The Social Battery of a Lifetime
Hello everyone! This blog doesn’t typically follow our usual pattern of Medical Development Blogs. But in all honesty, that's why we have the mainstream section, because this is a topic within the healthcare scope that isn’t covered in our typical way.
Of course, if you’ve traveled through our website, you would know that we currently have an ongoing campaign called Read Against Alzheimer's. Subsequently, you would be aware that we are strong advocates for cognitive regression awareness here at The Medical Tree. Topics such as these are extremely important to us. Due to August 21st being National Senior Citizens Day, we thought it would only be right to talk about one of life's most interesting concepts. Our Social Battery.
Welcome to today’s blog, The Social Battery of a Lifetime.
The Elderly Social Battery
Staying active is still and will forever be important, no matter how old you are. For elderly individuals specifically, constant physical and neurological movement can promote better mental health, pushing further from depression while having a physical impact of better blood pressure, cholesterol, and sugar levels.
The Campaign
There are ways to help in the fight against cognitive diseases that affect millions of people on a daily basis. You can reach out to local organizations and ask them how to help, you can donate to different charities to directly help others, and/or you can join our campaign, called Read Against Alzheimer's.
The #ReadAgainstAlzheimers campaign is to spread awareness about Alzheimer’s disease and promote brain health activities, such as reading, that have proven to help delay cognitive decline. Although the requirements are simple, this campaign has the potential to be powerful due to the awareness and health benefits that can be implemented simply throughout everyday life. We aim to educate others, inspire healthy habits, and support research towards finding a cure.
Please check out the “Our Campaign” tab if you're interested to learn more!
Ways to reduce cognitive decline
Stop smoking
Limit alcohol intake
Eat a healthy diet
Exercise regularly
Attend regular health check-ups
Learn a foreign language
Learn or play a musical instrument
Start or maintain a new hobby
Stay socially active
The “Social Battery” Concept
The human “social battery” has been used in different contexts over the years, but today, social battery means the amount of energy a person has to socialize.
The actual amount of “social battery energy” you have isn’t a real, quantitative measurement; it's all figurative, but oftentimes it feels so real that you could say your social battery is a “X amount” for the given time. This concept becomes important when discussing topics such as social interactions and relationships amongst the elderly and their relationship with cognitive diseases.
Social Interactions
Social interactions, whether face-to-face meetings or activities such as playing tennis, have always been important, and if not completely, necessary for human survival. Social connections are important because they help build social skills with others, allowing people to build on their communication skills and digest concepts like social cues.
The interesting thing is that simple social interactions can also help tremendously to fight against chronic illnesses like dementia, heart disease, strokes, depression, and anxiety. Building healthy relationships with activities that will keep you active and/or relationships that keep you in a positive mental state, can allow your brain and body to be in constant motion and a constant cycle of brain function, preventing cognitive regression and some other chronic illnesses.
But what do the studies say?
Studies have shown that maintaining positive social connections with others activates the brain's hormones, such as dopamine, to be released, causing a positive emotional reaction. Additionally, in terms of physical health, the constant use of your social battery may reduce cognitive regression. Through social interactions, the brain gets stimulated, causing critical functions like problem-solving and active recall to be in constant use. This will ultimately reduce the risk of future cognitive decline over time because brain function is being maintained over time. A limitation to this includes genetics.
