New Year, Never Too Late
A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.
~ Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.[i]
It is Never Too Late to improve brain health and mental strength because our brain is resilient.
The brain has two superpowers: neuroplasticity and neurogenesis. Neuroplasticity is the brain’s capacity to change with every action, thought, and experience. Neurogenesis is the brain’s ability to grow new brain cells in our memory-processing hippocampus for our entire lifespan. Our brain is shaped by our daily habits and is influenced by our efforts, successes, stressors, failures, and traumas.
Famous pediatrician and author, Dr. Benjamin Spock, first published the influential Baby and Childcare in 1946. Its 10th edition was revised and updated by pediatrician Dr. Robert Needlman in 2018. Spock was very athletic as a young man, winning a gold medal on the Yale rowing crew at the 1924 Olympics.
In his eighties, Dr. Spock experienced numerous health problems: recurrent pneumonia, fluid around his heart and lungs due to exposure to tuberculosis, and chronic neuropathy that made it difficult to walk. His doctors told him his only recourse was to use a wheelchair, install an elevator in his home, and wait for the end. Upon getting the quote for the pricey elevator, Dr. Spock decided to try major changes in the way he ate. He eliminated meat and cheese, and he prioritized vegetables and whole grains. His sleep improved within days, his strength and energy returned within three weeks, and he lost fifty pounds of fluid within six weeks. Dr. Spock became an advocate of plant-based eating, and he lived until he was nearly ninety-five years old.
Olga Kotelko was a Canadian athlete who won hundreds of senior division track and field events. Researchers found that her workout program had profound effects on her brain structure. She had greater white matter integrity, which increases capacity for planning and reasoning, and higher levels of fractional anisotropy, which measures brain connectivity, than peers in her age group. She enjoyed a healthier brain, and she performed better on cognitive tests, because she began to exercise. Amazingly, she did not start working out and competing until she was 77 years old, and she lived to be 94.[ii]
It is possible to heal the brain with healthy habits, no matter your age. A study on 160 sedentary adults over age 55, and at risk for cognitive decline, showed that adding aerobic exercise improved executive functioning, and better yet starting a regimen of aerobic exercise and the heart-healthy DASH diet, enhanced cognition even more. A combination of aerobic exercise, any activity that raises your heart rate, and a diet rich in fruits and vegetables that also minimizes animal protein, is an effective strategy for augmenting cognitive capacity.[iii]
It takes only a few months of work to reap the health and brain benefits. A recent clinical trial demonstrated that an 8-week diet and lifestyle program can reverse biological aging in otherwise healthy adult males, ages 50-72. The intervention included prescriptions for exercise, sleep, stress management, diet, and supplements.
The interaction of our genetic makeup with our environment can change our health. Epigenetics is the study of how our environment impacts our gene regulation, which is how our genes are switched on or off. DNA methylation, a chemical process that adds a methyl group to DNA, typically leads to gene silencing and is implicated in advancing the aging process.
Scientists have developed a way to measure aging called the Horvath DNAmAge clock. It predicts age by assessing 51 healthy tissues and cell types and estimating DNA methylation.
Participants in the intervention treatment group scored 3.23 years younger than the control group, as measured by the Horvath DNAmAge clock. Over the course of the 8-week study, the control group participants aged by 1.27 years and the intervention group participants reversed their aging by 1.96 years, making 3.23 years the total difference between the groups.
The intervention prescriptions included:
Exercise: at least 30 minutes a day, at least 5 days a week, at 60-80% of maximum exertion
Sleep: Average of 7 hours per night
Stress Management: Breathing exercises twice a day
Eat: dark greens, cruciferous and colorful vegetables, beets, low-sugar fruit, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, 6oz of animal protein including eggs and liver
Avoid: sugar, dairy, grains, and beans
Supplements: PhytoGanix® and UltraFlora® Intensive Care, each twice a day.
The entire intervention prescription can be found on page 9 (Table 2) of the study.[iv]
Takeaway: Incremental lifestyle changes can improve brain health and mental strength. It is Never Too Late to start.
Well-being is a journey, not a quick fix.
Announcement
I am expanding my free well-being newsletter to also publish it on Substack in order to reach beyond the professionals who have an email subscription here or read it on LinkedIn. It’s called Never Too Late. I’d be honored if you forwarded this email to anyone who is interested in health and wellness and encourage them to subscribe on Substack, or consider subscribing there.
Sources
This newsletter is derived from The Legal Brain: A Lawyer’s Guide to Well-being and Better Job Performance, © Debra Austin, JD, PhD, published by Cambridge University Press, May 2024, Chapter 12: Developing an Action Plan for the Neuro-Intelligent Lawyer.
[1] Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. GoodReads Quotes, Quote by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. - BrainyQuote.: “A mind that is stretched by new experience can ...” (goodreads.com).
[1] Neal D. Barnard, Power Foods For The Brain 82-84 (1st ed. 2013); Dr. Spock’s 10th Edition of Baby and Child Care, Dr. Benjamin Spock.com; BABY & CHILDCARE 10TH EDITION - Dr. Benjamin Spock (drspock.com); Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, Rest: Why you Get More Done When you Work Less 193-94 (2018).
[1] James A. Blumenthal, Patrick J. Smith, et al., Lifestyle and Neurocognition in Older Adults with Cognitive Impairments: A Randomized Trial, Neurology, December 19, 2018, online at http://n.neurology.org/content/early/2018/12/19/WNL.0000000000006784
[1] Epigenie, DNA Methylation: Establishing the Methylome, https://epigenie.com/dna-methylation-establishing-the-methylome/; Steve Horvath, DNA Methylation Age and the Epigenetic Clock, https://horvath.genetics.ucla.edu/html/dnamage/; Kara Fitzgerald, et al., Potential Reversal of Epigenetic Aging Using a Diet and Lifestyle Intervention: A Pilot Randomized Clinical Trial, Aging-US, https://www.aging-us.com/article/202913/pdf.
