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Tag Archive for: brain health

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Do You Listen to Music While You Work?

Music at work… a distraction or a helpful part of your working environment?  The following article care of Inc Magazine discusses the science behind how music affects the brain and provides insight into the best times to play some tunes, and the circumstances where a quiet environment is more beneficial.

Inc Magazine:  What Listening to Music at Work Does to Your Brain (It’s Pretty Amazing)

We want to hear from you… do you listen to music while you work?  And… do you find it helpful or distracting? 

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A Place Called Vertigo

Julie Entwistle, MBA, BHSc (OT), BSc (Health / Gerontology)

I am not sure what the word “vertigo” refers to in U2’s hit song, but as someone living with vertigo, I can tell you it is not a place you want to be.  Vertigo is highly unpleasant and can be caused by multiple factors including visual or auditory problems, or more commonly, head injury.  I best describe my vertigo as my eyes and ears sending different messages to my brain regarding the position of my body in space.  So, while my eyes tell me I am sitting still in a chair, my ears tell me I am on a boat in the middle of a hurricane.  The result of these mixed messages is spinning, nausea, dizziness, problems walking, and ultimately dysfunction.

For me, my benign positional vertigo (BPV) lives in my right ear.  As a result, I cannot lie on my right side, laterally flex my head to the right, lie flat with my neck extended, or look down into extreme flexion.    While I can tolerate these movements momentarily, I cannot hold these positions for more than a few seconds otherwise I am sent into a spin that can last for days.  I am fortunate to know my triggers and do my best to avoid them (no yoga for me).  I have also learned, after living with this problem for two decades, how to catch my symptoms early to prevent a slight episode of dizziness from turning into days of bed rest.

When my clients experience vertigo and describe this to me, I can fully appreciate where they are coming from.  The story is a book I too could write.   But, like other “hidden” ailments, I get concerned when the medical community does not take this complaint seriously.  This is especially true in my industry where insurers and their assessors often want “proof” of a health problem to support someone’s recovery. While I recognize that people can be dishonest, my experience is that people don’t make this stuff up.  Health professionals need to give people the benefit of the doubt, including insurance situations. To understand, or better yet, support someone with any “invisible” problem like vertigo, health professionals need to be compassionate and should care enough to listen, to research and learn, and ultimately believe.  Empathy, TRUST, and understanding will go a long way to support those that need it. I can only imagine how frustrating, devastating and angering it would be for someone to assume or opine that my “place called vertigo” is not a place at all: because, believe me, I live here.

 

previously posted August 2013

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Being a Life-Long Learner Can Help You Age Well

As we’ve mentioned before when discussing how to support optimal aging, the old cliché is true when we talk of cognition – “use it or lose it”.  Just as we need to exercise our bodies for physical health, we must do so for our brain to support cognitive health.  Learning something new is a great way to flex the muscles in your brain, and the great news is you don’t have to sit in a classroom to do so.  Take a look at the following from the McMaster Optimal Aging Portal which discusses how online learning can support you as you age.

McMaster Optimal Aging Portal:  How online learning can support optimal aging

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The Cognitive Job Demands Analysis: Your Brain at Work

Many employers know that a Physical Job Demands Analysis involves a health professional outlining the physical aspects of a specific job position.  These are common in manufacturing or production industries where jobs can be heavy, repetitive, or require high physical demands.  But these reports are seldom helpful if an employee suffers a brain injury, cognitive or emotional impairment and their return to work issues relate to cognitive or psychological changes and not necessarily physical impairment.

A Cognitive Job Demands Analysis is an objective evaluation of the specific cognitive, emotional and psychological skills required to perform the essential job duties of a given position. As mentioned, traditional Job Demands Analysis typically address only the physical components of the essential job duties.  Yet, jobs are multifaceted and performance at work depends on the interplay of human physical, cognitive, emotional, behavioral and environmental factors.  As such, having a cognitive job demands analysis in conjunction with a physical job demands analysis is ideal, or these can be completed as a standalone assessment if required.

Cognitive job demands analyses can be helpful in providing a baseline measurement tool against which an individual’s cognitive and psychological capacities may be compared, such as when hiring new employees, developing and implementing training programs, or to assist in return to work post injury or illness. These comprehensive and detailed assessments can be utilized when any health condition (cognitive, physical, or emotional) impacts an employee’s thinking, cognition and/or their interpersonal processes and abilities.

Much like with a physical job demands analysis, a cognitive job demands analysis involves an on-site observation of a worker(s) completing the job in question and usually includes objective measurements, and sometimes interviews with employers and co-workers. Some of the more specific aspects examined include:

  • Hearing, vision and perception
  • Reading, writing and speech
  • Memory, attention, and higher level cognitive abilities, like problem solving, insight and judgement
  • Safety awareness
  • Work pace
  • Self-supervision
  • Deadlines and work pressure
  • Interpersonal skills required for the job
  • Self-regulation and the need to work independently, with supervision, or in a group

A comprehensive job demands analysis should include comparisons of the information obtained to standardized classification data related to occupations, such as those outlined by the National Occupational Classification 2011 proposed by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada. After a report is generated, recommendations and interventions for consideration can be developed.

