Build and Condition Your Brain

If you were offered a pill that could do the following for your brain...

• Increase the growth of brain cells in your memory centre (hippocampus)
• Improve blood flow and nutrition to your whole brain
• Enhance your ability to learn and remember
• Improve your daily mood
• Delay the onset of symptoms of Alzheimer’s

...would you take the pill?

Most of us would say "yes". But you don’t have to take a pill to get these benefits. All you have to do is exercise regularly and you can have all of the advantages above and more. In fact, the more you exercise, the more advantages you can accumulate. The easiest way to get more power from your brain is to take part in aerobic exercise for 20 to 30 minutes preferably daily, but at least 3 times a week.

Aerobic exercise is where you move the big muscles in your legs, hips, and your arms, as when you walk briskly, run, or swim, or use one of the cardio machines at your gym. This movement increases your heart rate and the depth of your breathing. This gets more oxygen into your blood which fires up the recovery process in your muscles and your brain neurons. As Dr. John Ratey explains in his book Spark: The revolutionary science of exercise and the brain:

“It turns out that moving our muscles produces proteins that travel through the bloodstream and into the brain, where they play pivotal roles in the mechanisms of our highest thought processes.”

In fact, Dr. Ratey has been quoted as referring to one of these proteins as “Miracle-Gro for the brain”.

If you need some more motivation, take a look at the YouTube video, 23 and 1/2 Hours by Dr. Mike Evans.

An easy way to start an exercise program is to start counting the number of steps you walk per day. You will need a pedometer, or you might want to go high tech and get a fitbit, which will track steps, distance, calories burned and even stairs climbed.

Here is what my friend Jeannette Folin says about using a fitbit.

“Being self-employed, I always thought my time was best spent working on generating income, not exercising. But after using the fitbit to track my daily exercise, I quickly discovered that I was billing 10-15% more hours during the weeks when I got at least 45 minutes of exercise a day. And now I realize that the exercise was boosting my physical AND mental energy levels.” 

When you have some hard intellectual work to do or some important decisions to make, take 10 minutes first to climb the stairs in your building or take a brisk walk around the block. Then come back to your desk and reap the benefits of your re-charged brain for the next hour.

Am I at Risk for Alzheimer’s?

Joan and Shirley don’t know each other, but they’d enjoyed similar careers. Each was a well-respected accountant who became Chief Financial Officer of her organization. After years of demanding work, each retired about seven years ago.

Joan followed her passion for fly fishing and now has her own TV program. She’s having a ball.

Shirley watches TV all day. She needs constant care in a nursing home. Shirley has Alzheimer’s.

So why is Joan living the good life and Shirley doesn’t know what life she is living? There’s evidence that it might be, in part, because Joan took care of her brain and Shirley didn’t even realize she needed to.

In her forties, Joan noticed she was gaining weight and slowing down. About the same time, her older brother had a mild heart attack and took early retirement. That was enough for Joan. She installed a machine in her family room and exercised every morning. As she was developing an interest in fly fishing at the time, she started watching instructional videos while exercising. She used the same approach to learn Spanish as she prepared for fishing trips to Costa Rica and Argentina. Combining exercising with learning worked well for Joan.

Shirley also gained weight in her forties, but she was too busy to exercise. In her fifties, her doctor warned that her blood pressure was elevated and she should change her lifestyle. Shirley tried, but her job required regular travel and entertaining, so exercising and adjusting her diet was difficult. About five years before she retired, her new boss turned out to be a bully. Shirley stood up to him, but the stress took a toll and she developed full-blown high blood pressure.

When Joan had found herself in a particularly stressful period at work, she recruited a coach to help tackle her problems with less stress. At retirement, Joan started walking 30 minutes a day and weight lifting three times a week. She started thinking about the benefits of fly fishing. She decided to encourage more women, especially those recovering from cancer, to take up the sport. Gradually her interest built into a weekly TV program and a reputation as an expert.

Watch this YouTube video by Dr. Helena Popovic called "A Daughter’s Determination to Defeat Dementia". It will give you loads of valuable information that Shirley needed, but never received.

