Jay: Welcome to Defy Dementia, a podcast for anyone who has a brain. Today on the show, no guests, no experts, just me and Allison doing what many people do at this time of year, we're thinking about New Year's resolutions. Allison: But because Defy Dementia is all about living in ways that could reduce your risk of dementia, many of the resolutions that we're going to be chatting about are possible lifestyle changes that promote brain health, and they're also just plain good for you. Jay: But we're not going to just list them, we're going to look at why some resolutions are easier to keep than others, and how maybe we can all tap into that practically to stick to our goals. Allison: I'm Allison Sekuler, president and chief scientist at the Baycrest Academy for Research and Education, and the Centre for Aging + Brain Health Innovation. Jay: I'm Jay Ingram, I'm a science writer and broadcaster, I've been writing and talking about dementia for more than a quarter-century. And for the record, New Year's resolutions have never been a big thing for me, but I'm willing to explore them today, because as we say on Defy Dementia, you're never too young or too old to take care of your brain. Allison: Jay, I'm really happy that you're willing to explore resolutions, or else this podcast would be very, very short. So let me just ask, have you actually ever made a resolution and followed through on one? Jay: Generally, I don't make them, and that isn't because I think my life is perfect, I just don't have the faith that I'm going to stick to them, and that's partly because of who I am, and partly, I think, it's just artificial to have to make them on a certain date, a date that happens to be immediately after, or even during, the greatest excesses of the year. But I've been thinking about a few things I've learned while we've even been working on Defy Dementia, and I'll share them. But let me ask you the same question, Allison. Allison: Sure. Jay: Have you ever followed through on a resolution? Allison: It's funny, in my youth, I would sometimes make resolutions and sometimes not, and I almost never followed through. This last year though, I actually made three resolutions, and followed through on one. Jay: Oh, tell me more. Allison: There you go. Well, there is a daily newsletter called The Daily Pump that Arnold Schwarzenegger and his team have put out, and I think you and I have chatted about this before. Arnold Schwarzenegger, when he was in his Conan the Barbarian era, was one of the inspirations for me starting to work out in the gym in my youth. Ernestine Shepherd, who was one of our guests on our exercise podcast, is the inspiration for me working out later in life. And so, coming full circle, when Arnold and his team put together this new daily newsletter that talks about different kinds of life changes, actually, that you can make, in the very first issue, it came out around New Years, and they said, if you want to really make some changes in your life, try to make small changes, try to make things that are going to be goals you can achieve. Let's see, as a challenge, set a goal for 15 days to see with three different things what you can do. And so, I made the goal, and one of them, the one that stuck, was, it's going to sound strange, but to actually have a good face and skin care routine, which sounds odd, but I'd always had really, really dry skin and very weak skin, so I would wake up in the morning and I would have lines in my face from where my pillow and my sheets had been that would last there for hours. And so, I thought, why not just try this? I had some free samples that I got from a vendor, and I thought, I've got this stuff around, it's not going to take that much time. So that's the one that I actually stuck with is the skin care. Jay: I do have a question. If you didn't have those samples around, do you think you would've gone out and bought them? Allison: Absolutely not, no. But what's interesting is, because I had them, they were free samples, and I thought, I'll just try it since they're lying around here. But what's interesting is, as I did it, and I started to see actually really positive results, so my skin felt stronger, I didn't have bedsheet wrinkles on my face all day anymore, the dark circles under my eyes started to go away, my eyelids weren't hurting from being so dry, that's how dry my skin was, and I started feeling better about myself and better about my skin. And then, I started telling my friends and my family about this as a Shiseido project, I started telling them about how great this was, they have all now come into it, and we started all comparing notes about how well it worked. So it became almost like a social element to it too. So yeah, I think it was, for me, because there was a low barrier to entry, and there was this social component, and it made me feel better about myself, and it was easy to keep doing, I just kept going. And I do it every morning, every night, not always in full, but at least some element of it. Jay: That's really cool. And one of the best studies of New Year's resolutions was a Swedish study in 2020, and the main point they made, which squares exactly