Brain Fog, Cognitive Impairment, and Combating Alzheimer's with Lindsey Byrne

In this episode, host Mary discusses brain health during menopause and the impactful Bredesen Protocol® with guest Lindsey Byrne. 


Lindsey is a cognitive health and functional medicine coach who focuses on natural, non-pharmaceutical approaches to improve cognitive function. She begins the conversation by sharing her personal journey with her mother's battle with Alzheimer's that led her to the work with the Bredesen Protocol®, inspired by Dr. Dale Bredesen. 

The conversation delves deeply into the cornerstone principles of the protocol including ketogenic diet with flexible fasting practices, the importance of sleep, stress management, and movement, and how these factors contribute to brain health. They also explore other factors impairing our cognitive function including alcohol, which is a significant endocrine disruptors to be aware of, and mold toxicity.


Lindsey shares with us her book, 'What did I come in here for again?' a blend of personal narrative and coaching templates for improving brain health. 

• Learn more about Lindsey on her website
• Connect with Lindsey on LinkedIn,  and Facebook
• Read Lindsey's book What did I come in here for again: How I improved my brain health and memory with the Bredesen Protocol (not an affiliate link)

Transcript

Lindsey Byrne: 0:00

I already had a coaching business, a leadership development business, executive coaching, team coaching, and that fell apart in the pandemic. So that was all very stressful for me as well. In the pandemic, I met somebody who told me that he'd almost completely reversed his symptoms of Alzheimer's. And you can imagine, I was like, what, how, you have to tell me all about this. I know, your reaction, that's exactly how I was.

Mary Lee: 0:28

Welcome back, my listeners to all Things Menopausal. My name is Mary, and I'm a menopause doula. As a doula, we augment the healthcare profession as menopause support practitioners. I created this podcast, to build community for women going through menopause and to foster resilience through the stories that connect, educate, and empower. These stories are real, raw, relatable, And very much relevant to the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual whole person that we are. In our midlife transition, we are not alone. Each week, you will hear from courageous, vulnerable, and knowledgeable guests sharing their passion, their journey, and lived experience. These are little clues to finding solutions to our unique situation. The menopause symptoms are personal, but the experience is universal. Today, we're going to get brainy. we're talking about the brain our cognitive health through menopause is crucial. And I, for one, and I've said this many times before, have suffered from the brain fog the most amongst all the symptoms, the memory loss, the feeling like, I don't know what I'm doing here. fortunately, I'm making some smart choices to combat the cognitive effects because I'm really quite concerned about my brain health beyond my menopausal years, I want those years to be great. I also want to have my faculties intact. And so in this episode, I'm joined by Lindsey Byrne, and she will explore the impact of menopause on our cognitive health. She's going to share with us first her personal story of her mother's battle with Alzheimer's, which inspired her to pursue not only coaching, but to write a book We're also going to discuss some cognitive testing, such as measuring memory, processing speed, executive function. Thank you. and how emphasizing lifestyle changes can help improve those tests and our overall brain health. this episode will highlight what's called the Bredesen Protocol, which is inspired by Dr. Dale Bredesen, who can show how Alzheimer's can be reversed. Amazing. In this episode, you're going to learn so much about lifestyle changes and diet, And lastly, we discuss the importance of sleep and stress management during a menopause But before we begin, let me tell you something about Lindsey. Lindsey Byrne is a cognitive health coach who specializes in assisting individuals experiencing memory issues, associated with menopause. She focuses on improving brain health and memory, and even preventing dementia through natural, non pharmaceutical approaches. Lindsey is a functional medicine certified health coach and a certified recode 2. 0 protocol health coach. Yes, she will explain what that means. And as I said, she has authored a book. It's titled, What did I come in here for again? How I improved my brain health and memory with the Bredesen protocol. It's part memoir and a part coaching how to book all packed in one. And it recently released on July 4th. The link to that book is in the show notes, and you can also find Lindsey at the cognitive health coach. co. uk. She's also on LinkedIn And YouTube at the Cognitive Health Coach. her Facebook group is Hope in Alzheimer's UK. Many places to find Lindsey. let's dive in to hear what Lindsey has to say about our brain health. hello, Lindsay. I am so pleased to have you on all things menopausal. This is such, such an important topic. This is one that has plagued me for several months now, brain fog. And I hate to say that I'm blaming menopause for leaving the workplace, but I believe that I'm that one in 10. And that's the statistics one in 10 women will leave the workforce because their symptoms are to the point where it's just hard to manage. And I just came to that pivotal point where I thought, you know what, I'm 55, my brain health is so important to me and it's so critical that I stay on top of my game and I just went through months of just the fog. I call it the fog of war to coin a military term. It is. Amazing to have you here, a cognitive health coach. You're gonna tell us all about what that is. But first of all, first question I always like to ask all my guests, how did you land in this role,

