Maintaining peak performance at work is a requirement for executives in any field—and doing so largely depends on your brain’s overall health. With this post, Daniel A. Monti, MD, CEO of the Marcus Institute of Integrative Health and co-author of Tapestry of Health, dives into the role diet & nutrition play in its functioning.
Your brain is the most powerful, complex organ in your body and research has proven that whether the nutrients it depends on to function are in good supply or lacking will influence all of your thought processes, emotions, and behaviors. Nutrition directly affects brain health and cognitive functions including:
- Thinking
- Learning
- Remembering
- Memorizing
- Organizing
- Planning
- Concentrating
Ensuring your brain receives adequate nutrition will improve cognitive functions, while nutrient deficiencies can have a negative effect. The nutrition your brain needs thus plays a role in your career and executive performance, your home life and relationships, and your mental health and happiness.
Sadly, nutrition is often treated as a footnote in primary care offices, with many physicians being ill-equipped to discuss micronutrient therapies due to limited time and lack of specific training. Patients also play a part, as only a small percentage of the population knows the importance of seeking nutritional advice from a qualified medical professional.
How does good nutrition improve brain functions?
A healthy diet can increase neurogenesis—the production of brain cells called neurons that are responsible for communicating with each other and the rest of your body. Synaptic plasticity—the number of connections between neurons that can grow weaker or stronger—can also be increased with proper nutrition, enabling more effective communication. Greater communication between neurons achieves better cognitive functions.
The hippocampus—a vital structure in the brain—regulates memory and neurogenesis and contains brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDFN), a molecule produced and used by neurons to send and receive messages throughout the body. BDFN helps protect neurons from dying, increases neurogenesis, and enhances cognitive abilities such as attentiveness, learning, mood, and mental health. Good nutrition amplifies BDFN’s capabilities.
Brain-boosting foods
While dietary controversies will always exist as new approaches go in and out of fashion, some basics of healthy eating remain true. Consuming whole, unprocessed foods is essential for restoring and maintaining a balanced level of nutrients to properly fuel your brain for optimal health and work. There are many proven brain-boosting foods you can incorporate into your integrative medicine health plan:
- Green, leafy vegetables such as spinach, broccoli, kale, spinach, and collards are rich in vital brain nutrients like vitamin K, folate, lutein, and beta carotene and may help slow cognitive decline.
- Fatty fish contain omega-3 fatty acids that have been linked to lower levels of beta-amyloid in the blood and may reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
- Berries contain pigments called flavonoids that may help improve memory. One study conducted by researchers at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital found that two or more servings of strawberries and blueberries every week delayed memory decline by up to two-and-a-half years in women.
- Nuts are excellent sources of healthy fats and protein. Walnuts in particular contain high levels of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), a type of omega-3 fatty acid which has been linked to better heart and brain health. Increased walnut consumption has been linked to significantly improved cognitive test scores.
- Tea and coffee contain caffeine and The Journal of Nutrition published a study in 2014 showing that participants with higher caffeine consumption scored better on mental function tests. Additional research indicates that caffeine may help retain new memories.
How does poor nutrition affect brain functions?
A poor diet, lacking in key micro- and macro-nutrients, has the ability to limit brain functions while also paving the way for serious physical and mental health consequences.
Poor nutrition causes lower levels of cognitive function as the brain is not receiving essential nutrients for peak performance. This also creates long-term issues; a lack of very long-chain saturated fatty acids (VLSFAs) from select healthy fats has been shown to hasten cognitive decline in midlife. And one study reported 37% of geriatric memory care patients were deficient in B6, which is critical for the synthesis of serotonin, dopamine, and epinephrine.
Furthermore, your brain and gut are connected via neurons that transmit messages between them—called the gut-brain axis. When you eat, the food is sensed by gut neurons and they send signals to the brain. Poor nutrition limits the complex communication between the brain and gut and research suggests it may be associated with central nervous disorders such as autism and anxiety-depressive behaviors, and gastrointestinal orders such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
Poor nutrition causes lower levels of cognitive function as the brain is not receiving essential nutrients for peak performance.
Supplement your nutrition for better brain health
While research has proven that eating fresh, healthy food provides synergistic benefits vitamin supplements can’t match, even seemingly ideal diets may be inadequate at providing all the nutrients your body needs. You may not realize food loses nutritional value due to farming practices, environmental stresses, short shelf-life duration, the medicine you take, and more. As such, certain supplements may still be called for.
Incorporating supplements with good nutrition will help optimize your brain functions and keep you healthy. While it’s important to medically assess your actual nutritional deficiencies before starting a supplementation regimen, the following are often recommended:
- Omega-3 fatty acids—ideally a fish-based supplement
- B Vitamins
- Probiotics and prebiotics
- Vitamin D
Nutrition’s role in integrative medicine
We noted above how few patients receive adequate nutritional counseling, yet its importance is clear. One way to ensure your brain gets the nutrients it needs is to work with an expert in integrative medicine, which considers your whole system, including the key input of diet. Nutrition is in fact foundational to integrative medicine, a holistic approach to preventing sickness and disease and for increasing cognitive functions and work performance in every capacity.
In their book, Tapestry of Health, co-authors Daniel A. Monti, MD and Anthony J. Bazzan, MD discuss how food can be used as a holistic medicine and offer simple health plans, backed by science and decades of clinical experience to help you heal and thrive through integrative medicine.
About The Marcus Institute of Integrative Health at Thomas Jefferson University
The Marcus Institute of Integrative Health, a clinic within Jefferson Health, is a global destination for clinical care that utilizes the best of modern medicine paired with innovative technologies and cutting-edge wellness solutions. The Marcus Institute’s offerings include:
- The Executive Health program, which provides a comprehensive and accurate view of your current health status, so we can identify and treat immediate concerns, uncover potential risks, and put you on the path to optimal health and wellness.
- The Optimal Brain Health program, where patients have access to cutting-edge PET/MRI technology and see doctors trained in both traditional medicine and integrative nutrition and medicine to improve brain function.
- The Advances in Integrative Nutrition Annual Conference where Diet and Brain Health is one of the key topics.
- The Integrative Nutrition advanced practice certificate program, in which healthcare providers can enhance their practice by learning the clinical application of integrative nutrition. Those interested may further pursue a Master’s degree in integrative health sciences.
Contact the Marcus Institute for Integrative Health online to learn more about the programs offered and upcoming events.
