The nation already expends nearly 200 billion dollars annually in the care of those with Alzheimer’s disease and there are nearly 15 million caregivers who are directly or indirectly affected by the disease. Indeed, our entire society is affected and the national strategy is an important step. Former Speaker Gingrich has talked openly about the need for the neurosciences to be a major source of innovation for the health of the brain and I hope other politicians help to make this a reality. The Obama Administration is developing the first National Alzheimer’s Plan to address the medical and social problems of dementia. This plan is not just for treatment, but also for better daily care for dementia patients and their caregivers.

Among the major goals of the plan are to:

1. Begin a national public awareness campaign of dementia’s early-warning signs to improve early diagnosis.
2. Give primary care doctors the tools assess signs of dementia as part of Medicare’s annual checkup.
3. Have caregiver’s physical and mental health regularly checked.
4. Improve care planning and training for families, so they know what resources are available for their loved one and for themselves.

These are important and necessary goals for inclusion in any national plan. However, they are not comprehensive which is what is needed. Some critics of the plan argue that the government is not being bold enough. My suggestions for a more comprehensive plan would include the following additional goals:

1. Teach the basics of the human brain to every middle school student in order to develop personal investment in the workings of the brain and how to keep the brain healthy.
2. Promote and prioritize a brain health lifestyle ® using the latest research on what we can do individually and as a society to live a proactive and lifelong lifestyle that promotes the health of the brain.
3. Understand that diseases the manifest late in life begin early in life. We need to consider early nonmedical interventions such as education, diet, spirituality, mental stimulation, and socialization tools that begin when a baby is developing in the womb.
4. Create tax benefits for families who care for their loved ones or pay for others to care for them in the person’s home.
5. Create a chronic care system for older adults that understands chronic care is not the same as acute care and that hospitals are actually not a healthy place for older adults to be admitted.
6. Incentive medical doctors and other health care professionals to become specialized in geriatrics and to promote “primary care status” to the geriatrician.
7. Include brain health lifestyle ® within every wellness program and incentive all persons to live such a lifestyle.
8. Develop annual standardized assessments for persons to undergo to measure the health and functioning of their brain. The brain should be treated as a priority rather than continue to be neglected in our culture.
9. Revise the antiquated and outdated nursing home model of care.
10. Increase the funding for dementia care, lifestyle approach, and caregiver programs sufficient to achieve success much earlier than 2025.

First, the hardest thing to do is to change another person’s behavior. The second hardest thing to do is to change our own behavior, particularly when it comes to lifestyle. We know that the resolution to eat healthy is a great idea, but why are so many of us not able to follow through? We know losing weight is tremendously helpful to our health, yet many of us are actually gaining weight! We even know that being more patient and understanding of others can reduce our stress, but that irritability and anger often creeps in.

So there is an obvious disconnect between what we know to be good for our health and what we actually do. Why? I suggest that you take a good look at your resolution for 2012. Please try to keep it to one resolution, remember behavior change is hard and we need some success for the entire year. Second, develop a resolution that is personally relevant to you, something that is meaningful. Is losing weight really something you feel personally? The more personal something is the better chance you have to change or to begin. Third, who is holding you accountable? You need someone other than yourself to hold you accountable. Finally, with success comes a reward. Establish up front what your reward for successful completion of the resolution is and enjoy it!

1. One resolution only.
2. Make the resolution personal.
3. Identify who will hold you accountable?
4. Reward yourself upon your success.

Have a great 2012!

Peace begins internally by cleaning out our own ill will and negativity. We can literally engage in mental exercises by thinking positive thoughts and feeling positive emotions. This stimulates the left frontal region of our brain and can leave us feeling balanced and peaceful. We can then work with others to try and sway their thinking and behavior towards unity and away from conflict. War, death, and violence are no recipe for progress of the human race.

This is a special week for many across the planet, one that provides the ingredients of love, joy, and peace that can unite us. We are one race and we live on one planet. We have much more in common than we differ. My hope is that we begin to treat one another with greater respect, attending to our similarities and common ground, and to refrain from the impulsive actions or reactions that can lead to harm.