Lindsey Byrne: 5:25

Well, first of all, thank you Mary. Thank you for having me on and absolutely, I hear you. I hear you on the brain fog in menopause thing, Yes. So how did I get here? Well, my mom has Alzheimer's. And, before the pandemic, we had spent a couple of years noticing that she was getting more forgetful. And then in the pandemic, well, just before the pandemic, we were moving mom and dad into a retirement village. And at that point, I think it got harder for her to hide it. I don't know if it got worse with the stress of the move, or whether it just got harder to hide it. But it became much more apparent it was worse than we'd thought. And then the pandemic hit. And the house sale fell through in the pandemic and it was all very stressful. And we had to resell the house in the pandemic, which was no fun. And I already had a coaching business, a leadership development business, executive coaching, team coaching, and that fell apart in the pandemic. So that was all very stressful for me as well. In the pandemic, I met somebody who told me that he'd almost completely reversed his symptoms of Alzheimer's. And you can imagine, I was like, what, how, you have to tell me all about this. I know, your reaction, that's exactly how I was. And he sent me links to videos, to clinical trials, he sent me a link to a book, and I just immersed myself in it, and I was so excited. Because my business had fell apart. I was quite depressed and I was very stressed and I hadn't really had any menopause symptoms up to that point. And then they really hit, and I think it was, the stress triggered it all. I had a, hysterectomy years ago, so I've never really known. I didn't know if I was already in perimenopause. But I was 53 at the start of the pandemic. And I feel like. The stress and everything really kicked it off. I may have been in perimenopause beforehand, but I'd had a pretty healthy lifestyle, but I think the stress really kicked it off. So anyway, I found this protocol and I got so excited and I got my mom on the protocol and she improved dramatically. She's not all the way back. She won't do the whole protocol though. I've got to tamper my expectations a little bit. And as soon as we got her on the protocol and we could see she was getting so much better, I decided this was my career, my, my future, my mission in life. To tell people all about this protocol. It's called the Breton Protocol. Okay. And I retrained, first of all, it's a functional medicine health coach, and that was such good timing for me personally because, I learned all about how to manage my menopause symptoms, what lifestyle factors I could implement to improve my own symptoms. And I did manage to really minimize them. They didn't go away completely, but I managed to minimize them a lot. And then I needed that qualification to be able to do the Alzheimer's specialism, the recode health coach training. And since February 2002, I've been doing this. I've been helping people with brain health and memory. Both with people who just want to prevent, if like me, you want to prevent any form of dementia, probably because you've seen a parent go through it this is the, this is a great protocol but it's helped me no end with my brain health as well. I was noticing not just hot flushes and night sweat type symptoms. I was noticing some brain symptoms as well. And my cognitive scores. were pretty good. Out of the whole cognitive test that I did, the overall score was good, but my executive function was just average compared to some really good memory and processing speed scores. And I thought the disparity in the scores worried me, and I felt like the executive function was definitely the thing that I was, struggling with. It was, managing the really complex stuff. And I did feel foggy when I was trying to learn this, whole new career, get these qualifications. And I've managed to turn that around completely. And now my cognitive scores are in the high nineties across the board. Fantastic. I know this protocol works obviously for Alzheimer's or, any, form of cognitive impairment but definitely for menopausal brain fog or quite a lot of people I'm seeing now have some brain fog post COVID as well.

Mary Lee: 10:37

Huh. Yeah. So I

Lindsey Byrne: 10:38

know this protocol works for, whatever might be the root cause this protocol seems to work.

Mary Lee: 10:46

Okay, so we're going to really dive into this protocol. This is the second time that I've heard about this protocol a previous podcast guest who specializes in, the brain health function and menopause will among many other things. And that's Dr. Fiona Lovely of the Not Your Mother's. Menopause podcast, and she mentioned this and the protocol in reference to the book. We'll get into that. Hang on listeners. But before we do that, I'm interested when you say the cognitive scores and executive function. So these tests, are you talking about your basic IQ tests or tell us a little bit more. It's a

Lindsey Byrne: 11:22

similar kind of thing. Yeah. It's a similar kind of thing. You can do it online. It's absolutely free. So at the end, I will give you the link so you can pop it in. wherever you pop all the info for all your listeners. Absolutely. It's a totally free test.

Mary Lee: 11:36

Okay. I

Lindsey Byrne: 11:37

would recommend that you do it when you're feeling really good, really sharp, best time of day for you when you're feeling great, so you've got a good baseline to compare to.

Mary Lee: 11:47

Good point.

Lindsey Byrne: 11:47

I get all my clients to do it right at the beginning of working with me and I get them to do it on the very best day when they're feeling so good so that over time as they, start to feel better themselves. But at the end of the whole process, they can do it again and put a number on it. And yeah, this test, it it gives you four numbers. Okay. And it gives you an overall score. A combination of all the three granular scores. But the three scores are memory, processing speed, so just how quickly you can respond, and executive function, which is being able to manage complex information and follow complex instructions, things like that. And it takes about 20 minutes, and when it gives you the results, it scores you out of 100. Where fifty is average compared to people your age and gender.

Mary Lee: 12:48

Fifty.

Lindsey Byrne: 12:50

Yeah, anywhere between 1 and 50 you can score, and 50 is average for your age and gender. So I really like that it compares you to people like you. It's not comparing you to the whole population. And like I say, I scored in the 90s for two of them. I'm 55 for executive function, which is a tiny bit above average.

Mary Lee: 13:13

Okay.

