SYSK TRENDING – How to Make Yourself Smarter

What if becoming smarter had less to do with intelligence and more to do with a handful of everyday habits? Researchers are discovering that many of the things that most influence brain performance are surprisingly simple—and often completely within your control. Research continues to show that the brain is far more adaptable than scientists once believed. It’s become clear that the choices you make every day can have a significant impact on memory, focus, creativity, learning, and decision-making. The encouraging news is that improving brain performance doesn't require genius-level IQ or expensive biohacks. In many cases, relatively simple lifestyle changes can produce measurable improvements in how your brain works and how you feel. Dr. David Bardsley joins me to explain the science behind keeping your brain sharp, boosting cognitive performance, and protecting your mental abilities as you age. In our conversation, he discusses some of the most powerful—and often overlooked—factors that influence brain health, why many people unknowingly sabotage their own cognitive performance, and what you can start doing today to think more clearly, learn more effectively, and stay mentally strong for years to come. Dr. Bardsley is author of Smarter Next Year: The Revolutionary Science for a Smarter, Happier You (https://amzn.to/2tUXcK8). If you've ever wondered whether you could improve your memory, focus, mental sharpness, or overall brain performance, this conversation offers practical, science-backed insights that may help you get more out of the brain you already have. PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS POCKET HOSE: For a limited time, when you purchase a new Pocket Hose Ballistic, you'll get a FREE 360 degree rotating pocket pivot and a FREE thumb drive nozzle! Just text SYSK to 64000 AIR DOCTOR: Head to ⁠https://AirDoctorPro.com⁠ and use promo code SYSK to get $250 off select AirDoctor air purifiers, including the 3500, 4000, and 5500 models. Plus, you’ll receive a free 3year warranty! RULA: Thousands of people are already using Rula to get affordable, high-quality therapy that’s actually covered by insurance. Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://Rula.com/sysk⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to get started. QUINCE: Elevate your summer wardrobe. Go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://Quince.com/sysk⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada, too! DELL: With the Dell Pro laptop powered by Intel Core Ultra with vPro, no matter how many interruptions you have, your laptop won’t be one of them. With battery that’s optimized for the way you work, and built-in intelligence that quiets distractions the moment you’re trying to focus, your tech won’t slow you down. Find out more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://Dell.com/Dell-Pro⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ SHOPIFY: It's time to turn those "what ifs" into CHA CHING with Shopify Today! Sign up for your $1 per month trail and start selling today at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://Shopify.com/sysk⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:02Mike Carruthers?

  La plupart des gens supposent que l'intelligence est quelque chose que vous n'avez pas quand même. Vous avez ou vous n'avez pas. Mais si devenir plus intelligent n'est pas seulement une capacité naturelle et plus sur les habitudes, les comportements et les choix que vous faites chaque jour? Les recherches suggèrent que la façon dont vous apprenez, pensez et même structurez votre environnement peut avoir un grand impact sur votre performance cognitive. Et c'est pourquoi le sujet de tendance actuel de la SYSK est "Comment de devenir plus intelligent?" Dans ma conversation avec le Dr David Bardsley, nous allons explorer des moyens pratiques scientifiques pour sharpener votre esprit et améliorer la façon dont vous processez l'information.

• 0:44Mike Carruthers?

  Et vous trouverez ce qui fait vraiment de la personne plus intelligente et ce que tout le monde peut faire pour booster leur pouvoir cérébral. Donc, si vous souhaitez penser plus clairement, apprendre plus vite et prendre de meilleures décisions, restez là. Tout est à venir juste après ça. Maintenant, voici quelque chose qui pourrait valoir une minute de votre temps. Comment vous aimeriez 1000 dollars dépenser pour acheter? Surtout avec les vacances arrivant. Eh bien, les gens derrière Shopify ont un site d'achat appelé shop.com. Et pour célébrer le nouveau shop.com, ils donnent un million de dollars en cash de shop. Mais pas à une seule personne.

• 1:25Mike Carruthers?

