Mental and Heart Health

Today, Doug Pike interviews Dr. John Higgins about how mental health affects the heart.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Remember when it was impossible to misplacethe TV remote right because you were the
TV remote for you. Remember whenmusic sounded like this, Remember when social
media was truly social? Hey,John, how's it going today? Well,
this show is all about you ona good die. This is fifty

(00:25):
plus with Doug Pike. Helpful informationon your finances, good health, and
what to do for fun that die. Fifty plus brought to you by the
UT Health Consortium on Aging, InformedDecisions for a healthier, happier life,
and by Incredible. If a stainseems indelible, you haven't tried Incredible And

(00:47):
now fifty plus with Doug Pike.Op third day issue of the program starts
right now. We'll talk in thesecond segment, not now, in the
second segment with doctor John Higgins,one of my favorite guests of all on
this show. And he's been onI would bet I don't know eight ten
times at this point, maybe morereally, because we've been doing the show.

(01:10):
This is our eighth or ninth year. It's hard to believe, but
yes it is. And he hasalways come on and always helped me out,
and it is something as you'll ifyou remember the name, doctor Higgins
is a cardiologist, and it ismental health Awareness Month, And we're gonna
tie those two things together in thesecond segment, So stick around for that.

(01:33):
I had six minutes to knock backa lunch of Rudy's barbecue, and
I did it. I didn't takewhat I normally would. If I'd had
fifteen or twenty minutes, I wouldhave made it a more leisurely lunch and
I would have eaten more. ButI think under the circumstances, it's probably
the right portion. So and whatI did well true confessions. I saved

(01:59):
room. Did you do the samething? Will? Did you see a
little bit now? And save roomfor cobbler? Well, you know I
always save room for cobbler, nomatter how much you eat. That's a
good point. That's an after showtreat, you know. Yeah, that's
the way to look at it.There's light at the end of this tunnel
for us. After we finish theshow, we get to go have I
think it's peach today. I thinkit's always peach at Rudi's. Is it

(02:21):
not peach cobbler? Have you everhad anything else? I blueberry? To
be honest, The only time thatI ever have Ruti's is whenever it's brought
into the office. Yeah, wehave a Rudy's down in Richmond. It's
a good ways from my home inSugarland, and actually I need to get
back down there. It's been awhile since I've been down there, and
maybe I'll treat the fam to adinner down there at some point soon.

(02:44):
I am. I really appreciate ityou listening and always do what I want,
what I want to happen when thisis all over. I want you
to I want you to leave atthe end of the hour, when Will
and I go get that cobbler.I want you to to. Well,
you can stay tuned to KPRC allyou want, that's great, But when
this show's over, I want youto feel like you're glad you listened,

(03:07):
maybe because you learn something about fillingthe blank whatever. I tend to bounce
from subject to subject on this showbecause at our ages, honestly, when
the news comes on, we're gonnamake up our minds pretty quickly, whether
we think the reporters right or wrong. We are, as they say,
set in our ways. So whenI get into a story that I really

(03:30):
feel is worth sharing, the fasterI can tell you all the pertinent information
I think the better. I'm smartenough to know that I'm not going to
change the opinions of many people ourage. We are set in our ways,
either either kind or not, Democrator Republican or former hippies who like
to keep calling themselves independence. Whateveryou or I or anybody else in this

(03:53):
audience is at our age, it'sgoing to be really difficult to sway us
in a totally different path. Downa path we just are who we are,
and I love all of you justthe way you are because we,
unlike so many young people these days, we understand that people can disagree on
a lot of things, but inthe end, we're all still just people,

(04:18):
none of us, neither of usby virtue or birthright or anything else
better than the other. We're doespeople, and I wish the current generations
could could grab onto that and understandwhat that means. That don't seem like
they can. Honestly, one ofthe best men I've ever worked for here
at iHeart, now retired quitter isa card carrying Democrat, and I'm not

(04:43):
sure whether he'd still admit to thatsince the last presidential election, but for
the longest time he and I wouldhave these wonderful conversations about politics, totally
in disagreement on policies and taxes andwhatnot, but we never quit respecting each
other. And to this day Istill call him a friend. I still
I talked to him yesterday on thephone, as a matter of fact,
A friend who gets to travel andplay golf and put on his spandex and

