David:

[0:00] Hello, today I brought on with me Karen Hurd, who is an all-around wellness advocate and mostly into the brain health. And so she initially pursued the study of brain health as a means to solve personal challenges. And she's been on this journey for over 40 years with herself and her children. And right now she has a podcast called Divine Healthy Living, which help busy people nourish their brains so they can get things done. And so I brought Karen on today to talk specifically about nutritional strategies for the brain health and how that directly impacts our business because you need your brain to operate. So, Karen, welcome. And what is one way you believe that we can honor God in our business that others may not know about?

Karen:

[0:43] Ooh, that's a good one. Well, Dave, thanks so much for having me as a guest on Redeeming Business today. I really am blessed to be on your podcast and I'm real excited to be talking about this. What's really interesting is in the last five to eight years or so, you are seeing business people pursue brain nutrition specifically for increased performance, stamina, and endurance, right? But what's really interesting is when you think about your brain, it's an organ, so is your heart, so are your kidneys, but your brain houses your personality. Your brain houses planning. Your brain houses decision-making, like, should I do that or maybe not?

Karen:

[1:25] That's where that lives um and your brain houses your memories your history your connection with the world and in many ways your connection to god not your spirit man i do not believe your spirit brand is housed in your brain but your soul is your mind will and emotions right they're housed there and a lot of times when we're praying this where we're interacting with god um i did a podcast recently which the episode just dropped with tamra engwald and we were talking about brain poison and she had gotten a brain injury from brain poisoning so just talk about honoring god and she lost a lot of speech but the only thing she could say in her mind in her brain was thank you jesus thank you jesus jesus neat so taking care of your brain is not like a cool thing to do it is like not optional okay but the benefit is absolutely everything you do for your brain has very positive downstream effects so everything you do for your brain you're weight should improve everything you do for your brain your skin will look better everything you do for your brain your energy will improve your immunity will improve because of the way the brain works.

David:

[2:33] Yep that's that's i've heard too that books i've read on the brain it's like yeah it's just an all one if it's good for your brain it's good for everything else as well

Karen:

[2:43] For the most part yeah yeah but almost without exception.

David:

[2:48] Very good. So give us an overview of how'd you end up down this journey of really narrowing in on brain health and really trying to, what's motivating you to do all this?

Karen:

[3:00] Sure. I was that girl that could do good work when she wanted to, that had a tired time sitting still, that talked too much, sometimes made impulsive decisions.

Karen:

[3:12] And that's what ADHD sometimes looks like in women it looks very different in women than it does in men by the way boys tend to have not often right there's many subsets of it um but women tend to be daydreamers that that battle adhd tend to be more daydreamers it's more internal she's like more likely to be an overthinker and perfectionistic and boys are bouncing off the walls because they're made different right so it just expresses differently so as i over time when i had kids is when i really started looking into it because if you're a dhd and the odds of you having kids that are ready dang high anyway um and i got into a business marketing educational toys which is brain health and development actually and then as i'm working through and i'm asking questions like well why does this child do this and you start understanding the impact of food and brain food allergies and brain chemical exposures and brain and how that looked like and what i came to realize not only for myself and my own children was that a lot of things we call bad behavior is actually what i call brain driven behavior it's not a child or maybe even an adult although So adults have a little bit better control than kids, even if they're neurodivergent.

Karen:

[4:35] It's more like the brain is just like a child who's maybe chemically sensitive to be acting out, raging, doing that stuff. It's not that they don't know not to have tantrums. It's that their brain is taking actions and they can't grab hold of the brain. Does that make sense? The same way as if you had muscle spasms, your leg would just be kind of, you know, restless leg. It just goes out there. You can't say stop the leg and stop it. You'd like to.

David:

[5:00] But it won't. So what do you do for that? What do you do for kids who are swept right there? It's not like

Karen:

[5:04] A three-step program that always works. Yeah.

David:

[5:06] Oh, yeah.

Karen:

[5:07] Why not? Because kids are different and they change. So let's talk a little bit. I'm going to back up just real quick and let's talk about what brains love. Because that's a good place to talk. Here's what your brain loves. It loves healthy fats. What have we been telling people not to eat? Fat.

