The Plastic Brain

The past four weeks have been quite tumultuous. I changed around some routines here. We had a vacation Odyssey that took us from the Jersey Shore to the Southern reaches of North Carolina with many stops in between. We talked with lots of different people. In all these travels and chats, there was one reoccurring theme — the Plastic Brain.

I’m going to do a brain-dump blog post. I hope it all makes sense, when I finish.

1. The Exercise Commitment. For the past few years, my daily routine has been — kids to school, blog, e-mail, write, exercise, chores, drive kids around, make dinner, clean up, bed. It was a loose routine. Some things always happened, like remembering to feed the kids, because things turn ugly when the kids are hungry. The first few things on that list always happened, but after that things dropped off. The gym didn’t always happen, even as it has become more and more necessary.

• About a month ago, I changed the order of the day. Now, exercise comes first. I put on my running clothes and contacts first thing in the morning. (It means that blogging will happen later in the day.)
• I mapped out a two-mile route. I like going to the gym, but I don’t always have the two hours to drive to the gym, take a spin class and drive back. Sometimes, I only have 30 minutes to exercise, so I have the two-mile loop right outside my front door.
• I downloaded the Runkeeper App on the cellphone. I like keeping track of my numbers and my distances. It motivates me.
• I downloaded Pandora, so I can listen to trashy music while I run.
• I have crappy knees, so I am slowly working from a two-mile fast walk to a two-mile medium run. I’m almost there.
• I do it every single day.

2. The Exercise Community. It’s easier to run and keep healthy when other people are also exercising. The vacationers at the Jersey Shore were also running and biking. I headed off every morning determined to increase my running distance. I plodded down the small street that ran parallel to the beach forcing myself to deal with the pounding on the hard road and the jolts to my knees and spine. It hurt. But I wasn’t the only one exercising. Tons of other people were also on the road torturing themselves. I wanted to be one of those women with the washboard stomachs in the running bras. So, I ran further.

When I went back to the house, I compared notes with my sister and my sister-in-law who were also out running. My brother already did his morning run at 5am. My brother in law was going to go out with my niece for a jog in the afternoon. Everybody was exercising, including my nearly 80-year old parents.

3. Exercise is Good For the Autistic Brain. We sent Ian to a regular camp for the first time. For four weeks, he was gone from 8:30 to 4. He was expected to do everything that typical kids do. He had a shadow to help him out, but he didn’t have any kind of coddling and support that he usually gets in special ed environment. There were also lots of physical demands. Lots and lots of walking. He had swim lessons twice a day.

How did he do? Well, he did fine. It was challenging for him. He was exhausted at the end of every day, and he seemed pretty glad when camp ended. There’s no doubt that it was very hard for him to pretend to be normal. But it was so, so, so good for him. Ian is much more independent than the beginning of the summer. His speech is much more fluid. He was exposed to so much more stimulation. He’s stronger. In the fall, I’m going to get him swim lessons twice per week and a music class.

Over all these years observing Ian and other kids along the autistic spectrum, it’s pretty clear that regular, vigorous exercise is incredibly important for them. There is some weird connection between exercise and speech skills. Every special education program in this country should provide kids with daily swim lessons.

4. Exercise is Good For Everyone’s Brain. 

And whatever is good for autistic kids is good for all people. In addition to being my beloved son, Ian is also my lab rat. His improvements are always so dramatic and noticeable. When I make changes in his routines, I can see the impact immediately. While his brain is not typical in some ways, in other ways it is. If exercise improves his brain functioning, then it must improve everyone’s brain.

On my second day in Washington, I visited my old buddy, Sue. Sue and I have been friends since we were in middle school. We snuck into dance clubs in Manhattan together at age 16. In college, I visited her at Harvard. We spend six weeks backpacking through Europe together.  We haven’t seen each other that often in the past ten or fifteen years, but she’s like family.

Sue’s oldest son, a freshman at Harvard, had a devastating brain injury last year. Now, he’s home in a hospital bed clinging to consciousness. I hung out with her and helped her care for her son. Her dad and I discussed brain repair and exercise.

Sue’s dad is a retired Columbia law professor. He’s 80, but he still rows down the Potomac every day. He proudly showed me the huge rocks that he was moving around his property. In between stretching out his grandson’s legs, he gave the nurse a lecture on constitutional law.  Sue’s dad was sure that V. could recover somewhat with a daily exercise regime. He was sure that his own exercise system kept him well-preserved.

The conclusion of that visit was exercise kept old people young and healed damaged brain tissue.

5. Ancient Academics. Sue’s dad isn’t the only well-preserved former academic. My dad regularly has lunch with his former colleagues. Many are in their 90s. Of course, they can’t hear worth a damn. I certainly wouldn’t like them to drive me anywhere. But they are healthy and sharp. One of his 95 year friends just finished a book on the politics of South Africa.

Why do these academics keep on going? A lot of them exercise, but that isn’t the answer here. They all never really retired. Yes, many left their positions, but they all kept moving. My dad still writes articles and now manages a food pantry. The others also read and write and help care for their grandchildren. They have a purpose. A reason to get out of bed in the morning. They something to do with their day. They have demands and challenges. They are busy.

6. Keep Routines, Keep Changing. There’s a fine balance between a routine and a rut. Some routine is necessary. It helps you do annoying, boring, painful tasks without too much thought. Like running. Routines make sure that you eat dinner at a table and have a conversation, rather than bolting down a frozen dinner in front of the TV. Routines keep you honest.

But you really learn when new challenges are put in front of you. That’s why I’m so glad that school ended for both kids, and we were able to throw new challenges before them — different camps and jobs. It’s good for me to emerge from my office cocoon and travel. I’m in the midst of putting up some new challenges for myself.

When my grandmother was in her 80s, she and her sister (who is now 102) went on a cruise together. Before they left for the trip, grandma was a little slow physically and mentally. There was a lag time before answering questions. She was frequently confused. At the end of the week, she and her sister would get off the boat giggling about some joke. When they were on the cruise, they didn’t have their bossy daughters to manage them. They had to figure out where to have dinner. They got themselves cocktails in the afternoon. They did some senior citizen pool exercises. Challenge and change made them five years younger in one week.

7. Smell Deeply. On the ride back to New Jersey, I kept IM-ing my friend Sue as I remembered tricks that I did with Ian when he was three and especially autistic. I read somewhere that smell triggered brain repair. So, I had him inhale deep breaths of strong smells — coffee beans, lavender, soap suds, grass clippings. He had a therapist who believed in the healing power of touch. So, she brushed his skin or rubbed him with a soft cloth.

On the way back home, I bought him an audio version of Lord of the Rings and sent it to their home. When you’re ill or old or disabled, the world puts you in a boring environment. Hospitals and special education classrooms are extremely boring. But the brain needs stimulation, not white walls and soft beds. A brain cannot heal without stimulation.

Again, things that are good for sick people are also good for healthy people. We all need to smell deeply and live fully. We need to embrace change and adventure. We need to feel the muscles in our legs and touch the water in the Potomac. We need to write an article and to have a daily plan.