Speaker 1: Now back to Dan ray Line from the Window World
Speaker 1: night Side Studios on w b Z the news Radio.
Speaker 2: We're very fortunate to be joined tonight by doctor Andrew Budson.
Speaker 2: He's a neurologist, Harvard trained, Harvard Medical School trained, and
Speaker 2: now teachers at Boston University School of Medicine.
Speaker 3: Almost everyone of any age, uh, is, you know, wishing
Speaker 3: that they could remember things better. And it's a little
Speaker 3: bit hard to know sort of historically, like have people
Speaker 3: sort of always struggled with their memory? Is this something new?
Speaker 3: And I think it's a little bit of each you know.
Speaker 3: Just historically was actually the ancient Greeks that came up
Speaker 3: with this method that used to be called the method
Speaker 3: of Losai and we now call it like a memory
Speaker 3: palace or something like that, where they learned that if
Speaker 3: you picture yourself walking through through your home or another
Speaker 3: place that you know well, you can remember a large
Speaker 3: variety of people or you know, items for your grocery
Speaker 3: list or for your holiday shopping by sort of putting
Speaker 3: different items into different rooms and even different sort of
Speaker 3: parts of different rooms, and then you can end up
Speaker 3: retrieving the memory by walking through it. And I bring
Speaker 3: up this example to just say, even two thousand years ago,
Speaker 3: you know, people were working on being you know, trying
Speaker 3: to be able to remember things better. But there's no
Speaker 3: doubt that in today's society there's all sorts of pressures
Speaker 3: going on that I just think, you know, weren't really there,
Speaker 3: you know, one hundred years or so.
Speaker 4: So.
Speaker 3: People deprive themselves of sleep, We spend way too much
Speaker 3: time watching television. People don't eat healthy foods. There's way
Speaker 3: too much processed food. You know, people aren't social in
Speaker 3: the post pandemic world like they used to be. We
Speaker 3: don't exercise enough. Then, you know, I can go sort
Speaker 3: of on and on about these changes, and I think
Speaker 3: it's all of these changes that have affected people's memories,
Speaker 3: whether they're older and they're coming to my clinic with
Speaker 3: memory problems, or whether they're my students and my other
Speaker 3: trainees who are struggling to remember things.
Speaker 2: Well. I think the article that we were first interested
Speaker 2: we first picked up some of this by the Globe
Speaker 2: report of Felice Fryar talked about millennials, meaning people who
Speaker 2: are now probably you know, as young as twenty eight
Speaker 2: and as old as forty five, people who were born
Speaker 2: between nineteen eighty one in nineteen ninety six. Normally people
Speaker 2: in that age category, you don't associate memory loss with them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, it's it's really true. But I do think
Speaker 3: it has to do with, you know, how we're changing
Speaker 3: as the society and the things that we tend to
Speaker 3: spend our time doing. You know. So you know, I
Speaker 3: mentioned a couple of those things. Let me just mention
Speaker 3: a few more so you know, all of us, but
Speaker 3: I think, especially millennials, spend time multitasking. And the fact
Speaker 3: of the matter is our brains actually can't really do
Speaker 3: two things at once unless one of them is really
Speaker 3: completely unconscious. Like we can like walk and talk to
Speaker 3: a friend at the same time, but it is impossible
Speaker 3: to be like trying to take in the information that
Speaker 3: your teacher is telling you while you're looking at your
Speaker 3: cell phone at the same time. You know, people can't
Speaker 3: really do these things. You can't watch television while you're
Speaker 3: studying for your notes, so while you're listening to your
Speaker 3: spouse tell you what you should be, you know, getting
Speaker 3: at the market or something like that. Sure, and so
Speaker 3: instead we shift our attention from one thing to another,
Speaker 3: back and forth, and we end up not remembering either
Speaker 3: of those things as well as we would if we
Speaker 3: could do one of those things at a time.
Speaker 2: Okay, what about the reliance of young people? And I'm
Speaker 2: gonna probably upset some of my audience, but people who
Speaker 2: spend a lot of time on the computer, because there
Speaker 2: are studies now that show a lot of the stuff
Speaker 2: on the computers. It's just not good for you. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's addictive. And I find myself sometimes you'll see the
Speaker 2: reels and you'll see some kid who was, you know,
Speaker 2: twenty years you ten years old and looks like a
Speaker 2: major league pitcher or some person who hits a golf shot,
Speaker 2: you know, and you watch it. It rolls three inches
Speaker 2: from the pin, and you say, well, let's see what
Speaker 2: the next one is. Let's see what the next one is.
