Participants: Don Mackintosh (Host), Dr. Neil Nedley
Series Code: HFAL
Program Code: HFAL00239B
00:01 Have you been looking forward to retirement...
00:03 or is someone you know looking forward to retirement? 00:04 And you say... "Oh, if I could just retire and stop working!" 00:09 Well, we're talking with Dr. Neil Nedley 00:10 We're looking at current research... 00:12 And, Dr. Nedley you've got an interesting study here for us 00:15 Yes, this was a study done on 17,000 adults, 00:20 so this is a huge study. 00:21 Whenever you see a study in the thousands, that's huge. 00:25 17,000! And when you get over 10,000, 00:27 that's very huge! Um hm... 00:29 And so this was 17,000 adults. 00:32 And what they looked at particularly 00:34 were their retirement, and then how long they lived 00:39 after their retirement. 00:41 And what they found out was that those who retired 00:45 in their 40s and 50s, in particular... 00:49 If they retired, and they were compared with people who 00:52 chose not to retire, but could continue to work 00:55 through their 40s and 50s, 00:57 they actually had twice the risk of death within the study period 01:02 TWICE THE RISK! Twice the risk of death... Wow 01:05 And so, you know, often we talk about how sad it is... 01:08 He just retired... you know, it's just been a year, 01:12 or 1-1/2 to 2 years, and he JUST retired! 01:15 But my thought is, based on that study, is we should ask... 01:19 "I wonder if he'd still be alive if he didn't retire" 01:22 Well you know, you remember that Commandment right in the middle 01:26 of the 10 Commandments that says... 01:28 "Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work. " 01:30 I mean, if you retire, are you breaking that Commandment? 01:33 You know, it's kind of interesting... 01:35 it doesn't have an age limit on it, does it? 01:37 I mean it doesn't! It doesn't say until you're 59-1/2 01:41 Now to be fair, you know, some people that retire 01:43 actually work harder after they retire, than before 01:45 ...Because they're able to go into mission work. 01:48 They're able to go... We're not talking about that. 01:50 We're talking about people that just say, in this study, 01:53 Am I right or wrong... 01:54 They say, "Okay, I'm not doing anything. " 01:56 Well, they were not having a gainful source of income here, 02:01 and so, it was looking at those 02:05 And, of course, this was a worldly study, 02:07 so, you know, there probably weren't very many 02:10 of the 17,000 that went into mission work. 02:12 That would be another study to look at it... Okay 02:15 But, basically, it was those who were not gainfully employed 02:19 on a fulltime basis, and it actually increased their risk 02:24 of death significantly, and this was published 02:26 in the "American Journal of Epidemiology" 02:29 Wow, it's a very reputable journal... 02:31 A very prestigious journal, and it was done 02:33 by "Christina Bamia from the University of Athens" 02:37 Okay, so DON'T RETIRE! 02:39 Now, another thing, we want to talk about is rock stars 02:45 Now, how many of you watching today look up to a rock star? 02:48 ...Want to be like one? 02:49 I don't know... or maybe you know someone who is 02:51 looking up to maybe a musical icon... 02:55 Or watching some kind of show where they 02:58 idolize these types of folks. 03:00 This is a fascinating study. 03:01 Yeah, it was done on 1,064 rock stars. 03:06 Okay, they studied the rock stars. 03:07 The rock stars from Europe, and North America 03:10 were studied. 03:11 So Canada, U.S., Great Britain primarily... 03:15 I mean all 3 of those primarily, I should say, 03:19 more so than the other European countries. 03:21 And what they found out was that the risk of death 03:26 ...early, premature death is dramatically higher 03:29 in the rock star world. 03:32 I guess it doesn't really surprise me 03:34 ...You think about Elvis Presley 03:36 you think about some of the Beatles, 03:40 you think about Morrison, and Coban... 03:43 all these different names and different people, 03:44 different singers... They're either committing suicide 03:47 they get killed, or something happens to them 03:49 They overdose on drugs... 03:52 Yes, in fact, they actually looked at the causes of death 03:55 and they found out that many of the deaths were drug 04:01 or alcohol-related. 04:02 In fact, one-fourth of them who died prematurely, 04:06 died simply due to alcohol abuse, or drug abuse. 04:10 And, this is significantly higher than the 04:12 general population... 04:13 I mean, way off the scale, in comparison to the 04:16 general population and their percentage of deaths. 