The previous three posts on Making the Most of Your 2nd Fifty Years showed how to lessen stress in a traditional and non-traditional way and how to develop a resilient personality. We will now discuss Paul Bendheim MD’s experience with maintaining a brain and body healthy lifestyle. His book The Brain Training Revolution, is the key resource for this article.
“If you make brain-healthy lifestyle changes and take action, we could realize a future without Alzheimer’s disease.” National Alzheimer’s Association
The Importance of Social Engagement
“7,000 Californians were monitored for 17 years; those lacking social connections were 2-3 times more likely to die prematurely…People with larger social networks might have developed people skills and so a greater reserve of social cognition to fall back on.” The Institute for Brain Potential
Please answer the following 5 social engagement questions:
List the 5 people you know outside of your family and other relatives who make you feel happy, energized, loved or more.
When was the last time you saw them in person or communicated with them in some way?
Approximately how many contacts do you have in a list, database, Excel spreadsheet, address book, Rolodex, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, a contact list, whatever?
“How many people would accept/return a phone call, text, email, or message of any kind from you now without a reminder of your connection with them?” Orville Pierson, Highly Effective Networking
As you compare yourself with people you know, how socially engaged do you believe you are at this time in your life?
A PLANNING GUIDE EXERCISE: As the study above states, social engagement is extremely important regarding people’s health as they age. Look back over your answers on the Work Values, Resilience, Unconscious Motives self-assessments from the first three chapters of this series. Then factor in your answers to the social engagement questions you just completed. Be brutally honest with yourself. Is social engagement a strength for you? If your honest answer is NO or you scored low on the social engagement questions, give thought to including a commitment to improving your level of social engagement when you create your Mission Statement/Action Plan in chapter four.
A Sense of Purpose Improves Health & Longevity
-Researchers at Carleton University and the University of Rochester Medical Center, using data from 6,000 participants, found over a 14 year-long longitudinal period, 9% of participants died. This group had reported both lower purpose in life and fewer positive relations. In the surviving group, “Greater purpose in life was a consistent predictor of lower mortality risk across the lifespan. Moreover, this outcome was uniformly true for younger, middle-aged, and older participants.”
-In a 8.5 year study of 9,050 English participants by University College London, in collaboration with Princeton and Stony Brook Universities, researchers found that 8% of people in the highest well being category had died, compared to 29% of the lowest category, adjusting for factors like age, sex, depression and socioeconomic status. “We have previously found that happiness is associated with a lower risk of death. These analyses show that the meaningfulness and sense of purpose that older people have in their lives are also related to survival.”
A PLANNING GUIDE EXERCISE: Write down the answer to the following question: Do you have a sense of purpose – the reason for actions you have taken or things which you have created – and if yes, what is it?
Physical Exercise
-In a landmark 1986 study with almost 17,000 participants, those who consistently burned approximately 300 calories a day from physical exercise, the amount of calories that the body uses to walk briskly for 45-60 minutes, reduced the risk of death from all types of causes by an extraordinary 28 percent.
-Moderate physical exercise, such as walking for at least 30 minutes three or more times a week, increases blood flow to the brain, enlarges our frontal lobes, and adds new memory-recording neurons in your hippocampus. Through exercise you can replenish some of the cells lost in the aging process. Moderate aerobic physical exercise, the type that makes you breathe faster and increases your heart rate, is the most powerful trigger of new cell production in the brain.
Perceived Exertion Scale
0-Effortless-Can’t feel a thing
1-Very Light-A piece of cake
2-Light-Could do this all day
3-Moderate-I am working a bit
4-Moderately Hard-Pretty tough but I can handle it
5-Hard-Sure feel this, got me breathing
6-Hard+-Hangin’ in there, but not for too long
8-Extremely Hard-Exhausting. I’m ready to stop
9-Near Maximal-Exhausted? Almost stopping
10-Maximally Hard-Unbearable! Olympic athletes only
Depending on your fitness level, most stay within 4 and 6 which is appropriate for the average healthy adult population.
A PLANNING GUIDE EXERCISE: Write down the answer to the following question. Do you have an exercise routine to which you are committed and if yes, what level of exertion do you usually reach? As I stated in the introduction, your routine might have been significantly impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. If that is the case, answer the question based on your exercise routine before the pandemic.
Mental Exercise/Brain Stimulation
-In the Einstein Aging Study, 469 people older than 75 were tracked for more than 10 years. Healthy elderly people who engaged in leisure activities like board games, reading, playing a musical instrument, doing crossword puzzles, writing, and participating in group discussions had much lower risks of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia’s.
-The ACTIVE study sponsored by the National Institute of Aging, demonstrated that two years after completion of a ten-session cognitive training program, participants remembered things more efficiently, to the equivalent of knocking off seven to fourteen years from brain age. A follow-up report demonstrated some benefits persisted even five years later.
