How experiences create new Neural Pathways...

Taking care of your brain starts with understanding what's going on inside your cranial cavity.  You have 1,450 cubic centimeters of cranial space filled with neural tissue in a well protected "vault".  Let's take a look inside.

Click HERE for the interactive version.

New experiences create new Neural Pathways... which is why I'm taking a new Tai Chi class and learning Japanese, and Chinese, and Italian, and looking to join a calligraphy class, and listening to digital books and science podcasts. I plan to start learning how to play the guitar one day soon, and make time for a bookclub. (Have you read? Hitching Rides with Buddha, by William Ferguson).  New experiences, new learning, new neural pathways!

Optimizing your Body, Optimizing Your Brain

For Bill.  Optimizing your Body... with Cardio Work Outs

The human brain burns enormous quantities of oxygen and fuel, so it is important to maintain an optimal cardio vascular system, which can be accomplished by walking, jogging, and cycling.  Bill, a friend, is interested in a Spin class, so I've posted three video clips that I hope will take him to the next step.   My gym recently opened a new building with this digital Spin console. Bill, you can select a ride  choosing from over 200 choices on the control panel below, then climb on a bike! 

For first timers, a good goal is to pace yourself for a 55 minute ride. Pedal until you need to ease back... take a minute or two d\pedaling at an easy pace to recover your breath, then pick up the pace again.  Repeat.  You can also jump into a Spin class as a beginner and use the same strategy.  Go at your own pace, but ease back when necessary so you can complete the 55 minute class.

Bill the video below will help you become familiar with the equipment and in this clip, the emergency brake.  Later you will have time to try a live Spin class, which will challenge your cardio vascular system, pour extra oxygen into your brain and contribute to your 120 and Beyond plan.  
I'm on a bike or in a spin class 3-4 times a week, it would be better to have a Spinning partner!

Blue Zones: Where it’s common for people to live over 100.

What is a Blue Zone?

Blue Zones are hot spots of longevity and are good places to start building a longer health span by building a forward looking community.

Click HERE for a short introduction from National Geographic.

What do Blue Zones have in common?

The first principle of 120 and Beyond, and Blue Zones is...  Community. The Venn diagram above includes the terms Healthy Social Circle and Social Engagement.  

But Community means much, much more.  Communities are social units with something in common, eg. norms, values, that share a sense of place (village, town), often with a common cultural and historical heritage.  Communities have durable relations beyond immediate genealogical ties, and have members who often share, intents, beliefs, needs, preferences, resources and some measure of cohesiveness.

So let us now build our own 120 and Beyond 

or Blue Zone Tai Chi Community.

Click HERE to see what’s happening 

in Laguna Beach and Dana Point, California

Learn Tai Chi and Build Your Own Blue Zone

#1 Let’s begin by looking at how Tai Chi is a great path toward a longer, active health span.  Click on the video below to see

Wendy Ma, Vince McCullogh and Matthew Ma

lead an Emeritus Tai Chi session.

#2 This link is another good place to start your own Tai Chi path. Click on the video below for an orientation by Ron Cohen to the 18 Shibashi movements linking breathing to moving meditation. Shibashi is a good warm up for more advanced forms of Tai Chi.

Ron, Cindy and Paul have been leading a Sun-style t’ai chi ch’uan group

at Heritage Park in Dana Point, California at 10:30 am Thursdays for over 10 years? 

Maybe they’ll show us how.

#3 Coming soon with Paul et al.

Or go straight to Yang-style t’ai chi ch’uan.  Click HERE to practice the short form with Vince McCullough. 

"What is essential is invisible to the eye." 
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Blue Zones are hot spots of longevity like Okinawa Japan and Sardinia Italy where it’s common for people to live actively beyond 100.  
This page will focus on Tai Chi which also contributes to a longer healthspan for

120 and Beyond

Click HERE for more about Blue Zones

#4 This is my favorite lesson, Vince names each position to create a moving narrative.

#5

Why Tai Chi?

1. Moving mindfulness does for your brain what rocket fuel does for NASA Planetary Missions. Tai Chi will put you into a longer health span orbit.

2. Tai Chi is one of many physical activities that delivers increased quantities of oxygen and nutrients to the brain, which fuel the brain's glial cells in their work to feed and clean up the brain's neurons.  By the way,  Alzheimers is a build up of plaque that glial cells are tasked to clean up.   See previous Brain post.

