How To Hack Your Brain

Dr. Mike: Hey, Dr. Mike here. Is it possible to hack your brain for peak performance? You sure can. It's called neurohacking. Stay tuned to learn more with our special guest, Dr. Stephen Tapanes.

Live Foreverish Introduction: You're listening to Live Foreverish, a show dedicated to helping you live just a little longer. Here are your hosts, Dr. Mike and Dr. Crystal.

Dr. Mike: All right. Welcome to Live Foreverish. Dr. Crystal: neurohacking!

Dr. Crystal: Oh, yes. I'm ready for it.

Dr. Mike: Do you need it?

Dr. Crystal: Every day. Every day, I hope for a hack.

Healthy Brain Aging Versus Neurohacking 00:00:31

Dr. Mike: Before we get to our guest, Dr. Stephen Tapanes, I want to explain the difference. Because I take a supplement for what?

Dr. Crystal: General brain health.

Dr. Mike: Yeah. Anti-aging brain stuff, right? That's not what we're talking about today. I want to make sure that's clear, so people understand this is different. So, they want to stick around for this: neurohacking.

We have an expert: Dr. Stephen Tapanes. He has a PhD in neuroscience; he's a top scientist at Life Extension, where he formulates a lot of products there, you know, brain-based products. And he's been involved with a very extensive protocol that talks about what neurohacking is and how to do that.

Dr. Stephen, welcome to the show.

What is Brain Hacking? 00:01:27

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: Thank you for having me.

Dr. Mike: So, neurohacking. What is it? What are we talking about here?

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: So, it’s kind of like you were saying. We have general brain health supplements—things we want to take to stay healthy. But when we think about neurohacking, some people might have heard of biohacking, for example. In this case, we're talking about how to enhance the brain.

How to improve function using different dietary strategies and supplements. So, as opposed to that general brain health—usually in a healthy individual, for example—how can we actually go above and beyond and then improve that health? So that, on a day-to-day basis, we have a college student who can perform better on an exam, or these tired mothers, when they go to work, they can stay [alert]…

Dr. Mike: Tired mothers; there's one right there!

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: And so, that's kind of the distinction we have between just the general health and this now, neurohacking that we've really been focusing on.

Dr. Mike: I think Dr. Stephen brought up tired moms because you have a wife who’s a tired mom.

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: I do. Yes.

Dr. Mike: Yeah. And you're not helping out enough or something. Weren't you saying that? I’m not sure…

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: No, I don’t know about that!

Dr. Crystal: But you know what? Shout out to the tired dads out there, too! We find that a lot of the gender roles are kind of changing.

Dr. Mike: We're going to bring this back now. We're going to bring this back to neurohacking. Just to be clear, Dr. Stephen, the brain supplement I'm taking is more long-term. It's going to keep my brain healthy well into, hopefully, late in life.

Dr. Crystal: 80s…90s. Hopefully.

Dr. Mike: That’s Live Foreverish!

This is different. This is like, “Hey, I need some help right now.” I have a busy week coming up, a busy day coming up. I have to deal with Dr. Crystal today! There are things going on. That’s kind of what this is.

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: Exactly. Absolutely.

Origins of Neurohacking 00:03:12

Dr. Crystal: So, what's the origin of this concept? And is it true that it was developed out of these ambitious individuals in Silicon Valley who are trying to take over the world?

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: It's been around, I would say informally, for a while. It’s now becoming more accepted as we get more data and studies on it.

But I would say you have these people that are up a lot. They're trying to start this business, trying to get things going. And so, they're looking for ways to stay at peak performance. These young professionals—even sometimes people that want to open a new business, just start a new job or go down a new career path in life, for example.

And so now, I think it's becoming something that's just becoming more popular over time. As we're starting to realize that instead of taking caffeine pills and being up all night, we can do these more natural approaches that can still help us get that boost that we need.

Dr. Mike: That's what we did, right? We did the “no doze” in medical school. Just hardcore caffeine. Not healthy.

Dr. Crystal: Hardcore crashing too.

Dr. Mike: Yeah. Not healthy.

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: In the end, you're up all night. Your heart's beating out of your chest.

Dr. Mike: And at the end of the day, at some point, you can't even really concentrate. I mean, you're doing it to concentrate. Yet when it got time for the exam, you're like, “Ooh.” You couldn't even focus.

