My brain at 83: Millstone or Milestone?

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It’s Andy here today. Ann is in OurLittleCorner explaining how ice cream can be brain food.

Frank Bruni, one of my favorite NYTimes opinion columnists, recently wrote a piece entitled “The Brain is the New Belly.”  It hit close to home.

Illustration by Ben Wiseman from Frank Bruni’s NYTimes piece The Brain is the New Belly

Bruni notes that as we age (even though Bruni is only 61) we find ourselves and those around us increasingly obsessing about our mental state. The hyperbole and dark humor about our memory lapses reflect a widespread undercurrent of anxiety that our brains may be declining. Bruni contends that much of this angst is driven by a dramatic increase in media attention to the issue:

All around me I hear and see mentions of cognitive health, which, like early onset, is a term that wasn’t nearly as prevalent a decade ago. I trip across more and more articles about brain optimization. I encounter more and more ads for elixirs that promise to perpetuate my acuity and protect my precious thoughts. I’ve never been so conscious of my consciousness. I’ve never been so mindful of my mind.

I’m certainly not immune to this nagging fear of brain decline. And it’s the small things that get to me — like driving through Sonoma and remembering that I had set a pizza box on my car roof only after noticing other motorists frantically gesturing at my roof (which, by the way, happened just last week) ; or the many (many) times I’ve buckled up my bike helmet only to have to take it off again to check to see if I’d turned on its rear blinking light; or spending an entire conversation with someone I know while straining the whole time to recall the person’s name. Sound familiar?

These kinds of lapses are often referred to as “brain farts,” a term I’ve always considered to be a somewhat unsavory colloquialism. However, the topic of “brain farts” has received some serious science-based scrutiny . A good example can be found in a piece posted onVerywellmind.com entitled “What Happens During a Brain Fart” (I should point out that the article is undoubtably credible because it was “medically reviewed” by someone sporting “MD, PhD, and FAAN” after their name).

I was relieved to learn from that article that brain farts are not abnormal and, more importantly, do not necessarily indicate a declining brain — they are a normal part of how memory works. Furthermore, research has shown that common triggers for such lapses include being distracted, stressed, or bored. I don’t know about being bored, but who isn’t distracted or stressed these days? The article also points out that these mental lapses tend to become more frequent as we age — no surprise there.

From Brian Crane’s comic strip Pickles .

It seems to me that the skyrocketing anxiety about”cognitive health” that Frank Bruni mentions would be the source of considerable stress, which in itself ironically could contribute to age-related upticks of mental lapses. If this is so, for our own mental health we need to find a way to be less anxious about our aging brain’s well being. An article in The Guardian by Hanna Devlin reports on some recent discoveries about our brain’s structure that may help in this regard.

Her article outlines the findings from a recent Cambridge study that suggest that the brain’s development is not due to a process of steady progression as is commonly assumed. Rather, the the course of our brain development can be characterized as consisting of five distinct “eras” that come about at “pivotal turning points” in our lives: Childhood (Birth to Age 9), Adolescence (Ages 9 to 32), Adulthood (Ages 32 to 66), Early Aging (Ages 66 to 83), and Late Aging (Age 83 onwards).

In that I currently am at the “pivotal turning point” of 83, I thought it would behoove me read the original research article, published in the prestigious journal Nature, to learn more about this “Late Aging” era my brain now occupies . It didn’t take me long to realize that not being a neurosurgeon (or the like) I should never have asked my 83-year-old brain to try to make sense of the research. Check out the below excerpt to see why:

… the last epoch is 83–90 years old, which ranges from late aging individuals to the maximum age included in this study. Only subgraph centrality was significantly associated with age during their period... In addition, the regularization of the LASSO had to be weakened for any predictors to survive. With the less-sparse model, subgraph centrality was the strongest predictor of age… Importantly, subgraph centrality was only significantly correlated with age in 10 regions, including the cuneus (right and left), the superior (right) and middle (left) occipital gyri, and the postcentral gyrus (right).

I actually began to look up terms like LASSO , cuneus, and occipital gyri but found the effort to be so stressful and distracting that I gave up for fear of generating a slew of new brain farts.

I couldn’t even understand what wikipedia had to say about the cuneus: “the cuneus (Brodmann area 17) receives visual information from the same-sided superior quadrantic retina (corresponding to contralateral inferior visual field)…“

You must be wondering how I can claim that the Cambridge study can reduce my anxiety about my brain’s health. While I may not understand technical details of the how or why of the brain changes over time, I do find some comfort in the idea that the brain’s structure changes at “pivotal turning points” rather than through some incremental progression of development. Knowing that 83 ushers in the “late aging era” of brain development may seem a bit depressing to some, but to me knowing about this turning point in my brain’s life is more like a milestone than a millstone — it’s a milestone in the sense that I now can accept the fact that my brain will be a bit less efficient and a bit more scattered due to a natural process over which I have little or no control. And I will no longer have to consider my inevitable brain lapses as harbingers of brain doom.

