S03E03 – Ramadan Fasting – Nokhez

00:10
Ali
Hey, everybody, it’s me again. And we’re back yet again with another episode. I think you’re gonna like this one. This one’s a this one’s an interesting one. I think I see that for all of them, don’t I? You know what? It’s true. They’re all interesting because that’s how I roll. So the topic is going to be a hot topic because it’s going to be about Ramadan, which is just around the corner. We have a very significant population of the planet that are Muslim, that observe the holy month of Ramadan, which is essentially a 30 day cycle once a year in which from dawn to dusk, daylight hours, you’re not allowed to eat or drink absolutely anything. So today in the studio with me, I have no Hayes, and if you have not heard of her before, that means you have not been listening to our podcast.

00:54
Ali
I’m very upset with you. I will call your mom to play the podcast for you. So please scroll back in your favorite podcast platform. We did a wonderful six part series on adolescent mental health. We’ve gotten some great feedback. Please feel free to find us DM us on our Insta page and whatnot with what you think about it, we are considering additional recordings on a whole host of topics that have come out of feedback from listeners. So, Nokia, if you could very briefly introduce yourself.

01:26
Nokhez
I’ll try to keep it brief. Hello, everyone. My name is Nikhaz Osama. I’m a behavioral therapist here in Dubai, and I’m also a neuropsychologist by formal education. Because of my formal education, I am an avid reader. I love everything brain, everything neuro. And this brings me here to the studio today being all Miss Brainy, and I will be discussing and talking about some of the impacts of fasting on. Not just the sort of cognitive level of how it changes your mood and makes you think clearer, but also I might touch upon a little bit about the neurotropic Factors as well and some nice juicy brainy things.

02:05
Ali
Fantastic. This is where you heard the word neurotropical. That one. That one. The one she said. You heard it here first, ladies and gentlemen, nohes is my go to person when I got brain questions because my brain is exhausted from all the horrible food I eat. And she’s going to talk about bad food in Ramadan for sure. And then I’m going to forward this podcast to my mom, and then she’s going to call Nuhes and the Hay is going to get in trouble.

02:31
Nokhez
It happened.

02:32
Ali
It happened. Anyways, let’s dig into it. I know we’re breaking up today’s talk into three sections. So let’s jump in. Let’s get started.

02:39
Nokhez
Okay, so to start off with more like the basic and almost like the first primary effect that individuals do feel when they start fasting is the impact it has on their mood, their schedule, and their cognitive functioning. And when I mean cognitive functioning I’m talking about detention, I’m talking about memory, irritability, flexibility within different tasks. And I know that for a lot of Muslims, the first week tends to be the most challenging week of all times, because it is the time where you’re still adjusting to the sleep. You’re still adjusting to the fact that you have to wake up maybe somewhere in between your sleep at 430 in the morning and make undaprata and make, like, an elaborate breakfast. By andaparata I mean eggs with the nicest piece of bread you will ever.

03:25
Ali
See in your life. If you don’t know parata, please Google it. Because you have not lived, my friends, until you have eaten Daisy food. I think me and Nokia might have to start a food blog at this point.

03:36
Nokhez
Yeah, definitely.

03:38
Ali
So, yes, you’re right. There’s a huge change in schedule. You’re eating meals before the sun comes up. And for a lot of us well, not a lot for a few of us, namely me, that sometimes I have a meal before I go to bed because I’m busy working at night. So it’s a complete shift in schedule, it’s a complete shift in when you’re eating and on that you adjust so many parameters throughout the day.

03:59
Nokhez
So, for example, your eating has now changed. You’re eating at around like 03:00 A.m. And anywhere between 03:00 A.m. To 04:00 A.m., then you wake up and you have a normal working day. Yes, I know. At least in the Middle East regions, we do have shorter working days internationally. I’m not sure if this is always the case, but keeping that in mind, we still have to work, right? So, cognitively, our brains are irritated. The first few days, we’re like, why did we wake them in the middle of night to eat under pratto? Why have we not been able to sleep full proper 6 hours? Six to 7 hours, let’s say? Why have we not been able to drink water all day? I’m thirsty as h***. In Dubai, I’m already on a normal day, I’m thirsty. So the first week, it takes us a minute to adjust.

04:40
Nokhez
It takes our brains to also adjust to what’s really going on. And the reason it takes us some time to adjust is because our brain okay, this is kind of like dipping into the next topic as well, but I’ll discuss it briefly. Now, our brains have not adjusted to the shift in the gut bacteria as well, and the sort of the changes in routine. So gut bacteria I’ll come back to, but in changes in routine. As human beings, we are creatures of habit. We like things being structured. And the reason the working time is the five. Right now, five to nine.

05:13
Ali
Girl, are you on Ramadan time already? Five to nine. D***.

05:17
Nokhez
Sorry.

05:18
Ali
Well, we are not only creatures of habit, but we are slave to the industrial complex. And this is part of the reason why the eight to five work week and work day was set up. But you’re talking about how my biology is used to this schedule.

05:32
Nokhez
Yeah, absolutely. There’s a certain time that you wake up at you have breakfast, it’s almost like your brain and body know this is going to happen. We’ll wake up, brush my teeth, get my breakfast, get to work for a certain amount of hours, have lunch with my employees somewhere here and there, and then get home having a couple other meals and a couple other meals.

05:51
Ali
I like the way you think. Get home and a couple additional meals on top of what you’ve already been binging on all day.

05:57
Nokhez
And then you catch it for movies and everything. And the shift comes into place in Ramadan where you have your meal at 04:00 A.m.. You have broken sleep, you get to work, you can’t have water, you can’t have tea or coffee. And coffee being a very big problem for a lot of individuals around the world because people are highly dependent on coffee, specifically the caffeine and the coffee to wake them up. And now there’s a change in maybe even the cortisol awakening hormone, for example. And I mean, there’s a definite change in that. But too many science words, guys.

