During the last twelve months I have done a lot of writing – a book, my blog posts, some articles, presentations and workshops. They have all been completed with me being in a certain position i.e. sitting at a desk in front of my computer.

I’ve never had to spend so much time on my derriere before and I have to say I noticed a few things.

Firstly something which I can only describe as “writers bottom”, an intense desire to get up, jump up and down or move to do anything physically that would relieve me from the torment of having to sit a moment longer.

I have always endeavoured to ensure I exercise daily, with a 30 to 40 minute walk, some yoga plus a swim a couple of times a week, but this no longer felt adequate to help keep my brain cells firing.

Thirdly I started experiencing backache and various other aches and pains I had never had before. Was it my age I pondered? It was only when I took action to help my sore back by having some physio, doing some cycling and doing yoga that the penny finally dropped – I had advanced “sitting disease” which was impacting my physical and mental well being. Time to change!

But how many of us are not in the position to allow for that change? Luckily I won’t be as dormant next year, as my work will be involving a lot more movement with walking and standing. But if you are a sedentary worker having to sit every day in front of your desk how can you do things differently and overcome the sitting disease?

And it’s not just our bottom, which feels the impact; our tummy muscles lose tone and we tend to put on weight too. The spread of the derriere is accompanied by a spread around the middle. So if your clothes are getting a bit tight and your tummy is protruding more than it used to, perhaps it’s time to consider how much time you are sitting and find a way to sit less.

This week a colleague shared this video clip from Dr Mike, which is one of the best health promotion videos I have seen for a while. He explains exactly WHY exercise is the best prescription your doctor could ever prescribe because it is the remedy to assist so many of our modern day ailments: obesity, depression, hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, arthritis and dementia.

So do yourself a favour, no make that two…..

Firstly watch this video and then commit to filling in your daily prescription of “finding thirty” every day.
And why am I going on about sitting too much? Because of the negative effect it has on our brain function. We evolved to move because it stimulates the production of neurochemicals that support and nurture our existing brain cells as well as promoting the production of new neurons every day.
We need to “find thirty” every day as a minimum to keep our brain working at it’s very best.

So let’s make “sitting disease” and “writer’s bottom” a thing of the past and look to creating a more “brain fit” you.

It’s been one of those days. You overslept and were late for an important meeting at work. Your boss is giving you the evil eye and you are feeling physically sick. The photocopier then spits the dummy and refuses to print out the 150 sheets you need for tomorrow’s presentation. A driver cuts in front of you in the freeway almost causing you to have an accident and you realise you forgot to collect your son from his after school sport training. Your son is cross as he gets into the car, throws his muddy sports gear across the back seat and slams the car door. You react by shouting at him.

Anger is a normal human emotion. We all get angry. We see anger expressed all around us, from screaming toddlers having tantrums in the supermarket, to belligerent teenagers slamming bedroom doors, to news reports of stabbings. When we are angry we say things which can be deliberately hurtful to the intended victim, we may even be physically aggressive.

Anger is a protective emotion. It guards us against attack. It provokes a physiological change in our body getting us ready to fight or flee and is associated with a psychological change in our brain.

When angry, our emotion can be usually easily detected by others: clenched tight muscles, facial flushing, narrow focused attention on the source of anger, raised blood pressure, increased breathing and heart rate. Our testosterone levels increases as does our adrenaline and noradrenaline.

How we react when angry, varies from person to person. We all learn to handle anger differently, depending on culture, socio-economic background, gender and personality. Some people deal with anger better than others. Some people are constantly irritable, hostile, and short tempered with a short fuse. Others are slow boilers, mostly easy going but capable of blowing off like a volcano occasionally.

In order to learn how to handle anger better, we need first to understand our amygdala.

Our amygdala is part of our reptilian brain, the oldest part of our brain developmentally and it is concerned with our emotional regulation. Nestled deep in the brain the two almond-shaped amygdala (one in each hemisphere) react to potential threats. They do this so well that our body reacts and primes itself to respond before the thinking part of the brain, the cortex, can evaluate what the situation actually is and whether any or what response is actually warranted.

Losing your cool at work.

At best this may have a negative impact on the relationship you have with your colleagues. At worst you may find yourself at risk of either losing your job ( unless you are the boss where you might lose an employee) or missing out on a promotion. Women who display anger in the workforce are seen in a particularly negative light. Fair or not, anger in men in the workplace for some reason is more tolerated.

