I am thrilled to have Jim Kwik joining me on the podcast today.
Jim is an advocate for brain health. He is recognized widely as a global expert in memory improvement, brain optimization, and accelerated learning. He is also a New York Times bestselling author, keynote speaker, and the host of the acclaimed Kwik Brain Podcast.
In our conversation, we dive into digital dementia, exploring how our heavy dependence on technology affects our memories, learning styles, visualization, teaching methods, and lifestyle choices. We touch on the role of the reticular activating system (RAS) in learning, looking at how to foster a curious mindset. We also cover information overload, the benefits of the Pomodoro
Technique for brain breaks, common middle-age concerns, and the role of nootropics.
Jim has kindly offered to give a few books away to our listeners. To participate, take a screenshot of the podcast featuring Jim and me and identify something you learned on social media, explaining how you will apply it to boost your brain health. Jim and his team will select a handful of listeners to receive an autographed copy of his book, Limitless- one of my favorites.
This discussion with Jim Kwik is invaluable, and I know you will enjoy it!
IN THIS EPISODE YOU WILL LEARN:
What is digital dementia?
Why handwriting notes is better than digital note-taking
Jim shares a whole-brain note-taking method that combines logical left-brain and holistic right-brain thinking
The benefits of visualization for learning and retaining information
Why you need to forget what you already know to learn something new
Why we need to stay curious and engage in lifelong learning
How taking regular breaks helps us to avoid information overload and maintain focus
Jim explains the Pomodoro Technique
How genetics and lifestyle impact brain health
The benefits of meditation, diet, and exercise
Why Jim is passionate about the aging brain
Bio:
Jim Kwik is an internationally acclaimed authority in the realm of brain optimization. With over 30 years of experience, Jim has dedicated his life to helping people tap into their brain’s full potential. From overcoming learning challenges after a childhood brain injury, Jim embarked on a journey with the mission to leave no brain behind. Through his teachings, Jim inspires others to unlock their innate genius, empowering them to live a life of greater power, productivity, and purpose.
“We don't know something unless we do it. Someone could read a great book on exercise, but without doing the physical exercise they don't understand the gains they get from it.”
-Jim Kwik
Connect with Cynthia Thurlow
Follow on Twitter
Check out Cynthia’s website
Submit your questions to support@cynthiathurlow.com
Connect with Jim Kwik
Limitless is available on the Limitless website.
Transcript:
Cynthia Thurlow: [00:00:02] Welcome to Everyday Wellness podcast. I'm your host, nurse practitioner, Cynthia Thurlow. This podcast is designed to educate, empower and inspire you to achieve your health and wellness goals. My goal and intent is to provide you with the best content and conversations from leaders in the health and wellness industry each week and impact over a million lives.
[00:00:29] Today, I had the distinct honor of connecting with Jim Kwik. He's a widely recognized world expert in memory improvement, brain optimization, and accelerated learning. He is also a New York Times bestselling author, keynote speaker, and the host of the acclaimed Kwik Brain podcast. He's also an advocate for brain health, and you will understand soon if you're not familiar with his work, why I wanted to bring his message to the Everyday Wellness Community.
[00:00:58] Today, we spoke about digital dementia, how our high reliance on technology impacts memory, learning preferences, visualization, teaching styles, lifestyle and learning, the role of the RAS or reticular activating system and how we learn, helping to curate a curious mind, pleaders or readers, information overload, the impact of the Pomodoro technique on brain breaks, common concerns in middle age, and the role of nootropics.
[00:01:31] This will be an invaluable conversation and Jim has very generously offered to gift a few books to listeners. What you need to do is take a screenshot of the podcast of the two of us together and identify on social media something you have learned that you are going to do to help improve brain health. His team will gift and select a few listeners to receive an autographed copy of his book Limitless, which is one of my favorite reads. I know you will love this conversation as much as I did recording it.
[00:02:06] Well, Jim, such a pleasure to have you on the podcast. I know that it has been a cascade of trying to work together with scheduling to make this happen, and I know it'll be an invaluable conversation for my community.
Jim Kwik: [00:02:18] Thank you, Cynthia. I've been looking forward to this conversation.
Cynthia Thurlow: [00:02:21] Yeah, absolutely. I would love to focus in, at least start the conversation around the concept of things that challenge our ability to think and grow and focus and learn. And you have a term of digital dementia. Now, most of my listeners are women north of 35 that are managing aging parents, growing kids, probably adding in a career or some type of volunteer work. What does digital dementia, how does that impact our ability to learn and be able to think and grow and focus?
Jim Kwik: [00:02:57] So digital dementia is a term in healthcare that talks about the high reliance on technology to take over some of our brain's activities. And so, one of them is memory. I mean, you think about-- I don't know Cynthia, how many phone numbers did you know growing up? Did you remember?
Cynthia Thurlow: [00:03:13] Probably. I mean, to this day I can remember my best friends, both my parents. It was so much easier to remember those things.
Jim Kwik: [00:03:20] And how many current phone numbers do you think you know?
Cynthia Thurlow: [00:03:24] Probably three.