06:27
Ali
No, I want to hear it. Talk to me about the brain chemical thingies. Right, I know in the past we’ve talked about cortisol and we’ve talked about endorphins, we’ve talked about a whole bunch of other stuff. Tell me what changes with these guys, because I think it’s kind of important. And the listeners who may not have heard of these terms, they can just hop onto Google and get some more information, but please share.

06:48
Nokhez
So I will first finish off the whole cortisol talk and then I’ll go back into the endorphins and the mood enhancers or the social reception and all those kind of neurotransmitters. When we’re talking about cortisol, when we wake up, naturally there is a peak in our cortisol. It’s called the cortisol awakening hormone. And it’s kind of what gives you that peak of like, okay, I’m going to get into the day. It is also the biological marker for some psychopathologies to sort of say like, okay, you might actually have depression or you might have a burnout because there’s a shift in the way the cortisol even peaks. So basically speaking, you need your cortisol awakening to actually just wake you the f*** up. Pardon my French, but it helps you wake up.

07:30
Ali
I got you. So it’s my wake up hormone?

07:32
Nokhez
Yeah, it’s your wake up hormone. And now suddenly there is a slight shift in even the peak of that wake up hormone. Scientifically, I’m not sure whether this has been proven yet. This would be really interesting to look into, but I am sure that there must be a shift because suddenly there is a broken sleep that we’re looking at. There is digestion that has been changed. There is also a change in hydration. You already are anticipating a little bit of this exhaustion. So I would be interested to actually researching whether this is on a population, on a full population level something that we can see and observe. But there must be a change in.

08:03
Ali
The so what happens with it? Are we talking about just a change or a reduction or an increase or like a recalibration? What’s going on?

08:10
Nokhez
From my very scientific perspective I would say that there’s probably a change in the peak and the speed of which the peak goes up. Again, I’m not sure, but this would be something that I know that science has shown that cortisol awakening hormone is kind of something what you need to get up and when there is a shift in the schedule, we are looking at people waking up a little bit more grumpy, taking a little bit more time, and it takes your body a little bit more time to also adjust to these changes.

08:40
Ali
Okay, so I got somebody to blame for my grumpy mornings. Got you.

08:44
Nokhez
Always here to help.

08:46
Ali
Good. Tell me what else?

08:48
Nokhez
We also have an increase in endorphins. This is what you will notice I think a week after the s*** storm has passed, the week after once you’ve adjusted to the time and everything your mood will start balancing out because there is a little bit of routine your body’s picking up.

09:04
Ali
What do endorphins do again? Briefly?

09:06
Nokhez
They make you happy. They make you feel good. It’s a good feel.

09:09
Ali
My good feel. My good feel. Chemicals.

09:10
Nokhez
Okay, feel good. Sorry. Good feel. I didn’t realize that.

09:14
Ali
They’re the good fellas. The good got you.

09:17
Nokhez
They’re the good fellows and they start also kicking in. And now no neurotransmitter is only assigned to one particular mood or affect. We’re looking at like an increase in serotonin or epinephrine and these will not just help with mood but also alertness. And in time you will feel more socially in control as to how you’re feeling as well. Like okay, less irritable today, even less irritable the day after. And with these endorphins you have the sense of control that you start getting back in your daily tasks because you’ve now developed a bit of a routine. So there’s this increased confidence and then obviously it kind of like taps into reduced levels of stress. So it kind of is like one will affect the other.

10:01
Ali
So our body and mind kind of taken about a week or so to kind of recalibrate and the chemicals need to kind of readjust. Okay, I hear you on that. So that’s why I got a grumpy first week. No problem.

10:13
Nokhez
I think the first week is always the hardest and I feel like this is if I had to sort of compare this to any other thing it would be like for example, first week back from holiday. For most kids after summer holidays the first week is the toughest week for them. Sleep is all over the place. They’re cranky. They don’t want to listen to the teachers first week back from any kind of holiday or any significant shift that affects your sleeping and your eating. And the reason sleep and eat, I want to kind of bring this up again and again. Sleep, your sleeping cycles and your schedule for your meals are very important because they’re also some of the first things that get affected when you have a psycho pathological disease developing. So depression, for example, some of the symptoms are affects your sleeping and your eating anxiety the same way.

10:57
Nokhez
Hence they tell you, go get some sleep. I know it’s like it doesn’t really always help, but getting proper sleep can improve mood and thus help you over time. So it just takes our minds and bodies a little over a week to get used to the waking up at 04:00 a.m. For big alu.

11:13
Ali
The bigger alucrate, we leveling up on those meals. I like that. All right. And what’s happening with the what’s that other phrase? No, wait, neurotransmitters. Yes. Are they firing? How they’re supposed to be firing? Are they getting angry with me? What’s going on?

11:32
Nokhez
I know for serotonin those shifts, and I also know dopamine, but this is also, as I said before, we’re looking at a change in the routine will affect the way our brains are functioning in terms of like, okay, now we’re having a meal, so the feel good hormone comes out. We’re constantly dehydrated for the first week. It takes our bodies a little bit of time to actually adjust to the water schedule as well. Caffeine is gone, so there will be a slight change for everyone. I don’t think there’s any research, at least I don’t remember any research on the top of my head that it really goes into specific neurotransmitters. But there is a general shift. Mainly there has been a shift in an. Norepinephrine will be the first one that comes into play. And that is where you do see the first the dip in attention for the first week and improvements over time.

12:18
Ali
You dropped caffeine a couple of sentences back, and I know a lot of people who wake up with caffeine. I’m one of them get through the afternoon with caffeine and then end their day with caffeine. And it’s just caffeine just as such a regular part of their schedule, whether it’s coffee or other stimulants that they’re drinking. And now all of a sudden we’re telling them you have basically daylight hours with no caffeine. What happens to our brains? Are we going through withdrawal?