Learning to control your anger is possible and can make a significant difference to your own level of happiness and well-being. Angry people have a much higher incidence of stroke, heart disease and impaired immune function. It’s bad for your health to be angry and it also has a bad effect on your thinking skills and mental performance.

Have you heard the saying that “As emotion goes up, intelligence goes down.” ? Or, as my mother always said. If you argue with an idiot, then you have two idiots. That doesn’t mean only stupid people get angry and argue, but that when you are angry your level of reasoning and logic is greatly reduced. What you may say or how you behave, can be completely irrational and out of character.

Once the amygdala has triggered the alarm, the cortex registers this and if our thinking brain goes along with the experience of anger, several things will occur.

First up the left side of our brain becomes more active and draws us closer to the source of our anger. When we are happy or experiencing positive emotions we expect our thoughts to bring us closer to the stimulus. Conversely when we are sad or afraid we would otherwise seek to get away from what is causing us to feel negative emotions and this involves stimulation of the right hemisphere. Anger is different because it is a negative emotion and yet we are drawn closer to who or what is making us angry, rather than moving away from it.

Anger management.

There are a number of strategies we can adopt to deal with anger:

• Because being angry provokes a focus onto the source of the irritation or anger, the easiest way to defuse the emotion is to remove yourself from the stimulus. Try going for a walk or at least leaving the room before you blow your top.

• By physically moving away or trying to detach yourself emotionally from the situation gives your cortex or thinking brain time to evaluate the situation. Try counting slowly to ten before allowing yourself to say anything!

• Take six deep slow breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth. Use diaphragmatic breathing: put your hand gently on your tummy and when breathing in or out allow your tummy muscles to go in and out. This helps to alleviate muscular tension and calms you down.

• Journal or write down your thoughts and then tear them up, preferably the following day. Never ever,ever send an email in anger. It might come back to bite you on the bottom.

• Try smiling. It’s really hard to stay angry at someone while smiling at the same time. It helps to lighten the moment.

• If someone is displaying anger at you, remember that that is their framework that they are looking through. You don’t have to share the same frame and buy into it. Is their anger really directed at you? Or are they just voicing their frustration/irritation and you just happen to be the nearest venting post? We don’t know what is going on in someone elses head. It’s their issue and they have to deal with it. The important thing is to not allow yourself to be infected by their negativity (somehow!)

• Give your anger a time-frame. OK, so someone has really gotten under your skin or made you feel really mad at them. How long are you going to allow yourself to experience that anger? By choosing to stay with your anger/hurt pride/wounded feelings etc it impacts your ability to respond and deal with what else is going on in the world. Angry people are not fun to be around. So you’re upset, now get over it.

• None of us are perfect and even with practice there are going to be times when our hot buttons get pressed and we react badly. So don’t beat yourself up if that happens. Afterwards, look at what may have been the trigger and learn from it. Was there a way you could have handled it differently?

• Don’t forget to apologise. It doesn’t matter whether you were in the right or wrong. You are apologising for your behaviour. You may or may not be forgiven for your anger but acknowledging your reaction was perhaps inappropriate or unhelpful can help. As long as you are sincere Saying sorry can go a long way to resolve conflict.

So what do you do to handle anger?

Ref: Neus Herrero, Marien Gadea, Gabriel Rodriguez-Alarcon, Raul Espert, Alicia Salvador. What happens when we get angry? Hormonal, cardiovascular and asymetrical brain responses. Hormones and Behaviour, 2010; 57 (3): 276 DOI: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2009.12.008

Why Staying Connected Is Vital to Good Memory and Brain Health.

I just got back from a three-day seminar where I sat in a large room with a whole bunch of other people listening to a series of presentations.

As I was sitting there, I was asking myself a couple of questions. What is it that draws people to these types of events?
And what is one of the key reasons for attending en masse?
Because much of the information being presented is readily available in other forms such as books, articles and the Internet.

Much of the answer could be found in the breaks between talks, when the gathered throng would meet up and introduce themselves to other people, chat about the event, their learning, their purpose for being there and generally sharing information with each other.
The noise level of the chattering voices (deafening!) demonstrated that there were a lot of people intent on communicating to their fellows. At the end of each break, the organisers were shepherding/dragging/encouraging people back to the room, having to break up conversations in order to allow the event to keep to its time schedule.