Speaker 2: How much of a problem is that, Because it seems
Speaker 2: to me that the arrival of computers, the home personal
Speaker 2: computers kind of coincides with this that generation of people
Speaker 2: coming of age.
Speaker 3: Well, I think it's it's all of this sort of
Speaker 3: ability to sort of do sort of mindless things. And
Speaker 3: you know, it's sort of an overused analogy that you know,
Speaker 3: your brain is sort of like a muscle that you
Speaker 3: have to sort of use it or lose it. But
Speaker 3: but there really is evidence that when we are you know,
Speaker 3: actively creatively, you know, using our brains in social interactions
Speaker 3: or when we're problem solving and you know, doing things
Speaker 3: at work, having interactions with people, all of those things
Speaker 3: are using your brain in the way that your brain
Speaker 3: evolved to do things, and and it helps to keep
Speaker 3: it strong, including keeping your memory strong. And there were
Speaker 3: these pair of articles that came out from the very
Speaker 3: large study in the United Kingdom of about five hundred
Speaker 3: thousand middle aged people called the UK Biobank, and what
Speaker 3: they found is that people who spent more than an
Speaker 3: hour a day watching television, you know, they ended up
Speaker 3: number one in one study. It showed that they're thinking
Speaker 3: and memory actually got worse over the time in the
Speaker 3: study if they spent that much time on television. And
Speaker 3: then another study actually showed that they were at increased
Speaker 3: risk of getting Alzheimer's disease as they got older. And
Speaker 3: I think that you know, using the computer in a
Speaker 3: way that you're just you know, watching videos and getting
Speaker 3: entertainment's essentially the same thing as watching television not good
Speaker 3: for your brain.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's certainly not interactive, that is for sure. My
Speaker 2: guess is doctor Andrew Butdson. He's a neurologist and expert
Speaker 2: in memory loss. We're talking about memory loss of both
Speaker 2: young and old. We'll break it down if you have
Speaker 2: any question about things that you may have forgotten. And
Speaker 2: I think a lot of people, particularly those of us
Speaker 2: on the wrong side of fifty, as I refer to it,
Speaker 2: when we do forget where's my phone or where mccar key's,
Speaker 2: many of us get into a panicainsay, it was just
Speaker 2: the first sign. And we'll ask doctor Budson about that
Speaker 2: and how all of us He's hinted at a little bit,
Speaker 2: how all of us can sharpen our memories, both on
Speaker 2: both short term, midterm and from the days when we
Speaker 2: were young. Because it's funny, I'm told, and I think
Speaker 2: Doctor Butdson will probably confirm it for me that there
Speaker 2: are things that you easily re member from when you
Speaker 2: were in the fifth grade of the sixth grade, but
Speaker 2: you have more difficult time remembering maybe the names of
Speaker 2: your college classmates. I'm going to ask you about that
Speaker 2: phenomenon as well, but you have probably better questions than
Speaker 2: I do. So six one, seven, two five four ten
Speaker 2: thirty or six one seven, nine, three, one ten thirty.
Speaker 2: It's not often you can talk with the neurologist of
Speaker 2: doctor Budson's stature about yourself or maybe about someone who
Speaker 2: you're close to. We'll be back on Night's side right
Speaker 2: after this with doctor Andrew Budson of Boston University.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan ray Line from the Window World
Speaker 1: Light Side Studios on w b Z, the news radio.
Speaker 2: We are very fortunate to be joined tonight by doctor
Speaker 2: Andrew Budson. He's a neurologist UH Harvard trained, Harvard Medical
Speaker 2: School trained and now teachers at Boston University School of Medicine.
Speaker 2: And doctor Budson were joined by my delighted to be
Speaker 2: joined by my great friend and anchor person here at
Speaker 2: w b Nicole Davis, who during the break said, could
Speaker 2: I ask doctor Butson a question? And I said, Hey,
Speaker 2: come on, of course you can. If that's okay with you,
Speaker 2: Doctor Buttson say.
Speaker 5: Hello to no of course, Hi doctor, how are you?