Lindsey Byrne: 13:14

But frankly I didn't like being compared to a bunch of women my age who were probably suffering me menopause symptoms, And brain fog and coming out average. So I thought average is not good enough for me. I want to be even better

Mary Lee: 13:32

Okay? So competitive people like myself be saying, okay, I'm gonna study real hard so I can score a hundred. Because

Lindsey Byrne: 13:43

You can't study because it's a memory test, right? So it does lots of things. It shows you shapes. And then later on shows the same shapes, but with extra shapes thrown in and you have to pick out which ones you've already seen. It does lots of little sort of memory trick. questions like that. And you can take it as often as you want, because you actually can't learn this stuff. So you can't learn to get better at the test. You can what you can do, of course, is you can affect your whole lifestyle. You can eat food that is better for the brain, you can do different types of exercise, you can deal with your stress and your sleep and your oral health and all the things that affect your brain health. And what you can do is you can do some brain training that helps your brain become much faster at solving tricky problems.

Mary Lee: 14:37

So now this is a perfect segue to talk about the protocol, the Bredesen protocol named after Dr. Dale Bredesen. That's right. Take it away. Let's hear all about this and how you are changing lives with your clients.

Lindsey Byrne: 14:54

Yes. Oh, where to start? The Bredesen protocol is a complete lifestyle change. upgrade to, give your brain all the nutrients and oxygen and hormones and exercise that it needs to function really well. Now, I'm a health coach, so I help people to implement all of the lifestyle changes. Because if you looked at it, like, as a whole, it might look like a lot of work and that can be a bit overwhelming. But if you take it one tiny step at a time, and you have somebody to support you, to help you prioritize and choose, maybe what will have the biggest effect for you, or maybe what will be easiest for you. If people are already feeling foggy. and maybe even a bit fatigued, you might want to do some little tiny steps, some quick wins to just start feeling a tiny bit better, to build your energy and focus, to be able to focus on more and more as you start to feel better. But along with that lifestyle change, and that might be enough for a lot of people, what you can also do, people who are really noticing some symptoms, people who perhaps have, parents who lived with dementia and perhaps feel like things are a little bit worse, you can talk to a doctor. I would work with the doctor as well. And that doctor trained in the same protocol, but from the medical end, will be able to do some tests to find out if there's any underlying issues, which might just be that maybe genetically you do not process certain vitamins well, or maybe your hormones are a bit disrupted and a little bit of hormone balancing would help. And they would just recommend supplements to help with any of that as well. Okay.

Mary Lee: 16:59

So this protocol It's you're working with them as a coach to encourage them through the steps. And we'll talk about the different key components, but always, obviously you have to advise or get the, seek the advice of your healthcare provider.

Lindsey Byrne: 17:16

Yeah.

Mary Lee: 17:17

Because as we know, any major lifestyle changes involving diet exercise only your doctor will understand the contraindications with certain medications you're on. Absolutely. Yeah. But so I wanted to put that out there because that's very key. That's very key to know that, but in terms of the steps and we've hear this often in, and such as working with a menopause doula as, I am, is that it's always good to have that coach there to keep you committed, if you will. and encourage you along the way. The accountability part is covered, but then that health care portion is very critical because, we don't diagnose coaches. We don't diagnose. We don't prescribe. However, we are very good at implementing the components of the to reach success. Your clients are reaching success. So let's talk about how it's done. Talk about those components and all part of the Bredesen protocol.

Lindsey Byrne: 18:20

Okay. As I say, I would always let clients choose their priorities. What order they want to work through all of the different lifestyle factors. But if they I'm not sure, or if, if diet is at all in the mix. I do like to start with diet if we can, because it is such a big cornerstone of the protocol. And it can have such a big impact. But I appreciate diet can be quite hard to change if you're already feeling foggy and fatigued. But if they're having to start with diet, we will. And the diet recommended by Dr. Bredesen is the KetoFlex 12 3 diet. Okay. So this is a ketogenic diet where we'll be cutting out sugar and a lot of the processed carbs, the starchiest carbs. But generally with people, I don't like to focus on what we're taking out, I like to focus on what we're adding. Love it. It's a lovely, healthy diet. Some of you listeners might have heard of a keto diet that didn't sound very healthy, like the Atkins style diet that was a lot of protein and a lot of lard and a lot of heavy cream. This is not like that. Very simply, if you think about your plate of food, If you can make at least half of your plate non starchy, colourful vegetables. And then a normal amount of protein. And then just add some really healthy fats like extra virgin olive oil or avocado or nuts or seeds. And if you just picture that, does sounds like a really healthy plateful, doesn't it? So it's about just making small steps towards that. And the way I like to work with clients around diet is to look at what they already eat right now, what are their favorite meals, what are their favorite recipes, and how we can just make some swaps. So that we can replace some things that might not be suitable on the keto diet with some things That are much more keto friendly, but they can still stick to the sort of main meals that they love.

Mary Lee: 20:36

Perfect So it sounds like to me Obviously diet is key. Yep, and that is, as you said, the cornerstone, the keto we're familiar with, but tell us what the 12 3 is. Yeah.

Lindsey Byrne: 20:52

So the 12 3 is all about fasting. So if you think about how we probably lived when we were cave people, when the sun went down we stopped eating and we didn't eat again until the sun came up. Now right now in the summer here in the UK that's quite a lot of hours, but in the winter that is a much shorter time frame. So the idea is to not eat for 12 hours, at least 12 hours overnight. Okay. And you can push that to 14 which is not as bad as it sounds. If you finish eating at 7pm and you don't have breakfast till 9am, that's 14 hours. It's not such a hardship. Very achievable. And then the three is stop eating three hours before bed so that your body's got time to digest and you're not still digesting while you're in bed and impairing your sleep and your body's repair processes.

