Excerpt |
“Ninety percent of the game is half mental.”
—Yogi Berra
Legendary baseball players have much wisdom to share about the aging process and your brain. Satchel Paige, one of the oldest performers in major league baseball (some sources estimate that he played well into his 50s) once said, “Age is mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”
To paraphrase, training your mind is critical for successful aging because your mind is where you develop the resilience that helps with the inevitable challenges of life. Despite physical aging processes, including changes in your brain, you can take steps to keep your mind sharp.
How Your Brain Ages
Until the 1980s, the scientific community believed that brain aging was associated primarily with the loss of brain cells (neurons). It was generally believed that people lost thousands or even millions of neurons daily from birth. Better technology, however, has led to the discovery that healthy aging brains may have essentially the same number of neurons as younger brains, although some larger neurons may decrease. These neurons can only multiply 40 to 60 times before tiring out forever, and they tend to regenerate at a slower rate than other cells.
Research shows that brain aging is largely about topography changes. That three-pound organ in your head may gradually lose from five percent to ten percent of its weight by the time you reach age 90 (possibly due to the loss of large neurons). The grooves on your brain’s surface may widen, and chemical reactions may change due to physical changes in neuron connections.
So what exactly causes the changes in your brain function, like memory loss, as you age? The most recent research points to changes in the efficiency of your brain’s chemical connections. In addition, amounts of certain brain chemicals may also decrease, affecting your processing speed.
Research has also shown that some mental activity decline may be attributed to a general slowing down of your lifestyle or falling into comfortable, “old dog” routines that form during your middle and older ages.
Although many other brain changes can occur with different disease processes, like strokes or dementia, our focus in this chapter will be on the healthy aging brain.
“Interdependence is and ought to be as much the ideal of man as self-sufficiency. Man is a social being.”
—Mahatma Gandhi
Your social health is closely related to your mental fitness. After all, if you are socially active, you are probably already engaging in the types of interactive activities that keep your brain working efficiently. Being socially active does not necessarily mean having your calendar chock full of dates with different friends every night of the week. Going to church or having dinner with your family both count as good social activities because you are interacting in both situations. A government survey, however, showed that Americans age 65 and older spend up to half of their leisure time watching television.
Keep What You’ve Got
We told you in Chapter One about the University of Chicago study in which three out of four adults ages 57 to 85 were shown to participate in at least one social activity per week, and many have more good friends and family relationships than younger adults. Some people stay quite busy trying new things and meeting new people, and research indicates that maintaining these contacts with family or close friends is one of the best ways to combat loneliness and isolation. If you currently see your family and friends regularly, you’re on the right track. At the same time, however, you should take steps to avoid becoming socially isolated in the event of a health condition or other major life change. Make sure you don’t take these relationships for granted and that you continue to make them a priority in your life.
Secret # 8: Build Your Resilience
Being resilient means that you are able to adjust easily to change. Throughout this book we’ve talked about how having a positive attitude, eating a good diet, and engaging in physical activity can help build your resilience to illness or mental decline. Maintaining a solid social support network can also help you roll with life’s punches.
Studies show that older adults with good social support networks have a lower risk of becoming physically ill, a lower risk of depression and cognitive impairment, and an overall lower risk of death. Having good social support may also help you get better medical care. One study of Medicare beneficiaries revealed that only about four out of ten are accompanied by a friend or family member to medical appointments. Companions of these beneficiaries helped to ask questions, make comments, and write down information like doctors’ instructions. Beneficiaries with a companion’s support reported being happier with their overall medical care and physician communication than those who were unaccompanied.