Ayurvedic medical traditions going back over 5000 years have a lot to say about approaches to preventing memory loss that have many fascinating similarities to the latest thinking about Alzheimer’s disease prevention.
Today we are joined by by someone who is not only an expert in the latest neuroscience and biochemistry of Alzheimer’s disease but is also an expert in Ayurveda.
Dr. Rammohan Rao is Principal Research Scientist at Apollo Health. He has a Ph.D. in neuroscience and biochemistry and has worked closely with Dr. Dale Bredesen at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging where he was an Associate Professor of Neuroscience focusing in the areas of chronic stress, neuronal cell death, and mechanisms of age-associated neurodegenerative diseases with special emphasis on Alzheimer’s disease.
Dr. Rao has over twenty-five years of research and teaching experience in neuroscience and has published more than 50 peer-reviewed papers in scientific journals and chapters in several textbooks. He is also a National Ayurveda Medical Association (NAMA) board-certified Ayurveda Practitioner and a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT-200) from Yoga Alliance USA and teaches Ayurveda and Yoga at the California College of Ayurveda.
Take home points:
-Ayurveda- Science of Life
-Network approach to disease rather than targeted drug approach
-Diet, herbs, aroma, lifestyle, yoga, meditation
-Mind and digestive system two main components
-Prevention strategies for memory loss
-AHARA- healthy diet- 12 hour overnight fast, no between meal snacks
-JATHARAGNI-Digestive fire
-NIDRA- sleep
-PANCHAKARMA- detoxification, purification, rejuvenation
-ABHYANGA-oil herb massage
-Herbs- Ashwagandha, Turmeric/Curcumin, gotu kola
-Brain exercises
-ACHARA-routines
https://www.ayushliving.com/united-states/concord/practitioners/dr-rammohan-rao
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Robert Lufkin 0:01
Welcome to the health longevity secrets show and I’m Dr. Robert Lufkin. Are you Vedic medical traditions going back over 5000 years have a lot to say about approaches to preventing memory loss that have many fascinating similarities to the latest thinking about Alzheimer’s disease prevention. Today we are joined by someone who is not only an expert in the latest neuroscience and biochemistry of Alzheimer’s disease, but is also an expert in ru VEDA. Dr. Rama Han mile is principal research scientist at Apollo health. He has a PhD in neuroscience and biochemistry and has worked closely with Dr. Dale Bredesen at the buck Institute for Research on aging, where he was an associate professor of neuroscience, focusing in the areas of chronic stress, neuronal cell death, and mechanisms of age associated neurodegenerative diseases with special emphasis on Alzheimers disease. Dr. Rao has over 25 years of research and teaching experience in neuroscience and has published more than 50 peer reviewed papers in scientific journals and chapters in several textbooks. He is also a national army Aveda Medical Association Board Certified ru VEDA practitioner and a registered yoga teacher from yoga Alliance USA. He teaches ru VEDA and yoga at the California College of ru VEDA. Now, please enjoy this presentation by Dr. Rom Rao.
