A good nights’ sleep and taking quiet time for yourself are vital to both physical and cognitive health. But with the hectic nature of our world, how do you find the time? Schedule it in! Take some time each day to enjoy a nature walk, read, meditate or have a nap; your body will thank you! The following from Scientific American discusses the importance of these types of rest and the impact this has on your brain.
Use Fats to Feed Both a Growing and Aging Brain
The following from Dr. Sears discusses the importance of proper nutrition to fuel the body, and most importantly the brain. Dr. Sears states “…there are two windows of time in which the brain is especially sensitive to nutrition: the first two years of life for a growing baby and the last couple decades of life for a senior citizen.” The article discusses the best ways to provide this nutrition is through the incorporation DHA and Omega 3 fats. Read this great article here to get the facts on the fats you need for proper brain development and optimal brain function!
Ask Dr. Sears: Omega-3 and DHA as Brain Food
Brain Injury and Executive Functions – When the CEO is on a Hiatus
Julie Entwistle, MBA, BHSc (OT), BSc (Health / Gerontology)
Brain injury awareness month continues…this stop: Executive Functioning.
Simply defined, executive functions are the capacities we require to achieve a goal. These are commonly referred to as the “CEO” of the brain because they provide people with the higher order processes that allow us to plan, organize, initiate and complete tasks successfully.
Practically, think about the last time you moved. Moving, as an example, is a simple goal of just wanting to relocate from one place to another. The goal is not the problem: it is the processes and thinking required to manage the transition effectively that can be difficult. Several months before moving you are searching for a suitable place, weighing the pros and cons of each location, checking your budget. Then you make the decision of where to move and you need to deal with your existing location. When do you need to notify your landlord, or when should you list your house? Then, months and weeks before you move there are calls to make to utility companies, mail to redirect, insurance to organize, movers to book and packing to do. What belongings are you moving? What should be sold, donated, discarded? The day of the move is chaotic, stressful, and exhausting. Then for months after you continue to unpack, move things around, find ways to arrange and store your stuff.
Really, your level of executive functioning, or your ability to delegate and enlist support for your areas of weakness, will determine the outcome of your move. So now imagine that you have a brain injury and as a result you feel the same sense of stress, fatigue and frustration with more simple daily tasks, such as planning a meal, sorting your mail, or scheduling your time. This is often how people with brain injury feel on a regular basis.
So, what can occupational therapy do to help? Well, the treatment for executive dysfunction is both broad and simple. It is broad because everyone experiences brain injury differently, and comes into it with varying levels of recoverability. It is simple because it merely involves taking a goal and breaking this down into component parts, manageable chunks, and smaller tasks within the whole.
Returning to the moving example, as an OT, assisting someone who has executive dysfunction with a pending move may involve making checklists with tasks and timeframes, and checking on progress frequently. Personally, I like to take a project approach: calling the goal “Operation Move” and mapping out – start to finish – the metrics for success. Perhaps in month one an “apartment hunting worksheet” is created to help the client summarize all the places they are looking at, the pros / cons, address, and list of questions that need to be answered (price, utilities included, length of lease etc.). Often I encourage my clients to use a smartphone to take photos of the options then we cross reference these and catalogue them to keep things organized. From there, the process continues with checklists for calls to make, addresses to change, ways to organize packing and management of belongings. Ensuring the client is responsible for follow-up via “homework” between sessions and holding them accountable for completion of this aids to developing independence. Really, the therapeutic goal is far more than just ensuring the client is able to move successfully. Rather, it is demonstrating a model and method that can be used for any future transitions, goals or tasks. This ensures success that is transferrable to other events at later dates.
Often, the above strategies are also helpful for people with other forms of cognitive impairment – not just ABI, but could include stroke, dementia, or degenerative neurological conditions that impact how the brain organizes, processes and works through daily tasks. Ask an OT – we know stuff!
Say “Bonjour” to a Healthier Mind
Bonjour… Hola…Konnichiwa…Say hello to a great way to boost brain power and help slow the process of aging for your brain. The following from New Scientist discusses recent findings which show that learning a second language may be one of the best ways to help keep your brain fit and strong, and bid adieu to memory loss in the latter years of life.
New Scientist: Learn a second language to slow ageing brain’s decline
A Melon A Day
The #amelonaday craze was started by Maz McWilliams, who lost his brother to a traumatic brain injury. See here how Maz creatively used a common fruit to spread the word and raise awareness about brain injury!
FWX: These Awesome Images of Fruit are Combating a Dangerous Health Issue
Brain Injury Awareness – The Caregiver
Julie Entwistle, MBA, BHSc (OT), BSc (Health / Gerontology)
We cannot (or should not) discuss brain injury awareness without spending time recognizing the family and friends that take on the caregiving role after someone they love has an injury of this nature. On June 9 I co-facilitated a workshop for caregivers of brain injury survivors. What a great event! Not only was this well attended, but the speakers provided an amazing amount of education, skills and insight into how to both cope, manage, and achieve success as the care provider of someone with a brain injury. I wanted to take a moment to highlight my personal takeaways from this event:
Everyone has a story. As someone who lost a brother-in-law to the effects of a catastrophic brain injury, I understand how telling our story – be it about loss, change, remorse, guilt, fear, or triumph can bring people together and has immense therapeutic benefit. Caregivers benefit from collaborating, talking, sharing, laughing, crying and growing together. Our health system needs to create these opportunities, or caregivers need to find ways to make this happen.