Jim Kwik: [00:03:26] Yeah. Most people would say the same. They could count one hand. And not that I want to memorize 1000 phone numbers, but it should be very concerning, we've lost the ability to remember one number or a pin number or a passcode or seed phrase or something we just read or a conversation that we just had. I believe two of the most costly words sometimes in life are “I forgot.” I mean, just think about the consequences of saying, “I forgot to do it. I forgot what I was going to say. I forgot that conversation. I forgot to go to that meeting, that appointment. I forgot that person's name.”
[00:03:56] On the other side memory is really a multiplier in our life, in our relationships and our health and our careers, when we can easily remember client information or product information, give a speech without notes, walk into a room and meet 20 strangers and leave saying goodbye to every single one of them by name. I mean, it's a real-life superpower that we all have.
[00:04:15] So digital dementia is basically saying that because we depend on it to do the heavy lifting for us, we don't have to develop those muscles. Because I believe, while your brain is an organ, it responds more like a muscle. It's use it or lose it. But if I put my arm in a cast for a year, it wouldn't stay the same. It wouldn't even grow. It would weaken. It would atrophy. And that's what digital dementia is, the high reliance on technology to do the thinking for us to remember our to-do’s. It remembers our calendars. It remembers all the numbers, and so we don't have to flex it. And I'm very pro technology.
[00:04:53] Technology is the tool for us to use, but if it's using us, then we become the tool. It's similar to, I don't know, an elevator. If your apartment or your office is on the fifth floor, and you take the elevator, which is a form of technology, it's very convenient, but then we don't get those steps in. Or if you have to go to the bank and it's five, six blocks away, and you take a car, very convenient, car's technology, but we don't get our steps in. I think it's a balancing act between what's convenient and what could also be crippling long term. And, so what we like to do is get people mentally fit to use their memory so they could magnify their life.
Cynthia Thurlow: [00:05:35] Well, and it's interesting, I have our oldest son just left for college, and I remember having a conversation with him and saying back when I was in college, we took handwritten notes. I would record lectures, and I said, “I'm very visually oriented.” So, for me, if I write out something, I will remember it far better than if I just hear it. And he was explaining to me, he's like, “Mom, no one takes notes like that. We may take our computers with us to a class, and we're taking notes as we go, but no one's writing, putting pen to paper or pencil to paper.” They're doing that less and less.
[00:06:10] And do you find that when you're working or in your work, that when people are able to-- Their auditory processing is hearing information, they're writing it down and they can visualize it, does that aid in our ability to remember things as opposed to simply listening? And I know there's different types of processing. Some people are better auditory learners. I'm very much a visual learner. I have another child who has to actually do the thing in order to remember how to do it. What has been your experience?
Jim Kwik: [00:06:41] It's interesting with children. I realize it's not how smart they are, it's how are they smart. And even for ourselves, it's not how smart you are, how smart your team is, it's how are you smart? And we all have genius that expresses itself, and we all have different preferred ways of learning. When it comes to note taking, it's very important because there's something in science called the forgetting curve. When you hear something once or you listen to it on a podcast, you read it, and you have a conversation about it, you hear it once. Within 48 hours, we lose upwards, 80% of it is pretty typical. So, taking notes is a way of mitigating that loss.
[00:07:15] They do studies at universities to test students to see their note taking, specifically for comprehension and retention, which is what counts. They test hand writing notes and digital note taking. And across the board, you'll find that people who handwrite notes will understand the information better, and they'll remember it better also as well. Where digital note taking is very good for-- It's very convenient again, talking about technology, it's great for storing information. It's wonderful for sharing that information with others. But hand writing notes seems to increase our understanding and our retention information better. And then obviously there's different ways of taking notes also that could move the needle.
Cynthia Thurlow: [00:07:57] What do you feel like based, again on your experience are the most efficacious ways to actually take notes? Are there specific strategies that we can utilize that will increase our retention?
Jim Kwik: [00:08:07] Yeah. So, we have a podcast, and people could see a detailed kind of a masterclass on it. It has over a million views, but just my name, how to take notes, but a couple of key ideas. When university students are tested, what's the best and worst? The worst actually surprised the researchers. It's full transcription actually performed the worst in terms of helping the students understand and remember. What scored the best was capturing key ideas and key terms. How I take notes is a whole brain note taking method that I created. You have a left brain and a right brain, and this is an oversimplification, but your left brain is more logical, it's words, it sounds details. Your right brain is more holistic. Your right brain is more visual, it's more emotional, it's more your imagination.
[00:09:00] And so my technique is if handwriting notes leads to better results, what I do is I take a piece of paper and I put a line right down the page. And on the left side is for my left brain, I capture. So, we could talk about how to remember names, how to read faster, how to focus at will. Those techniques on the left side. On the right side, though, will be you'll create. So, capture, create. The right side is if your imagination is going to distract you, which inevitably does for most people. I'd rather it distract you on the right side of the page. And what are you capturing? You're capturing your impressions. What are you creating? You're creating your impressions of what you had captured. So, it'd be things like, on the right side, how can I use this? how does this relate to what I already know? What questions do I have for Cynthia and Jim on social media? When will I use this? Again, if your mind's going to wander, I'd rather wander on the right side of the page where you could be more imaginative, you could create. And again, what you're creating is like your impressions of what you're capturing. And I find that way, it's a very organized way, left brain and right brain, kind of a whole brain way of learning and note taking.
