Keep your wits about you
August 10th 2010 20:00
Signature Tune
Aging is inevitable; losing your mental acuity is not. That's the implication of the latest brain research, which is discovering that the choices we make throughout our lifetime about work, play, diet, social interaction, relaxation and even spirituality have a significant effect on our ability to remain sharp well into old age.
A 2009 study sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, for example, found that while most older people experience some cognitive decline as they age, nearly a third don't. And what sets that minority apart from others are factors that can be controlled.
-- Build a mental reserve. Autopsy studies reveal that some people who had a brain filled with the plaque deposits that mark Alzheimer's disease nonetheless lived with few if any noticeable cognitive deficits. That was possible because of something called cognitive reserve, a buffer of extra brain structures and networks built by a lifetime of stimulating experiences.
Education and intellectual inquisitiveness help build cognitive reserve. And a 2009 report from the Bronx Aging Study, which is following men and women in their 70s and 80s, found that the type of leisure activities they pursued as they aged was just as important as their education early in life. The researchers found that the more the participants engaged in mentally stimulating activities -- reading, writing, working crossword puzzles, playing board or card games, participating in group discussions, or playing music -- the longer they delayed the onset of rapid memory decline.
-- Don't quit your day job. One way to keep the mental juices flowing is to work, especially if your job involves critical thinking and social interactions. A recent analysis of about 400 British men, for example, suggests that working later in life wards off cognitive decline. Every year they continued to work was associated with a delay of almost seven weeks in the onset of Alzheimer's symptoms.
-- Mind your heart. Exercise boosts short-term brain function and wards off cognitive decline, according to two recent studies published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. In the first, German researchers found that bicycling, gardening, swimming or walking at least once a week for two years helped prevent cognitive decline in 3,903 people who were middle-aged and older. The second study, a year-long trial of 155 women age 65 to 75, found that strength training boosted executive function: that is, the ability to plan, make decisions and navigate new situations.
-- What you eat matters, too. An April 2010 study that followed 2,148 older adults for about four years found that those whose diet was high in fish, nuts, poultry and certain fruits and vegetables but low in high-fat dairy products and red meat were less likely than the others to develop Alzheimer's disease.
-- Quiet your mind. To begin with, you are sharper when rested. Shave even one or two hours off the optimal seven or eight hours of nightly sleep and you'll probably lower your response time and have more difficulty with complex tasks. In addition, rest gives your brain time to make connections to new information and shuttle it into long-term memory. Also, give yourself time each day to meditate, pray or simply tune out the demands clamoring for your attention.
-- Find good company. Your brain thrives in a social environment. Harvard researchers found that scores on standard memory tests dropped twice as fast among people 50 and older who had the fewest social connections.
-- Check eyes and ears. Research suggests that simply providing older hospitalized patients with glasses, hearing aids or other devices helps to keep them sharp, attentive and aware of their surroundings. And researchers at the University of Michigan who followed 625 older men and women for 8 1/2 years found that those with poorer vision who did not go to an ophthalmologist had a risk of developing Alzheimer's disease that was nearly 10 times greater than similar people who did see a vision specialist.
| 104 |
| Vote |
Add To: 
subscribe to this blog