As much as I enjoy learning new things, it is the social engagement with others that I actually enjoy the most, forming new connections with other human beings.

Why is this important to having good brain health and better memory skills?

I think many of us understand that loneliness is not good for us. People on the whole are social beings and thrive on contact and interaction with others.

How vivid is that image of an older person living alone, with little or no social contact.
Apart from the disadvantage of being socially isolated, that person is also seriously disadvantaged in terms of increased risk of physical and mental ill health and is likely to age faster and die earlier.

The incidence of mental illness including depression is more common in those living alone.

Other studies have also demonstrated that people on their own are less likely to be engaged in maintaining good cognitive function and have a higher risk of dementia.
Less external stimulation means less engagement with what is happening in the rest of the world, less likelihood of expanding or learning new mental skills, or of remaining interested or curious about what other things are going on.

Having to use your brain in a social sense means you are using your memory to remember, you are controlling your emotions (both positively and negatively) and are being attentive and focussed.

Neuroscience has taught us in order to remain brain fit we need to be actively using all of our mental muscle.

Back in 2007 Prof Oscar Ybarra and colleagues released a paper, which looked to prove that a correlation existed between social engagement and better brain function. His study included 3600 people aged between 24 and 65 yrs.
Having proved that, he then went on to do a second study using a group of 18 to 21 year olds, and demonstrated that social interaction

caused

better cognitive performance.

In his study he had three groups of people.
The first group were engaged in a discussion for 10 minutes.
The second group performed brain-training activities (crossword puzzles/Sudoku) for 10 minutes.
The third group sat and watched a 10 minute Seinfeld clip.

The groups were then tested on speed of processing information and working memory.
The results showed that even after only a 10 minute exercise, the group involved in the discussion did far better in working memory tests than those who had watched the video clip.
The brain-training group were a close second to the conversation group.

So talking and social interaction with your fellow human beings appears very important in being able to maintain good cognitive function, even more than doing the brain training programs. Although they are of course also recognised for contributing in a big way to our continuing good cognitive function.

It looks as if we have another good reason to turn off the TV.

What is the Concern for the Future of Reduced Social Contact?

It appears that the need for human beings to remain connected to each other is going to be of increasing importance for the following reasons.

The above study suggests that having better social skills means a likely better cognitive outcome. Which means that if our kids are taught good social skills from an earlier age then they are likely to perform better academically.

In the workplace it supports the ideas of encouraging employee interactivity as a way to help them work better.

But, our changing lifestyle means many more of us now choose to live alone. The family unit is being replaced by an increasing number of single person units.
There has been an increase in the number of people choosing to work from home as solopreneurs, as virtual assistants, as online businesses, without actual contact with other staff or related personnel.

There are a rapidly increasing number of baby boomers reaching retirement who, either through choice, or divorce or death of their partner are likely to end up living alone.

Which to my mind means it is crucial that we all look to either maintain or increase our social networks, if we want to keep our brains working better and reduce the risk of losing our memory skills, our physical and our overall mental health.

Younger people living alone are perhaps more likely to continue to engage with other younger people, but watch out for the shy, the geeks or socially introverted.

For people living and working from home, it is going to be really important to actually interact with others, to have face to face meetings, to get out and engage with friends, to go to restaurants, café’s and other social gatherings, beyond standing in the check-out queue of the local supermarket.

For the elderly, physical infirmity can be a major issue making it harder to remain connected.
There were a number of people I looked after as their general practitioner, and often I or the Silver chain nurse would be the only people they would see from week to week.

There are of course a number of other things to consider to remain socially connected such as:

• Joining community groups
• Maintaining regular social contact with existing friends
• Going out to social functions, clubs.
• Travelling and going on holiday
• Enrolling for courses at your local Tafe college or University
• Being a volunteer for a charity or other community group
• Having a dog that requires a walk outside.

Even the telephone can provide a means of at least speaking to another person, as can the newer social media channels of Facebook, MySpace and Skype.

So next time I am thinking I need to encourage our daughter to get off the phone/mobile/Facebook to get back to her studies, I shall have to remind myself that that social interaction is going to help her memory and test performance.

There is nothing that can replace the invaluable act of simply being with and interacting with another person every day to provide great mental exercise.