Cynthia Thurlow: [00:10:14] I love that because it honors how we all process information in different ways. I had a very, very strict science professor in college, and she taught us anatomy and physiology, and so she had exactly that kind of methodology. She was a little bit ahead of her time. So, on one side would be the anatomical structures we were talking about, and then the other piece was the physiology and kind of marrying them together. And I've learned throughout all my medical training was that I was always trying to make connections between information I was learning. And if I could visualize it in my head after writing it down, like, as an example, I'm working on my second book, and there's a part of the gut microbiome that I've been trying to solidify in my brain. And yesterday I was making drawings. Now, I am not artistic at all, but it was enough elementary drawings that I now can explain things in a way that I wasn't able to before, because it's this practical application piece, which I think for so many of us, we might understand just the memorization part, but the actual application is so much more important for remembering everything as a whole.
Jim Kwik: [00:11:21] Yeah. And I'll underscore, not only was it visual, which helps people, we tend to remember things that we see. I mean, think about names and faces. You remember someone's face, you forgot the name. There's a Chinese proverb that says, “What I hear, I forget. What I see, I remember. What I do, I understand.” So, I heard the name, I forgot it. I saw the face, I remember the face, what I do in the power of practice, you really understand. I feel like I'm on the same page with you. I feel like we don't know something unless we could do it, right?
[00:11:53] Someone could read a great book on exercise, but if they're not doing that physical exercise and they don't really understand it and getting the gains from it, but knowing that we're better with faces than names. You go to someone, say, “I remember your face, but I forgot your name.” You never go to someone, say the opposite. You never go to someone, say, “I remember your name, but I forgot your face.” We tend to think in pictures, most the population. Even when you go on an airplane, you don't see, no longer does it say, no smoking or fasten your seat belts. There's a picture of a cigarette with a line through it or a seatbelt fastening, so we tend to think in pictures. Even if I was to ask everybody listening to describe your car, maybe you could do this, describe your primary vehicle.
Cynthia Thurlow: [00:12:41] Yes. It's a white SUV with tan interior. And I think about kind of the big pictures, but I could also talk about the way it feels when I'm in that car, which just adds to the layering of the memories.
Jim Kwik: [00:12:55] And I bet, Cynthia, you don't see white Tan interior, you don't see the words, you see the picture of it. And a picture is worth a thousand words. So, visualization is very useful. And then the other thing you said was teaching it to somebody else. And I feel like in order to learn faster, which I think is the number one skill for all of us to get good at, to have greater levels of productivity, performance, peace of mind, and prosperity, it's learning how to learn, because if you can learn how to learn, you could focus, you could think, you could read and remember. Then what can you apply that to? What subject? Everything. It could be medicine, anatomy. It could be money. It could be martial arts. It could be Mandarin. It can be music. Everything gets easier when you can learn how to learn and that’s where we've dedicated the past 32 years writing about and releasing podcasts and YouTube, helping people to learn better.
[00:13:50] Because it's interesting, in school, they teach you what to learn, math, history, science, Spanish. But there are zero classes on how to learn those subjects. There's no class called focus or flow or concentration, like going to your kids and saying, “Study this. Focus on this.” That's like going to somebody saying, play the didgeridoo or the ukulele, who's never taken a class on how to do that. So, I think it's interesting that school-
[00:14:17] If I was to make one change in traditional education, would not just teach them what to learn, because that changes over time. We have new information. The half-life information gets shorter and shorter, especially in medicine, but I would teach them how to learn that, because in a world that's so fast and AI and technology, with all these distractions, I feel like our ability to learn, to unlearn, to maybe even relearn, is a huge advantage. So, when you teach it to somebody else, you get to learn it twice. They call it the explanation effect in science. When you learn something like-- If you're listening to this conversation right now and you think about how would I teach this to a loved one, or how would I teach this to my coworker, you're going to focus better. You're going to take better notes, you're going to own that information, and so it's a wonderful way to speed up our learning is to learn with the intention of teaching somebody else as well as take visual notes.
Cynthia Thurlow: [00:15:13] And that was always a reminder to myself if I couldn’t explain it to someone else, I didn’t truly understand it. And that would oftentimes trigger going back to making sure there were key concepts that I really fully understood so that I could then explain it to someone else. And so much of my training, both in undergrad and graduate school, was having that ability to do that. Being able to take challenging or kind of challenging concepts and make it accessible to patients and making it accessible so that they understood it and they could then take actions.
[00:15:47] Now, one thing that I find is that whether it is unique to each individual or it is throughout our lifetime, there are some people who just love being lifelong learners. And I jokingly say, I will be learning for the rest of my life. I love to learn. What do you think contributes to our desire to continue learning, improving upon, ensuring that we are staying current. And by staying current, I'm not being pejorative, I'm just saying evolving, shifting, changing throughout our lifetimes, what contributes to that? Because I do think of it as a habit. It is something that we foster, but what helps us develop that degree of curiosity and desire to continuously be learning.
