WEBVTT

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I'm super excited to be here.

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I'm a big fan of TED and TEDx.

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I think these events are wonderful.

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So, I'm the CEO and one of the co-founders

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of Anti-AgingGames.com,

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and today I'm going to give you
the top ten tips

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to keep your brain young.

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There're tips to help reduce
your risk of early memory loss,

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and what I want you to do is,

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if you like the tips,

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I'd like you to share them
with as many people as possible,

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with friends and family.

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I'm actually going to show you the website

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where you can get a copy of the tips.

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So don't worry too much
about taking notes.

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My scientists and I
literally went through 17,000 studies

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to come up with the tips
that I'm going to share with you today,

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as well as the tips
that are in our games and on our site.

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But before we start,
I want to tell you a few things.

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First off, I'm not a doctor.

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I make games for a living.

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So, this is not medical advice.

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This is simply a starting point

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for you to speak with
about your future health

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with your doctor.

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Secondly, it's all good news.

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So don't worry,

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I'm not going to terrify you
with anything.

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Third, I'm not here to sell you anything.

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We're actually going
to give you a VIP code

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so you can have free access to the games.

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So, don't worry,
no supplements, no snake-oil,

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nothing like that.

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(Laughter)

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Just pure tips with no ulterior motive.

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So let me give you the e-mail.

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If you actually send an e-mail
to Tips@Anti-Aging-Games.com,

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you'll get a copy of the tips

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as well as a link
to see all of the tips on the website.

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Or you can just go to Anti-AgingGames.com

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and click on the brain tips section.

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So this whole thing started
four or five years ago

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when one of my friends' mom

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got Alzheimer's.

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And while I was watching
my friend deal with this

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and just struggling with it

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emotionally, physically, financially,

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I noticed that there is this unspoken,
but very deep belief

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that she, too,
was going to get Alzheimer's,

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that it was entirely genetic,

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that she was doomed
to have this happen too eventually.

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And that's just not true.

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That is absolutely not true.

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Depending on who you ask,

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only 5 to 8% of Alzheimer's

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is linked to a single gene to begin with.

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There is a study that shows that,

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when you have two identical twins,
and one gets Alzheimer's -

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they're identical twins,

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you expect the other one
to get Alzheimer's 100% of the time,

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that doesn't happen.

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21% of the time,
the other twin doesn't get Alzheimer's

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or gets it so much later
that it's unrelated to that genetic basis.

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So I'm here to tell you about that 21%,

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and what lifestyle changes you can make

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to actually help reduce
your risk of early memory loss.

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And the good news is,
everything that I'm going to tell you,

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it's easy, it's free,

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and you can do it starting today.

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So without a further ado

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I will talk about the first tip.

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The first tip,

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and if you walk away with nothing else,
just walk away with this one:

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fast walking is fantastic
for your brain and your heart.

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So fast walking 30 minutes a day,

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five times a week,

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is linked to 33% less Alzheimer's.

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If you actually include
vigorous aerobic exercises

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that get your heart rate up,

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three times a week, at least 20 minutes,

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that actually reduces your risk
down to 50%.

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So, fantastic news.

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If you can't walk comfortably,

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what you want to do is water walking,

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cross-country skiing,

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or if you know someone in a wheelchair,
tell them to use a hand wheel.

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Any aerobic activity that basically pushes
the blood into your brain faster,

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pushes the oxygen and nutrients
into your brain faster

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helps things repair,

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pushes the waste out of your brain.

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That is fantastic for you.

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You doctor will tell you
that if you have an exercise at all,

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what's really important

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is for you to just start getting
into consistent exercises.

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So you may start with 10 minutes a day.

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I don't know about you,

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but I'm incredibly lazy
when it comes to exercising.

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Just incredibly lazy.

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Exercising for the sake of vanity
never motivated me,

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because I just figure plus or minus
ten, twenty pounds, who cares?

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(Laughter)

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It's true. It's just not motivating.

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But when I read this study,

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avoiding Alzheimer's,

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and maintaining your freedom
and independence later on a life,

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hugely motivating.

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So I started walking, and I got tell you,

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it increases your energy, you drop weight,

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and you just feel so much
healthier and happier.

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So definitely recommend that.

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Second tip is to play
mentally engaging games.

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Studies show that any kind of learning,
any kind of mind engaging game play

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is fantastic for you.

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The keys are that has to be interactive,

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mind engaging,

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it's extra good if it's fun.

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So passive entertainment,

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is like watching TV or daytime napping.

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(Laughter)

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Interactive entertainment
includes playing brain fitness games,

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like on Anti-AgingGames.com.

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But you actually
don't even need our games.

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Any kind of learning is fantastic for you.

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So, you can play chess.
You can play bridge.

