Speaker 1: Pushkin.
Speaker 2: This year, Finland has yet again been crowned the planet's
Speaker 2: happiest nation by the World Happiness Report. Country rankings like
Speaker 2: these are usually the only thing people hear about when
Speaker 2: it comes to this annual report, but here on the
Speaker 2: Happiness Lab we like to go a bit deeper into
Speaker 2: the well being science, and so in the next episodes
Speaker 2: we'll be diving into what the report says about other
Speaker 2: pressing wellbeing issues.
Speaker 1: Last time, we spoke to.
Speaker 2: John Helliwell, who's been working on the World Happiness Report
Speaker 2: since its inception. He explained that this year's report focused
Speaker 2: not just on overall differences and happiness across nations, but
Speaker 2: also on how happiness differs across age within a single country.
Speaker 3: So we split the population into those born before nineteen
Speaker 3: sixty five boomers and their predecessors, those born after nineteen
Speaker 3: eighty more than the millennials and Gen SAID, and then
Speaker 3: the intervening group of Gen X.
Speaker 2: In Eastern Europe, the young are markedly more happy than
Speaker 2: their parents and grandparents, but in the US it's Gen
Speaker 2: Z who's having a rough time. I wanted to look
Speaker 2: more deeply at these demographic quirks around the world, so
Speaker 2: I tagged in the lead author of a different groundbreaking
Speaker 2: chapter in this year's World Happiness Report.
Speaker 4: My name is Emily Wilroth. I am an assistant professor
Speaker 4: at Washington University in Saint Louis and the Department of
Speaker 4: Psychological and Brain Sciences.
Speaker 2: Emily studies well being across the lifespan, and specifically what
Speaker 2: it takes to maintain happiness as we age. Her chapter
Speaker 2: looks for the first time at the intersection of long
Speaker 2: life happiness and dementia. As life expectancy extends around the world,
Speaker 2: more and more of us will experience the sort of
Speaker 2: cognitive decline that often accompanies old age. Emily's research has
Speaker 2: found that happier practices can not only delay the effects
Speaker 2: of dementia, but can also let us live better lives
Speaker 2: as the disease develops. It's a fascinating and timely topic,
Speaker 2: and honestly that I hadn't really considered very much before
Speaker 2: I read Emily's chapter, So I started by asking her
Speaker 2: why do we so rarely talk about the happiness challenges
Speaker 2: of aging.
Speaker 4: I think, on the one hand, we all want to
Speaker 4: know how we can live our best lives for our
Speaker 4: whole life, So what we can do to age healthfully
Speaker 4: and happily. But oftentimes I think that we don't focus
Speaker 4: as much on older adulthood. And I think it's particularly
Speaker 4: important to understand how we can promote well being in
Speaker 4: older adults, and that means both leveraging their age related strengths,
Speaker 4: the things that we gain as we age, but then
Speaker 4: also what kinds of supports and resources we can provide
Speaker 4: to help people navigate age related challenges. And I think
Speaker 4: this is becoming increasingly important as our global population ages.
Speaker 4: So now in most countries around the world, the average
Speaker 4: person can expect to live into older adulthood, and the
Speaker 4: World Health Organization estimates that by the year twenty fifty,
Speaker 4: the number of older adults over the age of sixty
Speaker 4: five is expected to double worldwide. So it's going to
Speaker 4: become even more important for more people for us to
Speaker 4: understand what it means to age happily.
Speaker 2: And so when we think of some of the happiness
Speaker 2: challenges that older adults face, you know, what are some
Speaker 2: of the things that come to mind for a researcher
Speaker 2: like you that studies this population.
Speaker 4: So, on the one hand, aging comes with a lot
Speaker 4: of age related strengths. We know that a lot of
Speaker 4: wisdom comes with age. There's some research to suggest that
Speaker 4: older adults may even be better at regulating their emotions
Speaker 4: and might experience more positive emotions as a result. So,
Speaker 4: on the one hand, we know that there might be
Speaker 4: some wellbeing benefits of aging and in older adulthood, but
Speaker 4: there are also a lot of age related challenges that
Speaker 4: people need to navigate that can impact their well being. So,
Speaker 4: for example, many older adults will experience changes to their
Speaker 4: physical and cognitive health that impact their ability to participate
Speaker 4: in activities that are particularly meaningful to them. Many older
Speaker 4: adults will also experience more losses in terms of loss
Speaker 4: of loved ones, whether that's parents, spouse, friends, And then
Speaker 4: we also know that there can be a lot of
Speaker 4: social changes in older adulthood. Your role and your relationship
Speaker 4: with your children or grandchildren may change. Retirement can be
Speaker 4: really positive for many people, that it can also be
Speaker 4: a major life change that is challenging for others. So
Speaker 4: navigating this time where our health is changing, our social
Speaker 4: roles are changing, all of that can be challenging. But also,
Speaker 4: thankfully we have these age related strengths that are present
Speaker 4: there too that can be drawn upon to help people
Speaker 4: age happily.