Do you feel that your organization has positions that need to be outlined via a cognitive job demands analysis? Do you have more questions on how a cognitive job demands analysis can be used in the return to work process? If so, seek out the services of an Occupational Therapist, or contact us for a free consultation.

For additional informative posts on workplace health and wellness please refer to our Healthy Workplace page.

Resources

Haruko Ha, D., Page, J.J., Wietlisbach, C.M. (2013). Work evaluations and work programs. In H. McHugh Pendleton and W. Schultz-Krohn (Eds.) Pedretti’s Occupational Therapy Practice Skills for Physical Dysfunction (337-380), St. Louis, Missouri: Elsevier Mosby.

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The A to Z of OT: N is for… Neuroplasticity

What is neuroplasticity?  Just as we need to exercise the muscles in our body, we also need to exercise our brain. Our brains are made of billions of neurons, which interact with each other to complete specific tasks. Signals are sent from one neuron to another along neural pathways, and these determine our thoughts, emotions, insights, and so much more. Each task relies on a different neural pathway, so the pathway for reading a book is different than the pathway for putting on our shirt. The more we use a pathway, the stronger the connection becomes.

These neurons have the ability to physically change themselves when faced with new and difficult experiences. This ability is called neuroplasticity.

Learn more about Neuroplasticity, its use in Occupational Therapy, and how we can use this knowledge to help reduce cognitive decline as we age in this previous post, Cognition and Aging, Use it or Lose it.

 

October is Occupational Therapy Month and to celebrate we will be sharing a new series called the A to Z of OT.  In our attempts to further educate the public about what Occupational Therapists do we will be highlighting twenty-six of the awesome ways OTs provide Solutions for Living.  

We encourage you to follow along and to add to the discussion by highlighting other awesome things OTs help with for each corresponding letter!

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Game… Set… Cerebellum

Co-authored by Meredyth Bowcott, Student Occupational Therapist

The 2018 Rogers Cup has just wrapped up in Montreal and Toronto, and once again spectators in Canada and around the world were dazzled by the likes of top-ranked tennis players such as Rafael Nadal and Simona Halep. If you’ve ever tried your hand at the sport, you know it requires great speed, agility, endurance, and of course coordination.

So how do these players prepare to return a serve that can clock in at speeds of over 160 km/hour? Well, they do it with a little help from a part of the brain called the cerebellum.

The Mighty Cerebellum

The cerebellum registers the serving player’s movement pattern, along with the speed and trajectory of the tennis ball, and predicts the outcome of these movements. As the returning player makes a split-second decision about how to get into position to hit the ball back, the cerebellum is still hard at work. It receives instructions for how the body should be positioned in order to return the serve, simultaneously comparing the body to the actual position of joints and muscles. The cerebellum sends signals to adjust the position of the body in real time, giving the player the best shot at returning the serve.

We can’t all be tennis superstars, but we do all rely on our cerebellum in our day to day lives. Truly, any intentional movement that you accomplish in a smooth and predictable manner, from watering your plants to drinking a cup of coffee, is brought to you in part by your cerebellum.

Ataxia

So, what happens when this crucial brain structure becomes damaged and isn’t working as it should? One of the symptoms of cerebellar dysfunction is ataxia. Ataxia is characterized by a loss of muscle control and coordination, and can affect the whole body or only specific parts (upper extremity, lower extremity, trunk, etc.). Individuals with ataxia may have difficulty initiating movements, movements may appear jerky and imprecise, and they may have poor sitting or standing balance. Others may have difficulty swallowing or experience rapid back and forth eye-movements.

Ataxia has a pronounced impact on how people go about the activities in their day. Without adequate muscle control and coordination, tasks like getting dressed, walking, and preparing a meal become more challenging.

How Occupational Therapy Helps

It’s important for medical teams to determine the cause of the ataxia and see whether it is due to an underlying issue that can be treated. When symptoms persist, occupational therapists (OTs) focus on ways to help individuals with ataxia compensate for their symptoms. Some of the ways an OT might help someone with ataxia are:

Energy conservation: Fatigue can exacerbate symptoms of ataxia, therefore it’s important to think about how to conserve energy throughout the day.  We do this with the four P’s:

  • Prioritizing: OTs can help establish a list of priority activities, that is which tasks throughout the day are more important for the individual to be able to get done. Focusing attention on what’s most important contributes to a more rewarding day.
  • Pacing: It’s important to take regular breaks – before fatigue sets in – and practice proper pacing technique. OTs can help create a realistic daily schedule that allows time for productivity and rest.
  • Planning: OTs are skilled in task analysis and can help individuals find the most efficient way to accomplish an activity. This reduces unnecessary expenditures of energy, and can reduce frustration.
  • Positioning: OTs consider how the individual interacts with their environment while accomplishing a task. For example, ensuring everything needed to make dinner is within reach limits unnecessary movement.