04:20 So, you know, I notice in the study, as well, 04:22 that it's VERY dangerous to get successful as a rock star. 04:26 Yes, in fact, out of these 1,064 people, 04:31 I'm sure you probably only heard of maybe 20 or 30 of them. 04:34 Some of them weren't as successful... 04:37 And even if you were unsuccessful 04:39 in the rock business... 04:41 You know, you published your first CD, 04:43 and you never published again. 04:45 You still had a significantly higher risk of death. 04:48 So there's something about the ROCK world 04:51 ...we know in the performance aspect of things 04:55 that is brought out in the study ... that is not healthy 04:57 for the physique and we know from other studies 05:01 it's not healthy for the mind... 05:02 But, particularly those who are very successful, 05:06 the question is... Well, if you're very successful, 05:08 if you make lots of money, maybe you're in a higher 05:10 socioeconomic group, 05:11 and so maybe you have a higher motivation to stay alive 05:15 and to be healthy, etc. 05:17 But those people, at the time that they reach their fame, 05:20 they had a dramatic increase risk of death within 3 years 05:24 of becoming famous. 05:25 Well, there you have it! 05:27 Do NOT become famous and do NOT become a rock star! Right? 05:31 Now, you mentioned something interesting to me as well... 05:34 is that, maybe you can tell us where that study is to, 05:38 but you mentioned that being an orchestra conductor, 05:41 there have been studies showing you live very long doing that 05:44 Yes, that's actually a separate study... 05:46 that wasn't part of the study done by "Mark Bellis" 05:50 Mark Bellis was the lead researcher, and this was done 05:53 by the "Center for Public Health at Liverpool University. " 05:57 That was where the study was done. 05:59 In England? In England, right. 06:01 That's where the Beatles were from... That's right 06:03 Yeah, it was actually from their town... 06:05 And, of course, many people studying this were thinking 06:08 it was a myth that rock stars died early 06:10 Maybe we just heard about the ones who died... 06:12 And so that's why they did the study to see 06:16 if it was a myth or not, and they found out it isn't a myth 06:18 And indeed is very statistically significant that you're going to 06:22 tend to die prematurely. 06:24 But, yes, other studies have shown that if you are in the 06:27 classical music world, you have longer life... 06:30 And if you are an orchestra conductor, 06:32 you have significantly long life. 06:34 In fact, your chance of successfully aging into your 90s 06:38 and still being active is much HIGHER if you're a 06:43 symphony orchestra conductor. Hmm 06:46 Well, maybe that's what I should go into. 06:51 Let's move to our next study... 06:52 Social ties and memory loss. 06:56 Before we go into the next study 06:58 I just need to quote something else that was mentioned 07:00 in this study, and that was... 07:03 a rock song that was written back in the 60s, from "The Who," 07:09 and it was "I hope I die before I get old" 07:14 And of course, a self-fulfilling prophecy in the rock world 07:18 But I've met so many people as patients, even... 07:20 that tell me, "Dr. Nedley, if I knew I was going to live 07:23 this long, I would have taken better care of myself. " 07:26 In other words, the time to make changes, as far as our 07:31 choice of music... as far as our choice of lifestyle 07:34 is the time when it can benefit us the most. 07:37 And the time to do that is the younger, the better. 07:40 And the younger we are and make these changes, 07:43 the more positive and abundant life we'll live. 07:46 Social ties and memory loss in the aged... 07:50 another study you want to talk about. 07:51 YES! This is a study, of course we're always looking at 07:55 the people that retain their memory when they get old. 08:00 And there are people that can retain their memory 08:03 after the age of 85, and still be very sharp... 08:06 Still have a good working memory, 08:08 and still can have a good recent memory, 08:10 and not just things of the past. 08:11 Many people over age 85, they just, you know, talk about 08:15 the past, and they can remember things of the past, 08:18 but recently, they can't. 08:20 And what they found out, was that it was directly 08:22 related to staying connected with family and friends. 08:26 You remember better if you have 08:28 more family and friends that you're close to. 08:31 Yes, and this was "Dr. Lisa Berkman" 08:32 and she is from Harvard University there 08:36 in Boston 08:38 And this was published in the 08:39 "American Journal of Public Health" 08:42 And it showed memory among those LEAST socially integrated 08:45 declined at twice the rate as among the MOST 08:48 socially integrated. 