The brain and mind maintenance programme
People are terribly excited about AI, artificial intelligence, but actually the human brain has been managing intelligence for thousands of years.
The brain is an organ like the liver or the kidneys and although it has a very rich blood supply it always looks white on the butchers slab, if it ever appears on the butchers slab in the United Kingdom (people in the UK seem squeamish about seeing brain in great lumps, unlike in Italy or other continental countries. We do eat brain, but it has usually disappeared into sausages for cultural reasons.) Ask a butcher to look at a brain and you will see that it is white unlike liver, kidneys or muscle but the blood supply is rich and obviously just as important. Interruption of the blood supply causes a stroke if a big artery is blocked or lots of mini-strokes which cause vascular dementia, one of the two main types of dementia.
The mind is involved in thinking and feeling and it is conventional to divide the functions of the mind into two types – cognitive and emotional.
The cognitive function of the brain and mind relates to the activities that computers try to copy and support namely the activities of reasoning, decision making, learning and memory. Although loss of memory is often promoted as one of the key features of dementia but because it affects everyone impairment of the the other cognitive functions such as the ability to manage money or the ability to find one's way home are more reliable signs of the onset of dementia
Emotional function relates to feeling, feeling happy and sad for example.
What are the effects of ageing?
It used to be thought that ageing of the brain was downhill all the way from birth with cells dying off. We now know however that
Furthermore we also appreciate now that many of the tests we used to assess brain function are unfairly biased towards the brains of young people because they focus on quick decision making. Thus the deleterious effects of ageing have been over emphasised and the benefits of living longer, something we call experience, have been underestimated.
How can you minimise the effects of ageing and living longer?
Firstly appreciating that ageing is not as much of a problem as we thought and that it is essential for everyone to think about a strategy that can help them live longer better. This means that there are two steps that need to be taken
What can you do to reduce the risk of disease?
1. Keep the arteries to the brain healthy
The main disease that affects the brain that is preventable, because brain tumours and Alzheimer’s disease are not preventable, is actually the disease of the blood vessels supplying the brain.
These blood vessels can be affected directly by the process of atherosclerosis, the same process affects affects arteries of the heart and the arteries elsewhere in the body and a clot can develop in an artery of the brain just as it does in an artery of the heart when causing a heart attack. Two other problems occur in the brain both of which are complications of cardiovascular disease
Thus a good thing you can do to reduce the risk of disease to the brain is to follow the advice given on reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease.
2. Stay engaged with learning, preferably through working with other people
How can you maintain and increase fitness of the brain and mind?
Probably the single most important thing you can do is to increase activity
3. Protect the brain tissue
Who can help
The practice nurse can assess the risk of vascular disease but family members are of great importance in firstly believing that the brain can be protected and improved and secondly encouraging people to continue to improve their brain and mind
HOW COULD YOU USE THIS KNOWLEDGE TO ACHIEVE YOUR OWN OBJECTIVES OR THE OBJECTIVES FOR SOCIAL CARE ?
Look at the resources of the Optimal Ageing Programme specifically designed to help you think better, increase Brainability and reduce the risk of dementia
The brain and mind maintenance programme
People are terribly excited about AI, artificial intelligence, but actually the human brain has been managing intelligence for thousands of years.
The brain is an organ like the liver or the kidneys and although it has a very rich blood supply it always looks white on the butchers slab, if it ever appears on the butchers slab in the United Kingdom (people in the UK seem squeamish about seeing brain in great lumps, unlike in Italy or other continental countries. We do eat brain, but it has usually disappeared into sausages for cultural reasons.) Ask a butcher to look at a brain and you will see that it is white unlike liver, kidneys or muscle but the blood supply is rich and obviously just as important. Interruption of the blood supply causes a stroke if a big artery is blocked or lots of mini-strokes which cause vascular dementia, one of the two main types of dementia.
The mind is involved in thinking and feeling and it is conventional to divide the functions of the mind into two types – cognitive and emotional.
The cognitive function of the brain and mind relates to the activities that computers try to copy and support namely the activities of reasoning, decision making, learning and memory. Although loss of memory is often promoted as one of the key features of dementia but because it affects everyone impairment of the the other cognitive functions such as the ability to manage money or the ability to find one's way home are more reliable signs of the onset of dementia
Emotional function relates to feeling, feeling happy and sad for example.
What are the effects of ageing?
It used to be thought that ageing of the brain was downhill all the way from birth with cells dying off. We now know however that
- new cells can develop, a process called neurogenesis, and
- new connections can take place between existing cells allowing new functions to emerge, a process called neuroplasticity.
Furthermore we also appreciate now that many of the tests we used to assess brain function are unfairly biased towards the brains of young people because they focus on quick decision making. Thus the deleterious effects of ageing have been over emphasised and the benefits of living longer, something we call experience, have been underestimated.
How can you minimise the effects of ageing and living longer?
Firstly appreciating that ageing is not as much of a problem as we thought and that it is essential for everyone to think about a strategy that can help them live longer better. This means that there are two steps that need to be taken
- reducing the risk of disease
- increasing brain and mental fitness
What can you do to reduce the risk of disease?
1. Keep the arteries to the brain healthy
The main disease that affects the brain that is preventable, because brain tumours and Alzheimer’s disease are not preventable, is actually the disease of the blood vessels supplying the brain.
These blood vessels can be affected directly by the process of atherosclerosis, the same process affects affects arteries of the heart and the arteries elsewhere in the body and a clot can develop in an artery of the brain just as it does in an artery of the heart when causing a heart attack. Two other problems occur in the brain both of which are complications of cardiovascular disease
- one of them is when a clot formed in the heart, for example as a result of an irregular rhythm due to atrial fibrillation, floats off from its origin in the heart and passes to the brain where it blocks an artery and kills off the cells at the far side of the blockage
- secondly a blood vessel can simply burst in the brain with the blood flowing out and destroying the tissue around about it. This is usually a result of high blood pressure.
Thus a good thing you can do to reduce the risk of disease to the brain is to follow the advice given on reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease.
2. Stay engaged with learning, preferably through working with other people
How can you maintain and increase fitness of the brain and mind?
Probably the single most important thing you can do is to increase activity
- listening or reading is better than simply staring into space, or the TV
- doing puzzles and learning a new skill is better than simply listening, watching and reading
- engaging with other people socially while learning or playing games like whist or bridge is better than doing it on your own
- contributing to the wellbeing of other people as a volunteer, supporter or local councillor is better than simply engaging intellectually.
3. Protect the brain tissue
- preventing and managing stress
- getting good sleep
- avoiding the harm that can be caused by too many drugs prescribed by the NHS, because drugs which either interact with one another to impair the functions of the brain or may have a direct effect on the cognitive functions.
Who can help
The practice nurse can assess the risk of vascular disease but family members are of great importance in firstly believing that the brain can be protected and improved and secondly encouraging people to continue to improve their brain and mind
HOW COULD YOU USE THIS KNOWLEDGE TO ACHIEVE YOUR OWN OBJECTIVES OR THE OBJECTIVES FOR SOCIAL CARE ?
Look at the resources of the Optimal Ageing Programme specifically designed to help you think better, increase Brainability and reduce the risk of dementia