An excellent example in the creation of My New Blue Zone took place in late August of 2018 when Bill and Alexandra invited  me to join their Tai Chi community with Vince McCullough.  They met daily at the beach to enjoy a moving group meditation. I believe practicing Tai Chi two or more times a week and building my own Blue Zone will help make it possible to reach 120 and Beyond.

The Human Brain...  uses more energy than any other human organ, up to 20 percent of the body's fuel consumption* and 
fully 25 percent of the body's total oxygen consumption.**   

*(https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-does-the-brain-need-s/)
**(http://www.humanneurophysiology.com/cbfo2consumption.htm)

Blausen.com staff (2014). "Medical gallery of Blausen Medical 

How do we protect our most valued asset? First, let's gather important neurological information from a reliable source: MIT   This video begins by shining a light on our greatest neurological risk. 

  Your Brain vs. Alzheimer's:  "Knowledge is Power." Click here for the video.  "33% of US adults will die of Alzheimer's or age related dementia." Not the news we want to hear but there is good news too!

From this first resource we learn that there is a noninvasive technique to reduce beta amyloid plaques in mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease.  Before we get carried away it is important to know that not all successes move from mice to humans. That said, we now have a compass pointing in a very compelling direction. It's hard to imagine a more non invasive experiment.  Exposure to 15 minutes of flickering Christmas lights a day.  More details to follow.

My Friend Yuji Chapter 1

During the 40 years I've studied Anatomy and Physiology and brain research, much has been published about slowing or eliminating the negative aspects of aging. In the next few years you'll begin to hear more frequently, medical discussions about living a high quality life to 120 and beyond. Personally, I plan to squeeze up every savory drop along the way, and this be the log of that journey. 

By now you may have read about Blue Zones, places where people live over 100 years of age. A book has been written about what these places have in common. Then on one of my trips to Japan I had a first hand experience with the elements of the Blue Zone.  See the video below.

 Goem: the Japanese word for the connection between people, a key Blue Zone element.

I went to Japan in search of the land of my mother's parents. Along that journey I met Sohji and his father Yuji Ishihara, a hidden genius who could solve the most impenetrable mysteries. This is about My Friend Yuji, who became my brother.

The journey: At 44 I had a mild heart attack, like a two by four, reminding me to take better care of my body. I instructed my cardiologist to: "be more aggressive with me than any patient in his history." He immediately ordered me into a program of cardio work outs 5-6 days a week. 

At 59, I learned I needed to correct a Kyphosis, an over-curvature of the upper back probably from a combination of slouching and aging. Here was my first lesson about the critical importance of our backs for continuing health and well being. 

Healthspan

Once there was talk about lifespan, but here we focus on HEALTHSPAN, optimizing health and well being in order to enjoy a longer lifespan without avoidable disabilities. Watch this video by neuroscientist and author Lisa Genova for clues on what can be done to protect your cognitive reserve.

Click HERE for what you can do to prevent Cognitive Loss by Lisa Genova

Notes from Lisa Genova's Ted Talk

A single human brain makes over 100 trillion synapses.

Alzheimer’s is the result of loosing synapses.

At 9:52 neuroplasticity,  cognitive reserve and what we learned by studying  678 retired nun.s

At 12:00 cognitive reserve=more functional  synapses…  we build cognitive reserve by increasing our formal education, high degree of literacy,  in people who "engage regularly in mentally stimulating activity".

Mentally stimulative activity creates many extra back up synapses via recruitment of multiple pathways.  These extra pathways provide cognitive recall when some synaptic pathways have been compromised by Alzheimers.

Mentally stimulative activity is not crossword puzzles which is the retrieval of information you already know.  Instead, pave new neural roads: new books, learning new languages, Italian, Japanese, learning from new Ted Talks,  meeting new friends, taking notes.

 

Mentally stimulative activity is rich in meaning that recruits sight, sound, association, emotion or in other terms, the four quadrants of Barbara Clark's integrative learning model:  kinesthetic, sensory, intuitive, cognitive activities.

People with Alzheimers don’t lose their emotional memory. "You might not remember what I said, but you will remember how I made you feel."

Neuroscientist Lisa Genova is also the author of among other books, Still Alice which was the book behind the movie of the same name.  

Click HERE for the trailer.