Month: November 2018

Mates, Marriage and other Matters

I recently had the sad news that one of my patients had passed away.

He was one of those unique shapes that we don’t see in proceeding generations. Shaped by a young nation finding its feet and thrown into the arena of war this man was a collection of vast experiences from small outback town to the jungles of southeast Asia, back to metropolitan Sydney and then Brisbane.

He was a wealth of knowledge from the mundane to the exotic, layering it with a humourous flair that seemed to defy past trials and leave him with a positive attitude no matter the odds. Tales of mongooses, cobras and monkeys stirred the listeners imagination.

He once explained to me that he never gets depressed simply because he has better things to do with his time.

Blessed with a caring wife, children and grandchildren to treasure.

Always genuinely interested in the small nuances of my weekly grind whilst stuck in his lounge chair with an illness that eventually wore him down physically but never in mind and spirit.

He will be remembered by all who knew him with fondness and a chuckle for the man who had mates, a steadfast marriage, and an engaging genuineness from life’s wondrous travels.

 

Noses, odours and memories

A recent article that I was made aware of through social networking has found that breathing through the nose significantly increased memory recognition. Olfactory sensory neurons detect the pressure created by the airflow into the nose and send this on via the olfactory bulb and on to the hippocampus, an important centre for memory function in the brain. In lay terms what does this mean?

  • nose breathing enhances the encoding and retrieval of memories
  • core brain functions can be impacted by breathing patterns

What this is leading to clinically is in the hands of researchers but I for one like the fact that as  I teach breath management that promotes nose intake over mouth I find it a wonderful thought that perhaps I am positively influencing the patients olfactory senses and strengthening memory pathways to the brain’s heart, the hippocampus.

In older age memory is something that is an important part of who we are as individuals so next time you are out smelling the roses take a moment longer to really breath in through your nose and strengthen those neural pathways that keep our happy memories alive.