with what you're talking about with skin care, is that approach oriented goals, so things that you want to add to your life, were much more successful than avoidance oriented goals, where you want to stop doing something, and you were stopping your bedsheet lines on your face, but you were actually, it was an approach oriented goal, and it seemed to work. I still am a tiny bit skeptical, because studies like that where you ask people how well they've done, I'm sure I'd be tempted to say, oh, yeah, I'm doing it, when I might only be doing it 5% of the time. But anyway, yours is a perfect example that actually worked. Allison: Yeah, and it's funny, because one of the ones that did not work, I was trying to improve my sleep, and I know that if you don't watch videos and you don't use your phone for a certain amount of time before you go to bed, it promotes better sleep, and so one of my other things I was trying to do was not use my phone, not watch television, not use my computer, which is the opposite of that approach approach, and that did not last very long, I have to tell you. I do think that I want to work on my sleep, for sure, coming up this year, but I will try to figure out another way to do it that's an approach, as opposed to this removal approach. But enough about me, Jay, I want to know more about you and your aversion to New Year's resolutions. So you said you know yourself too well. Expand on that for me, please. Jay: Yeah. And we will come back to your talking about sleep, 'cause you didn't exactly say it was a resolution, you said something like, I might try and work on my sleep. So me, I've already said, not a big believer, I don't think I'd follow through with them, I don't like being told, this is the time of year you have to do it. However, I'm spending the next two or three months at my cabin north of Toronto instead of being in a city, and so I've decided this is an opportunity to do a couple of things. One of which is, when I give science talks, I generally do it with a rock and roll band, because we think, sure, science talks are great, but wouldn't a science talk with a band be better? Allison: Even better, yeah. Jay: Yeah. And I know you're in a band too. Allison: Yeah. Jay: I played the violin. It was a very hard adjustment to do improvisation when you're trained classically, but I've gotten away with that, 'cause our talks are much more complicated now, I have to watch how I'm voicing things to make sure I give the right cues to the band, and there's a lot of visuals to manage. Allison: Sorry, can I interrupt for one second, Jay? Because people are going, rock and roll violin, how do those two things connect? Jay: Well, they connect with difficulty, as far as I'm concerned. So the one avenue I've found was playing the blues, 'cause I love the blues. Allison: Yeah. Jay: Musicians will know, it's a very easy set of chord changes, and I found that violin works well. But the problem is, in a rock band, it's not always easy to fit a violin, because in one way, it can be like a rhythm guitar, in one way, it can be more like a lead guitar, and you don't want to trespass on their territory. Anyway, to make this story a lot shorter, I did bring my violin to my cabin, in fact, I'm looking at it suspiciously right now, and if I am going to come close to a resolution this year, it's going to be get back to music. And we've said more than once on this podcast, live with joy, and I find violin playing a little bit like golf, it's not until you're kind of good that you really love it. Allison: Yeah. Jay: And so, it might be a bit of a struggle at the beginning, but that's one thing I am going to do. Allison: And was this desire to get back into music, is that influenced at all by the work we've been doing on the podcast? Jay: Well, yes, because Rebecca Chop went down and started painting, I think she said, in her basement as a regular activity to live with joy, and music is wonderful and joyful and engages a different part of your brain than just you and me talking, so I think it's definitely dementia related in the sense of maintaining brain health. Allison: Yeah. Jay: The other thing is, and I've learned this definitely from the podcast, I'm going to change the online puzzles and games that I do, because I do Wordle, but I'm tired of it, and I hate the Wordle bot that tells me how I made mistakes, and I need to go on to- Allison: It's not bringing you joy. Jay: It doesn't. It very seldom brings me joy, although I noticed the other day you got it in two, so that was not only not joyful for me, but somewhat resentful. Anyway, I congratulate you. Allison: It was lucky for me. Jay: But let's talk about specifically lifestyle changes that could be the material for resolutions that we have picked up so far in the podcast series. Allison: Yeah, I've already changed the way that I approach life, and again, it's not tied to a specific date, so it doesn't have to be a New Year's resolution, although I agree with you, I don't like being told what to do, I think we both have a little bit of oppositional defiance disorder and we don't like someone telling us what to do, and the New Year's resolution feels