aging-successfully

Benefit by Personally Retiring the Word Retire

Tue, 10 Jan 2023 16:45:51 GMT

What we think and say matters. The word retire has acquired some awful negative baggage. Benefit by tossing it out. Instead, keep living life forwards.

The images words conjure and expectations they create strongly affect our health, our mind, and the way we behave. 1 The word retire powerfully conveys a negative message of becoming old and useless. As defined by the Oxford Dictionary it means to leave your job and stop working, especially because you have reached a particular age or because you are ill. The legal definition for retirement is that one has left the workforce for good.

Life flows forward in time, constantly churning and changing like a turbulent river. Flowing forward, one passes through progressive stages of life such as graduating from Grade School to Middle School to High School. Flowing forward continues as we progressively graduate from one stage in life to another. The word retire signals an abrupt stop in this process and fading away into progressive uselessness. Physically and mentally, this is out of touch with the realities of the New Age of Aging we live in. There are major benefits to be gained by personally retiring the word retire. Removing it as a dam blocking the ongoing flow of living.

I am not talking about eliminating Social Security, Medicare, or other financial benefits available on or before age 65. They can be incredibly beneficial in supporting our adventures in living life forwards. What I am getting at is the need to manage expectations when one transitions from one active stage in life to another. The length of active stages varies greatly. For college it may be four years or more, for an athlete playing at the professional level, it may be one-to-two decades, for a mother raising children it may be two-four decades, and for many in the workforce it may four decades up to age 62 or 65.

The way one views and manages each transition is critical. This is where the word retire can be destructive. About one-third of Americans eligible to receive Social Security immediately claim it at age 62. 2 The death rate for men in this age group jumps 2% at the same time. 2 Those I have known for whom retirement has been especially difficult had their identity, self-worth and social life tightly imbedded in their job. Reconstructing their personal esteem and social structure after retiring without preplanning was overwhelming. This was the problem Scott, a family friend, faced when his career ended at age 65. He was a very successful business executive, popular with his employees and associates when he retired because of his age. He had no plans, no hobbies or other activities, and was devastated. Saying that his life was over, Scott would sit alone at home watching TV all day. He died within two years.

Scott’s dilemma is not unusual. Both the Social Security data already mentioned and findings from studies on more than 15,000 retirees show a jump in the death rate with retirement for males in America. 3 Women retiring do not experience the same bump in mortality, possibly due to better planning or social adjustment skills.

Financial Benefits Available in Aging Offer Freedom

Again, it is the word retire that is problematic. The model of retirement with its strong Stop Signal in life is outdated and needs to be discarded. Many Americans are living longer and the age-associated financial benefits from Social Security, Medicare, and IRAs can provide the financial backing to continue to live life forwards. The freedom gained is in free time to do things that do not fit into a busy workday schedule. To go on to new chapters and stages in living.

Retirement as practiced in the United States is a Western concept that has become antiquated. Japan for example does not have a word for retirement. Western retirement began as a national insurance program with a set retirement age for workers established in Germany in 1889 by Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. The German model was widely emulated after that by other Western countries and institutions. The American Social Security System was established in 1935 setting the retirement age at 65. 4 The original American government program was primarily for men, with the mean male lifespan then being 60 years.

Aging in the United States has changed dramatically since Social Security began. Steady improvements in sanitation, working conditions and medicine have meant more Americans are living longer, healthier lives. According to the Pew Research Center, 10,000 Americans celebrate their 65th birthday every day, steadily building up the population of seniors in the US. This growth will continue through the year 2030. At the same time women are having fewer children, at just about the replacement rate for our population. The ratio of children to seniors is rapidly becoming 1-to-1. In 1960, it was three children for every one senior.

The bottom line is that seniors, those of us over 65, are becoming a powerful social and economic block of the US population. We can already witness some of the changes being brought about in this New Age of Aging. More seniors are working past age 65, 10.6 million today and the number is steadily growing. Concurrently, there are fewer young people and thus fewer entering the labor force. The average age of politicians is increasing. For members of the Senate, the average is 62 with Diane Feinstein the oldest Senator at age 89. Joe Biden at age 78 is the oldest person to be elected President.

So, many of us are living longer. Seniors are an increasingly influential component of the social-cultural fabric of America. We have the opportunity that rather than to fade away with a retired mindset, to use the added years of life for continuing to live life forwards. It means avoiding the mind-trap Bruce Springsteen sang about in Glory Days .

" And I hope when I get old I don't sit around thinking about it

But I probably will

Yeah, just sitting back, trying to recapture

A little of the glory, yeah"

Living Life Forwards

Rather than fading away, the added years of life can be used for continuing to live life forwards. What does this mean? Two quotes provide insights.

“Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards” Soren Kierkegaar, 1844

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So, you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.” Steve Jobs, 2005

Each person’s life journey is unique. So, the decisions you make in moving forward in living are up to you. The point I am making is don’t get trapped by words like retire and the negative expectations they can generate. Instead, look for the opportunities. They can be golden – and make all the difference in your life!

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Questions and Commentary

Words that have been suggested to replace “retire” when one transitions from one stage in life to the next include: graduate, repurpose, evolve, refire, and rewire. What word or phase do you suggest?

What do you think about personally retiring the word retire from your vocabulary?

Your answers and comments are welcome. Send them to me at dongash@khtnow.com With your permission, they may be added to this article on my Agingsuccessfully.org website.

____________________________________________________________________________

The Author: Don Gash is an emeritus professor of Neuroscience (PhD) in the College of Medicine and Lewis Honors College at the University of Kentucky. His expertise is in drug development for treating diseases of aging, especially those effecting the brain. Fifteen years ago, he recognized that aging posed serious threats to health and wellbeing – and had many features of being a disease. Dr. Gash felt that his experience in developing therapies for neurological diseases could be used to better understand normal aging processes and ways to promote successful aging. Ways that activate natural healing processes in the brain and body to effectively restore true wellbeing. Lifestyle habits and practices that do not replace good medical care when needed but make it work better. The advice given is evidence-based on published studies including his work, and from years of personally testing many programs and exercises to identify those which effectively cultivate and enable Aging Successfully.

Sources: PubMed identification numbers (PMID) are given for peer- reviewed scientific reports in mainstream science journals. The scientific papers are available online through PubMed on www.nlm.nih.gov.

1. Levy B. (2022) Breaking the Aging Code: How your beliefs about aging determine how long & well you live . Harper, Collins Publishers.

2. Fitzpatrick MD and Moore TJ. (2017) The mortality effects of retirement: Evidence from Social Security eligibility . (Working Paper 24127) National Bureau of Economic Research (available online)

3. Oi K. (2022) Would it kill you to retire? Testing short/long term/recurrent effects of retirement on all-cause mortality risk. Res. Aging 44:619-638. PMID: 35195029

4. Social Security Website: www.ssa.gov/history/age65

5. US Census Bureau

A Guide to Successful Aging: Introduction

Mon, 26 Dec 2022 23:58:39 GMT

Achieving our full potential for happiness with purpose and meaning.

Hi! Welcome to A Guide to Aging Successfully. This is the Introduction to this series of Aging Well Posts. I am Don Gash, an Emeritus Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Kentucky. My career has been dedicated to studying the amazing human brain. I have published more than 230 papers and have seven patents on treating age-associated neural diseases. No cures have been found for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s but through medical research we know how to substantially reduce the risks for both diseases. We also know much more about how to Age Well – to Age Successfully. I cover these topics on how we now live in the New and Better Age of Aging in the Posts that follow.

Aging itself has many features of being a disease. It involves a progressive decline in many functions and increasing risk for injuries, diseases, and dying. But there are many examples of people who age well and find ways to make it the most fulfilling stage in life. Genes are only a small part of the equation for positive aging. The Blue Zones , diverse genetic communities around the world where people live longer, healthier, and happier lives (1), show that there are effective skills and habits to manage the challenges of aging. Practical ways available for all of us to follow.

We cannot grow younger, but we can grow in wisdom, resilience, and joy in living. My quest has been to find the best ways for doing this. My experience in developing treatments for neurological diseases has led to better understanding normal aging processes and ways to strengthen them. Ways to activate natural restorative processes in the brain and body that effectively enhance wellbeing. Approaches that increase the quality and joy in living. That do not to replace good medical care but make it work better.

The Good news is there are many things under our control that can increase wellbeing in aging. I am 77 now and they have proven to be invaluable as I age. I would like to share them with you. So, I have started this series of Posts to provide guidance to positive, healthier, happier aging – aging successfully!

What does Successful Aging Look Like?

In my classes teaching undergraduates and graduate students, they list fame, fortune, and great achievements as their goals in life. This changes dramatically with aging. Living positive, healthier, and happier lives are the top-rated goals in discussions with my classes for adults 50 years and older. These goals can be defined as:

1) Positive Living : Grounded in positivity for fully experiencing the joys in life and managing the challenges.

2) Healthy Habits: Staying physically and mentally active along with healthy lifestyle habits (2).

3) Being Happier: Living mindfully with purpose and meaning, thriving with a strong social network.

How to achieve these Goals?

The secret lies within us, abilities we naturally possess. Using the power inherent in our own mind. A resource we often neglect. The American Philosopher William James wrote more than 100 years ago: “Most people live—whether physically, intellectually, or morally — in a very restricted circle of their potential being. We all have reservoirs of life to draw upon which we do not dream.”

The positive capabilities of our mind and body, our reservoirs of life, can be drawn upon and strengthened in many ways. What I would like to do here is start by going over two important steps to take to get on the pathway to aging successfully.