Mary Lee: 21:47

See, that is so key, the the fasting or in some cases, the time restricted eating.

Lindsey Byrne: 21:54

Yes.

Mary Lee: 21:55

It's quite achievable. And trying to close that window to a period of time, say like an eight hour period of time or a 10 hour, depending on what you choose for that fasting timeframe. But that it's that key area before bed, before actually going to sleep for the night, because that is when you've had a nice, delicious meal and the desire to snack, even if it's one little morsel of chocolate and there's that desire to snack. And of course, that's sugary. Yeah. Is Are there strategies or first of all, do your clients struggle with that and are there strategies to overcome that so that eventually that three hour period doesn't seem like it's that daunting.

Lindsey Byrne: 22:43

To be fair, I don't think that's the thing that people struggle with. really the most. Some, clients just take to it you just tell them what they've got to do and they just take to it and just do it. But we're all different and some clients really struggle and it might take weeks to get into ketosis because they need to just focus on say breakfast first and just replacing that breakfast, especially if they've been eating for a long time. Very sugary, carby, cereal things and they're used to that for breakfast. So it can be quite a change. So that, that tends to be the thing that people struggle with the most, thinking about what's good for breakfast. But if you like eggs, I, love to make a frittata with lots of different vegetables. And then mix the eggs with it. A bit like an omelet, but a big fluffy omelet with the vegetables on the inside. That's a really nice breakfast or a green smoothie could be really good. There's lots of things that you can eat. It's just a case of, reframing your thinking about breakfast a bit.

Mary Lee: 23:50

And a lot of those foods that we get though for that we think are healthy smoothies, for example, they have a lot of hidden sugars if particularly if you're adding a supplement or a protein powder, for example, they have a lot of hidden sugars. Now, is that absolutely taboo on this protocol? So we need to be

Lindsey Byrne: 24:10

careful about hidden sugars, added sugars, because that's going to take a lot of ketosis. So if you were going to have a green smoothie, I would recommend a bunch of green vegetables. And you can have some fruit with it to make it taste a little bit nicer. Berries tend to be better. So a handful of berries, maybe some kefir or some live yogurt. And you can't, we do need to have a certain amount of protein, so you could put some protein powder in there. You just need to check that it's not got any horrible ultra processed ingredients in it. And it's not too sweet. So I think Dr. Bredesen recommends hemp. powder for a protein powder.

Mary Lee: 24:58

Okay.

Lindsey Byrne: 24:59

I'd have a look at pea powder as well. Pea protein powder, that might be okay.

Mary Lee: 25:04

In fact, that's one of my protein powders is the pea powder. And there's some sugars in there, but it's very low.

Lindsey Byrne: 25:12

Yeah, if it's very low and they're natural, they're not added sugars to make it taste nice. So then we're good.

Mary Lee: 25:18

What about things like natural sweeteners, such as stevia or honey, maple syrup?

Lindsey Byrne: 25:26

Stevia or monk fruit are the lowest. Sugar sweeteners, unfortunately, maple syrup or honey are really very sweet, very sugary. So we need to really minimize that. Now, the thing is about this diet, everyone is different and everyone can handle a different level of carbs, right? So if you are very mobile, if you're very active, you can probably handle more carbs. So what I tend to do with clients is I ask them to be really strict for a couple of weeks and then once they're in ketosis, then we start testing different foods to see if they can take them and stay in ketosis. And just to give you an example, throughout the pandemic, I was having a spoonful of manuka honey every day just for its immune boosting properties. And I was, So able to stay in ketosis even with a spoonful of Manuka honey every day. So it is doable. You might need to be strict to get into ketosis because as human beings we're intended to be able to work in ketosis. We evolved to be able to do it. And as cave people we might spend all summer eating loads of fruit. To raise our insulin levels in order to put on weight to store fat so that all winter we can use our own fat and ketones as a fuel source. So we used to be metabolically flexible. Today, nobody ever gets away from carbs and sugar. So we put weight on all year in year out for the winter that never comes. Yeah. Yeah, people might need to be really quite strict to get into ketosis, but then once you're in, the longer you're in ketosis, flexible you will be. And you can probably manage more carbs and come in and out of ketosis quite well. In fact, That is what the flex in KetoFlex12 3 stands for. It means you don't have to be in chronic ketosis all the time. You just need to make some ketones every day so you can come in and out.

Mary Lee: 27:39

Okay, so how do we know that we're in ketosis?

Lindsey Byrne: 27:44

There's quite a few ways of testing. For me, because I'm just on prevention, I just use urine strips. You can buy really cheaply for about five or six dollars. That's it. Some keto sticks. That, that are just a urine testing strip. And it will just tell you if you're in ketosis. They're not very accurate. If it changes colour, you're in ketosis. If it doesn't, you're not, but you can't rely on the color chart. It's not that accurate. It's just the case of, yeah, I'm in ketosis. We're good. But if you are worried and you really want to do the RICO protocol very thoroughly. And you want to know that you are in ketosis properly and you're making enough ketones. So if you were definitely noticing some, brain health and memory symptoms. Significant ones. Then you can test with either a breath meter or a blood meter. A blood meter is just like a finger prick test. Okay. And the breath meter, obviously, you just blow into.