(05:05):
ride his bike all over Texas.But mostly he's just someone I call a
friend. Despite our philosophical differences.It's good to have a friend you can
disagree with too. Keeps you grounded, keeps you better able to realize that
your way isn't necessarily the only way. A lot of people have kind of

(05:25):
lost track of that possibility. Evenanyway, stocks mixed at the open and
unlikely to have swerved off that path. That's probably true pretty much every day,
and pretty much every minute the marketis open, because some stocks are
gonna be up, some stocks aregonna be down, so they're mixed.

(05:46):
That's the word they always throw inwhen they don't know what's going to happen.
They just say it's mixed. It'smixed on current events and current news.
Oil is down a buck a barrelat the open. I'll take that.
Yesterday. This is good news.Yesterday forty to fifty percent chance of
rain today. Apparently magically somehow driedup overnight. So now what they're saying

(06:09):
is that we may or may notsee an occasional isolated shower or pop up
thunderstorm this afternoon, but otherwise nothingelse except heavy clouds. We're gonna have
that blanket over us all day long. It's gonna make it kind of warm
and muggie, but maybe not thesame horrific rain that we've had for the

(06:30):
last one day and a half.Something like that yesterday morning was It's quite
the show for a lot of people. I didn't get it nearly as badly
out where I am as some did. But around here these days, with
all the slabs we put in andthese these make believe retention ponds that don't
really don't really serve the purpose thatthey were intended to serve. In many

(06:54):
cases, there seems to be alittle bit more minor flooding. I would
call it, not so much notHarvey class flooding, certainly, but the
water in the street for a while, and that's kind of a pain.
It's just a pain, all right. So I'm not gonna do that yet.
I don't want to have I don'twant to I don't want to get

(07:15):
into something that I can't stay with. So instead I will just tell it.
Well, I'll tell you what I'lldo on the way out. Remind
you to keep your AM radios inyour cars. Only a couple more times.
We're gonna keep doing this, hopefullyso that everyone gets a chance to
share with their congressional representatives and senatorsthat they want to keep those AM radios
in the cars and the easy wayto do that because it's the right thing

(07:39):
to do. There's no reason totake them out, and we need them
not only for conversation and talk shows, but for emergencies like hurricanes and floods
and tornadoes all over the country.AM radio in the car maybe the only
place you can get any information ifyou're electricity's out for a long period of
time. Text AM to five twoeight six AM. Just those two letters

(08:03):
to five two eight eight six,and you'll let your congressional representatives know how
you feel. On the way out, I'll tell you about ut Health Science
Centers Consortium on Aging. I feelvery good about speaking for them, and
I have for many years. Now. This is a place in the med
center that does nothing but senior medicine. And you don't see kids running around

(08:26):
there. Well, you might seethem as grandchildren. You might see younger
adults as somebody who drove their momor dad or a family friend to an
appointment, but you won't see themgetting treated. The doctors, the trainers,
the therapists, the nurses, everybodythere is specially trained in senior medicine.

(08:46):
That's what they do all day,every day, and they do it
very very well. Ut dot eduslash aging. Go see what they can
do for you. Ut dot eduslash aging. Now, they sure don't
make them like they used to.That's why every few months we wash them,
check his fluids, and spray ona fresh coat of wax. This

(09:09):
is fifty plus with Doug Pike.Use this on purpose, don't you will?
But the world's longest instrumental opens wellis that it is? It all

(09:33):
instrumental? Is there any are there? They're just all instruman. Okay,
well that's cool, then we'll gowith that. Let's just go with that.
Welcome back to fifty plus. I'mDougie's will Since this is Mental Health
Awareness Month, I wanted to continuespotlighting mental health on as many fronts as
possible. In this case, todaywe're gonna talk about the effects of poor

(09:54):
mental health on our hearts. Thereis a connection, and to talk about
it all unlist someone in whom Ihave the utmost confidence, and that person
is doctor John Higgins, Professor ofCardiovascular Medicine with McGovern Medical School at ut
Health Houston. Welcome back, Dot, Hey Doug, and happy Mental Health
Week. Thank you. I'm hopingto hang on to mine for a few