First and foremost, sit down and consider your motivation. What in life is the most important thing to you? What purpose is so important that you will dedicate the time and effort it takes to succeed? It may be family, friends, a great cause, being creative, helping others, feeling better…. the list goes on and on. The important thing is it your motivation, your purpose and meaning, your reason for living. In French it is Joie de vivre , your joy of living. In Japanese it is ikigai , your reason for getting up in the morning. Pursuing your purpose in life generates drive, energy, meaning, and satisfaction in living.

Next, recognize that your brain is changing throughout life and that you can strongly influence the changes being made by what you think and do. (3,6) New neural circuitry is constantly rewiring in response to what we are experiencing and our expectations. New neurons are being generated in the brain’s memory center. Neurochemistry is also changing. Collectively, these changes can be incredibly powerful and alter one’s living and life.

Witnessing Life-Changing Power in our Minds.

Virtually everyone has experienced the life-changing power in our mind seen in Placebo Effects! Placebo effects are strong physical and mental responses created by positive expectations for benefiting from a treatment or advice. They often occur in clinical trials as well as in daily life. In a clinical trial, rather than an active drug, a control group is often given a harmless pill or injection called a placebo. The study is blinded meaning that the patients do not know whether they are receiving the active drug or an inactive substance until the study is over. In many diseases, those in the placebo group can experience amazing health benefits through their expectation that they are receiving the active drug.

An exceptionally strong Placebo Effect occurred in a clinical trial I designed that was conducted years ago (4). While the trial was for treating Parkinson’s patients, what it revealed is incredibly important for all of us who are aging. And we are all aging, some of us are farther along than others. We were testing a new drug that promised to restore brain functions lost in Parkinson’s disease. The results were spectacular, but in a quite different way than I had expected. What happened revealed the extraordinary healing power present in the human mind. Your mind and my mind.

There were 10 Parkinson’s patients in the study. All were in the middle stage of the disease, meaning that their conventional drugs were not working well. Bob was one of the patients. He has told his story publicly, including on national news programs.

Bob was in many ways the most affected, his disease had progressed quickly over the eleven years since he had been diagnosed. Bob was a Major in the Salvation Army, a preacher and musician. He arrived at our first several testing sessions for the drug trial in a wheelchair, unable to move or speak above a whisper. When not taking his normal medications, his body was frozen in the sitting position, his face stiff and unmoving as if carved in stone. It was so painful for him to move that family members would have to lift his legs up to get him into bed or in the car. They would have to dress and undress him.
A year later, all 10 patients being treating with the new drug were showing dramatic improvements, recovering physical and mental abilities they had lost years earlier (4,5). Bob’s improvements were extraordinary. As witnessed during monthly videotaped testing sessions that were later shown on the CBS news program 60 Minutes , Bob no longer needed a wheelchair. He could quickly stand up and walk at a fast pace across the room. He was able to resume his life, traveling, going to meetings, and giving public talks. His smile had returned. He and his family were enjoying life again.

It seemed like the new drug we were testing was miraculous! However, the drug company owning the patent stopped all clinical trials on the drug for several reasons. First, there was some evidence that it might cause brain damage. Secondly, four patients out of the 17 in their placebo treated group showed benefits in the same range as our patients. This suggested that our results may have been due to a profound placebo effect that is often seen in some Parkinson’s patients in clinical studies.

Placebos Create Positive Expectations

A placebo creates expectations for a positive benefit in the mind of the patient. The Placebo Effect comes through hope magnified by some experience. The Effects can be generated by participating in a clinical trial or simply by going into a clinic and talking with a doctor who listens and writes a prescription. Placebo effects have been documented for managing pain, fatigue, depression, motor functions, perceptions, emotions, and improving responses to many drugs,

The Placebo Effect can also come from events in everyday life that create expectations for improvement. For example, a good pep talk from a coach or from a trusted friend . Support Groups can help create Positive Expectations – patients talking to other patients about things that are helping them. The important point here is that the benefits coming from a placebo work through expectations in the mind of the beholder.

Now I believe our drug did work and the placebo effect made it work better. Evidence collected over the past 15 years has shown this to be the case (5). But here I want to focus on Placebo effects. They do make good drugs work better! They also make us do better in life. And they do this through making our brains work better (6)! They do it through the thoughts we are thinking – expectations for benefits. Pause for a minute to think about how important this is! Some ways of thinking can make our brains work better. Isn’t this grand! Placebo effects can help in both medicine and everyday life. In fact, placebo effects are just one example of expectations as a driving force in our life.

Placebos Can Activate Innate Healing Processes

A positive attitude can create a positive expectations. One of the first signs we saw in our Parkinson’s patients, even before their symptoms began to improve was a profound improvement in their attitude. Their outlook changed from a passive deep negativity obsessing about their own progressively debilitating disease, to an active enthusiasm focusing positively on the present. Their lives now had new meaning; they had a purpose to live for. They had volunteered for a dangerous treatment that may not help them but could help others. They were no longer their disease, but brave members of our society. They were treated as VIPs when they came in for their monthly checkups. Their families and communities were also treating them with admiration because of their positive attitude and respect for their courage.

The effects of positive expectations generated by placebos can last for months to years. They are not just imagination! Expectations can create real physical changes in the brain. Brain chemistry can change. For Parkinson’s patients, there are increases in the neurochemical dopamine(7). The loss of dopamine in the brain causes the problems like Bob and other Parkinson’s patients have. Brain neurocircuitry can change. This is seen in Parkinson’s patients when neural activity is turned on like a light switch in the brain, increasing neuronal firing in circuitry regulating motor functions that help patients walk, move naturally, and speak clearly (8). Learning and memory functions can also improve. This happens through the birth of new neurons for memory and learning. All these changes are brain healthy and can help restore lost cognitive and motor functions.

Placebos are one of many methods for managing our mind, to access our hidden reservoirs of strength, our resilience to the adversities and challenges of aging. To bounce back and fully embrace living and life.

There are many other methods we will examine and seehow they can work for us in the Posts that follow. Skills, practices, and lifestyle habits that can help us do our part achieve our full potential for wellbeing. Good medical care when needed is an essential part of the equation. Ideally, care received by working in partnership with your doctor for achieving well-balanced wholeness in aging. The purpose of these Posts is to provide accurate, evidence-base information on what helps in making aging a most satisfying and fulfilling stage of life.

Questions and Responses to: A Guide to Aging Successfully

Your questions and comments about this Post are welcome. Send them to me at dongash@khtnow.com . The information in this Post is also available in Podcast 1: A Guide to Successful Aging: Introduction .

_____________________________________________________________________

The Author: Don Gash is an emeritus professor of Neuroscience (PhD) in the College of Medicine and Lewis Honors College at the University of Kentucky. His expertise is in drug development for treating diseases of aging, especially those effecting the brain. Sixteen years ago, he recognized that aging posed serious threats to health and wellbeing – and had many features of being a disease. Dr. Gash felt that his experience in developing therapies for neurological diseases could be used to better understand normal aging processes and ways to promote successful aging. Ways that activate natural healing processes in the brain and body to effectively restore true wellbeing. Lifestyle habits and practices that do not replace good medical care when needed but make it work better. The advice given is evidence-based from published studies, including his, and from his years of personally testing many programs and exercises to identify those which effectively cultivate and enable Aging Successfully.

Sources: PubMed identification numbers (PMID) are given for peer-reviewed scientific reports in mainstream science journals. The scientific papers are available online through PubMed on www.nlm.nih.gov .

1. Buettner D. (2010) The Blue Zones: Lessons for living longer from the people who have lived the longest . National Geographic , Washington, D.C.

2. Li Y et al. (2018) Impact of healthy lifestyle factors on life expectancies in the US population. Circulation. 138: 345-355. PMID: 30571372

3. Gash, D and Deane A. (2015) Neuron-based heredity and human evolution. Front. Neurosci. 9:209. PMID:26136649

4. Slevin JT et al. (2005) Improvement of bilateral motor functions in patients with Parkinson’s disease through unilateral intraputamenal infusion of glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor. J. Neurosurg. 102:216-222. PMID: 15739547

5. Gash D et al. (2020) GDNF clinical trials for Parkinson’s disease: a critical human dimension. Cell Tissue Res. 382: 65-70. PMID: 32630288.

6. Beauregard M. (2009) Effect of mind on brain activity: Evidence from neuroimaging studies on psychotherapy and placebo effects. Nord J Psychiatry 63:5-16. PMID:19023697

7. de la Fuente Fernandez R, Lidstone S, and Stoessl AJ. (2006) Placebo effect and dopamine release. J Neural Transm Suppl. (70): 415-8. PMID: 17017561.

8. Ko JH et al. (2014) Network modulation following sham surgery in Parkinson’s disease. J Clin Invest. 124: 3656-66. PMID: 25036712

Ghosts of Christmas, Shades of Emotions

Fri, 16 Dec 2022 20:37:21 GMT

We are emersed in the full range and depth of emotions in living life fully. Understanding our emotions and managing them is vital for aging well. Holidays can be especially challenging.

Stress spikes during holidays. Christmas is the blockbuster of holidays. For many, it is incredibly stressful, fully stretching all their emotions for better or worse. The emotional extremes are illustrated in the two pictures above. The first "Watching, Waiting, Fearful" is by Dr. Joel Schechter, my Postdoctoral mentor at the University of Southern California. It captures the feeling of being vulnerable and afraid, trapped in a dark nightmare. Joel is an accomplished scientist and award-winning artist who drew this during the height of the Covid Pandemic to reflect the mood of fear and despair gripping many at that time. The second one is a stock picture of ideal joy and magic that many expect at Christmas.