Speaker 5: Thanks for being here tonight. This is really really important information.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 5: I'm in my late thirties and I have found, especially
Speaker 5: over the past five six years, I am one of
Speaker 5: the many people who are starting to develop a lot
Speaker 5: of these symptoms. You know, not just remembering food and
Speaker 5: TV programs and stuff from back in the nineties better
Speaker 5: than I do last week, but you know, it's more
Speaker 5: serious than that at times. My question is I know
Speaker 5: that a lot of us elder millennials, we x aennials,
Speaker 5: I think we're called those of us almost forty at
Speaker 5: this point, we're being diagnosed later in life as neurodivergent
Speaker 5: with either autism. I was diagnosed late with ADHD. How
Speaker 5: much of a correlation do you see between what you're
Speaker 5: noticing on the neurological side of things and neurodivergency.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a very good point. And let's start with
Speaker 3: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or ADHD. So the key to
Speaker 3: being able to remember things is to be able to
Speaker 3: pay attention to them, and so anyone who is diagnosed
Speaker 3: with ADHD it sort of means by definition, they have
Speaker 3: difficulty paying attention. And it's something that anybody can have
Speaker 3: from time to time. In fact, what the average person,
Speaker 3: including myself, does when we find our attention lagging is
Speaker 3: we take a little bit of a stimulant, and of
Speaker 3: course most of us don't use a pill, but use
Speaker 3: either a cup of coffee, a cup of tea, a
Speaker 3: caffeinated soda, or something like that. That stimulation helps us
Speaker 3: to pay attention and then we can actually remember things better.
Speaker 3: So people who suffer from attention deficit disorder with or
Speaker 3: without the hyperactivity are absolutely you know, going to have
Speaker 3: more difficulty to remember things. And I would like to
Speaker 3: comment that, you know, this is a disorder that is
Speaker 3: being diagnosed so much more commonly now in our society
Speaker 3: than it used to be. And I'm actually a firm
Speaker 3: believer that, you know, the problem isn't necessarily with the people.
Speaker 3: The problem may be with what our society has told
Speaker 3: people that they need to do. I mean, I can
Speaker 3: promise you that when human beings evolved, they did not
Speaker 3: sit still, you know, for six hours a day, you know, scaring,
Speaker 3: you know, at a blackboard in a classroom. You know,
Speaker 3: that's just not how humans evolved. And so, you know,
Speaker 3: I guess I'm sort of embracing the neurodiversity a little bit,
Speaker 3: like I don't think there's necessarily something wrong with people
Speaker 3: who have ADHD and want to pay attention and to
Speaker 3: remember things, you know, that are actually meaningful in their
Speaker 3: lives in the real world, and they may have difficulty
Speaker 3: in the in the classroom. And you know, autism is
Speaker 3: a is a little bit trickier. Autism can mean a
Speaker 3: lot of different things for different people. I actually happen
Speaker 3: to have a son who is now twenty four years
Speaker 3: old and actually has severe nonverbal autism, and so he,
Speaker 3: you know, has his own you know, types of difficulties.
Speaker 3: But in general, when people have sort of very mild etism,
Speaker 3: one common symptom that can happen is that people get
Speaker 3: immersed and absorbed in one thing that they're really into,
Speaker 3: and they may not be paying attention to other things
Speaker 3: that someone else wants them to be remembering, and that
Speaker 3: can cause a lot of difficulty remembering.
Speaker 5: Yeah, follow a question, then, Dan, I'll step aside. You know,
Speaker 5: we were the computer generation. I think you've talked about
Speaker 5: this a couple of minutes ago. We grew up with computers.
Speaker 5: I mean, you know, we had them in our schools
Speaker 5: as they do now, but we were really the first
Speaker 5: generation to lead that charge. Do you feel that we
Speaker 5: our brains have almost had to develop differently to respond
Speaker 5: to that, or do you feel that we're kind of
Speaker 5: like older generational brains starting to try to battle a
Speaker 5: generational issue that gen A and gen Z have already
Speaker 5: physically been able to develop.
Speaker 3: For Yeah, I do think that the use of computers
Speaker 3: and cell phones where one is able to get information
Speaker 3: almost instantaneously, which of course we can do now with
Speaker 3: almost anything from the webs, from chat, GPT, other AI programs,
Speaker 3: we actually send a signal, an unconscious signal to our
Speaker 3: brains that says, oh, you don't need to be able
Speaker 3: to remember this, because you can just pull it right up.
Speaker 3: So when you offload different things you're trying to remember
Speaker 3: on the computer on your phone, it actually tells your
Speaker 3: brain like, oh, I don't need to remember that because
Speaker 3: I put it on my phone or I put it
Speaker 3: on the computer. And people have actually done studies that
Speaker 3: have proven this that this isn't just speculation. This is
Speaker 3: really true that we will remember things less if we,
Speaker 3: you know, store them in our phone or in our computer.
