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Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, Welcome to another edition of Wisdom Wednesdays. So

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Speaker 1: you know, if you've listened to this podcast for a while,

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Speaker 1: that I am a big fan of enhancing cognitive function

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Speaker 1: and particularly of trying to stay of off cognitive impairment.

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Speaker 1: So we know that cognitive imperiment is associated with aging

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Speaker 1: in otherwise healthy individuals, and it is a major public

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Speaker 1: health concern. And we know that our cognition tends to

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Speaker 1: decline considerably as we go into old age, and we

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Speaker 1: start to experience drop offs in cognitive functions such as memory, attention, language,

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Speaker 1: and certain executive functions that are essential for our day

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Speaker 1: to day activities. And we actually know from research that

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Speaker 1: this decline, rather shockingly if you're by age, starts gradually

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Speaker 1: in your late twenties and then it just accelerates, which

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Speaker 1: is not great news. Hence, there has been a booming

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Speaker 1: industry in what's known as neotropics or cognitive enhancers. So

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Speaker 1: they are certain molecules, formulations, or substances that are designed

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Speaker 1: to improve cognitive performance in both elderly individuals and people

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Speaker 1: who are just experiencing that drop off or want to

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Speaker 1: boost their cognitive function. Now, there's many, many stories of

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Speaker 1: students using ADHD medications such as Rittlin to boost their

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Speaker 1: attention and put all nightters, and that's certainly not something

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Speaker 1: that is recommended. People also talk about microdosing with LSD

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Speaker 1: and stuff like that, which is probably not the greatest idea.

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Speaker 1: But there are a number of herbal medicines and other

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Speaker 1: substances that are purported to act as neutropics, and we

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Speaker 1: know that some herbal products that have been extensively used

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Speaker 1: in traditional medicine are increasingly being used as a source

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Speaker 1: of not tropics to promote these cognitive functions and alleviate

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Speaker 1: some of the symptoms of memory loss and even of

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Speaker 1: depression as well. And we know that certain bioactive plant

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Speaker 1: extracts can provide support against oxieative stress in the brain

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Speaker 1: as well as improving vascular function and cognitive performance, including

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Speaker 1: learning and memory. So what I want to do today

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Speaker 1: is talk about a recent research study that looked at

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Speaker 1: the effect of something called bacopa monary extract on memory

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Speaker 1: and cognitive skills in adult humans. And this was a randomized,

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Speaker 1: double planned, placebo controlled study, which if you listen to

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Speaker 1: my podcast you know is a very good design. So

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Speaker 1: people are randomized into two groups. It's double blinded. That

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Speaker 1: means that the researchers don't know who's getting what, and

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Speaker 1: the people don't know if they're getting a placebo or

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Speaker 1: the intervention one. And as I say, one of the

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Speaker 1: groups has a placebo. So this is a really well

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Speaker 1: designed study. And so this extract, but this banco, this

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Speaker 1: Bacapo minari extract, which is known as brillant tonic in

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Speaker 1: traditional medicine. It's actually a perennial creeper that is found

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Speaker 1: in damp and marshy wetlands and has actually been used

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Speaker 1: to promote memory and learning as well as reduce anxiety

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Speaker 1: and stress in alternative medicine. And there's a bunch of

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Speaker 1: bioactive compounds that are purported to improve cognitive function. There's

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Speaker 1: actually previous research and done on animal studies showing that

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Speaker 1: it has cognition enhancing effects. And they've also done some

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Speaker 1: other studies that have demonstrated that this actra extract can

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Speaker 1: actually reduce oxidative stress. But this study, as I said,

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Speaker 1: it was a randomized, platribile controlled study to evaluate the effect

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Speaker 1: of the extract on memory and cognition skills as well

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Speaker 1: as stress, anxiety, and sleep. And it used a comprehensive

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Speaker 1: software bas twol to assess cognitive function, then the lack

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Speaker 1: of a very similar one that I'm using in my

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Speaker 1: PhD study, and then did some validated questionnaers and in

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Speaker 1: biomarkers to assess the other things. So they had eight

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Speaker 1: healthy subjects and forty per each group, one in the

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Speaker 1: placebo group and one in the intervention group. And as

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Speaker 1: I said, it was a randomized, double blind, placebo controlled study,

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Speaker 1: and the subjects consumed either are three hundred grams of

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Speaker 1: the Bakopo minari extract and that contained nineteen milligrams of

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Speaker 1: the active ingredients in it. And they took this either

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Speaker 1: that or the placebo every morning after breakfast for twelve weeks.