Emotions set the tone for what we feel and think. Recall the last time you were extremely angry or frightened; the heart pounding, gut-wrenching tension engulfing your whole being. In contrast, remember the warm feelings of joy cheerfully raising your spirits when celebrating with old friends. Our emotions, what we feel and think have remarkably long-term effects on our health, wellbeing, quality of life, and longevity. 1 Here we examine the nature of emotions and ways we can keep them working for us and not against us. Skills that are important for dealing with emotion-laden challenges such as holidays.

There are significant differences between emotions and feelings. Emotions automatically activate ancient neural networks shared with many animal species. Networks that have evolved to automatically elicit responses that can have profound survival value. Emotions generate feelings which come through our conscious nervous system. The feelings they arouse are personalized based on past experiences and memories. Events that strongly influence our perception of what is happening in the present moments.

Because their fundamental function is to promote survival, I believe the common premise that four of our basic emotions are negative is wrong. Instead, the four – Anger, Fear, Disgust, and Sadness – are bidirectional states that can be either beneficial or harmful depending on their intensity, duration, and perception. By the same token, the other two basic emotions – Joy and Surprise – are also bidirectional. At first glance, this seems surprising because Joy in its various manifestations including happiness and satisfaction is often considered to be a desired state, a goal of many world religions and philosophies.

To make the case that all emotions can be beneficial and vital, I have listed their fundtions in the roller-coaster ups and downs of living life fully. The benefits are shown in Table 1 and their potential for being harmful are listed in Table 2. I then discuss equanimity , the skill in staying thoughtful, calm, and collected, An effective antidote to harmful emotional imbalances and Bad Stress. I go on to review Charles Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol to illustrate how the emotions elicited by great storytelling can promote positive feelings, thoughts, and behaviors. And in doing so, how Dickens’ story has been instrumental in giving rise to the Secular Christmas Holiday we celebrate today.

Table 1. Positive Benefits of the Six Basic Emotions

Joy : Feeling optimistic, energized, and empowered. It comes through activation of the reward system of the brain. The survival value is in finding happiness, satisfaction, and contentment in life.
Sadness : Feelings of loss, including sorrow, dejection, isolation, and despair. The survival value comes through alerting others that you need help. It can increase empathy and compassion for you, and you for others when they are sad. Tragedies can bring friends, families, and communities together to deal with the loss. Also, insights often develop from going through a period of sadness about what is important in life.
Anger : Feeling threatened, insulted by violations of your core values, or in a life and death situation. It activates the Fight or Flight response in the body. The survival value is in providing the focus, energy, and strength to act against the threat.
Fear : Feelings are very similar to anger in feeling threatened, insulted by violations of your core values, or in a life and death crisis. It activates the Fight or Flight response in the body. The survival value is in providing the focus, energy, and strength to respond to the threat by active avoidance.
Disgust : Feelings of nausea, repulsion, nastiness, sickness to things, people, and ideas. The survival value is in avoiding dangerous contaminants, germs, viruses, and ideas that can sicken and kill. 2
Surprise : The quick, highly attentive awareness that comes when something unexpected is happening. The survival value is from the immediate focus directed towards determining the threat level and what to do.

Emotions often blend. For example, bittersweet experiences elicit a mixture of joy and sadness. What is crucial is maintaining a balance, keeping each emotion in a manageable range. Emotions running out of control are risky and often destructive. Medical care is often needed to treat the physical and mental disorders that can result.

Table 2. Negative Effects of the Six Basic Emotions

Joy : Excessive blissful joy can lead to making poor decisions and trusting the wrong people. Trying to maintain high levels of joy with drugs such as euphoria induced by methamphetamine or mind-numbing with alcohol can lead to destructive addictions.
Sadness : Ruminating, becoming locked into repeated thoughts about negative emotional experiences, their causes and consequences can lead to illness and deep, prolonged depression.
Anger : Ruminating, becoming locked into repeated thoughts about anger-evoking emotional experiences is particularly dangerous, raising the risk for mental illness and serious violence harming oneself and others.
Fear : Ruminating, becoming locked into repeated fearful thoughts about feeling threatened, insulted, or abusive relationships is also dangerous, raising the risk for mental illness and serious violence harming oneself and others.
Disgust : While Disgust can be protective against eating or handling dangerous substances, when all food is considered nauseous by someone disgusted with their body image and trying to lose weight, it can lead to anorexia.
Surprise : The quick arousal of highly attentive awareness that something unexpected is happening. The harmful effects depend on determining the threat and the actions taken.

Equanimity: The Great Equalizer:

The skill of equanimity involves staying calm, composed and thoughtful, even in emotional, painful, and strained situations. It can be incredibly helpful in maintaining emotional balance. The transition from an automatic emotion to a conscious feeling provides the opportunity for the conscious nervous system to take over and mindfully respond rather than impulsively reacting, often making things worse. The skill comes in mindfully recognizing the brief interval between an emotion and action. And in that interval, intervene with “engaging the mind before the mouth”.

All six emotions promote conscious responses that govern the level of arousal with resulting generation of Good or Bad stress (see Post 4). It is amazing how being the calmest person in the room can deescalate stress and promote realistic coping with problems. Equanimity allows the positive values of all the emotions to be expressed and reduces their potential for negativity.

Christmas: The Most Wonderful Time of the Year?

Christmas has become a secular, heavily commercialized time of the year, celebrated regardless of one’s religious or non-religious views. The better side of Secular Christmas is that most Americans report positive emotions of joy with love and high spirits while spending time with family and friends. 3 On the other side, many report increased fatigue and irritability. For a significant number, there is sadness, anger, and loneliness. There is also a Christmas Holiday Effect with increased deaths from natural causes on Christmas and New Years. 4 Stress, depression and anxiety along with excessive drinking and eating are among the causes that have been identified.

Perceptions are a major determinant of stress levels. Perceptions of what secular Christmas should be come in good measure from Charles Dickens’ story A Christmas Carol. 5 When it was published in 1843, Christmas was a mundane, middling religious holiday, suspicious because of its pagan origins celebrating Winter Solstice. Dickens’ gripping tale of Scrooge’s metamorphosis during Christmas not only captivated his English and American readers, but also catalyzed a metamorphosis in their feelings and thoughts.

Scrooge as the story opens is portrayed as “squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous..…secret and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster.” A despicable, miserable, isolated old guy. His transformation comes through visitations by four spirits while he sleeps on Christmas Eve. Through their visits, Scrooge’s life – past, present, and future – is revealed. As we learn more about Scrooge’s past, his painful childhood, his lost opportunities for love, his lost loved ones, and the decisions that led to his miserable existence, we become sympathetic to his plight. And we can relate to his fears and anguish stirred up by the visiting ghosts. They are common in our nightmares. We think in stories, we dream in stories, and stories transform us. Dickens’ story of Scrooge resonates with us. In the end, we rejoice and participate in his redemption and transformation on Christmas morning. Scrooge “became as good a friend, as good a master, and a good a man, as the good old city knew…” The miserable, soulless materialist was now human and humane. Now he was happy, helping others and enjoying life.

Dickens recognized the impact his story. He became an apostle, a moral reformer for celebrating Secular Christmas. His philosophy was beautifully stated in the story. Christmas was “a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open up their shut-up hearts freely.” A time to think and diligently care for others.

Much of the stress surrounding Secular Christmas comes from the unachievable expectations it creates for continuous overflowing joy. Expectations heightened by the hype that has steadily increased over the years following Dickens’ publication. Real life is more complex and nuanced. Other emotions are often called forth: sadness, anger, fear, and disgust. Emotions that can make us feel terribly stressed and sad about not being happy. Accepting that there is a place for all emotions and their beneficial effects is an important step towards managing the challenges of holidays. Practicing equanimity is another valuable step that can make an incredible difference.

Winter Solstice is a cold and barren time of the year with long dark nights. A season begging for reasons to celebrate life and anticipate the return of sunlight to the frozen earth. Dickens provides good reasons, spirit-raising reasons for doing so. Great stories can become timeless. A Christmas Carol lives on, being retold time and time again in various ways. It is currently a Broadway Play, available online in movies and videos, in audio books, and in libraries for reading the original novelle.

How to Manage the Emotional Challenges of Secular Christmas?

Here I am using the time- honored practice of responding by asking two questions. Your answers and comments are welcome. Send them to me at dongash@khtnow.com . With your permission, they may be added to this article on my Agingsuccessfully.org website.

1. What led to Scrooge’s profound Christmas morning transformation?

a. He was scared straight.

b. Woke up to the numerous social injustices of his time. (woken before it became fashionable)

c. Four successful spirit-led psychotherapy sessions led him to confront the abuses and fears of his childhood.

d. Autobiographical account of Dickens’ transformation to thrive in secular Christmas celebrations, recovering from his abusive, troubled childhood.

e. Other reasons.

2. What strategies do you recommend for not only surviving difficult holidays, but to thrive in them?

Readers Responses

1. What led to Scrooge’s profound Christmas morning transformation?

Most readers selected “all of the above”. One exception was John Deans who wrote, “C is the path I would select. Scrooge was a wealthy businessman who enjoyed financial success. But at such a price! He had character flaws of his own creation which he “learned to live with”. The real issue was the spreading darkness, isolationism and indifference to humanity for the Christmas Holiday. “Bah Humbug” was Scrooge’s battle cry and true feelings. The four spirit-led sessions provided him a chance to objectively review and act upon his poor selections at various junctions of his life. Most notable was his involvement in medical actions for Tiny Tim.”