12:44
Nokhez
Absolutely. You’ve taken away their wake up call. When I was talking about cortisol waking, I think I just realized that’s why I brought it in is because there’s also, like, the impact of removing coffee on your cortisol waking hormone. Suddenly you don’t have that extra energy. You don’t have that little wake up. You don’t have something that helps you just get up. I know the first three hormones are I’m going to struggle heaps because my wake up is close the alarm and then go downstairs, get the coffee ready, come upstairs, have your little biscuit cracker, and then drink coffee and start getting ready. So when you have that and now suddenly I’m not going to be going downstairs and I’m just going to have to not even have I won’t even have my cracker. I’m going to go straight into getting ready. I’m actually going to feel a little odd and out of place.

13:32
Nokhez
And then on top of that, the exhaustion will kick in from not having coffee. Caffeine is we all know what caffeine is.

13:42
Ali
I don’t feel like I need to. Towards the end of our discussion today, I want to kind of circle back to caffeine and then strategies that we can put into place to, let’s just say, reduce the impact. Or maybe because I’ve got a friend of mine, what he’s been doing for great many years is that he will wean himself off of coffee. Two weeks prior to Ramadan starting.

14:00
Nokhez
Smart.

14:00
Ali
Yeah.

14:01
Nokhez
Time to start him.

14:02
Ali
Yes, I guess so. Good. Tell me, what else do we need to know?

14:07
Nokhez
We need to know a lot about our gut health. I feel like gut health is something that is largely ignored even on a very basic on day to day level. I feel like not a lot of people pay attention to their general gut health and let alone their gut health in Ramadan. Just to kind of like brief into it. When we’re talking about the gut, we are referring it to something as like the second brain. It is a little bit like a very classic example is when you’re feeling really good, you sometimes got for a good dinner. But sometimes when you’re having a s***** day and you have your mom’s like ARU Caprateo or Biryani or like as you can tell, I’m probably a little hungry right now. But even you have these meals, you automatically feel a lot better. And that is where the whole second brain complex comes from as well, because.

14:52
Ali
I might have to disagree with you on that. I’ve got a lot of research scientifically backed by my mom that says I only think with my gut as the first and primary brain and then my actual brain takes a backseat to all the decisions I make because food is life, people. And if you disagree, unfollow all of my podcasts and socials. We cannot be friends on this planet if food is not life and life is not food. Girl I’m feeling like this is a constant plug in for our I already have a blog.

15:23
Nokhez
I already have a blog. You just need to join or we need to collaborate on that. That’s a different discussion.

15:29
Ali
It is a different discussion. What’s your handle for that blog?

15:32
Nokhez
For your food with love. Spice. Sorry. Well spiced love.

15:37
Ali
I was just about to say, how hungry are you? You forgot the name of your own insta, girl, it’s well, spiced love. One word. No spaces, no underscore people, no funky love. She posts such bougie pictures of the food she cooks. I think we might have creative differences if ever we collaborate, because I cook, like, a massive pot, and I’ll be like, here’s the pot. And her pictures are this beautifully tistically, articulated artisan level of it’s so pretty.

16:07
Nokhez
You don’t want to eat it.

16:09
Ali
Exactly. I was just about to get to that. I’m like, I would feel guilty messing it up. That’s me. Her most recent post was a salad. She called it the sexy salad. And I just looked at it, and I was like, girl, where’s the meat in this?

16:29
Nokhez
It’s a fatusha.

16:31
Ali
I don’t know. We might have one of those conflicting type of food ventures where she does bougie cute food, and I do the here’s a big pot of meat.

16:41
Nokhez
Chili.

16:42
Ali
Meat. Chili. Chili with meat. Oh, girl, you’re onto something. Okay, back to the second. We digress too much back to the second brain. We’ll just agree to disagree on that one, and we’ll just call it the gut brain. So tell me more about the gut brain.

16:58
Nokhez
Regarding the gut brain. So the reason it’s been referred to the second brain, gut Brain, is because it’s got a complex network of neurons that communicate with the brain through the gut brain axis. And this communication plays a very crucial role in regulating various physiological processes, which also include mood and cognition.

17:17
Ali
Mom. See, I told you it’s connected. You never listen to me.

17:21
Nokhez
Everything on the mother.

17:25
Ali
She’S guilty of all of it because guess who makes the Alupra tape? She makes them and then tells me, why aren’t you using your brain? I’m like, Mom.

17:36
Nokhez
I just realized I’ve got to use some big words. Grab a notepad. Right? Grab a notepad. One of the things that we need to keep in mind when we’re talking about gut health is the fact that it’s constant digestion. The stuff that we’re taking in does obviously not just impact our brain, but the way we’re feeling. Hence, for example, if you have a really big and this is, like a very typical example if you have a large plate of carbs, you’re going to suddenly feel very tired. You’re going to have this, like, almost like it’s the food coma phenomena. People feel really exhausted after having a very big plate of carbs. People feel a lot better when they have their proteins first and then carbs, you can literally schedule your meals around, and it has an impact on the way your gut receives the food and how it assimilates in your body and how it would almost react with your brain.

18:25
Nokhez
It is quite literally a chemical reaction. So when we’re talking about the impact of the second brain, we’re looking at something called microbiota. And it’s basically a very diverse little community of microorganisms in your gut. And they maintain a really crucial role in just maintaining gut health, maintaining the bacterial balance of the good. And we’ve always heard the good and the bad bacteria, and it helps with maintaining balance. And these microbiota are also very important in maintaining the production of neurotransmitters and other signaling molecules. A very good example would be that the gut microbiota can produce serotonin, which obviously, as we know, helps regulate mood. And then there’s also other neurotransmitters such as dopamine help, which help with reward and motivation.

19:16
Ali
So what’s going on right now? I lost you a little bit. I got you on the tech side, right? So fasting is helping it develop better.

19:24
Nokhez
Or fasting is balances. It almost gives you the break.

19:29
Ali
Okay, now we’re talking about something interesting because I was just about to talk about, well, how is all this happening on a normal day throughout the entire year? And then what happens to this when we are in Ramadan and we’re fasting? What do you mean when you say it gives it a break?