World peace is indeed a noble goal and one that is actually within our control. It begins with everyone taking some time to develop inner peace despite the fact we live in a fast and imperfect society. Treat one another with love and respect and keep in mind what Christmas and the Holiday season represent.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday to all.

A recent study suggests that mindfulness meditation can promote health and cognitive function. The study, published in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science indicates benefits for improved immune function, reduced blood pressure, and enhanced cognitive function. The authors also explain the way mindfulness helps with our health.

Four key factors of mindfulness are proposed as important to our health: (1) attention regulation; (2) body awareness; (3) emotion regulation; (4) and sense of self. When integrated, these four factors may help with alleviation of stress.

It was with great enthusiasm that I read an article in my local newspaper yesterday that outlined a new study detailing the benefits of eating a daily meal with the family. The benefits were particularly important to the emotional and cognitive health of children. The study was published in the American Journal of Pediatrics and supports the health benefits of a non-medical behavioral ritual of our society. The critical point is that we need to work to create and to respect the daily meal and to not let our “busy lives” interfere with this important and necessary daily tradition.

We humans need to feel control, control over our self, our stuff, and our future. Life creates situations and circumstances that remove control from us and unfortunately, we can make decisions that ultimately remove control as well. Our ability to live with reduced control, to give up control, and to not “have to” control most things around us can relate directly to our sense of emotional health. H

How would you rate your need to control things or others around you in your daily life? How well do you do when you are not in control? More importantly, are you at peace when things occur without your control, do you recognize things are okay without your control?

Most things in life are not life and death. Certainly we need to exert control and influence when such circumstances occur. However, I am writing about the hours of little stuff, not life threatening stuff, that we deal with everyday. These are the things that we react to and lead to a healthy or unhealthy existence. Simply put, how do you feel inside?

Make a list of the things that you feel a need to control. The list might contain the behavior of others, the appearance of self, others, or space around you. It might be something relating to time, how things have to get done, or how events have to occur. The things on the list are nearly endless. Once you have made your own list of “Control Items, “ begin to explore more deeply whether you have the ability to let go.

You will need to work consciously on letting go of control with these life items and events. It will not be easy. Try to let go a few times and let life carry on without your control. Then, pay attention to how you feel, particularly inside. Are you okay? Better yet, do you feel a sense of relief enjoying your observation of life events with or without blemish?

Is your need for control in balance? It probably relates directly to your sense of emotional health. The great news is that you have control over letting go of your control!

I believe it is important to always be conscious of our bodies and our brains (minds) so we can identify when we lose balance or symmetry in our natural state. I also believe it is important to understand the physiological mechanisms that underlie stress so we can make changes and achieve equilibrium. In order to achieve the latter, we need to understand our “autonomic nervous system” that has two major parts to be discussed in this blog: the “sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system.”

The Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) is located in the brain and has effects on the entire body. One major part of the ANS is the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) that helps our bodies and brains get into a “fight or flight” state and have actually helped our species survive until today. Recall that dinosaurs and other potentially catastrophic events or threats that required us to fight or flee confronted our ancestors. Without the SNS we would have expired as a species.

The SNS serves as a type of alert and action system in which specific structures in our brain and body engage to enable us to fight or flee. Once the SNS kicks in our brain releases norepinephrine and our body releases epinephrine (adrenaline) to get our system hyper-engaged. The brain is also alerted by the hypothalamus (master gland), which triggers the pituitary gland that in turn triggers the adrenal gland (periphery of the body). These glands release hormones including cortisol and glucocorticoids that put our amygdala on overdrive and our hippocampus (learning center) on hold. These physiological reactions result in our heavy breathing, a restriction in body fluids leading to dry mouth, halt in the digestive system, and in the reproductive system. Our brains become hyper focused and vigilant as we try to deal with the threat in front of us.