  1000 personnes gagneront chacun 1000 dollars en cash de shop. Et shop.com est en fait une idée vraiment intelligente. Ça rassemble beaucoup de magasins différents dans un seul endroit. Donc, au lieu de bouger de site en site, vous pouvez chercher à travers les magasins, trouver ce que vous cherchez et suivre vos commandes tous dans un seul endroit. L'habits, l'électronique, les cadeaux, les choses pour la maison, toutes sortes de choses. Et que vous gagniez ou pas, il vaut la peine de savoir. Mais avec 1000 chances de gagner 1000 dollars, je prendrais certainement une visite. Entrez pour gagner le 1 million de dollars de cash de shop depuis maintenant jusqu'à le 1er novembre.

• 2:10Mike Carruthers?

  Juste allez sur shop.com. Il y a tant de moyens pour gagner. C'est shop.com. Shopping conçu autour de vous. Pas nécessaire d'achat. Les restrictions applyent. Les règles officielles sont disponibles sur shop.com.

• 2:29Mike Carruthers?

  Who wouldn't want to be smarter? Imagine if you could think better, make decisions better, and just get through life with more brain power to navigate all you have to do in a smarter, more thoughtful way. Well, meet David Bardsley. David became a dentist and oral surgeon after overcoming some serious learning disabilities when he was younger. When he retired from surgery, he began researching and lecturing on the topic of cognitive performance, and he is the author of a book called Smarter Next Year: The Revolutionary Science For A Smarter, Happier You. Hey, David, welcome to Something You Should Know.

• 3:09Speaker 01

  It's my pleasure, Mike.

• 3:11Mike Carruthers?

  So before we begin about making people better cognitively speaking, if I do all the things you're about to tell me, how much smart, I mean, how much is it worth the effort? Are we just going to move the needle in the laboratory, or am I going to go, gee, I feel like my brain is really functioning better?

• 3:30Speaker 01

  Well, that depends on where you are now. If you're already doing these things, then you're doing them with a little more gusto will move the needle a little bit. But if you're not already doing any of these things, you can have a very, very significant increase in that cognitive ability. And most people that I find that I know of are not doing these things, or they're not doing them to the degree that's necessary if you want that cognitive improvement.

• 3:58Mike Carruthers?

  When people hear conversations about cognitive ability and brain function, I think there's a tendency to think, well, this only applies to older people, to people as they're getting on in years and maybe their brain starts to decline. Is this an older person problem?

• 4:15Speaker 01

  The Center for Disease Control in the United States estimates that by age 40, 4-0, that 50% of the population start to show some signs of what's called mild cognitive impairment. And mild cognitive impairment is that's they're the first steps toward more severe cognitive impairment and ultimately you know with dementia and Alzheimer's. Now, not everyone, not everyone who has mild cognitive impairment by any means will progress into more serious forms of dementia and Alzheimer's. But what we do know is that 100% of the people with Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia

• 4:57Speaker 01

  started way back here with mild cognitive impairment. And that's why it's so important to either prevent it or deal with it at that very early stage.

• 5:06Mike Carruthers?

  So, but what does that mean, mild cognitive impairment? Does that mean I forgot where I put my keys? Or does that mean I can't do math? Or what is my, give me an example of mild cognitive impairment?

• 5:18Speaker 01

  You know, if, if, if you, if you notice a song comes on and oh yeah, this is, um, oh, I recognize this song. This is, uh, oh, don't tell me I know who it is. It's on, it's a, it's, it's on the tip of my tongue and, and you find you just can't make that connection to that, to that information. It's a sign of, of cognitive impairment. Or you might feel overwhelmed. You know, perhaps someone is pressing you to make a decision on something and, and you're not quite sure. And you know, it's, it just seems like there are so many facts and, and information to try to make that decision and it just seems overwhelming and, and you procrastinate. So you don't make decisions as quickly and, and you're not as nearly as confident in those decisions.

• 6:00Mike Carruthers?