Speaker 3: That still might be the best place to put it,
Speaker 3: you know, but but we're not going to remember it
Speaker 3: in our heads. I think the really interesting question is
Speaker 3: is is this a problem or is it a good thing?
Speaker 3: Is it better to spend our time remembering things that
Speaker 3: are important to us, you know, like that you know,
Speaker 3: lovely luncheon that we had with a friend, or that
Speaker 3: nice weekend that we spent you know with a child
Speaker 3: or a parent or a grandchild or whatever that is.
Speaker 3: Maybe it's okay that we have trouble remembering you know,
Speaker 3: the five million passwords that we need to remember, or
Speaker 3: this website or the thing that our boss wants us
Speaker 3: to remember.
Speaker 5: Me all right, Dan, thank you so much for the opportunity.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much, great questions. As always, as always,
Speaker 2: thanks to Cale.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I was the one who raised, I think, initially, the
Speaker 2: the idea of storing in your in your phone numbers.
Speaker 2: I remember it as a kid, I knew most of
Speaker 2: my buddy's numbers, my friend's numbers, and even as a
Speaker 2: you know, teenager and a single guy in his twenties. Uh,
Speaker 2: you had no place to store them. You know, you
Speaker 2: got a phone on them. You got to remember it, you.
Speaker 3: Know a lot, absolutely, and.
Speaker 2: Now you don't, I mean, put the put it in
Speaker 2: the cell phone. It doesn't matter. So it's just it's
Speaker 2: it's interesting how you know how this has evolved. Uh, doctor, Butdson,
Speaker 2: I got full lines here real quickly, so I got
Speaker 2: a whole bunch of people. I'm so glad that Nicole
Speaker 2: stopped by and stepped out of the newsroom because your
Speaker 2: questions were better than mine. Frankly, and I will I
Speaker 2: will continue with questions, but I'm also going to get
Speaker 2: to phone callers right after the break here, and whatever
Speaker 2: age you are, whatever question you have, feel free. Uh,
Speaker 2: doctor Andrew. But and it's one of those guests that
Speaker 2: I knew initially intuitively he'd be really good. Hasn't disappointed,
Speaker 2: and I know he'll take your answers out and take
Speaker 2: your questions and give you some answers. The only one
Speaker 2: line that just opened up is six one seven, nine
Speaker 2: three one ten thirty, So if you're dotting anything other
Speaker 2: than that, you're not going to get through six one
Speaker 2: seven nine three, one ten thirty. Back with Larry and
Speaker 2: Dennisport to start us off, Steve and Scott and Gina
Speaker 2: and more calls coming back right after the news at
Speaker 2: the bottom of the hour.
Speaker 1: It's Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: Doctor Andrew Budson is my guest. Before we go to
Speaker 2: phone's calls real quickly, if I could Doctor Budson, all
Speaker 2: of us had this situation where one day it's like,
Speaker 2: where's my phone, where's my phone? I know I had
Speaker 2: my phone, where's my phone? We panic? Have you ever
Speaker 2: done that?
Speaker 3: You know it'll probably and let me tell you why.
Speaker 3: So we are all able to connect something to us
Speaker 3: so intimately that we notice it immediately if it's not there.
Speaker 3: And what I make a conscious effort to do is
Speaker 3: always to take my phone with me everywhere, so it's
Speaker 3: always within a hands reached away and then if it's
Speaker 3: not in my pocket, you know where I expect it.
Speaker 3: If it's not right next to me, I notice it immediately.
Speaker 3: So it's something I've actually learned to train myself to do.
Speaker 3: And this is actually, you know, one of many tips
Speaker 3: that we put in our book that you had so
Speaker 3: kindly mentioned before.
Speaker 2: Let me mention it again because different people maybe join us.
Speaker 2: Why we forget and How to remember better? By my
Speaker 2: guest doctor Andrew Budson and Professor Elizabeth Kensinger a Boston College. Okay,
Speaker 2: so that's a great tip. Okay, I tend to be
Speaker 2: a little run around my house and I'm doing things
Speaker 2: simn taneously. This has got to be fixed. That's got
Speaker 2: to be fixed. Oh yeah, the garage is still open.
Speaker 2: Let me close the garage. Where the hell's the phone?
Speaker 2: And your immediate panic is when did I last have it?
