Following Dad’s death in 1978, Mom continued living in Lindenwold, NJ until 1985 when Joni and I thought it would be best, if she agreed, to move her to Baltimore into an apartment near us. She agreed and, that summer, Mom came to Baltimore to live in an apartment around the corner from us.
In the late fall, I think it was November – a couple of months before Joni and I married in January 1986 – we mentioned to Mom that we would get her hair styled just before our wedding. She always believed that “a woman’s hair is her crowning glory.”
When she began calling us, sometimes in the middle of the night, to say that she was ready and waiting to get her hair done, I asked her why are you calling in the middle of the night? She would repeat “I’m ready.” It also concerned us that she would leave her apartment to take a walk and not remember to take her keys. I addition, she would boil water in a pot for tea and not turn off the gas and sometimes the flame would burn all night. We knew that we had to have her evaluated. While at the doctor’s, I remained in his office while he took Mom “for a walk.” As I waited for them to returned, I noticed a book about Dementia and Alzheimers. After reading just one page, I was learning about Mom’s symptoms and thinking, why didn’t I know this before asking her: “why can’t you read a book, watch TV, stop pulling the shades down in the middle of the day and calling us in the middle of the night?” Lack of insight and awareness took me on a road not traveled, to paraphrase M. Scott Peck. When the geriatric psychiatrist returned with Mom in hand, I was not surprised to learn that she had late-onset Alzheimer’s disease.
In time we had to move her to a Meridian facility for her health and safety as well as for the health and safety of those living in her apartment complex.
Ever since the late ’80s, I’ve been aware that I could follow in her footsteps rather than in Dad’s given that he had sharp mental acuity throughout his golden years. So my approach became focused on always looking for challenges that would keep my body active and my brain developing. On January 3, 2021, confirmation of this approach came in the form of a TV interview on CBS’s Sunday Morning program featuring the renowned brain surgeon Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Below is the link and the transcript of that interview.
Audio file
Sanjay Gupta’s prescription for fighting off dementia.mp3
Transcript
Jane Pauly: How’s this for a New Year’s resolution? Focus on keeping your brain alert and sharp. Our doctor John La Pook has been getting some tips on that from CNN’s doctor Sanjay Gupta.
Sanjay Gupta: John, I’ve had a longstanding love affair with the brain.
John La Pook: When he’s not on CNN, giving updates on the coronavirus,
Sanjay Gupta: You have to try and do the best you can to mitigate all potential exposures.
John La Pook: Dr. Sanjay Gupta is at his day job. You’re a brain surgeon. What’s it like to hold it in your hands?
Sanjay Gupta: First time I ever operated on the brain, you know, close to 30 years ago now, it was a mystical experience. You can’t believe that those 3 1/2 pounds are everything to us. All of our pain. All of our joy, all of our memories, all of our learning everything.
John La Pook: And in his spare time, Doctor Gupta has written a book about the brain, specifically how to keep it in shape. The book is published by Simon and Schuster. A part of Viacom CBS. For Doctor Gupta, it’s personal.
Sanjay Gupta: In many ways this journey began when my Grandfather developed Alzheimer’s, and I saw that as a teenage kid and, you know, really stuck with me. This has been a lifelong journey to try and understand how I could prevent that from happening to me and from anybody else.
John La Pook: More than 5 million Americans have Alzheimer’s, the most common cause of dementia. One of the biggest fears that my patients have is of developing dementia. They’ll come in and say: “you know what, I couldn’t think of somebody’s name. I know them so well. I was in the middle of a sentence. I lost my train of thought.” So how can people know the difference between changes that come with normal aging and the onset of dementia?
Sanjay Gupta: This is a topic of conversation number one in our home. It used to be because my parents were always asking me this question and now my wife and I are always asking each other this question, you know, am I starting to become more forgetful when it comes to discovering if something is just normal? Sort of memory loss versus abnormal people lose keys all the time; it becomes more abnormal when you don’t remember exactly what those keys are for.
John La Pook: It turns out the changes in the brain that lead to Alzheimer’s disease begin decades before symptoms arise. There is some suggestion, right, that even if you’re destined to develop Alzheimer’s in the future, that if your blood vessels in your brain are wide open. If you’re doing everything you can to keep heart healthy, that it might actually push it off, it might actually delay it.
Sanjay Gupta: I think there’s no question now that we can say, and I don’t think we could have said this 5 to 10 years ago, that there are things we can do that involve lifestyle changes that could absolutely delay the progression of dementia and even reverse it.