  Again, a lot of what you just described, we tend to associate with decline in brain function as you get older. So i- if it's happening in younger and younger people, what's causing it?

• 6:13Speaker 01

  Well, sleep deprivation is huge, absolutely huge. We're, we are a sleep deprived nation. And adults, with rare exception, need seven to nine hours sleep a night. And I know all kinds of people, I'm sure you do as well, that say they get by just fine on five or six hours sleep. And they're absolutely correct. That's what they're doing. They're getting by. They are not performing at their cognitive best. One of the simplest things there is to do in psychology is to test that cognitive decrease that, that occurs with sleep deprivation. If, if you have just one night of disturbed sleep, you will have a measurable decrease in your cognitive ability the next day. And the military have done the best studies I've ever seen.

• 6:58Speaker 01

  The military studies are fantastic. Then they show that if you, if you take a group of military personnel of mixed ages and you deprive them of sleep for, first of all, you give them a cognitive test. And then you deprive them of sleep for 24 hours and then you retest them. They will have a decrease of 30% in those test scores. Now, most of us are never deprived of sleep for 24 hours straight. But those same military studies show if you take that same group of personnel of mixed ages, you administer the cognitive test, and now you deprive them of sleep so that they get six or less hours sleep for five consecutive nights, and then you retest them, now they have a decrease of 60% in those test scores.

• 7:41Speaker 01

  It's, it's one of the simplest things that we can do to make sure that we're functioning at 100% of our cognitive ability, is to get that seven to nine hours sleep every night.

• 7:52Mike Carruthers?

  Well, I think everybody can relate to that. I know I can relate to that. If I don't get a good night's sleep, I know, I, I just know I don't perform as well the next day. So what else? What else besides getting more and better sleep?

• 8:05Speaker 01

  One of the big factors is side effects of medication. And not just over the counter medication, but prescription medications as well. So many prescription medications have cognitive slowing as a side effect. And some of the, you know, extremely, extremely common ones like statins, you know, drugs that are used to lower blood cholesterol. And one out of four adult Americans, 25% of the adult population in the United States takes a statin on a daily basis. A lot of anti, anticoagulants, antidepressants have a negative cognitive side effect to them. So, you know, our goal, everybody's goal should be to be medication free.

• 8:50Speaker 01

  And that's, look, it's not possible for everybody, but for the majority of people, it is possible. And if you can't be medication free, you want to at least be able to reduce that medication, you know, to a minimal level to get the desired effect. And, and that's, so many of the medications are due to our poor lifestyle choices. That's why we're on them to begin with.

• 9:11Mike Carruthers?

  Okay, what else?

• 9:13Speaker 01

  Well, you're not gonna want to hear this, most people don't. Alcohol is not a friend of your brain and your cognitive ability. We can grow human brain cells, human neurons, in a Petri dish in a lab, and add just one little drop of alcohol and instantaneously, 100% of those brain cells will shrivel up and die. Now, we can't say that that happens in the living brain because we have no means yet of putting a miniature imaging device into a living brain so we can actually watch that interaction take place. But you can drink a certain amount of alcohol and it will never get into your brain. All the alcohol that you consume will first go to your liver and your liver has an enzyme which breaks down the alcohol

• 9:58Speaker 01

  into two substrates, A and B, that get excreted in your urine. If you present too much alcohol to your liver, then the alcohol, the liver doesn't have the capacity to break down that volume of alcohol. Some of it will be broken down, some of it will pass through unchanged. It gets into your bloodstream and in 30 seconds it's crossed that blood-brain barrier and it's in your brain and you will feel the buzz. So if you feel the buzz, you know that you've exceeded your liver's capacity to detoxify that alcohol and that alcohol has gotten into your brain. And it's not doing you any favor, believe me. And, let's face it,

• 10:40Speaker 01

  you know, people will often say, "Oh, they love a glass of wine because it tastes so good." Most people drink because they want the buzz.

• 10:49Mike Carruthers?