Speaker 2: And so one of the things that can really challenge
Speaker 2: our ability to age happily is when older adulthood winds
Speaker 2: up becoming synonymous with dementia. And so talk a little
Speaker 2: bit about the prevalence of dementia and why this is
Speaker 2: something that well being researchers really need to focus on.
Speaker 4: Even more so, dementia's very common in older adulthood. Dementia's
Speaker 4: a clinic goal syndrome that's characterized by progressive memory and
Speaker 4: thinking impairments, and it impacts approximately one in ten older
Speaker 4: adults over the age of sixty five, and actually one
Speaker 4: in three older adults over the age of eighty five.
Speaker 4: And so what that means is as people live longer,
Speaker 4: because age is the largest risk factor for dementia, we
Speaker 4: can expect more dementia cases. For example, by the year
Speaker 4: twenty fifty, the World Health Organization estimates that there will
Speaker 4: be one hundred and thirty nine million people living with
Speaker 4: dementia worldwide. And dementia can really impact quality of life
Speaker 4: by reducing their sense of autonomy, by making it more
Speaker 4: difficult for them to engage socially with loved ones. And
Speaker 4: sometimes there's experiences of shame or embarrassment, particularly in the
Speaker 4: early stages when one starts noticing their new changes in
Speaker 4: memory and thinking, and dementia can also impact quality of
Speaker 4: life for care partners and loved ones of people living
Speaker 4: with dementia. It can be a distressing experience to see
Speaker 4: these memory and thinking changes in those that you love,
Speaker 4: and particularly in the later stages of dementia, it often
Speaker 4: requires a lot of caregiving, which poses sometimes a challenge
Speaker 4: for the care partners of people living with dementia. At
Speaker 4: the same time, I also want to make the point
Speaker 4: that it is possible to live well with dementia. I
Speaker 4: think that it's really common to take a sort of
Speaker 4: deficit focused medical model view of dementia where we only
Speaker 4: look at the challenges and negative experiences, and those are
Speaker 4: very real, so I don't want to discount those, but
Speaker 4: if we only look at that side sometimes I think
Speaker 4: it can prevent us from seeing people living with dementia
Speaker 4: as whole people.
Speaker 2: So many of our listeners will probably know someone with
Speaker 2: dementia or kind of have heard about it. But can
Speaker 2: you unpack for some of the happiness challenges that individuals
Speaker 2: with dementia face, like in their kind.
Speaker 1: Of day to day life because of this disease.
Speaker 4: So I think we can think of the sort of
Speaker 4: psychological needs of people living with dementia the same way
Speaker 4: that we think about everybody's psychological needs and what we
Speaker 4: all need to feel happy in life. Everyone wants to
Speaker 4: feel that their life has meaning and purpose, that they
Speaker 4: can set goals, that they can navigate their day to
Speaker 4: day life and engage in the activities that are meaningful
Speaker 4: to them, and that they can connect with others. And
Speaker 4: the memory and thinking impairments that come with dementia can
Speaker 4: pose challenges to all of those aspects of life. So
Speaker 4: on the one hand, we know that it's really important
Speaker 4: for people to experience a sense of autonomy, that we
Speaker 4: can care for ourselves, that we can direct our own lives,
Speaker 4: and the memory and thinking impairments that come with dementia
Speaker 4: can pose a challenge for autonomy if the individual is
Speaker 4: no longer able to engage in some of the sort
Speaker 4: of typical activities of daily living that they've done in
Speaker 4: the past and now require assistance or care to do
Speaker 4: those daily activities that can impact quality of life. Another
Speaker 4: important psychological need is our need to connect with others
Speaker 4: socially that can be impacted. In people living with dementia,
Speaker 4: it can be sometimes more difficult to follow a conversation,
Speaker 4: it can sometimes pose challenges and close relationships as those
Speaker 4: relationships and the nature of them begins to change, and
Speaker 4: so thinking about that, it's really important to create support
Speaker 4: systems and strategies that provide opportunities for people living with
Speaker 4: dementia to engage first of all with their loved ones
Speaker 4: and maintain those existing social relationships, but also group activities
Speaker 4: with other people living with dementia and experiencing memory and
Speaker 4: thinking impairments. So sort of group support systems can be
Speaker 4: really helpful. And then there's also some really interesting research
Speaker 4: on intergenerational relationships and some of the positive well being boosting,
Speaker 4: happiness boosting effects of connecting older adults living with dementia
Speaker 4: with youngers and having that intergenerational social support system as well.