2. What strategies do you recommend for not only surviving difficult holidays, but to thrive in them?

Here are three responses that were received.

“ Strategies I would recommend for thriving difficult holidays is to reach out to friends and relatives, especially single ones, to spend time with them (dinner, movies, activities, concerts); to have projects such as making things (crafts, food, writing) that can be used and/or shared; sending Christmas cards or seasons greetings; calling or emailing friends and relatives; sending photos with news; doing zooms if possible; just connecting with people and sharing news would be good!” Cecilia Wang

“Strategies to thrive in the holidays? Interaction with family and friends! There are church groups and local charities (God’s Food Bank, Lexington Rescue Mission, Salvation Army, Red Cross are a few worthwhile causes worthy of your time). Give yourself some quiet time to reflect on where you are in life. What can you do? What should you do with your time.” John Deans

Highlighting the advice that we always receive when flying to put on your own oxygen mask first before helping others, “I personally believe the way to ease tensions and to have positive experiences is to put YOUR feelings and needs FIRST.I If you are the most important person (in your mind) it becomes easier to meet the needs of others.” Debi Gall

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Sources

1. Levy B. (2022) Breaking the Aging Code: How your beliefs about aging determine how long & well you live. Harper, Collins Publishers.

2. Curtis M, deBarra M, Aunger R. (2011) Disgust as an adaptive system for disease avoidance behavior. Phil Trans R Soc. 366:389-401. PMID: 21199843

3. Greenberg A and Berktold J. (2006) Holiday Stress. Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research. Online apa.org press release

4. Olsson A et al. (2021) Christmas holiday triggers of myocardial infarction. Scand Cardiovasc J 55: 340-344.

PMID: 34585998

5. Dickens C. (1843) A Christmas Carol. Chapman and Hall, London. Available online and widely reprinted.

The Author: Don Gash is an emeritus professor of Neuroscience (PhD) in the College of Medicine and

Lewis Honors College at the University of Kentucky. His expertise is in drug development for diseases of aging, especially those effecting the brain. Over Fifteen years ago, he recognized that aging posed serious threats to health and wellbeing – and had many features of being a disease. Dr. Gash felt that his experience in developing therapies for neurological diseases could be used to better understand normal aging processes and ways to promote successful aging. Ways that activate natural healing processes in the brain and body to effectively restore true wellbeing. Lifestyles and practices that do not replace good medical care when needed but make it work better. The advice given is evidence-based on published studies, including his, and from years of personally testing many programs and exercises to identify those which effectively cultivate and enable Aging Successfully.

Positive Expectations and Illness

Thu, 24 Nov 2022 23:53:36 GMT

Turning on our powerful internal pharmacy to promote natural healing.

We possess an incredible pharmacy within our body for development, growth, and natural healing. It is part of our subconscious being, with cells and organ systems dispensing powerful hormones, enzymes and regulatory factors for normal body functions, growth, and development. In response to illnesses and injuries, the internal pharmacy dispenses these factors to promote restoration and recovery.

While it is normally not under conscious control, can we mindfully activate our pharmacy to promote healing and health? Seeing the potency of placebo effects in Parkinson’s patients in clinical trials suggest this is possible. ¹ In the patients, conscious expectations were able to turn on their innate pharmacy leading to healing! This led me to search for other conscious behaviors that can also activate natural processes for restoring health. Behaviors that can decrease the risk for debilitating diseases and injuries encountered in aging. And when injured or ill, behaviors that along with good medical care can decrease the severity and promote recovery.

From reviewing the literature and observing others manage their health, optimism came to the top of the list of attitudes under conscious control that can promote wellbeing. Optimism being defined here as a general sense of positive outcomes for the future. It sounded almost too simple to be true. Two essential questions had to be addressed to check it out. First, how to generate optimism? Secondly, is optimism truly associated with better health?

Case studies were examined to see what insights they could provide. One on optimism that is well documented comes from a self-report by a patient with no formal training in medicine or science. In 1976, he published a scathing account of personally battling poor medical care in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine. Normally the Journal is a medical magazine publishing only studies conducted by the top physicians and scientists in the world. But Norman Cousins was neither a doctor or scientist and took the inner circles of the medical elite to task for poor performance. His skill for astute observations as a patient combined with being an extraordinarily gifted writer helped usher in much needed changes in medical care. He later expanded the journal article into a bestselling book Anatomy of an Illness.

In the 1950’s and 60’s, Cousins was a celebrity well-known for his wit, writing and commitment to world peace. In the summer of 1964, he headed an American delegation to a meeting in Russia with the ostensible goal of resolving problems in cultural exchanges between the two countries. An underlying agenda was to promote the framework for a nuclear disarmament agreement with the Soviet Union. Cousins who always worked long hours burning the candle at both ends came home exhausted. Within a week of returning, an acute inflammation painfully engulfed his whole body. It was diagnosed as a degenerative collagen disease, producing symptoms characteristic of rheumatoid arthritis. Hospitalized, he was in constant pain, unable to move. One expert stated that his condition was likely fatal, with a 1 in 500 chance for survival.

Aware that he was facing a life-threatening disease, Cousin’s fought back by assessing his strengths. He reaffirmed his strong will to live, his optimism, his faith, and his trust in his personal doctor. His successful career as the editor of the popular weekly magazine Saturday Review reconfirmed his ability to astutely analyze situations and make smart decisions. He recalled how he had successfully won his year-long battle as a 14-year-old teenager with a diagnosis of tuberculosis. With his confidence bolstered by self-affirmation, Cousins developed a gameplan for his recovery, beginning to tackle the problems one-by-one. First was the miserable treatment he was receiving in the hospital. He could not rest because of the constant disturbances to take blood samples and X-rays. Nutrition was bad with poor, overcooked food. He was experiencing gastric distress with bloody stools from the super high doses of medications he was being given.

Cousins decided to take charge of his own care by checking himself out of the hospital and into a hotel room where he would coordinate his treatment in partnership with his personal physician. Inspired by reading Dr. Hans Selye’s account of his pioneering studies on the deadly effects of overwhelming stress, ³ Cousins self-diagnosed his condition as resulting from adrenal exhaustion creating “negative effects of negative emotions on body chemistry.” Essentially what we would now call Bad Stress, chronic high stress that suppresses the body’s immune system's ability to fight off inflammation and diseases.

As an antidote to negative emotions, Cousins reasoned that positive emotions should boost positive chemical changes in the body. So, ensconced in a luxury hotel room cared for by nurses, finding every movement painful, and knowing that failure could lead to his death, he worked diligently with his doctor on positive remedies for his illness. Poor hospital food was replaced with healthy nutrition. He was able to rest and sleep without disturbances. Researching the medical literature on the drugs prescribed for his treatment, he found many had toxic side effects. He was taking the maximum dose of phenylbutazone daily to reduce inflammation, but it can also cause skin rashes, ulcerations, nausea, pain, and intestinal bleeding. Side-effects he had! The toxicity of phenylbutazone is so acute that it is no longer approved for human use! Cousins was also prescribed 26 aspirin tablets a day, an extremely high dosage that can cause many of the same side-effects as phenylbutazone. The information Cousins found was readily available in the literature to the hospital doctors treating him.

In consultation with his personal physician, Cousins stopped taking both drugs. He also discontinued the pain medications, considering some pain as part of life and bearable as he focused on his recovery. He replaced the prescription drugs with getting high doses of Vitamin C by intravenous infusion (IV). Based on his reading and discussions with his doctor, Cousins thought the benefits of Vitamin C on blood oxygenation and promoting collagen repair would be therapeutic as his disease had been diagnosed as one of collagen degeneration. Nobel Laurate Linus Pauling’s strong advocation for Vitamin C treatments would not come out until six years later, so Cousin’s decision was ahead of his times. However, the numerous health benefits of Vitamin C are now firmly established. ⁴ It is required for the development of blood vessels, cartilage, muscle, and collagen. It is also essential for healing processes in the body. A healthy diet alone provides sufficient Vitamin C for many of us. In some clinical situations including the treatment of inflammation and pain (symptoms in Cousins’ disease), vitamin C has been found to be clinically beneficial. 5,6

Cousins had a legendary sense of humor and one of the positive emotions he wanted to nourish was laughter. He did this by arranging with friends in the entertainment business to bring a movie projector into his hotel room and show comedies by the Marx brothers and “Candid Camera” episodes. Nurses read him humorous articles written by columnists. After a good bout of laughter, Cousins found he could sleep without pain for several hours.

Diligence won the battle over illness for Cousins. He slowly recovered and was able to resume his normal lifestyle. In retrospect, Cousins credited his recovery to a strong placebo effect, his Positive Attitude coming from great expectations for recovery. Many of the biological mechanisms at work that benefited Cousins were promoted by healthy lifestyles. Namely, lowering Bad Stress through good self-care including a healthy diet, restorative rest, and staying socially active with strong supportive relationships with others. The distinguished medical scientist René Dubois writing in the Introduction to Cousin’s book emphasized that his self-treatment approach provided the rest and time needed for natural healing powers in his body to restore his health. The high levels of Vitamin C Cousins received via IV have been found to help alleviate post viral fatigue, which may have been one of his health issues.

