Last Open Lecture 03/06/26, Building and Protecting our Health, healthy ageing, lifestyle factors and how these can be modified was given by Professor Alan Gow in Holy Trinity Curch after the AGM on 3rd June.

What a great turnout for a lively and informative talk. As mentioned, David Taylor, Lecture Coordinator, asked Prof. Gow for any support material he could share with us. The response was positive so here you are:

Good to meet so many of the East Lothian u3a, what a great turn out.

I’ve compiled a few links for those who might be interested in following up on some of the points discussed in the session.

To read more about our “What Keeps You Sharp?” survey, a brief booklet of the findings is available at https://researchportal.hw.ac.uk/en/publications/what-keeps-you-sharp-a-national-survey-about-what-people-think-ab/

If you want to follow up on some of the topics, you can then explore:

Age UK’s Staying Sharp resources www.ageuk.org.uk/information-advice/health-wellbeing/mind-body/staying-sharp/,

Age Scotland’s Health and Wellbeing guide www.agescotland.org.uk/information-advice/information-guides/health-wellbeing/78-health-and-wellbeing-in-later-life

and Brain Health Scotland’s website www.brainhealth.scot/understanding-brain-health.

If you want some summaries of how different lifestyle factors are associated with brain health, another good resource is the Global Council on Brain Health. They have complied reports about social contact, diet, supplements, physical activity, music and more…find the reports at: www.aarp.org/health/brain-health/global-council-on-brain-health/resource-library/

For those not able to attend or those who are keen to explore the topics via audio/video, here’s a radio show we were involved in (BBC Radio Scotland Brainwaves, presented by Pennie Latin: How To Stay Sharp, listen at www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09qqmfg), and we also popped up on a podcast by Michael Mosley (BBC Radio 4 Just One Thing, Learn a New Skill, listen at www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000vgf0).

My inaugural lecture at Heriot-Watt was also recorded and can be viewed here https://youtu.be/RKEY5TAzMyk.

As I mentioned, Brain Health Scotland are doing a lot of interesting work in the area. As well as good information and support for adults, they have a school programme. It’s described here for those interested in getting children or grandchildren exploring more about brain health www.brainhealth.scot/amazingbrain