Speaker 2: I mean, you know you might have had it five
Speaker 2: minutes ago, but you're thinking, solf, Oh we could have
Speaker 2: your thinking worst case scenario. Did I leave it at
Speaker 2: the post office? Oh my god, you know it's a panic.
Speaker 2: It's a panic, Doctor Budson, let's get the phone calls.
Speaker 3: Go ahead, absolutely, yeah. I was just going to say
Speaker 3: that that, you know, we all can train ourselves and
Speaker 3: use tips so that things like that don't happen. But
Speaker 3: let's let's get to the questions.
Speaker 2: All right, here we go. Let's go to Larry down
Speaker 2: on the Cape and Dennis Burt. Larry, you first tonight
Speaker 2: on nights I would doctor Andrew. Butdson, what's your question
Speaker 2: Larry or your comment?
Speaker 6: Oh, very interesting topic, Dan, and related to my question
Speaker 6: that is going to be coming up. I'm going to
Speaker 6: send you an email on a on a related topic
Speaker 6: of another person for a great interview. So here's my question. Okay,
Speaker 6: here's my question. So, doctor, immediately following the Maderner vaccine,
Speaker 6: actually the first booster, I developed all of these symptoms
Speaker 6: mimicking long COVID, and one of them I classify and
Speaker 6: call it brain fog, and if I change the subject,
Speaker 6: I forget what I was talking about immediately. Have you
Speaker 6: done any research on how much either the vaccine or
Speaker 6: actually the COVID virus itself has affected people's memories.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so that's a great question. I haven't done the
Speaker 3: research myself, but I have written a couple of blogs
Speaker 3: on COVID and on brain fog in particular, And it is,
Speaker 3: first of all, very common for COVID to affect people's
Speaker 3: thinking and memory. And the virus can throw us for
Speaker 3: a loop in many different ways, and the most common
Speaker 3: way is it activates our immune system, you know, and
Speaker 3: makes us sort of feel sick. And the vaccine can
Speaker 3: also activate our immune system, make us feel sick for
Speaker 3: a day, and some people can feel sick more. The
Speaker 3: brain is a very you know, it's like a very
Speaker 3: sensitive instruments, you know, It's sort of like a finely
Speaker 3: tuned violin, and if it's off a little bit, because
Speaker 3: there's this immune response going on to try to protect
Speaker 3: us against COVID, we can notice it and it can
Speaker 3: interfere with our thinking, our memory, our ability to pay
Speaker 3: attention and concentrate, and yeah, it can mimic a long COVID.
Speaker 3: Are you feeling better now, resting?
Speaker 6: It's been three years since I've had all these issues. Unfortunately,
Speaker 6: then I got the real COVID last year and it's
Speaker 6: laid up everything. So a lot of my symptoms are
Speaker 6: getting better post exertion malaise is better, but I have
Speaker 6: these other long term ones that won't go away. The
Speaker 6: brain fog is one of them. This gastric problems and
Speaker 6: this terrible neuropathy. They just will not leave after after
Speaker 6: three years.
Speaker 3: That that's that's terrible. Well for the for the brain fog,
Speaker 3: there there are a few things that other people have
Speaker 3: found helpful. The first is always to to listen to
Speaker 3: your body, and you know, try to exercise, but but
Speaker 3: listen to your body, and if your body says, hey,
Speaker 3: this is enough, you know, just go ahead and stop.
Speaker 3: It is important to make sure you get enough sleep.
Speaker 3: You may need a little bit more sleep than you
Speaker 3: did before. And it is important to eat healthy foods.
Speaker 3: All of those things have helped people recover faster from
Speaker 3: the brain fog. And then the last thing is that
Speaker 3: you know there's no harm, there's no reason why you
Speaker 3: shouldn't use perhaps a few more memory strategies or memory
Speaker 3: aids than you used to. So, for example, let's say
Speaker 3: you always knew how to keep track of your keys
Speaker 3: and your wallet and your your cell phone, as we
Speaker 3: were talking about earlier with with Dan. Well, you know,
Speaker 3: maybe now it's a little more difficult for you to
Speaker 3: keep track of those things. But you can have a
Speaker 3: special spot like a tray or a bowl that you
Speaker 3: put those things in when you come in the house,
Speaker 3: and you always put them there, and that way, whenever
Speaker 3: you're looking for them, they're always there. So that's a
Speaker 3: little tip.
Speaker 2: Great well, Greg, Well, Larry appreciate you call. Send me
Speaker 2: that other item and we'll we'll see what we can do. Okay, well,
Speaker 2: thank you, doctor. You soon go to Steven Gambridge. Steve
Speaker 2: next on nice side with doct Daniel Budson, Dan.