Dr. Crystal: Your brain is scrambled.

Dr. Mike: It wasn't working. Now, your PhD is in neuroscience. You focused more on brain injury. That was kind of your area.

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: Yeah. Trauma.

Dr. Mike: Where did neurohacking come from?

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: I would say I've kind of recently taken a different approach to things where a lot of the times—especially in school—we're focusing on disease and trauma. And a lot of the time, it's kind of correcting the problem, right?

But I think there's an underappreciation for trying to prevent the problem, or just take it at an earlier stage, where we can support our health and do things like, again, hack our brain to just keep that performance up—enhance that performance.

And so, starting with some of my work here at Life Extension, working on the protocol that we have about neurohacking. It's really allowed me to appreciate taking a different approach in healthy individuals, as opposed to something where we're talking more about some sort of disease or injured state or something like that.

Dr. Mike: And we're not talking about like some chip in your brain either yet, right, Dr. Crystal? You were concerned about that.

Dr. Crystal: Well, I don't know. I might be down for that as well! Or if you can just occasionally hook me up to some probes and power up my brain in the morning. Maybe that's the future.

But right now, I think we're talking more about doing this with nutritional neurohacking. And so, before we kind of zero into this: What exactly are the researchers looking for as it relates to outcomes? What are we hoping happens in the brain?

What Cognitive Functions Are Targeted by Neurohacking? 00:06:12

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: You could think just generally we're looking at things such as focus, memory, attention and processing speed, for example. One example of a test I like to give is—and some people might be familiar with it—where we give someone a word such as a color word. So blue or yellow, for example.

At first, blue might be [written] in the color blue. Afterward, we give them the word blue, but it's [written] in red, and we ask them to say the [word, not the color it’s written in]. It's very difficult. Try it.

Dr. Crystal: I've done it before.

Dr. Mike: I think I've done an online one. They’re tough.

Dr. Crystal: It is very difficult.

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: Another interesting one: we could test it right now if you want.

Dr. Crystal: Let's do it.

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: They call it “serial seven.”

Dr. Mike: Yeah. I'm so bad at this.

Dr. Crystal: I’m in. I'm all in. Let’s go!

Dr. Mike: I can’t even remember what your name is. How am I supposed to do that?

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: We start with a number. And then, you have to subtract seven from each number. For five to ten times. So, let's say you started like 96. Minus seven. So, 89 minus seven.

Dr. Crystal: 82.

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: And then minus seven again.

Dr. Mike: Can you have a calculator?

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: I mean that would be cheating, but…

Dr. Crystal: 73. Is that right?

Dr. Crystal: 82?

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: I think it’s 75.

Dr. Crystal: Oh, I went the wrong way with the number.

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: See, it’s difficult.

Dr. Crystal: And you saw I had to close my eyes. Those of you who are listening, you should see the struggle.

Dr. Mike: And you just started! She needs some neurohacking.

Dr. Crystal: If you're listening and not watching, the struggle is real over here!

Dr. Mike: So, all the stuff they're measuring: does it all fall under an umbrella term, “executive function?” Because you see that a lot, right? If you just Google “neurohacking,” you'll see a lot of this idea of executive function stuff.

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: Yeah. Executive function and cognition are fancy ways of saying, you know this [is] together, right? So, like this attention, this memory and this focus—put together because we think it's the executive function of the brain or the high function of the brain.

Executive Function and Cognition 00:08:14

Dr. Mike: So, that's not a specific term. It’s really all these other things.

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: It’s kind of like an umbrella term.

Dr. Crystal: Now, another term I’ve heard is working memory. Do we see that as a part of the neurohacking spectrum?

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: I would say that's a big one, as well. Working memory is something like, you have a friend who gives you a phone number, but you can't write it down. How are you going to remember this short-term memory?

Dr. Mike: I just would worry about it.

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: Right? You're probably repeating it to yourself non-stop until you get to your phone or write it down. This working memory is what you're working with at this moment.

Dr. Crystal: So, this is kind of going a little off, but not really. Do you find that society, the use of technology now, is making it so that these parts of the brain are not being used as often? So, now we need some type of smartphone?

