First Bite: Fed, Fun, Functional SLP Insights
Aug 20, 2026 · 1 hr 7 min · 16 segments
How can we incorporate brain health into everyday clinical practice? Guest: Jennifer Ruckner, MS, CCC-SLP Earn 0.10 ASHA CEUs for this episode with Speech Therapy PD Watch on YouTube Brainstorms…
Renee GarrettHost
And I think, you know, when we're thinking about you, you brought up a great point already, the brain health piece of things.
You know, we're looking at, uh, not only us as aging professionals, but our own- watching our own kids, you know, have kids and mature and have careers and things that take them into new realms of their daily routine.
So, what are those, what are five ways that your brain function health really needs to be increased to be effective in our daily routines?
So, you know, when we're talking about our brain health, you know, we really have to look at it from several different areas, and there, I like to say it's the three Ns.
So your nervous system, obviously, is the biggest one, but there's neurochemicals that also impact a lot of our brain health as well.
Like, are some of them too high or some of them too low? 'Cause that's gonna affect us as well.
And then neuroplasticity, so how are we making those connections and are we making good connections? You know, our brain doesn't know if those are good connections or bad connections, you know, it just connects when we're doing something more regularly.
So, you know, thinking of those as we kind of talk about the five, um, areas, there are a lot more than just these five.
But when we talk about these five, it's really, um, the five biggest things that really do impact our brain health.
Um, you know, being a post-menopausal woman, um, you know, sleep has been a problem for me.
And so, like, I can attest to the fact that brain fog is real when you don't sleep, you know? And that all goes back to getting enough rest so that our brain can recharge at night.
So many things that we're putting into our bodies nowadays are not the best choices, but y- a lot of times we don't even realize that some of those things are really hurting us and harming us.
Um, you know, then if you've watched any of the, um, documentaries and things like that on plastics and things like that in our food supply, you know? And so there's a lot of things that we can do and try to protect our brains from what we're putting and eating, drinking into our bodies.
Um, as I am aging, like you said, as we're aging, we're getting older, um, I can tell you when I'm not exercising, my body is kicking back at me and everything starts getting super stiff and, you know, not as, not nearly as agile as it used to be.
Well, guess what? The brain is the same exact way as our body and our muscles.
Um, adding some kind of artistic activities, whether it's music or some kind of painting or writing, uh, that creativity part is extremely important.
And you can probably address this better than I, Renee, since you've worked with adults so long, but, you know, in a lot of, um, places that are treating aging, uh, clients, basically they're bringing a lot of the music and the artistic things back too in order to create some new synapsis, um, in that neuroplasticity in order for that brain to work better, especially in our, um, dementia and Alzheimer's, uh, units.
You know, when we talked about sleep and rest at the beginning, having a hobby is part of that rest.
And I think, you know, when we're thinking about you, you brought up a great point already, the brain health piece of things.
You know, we're looking at, uh, not only us as aging professionals, but our own- watching our own kids, you know, have kids and mature and have careers and things that take them into new realms of their daily routine.
So, what are those, what are five ways that your brain function health really needs to be increased to be effective in our daily routines?
So, you know, when we're talking about our brain health, you know, we really have to look at it from several different areas, and there, I like to say it's the three Ns.
So your nervous system, obviously, is the biggest one, but there's neurochemicals that also impact a lot of our brain health as well.
Like, are some of them too high or some of them too low? 'Cause that's gonna affect us as well.
And then neuroplasticity, so how are we making those connections and are we making good connections? You know, our brain doesn't know if those are good connections or bad connections, you know, it just connects when we're doing something more regularly.
So, you know, thinking of those as we kind of talk about the five, um, areas, there are a lot more than just these five.
But when we talk about these five, it's really, um, the five biggest things that really do impact our brain health.
Um, you know, being a post-menopausal woman, um, you know, sleep has been a problem for me.
And so, like, I can attest to the fact that brain fog is real when you don't sleep, you know? And that all goes back to getting enough rest so that our brain can recharge at night.
So many things that we're putting into our bodies nowadays are not the best choices, but y- a lot of times we don't even realize that some of those things are really hurting us and harming us.
Um, you know, then if you've watched any of the, um, documentaries and things like that on plastics and things like that in our food supply, you know? And so there's a lot of things that we can do and try to protect our brains from what we're putting and eating, drinking into our bodies.
Um, as I am aging, like you said, as we're aging, we're getting older, um, I can tell you when I'm not exercising, my body is kicking back at me and everything starts getting super stiff and, you know, not as, not nearly as agile as it used to be.
Well, guess what? The brain is the same exact way as our body and our muscles.
Um, adding some kind of artistic activities, whether it's music or some kind of painting or writing, uh, that creativity part is extremely important.
And you can probably address this better than I, Renee, since you've worked with adults so long, but, you know, in a lot of, um, places that are treating aging, uh, clients, basically they're bringing a lot of the music and the artistic things back too in order to create some new synapsis, um, in that neuroplasticity in order for that brain to work better, especially in our, um, dementia and Alzheimer's, uh, units.
You know, when we talked about sleep and rest at the beginning, having a hobby is part of that rest.
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