19:44
Nokhez
So one thing to keep in mind is that on a day to day basis we’re also not all of us are very gut conscious or gut health conscious. Some of us are very gut health conscious because of factors such as irrigable bowel syndrome or people who have severe gut inflammation. So those individuals tend to be more careful with their meal plans. But for example, even myself, I’m not going to keep an eye out on whether I should have caffeine before food or after food when I wake up, typically I should have it after. But it’s like the little habits within our day can actually really impact the way our guts are functioning. Not all of us are having very well balanced meals.

20:22
Ali
What’s a sign of bad gut health?

20:26
Nokhez
Bloating. Bloating. Cognitive fog is one of them. Cognitive fog is a bit harder to pick up for individuals because it kind of varies how you or I would experience it. But Bloating is a big giveaway, passing out a lot of gas, burping and farting. And we’re also looking at sheer irritability.

20:44
Ali
So brain fog, irritability, short temperedness. Sounds like my life. Girl mom, we got to readjust the product. They’re not working for me, man. So that’s why I’m so irritable. Or I can blame gut health for this. Note to self, blame gut health for life’s problems. Okay, so during so let me just kind of recap what I’m listening from you on this topic. So we need the good and the bad bacteria in our gut to kind of balance out how essentially our entire body works, right? Because this is where the nutrition goes in and this feeds and connects into the brain. And if we have better gut health extrapolating for what you’ve told me, we just have more energy we’re more focused, we feel better about ourselves. So overall, living a more healthy existence.

21:32
Nokhez
Yeah. When it really comes down to the reason I was mentioning the microorganisms in the first place is because it helps with balancing out the composition, almost the ratio of the good and the bad. And what it also does is it helps to increase the abundance of the beneficial bacteria.

21:52
Ali
That’s why that break is important, because it helps your gut.

21:55
Nokhez
Literally. It gives you the break. It’s like sending your car to the garage and being like, fix it up. And it gives you the time to realize how much you’ve been messing around with your car and then gives you the time to also I was going.

22:09
Ali
To say spa day, but we just passed women empowerment or Women’s Day or whatever it is. I guess the woman is going to use a car example and not get blamed for mansplaining stuff. Okay, I hear you.

22:24
Nokhez
But it helps with the other thing. It helps with the abundance of healthy bacteria in the gut. Another thing is that they found that there’s also more diversity in the gut microbiota, which is very important. We need diversity in all places and spaces now, not just your gut.

22:41
Ali
Also, am I going to get trouble for saying all lives matter at this point? So diversification and gut bacteria improves overall gut health, which as a ripple effect, improves the rest of your biology and your brain and everything. Okay, this sounds great. Is there any difference in nutrition and nutritional absorption or any of these sort of things?

23:01
Nokhez
Yeah, I think one of the biggest differences that we can see is also intestinal permeability absorption of the food.

23:10
Ali
Of the food.

23:10
Nokhez
It’s also the permeability. So how much of the nutrients are going in and out? We are looking at a bit of a change in that. For example, it’s also called the leaky gut. So those are the things that Fasting can help with as well. It helps with leaky gut syndrome, for example, and also really helps for individuals who have severe irritable bowel syndrome because those individuals struggle a lot with poor absorption of nutrients. So it has been proven that Fasting can improve gut permeability by reducing the inflammation and the oxidative stress in the gut. I’m not going to go into oxidative stress. I was obsessed about it back in my first year of college, so I can talk about hours. So it’s basically not good. It’s got the word stress in it.

23:55
Ali
I like that. It’s got stress. The word stress is in it. Don’t touch it. Stay away. Walk away from it. All right, so this makes a lot of sense. And I think the key takeaway that I’ve got from this is, yes, there’s a bunch of science stuff behind it, but ultimately you’re just giving your system a break. You’re giving your system a chance to kind of rec coup, rebuild, get the troops back together again. Diversify come back strong, helps with herring.

24:16
Nokhez
And recycling of any damaged I really want to say damaged guts.

24:22
Ali
Damaged guts.

24:27
Nokhez
There’s this other mechanism that is also well known. I’m not going to use the word because for the life of me I don’t understand the pronunciation of it, but it helps with the maintenance of gut homeostatis and also helps prevent gut inflammation. I know big words, but this is essential. I think everyone needs to take some time during this Ramadan with the help of this podcast, run through some ideas as to what gut homeostatis or inflammation are. Because when you’re able to control your inflammation, you’re also able to upregulate some mechanisms which help with processes that kind of take away broken down gut components or guts. But this is on a cellular level. This helps just balance and it’s aligning your chakras.

25:12
Ali
Okay, my gut chakras are being aligned. I love it. I love it for all my chakras. Technically, all my chakra people out there, this is what we do. We realign your gut chakras. We take it, we slap it around, we clean it, we put it back. That’s how it’s done. Call 1800 gut chakra. We got you. So I like it. It’s a spot for your gut. You’re giving it time. You’re cleaning it out.

25:36
Nokhez
Yeah.

25:36
Ali
You’re letting it rebuild. This is smart. Well, now that I’ve heard about it’s smart. And I’m having to think about some of my life decisions about the food I eat.

25:46
Nokhez
Yay.

25:47
Ali
Good. Anything else we need to know about the gut?

25:50
Nokhez
No, I feel like I’ve largely talked about everything. There is a direct link between gut health and cognitive functioning. Given the fact that you’re giving it a bit of a cleanse, you will see improvements in your overall mood. You will feel less irritable. Second week onwards. First week, I am telling everyone this as a disclaimer, it’s always the hardest. But the second week to third week and fourth week, you start noticing a little bit more balance. You’re also calmer. Now the one thing also when you’re observing Ramadan is that you’re also practicing some of the other rituals, but other.

26:25
Ali
Well, it would be rituals.