(10:16):
more years. I read recently thatthere is clear evidence now some relationship between
mental health and heart disease. What'sthe link, Well, there's two things
that mental health. That is,you know, things like anxiety depressions that
can do the first other kind ofshort term things. So we know that

(10:37):
they can you know, raise yourheart rate, your blood pressure. They
can also UM, which in turnyou know, can bring on a heart
attack stroke UM. But also overlonger term, you know that that extra
stress and those other things can haveeffects by increasing other cardiovascular risk factors like

(11:00):
high blood pressure, UM, cholesterol, diabetes, and those folks also tend
to kind of not sleep well.Uh, and they don't, and they
have kind of some bad habits Doug, you know, over drinking, smoking,
and just not eating healthy. Sothose things all compound long term,
you know, to again increase cardiovascaldisease as well as certain cancers and other

(11:26):
health problems. Drinking, smoking,and poor eating habits, all three really
would qualify as kind of self medication, wouldn't they in this case? Yeah,
yeah, Doug. I mean andjust like you know, exercises medicine,
you know, and that's uh,that's something that folks with mental health
have found really really helps their mentalhealth. You know, it helps depression.

(11:50):
You know, just getting outside,even if it's just walking around the
block. You know, we're takinga dog for a walk, that will
improve your mood. And of course, you know, those things also help,
you know, to reduce you bloodpressure, Get a bit of sun
you know, helps the vitamin Dhelps you sleep at night. So there's
a lot of small things you cando each day to improve your mental health

(12:13):
as well as those people that dosuffer from mental health, Doug, you
know those uh, those things,small things can really help them feel better.
I'm so glad you got to exerciseor you actually beat me to the
punch. I had made note thatthis would not be a doctor John Higgins
interview if we didn't drop in aword or two, or maybe a couple

(12:33):
of hundred about the importance of exercise. And it's no. And I'm saying
that in the in the best,most complimentary way, because it is so
important to you, and it shouldbe equally important to everybody in this audience,
shouldn't it. Absolutely? And youknow, any type of exercise will
work for you. You know,whether it's being you know, jogging,

(12:54):
swimming, or you know, goingto the gym, doing you know a
couple of that's, or or evenjust doing some nice yoga or some stretching
or even gardening, you know,just any anything where you're going to be
moving that body and getting getting theblood flowing. That all helps, don
what are the latest parameters on effectiveexercise at three times for thirty minutes,

(13:16):
four times for twenty minutes, what'sit take to get benefit? Now?
Well, Doug, you know thecouple of studies have shown even as a
small an interval of ten minutes duringthe day can give you benefits. The
sweet spot looks like it's around thethirty minute mark of moderate exercise most days

(13:41):
of the week. But you know, some people prefer to go more the
high intensity so they only have todo about ten to fifteen minutes, or
some people do a lower intensity youknow, just a slow walk. You
know, you have to push thatout to probably forty five minutes to an
hour a day if you're doing akind of a low intensity exercises. But
you can mix it up as well, Doug. And do you know maybe

(14:01):
some moderate one day, do somerelaxation and low intensity, you know,
whatever works with your schedule. Butit's it's the main thing I want to
emphasize, Doug, is it lookslike what you're better off doing a little
bit each day rather than what Icall binge exercising. They're not doing anything

(14:22):
and then going weekend warrior. Youknow, sure, just go up to
the gym and stay all day.No, let's don't do that. And
before we get people overly, doctorJohn Higgins on fifty plus here, I
don't want to get everybody worked upand worried. I'm hoping you'll tell us
that mental health problems don't always createheart problems, am I right? And
vice versa? Really, yeah,yes, exactly, Doug. I mean,

(14:45):
you know, there are some thereare some kind of classic ones that
people, uh, you know,we see. You know, people for
example, who are very anxious sometimescome in with palpitations you know, within
fast to heart rates. UM,people that are really really have really really
stressful jobs and you know, reallydon't like what they're doing and are understress