Rammohan Rao 1:33
Hello, everybody. My name is Rob. I’d like to begin by thanking doctors Robert Lufkin, Stephen cedras, and all of the team members for organizing this ultimate prevention 2021 conference. As part of the evidence based prevention of Alzheimer’s disease breakout session, it’s my pleasure to talk about Ayurvedic influences on modern Alzheimer’s prevention. So altemus disease is a progressive age associated neuro degenerative disease. 5 million Americans have this condition, and nearly 360,000 new cases of Alzheimer’s is diagnosed annually in this country. But these values are not true, they are under represented since a lot of people fail to receive diagnosis until it is too late. The disease is characterized by degeneration in the hippocampal region, the cortex and subcortical structures as shown in this cartoon. Now if you compare the structure on the left, to the structure on the right, you will notice that there are a lot of changes in specific areas of the brain. As the disease progresses, there is significant structural and functional loss in these brain areas. The most prominent feature of the disease is memory loss and a decline in other executive functions, which affects day to day tasks. The disease was first described in 19 01. nearly a century later, we still do not have a proper cure on our properties treatment for this condition. In the last 35 years alone, nearly 500 drugs went into clinical trials. And the FDA has approved just two drugs, which are effective only when the patient comes very early on the disease. They’re very difficult and expensive process of drug discovery has resulted in losses of billions of dollars, prompting the need to revisit the entire process of drug discovery. The very difficult and expensive process of the drug discovery is complicated by other facts. Number one, the exact cause or causes of the disease is or are unclear. Mutations account for only one to 5% of cases. The disease manifests very early on but may go unnoticed. The disease itself exacerbates with other changes. It’s a very, it’s a very complex, multifactorial with too many variables like genetics, diet, lifestyle and environment. So prevention of prevention strategies are needed at this point. Now the genetic and biochemical research work reported by us and others have now revealed an extensive network of molecular interactions involved in ultimus pathologic pathogenesis, suggesting that a network based therapeutics approach rather than a single target based approach may be feasible and potentially more effective for the treatment of cognitive decline due to Alzheimer’s. Have preventative strategies needed to increase, enhance, improve or optimize all the parameters on the left side of the table. Because in Alzheimer’s, these parameters on the left side of the table are subnormal are downregulated. preventive strategies are also needed to increase to decrease or reduce all the parameters on the right side of the table. Because enormous all these parameters on the right side of the table are abnormally high, so they need to be reduced. So the question is, what are the strategies? My colleagues from Apollo Health, Dr. Dale Bredesen and Julie Gregory have clearly mentioned the strategies that we use at Apollo health, namely the pre code and the record programs. I will take a slight detour and speak about Ayurvedic preventive strategies for Alzheimer’s.
Ayurvedic medicine, also called Ayurveda, is a comprehensive medical system that began in India and the Indian subcontinent. And as evolved over 1000s of years. I weather has long been the main healthcare system. Although allopathic or modern medicine is more common now, especially in urban areas. I with a means the science of life. And I will treat a human being as a combination of body, mind and emotions that is physical, mental or psychological, and emotional aspects and aims to integrate and balance these three aspects to help prevent illness and promote wellness. This medicinal system employed scientific methodologies to treat not just the symptoms alone, but the root cause as well. This medical system involved both a reduction and Tony ification therapies through a combination of diet, Herbes lifestyle changes, colors, aromas, yoga and meditation. I whether considered the mind, which in this talk I’ll refer at the subtle aspects are the functional aspect of the brain. So considered the mind or the brain and the digestive system, as the two main rules of individuality either insisted or addressing the brain, both the mental and the emotional aspects and the dicer system to sustain optimal health and wellness. I will considers each individual as a unique person. And treatment is always based on an individual’s constitution. diseases as well are subtype so based on the individual’s constitution, and based on the disease subtype, both prevention and treatment strategies are recommended. Now in the next few slides, I’ll present preventive strategies recommended by a reader for memory and cognition. When I talk about the main about the mind, I’ll be referring to the brain actually. So in order to address the brain and the gut, one of the first preventive strategies that I do with a stress drawn is a healthy diet. A Hydra, healthy dietary practices are our Hara requires for the person to be paying attention. To have a focus and awareness on the food alone, I will say is that you are what, when, how, why and where you eat. Eating was considered as a meditative act. So it was necessary that while eating, you have your focus, you have your attention and you have your awareness on the food alone. Poor dietary practices include, among others, improper timing of food intake, eating the meals late at night, incorrect choices of food, consuming stale food, processed food, or highly refined food, eating cold foods, eating in a noisy environment or eating then you’re in a stressful mental state. Similarly, I would also recommended that also said that an over abundance of calories are highly refined foods. Together with poor eating practices can trigger inflammation, withdraw of profit support susceptibility to infection. And return results in reduced immunity. All these changes, coupled with altered enthusiasm, insomnia, and lethargy, triggers memory loss. I really recommend that you take your food in a proper place. You take your food that is prepared that low, you give thanks to all those responsible for the food in front of you. You eat without distraction, you take the food with a proper frame of mind, and your food should be fresh, warm and moist. I will also insists on chewing your food well, each morsel of food required a minimum of 25 chews. Now we know that there are several scientific reports that closely link chewing to beneficial cognitive changes.