26:27
Nokhez
Rituals, yeah. Also you have to practice mindfulness. A lot of people have to practice mindfulness in Ramadan. And I think this is also like we’ll circle back into the last part as to how to maintain some of the things that you’ve learned through Ramadan into your day to day life. But because you’re being a lot more mindful, you naturally start becoming more positive, more well regulated. You have more control over your impulsivity, you have more control over your anger. Your sleep quality would improve over time. It’s still going to be s***, especially depending on how many paraties you’ve had.

27:03
Ali
I like that. So ladies and gentlemen, before you can trust your gut, clean your gut.

27:08
Nokhez
Oh d***.

27:09
Ali
You heard it here first. Excellent, excellent. Talk to me about that next big section that were having our discussion with before we started. Hit the record button. We’re talking about neuro behavioral impact on neurosomething something. Impact something.

27:26
Nokhez
There’s always a little something. So I think one thing to keep in mind when we’re talking about the neuro behavioral impact, we’re also looking at how the changes in the way we’re eating, the changes in our sleep, the changes in our mood, how this all on a sort of micro level does also have an impact on kind of more of a gradient and overarching level. Fine. Yes, we understand that gut health is important, but how does gut health evolve over time into you having a better day or having a better outlook is also important to know. I mean, I’m not going to go into too much detail because as I said earlier, there’s a lot I can say. But the one thing that I have read time and time again about is neuroinflammation and how fasting can really help regulate neuroinflammation.

28:08
Ali
Tell me more about what neuroinflammation is.

28:10
Nokhez
So, neuroinflammation, to simply put, it is a process of inflammation in the central nervous system. And this has been linked to a range of different neurological and psychiatric disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, depression, and anxiety. And research has shown that there is a significant impact that fasting can have on your inflammation, which in effect, obviously improves psychopathology.

28:35
Ali
This has a long term impact also.

28:37
Nokhez
Definitely.

28:37
Ali
This is very interesting. Tell me more.

28:41
Nokhez
What exactly would you like to know about? The more, though, because there’s so much, there’s a lot.

28:45
Ali
Okay, so for people who have never heard of the term neuroinflammation, tell me a little bit more.

28:50
Nokhez
Okay, so in regards to neuroinflammation, I think what we need to understand, it’s just the process of the inflammation of the central nervous system. And this includes, like, the brain, the optic nerves, spinal cord, and this is the type of inflammation that is different from the peripheral inflammation that occurs in the other parts of the body. So we’re used to like, oh, this place feels a little inflamed, but the brain inflammation is slightly different. Come back to this a bit later. But the impact of near inflammation can be found. And it’s definitely linked to neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s and also some psychopathologies such as depression and anxiety. And when trying to understand as to what causes the nerve inflammation, it’s a variety of different factors. It could be an infection. It could be injury, it could be toxins in terms of what you’re breathing and eating and some genetic factors as well.

29:41
Nokhez
And to dumb it down, it’s just the activation of your immune system in response to these factors. If there’s too many toxins that you’ve taken in because you’ve breathed too much dust, typical in Dubai, you will have some amount of like your immunity will fight back to the toxins. Too much oxidative stress in the brain. Definitely something that causes near inflammation. So these are just some things to keep in mind. So, for example, when you hit your head really hard, there’s a little bit of near inflammation. It’s your immune system also trying to figure that conundrum out.

30:16
Ali
Okay, I hear you on this. So what happens when we’re fasting?

30:21
Nokhez
So when we’re fasting, what ends up happening is that we’re able to sort of activate some key mechanisms which help reduce neuroinflammation. One is through this is the word I was trying to avoid earlier. Autophagy. Autophagy. Yeah. We’re going to stick to autophagy. Guys, my biology people who are listening, please forgive me.

30:46
Ali
Can you spell it out so we can Google it later?

30:48
Nokhez
Autophagy. Okay, thank you.

30:54
Ali
So what is this?

30:55
Nokhez
So it is a process in which damaged or dysfunctional cellular components are broken down or recycled. And it is shown to play an important part in maintaining cellular homeostatis. And it helps with prevention and off inflammation. And they have seen that this is the link where it comes into the whole neurocognitive part where it’s really important. It helps with reducing the inflammation and fasting promotes and up regulates autophagy. And this is the same process that is there also in your gut.

31:25
Ali
So in conjunction, we’re talking about things like reduced stress.

31:29
Nokhez
Yeah, we’re looking at meditation. Just taking those breaks helps with a little bit of this as well, because we’re able to reduce the amount of stress that we’re constantly exposed to. Constantly. It’s like I know I’m using the car example again, but if you leave the engine on for too long, it’s bad for the engine. If you’re standing, you have the engine on for too long, the AC is also on. That is also a little bit bad for the engine. Right. So it’s the same kind of thing. You don’t want to overwork your engine. And because us humans will never give ourselves the break, we’re constantly having our engine going. And what fasting can do is it slows down time for us. But also because of the other practices, at least, and as a practicing Muslim, you will be praying a little bit more frequently.

32:12
Nokhez
You are more conscious about your prayers. It slows everything down. So kind of brings in that sort of break that you need also from a neuroinflammatory perspective, because you’re able to not stress for a second, maybe.

32:24
Ali
This is interesting. I like how you’ve kind of put it all together now, in addition to your gut health and your brain health, the entire month forces your body to slow down. And in our lives, most people are just spending too much time trying to do too many things without the physical and mental resources, and they’re burning themselves out. All right, so we’re reducing stress, we’re reducing anxiety. We’re basically promoting a more balanced lifestyle. We’re giving our body a break to rebuild and recover from the torture that we’ve been putting it through. Good, excellent. We talked earlier about bad gut health and brain fog. But what about the when we talk about cognitive function and clarity of mind type of things, what’s going on over here?