By the time Shirley retired, her doctor was encouraging her to lose 20 pounds and get her blood pressure under control. She tried for a while, and then decided it was time to see the world. Over the next two years, she visited Australia, Africa, and Europe. But it was difficult to exercise regularly and she gained another 10 pounds. One day in Italy, she tripped on cobblestones and broke an ankle. When she got home her ankle had to be operated on and the bone pinned. It took six months to heal. She kept meaning to exercise more. She even joined a gym. But during her convalescence she had gained more pounds and was uncomfortable about her appearance. She abandoned the gym.

In their early forties, Joan and Shirley had equal risk factors for Alzheimer’s. But, as they grew older, Shirley’s risk factors increased while Joan’s stayed level.

Resolve that during 2014, you will reduce your risk factors for Alzheimer’s by:

• Taking a brisk walk, swim, run, or stair climb every other day
• Reducing your risks of hypertension or diabetes, by reaching your goal weight
• Learning something that engages and challenges you weekly, if not daily

It was well over 2,000 years ago when China’s Yellow Emperor wrote,

"Maintaining order rather than correcting disorder is the ultimate principle of wisdom. To cure a disease after it has manifest is like digging a well when one feels thirsty, or forging a weapon when the war has already begun."

You might want to read Halina St. James’ article after she met Dr. Popovic at the Global Speakers Summit in Vancouver last December.

photo by kaotso/Flickr

Depression at Work: How you can help

What do you do when a good, hard-working employee gradually becomes less productive, makes more mistakes, seems withdrawn and anxious but denies that anything is wrong? These and other behaviours like irritability, angry outbursts, unusual concern about other people’s activities, loss of former enthusiasm, and/or constant fatigue might be signs that the person has tipped into depression.

Depression is an illness which has been calculated to cost the Canadian economy $51 billion and is a contributing factor for over 40% long-term disability claims. One in five people in Canada are likely to have at least one depressive episode in their lifetime, most often between the ages of 18 and 65.

Over the last 30 years, I have recovered from depression several times and have still been able to run a successful business. I am now certified by the Canadian Mental Health Association, Ontario to teach their Complex Issues, Clear Solutions programs. If you are concerned about the well being of an employee and don't know what you should do, here are some tips for you...

• Do consider your time and effort a good investment in your own development as a leader
• Do record your observations about the employee’s recent behavior and anything you have noticed in the workplace which may be contributing to distress such as excessive work hours, being “on call” 24/7, layoffs, reorganization, unresolved conflicts, and job insecurity.
• Do record the employee’s strengths and what you particularly value about the employee.
• Do prepare to have an individual, uninterrupted discussion with the employee where you begin with “I see, or I have noticed…” where your primary focus is to listen to understand the situation from the employee’s point of view. Use your best listening skills of focused attention, paraphrasing and summarizing back to the employee. Do ask open ended questions that might begin with “I am curious about ….. or Help me understand …..”  Strive to finish your listening by summarizing everything you have understood back to the employee, until the employee agrees you have “got it.”
• Do recognize that many depressed employees recover faster when they stay at work. Do take a hopeful, collaborative approach and encourage the employee to participate in suggesting solutions to how he or she can contribute to his or her success at work.
• Don’t attempt to diagnose an illness or act as a therapist.
• Don’t assume that the employee is weak or deserves blame for the situation. 
• Don’t ignore the situation, hoping that it will resolve itself. Even if it turns out that it is not as serious as mental illness, your concern will strengthen your relationship with your employee. If it is serious, then early intervention is very helpful. Accommodation at work and treatment through a family doctor and/or a trained therapist leads to the quickest recovery.
• Don’t give up. It is a challenging situation for you, your employee, and your team. Supporting an employee back to full productivity will pay off in your enhanced skills and knowledge and a safer and healthier workplace.

watch Jan Wong's video

Contact me for a complimentary exploration as to how the "Complex Problems, Clear Solutions" program can benefit your management team, and improve your bottom line.