Prevent Alzheimer’s and Promote Productivity

When I was a financial planner, I had a client who was taking care of her mother, who had early-onset Alzheimer’s. 

Her brother was supposed to pay her since she couldn’t work, but he didn’t give her any breaks so she could go on vacation. (Be very careful when you’re negotiating with family when you have situations like this.) She was able to take her mom to adult daycare a few days a week, which was pretty much the only time she had to herself.

Her mom died of complications from Alzheimer’s, and I think my client at the time was in her 60s. She finally had the opportunity to do things that she wanted, go on vacation, and so forth. I was so happy for her.

Until she, too, just a few months later was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s. She was losing words and memories, and she knew it, which was tremendously upsetting for her.

This case is another argument for not waiting until you retire to do things you want, including bucket-list items. Because you’re best able to fully enjoy them when you’re in good physical and mental health.

It’s also a story of Alzheimer’s. The early-onset type has a strong genetic component. But sometimes people come down with neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, dementia, or Parkinson’s without a family history of it.

While there’s no guarantee even if you don’t have a family history of one of these conditions, you might be able to prevent them by taking care of your brain.

Sleep makes you more productive (and helps defend against Alzheimer’s and dementia)

Your grandma was right, you need 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night. I don’t think anyone gets that much every single night! But you can increase your odds by keeping your room cool, dark, and quiet and journaling before bed.

There’s a scientific reason the vast majority of people need all those sleep hours. Each sleep cycle has several phases, and the cycles need to repeat a few times for everything to work properly. 

One of the important tasks that can only be completed during sleep (not while you’re awake) is flushing out toxins and waste from your cells. Waste tends to accumulate during the day, and getting enough sleep helps your body do its job properly.

Things start going a little haywire the older you get, but you don’t have to let it get out of hand. Alzheimer’s is characterized by protein tangles called plaques in the brain, and there’s some evidence that these tangles accumulate when the cells can’t flush out all the toxins.

Sleep also helps your brain recharge and reset from the earlier day and process any learning that occurred. These both make your brain ready to get back to work the next day so you can be more productive.

Move your butt to improve productivity in the workplace (and reduce the chances for disease)

Here on the coast, it sometimes seems to me that people look at exercise as first and foremost a tool for losing weight. It’s not particularly effective for losing weight. It’s great for helping maintain weight loss, though.

However, exercise has a ton of other benefits, including stress reduction. That improves heart health. Conditions that damage the heart (like stress) also tend to promote neurodegenerative diseases, so by improving your heart function you’re also improving your ability to resist Alzheimer’s.

When it comes to being effective at work, one thing that will give you a good boost is exercise. Maybe take a walk instead of having coffee in the afternoon. It provides your brain with oxygenated blood, which improves your brain’s performance.

Fun helps keeps brains healthy (and more productive too)

Having fun doesn’t necessarily prevent Alzheimer’s or other diseases, but it’s definitely a stress reliever. 

Midlife is not the time to forget about fun. Forget all that guff about putting away childish things, because a childlike sense of wonder and fun will only benefit you. Especially as you grow older.

What if you’re waiting until retirement to have fun, but you end up in poor health? You might not be able to do the activities you could do when you were younger. Or the condition robs you of your mental capacity and you can’t enjoy it.

And fun, however you define it, helps you be more productive. It doesn’t have to be anyone else’s idea of fun, as long as it’s fun for you. Other people might not find reading an awesome book and drinking a mocktail on the beach fun.

I personally would rather have a root canal sans painkillers than go to some “fun” place like Dave & Busters. Networking with people I don’t know is not fun for me, but other people love it. Whatever your definition is (as long as it’s not harming anyone or anything else), go for it.

Fun gives your prefrontal cortex a break. That’s really what you’re looking for with unproductive things that make you more productive: a break from thinking about work, strategizing marketing campaigns, crunching numbers, etc.

Fun with other people also helps because your brain likes you to be social. You can adjust the number of people or events up or down depending on whether you’re an introvert or an extrovert, but some peopling is necessary.

Having social ties also helps people live a long and healthy life, in addition to boosting effectiveness at work.

So go have some fun. You’re doing it for your company!

Recap (tl;dr)

If it’s good for your brain, then it’ll also help prevent Alzheimer’s, dementia, and other neurodegenerative diseases. And it will make you more productive when you’re at work, so it’s all win/win.

If you like the idea of having a life outside work but not sure how you can get there and still have a thriving professional business, schedule a call with me here for your free consultation.