How Are Heart and Brain Health Related?
Video Transcript
RACHEL WHITMER: There's been so
much work done on the heart
and cardiovascular disease
and what you can do to lower
risk.
But actually, a lot of things
that you can do to protect
your heart also will protect
your brain.
And so that has been the largest
bulk of evidence to date.
So things like high cholesterol, keeping that in check, hypertension, having an active lifestyle, staying very engaged mentally. And by that, what I mean is not just crossword puzzles, but playing an instrument, knowing more than one language. All those things seem to be associated with some kind of a protection.
There's a lot of work showing that high education seems to protect the brain. People who are highly educated tend to walk around with pathology longer and acting normal at a cognitive level longer before they actually show signs of Alzheimer's disease. So there's this whole notion that people who are possibly more highly educated might have more neural networks and ways around this pathology.
I think there's also a lot out there about jobs and occupation and occupational complexity, which means you have a job that you feel very passionate about, that you're very engaged in. That seems to be protective in terms of serving the mind.
So things like high cholesterol, keeping that in check, hypertension, having an active lifestyle, staying very engaged mentally. And by that, what I mean is not just crossword puzzles, but playing an instrument, knowing more than one language. All those things seem to be associated with some kind of a protection.
There's a lot of work showing that high education seems to protect the brain. People who are highly educated tend to walk around with pathology longer and acting normal at a cognitive level longer before they actually show signs of Alzheimer's disease. So there's this whole notion that people who are possibly more highly educated might have more neural networks and ways around this pathology.
I think there's also a lot out there about jobs and occupation and occupational complexity, which means you have a job that you feel very passionate about, that you're very engaged in. That seems to be protective in terms of serving the mind.