DEMENTIA RISK REDUCTION CAMPAIGN - Month 1
For people who like Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3tzKFWrog7WpMMkVYS9gXG?si=sHzi8byFQP-X8kfRHQbMRw
for people who like Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DolBy0U1j
Before describing the steps that individuals and societies can take to reduce the risk of dementia and, at the same time, increase brainability, whatever your age, it is appropriate to review what we know about the brain and how it changes as we live longer because much new research has been published in the last decade which turns upside down what was generally believed, and what many doctors were taught when they were at medical school.
Ask to see a brain at the butcher’s
The brain is hidden away in butcher’s shops and restaurants in the United Kingdom, although it is proudly and openly served in countries like Italy which appreciate what an important organ it is, so ask your butcher if you can see a brain and maybe even hold it. The brain is white and grey, misleadingly so because it is actually very rich in red blood, and looks completely different from the liver or kidneys but let’s think what happens to our brain as we live longer and it is affected by the normal process of ageing.
The revolution in thinking about the brain
Doctors who qualified before 2000 were taught that the brain developed during childhood but that from the age of 20 on all that happened was that brain cells died off. This was the theory that won Professor Cajal the Nobel Prize in 1906 but we now know that he was wrong. There is still debate about whether we can actually renew brain cells in adult life, as with liver cells or kidney cells, and as mice can do, but it is certainly clear that we can develop new brain circuits. The brain, like a computer, works only by the connections within it. This is sometimes called ‘neuroplasticity’ and there is strong evidence now that new circuits can be formed at any age if the brain is asked to do so, either by external stimulation or by physical activity, and we describe both these processes in more detail in subsequent podcasts.
The ageing process does not have a huge effect on the brain, that is the normal biological process of ageing, which includes the menopause, but ageing has been blamed too much for the changes that take place in our bodies and minds, and we now know that three other processes are of vital importance in determining what happens to us and particularly how quickly we decline.
There are three inter related causes of the problems that occur more frequently as people live longer,
*Loss of fitness and it is clear that brain fitness is reduced by inactivity just like physical fitness
*Disease, much of which is preventable, including both damage to one part of the brain as the result of a stroke or damage from generalised changes such as the effects of Alzheimer’s disease and disease of the cardiovascular and circulatory system which impairs the oxygen supply of the brain
*Social and environmental problems such as pessimistic and negative ageist beliefs and attitudes and, for too many people, deprivation and housing problems,
Of course people notice memory slips as they live longer – inability to remember where they put their keys or the name of someone they met yesterday or the name of a book that had a huge influence twenty years ago – but these memory slips are not signs of early dementia, they are problems with filing and recovery of pieces of knowledge.
The triumph of neuroplasticity
There are now new techniques for examining how the brain works and these are revealing how new circuits form when the brain is asked to perform a new task. The task may be physical such as dancing, or cognitive, for example learning a new language, or a combination of cognitive and emotional, for example chairing the committee of a voluntary organisation. What is clear is that at any age you can learn and develop new circuits but the brain needs to be challenged and this is where ageism becomes important, namely the assumption that as people live longer they need less stimulation and are less capable of responding to stimulation.
What we need is a cultural revolution to think in a completely new way about what is happening to us, how we can increase our brainability whatever our age, and how we can reduce our risk of dementia. There is no guarantee, of course, because Alzheimer’s disease remains the single most common cause of dementia and we do not know yet how to prevent or treat Alzheimer’s disease, but there are many other causes, and therefore many other actions, that can be taken by individuals in society to increase brainability and reduce the risk of dementia by at least a third.
Individual action
Anyone reading this or listening to the podcast should go and tell a friend the facts of life as they apply to the brain.
Community action
For people who work for organisations relating to older people, they should ask of their own beliefs and culture whether or not it reflects the fact they have greatly underestimated the potential of people to learn and develop, whatever their age, and then to take action to make this happen.