Mary Lee: 28:50

The, ketones that we would produce when we're in ketosis is valuable for brain health. How does that work?

Lindsey Byrne: 28:59

Our brains, as I mentioned before, all summer work, should work on glucose. Okay.

Mary Lee: 29:05

Great.

Lindsey Byrne: 29:05

But then once all the fruit has gone, in the winter our brains work on ketones. Okay. And what I've actually discovered through testing is that, our brains as we age, all of us, Not just people who go on to develop dementia, but as we age, our brains get less able to use glucose as a fuel source. Isn't that interesting. And and you know like older people, like a lot of older people start craving sugary things, don't they? Yes. That's their brain crying out for some fuel. But the brain can't use it very well. So just

Mary Lee: 29:42

Send me more. Exactly. Okay.

Lindsey Byrne: 29:46

But our brains never get worse at using ketones for fuel. They, and in fact, the trials that they've done, they actually just supplement people on a normal diet with external exogenous ketones from outside the body. And they can see that the brain uses the ketones first, it prioritizes the ketones, and then only turns to sugar when it's out of ketones. Interesting.

Mary Lee: 30:16

So is there any contrary, before we move on to any more of the protocols, because there's several more, is there any contraindications for menopausal women to be on a ketogenic, diet? No, I can't even say it. A ketogenic diet because I have, actually seen some information and I've written a blog about that to be cautious because the ketogenic diet was originally structured for men with cardiovascular issues and obesity, and it was never tested on women. Now I understand that it's a flex. ketogenic diet. But is there any concerns for menopausal women to be aware of There

Lindsey Byrne: 30:57

are a few things there are a few things that

Mary Lee: 30:59

we just need to be aware of.

Lindsey Byrne: 31:01

Actually, the original ketogenic diet was designed for epileptics. And this was back in the late 1800s, early 19 to the 1920s. This is correct. Yes, it's a really good brain health diet. But yes, you're right. It was popularized for men with cardiovascular problems. So I would tend to just watch my clients very carefully and make sure that they're not losing weight if they don't need to lose weight, that they're getting enough protein because we need enough protein in the menopause.

Mary Lee: 31:40

Absolutely.

Lindsey Byrne: 31:42

And that I, just keep my eye on them. Okay. In fact, I have, but I've only had an issue with the keto diet with one client ever, and that was a man. Okay. And the, real problem seems to be if you have some issues with mold toxicity. So one of the causes of cognitive decline can be toxins. And this gentleman I was working with did not react well to the keto diet and did not react well to MCT oil, which is an extract of coconut that helps you with the keto diet, helps your body make the ketones. He didn't react well to either of those. But on later testing, we discovered that his root cause was mould he'd been exposed to mould, and that was the cause of his cognitive issues. That's the only person I know of who didn't react well. And that is not the keto diet is not the diet that's necessarily recommended by Shoemaker. Doctors, she make a protocol, doctors, which is for

Mary Lee: 32:59

mold toxicity. Interesting. And of course, when you live in a damp client, such as in the UK, many parts of the UK here on Vancouver Island, we have dampness all the time, mold, window sills, yeah, exactly. And it can

Lindsey Byrne: 33:17

be so toxic for us. So

Mary Lee: 33:19

it can cause problems. Interesting. So testing for that would just be regular food allergy testing, I guess, or the beta testing.

Lindsey Byrne: 33:28

There's a, there are a few different tests for maltoxicity. I wouldn't leap to that unless we knew people were living in water damaged homes and they have very specific. Symptoms that kind of made you think, ah, this is not the norm. This is something else. So there are some simple tests you can do first. There's a visual contrast test that can tell you if, If toxicity might be an issue. It won't tell you which toxin but it's a starting point because it only costs 15. So it's a good starting point before we leap into testing the house for mold, spores and all sorts.

Mary Lee: 34:11

So we spent a lot of time on the diet portion of the protocol. What are some of the other protocols?

Lindsey Byrne: 34:17

So of course exercise is really important. And this is, an area that I slipped into saying exercise there when I normally say movement. And this is, cause this is an area that clients can really struggle with. If you say exercise to some people, me included, we instantly think, Oh, P. E. at school that we hated or we think of the gym, which we find boring. If you love the gym, by the way, any of the listeners who love the gym, that's great. Go for it. Me not, so much. So I like to work with clients to find things that they find enjoyable. Like in their past, they might've enjoyed swimming or dancing or whatever it may be. Let's find something that they used to enjoy and bring that back. Even if it's a. smaller scale.

Mary Lee: 35:07

That's lovely.

Lindsey Byrne: 35:09

Anything we do movement wise moves blood around the body, which brings oxygen and nutrients to the brain, but it also builds muscle. If we can build some muscle, I, genuinely cannot find the the causal effect here, but there's a lot of correlation in the tests showing that people with more muscle mass have more brain mass.

Mary Lee: 35:34

Fantastic. Well I'm going to take my best guess from all the research that I've done courses. We build muscle. The muscle is using that fuel, the readily available fuel glucose in the body to burn it, to sustain muscle mass. And of course, more muscle, we just uses up more. fats in the body stored fats in the body. So I'm thinking, based on what I just learned, as we age, our glucose source is not as efficient for the brain. So I'm thinking as we have more muscle, that glucose is being used maybe efficiently for the muscle so the brain can get on with the business of. optimizing its function.