David:

[5:22] Go fat-free, yeah.

Karen:

[5:24] Yeah, no, no. Your brain loves fats, and it loves cholesterol. If you don't have enough cholesterol, the good kind, not the kind that sticks too much to your blood vessels, but the good kind, it's like the mother substance for all the hormones in your body. Insulin, reproductive hormones, thyroid hormones, immune, all of the community comes from good cholesterol. Too low cholesterol, not good for your brain. What have we been telling people to do? Oh, yes, not have cholesterol. And then when they do have it, we give them drugs, which negatively impacts that cholesterol.

Karen:

[6:00] And then we wonder why their brain isn't functioning well. All right. So your brain loves healthy fats.

David:

[6:06] Okay.

Karen:

[6:07] Your brain loves healthy carbs. What have we been telling people not to eat? Now, I understand that we're not talking Doritos.

Karen:

[6:16] We are talking whole grains, the carbs and fruits and vegetables. There may be people who are sensitive. You may, for a season, need to watch what you eat. But your brain really loves those. Your brain runs on fats and glucose, which comes from what you eat, protein, and water. So your brain loves protein, good, healthy protein. And most people don't get enough, frankly. They eat about half what they really need, that hootskits, and water. Your brain is very hungry for water. It's always very hungry for what you eat. It's very, what they call metabolically active.

Karen:

[6:55] 25% of your food intake, your brain's going, me, that's for me, me. So if you cut back too low on calories, extreme dieters, guess what your brain does? Dials down that metabolism because it's going to protect itself. Your brain is really smart. So the, um, the first place to look for kids is what's their diet like and the cleaner, and it really is shown. And some kids are more sensitive than others. Um, but you really want to eliminate food colorings as much as possible. And if you've got a sensitive child, that's a go-to, you might want to look at typical allergic foods. Um, dairy, Dairy can spike. Wheat can spike. I mean, gluten can spike. In sensitive kids and non-sensitive kids, it's not an issue, but it is for sensitive kids.

Karen:

[7:46] Sugar, too much sugar, which Americans in the 1900s eat about 15 pounds and we now eat 150.

David:

[7:54] Yep.

Karen:

[7:56] Artificial sweeteners. Brains don't like those very much at all. So if God didn't make it, don't eat it. Good rule of thumb.

David:

[8:04] Absolutely. I'm there with you.

Karen:

[8:07] Um the other thing is chemical sensitivities a lot of kids are actually very sensitive in fact there was a there's a book it's an older book from the 90s but it's still true dr doris rap r-a-p-p and she wrote a book called um i just lost it is this your child and what she did she did an experiment where she had kids in a class where somebody did it there were kids in a classroom They took a handwriting sample And some kids struggled a little bit But handwriting They took the kids out of the classroom Or the room, wherever it was Cleaned it like they do typically with chlorine bleach Put the kids back in One child could not complete the writing assignment Another one was suddenly dyslexic, Other kids were The handwriting was very altered They took the kids out of the room again Cleared it out Let the kids air out Came back in to try their writing again again. Most of the kids recovered the one child didn't quite recover so chemical sensitivities can cause aggression can cause brain dysfunction um so can food allergies so you will you kind of got to start a checklist and in the west but in particular america our thing is what's the one thing in your coach so you hear that what's what's not on that's the one.

David:

[9:28] Thing that's the high heater that's right

Karen:

[9:30] That's human nature the man went up to jesus and said so laws all good what's the one right what.

David:

[9:37] Am i missing yeah

Karen:

[9:38] Yeah yeah and it doesn't work because we are fearfully and wonderfully made we're a bunch of but there's a lot of factors so what i would do mama, is start and and if mom's got brain health issues she's overwhelmed at the very thought of doing this right so i would pray about it a lot of times holy spirit will say yeah start here And you'll get direction from the Lord, But if you're not sure What he's saying Do the obvious Junk food, sugar Do the super obvious stuff first And it will take some time The mistake a lot of people make Adults too When they're putting themselves through this process Is they say Well, I'm just going to pick on junk food, I'm not eating brand name taco chips anymore with, you know, with the weird old flavors. So I don't see any change. So I can put those back in my. No, you might have three or four things going on. You can't just put it back in and go, I guess that wasn't it. That might have been a piece of your puzzle.

