Successful Aging and Brain Health With Dr. John Randolph

Brain Beat

Dr. John Randolph is a board-certified clinical neuropsychologist, brain health coach and consultant, and member of the Adjunct Faculty at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College. He earned his PhD in Clinical Psychology, with an emphasis in Neuropsychology at Washington State University, and completed clinical and research fellowships in Neuropsychology and Neuroimaging at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. He's Past President of the New Hampshire Psychological Association, a National Academy of Neuropsychology (NAN) Fellow, and recent Program Chair for a national conference focused on the science of brain health. He's also the author of the recently released general audience book, The Brain Health Club: Using the Power of Neuroscience to Improve Your Life. He works with individuals, groups, and organizations interested in developing better strategies to enhance brain health.

Today Dr. Randolph joins host, Dr. Peter Arnett, to discuss how brain health relates to successful aging, which day-to-day activities we can do to improve memory function, and what kinds of physical exercise are best for the brain (and for how long). Dr. Randolph explains the crucial role that social engagement plays in brain health, and how increased isolation has been particularly challenging during the pandemic. The benefits of “cross training” with crossword puzzles, reading, woodworking, and other mental activities daily are also addressed. Dr. Randolph talks about the importance of a Mediterranean-style diet, sleeping well, and stress management for cognitive functioning. Finally, he reminds listeners that it’s never too late to make changes toward better brain health, and encourages us to take gradual steps toward this goal.

Episode Highlights:

• Successful aging is intimately related to brain health
• Exercise, social activity, mental activity, brain-healthy diet, managing stress, sleeping well are all very important not just for brain health, but for the overall aging process
• Moderate activity for 30 minutes a day, 5 days per week is best for maintaining brain health, but any level of activity is beneficial
• The brain is nourished by social interaction and being around people we care about
• Three types of social activity that really matter: how frequently we’re active with other people; how large our social network is; and social support
• These are associated with brain health and also reduce the risk of developing dementia
• COVID has been a particularly challenging time in terms of maintaining social connections, even with the advent of Zoom calls and FaceTime
• Cross Training with the brain, and doing a variety of different mental activities each day, helps to prevent memory problems
• Mixed evidence for whether computerized games help
• Benefits of Mediterranean-style diet
• Findings on health benefits of wine and dietary supplements are inconsistent - the most important priority is to have a balanced diet
• It’s never too late to start making important changes to help promote better brain health
• Sleep is critically important for cognitive function
• There are a lot of simple, free things you can do every day to promote brain health - focus on taking gradual steps

Quotes:

“Successful aging is really intimately related to brain health.”

“We know that there are certain day-to-day activities we can engage in that also really help promote brain health. And these include things like exercise, social activity, mental activity, eating a brain-healthy style of diet, like the Mediterranean style diet, managing stress, sleeping well - these are all things that we have a certain amount of control over, and we know can really improve not just brain health, but the overall aging process.”

“Exercise is one of the most exciting developments in neuroscience in the last 20 years. When we think of what exercise does for the brain, it's remarkable.”

“It's important to emphasize that any level of exercise is good. If it's hard to get to that level, for various reasons...any sort of movement is important.”

“When we're socially active, it makes us feel good to be around people that we care about. And we feel sort of emotionally nourished by those interactions. But the brain really gets nourished as well, when we're more socially engaged.”

“All three aspects of social activity that I just mentioned, are very associated with brain health, and also reduced risk of developing dementia.”

“When people are more socially isolated, when people feel lonely, that can actually be toxic for the brain.”

“I think more generally, the idea is to do a bit of what we could call Cross Training with mental activity. There's some evidence that that seems to be particularly helpful.”

“The Mediterranean-style diet...includes lots of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, olive oil, fish, and maybe some poultry - trying to minimize red meat - and beans, nuts, legumes. When people eat that sort of collective nutritional style, that tends to have a significantly lower risk of Dementia for people that adhere to that style of diet.”

“The more we can lean toward a Mediterranean brain-healthy style of diet, the better off we tend to be both in the moment and also projecting down the road.”

“I would say that exercise, more social activity, more mental activity, all of those, it's never too late to start making some important changes.”

“Sleep is critically important for brain health.”

“I think there's something very empowering about that idea, that there are things that we can do day-to-day that are free or inexpensive and generally available to all of us, that can make quite a bit of difference in promoting brain health.”

Links:

National Academy of Neuropsychology Foundation website

The Brain Health Club: Using the Power of Neuroscience to Improve Your Life by Dr. John Randolph (2019). New York, NY: W.W. Norton and Company.