I took this photo at a street corner in the German-style town of Helen, near Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Planting seeds that blossom into beautiful flowers is analogous to planting empowering beliefs that blossom into a healthy brain.
Hence, today’s Brain Booster is Think bolder, not older — because our beliefs influence our biology. In fact, our beliefs BECOME our biology.
In the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, people holding negative beliefs about ageing demonstrated significantly worse memory performance after 38 years than those subscribing to less negative age stereotypes — and this was after adjusting for education, depression, chronic illness, and other variables that could affect a person’s powers of recall. The decline in memory performance for those aged 60+ was 30.2% greater for those holding the most negative age stereotypes compared with those who had the most positive attitude to ageing.
The first step to ageing better is to feel better about ageing.
Harvard University professor of psychology, Ellen Langer, explored this more closely by testing whether cultural stereotypes contributed to memory loss. Young and old residents of the United States, mainland China and an American deaf community were asked to list characteristics they associated with growing old. Interestingly, Chinese people and those who were born deaf were less likely to perceive memory loss as a feature of ageing than the average American. When they were subsequently given memory tests, young people in all three groups scored much the same. However, older Chinese and deaf people performed significantly better in memory tests than their hearing American counterparts. The memory decline was not due to biology, it was due to their beliefs.
When an older person forgets where they parked their car in a big shopping centre carpark, they immediately call it a ‘senior moment’ and fear they’re getting Alzheimer’s. When a young person forgets where they parked their car, they immediately call it a ‘junior moment’. Of course they don’t! They tell themselves not to be in such a hurry, and to pay more attention next time. Same incident but different interpretation based on our expectations and cultural stereotypes. And here’s the danger of it. Fearing you might be getting Alzheimer’s triggers cortisol release, which causes brain freeze, and damages cells in the hippocampus (the memory and learning centre of our brain), thus increasing the likelihood of more memory lapses. We then become hyper-vigilant for further signs of weakening memory, and start avoiding situations where our memory is put to the test. Use it or lose it. Before we know it, we’ve created a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Beliefs aren’t rules. We need to use them as tools.
Beliefs are the lens through which we see the world, and if we never question our beliefs, we blind ourselves to the broader possibilities within our reach.
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Today’s HEALTH HEADLINE is exercise REDUCES — not increases — hunger!
No way!
Yes way!
Then why do most people think they feel hungrier after exercise? This is another example of our beliefs tripping us up. Most people ASSUME that exercise increases hunger because you’ve burned more calories than when you’re sitting on the couch. Yes, you’ve burned some extra calories, but no, your body does not respond by ramping up hunger. In fact, the opposite happens. Immediately during and after a vigorous workout — vigorous being the operative word — your body goes into a phase called exercise-induced anorexia, meaning your hunger drops sharply. Tune in to discover how this happens.
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What’s missing from modern medicine is recognising the power of our beliefs to profoundly change our biology, and providing a plan to revise our beliefs if they’re not serving us. In this podcast episode you’ll receive a 3-step plan, which forms the acronym ACE. But you’ll have to listen to the episode to find out what the letters stand for.
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Today’s Whether Report address a very sensitive but critically important question: I’d like to know whether you can really reverse cognitive decline after you start noticing symptoms? You provide a Brain Booster every week, and I’m completely on board with reducing one’s risk of of dementia.
But once a person receives a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s — isn’t it too late to stop the process?
The vast majority of doctors and other health care professionals would answer that dementia is irreversible. That’s the current medical consensus.
However, I, and a very small handful of other doctors — namely Dr Dale E Bredesen at the Pacific Neuroscience Institute in Santa Monica, California — would argue that even after a diagnosis, you CAN stop the process. He’s seen it and I’ve seen it. Listen to today’s podcast episode to discover the details.
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Click here to watch the episode on my YouTube channel, or listen to Healing with Dr Helena on your preferred podcast platform. I’ll publish a new episode every Monday, and you’ll receive an email notification that morning. Please subscribe to my podcast or YouTube channel so that you don’t miss an episode, and send your whether questions to: podcast@drhelenapopovic.com
If you’re happy for me to play your voice on my podcast, you can provide an audio file. Otherwise, you can type your question for me to read out.
I very much look forward to answering your questions, and exploring how we can all build a smarter brain, stronger body and deeply fulfilling life.
Please share this Health-e-Byte with anyone who is interested in brain health!