Working Memory and Technology Impact 00:09:13

Dr. Crystal: And we have apps, and now we don't know anyone's phone number. And we’re relying on the computer for spell check, so now we don't even need to know how to spell.

Do you find that is crippling us? This is why a lifestyle hack would be to stop relying on technology.

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: I think, in a way, it can make people complacent because you don't really have to think about some of these things. We have things that are just stored in our phones like you were saying. For me, sometimes it's nice to not have to remember a list of phone numbers.

I can then devote that energy to doing things that I find more important. But we do have a dependence on technology.

Dr. Mike: She makes a point, though, right? When I was your age or even a little younger, we had to memorize. So, I had all my family members memorized. I had a couple of friends…I couldn't do that now. I don't even know if I know mine sometimes. It’s hard!

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: It's true, though. I think also when we think about technology itself, it's a lot of…

Dr. Mike: He looked at me a little strange, right? Did you see that?

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: That's a little bit…

Dr. Mike: He's like, “Maybe you need a neurologist?”

Dr. Crystal: Maybe that’s age-related? Cognitive decline?

Now, let's zero in on nutritional neurohacking. Are we talking about specific foods or biochemicals and extracts from food? What are we seeing in the research?

Nutritional Neurohacking 00:10:42

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: I would say it's a little bit of both. There are studies that look at food in general. But then, also when we think about food, we want to know: what is it providing—like the different nutrients, vitamins and minerals?

So, we also can look at the individual, research-backed nutrients that come from these foods. And they kind of have a dual approach to how they can contribute to neurohacking.

Dr. Crystal: I think I see what you're saying. So, we use the food as a sort of template. And we know these foods historically have a good impact on the brain.

And then, we start taking a deeper dive into what is in these particular foods that may be providing that benefit. And then, that's what we research and see if we can…

Dr. Mike: …didn’t we do a show on the MIND diet? Are these some of the same foods…are you familiar with the MIND diet?

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: Yes. So, the MIND diet…that’s something I would say is more for brain health. So, it goes back to the beginning.

Dr. Crystal: Back to the basics.

Dr. Mike: That goes with that supplement.

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: Exactly.

Dr. Mike: Which apparently, I need to double the dose or something!

Dr. Crystal: To remember your phone number.

Dr. Mike: But before we get into those specifics, one of the things—I have a point here—it came from our social media team…A lot of people are asking: is this the same as nootropics? And if it is, or if it's not, what's the difference?

What Are the Most Effective Nootropics? 00:12:06

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: The nootropic is more so talking about the specific substance. Let's say, for example, if we have something like blueberries. There are studies that show that even just eating blueberries will help improve cognition.

But they also have studies where blueberry polyphenols, for example, are active components of these blueberries. That would be the nootropic aspect. Or maybe something like magnesium, a more specific nutrient that we’re…

Dr. Mike: So, you’re pulling out that antioxidant or polyphenol they have identified. You're really concentrating it, putting it in pill form or something like that. That's the nootropic.

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: Yep. Exactly.

Dr. Mike: The blueberry itself, overall, is just good for the brain, right?

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: Right, exactly. And it's just good for health in general. It's part of these nice healthy diets that we want to eat, to begin with.

Dr. Crystal: All right. So, what are some of these nootropics or some of these things that…

Which Foods Can Enhance Cognitive Performance? 00:13:00

Dr. Mike: What about foods…like blueberries. What other foods should we be eating?

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: Similar to the MIND diet and the Mediterranean diet, things like nuts. If we think about proteins like fatty fish—salmon is a good one. So, these lean proteins are healthy. Leafy greens, of course; I think there are a lot of people that don't eat enough leafy greens.

Dr. Mike: Basic good stuff.

Dr. Crystal: Would you say walnuts are the best nut? I think about that because it looks like a brain!

Dr. Mike: She likes that it looks like a brain! She gets so into that. Come on!

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: I don't know if that's coincidental or if it's just a reminder that it is good for the brain.

Dr. Mike: A kidney bean looks like a kidney, but it's not good for kidneys. Is it good for the kidneys?

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: I don't know, maybe. It might be.

Dr. Mike: Maybe that was a bad example. I'm not sure. Maybe there is something to this.

Dr. Crystal: So, walnuts? Maybe almonds?