Joint stabilization: If muscle incoordination occurs in the upper extremity, it can be beneficial to stabilize the arm when accomplishing gross and fine motor movements. For example, stabilizing one’s elbow by leaning it on a table can help create a smoother movement when drinking from a cup.

Adaptive equipment: OTs can recommend equipment to make certain tasks easier. In some cases, the use of weighted utensils may help reduce jerky arm movements. Self leveling spoons can also help minimize spills during mealtime. Lining work surfaces in the kitchen with a non-slip mat such as Dycem © can provide traction to compensate for muscle incoordination.

Every person with ataxia is different, and occupational therapists have the skills to develop individualized plans to help them lead active and fulfilling lives. For more information on these and other ways occupational therapy plays a part in treating ataxia, contact an OT!  In the meantime, if you like sports, watch the cerebellum in action at the upcoming US Open!

 

References:

Anderson Preston, L. (2013). Evaluation of Motor Control. In H. McHugh Pendleton & W. Schultz-Krohn (Eds.), Pedretti’s Occupational Therapy: Practice Skills for Physical Dysfunction, 7th Edition. (pp. 461-488). St. Louis, Missouri: Elsevier Mosby.

Foti, D. & Koketsu, J.S. (2013). Activities of Daily Living. In H. McHugh Pendleton & W. Schultz-Krohn (Eds.), Pedretti’s Occupational Therapy: Practice Skills for Physical Dysfunction, 7th Edition. (pp. 157-232). St. Louis, Missouri: Elsevier Mosby.

Mayo Clinic. (2018). Ataxia. Retrieved from:

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/ataxia/symptoms-causes/syc-20355652

Tipton-Burton, M., McLaughlin R, & Englander, J. (2013). Traumatic Brain Injury. In H. McHugh Pendleton & W. Schultz-Krohn (Eds.), Pedretti’s Occupational Therapy: Practice Skills for Physical Dysfunction, 7th Edition. (pp. 881-915). St. Louis, Missouri: Elsevier Mosby.

UBC Medicine – Educational Media. (2014, February 18). The Cerebellum – UBC Neuroanatomy – Season 1 – Ep 8 [Video File]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17mxfO9nklQ

 

 

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Computerized Cognitive Training – Does it Help?

How do you stay “mentally fit?”  In our previous post, Working up a Cognitive Sweat, we suggested some online ways to provide a “workout” for your brain through computer “brain training” programs or computerized cognitive training.  The following care of the McMaster Optimal Aging Portal discusses research which confirms that these training programs do provide benefit, even to those who with mild cognitive impairment.   Learn more about this research below and take a look at our OT-V episode, Cognition and Aging — Keeping the Mind Sharp, for more ways to keep your brain cognitively fit!

The McMaster Optimal Aging Portal:  Computer brain games for treating cognitive impairment

 

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Stay Sharp with the 30 Day Healthy Brain Challenge

June is Brain Injury Awareness Month and, in recognition, Solutions for Living created the 30 Day Healthy Brain Challenge.  We challenge you to complete these 30 simple activities and tips which, when incorporated into your lifestyle, can help improve memory, boost mental health, prevent brain injury and reduce cognitive decline.

Try the 30 Day Healthy Brain Challenge and after the month let us know how many activities you were able to complete!

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Nourish Your Noggin with These Delicious Dishes

The choices of WHAT we eat are becoming increasingly important as research is finding more and more connections between certain foods and their effects on our bodies.  The following from Eating Well provides recipes that can help to fuel our brains to assist with concentration and memory, and keep our minds in tip-top shape!

Eating Well:  Brain-Boosting Dinner Recipes

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Your Best Brain: Use It or Lose It

The old cliché is true when we talk of cognition – “use it or lose it”.

Our brains are made of billions of neurons, which interact with each other to complete specific tasks. Signals are sent from one neuron to another along neural pathways, and these determine our thoughts, emotions, insights, and so much more. Each task relies on a different neural pathway, so the pathway for reading a book is different than the pathway for putting on our shirt. The more we use a pathway, the stronger the connection becomes.

These neurons have the ability to physically change themselves when faced with new and difficult experiences. This ability is called neuroplasticity. As we are exposed to new areas, tasks, information or experiences, neural pathways are formed and existing ones are reshaped. This will continue throughout our entire lives as we learn. As we have experienced through practicing a musical instrument, memorizing our shopping list or recalling a friend’s phone number, if we consciously focus and train our brains in a certain area, they will become faster and more efficient at performing those tasks.

Just as we need to exercise the muscles in our body, we also need to exercise our brain.

Some great ways to keep “work up a cognitive sweat” include:

  •         Online cognitive training programs and apps
  •         Playing board games
  •         Reading books
  •         Completing puzzles such as a daily crossword or Sudoku
  •         Learning a new language or skill
  •         Getting artistic

Try our 30 Day Healthy Brain Challenge to help you find other ways to boost your brain and prevent cognitive decline.