Brain Healthy Retirement

Your Brain On Retirement

Finally – RETIREMENT!  The chance to kick back, relax and get out of the rat race.  It is a goal we all share, especially on very stressful workdays.  Have you ever thought about or even planned for the cognitive functioning of your brain on retirement?  Chances are that wasn’t the top most priority as you put all of your retirement plans in place.

The reality of the workplace is – it is a complex environment that challenges your brain.  Even if work has become routine and mundane, interacting with co-workers is an extremely valuable part of brain health.  What happens to your brain when you remove yourself from that environment?

Initially the release from the day-to-day grind of working will enable your brain to relax.  You might experience the euphoria you feel on a very relaxing vacation.  This positive feeling will confirm your joy of being retired.  Having all the time you need to do whatever you want is its own reward.  Once you are feeling refreshed again, your brain needs stimulation.  It needs exercise and socialization.  If you don’t satisfy the basic needs of remaining cognitively sharp, your brain will start a steep aging decline in functioning.

The brain has the ability to adapt to its environment.  If you are in a challenging environment your brain will reorganize itself by creating new connections between brain cells.  These connections accommodate communication in your brain.  Your speed of processing (the time it takes to take in information and then respond) stays at a higher level.  In the workplace you challenge your brain to keep up.

If you haven’t made plans to replace these challenges in retirement your brain responds to a more sedentary, less challenging environment.  The brain slows down and in some cases – dramatically.  Depending on your lifestyle you can actually place yourself at a higher risk of developing dementia.

So what can you do to keep this cognitive cascade from happening?  You have to draw up a brain healthy lifestyle plan.  This plan is every bit as important as your retirement financial plan.  What do you include in this plan?  Generally you need to have a strategy for staying physically active.  Physical exercise can grow new neurons in the hippocampus – the center of learning and memory.  Walking is an easy and effective way to fulfill the physical exercise component.  Your walking goal should be at least 15-20 minutes of brisk walking 3 times per week at a minimum.  Playing golf certainly would be an effective way of getting your walking in.

Now you have to use these new cells or the brain will let them die!  Mental stimulation will keep these new cells active and help build new neural pathways.  You must challenge your brain to stimulate it.  Crossword puzzles and Sudoku don’t fit the bill because your brain adapts to those challenges.  If you increase the difficulty or put time limits on completion you are making the activity more challenging.  But get more creative with mental stimulation. You can mentor or volunteer, travel, learn a musical instrument or a new language.  Older brains are more patient and creative so you can try doing things you have always dreamed about.  Your brain will love that!

It is really important top get out of the house and be with other people.  Isolation breeds depression.  Retirement is a huge transition and being at home all day can be very depressing after awhile.  You need to interact with other people either in person or on social media, Facetime, or Skype.  The art of conversation and debate is a big brain booster.

There are other pieces of a brain healthy lifestyle but these pieces are excellent for putting together your brain healthy retirement.  Your brain will continue to keep you young and healthy if you take good care of it.