Speaker 4: But unfortunately, there's currently no cure for dementia. We're just
Speaker 4: starting to see some biomedical treatments that might slow cognitive
Speaker 4: decline in individuals with dementia, but there is no treatment
Speaker 4: that is going to stop the progression of dementia or
Speaker 4: alleviate the existing symptoms of dementia and for that reason,
Speaker 4: we've really started also focusing on strategies to prevent dementia,
Speaker 4: and as a psychologist and a well being researcher, that's
Speaker 4: really where my side of the science comes in. We
Speaker 4: know that the way that people live their lives, lifestyle
Speaker 4: and psychological factors can have a major influence on who's
Speaker 4: likely to go on to develop dementia. So, for example,
Speaker 4: a growing body of research suggests that people with higher
Speaker 4: levels of wellbeing are actually less likely to develop dementia.
Speaker 4: These studies have assessed wellbeing earlier in the lifespan, so
Speaker 4: in midlife, our early older adulthood, and then followed people
Speaker 4: across time for years or in many cases decades to
Speaker 4: see who goes on to develop cognitive decline and dementia.
Speaker 4: And what these studies have found is that people with
Speaker 4: higher levels of wellbeing at the beginning of the study
Speaker 4: period are the ones who are least likely to develop
Speaker 4: dementia by the end of the study. And there's several
Speaker 4: different potential reasons or explanations for this relationship. On the
Speaker 4: one hand, we know that people with higher well being
Speaker 4: engage in a lot of health protective behaviors that are
Speaker 4: important for maintaining cognitive and brain health and older adulthood.
Speaker 4: For example, people with higher wellbeing are more likely to
Speaker 4: engage in physical exercise, they're less likely to smoke, and
Speaker 4: they're likely to have supportive social relationships that can be
Speaker 4: really protective across the lifespan. We also know that wellbeing
Speaker 4: can serve as sort of stress buffering effect or a
Speaker 4: shield that can protect our bodily systems from the harmful
Speaker 4: effects of stress. Stress is just a part of life.
Speaker 4: Everyone experiences stress, but when that stress is chronic or
Speaker 4: severe or particularly uncontrollable, it can harm a lot of
Speaker 4: our bodily systems, such as our immune functioning, our cardiovascular functioning,
Speaker 4: our neuroendocrine system and all of those different bodily systems
Speaker 4: are important for our risk for developing dementia, and what
Speaker 4: research suggests is that people with higher levels of wellbeing,
Speaker 4: they're less likely to be exposed to the same severe,
Speaker 4: chronic stressors, and when they are exposed to those stressors,
Speaker 4: they often show a more adaptive or protected physiological response,
Speaker 4: suggesting that wellbeing might be a buffer that can sort
Speaker 4: of stand in the way of those harmful effects that
Speaker 4: stress typically has on the body and in turn for dementia.
Speaker 4: That means that it may protect the brain and cognition
Speaker 4: and reduce the likelihood that an individual experiencing stress will
Speaker 4: go on to develop dementia.
Speaker 1: It's such a win win, right.
Speaker 2: It's like, when we think about the kinds of things
Speaker 2: we need to do to prevent some of these diseases
Speaker 2: of later in life.
Speaker 1: Some of these things I feel honestly like a bummer. Right.
Speaker 2: You know, we have to change how we eat or
Speaker 2: eat much more healthy or whatever. But this is one
Speaker 2: where it's like, no, No, What you do is you
Speaker 2: focus on all the things that make you happier in
Speaker 2: mid life and early in life, and that's going to
Speaker 2: have this protective effect. It's like, it's something that we
Speaker 2: all want to be doing anyway, but it also is
Speaker 2: going to have this effect that we also don't think.