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You can learn a new instrument,
a complicated dance or language.

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If there's a social component
or physical component, even better.

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So learn ballroom dancing.

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What's funny is you don't actually
have to be good at it at all.

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So you can try Tae-Bo dancing,
flamenco, guitar,

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it doesn't really matter.

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You're doing different things
than what you usually do during the day,

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so your brain is growing
new neural connections,

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and it's just fantastic for you.

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Third tip: avoid poisons.

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Everybody knows about lead in smoking.

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What you may not know

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is that smoking in midlife
doubles the rate of dementia later.

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And what I didn't know was
that even an occasional cigarette,

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the social cigarette or social cigar,

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causes your capillaries
to act like they're being poisoned

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because guess what?

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They're being poisoned.

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(Laughter)

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You want to avoid that.

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You also want to avoid -

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the jury's out on aluminum,

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they don't know
if these things are inconclusive,

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but if you can avoid it, please do.

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You also want to avoid
toxic substances in your everyday life.

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There's a website called
cosmeticsdatabase.com,

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and you can literally put in your shampoo,

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your toothpaste, your soap,
your makeup, your sunscreen,

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and all of your cleaning products,

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and it pops out how toxic it is
on a scale to one to ten,

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and you can find out what's toxic

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and what's a safer alternative
to the things you're using.

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Forth tip: being social
is incredibly good for you.

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There's a Harvard study that shows
that people who have five social ties,

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and the people who they spend time with,
who they really enjoy,

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- the people at work don't count,

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you don't really enjoy them
if you're honest with yourself -

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(Laughter)

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So, spent time with those people.

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That people that didn't have
half the rate of cognitive decline,

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as the people who were the most isolated.

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Isolation is terrible for human beings.

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So, super important that you stay social.

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If you don't have a lot of friends,
if you just moved,

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if your friends are negative
and you're getting rid of them

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after the last tips that I tell you,

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try looking at places
like the Red Hat Society,

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the American Association
of University Women.

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I'm sure there are men's groups
that are equivalent,

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but I don't know what they are.

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(Laughter)

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Co-ed groups.

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Also, volunteering is a fantastic place
to meet really high quality new friends.

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VolunteerMatch.org is great.

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Idealist.org.

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If you're in L.A.,
laworks.com has a lot of projects;

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phenomenal place.

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Next is having a purpose
and life direction is fantastic for you.

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Researchers at Rush University
Medical Center found

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that the people with the highest
purpose and life direction

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had 2.4 times less dementia

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than the people with the lowest.

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What this means for you

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is you can pick any cause
outside of your immediate circle,

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of yourself, your friends,
your family, and your acquaintances,

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any cause that's important to you.

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Doesn't matter what it is
as long as it's meaningful for you,

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and just work on it regularly.

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That's great for you,
it's great for society,

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and teach other people to do that, too.

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If you think about
the people in this room,

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the two generation above me

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were the ones who kick down
the doors of sexism and racism,

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and they're now kicking down
the doors of homophobia,

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and there's a lot of more work to be done.

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So, pick any cause that's important to you
and go out there and do it.

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Your brain will thank you
and society will thank you.

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Next one is to relax.

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Relaxation is fantastic for you.

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I told that this would have good news.

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So go to the spa, relax,
whatever you need to do,

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meditate, yoga, reading a book.

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I like relaxing in motion;

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I like walking through nature
and things like that.

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So whatever you need to do,
it's really good,

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because what happens is
stress actually shrinks your brain.

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And you don't want that.

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Stress rewires your brain.

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It affects memory,
it affects decision making.

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It actually ends up messing
with your emotional regulatory system.

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So, it's not good for you.

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I was working at this day job
funding Anti. AgingGames,

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and it was really stressful,

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as I was reading the study
about how stress shrinks your brain.

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(Laughter)

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And it said that the people
who had the high stress job,

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low control,

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multiple bosses
telling you opposite things,

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had the worst...

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this is stress and brain shrinks it,

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and I was like, "Oh my god!
That's my job."

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(Laughter)

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So I decided to quit.

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I ended up leaving shortly thereafter.

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But if you're in that job,
start looking for other jobs.

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You don't need that.
You health is much more important.

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Next tip is to partner with your doctor.

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A good doctor is prevention oriented.

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So, most people stay with their doctors
because that person is nice or familiar.

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That's not a good reason
to stay with a doctor.

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You want someone
who understands prevention,

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understands nutrition,
understands exercise,

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understands the importance of stretching,

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understands the interactions
between things.

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The reason why is,

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I can tell you broccoli
and cauliflower twice a week

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is fantastic for you.

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It decreases lot of
different types of cancers

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by at least 20%.

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If you have a thyroid problem,

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that actually makes
the thyroid problem worse.