Cousins devoted much of the rest of his life to studying and writing about the relationship between attitude and health. He was recruited to serve as a Professor on the Medical School faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1978. His books on health and healing include Laughter is the Best Medicine and Head First: The Biology of Hope and the Healing Power of the Human Spirit . In many ways, the titles describe his foray into medical research as a patient.
How did Cousins’ writings and activism influence medical care in the Western World? First and foremost, he legitimized and popularized wholistic healthcare. He strongly encouraged physicians and all other healthcare workers to focus on respecting and treating the whole person, not just the symptoms of an illness or injury. Good physicians have known this from time immemorial, but in the 60’s and 70’s the common sense of this necessity was often getting lost in the proliferation of new “miracle” drugs and increasingly expensive, sophisticated procedures and instrumentation. Medicine was moving from being practiced as a humane blend of art and science to industrial processing focused on increasing time efficiency and profit. The result was a gap developing between the public and trust in doctors that Cousins worked to bridge. In the numerous talks he presented at large medical meetings and to Wellness programs, he continuously emphasized the importance of a positive, knowledgeable partnership between doctor and patient with the physicians treating their patients as human beings. Both were best served by working together, doing their best to manage illness and injuries.

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The Author: Don Gash is an emeritus professor of Neuroscience (PhD) in the College of Medicine and Lewis Honors College at the University of Kentucky. His expertise is in drug development for diseases of aging, especially those effecting the brain. Over fifteen years ago, he recognized that aging posed serious threats to health and wellbeing – and had many features of being a disease. Dr. Gash felt that his experience in developing therapies for neurological diseases could be used to better understand normal aging processes and ways to promote successful aging. Ways that activate natural healing processes in the brain and body to effectively restore true wellbeing. Lifestyles and practices that do not replace good medical care when needed but make it work better. The advice given is evidence-based on published studies including his and from his years of personally testing many programs and exercises to identify those which effectively cultivate and enable Aging Successfully.

Sources: PubMed identification numbers (PMID) are given for peer-reviewed scientific reports in mainstream science journals. The scientific papers are available online through PubMed on www.nlm.nih.gov .

Aging Well Post 1 : A Guide to Successful Aging. Achieving our full potential for wellbeing with purpose and meaning.
Cousins, N. (1979) Anatomy of and Illness (as perceived by the patient) . W.W. Norton & Co., New York
Selye, H. (1956) The Stress of Life. McGraw-Hill, New York
Vitamin C : NIH Fact Sheet for Health Professionals . Available online
Carr A. and McCall C. (2017) The role of vitamin C in the treatment of pain: new insights. J Trans Med. 15:77. PMID: 28410599
Mitchel A. et al. (2020) Vitamin C and Thiamine for sepsis and septic shock. Am J Med. 133: 635-638. PMID: 31469984

Amazing What a Positive Attitude Can Do!

Mon, 21 Nov 2022 23:56:39 GMT

How a positive attitude promotes healthy aging and a healthy brain.

Years ago, when I first began to extend my research from diseases in Aging into understanding the positive side of Aging, finding out what is important for aging successfully, I begin interviewing acquaintances who were over 65 and enjoying full, active lives. One of the questions I asked was what the most important factor was for their success. My guess was it would be health, the opposite of struggling with illness or injuries. But I was wrong. I kept hearing that it was Attitude. Sandra Weleford’s response was especially memorable. A family friend, an accomplished artist, and very active in our community, Sandra was very open about her continuing battle with cancer, one of the diseases of aging. She was also very open about her advice for making the most of every day, enjoying activities with her family and friends. Sandra’s mantra was to repeat saying “Amen, Amen, Amen” and then get on with life. Amen standing for the choices that kept her going: A ttitude, M edications, E xercise, and N utrition.

John Milton in his epic poem Paradise Lost captured one of the seminal truths for wellbeing at any age. “The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.” Sandra was able to rise above and go beyond her illness by actively choosing to be compassionate in caring for herself and equally compassionate in caring for others. Her choices helped her stay actively engaged in living, experiencing the joys of being that dwell there.

Eric is another one of the inspiring people I have met who have coped with handling their illness with courage and a positive attitude. It was at a large conference on Parkinson’s disease where patients and support groups were learning about recent advances in treating the disease. Eric was a patient who had been in a clinical trial involving surgery and receiving monthly drug infusions. He was 36 years old when first diagnosed with Parkinson’s. Seven years later he had volunteered to participate in the trial; one that we were discussing in a workshop at the meeting. While there were initial benefits, problems had developed with his infusion site blocking delivery of the experimental drug. He was now 50 years old and relying on standard medical treatments, which were helping some symptoms. Like other patients, he was acutely aware his disease was relentlessly progressing. Unlike many others, he was living a full, active life, positive about what he was doing.

Given the circumstances of contracting an increasingly debilitating disease as a young adult and having a promising surgical treatment fail for technical problems, Eric had good reasons to be bitter, angry, and frightened. He was not. Instead, he was an enthusiastic volunteer for one of the major Parkinson’s Disease Foundations, working with patient support groups to help others deal with the challenges they faced as their disease progressed. He talked with our workshop group about what would benefit patients participating in clinical trials and their families. His voice was muted and sometimes halting, needing some assistance from a friend at times to answer the questions we asked. He made a compelling plea for better communication, working compassionately with families and explaining what the results meant when the study was completed.

I had a chance to talk with Eric during breaks in the presentations. He had a great sense of humor, was jovial and loved to talk about life, the meeting, and how he enjoyed working with other patients. As we were standing in a large pavilion near the entrance, I asked Eric how he was able to stay so positive after all he had been through. He thought for a minute and then answered. “See those doors over there,” pointing to large number of glass doors leading to the street. “I can choose how I feel when I walk through them. I can be happy or sad. I know being sad will lead me where I do not want to go. So, I make the decision to be happy.”

Charles "Chuck" Swindoll, an evangelist and motivational speaker, was right in proclaiming, “Words can never adequately convey the incredible impact of our attitude towards life.” The benefits coming from an optimistic attitude affect everything that makes life worth living; increased life satisfaction, higher life quality, improved health, and better social relationships. A Positive Attitude profoundly influences one’s ability to handle the trials and tribulations in Aging. To quote Swindoll again, “The longer I live the more convinced I become that life is 10% of what happens to us and 90% how we respond to it.”

The benefits of a positive attitude support its leading role in successful aging.

Health Benefits of a Positive Attitude

Cardiovascular Disease: Heart disease and stroke have been the leading cause of death in the United States since 1921. Even in the Covid 19 Pandemic, heart disease stayed at the top of list thru 2021. In addition to the significant advances made in medical care for treating heart disease over the years, studies show that optimism makes good medicine work better. Cardiologist Alan Rozanski and his colleagues analyzed the results from 10 major studies on heart disease with a total of 209,436 participants. In their pooled analysis, optimism was associated with a 35% reduction in cardiovascular events (heart disease and stroke) over the follow-up period averaging nearly 14 years.
Alzheimer’s Disease: Remarkably, optimism can alter the course of some age-associated diseases, delaying onset and decreasing severity. How large the effects can be in Alzheimer’s disease is seen in a study published in February 2018 by Dr. Becca Levy and her colleagues at Yale and the National Institutes of Health. ² They followed 1,200 individuals up to an average age of 72. All carried the APOE ε4 gene, a strong risk factor for developing Alzheimer’s Disease. Remarkably, those with a Positive Attitude towards aging were 50% less likely to develop dementia than those with a negative attitude. This does not mean that they were protected from ever developing dementia; a longer duration study is needed for that. But it does say that their attitude helped them gain good, Alzheimer’s-free years of living. And they had an outlook to fully enjoy these years.
Pain: The incidence of Pain increases with aging, often in association with diseases of aging including arthritis, cancer, Multiple Sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s. In a broad survey of 31,780 individuals in 96 studies examining pain associated with different diseases, both hope and optimism were consistently found to significantly reduce pain severity and improve physical functioning.
Longevity: Attitude in the pessimism-to-optimism dimension of nearly 7,000 under-graduate students attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1964-1996 was assessed by psychological testing. Death from all causes were then recorded over the next 40 years. The death rate for most pessimistic 25% of the students was 42% higher than for the most optimistic quartile. The leading causes were cardiovascular heart disease, cancer, accidents, and suicide.

How a positive attitude promotes healthy aging and a healthy brain.

A Positive Attitude creates positive expectations, stimulating changes in the brain like those from Placebo Effects that promote healing. Dr. Becca Levy, whose study discussed earlier showing that positive age beliefs lowered the risk for developing Alzheimer’s, has also found that positive age beliefs are associated with maintaining better cognitive functions in aging. ⁵ In addition, cognitive enhancing functions of genes in aging are amplified in individuals with a Positive Attitude about aging. ⁶ An example of positive epigenetic effects. Other health promoting activities include reduction of cardiovascular stress and lower inflammatory markers in the blood. ^7,8 Collectively, the power of positive expectations significantly support healthy cognitive functions and healthier physical aging.

What specifically does a Positive Attitude do to increase personal wellbeing? Probably the greatest benefit comes from keeping an optimistic perspective in assessing and responding to daily events. A perspective that lowers bad stress. Those who have a Positive Attitude are more likely to take better care of themselves, stay active, eat healthier, sleep better, keep socially engaged with others and more fully enjoy life. In contrast, a pessimistic outlook perceives daily activities negatively, increasing life-threatening bad stress and the risk for clinical depression. ⁹ Depression increases vulnerability to isolation, disease, and injuries, which can lead to accelerated aging and earlier death.

Worries, Bad Attitude, and EMOC

We live in world that seems to generate at least one crisis a day, and sometime waves of crises. We need not look far to find things to worry about. I am a natural worrier. It probably comes from both sides of my family. Through them I have witnessed the negative effects of too much worrying that lead to excessive anger, fear, and sadness. As in other feelings, some worrying is beneficial. It helps identify real threats that need to be addressed. Too much generates bad stress and a bad attitude. And often we are worrying about things we cannot control, or do not happen.

