Cognitive decline can be slowed down with lifestyle changes
smithsonianmag.com
smithsonianmag.com
Over time, I started forgetting things, which really unsettled me. I became increasingly lazy and unmotivated.
Earlier this year,I began volunteering as a systems administrator and network engineer for an NGO and I couldn’t be happier. The daily interaction with staff has significantly improved my cognition,which had been rapidly declining.
As a 30+ year software dev, the expectations / requirements are definitely more challenging than when I started. Mind you, the tools are also somewhat better, but there's this feeling of needing to be always-on that's hard to shake.
And the whole "take as many days as you need" fake-unlimited-vacation thing, where people end up taking less vacation days than before because it feels "wrong" to actually take 4-5 weeks vacation in a year when others aren't taking as much. At my previous employer, when I joined, it was start at 18 vacation days per year, add one for every year at the company up to 28 - and you could bank up to ~35 before you lost days. At least you felt "entitled" to take those days. Then, they switched to "flexible PTO" and I'm sure overall, people took less days vacation. My current employer is "flexible" and I feel anxious taking 4 weeks throughout the year.
Even if I retire, I hope to be able to do some cognitively-challenging thing for as long as I can.
I have one copy of the APOE4 gene and am ~40lbs overweight and probably drink too much, and will definitely double my weight and triple my alcohol consumption if I get it.
I have always said the heathier you are when you begin to die, the longer it takes to die.
BUT to get immunity from prosecution they'd have to sign a notarised and confirmed Do Not Resuscitate order.
Call it the Blaze of Glory act or something =)
You all just rather inject yourselves with a medicine. Amazing.
One might counter that it’s unethical to hinder our ability to understand which interventions are effective by prejudging the outcome in this way?
(Glances in Denmark's general direction.. )
Denmark has a very different vaccination schedule because they have exposure to many fewer "childhood diseases." Might seem like a small difference given the availability of 'properly regulate medical records without privacy issues" but these sorts of differences add up.
i read that as "doing Science would be unethical"
Which means, yes, that there are many studies where the control isn't quite proper. And that does slow down progress in medical science.
Personally, I'm well aware of the positive effects of drinking plenty of water, eating vegetables, exercising daily, and going to bed early. However, I buy myself a chocolate bar every day, love pizza, just want to unwind after a hard day at work, and still read Reddit late into the night.
All the healthy stuff has friction: a workout takes time out of the day, the veggies need preparation, while going to bed early means I'm missing out on fun or intriguing things that I would learn about otherwise.
My exercise equipment is long paid for (10+ years ago), I watch sports while exercising (subscription paid whether I exercise or not) and going to bed early means less need for caffeine / painkillers to get through the day. Veggies are somewhat more expensive, not sure if the margins are as high on them as on ultra-processed food.
And yet, I'm right there with you - I struggle daily with doing the right thing.
Cable news and Tiktok are far worse.
"Your medical team has carefully gone over the results of your tests, and we've finally come to the careful consensus that you should keep active, drink more water, get enough sleep but not too much, and eat your vegetables."
"But..."
"Why not? Do you think vegetables are bad for you?"
"But doctor, I have a broken leg!"
For example, there is a full glass of water sitting on my desk from 9am. It's noon. I haven't taken a sip. Until now.
Constant reminders do work.
What gets in between? Because the first two are 99% success rate I'd bet.
Honestly, I feel like "always be drinking" only appeared once bottled water did.
It helped me to get a water cooler or something to fill a bottle?
- aerobic, resistance and stretching exercise
- adherence to the MIND diet, a combination of the Mediterranean diet with the salt restrictions of the DASH diet
- cognitive challenge through BrainHQ training and other intellectual and social activities
- regular review of health metrics and goal-setting with a study clinician
Especially when you are including sleep and diet in "general health"
(not saying you specifically are a phone addict)
Man, that "probably" is doing a ton of heavy lifting.
People without constant stress have less temptation. In times where my anxiety is the lowest due to sheer circumstance, any reason I have to doomscroll vanishes and I can then occupy my time with a hobby. But it's not because I chose to do away with my phone that I'm able to do so, it's because I didn't have to spend all my time and effort fighting stress. The less stress, the closer the "choice" gets to being a no-brainer, entirely automatic.
