1
00:00:07,133 --> 00:00:10,453
Speaker 1: You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast

2
00:00:10,573 --> 00:00:11,453
Speaker 1: from News Talks.

3
00:00:11,453 --> 00:00:14,573
Speaker 2: That'd be So we said before eleven o'clock that sitting

4
00:00:14,613 --> 00:00:16,613
Speaker 2: for too long can be bad for your health. It

5
00:00:16,653 --> 00:00:19,933
Speaker 2: turns out all manner of factors, including diet and lifestyle,

6
00:00:20,613 --> 00:00:25,133
Speaker 2: go into whether or not someone can be considered a superager.

7
00:00:25,333 --> 00:00:28,293
Speaker 2: So superages are someone over the age of eighty who

8
00:00:28,333 --> 00:00:32,813
Speaker 2: have excellent memory. And Google Sutherland from Umbrella Well Being

9
00:00:32,933 --> 00:00:35,093
Speaker 2: is here with all the details this morning, get.

10
00:00:34,933 --> 00:00:37,533
Speaker 3: A doogle Cura Jack, Nice to be with you.

11
00:00:37,733 --> 00:00:38,453
Speaker 1: Yeah, you too.

12
00:00:38,653 --> 00:00:40,893
Speaker 2: So what do we know about superages?

13
00:00:41,813 --> 00:00:45,173
Speaker 4: Yeah, so, as you said that they are over eighty

14
00:00:45,293 --> 00:00:49,253
Speaker 4: and particularly it means you've got they've got really excellent

15
00:00:49,333 --> 00:00:54,053
Speaker 4: memory skills. And that's memory for two types of broaday

16
00:00:54,093 --> 00:00:56,893
Speaker 4: for memory, both for sort of everyday events that happened

17
00:00:56,973 --> 00:01:00,573
Speaker 4: to you and for what we call those episodic memories.

18
00:01:00,613 --> 00:01:03,573
Speaker 4: So that's personal history, that's sort of remembering things from

19
00:01:03,613 --> 00:01:08,413
Speaker 4: back in your life. And they're almost like the sort

20
00:01:08,453 --> 00:01:13,013
Speaker 4: of the opposite of someone with Alzeimer's disease, right, and

21
00:01:13,893 --> 00:01:16,333
Speaker 4: often they're sort of compared as maybe this, maybe what

22
00:01:16,933 --> 00:01:20,093
Speaker 4: can we learn from superages that might help us understand

23
00:01:20,813 --> 00:01:23,693
Speaker 4: Alzheimer's more and to some of the things that goes

24
00:01:23,733 --> 00:01:24,373
Speaker 4: on there.

25
00:01:24,933 --> 00:01:26,253
Speaker 3: And certainly in the brain.

26
00:01:26,413 --> 00:01:29,933
Speaker 4: We know that superages they have that they produce a

27
00:01:29,973 --> 00:01:35,533
Speaker 4: lot more young brain cells, in fact, almost more sometimes

28
00:01:35,573 --> 00:01:37,813
Speaker 4: than people in their thirties and forties. So they've got

29
00:01:37,853 --> 00:01:42,573
Speaker 4: this prolific production of brain cells. And when I first

30
00:01:42,853 --> 00:01:45,093
Speaker 4: studied psychology, and you know it was doing my training

31
00:01:45,093 --> 00:01:49,493
Speaker 4: back in the nineties, the accepted wisdom at that stage

32
00:01:49,573 --> 00:01:52,613
Speaker 4: was that brain cells don't reproduce. You don't grow new ones.

33
00:01:52,773 --> 00:01:55,453
Speaker 4: You know, you're born with them and you do lose some,

34
00:01:55,693 --> 00:01:58,773
Speaker 4: but that you can't regenerate them. But that's changed really

35
00:01:58,813 --> 00:02:00,933
Speaker 4: in the past twenty to thirty years. Are understanding we

36
00:02:00,973 --> 00:02:03,333
Speaker 4: know that in fact, we do generate new brain cells.

37
00:02:03,893 --> 00:02:07,213
Speaker 4: And the advantage of having new new kind of brain

38
00:02:07,253 --> 00:02:11,373
Speaker 4: cells as they're much more plastic and pliable, so they

39
00:02:11,413 --> 00:02:13,453
Speaker 4: can be adapted for different things.

40
00:02:13,453 --> 00:02:14,973
Speaker 3: They're not sort of set in their ways.

41
00:02:15,013 --> 00:02:17,293
Speaker 4: You know, we talk all the time about oh, you know,

42
00:02:17,333 --> 00:02:20,053
Speaker 4: I'm making new neural pathways and the brain and that

43
00:02:20,133 --> 00:02:22,013
Speaker 4: kind of thing, And in fact this is kind of

44
00:02:22,013 --> 00:02:25,333
Speaker 4: this is perhaps sort of true for superages, that they

45
00:02:25,333 --> 00:02:29,173
Speaker 4: are producing new brain cells, and that's helping perhaps your

46
00:02:29,173 --> 00:02:32,013
Speaker 4: brain to grow and be more resilient and.