a little bit like that. But I do think that the New Year's Day, it's just a marker that helps us say, okay, this is an opportunity to do things. So whether it's on your birthday, whether it's on New Year's Day, there's just a marker, a temporal marker, that helps you say, maybe this is a good time for change. But if you don't internalize it and there's not a good reason to do it internally, I think you're less likely to stick with it. As well as some of the guests that we've heard, and when we talked about Ernestine Shepherd, it's not that she just suddenly decided New Year's resolution, she's going to start lifting weights, she was driven by the desire to do something in the memory and the spirit of her sister, so there needed to be a reason for it. So having said that, if you have a reason and it happens to coincide with that date, then that's fine. But for me, just since we've started talking about some of these issues, I've changed, for example, the way that I eat. So if I have pizza, I always make sure I add salad to it. So before, we might just have pizza and forget about the salad, but I always make sure there's something green on my plate. My whole fridge is filled with berries. People are making fun of me at work because I carry berries around in little Tupperware, so that wherever I am, I always have... Would you like a blueberry? Would you like a blueberry? So I'm bringing berries, not just to myself, but to everyone. So definitely trying to have a more colorful plate and having a variety of foods, where I wouldn't have even necessarily thought about that so much before. What about you? Jay: Well, when it comes to food, honestly, one of my favorite comments that we've heard so far on Defy Dementia was Tom Holland's directive, when you walk into the grocery store, turn directly to the produce section and then just pick up things that are colorful. The reason I like this is because I feel there's a threshold for people to get over, a bar to jump over, before you can actually activate a resolution, but this to me is the lowest bar. You're going to the grocery store anyway, just make that correct turn to start off- Allison: Yeah. Jay: ... and get the first things in your cart, colorful fruits and vegetables. I really liked that, and maybe in the past, I've just made resolutions too complicated or too distant from me to be able to do them- Allison: Yeah. Jay: ... but I like that one. Allison: Yeah, I like the simplicity of that, just turn left or right, whichever direction it is. And by the way, if you first go to the ice cream aisle, your ice cream's going to be melted by the time you check out anyway, so that's a bad strategy for a lot of reasons. Jay: But it's also a cost issue, I bet. If you start in the wrong place, and then you look at your cart and it's already three quarters full and you haven't hit the produce section- Allison: Yeah. Jay: ... you might just buy less produce. Allison: Yeah. Jay: And so, it's another good reason to kick it off by doing that. Allison: Yeah. And the other thing that you mentioned before in terms of music, and so on, and living with joy, the third resolution that I mentioned that I had made before with the Arnold Schwarzenegger challenge was actually related to music. But to your point, the resolution was too difficult for me to stick with. And as you mentioned, I play an instrument, I play the drums, actually, and you and I have talked about you can have your electric violin and I'll have my drums, we'll just have a cool band that we can do together after this podcast is done. Jay: Yeah. Allison: But my resolution was basically practice drums for an hour every day. And the problem with that is that I travel a lot, like you, I do a lot of public speaking and traveling around the country and the world, talking about dementia and science and so on, and I can't bring my whole drum kit with me. So if I'm traveling, already I am out of luck. I can bring my drum sticks, but it's not quite the same. And also, I don't have complete control over what's happening in my house. I don't have an electric kit, I've got an acoustic kit, and I like to play loud, and so if my kids are back home and they're trying to do things with their friends, or my husband's working or watching a baseball game or something, I don't want to disturb them. And so, I'm not as free in terms of when I can be doing this, and an hour, it maybe was too much to bite off. So what I might try to do is think about getting back, making sure that it does bring me joy, for sure, but maybe I think about 10 minutes. And I also can make it a little bit more flexible, so it could be 10 minutes either playing the drums, or reading about the drums, or listening to the drums. And then that way, no matter where I am, and no matter what my circumstances are, I will be able to achieve the goal. So I don't know what you think of that approach. In a way, I'm making it more complicated, which is the opposite of what you're suggesting, but I think I'm also making it more achievable. Jay: I'd meet you halfway by choosing playlists of songs that I want to play along to. Allison: Yeah. Jay: And then, if nothing else, you become