The Secret Life of the Grown-Up Brain by Barbara Strauch

Barbara Strauch's The Secret Life of the Grown-up Brain: The Surprising Talents of the Middle-Aged Mind describes the properties of a middle aged brain that make it different than a person in their 20's. The mature brain is not able to focus on one topic, which causes many to fail to retrieve an item in another room because we forgot what we were looking for. The older brain also has difficulty remembering names often necessitating a mental trip through the alphabet or a search for a middle vowel sound that will release the name from the tip of the tongue.

The diffuse method of thinking allows the mature brain to increase creativity with many more experience with the potential for novel links. This wealth of experience and connections allows the grown up brain to be "... smarter,   calmer, wiser, and happier..." than the earlier version of ourselves.

The author points to research indicating that the mature brain is still capable of producing new neurons and new connections. Aerobic exercise in lab animals and humans stimulates the production of new cells in the dentate gyrus (Wikipedia) an area in the brain's hippocampus crucial for creating new memories. 

The evidence for diet impacting the dentate gyrus is less well supportive. Antioxidant and anti-inflammatory chemicals in blueberries and other dark fruits, colored vegetables and beans may promote brain health. The mildly toxic effects of resveratrol in red wine and other fruits may stimulate the production of brain derived neurotropic factor (BDNF) which is important in stimulating brain repair. The unanswered questions remain can we ingest enough of these chemicals in our diet to have any effect and what is the optimum dose?

Factors that adversely impact brain health include: obesity, elevated blood glucose levels (type 2 diabetes), high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

Individuals who have a more varied and positive social network do better than individuals who are or choose to be isolated. The author suggests that navigating a social network is a complex task for the brain and keeps it fit.

These recommendations cross over into the Blue Zones research and its association to longevity. In some cases items that improved brain health did not improve longevity but did improve the quality of the life lived.

The Secret Life of the Grown-Up Brain - 17 min. 

Middle Aged Brains are Awesome - 5 min. 

Optimizing brain health - 8 min. 

The Blue Zones of Happiness by Dan Buettner

In Dan Buettner's latest book, The Blue Zones of Happiness: Lessons From the World's Happiest People, he examines the commonalities in areas of the world where people live longer and attempts to apply that knowledge to improving existing communities. I recently attended Dan Buettner's talk at Northrop Auditorium at the University of Minnesota.  He is an engaging and informative speaker who resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota and works for the National Geographic Society.

Dan Buettner introduced by Regent David McMillan

In the book it was interesting that Dan Buettner also referred to the same 50/10/40  Happiness rule that Henry Cloud noted in his book The Law of Happiness.

• Genetics: 50%
• Circumstances: 10%
• Areas under control: 40%

If we focus less on circumstances (bummer I did not win the lottery again) and focus more on developing friendships, taking care of our bodies. and engaging in activities with a sense of purpose we will be happier irrespective of our circumstances or genetics. 

Finding Happiness the Blue Zones Way - Image Think (click on image to enlarge)

Creating Blue Zone communities can have a significant impact on reducing medical costs and improving economic vitality. The Blue Zones project for Albert Lea, Minnesota revitalized the downtown by making it more pedestrian friendly and reduced community medical costs as noted in the Albert Lea case study summary.  His collaboration with Public Health experts at the U of M along with other experts in community planning allows for an integrated approach to creating environments where it is easier to make a choice that will improve health and happiness. 

Slide from Dan Buettner's Blue Zones talk 

The appendix of the book compiles the public policy and personal practice suggestions for a happy life from the experts that Dan Buettner consulted in the book. I most appreciated the 24 joint personal practice recommendations from Sonja Lyubomirsky and Kristin Layous. These are just four with minor editing.

• Try to make someone else happier
• Share personal positive experiences with a partner
• Regularly go out in nature
• Write about intensely positive experiences

At the Blue Zone website there are additional Blue Zone Articles on diet, health, happiness and longevity.  You can also take the Blue zone true vitality test.

The Blue Zones of Happiness - 27 min.

The Blue Zones of Happiness - 48 minutes

Lessons from the world's happiest people - 21 minutes

The Science of Trust by John M. Gottman Ph. D.

The Science of Trust: Emotional Attunement for Couples by John M. Gottman Ph. D. provides meticulous descriptions of dysfunctional and functional relationships. This audio book would be a brutal but effective pre-test for couples considering marriage and could also be used to pull a marriage out of path headed towards dissolution. Trust in a marriage is making sure the other person puts the partner first above other people and other obligations. This is facilitated by each person attuning to the other partner.

He and a team of researchers observed marriages for twenty years watching the marriages succeed or dissolve without intervening. During that time they observed that people seeking marriage counseling were doing even worse than those who were not.  This made them even more cautious about offering advice.

They looked at successful recovery after a disagreement or a failure to be attentive to a partner. Successful repair worked best when the expressions of negative emotions were muted, There was humor, People who had successful recovery focused less on I and more on we.

It is very difficult for couples to resolve issues when one of them is flooding. This occurs when one person is very emotional with sweating and elevated blood pressure. An effective strategy involves taking a 20 minute break to let stress chemicals clear out of the bloodstream. This works best if neither party ruminates during the break.  After the break the issue is addressed again but this time with cooler heads.

Interesting marital tests: As part of a fun activity couples construct a tower made only out of sheets of paper. If the couples did this with a sense of humor and enjoyed it as a fun activity this was predictive of a successful marriage.  If they argued and bickered about how to construct the tower this predicted relationship or marriage failure.

A portion of the book was devoted to the the  separate mathematical functions associated with two parents and a child.  The researchers also discovered two low level resting states on the positive and the negative side of the relationship. It is very easy for a couple to get stuck in a negative loop and be unable to get out of it because of their heightened emotional state.

Further information on the neuroscience of trust at work is available from Six Seconds the emotional intelligence network.

The science of trust and betrayal - 7 min

How to build trust - 5 min. 

The science of Love - John M. Gottman - 28 min.