John La Pook: Doctor Gupta says the key is doing activities that create cognitive reserve in the brain areas of new nerve growth and wiring that can pick up the slack if needed. So let’s get to it with no miracle drug on the horizon. What’s the prescription for fighting off dementia? Let’s start with exercise. Put it this way, what’s good for the heart is good for the brain.
Sanjay Gupta: When you move, it’s almost like you’re signaling to the body into the brain, I want to be here, I’m not ready to go. With the brain, specifically, it releases these things called neurotrophins, these good chemicals. So these are sort of nourishing the brain.
John La Pook: In the United States, a lot of us are going 100 miles an hour; but so many of us do that while sitting down, not moving.
Sanjay Gupta: You know, people keep saying this sitting is the new smoking every time you’re about to sit, say, do I need to be sitting? And then just try and moderately move throughout the day. It’s so affective. In terms of what it does for the brain and what we can measure it doing to the brain.
John La Pook: And there are some simple habits people can do. For example, take the stairs rather than the elevator.
Sanjay Gupta: It takes months, years to change the heart; the brain can change like that.
John La Pook: How about diet? You’ve heard about that to eat less red meat, less processed food, more vegetables and fruit. Doctor Gupta says, especially one kind of fruit.
Sanjay Gupta: They always sage an Apple a day keeps doctor away. I think when it comes to the brain, it’s berries, berries in terms of what they can do for the brain in terms of the certain chemicals they release are probably going to be one of your best foods. Any berries, just about any Berry blueberries get a lot of the attention because they may release more with fewer calories. They taste good, but if you like a certain Berry, dive into berries.
John La Pook: How about working directly on your thinking skills, Crossword puzzles, video games, what works?
Sanjay Gupta: I have nothing against crossword puzzles and even video games and brain training games and things like that. I think they can be great. So you do crossword puzzles. You play the piano, you do it over and over again. And practice makes perfect. That’s absolutely true, but it’s change that builds resiliency. You need the change, so I wouldn’t just do crossword puzzles the way that I think about it is if you can get outside your comfort zone in some way every day, you’re probably harnessing other real estate in the brain that you don’t otherwise use very often.
John La Pook: Do something that scares you everyday.
Sanjay Gupta: You know whatever the metaphor is, whatever works, just do something different. Learn a new skill. I remember talking to these neuroscientists who said eat dinner with your left hand tonight, if you’re right handed.
John La Pook: Getting a good night’s sleep is another way to help stay sharp. There are so-called garbage collecting cells that help remove toxins from the brain. And while you’re asleep, memories from the day are processed. Our knowledge about the importance of sleep has really changed over the years. It’s not just a matter of letting our batteries recharge right?
Sanjay Gupta: Sleep is such a sophisticated activity that we spend a third of our life doing. The brain is a remarkably complicated organ. When you go to sleep at night, it’s taking the experiences you had throughout the day and consolidating them into memories. Why do we even have experiences if you’re not going to do the things necessary to remember them, right? We’re learning that the brain is constantly sort of going through this rinse cycle at night.
John La Pook: For one of the best ways to fight off dementia, look no further than your friends and family.
Sanjay Gupta: We know that that social interaction is so critically important. We are social creatures. We know that there are certain neurochemicals that are released when we actually have touch and look someone directly in the eye. The best thing you could do, overall, in terms of putting it all together for brain health, would be to take a brisk walk with a close friend and talk about your problems.
John La Pook: Why?
Sanjay Gupta: Get the brisk walk? You’re getting the movement in, you’re doing it with a friend, you’re getting the social connection in. It turns into this beautiful thing for the relationship, but also for the brain.
John La Pook: Of course, the coronavirus means seeing friends up close and personal is a little tough right now, but with Americans starting to get vaccinated against covid, the time when we can move past the pandemic may be approaching. What people want to know is, when do we get back? If not two normal towards normal, what do you think?
Sanjay Gupta: I think we will start to get back to normal a lot sooner than people realize, and I think that could be maybe mid to end of spring. It’s going to start to feel a lot more normal. Things will start to open up. People will be out and about more. I have three teenage girls. I think they’re going to be back in school next fall. It could be wrong, but that’s where it seems like things are headed.
John La Pook: So as we look forward to getting back to normal, here’s a New Year’s resolution for you. Think about doing something for your brain, empathy and kindness, compassion. They do a lot for everybody’s brain, don’t they?.
Sanjay Gupta: They are the ultimate sort of nourishment for the brain. Every site you see, every sound, you hear, everything you touch, feel, whatever it may be, taste and then the feelings. The experiences that you have, through empathy through these connections with people is all nourishing the brain as well. It’s really good for the brain. It’s why we live.