Kenneth Koncilja, MD, is a geriatrician at Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Geriatric Medicine. He spoke with us about how leisure benefits the brain and how continued activity can help you age into health.
Read the Q&A with Dr. Koncilja below.
WAM: It’s summertime and a lot of folks are looking forward to taking a break from the stress and routine of everyday life at work. Does it do our brain good to check out of work for a period of time, and if so, why?
Dr. Koncilja: Vacation is very healthy for your brain health. People with healthy brains have fun and are active and find pleasure in health activities. When work or jobs are stressful this promotes inflammatory markers, cytokines, elevated blood pressure; these things have negative effects of metabolism, energy, fatigue, and weight. It is very healthy to do things for pleasure and have breaks from the stress of work. Having a positive attitude and experiences you look forward to is very important to promoting a healthy mood and motivation towards healthy lifestyle choices.
Cortisol is a stress hormone which (when persistently elevated in periods of high emotional stress) can negatively affect the health of your hippocampus and even promote metabolic syndrome, diabetes, hypertension, coronary artery disease (heart attacks), and cerebrovascular disease (strokes)! Your body makes cortisol in the adrenal glands, but the release of cortisol is controlled by your brain. It is the stress hormone when we are running late for a deadline for a project at work. Cortisol is very important to help us perform at a high level in high intensity times. When constantly elevated, it has very negative effects that can be damaging.
WAM: What are some of the benefits to brain health provided by different kinds of leisure activities? Is exercising necessarily better than organizing a clambake?
Dr. Koncilja: Leisure is very important for brain health. The key is variety. Social, physical, creative, and art activities each activate and exercise different domains of our brain. Trying to learn a new musical instrument can be good for your brain as is watching a foreign language movie with friends and discussing it afterwards over a healthy plant-based meal with green tea. Social activities help promote good motivation because not only will you promote your own health, but you will want to help your friends and family to get healthier by choosing healthy group activities.
Leisure activities release endorphins. These are natural hormones released by our body which help reduce pain and manage stress. They make us feel good. Many types of healthy leisure activities like regular exercise can help us to regularly improve our endorphin release (think of the runner’s high). Having regular health activities which boost and promote endorphin release can help us fight anxiety and depression in our everyday life.
Travel to sunny warm climates actually improves serotonin output. This is a natural treatment for depression, mood disorders, general anxiety disorders, and many types of chronic pain disorders. Especially for those of us who live in perpetually cloudy Midwest or northern cities, there is benefit for the winter vacation to a warmer sunnier climate.
WAM: Many people nowadays consider watching television to be a hobby, a preferred way to spend their free time. How does that stack up against reading or crafting when it comes to benefiting the brain?
Dr. Koncilja: Television is passive. It can separate us from family members and loved ones. Screen time also has negative effects on our circadian rhythm, cortisol, and melatonin balance. Scheduling a time to turn off all screens for the evening helps to promote more quality time with family and friends. Activities which activate different domains of your brain will be ones that challenge your creativity. Art, music, crafts, woodworking, home improvement, reading, and writing are all activities which can activate and exercise different domains in your brain. Challenging your brain to solve problems and figure things out is healthy. Using your brain to do math on paper instead of the calculator app on your phone is a simple way to force yourself to think differently.
WAM: For many retirees, there may be months if not years of leisure time ahead. Is that a concern when we’ve seen studies that show that people with mentally stimulating jobs are less likely to develop dementia?
Dr. Koncilja: It’s important to find meaning and purpose in life. These types of motivation are key to promoting healthy daily habits. Often people who had very mentally stimulating jobs (teacher, researcher, or doctor) might struggle with retirement. The struggle is often related to this loss of direction or loss of purpose. Believing in having a purpose in retirement and a focus can allow you to realize that your health and your life has meaning to others; it can motivate people to continue healthy habits into late life.
WAM: If dealing with complex social and intellectual demands at work helps build and maintain what’s called a “cognitive reserve,” what can we do in retirement to continue building it?
Dr. Koncilja: Your brain is not on an endless downward slope towards shrinkage. Healthy activities and stimulation can continue to build your cognitive reserve. An environment promoting a plant-based diet, regular physical activity, and positive balance of hormones and sleep will help promote good blood flow to your brain. When you stop learning new things your brain stops keeping those problem-solving skills. A successful habit is volunteerism. Use your skills from work in retirement to volunteer in a way which supports balance and your other health goals. In retirement continue to learn new things. Continue to challenge yourself, this will promote purpose and meaning to all of the healthy lifestyle challenge.