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Speaker 1: And then they did baseline testing, and then they did

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Speaker 1: testing again on day twenty eighth, day fifty six, and

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Speaker 1: day eighty four of memory and cognitive functions. And they

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Speaker 1: also assess their anxiety and sleep quality by using something

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Speaker 1: called the Beck Anxiety Inventory, which is a pretty standard

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Speaker 1: questionner around anxiety. And then they did the Pittsburgh Sleep

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Speaker 1: Quality Index, which is the most well used questionner for

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Speaker 1: research to assess people's sleep. And then they also really

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Speaker 1: interestingly study, they actually sampled their BDNF brain derived neurotropic factor,

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Speaker 1: which you've probably heard we talk about before, which is

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Speaker 1: a known compound that triggers the release of new brain cells,

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Speaker 1: helps protect new our young brain sales against damage, and

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Speaker 1: actually improves so a lot of people think are responsible

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Speaker 1: for improving things like cognition and certainly for protecting brain

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Speaker 1: cells and creating new brain cells and new connections. So

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Speaker 1: they analyzed their BDNF at bas sign on day eighty four,

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Speaker 1: and then they did their cortisol at baseline and day

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Speaker 1: fifty six and day eighty four, and they took that

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Speaker 1: from their blood, both of those things, and then they

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Speaker 1: assess their safety as you would normally do in one

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Speaker 1: of those things. So what happened was thirty six subjects

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Speaker 1: from the pasebo group and thirty eight from the intervention

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Speaker 1: group completed the study, So there was a few dropouts,

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Speaker 1: as you'd normally expect in any study, and then in

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Speaker 1: terms of the results of those the intervention group showed

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Speaker 1: significant improvements on both memory. In terms of memory, they

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Speaker 1: looked at verbal short term memory, spatial short term memory

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Speaker 1: working memory, and visuospatial working memory. And episodic memory, so

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Speaker 1: this is a really comprehensive test of memory. So they

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Speaker 1: improved on all of those, and they had significant improvements

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Speaker 1: in the cognition skills excuse me of concentration, alertness, reasoning,

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Speaker 1: and mental flexibility. And these improvements were over the place

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Speaker 1: placebo group from baseline to day eighty four, and they

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Speaker 1: actually showed they had effects on cognitive skills as early

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Speaker 1: as day fourteen and day twenty eight for memory, and

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Speaker 1: then furthermore, a significant short term or acute effect on

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Speaker 1: concentration was observed as early as three hours and post

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Speaker 1: a single doults. So what this showed is that this

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Speaker 1: stuff could be things straight away. And what they found

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Speaker 1: was their anxiety score and their sleep quality were significantly

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Speaker 1: improved for the intervention group on days twenty eight, fifty six,

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Speaker 1: and day eighty four compared to the placebo, and their

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Speaker 1: serum court or their blood cortisol levels were significantly reduced

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Speaker 1: from baseline to day fifty six and day eighty four,

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Speaker 1: and BDNF was significantly increased on day eighty four for

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Speaker 1: the intervention group compared to the placebo. What they didn't

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Speaker 1: find any significant differences for were for sustained attention and

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Speaker 1: the planning tasks that they did for cognition. But I'll

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Speaker 1: tell you what, that is a pretty impressive list of

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Speaker 1: improvements over the period. And I'm especially impressed by the

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Speaker 1: reductions in cortisol and BDNF. And I'm really glad that

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Speaker 1: the researchers did this, so that kind of gives us

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Speaker 1: a hint at some of them. Mechanisms by which can

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Speaker 1: prove cognitive function is by reducing stress and up regulating BDNF.

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Speaker 1: So the beautiful thing about this study was not only

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Speaker 1: was it a well designed study and that showed significant effects,

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Speaker 1: but it also gave us a clue as to how

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Speaker 1: it was actually happening. So there's not many studies that

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Speaker 1: spur me into action straight away, but after reading this study,

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Speaker 1: I have jumped online and ordered myself some back couple

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Speaker 1: Monari extract to improve my cognitive function. That's it for

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Speaker 1: this week, folks. Hopefully it will be a sharper me

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Speaker 1: for future wisdom wednesdays. Catch you next time.