MIND- How Elections Effect Brain Health & Wellness

In addition to taking personal responsibility for your brain health and mental well-being, you must recognize that the environment you live in and the social support systems that are available to you also have a profound effect on your brain and mind. 

In this episode I am revisiting an 2022 interview I conducted with Daniel R. George, author with Peter Whitehouse of AMERICAN DEMENTIA: BRAIN HEALTH IN AN UNHEALTHY SOCIETY. 

I feature Danny's comments on: 

• How brain health is affected by the global environment and by the political and economic systems that are in place.
• Why social support systems put in place mid-20th century resulted in declining rates of dementia.
• Why conservative, market-driven policies begun in the 1970s and 80s reversed that decline, causing higher rates of dementia.
• The tragedy of deaths of despair
• Examples of the kind of social support systems that promote brain health, well-being and flourishing. 

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 1:31 Daniel R. George - Broader systems impact brain health
• 2:59 The Ecopsychosocial Model
• 5:53 Why Rates of Dementia Dropped - For a While
• 9:06 Why Dementia Rates are Rising Again
• 11:29 Deaths of Despair
• 12:52 Social Systems that Support Brain Health & Flourishing
• 14:06 Conclusion - Vote To Support Flourishing

Transcript

HOW ELECTIONS AFFECT BRAIN HEALTH AND FLOURISHING

Hi there. Welcome to the Flourish As You Age podcast. I’m Michael C. Patterson and in this episode I am going to focus on how elections affect our ability to flourish.  I’m going to rely heavily on a conversation I had with Daniel R. George in 2022. 

As I record this podcast, we are about a hundred days out from the November 2024 Elections when America will decide whether we want Donald Trump and the MAGA  party, or Kamala Harris and the Democratic party to lead us into the future. I thought it would be good to look at this decision from the point of view of health, well-being and flourishing. Which candidate is more likely to help us flourish? 

To a large extent, the Flourish As You Age podcast has focused on how to take personal responsibility for our own health and well-being.  But we also have to understand that we all operate operate within social systems and societal structures that also have a profound effect on our health and well-being.  If we want to flourish, we need to take responsibility for shaping those societal systems in ways that support everyone’s efforts to flourish. The choices we make about who to put into power can have a deep impact on our well-being.  Elections matter and their impact can last for a long time. 

Audio clip of Danny George #1 

That was Daniel R. George, who is an associate professor of Humanities and Public Health Sciences at Penn State College of Medicine. I interviewed Danny in 2022. 

We talked about the book he co-authored with neuroscientists Peter Whitehouse called AMERICAN DEMENTIA: Brain Health in an Unhealthy Society. The book, and my conversation with Danny had a profound impact on me, and really helped me to understand the social causes of dementia. 

Danny used a term that describes the essential areas of life that we need to address to achieve brain health - and flourishing. The ecopsychosocial model. 

Here’s how Danny explains it. 

Audio clip of Danny George #2

There are broader systems at work that affect brain health and our ability to flourish that go beyond individual responsibility. They include the state of our global environment, as well as the state of national and global political and economic systems.

So, as Danny said, we can think of our responsibility as a series of concentric circles starting with us - the individual - in the center and then radiating out to our family, friends, colleagues, tribes, nations all the way to our global connections. 

Danny made the important observation that the incidence of dementia had been declining in recent years. A lower percentage of old people were suffering from dementia, and this wasn’t due to the introduction of any wonder drug. It had to do with the kind of social contract that had been put in place in our country in the mid 20th century.

Audio clip of Danny George #3

It’s a distressing fact, however. that this decline in dementia rates has stopped and even reversed itself. The incidence of dementia is again on the rise. 

Audio clip of Danny George #4  

Yes. There are problems in our country. But, as Danny makes clear, it is essential that we understand why these problems arise, what social systems make things better and which make things worse. Then, we can use this  historical perspective to put together sensible plans for the future. 

One of the greatest scourges of modern era are deaths of despair. 

Audio clip of Danny George #5

One of the reasons that life expectancy is dropping in the U.S. Is because of the rise in deaths of despair, which is a topic of particular interest to Danny George. 

Danny #6 

The pain and disenfranchisement of the mass of American people, as Danny says, can be directed in a number of ways. We obviously don’t want people to despair. But it isn’t helpful or healthy to respond by fostering fear, anger and hatred. We need to put systems in place that alleviate suffering, rather than exacerbate it.

In our conversation in 2022, Danny outlined a number of societal changes that would promote brain health and support flourishing for all. He talks about investing in collective solutions that reconfirm an equitable social contract.

Audio clip of Danny George #7 

This November we get to decide which party - which vision of the future of America - will be most beneficial for most people. Trump’s Project 2025 wants to double down on policies that consolidate power in the hands of a few elites. The Democratic vision of Biden and Kamala Harris is built on principles of equality, diversity and opportunity for all. 