47
00:02:31,973 --> 00:02:32,893
Speaker 3: Be more flexible.

48
00:02:33,173 --> 00:02:37,893
Speaker 2: Right, So genetics player role, but lifestyle factors like sitting

49
00:02:38,013 --> 00:02:41,093
Speaker 2: too long at your desk and obviously exercise, those are

50
00:02:41,413 --> 00:02:43,813
Speaker 2: things to right absolutely.

51
00:02:43,853 --> 00:02:47,773
Speaker 4: I mean, I think almost everything, particularly in psychology land,

52
00:02:48,413 --> 00:02:53,533
Speaker 4: almost everything is a mix of nature and nurture. There's

53
00:02:53,653 --> 00:02:57,853
Speaker 4: very few things around psychology that are purely one or

54
00:02:57,893 --> 00:02:58,173
Speaker 4: the other.

55
00:02:58,213 --> 00:03:00,453
Speaker 3: There's always a mixture of two. So yes, you can't

56
00:03:00,653 --> 00:03:02,093
Speaker 3: and you can't change your genetics.

57
00:03:02,173 --> 00:03:04,973
Speaker 4: So it's like, oh, well, you know, what's the point

58
00:03:04,973 --> 00:03:07,333
Speaker 4: in a way in terms of what can you do personally?

59
00:03:07,373 --> 00:03:09,533
Speaker 4: But you know those things that Brian was talking about

60
00:03:09,573 --> 00:03:15,613
Speaker 4: before before the news around sitting and being active, and

61
00:03:15,653 --> 00:03:17,533
Speaker 4: we talked about this sort of last year, I think

62
00:03:17,533 --> 00:03:19,813
Speaker 4: a little bit when we talked about blue zones, and

63
00:03:20,293 --> 00:03:23,093
Speaker 4: those are people that you know areas in the world

64
00:03:23,133 --> 00:03:24,933
Speaker 4: where people live long and they tend to have more

65
00:03:24,973 --> 00:03:26,253
Speaker 4: active lifestyles.

66
00:03:27,053 --> 00:03:30,173
Speaker 3: But there's also psychological tools you can you can use

67
00:03:30,333 --> 00:03:31,253
Speaker 3: to help.

68
00:03:32,573 --> 00:03:36,173
Speaker 4: With your help your brain really and these are associated

69
00:03:36,213 --> 00:03:41,293
Speaker 4: These tools are associated with long longevity and there's no

70
00:03:41,413 --> 00:03:44,813
Speaker 4: direct connection with super aging. But the idea is maybe

71
00:03:44,973 --> 00:03:48,973
Speaker 4: if you're using these psychological tools, you're actually helping your

72
00:03:49,013 --> 00:03:52,213
Speaker 4: brain be a bit more flexible. You're you're keeping it

73
00:03:52,253 --> 00:03:54,973
Speaker 4: active in the same way that getting up and moving

74
00:03:55,013 --> 00:03:58,453
Speaker 4: around is keeping your body active. Using some psychological tools

75
00:03:58,453 --> 00:04:02,853
Speaker 4: can actually help your brain become or stay flexible, stay supple,

76
00:04:03,013 --> 00:04:04,453
Speaker 4: stay stay new.

77
00:04:04,693 --> 00:04:07,653
Speaker 2: That's amazing. So and these are true psychological tools, not

78
00:04:07,693 --> 00:04:09,373
Speaker 2: like just doing suduku or something like that.

79
00:04:09,413 --> 00:04:12,173
Speaker 3: These are actual yeah, yeah, yeah, they are. Look, and.

80
00:04:13,693 --> 00:04:15,573
Speaker 4: There's sort of mixed evidence from what I can see

81
00:04:15,573 --> 00:04:18,373
Speaker 4: around things like suduku and cross words and that kind

82
00:04:18,373 --> 00:04:20,693
Speaker 4: of thing. And I certainly wouldn't say to anybody, don't

83
00:04:20,813 --> 00:04:22,133
Speaker 4: do those at all.

84
00:04:22,173 --> 00:04:27,133
Speaker 3: But this really is what we call developing an optimistic mindset.

85
00:04:27,213 --> 00:04:29,733
Speaker 4: And that can sound a little bit eerie fairy, and

86
00:04:29,773 --> 00:04:32,653
Speaker 4: it's like, oh, well, isn't that just you know, you know,

87
00:04:32,773 --> 00:04:34,813
Speaker 4: isn't that just thinking the world's a wonderful place when

88
00:04:34,853 --> 00:04:39,013
Speaker 4: it's not really and blah blah blah, And it's not that.

