Curiosity, compassion, meditation and improv
Those four horsemen can help you fight the Alzheimer’s apocalypse
Do you want to limit your chances of getting Alzheimer’s? Watch and learn.
No, not from me, god help you. But watching and learning are two great habits, mixed in with curiosity and compassion and those four lifestyle pillars: diet, exercise, sleep and socializing.
What doesn’t help — at least not nearly as much as you might have been led to believe — are brain games and nutritional supplements, says neuroscientist and author Lisa Genova, whose novel “Still Alice” became an Oscar-winning film and whose latest effort is a nonfiction book, “Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting.”
“In order to build an Alzheimer’s-resistant brain through doing things, you really want to learn new things and you want to learn complex things,” Genova says in this podcast. “Crossword puzzles are mostly retrieving information you already know. You’re not actually building new neural pathways.”
Just about anything you do that strengthens your mind and body will help, from taking up a sport to memorizing fresh dance steps to learning from a news article or podcast.
Genova said you can show an Alzheimer’s patient compassion by imagining you’re doing improv comedy, taking whatever they say and adding a “yes, and …” spirit. If Dad’s waiting for Mom to get home, it’s much kinder to ask him what he wants to have for dinner than to remind him that Mom died 10 years ago. The pain will be fresh to him, yet again, until he forgets, yet again.
Unless they’re endangering themselves or someone else, try to operate in their reality, not yours. It’ll be a lot less frustrating.
“Alzheimer’s never steals your ability to feel human emotion,” Genova said, “so if I have Alzheimer’s I can lose access to all of the memories I’ve ever made in my life, I won’t know who you are or any of the people I love, I won’t remember my earliest memories, but I’ll still know how to love and what it feels like to feel loved. I’ll still have the full range of human emotions.”
If you’re past a certain age and find your own memory fading, there’s someone else you should be kind to: Yourself. Genova said that often the things we “forget” are so mundane that we never bothered to create a memory of them, like where we parked our car in the mall.
When we can’t remember someone’s name, it’s often because our mind doesn’t have many pathways to it. Genova said if you consider your mind as a city, that acquaintance’s name can be as hard to find as a cul-de-sac.
Stealing her analogy, I’m guessing that when Alzheimer’s patients can still remember all the lyrics to a song, it’s because they built a mental subdivision around it decades ago, associating it with where they lived and who they loved at a crucial time.
So how can we keep building subdivisions? Two ideas (mostly from me, so don’t blame Genova):
Give yourself some peace. Genova says sleeping seven to nine hours a night helps not only your body but your mind, getting rid of the daily detritus and knitting together memories. And yes, sleep does get more challenging as we age, not only because our minds give us an anxiety buffet, but because our bodies offer everything from sore muscles to arthritis to a urinary system that has a “Charge of the Light Brigade” fetish (half a leak, half a leak, half a leak onward).
Meditation might help you relax (try a guided one if you have trouble clearing your mind), but so can walking in nature and talking with friends. Depending on what’s nagging at you, you might need therapy to focus on it or a diversion to take your mind off it. Just keep trying. Perseverance might be the most magical strategy of all.
Treat life like a first date. When you’re trying to impress someone, you bring your A game — finding something fun you can share, looking for ways to connect, trying to make yourself as interesting as possible. And, most of all, being curious.
All those traits help you fight Alzheimer’s, too.
Curiosity is kind of a magic Alzheimer’s pill. If you’re curious about people, you’ll have good conversations, maybe make new friends — and add more paths to your mental map. If you’re curious about an historic event, you’ll Google it or read a book of watch a documentary. And add more paths. With all due respect to Genova, if you don’t know the answer to a crossword puzzle question, you just might look it up. Sometimes the most interesting paths start with a rabbit hole. Go ask Alice.
One great source of fresh pathways is music— not old, familiar tunes, but stuff from another generation. A curious person might listen to “Empire State of Mind” and be baffled by several references, then go to a place like Genius lyrics and find enlightenment.
They might even build a subdivision while they’re at it.
Consider a line like “Superman was killed in Dallas,” from the 1982 song “Used to Be.” Lots of Boomers would get the reference instantly, but Gen Zers might have to look it up. Maybe they’d even be curious enough to start a conversation.
Genius might also help you take a fresh look at a much older song like “Puff, the Magic Dragon,” maybe expanding your mind to feel some major “Toy Story” vibes.
I literally have brain damage. I had a small stroke 10 years ago. Fortunately it wiped out only a couple of side streets and the traffic could be rerouted easily, even to the cul-de-sacs. Lots of other people aren’t so lucky.
If you live long enough, Alzheimer’s or some other form of dementia will probably start messing with your mind map, too. Maybe instead of doing improv, you should think of playing “Pac-Man.” You’re in a desperate race to gobble up dots of knowledge. The more dots you gobble, the longer you’re able to keep the ghosts of Alzheimer’s at bay. Even if you’re destined to lose, you can have a lot of fun along the way.
Murphy Slaw
Something old: Pat Morita tells a couple of stories about Redd Foxx. Listen to the second one in particular, about a gesture of kindness. If you’ve ever had a mentor or older friend who helped you when things were tough, pay it forward. And if you were never that lucky, start a tradition.
Something new: Guest co-host Morgan Honaker added at least a couple of alleys to my mind map with this podcast on actor Christopher Lee (Saruman in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy), saying that heavy metal and classical music have a lot in common. Lee sang both opera and metal, including this Christmas hit.
Something borrowed: If you haven’t heard any of these songs, be curious. Fresh neural pathways await.
Something blue: “The Daily Show” and host Sarah Silverman had a lot of fun in the last half of this clip with House Speaker Mike Johnson’s comments about how he and his son help each other abstain from watching porn. “If Mike Johnson doesn’t want to encourage his son to masturbate,” Silverman said, “why did he name him Jack?”
Another good one. Thanks Dave!