Speaker 2: Was this kind of shocking to researchers when they first
Speaker 2: started noticing this sort of connection between well being earlier
Speaker 2: in life and reduced dementia later.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And first of all, I just want to echo
Speaker 4: your point. I think one of the reasons that it's
Speaker 4: so exciting to think about well being as a potential
Speaker 4: protective factor is because many of the other things that
Speaker 4: we know impact dementia risk, such as diet and nutrition,
Speaker 4: physical activity, quitting, smoking control, and cardiovascular risk factors. Those
Speaker 4: things are really hard. We know that behavior change is hard.
Speaker 4: Some of those, like the cardiovascular risk factors, require medical interventions,
Speaker 4: which can be difficult to access, expensive, or have their
Speaker 4: own limitations. But improving well being is something that, hopefully
Speaker 4: for most people, is intrinsically valuable and intrinsically a positive experience.
Speaker 4: So I think that there's a long tradition in the
Speaker 4: science of wellbeing of thinking about the connection between well
Speaker 4: being and mental health broadly and physical health. So on
Speaker 4: the one hand, drawing from this longstanding science of well
Speaker 4: being and seeing that more positive psychological factors, greater happiness
Speaker 4: is associated with better physical health, it's not necessarily surprising
Speaker 4: that we would see the same thing when it comes
Speaker 4: to our cognitive health and dementia. But I do think
Speaker 4: there are some findings that we're surprising to me at
Speaker 4: least personally, and very exciting. So, for example, my lab
Speaker 4: did a study looking at the relationship between well being
Speaker 4: cognitive functions to sort of our memory and thinking skills
Speaker 4: that are typically affected by dementia and then the actual
Speaker 4: disease processes that cause dementia, so the neuropathology present in
Speaker 4: people's brains. And what we found is that well being
Speaker 4: was not necessarily related to the amount of disease pathology present,
Speaker 4: but what it was related to was people's ability to
Speaker 4: maintain those memory and thinking skills across time, even in
Speaker 4: the presence of that dementia causing pathology. So what that
Speaker 4: finding suggests is that well being might actually help us
Speaker 4: to maintain our memory and thinking even when the disease
Speaker 4: is already present in our brains. And to me, that
Speaker 4: was surprising but also really exciting because it suggests that
Speaker 4: there's these multiple pathways that scientists and medical professionals and
Speaker 4: individuals can pursue to reduce the likelihood of dementia, both
Speaker 4: strategies to prevent the accumulation of those disease processes, but
Speaker 4: also alongside that strategy is like improving well that might
Speaker 4: help us to be able to live well and tolerate
Speaker 4: a certain level of neuropathology.
Speaker 2: So there definitely are things we can do to help
Speaker 2: ward off the impact of dementia, and we'll hear about
Speaker 2: more strategies we can use to build up our cognitive
Speaker 2: resilience as we age when the happiness lab returns in
Speaker 2: a moment. When we think about how to avoid disease,
Speaker 2: we tend to think of factors that improve our physical health,
Speaker 2: things like access to medicine and clean water, maybe stuff
Speaker 2: like nutritious foods or sanitary practices. We tend not to
Speaker 2: think of the impact of stuff like hanging out with
Speaker 2: a friend, or taking an educational course or looking at
Speaker 2: a painting. But Emily Wilwroth and her colleagues have learned
Speaker 2: that one of the cruelest health challenges of our era, dementia,
Speaker 2: can be tackled in some unexpected ways.
Speaker 4: When we're thinking about strategies to prevent dementia, some of
Speaker 4: the things that we have the most control over. We
Speaker 4: can think about engaging in social activities and fostering our
Speaker 4: social relationships. That can be one of the strongest psychosocial
Speaker 4: preventative factors. And we also know that social relationships and
Speaker 4: social activity are really good for our well being. We
Speaker 4: also know that physical activity and sleep are really important.
Speaker 4: There's also various factors when we're looking into later life
Speaker 4: that people can do to lower their risk for dementia,
Speaker 4: and most of those are related to controlling cardiovascular risk factors, so,
Speaker 4: for example, maintaining healthy blood pressure levels, treating diabetes if
Speaker 4: it's present, quitting or not starting smoking, or excessive alcohol consumption,
Speaker 4: all of these sort of typical health behaviors we know
Speaker 4: play a really big role in reducing one's likelihood of
Speaker 4: developing dementia. And more broadly, when we look at strategies
Speaker 4: to promote well being and happiness, there's quite a few
Speaker 4: strategies that the scientific literature has begun to suggest might
Speaker 4: be effective. But I think it's really important for people
Speaker 4: to also pay attention to their own feelings and how
Speaker 4: they respond to these different strategies and sort of notice
Speaker 4: what works well for them. So, for example, there's some
Speaker 4: research to suggest that engaging in gratitude practices or mindfulness,
Speaker 4: social activity, getting out in nature, moving one's body, all
Speaker 4: of these things there's some evidence to suggest that they
Speaker 4: can promote happiness and well being, but that doesn't mean
Speaker 4: that they promote happiness and well being for everybody the
Speaker 4: same way. And one thing that is nice about trying
Speaker 4: to improve one's well being is that we are really
Speaker 4: the best judges of what's working well for us. Because
Speaker 4: we're the best judges of our own wellbeing and happiness.
