Everyday Wellness with Cynthia Thurlow ™

Bonus: How to Improve Your Brain Health and Performance with Louisa Nicola

May 26, 2025

Louisa Nicola, a neuroscience expert and athleticism advocate, shares her fascinating insights on brain health. She reveals the three pillars for peak performance, emphasizing the critical role of sleep and its effect on the glymphatic system. Louisa explains how perimenopause affects cognitive function, while also debunking common myths about alcohol and its impact on sleep. Listeners will discover powerful strategies for managing jet lag, optimizing nutrition for brain health, and the vital connection between exercise and cognitive performance.

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ANECDOTE

Louisa's Athletic Comeback

Louisa Nicola was a competitive triathlete until a serious accident changed her path.
Despite being told she might never walk again, she recovered and qualified for the championship series.

INSIGHT

Sleep Forms Aging Brain

We form our 60s and 70s brains in our 30s and 40s, making sleep critical early on.
Deep sleep activates the glymphatic system, which clears toxins linked to Alzheimer's disease.

INSIGHT

Perimenopause as Brain Disease

Perimenopause exhibits symptoms classified as brain disease by neurology reports.
Brain fog, sleep disruptions, and headaches in perimenopause relate directly to brain health.

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I am excited to connect with one of my favorite neuroscience experts today! Louisa Nicola is at the intersection of neuroscience and athleticism. She helps to bring a fresh understanding of what it takes to achieve peak performance through science-based tools and methods. She is also the host of The Neuro Experience podcast, which focuses on brain health, neuroscience, longevity, and athletics.

Louisa knows how to take complicated subjects related to brain physiology and hormones and explain them so that people can fully understand and appreciate them. In this episode, she and I dive into her background. We discuss her three pillars for peak performance, alcohol, and how sleep impacts the glymphatic system. We get into strategies for better sleep, the perimenopausal brain, how chronobiology impacts sleep, how to address jet lag, and how exercise improves brain performance and health. We also discuss the best foods and supplements for brain health and how creatine enhances performance.

I hope you enjoy listening to today’s conversation as much as I did recording it!

IN THIS EPISODE YOU WILL LEARN:

How an accident shifted the trajectory of Louisa’s life.
Louisa unpacks the various stages of sleep and explains why sleep is so important.
How sleep impacts the glymphatic system.
Some common characteristics of perimenopause.
Some simple ways to aid the penetration of naturally secreted hormones into the brain.
How blood pressure fluctuations impact the brain.
What is jet lag, and how can we combat it?
How does alcohol affect the brain?
Louisa explains cardiac remodeling.
The value of different types of exercise for brain health.
The difference between physical activity and exercise.
How our food choices impact our brain health.
How to mitigate the effects of traumatic brain injuries.
How does creatine monohydrate improve brain performance?

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⁠The Neuro Experience Podcast⁠

Book mentioned

⁠The XX Brain⁠ by Dr. Lisa Mosconi