David:

[10:38] So when does a lot of together?

Karen:

[10:40] Yeah. Yeah. It comes together. Sometimes those last few pieces, there it is. A lot of times it's what you need to do. Besides, nobody was ever hurt getting rid of junk food. That's a safeie. You want to look at your chemical sensitivities. A lot of cleaning products are neurotoxic. And the same thing with personal care products. So it's not that one is super bad. It's just that we've got multiples.

David:

[11:08] The combination of everything going on. It stacks up.

Karen:

[11:11] Yeah. And insensitive kids, think of those as our canary in the minefield. Right?

Karen:

[11:16] They're warning us that those their symptoms and children and women metabolize things differently than men which is why you see those sensitivities in kids and women before men not that men don't have them they just have them at a different percentage does that make sense yeah so you do that um and make sure brains love exercise if you've got a kid that can't sit still my son now we homeschooled and when he was like all frustrated with his math he'd go out on the tramp and he'd run circles around the tramp he literally wore out the tramp around where it connects right to the springs i mean it's like why is this tramp falling apart because he was running circles he'd come in and then he'd answer all the math you've got to give your time your brain time to process right yeah um so that's that's where i would start with adults because.

David:

[12:10] You start with your diet. Yeah. Things go around and start.

Karen:

[12:14] Yep.

David:

[12:15] And people go, which diet? Mountain Dew. What should I do? What should I do? Start.

Karen:

[12:21] Where do I start? Yeah. And a good diet to follow overall is the Mediterranean or something called the mind diet. They're very similar. Mind diet just has more berries in it and a couple changes like no red meat at all. Again you're gonna you have to play with it see what works and it's not about the Mediterranean diet it's not just about olives and feta cheese although those are delicious it's really about the proportions mostly vegetables but you want to make sure you're getting your protein whole grains and sugar very low and alcohol very low your brain doesn't like alcohol, and when you drink it alcohol runs to the front of the line jumps in front of what the brain needs and says to the liver you're going to deal with me now the brain's going dude i need my stuff, and the alcohol literally jumps in front demands to get metabolized first and your brain gets what's left over which sometimes isn't very much so alcohol limit get your sleep you know really super basic stuff it's not sexy nobody's i mean i did do a podcast on sleep but, people aren't going wow let's do a let's go read an article on sleep right we want that super punchy thing yep.

David:

[13:40] Yeah very good so you've talked about a lot what you know and that's going to all affect your productivity because if you can't think straight you're not going to be able to answer a question be creative whatever in in your uh

Karen:

[13:56] Right. And productivity, when it comes to brains, now different brains function.

Karen:

[14:02] A neurodivergent person is going to function differently than a neurotypical person. And neurodivergent and neurotypical, the difference is how the brain processes.

Karen:

[14:14] Okay. That's what basically what the difference is. Neurodivergent is not a diagnosis. But so when it comes to productivity like an adhd person like moi i'm going to have different ways to be productive than somebody who can i've got friends i don't know how they do it they get a task done take a one minute break go get the next task done take another one minute break and i'm like how do you do that i can't do that i work differently i work in tunnels right so i'm you're going to drop me into thing you're going to get and once i'm into it i'll work for two hours before i before i come up for air again then i take a long break it's very very different so you have to know in some ways you are yeah who you exactly and then you're a coach so you see all different kinds of things um i would say for um brain and productivity um a small amount of caffeine is okay.

Karen:

[15:09] No not red bull or other energy drinks because that's too much it's too much caffeine too much sugar and if you start and and it can cause heart damage it's it's way too much way too much um and if you rely on it then you're probably too short in other areas but a small amount is fine okay um there's something there's a type of supplement called nootropic maybe you've heard I'm sure you've had that because you've done some reading. A new tropic, and I was going to spell N-O-O, tropic, T-R-O-P-I-C-E.

Karen:

[15:45] It's basically, nootropics used to be synthetic. There are some that are synthetic, which would be more in the drug category. But it also refers to supplements that are specifically targeted for brain health. All right? Here's the thing. It's kind of scary in a way.

Karen:

[16:00] Our brains are one of the first things to develop when we're in utero. That's why when you see pictures of babies, they've got this super huge head.