Speaker 2: You know, so many of these happiness interventions are things
Speaker 2: that we can do at any age. But I'm thinking
Speaker 2: of my listeners who might be in their twenties and
Speaker 2: their thirties and forties. You know, if you had to pick,
Speaker 2: you know, one type of intervention that might be good
Speaker 2: at different age ranges, what would you suggest to listeners.
Speaker 4: So in early life, thinking of teens and twenties, I
Speaker 4: think staying engaged in education can be really protective. When
Speaker 4: thinking more about midlife and thirties and forties, I'm not
Speaker 4: gonna pick one, I'm gonna pick two. I'm going to
Speaker 4: say one. We know that social activity is so important,
Speaker 4: and one thing that I think is really helpful to
Speaker 4: know about that is a lot of research suggests that
Speaker 4: it is the quality of social interactions and social relationships,
Speaker 4: not the quantity that matters. So it doesn't mean that
Speaker 4: everyone needs to be extroverted and go out to parties
Speaker 4: and have a million friends, but instead really just nurturing
Speaker 4: those social relationships that you do have and spending time
Speaker 4: with close loved ones. The other that I would say
Speaker 4: for midlife is engaging in physical activity. This is so
Speaker 4: important for our mental health as well as our physical
Speaker 4: and cognitive health, and midlife is a really important time
Speaker 4: to sort of be prevention focused when thinking about cardiovascular
Speaker 4: health and ultimately cognitive health. So either maintaining or starting
Speaker 4: a physical activity routine that is one that you feel
Speaker 4: like you can maintain across the lifespan. So for some
Speaker 4: people that might look like typical exercise going to the gym,
Speaker 4: but for other people that might look like a daily
Speaker 4: walk or getting out in nature or playing pickleball with friends.
Speaker 4: So finding something that brings you joy, that gets your
Speaker 4: body moving in mid life I think is really important.
Speaker 2: You mentioned in your twenties you really want to focus
Speaker 2: on education. Why is education so important? This is often
Speaker 2: not necessarily something I would think would matter for happiness
Speaker 2: or sort of dementia prevention, But what does education help
Speaker 2: us do psychologically?
Speaker 4: Yeah, So we see a really strong protective effect on
Speaker 4: high quality education in lowering the likelihood of cognitive decline
Speaker 4: in dementia in late life. And there's several reasons why
Speaker 4: that might be. We know, for example, that cognitive activity
Speaker 4: is really important for cognitive and brain health, and so
Speaker 4: early life education might set the foundation for that, and
Speaker 4: it also may simply be so many people have dementia
Speaker 4: related neuropathology the disease processes that cause dementia, without necessarily
Speaker 4: experiencing the clinical syndrome of dementia. And one reason for
Speaker 4: that might be that if we are consistently engaged in
Speaker 4: cognitive activities, we are sort of able to maintain those
Speaker 4: memory and thinking impairments even in the presence of that pathology.
Speaker 4: We call that cognitive resilience, and research suggests that education,
Speaker 4: and in particular high quality education is one of the
Speaker 4: biggest factors associated with cognitive resilience. So for many people
Speaker 4: it's going to be inevitable at least now, with where
Speaker 4: our biomedical treatments are, that demention related neuropathology you will accumulate.
Speaker 4: But education is one of the things that we can
Speaker 4: sort of arm ourselves with or protect ourselves with that
Speaker 4: will allow our memory and thinking abilities to continue and
Speaker 4: to maintain those cognitive functions in the presence of this
Speaker 4: disease process.
Speaker 2: And so as we think about these tools and strategies
Speaker 2: we should begin engaging in, there's also this question of
Speaker 2: when we need to start them. What do we know
Speaker 2: about the kind of early history of some of these
Speaker 2: preventative measures sort of dealing with dementia down the line.