00:10:20.490 --> 00:10:22.005
So, a good doctor knows that.

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It's impossible for you to try
to keep track of the stuff yourself.

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A good doctor will tell you

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how your supplements
are interacting with things.

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It's just really important
for you to do that,

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because things are really
intertwined and interactive.

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You generally want to get
most of your vitamins

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from fruits and vegetables,

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and not your supplements,

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but your doctor might ask you
to use some supplements too.

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And a good doctor knows how to do that.

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So, for instance not having
enough vitamin B12

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is linked to memory loss,

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but you can't just take supplements

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because you don't know
if it's absorbing or not.

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The good doctor knows
how to measure this in your blood stream

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and see if it's absorbing,

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and if it's not absorbing,
then you need a monthly shot.

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So, pick a good doctor

00:11:06.526 --> 00:11:09.968
and really partner with that person
to go forward in life.

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Next tip is to protect your head.

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People who have had head injuries,

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have two to four times
the rate of Alzheimer's.

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If you had a head injury in the past,

00:11:19.315 --> 00:11:21.508
don't worry, there's a lot of factors:

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what part of your head get hit,
how long you were unconscious,

00:11:24.476 --> 00:11:25.572
for things like that,

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but not going forward
that you have to protect your head.

00:11:28.755 --> 00:11:31.531
Wear a helmet when you're bike reading.

00:11:31.531 --> 00:11:36.048
The place that you're more likely
to get hit in the head is in your car.

00:11:36.048 --> 00:11:38.261
So always wear your seat belt.

00:11:38.261 --> 00:11:39.530
Always pick a safer card;

00:11:39.530 --> 00:11:41.508
make that one of your primary screenings,

00:11:41.508 --> 00:11:43.516
and never text while you're driving.

00:11:43.516 --> 00:11:47.275
The people who text
have 23 times the accident rate

00:11:47.275 --> 00:11:48.762
as the people who don't.

00:11:48.762 --> 00:11:51.754
One study showed that it was equivalent

00:11:51.754 --> 00:11:54.281
to drinking four drinks
and getting behind the wheel.

00:11:54.281 --> 00:11:56.814
Someone's texting in the car,
tell them to pull over.

00:11:56.814 --> 00:11:58.480
If it's that important, pull over.

00:12:01.510 --> 00:12:03.502
And second to last tip is

00:12:03.502 --> 00:12:06.252
the Mediterranean diet
is fantastic for you.

00:12:06.252 --> 00:12:09.806
It's one of the only proven diets
to just really be good.

00:12:09.806 --> 00:12:12.528
They also call it "eating colorfully".

00:12:12.528 --> 00:12:15.512
Mediterranean diet involves
seven to ten servings

00:12:15.512 --> 00:12:17.212
of fruits and vegetables per day.

00:12:17.212 --> 00:12:18.654
I know that sounds like a lot,

00:12:18.654 --> 00:12:22.035
but actually it's really hard
to gain weight with fruits and vegetables.

00:12:22.035 --> 00:12:24.042
So you actually end up
filling up with that

00:12:24.062 --> 00:12:25.250
and losing weight.

00:12:25.590 --> 00:12:26.740
Fresh is best,

00:12:26.740 --> 00:12:28.286
thyme is second best.

00:12:29.216 --> 00:12:31.514
Mediterranean diet people
also eat a lot of fish,

00:12:31.514 --> 00:12:33.978
preferably wild fish, twice a week.

00:12:33.978 --> 00:12:36.510
They eat nuts, almonds, walnuts,

00:12:36.510 --> 00:12:38.281
preferably raw, not salted.

00:12:38.971 --> 00:12:40.247
Beans, legumes,

00:12:40.247 --> 00:12:41.762
nobody knows what a legume is.

00:12:41.762 --> 00:12:43.267
(Laughter)

00:12:43.267 --> 00:12:45.137
Those are peanuts and beans,

00:12:45.137 --> 00:12:46.252
(Laughter)

00:12:46.252 --> 00:12:50.777
and there's a real social component
to the Mediterranean village diet as well.

00:12:51.037 --> 00:12:53.515
So the last tip that I'm going to give you

00:12:53.515 --> 00:12:55.506
is that positive outlook matters,

00:12:55.506 --> 00:12:56.510
and it matters a lot.

00:12:56.510 --> 00:12:59.586
If you would ask me as a scientist
how much I think this matters,

00:12:59.586 --> 00:13:01.298
I'd say it matters a little bit.

00:13:01.298 --> 00:13:05.507
But it turns out that it matters
much more than anybody ever thought.

00:13:05.509 --> 00:13:10.016
What happens is that
there is a study called "The Nun Study".