Pat Faust

Gerontologist

Director of Corporate Brain Health

Brain Health Center

www.brainhealthctr.com

Dr. Nussbaum's 50 Tips for Brain Health

Dr. Nussbaum’s 50 Tips for Brain Health

www.brainhealthctr.com

1.              Know these three facts about your brain:

Your brain weighs about 3 pounds

Your Brain is composed of nearly 60% fat

Your Brain demands 25% of the blood from each heartbeat

2.              Start each day with a quiet 12 minutes of mindfulness and meditation.

3.              Walk briskly each day for 25 minutes.

4.              Increase your fish intake to 8 ounces per week.

5.              Increase your daily fruits and vegetables intake to 6 fist-full servings.

6.              Forgive someone who has hurt you.

7.              Pray on a daily basis.

8.              Dance daily with total body movement.

9.              Engage is a novel and complex activity several times a month.

10.          Travel and use different routes to and from work or store.

11.          Make one new friend a month.

12.          Engage in aerobic exercise several times a week.

13.          Try a yoga class, even chair or gentle yoga.

14.          Treat yourself to a massage.

15.          Learn a new language, including sign language.

16.          Read and stay current in the news.

17.          Write and try your hand at poetry.

18.          Consider speaking in public.

19.          Play a musical instrument and sing.

20.          Use utensils when you eat.

21.          Take a Tai Chi class for balance.

22.          Include brain fitness such as Rosetta Stone Fitbrains in your daily life.

23.          Learn how to use the computer and Facebook to stay engaged.

24.          Garden and knit.

25.          Read Save Your Brain to understand how lifestyle can shape your brain for health.

26.          Have mercy on yourself and on others.

27.          Visualize the warmth of Love and kindness.

28.          Give some of your possessions to others.

29.          Clean and organize your room and surroundings.

30.          Engage in daily deep breathing exercises.

31.          Engage in daily progressive muscle relaxation.

32.          Participate in a weekly meditation class.

33.          Yawn as frequently as you can, as this is good for the brain.

34.          Sleep at least 8 hours a day.

35.          Eat breakfast each morning.

36.          Tell someone you love him or her each day.

37.          Increase antioxidants in your diet.

38.          Define your purpose in life.

39.          Actively think happy and positive thoughts daily.

40.          Refrain from anger or hostility.

41.          Meet with your PCP at least annually.

42.          Monitor your blood pressure throughout the year.

43.          Consider the RC21x.com for monitoring your own cognitive and motor skills.

44.          Do not take supplements without your Doctor’s advice.

45.          Meet with a financial planner.

46.          Text or email one kind thought to someone daily.

47.          Smile as much as you can.

48.          Draw a picture of what happiness is for you and visualize it daily.

49.          Increase your network of friends.

50.          Give genuine thanks for the day

Power of Love and Valentine's Day

Love as the Greatest Medicine

So we are fast approaching our annual day of love, romance, hugs and kisses, and relationships. February 14^th, know as Valentine’s Day and filled with tremendous symbolism. Consider the abundance of the color red as the day unfolds. Why red? Perhaps it is the color our society uses to represent love. Maybe we believe red is like blood and blood emerges from the heart and our society attaches love to the heart. “I love you with all my heart or your broke my heart” are typical phrases that we all have used in our lives.

Valentine’s Day is also a great opportunity for everyone to reflect and to consider what is most precious. For most of us this typically means people and our relationships: our family, our spouse, our children or significant other. It means our parents who have always been there for us or maybe those who live far away or who are no longer with us. Relationships are indeed precious and bind us together.

It is true, Valentine’s is a day for love, a day to express and to receive the wonderful emotion of love. I argue that love originates and flows from the brain, that wonderful miracle that sits between your ears. Regardless, I know love to be the most important emotion in our arsenal of emotions. We can unite enemies, stop wars, and bring everyone on the planet closer with love. Love overcomes bitterness, anger, guilt, anxiety and depression.

So use this Valentine’s as your day to practice the expression and flow of love throughout your brain and into the environment around you. Let those close to you know you love them and hug your family members just a little closer on this day. Reach out to those who have been distant and extend a loving hand to those who need one. Feel the warmth of love as it coats your brain and heals others around you. Build relationships and make the world a little better place if only for this one day.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

Dr. Nussbaum

Men and Women: Celebrate the Differences!

I am always filled with laughter when I read the latest major publication indicating "men are different than women." This type of published article will occur yearly and tends to find its way onto the front cover of a major magazine. It is an amazing thing that in 2015 some still find this to be worthy of print. Men and women are different, we have been different since the beginning of time, and anyone trying to argue against this reality is pushing a personal agenda.

