How to Improve Your Memory & Cognitive Function at Any Age | Dr. Alan Castel

“Well, it can make you feel good because it, you know, a lot of people who might not feel great at 40 or 50, if you said, well, actually, that's the lowest point in the graph and it can actually get better with age, the title of my book. But it makes you realize that as we get older, there are more aches and pains.”

“Is youth lost on the young though? We're going to fire back and forth. Definitely feel like there's times where I'm like, wow, maybe I shouldn't call the book better with age. Cause let's revise that. Cause of your son's shoulder. Well, you know, just all sorts of things you can do when you're younger and you don't even appreciate it.”

“Your book, I didn't know you were going to give me a book today, Better With Age. I'm going to read it, The Psychology of Successful Aging. I'm going to encourage you to write more books because clearly you've gathered more knowledge since then. But it's a rare find that somebody is doing really interesting science and their work is immediately applicable and that it taps into a segment of our”

“Yeah. It's a great question. I think it's a little bit of both and you want to have that sort of balance. So if, you know, if you play piano, my father in his 80s and 90s still plays piano. I don't think he's learning new pieces, but he's strengthening the pieces he knows and that keeps him sharp.”

“Let's put more resources and time and energy into that. It takes me longer to learn a piano piece. Then, you know, my daughter. You play piano. I try. But, you know, I see my daughter, like, picking these things up so quickly. And I'm like, I know I'm not going to be like that.”

“She might even be a better driver than I am. You know, she's good at planning things. My daughter playing piano. It's like, gosh, if I could have those skills now, how I would practice more. My son will hurt himself in baseball. And I'm like, oh, he's out for three weeks. Three days later, he's pitching again.”

“I think there is a genetic component, but I also think it's not the extreme. Like it's not like you need four cups of coffee a day to, you know, prevent dementia. It's probably having some level of balance and some, you know, genetic component. But, and then C is often overlooked as a, you know, from a psychological standpoint is connection.”

“You know, we've talked a lot about, you know, exercise, sleep. And a lot of people say it's moderation. Like, it doesn't mean, like, don't drink coffee or drink seven cups a day. It's like... A cup of coffee, have one. But you're just going to realize maybe you don't want it every day. Get, you know, eight hours of sleep.”

“He did have a fall. Yeah. You know, like we were talking about. And it's interesting because he had a life alert that he could press around his neck. And this is why I think technology is great. Maybe there's ways we can prevent falls. But he fell in the middle of the night and he broke his collarbone and his wrist.”

“And he had this life alert button, but he didn't press it. Because of pride? Exactly. He didn't want to bother anyone. That's that Y chromosome. Yeah. It's a very... But you know.”

“I like track enough that I read, you know, the book about Bowerman, the coach up at Oregon. Like the men of Oregon is a really, he was another one of these amazing coaches that was much more of a mentor and teacher.”

“I also have to be vigilant, you know? Yeah. I just think the only thing, you know- I do wear a helmet. I've only met you today, but I feel like something's coming out where I'm thinking, just, I just, having lived in LA a while, it's just doors, cars opening. Sure. That's just the simple- You know, other cities too, right?”

“they get a new iPhone and they don't. There's no instruction manual. They're just playing around with it.”

“So I like Lee Chin's book and recently I just started reading it. Yeah. I started flipping through it, reading it front to back. And of course I recognize every line, right. Cause this is the area I've spent all these years in. But I, I had not thought about a lot.”

“And I really love his first book, but also his second book, The Art of Spending Money. He put out a, he said it's a Russian quote, the past is more unpredictable than the future.”