(15:05):
a lot. You know, wesometime they sometimes show up with heart attacks
or strokes. But um, youknow a lot of people who have you
know, sort of mental health that'swell controlled. I mean that there's no
reason why they can't, um,you know, have a life span just
like someone without if it's well controlledand they do some of those things that

(15:28):
we've been talking about that talk alittle if you would talk about self monitoring
for signals of mental health issues thatultimately could hurt our hearts. What what
level of forgetfulness can we just confidentlydismiss as nothing And at what point do
we maybe go talk to the doctorabout how we're how we're not as sharp
as we used to be. Well, I think, you know, do

(15:50):
the things that things like you know, going into a room and forgetting why
you went in there, or youknow, forgetting way you like the keys,
you know that sort of thing.Those things are are usual within the
usual parameter school for those people.You know, yeah, right right,
but you know, but but youknow things, it's things are starting to

(16:12):
cause problems. Um, you know, either with your social relationships. You
know, like for example, you'rechronically forgetting very important appointments and you know,
upsetting other people, or uh,you know you're um leaving things on
the stove and the house SA firealarm, you know, or or uh,

(16:33):
you know things that major things youare totally forgot about and and they've
led to consequences. You know,those are the like for example, you
know, if you're forgetting to takeyour medications and you know your blood pressure
is running hard and you can't youknow, you just can't seem to remember,
or you can't remember even you knowwhat medical conditions you have. You

(16:55):
know, things where where it's reallyreally interfering with your daily activities end up
and interfering with people around you ina negative way, then you probably should
reach out to someone and you knowit might be something that they can do
something relatively easily about, like forexample, you know, getting you a
nice pill container with all of youpills played out for the week. Yeah,

(17:18):
having a timer, setting a timerevery time you put the stove on,
which which will give a beat,nice loud beep, you know,
at the end of twenty minutes,to remind you to turn it off.
Whatever it takes. You know,there are modifications that people can make to
their houses to make things a loteasier for them and to kind of trigger
their memory if they've forgotten things.Some little kickstarters, if you will exactly

(17:41):
done, you know, just alittle trigger and you know, oftentimes little
changes like that can help you tocontinue to be independent. So what we
need to do is watch ourselves andif we do feel like the cheese is
slipping off the cracker a little bit, we just come in and check with
you on that and on the heartand we'll be okay. Believe it or

(18:02):
not. We are already out oftime, my friend, doctor John Higgins,
thank you so very much, myfriend. All right, yes again,
we'll talk again soon, I'm sure. All right. On the way
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(18:47):
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(19:07):
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(19:29):
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(19:51):
Go there, read the downloadable guides, maybe attend one of the seminars
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membership law shield dot com uslow shielddot com Aged to perfection. This is
fifty plus with Dougpike. All right, welcome back to fifty plus. Thanks

(20:29):
for listening, certainly if you appreciateit. Eleven No. Nine eleven twelve
thirty three four somewhere in there twelvethirty three. I believe it is.
I moved my watch up another minutethis morning, just to make sure I
wasn't late for anything today, andit's I don't get really confused by it,
but I just I just kind ofgo with what I've gotten. In
case you missed it. Former PresidentTrump was on CNN last night for a

(20:52):
town hall discussion that had liberals kindof losing their minds really after what I
just said about that friend of minewho leans politically in a different direction than
I, I kind of hope thattheir disappointment might be presented with dignity and
decency. But in the first partof the first story I read barely deeper
than the lead paragraph, came thefirst utterance of an absolutely unnecessary profanity,

(21:19):
and then another, and I'm guessingthere were others. I just got bored,
And rather than name any of thesepeople whose vocabularies lack more meaningful words
to express their feelings, I simplyhope they might try a little experiment and
maybe see a couple of things todo next time they're absolutely positively sure that

(21:41):
someone they already hate is telling lies, I would challenge them to actually take
a step back before they get intoan outburst and actually go research evidence from
both sides of that issue instead ofjust the ones on their side of the
fence. Really dig in, openthe mind and just let all the information

(22:02):
in, you know, like arational person might do, and then form
an opinion based on facts rather thanthe regurgitation of some scripted bologney that they've
been shoveled for so very many times. I saw something online yesterday. That
was a stunning example of how manymedia outlets are walking hand in hand with

