{"id":1377,"date":"2021-10-05T06:24:47","date_gmt":"2021-10-05T06:24:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/virtualbrainhealthcenter.com\/?p=1377"},"modified":"2021-10-05T06:24:47","modified_gmt":"2021-10-05T06:24:47","slug":"the-retirement-wisdom-podcast-with-dr-krystal-l-culler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/virtualbrainhealthcenter.com\/directory\/the-retirement-wisdom-podcast-with-dr-krystal-l-culler\/","title":{"rendered":"The Retirement Wisdom Podcast with Dr. Krystal L. Culler"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/show\/2CP5dxWripQwbMXC7VLanE\" width=\"100%\" height=\"232\" frameBorder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>How do you maintain cognitive health as you age? Our guest today is Dr. Krystal Culler and she shares a range of useful practices for brain health and staying sharp.<\/p>\n<p>We discuss with Dr. Culler:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>How she became interested in Gerontology and Health &amp; Wellness<\/li>\n<li>How she defines brain health<\/li>\n<li>The misconceptions she sees people having about brain health<\/li>\n<li>The relative importance of lifestyle factors versus genetics in cognitive health<\/li>\n<li>What people should do to foster brain health<\/li>\n<li>The role habits play in cognitive health<\/li>\n<li>What we should know about neuroplasticity and lifelong learning<\/li>\n<li>A book that\u2019s had a big impact on her<\/li>\n<li>Where people should start in cultivating better brain health<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Dr. Culler joins us from Ohio.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0_______________________<\/strong><\/p>\n<h4><strong>Wise Quotes<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><em>On Lifestyle versus Genetic Factors<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the most fascinating things about our field is how fast things are growing. So usually we were saying it is about 70% lifestyle and 10% genetics. And Dr. Sanjay Gupta\u2019s new book was just released early this year. And the research is actually slanting a little bit more where now 90% of our lifestyle is in our hands and it\u2019s 10% genetics. So I like to think that\u2019s really empowering for us to know that there are variables that we are able to control own [rather than] inherit, but for the most part, there are many things that we are able to manage and think about in a mindful way to move us forward on our personal brain health and wellness journey, all across our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>On How to Cultivate Brain Health<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have different reports that have come out over the years that pinpoint about 15 different factors. And the Lancet report shows that when we look at these different lifestyle factors and we talk about dementia, risk reduction across the world, we can prevent about 40% of those cases. And what we tend to think about kind of categorizing these factors. If we were to think about them in terms of your brain, your body, and your environment with your brain, you want as much education as early in life as you can. You want to stay stimulated, protect your brain, minimize stress or ongoing chronic stress sleep well, minimize depression, or if you\u2019re having a low mood and it\u2019s ongoing, reach out for help. And monitor your hearing loss and protect your ears from loud noises and exposure. And if you\u2019re thinking about it, your brain moves down to your body.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>On Neuroplasticity<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI like to think most people should know that neuroplasticity is our brain\u2019s ability to adapt and change. And it\u2019s been one of the largest myths of aging that, that is solely reserved for young children and the youth. Neuroplasticity occurs all throughout our life, really up until we are no longer here. Do we have the ability to grow and build new neurons? It\u2019s an ongoing process for us. So we are not stuck with the brains we have. I feel that we are very lucky for this ability for us as humans, we\u2019re constantly reorganizing information throughout our lives so we can make new connections, adjustments, and changes. So if we\u2019re really thinking about lifelong learning and we are seeking out high-quality, lifelong learning programs, you\u2019re looking for three core principles. You want something that\u2019s new, something that\u2019s novel, and something that\u2019s an appropriate level of challenge for you. I know that might sound counterintuitive, but it is because all of us are so different. So we want to engage in tasks and exercises, where we were to visualize a ramp and we\u2019re at the bottom. We have to keep climbing that ramp all throughout our lives and so tasks that we may have enjoyed when we were younger and that we can revisit and do eat more easily, serve a purpose that may help us relax or unwind. So if you play music, that is fantastic. You may want to try a new instrument to really stretch your brain. If you like to crochet or knit, it would be a new pattern or trying a completely different medium, sand the same thing for artists. It would be trying something outside of your wheelhouse. And you\u2019ve got to just keep pushing that ball up the ramp. Basically, if you were going for a physical workout, you\u2019re trying to make your own brain sweat. And so that ramp for all of us is very individualized because we have been exposed and engaged to many different things, but being a lifelong learner is really what it sounds like. We can do it through formal opportunities or informal opportunities, but we want to just keep making our brains stretch and sweat so they\u2019re more flexible. And we can engage in neuro-plasticity throughout our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>_________________________<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Bio<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Dr. Krystal Culler is a Doctor of Behavioral Health with a background in the behavioral sciences (psychology of aging, gerontology, and sociology). She is a Senior Atlantic Fellow with the Global Brain Health Institute, where she was the first scholar from the United States to complete her residency training at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland on dementia prevention and the social determinants of brain health. She has an unwavering commitment to promote brain health equity to individuals of all ages and the communities she serves.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Culler is the Founder &amp; Creative Director of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/virtualbrainhealthcenter.com\/\">Virtual Brain Health Center<\/a>. Krystal has spent nearly 5 years in Executive-level positions with health non-profit organizations and has 15 years of experience working with individuals with brain health concerns, their families, and advocacy organizations.<\/p>\n<p>Under her leadership, the centers have received 4 international and national awards from leading organizations in the aging care sector for innovation in brain health programming and community impact including honors from the International Council on Active Aging, Mather Lifeways Institute on Aging, the American Society on Aging and the Southern Gerontological Society on Aging.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, she has been recognized through the receipt of 4 personal leadership awards for her contributions to the field including the Global Brain Health Leaders Award (2019) from the Alzheimer\u2019s Association, Alzheimer\u2019s Society, and Global Brain Health Institute, and Crain\u2019s Cleveland Business 40 Under Forty (2017).<\/p>\n<p>________________________________<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More on Dr. Krystal Culler<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/virtualbrainhealthcenter.com\/\">Website<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How do you maintain cognitive health as you age? Our guest today is Dr. Krystal Culler and she shares a range of useful practices for brain health and staying sharp. We discuss with Dr. Culler: How she became interested in Gerontology and Health &amp; Wellness How she defines brain health The misconceptions she sees people [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1378,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-podcast"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/virtualbrainhealthcenter.com\/directory\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/55.jpg","acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/virtualbrainhealthcenter.com\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/virtualbrainhealthcenter.com\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/virtualbrainhealthcenter.com\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/virtualbrainhealthcenter.com\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/virtualbrainhealthcenter.com\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/virtualbrainhealthcenter.com\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/virtualbrainhealthcenter.com\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/virtualbrainhealthcenter.com\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/virtualbrainhealthcenter.com\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/virtualbrainhealthcenter.com\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}