Transcription
Well, hello and welcome to the studio YouTube channel. My name is Jane and today I'm going to be talking about neuroscience and particularly I'm going to be talking about the way that simply leaning into the things that you may already enjoy can reduce your chance of cognitive impairment as you age by up to 50%. Now that sounds amazing, doesn't it? And particularly I think, um, my generation, you know, seeing my parents' generation and that idea of cognitive decline is really scary. I've talked about this in previous things, um, videos. So I'm going to just do this as a kind of a one take as normal about my views on the research and talk about the research.
If you are interested in delving deeper, I have written a blog post and that has all of the citations and the links to things that I'm mentioning here. So if you want to go deeper, click on the link underneath this video and it will take you to a blog post with everything there.
So I, I've been fascinated with neuroscience for ages in a very kind of like unscientific perspective. Um, ever since they started to be able to scan people's brains while having them do things and that you suddenly saw all of the connections that the brains make, the way that chemicals released by the body can change the connections and to can make things grow and all of these kinds of things I just find fascinating. And about 20 years ago, they started to do some research into what it was, the very specific things that lit up the brain most that made all of those neurons light up. And that's what we're wanting to stop cognitive decline. We're wanting our brains to be fizzy and buzzy and lit up when you scan them, and making new connections and developing. We don't want bits to be kind of withering and falling off and getting blocked. So, they started to do this research to find out what would make your brain most lit up.
And one of the things that they found was that it was to do with using your hands, specifically is to do with using both hands at the same time in a repetitive manner and ideally crossing the midline. So your right hand going to the left, the left hand going to the right. This is what the brain absolutely loved. Now, it's hardly surprising because when you think about it, one of the things that really connects us back to ancestors is the making of things, the using of the hands to make things. And then of course it would have been a necessity. You know, everything would have been made by hand. No, no machines, no factories, no 3D printing. Everything would be made by hand. Whether it is clothes or vehicles or cooking pots, anything, anything would be made by hand. And I always think that this is one of the advantages of the person who does craft is that they have this route back to ancestors that is so much easier than people who do no making with their hands. So I don't think that it is surprising at all.
And what came of it was that there are two research projects, um, that I'm wanting to talk about. And the first one was the Mayo Clinic did some research looking particularly at the cognitive decline that comes with aging. And they looked at people who crafted and people who didn't craft. And they did a really big, well-funded, well-researched scientific research project and it found that people who crafted, now they used knitting as their main thing, but they also used crochet, slow stitch, um, I think that there was a kind of a woodworky thing as well, but the point was it had to be something where you were using both hands repetitively crossing the midline with them. Those people, the people who were making things with their hands had 30 to 50% less cognitive decline than the people who didn't make things with their hands. And I just find that astonishing. Go and check it out.
And the second kind of research that I want to talk about is there's a woman called Kelly Lambert. She's a researcher at the University of Richmond and she's done a TED talk which I will link here. Um, and she wants to move from a very pharmaceutical approach to things like cognitive decline or depression, anxiety conditions to what she calls behavior-suticals, which I don't really like the word, but I can see where she's coming from, where you look at the way that certain things produce certain chemicals in the brain. And instead of giving people pills, you would give them activities. And one of those activities is making things with your hands. You know, it could be knitting. You know, because obviously if you're knitting something like your sock, you've got your hands are working. It's going across the midline. It's impressive, but also you are looking forward to the sock. So you've got all of that anticipation, you've got the dopamine, you've got serotonin, everything is going into your brain through the sock making to modify the chemicals that are in your brain in very much the same way as pharmaceuticals. Okay.
Now her research is very elaborate, very well researched and it's a bit more than that, but for example, in the studio, we are making felt beads this afternoon in our live workshop and that is exactly the same. We're going to be, we've knitted the cases, so it's knitting. But then we're going to be using both of our hands to get them from a knitted case down to a beautiful felt bead like this. And you've got the excitement of what will it look like? And you've got the rush of it coming together, that transformation of the knitted wool into this, um, felted bead. And then you've got the beauty of the finished item. So that's the kind of thing that Kelly Lambert is talking about. And I will put that link down here.
But the third thing that I wanted to talk about really was we're getting used to this idea that there are things that we can do in our lives that make a difference to our long-term health, whether that is brain health or physical health. But for some reason, um, a lot of the publicity and attention has gone to what I kind of think of as bro culture things. So biohacks, I think that they are termed, um, that feel that they have originated in Silicon Valley in that kind of group of entrepreneurs who talk a lot. Um, they're quite punishing things, you know, they involve, you know, extreme exercise, fasting, cold water, um, supplements. They, there's a lot of idea of productivity and measuring things and increasing your score and comparing with other people and competition and all of this kind of thing. And there's a lot of consumerism in the electronics that you can get in the supplements in books and plans and all of these kinds of things to do it right. And I have always really recoiled a little from all of these things. And doing this kind of research and reading for this particular YouTube thing, I saw what the problem was because it is arguably one of several ways to go to improve your health, to improve your mental health, to improve your, um, brain health, your physical health, whatever. But it's only one.
And the things that I value in life, which the main thing that I think is that we have this life. We are in this life which is astonishingly beautiful. If we look, we, our only thing in life really is to live it, to engage, to not be always putting off to some other time, which is one of the things I think these biohacks are. You know, they're, they're depriving yourself like I don't know, some Scotland always has a problem with a Presbyterian history which was really, um, about depriving yourself for future goal, um, of heaven. And in some ways it feels like that, that you are restricting your food and you are, um, restricting your comfort for some future thing. So I don't like that as a whole worldview. I think that what we need to do is to train ourselves to be joyful in a difficult world, not to welcome deprivation in a difficult world. And the second thing that I really don't like is the, um, productivity and competition around it, which seems to be built in to all of these things, and I think this is really toxic. And the third thing is, um, consumerism. And I think if you take these things, deprivation or seeing, you know, making life difficult for yourself and being hyper competitive and hyper consumerist, these are are things that are really damaging our world.
I believe that we need to instead lean into the things that we actively like. Now, if you like cold water swimming, lean into that. I'm not talking about that at all. But if you like knitting and making things, lean into that. Make it a regular thing. Appreciate it for the benefits it is giving to your brain. If you like dancing, lean into that. Singing, laughing with friends, playing the piano, skipping down the street, getting out into nature and walking. Move your arms around. Swing your arms because it will light up your brain. But be joyful, make things, and appreciate that if you're needing some kind of permission, some kind of excuse to prioritize the things that you love in life, particularly if that is making things. This is it. If you make things with your hands, you are up to 50% less likely to have cognitive decline by the time you are 85. And that I think is well worth knitting some socks for.
So this afternoon in the studio, we are making the felt beads in a live workshop. If you are a studio member, I hope to see you there. There is a replay. Um, and if you're not a studio member but that sounds like the kind of thing that you would really enjoy, then I'll put the link to join up to the studio underneath this. There are supportive places available as well. Um, and until next week, bye-bye.