(22:25):
and using dialogue and agenda, everyone of them all at the same time.
That probably ought to scare all ofus who think we have unbiased I
don't know if anybody who still thinkswe have unbiased media, but maybe there
are people who do. Somebody tookthe time back during the height of this
January sixth kangaroo court disguised as aninvestigation, and yes, that assessment is

(22:52):
based on my own opinion. Afterconsidering that there might have been truth to
both sides of the story, Idid a lot of reading. I did
some research. Somebody compiled a syncdup dissemination of the exact same words and
the catchphrase, the one that resonatestoward the end is a threat to our

(23:14):
democracy. There's many words in frontof that, but then it always ends
with a threat to our democracy.And this person syncd up the deliveries of
dozens of news anchors on television aroundthe entire country north, southeast and west
during their nightly reports at nearly theexact cadence and emphasis, word for word,

(23:38):
they said the exact same thing.Now that cannot be coincidence. It's
I'll never be convinced that forty orfifty or more copywriters at the same number
of television stations could think up theexact same line on the same day and
put it on all those teleprompters.That just beyond reasonable to think that that

(24:03):
could possibly happen, just a mess. In another case of in case you
missed it, evidence made public yesterdayabout an alleged pile of money that's allegedly
been linked to as many as ninenow members of the Biden family and dating
all the way back to this timeas vice president. I'm sure you've heard
something about this, and you shouldgo look for more evidence, more research

(24:27):
on it. The evidence that cameto light behind claims made by what officials
call a credible whistleblower, is thatthese dollars, these millions of dollars,
were being shuffled through multiple LLCs thatallegedly did a little more than just shuffled
dollars, then dispersed in smaller incrementsto family members to further money to trail.

(24:55):
And one of the line of thoughtnow is that Hunter Biden's going to
get indicted and convicted, after whichhis father's going to and it'll all go
away if even half the allegations thatare being raised against them are true.
Though I hope that's not how thisstory ends. Regardless though of this case
it's outcome, we as a nationcan't condone any effort by anybody to use

(25:15):
political influence or public office for personalgain. The ball at present really is
in the FBI's court, where thereallegedly exists a document that outlines in detail
pretty much what was done, whodid it, and how much money was
involved over the course of years,and the FBI at present refuses to produce
the records that were subpoenaed by theCongressional Oversight Committee. Let's see how that

(25:41):
turns out for everybody. Really,it really is just frustrating as can be,
very frustrating. All right, well, let's let's ease off of that.
Let's ease off of that and dosomething a little lighter things. We
know, I'm not going to dothat on the road again. This is
why we should stop developing AI orI want tofu and I want it now

(26:07):
on the road again. What doyou think it's about? Probably getting on
the road again. You don't thinkit's about Willie Nelson on the road again.
Well it's not in a new poll. It sounds like everybody in America
digs road trips. Eighty three percentof people have a positive opinion of road
trips, and less than ten percentof people will have a negative opinion.

(26:32):
They probably the ones that don't havea Bucky's along the way. That would
be my guess. Same numbers,by the way, the same percentages plus
or minus a few points among alldemographics in America. Some people like them,
most people like them, some peopledon't, And really I don't.
I don't have an opinion either way. It depends on where I'm going,

(26:55):
how long I get to stay,and how many people will be driving,
because for the last few years,some of the trips I've had to take
have been just my son and meto these baseball tournaments halfway across the country,
and I end up driving or flyingand driving every mile of the way.
He does have his learners permit now, and I can't wait. I

(27:15):
can't wait till I can put himbehind the wheel and just say wake me
up when we get there. Thisai thing that I mentioned that the weirdest
questions, I honestly think we shouldjust stop developing this because people are using
it for the stupidest things. Willcan you imagine any one of these one,
two, three, four questions thatare the most popular questions being asked

(27:40):
of AI? Can you come upwith even any of them? Please please
write my turn paper. Well that'sbeen done, and done and done.
It's the guy actually wrote an outdoorscolumn, or allegedly wrote it. He
didn't, well, he didn't writeit. He can fast. Actually I