I will also talk about good dietary practices for should not be taken that have contradictory potencies food should be taken with a very small amount of liquid with meals. Other recommends you take cotner to avoid cold beverages while eating to eat to 75% full and to allow three to four hours gap between meals for the food digest. So snacking intermittently between meals was not recommended. I would also strongly recommended overnight fast of 12 to 14 hours for sustaining optimal brain function and good health. These are ehara or diet recommendations are made based on an individual’s constitution. Constitution specific dyers that included grains vegetables, legumes, beans, fruits, dairy, nuts, meat, spices, eyes and sugars is recommended. Seasonal eating or eating the seasons was recommended in order to prevent any disease formation. I will also talks about the importance of guitar Agni guitar Agni is the digestive fire or the capacity to digest to food. The optimal guitar Agni requires is required for regulating the digestion, the absorption and the assimilation of food. And it has a profound influence on the immune system and the disease process as well. According to either chitarra BMI or the digestive fire is the root of all the transformations in the body and served as the central digestive fire, representing all metabolic functions in the body. This includes, in addition to the digestive system of the rescue function, cellular metabolism, sensory perception, thought function, and transformation of mental and emotional impressions. in photography, or the dice your fire is too weak, the digestion of food is compromised, resulting in poor absorption and poor immunity. in Qatar agnese excessively strong, it bonds out the associated tissues, resulting in tissue degeneration and poor immunity as well. Does optimal digestion meant having optical optimal chitara GNI in order to have optimal health and well being. I also recommend sleep as another preventive strategy. good sleep is one of the main pillars for good health and is as important as diet in keeping the body with strength, healthy growth and immunity. Upon to either sleep is influenced by diet, lifestyle, daily routines, environment and the state of mind. Either cautions that poor sleep patterns can be debilitating as it triggers age associated neurodegeneration including Alzheimer’s.
One of the other preventive strategies that I will recommend is panchakarma or what we call our what is known as periodical detoxification, purification and rejuvenation therapies. These are highly recommended as they provide strength and nourishment to the brain, the mental and emotional states. These panchakarma therapies are what we call the detoxification purification and rejuvenation therapies included only Asian fermentation and trans cranial therapies in order to ensure optimal blood flow to the brain and in order to ensure influx of toxic matter through increase lymphatic drainage. Now a recent study on the cellular effects of panchakarma revealed changes in several metabolites across many pathways. This panchakarma based study that included diet meditation, yoga massage, showed significant alterations in plasma metabolites that are consistent with metabolic changes in the gut microbiome and host metabolic ism that promotes general health and well being.