Grieve. In my undergrad I studied grief and loss and even worked in hospice. What I realized at our workshop, however, is that the permanence of death allows people to grieve their loss, achieve acceptance, and eventually move on. When dealing with survival from a traumatic event, however, grief is not always experienced as our loved one is still present, albeit different. Yet, our speakers emphasized the importance of grieving: the life that once was, the life that may never be, and the changes and adjustments that have occurred. Caregivers need to let this grief process happen, or should seek support from a trained professional to experience this important emotion.
Find a new normal. Clients, caregivers, and health care professionals need to always consider that the old “normal” may never return. In that case, we all need to collaboratively look ahead to creating a “new normal”. Different does not always have to be bad, and it requires an open and optimistic mind to think that way. For OT’s that means taking the abilities of the individual, considering their resources, and helping them to create that new life of function, fulfillment, meaning and productivity.
Put on your own oxygen mask first. We spoke extensively about the importance of caregivers taking the time to attend to their own personal needs, to have positive coping mechanisms and sources of support. Then, at break I was speaking with a man whose wife suffered a brain injury. He talked about the “airplane analogy” and how this applies to caregivers – put on your own mask before helping another. I smiled and told him that I wrote a blog on that exact topic, with that exact title last year. As he found that analogy practical and helpful, I thought I would share the contents of that previous blog here, to highlight this important third point:
Posted September 25, 2013
If you have ever travelled by air you are familiar with the drill. Instructions on how to buckle and unbuckle your seatbelt, where the life vest is located, emergency exits, and “should cabin pressure change, an oxygen mask will fall from the overhead compartment…passengers should always put on his or her own mask before assisting children, or a disabled passenger”.
I read a mommy blog the other day that called this the “airplane example” and the writer related this to how moms should approach motherhood. Ultimately the message is this: as a mom, put your own health first because you are useless to your kids and spouse if you ignore your own needs. Really, you can’t help a child with an emergency escape from a crashing plane if you pass out helping them with their mask.
While I do agree that mothers (and fathers for that matter) need to consider their own needs in providing for the family, this is also true of people that provide care to a disabled person. My experience is that often caregivers do not really “elect” that role. They are not trained to be a caregiver, and really just try to do their best with the skills and resources they possess. However, where many fall short is maintaining their own health and wellbeing in dedicating their physical and emotional time to another person: a person with challenging and multiple needs. The job of a caregiver is often 24 hours, and resources don’t often permit, nor does the government provide, sufficient relief from this responsibility. Caregivers are often sleep deprived, suffer from muscle and joint pain in fulfilling their role, and can become isolated and depressed due to the changes they have made to take on these new responsibilities. Sound familiar? This very closely mimics motherhood (especially for new moms).
The answer? Put on your own oxygen mask first. What can you do to breathe easier? What helps you to feel clear-headed, energetic and optimistic? What gives you that ability to stay positive, appreciate and take on your responsibilities with some enthusiasm? The answers are often different for all of us. In the end, figuring out how to wear your oxygen mask first requires you to be honest about your abilities and skills, to utilize the resources available, and to ultimately ask for help if this is needed.
And for us health care professionals? We need to be very careful of the responsibilities we place on caregivers. This is especially true in the medical community where we repeatedly discharge people into the care of family, without family really knowing what the responsibilities will entail. As health care providers our responsibility is always to the client, yet we need to take that extra time to check in with the caregiver, talk about how they are coping and managing and if needed, offer them an oxygen mask.
I hope the caregivers that attended our workshop felt that by spending a day focusing on themselves, expanding their knowledge, and learning the keys to success, that this was one step towards them being able to put their own mask on first. This was highlighted at the end of the day when the caregiver of a survivor, whose loved one was injured 13 years ago gave this advice: “If I could do it again, my priorities would be self, family, then my loved one with a brain injury”. What a great lesson for me to take forward in my practice.
For more posts related to brain injury please visit our Brain Health Archive.
Blend It Up For Your Brain!
Smoothies are a simple, easy and delicious way to ensure you are getting the nutrients your body needs. The following from Prevention Magazine provides 11 tasty smoothie recipes filled with brain boosting nutrients! Try one today!
Feed Your Brain
How do you fuel the most important organ in your body? Research shows that a diet low in fat and cholesterol, filled with antioxidants from fresh fruits and vegetables, and omegas from fish and nuts, can help fuel your brain and ward off issues later in life. And these diets are also great for your heart and reduce the risks of diabetes. Check out some of these fantastic brain healthy food tips from The Alzheimer’s Association.
Alzheimer’s Association: Adopt
a Brain-Healthy Diet
Give Your Mind a Check Up
Whether you think your memory is failing you, or other people are telling you so, or you just like brain games, the following “test” created by Baycrest Health Sciences provides an easy way for a quick “check up” on your memory functions. Of course, the results are not a medical diagnosis, but see how you score and if you are concerned, speak with a health professional.
Canada News Wire: Baycrest memory experts launch ‘thermometer’ for the mind
Protect Your Noggin!
Last month on the blog we shared with you tips on bicycle safety and the importance of wearing a helmet. ( “Don’t Forget Your Helmet!” ) However, if the helmet isn’t the right fit or is not worn properly, it may defeat the purpose. With so many different styles and types, how do you know which helmet to choose and if the fit is right? The following from the Doctors of BC shows you how to properly fit a helmet and what to look for when making your purchase.
The Doctors of BC: Bike Helmet Safety