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: Nuts in general are a good source, especially if we use them to replace an unhealthier snack. Instead of potato chips, grab some nuts and eat those.

Dr. Mike: It has to be salted!

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: It does. Yeah, I agree with that.

Dr. Mike: Come on, nuts need a little salt. The raw ones…that’s not pleasurable.

Dr. Crystal: I can eat raw pecans or pe-cahns, but for everything else, I need them roasted and a little salted.

Dr. Mike: So Mediterranean based, and you know, we’re big into that. We talk about 80 percent plant-based and 20 percent protein—if you're going to eat animal protein. I think nuts, berries and colorful things, right?

She’s the dietician expert or nutrition expert in all this. So now, let's go to the deeper part like that's great! But obviously, we need some help.

Dr. Crystal: I know.

Dr. Mike: The walnuts aren't quite doing it.

Dr. Crystal: They're doing it, but I want something specific.

Dr. Mike: Yeah. All right. So, help us out.

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: We mentioned blueberries, right? There’s actually a study on college students, which I think was interesting, where they took these blueberry polyphenols. At 90 minutes, they were performing better in different cognitive tests.

So, something that was even short-term acting, where within an hour and a half, you're now experiencing these benefits.

Blueberry Polyphenols and Cognitive Performance 00:15:15

Dr. Crystal: Okay. And just to clarify, was it blueberry extract or did they serve them blueberries?

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: In this case, it was an extract of the polyphenols—those antioxidants.

Dr. Mike: Concentrate.

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: Yeah, concentrate. They do have some studies in general, like freeze-dried blueberries, where they just throw them in smoothies. Just generally improving and enhancing your blueberry intake.

Dr. Mike: But here, I think, this is what the research is showing. If you really want to go to that neurohacking level, you need more of those polyphenols. The blueberries have them, but I mean, if you eat a handful of blueberries, how many of those polyphenols are you really getting?

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: It's not feasible to really eat the number of blueberries that you’d get compared to this supplement or this capsule.

Dr. Mike: So, blueberry extract…what are some of your other favorites for nootropics?

Importance of Magnesium 00:16:05

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: I like magnesium because, even though it’s pretty well-known, magnesium does so much for cell health in general. In the brain, it's one of the most important minerals.

Dr. Mike: Well, actually, we were just talking about that. You’re going to increase your magnesium.

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: It’s important for nerve cell activation, communication; all these things that…

Dr. Mike: A certain form.

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: Yes. So, I was going to get to that. Yes.

Dr. Mike: Oh, sorry.

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: There's a certain form. Sometimes magnesium, in general, has trouble getting into the brain. So, if it doesn't get to where we want it to get to, how is it going to actually help?

But there is a form called magnesium L-threonate, which studies have shown does easily cross the blood-brain barrier and gets into the brain. And so, it allows it to do what we want it to do, which is enhance our cognition. And there are studies that support that people who have taken it will perform better on these tests and things like that.

Dr. Mike: People do ask because we've talked about threonate and stuff before: If I take magnesium L-threonate, does that replace my overall magnesium supplement? Cause some people already take magnesium oxide or a combination but not threonate? Can they add threonate, or do they just need to focus on one or the other?

What Is the Importance of Magnesium for Brain Health? 00:17:16

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: That's funny because, actually, I was talking to a family member about that yesterday. But no, you can absolutely add the two forms together. When we have the threonate form, it's kind of biased towards the brain.

And so, when we're taking oxide or citrate, something like that, it's more whole-body health and keeping your magnesium levels in check. But since it does have issues getting into the brain compared to threonate, it's still biasing the directions that they're going to. And you know you can take both. It's not going to be an issue.

Blueberry Extract Benefits 00:17:46

Dr. Crystal: So, we have blueberry extract. I love the study that you mentioned within 90 minutes there was an improvement. So, that's pretty fast.

And that's what a lot of people are kind of looking for. You have a day and it's an important day, you have deadlines or whatever the case may be. You have a podcast, Dr. Mike.

Dr. Mike: Oh, come on…

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: You need it to remember your phone numbers!

Dr. Mike: You won't leave me and that phone number thing alone!

Dr. Crystal: So, what else? Are there any other extracts that you're seeing the research outcomes are…When you read the studies, you said, “Man, this is good stuff.”