Ref: University of Michigan (2007, November 1). Ten Minutes Of Talking Improves Memory And Test Performance. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 23, 2010, from http://www.sciencedaily.com¬ /releases/2007/10/071029172856.htm

Chocolate: My favourite brain food.

Mmmm, chocolate. I really enjoy eating good chocolate as a treat. How boring would life be, without being able to savour end enjoy some really good quality chocolate from time to time.

And it would appear I am not alone.

Australia as a nation ranks ninth in the world consumption of chocolate stakes with each of us eating around 6kgs each year.

(Don’t feel guilty; the Swiss eat 10kgs per head!)

So, having consumed those 30,500 calories, 1750g of fat, 1270g of cholesterol, 4950g sodium, 3550g of carbohydrates and 540 grams of protein, do we need to be concerned with our health as a result?

Does chocolate contribute to disease?

The results of a study from Harvard, reported recently that men over the age of 65 who ate chocolate several times a month actually lived longer than those who overindulged or denied themselves any chocolate at all.

So that would appear to indicate that abstinence is worse than enjoying some chocolate occasionally.

And let’s get rid of the acne myth. Chocolate has absolutely no bearing on acne at all. Even though your mother may have told it eating chocolate would give you pimples. It’s not true. But eating a healthy diet with lots of fruit and vegetables and some chocolate would be the best way to go to keep your skin glowing and healthy.

Obesity. Yes, if you eat too much of anything including chocolate which is a high calorie food, then that can contribute to weight gain which is not good for your general health and may predispose you to diabetes which is definitely not good for your brain. So, hey moderation in all things!

Chocolate is best enjoyed as a small (eg 40 grams) regular treat and make sure it is good quality chocolate preferably dark.

Should chocolate be eaten for health benefits and is it good for our brain?

Chocolate is packed full of goodies.

It contains some important minerals such as magnesium and iron and has lots of antioxidants including Vitamins A1, B1, C, D, E as well as potassium, sodium and calcium.

Over three hundred active substances have been identified in chocolate.

Flavenols and dark chocolate

Cocoa or chocolate contain powerful antioxidants called flavenols. (Also known as phenols and found in blueberries, green tea and red wine) Dark chocolate contains the highest concentration of these. Studies have recently showed some potential benefits of these on blood pressure, as well as providing us with an energy boost and an anxiolytic effect so we feel less stressed.

Sunil Kocher at the Nestle Research Centre in Switzerland (sounds a great place to work!) did a study on 30 men and women where they consumed 40g of dark chocolate a day for 14 days. He measured their stress hormones and the results indicated that eating chocolate may help modulate stress levels.

I could have told him that. Doesn’t everyone eat extra chocolate when feeling stressed?

Another study in the UK by Professor Ian McDonald from Nottingham University using a particularly concentrated flavenol cocoa drink showed increased cerebral blood flow (for a couple of hours) to key areas of the brain in subjects.

This suggests the increased blood flow and hence oxygen supply may be associated with increased brain performance in specific tasks and a boost to general alertness. All sounds promising and a good reason to enjoy some chocolate.

The people who live on Kina Island in Panama have been found to experience virtually no problems with elevated blood pressure. They apparently consume at least 5 cups of cacao drink each day as well as incorporating it in their diet. It’ s also been found that if the inhabitants move to live elsewhere they lose the protective effect for their blood pressure as it is often accompanied by them no  longer drinking and eating the same high amount of cacao.

It appears there is a substance in cacao, which helps the body to process nitric oxide which is essential for healthy blood vessels and hence helps to regulate blood pressure.

Why chocolate makes us feel good.

Chocolate contains other bioactive compounds including caffeine, theobromine, phenylethylamine which are associated with stimulating neurotransmitter production and keeps us alert.  Tryptophan helps to elevate serotonin levels so we feel good and less anxious.

Andapamide (meaning Bliss in Sanskrit) is a neurotransmitter that the brain produces naturally and is also found in chocolate. This works on the brain receptors associated with dopamine release, which is associated with a feeling of well being.

So what’s the verdict on chocolate as a brain food?

It appears that there are some suggested health benefits of eating chocolate.

As with all things just because having some is good for you, doesn’t mean having lots is better. Certainly eating a lot of chocolate adds a significant calorie, sugar and fat burden, which could be of significant detriment to our health.