Perhaps we all should relax a bit and embrace o brain’s stage of the structural development — and take some inspiration from Earl of the Pickles comic strip:

We Were a Mile + High

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It’s Ann here today. Andy is taking a break from today’s OurLittleCorner but will be back for our next blog.

Denver, Colorado, brags about being The Mile High City – at about 5,280′ altitude. But did you know that Colorado Springs is about 6,035′? I spent 4 years in C. Springs, attending Colorado College. It had a lasting (and very positive) impact.

But I never once got high. (That’s probably a lie, if you go beyond weed and include alcohol.)

Maybe 4 years at that high altitude made us CC-ers tough.I just hosted my 80+-year-old Colorado College friends here in Glen Ellen; here’s what my Albuquerque friend has to say about us:

We are an amazing group of women who were sorority sisters in the 1960’s at Colorado College. We weren’t amazing then (well, maybe some of us were amazing individually), but have developed our amazingness over sixty years of keeping in touch through an annual newsletter, periodic reunions (editor’s note: there have been 21 get-togethers) and, since Covid, monthly Zoom calls. Over the decades, we have shared in each other’s lives, our marriages, divorces, the births of our children, and the illnesses and deaths of our members and loved ones. We have been each other’s support systems in good times and bad, and we love each other. What an amazing group of women!

Definitely, the friendships we developed at CC brought new highs to our lives, as did our gorgeous surroundings and our beautiful music.

The Garden of the Gods
The Air Force Academy
Pike’s Peak
The Broadmoor Hotel
Cutler Hall at Colorado College, built between 1877 and 1880

Last summer the Colorado Department of Agriculture published a recipe for Strawberry Hemp Heart Ice Cream on their website (I prefer to call it a frozen dessert, since there is no milk or cream in it). What could be more perfect for today’s focus on Colorado -“A Mile+ High”? Not that hemp is going to get you high – but that Colorado is a perfect state for growing hemp.

And just so you know about hemp – the Colorado Department of Agriculture article states “While CBD got much of the early attention, hemp is now being used for so much more: fiber, grain, textiles, bioplastics—even building materials. Why hemp? It uses less water, improves soil health, and opens up new opportunities for farmers—from large-scale producers to small family farms. Companies like…Global Fiber Processing are helping make local, high-quality hemp ingredients easy to access. So when you enjoy this sweet scoop, you’re also supporting sustainability, innovation, and local agriculture.

In fact our niece JoDee and her partner, Karen, own a hemp store, Grannys’ High Altitude Super Hemp, in Lake George, Colorado, which sells “the best CBD oral concentrate, salves and tea around.” and which is “still seed to consumer all onsite.” After 4 days of constant cleaning up and dishwashing for my CC group, Andy could probably use a little of JoDee’s CBD tea right now!

FYI

I had John Denver’s Rocky Mountain High blaring while I made this recipe for my Colorado College friends. I suggest you do the same.

Ingredients for today’s recipe
Colorado’s Strawberry Hemp Heart Frozen Dessert

Colorado's Strawberry Hemp Heart Frozen Dessert

How many desserts can you claim have a substantial amount of nutritional value?! And fyi – you can dice an extra 1 c of strawberries, marinate them for an hour or so in a little cointreau and sugar, then drain the strawberries and add them to the dessert in the last minute of churning. Adds a delicious and pretty touch.

  • 1 c hemp hearts (hulled hemp seeds)
  • 3 1/2 c hemp milk, or nondairy milk of choice
  • 2 c strawberries, hulled
  • 1/2 c maple syrup
  • 2 T freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 1 T cointreau (or vodka or rum), optional
  • 1/2 tsp Diamond kosher salt

First be sure that the ice cream maker’s freezer bowl is fully frozen.

In a covered container, combine the hemp hearts and hemp milk. Refrigerate for at least 8 hours (do not drain).

Once the hemp hearts have soaked in the hemp milk, combine them in a blender with the strawberries, maple syrup, lemon juice, vanilla, cointrea, and salt. Blend until smooth, which will take a more than a few minutes of blending to break down the hemp hearts.

Chill the mixture for at least 2 hours.

Place the frozen freezer bowl of the ice cream maker into your ice cream machine.

Pour the mixture into your ice cream maker, and follow your manufacturer’s instructions (about 20-30 minutes to churn). 

You can eat the dessert immediately (it will be like soft, icy ice cream) or freeze it in an airtight container for 3-4 hours to thicken it up slightly. For best results, allow the dessert to sit at room temperature for about 5-10 minutes to soften before serving.

Recipe brought to you by BigLittleMeals.com and Andy and Ann.

Need a Happiness Boost? Talk to a Stranger. Really.

