The pursuit of good brain health, while quintessentially important, appears to be having a moment. Its global industry, coined “mental wellness” and saturated with apps, supplements and media channels meant to support our quest in improving memory, attention span and more,is now valued at US$140-billion. That number is expected to nearly double over the next seven years.
This industry boom might have something to do with the grim, expected rise of cognitive disorders inside of our aging population over the next 20 years; researchers project that nearly one million people in Canada – nearly one in 40 people – will be living with dementia by 2030.
Fortunately, brain experts say that healthy lifestyle choices, such as exercising regularly and abstaining from cigarettes and alcohol, can mitigate the risk of brain disease by as much as 30 per cent. Yet, they worry about a hidden threat to healthy minds: social-media addictions that pervade our lives, erode our attention span and hinder our ability to engage in deep thought. On average, Canadians spend 105 minutes on social media a day, and experts encourage that we instead fill that free time with daily practices that are more conducive to long-term brain health.
“In many ways, our brains peak at 30, so we have to exercise it like a muscle throughout adulthood to ensure we stay sharp well beyond that,” said Dr. Teresa Liu-Ambrose, Canada Research Chair of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of British Columbia.
“No matter your age, putting the phone down and going for a walk should be thought of as an investment for the future,” she said. “People must appreciate that cognitive empowerment doesn’t just become important when they reach 65.”
We asked Liu-Ambrose and two other leading neuroscientists about what they consider to be the best daily practices for training the brain, and some things we can do in our free time – instead of doom-scrolling – that will increase our chances at maintaining good brain health later in life.
Dr. Teresa Liu-Ambrose said the exercise in question does not have to be intense to deliver cognitive benefitsGetty Images
Liu-Ambrose’s signature midday move is to leave her office between meetings and walk briskly to a local coffee shop. Her own research shows that short bouts of exercise throughout the day release hormones called myokines that stimulate neuron growth and promote a healthy hippocampus: a part of the brain that plays a major role in learning and memory, well into old age.
“Plus, we know that short bouts of exercise are good for muscle and heart health; it’s the best bang for your buck,” she said.
Liu-Ambrose said the exercise in question does not have to be intense to deliver cognitive benefits; it can be as simple as walking through your office building, or doing 10 sit-to-stand reps from your chair. And exercising outdoors is more likely to improve cognitive function than doing so indoors.
There is also a catch: the fitter you already are, the fewer cognitive benefits you stand to gain from short bouts of exercise. And if you are sedentary, said Liu-Ambrose, it may take up to six months of working out twice a week to begin seeing cognitive gains.
Digital games that are fun and make you solve problems are a much better brain exercise than social media, Dr. Liu-Ambrose said.STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP/Getty Images
Liu-Ambrose is wary of recommending “brain-gym” apps that purport to deliver cognitive benefits, citing Lumosity, a popular app that was fined millions for claiming to sharpen mental performance despite having no real evidence to back it up. Digital games that are fun and make you solve problems – such as Wordle, Connections or Sudoku – are a much better brain exercise than social media, she said.
“The magic comes when you are engaging in something that’s fun and that is making you think.”
Dr. Claude Alain, a cognitive neuroscientist at the Rotman Research Institute in Toronto, agrees that phone games are a good alternative to scrolling. Yet, he also thinks people should be careful that the games themselves do not feed into phone addiction and isolate us from others and the world around us.
Playing a game like Wordle is a better way to decompress from workday stress than scrolling on Instagram or X, and can inject a bit of mental challenge into your day, he said, “but as soon as you become sucked into the game at the expense of your relationship or sleep schedule, then you are probably harming your brain more than helping it.”
A creative pursuit
In recent years, Dr. Nathan Spreng, a professor of neurology and neurosurgery at McGill University, has adopted the habit of reading fiction to take productive brain breaks. What is important to him, he said, is mental stimulation away from the screen. In the past, he would force himself to only read literary classics, but now, any science-fiction book does the trick.
“Reading fictional stories can make you simulate an entire world in your head, and makes you work your memory and imagination. It’s a huge creative exercise that can really maintain brain health.”