Speaker 7: Doctor Butson. I've noticed that people, especially I think people
Speaker 7: in their forties or fifties, if they're talking with each other,
Speaker 7: they are using their cell phones constantly if they need
Speaker 7: to recall something or to find out the name of
Speaker 7: this or that. And I also know that most people
Speaker 7: now are totally dependent on their GPS's. I mean, it
Speaker 7: seems to me if you don't use your faculty of recall,
Speaker 7: you don't exercise it at all, but rely on the phone,
Speaker 7: and if you make no effort to use your sense
Speaker 7: of direction, that both of these will atrophy. What is
Speaker 7: your opinion?
Speaker 3: You are one hundred correct. And the is a study
Speaker 3: that was done in the United Kingdom that provides support
Speaker 3: for what you just said. They actually studied people who
Speaker 3: were going to be taking the London Cab Drivers Test,
Speaker 3: which they call the Knowledge, which is the tremendous If
Speaker 3: anyone's been to London, it's like a maze of little
Speaker 3: tiny streets that don't follow any pattern. It's just sort
Speaker 3: of like downtown Boston around like Milk Street, you know,
Speaker 3: but like times one hundred. And they scanned these people's
Speaker 3: brains before they did the studying and after, and they
Speaker 3: actually found that the hippocampus, which is the part of
Speaker 3: the brain that forms new memories, it actually grew so
Speaker 3: much that they could measure it. So I agree one
Speaker 3: hundred percent that one real in that people are having
Speaker 3: trouble remembering things is that they're not using and exercising
Speaker 3: their memory in the way that they use. So I
Speaker 3: agree with you one hundred percent.
Speaker 7: And I've read of people using nicotine, not in tobacco,
Speaker 7: but transdermally or nasal sprays. It has been somewhat helpful
Speaker 7: in the treatment of people suffering memory loss, dementia, Alzheimer's.
Speaker 7: Have you read any of the research done in that field.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I am familiar with it, and my opinion is
Speaker 3: that if you want a little stimulant to help your memory,
Speaker 3: I recommend a little bit of caffeine, like I mentioned
Speaker 3: earlier in the program, like a cup of coffee or tea,
Speaker 3: or a diet soda or something fat caffeinated soda. But
Speaker 3: I I don't recommend nicotine, and the reason is severalfold
Speaker 3: number one. Nicotine is addictive. I mean, caffeine is addictive too,
Speaker 3: but nicotine is worse. Nicotine also has negative effects on
Speaker 3: the heart and other organs in the body. So I
Speaker 3: think that the concept is right on target. But I'm
Speaker 3: not a fan of nicotine because of some of its
Speaker 3: side effects.
Speaker 7: Steve, thank you very much, gentlemen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the best, Thanks Stave. We'll be back with more
Speaker 2: phone calls six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty.
Speaker 2: My guest is doctor Andrew Budson. Two really good phone
Speaker 2: calls to start it off. We got three more coming up, Scott,
Speaker 2: Gena and Phil and we might get room for you
Speaker 2: if you want to give us, give it a try,
Speaker 2: no guarantees, coming back on Nightside.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World,
Speaker 1: night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: Okay, let's try to get at least three maybe four
Speaker 2: in so folks are gonna ask you to just tighten
Speaker 2: up a little bit, Scott and Quincy. Scott, go right ahead.
Speaker 3: I have a great show.
Speaker 2: Dan, go ahead, Scott, help me out here and be quick. Okay, thanks.
Speaker 8: Yeah, believe it or not, I have an association. I
Speaker 8: take care of the EEG carts and evoke potential cards
Speaker 8: for neurosurgery in a hospital you might be affiliated with
Speaker 8: as a button. So my question is, sometimes I'm doing
Speaker 8: a task and I get up from my workbench to
Speaker 8: go and get something, and I'll completely blank out on
Speaker 8: what I just got up to go and get, and
Speaker 8: I have to like go back from my thoughts and say, oh,
Speaker 8: I was going to get that particular screwdriver or tool.
Speaker 2: That's another great question.
Speaker 3: Yeah that actually, yeah, it's actually one of the most
Speaker 3: common issues. And the first thing that I want to
Speaker 3: say to reassure you and all the other listeners out
Speaker 3: there is that is totally normal. And what happens is
Speaker 3: that we get up and we get distracted by something
Speaker 3: we see or something else that you know, comes into
Speaker 3: our mind, and so we lose the train of thoughts.