I have found one way to get off the worry cart is to declare EMOC, E nough , M ove O nto C ompassion . Get onboard with compassion for myself and others. I remember the popular 1965 song Eve of Destruction sung by Barry McGuire. The fatalist lyrics about perpetual war, injustice, and inhumanity are just as appropriate today as they were more than 50 years ago. Rather than focus on everything that can go wrong – world crises have always there – I move on to what I can do that is positive and compassionate. It begins with saying and doing AMEN, which for me means choosing a positive Attitude, Meditation, Exercise, and healthy Nutrition. The optimism it generates helps appreciate the good things that are happening and more effectively work on real problems where I can make a difference. No one likes a perpetual fatalist and it is a perpetually distressful way to live.

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The Author: Don Gash is an emeritus professor of Neuroscience (PhD) in the College of Medicine and Lewis Honors College at the University of Kentucky. His expertise is in drug development for diseases of aging, especially those effecting the brain. Over fifteen years ago, he recognized that aging posed serious threats to health and wellbeing – and had many features of being a disease. Dr. Gash felt that his experience in developing therapies for neurological diseases could be used to better understand normal aging processes and ways to promote successful aging. Ways that activate natural healing processes in the brain and body to effectively restore true wellbeing. Lifestyles and practices that do not replace good medical care when needed but make it work better. The advice given is evidence-based on published studies and from his years of personally testing many programs and exercises to identify those which effectively cultivate and enable Aging Successfully.

Sources:

PubMed identification numbers (PMID) are given for peer-reviewed scientific reports in mainstream science journals. The scientific papers are available online through PubMed on www.nlm.nih.gov .

Rozanski A et al. (2019) Association of optimism with cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality. JAMA Netw Open e1912200. PMID: 31560385
Levy B et al. (2018) Positive age beliefs protect against dementia even among elders with high-risk gene. Plos One. 13(2):e0191004. PMID: 29414991
Shanahan M et al. (2021) Hope, optimism, and clinical pain: A meta-analysis. Ann Behav Med 55: 815-832. PMID: 33580660
Brummett B et al. (2006) Prediction of all-cause mortality by the Minnesota Multaphasic Personality Inventory Optimism-Pessimism Scale Scores: Study of a college sample during a 40-year follow-up period. Mayo Clin Proc . 81: 1541-1544. PMID: 17165632
Smith E et al. (2019) Positive aging views in the general population predict better long-term cognition for elders in eight countries. J Aging Health 31: 1739-1747. PMID: 30041558
Levy B et al. (2020) When culture influences genes: Positive age beliefs amplify the cognitive -aging benefit of APOE ε 2. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 75: e198-203. PMID:32835364
Levy B et al. (2000) Reducing cardiovascular stress with positive self-stereotypes of aging. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 55: P205-213. PMID: 11584877
Levy B and Bavishi A. (2018) Survival advantage mechanism: Inflammation as a mediator of positive self-perceptions of aging on longevity. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 73: 409-412. PMID: 27032428
Grossardt B et al. (2009) Pessimistic, anxious, and depressive personality traits predict all-cause mortality: The Mayo Clinic cohort study of personality and aging. Psychosom Med. 71: 491-500. PMID: 19321849

Good Stress Heals, Bad Stress Kills

Sat, 19 Nov 2022 22:04:10 GMT

Good Stress heals and builds, providing the vigor and focus to do things benefiting ourselves and others.

Stress is part of life and is hardwired into our being. Managing it is an essential skill for effectively handling the opportunities, the trials and the tribulations encountered in aging. Good Stress heals and builds, providing the vigor and focus to do things benefiting ourselves and others. Bad Stress is destructive, endangering our health, our body, our mind and relationships with others.

Stress comes through the mind responding to what we perceive and feel. Activating processes throughout the body that raise and lower levels of arousal. Effects that are sensed as changes in alertness, energy, and tension. Stress is the strain arousal puts on the body and mind. Good stress is strain that is healthy and often enjoyable. Bad Stress is unhealthy strain and is miserable. Here we examine the nature of stress. What makes the difference between Good and Bad stress and how we can work to keep it Good.

Bad stress is especially dangerous in aging as it increases the risk for serious illness and injuries. There has long been awareness of this as illustrated in a passage from Psalms 31 written more than 2200 years ago.

Have mercy on me Lord, for I am in distress.

My sight is blurred because of my tears.

My body and soul are withering away.

I am dying from grief.

My years are shortened by sadness.

Misery has drained my strength.

I am wasting away from within. 1

This ancient lament captures the essence of Bad stress. Stress that Dr. Hans Selye recognized was a common cause for severe illness afflicting many of his patients.. His landmark study published in the journal Nature in 1936 proposed that stress affects health by placing overwhelming demands on the body and mind. 2 Since then there have been over 39,000 publications in the medical literature documenting high levels of continuous stress as a major contributor to the development and progression of disease. 3 Much is now known about how Bad stress accelerates aging processes. How it can profoundly increase disease severity, and lead to premature death. 4,5 And how in contrast, balanced levels of low, moderate, and brief periods of high stress are vital for good health and wellbeing. 6

Stress can be measured by the level of arousal generated by the release of stress hormones in the brain’s response to perceived opportunities and threats. An essential brain site regulating stress levels is the amygdala that continuously monitors activities requiring changes in arousal levels. The amygdala is a collection of nerve cells in the temporal lobe of the brain that integrates sensory and emotional information coming in from all parts of the body with memories of past experiences. The threat level of current events is assessed based on past experiences with similar situations. Those that were pleasant and safe decrease levels of arousal and promote ease. Those that evoked fear stimulate the Amygdala to increase arousal levels to handle the threat. For example, driving in a snowstorm in heavy traffic can be fearful, especially if you had past accidents in similar conditions. Arousal levels are high and can lead to fatigue and exhaustion on a long trip. However, when friends are in the car on a road trip on nice day, the experience can be enjoyable with arousal in the good stress range.

Stress Hormones are Powerful Drugs

Stress hormones belong to the large number of natural, biologically active molecules made by cells in our body (our internal pharmacy) that regulate growth, development, and homeostasis while also combating infections, and promoting healing. They are not only made by our body, but they can also be manufactured as drugs for medical use. The major stress hormones adjust changes in arousal levels from low levels we sense as comfortable to higher levels that can promote performing at our best - being in The Zone as athletes call it. When sensing very dangerous threats like a fire burning in the house, the amygdala signals the hypothalamus to release very high levels of stress hormones evoking the physiological Fight or Flight Response. Immediately we are alerted to take action, either to fight the fire or run away as fast as possible.

Effects of Stress Hormones on the Body

Epinephrine and closely related norepinephrine produce the “adrenalin rush” at high levels of arousal, focusing the full attention of the mind on what’s happening. Vision and hearing go on full alert, the heart pounds faster, and breathing rapidly increases to provide more oxygen to the body. Blood vessels constrict and blood flow is channeled to supply the brain and muscles. Digestive processes are paused to put the body’s full efforts into taking actions to respond to the threat.
Medically , the drug Epinephrine is used to treat severe allergic responses (such as by injections with an Epi Pen) and cardiac arrest.
Medically , the drug Norepinephrine is used for managing low blood pressure during surgery and in some medical conditions.
Cortisol from the adrenal cortex provides the energy needed for fighting or running by raising blood sugar levels.
Medically , the drug Cortisol is used to treat conditions such as arthritis, blood/hormone/immune system disorders, allergic reactions, breathing problems, certain skin disorders, and some cancers.
Vasopressin contributes to constricting blood vessels to raise blood pressure and conserving water through actions in the kidneys..
Medically , the drug Vasopressin is used to treat septic shock and to increase blood pressure. It is also used to treat diabetes insipidus that leads to dehydration due to the inability of the kidneys to concentrate urine.
Oxytocin released from the pituitary gland has significant stress-protective actions. It is also an anti-inflammatory agent and promotes healing. Importantly for the survival and reproduction of our species, oxytocin promotes bonding and working cooperatively with others. It is found in high levels in romantic couples leading to one of its nicknames “ the love hormone ”.
Medically , the drug Oxytocin has complex interactions in the body and can have pronounced side-effects. It has been difficult to convert into a therapeutic drug. 8 It is best to let your internal pharmacy dispense Oxytocin as needed by your body and naturally increase levels by being more loving and caring for others.

STRESS, AROUSAL, AND PERFORMANCE

Again, stress and arousal are tightly linked. Arousal is the level of physical and mental activity of our body and mind - the amount of energy being used. Stress is the strain placed on the body and mind by this activity. While the amygdala is always adjusting blood levels of stress hormones to regulate our level of arousal, we normally only recognize the arousal levels as “stressful” until they are high. The stress placed on our body and mind by arousal can be measured by the quality of our performance. The relationship between performance and arousal is depicted in the Arousal State Curve ( Figure 1 ). The horizontal line shows stress levels with increasing arousal states. The vertical line is quality of performance.

Figure 1. Increases of Stress Hormones Increase Arousal Level: Both high performance

levels and health benefits come from short bouts (minutes to hours) of arousal in the optimal

zone followed by relaxing back into the comfort-resting zone range. Prolonged high levels of

stress hormones cause Bad Stress. Over time Bad Stress leads to increasingly serious health problems.

The dose of stress hormones released by the hypothalamus and their duration at high levels in the blood determine the goodness or badness of stress on our bodies. All stress drugs, both those dispensed by our hypothalamus and the same chemicals manufactured as drugs have a definitive dose-response curve. Doses too little are ineffective and doses too high can also be ineffective. All drugs can cause serious side-effects, especially at higher levels. Prolonged high levels of stress from high levels of stress hormones lead to exhaustion, burnout and illness.