Speaker 4: That's a great question. On the one hand, you can
Speaker 4: imagine that maintaining and increasing well being as early as
Speaker 4: possible and then maintaining it across the lifespan might be
Speaker 4: the most protective. Right, there's probably no better time to
Speaker 4: start increasing well being than the present and then maintaining
Speaker 4: that across time. And given the mechanisms that we think
Speaker 4: are at play with the link between well being and dementia,
Speaker 4: I think that approach makes a lot of conceptual sense.
Speaker 4: Health behaviors and their impact on health is cumulative, the
Speaker 4: harmful of stress on our bodies that wellbeing might buffer
Speaker 4: our cumulative So from that perspective, starting early and maintaining
Speaker 4: well being across the lifespan might be the most beneficial.
Speaker 4: But then on the other hand, when thinking of going
Speaker 4: to implement these wellbeing interventions to improve cognitive outcomes and
Speaker 4: reduce dementia risk for the greatest number of people, I
Speaker 4: think that's still an open scientific question whether we should
Speaker 4: be intervening in midlife or more proximal to when we
Speaker 4: start to see cognitive change and the mint related neuropathology accumulate,
Speaker 4: such as an early older adulthood. So I think that's
Speaker 4: still an open scientific question that we as researchers need
Speaker 4: to dig into more. But in terms of the general public,
Speaker 4: I think that a strategy of increasing your wellbeing and
Speaker 4: putting your mental health first, no matter where you are
Speaker 4: and the lifespan, is likely to be effective.
Speaker 2: And so so far we've been talking about ways that
Speaker 2: we can engage our well being to prevent dementia. Later on,
Speaker 2: you know, what do we know about what we can
Speaker 2: do to use well being practices to improve dementia, kind
Speaker 2: of once the disease has already started, Because I think
Speaker 2: sometimes when people get these diagnoses, or you know, family
Speaker 2: members or caretakers hear this, it's like this kind of
Speaker 2: game over idea.
Speaker 4: I think it's really common for us to take a
Speaker 4: deficit focused approach to thinking about dementia, thinking about the
Speaker 4: things that are lost, both at the individual level. It
Speaker 4: can be scary for an individual to get a diagnosis
Speaker 4: of a dementia or for a loved one to get
Speaker 4: a diagnosis of dementia, and so it's really easy to
Speaker 4: focus only on the challenges without also thinking about all
Speaker 4: of the opportunities that that individual still has to experience
Speaker 4: a meaningful, purposeful, joyful life. And we're also guilty of
Speaker 4: doing this from the sort of medical system care standpoint.
Speaker 4: So oftentimes in memory care facilities, it'll be common to
Speaker 4: focus on unwanted behavior or distress and reducing those without
Speaker 4: thinking about strategies to increase joy or happiness or purpose
Speaker 4: or well being among individuals living with dementia. But increasingly
Speaker 4: there is greater awareness that it is possible to live
Speaker 4: well with dementia, and there are several strategies that can
Speaker 4: increase the likelihood that if someone with dementia continues to
Speaker 4: experience high levels of well being. So first we can
Speaker 4: think about the environment that the individual is living in.
Speaker 4: There's some research to suggest that older adults in general
Speaker 4: and individuals living with dementia prefer to do what's called
Speaker 4: aging in place, or remaining at home as long as possible,
Speaker 4: in a comfortable, familiar environment where they're able to maintain
Speaker 4: some of their typical day to day routines and some
Speaker 4: autonomy or agency over their day to day life. Sometimes
Speaker 4: this isn't always possible or safe for an individual to
Speaker 4: continue to live at home right now, the traditional, most
Speaker 4: typical model of care would be for that individual to
Speaker 4: move into a nursing home type facility or a memory
Speaker 4: care facility, and there we can think about different strategies
Speaker 4: to make that environment as familiar and homelike and as
Speaker 4: comfortable as possible, so rather than feeling like a hospital,
Speaker 4: feeling more like a home. And then several countries around
Speaker 4: the world are trying new, more innovative care models. For example,
Speaker 4: there's a model called dementia villages, where individuals living with
Speaker 4: dementia live in homelike atmospheres and apartments within a community
Speaker 4: that has grocery stores and libraries and some of the
Speaker 4: typical things that you would expect a community or a
Speaker 4: neighborhood to have, but within one safe community of other
Speaker 4: individuals living with dementia, as well as care partners and caregivers.