08:50 Bringing in the highest level of social integration 08:52 ameliorated more than half of the age-related decline 08:56 in memory. 08:57 This was published in May 2008 09:00 and, again, it shows how we were created to be social beings 09:04 Huge study too... about 15,000 people, I think... Yes 09:08 A large study, and this may be even more important 09:12 than the vitamins you're choosing 09:14 to consume to help your memory. 09:15 So, love the Lord with all your heart, AND you neighbor 09:17 as yourself... is really good advice. 09:19 Absolutely! Wow, fascinating. 09:21 So if you want to remember something... 09:22 have some friends! Remember that! 09:26 Yes, and really, there are other studies that 09:28 look at closeness of friends... 09:30 You know, if you look around in your own life, 09:34 and you don't have 5 close friends, 09:36 now this isn't family, these are close friends 09:39 that you can almost bare your soul to, 09:43 and you can really have... 09:45 you know, it helps you... it helps them, 09:49 it's really part of a good nonsexually intimate 09:55 but socially intimate type of friends 09:58 If you have more than 5, it's a GREAT health booster, 10:01 AND a GREAT mind booster! Fascinating. 10:05 Well, moving on... we've got to move on from 10:08 friends and memory to BROCCOLI! 10:12 Broccoli... who would have thought! 10:13 Broccoli after memory! Yes! 10:14 Tell us a little bit about broccoli. 10:15 All right! Well, this was a study 10:18 that actually shows how broccoli fights cancer. That's good news! 10:23 And, we do have a graphic in regards to the broccoli. 10:27 This study was done by "Richard Milton"... 10:31 He's a biologist at "Britain's Institute of Food Research" 10:36 And, it wasn't just broccoli, 10:38 the study highlighted broccoli but you can also see 10:42 in that picture cabbage. 10:44 Cabbage is part of the compounds that actually fight cancer. 10:50 And other foods that are not shown in the picture 10:53 that also helped out were brussel sprouts, 10:56 cauliflower, cabbage, watercress... 11:00 These are foods that we call the cruciferous vegetables. 11:04 And the cruciferous vegetables, we have known, have 11:07 reduced the risk of a number of cancers... 11:10 particularly colon cancer. 11:12 But this was a study taking a look at those who had 11:15 prostate cancer. 11:16 Now many people with prostate cancer... there's a score. 11:21 If you have prostate cancer, be sure and get a score. 11:24 Find out what your Gleason score is. 11:26 If you're 6 or below, the doctor will give you an option 11:30 to not get treatment. 11:31 In other words, the chance of this spreading fast 11:33 is very, very slim, and he might just re-biopsy you. 11:37 And so this took people with low Gleason scores... 11:41 almost the precancerous lesions and it put them on broccoli 11:44 and then it measured their genes. 11:46 And it found out that over 100 genes that are 11:49 associated with cancer, were turned off, 11:52 and another 100 genes that are associated with a reduction 11:55 of cancer were turned on by increasing the amount 11:59 of cruciferous vegetables that they were consuming 12:02 by 4 per week. 12:04 So that's not very much. That's right. 12:06 Just a few more... Just a few more! 12:09 ...4 vegetables Now what's the serving? 12:10 Is that like 2 platefuls, or is that like 3... 12:14 It's a cup. It's a cup... Okay 12:17 So, 4 cups or more of these cruciferous vegetables 12:21 were enough to change the genetics 12:23 and, actually, it reduced the risk of the prostate cancer 12:26 progressing, or the precancerous lesions 12:28 going into prostate cancer. 12:30 And I suppose that if it's good for the prostate, 12:32 it's probably good for other parts of the body as well. 12:35 Yeah, absolutely! 12:36 And, in fact, we know that from other studies, 12:39 that cruciferous vegetables do avoid a number of cancers 12:42 And in this study, they took a look at 12:44 "isothiocyanate and sulforaphane" 12:48 Those are 2 chemicals in the cruciferous vegetables 12:50 that do have potent genetic effects. 12:53 Well, I think... I mean you've really helped us today... 12:56 We CAN'T retire early! Right? 12:58 It's better just to keep working. 13:00 We need to stay away from the rock stars... 13:02 And we need to eat BROCCOLI! 13:06 Very practical take-home messages... 13:09 Yeah... or watercress, brussel sprouts... 13:11 That's right! ... cabbage 13:12 Thank you so much for being with us today, Dr. Nedley 13:14 Thank you, always good to be here. 13:16 And thank you for being with us. 13:18 We hope that you have, as a result... 13:20 Health that Lasts for a Lifetime! |
Revised 2014-12-17