Speaker 3: So essentially we sort of lose focus and stop paying
Speaker 3: attention to what we were getting up to do. And
Speaker 3: it's it's very very common, so not something to worry about.
Speaker 8: And the other thing that so I'll be going to
Speaker 8: throw my clean socks and the clean soos bin and
Speaker 8: I will, for some stupid reason throw them in the
Speaker 8: dirty laundry bin instead, And I'll go, why did I
Speaker 8: just do that? How did I reverse that association? Is
Speaker 8: that also a thing like the old person steps from
Speaker 8: the instead of the break and drives through the storefront.
Speaker 3: Well, well, I think it's a testament to the fact
Speaker 3: that most people don't drive through the storefront. That you know,
Speaker 3: some types of automatic procedures that we learn to do
Speaker 3: and become what we call procedural memory. Some people think
Speaker 3: of it like motor memory or something like that. We
Speaker 3: actually get quite good at doing the right things. But
Speaker 3: for whatever reason, you know, sometimes we get in the
Speaker 3: habit of doing the wrong thing. And when you get
Speaker 3: in the habit of doing the wrong thing, every time
Speaker 3: you do the wrong thing, it reinforces the fact that
Speaker 3: you did the wrong thing, and you're likely to do
Speaker 3: the wrong thing again. So if you really want to
Speaker 3: break that bad habit, what you need to do is
Speaker 3: you need to put a little sign on, you know,
Speaker 3: whatever sock bin that's throwing you for a loop, that says,
Speaker 3: stop and think about what you're doing before you do it.
Speaker 3: And by consciously interrupting the repetitive cycle of doing the
Speaker 3: wrong thing, you can practice the skill of doing the
Speaker 3: correct thing. It's just like if you're playing tennis and
Speaker 3: you're doing something wrong with your backhand. You know, if
Speaker 3: you keep doing it wrong, it's going to keep reinforcing
Speaker 3: the wrong thing. You've got to stop, take your deep breath,
Speaker 3: do it the right way, and try and do it
Speaker 3: the right way every time. Then you'll learn the automatic
Speaker 3: correct habit.
Speaker 2: All right, appreciate it, Scott, I gotta help with you
Speaker 2: other folks. Thank you much. You soon get a Gina
Speaker 2: in Bridgewater. Geenie, you were next on nightside.
Speaker 9: Hi, good evening, guys.
Speaker 4: I just have a quick question, and.
Speaker 9: I believe I already know the answer. I need to
Speaker 9: know what you think of a nursing home slash rehabilitation
Speaker 9: place that refuses to answer some calls and if they
Speaker 9: see a call coming through, they ignore it, and they
Speaker 9: don't let people talk to the loved ones or friends.
Speaker 9: Some of them people do have dementia and everything in there.
Speaker 3: I believe that the best thing.
Speaker 2: Is I think I think you're you're Gina. I think
Speaker 2: you're asking an unfair question to I.
Speaker 9: Think it's very fair because I'm the person who gets
Speaker 9: to determine that, Gina, because again, I don't want him
Speaker 9: to be putting in an uncomfortable position.
Speaker 2: I think the way you're phrasing the question is, of course,
Speaker 2: the answer is that I think anyone you don't have
Speaker 2: to be doctor, butdson that if someone is calling a
Speaker 2: care center, someone should answer the phone.
Speaker 9: Yeah, well they're not, and people are refusing them to
Speaker 9: be with loved ones or even talk to them, and
Speaker 9: that's not very suggest you.
Speaker 3: Have a lawyer.
Speaker 2: You need a lawyer to assert your rights. That's what
Speaker 2: you got to do.
Speaker 9: Okay, all right, thank you, you have a good night.
Speaker 2: All right, thanks Gina, thank you doctor. Butson did mean
Speaker 2: to cut you off there, but no, no, no, it's unfair question. Okay,
Speaker 2: it's a question that there are no basis orchnology. Phil
Speaker 2: is in law or Phil you're next on nights? I
Speaker 2: go ahead, I hid.
Speaker 3: Listen.
Speaker 4: I have a bad memory at times. And you know what,
Speaker 4: my even with my siblings, like, we're always trying to
Speaker 4: like get our word in first, and then if they
Speaker 4: get in I forget what I was going to say.