-Michael Valenzuela and Perminder Sachdev from the University of South Wales collected and analyzed date from 22 studies involving 29,000 individuals. Their conclusion from this massive analysis is unambiguous, “Complex patterns of mental activity is associated with a significant reduction in dementia incidence.”
-As noted in a Science magazine article by Jean Marx, individuals with pathological evidence of Alzheimer’s as shown in an autopsy who did not act like it, had a lifestyle that supported healthy brain reserve.
A PLANNING GUIDE EXERCISE: Answer the following question. Are you engaged in leisure activities that stimulate the brain like those mentioned above or in other leisure activities in which you engage? Again, answer this question based on your activities before the coronavirus.
Creating & Following a Healthy Diet Plan
The way to achieve your best brain performance every day to help you live to age 90 and beyond is to eat balanced meals that consist of healthful, real foods in moderation. Our brains evolved over millions of years to use the nutrients provided by nature. Eat real food in moderation. This means mostly fruits, vegetables, whole grains and fish. The lower it is on the food chain, the better; and the less processed it is, the better. That is all you need to remember! Forget the deluge of marketing hype about processed foods and supplements. Good nutrition is not complex.
A Planning Guide Exercise: Answer the following question. Do you successfully follow a healthy diet plan?
Sleep Can Have a Dramatic Impact on Your Health
-Researchers at several academic institutions in the U.S. and abroad have demonstrated that sleep deprivation decreases learning and memory making. Just an extra hour of sleep improved enjoyment of the next day for 909 women who participated in a “day reconstruction method” study.
-An increased risk of death among those who slept less than six hours a night was one of the findings in a 2004 study of almost eighty-three thousand nurses.
How to Sleep Better: the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the National Sleep Foundation
If you are not getting a restful night’s sleep most nights, pay close attention to the following list of does and don’ts and attempt to identify the culprit:
-DON’T drink coffee or caffeinated drinks 4 to 6 hours before you go to bed…don’t smoke or use other forms of nicotine within an hour or two of bedtime…don’t eat a large meal fewer than four hours or so before our bedtime…don’t exercise strenuously within 4 to 6 hours before bedtime…don’t drink more than a glass or two of wine within 3-4 hours of bedtime…don’t work or watch television in bed.
-DO make sure your bed is conducive to sleep…make your bedroom as dark as possible…leave your work and worries outside the bedroom…maintain a regular wake-up time, even on days off work and on week-ends (does not apply to vacations!)…try a warm glass of milk or herbal tea.
A PLANNING GUIDE EXERCISE: Write down your thoughts about whether you regularly get a good night’s sleep? If your honest answer is no, what would you consider doing based on the suggestions above or other strategies you have found to improve your sleep?
In the final chapter of this four-chapter article we will be discussing the critical importance of creating a plan for making the most of your second fifty years.
Foundational Resources
-The Brain Training Revolution: A Proven Workout for Healthy Aging – Paul Bendheim M.D.s book as mentioned previously is a foundational resource and the text for this article. As I have said previously, I am not affiliated in any way with Dr. Bendheim. If you have found this article helpful, I encourage you to buy his book.
– www.job-hunt.org This is the best job search website available and therefore is the 2nd of 4 foundational resources for this article and the Making the Most of Your 2nd Fifty Years program. This site has many articles for those who are looking for jobs in their 2nd fifty years. Some article titles include: Job Search Advantages of Being Over 59…LinkedIn Profile Photos for Job Seekers Over 50…Remote Jobs in Retirement: What You Need to Know…10 Keys to a Rewarding Second Act Career.
–www.aarp.org – AARP provides dozens of resources that help individuals find a job and lead a healthy, purposeful 2nd fifty years. An example is Great Jobs for Everyone 50+, Updated Edition: Finding Work That Keeps You Happy and Healthy…and Pays the Bills- Kerry Hannon.
Therefore, AARP is the 3rd foundational resources for this article.
https://greatergood.berkeley.edu The Greater Good Science Center is a foundational resource for this article because its entire focus is on helping people lead happy, healthy, purposeful lives. It has many articles and resources relevant for your second fifty years including: What Neuroscience Can Tell You About Aging Better…How Optimism May Keep You Alive Longer…Do we Need a New Roadmap for Getting Older? … Can a Happier Spouse Help You Live Longer? The Greater Good Science Center is our 4th foundational resource.
Additional Resources
-The Resiliency Advantage: Master Change, Thrive Under Pressure and Bounce Back from Setbacks – Al Siebert, PhD.
-The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Stephen R. Covey.
-Peak Performance: Mental Training Techniques of the World’s Greatest Athletes – Charles Garfield PhD.
-Your Retirement, Your Way – Alan Bernstein & John Trauth.
-Career Anchors – Edgar Schein PhD.
-The Retirement Boom – Allen, Bearg, Foley & Smith.
–www.encore.org The Encore Career Handbook: How to Make a Living & Difference in the Second Half of Life.