Exercise Your Brain Cells!

Sir Muir Gray, former Chief of Knowledge for the NHS, is quoted with his top tips to keep your ageing brain sharp. In his book Sod Seventy?, one of his recommendations is to ‘interact more with others’.

Again, bringing up a personal experience as a validation of this statement, I turn to my (late and loved) mother-in-law.

Margaret was widowed but had a wonderful male travel companion and fellow theatre-goer, David. It was he who organized all their journeys abroad and their trips to London from Cambridge to a panoply of plays, exhibitions and trips which they shared together.

When David died, Margaret slowly retreated into her home and had little company and even less mental stimulus. Aged 80+, most of her friends had died or moved away. This exceptional woman who was a graduate from Girton Gollege Cambridge, a British Olympic Fencer, who had worked at The British Embassy in Lisbon during the Second World War and spoke 4 languages fluently, finally succumbed to Alzheimer’s to the point that she only recognized her son.

exercise-brainI am not a scientist and would not pretend that Alzheimer’s could have been totally prevented but I remain convinced that the lack of social exchange enabled this highly talented lady to slip into a silent world with little or no stimulus….

Talking about different forms of social exchanges, Dr Alan Teo, from Oregon Health and Science University, states: ‘phone calls and digital communication do not have the same power as face-to-face social interactions in helping to stave off depression’ – a subject I touched upon in my previous blog (https://baudinoandco.wordpress.com/2015/10/28/let-the-brain-take-the-strain-of-the-pain/).

After all, we are human beings and are gifted with language – a vehicle which enables us to exchange thoughts, express emotions and share experiences.

Clearly. some of us are more ‘social animals’ than others….

Take me, for example, I am quite happy to plunge myself into a book (in fact ‘Baudino and her book’ is an expression often used about me).

But I tend to read in a social environment: a wine bar, a coffee shop, a park where I am surrounded by people (and often indulge in innocent eavesdropping, but ssssush, do not tell anyone).

Put me on a desert island and I would die!!!! I need, – no, I thrive on – social exchange. This exchange covers a broad spectrum – from gossip to a discussion on Cartesian Philosophy.

When my own widowed father’s dementia started to creep in – as a result of a stroke – I ensured, as his carer, that he would join the daily meetings in the local Centre for elderly people. There, he would chat with other locals, do some exercises and sing along with his new found friends. My thinking in this respect is being validated by current research carried out by the University of Michigan and quotes in the Journal of the American Geriatics Society.

Born of French parents who loved food and wine, I love putting people together around a meal (which I have prepared – no Take Aways, or Take Ins ‘chez Catherine’), together with appropriate wines.

It is an act of sharing. Not just in terms of ‘oral gratification’ but also in terms of putting people together, or to use another one of our favourite words – practice ‘connectivity’.

This ‘connectivity’ can be created around group visits to exhibitions, reading groups, shared sports interests, walking groups, social websites such as Meet Up.

Whatever it is, use your phone, indeed, – but to make contact and then, get out, invite people in… either way, Find A Friend For A Smooth Life Transition™!

Thank you for reading!