Speaker 3: Yep, yeah, that's that's very common. And and it's because
Speaker 3: you're spending so much of your attention to try to
Speaker 3: get a word in edgewise that you weren't paying attention
Speaker 3: to what you were going to say. And it is
Speaker 3: a very common thing that can happen to anybody, and
Speaker 3: it's something that you can learn to do a little
Speaker 3: bit better. You know, you have to just keep saying
Speaker 3: to yourself in your mind, this is what I'm trying
Speaker 3: to This is the point I'm trying to make. This
Speaker 3: is the point I'm trying to make. You got to
Speaker 3: just keep in the front of your mind so you
Speaker 3: don't lose it.
Speaker 2: How are you?
Speaker 4: Yeah, can I just say one more thing. Got to
Speaker 4: be like my sisters. Uh, you speak and then you listen,
Speaker 4: because look like really having a conversation.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 3: Good luck sounding where to live by?
Speaker 2: Thanks Phil, all right, we support you very quickly. Let
Speaker 2: me go to Bruce and hol Bruce, I got about
Speaker 2: a minute for you. You've called late, but you got
Speaker 2: to get on quickly. Go ahead, Bruce.
Speaker 10: I'll be I'll be real quick.
Speaker 3: I have.
Speaker 10: It was passed on to me by a friend, but
Speaker 10: I have and it's been working for years. A number system.
Speaker 10: For example, I have a three piece enter that's number one.
Speaker 10: I put my phone in my pocket. If it isn't
Speaker 10: there when I touch my pocket, I don't go past
Speaker 10: number two. I go find the phone. So I have
Speaker 10: a six pieces that I have to account for before
Speaker 10: I leave my house or go anywhere. And now what
Speaker 10: do you think of that system?
Speaker 3: I think that is perfect. That is a very old
Speaker 3: and very effective system. Before I go out for a run,
Speaker 3: I make sure I have my handkerchief, my cell phone,
Speaker 3: my earbuds, my hat, and my water bottle and I
Speaker 3: count those one through five and make sure I have
Speaker 3: them before I head out the door. That is a
Speaker 3: great system. And as you can tell, I use it
Speaker 3: myself and strongly endorse it.
Speaker 4: Bruce.
Speaker 2: Let me ask you, Bruce, you had six things. I
Speaker 2: have six Okay, I hope one of them will have my.
Speaker 3: Teeth.
Speaker 10: May not care for this call, but I mean the answer,
Speaker 10: and I do have one comment for you. My teeth,
Speaker 10: my phone, my wallet, my keys, my pot, and my man.
Speaker 6: First.
Speaker 10: Those are my six things. And I don't leave the
Speaker 10: house without those six things.
Speaker 2: Here to the list of your pims.
Speaker 10: Now, I want to make a comment. I've been listening
Speaker 10: to your show since you started, not every single night,
Speaker 10: but a lot of nights because I'm on the road,
Speaker 10: and I got to say this show is the best
Speaker 10: of all of them. I learned more tonight from you,
Speaker 10: doctor than I've learned in years about fog memory and
Speaker 10: not remembering things when you get up to leave your
Speaker 10: desk and wow, I am.
Speaker 3: In all right.
Speaker 2: Well, thanks very much again, that's okay, very much for
Speaker 2: your kind doctor. Okay, thank you, Bruce. Well, that was
Speaker 2: a man who's got he's never forget anything, doctor Andrew Butdson,
Speaker 2: thank you very much again. I'd like to mention that
Speaker 2: book one more time, Why we forget and how to
Speaker 2: Remember Better by doctor Andrew Butson, his co author's professor
Speaker 2: Elizabeth Kensinger of Boston College. That book is available, and
Speaker 2: again thanks to the Globe report of Police Friar who
Speaker 2: introduced us to Well through the Boston to doctor Butson.
Speaker 2: Doctor Butson, the hour did not disappoint it. I had
Speaker 2: pretty high expectations that you met and exceeded the bar.
Speaker 2: Thank you, my friend. I hope we can talk again.
Speaker 3: No, it would be my pleasure. Dan, thanks so much
Speaker 3: for having me.
Speaker 2: You were more than welcome. And hopefully that book are
Speaker 2: going to get a copy of the Truth.
Speaker 3: That's that's one.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much. Not be a good book, but
Speaker 2: it's a good book, nonetheless. Thanks So there you go,
Speaker 2: all right, when we come back US missiles. Missiles now
Speaker 2: are available to Ukraine. Does anyone remember arch dukes Archduke
Speaker 2: friends fernandand of Austria. We'll talk about this right after
Speaker 2: the ten o'clock news