote this autophagy process within your brain and throughout your body. There's a lot of preclinical evidence showing that it can extend lifespan as well as cardiac health, immune health, and cognitive function. Now there's two or three clinical trials showing that it improves pneumonic distinction or different types of cognitive performance in terms of verbal memory, as well as increasing blood flow to the hippocampus, increasing hippocampal thickness in terms of the white matter tracks, and other regions of the brain. It's a really, really promising supplement that I think is great for cognitive health.
[00:49:13.360] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
I love that. Are you taking it just consistently? I've taken it for a few years, but I seem to go on and off of it, or I was cycling a little bit, but you can just stay on it all the time.
[00:49:25.390] - DR. KAY LINKER
Yeah, I take spermedine every day. I just launched a supplement. It has spermedine in it because I feel like it's just so important for cognitive health, and so many people don't know about it. It's just a really promising therapeutic in terms of preventing dementia and improving cognitive performance day to day. I don't cycle it. I just take it every day.
[00:49:46.920] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
I love that. I'm going to need to make sure. I'm on it now, but I need to just not go off of it. I love that. I haven't really talked too much on socials about it just because I didn't with the name and the explanation. I know. So yeah, maybe they just rename it or something.
[00:50:00.350] - DR. KAY LINKER
I know. Yeah.
[00:50:03.630] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
I was telling my husband, I was like, Oh, I'm going to put this in my supplement. He's like, You're going to put what?
[00:50:08.640] - DR. KAY LINKER
It's so bad. It needs to be changed. Oh my gosh.
[00:50:16.230] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
Okay, what else? We have the omega, is this spermadine? Anything else that you love for brain health in terms of supplementation?
[00:50:24.130] - DR. KAY LINKER
I think also, so some types of spirulina have been shown to improve muscle performance, which is also really important for your brain. If you can improve your muscle performance, you can improve your brain, as well as on that track, creatine really improves your muscle performance. It now has been shown to improve some cognitive performance, including TBI. It can help prevent some of the negative aspects of having a traumatic brain injury.
[00:50:52.160] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
I love that. If you wanted to increase your dopamine, that you feel like you're a person that has low dopamine, what are some things that you would do, maybe in general, to better manage your neurotransmitters?
[00:51:08.670] - DR. KAY LINKER
Morning sun, then delay your coffee. Even if you can delay it by two or three hours, you'll also just feel that coffee a lot more. You'll really enjoy it. You can also do coordinated motor activities. Coordinated motor activities require dopamine. So dopamine not only governs our motivation, but it also governs our movement. If you can improve your movement through rocket sports or through dance or through any complex movement that really requires you to be in tune with your body, that's going to help your dopamine process as well.
[00:51:44.880] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
Some of that. Are there any ways you can boost your serotonin?
[00:51:52.630] - DR. KAY LINKER
Serotonin is this really complex molecule. Dopamine is so much more straightforward. We don't fully understand how serotonin improves mood, and we don't even understand fully how SSRIs work. It's hard because too much serotonin can actually cause negative effects. In terms of improving serotonin, there's been studies that show it can coordinate with oxytocin, which is like a bonding molecule. If you increase your oxytocin levels through different bonding relationships, you can increase your serotonin as well.
[00:52:27.360] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
I love that. Before I met husband and was married, I was doing oxytocin trocheys because I was not getting enough hugs. If that's you, then maybe inquire about an oxytocin troche. I think I had a nasal spray. I think you will love all the things. I've had the most absurd, different molecules. I love that. Anything else that you love or think people should consider, of course, we always want people to consult with their doctors. Don't start taking any new supplements or doing anything without reaching out to a doctor. But anything else you love and that you found really helpful?
[00:53:11.170] - DR. KAY LINKER
Yeah. So this one is, I guess, somewhat controversial, but I started taking rapamycin for the first time about a year ago. And I was planning to cycle it on for one month, a quarter. Part of that was because there were some preclinical studies showing that you don't have to take it all the You can cycle it on and off and still have the same benefits. I did that, and it really affected my period. My period was really heavy, and so I ended up going off it. I got an injury. It's It was a repetitive strain injury from pipeding, which is what we do in the lab. It was really bad. It was really debilitating. I went to physical therapy, and then I was like, Let me go back on rapamycin and see if this helps because it's been shown to help with some frozen shoulder stuff. And I was deep into Reddit forums, looking at other people with injuries. Within two weeks, the injury was gone, and this was debilitating. So I went back off it. I went back to work, and it came back full force. And I went to physical therapy for three months.
[00:54:19.140] - DR. KAY LINKER
Nothing was working. And I went to tons and tons of sessions, spent so much money on physical therapy, went back on Rupamicin. Two weeks later, it's gone.
[00:54:29.600] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
What do What do you think the mechanism there is with the healing?
[00:54:32.560] - DR. KAY LINKER
I think it has to do with the residual inflammatory cytokines that are not allowing it to heal. Ropamicin is this weird molecule because it's really an immune modulator at the doses that you take for longevity. It can really help with this chronic low-grade inflammation that certain types of injuries are. An acute injury, this is not going to help. But I had this repetitive strain injury where you just have these lingering inflammatory cytokines associating and just destroying the tissue. I was amazed. I could not believe it because- That is amazing. It was just insane.
[00:55:14.680] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
I've had some really quick recovery with a Peptide cult BPC.
[00:55:18.270] - DR. KAY LINKER
I almost took that.
[00:55:19.230] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
Yeah, 157. And then also PMF is really like- Oh, really? It's super interesting. I'll tell you a little bit more about it. But yeah, it's crazy because we have these two machines set up. And And everyone that comes into the house, and again, this is just anecdotal, but they will feel the PMF the most where they had an old injury or where they have a current history. When I got an X-Pent, I literally only felt it on this general area. So it was crazy. That's crazy. And my neighbor has a bunch of issues with her ankles, so I always have her come over and do PMF, and she always feels better. Yeah, well, this has been such a pleasure. Thank you so much for joining me. We're going to have to do a part We'll keep this brain stuff, and then we'll have to do a part two on skin and longevity and all the other supplements and things that we have options here.
[00:56:12.210] - DR. KAY LINKER
Thank you so much. This was so fun.
[00:56:14.080] - KAYLA BARNES-LENTZ
Thank you so much for coming. It was great. Yeah, I loved it. Yeah. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and views expressed on this podcast are not medical advice. This podcast, including Kayla Barnes, does not accept responsibility for any possible adverse effects from the use of the information contained herein. Opinions of their guests are their own, and this podcast does not endorse or accept responsibility for statements made by guests. This podcast does not make any representations or warranties about guest qualifications or credibility. Individuals on this podcast may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to herein. If you think you have a medical issue, consult a licensed physician.