Our bodies can tolerate this jolt to our equilibrium for some period of time, particularly as it helps us to survive. However, our bodies are not designed to handle such acute stress for extended periods of time. It is important to note that dinosaurs no longer confront us and life-threatening stressors on a daily basis typically do not confront us. Despite this, we continue to respond to small, non life-threatening stressors with the same SNS response.

Fortunately we have a counterbalance to the SNS known as the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS) sometimes referred to as the “rest and digest” system. Our bodies do quite well with our natural balance of PNS and SNS and in fact our resting state is the PNS. Our reactions to daily non-life-threatening stressors results in the SNS overpowering the PNS and increasing our risk for the physical and psychological problems noted earlier. How can you engage the PNS to keep it at least in balance if not the lead in your daily management of life stressors?

Consider the following tips to finding and engaging your PNS:

1.    Stop and identify (make a list) of your daily life stressors.
2.    Identify where your body feels stress (physical and psychological).
3.    Practice rhythmical breathing by taking a slow and deep breath in for four seconds and exhaling slowly for the same four seconds.
4.    Practice the breathing for five minutes, three to four times daily.
5.    Give yourself at least thirty minutes daily of sitting upright in a quiet place where you can simply turn inward and let all stimuli flow over and through you. Be patient and focus on simply being.
6.    Self-talk using positive words such as “love, joy, patience, forgiveness, kindness, happiness, trust, and peace.”
7.    Work daily to not react negatively to small things your brain may have considered “big” in the past.
8.    Do something nice each day for someone.
9.    Slow your pace down and work consciously on inner balance.
10.    Understand this is a lifetime effort and you will experience positive steps and some setbacks. Simply remain conscious of your inner balance and remind yourself “I am trying to reach and use my PNS”

Good Luck!

The findings support the idea that social isolation caused by deafness may be part of the cause of dementia. This may be particularly true as the association to dementia was only seen for deafness above the level at which verbal communication was impaired.

Over a five-year period from 1990 through 1994, 795 participants had both hearing and cognitive testing as part of the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging. Of these, the current study consisted of 639 people, ages 36 to 90, free of confirmed or suspected dementia.

The participant subset was followed until May 31, 2008, for a median of 11.9 years. During this time, researchers found 58 participants to be diagnosed with dementia from all causes, including 37 with AD. Most of the participants (456) had normal hearing at baseline with a mean age around 60, while 125 had mild hearing loss, 53 had moderate hearing loss, and six had severe deafness.

Interestingly, in the 15 years before the study period, those who developed dementia had an average yearly hearing loss that was nearly twice average for those who did not develop dementia.

Seniors who practice foreign languages over their lifetime and have the ability to speak more than two languages demonstrate the cognitive protection. The research studied 230 people with average age of 73 and findings support the growing body of literature that describes cognitive reserve thought to be developed by engagement in the complex and novel.

Similar studies have shown the health promoting effects of language development and in this case development of more than two languages. In this particular study, participants who had spoken three languages were significantly more likely to be protected against cognitive impairment. Those with four languages were even better off in terms of cognitive health. Those with five or more languages had similar protection to mastering four languages.

We all might want to get started on our second, third, or fourth language today!

A random sample of 926 elderly, ages 70 through 90, completed questionnaires on physical exercise, cognitive activities, and caloric intake during the previous year. All were considered non-demented and the diagnosis of MCI, if appropriate, came later. 817 of the original sample were considered normal cognitively and 109 were diagnosed with MCI.

Significant differences were found between the two groups as the normal subjects were younger, better educated, less likely to suffer depression, and had fewer medical problems. When these factors were controlled, the following was found:

• Any frequency of moderate exercise was cognitively protective.
• Any frequency of computer use was cognitively protective.
• Caloric intake was deleterious.

When caloric intake was controlled, physical exercise and computer use had an additive interaction that was significant. For purposes of this study, computer use seemed to have more value than other cognitive enhancing activities such as reading

This study adds to other research that demonstrates brain health promoting effects of computer use with physical exercise.