My work is focused on the human brain and to no surprise the female brain is different than the male brain. This is true for both structure and more significantly with function or processing. The female brain tends not to be as big simply because the female body tends not to be as large as the male. Females have a larger hippocampus, an area critical to learning and memory and spatial reasoning. Men tend to have a larger amygdala, the area that triggers our "fight or flight" response. Interestingly, women typically do not respond to stress with "fight or flight," but rather use "tend and befriend" as a response to ameliorate stress. This is one primary reason women outlive men on average 5-7 years. Women have more white matter and a larger corpus callosum, that permit more connectivity between the two sides of the brain and across the entire cortex (rumpled grey matter that is the outer shell). Women use both sides of their brain more than men and men tend to use one side, the side dedicated to problem solving, task oriented behavior, and analytic processing.

What does all this mean? It provides everyone with an explanation why men and women struggle with communication. Interestingly, when I deliver my keynotes across the planet, I ask the question "what is a common behavioral struggle between men and women"? Almost immediately a female in the audience will yell "communication." The men simply look at one another not sure what to say! Here a couple of tips to enhance communication in the worksite as corporate America is losing thousands of dollars a year because men process differently than women, and to try and keep relationships alive as marriages break up because men and women do not communicate.

1. Men are task oriented so they will process actual words and not process feelings that surround actual words. (How many times have you females said "you don't listen to me").

2. Men will follow specific tasks quite well and a female wants to be listened to, she needs to state specifically what that means.

3. Women should not presume men know what they are feeling. Men do not know how to "read between the lines."

4. Women need to let a man know when he does a good job of listening so he repeats the behavior.

5. Women are more social, more gregarious, more intuitive, more emphatic and have more adaptive brains. Men tend to isolate, internalize, withdraw, and problem solve.

6. Women can benefit by letting their male partner know he does not need to solve any problems, just listen. It might take a short while for a man to understand this, but give it a try.

7. Because men are task oriented animals and women are both task oriented and process (non task) oriented you can take most behaviors and understand the differences. Shopping to a male is to get in the store, make the purchase and get out. This is not the case for women. Using a public restroom for women is a social event while socialization is the last thing a male considers when using a public restroom. Intimate moments will also reflect significant differences for you to consider.

Most important is the need to understand men and women are different. However, when our brains get together and we actually work at understanding one another beautiful things can occur. We communicate better, we feel better, we create and innovate, we develop a rhythm and enhance the relationship.

Take some time to be conscious of each word and to ask what the male or female in your life hears and processes when you make a statement. Such feedback will facilitate enhanced communication and understanding. Relationships will thrive!

Dr. Nussbaum

Physical Activity and Brain Health

Physical Activity and Brain Health

Every time your heart beats 25% of the blood goes directly to your brain. Imagine, a 3 pound structure in your body demanding 1/4 of the blood and oxygen from each heartbeat! This explains why physical activity, remaining mobile and active, and refraining from a sedentary lifestyle is critical to brain health.

Research is quite robust on this matter. The more physically active a child is the better his or her grades will be. The more physically active an adult is the less likely he or she will develop dementia. Indeed, research has shown a direct cause and effect between regular aerobic exercise and increased volume in the hippocampus. The hippocampus is the structure in the brain that lies deep in the temporal region and is responsible for new learning, memory, and spatial reasoning. It is also involved in some of our emotional processing and serves as a vital part of our identity. The hippocampus is structurally and functionally vulnerable to chronic stress and to Alzheimer's disease. It is also the known region in the human brain that generates new brain cells (neurogenesis).

Therefore, physical activity not only is good for the body, it is great for the brain. Regular exercise will help you feel better emotionally, help you think and remember more clearly, help to build the volume and function of your hippocampus, and help to reduce your risk of brain disease later in life. Seems like it is time to get moving. Enjoy a nice brisk walk today and your brain will thank you!

Dr. Nussbaum
www.brainhealthctr.com

Forgiveness

As we enter a brand new year, 2015 I have a small suggestion for you and your health. Be forgiving! First, forgive yourself and bestow mercy upon you. Next, forgive others around you, even those who have brought the most harm. Be Forgiving each day so your brain and body can rejoice and be energized with positive emotion and energy.

Dr. Nussbaum