Jim Kwik: [00:16:29] So it's interesting, we have students in every country in the world, 195 nations, where we teach speed reading, memory, focus, and the two dips that we see in someone's lifestyle cycle in terms of cognitive performance, the expression of their brain is usually when people graduate school, because there's a part of the population that associates their education with learning, and they feel like, unconsciously, when they're finished with their education, then their learning is done. And again, your brain is use it or lose it. And then the second area is when people retire, often when people retire out of their career, they're not using their minds in the same ways, and so there's a dip in performance there. With the mind body connection, unfortunately, our bodies aren't far behind.
[00:17:19] And so, in terms of the curiosity, I think curiosity is something that we should all cultivate, this sense of awe. We have a 19-month-old, and it's just-- I thought I would go in and take in all the research I've had in human development and education and want to teach our son everything, but I honestly find if I'm really raw about this, I'm learning more just observing him and just remembering what it's like to be playful, to make mistakes, to get curious and look at everything with fresh eyes.
[00:17:55] I think part of another thing that helps us to learn faster and learn more rapidly is forgetting what we already know, forgetting what we know so we can learn something new, kind of emptying our cup so we could put new information in. I believe our minds are like a parachute. They only work when it's opened. But curiosity is a muscle, and it's something that we could train ourselves, even something simple, with the questions that we ask ourselves all the time.
[00:18:20] We have about 60,000 thoughts a day, and a lot of those thoughts come in the form of questions, and that's how we think. We ask ourselves and we answer our own questions. And if people are listening, they're thinking like, is that true? Notice that they had to ask a question in order to think about it. And so, asking questions that lead to more curiosity, how does this work? How does this relate to what I already know? Is this true? And you have part of your nervous system called your reticular activating system, your RAS.
[00:18:49] And we've learned that the brain, primarily what I've understood is your brain is more of a deletion device. We're trying to keep information out because at any given time, all of us, we could be thinking about and focusing on a billion different stimuli, but we would go insane. We would be overloaded. So, what do we decide to let in are the things that touch us emotionally, things for our survival, and also the things that we have curiosity about, the questions that we have. And the proverb is true, “Ask and you shall receive. Questions really are the answer.”
[00:19:27] Even if, like, as an example, years ago, my younger sister would send me postcards and emails of a very specific breed of dog. It was like a pug dog. And my question became, like, “Why does she keep sending me these pictures of pug dogs?” And I realized her birthday was coming up, and she's a good marketer, and she was seeding her future birthday gift. But a funny thing happened, Cynthia, I started seeing these pug dogs everywhere in my neighborhood. I would be at the health food store, and the person checking out in front of me was holding a pug dog. I'm a runner, I'm running in my neighborhood, and I swear somebody was walking six pug dogs. And my question for everyone listening is, did those pug dogs just manifest and teleport into my neighborhood? No, they were always there, but I was deleting them because it wasn't important until I started asking the question, and then I started seeing them everywhere.
[00:20:19] Well, even when we're reading, I'm sure a lot of people have this experience. You ever read a page in a book, get to the end, and just forget what you just read, and you go back and you read it, you still don't know what you just read. But imagine you have questions about the material and you're reading it and you're like, “Oh, there's a pug dog, there's a pug dog. There's answer, there's answer, there's answer.” And so, I feel like one of the ways we could lean into curiosity is to ask more questions and then we'll get more answers, because it's like a magnet where we're pulling information in.
[00:20:50] Because traditionally-- I mean, people thought our brain was just there to consume. And I don't think necessarily the brain learns best through consumption. I think it learns better through creation and cocreation and conversation, that you're not pushing information in through a podcast or a lecture, a teacher, but the student has equal responsibility of pulling the information in with questions and creating something that's personal for them. I feel like one way of doing is asking more questions.
[00:21:19] And I think also another way of doing is, most of us have a to-do list, 200 things that just keeps on growing. And I would highly recommend as something practical for everyone is tomorrow start a to learn list, “What have you always wanted to learn? What subject? what skill?” Or to read list. If people seen photos of me on--
[00:21:42] If we're connected on social media and I'm with Oprah or Elon or whoever, people invariably will ask how we connected, how we bonded. And I'll tell you, we bonded over books. Because leaders are readers, you read to succeed. If someone has decades of experience like yourself, and you put it into a book, which you did, and you have another one coming, like, if someone sit down in a few days and read that book, they could download decades of wisdom and research and insight into days. I don't know a bigger advantage than that. Besides the fact that reading is probably the number one brain fitness activity across the board, reading is to your mind, what exercise is to your body. I would honestly go a day without eating before I went a day without reading something that I felt was useful.
Cynthia Thurlow: [00:22:31] I love that. And I think that one of the things I'm so proud of, although, I have all boys, especially our oldest, was always a big reader. And I recall that that became a big advantage for him as a young man because his ability to not just read but understand, comprehend, be able to explain things. I remember a teacher in elementary and like later in middle school just saying, “I think because he's such an avid reader, his vocabulary is stronger than most other young men at his age and stage, but his curiosity, he's so curious.” And even now in college, he's an engineering, computer science student, and listening to him talk about how he's going to class, how he's-- He wants to be an electrical engineer, how he's kind of processing the information, he’ll say to me, he’s like I will on my computer, but then I come home, and I’ll start writing out. He does the same thing that I do is that he’s creating, whether it’s a graphical depiction of the information, but it allows it to solidify, and that wasn’t actually something I taught him, he himself kind of through his process of being very math and science adept started doing that to kind of help solidify these key concepts. But I agree with you, when I think about my entrepreneurial friends, the ones that are most successful, the ones that are most articulate, the ones that genuinely enjoy learning in the process of learning, are all avid readers.