33:09
Nokhez
So when we’re fasting, there’s definitely there are numerous benefits, but one of the most interesting ones have been found, at least for me, they’re interesting. I don’t know how it is for others, but it’s the effect that it have on your memory attention and your executive functioning. I’ll get into executive functioning in a little bit as well because it’s a bit of a mouthful. But people have seen, and studies have shown that memory is definitely improved, especially spatial memory has improved for individuals after they’re faster for 24 hours. And another study showed that 16 hours per day can improve with working memory. And this is very important. I feel like nowadays our working memories are so attached to the availability of a device because we can put in reminders, we can log in hours when we can log information and we don’t actively have to store anything for ourselves.

33:57
Nokhez
And the fact that fasting can help with cognitive functioning, neuroinflammation upregulation of certain mechanisms and then all of this accumulates over time into improvements in your memory that’s I think brilliant. And then we also have improvements in our attention. So for particular tasks, not everything, we’re not going to see an overarching effect on every because there are different kinds of attention as well. I’m not going to get into this, but there were studies that have shown that it can help with just improving attention and reaction time. So I think this would be extremely important if you’re driving in Dubai traffic the reaction time, sorry, I feel like I’m using the car and those examples too much. And then anyway, moving forward, we have the last one, which is the executive functioning. So this is a set of cognitive processes which include goal direction and planning.

34:54
Nokhez
This will have planning, decision making, problem solving, but novel problem solving. Creativity also comes in here, and flexibility between switching two different tasks. And this is how it kind of gets into attention or whatever. But studies have shown that it helps with your executive functioning as well. And it will help in the way that it helps with the clarity that you need for decision making and it slows you down enough within your emotional impulsivity that you can it’s not that you become more rational, but you have a clear understanding of the different.

35:25
Ali
So things are better in focus.

35:27
Nokhez
Yeah. However, I would not say your decision making will better 2 hours before your fast opens. If anything, I feel like people are more on edge because I know that people are going to be there is a stance of like oh, but it’s such an exhausting thing, it’s a full day. I feel so tired when I get home, I have no energy. Those things happen. But at the same time, there are general improvements over time. And if you do your Ramadan correctly and you do your fast right, you will see the improvements. I think the reason that we complain so much and we don’t see it is because we are not taking that opportunity.

36:02
Ali
We’ll get into that.

36:02
Nokhez
Yeah.

36:04
Ali
At the end of our chat, I want to have a talk about how to do Ramadan the right way also. But one of the things to keep in mind, guys, and okay, I mentioned this earlier, this is not happening. Week one, right? Week one is our oh, my God, what’s going on? Week one, week two onwards is when you’re going to start to see these positive changes in your biology and in your brain and how it’s going to impact all the things that you’re doing. But all of this sounds great. More clarity, less brain fog, better decision making skills, better understanding of what’s going on, improvement in different parts of my memory. All of this sounds absolutely fantastic.

36:37
Nokhez
Improved skin, improved sleep.

36:39
Ali
Wow.

36:40
Nokhez
Spa package.

36:42
Ali
Spa package. I think we’ve been doing spas wrong. Earlier, before we started recording, you were talking about an axis HPA. Did I get it right?

36:54
Nokhez
Yes.

36:55
Ali
Tell me about HPA and stress.

36:57
Nokhez
It’s one of my favorite axis out there. Now, the HPA axis is the mechanism in your brain and body that has been placed to manage and regulate your stress. So when an incoming stressor is coming and also when there’s already stressor at the back of your head, your brain and body are basically able to regulate the amount of stress needed sorry, not stress. Cortisol needed to stress destress to help.

37:23
Ali
You smack that access around.

37:26
Nokhez
It’s like your HPA access helps with the regulation and fasting can help with the HPA access. The reason it helps is also, I’m not too well read on this, but I do know that when it comes down to fasting and the impact that it has on your HPA is it helps with the individual mechanisms to help regulate the amount of cortisol. So you’re not as hyper. I was going to say hypercortisole, whereas you’re not producing as much cortisol for little things. But then when we look into all the different things we have discussed earlier, it is kind of like it’s a trickle down effect. Of course, if you’re sleep and you’re eating and things are getting slightly better and you are able to absorb nutrients better and the serotonin is getting better, of course we’re going to have a trickle down effect on our cortisol as well.

38:16
Nokhez
And I know that the HPA access is also very sensitive to external and internal stressors. And by when I say internal stressors, it’s also fasting. The first few days is a stressor because it’s a shift. It’s a huge shift in the way you’re eating and sleeping. And it takes a bit of a toll. You’re crankier, you’re more likely to also snap out. So the HPA access helps with the regulation and over time, at least week two onwards, you will start feeling like it’s been reregulated.

38:45
Ali
Okay, all right. It makes sense. So we’re regulating everything else in the system. This is yet another piece, and we’ve got data that tells us that it helps to reregulate and manage our stress even better. This is great. Anything else that we’re missing out on the neuro behavioral side?

39:01
Nokhez
I know I mentioned the neurotropic thing. Now, as I said, on a molecular level, we are also seeing improvements in the production of neurotrophic factors. And one of my favorite words from my masters and my bachelor’s was the brain derived neurotrophic factor BDNF. And people not people, research has shown it plays an essential role in the growth and survival of neurons in the brain. And fasting has been found to improve BDNF factors. So you’re not just doing the whole spa day for your gut and helping with neuroinflammation, but you’re also helping with the survival of your current neurons. And this ties into oxidative stress and whatnot. But I think this is something especially if you’re someone who’s interested in mental health, your own personal mental health and cognitive functioning and NeuroHealth. And I feel like nowadays people should be more aware as to how things are impacting their brain.

40:03
Nokhez
I would say this is one of the things you should definitely read into. Look into what improves your BDNF factors. I think bananas is one of them. I’m not sure.

40:12
Ali
I was like, Girl, if she says, but our tear are one of them, we got trouble happening here. We got trouble. We’re going to have to shut this show down. Like, oh, my goodness.

40:19
Nokhez
No. But it’s like some foods. I think there are a lot of foods that help with this indirectly. And I feel like it’s important for people to definitely look into what kind of foods they should be eating during Ramadan to also facilitate these mechanisms.