Dr. Mike: Yeah. What else? Give us a list.

Sage Extract Insights 00:18:29

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: I've previously talked about sage extract as one of them. We all know sage, right? Some people cook with it.

Dr. Mike: Burn it.

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: Yeah. Burn it.

Dr. Mike: This is a different sage, right?

Dr. Crystal: Yeah…The sage that you're burning is a little bit different than the one that's been researched.

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: Sage extract has shown, I think in this case, within a couple of hours, these improvements in cognitive tests and all these different batteries of cognitive assessments that these participants were going through.

Mango Leaf Extract Discussion 00:19:10

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: Another interesting one that I actually find to be unique is a mango leaf extract. We don't really think about mango leaves, right? I love mangoes. But when we think about the leaf, it's kind of an afterthought.

Dr. Mike: Never thought about it.

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: There's a compound that we've isolated from it. In this case, the study found that at 30 minutes, three hours and five hours, the participants all had better scores on their different cognitive tests.

And this was the word color, subtracting the sevens and looking at a group of pictures and then having to write down as many of the pictures as they could remember. So, they had a laundry list of different tests that they had to go through.

Dr. Mike: I got a bunch of mango trees at my house. You guys need some leaves for…

Dr. Crystal: I was just thinking that.

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: Locally sourced.

Dr. Mike: Use me as a source!

Dr. Crystal: We cut down our mango tree, Dr. Mike. It was dying, so we had to cut it down. We're in South Florida, for those of you who are listening.

Dr. Mike: So, having mango trees is normal.

Dr. Crystal: Mango trees are everywhere. I still love the trees, but we had to cut ours down. So, Dr. Mike will provide some mango leaves.

Dr. Mike: Mango leaves.

Dr. Crystal: Leaves for me to make a tea or something. Would I need to kind of zero in on the extract?

Dr. Mike: The extract! Oh, come on.

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: It would have to be the extract.

Dr. Crystal: You know me, Dr. Mike.

Dr. Mike: I know. Food should be first. And we laid out some food, right? That's your foundation. But now if you want a good response.

Dr. Crystal: We're looking at a standardized extract.

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: Exactly.

Dr. Mike: Let's bring this all together now. A lot of things we've been talking about here: neurohacking, nootropics, quick effect and all that kind of stuff.

What would you like the audience, in summary for you, what would you like the audience to know about neurohacking in general? What would be your take-home message?

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: I think the take-home message is that neurohacking is a strategy we can use that we can improve and enhance this cognition, but it's a sustainable strategy. We're not taking caffeine pills every single day. If you are, it's probably not a good idea.

But we can use these approaches between nutritional neurohacking, the diet and the individual ingredients that have been studied to have this more sustainable, short- and long-term approach to improving our day-to-day cognitive function.

Dr. Mike: Nice. Very good. There it is: neurohacking.

Dr. Crystal: I have my list.

Dr. Mike: Neurohacking: it's not crazy stuff. It's simple extracts, good food. All of that can be very helpful. Dr. Stephen, thanks for joining us.

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: Thank you for having me.

Dr. Mike: You graduated from Miami, right?

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: I did. University of Miami.

Dr. Mike: So, you probably have mango trees. You don't need my leaves.

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: Yeah, one of my family members used to have a mango tree, but again, one of the hurricanes took it down. Again, South Florida problems.

Dr. Mike: There you go. Hey, if you want to learn more about this, we have a protocol. You were involved with this protocol, right?

Dr. Stephen Tapanes: Yes, I was.

Dr. Mike: It’s called neurohacking protocol, but you can find it at www.LifeExtension.com/Neurohacking. She's lipping as I'm saying this. She thinks I’m going to mess this up.

Dr. Crystal: You’re a pro.

Dr. Mike: www.LifeExtension.com/Neurohacking. And listen, don't forget for more podcasts you can go to LiveForeverish.com. Again…join the family. Do the one-two punch.

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Dr. Crystal: You can listen to our podcasts on YouTube as well.

Dr. Mike: That’s right! You can watch it.

Dr. Crystal: Youtube.com/LifeExtensionWellness.

Dr. Mike: You can see all of our weird expressions as we're going. There they are right there. All right. That's all. LiveForeverish.com. I'm Dr. Mike. Thanks for listening.