The internal dispensing of stress hormones is an autonomic response regulated by Amygdala – Hypothalamus interactions. However, our conscious nervous system can modify the stress response through cortical connections with the Amygdala. The internal dispensing of stress hormones is graded to adjust arousal levels. A pleasant meeting with friends is a comfortable event requiring just sufficient levels of arousal to be alert and interactive. Giving a formal presentation, playing music for an audience, or competing in a sport requires being at your best mentally and physically – in your optimal zone . Athletes often say they are in the zone when they are playing well.

Bad Stress c omes from pushing yourself or being pushed by circumstances to into prolonged periods of continuous high stress. It happens in many jobs and personal situations. The duration of exposure to high stress is a critical factor. Short periods of stress in the Optimal Zone lasting minutes to hours, whether psychological, physiological, physical, or from exercise, can be Good stress that is healthy when followed by sufficient time for recovery. It strengthens immune and heart functions and improves cognitive and physical fitness.

What I want to emphasize is that stress is a Mind thing and through our Mind we have ways to manage it. Cultivating Good Stress is an art. The skills that work best vary from person to person. We will cover some of the most effective ones in future Posts and in the Resources section. Let me leave you with a strategy that helps many. Begin by identifying activities that are causing stress that can be reduced or eliminated. For instance, watching the news on television is often aggravating. The news typically depicts the worst of the worse that has happened. If it bleeds, it leads the broadcast. The loud sounds, disturbing images and short sound bites are designed to raise arousal levels. To reduce the stress, limit the time spent on TV to a minimum, instead read news reports and spend more time on more pleasurable activities.

Another example comes from a good friend who loves to play bridge. She belonged to six groups that played regularly. Five were very enjoyable. One was not because of the chronic negativity of some of the players. She tried but could not change the tone in this group, so dropped it. Instead, she volunteered to teach a novice group of players how to improve their skills. This turned out to be a positive experience, working with others that appreciated her help . Paring down bad stressors is an important skill. Finding satisfying replacements adds to the Good Stress accrued in doing so.
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The Author: Don Gash is an emeritus professor of Neuroscience (PhD) in the College of Medicine and Lewis Honors College at the University of Kentucky. His expertise is in drug development for diseases of aging, especially those effecting the brain. Over fifteen years ago, he recognized that aging poses serious threats to health and wellbeing – and has many features of being a disease. Dr. Gash felt that his experience in developing therapies for neurological diseases could be used to better understand normal aging processes and ways to promote successful aging. Ways that activate natural healing processes in the brain and body to effectively restore true wellbeing. Lifestyles and practices that do not replace good medical care when needed, but make it work bette r. The advice given is evidence-based on published studies including his and from years of personally testing many programs and exercises to identify those which effectively cultivate and enable Aging Successfully.

Sources

PubMed identification numbers (PMID) are given for peer-reviewed scientific reports in mainstream science journals. The scientific papers are available online through PubMed on www.nlm.nih.gov .

1. Psalm 31: 9-10 (New Living Translation, 1996)

2. Selye H. (1956) The Stress of Life . McGraw-Hill Book Co. New York

3. Cohen S et al. (2012) Chronic stress, glucocorticoid receptor resistance, inflammation, and disease risk. PNAS 109: 5995-5999. PMID: 22474371

4. Epel ES et al. (2004) Accelerated telomere shortening in response to life stress. PNAS 101:17312-17315. PMID: 15574496

5. Keller A et al. (2012) Does the Perception that Stress Affects Health Matter? The Association with Health and Mortality. Health Psychol. 31: 677-684. PMID: 22201278

6. Dhabnar F. (2018) The short-term stress response – Mother nature’s mechanism for enhancing protection and performance under conditions of threat, challenge, and opportunity . Front Neuroendocrinol. 49:175-192. PMID: 29596867

7. Sonne J and Gash D (2018) Psychopathy to Altruism: Neurobiology of the Selfish-Selfless Spectrum. Front. Psycho l 9:575. PMID: 29725317

8. Carter CS. et al. (2020) Is Oxytocin “Nature’s Medicine”? Pharmacol Rev. 72:829-861. PMID: 32912963

Why Friendships Promote Longevity and Brain Health

Fri, 11 Nov 2022 14:09:10 GMT

Friendship is instilled in our DNA, our nervous system,

and our physiology.

Friendship is a relationship of mutual affection, trust, and support between individuals. It has deep roots in our heritage. The bonding of friendship is not unique to humans, but its great importance in our present time was forged over two million years when the survival of our ancestral lines depended on strong social relationships. The selection pressure for genes promoting social behavior was intense. The increasing complexity of ancestral human social systems and reliance on creating ever-better stone tools led to steady increases in brain size. Both nature (genes) 1 and nurture (social-cultural heredity) 2 interact in developing our present social being. Socializing is now instilled in our DNA, our nervous system, and our physiology. 3
The selection pressure for friendship continues today. The physiological ties that bind friendships include the hormones oxytocin and beta-endorphin together with the neurotransmitter dopamine. They promote bonding, working together, and feeling good. Dopamine drives the reward system of the brain. 4 Beta-endorphin naturally relieves pain and increases dopamine levels. 5,6 Oxytocin increases trust in humans, the openness to work cooperatively with others, and is high in new romantic relationships and new parents. 6,7 The selective advantage provided by strong friendships, as analyzed in studies involving more than 300,000 participants, found that those with strong social relationships were 50% more likely to survive health conditions leading to dying prematurely. 8 In contrast, isolation and poor relationships are as deadly as the effects from well-established risk factors including cigarette smoking, high blood pressure, and physical inactivity. 9

Friendship and Happiness

The world’s happiest people have been characterized as having strong social relationships based on Gallop World Polls taken of over a 10-year period from 1.5 million respondents. 10 An important independent validation of the importance of friendship for health and wellness in aging comes from a curious research study conducted by Harvard University for more than 80 years.

The Harvard Study of Adult Development began in 1938 with enrolling 268 Harvard sophomores in the top half of their class to assess what led to living healthy, happy lives. 11 One, John F. Kennedy, would become president. A second group was added later of 456 trouble-prone inner-city young men growing up in the poorest neighborhoods of Boston. The 1938 beginning of the study is ominous because of Harvard’s leading role in the American Eugenics movement at that time. 12 The movement proponents believed that selective breeding and culling the human population to select for the “best genes” would lead to a superior species. Eugenic concepts that in Germany were quickly leading to the Holocaust. In the United States, Harvard administrators, faculty members, and alumni were enthusiastic advocates for eugenics, writing articles and lobbying the government to enact Eugenic laws. Undoubtedly, genetic considerations were at the forefront in initial studies of the “brightest and best” students; physically fit, talented white Caucasian males in Harvard’s sophomore class. The control group of males from the inner-city Boston slums offered an extreme at the other end.

The pinnacles of health and happiness at the beginning of the study in 1938 were believed to be fame, wealth, and high achievement. The Eugenics mindset held that the blueprints for doing this were predetermined by an individual’s genes. Good genes, Eugenics Theory predicted, predestined a good life – healthy, wealthy, and famous. Bad genes predestined sickness, poverty, and crime. The initial design of the study reeks of stacking the deck to demonstrate this point – top academic students compared to poor inner-city young men.

The results turned out differently. The immorality of Eugenics leading to crimes against humanity by Nazi’s became excruciatingly evident in World War II. In the Harvard study, some at the bottom of the social ladder worked their way up to become stars. Some of the stars at the top in the beginning ended up at the bottom. Drugs, alcoholism, and mental illness were factors for failure and poor health. Fame and fortune were not the determinants of health and happiness. Seventy-five years into the study, Robert Waldinger, the fourth Study Director stated the seminal finding, “Good relationships keep us healthy and happy. Period!” 13

Waldinger went on to make three important points.

People who are better connected to family, friends, and their community live longer, happier, and healthier lives. It is not the number of friends that are important. It is the quality of friendship.
Loneliness kills. It is as powerful as smoking or alcoholism.
Good relationships not only protect our bodies, they protect our brains. 13

Serendipity, seeking one thing and finding another that is more valuable, is a gift to be cherished whenever it happens. The first Director of the Harvard Study was a Genetic Determinist. The belief that genes determine our destiny is still widespread in our culture. This is understandable with so much value being attributed to the role of genes in our being since their discovery in 1900. However, epidemiological studies indicate genes account for about 20% of successful aging. We cannot change our genes, but we can modify their expression – their actions – by how we live. And the other 80% is even more open to the choices we can make. Working hard on nurturing good friendships and other relationships, community service, and good lifestyle choices can make an incredible difference throughout life and are vital in living long and socially prospering.

___________________________ ______________

The Author: Don Gash is an emeritus professor of Neuroscience (PhD) in the College of Medicine and Lewis Honors College at the University of Kentucky. His expertise is in drug development for diseases of aging, especially those effecting the brain. Over Fifteen years ago, he recognized that aging posed serious threats to health and wellbeing – and had many features of being a disease. Dr. Gash felt that his experience in developing therapies for neurological diseases could be used to better understand normal aging processes and ways to promote successful aging. Ways that activate natural healing processes in the brain and body to effectively restore true wellbeing. Lifestyles and practices that do not replace good medical care when needed but make it work better. The advice given is evidence-based on published studies, including his, and from years of personally testing many programs and exercises to identify those which effectively cultivate and enable Aging Successfully.