Lindsey Byrne: 36:18

But that's very true. Because sugar, it's not just that our brain is less able to use sugar as a fuel source. It's also that sugar is really quite inflammatory. So if you're taking in more sugar than your muscles use, and it's just cruising around your body and spiking your insulin, then we're also creating inflammation throughout the body, which. It's going to also lead to inflammation in the brain. So yeah, the more muscle we have, the more it's using the sugar then, and that sugar is not rushing around the body, creating inflammation as well.

Mary Lee: 36:52

But it's interesting because I know about your clients, but certainly for me, as I've, and I've always been keen on fitness as I build muscle and my maintain muscle, my desire to have something sugary. Dissipates quite quickly because I now see the correlation between the need to up my proteins and I work so hard to get these these guns of steel. I want to nurture them with something that's good. And instead of just that five hours at the gym is just shot with one sugary. Drink at Starbucks. Yeah.

Lindsey Byrne: 37:26

Yeah, exactly.

Mary Lee: 37:29

But I love that you say it is a movement because the exercise is very daunting. And I try to use that terminology too. When I say my four pillars of good health is, nutrition, movement, sleep management, and stress reduction. And those are two protocols we haven't talked about. That is in your protocol, the Bredson protocol.

Lindsey Byrne: 37:50

Yeah.

Mary Lee: 37:50

Sleep and stress. Let's talk about that. So critical, particularly in your menopause journey.

Lindsey Byrne: 37:56

Oh, and do you know, sleep is such a tough one, isn't it? Because if you're not sleeping well, you already don't feel good. And then someone telling you how important sleep is just piles on the pressure. Yes. And you're lying there at three o'clock in the morning thinking I need my sleep, I need to get to sleep, I've only got three hours left. None of this dress building is good for your sleep either. So yeah sleep is really important. And anybody who is experiencing any form of insomnia, I know how tough that is and you've probably tried everything and I bet, everyone around you has told you tips and tricks and techniques and ideas and you've tried them all and now you're really frustrated because none of them have worked. And I am going to say, try them again but try them all at the same time or try lots of them at the same time because you might have tried one thing, it might not have been enough. to tip you over into sleep. But all the things we know about, don't go on your blue screens before bed. Have the room really dark and quite cool. Get yourself really warm before bed because as we go to sleep, our temperature, our body temperature drops. So if you get really warm before bed, you get in bed. It's nice and cool. Your body temperature drops and it, Hits your brain into thinking it's time for sleep. What else? Magnesium is really good. So if you wanted an Epsom salt bath, that kills two birds with one, well three birds because you're getting relaxed, you're getting some magnesium in you and you're getting really warm. Love it. Oh so many, tips and techniques aren't there for getting sleep. So try a few all together. Yeah. And then what I would say is, If you've genuinely tried everything and nothing works for you, if this has been going on for more than three months, our brains can get into a state where it's almost like reset itself, thinking that is the amount of sleep that you have. If you have ever slept well in your life, your brain does know what to do, your body knows what to do, you can get back to that. So the there's a, an option to try some Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia, CBT I, which has good results. As a last resort, try all the free stuff first, but as a last resort, you might go down that road.

Mary Lee: 40:30

That is fantastic. I've been, preaching this in several of my blog posts and mentioned it in a few of my podcasts is the cognitive behavior therapy and then the CBTI. Definitely. See,

Lindsey Byrne: 40:46

It's, no accident that our protocols are so similar because you're helping people with menopause, who may well have some brain fog. And what is good for your body anyway is good for the brain. And I'm helping people with brain health, but it's all the same. It's all the same things. There's no accident that these protocols are very similar. And something you just mentioned there about stress. If we are stressed, then we are using up all our capacity to make hormones. on adrenaline and cortisol, the stress hormones, which are inflammatory in and of themselves. But also, as we go through menopause, I've seen perimenopause, the the oestrogen and the progesterone are up and down all over the place and a bit wobbly and they give us lots of symptoms. But even after menopause, our ovaries continue making some small amount of all the hormones that we need, that we normally think of as sex hormones, but actually they're really important for the brain. Your brain has a lot of oestrogen receptors in it. Now, if you're using up all of your hormone making capacity on cortisol for stress, You're not going to have enough left over for all the important things that oestrogen does after menopause for our brain and other organs in our body. It's true. And that's

Mary Lee: 42:11

really important as well. It's, I'm really glad you said that about the brain having so many S receptors for estrogen and information is coming out like still regularly, within the last year and probably still each week as we're understanding that menopause is more of the brain health phenomenon. Again, this is something that I learned from Dr. Fiona Lovely on with her podcast. And then I took her workshop on brain health. Again, I was triggered by my own cognitive impairment from menopause. What is happening to me? I don't even feel like myself anymore. And it sent me down this rabbit hole of discovering all this information that's still coming out. It's fascinating. And it's also, it's a good, it's a great indication that we're moving the yardstick towards better understanding women's health, menopause health, but women's health and then the brain health in general for both men and women. So I'm really happy that you had said that, but when I want to just touch on that a little bit more about the, brain having lots of receptors for estrogen, is that true for men as well? Yes. Okay. Yeah.

