The Five Keys Of Aging Healthily

This is Dr. Daniel Levitin. He’s a neuroscientist, and his research focuses on aging, the brain, health, productivity, and creativity. Also music, and he himself is an accomplished musician also, but we’re not going to be focusing on that today.

We’re going to be looking at the traits that, according to science, promote healthy longevity in old age. In other words, the things that increase our healthspan, from the perspective of a cognitive scientist.

What does he say we should do?

Dr. Levitin offers us what he calls the “COACH” traits:

1. Curiosity
2. Openness
3. Associations
4. Conscientiousness
5. Healthy practices

By “associations”, he means relationships. However, that would have made the acronym “CORCH”, and decisions had to be made.

Curiosity

Leonardo da Vinci had a list of seven traits he considered most important.

We’ll not go into those today (he is not our featured expert of the day!), but we will say that he agreed with Dr. Levitin on what goes at the top of the list: curiosity.

• Without curiosity, we will tend not to learn things, and learning things is key to keeping good cognitive function in old age
• Without curiosity, we will tend not to form hypotheses about how/why things are the way they are, so we will not exercise imagination, creativity, problem-solving, and other key functions of our brain
• Without curiosity, we will tend not to seek out new experiences, and consequently, our stimuli will be limited—and thus, so will our brains

Openness

Being curious about taking up ballroom dancing will do little for you, if you are not also open to actually trying it. But, openness is not just a tag-on to curiosity; it deserves its spot in its own right too.

Sometimes, ideas and opportunities come to us unbidden, and we have to be able to be open to those too. This doesn’t mean being naïve, but it does mean having at least a position of open-minded skepticism.

Basically, Dr. Levitin is asking us to be the opposite of the pejorative stereotype of “an old person stuck in their ways”.

Associations

People are complex, and so they bring complexities to our lives. Hopefully, positively stimulating ones. Without them to challenge us (again, hopefully in a positive way), we can get very stuck in a narrow field of experience.

And of course, having at least a few good friends has numerous benefits to health. There’s been a lot of research on this; 5 appears to be optimal.

• More than that, and the depth tends to tail off, and/or stresses ensue from juggling too many relationships
• Fewer than that, and we might be only a calendar clash away from loneliness

Friends provide social stimulation and mutual support; they’re good for our mental health and even our physiological immunity (counterintuitively, by means of shared germs).

And, a strong secure romantic relationship is something that has been found time and again to extend healthy life.

Note: by popular statistics, this benefit is conferred upon men partnered with women, men partnered with men, women partnered with women, but not women partnered with men.

There may be a causative factor that’s beyond the scope of this article which is about cognitive science, not feminism, but there could also be a mathematical explanation for this apparent odd-one-out:

Since women tend to live longer than men (who are also often older than their female partners), women who live the longest are often not in a relationship—precisely because they are widows. So these long-lived widows will tend to skew the stats, through no fault of their husbands.

On the flipside of this, for a woman to predecease her (statistically older and shorter-lived) husband will often require that she die quite early (perhaps due to accident or illness unrelated to age), which will again skew the stats to “women married to men die younger”, without anything nefarious going on.

Conscientiousness

People who score highly in the character trait “conscientiousness” will tend to live longer. The impact is so great, that a child’s scores will tend to dictate who dies in their 60s or their 80s, for example.

What does conscientiousness mean? It’s a broad character trait that’s scored in psychometric tests, so it can be things that have a direct impact on health, such as brushing one’s teeth, or things that are merely correlated, such as checking one’s work for typos (this writer does her best!).

In short, if you are the sort of person who attends to the paperwork for your taxes on time, you are probably also the sort of person who remembers to get your flu vaccination and cancer screening.

Healthy practices

This means “the usual things”, such as:

• Healthy diet (Mediterranean Diet consistently scores up top)
• Good exercise (especially the tendency to keep moving in general)
• Good sleep (7–9 hours, no compromises)
• Not drinking (or at least only very moderate consumption, but the only safe amount is zero)
• Not smoking (just don’t; there is no wiggle room on this one)

Want to learn more?