[00:23:56] And I'll just tie in this conversation. I was at an event last year and someone was asking me about my podcast prep, and I said, this is how much time I spent on podcast prep. And I think it makes a difference. I read the books, I do this, I do that, I listen to the guests on other podcasts because I want to get a sense for who they are and how they answer questions. And this person said, “Oh, you should never have to read the book, just put it through ChatGPT.” And I remember saying, I was like, “Appreciate that suggestion, but no, really, I think a differentiator is that when you actually read the book.” And I can understand how AI can be used for good things, by no means knocking AI, but I do feel like to get a sense for who the author is, what their voice is, for the information they're trying to convey to reading the book just provides a different perspective and lens and a degree of not just honoring the guest or whomever you're connecting to, but also really understanding more about their teaching style and the way that they speak and the communication piece.
[00:24:58] And so, I think part of the learning process for me, and certainly as you mentioned, leaders are readers, I really think it kind of is very much in alignment with the point I'm trying to make about podcasting is one example of in my business, I do feel like that's a key differentiator. As opposed to, quite honestly, and this is not a criticism of anyone, there are people who just don't enjoy reading, and they'll admit that, but that's just not what they enjoy doing. But I oftentimes will say, “But I know you enjoy learning,” so we just have to find a medium that is in alignment with your interests.
Jim Kwik: [00:25:31] And I agree with that. My two suggestions for somebody who knows reading is good, but they're not doing it. Number one is read something you love until you love reading. But the other thing is, one of the reasons why people don't enjoy doing it is because, I mean, if we're real, then it's because they're not very good at it. I'm not great at golf yet, so it's not something I do very often because it is frustrating, it's embarrassing. I have to work harder. So, people that I'm playing with aren't losing time, but when we're better at something, we do it more often.
[00:26:10] In psychology, they have this competence confidence loop where the more competent you get, the more confident you get at it. And because you're more confident, you tend to do it more often. And so, I think a lot of us-- A lot of people don't read as much because it puts them to sleep, they forget what they read. It takes a lot of time. But if you could read faster, understand more, retain it better, it's just a more pleasant experience, and you're going to do that more often without a doubt. And, there's simple things that people--
[00:26:36] Again, reading is not a skill that you’re born with. It's something that we all learned. Well, when's the last time we took a class that was actually called reading? Not like a college literature class, but a class called reading. We were five, six, seven years old. So, the difficulty in demand has increased a lot since then, but how we read is the same, and that growing gap creates another challenge, which is this information overload. They call it in healthcare information anxiety, higher blood pressure, compression of leisure time, more sleeplessness, because there's so much to learn. I mean, how many people do you know buy books and they sit on their shelf unread, and it becomes shelf help, not self-help. And one of the reasons why I feel like it's just people haven't-- we haven't upgraded our reading skills and our reading abilities, but if you could be a great swimmer, a great golfer, a great anything, you're going to enjoy it more and do it more.
Cynthia Thurlow: [00:27:30] One of the big things that I’ve taken away from your work is setting aside 20 minutes of focusing in one task. And for me, because of my education history, I was just very comfortable. If I had to spend 3-hours slogging through a book, that’s what I would do. And so now I take 20 minutes-- I’ll read for 20 minutes, I’ll get up, do a couple of things in my house and then come back. And to your point, I retain a great deal more just by having that break, that concentrated, like I'll just set the timer on my phone, I get up, I go do a couple things.
Jim Kwik: [00:28:05] I know some people are just listening to this, but on my desk, I have a tomato timer, like a cooking kitchen timer, and I set it for 30 minutes and I do the same. It's something called the Pomodoro technique. Researchers found that after about 20 or 30 minutes, 25 seems to be the sweet point, the sweet spot that your attention declines pretty steeply. And so, the idea here is you work for 25, 30, 45 minutes, you take a five-minute what I call brain break and you do three things during this brain break if you can. Number one, you move your body. You like clean the house, you're moving your body. As your body moves, your brain grooves.
[00:28:45] They've even done tests that people listen to your podcast or your audiobook or something else while they're doing something rhythmic. Maybe they're on a treadmill or doing a brisk walk, they'll actually understand the information and retain it better. The idea here is as your body moves, your brain grooves that when you exercise, you create something called BDNF, which you know is a brain derived neurotrophic factors, and it's like fertilizer for neuroplasticity for making those new connections, second thing I do besides moving. And moving, it's not just exercising three times a week. It's really-- they say sitting is the new smoking. We're behind screens an inordinate amount of time and so, just so important to be able to move. The primary reason everybody has a brain is to control our movement.