As part of the detoxification therapies, I would also recommend regular oil massage or bionda. This regular oil massage therapy handout with warm oil is often infused with the individual’s concentration specific Herbes. This is required to maintain good brain health and to prevent memory loss. I advise Avianca is highly recommended by with for dementia and mental stress and can be incorporated as a daily routine as well as restores the balance of all the tissues. Now Recent studies have shown that these significant brain functional changes together with increased cerebral blood flow in patients who received a Bongo or oil massage. Massage reduced the levels of stress related hormones with a concomitant increase in circulating lymphocytes and regional cerebral blood flow. Researchers are of the opinion that application of medical oil followed by gentle massage could relax the tight junctions between the endothelial cells in the CNS vessels and facilitate the entry of beneficial solutes and other components into the CNS, thereby strengthening the brain and reversing any brain associated pathology including memory loss. As mentioned earlier, I was also relies on several transcranial oleation therapies for especially for Nervous System disorders. These are non systemic, and non invasive. shiroe busti is a technique where a special leather cap is placed over the head of a patient and medicated oil is poured and retain for about 3035 4030 to 40 minutes. Shiro abhyanga is a procedure where medical oil is smeared on the cranial part on the head and is followed by gentle massage. Ciro shaker and shirodhara involves delicate oil that is poured over the head, the forehead in a continuous stream. All these techniques influences hormonal and cerebral blood flow to a degree similar to that of an Ayurvedic massage. Another technique as part of the detoxification therapies or as a standalone therapy is what we call nasya or intranasal administration. NASA could be a standalone therapy, or as part of the detox therapies, which are required intranasal administration of warm medical oil for blue form, maintaining good brain health and to prevent memory loss. Now researchers have shown that a lack of the blood brain barrier at the nasal affected regions of the brain facilitates the dispersion of intranasally administered hubs and herbal components into the hippocampal area. Thereby strengthening the brain areas and especially the hippocampal regions. As part of prevention strategies either also recommends numerous herbals, or Herbes and they’re constantly in order to enhance cognitive functions and to alleviate other symptoms of Alzheimer’s including memory loss and depression. neuroprotective hubs for the management of Alzheimer’s have a wide gamut of physiological actions. It was given mainly to strengthen and stimulate the intellect and thought process major, the power of discrimination D. The power of reasoning and discernment and clarity and the power of memory recall Smithy.
I include here a subset of herbs I think that includes ashwagandha or withania somnifera turmeric curcuma longa Brahmi bacopa gotu Kola, also called manuka honey or centenaire centella asiatica Shankar pushpi Triphala, which is a combination of three fruits guggulu, which is a resin, and Gucci or tinospora. These Herbes were classified as neuro sitacles to strengthen the nose and the brain areas as cognitive articles to improve memory and executive functions. Or they could be classified as both nutraceuticals and cognitive articles. And they were recommended to enhance memory and to restore normal cognitive function or to optimize the cognitive functions. These Herbes and Hubbard components were administered as tablets, as Turner’s or tea as Medicare oil, for massage and for trans cranial therapies, and to be administered intranasally as naseous. As part of the preventive strategies, I witha also recommends mindfulness practices. This includes a daily practice of yoga, meditation, and pranayama, or breath practices to strengthen brain structure and function. These mindfulness practices also facilitate the transport of blood to the brain. It eliminates waste, and improves proper coordination of the body, the mind and the emotions, thereby fostering optimal brain function. That comes through yoga, I will specifically recommended inversions and balanced poses, as these poses, improve cerebral blood flow, and also prevent blood vessel damage and whispering strokes. Meditation and timeout practices were recommended to improve cerebral blood flow, to reduce stress, to reduce anxiety and depression, to improve sleep, to improve digestion, and to improve Pulmonary and cardiovascular function. There are now several studies to show that these combined practices of yoga, meditation and pranayama require undivided focus, attention and awareness. And so the end result is a complete integration of the body, mind and emotions that brings about feelings of fulfillment and achievement. I will also as part of this preventive strategies recommends mental or brain stimulating activities, mental activities or brain stimulating activities or brain exercises to sustain optimal brain structure and function. To keep the brain sharp, focused and resilient. Either especially recommends memorizing complicated verses from religious books or other texts. senior students were expected to read and teach these scriptures to the successive batch of students. This fostered learning and understanding among the predecessors. Several research studies have now demonstrated that memorizing verses or texts, or lyrics, or what we call mantras increase the size of the brain regions associated with cognitive function, including memory and thinking. I will also recommend learning to play a musical instrument learning complicated dance steps, singing, art, craft, sculpture, knitting, sewing, or learning a new language. All these activities require learning and memorizing that sound as a wonderful cognitive exercise. Interestingly, to promote interest in these activities, these tasks were always linked with religion and temples. So coupling these activities to temples and worship. For example, painting or drawing gods and goddesses or pictures of gods and goddesses. Creating sculptures are new clay models of Gods and Goddesses sewing or knitting cloth in order to drape them on these figures. All these skills encourage people to practice them. Similarly, music and dance was always practiced in the temple courtyard. So brain exercises were combined with spiritual experiences as well. Now the dance and music involved complicated steps and nodes. So it promoted what we call neuroplasticity.