Sources

PubMed identification numbers (PMID) are given for peer-reviewed scientific reports in mainstream science journals. The scientific papers are available online through PubMed on www.nlm.nih.gov .

Fowler J, Dawes C, and Christakis N (2009) Model of genetic variation in human social networks . PNAS 106:1720-1724. PMID: 19171900
Gash D and Deane A (2015) Neuron-based heredity and human evolution. Front. Neurosci . 9:209 PMID: 26136649
Brent L et al. (2014) The neuroethology of friendship . Ann NY Acad Sci 1316:1-17. PMID: 24329760
Di Chiara G and Bassareo V (2007) Reward system and addiction: what dopamine does and doesn’t do. Curr Opin Pharmacolog 7:69-76. PMID: 17174602
Pilozzi A, Carro C, Huang X (2021) Roles of ß-endorphin in stress, behavior, neuroinflammation, and brain energy metabolism. Int J Mol Sci 22,238. PMID: 33396962
Ulmer-Yaniv A et al. (2016) Affiliation, reward, and immune biomarkers coalesce to support social synchrony during periods of bond formation in humans. Brain Behav Immun 56:130-139. PMID: 26902915.
Kosfeld M et al. (2005) Oxytocin increases trust in humans. Nature 435:673-676. PMID: 15931222
Holt-Lunstad J, Smith T, Layton J (2010) Social relationships and mortality risk: a meta-analytic review. PloS Med 7(7) 1000306. PMID: 20668659
House J, Landis K, Umberson D (1988) Social relationships and health . Science 241:540-545. PMID:3399889
Diener et al. (2018) Happiest people revisited . Perspect Psychol Sci. 13: 176-184. PMID: 29592642
Mineo L (April 11, 2017) Good genes are nice, but joy is better. The Harvard Gazette
Cohen AS. (March-April 2016) Harvard’s Eugenics Era. Harvard Magazine
Waldinger, R. (2015)) What makes a good life? Lessons from the longest study on happiness. TED Talk online

What To Do With The Aging Blues

Thu, 20 Oct 2022 20:16:14 GMT

Being with friends is one way to beat the blues. Music is another. Together, they are a dynamic combination.

What to do with the aging blues? Life throws a lot of bad things at us at times. Aging seems to intensify it. Sometimes it seems that here comes the blues should be our daily anthem. But letting the blues settle in and dominate our thoughts makes them worse.

How to shake them? Finding ways to be with friends is a good start! Doing enjoyable activities together is even better. Dion comes to mind for doing this in grand fashion. I realized this after reading Alan Paul’s article about Dion releasing a new album Blues with Friends at age 80. 1 Playing music, listening, and singing with friends is a sure-fire way to ditch the blues. And it has worked well for Dion. I was originally surprised to find a 50’s rock star who was not only still alive but also still writing and recording music. Listening to his new album and fully enjoying the songs with heavy guitar and drum rhythms, I gave it 5 stars. It was a great way to shake the blues.

Dion is still a creative force in the 2020’s. How has he done this? His life story is revealing. Dion’s professional career took off in 1959 with his first hit song I Wonder Why. Other classic rock hits like The Wanderer and Runaround Sue quickly followed. Sixty years later, his friends playing along and singing on Blues with Friends include musical greats in their own right: Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, and Van Morrison. I love Bob Dylan’s comment included on the album cover, “ You have to be careful with the blues. They’re strong with lust. Dion knows how to sing, and he knows just the right way to craft these blues songs.”

Maintaining a lust for life is part of the secret for staying creative in aging. Dion like most of us has experienced deep dark periods while going through bad times. In 1959 along with his first big hit record, he was touring with Buddy Holly. However, he opted out of the plane flight immortalized in the song The Day the Music Died. The crash that killed Holly, rock musician Ritchie Valens, and disc-jockey J.P. Richardson. Dion took the tour bus instead thinking that the plane ticket was too expensive. In his grief from losing his friends (and likely survivor’s guilt), Dion turned to heroin – and became addicted.

By 1965 at age 25, Dion’s career was tanking. Drugs and alcohol were taking their toll. He was coming close to joining the many musicians in the “27 Club” like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison who died around that age. In 1967, his close friend musician Frankie Lymon, with whom he would often get high with on heron, died from an overdose just months under 26 years of age. 2 Shocked, knowing his life was a mess, and that he was close to dying from addiction like Lymon, Dion reconnected to his spiritual roots. As often happens in life and death situations, he prayed to God vowing to change if he received Divine assistance. As sometimes happens, Dion kept his part of the bargain, turning his life around and staying off drugs and alcohol.

Six months later, he wrote and released Abraham, Martin and John , a moving tribute to Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, and John Kennedy who were killed in turbulent times. The sober, drug-free decades that followed have been filled with songwriting, singing, and recording gospel and blues music. Dion was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989. Music critics who panned his early work as trivia now recognize its importance in influencing many other musicians like Bruce Springsteen. His superb craftsmanship in creating gospel and blues music has led to receiving numerous awards and Grammy nominations.

Keeping The Blues Healthy

Maintaining creativity and a passionate love for living into your 80’s is a testament to successfully dealing with the blues. Dion’s story is powerful and provides important insights that transcend the individual. Music is a universal antidote to the blues. Sadness is an emotion and mood. Listening to music activates the reward system of the brain increasing feelings of pleasure, reducing sadness. The natural neurochemical dopamine drives the process, being released by nerve cells in brain areas stimulating positive expectations for enjoyment and pleasure from hearing good music. Good being in the mind of the hearer! Depending on the music and the person, the experience can range from peaceful serenity to ecstatic arousal.

As a neuroscientist, I appreciate well-crafted studies sorting out what is going on in the brain that explains human behavior. Studies conducted Laura Ferreri and her colleagues on the role of dopamine in enjoying and remembering music are good examples. Working with healthy volunteers listening to music, the investigators measured their responses to raising dopamine levels in their brain using the drug levodopa. Then, they lowered brain dopamine levels with the drug risperidone. 3 After receiving one or the other drug, the volunteers rated their level of pleasure with each musical experience. In addition, their level of arousal was measured by skin electrical activity (a reliable indicator used in many studies). A third measure was the monetary value the volunteer placed on the musical piece if they were to purchase it. All three measures were significantly increased when brain dopamine levels were elevated by levodopa and decreased when dopamine levels were lowered with risperidone.

The positive reward response to music not only increased joy, but also improved memory functions. 4 The beneficial effects of music on the brain extend beyond activating the brain's reward system. One of the greatest boosts in shaking the Blues comes from increased levels of the natural hormone oxytocin that promotes socializing and working cooperatively with others. 5 Singing together in choirs, singing in get-togethers of all sorts from religious to political meetings, and in parties are integral to the human experience. All are events promoting bonding and prosocial togetherness. Add physical activity into the mix - dancing, exercising, playing musical instruments – and you have a powerful combination for shedding the blues in all stages of life, including the aging blues.

_____________________________________________________________________

The Author:

Don Gash is an emeritus professor of Neuroscience (PhD) in the College of Medicine and Lewis Honors College at the University of Kentucky. His expertise is indrug development for diseases of aging, especially those effecting the brain. Over fifteen years ago, he recognized that aging posed serious threats to health and wellbeing – and had many features of being a disease. Dr. Gash felt that his experience in developing therapies for neurological diseases could be used to better understand normal aging processes and ways to promote successful aging. Ways that activate natural healing processes in the brain and body to effectively restore true wellbeing. Lifestyles and practices that do not replace good medical care when needed but make it work better. The advice given is evidence-based on published studies, including his, and from his years of personally testing many programs and exercises to identify those which effectively cultivate and enable Aging Successfully.

Sources

PubMed identification numbers (PMID) are given for peer-reviewed scientific reports in mainstream

science journals. The scientific papers are available online through PubMed on www.nlm.nih.gov.

1. Paul A. (12June 2020) Dion Still Sings of America. Wall Street Journal

2. Purcell A. (14Dec 2006) ‘I saw the devil himself’ The Guardian

3. Ferreri L. et al. (2019) Dopamine modulates the reward experiences elicited by music . PNAS

116:3793-3798. PMID: 30670642

4. Ferreri L. (2021) Dopamine modulations of reward-driven music memory consolidation. Ann N Y

Acad Sci. 1502: 85-98. PMID: 34247392

5. Harvey A. (2020) Links between the neurobiology of oxytocin and human musicality. Front. Hum.

Neurosci. 14:350. PMID: 33005139

aging-successfully

Benefit by Personally Retiring the Word Retire

What we think and say matters. The word retire has acquired some awful negative baggage. Benefit by tossing it out. Instead, keep living life forwards.

A Guide to Successful Aging: Introduction

Achieving our full potential for happiness with purpose and meaning.

Witnessing Life-Changing Power in our Minds.

Placebos Create Positive Expectations

Placebos Can Activate Innate Healing Processes

Ghosts of Christmas, Shades of Emotions

We are emersed in the full range and depth of emotions in living life fully. Understanding our emotions and managing them is vital for aging well. Holidays can be especially challenging.

Positive Expectations and Illness

Turning on our powerful internal pharmacy to promote natural healing.

Amazing What a Positive Attitude Can Do!

How a positive attitude promotes healthy aging and a healthy brain.

Health Benefits of a Positive Attitude

How a positive attitude promotes healthy aging and a healthy brain.

Good Stress Heals, Bad Stress Kills

Good Stress heals and builds, providing the vigor and focus to do things benefiting ourselves and others.

Why Friendships Promote Longevity and Brain Health

Friendship is instilled in our DNA, our nervous system,

﻿ and our physiology.

What To Do With The Aging Blues

and our physiology.