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It’s Andy here today. Ann is in OurLittleCorner anxious to discuss anxiety.

I recently blogged about how word puzzles can bring us some happy moments in a world that seems hell bent on making us unhappy. But we can immerse ourselves in puzzles for only so long before we have to get back to life’s practicalities. Clearly, we need more options for sneaking a few additional moments of happiness into our harried lives. I’ve come across one option that seems to fit the bill — talking to strangers.

This option occurred to me when listening to an NPR interview with University of Chicago Professor Nicholas Epley about his new book, A Little More Social. His research expertise is all about the social benefits of engaging with strangers and he even suggests that talking to strangers could be a source of happiness. Of course I had to get his book to see how this all works. I’m happy I did.

Researchers have long known that socializing with family and friends is low-hanging fruit when it comes to finding happy moments. What Epley brings to the table is some solid evidence that socializing with strangers is an under-appreciated way to add some happiness to our daily lives — and it’s hiding right under our noses.

Somewhat surprisingly, Epley’s research has revealed that talking to strangers doesn’t brighten the day just for extroverts; introverts also find talking to strangers enjoyable: “The intuitive story that extroverts like connecting with other people while introverts don’t just isn’t supported by the evidence.”

Given that connecting with strangers can have such positive outcomes, the big question for Epley is why so many of us fail to make the seemingly simple effort to be “a little more social.” He devotes most of his book to exploring this question, suggesting that our hesitation to engage with strangers lies in our systematic (and erroneous) expectation that interacting with strangers will have negative outcomes. He goes on at length about how get people to overcome their reluctance to engage with strangers.

It’s notable that much of Epley’s research takes place in metropolitan areas where mingling with strangers is unavoidable. But what about those of us who don’t live in urban areas? Don’t we deserve equal access to the pursuit of happiness? Fortunately, I have figured out some sure-fire ways for creating stranger-engagement opportunities in less densely populated places like Glen Ellen : (1) get a dog, (2) use Craigslist, and (3) wait in lines.

Get a Dog
If you’ve followed our blog at all you know about our Cardigan Corgi, Wynn. I can’t even begin to tell you how many times she has sparked exchanges with strangers. (Editor’s note: the fact that she looks like a dog designed by a committee —consider her brindle coat, stubby legs, long body, big ears, bushy tail — may be an unfair advantage for attracting attention). A couple of examples of encounters with strangers Wynn and I have had recently illustrate my point:

  • A PG&E guy who came to read our meter asked what kind of dog Wynn was (after she stopped barking at him). He then proceeded to tell me about his own dog that’s getting on in years and has been diagnosed with cancer. He shared with me his dilemma about whether to do an expensive surgery that may or may not succeed. We commiserated on how emotionally attached we become to our pets.
  • On a walk in our local regional park Wynn and I came upon a couple sitting on a bench with two large dogs at their feet. While Wynn was checking out the two dogs, I learned from the couple that their dogs were “fire dogs.” They explained that they had found them as puppies in the aftermath of the wildfires that devastated much of Glen Ellen in 2017. We spent several minutes exchanging accounts of how those fires affected us.

Use Craigslist
This may seem like an odd method to meet strangers, but after years of selling stuff on Craigslist I’ve come to realize that I get more pleasure from getting to know something about the people who show up than from the cash they bring. Take the man who drove out from Berkeley to buy the patio chairs (8 years old but in good condition) we posted on Craigslist . While I helped him load the chairs in the back of his Subaru Outback I learned that he was a hepatologist (which he explained is a liver doctor and then asked jokingly if I would have charged more for the chairs had I known he was a doctor). And then there was the woman who came to look at an upholstered chair (“comfortable and in great condition”) who turned out to be the director of a women’s shelter and was on a tight budget. I gave her the chair free.

Queuing up at the SF Airport — fertile ground for stranger talk (photo from the San Francisco Standard)

Wait in Lines
This may seem even weirder than my Craigslist suggestion, but being part of a queue can provide the optimal opportunity to engage with strangers. Unfortunately, about the only line- waiting I do in Glen Ellen is at our local French bakery, Pascals. However, even when the line is short I have ample time to chat with those in front and behind me. Beyond exchanges about preferred pastries, strangers have told me about their travel plans, their grandchildren, their favorite tomatoes to grow in their gardens, and where they grew up. Of course, when traveling outside of Glen Ellen there are many more queuing options (think airports, Broadway plays, concerts, popular restaurants, and so on). And if you want to dramatically up your happiness level you might consider applying for a job at a line-waiting service such as Taskrabbit. Think of the unlimited opportunities to meet strangers (and to get paid for it to boot).

It would be weird if all of the strangers next to you in a queue were Taskrabbit line-waiters. Even so, it should still make you happy to chat with them.

I hope you’ve found my suggestions to be useful. Maybe some day we can meet face to face and compare notes on strategies. In the mean time, don’t be a stranger.

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