You can check out his book, which we reviewed all so recently, and you can also enjoy this video, in which he talks about matters concerning healthy aging from a neuroscientist’s perspective, ranging from heart health and neurodegeneration, to the myth of failing memory, to music and lifespan and more:

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Nobody Likes Surgery, But Here’s How To Make It Much Less Bad

This is Dr. Chris Bonney. He’s an anesthesiologist. If you have a surgery, he wants you to go in feeling calm, and make a quick recovery afterwards, with minimal suffering in between.

Being a patient in a hospital is a bit like being a passenger in an airplane:

• Almost nobody enjoys the thing itself, but we very much want to get to the other side of the experience.
• We have limited freedoms and comforts, and small things can make a big difference between misery and tolerability.
• There are professionals present to look after us, but they are busy and have a lot of other people to tend to too.

So why is it that there are so many resources available full of “tips for travelers” and so few “tips for hospital patients”?

Especially given the relative risks of each, and likelihood, or even near-certainty of coming to at least some harm… One would think “tips for patients” would be more in demand!

Tips for surgery patients, from an insider expert

First, he advises us: empower yourself.

Empowering yourself in this context means:

• Relax—doctors really want you to feel better, quickly. They’re on your side.
• Research—knowledge is power, so research the procedure (and its risks!). Dr. Bonney, himself an anesthesiologist, particularly recommends you learn what specific anesthetic will be used (there are many, and they’re all a bit different!), and what effects (and/or after-effects) that may have.
• Reframe—you’re not just a patient; you’re a customer/client. Many people suffer from MDeity syndrome, and view doctors as authority figures, rather than what they are: service providers.
• Request—if something would make you feel better, ask for it. If it’s information, they will be not only obliged, but also enthusiastic, to give it. If it’s something else, they’ll oblige if they can, and the worst case scenario is something won’t be possible, but you won’t know if you don’t ask.

Next up, help them to help you

There are various ways you can be a useful member of your own care team:

• Go into surgery as healthy as you can. If there’s ever a time to get a little fitter, eat a little healthier, prioritize good quality sleep more, the time approaching your surgery is the time to do this.
  • This will help to minimize complications and maximize recovery.
• Take with you any meds you’re taking, or at least have an up-to-date list of what you’re taking. Dr. Bonney has very many times had patients tell him such things as “Well, let me see. I have two little pink ones and a little white one…” and when asked what they’re for they tell him “I have no idea, you’d need to ask my doctor”.
  • Help them to help you; have your meds with you, or at least a comprehensive list (including: medication name, dosage, frequency, any special instructions)
• Don’t stop taking your meds unless told to do so. Many people have heard that one should stop taking meds before a surgery, and sometimes that’s true, but often it isn’t. Keep taking them, unless told otherwise.
  • If unsure, ask your surgical team in advance (not your own doctor, who will not be as familiar with what will or won’t interfere with a surgery).

Do any preparatory organization well in advance

Consider the following:

• What do you need to take with you? Medications, clothes, toiletries, phone charger, entertainment, headphones, paperwork, cash for the vending machine?
• Will the surgeons need to shave anywhere, and if so, might you prefer doing some other form of depilation (e.g. waxing etc) yourself in advance?
• Is your list of medications ready?
• Who will take you to the hospital and who will bring you back?
• Who will stay with you for the first 24 hours after you’re sent home?
• Is someone available to look after your kids/pets/plants etc?

Be aware of how you do (and don’t) need to fast before surgery

The American Society of Anesthesiologists gives the following fasting guidelines:

• Non-food liquids: fast for at least 2 hours before surgery
• Food liquids or light snacks: fast for at least 6 hours before surgery
• Fried foods, fatty foods, meat: fast for at least 8 hours before surgery

(see the above link for more details)

Dr. Bonney notes that many times he’s had patients who’ve had the worst thirst, or caffeine headache, because of abstaining unnecessarily for the day of the surgery.

Unless told otherwise by your surgical team, you can have black coffee/tea up until two hours before your surgery, and you can and should have water up until two hours before surgery.

Hydration is good for you and you will feel the difference!

Want to know more?

Dr. Bonney has his own website and blog, where he offers lots of advice, including for specific conditions and specific surgeries, with advice for before/during/after your hospital stay.

He also has a book with many more tips like those we shared today:

Calm For Surgery: Supertips For A Smooth Recovery

Take good care of yourself!