David:

[16:07] Right? Two. Yep.

Karen:

[16:09] God, need your brain first. Okay, that's how it works. Because your brain's going to start directing everything else. Comes on board first. And then you go through a shedding process in the toddler years where your brain's going apparently we're not going to use these sounds in our language so get rid of them the brain really wants to be efficient then it's going to grow it's going to do another type of shedding in your late teens some think that because that's when schizophrenia has its onset is late teens that the brain is shedding in the wrong way lots of reasons why there could be schizophrenia but that's one of the theories then your brain peaks at 20 and starts dying wait a minute stop i just got started wow yeah but you're not going to feel that until you're about 30s or 40s right but the more you protect your brain your brain now it used to be back in the olden days when i was coming of age we had phones they were attached to the wall phone freedom was a very long cord. But we were told that you had all the brain cells you were going to have when you were six. We know that's not true anymore. You are constantly making new neural pathways. That's the roadways your brain uses to transfer information. And you are building new brain cells all the time.

David:

[17:31] And that's where you can continue to learn new things throughout your life. And even if it might be hard at the beginning, you do it long enough and then it starts getting easier again

Karen:

[17:41] Right exactly and and by the way part of the reason why it's hard, is your brain has to build new brain cells so imagine all the brain cell building it's doing an algebra my daughter is battling she's coming back from a concussion and the one thing she can't she her brain really physically hurts when she's doing algebra she can only do it for like a minute or two and she's got to stop because the brain is very very active so sometimes when you're looking at brain injury kind of shows you how the brain is working yeah but productivity sleep, Not sexy, but very important.

David:

[18:18] Right? Oh, yeah.

Karen:

[18:18] You had asked me, what are some of the things that people do that wreck productivity?

David:

[18:23] Yeah, like what are some common mistakes people make when they're, if they don't think about the brain and they don't think about taking care of it? What do they do?

Karen:

[18:31] All-nighters. Hello, college. Right? And by the way, we know that happens sometimes, right? And interestingly enough, if you don't sleep, sleep helps to cement the memory. So if you're learning a lot of new stuff and you're like, go right to take the exam. Maybe you remember back to college and after the exam, you could remember a dang thing. Yeah, because you didn't sleep. So sleep is really, really key. Your body detoxifies and your brain rebuilds. It sheds. It's part of your dreams sometimes. Sometimes it's the Lord speaking to you. But sometimes it's your brain kind of going, do we need this? No. Do we need that? No. Do we need this? No. And it's just processing and getting rid of stuff. So sleep is key. another um productivity no-no is multitasking now there are some people that can really do it you've seen this as a coach right yep very few people now you can multitask women like if i'm folding laundry i can fold laundry and talk on the phone sure because one there's it's just an automatic muscle memory thing folding laundry yep.

David:

[19:37] And that's why it's a muscle

Karen:

[19:38] Memory perfect Perfect example. So you can do stuff like that, but you can't work on your books and then also write a project at the same. Nope, nope, nope, nope. It's not going to work.

David:

[19:51] Two of the, down the same track, two cognitively thinking things at the same time. And I've also seen where driving, you can drive and talk, but all of a sudden if your car starts slipping, you stop talking immediately and it's Zoom. Focus all in on your driving because it's 100 not 10 here and 90 no

Karen:

[20:12] That's exactly right that's exactly right your brain is constantly making decisions while you're driving even though a lot of it's been automated for you i mean you you it kind of goes on muscle memory itself it does over reliance on digital especially neurodivergent people tend to rely well here's the problem with that you don't retain the information digitally the same way you do as if you write it down, now it's a i was looking for my my.

David:

[20:37] You mean typing it in versus writing it down

Karen:

[20:40] If you remember it better than if you type it in yep interesting it it's the same reason why if you read a book on paper versus electronic you'll remember it better is.

David:

[20:53] That is that a proven thing yeah really i did not know that

Karen:

[20:57] I mean do you ever notice that sometimes do you ever notice if you're reading um an e-book in a tablet you're really reading it super fast and if you're reading it on paper you're reading it slower or is that just me.

David:

[21:12] I just don't read that fast, so I don't know.

