The Brain: Use it or Lose it!

It is relatively common knowledge at this point that the human brain is similar to a muscle in the sense that you need to "exercise" it in order to maintain its fitness.  Many of my elderly clients regularly do puzzles (Sudoku is all the rage these days), knitting, reading, remaining in the workforce, etc., and that helps them keep their mental edge.  However, I ran into some fascinating information on this issue in this Fosters.com article (from Fosters Daily Democrat, a newspaper out of New Hampshire). 

Apparently up to 2/3 of cases in which autopsies are performed on elderly decedents who were mentally sharp throughout their lives, the doctors discover evidence of Alzheimer's or some other form of dementia in the decedent's brain.  In other words, in these cases a Pathologist sees an Alzheimer's victim while the family saw a fully-functioning and highly-cognitive person!

This phenomenon has prompted a the theory of "cognitive reserve", which argues that by staying mentally active and stimulated, the brain is capable of producing extra neurons which compensates for dementia-related brain pathology which often occurs later in life.

And some relevant information for those of us who are not quite in the "elderly/senior" category: it's never too early for us to shore up our cognitive reserve.  In fact, individuals with advanced education seem to be able to ward off cognitive decline much better than others.  So intellectual stimulation in our early years can reap enormous benefits in our later years.

The message: use that brain as early as possible and as often as possible!

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