This week Bobbi Conner talks with Dr. Christine Cooper about lifestyle routines that help reduce the risk of dementia. Dr. Cooper is an Assistant Professor in the College of Medicine and a neurologist specializing in movement disorders at MUSC.
TRANSCRIPT:
Conner: I'm Bobbi Conner for South Carolina Public Radio with Health Focus here at the radio studio for the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. New research suggests that a set of healthy lifestyle routines and habits can help preserve brain function and reduce risk of dementia. Doctor Christine Cooper is here to provide the details. Doctor Cooper is an Assistant Professor in the College of Medicine, and she's a neurologist specializing in movement disorders at MUSC. Doctor Cooper, bring us up to date about healthy routines and reducing our risk of dementia.
Dr. Cooper: Preserving our brain health is something that we all strive to do as we get older, and it becomes something that we all have some control over in regard to specific lifestyle routines. We break them down into different topics. Physical exercise is probably the largest focus that we have right now in order to preserve your brain health. Nutrition and diet is incredibly important, with more and more science proving that this makes a difference. Socialization is a component of brain health that often goes under-recognized, and then even sleep habits contributes to overall brain functioning well.
Conner: Tell us more about these specific lifestyle routines that can help us as far as reducing the risk of dementia plus brain health.
Dr. Cooper: There's been numerous studies that have shown that cardiovascular exercise, in particular, does wonders to help reduce the risk of dementia as we get older. It's not just for people who have been exercising their whole life. Even starting an exercise routine in midlife has proven to make a difference as we get older. And when we talk about nutrition and brain health, the focus seems to be on what is often referred to as a Mediterranean diet. Mediterranean diets involve a lot of antioxidants that have been shown to be really helpful in terms of preserving our brain structure and function.
Conner: And what about socialization? Tell us about that component for a healthy brain. Why is that so important?
Dr. Cooper: Socialization is often an under-recognized component of your brain health. Many of us want to ensure that our ability to speak in conversations, find our words, remain strong as we get older. And, in that way, socialization by talking with strangers or people that you don't know as well as those closest to you, can be really helpful to ensure that you have the mental and word-finding abilities that you hope to remain strong.
Conner: And how does sleep and healthy sleep routines factor into this whole idea of brain health and reducing risk of dementia?
Dr. Cooper: I think we all know what it feels like to not get a good night's sleep every now and then. But really, chronic sleep deprivation can really have a negative effect on your ability to manipulate information and be cognitively flexible. So maintaining good sleep habits and giving your brain the time and rest it needs to recover is incredibly important as we get older.
Conner: Anything else that individuals can keep in mind in terms of preserving their brain health?
Dr. Cooper: Yes. So when it comes to brain health, it's important to realize that chronic health conditions, things like high blood pressure, diabetes or chronic kidney disease can affect your brain health as well. So working with your doctor to get control of those aspects is important. And lastly, hearing loss and vision loss, if it goes untreated, that can also really masquerade as dementia or cognitive impairment. So treating those factors as well can be very important to overall brain health.
Conner: Doctor Cooper, thanks for this information about brain health.
Dr. Cooper: My pleasure. Thank you.
Conner: From the radio studio for the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, I'm Bobbi Conner for South Carolina Public Radio.
Health Focus transcripts are intended to accurately represent the original audio version of the program; however, some discrepancies or inaccuracies may exist. The audio format serves as the official record of Health Focus programming.