The evidence appears to support that eating a small (40g) amount of good quality dark chocolate several times a month may be good for our health as a food for our hearts and brains.

So now we don’t have to feel guilty about indulging in and enjoying some chocolate.

And if anyone is wondering, my particular favourite chocolates are the 70% cocoa ones with chilli or orange. Yum.

References:

University of Nottingham (2007, February 22). Boosting Brain Power — With Chocolate.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/life/2008-02/26/content_6485069.htm

http://www.nutralegacy.com/blog/general-healthcare/breaking-news-eating-chocolate-improves-your-brain-activity/

http://hubpages.com/hub/chocolateaginghealthbenefit

It has been well documented that physical exercise promotes better brain health.

As we get older we become aware that our reaction times in thinking becomes slower, we are less adept at planning and multi tasking. We find it harder to take in and remember new information. We find our ability to concentrate and focus diminishes and we may even notice symptoms of the onset of neurodegenerative disease. Yikes!

But do you have to go to the gym to be getting the necessary exercise to maintain good body and brain health?

Does the thought of donning lycra, using muscles you never know you even had, and getting really sweaty and puffed, (or being in the close vicinity to someone else in lycra who is sweaty and puffed) not inspire you to want to exercise?

Well the good news is. You don’t have to.

The key is regular exercise and it can be as simple as starting with increasing opportunistic activity.

It can be walking, swimming, running, golfing ,cycling, whatever you like and are happy to persist with. It can even include  going to the gym (lycra not essential)

What could you do at work to increase your activity levels?

Are you stuck at a desk all day in front of a computer screen?

The first thing is to get you up and off your bottom. Try planning in 10 minute slots where you get up, have a bit of a stretch and move and walk around the office. Better still, try to get outside into the fresh air.

It’s like long distance flying. After sitting on your bottom for too long in an aircraft we know the need to get up and have a stretch.

When parking your car either for work, at the shops  or elsewhere, rather than spending time trying desperately to get the closest spot to the nearest entrance, try parking a little further away from your destination so that you have to walk that incremental distance, plus you may find a greater number of freer spots to park in.

If there is the choice of the elevator or the stairs, take the stairs.

Get a dog! They are always ready for a walk and will provide the necessary incentive with a wag of the tail, fetching the lead (or even the trainers) and of course look at you with those big brown pleading eyes.

Is it ever too late to start exercising?

Absolutely not.

Obviously, the earlier the better. Kids who participate in sport in childhood and adolescence have been shown to tend to do better academically, and be better adjusted in terms of mood.

The aim is to carry on through out our lives participating in some form of regular activity that we enjoy.

The key is consistency.We need to be making exercise part of our every day lives that we simply do.

Studies have shown that  going for a walk every day for 20 minutes will add significantly to our overall well being and reduce our risk of stroke (by 57%).

Walking three times a week for 30 minutes has been shown to diminish our risk of developing dementia by 10% at least.

Walking that bit further is even better with improved benefits for every additional kilometre walked.

If we are feeling a bit stressed, under the pump or have a problem, going for a walk will help us to gain clarity in our thoughts and enable us to resolve these issues as well as improve our overall sense of well being.

When we exercise, we increase the amount of blood flow to our brain and that also means the brain receives more oxygen and glucose.

Regular activity will promote the formation of new blood vessels in the brain, we have greater energy production and our existing brain cells have a better chance of survival.

Even better, studies have shown that regular exercise enhances neurogenesis or the production of new brain cells in the hippocampus. This is a specialised area of the brain that is particularly important for learning and memory.

And yes there is more.

The extra “steak knives” on offer is that exercise stimulates the increased production of substances called BDNF’s which are crucial to supporting and nourishing existing brain cells.

Those who exercise more, show less loss of grey matter which means greater retention of the executive functions of the frontal lobes in reference to better concentration, attention and planning.

Plus, it appears that exercise can induce a change in the expression pattern of a wide array of genes. This is particularly important for example where  someone may be carrying a gene which may put them at increased risk of developing something like Alzheimer’s disease. If that gene is not expressed or if the expression is delayed, that could have a significant impact on that person in reducing or delaying the probability of them developing the disease.

The bottom line is that participating regularly in physical activity has clear benefits in assisting us to maintain good brain health and improving our cognitive function.

It’s a no brainer not to be exercising.

Now where did I put my trainers?

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