intimately familiar with the song, and are probably better prepared to try and add your instruments to it. But I've got to tell you one other thing, and it was just because I was re-listening to one of our podcasts with Jennifer Heisz saying, when you're going to work out, and let's face it, a resolution to work out more is ultra common, she said, swish around some high sugar drink in your mouth, you don't even have to swallow it- Allison: Yeah. Jay: ... but that little jolt of sugar gets you more prepped for exercise. Honestly, that ranks with me as heading for the produce section first, leave some room in your cart for some high sugar drink that will help you with your physical workout. Allison: But just swish, don't swallow, is that the... Jay: That's right, you don't have to swallow. And the things we've been talking about, certainly playing music, but other, we haven't actually detailed them, but just doing social things- Allison: Yes. Jay: ... you mentioned that social is important, and I would rank these as some of the most desirable resolutions, but ones that really would be a little bit challenging. I think joining a book club, which is something I did this year for the first time, it does require a little bit of overcoming your inertia to do that, but in my experience anyway, it's incredibly rewarding. Not only are you challenging yourself by reading the books, because people like to bring really long books to my book club- Allison: Yeah. Jay: ... but then sharing your thoughts on them, so it's very social. But we shouldn't neglect social activity, it's also really important. Allison: And so much of what we've heard over the course of the podcast really highlights the fact that... We tried to have an episode on exercise, and an episode on loneliness, and an episode on sensory-loss, but it seems like almost every episode that we're talking about, every risk factor gets intertwined with all of the others- Jay: Yeah. Allison: ... and they almost always come back to these social interactions. So like with music, for example, you and I both play in bands, and so, yeah, we can practice on our own, but I get the most joy out of it when I'm actually in the room with the other musicians interacting, that just elevates it to a whole other level. And I think the same thing, even something like the skin care routine that I've got, I've made it into a social activity- Jay: Yeah. Allison: ... by bringing in my friends and my family. And even for us in my family, Wordle is a social activity because we all share, we have a family group that does Wordle, and we all compare notes, and sympathize with each other when we do poorly, and give each other hearts and things when we do well, so we've even turned that into a social activity. So I think that we do see... And for me, when I go to the gym, I do a lot better if I'm going with somebody, and that was another one of these tips was try to have a workout buddy, or if I have a trainer who's helping me with something. I would love to have Ernestine as my trainer, I think I'd get a lot more done. Jay: Yeah. Allison: But making any of these, whatever approach you're taking, if you can make it a social activity, it's beneficial for you, and it's more likely that you'll follow through. Jay: And I think the best part of that, and I completely agree, is that you will find, almost inadvertently, that many of the things we've talked about just automatically spill over into some kind of social activity. Allison: Yeha. Jay: So it seems to me that everything, and I may just be repeating what you've already said, but everything we've talked about has connections to everything else, and so quite often, getting one resolution that you actually do I would bet will lead to other advantages for your brain health. Allison: Yeah, absolutely. And I resolve to re-listen to all of our podcasts is the other thing I resolve to do. Jay: Okay. So I want your top one or two resolutions for 2024, Allison. Allison: For 2024? We can come back to sleep. I do want to find a way to work on my sleep, because sleep is really integral to so many different elements of our health, and what people will learn when the sleep episode airs and when they listen to it is it's also a very big risk factor for dementia if you're not sleeping well. And there are simple things that you can do, and one of them, as I mentioned before, is not to be looking at different kinds of screens, that improves your sleep. But I think for me, since that didn't really work, probably what I'll try to do is just to add something that also I know I enjoy doing, which is mindfulness meditation. So adding in just even five minutes of deep breathing mindfulness meditation as I'm going to sleep, for me, when I have done that on a consistent basis, I do tend to sleep better. And then also, as I mentioned before, the face routine, the skin care routine, because it takes a while to do it if you have... I have so many different lotions and salves and whatever now that I've just collected, I'm a face cream addict now, but in whole, it can take 10 to 15 minutes. And I take the Japanese approach of it, don't just slather it on, there's a massage