89
00:04:39,133 --> 00:04:42,653
Speaker 4: I mean, there's some specific things that we know. So

90
00:04:43,053 --> 00:04:46,453
Speaker 4: first year optimism or an optimistic mind frame is associated

91
00:04:46,493 --> 00:04:49,893
Speaker 4: with longevity, so living longer, and the idea here is

92
00:04:49,893 --> 00:04:52,133
Speaker 4: that maybe that's also helps with your brain. So what

93
00:04:52,173 --> 00:04:55,293
Speaker 4: can you do to be to adopt an optimistic worldview?

94
00:04:55,333 --> 00:04:59,093
Speaker 4: Well that we know from looking at optimists there's two things.

95
00:04:59,093 --> 00:05:01,893
Speaker 4: So they look at bad when bad things happen. So

96
00:05:01,933 --> 00:05:03,693
Speaker 4: it's not pretending that bad things don't happen, but when

97
00:05:03,813 --> 00:05:07,533
Speaker 4: bad things happen, they're much less likely to blame themselves.

98
00:05:07,613 --> 00:05:11,213
Speaker 4: They see themselves not as this bad thing happens, not

99
00:05:11,293 --> 00:05:14,013
Speaker 4: because I'm a terrible person or something. It just bad

100
00:05:14,053 --> 00:05:18,053
Speaker 4: stuff happens sometimes, and it's only temporary.

101
00:05:18,133 --> 00:05:18,973
Speaker 3: It's only temporary.

102
00:05:19,013 --> 00:05:22,093
Speaker 4: So that's optimists look at the bad things like that,

103
00:05:22,293 --> 00:05:25,413
Speaker 4: and then they flip when they look at good things

104
00:05:25,453 --> 00:05:25,773
Speaker 4: that have.

105
00:05:25,853 --> 00:05:28,173
Speaker 3: Happened, so they have an opposite mindset.

106
00:05:28,213 --> 00:05:30,493
Speaker 4: They look when they look at bad things are not

107
00:05:30,573 --> 00:05:32,853
Speaker 4: about me, It won't last long. Good things, they go,

108
00:05:32,933 --> 00:05:36,093
Speaker 4: oh yeah, much more likely to be something I've done

109
00:05:37,173 --> 00:05:39,333
Speaker 4: and I can take control of it, and it's probably

110
00:05:39,493 --> 00:05:40,573
Speaker 4: likely to continue.

111
00:05:40,613 --> 00:05:41,973
Speaker 3: So in a sense, you take.

112
00:05:41,853 --> 00:05:44,933
Speaker 4: Credit for the good and make it and don't take

113
00:05:44,973 --> 00:05:47,173
Speaker 4: any credit for the bad, and you think, oh, yeah,

114
00:05:47,213 --> 00:05:50,213
Speaker 4: this positive stuff, this is going to continue. This is

115
00:05:50,253 --> 00:05:52,013
Speaker 4: really going to continue for me in the long term.

116
00:05:52,013 --> 00:05:57,573
Speaker 4: And we know that that optimistic style of thinking is

117
00:05:57,613 --> 00:06:02,213
Speaker 4: associated with better aging. And it is, of course, something

118
00:06:02,253 --> 00:06:04,613
Speaker 4: you can train your brain to do. It's not you know,

119
00:06:04,933 --> 00:06:06,573
Speaker 4: and most of us don't look at the world in

120
00:06:06,573 --> 00:06:07,373
Speaker 4: an optimistic way.

121
00:06:07,373 --> 00:06:09,693
Speaker 3: We tend to be looking for threat and looking for negativity.

122
00:06:10,093 --> 00:06:13,613
Speaker 4: But you can train your brain to look at that

123
00:06:13,653 --> 00:06:15,093
Speaker 4: sort of optimistic worldview.

124
00:06:15,293 --> 00:06:18,133
Speaker 2: Yeah right, and so you can do things like it's

125
00:06:18,533 --> 00:06:19,653
Speaker 2: grace for atheists.

126
00:06:20,453 --> 00:06:22,733
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, yeah, so's a couple of a couple of

127
00:06:22,733 --> 00:06:23,613
Speaker 4: a couple of sort.

128
00:06:23,413 --> 00:06:24,613
Speaker 3: Of practical tools.

129
00:06:25,293 --> 00:06:29,013
Speaker 4: We've call this grace for atheists. I mean, obviously, if

130
00:06:29,053 --> 00:06:30,173
Speaker 4: you're a person of faith.

131
00:06:29,973 --> 00:06:31,493
Speaker 3: You don't have to be an atheist. You can just

132
00:06:31,533 --> 00:06:32,053
Speaker 3: say grace.