Now when it comes to musical instruments, wind instruments, like the pipe or the flute was very popular. Notice that these wind instruments required strong diaphragmatic or belly breathing which resulted Powerful airflow, thereby strengthening the lungs and the heart. Playing a wind instrument was a perfect example of exercising the brain and the body. As part of the preventive strategies, I will also talks about HR or routines. These refer to the physiological machinery that controls the circadian rhythms or the 24 Hour Body clock. It’s another component that has an important role in brain structure and function. akin to either optimal brain health requires that an individual’s physiology is in tune with a 24 hour lightened dark cycle in conjunction with the Sun and the Earth moment. I will provided several guidelines about the operations of the body clock in terms of time and season based routines, called day routines, they are ceria night routines, rich rat rich area and seasonal routines, literature. These are channels or guidelines included optimal time to eat, optimal time to sleep and to wake up optimal time for elimination on board moment for a shower for a massage, exercise, died, study travel, oral care and the care of the five sensory organs. The reason why oral care and five sensory organs were recommended and was concerned with very important in the priority strategies was because these cross talk with the brain either also recommends healthy and harmonious lifestyle routines to sustain and maintain good health, vitality and immunity. Now notice modern medicine recognizes these lifestyle routines, as internal clocks are the circadian rhythms that are intimately tied to our health and well being. Scientists are understanding the importance of routines, biological clocks and circadian rhythms, and have noticed that disturbances in lifestyle routines and circadian rhythms can trigger disorientation, insomnia, physical and mental imbalances. I will also recommended as part of the preventive strategies such Britta or good conduct or ethical regimens. So Rita good conduct article regimens are required for optimal living, and to maintain good brain health. cultivating these ethical regimens helps to strengthen and balance the brain, the body and the mind. It recommends cultivating positive emotions, since they shift the predominant beta brainwaves that keeps us aroused and alert into alpha waves that put us in a state of balance. The state of balance is characterized by the release of feel good chemicals like endorphins, noradrenaline and dopamine. I would recommend cultivating positive emotions, like contentment, honesty, forgiveness, loving kindness, non violence. All these positive emotions alter the energy patterns, so that the mind body and emotions become unified, that fetches unlimited happiness, satisfaction, clarity and joy, and strengthen the brain neural network. Additionally, I would also recommend that as part of the preventive strategies to overcome negative emotions, researchers are now finding that negative emotions like anger, anxiety, depression, greed, it clouds the mind and thereby the cognition and also affects the body by lowering immunity. stressful thoughts and negative feelings also impact other associated body structures like the gut, the column, the bone, resulting in poor health, illness and disease. So I’ve always recommended that overcoming negativity as a key to strengthen brain structure and function.
So to conclude, a preventive base approach is necessary to mitigate the memory loss and cognitive decline that is associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Preventive programs also improve several aspects of metabolic ism and offsets inflammation and stress that underlies this disease. I weighed apparently programs include good dietary and eating practices, good sleep practices, physical and mental exercise supplements Herbes routine detoxification therapies, oral hygiene and good conduct. My presentation is supported by a subset of peer reviewed publications, as shown here. So once again, let me thank the USC and the UCLA groups for organizing this conference, and to other participants for listening to my talk. For those that are interested, my book that was recently published good living practices describes many tools or tips from either yoga and corroborated by modern science in order to achieve optimal health, including brain health. The book offers several tools to prevent arrest or delay memory loss. I’ll stop here and I’m going to take your questions. Thank you very much.
Unknown Speaker 30:54
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