[00:29:30] Even with toddlers, and learning to crawl, it's so very important because they're moving their body and it helps. There's this not just a mind body connection, there's this body mind connection that using different parts of your body stimulates different parts of our brain. And there's a study done with jugglers at Oxford University, saying that jugglers actually have more white matter. You could actually build your brain size and density just learning something simple like juggling, or what I teach people is like, I recommend in their morning routine, try brushing your teeth with the opposite hand because it's cross laterals right below the neck. Half of your brain controls the other half of your body and vice versa. God forbid, someone has stroke or head injury on the left side if there's paralysis, so it manifests on the right side.
[00:30:15] Using your opposite hand, it does a couple of things. Not only does it potentially stimulate different parts of your brain, but also it forces you to be present. In the morning, I think if you want to win the day, you have to win that first morning. And if you're on your phone every like, share, comment, cat video ring, ping, ding. It's driving you to distraction, as opposed to if you're brushing teeth with opposite hand, it forces you to be present. And focus is very much a muscle and so is distraction and so, it's a way of exercising your focus because you have to focus in order to do it, especially in the beginning because it's not easy.
[00:30:51] And then the other thing is, I notice after people could do it, after about a week or two of practice, it becomes a gateway habit, saying, “Wow, I really can change. I've learned this new activity, this new skill, if you will. And what else can I, what other habits can I inject into my day?” But so, I move during my brain break, hydrate. Your brain is, as you know, mostly water, 75 roughly percent. And just staying hydrated could boost your reaction time, your thinking speed upwards of 30%, so just make sure you hydrate.
[00:31:21] And then the third thing I do is try to get some breathing in because sometimes when we're sitting on our desk or we're reading, people fall asleep. And it has nothing to do with their calorie intake, it's more of their posture. Their diaphragm is-- Their posture is collapsed. The lower one third of your lungs absorbs two thirds of the oxygen, so, a lot of us fall asleep while we're reading just because we're not getting enough airflow, and that's really the key, is oxygen. And so doing those three things during your five-minute break and then coming back refreshed. And not only that, for your retention, I would imagine when you're going in school, a lot of us crammed like the night before. We don’t get a good night sleep, which is probably not the wisest thing for getting good results and good grades, but if you study for eight hours at night without any breaks.
[00:32:12] In science, there’s something called primacy and recency. And primacy, says prime, like the number one is first, we tend to remember things first. And recency says we tend to remember things more recent or at the end. So, if I gave the audience 30 random words without using any of the memory techniques we teach, you probably remember some of the first words and some of the last words, primacy and recency. If you walked into a room of strangers, you meet 20 people, you probably remember the first people you met and the last people you met, prime and recent. But so, what happens is there's a big-- If you tend to remember, say this is 8 hours and I'm just spreading my hands about a foot and a half, you tend to remember things high at the beginning, at the end, but then there's a big slump in between of lost information. But if you take a break every 45 minutes, you create more beginnings and ends, more primacy and more recency, so you could pick up all that more than that learning and information.
Cynthia Thurlow: [00:33:08] And that's so invaluable because I feel like we oftentimes don't learn those skills, but yet, whether it's undergrad, graduate school, high school, etc., you just push through and you feel as if your efficiency for learning has been unnaturally kind of degraded. Now, for a lot of individuals in middle age, we're going to pivot a little bit. Some of the common complaints that I hear from patients are brain fog, trouble with word finding, which for women is huge, and that can be tied directly to estrogen, and then overall memory starts to shift. When you're working with, let's just say women in middle age, so north of 35, women in perimenopause and menopause, these are common concerns to hear from them. What are some of the high-level things that you help them focus in on to help improve this from your perspective?
Jim Kwik: [00:34:00] So my book, Limitless, is kind of an owner's manual for your brain, and every technology comes with some kind of instructions, but our brain doesn't. And it's endorsed by the top Alzheimer's research at a Harvard, Dr. Rudy Tanzi, and the founding director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Brain Health. And we know about one third of your brain is predetermined by genetics and biology, but two thirds we have influence, and so I focus on those two thirds. Some people say with epigenetics, that's 100% amount of influence.
[00:34:28] This is a topic the aging brain is something I'm very passionate about. Not only did I have a brain injury when I was five, that led to learning disabilities for a decade and a half. It took me three years longer to learn how to read. I was called the boy with the broken brain. I would have focus, memory, all these issues. When I was seven, going through my challenges, my grandmother passed of Alzheimer's. And women are twice as likely to experience Alzheimer's than men, yet most of the research is done on men and treatment on men. We donated all the proceeds to Limitless to build schools for girls around the world. That in villages they don't have access to education in Ghana and Guatemala and Kenya, and also to fund Alzheimer's research for women in memory of my grandmother, so this is something I'm very passionate about.
[00:35:16] And so, there's the software and then there's the hardware. The software are the things that we teach for focus, remembering names, how to give a speech without notes, how to learn languages, how to read faster. That's kind of programs or software. But you also have to take care of that three-pound matter between your ears, which is the hardware, which is the brain itself, the organ itself. And there are a number of things you could do that move the needle there just for simplicity, remember meds, Rx, it's an acronym. Acronym, remember back in school, especially in med school, it's an easy shortcut way of just a little mnemonic. Meds Rx, and so, the M stands for meditation. I don't know if you have a mindfulness practice yourself.
