If you maintain regular interaction with friends and family,
everything in your life will be better.
Angela Troyer, PhD and Professional Practice Chief of
Psychology and the program director of neuropsychology and cognitive health at
Baycrest Hospital in Toronto, Nicole Anderson PhD and Associate Professor of
Psychiatry & Psychology at the University of Toronto and Kelly Murphy PhD,
Clinical Neuropsychologist at Baycrest and Assistant Professor of Psychology at
the University of Toronto wrote Living with Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Guide to Maximizing Brain Health and Reducing Risk of Dementia.
In synthesizing some of their work, Professor Troyer wrote
this: “Did you know that connecting with friends may also boost your brain
health and lower your risk of dementia?” She went on to make these four points
about social interaction: you may live longer, you will enjoy better physical
health; you will enjoy better mental health; and you may even lower your risk
of dementia.
In their work, they’ve determined that getting out and doing
stuff with friends results in a stronger immune system, and reduces the risk of
depression. Further, those interactions are associated with better memory and
cognition, or, the construction of the very important brain attribute
“cognitive reserve”. (We all want and need a big cognitive reserve.)
Professor Laura Fratiglioni, MD, is a medical doctor
specializing in neurology and epidemiology. She and her team of researchers at
the Karolinska Institute and the Stockholm Gerontology Research Center, are
performing critical research on aging, health and dementia.
Dr. Fratiglioni, along with two associates reported these
results from their research:
Taking into account the accumulated
evidence and the biological plausibility of these hypotheses, we conclude that
an active and socially integrated lifestyle in late life protects against
dementia and AD. (Alzheimer’s Disease).
For those of you who are religious or consider yourself
spiritual, you’ll find this research fascinating. A team from the T.H. Chan School of
Public Health at Harvard that included Tyler J. VanderWeele, Ph tracked 75,500 women over sixteen years. The women were all healthy at the beginning. The research including lifestyle and behavior characteristics including attendance at religious services.
They reported these findings:
They reported these findings:
After multivariable
adjustment…attending a religious service more than once per week was associated
with 33% lower all-cause mortality compared with women who had never attended
religious services.
And:
Frequent attendance at religious
services was associated with significantly lower risk of all-cause,
cardiovascular, and cancer mortality among women.
I won’t attempt to delve further into results I find rather
amazing other to say attending church services requires getting up and out of
the house and sharing time with others. Said differently, it is social.
We know the opposite is also true, solitary lifestyles,
especially among older adults, is strongly associated with a shorter lifespan.
Put down the remote, turn off the TV and go see some family
and friends.
Excerpted from our
upcoming book: You Can Grow a Bigger Brain!
www.bigbrainplace
offers research-based products to help maintain brain health and grow a bigger
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