133
00:06:32,853 --> 00:06:38,453
Speaker 4: But grace for atheists is sitting down, you know, stereotypically

134
00:06:38,493 --> 00:06:40,333
Speaker 4: with your evening meal, but it could be any time

135
00:06:40,373 --> 00:06:44,373
Speaker 4: of the day and just bringing to mind, and even better,

136
00:06:44,453 --> 00:06:47,533
Speaker 4: writing down or discussing with other people who are around

137
00:06:47,573 --> 00:06:50,973
Speaker 4: you the good things that have happened, things that you

138
00:06:51,053 --> 00:06:55,293
Speaker 4: are thankful for that day. And those might be very

139
00:06:55,413 --> 00:06:57,693
Speaker 4: very small things. Sometimes it's not like every day you

140
00:06:57,693 --> 00:07:01,453
Speaker 4: get up and win lotto or you know, or something

141
00:07:01,493 --> 00:07:02,493
Speaker 4: amazing happens.

142
00:07:02,493 --> 00:07:05,293
Speaker 3: Sometimes it's just the very small kind of things.

143
00:07:06,973 --> 00:07:10,893
Speaker 4: It could be like last weekend, for example, I was

144
00:07:10,973 --> 00:07:13,013
Speaker 4: taking the dogs for a walk and going back to

145
00:07:13,013 --> 00:07:14,493
Speaker 4: the topic of birds that you were talking about, just

146
00:07:14,533 --> 00:07:18,373
Speaker 4: before these two just flew past me and landed on

147
00:07:18,733 --> 00:07:21,253
Speaker 4: a tree just about at my eye level, just about

148
00:07:21,493 --> 00:07:23,853
Speaker 4: ten meters away, and it was like, man, these are

149
00:07:23,893 --> 00:07:25,373
Speaker 4: New Zealand falcons right there.

150
00:07:25,773 --> 00:07:26,813
Speaker 3: So that's just an.

151
00:07:26,693 --> 00:07:29,933
Speaker 4: Example of sort of you know, small things that you

152
00:07:29,973 --> 00:07:31,333
Speaker 4: can be thankful for.

153
00:07:32,653 --> 00:07:34,813
Speaker 3: Every day. So it's trying to bring to Mike getting

154
00:07:34,853 --> 00:07:36,533
Speaker 3: it's training.

155
00:07:36,093 --> 00:07:41,573
Speaker 4: Your brain to look for those positive things, however small

156
00:07:41,613 --> 00:07:45,093
Speaker 4: they are in your life as they happen every day.

157
00:07:45,173 --> 00:07:47,413
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it'll pay off over time. That really is

158
00:07:48,093 --> 00:07:51,293
Speaker 2: quite extraordinary that you can try and teach yourself those

159
00:07:51,333 --> 00:07:54,253
Speaker 2: little psychological tricks. You know that you can teach yourself

160
00:07:54,253 --> 00:07:56,853
Speaker 2: those little practices, those routines, and that they can pay

161
00:07:56,893 --> 00:07:58,653
Speaker 2: off meaningfully in the long run.

162
00:07:58,813 --> 00:08:01,653
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's finny. Yeah. Yeah. They're very much like you know,

163
00:08:01,733 --> 00:08:03,613
Speaker 3: training your body. You know that you do, you know

164
00:08:04,253 --> 00:08:04,493
Speaker 3: you do.

165
00:08:05,293 --> 00:08:07,533
Speaker 4: Going back to the sitting analogy. With the sitting, you're

166
00:08:07,533 --> 00:08:10,653
Speaker 4: getting up, you're being active. You're creating a pattern, a

167
00:08:10,773 --> 00:08:14,293
Speaker 4: habit of being regularly active in your physical body. And

168
00:08:14,853 --> 00:08:16,893
Speaker 4: maybe while you're doing that, while you're standing up from

169
00:08:16,933 --> 00:08:19,653
Speaker 4: your desk, use the time mentally to think about a

170
00:08:19,693 --> 00:08:21,413
Speaker 4: couple of good things that have happened that day. So

171
00:08:21,493 --> 00:08:24,613
Speaker 4: you combine the two together and actually you're exercising not

172
00:08:24,653 --> 00:08:26,093
Speaker 4: only your body but your brain as well.

173
00:08:26,253 --> 00:08:28,773
Speaker 2: It's amazing. Hey, thank you so much. Google Google Southerland

174
00:08:29,493 --> 00:08:31,533
Speaker 2: from Umbrella Well Being with us this morning.

175
00:08:32,053 --> 00:08:35,173
Speaker 1: For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live

176
00:08:35,253 --> 00:08:38,093
Speaker 1: to News Talks a B from nine am Saturday, or

177
00:08:38,133 --> 00:08:40,053
Speaker 1: follow the podcast on iHeartRadio