Reading interesting fiction also forces him to engage with something he finds interesting. Alain said that method is useful across disciplines. A musician, for example, who spends a few minutes each day learning a new song or instrument stands a better chance of improved working memory and ability to solve complex tasks later in life.
“If you are a music person, listening to the oldies can unlock a bunch of memories,” said Alain. “And it’s important to choose a hobby you enjoy, because that means you will stick to it.”
Quality time with loved ones
Calling a friend or family member – or better yet, socializing with them in person – can go a long way in keeping the mind sharp, said Spreng. Navigating a social space – reading body language, finding common ground with someone else and understanding how we fit inside of a group – is one of the most challenging and beneficial things that we do.
Now that more than 30 per cent of us have ditched the water cooler and work from home, it is important to inject social moments into our day. Spreng said that engaging with people on social media might make us feel like we are making connections, but in reality, the quick fix is no replacement for the cognitive benefits that come from a real interaction with another person. Spending time with others can improve our attention and strengthen neural networks, and his own research shows strong links between memory and social cognition.
“A video call is better than a phone call, and an in-person conversation is better than a video call.”
Meditation or self-reflection
When in need of mental recharging, Alain’s go-to method is simple: He steps away from the screen for five minutes, takes deep breaths and revisits a memory in as much detail as he can. It accomplishes two things: the first is memory training, and the second is cognitive reboot from a challenging job that routinely involves conducting and interpreting new research. Downtime between those tasks is important, and should not be squandered by opening your phone in search of fleeting dopamine hits.
“Our jobs have us focusing for long hours every day, and if we supplement that with constant scrolling and commenting, we are probably overworking our brains,” he said, adding that it is still unclear how an abundance of stimulus from our jobs and social media will affect our minds in the long term.
“Any system that you overstress – whether it’s an athlete, a computer, or a brain – falters over time. Completely clearing my head for five minutes, and then trying to recall my hockey game from the night before in as much detail as I can makes me better for my next task at hand.”
The Canadian government says it will donate up to 200,000 vaccine doses to fight the mpox outbreak in Congo and other African countries.
It says the donated doses of Imvamune will come from Canada’s existing supply and will not affect the country’s preparedness for mpox cases in this country.
Minister of Health Mark Holland says the donation “will help to protect those in the most affected regions of Africa and will help prevent further spread of the virus.”
Dr. Madhukar Pai, Canada research chair in epidemiology and global health, says although the donation is welcome, it is a very small portion of the estimated 10 million vaccine doses needed to control the outbreak.
Vaccine donations from wealthier countries have only recently started arriving in Africa, almost a month after the World Health Organization declared the mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
A few days after the declaration in August, Global Affairs Canada announced a contribution of $1 million for mpox surveillance, diagnostic tools, research and community awareness in Africa.
On Thursday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said mpox is still on the rise and that testing rates are “insufficient” across the continent.
Jason Kindrachuk, Canada research chair in emerging viruses at the University of Manitoba, said donating vaccines, in addition to supporting surveillance and diagnostic tests, is “massively important.”
But Kindrachuk, who has worked on the ground in Congo during the epidemic, also said that the international response to the mpox outbreak is “better late than never (but) better never late.”
“It would have been fantastic for us globally to not be in this position by having provided doses a much, much longer time prior than when we are,” he said, noting that the outbreak of clade I mpox in Congo started in early 2023.
Clade II mpox, endemic in regions of West Africa, came to the world’s attention even earlier — in 2022 — as that strain of virus spread to other countries, including Canada.
Two doses are recommended for mpox vaccination, so the donation may only benefit 100,000 people, Pai said.
Pai questioned whether Canada is contributing enough, as the federal government hasn’t said what percentage of its mpox vaccine stockpile it is donating.
“Small donations are simply not going to help end this crisis. We need to show greater solidarity and support,” he said in an email.
“That is the biggest lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic — our collective safety is tied with that of other nations.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.
Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.
The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.
“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.
Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.
Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.
A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