Karen:

[21:14] Yeah, yeah, that's okay. But I've noticed that, man, why am I getting through this book real fast? And on paper, it's different. The retention is better on paper. So one thing I would say, it's not that we never use digital. We're all in business, so digital's a piece. But over-reliance, you've got just whatever you can. Maybe even just kind of just jotting down highlights on paper.

Karen:

[21:36] If you take notes, try to take them on paper, and then maybe read them back in for digital. You're going to be able to track better um another thing not protecting your eyes it's really important to have your monitors covered with like some kind of a blue um blue screen or get the blue screen glasses really really really important uh the other thing is be aware of emf electromagnetic frequencies you know from this radio that you're using don't put it by your ear speak to it like this but wait i'm in public wireless phones all of that your brain is very sensitive it's picking up on the wavelengths and it can actually interfere um i've had people say that when they stop wearing a smart watch within about a month or so their brain fog clears up really yeah so just be aware of that and take breaks the pomodoro technique you teach that in your coaching.

David:

[22:34] I i do not but

Karen:

[22:36] It's a good way for a lot of people to work where they work on a task for about 20 minutes you know work expands to fit the time allotted right so if you give yourself a small amount of time you'll get in and then you get out you get in and you get out and it's very very effective but knowing your boundaries at work right sure Trying not to overwork. Those are, but like I said, with productivity, the biggest mistake I think is probably multitasking and over-reliance on digital where somebody, if they can't, if it's not in their phone, they have no idea what's happening.

David:

[23:16] Yeah, I like it, but I realized the whole GPS thing is like we used to use maps, you know, it's handy. You know, I went to D.C. last summer and it's nice just to throw it into the phone and go. But I remember having to sit down for 20 minutes, look at all the maps, look at all the directions and all these turns that I had to I had to watch for these signs.

Karen:

[23:40] Right.

David:

[23:41] It made life easier. And I'm willing to give that part of it. but yeah it's

Karen:

[23:45] Good not to mention all the tracking did i say that so the that i have my daughter she's learning how to drive now she she's coming back from being bedridden and so there's a whole bunch of things going on for her but i said look you only know the two inches that the gps is showing you and the gps by the way isn't always right we have a we have something in our house called getting wazed when ways send you somewhere going that's not how we go right so but looking at a map and they're hard to find by the way especially street maps will actually teach you more of how the area is you'll actually start putting a little bit more of that map in your in your mind yeah.

David:

[24:30] I still like looking at the big picture of the big picture of the state because my phone just doesn't give me that big a picture. I want the bigger picture, but yeah.

Karen:

[24:41] No, yeah. So being able to do some things on paper?

David:

[24:45] Yep. That's a big one.

Karen:

[24:48] It is a big one.

David:

[24:50] So, hey, Karen, you've talked about a lot of things today. We have to wrap up here, but if you could summarize all these things down and say, hey, I know I'm going to do it again. There's one thing one thing that's is there one thing that's more important than another that you would like to encourage our audience to do or not do

Karen:

[25:11] I would say, It's real important to be patient with your brain. Sometimes it can be pushed a little bit and be stronger, but most times it doesn't like it very much. So pay attention to the signals your body is sending you. Understand that if you're looking for what's going on, what can make it better, it may take, might be a bit of a checklist, and it comes in layers. Does that make sense? So you might get one piece. So you might get up to, you know, drinking five glasses of water a day, less than, you know, your brain at four glasses or less, it's dehydrated. You've already lost cognitive function by about 20%.

David:

[25:54] Okay.

Karen:

[25:55] Right. So you might pick one habit, start there. If you don't know where to start, pick one, start, get it under your belt, add the next one, add the next one, right? It's kind of like atomic habits.

David:

[26:07] Oh yeah. Oh yeah. It sure is. Very good. Well, thank you, Karen, very much for your time. your encouragement, and all your knowledge you've shared with us. Check the show notes for a lot of the stuff that we're talking about. We'll get some sites and links and contacts if you want to get a hold of Karen. And a newsletter is a great way to communicate with me and keep in contact with me. So friends, that's all for now. Trust you've been inspired to redeem your business, redeem your time, buy it back, and walk worthy of God's great name.