process and so on, so that also has actually helped me with my sleep as well a little bit. So combining, I think, that, there's a meditative element to it. So I think I'm going to try to add more mindfulness through my day, and including at night, so that's one. And I think to your point on music, I'm going to make an effort to make sure I'm having at least 15 minutes of pure musical joy every day, whether that's playing or listening to songs I want to play, or listening to podcasts for me about drums, whatever, but something that's really just related to that core interest that I have, because I think that those are things, again, setting a small amount of time for each and not being too overly ambitious, I think those for me will be relatively easy wins, and then hopefully can go from there. For you, I'm going to make you commit to a resolution now, Jay, what are you going to do? Jay: Okay, so I'm really going to shock you, because I'm going to make two, despite being much more willing to avoid them. So I will play more music, I've already talked enough about that. The other thing is fitness, and I'm at a cabin for the next two or three months in the woods with a dog, so I have no excuse not to get out every day, tromping through the woods, busting up beaver dams, that's a whole other story which I won't go into, but just being engaged physically, and my dog is going to be my companion in this- Allison: Yeah. Jay: ... so he'll get part of the credit if I actually do it. Allison: That's great. And bonding with a dog is just as good then as bonding with a human. Jay: We should, Allison, just remind our listeners that it's just not you and I that are on the hook for resolutions. Allison: That's right. Jay: Maybe many of you are thinking about New Year's resolutions, and maybe we could just harken back to the beginning of this episode, and remind you that the studies really show that using the approach approach, I like that phrase, thinking about adding something, doing something positively, works much better than trying to stop something or avoid something, so do that, find something you can enjoy. Allison: Yeah, it's something that you're enjoying, but also something that's a small step. So you want to add something, something that's going to bring you joy, because that'll increase the chance, but also, if you don't make the goal too overly ambitious, that's also been shown that you're more likely to stick with. Jay: So maybe I should just tune my violin. Allison: I think you can go a little bit further than that. And then, I think, to the point you made, whether it's with your dog or whether it's with a band or another human being, a resolution that brings in these different elements of the social and the exercise and the cognitive engagement, often you can put a number of these different dementia risk factors into one mixed bag within a resolution. So drumming, for example, I encourage everyone to drum, because there's a cognitive element, there's balance, actually, because if you're using both your feet at the same time, it's tricky, you've got to engage your core. If you're drumming really loud, fast music, I burn a lot of calories of drumming. There's a social component when you're in a band, and it's memory training also, 'cause I just have to remember what the music is and use it, I don't actually... Normally, we're not reading charts the same way other musicians might. So I think it's the best possible defy dementia approach you can possibly take, but I'm biased, of course, as a drummer. Jay: Now, if you have your own New Year's resolutions for 2024 and you'd like to report on their success, hopefully, check out our website, and we will leave some instructions there as to how you can let us know how you're doing. Allison: And you can also share your stories and your resolutions on any social media platform, just be sure to include #defydementia, that's hashtag D-E-F-Y-D-E-M-E-N-T-I-A. Jay: Now, to find out more about how you can reduce the risk of dementia or slow its progression, please visit us at the website defydementia.org. That's where you can check out other episodes of this podcast, as well as our videos and infographics. Allison: Our podcast production team is Rosanne Aleong, Monique Cheng, Sylvain Dubroqua. Our chase producer is Ben Schaub. Production is by PodTechs, and music is by Steve Dodd. And our cover art is by Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby. Jay: We'd also like to thank the funder of this podcast, the Public Health Agency of Canada. Please note, the views expressed here did not necessarily represent the views of the Public Health Agency of Canada. Allison: Your support for our podcast is greatly appreciated, so please hit that subscribe button for Defy Dementia on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or wherever you get your pods. I'm Alison Sekuler. Jay: And I'm Jay Ingram. Don't miss the next episode of Defy Dementia, it's available right after New Year's, and it's all about how air pollution, both indoor and outdoor, may increase everyone's risk of dementia. We'll also share some lifestyle hacks that'll help clean up the air that you breathe.