Key books
Soft-wired -how the new science of Brain Plasticity can change your life
Michael Merzenich ;
Parnassus 2013
Increase Your Brainability and Reduce Your risk of Dementia
Larry Chambers, Charles Alessi and Muir Gray
OUP2021
DEMENTIA RISK REDUCTION CAMPAIGN - Month 1
- What is happening as we live longer and what is the potential to increase brainability
For people who like Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3tzKFWrog7WpMMkVYS9gXG?si=sHzi8byFQP-X8kfRHQbMRw
for people who like Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DolBy0U1j
Before describing the steps that individuals and societies can take to reduce the risk of dementia and, at the same time, increase brainability, whatever your age, it is appropriate to review what we know about the brain and how it changes as we live longer because much new research has been published in the last decade which turns upside down what was generally believed, and what many doctors were taught when they were at medical school.
Ask to see a brain at the butcher’s
The brain is hidden away in butcher’s shops and restaurants in the United Kingdom, although it is proudly and openly served in countries like Italy which appreciate what an important organ it is, so ask your butcher if you can see a brain and maybe even hold it. The brain is white and grey, misleadingly so because it is actually very rich in red blood, and looks completely different from the liver or kidneys but let’s think what happens to our brain as we live longer and it is affected by the normal process of ageing.
The revolution in thinking about the brain
Doctors who qualified before 2000 were taught that the brain developed during childhood but that from the age of 20 on all that happened was that brain cells died off. This was the theory that won Professor Cajal the Nobel Prize in 1906 but we now know that he was wrong. There is still debate about whether we can actually renew brain cells in adult life, as with liver cells or kidney cells, and as mice can do, but it is certainly clear that we can develop new brain circuits. The brain, like a computer, works only by the connections within it. This is sometimes called ‘neuroplasticity’ and there is strong evidence now that new circuits can be formed at any age if the brain is asked to do so, either by external stimulation or by physical activity, and we describe both these processes in more detail in subsequent podcasts.
The ageing process does not have a huge effect on the brain, that is the normal biological process of ageing, which includes the menopause, but ageing has been blamed too much for the changes that take place in our bodies and minds, and we now know that three other processes are of vital importance in determining what happens to us and particularly how quickly we decline.
There are three inter related causes of the problems that occur more frequently as people live longer,
*Loss of fitness and it is clear that brain fitness is reduced by inactivity just like physical fitness
*Disease, much of which is preventable, including both damage to one part of the brain as the result of a stroke or damage from generalised changes such as the effects of Alzheimer’s disease and disease of the cardiovascular and circulatory system which impairs the oxygen supply of the brain
*Social and environmental problems such as pessimistic and negative ageist beliefs and attitudes and, for too many people, deprivation and housing problems,
Of course people notice memory slips as they live longer – inability to remember where they put their keys or the name of someone they met yesterday or the name of a book that had a huge influence twenty years ago – but these memory slips are not signs of early dementia, they are problems with filing and recovery of pieces of knowledge.
The triumph of neuroplasticity
There are now new techniques for examining how the brain works and these are revealing how new circuits form when the brain is asked to perform a new task. The task may be physical such as dancing, or cognitive, for example learning a new language, or a combination of cognitive and emotional, for example chairing the committee of a voluntary organisation. What is clear is that at any age you can learn and develop new circuits but the brain needs to be challenged and this is where ageism becomes important, namely the assumption that as people live longer they need less stimulation and are less capable of responding to stimulation.
What we need is a cultural revolution to think in a completely new way about what is happening to us, how we can increase our brainability whatever our age, and how we can reduce our risk of dementia. There is no guarantee, of course, because Alzheimer’s disease remains the single most common cause of dementia and we do not know yet how to prevent or treat Alzheimer’s disease, but there are many other causes, and therefore many other actions, that can be taken by individuals in society to increase brainability and reduce the risk of dementia by at least a third.
Individual action
Anyone reading this or listening to the podcast should go and tell a friend the facts of life as they apply to the brain.
Community action
For people who work for organisations relating to older people, they should ask of their own beliefs and culture whether or not it reflects the fact they have greatly underestimated the potential of people to learn and develop, whatever their age, and then to take action to make this happen.
Key books
Soft-wired -how the new science of Brain Plasticity can change your life
Michael Merzenich ;
Parnassus 2013
Increase Your Brainability and Reduce Your risk of Dementia
Larry Chambers, Charles Alessi and Muir Gray
OUP2021