Say you decide you're now a chess person. Instead of doomscrolling before bed you find relaxation in the meditative study of chess games for an hour a day before going to bed and now you use your phone only as an alarm. You join your local chess club to play IRL during weekends and attend some classes too. What were the effects? Well, there are the proven long-term cognitive benefits of learning and practicing chess, there's the immediate cognitive and emotional benefit of a larger social circle and a community, and medium term you'll feel good about yourself for achieving milestones (getting to 1000 ELO, winning the weekly tournament, etc.)
None of that would have happened if you had stayed on your phone. You probably already invest just as much time on it as you would in chess in this scenario, but it has no ROI, it is designed to suck you in.
I think "giving you motivation" isn't the right way to frame it, but "probably" isn't doing heavy lifting. More like providing the affordance that wasn't there because the phone took it away and convinced you that you didn't need. Like a typical drug addiction or pretending you don't need to make friends because you have colleagues.
People are spending the amount of extra time on their phone every day that it takes to raise kids, so if you've never figured out how to allocate that time effectively, it's a good place to start.
People before 2007 slept, exercised, ate well, socialized, reduced stress, learnt a language, played chess, meditated, avoided sugar, limited screen time, and reversed the entropy of the universe.
Unless it's calling or texting, what you do via phone can almost always be done on a computer/laptop. Allot a certain time of your day/week for handling life shit via a desktop or laptop, and a certain time of the day/week for reading news. Limit it to just that timeframe, and try to keep that timeframe small. Avoid social media as much as you can within that.
these are mainly issues in america, canada and parts of europe. I'm currnetly down in colombia. I walked 30 min just to get to a cafe. am activly learning spanish with locals which also checks of socializing. I drink black coffee and you won't have much time for screens if you meet someone to keep you focused on them.
> and reverse the entropy of the universe.
if only...
The first thing you realize is that your sessions are a lot more fruitful when you don't show up to your morning practice hung over, or on 5 hours of sleep, or after a night of chain smoking. After that practice was established for a year, I started working out. And then you realize your training is better when you're feeding your body correctly, so your diet changes. Etc. They all flow into and out of each other, as they're all essentially the same practice.
The important thing I've found is when you want to begin a new habit, put it first thing in the morning. No excuses. Actually, this reminds me of something I read in an interview with David Bowie years ago -- when asked what he learned to appreciate as he got older his answer was just "mornings".
I say sleep is the best one to open with
If I eat well and I am well rested, I feel energized and positive, so I can go for exercise and then, why not, a meditative walk. If not, I die on my couch binge eating and watching nonsense.
Do whatever it takes to get your sleep done.
I'm saying entropy is a mess. That's what it is.
INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR MEANINGFUL ANSWER
Basically, the description for a healthy pescetarian diet that these studies are using.
The number one reason I see people fail their diet/exercise goals is because they go to big to fast.
Training to do an ultra marathon if youve never run a 5k, swam a mile in open water, or even mountain biked for 5 miles is a sure fire way to get injured. You need to build a base of knowledge, muscle, and nutritional habits or you set yourself up for failure, imo. Not a hard rule, but close.
Crossfit is the last thing I would recommend to anyone, especially a beginner.
I didn't say anything about doing it fast. Prepping for an ultra is a long term thing.
I think that setting goals like "do an ultra" is more likely to have people stop entirely rather than downgrading their goal to something more doable when they hit that first roadblock.
Better to start small and catch the running bug than try to do something that the vast majority of the population will never even aspire to.
You have to remember that something like 40% of Americans are obese.
You're right, a 5k is pretty doable, but if you get to 5k and you don't find yourself enjoying it, you're never going to get to an ultra, but if you do find yourself enjoying it, it's much easier to work your way up to a 10k. And there's a lot of points between 5k and ultra where the game changes - a 10k feels different and has a different challenge than a half which feels different than a full (I can't speak for an ultra), and many of those points are perfectly healthy to stall at.
Long term goals are great, but only once you've set yourself on that path. The goal of running for a month and a half is enough if you've never run before.
Also, ultras will overwork the shit out of your heart. (Bro science)