(28:00):
don't even remember the guy's name.But he was late on a deadline.
I talked about this on my outdoorshow on kbame over this past weekend.
He was late for a deadline andhe told his son he couldn't go do
something whatever with him, And hisson said, huh, what's this dead?
And he pulled up I think chat? What is it called chat?
What GPT? He pulls up chatGPT and he types in four or five

(28:25):
keywords and this thing spits out aseven or eight hundred word feature on bass
fishing or trout fishing or whatever.And there's absolutely no way I would ever
present that to any publisher. Butand I don't know whether that guy did
or not, but it just goesto show you how hard it's going to

(28:47):
be to determine whether something is realin the future and something is not real.
Same is very true with the AIand photography. The AI in video
you can make it look like justabout anybody you know is doing anything you
want them to be doing. Andthe quality of this stuff now is such

(29:08):
that it's virtually indistinguishable from reality,and that should be frightening. It is.
By the way, those questions,can you help me write a love
letter to a tree? Can youhelp me find a unicorn? Is it
possible to train a hamster to playthe guitar? And this one I've actually

(29:32):
seen this somewhere and I don't evencare what the answer would be. Would
you rather fight one hundred duck sizedhorses or one horse sized duck? The
age old question. Yeah, peoplehave been asked. I would say I
would like the hundred duck sized horsesI'd like to have. I think I

(29:56):
could break and ultimately the me insticateand ride off into the sunset a horse
sized duck. You sit there andyou wrap your wrap your ankles up under
the wings where they meet the body, and just holler, giddy up,
quack, quack. What was hisname quack Quack. Maybe a late health

(30:18):
A late health will help you keeplittle problems from becoming big health problems,
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eight is phone number seven one,three, five eight eight thirty eight thirty
eight The website A latehealth dot comthat's a la te a late health dot
com. One's life without a net. I suggest you go to bed,
sleep it off, just wait untilthis show's over. Is sleepy Back to
Doug Pike, as fifty plus continues, Welcome back to fifty plus, thanks

(31:37):
for listening. Certainly we appreciate it. Oh life in the big city,
huh. How wonderful as that?Sometimes? Yes, sometimes now in Chicago
and in Chicago, granted, notthe best example of fantastic life in the
big city. Four teenagers charged withkilling a police officer early Saturday morning.
All four these are teenagers, allfour already with lengthy criminal records, known

(32:04):
by their neighbors to be involved inthe dealing of drugs and guns and other
bad stuff. These guys before thathappened, Before they did that, they
had been on a robbery spree,apparently at the request of one of their
girlfriends, to get money for abarbecue. So they had they had already

(32:24):
held up I think it's three olderwomen, and then they did something else
I can't remember, to somebody's car, and then they hijacked car. And
that's when they encountered this policewoman whowas just just on her way home,
mining her own business. On herway home. Oh you know what's um?

(32:52):
Yeah, that is correct. Shewas twenty four years old. Twenty
four years old, and these fourbad guys decided to end her life and
they did. That's horrific. Alsoin Chicago, business owners being told to
police their own places because the policeforce, grossly understaffed and without resources,

(33:15):
can't keep up. One bar owner, after he'd been burglarized three or four
times, asked for some increase patrolsor something else to help stop this hooligan
or red. I don't know howI'm trying to think of a new word
for that law breaking. We'll justleave it at that. And what he

(33:36):
was told to do instead, Theycouldn't do that, they said, And
they advised him to install riot proofwindows, which would cost I think something
like thirty forty thousand dollars. Andthese politicians in these cities wonder why people
are just leaving as fast as theycan find an availble U haul truck and
a friend to load it. Orin Florida's another story today about a police

(34:00):
officer being shot. Not by anolder teenager, how about a thirteen year
old about a thirteen year old,And rather than get out of the gun
or get out of the car inwhich he and his buddies were fleeing a
scene of a drive by shooting,he got out carrying that gun and just
took off running, and rather thanjust stop and give up and throw his

(34:23):
hands up in the air, hedecided to turn around and shoot at the
police officer. The kid was alsohit by fire from another officer, and
from the brief story I saw,I think both of them are actually expected
to make it, and I don't. I'd love to think that that kid's
gonna find a new path in lifeand become better after this experience, but