Lindsey Byrne: 43:25

So men have a different experience from us. Because men create oestrogen as well, but it is obviously at a lower level. But when boys go through that growth spurt, That is oestrogen fuelled. When they're growing up, hitting puberty, they go through a growth spurt, they get very spotty. That is oestrogen doing its work. But they continue, apart from that little spurt, they continue making oestrogen their entire lives. Because we all need, even ladies, postmenopausal ladies, make and need a little oestrogen. That helps our brain health, but lots of other organs in the body as well.

Mary Lee: 44:09

Wow. I'm learning so much. Who knows, huh? Well, we always just assume it's testosterone, but then we're also understanding the role that testosterone plays in women.

Lindsey Byrne: 44:18

Exactly, we make testosterone, not as much, obviously, as men, but we make testosterone. We need, we all need all of these hormones, it's just they have testosterone. And they have a similar amount of testosterone all their lives. It might come down very slowly as they age. And we have this Massive jump off the

Mary Lee: 44:38

cliff.

Lindsey Byrne: 44:38

Yeah. Wee! We're gone. So they don't go through quite such a change as us. But that change is not good for brain health. And all your listeners who've experienced any brain fog know that. Yes. And without wanting to frighten anyone, there is a good reason why twice as many women get Alzheimer's as do men. For all your listeners who are here looking after themselves, wanting to help themselves through menopause, if this is any added motivation at all look after your brain health now, and that will stand you in really good stead for the future as well. A double whammy, two good reasons why they need to be listening to all your podcasts and taking all your advice.

Mary Lee: 45:22

Well, I immediately thought that When you were mentioning that there's another substance that we tend to take in our whole lives, and it wreaks havoc on us as we get older. And of course, it would definitely not fit into the KetoFlex 12 and 3. And that is alcohol. Oh, yes. Of course, lots of hidden sugars, but alcohol alone if we could just eliminate that, we would probably achieve so much.

Lindsey Byrne: 45:52

That's a tough one for a lot of people, isn't it? And especially if you are stressed if you are going to work stressed all day, you come home and what do you want you, want a one wind with a glass of wine. And so I fully understand it. And there are sugars in it, which is not good. And it is not good for your brain health. in its own right it's not good for our neurons, and we know this, but actually what it also does, it is an endocrine disruptor, it will attach itself to your hormone receptors, your oestrogen receptors, and so even if you are making some oestrogen, it might not hit the receptors. And alcohol is not the only endocrine disruptor. The stuff they put in our food, preservatives, and the stuff they spray on our food and pesticides and chemical fertilizers, a lot of those are endocrine disruptors as well. Entirely not through our own fault, we might be taking all manner of toxins in. That are messing with us and messing with our ability to use the oestrogen that we are

Mary Lee: 47:06

making. And then we have the xenoestrogens that are hidden in almost every product, from plastics to glues, even in our furniture, our rugs. There are certain things that we just can't get around, but doing the best we can with what we have available, such as the protocols that you talked about, our nutrition, our movement and sleep. Stress management.

Lindsey Byrne: 47:34

You're absolutely right. We can't, get away from all the toxins. But if we can minimise what we have in our own home and what processed foods we eat, make sure we're not getting, horrible ultra processed foods with unpronounceable ingredients in. If we can minimize it as much as we can, as much as we can't get away from everything, we're putting ourselves in a much better position. Our bodies and our brains are incredibly resilient and they can work around a lot of minor problems. It only becomes a problem when For us when the toxic load is just too much. So I don't want people to feel like, Oh, this is too much. I can't get away from every possible toxin. I think if you do the best you can with your movement and your nutrition and all the things that we've talked about and try to minimize the toxins that you come across in your own home, and even if you're out and about, if you can, if you're walking down. Heavy traffic streets. Can you, take a backstreet, try and minimize it as much as you can and your body is going to be in a much better position to deal with the much smaller quantities of toxins that is

Mary Lee: 48:57

coming across. Beautiful. So this is great advice and we could talk. At great length, I'm sure in any one of those articles. But I think what's even more important as if my listeners, your clients can have this information ready, available to them in the future, because we're actually recording this before July 4th, but by the time this episode airs. There will be something on a bookshelf near you. So Lindsay, take it away. Tell us all about your book that's coming out.

Lindsey Byrne: 49:34

Yeah. Thank you. So my book is called, what did I come in here for again? How I improved my brain health and memory with the Bredesen protocol. Excellent. And, it's my story and a little bit of my mum's story as well. And there were a few case studies in there from some clients as well. But it's really, what did I do? How did I actually apply the protocol to myself? And what's, what are some of the difficulties I came up against? And how did I work around some of those? So it's pretty much. my story. But there are lots of places in the book to stop and reflect how you might deal with some of the same issues. And at the back of the book, there's lots of coaching templates to work through to help you apply it

Mary Lee: 50:30

all on your own. Fantastic. Fantastic. It's like having coach Lindsay in your back pocket by just opening up the book. So we will have the link to where you can find, purchase this book in the show notes. Again, by the time we air, it'll be after the book is out. That is wonderful. How long did it take you though, Lindsay, to write the book?

Lindsey Byrne: 50:54

Well, it took about a year, but it wasn't a consistent year. I probably went at it really quickly. strongly for the first three months and then I had probably about six months of, oh this is never gonna happen. And then I and it was like, it was really about how was I going to get around publishing it was what stalled me. I talked to so many people to try and help me publish it. And I got in a bit of overwhelm over it. And then the final three months I really knuckled under and I got it, finished.

