Welcome to the Get Fit Guys, quick and dirty tips to slim down and shape up.

My name is Ben Greenfield, and I'm the Get Fit Guy.

The recent Winter Olympics featured a plethora of head injuries, concussions, and nasty falls,

including a cracked helmet snowboard accident, and I'll link to the video for

that in the show notes over at quick and dirty tips.com for this episode, episode number 177.

Well, after experiencing multiple concussions myself from activities like downhill mountain biking

and playing backyard football without a helmet,

which I don't recommend.

I can't help but cringe when I see athletes go down hard or near their head.

Well, brain injuries are also extremely common in American professional football players,

which has lately created enormous controversy on who is responsible for the early onset of

Alzheimer's and other serious cognitive impairment issues being experienced by both current and

retired NFL players. But the fact is that you don't need to hit your head hard to get brain

damage. The normal aging process is also associated with diminished blood flow to the brain,

which is known as hypopersusion and causes cell injury, early onset of Alzheimer's, and cognitive

impairment very similar to a head injury with no helmet cracking required. So if you want to

think better, improve the blood flow to your brain,

and generally care for your cranium,

then this episode is for you.

Let's look at how your brain gets damaged.

Tiny blood capillaries in your head surround your neurons

and deliver oxygen and nutrients into them. Any interruption

...