(34:45):
honestly, it's it's hard to it'sjust hard to imagine. And the most
bizarre story of the week. AndI could give you a thousand guesses,
and I don't think you would guessthis. Here. It is former pro
baseball and football player Bo Jackson undergoingtreatment this week to shut down a case

(35:09):
of the hiccups that he's had constant, almost constantly for a year. He
said he has tried every every folklorecure known to man, and even said,
and it's hard to know whether thisis true. He even said that

(35:29):
he had at some point, andI'll paraphrase, smelled the backside of a
porcupine perfect Honestly, I think I'djust rather have the hiccups than that but
hey, if I'd had him forclose to a year, I might try
just about just about anything. Onthe good news side, musical therapy.

(35:52):
I've titled this when researchers followed morethan a hundred retired people for six months,
people who had never ever practice musicbefore, and they were enrolled then
in piano and music awareness training forthose six months, and guess what,
working memory performance increased by six percentand there was no loss whatsoever. And

(36:17):
a lot of these people, asretired people you would expect, like doctor
Higgins and I were talking about alittle decline in brain function. But amongst
those people who were learning music orlearning music appreciation and listening to a lot
of music, they didn't have thatdecline. They didn't have it. Keyword

(36:37):
is neuroplasticity. The mental effort neededto remember, for example, the phone
number long enough to hunt down apen and write it on paper, something
like that. If you can't dothat, if I tell you a phone
number right now, and my sponsorswould be interested in knowing this, and
you had to walk into another roomto get a hen and a piece of

(37:00):
paper and then write down that number, could you remember it. I'm honestly
honestly not one hundred percent sure,depending on what the number is for.
If it's for something vitally important,I can probably remember it. If it's
not. If it's just some casualthing where I'm supposed to call and set
an appointment for the guinea pig toget his nails trimmed, I may forget

(37:21):
it halfway there, on purpose ornot. I don't know. So if
you've never taken a piano lesson ora guitar lesson, and if you can
remember me suggesting that you do this, get involved in music somehow, and
that musical awareness could keep your brainworking quite well for I don't know,

(37:42):
who knows how many more years.I think that'd be fantastic Over in Europe.
Just it's just interesting meteorological news,specifically the Catalonia region of Spain,
where olives and grapes and other cashcrops normally sustain the local enemies. Drought
has persisted long enough now for actuallyfor some thirty months now, that rationing

(38:08):
has been put into place and it'sbecoming more and more severe. Been going
on for a very long time.Most regional reservoirs barely at half their normal
levels, and one of the largestwater supplies in the region, one of
the ones that was most reliable nowat five percent of its capacity. Five

(38:31):
percent. That's low. Droughts historicallycommon in that region of Spain, but
they've typically been balanced out over theyears by sustained periods of rainfall that brings
the levels back up. So farthough the rain so desperately needed now to
replenish those reservoirs hadn't fallen. Quickreminders. I talk about kindness on this

(38:54):
show a good bit and for goodreason, and talk about it being a
universal thing, and there's actually astudy that's been done now. I saw
a story that said around the worldpeople help each other every two minutes.
That's thirty times an hour, whichhonestly, on global scale, I don't
think is nearly enough. So maybeif we all try a little harder to

(39:16):
do nice things, to do kindthings for other people, maybe we can
turn this crazy train around and getback to the reality that whatever we're in
we're in it together. I sawone yesterday video of a woman who's baby
stroller and baby as she was loadinggroceries or something in her car, started
rolling toward a very bit like awest Timer. It was somewhere else in

(39:37):
the world. She started to chaseit, but she fell down, and
just before that stroller got in theroad, a stranger caught up to it
and kept the ending of the storyfrom being way worse. That's a big
one, okay, Little ones,little acts of kindness could be hold the
door for somebody who looks like theyneed it, Or maybe just smiling and
saying good morning to somebody, ormaybe, as Wills tell me to do

(40:00):
nowadays, to wish you a happyafternoon and get off the air because I'm
out of time, which I am, so we'll see you tomorrow. Thanks
for listening. Id else