Please vote in November. Please vote to defeat Project 2025 and the MAGA agenda. If we want to flourish, and want our children and grandchildren to have the best opportunity to flourish, we need to vote for the vision of the future embodied in Kamala Harris.

In 2022 I did a series of interviews with Daniel R. George, which had a great influence on the way I think about social responsibility for what ails us. 

Daniel R. George is an associate professor of Humanities and Public Health Sciences at Penn State College of Medicine. He earned his Ph.D. and M.Sc. in medical anthropology from Oxford University in 2010. He has over 130 professional peer-review publications, and his research on intergenerational issues in dementia care has been recognized by the global advocacy group Alzheimer’s Disease International. In addition to AMERICAN DEMENTIA, Danny co-authored the book THE MYTH OF ALZHEIMER’S: What You Are Not Being Told About America’s Most Dreaded Disease, with Peter Whitehouse.

We focused on Alzheimer’s and dementia, but they are proxies for our general state of health and wellbeing. 

In his book, and during our interview, Danny George persuasively argues that we will not be able to reduce the incidence cognitive decline and dementia until we reform the political and economic systems that contribute to vast inequalities in wealth and limit access to healthy food, clean water and air, education and medical care.  We will continue to suffer damage to our brains so long as we continue to despoil our environment and disrupt earth’s climates. We will continue to be demented – both clinically and behaviorally – unless we continue to reform and improve our political and economic systems, working towards sustainable use of the planets resources, equitable treatment for all, equitable distribution of wealth and access to food, education, medical care and meaningful work.

Danny made a strong case for developing a new model for brain health, one that includes individual responsibility, but also, importantly, includes the social, political and economic settings in which we, as individuals, must operate. 

Danny#1   – Short Summary

An Ecopsychosocial Model for Brain Health and Flourishing.

Who are the most vulnerable to weaknesses in our environment and our political and economic systems.  

Danny #2 – Ecopsychosocial

So looking forward to the November elections we should keep this ecopsychosocial model in mind. 

Take just the ECO part. We have two clear approaches to the our global environment. Democratic policy is to respect and protect our precious environment – protect the amazingly unique planet earth that we supports life.  The Republican plan is to double down on raping and plundering planet earth, focusing on short-term personal gain and ignoring the long-term health of our planet. Trump leads the chant of Drill, baby drill.” 

The Democrats are very concerned about the damage being done by global warming, or “global wierding” as Peter Whitehouse puts it, and will continue to work with countries around the world on this global problem. 

Project 2025, the Trump and Maga agenda, continues the approach of sticking their heads in the sand and making believe nothing is wrong. They deny the existence of climate change, take no responsibility for the ways our actions can make matters worse, and have no intention of putting policies in place that can make things better. And what they are ignoring is an existential problem. If there is anything, other than say a nuclear war that can threaten human life on earth, it is climate change. 

Danny points out that for a while, the incidence of dementia was declining – going down. The reduction of dementia was not the result of a new wonder drug, but was the result of supportive social systems that had been put in place when the so-called great generation was coming of age. 

Danny #3 – Paradox of dementia decline. 

Danny’s book, American Dementia, co-authored with Peter Whitehouse is about the structure of our culture - our politics, our economic and public health policies, can either improve the nations brain health and well-being, or can make it worse. 

DANNY#4 - HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE What has worked?  

American Dementia - National Memory loss. We forget the lessons of history. Project 2025 wants Americans to suffer from a kind of historical dementia and forget what  kind of social support systems actually work and actually help people. 

Danny #5 - WHY IS DEMENTIA ON THE RISE AGAIN

For example

• In a hyper-capitalist society, a market driven economy as favored by Project 2025,  individuals are not human beings, they are consumers. People are not people, not flesh and blood, but are thought of as lifeless commodities to be bought and sold for profit. 
• People are divided into one small IN group and all the rest of us who are sorted into various kinds of OUT groups, and people in the out-groups are dehumanized, called monsters, thieves, rapists, terrible terrible people. 
• Converting free public education into a for profit industry. 
• Reduced access to health care
• Reduced regulation of pollution.      

Danny talked about his particular focus on what is called deaths of despair. 

Danny #6 - Deaths of Despair

I asked Danny what kind of changes should be made? 

Danny #7  - What changes should be made?

Identify areas of shared material benefit.  

What can influence the structure and function of our brains by keeping them engaged, open and challenged. This stimulated positive brain plasticity and   

Danny #8 -  COGNITIVE RESERVE 

EDUCATION IS GOOD FOR YOUR BRAIN. 

Lead poisoning undermines cognitive reserve

Me #9 - My  Conclusion.