COGWHEELS #8: Medical Factors

Your health and medical conditions have a profound effect on your ability to live long and live well. You can’t live a long life if you get sick and die. And, it is much harder to enjoy your long life if you struggle with chronic and debilitating diseases. In this episode we take a look at medical factors that influence your quest for Qualongevity. 

There are, basically, four ways to deal with disease and injury: prevention, diagnosis, treatment and prevention. Each is important, depending up your state of health. The most effective strategy, of course, is to prevent injury and disease from taking hold in the first place. 

While there are myriad age-related medical conditions that undermine health and happiness, we focus on two of the big ones in this episode: dementia and chronic inflammation. We examine the true nature of neurodegenerative diseases, like Alzheimer’s and discuss sensible approaches to lowering your risk of succumbing to these conditions. Chronic inflammation has recently been identified as a major risk factor for dementia and a whole host of other diseases. Your ability to control and minimize chronic inflammation, therefore, is a highly effective way to improve your health and well-being as you age. 

Medical Factors Chapters: 

• Introduction
• 4 Approaches: Prevention, Diagnosis, Treatment & Management
• Dementia
• The Nature of Neurodegenerative Diseases – Michael Merzenich
• Types of Alzheimer’s – Dale Bredesen
• Brain on Fire – Chronic Inflammation
• The Jeckyl & Hyde Nature of Inflammation
• The Causes of Chronic Inflammation
• Strategies to Avoid Chronic Inflammation
• Change is Hard – So is Illness
• Conclusion

Chapters

• 0:00 introduction
• 2:08 4 Approaches: Prevention, Diagnosis, Treatment & Management
• 4:11 Dementia
• 6:38 The Nature of Neurodegenerative Diseases – Michael Merzenich
• 9:19 Types of Alzheimer’s – Dale Bredesen
• 11:02 Brain on Fire – Chronic Inflammation
• 12:58 The Jeckyl & Hyde Nature of Inflammation
• 16:22 The Causes of Chronic Inflammation
• 18:48 Strategies to Avoid Chronic Inflammation
• 20:42 Change is Hard; So Is Illness
• 21:14 Conclusion