40:35
Ali
Good. Now that you mentioned types of food we should be eating into Ramadan, I want to kind of springboard into the next part, which is how do we do Ramadan the right way? Because for the most part, I think a lot of people do it the wrong way. I know from a religious perspective, the idea is that you’re supposed to feel the hunger that the people who are not as fortunate you are able to feel. And this is to help you build compassion and empathy amongst many other things. And we’ve already spent most of today’s podcast talking about the physical and mental aspects of how it helps you as an individual. But the idea is also to help you become a better human being and a better participant in the planet that we live on in terms of giving back charitable actions, more mindfulness, more prayers, more thinking about things.

41:25
Ali
But I think every culture has bad habits surrounding fasting and the food that they specifically use to open their fast.

41:37
Nokhez
Oh, don’t get me started. I feel like the kind of foods that we open our fasts with also determines for how the rest of the evening is going to play out for us. If you are having, and I know this is tradition, at least in the South Asian traditions, we heavily depend on the availability of aloos and wheat. Yeah, wheat for corde.

42:03
Ali
So basically our diets, I’ll help you guys out for the worst. It’s starch, carbs, wheat and fat. And everything has to be fried, because if it ain’t fried, it is not edible.

42:16
Nokhez
No, but it’s also like in a daisy household, I never have so many pakore and samosa and rolls and shami, kebabs and tikis and all that. I don’t have that so much throughout the year, but when it’s Ramadan, it’s a must.

42:34
Ali
It’s every meal and it’s every day, every thought. Its table is full. And then there’s this push that, oh, you haven’t eaten. So you must eat in an exorbitant amount of food to compensate for all day of not eating.

42:47
Nokhez
It’s also like the drinks that we open our frosts with. I see so many. I know this is a culture. High sugar is like the tang, like.

42:56
Ali
Those, like tang, ruffs tang, even vimto.

43:00
Nokhez
It’s all sugar therapy, very rich in glucose. And I really want individuals to look and consider just blend out a smoothie. It’s the same thing. It’s natural glucose. And glucose is literally what our brains thrive on. All right, so I think I should have mentioned this a bit earlier as well, but 45 minutes later into the podcast, I’m talking about how important glucose is for the brain. But the reason our brains also feel so irritated is because there’s a certain and sudden shift of glucose absorption in our brains. We’re not giving it the fuel that it needs to function.

43:34
Ali
Let’s talk about the fuel. I think everybody knows this is not even something we need to explain. I think everybody knows in all their cultures how terrible the food in terms of quality is. I’m not blaming no moms for making bad food. All food moms make are great. Just unhealthy. Excessively. Excessively unhealthy. What are the types of foods that we should be opening our fast with? And I’m going to kind of come back to and I want to talk about what sort of food should we be having in the morning before we close out for the day. So what are we supposed to open our fast with after a whole, whatever, 1618 some hours of not eating, not drinking. We don’t want to shock and awe the body. So what should we be having?

44:15
Nokhez
By all means, do not be having too many carbie things when you open, because what you’re going to do is you’re going to give it the greatest glucose spike, not just glucose spike, but also there’s so many carbs that will slow you down. Hence why I know no shade to the dads. I feel like we’ve been digging on the moms, but also dads. I know a lot of people have a heavy nap after they’ve opened their fast. The reason you’re having that nap is because your body has now gotten this little doze and it’s going to be like sleep time, night time. And then you have again disrupted your sleep cycle because now you’re going to sleep later and now you’re going to stay up to sahur, to have your sahur. I know a lot of people do that. And this is the worst thing that you can do to your body.

44:59
Ali
Well, the nap is a result of bad food, right? That’s what pushes your body to kind of like pass out.

45:05
Nokhez
If anything, the aim should be to feel more energetic after once you’ve opened the fast.

45:10
Ali
So what type of foods are we talking about? Well, obviously we want to stay away from carbie starchy fried things. Okay. And then now a lot of my friends would be like, burl, what’s left?

45:21
Nokhez
So in my household, we have fresh juice, we have smoothies, we have orange juice. And it’s like you are obviously craving something sweet.

45:29
Ali
Fruits.

45:30
Nokhez
Yes, fruits. Got like God’s natural sweets. Just have a good smoothie and something like with bananas. And avoid having too many mangoes because mangoes carry a lot of sugar. But you can have a banana strawberry smoothies. Keep it simple. Also, I would say go in straightforward dinner rather than having these little bite sized little deep fried, which you call snacks.

45:53
Ali
But you ate like three dinners worth. And then you got to have a.

45:56
Nokhez
Dinner after you’re having essentially two meals. Otherwise. So have just one big nice meal.

46:02
Ali
One proper meal.

46:03
Nokhez
Yeah, have one proper meal. So I would say in our house, mom makes like chicken karai or Burgundy or something. You can have these things. I’m not saying stay away from rice, but have it in a moderate and I don’t know, be a bit conscious about it. Having a batch of bokoti first with some tikis and all that with like fancy chuckneys. And then like 2 hours later you’re having another big meal. I would say just have one nice big meal where you’ve had your section of fruits, have a portion of salads, you have your greens. It’s important if you’re doing this whole gut health thing to do it right. Might as well do it the right way. Get your greens in there, have protein and have good protein. Have not just when I say good protein, I mean like go have fish, salmon, explore.

46:48
Nokhez
This is literally the window of like it’s a 30 day window for you to get your s*** together.

46:53
Ali
I like the perspective on it. This is great. And I’m sure there are a lot of illuminates out there who are thinking about all the Iftar parties and the gossip that they’re going to be having. Like, oh my God, do you know what Nokia said? She said don’t have pocoti guys. No, but no case. I agree with you 100%. I mean, if we’re going to spend 30 days rebooting and resetting and helping clean out our body, I think it’s just a disservice to dump so much garbage into it. It’s just not fair.

47:23
Nokhez
And I hate adding this like this, but I feel like it also takes a burden off the mothers.

47:27
Ali
Agreed. Agreed.