  Yeah, yeah, I suppose, I suppose they do. David Bardsley is my guest. He is author of a book called Smarter Next Year: The Revolutionary Science for a Smarter, Happier You. So David, because people like the buzz, is there an acceptable level of drinking where it doesn't affect your brain?

• 11:11Speaker 01

  Yes, there is, and that depends on the individual. So generally, people who would have one drink a day, and a drink is considered, you know, like two ounces of hard liquor, or six ounces of wine, or one beer, that that doesn't have any negative effect whatsoever. In fact, there are some studies that show that it actually has a positive effect. But it's different, you can't just take those exact numbers, because it's different. A 105-pound woman can't break down the same amount of alcohol as a 250-pound man. So that 250-pound man can consume more alcohol without it ever getting to his brain than a 105-pound woman can.

• 11:55Mike Carruthers?

  What else? I'm gonna imagine that stress has a lot to do with this.

• 12:01Speaker 01

  Huge, absolutely, huge. Floods your body with two primary stress hormones, cortisol and adrenaline, and they have a negative effect on your cognitive ability. So anything you can do to reduce the amount of stress is good. Anything that you can do. And I tell people, if they have significant stress or anxiety of depression, the best thing to do is to get some professional help.

• 12:25Mike Carruthers?

  Okay, what else?

• 12:26Speaker 01

  Well, one of the very biggest ones is exercise. And I shouldn't say exercise, it's the lack of exercise that leads to the cognitive impairment, the lack of movement. So, physical activity, vigorous physical activity, is truly the rifle shot to improving your cognitive ability. There are now thousands of studies, not hundreds, but thousands, I've read over 500 myself, studies that show the improvement in cognition that occurs with vigorous physical activity. And it has to be vigorous. Unfortunately, a walk around the block with your dog isn't considered vigorous physical activity. And that physical activity does two things.

• 13:10Speaker 01

  It stimulates the growth of new brain cells, which we only discovered 20 years ago could occur. For 100 years before that, neuroscience taught that when a brain cell dies, that's it, it's gone forever, you don't grow new brain cells. But 20 years ago, they discovered for the first time that, in fact, we can grow new brain cells, and we can stimulate the growth of those new brain cells. And the single best way of doing it is vigorous physical activity.

• 13:37Mike Carruthers?

  So if I vigorously run to the liquor store and...

• 13:42Speaker 01

  And you vigorously run back.

• 13:45Mike Carruthers?

  What else? Does diet matter much in terms of what you eat or don't eat? And is it more what you eat or what you don't eat?

• 13:52Speaker 01

  You know, thirty years ago, it was fat. Fat was the enemy. So, anything you could do to lower the fat content of your diet, we thought was better. And now the science showing that that's not true. That it's really hyperglycemia, it's really high blood sugar that will have that negative effect because that sets up inflammation. The end products of the sugar metabolism will set up inflammation everywhere in your body, including your brain. And actually now, and it produces this insulin resistance. And now, in the science, they're referring to Alzheimer's really as type 3 diabetes. Your brain normally uses sugar as its primary sort of fuel. But if you, if you give your body so little sugar that there's not enough,

• 14:38Speaker 01

  then your body will selectively start to use fats, which are known as ketones or ketone bodies. And it will start to metabolize those fats. And a lot of people find their brain works much, much better if it uses these ketones or fat as a fuel rather than sugar.

• 14:56Mike Carruthers?

  So, generally, a healthy diet is what we consider, you know, lots of fruits and vegetables, not a lot of sugar, that kind of thing, is a good brain diet as well?

• 15:08Speaker 01

  Half of what you said, I would agree with. Lots of, lots of vegetables, not lots of fruits. Fruits are very, very high in fructose, which is a simple sugar that raises your blood sugar dramatically. Our grandparents and our great-grandparents didn't have access to fruit 365 days a year. They only had fruit when it was, when it was available in season.

• 15:36Mike Carruthers?

  Often in these discussions about mental decline and cognitive ability, particularly when it comes to older people, you hear the phrase "use it or lose it", that older people need to exercise their brain by doing crossword puzzles and other mental exercises, that that will help. What do you say? What's the science say?