00:13:10.016 --> 00:13:14.240
They tracked 600,078 nuns
over the course of their lives,

00:13:14.240 --> 00:13:16.240
and a lot of the nuns even gave permission

00:13:16.264 --> 00:13:18.447
that upon their death
they could be autopsied.

00:13:18.447 --> 00:13:21.248
They opened up their brains
to see what was going on

00:13:21.248 --> 00:13:23.362
and what the correlation is
with Alzheimer's.

00:13:23.362 --> 00:13:24.565
They found that the nuns

00:13:24.565 --> 00:13:29.091
who had the highest usage
of positive emotion words,

00:13:29.091 --> 00:13:31.015
so the highest positive outlook,

00:13:31.015 --> 00:13:33.510
not only aged better,

00:13:33.510 --> 00:13:35.768
and lived longer,
and lived healthier lives,

00:13:35.768 --> 00:13:37.946
but also what was really startling was,

00:13:37.946 --> 00:13:41.006
in a few cases, when they opened up
the brains of these people,

00:13:41.006 --> 00:13:42.187
and they looked inside,

00:13:42.187 --> 00:13:45.412
there were tangles and plaques
that are associated with Alzheimer's,

00:13:45.412 --> 00:13:48.527
but they didn't have the symptoms
that are of Alzheimer's.

00:13:48.527 --> 00:13:52.249
So there's this neuroprotective
effect to positive outlook

00:13:52.249 --> 00:13:54.119
that is really, really great,

00:13:54.119 --> 00:13:56.215
and scientists are going
to need to study it,

00:13:56.239 --> 00:13:57.878
but just so you know that's there.

00:13:57.878 --> 00:14:01.499
The thing that you can do for yourself
is eliminate your negative self-talk.

00:14:01.499 --> 00:14:02.524
Talk back to it.

00:14:02.524 --> 00:14:05.498
Your brain doesn't know
the difference between true and false.

00:14:05.498 --> 00:14:06.980
So talk back to it.

00:14:06.980 --> 00:14:11.514
Get rid of your negative friends,
replace them with more positive ones,

00:14:11.514 --> 00:14:16.256
and just remember that
seeing the opportunity in all challenges

00:14:16.256 --> 00:14:17.509
is a really good thing.

00:14:17.509 --> 00:14:19.984
Learning the lessons in mistakes
and then letting go

00:14:19.984 --> 00:14:21.116
is a really good thing.

00:14:21.116 --> 00:14:22.512
And finally,

00:14:22.512 --> 00:14:24.773
wanted to just share
the VIP code with you.

00:14:24.773 --> 00:14:27.017
If you go to Anti-AgingGames.com

00:14:27.017 --> 00:14:30.267
and you use the VIP code TEDxVIP

00:14:30.267 --> 00:14:32.244
or TEDVIP, no spaces,

00:14:32.244 --> 00:14:35.452
you can get a free month
of Anti-AgingGames.

00:14:35.452 --> 00:14:36.773
You also get a better rate;

00:14:36.773 --> 00:14:39.360
you get a friends and family rate
of 9.95 dollars/month

00:14:39.360 --> 00:14:41.009
instead of 12.99 dollars/month.

00:14:41.009 --> 00:14:44.767
If you like it you keep it,

00:14:44.767 --> 00:14:46.782
and we donate all of the profits,

00:14:46.782 --> 00:14:50.274
100% of the profits from the TEDxVIP code

00:14:50.274 --> 00:14:55.246
to various charities.

00:14:55.246 --> 00:14:59.230
I mean, our basic goal
is to improve lives around the world.

00:14:59.230 --> 00:15:00.742
In the US what that means,

00:15:00.742 --> 00:15:03.778
is sponsoring Alzheimer's
prevention research,

00:15:03.778 --> 00:15:08.241
and cancer prevention research,
dementia prevention research,

00:15:08.241 --> 00:15:10.029
as well as some cure research.

00:15:10.029 --> 00:15:16.057
Overseas, it's not really a matter
of taking people from 75 or 85 to 100;

00:15:16.057 --> 00:15:18.433
it's more a matter
of taking people from 5 to 35,

00:15:18.433 --> 00:15:21.982
using clean water access, malaria nets,
and things like that.

00:15:21.982 --> 00:15:23.281
Education medicine.

00:15:23.281 --> 00:15:24.768
So, that's what we're doing.

00:15:24.768 --> 00:15:28.254
In general, the company donates
20% of its pretax profit to charity.

00:15:28.254 --> 00:15:30.963
So, if you like these tips,
if you found them valuable,

00:15:30.963 --> 00:15:32.226
please share them.

00:15:32.226 --> 00:15:35.580
We went through years of research
to be able to give this to you today.

00:15:35.580 --> 00:15:36.585
Thank you very much.

00:15:36.585 --> 00:15:38.491
(Applause)