Cynthia Thurlow: [00:35:57] I do. Although, I don't do it enough. Admittedly, that's the one thing. And I think I'm pretty honest with my listeners. I can quiet my mind, but I don't do it frequently enough.
Jim Kwik: [00:36:09] So for me, I really feel that meditation, I'm at a disadvantage if I don't do it. It's kind of like curiosity, something that I wasn't naturally wanting to do, to sit and be quiet and still, but it's something that's like a muscle. And I don't do it to become enlightened. I do it more-- If I'm sitting down or I'm lying down, and invariably my thoughts will go somewhere because you can't stop your mind to think, that's what it does. It's like you can't make your heart stop beating, that's its function. Your mind is there to think.
[00:36:43] But invariably, when it thinks something that I don't-- Thinks about the dry cleaning or thinks about a work situation, what I do is I bring it back to a breath. Maybe some people have a mantra, and what it does is it flexes your focus and concentration muscles. So, you could take those distractions invariably in life and then bring it back to what's most important. So, you flex those muscles. So later that day, when you're on Zoom or you're with the kids and you get distracted, you kind of have like a neural pathway to bring you back to the present, or what's most important at that time. So, it's important to disconnect to reconnect, your brain's not meant to go full speed all day, and so a meditation for me is different than sleep. It's really more active rest. You're awake, but you're using this time to recover. It's like a pit stop to rejuvenate yourself and exercise your focus.
[00:37:39] The E in meds Rx is exercise, which we already talked about. And how much are we moving on a scale of 0 to 10 throughout the day? Because again, all, there's so many benefits. Again, BDNF, when you exercise, you create dopamine, serotonin, endorphins, and all these are very important for cognitive health and cognitive performance. And some exercises, it could be fun, it could be a hobby. There's recent research came out that tennis was amongst the number one, actually adds some years to your life also as well, racket sports.
[00:38:11] We do annual brain power conference. And in the past, we've had Dr. Daniel Amen, famed brain doctor and a ping-pong champion friend of ours, and we're just challenging all the attendees. It's a wonderful brain exercise. Ballroom dancing or Latin dance is a wonderful exercise for the brain, so it could be something that's fun also.
[00:38:31] And then the D in meds Rx, obviously, is diet. I just want to remind everyone that what you eat matters, especially for your gray matter. And like your brain, this whole area of science I write about in Limitless called neuro-nutrition, that your brain is only about 2% of your body mass, but actually requires 20% of nutrients, 20% of the oxygen, it's an energy hog, and some of those nutrients are different than what the rest of the body needs. And so, for me, some of my favorite brain foods are things like avocados, the monounsaturated fat, the blueberries. I like to call them brain berries. Broccoli has something called sulforaphane, which is good for cognitive health, olive oil, if people's diets allow eggs, the choline in eggs leads to acetylcholine, which is important for cognitive health, green leafy vegetables. If your diet allows fish, like salmon or sardines, that where you get your DHA’s, your omega-3s. Turmeric is wonderful, the active ingredient is curcumin, which helps to lower systemic inflammation that can lead to challenges in your brain also. Walnuts, high in vitamin E, very neuroprotective, and everyone's favorite is dark chocolate. Generally, what’s good for your mood is going to be good for your mind also as well. There’s all kinds of flavonoids in there. They’re very neuroprotective.
[00:39:43] And on the other side, when we talk about diet, high sugar foods, you get those glucose spikes, challenges your insulin resistance, could wreak havoc on your brain and your brain health and brains performance. Highly processed food, all those additives that could have neurotoxic effects, so, that’s D.
[00:40:00] And then finally the S in meds in meds is sleep. And that's kind of obvious. Everyone knows this, but how many people are practicing good sleep hygiene? And for me, when you sleep, a number of things happen specifically for your brain. Number one, you consolidate short to long term memory. So, if anyone has long-term memory issues, you might want to get a sleep study. And nowadays you could do it at home. Your doctor or your peer, general physician could send you a sleep study do at home to look at sleep apnea or other challenges. When you sleep, you also clean out the sewage system as you imagine would kick in in your brain, and you could clean out that beta amyloid plaque that can lead to brain aging challenges.
[00:40:41] And so my favorite sleep suggestions, get direct sunlight first thing in the morning, at least 10 minutes, not through a window, because the window, the glass could kind of block out certain spectrums of light. But even if it's hazy or foggy outside, you still get benefits. Because your eyes, you think about it, your eyes are only part of your brain that's outside your skull and getting-- If you want to sleep better that night, get direct sunlight first thing that morning to reset your circadian rhythm, which is your 24 hours clock. Also, I'm very sensitive caffeine, so I can't do caffeine past 1 o’clock because the half-life that could stay in your system 10 hours, so, I'm very sensitive. I'm jealous if people could do like an Espresso before bed, it's just not me.
[00:41:20] And then everybody has an alarm to wake up. I would suggest and challenge everyone have an alarm to go to sleep. Your brain, your nervous system loves a schedule, even on the weekends. No one gets this perfect, I certainly don't. But to the degree you can go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time will help your overall sleep. And then the last two is-- I mean, think about it. Thousands of years ago, we would know it'd be time to sleep because the environment would tell us it would get colder and it would get darker, and so sleeping in a cooler room, not where it's so cold, you're shivering and being kept up. And then for me, I'd like to take a hot shower or Epsom salt bath, you get the magnesium, and then when you leave the shower, your core body temperature drops, which is a signal to create melatonin, which is the hormone to help you relax.
