Health for a Lifetime

Studies In Memory, Sleep, And Retirement

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Don Mackintosh (Host), Dr. Neil Nedley

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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!


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Revised 2014-12-17