Speaker 4: We can also think more the individual level about different
Speaker 4: interventions or strategies that can be beneficial for well being. So,
Speaker 4: for example, there's some research to suggest that cultural arts
Speaker 4: interventions are really effective at increasing the wellbeing of people
Speaker 4: living with dementia, and this can involve creative endeavors like
Speaker 4: creating art, drawing, and painting, dancing and movement therapy has
Speaker 4: been shown to be effective, but it can also be
Speaker 4: about experiencing art and culture, whether that is viewing visual art,
Speaker 4: listening to music, seeing theater productions. All of these different
Speaker 4: ways of engaging with arts and culture can be helpful
Speaker 4: for helping individuals living with dementia continue to experience the
Speaker 4: same joys of life that all of us appreciate, as
Speaker 4: well as reminiscence therapies, which are opportunities for individuals living
Speaker 4: with dementia to recall meaningful memories and tell those through
Speaker 4: different storytelling means. Intergenerational intervaval engines that bring together older
Speaker 4: adults living with dementia with younger generations, and that opportunity
Speaker 4: to connect across generations can be really protective for well being.
Speaker 2: You mentioned one of these activities that I really love,
Speaker 2: this idea of reminiscing activities or life story books.
Speaker 1: What's a life story book?
Speaker 2: And how could a family member who wanted to do
Speaker 2: this with one of their loved ones who was experiencing dementia.
Speaker 1: How could they engage with something like this?
Speaker 4: So it can often be helpful to use physical cues,
Speaker 4: so things like photo albums or familiar objects to help
Speaker 4: remind people of memories that are personally meaningful to them.
Speaker 4: You can also ask about you know, if you're thinking
Speaker 4: about your family member living with dementia, you can ask
Speaker 4: them to tell you stories maybe that you haven't even
Speaker 4: heard before, and it can be really beneficial for a
Speaker 4: lot of reasons. It gives the individual living with dementia
Speaker 4: the opportunity to reflect back and sort of preserve some
Speaker 4: of these memory worries, and to connect socially with the
Speaker 4: person that they're telling these stories too, and thinking about
Speaker 4: sort of the well being of the loved ones. It
Speaker 4: can be also really helpful to document and record these stories,
Speaker 4: whether that's to write them down to record them digitally.
Speaker 4: All of these different strategies can help preserve the personhood
Speaker 4: of the person with dementia and also provide these really
Speaker 4: valuable keepsakes and memories and stories for their loved ones.
Speaker 2: Another thing you talked about in the report is the
Speaker 2: possibility that we can start using technology better to help
Speaker 2: with dementia and sort of to help individuals with dementia
Speaker 2: live better lives. How can technology help us here?
Speaker 4: First, we can think of assistive technologies, so things that
Speaker 4: can help individuals remain safe while also maintaining their autonomy. So,
Speaker 4: for example, GPS has been used as well as object
Speaker 4: locators to help an individual who may be spending time
Speaker 4: alone to be able to find important objects in their house,
Speaker 4: whether that is telephone for example. Technological devices that can
Speaker 4: help with things like administering medication and remembering to take
Speaker 4: one's medication can be really helpful and important. But in
Speaker 4: addition to these more assistive technologies, we can also think
Speaker 4: of technology enabled interventions. So, for example, there's some research
Speaker 4: to suggest that robotic pets can actually serve as a
Speaker 4: really important well being intervention for older adults living with
Speaker 4: dementia to be able to engage in sort of care
Speaker 4: practices with a robotic cat or dog, for example. So
Speaker 4: we can think of technologies both in how they can
Speaker 4: help keep people safe while allowing them to maintain independence
Speaker 4: and autonomy, but we can also think of them as
Speaker 4: ways to intervene and enhance quality of life and the
Speaker 4: opportunities to engage in meaningful activities.
Speaker 2: I think of this so much, you know, after the
Speaker 2: COVID nineteen pandemic, right when you know, I remember that
Speaker 2: time towards the end of twenty twenty, when at least
Speaker 2: to contact my older relatives, you know, who are maybe
Speaker 2: more vulnerable from disease and so on. You know, I
Speaker 2: wasn't able to do that in person, and you know,
Speaker 2: before good technologies to connect, that would mean I wouldn't
Speaker 2: have any social connection with them. But then with these
Speaker 2: technologies you could actually see each other in video conference
Speaker 2: and chat. And I think that that allows for so
Speaker 2: much more intergenerational contact, which can be so critical for
Speaker 2: social connection, especially as we live further away from our
Speaker 2: relatives and so on. Is this the kind of thing
Speaker 2: that you think that technology can be used better for
Speaker 2: in the future.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, so.