47:29
Nokhez
I know that in typical households, or in some households at least, the mom is like, taking care of all this. There’s a lot of little, like it’s.

47:38
Ali
Like a daily buffet.

47:41
Nokhez
I know that there have been times where if dog parties and stuff. I feel like the women are in the kitchen and they’re exhausted. They’re also fasting. Keep that in mind.

47:50
Ali
You know what, having come right out of Women’s Day Week, I think this would be a very interesting ramadan to tell all the guys out there that if you want to throw an Iftar party, you in the kitchen this time, bro. Have the misses sit and enjoy that day. And then I’ll see how many Iftar parties you want to throw. Step up, boys, step up.

48:11
Nokhez
And I think keeping it down to one meal and I think the whole thing about Ramadan is also, as you mentioned earlier, it gives you perspective as to what struggle can look like when you have limited resources. I think also opening your fast, you should be mindful of that when you’re opening your fast. Having does hazar Bokhorde is not really mindful of resources. It means if anything, you have not learned anything. I mean, that’s my perspective. I know a lot of people would say this.

48:39
Ali
No, I agree with you. No, I think what you’ve said is fair. Honestly, it’s very fair. And it’s not to poke at any specific cultural subset. I know pretty much all my friends from all these different countries and all these different cultures, we all have similarist problems. Moms are struggling in the kitchen putting together buffets of food, which is essentially unhealthy, which is wrong to start with, I think. Keep it simple. Like you said, focus on healthy foods and actually s e ramadan the intention that it was given to us for. I think that’s very great. Tell me about the morning. Okay, we’re going to have some debates about this in every household, about the Iftar thingy, but talk to me about the morning. And we literally started our podcast talking about eggs and parate for sahur, or the breakfast you have, or rather not the breakfast, but the meal that you have before the sun comes up.

49:30
Ali
What would be a good meal to have at that time, or what type of things should we be eating at that time?

49:35
Nokhez
I think carby. This is where a little bit of.

49:37
Ali
Carbs are we talking complex carbs now?

49:40
Nokhez
Yeah, complex carbs also just where I know the perspective of being a daisy means. Like, I know I’m going to have parate for first thing in the morning for sahur, which is good. It’s very fulfilling having that much amount of carbon. It’s also I mean, the one thing I’m a bit unclear on is also glucose spikes and whatnot. But it’s also you want to have something like ebola yogurt and fruits. Yogurt. Oats. Exactly.

50:06
Ali
Oats are very good.

50:08
Nokhez
I did not think of that. Them oats keep you full for much longer.

50:13
Ali
Yes.

50:13
Nokhez
Chickpeas as well. Like try to have salads in the morning as well.

50:17
Ali
Power foods.

50:18
Nokhez
Exactly. Have your power foods first thing in the morning. You will sleep better as well. Getting back into sleep will be a bit easier because you’re not stuffed with something greasy. Avoid too many sweet things in the morning because you’re going to feel a bit like you’ll have the glucose spike.

50:33
Ali
And then you but it doesn’t distribute you don’t distribute the energy.

50:36
Nokhez
Exactly. And I feel like fruits. It’s one of those reoccurring things. Have just bowl fruits. It won’t not hurt you. If anything, it will help you with maintaining a healthy glucose level and healthy energy levels as well. Throughout the day. Have something good and healthy starch. There are healthy starches. Like, you can have your potatoes, but have them in a nicer way. Oats are one of them parate botis, like nuns and all these things? Eggs have plenty of eggs. Have good protein in the morning as well. I know some households, they have what they had for dinner for Sohooth. Makes no difference to them. They’ll have it with a bowl of yogurt chuck to the side. I have tons and tons of water. Please do not discount.

51:16
Ali
But the water needs to be throughout. Right. You can’t just chug two liters at the hours of the morning and then.

51:22
Nokhez
You’Re struggling to actually fall asleep.

51:25
Ali
I can’t even roll over me.

51:28
Nokhez
So maintain good water intake throughout. Once you’ve opened your fast, maintain the water intake and not just kind of like splurge into having too much water here and there.

51:39
Ali
Great. This all sounds fantastic. All right, before we get to wrap up anything else?

51:45
Nokhez
Oh, I have a lot more actually, because the one thing that we’re also forgetting is how to use Ramadan time. You have, what, 4 hours or 5 hours before you kind of like start winding down for bedtime. So how to use those hours as well. A lot of the people, at least for the first week, will feel really tired when they open the fast and they’re not going to want to do anything. And this is the perfect time to just start reading. I’m not just saying like Quranic or Islamic scriptures. I’m just saying go ahead and just start reading and calming yourself down, look and read into meditation because it will be very healthy and very helpful for your little brain engine to also start just unwinding and getting into a bit of a routine. The earlier you start with your routine and create atomic habits, you are able to actually sustain these habits over time.

52:32
Nokhez
If there are too many shifts and changes coming in here and there and you’re not developing a routine, your fast will feel more stressful because food and water and sleep are all out the window anyway. So what kind of helps you sustain your day? The other habits that are in place. So try to keep yourself calm. Don’t burn out too much brain energy over an idiot or over idiot problems. So practice suburb and all that.

52:59
Ali
So I like that. So not only are we going to balance the food and the body and the mind, we’re also balancing our activities. We’re learning how to build good habits. And I think what you said is very important is that this is a great opportunity to build things that roll over into the rest of the months and the rest of the year. Fantastic.

53:17
Nokhez
Yeah, I think my add just a few other things in the little post for the Instagram to sort of help with the readers. Sorry, reading for the readers.

53:31
Ali
All right. Fantastic. This has been absolutely great. As usual. Great conversation. Lots of information to think about, to Google, to read more into. Feel free to drop us a message guys, if you have any feedback or comments. Thank you Nokias for being on the podcast. As always, fantastic. Valuable information. Lots of new terminology, some that we even had to spell out, which is okay. Every day you learn something new, or at least you should. Thank you much for listening people and enjoy the rest of your day. See you on the next one. Bye.