I still remember the first time I held a human brain. It was surprisingly heavy, soft and completely extraordinary. Inside that one organ had once lived someone’s memories, personality, emotions, ideas and decisions.
I still remember the first time I held a human brain. It was over 30 years ago at medical school. It was surprisingly heavy, soft and completely extraordinary. Inside that one organ had once lived someone’s memories, personality, emotions, ideas and decisions. I was fascinated then. Now I am revisiting that fascination. intensely focused on my new clinic space, opening in a new location on Harley Street in September, which I am super excited about! The clinic will have an even greater focus on the most fascinating organ I know. Your brain. Let’s dive in...
Where insight becomes impact
What I’ve been looking at this week…
Researchers at Radboud University in the Netherlands gave participants two types of memory task to complete. In one, they had to take in new information. In the other, they had to hold onto information while ignoring distractions.
Here's what they found: Ignoring the distractions felt harder. And the accuracy of remembering information when distractions were present was also lower. Interestingly, when offered money to repeat the tasks, participants were less willing to choose the one with the distractions because it required more effort and was more draining and stressful, even if it meant they got more money!
That tells you something important about your working day. Every notification you try to ignore still asks something of your brain. Every conversation happening around you still has to be screened out. And the mental effort doesn't always seem worth the financial reward.
Your prefrontal cortex is the brain region helping you focus, plan, prioritise, resist interruption and make decisions. Your brain uses its executive control system to hold a goal in mind, screen out irrelevant information and stop your attention being pulled elsewhere. Every notification, interruption and open mental loop asks that system to work harder.
That can feel like: reading the same paragraph repeatedly
entering a room and forgetting why
struggling to find an ordinary word
switching between tasks without completing them
making excellent decisions all day, then feeling unable to make one more
The study captured something many high performers recognise: Successfully ignoring distraction still costs your brain energy.
This may explain why you can still perform well while feeling exhausted by the effort it takes.
Track it to hack it.
What I’ve been monitoring this week… Now for the super-exciting part. Can you turn down some of that brain noise? Can you strengthen the networks involved in focus, emotional regulation and clear decision- making and reduce the distractions? That is what I want to investigate with a device I have been looking deeply into. It is called Exomind.
Exomind uses transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS. You relax in a chair or on a couch and receive 24 minutes of targeted magnetic pulses into specific areas of your brain. Soothing pulses that stimulate the electrical activity of the nerve cells beneath them. And then you carry on with your day - except it feels different!
I did this myself, once a week for six weeks and the effect has been so interesting. My thinking has been calmer, clearer and sharper. I feel more resilient and capable.
And now I want to know what benefits you can experience. Which is why I'm bringing Exomind into my clinic.
I am now selecting ten people to be part of a case-by-case study where you complete six weekly Exomind sessions and explore the benefits in a measureable way. Together, we will also test your:
Biological age
Cortisol hormone
HRV (heart rate variability)
Memory and Focus
I want to see whether your changes in focus, clarity, stress or distraction are also reflected in measurable changes elsewhere in the body.
Can Exomind modulate stress, increase resilience, reduce brain fog, improve focus and memory and slow down ageing? Let's find out together.
From knowing to doing.
What this means for YOU…
This case-by-case study may be relevant to you if:
your mind feels as though it has too many tabs open
distraction is affecting deep work brain fog is becoming more noticeable
your memory feels less reliable
you are making decisions more slowly
you wake tired despite spending enough time in bed
you remain highly productive, although it takes far more effort
perimenopause or menopause has changed your concentration
your stress response stays switched on after the pressure has passed
your wearable repeatedly shows poor recovery or low HRV
you want to improve your brain health before a major problem appears
💼 Case in point: You lead a complex meeting with complete confidence. Ten minutes later, you open an email and read the first sentence three times. Nothing dramatic has happened. Your cognitive capacity has simply been spent faster than you can restore it. That gap between visible performance and invisible effort is what we measure and improve.
🎯 Would you like to be considered for one of the ten places? I'll reply with further details.
Where you’ll find me...
Last week: I was in rooms with business owners and executives who are all coming to the realisation that without health, wealth loses it's purpose. This week: I'll be beavering away replying to all your replies to this memo about your brain health! Next week: Pre-holiday prep - you know how it is before you go away, everything has to be super- organised!
A thought to pause on…
"The sharpest mind is not the busiest mind. It is the mind that knows what to ignore."
Be one of the sharpest ten. I'll reply with further details. Wishing you a wonderful week ahead (that's 168 hours of your Million Hour life!!) Dr Alka
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Longevity Lifestyle Concierge, 75 Harley Street, London, W1G 8QL, United Kingdom
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Take the free LQThis article is general education, not medical advice, and reading it does not create a doctor-patient relationship. If something has been going on for a while, please get it properly looked at by your own doctor.