Speaker 4: I think technology we've all seen over the past few
Speaker 4: years how technology can help us connect, whether that means
Speaker 4: connecting with our loved ones, whether that means meeting new people,
Speaker 4: or just increasing sort of the frequency of social contact.
Speaker 4: And we know that social contact is so important for
Speaker 4: health and happiness. I think that we still have a
Speaker 4: lot to learn about what types of technology enabled communications
Speaker 4: are best and for whom right so, whether that be
Speaker 4: video chat or telephone communications, but anything that can connect
Speaker 4: us more often with the people that we love is
Speaker 4: likely to be beneficial for health. And happiness, including an
Speaker 4: individuals living with dementia.
Speaker 2: So as we think about all these strategies that we
Speaker 2: can use to maybe prevent dementia and also help individuals
Speaker 2: with dementia live their best lives. Do you have any
Speaker 2: recommendations for people in midlife who are trying to reduce
Speaker 2: their stress and focus on their happiness, but are dealing
Speaker 2: with these age related changes and people that they love.
Speaker 2: You know, are there ways that we can kind of
Speaker 2: protect our stress or best practices for kind of handling
Speaker 2: a dementia diagnosis in an older loved one.
Speaker 4: It can be really challenging when someone that we love
Speaker 4: is diagnosed with dementia, and if we are a care
Speaker 4: partner providing care for an individual living with dementia that
Speaker 4: can also come with its own unique challenges. It can
Speaker 4: be emotional distressing to see these changes in our loved ones.
Speaker 4: And although there can be purpose and joy found in caregiving,
Speaker 4: we also sometimes can see caregiver burnout or stress among
Speaker 4: care partners, and so I think it's really important to
Speaker 4: lean back on your own social support network, whether that
Speaker 4: is other loved ones that you can spend time with
Speaker 4: or that can help with the caregiving aspects, or whether
Speaker 4: that's connecting with new people who have shared a similar
Speaker 4: life experience for that sort of social support and perspective
Speaker 4: from someone else who has been in your shoes. No
Speaker 4: matter what age we are and no matter what difficult
Speaker 4: life experiences we're going through, putting our happiness and placing
Speaker 4: some importance on that and taking time to prioritize our
Speaker 4: self and our well being to be able to manage
Speaker 4: the stressors that we're experiencing is really important, and so
Speaker 4: just empowering yourself to be able to sometimes think about
Speaker 4: what's going to impact your own wellbeing and happiness and
Speaker 4: engaging in the activities and self care practices that help
Speaker 4: you to maintain your own mental health.
Speaker 2: I think that's so important because I think we can
Speaker 2: get so caught up in what we can do to
Speaker 2: help our older relatives that we sometimes put ourselves under stress,
Speaker 2: which isn't great for our happiness and our cardiovascular health
Speaker 2: in those kinds of things too.
Speaker 1: Has engaging this.
Speaker 2: Research made you a little bit more hopeful about your
Speaker 2: own cognitive resilience. I'm curious how you've changed your behaviors
Speaker 2: and your mindsets of knowing more about this research.
Speaker 4: I think that it's a really helpful reminder to put
Speaker 4: my social relationships first, to put opportunities to move my
Speaker 4: body first, and to really incorporate that into my daily life.
Speaker 4: Even as someone who researches this stuff, it's really easy
Speaker 4: to get caught up in day to day routines and
Speaker 4: stressors and deadlines and things like that, and so it
Speaker 4: is a nice reminder doing this research that putting my
Speaker 4: well being first is an investment into my future and
Speaker 4: into the future of.
Speaker 1: My loved ones.
Speaker 2: I know many of you listen to this show because
Speaker 2: you want to enhance your daily lives right now. But
Speaker 2: it turns out that following the advice we share on
Speaker 2: this podcast, practices like making friends or being kind to
Speaker 2: others can help you build resilience to a disease that
Speaker 2: could strike many, many decades from now. I find that amazing,
Speaker 2: and it's certainly something I'd never thought about before reading
Speaker 2: Emily's chapter in the World Happiness Report. But we're not
Speaker 2: through with the report's insights just yet. In our next episode,
Speaker 2: we'll turn to a different chapter from the report, one
Speaker 2: that focuses on the other end of the age spectrum.
Speaker 2: We'll tackle the happiness challenges facing the young, and we'll
Speaker 2: try to figure out why children and teens in some
Speaker 2: countries are really struggling and what we can do to
Speaker 2: fix this sad trend. That's next time on the Happiness
Speaker 2: Lab with me, doctor Laurie Santos,