• 16:00Speaker 01

  Well, there have been a tremendous number of studies done, and they haven't, for the most part. Some have some show positive benefits, but most show that there's no significant increase if you purposely stimulate your brain doing crossword puzzles, or Sudoku, or, you know, some of the commercially available ones, like Luminosity and whatnot. And so, those things are absolutely not detrimental, and I would never discourage people from doing those. But you don't want to hang your hat on that as being the salvation for your mental acuity for the rest of your life, because the studies show that they just don't make a significant difference overall.

• 16:40Mike Carruthers?

  I wonder how much of this has to do with attention and intention. In other words, if I put my keys down and go back and look for them later, and I can't find them, I don't know that that's necessarily a cognitive problem as much as it was an attention problem. When I put the keys down, I probably wasn't paying attention to where I put them. I wasn't real intentional about it. So when I go look for my keys, I can't find them. But the next time, when I'm careful where I put my keys, the next time I know exactly where they are, and I find them easily. So I wonder if, in this discussion about cognitive function, that a lot of cognitive function

• 17:23Mike Carruthers?

  has to do with what you pay attention to.

• 17:27Speaker 01

  Oh, that's a big part of it. We tend to remember things that are important to us. And we tend not to remember things that aren't important. So if you just walked in the house and you flipped your keys on the nearest table and you start talking to someone, you may not remember where you left those keys. It wasn't important, you just flipped them somewhere. But if you walked in and said, "Okay, I've got to be out of here in exactly 15 minutes. You know, I'm going to put my keys right over here." So, you know, and you make a conscious effort, "I'm going to put them right here." You'll probably remember where those keys are. We remember things that are important to us. So because little, you know, because you misplaced something, you know, I tell people, "Don't, you know, don't get all bent out of shape over that. That's not critical at all." And people will often say to me, "Well, you know, I have a terrible...

• 18:10Speaker 01

  I can't remember names. It's so embarrassing." You know, and I'm worried about it. And I ask them, "Well, could you ever remember names? Could you remember names 20 years ago or 30 years ago?" And they say, "No, I've been terrible all my life at remembering names." Well, there's no change. So what we're looking for, it is a change. If you were good at something and now you're not, you know, that's the change that becomes worrisome. If you were never good at it in the first place and you're still no good at it, then don't worry about it. There's been no significant decrease.

• 18:41Mike Carruthers?

  That's good to hear. I've never been good at math. I'm still not good at math. And, uh, but I've never been good at math, so I'm not going to worry about that.

• 18:48Speaker 01

  I'm in the same boat as you, Mike. It's never been my forte.

• 18:51Mike Carruthers?

  So what's the big thing? And I think I know what you're going to say. But so what's the big thing? If you want your brain to work better, what's the one thing you should do right now, today, to make it better?

• 19:01Speaker 01

  If I had to say one single thing, it's physical movement, vigorous physical activity. And it has to be vigorous. It's the only known thing that stimulates the growth of new brain cells. It stimulates the interconnection between existing brain cells. And it increases and balances the, what are called neurotransmitters, which are the chemicals that let the electrical impulse travel from one brain cell to another.

• 19:32Mike Carruthers?

  It does seem that so much of the conversation about brain function and your cognitive ability is focused around people in their later years. And yet, from what you're saying, it seems that if people paid attention to this and implemented this stuff earlier in life and in midlife, that it would go a long way to help prevent some of the problems, rather than trying to fix problems that show up later in life. David Bardsley has been my guest. The name of his book is Smarter Next Year: The Revolutionary Science for a Smarter, Happier You. And you'll find a link to his book in the show notes. Thank you, David. Thanks for being here.

• 20:12Speaker 01

  My pleasure, indeed, Mike. Thank you so much.

• 20:15Mike Carruthers?

  And that's this SYSK Trending episode. I'm Mike Carruthers. Thanks for listening to Something You Should Know.