Mary Lee: 51:31

Wonderful. Congratulations for preparing first of all. And again, going back to the whole brain health thing, the brain's function is to keep us safe. And so it'll find any angle to talk us out of doing something. Yes. Don't do that. It's just going to put us into too much stress. Don't know, but down the pen. Yeah, exactly. We literally have to override that chatter, which again, that is a topic into itself. It's a negative self talk, which is just chewing away at a brain health, honestly. And that is some of the things that steps that I've been doing is a lot of meditation and positive affirmation, right? To override that negative talk, because that I've seen the correlation between that negative talk.

Lindsey Byrne: 52:14

Yeah.

Mary Lee: 52:15

And my brain health, my cognitive function actually improves after a day of gratitude and affirmation.

Lindsey Byrne: 52:22

Yeah,

Mary Lee: 52:22

but again, we could talk the, all of these protocols at great length. But now our listeners don't have to, they can get your book. I would love to bring you back though, a few months after that book has hit the streets to get some of the feedback on how successful it's been so far. This has been a tremendous conversation. Again, it is one that really resonates with me and it hits home. It has impacted my life so much to the point where I had to just wave the white flag and say, I'm just not in a position to work anymore. And it's such a

Lindsey Byrne: 53:00

brave step, but so good for you noticing what you need and making that step.

Mary Lee: 53:09

I just, I was looking long term and seeing the future and wanting to see myself capable of doing some other things, so many things physically, I feel capable and able to accomplish many things moving forward. But it was the brain. I wanted to have my cognitive function fully intact, well into my 70s, 80s, 90s, wherever it might land. It'll be a centennial. That would be wonderful. Yeah. So you have just reinforced some of these positive messages about taking care of our brain. And I'm sure a lot of our listeners are going to really soak this up. This is critical information. And Lindsay, all UK. Thank you for your time, your energy. Your expertise, your brain brilliance, and sharing your journey, just knowing that sometimes that, those pain points that we go through are for a reason. And your reason has brought so much help and hope for so many clients and now my listeners. So thank you.

Lindsey Byrne: 54:14

Oh, no, thank you. I've really enjoyed it. It's been such a fun conversation. And thank you for letting me talk to your listeners.

Mary Lee: 54:23

Absolutely. Pretty fascinating when you dive into the health of the brain and just learning about how complex it can be. You know, the statistics show that we are at high risk of Alzheimer's and dementia and when we lose estrogen receptors in the brain because of the estrogen egress, well, we're not setting ourselves up for success for having a healthy brain, unless of course Transcribed we institute some protocols. And in this episode, we unpacked what the Bredesen protocol is all about. which emphasizes lifestyle changes for brain support. at the cornerstone of that protocol is diet, an anti inflammatory diet that is, low in sugar and low in processed foods. But what I found quite interesting as another key takeaway is the KetoFlex 12 and 3 diet and fasting. Now, I have written a blog post about the keto diet being not very safe for menopausal women for a number of reasons, because it was designed, as Lindsay pointed out, for, men suffering from epileptic seizures, and of course it became the diet for men combating cardiovascular health. But a keto flex, which is taking the principles of the keto diet, adding some flexibility which means adding, important carbohydrates. the keto flex diet, it is not a diet that is overly restrictive of carbs. Carbs are important. Fuel such as glucose, the brain doesn't process as well as we age. it's the ketones that the brain needs. I didn't also know about the 12 3 principle is that 12 hour overnight fast and the three hour gap before bed. I do know about the time restricted eating and not eating before bed. But that three hour principle that's pretty critical. Letting the pancreas, letting the digestive system take a break so it's not working hard during optimal sleep hours which can impact our sleep. I've heard often and it bears repeating a low sugar diet, particularly when it comes to those breakfast options, for menopausal women who have not had a good night's sleep and we just feel so sluggish in the morning. Carbs seems to be something that we reach for. Switch it up. Green smoothie, frittatas, eating proteins first thing in the morning. Great for our health. for our brain health but be very careful of the protein powders. Make sure that it's a good sourced protein and not high in hidden sugars. Also, interesting as a takeaway is The significance about enjoying activities that encourage movement and building muscle, but don't sound like exercise. Going to the gym, if that feels daunting, don't do it. Do something that fuels the body, feels good in the body, and it's also optimal for our health in building muscle and addressing bone loss as we age. Do check it out. Lindsay's website and her links to YouTube and LinkedIn. It's all in the show notes. I like to talk about a book with my guests. This time we didn't ask Lindsay what she was reading. We talked about what's coming up. And that is her book, I can't wait to get my hands on a copy myself. What did I come here for again? How I improved my brain health and memory with a Bredesen protocol. It's an insightful book full of her personal experience, case studies, and coaching templates that you can implement into your lifestyle right away for improving your brain health. Thank you for tuning in to another insightful episode of All Things Menopausal. If you enjoyed today's episode and want to stay connected, be sure to follow me on Instagram for tips and updates. And if you found value in today's episode, please consider leaving a review on Apple podcasts. Your feedback helps reach more women who can benefit from these conversations. until next time stay empowered, stay informed and embrace the beauty of your menopausal journey. Remember midlife should be the best life and it will be. Namaste.