Stevens learned how to juggle in college so he could be in a James Thurber play. "Me and the other guys in the dorm got an act together, and actually because of that play, that got us juggling," he said. "Then, I went into the Peace Corps and found out that juggling in Nepal and Kathmandu was a big thing. The ability to provide that street entertainment was wonderful - it was new to them." Stevens loved entertaining the locals with his juggling skills, and his hobby continued into graduate school, where he began teaching others how to juggle. "It helps the student greatly I believe because being a medical student is a lot of sitting in a lecture hall, and it gets them up and moving which is great," he said. "And the students will talk about how it's a great stress relief. I also think it helps them intellectually. It helps their brain function. And it's a lot of fun. "You're defying gravity."
Nepal RPCV Craig Stevens, professor of pharmacology at the OSU Center for Health Sciences, loves to juggle
Juggle heads
Keeping both sides of brain active is key to a healthy mind
By KIM BROWN World Scene Writer
Published: 1/27/2011 2:25 AM
Last Modified: 1/27/2011 4:12 AM
Caption: Dr. Craig Stevens juggles clubs at OSU Health Sciences Center in Tulsa. Stevens, a juggling advocate, formed the meeting club for med students to help with concentration and relaxation. Photo: Adam Wiseski/Tulsa World
On Tuesday nights, medical students practice sharpening their minds at a club dedicated to using both sides of the brain.
But they're not using sophisticated computer science or mind-bending puzzles. They are learning how to juggle.
"I'm a big juggling evangelist," said Craig Stevens, professor of pharmacology at the OSU Center for Health Sciences. He teaches interested medical students the art of juggling to relieve stress, but it also helps keep them sharp for their studies.
"That to me is the best brain exercise you can do," Stevens said. "It does a great deal for integrating both sides of the brain."
Scientists have long touted the positive effects that games, such as the popular Japanese logic game sudoko, have on the brain.
"Anything that requires you to use different thinking in your brain is always going to be helpful," said Dr. Jimmie D. McAdams, medical director for the senior diagnostic unit at Laureate Psychiatric Clinic and Hospital. "With our jobs, we tend to get into a rut. We do the same things every day. You need to find things that add a bit of variety of how you think about things and how you're solving problems."
Keeping your overall health in mind is the first step to keeping your mind sharp, he said.
"In general, anything that keeps your heart healthy keeps your brain healthy. Exercise, watching your cholesterol and blood pressure, that's going to give the brain longevity, prevent strokes and increase blood flow. Even though your
brain is not a muscle, you have to exercise it."
Visiting your doctor regularly and taking care of anxiety and depression are also helpful to brain functioning.
"Anxiety problems and depression, those are things that can bog your brain down," McAdams said. "Just like a computer, if you have too many programs going at once, you start to get a little slow."
Brain teasers
Dancing, playing chess and juggling are activities that make you use both the left and right sides of the brain.
"The thing with juggling is you're forced when you juggle to use both sides of the brain," Stevens said. "I'm a big believer in by doing that, you can actually synergize the inner-hemisphere of the brain."
Playing sudoko is a left-brain function that employs numbers, addition and subtraction, McAdams said, while right-brained activities tend to include the big picture.
"Chess is a good one because it involves global thinking, strategy - the big picture is involved," he said. "Dancing is a great thing, too, that's a right- and left-brained activity because you have to use intermediate functioning and long-term planning to know what steps you're going to do."
Stevens learned how to juggle in college so he could be in a James Thurber play.
"Me and the other guys in the dorm got an act together, and actually because of that play, that got us juggling," he said. "Then, I went into the Peace Corps and found out that juggling in Nepal and Kathmandu was a big thing. The ability to provide that street entertainment was wonderful - it was new to them."
Stevens loved entertaining the locals with his juggling skills, and his hobby continued into graduate school, where he began teaching others how to juggle.
"It helps the student greatly I believe because being a medical student is a lot of sitting in a lecture hall, and it gets them up and moving which is great," he said. "And the students will talk about how it's a great stress relief. I also think it helps them intellectually. It helps their brain function. And it's a lot of fun.
"You're defying gravity."