[00:42:05] And then when it comes to lighting, the darker the better. And the big culprit really, is our devices. You're on your iPad or your phone, and the blue light tricks your mind and thinking it's still daylight, so you don't create that melatonin to phase into sleep, so that's meds.
[00:42:22] The Rx is very simple. The R is relationships. We know that on our podcast, the director of the largest study at Harvard for longevity and happiness. And they said, while exercise and diet are important, what's most important is your social connections. And so let me know that even there was this longevity study done with nuns. I call them super nuns. They were living 80, 90 and older, was on the cover of Time Magazine, and they found-- One of the researchers wanted to find out what was the key to their longevity, their long life, and they said half of it was their emotional faith, their gratitude, but the other half, and they were lifelong learners in their community. They were learning from each other. They were having debates. They were doing a lot of study and because of it added years to their life and also life to their years. The study people want to look it up is called aging with grace. And so wonderful opportunity for people to kind of level up that. So, the relationships and that community are very important. And then the X are all the extras. It could be nootropics. It could be taking cold plunges. There's a whole bunch of brain hacks and bio hacks. But I would really focus really on those first five.
Cynthia Thurlow: [00:43:35] I love those. And to kind of round out our conversation today, you touched on nootropics, which was part of my hope list for our discussion. Do you have a favorite nootropic agent that you are using or recommending with some frequency?
Jim Kwik: [00:43:49] So in 32 years, I never promoted a supplement, even though many of my friends have them. For me, a lot of people are confused. They don't know what to trust. And a lot of people don't want to take like 10 bottles of supplements. Or in our community, which is millions, we're always getting these questions about the same thing about what can they take to boost their cognitive performance. So general supplements could be good for your cognitive health. Omega-3s, your vitamin D, your B vitamins, brain vitamins, very important, so that’s for cognitive health.
[00:44:23] But for cognitive performance, there's this category of supplements, substances called nootropics, and these are substances that have been shown with human studies to move the needle of performance, focus, memory, executive functioning, your mood, your mental energy. I've been on a specific stack by my neuro-nutritionists, and what we did recently this year is we put that formula and created a product called Kwik Mind. And people, regardless if you purchase it or not, you could go to my last name, kwikmind.com, and you can see the five ingredients there. They're all branded ingredients. It's not a blend. And we link and cite all of the human studies that have shown that these ingredients could really move the needles. And people who go there and they could buy it individually online or something like that. We just wanted to make it more cost effective and people not having to take five bottles and it takes time and money to open up all those things.
[00:45:22] And it has everything from bacopa, which is an herb, to things like ashwagandha and some of these things might be familiar. Then what I’m really excited about, one of the ingredients is a coffee fruit extract. So, this is the byproduct of when you make your coffee, it's not used, it has no caffeine. So, our product is non-GMO, no caffeine, vegan and so on. So, you can still have your coffee and herb tea or whatever. But the coffee fruit extract has amazing benefits for brain, so people could look into those.
[00:45:55] We also put in Limitless that I mentioned, there's a chapter on neuro-nutritionist. People could get the free guide. I take 30, the most studied supplements put it into a research guide and you can get it at brainnutrition.com, and it's free. People could go there and kind of see what kind of suits them. And obviously talk to health practitioner, because it's obviously a conversation not meant to treat or diagnose anything.
Cynthia Thurlow: [00:46:20] Well, thank you, Jim. It's been such an honor and a privilege to connect with you. Thank you for the work that you do. Please let listeners know how to connect with you, purchase your updated book and also connect with you on social media.
Jim Kwik: Thank you and I really appreciate this. My book is called Limitless. It's a user guide that focuses on two things, brain optimization and accelerated learning, so there's chapters-- oh, awesome chapters on memory improvement, on focus, on habits, on how to memorize the brain foods that we mentioned, also getting into flow states. So, it's really the one place. It's an owner's manual for your brain. And again, we donate all the proceeds to charity. People could get it online wherever they get books or they go to limitlessbook.com. And social media, everything's at Jim Kwik is my real last name. I didn't change it to do what I do. It's my father's name, my grandfather's name. And I would actually challenge everyone, take a screenshot right now, wherever you're consuming this on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, wherever, and tag Cynthia, tag myself so we get to see it.
[00:47:19] Just remember I said, sparked by what you said, that when you teach something, you get to learn it better, you take advantage of the explanation effect. I would post the screenshot on social media, link to this podcast episode, tag us so we get to see it and share one thing that you're going to do for a better, brighter brain. And because you'll tag us, I'll see it. So, I'll repost a couple of them and then we'll gift out a couple of signed copies of Limitless just as a thank you for everyone for participating.
Cynthia Thurlow: [00:47:47] Oh, thank you so much. That's so generous of you. Thank you again for your time today.
Jim Kwik: [00:47:50] Thank you, Cynthia, so much.
Cynthia Thurlow: If you love this podcast episode, please leave a rating and review, subscribe and tell a friend.