The mindbodygreen Podcast

“When we engage in the arts, it exposes us to a lot of emotions, which can have a tangible impact on the neurotransmitters released in our brains, the stress hormones in our bodies, and even the levels of inflammation in our immune system,” says Daisy Fancourt. 

Fancourt is a Professor of Psychobiology and Epidemiology at University College London where she heads the Social Biobehavioural Research Group, and serves as the Director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre on Arts and Health. She is one of the most highly cited scientists in the world, having published 300 scientific papers and won over two dozen academic prizes. She is a multi-award-winning science communicator and has been named a World Economic Forum Global Shaper and BBC New Generation Thinker. 

00:00 - Art as the fifth pillar of health

01:21 - The benefits of arts engagement

08:10 - Your daily & weekly arts prescription

09:35 - Why attention is the key ingredient

11:12 - Visual vs. audio art

14:56 - Making the most of a museum visit

18:11 - Art for stress & mood regulation

19:09 - Using art to wind down

21:04 - Art & the brain

27:44 - Prescribing art for anxiety & depression

32:08 - Reconnecting with childhood creativity

34:14 - Finding art in the every day

36:45 - Biological evidence of art’s impact

40:14 - Art for joy & exercise

44:54 - The creative commute

Referenced in the episode: 

Greece’s art program for mental health: https://artonprescription.gr/en/  

For more about Fancourt & her research, visit: https://sbbresearch.org/ 

Buy Fancourt’s book here: https://a.co/d/03ypycB7 

We hope you enjoy this episode, and feel free to watch the full video on YouTube! Whether it's an article or podcast, we want to know what we can do to help here at mindbodygreen. Let us know at: podcast@mindbodygreen.com.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Anatomy and physiology always matter when it comes to pain. They're just not the whole story,” says Rachel Zoffness, Ph.D.

Zoffness is a pain scientist, pain psychologist, and thought-leader revolutionizing the way we understand and treat pain. She's an assistant clinical professor at UCSF, lectures at Stanford, and consults on the development of pain management programs around the world. Dr. Zoffness’s new book, Tell Me Where It Hurts, is out now, and in the process of being translated into over 25 languages.

00:00 - Everything we know about pain is wrong

05:48 - Pain is biopsychosocial

09:45 - Building your personal pain recipe

15:00 - Emotions can turn pain volume up & down

18:14 - Your thoughts affect your physiology

25:29 - How cancer cured a kidney stone

31:51 - Optimism & letting go of outcomes

37:47 - What the placebo effect really is

39:45 - A daily protocol for pain resilience

44:35 - Why friends are medicine

48:05 - When words make pain worse

51:00 - Rachel's own pain story

Referenced in the episode: 

For more about Zoffness, visit her website: https://www.zoffness.com/ 

Buy her book here: https://a.co/03dKuChz 

We hope you enjoy this episode, and feel free to watch the full video on YouTube! Whether it's an article or podcast, we want to know what we can do to help here at mindbodygreen. Let us know at: podcast@mindbodygreen.com.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Making the effort earlier totally changes the trajectory for the rest of your life,” says Jeremy London, MD.

London is a board-certified cardiovascular surgeon with more than 25 years of clinical experience caring for patients across the full spectrum of heart disease — from prevention to advanced intervention. Dr. London received his medical degree from the Medical College of Georgia and completed his general surgery residency at Joseph’s Hospital in Denver, Colorado. He completed a general vascular and thoracic surgical fellowship at the Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, N.C. To deepen his understanding of medicine, he completed the Institute of Functional Medicine core program.

00:00 - When a cardiac surgeon has a heart attack

10:46 - Waking up with different priorities

13:49 - Missed signals

18:35 - The CGM experiment that revealed pre-diabetes

21:43 - The 5 tests that actually matter

25:44 - Diving into Lp(a)

30:36 - Target numbers for primary prevention

32:26 - Why taking medication isn't failure

38:24 - Atherosclerosis starts in childhood

41:19 - Why a zero calcium score doesn't mean you're safe

45:40 - What we don't know

48:41 - GLP-1s & the future of prevention

For more about London, visit his website: https://drjeremylondon.com/ 

We hope you enjoy this episode, and feel free to watch the full video on YouTube! Whether it's an article or podcast, we want to know what we can do to help here at mindbodygreen. Let us know at: podcast@mindbodygreen.com.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Midlife is a perfect time for you to think about where you've been & where you want to go,” says Margie Lachman, PhD. 

Lachman is professor of psychology at Brandeis University and director of the Lifespan Lab. A leading expert on adult development and aging, Lachman is one of a small group of scholars who study midlife from a lifespan developmental perspective. Her honors include research awards from the American Psychological Association (APA) and the Gerontological Society of America. Lachman was a member of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Successful Midlife Development, which launched the landmark Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study. She is a coinvestigator on MIDUS and several other projects exploring cognition, health, and well-being in midlife and later adulthood. 

00:00 - Why midlife is actually prime time

04:37 - The hinge moment & the pivot point

08:08 - Looking back vs. looking ahead

11:16 - The midlife crisis myth, explained

14:24 - Stability, identity, & personality change

18:42 - Traits of people who thrive in midlife

22:55 - What to do in retirement

26:53 - No one wants to look older

29:00 - Emotional regulation gets better with age

31:20 - Resilience, optimism, and sense of control

35:52 - Giving vs receiving in midlife relationships

38:36 - The U-shaped happiness curve is overstated

41:32 - Cognitive peak in midlife

40:36 - How your mindset can be anti-inflammatory

44:30 - Exercise as a panacea for health 

Referenced in the episode: 

Buy Lachman’s book here:

For more about the MIDUS study, visit: https://midus.wisc.edu/

Patent holder study: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733322001500 

We hope you enjoy this episode, and feel free to watch the full video on YouTube! Whether it's an article or podcast, we want to know what we can do to help here at mindbodygreen. Let us know at: podcast@mindbodygreen.com.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"There is no one magic test for brain health,” says Richard Isaacson, MD.

  

Isaacson is a Harvard-trained neurologist who directs the Precision Prevention Program at Atria Health and Research Institute and founded the world's first Alzheimer's Prevention Clinic at Weill Cornell Medicine/NewYork-Presbyterian. A leader in precision-medicine approaches to Alzheimer's risk reduction, he has served as principal investigator for multiple research initiatives focused on individualized care. He recently led an NIH-funded clinical trial showing that a free online tool (RetainYourBrain.com) reduced Alzheimer's risk by 16% in six months, and is working to democratize brain health testing through an at-home, lower-cost blood biomarker test (AlzLabs.org).

Show notes:

00:00 - What we don’t know about Alzheimer’s

04:49 - Where to start with Alzheimer’s risk

06:55 - Lifestyle first: optimizing what you can control

10:39 - Using wearables & health tech for brain health

16:19 – Why there's no perfect blood test for the brain

29:06 - Cutting through the information noise

31:10 - Steps to take when symptoms appear

35:37 - Is it actually memory loss?

38:54 - The future of Alzheimer’s testing

Referenced in the episode: 

Free cognitive risk & assessment tools: retainyourbrain.com

Free information about blood biomarkers: ind.org/bloodtest  

Free information about home testing: alzlabs.org We hope you enjoy this episode, and feel free to watch the full video on YouTube! Whether it's an article or podcast, we want to know what we can do to help here at mindbodygreen. Let us know at: podcast@mindbodygreen.com.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices