Protect your Wisdom - The lessons of Cognitive Reserve
My fiftieth birthday ticked by a few months ago. It’s one of those birthdays I didn’t make a big deal about. When I turned 18, I had a massive celebration with dozens of friends. Congratulated on all sides, I had reached the age considered the starting block into adult life… at least, in the west. So I “did life” for a while and the calendar kept on going… and so now I’m 50. Not such an emblematic age, I know, but it has brought some surprises that 49 hadn’t bothered me with: arthritis in both wrists, for example. That’s new. My bald patch isn’t new but gains territory on my scalp with each passing year.
Well, we all know the ravages of ageing and the physical decline implied by the passing years, but does age bring rewards? I say it does. Wisdom, we hope, will be our legacy and something we can (and should) pass on to the youth. Perhaps crash an 18th?birthday party, corner the birthday boy/girl and tell them all about what the years have shown you. Sure, they wouldn’t listen, and you’d be the old weirdo of the party, but at least you have the wisdom to impart. You do have that.
So, if I am lucky enough to live into old age, let me at least be wise. But now comes the worry: What about cognitive decline? What if dementia comes along and robs me of that wisdom? Can I stop that from happening? Well, perhaps we can.
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One study (Bennet et al), designed to explore the effects of ageing on the brain used nuns as their subjects. Upon dying, the brains were donated to the scientists. This study began in 1994 and since then has collected over 350 brains. Each brain is examined for any sign of diseases that might damage the brain, especially Alzheimer’s, stroke and Parkinson’s disease. The scientist had expected to find that the brains that came from nuns who had indeed suffered from cognitive decline in life would have clear signs in the brain of damage caused by those diseases. These expectations were vindicated but the logical corollary was not. They discovered damage in some of the brains that had come from nuns who had not shown any sign of cognitive decline whatsoever. This was a surprise to all, but gave the scientists hope that there would be a lifestyle factor that could protect us from cognitive decline despite the presence of a disease such as Alzheimer. Let’s see what that lifestyle might look like.
The Cognitive Reserve Lifestyle
I realize that I pretty much gave it away with the title, but what we call “cognitive reserve” is our objective here. You simply MUST keep your brain active and constantly challenged. Learning new skills is an excellent idea, no matter what your age. You could get into challenging games like chess. My best friend’s grandfather was a chess master right up until he died at a ripe old age. He used to help us with our homework – University homework. His mind was as sharp as a knife, so we might conclude that chess was the gym his brain needed. The other good thing about playing chess is that it is social. Get out there and talk to people. You benefit greatly from having an active social life. Read – better still if you read outside of your field from time to time. Variety is the spice of cognitive reserve, after all. Train your brain on a regular basis, and in a variety of ways, and you are on the right track. All these activities were named as “protective” by the researchers. Obviously, we can’t stop aging, but we can take protective measures that can help us develop the cognitive reserve to protect our brain… and our wisdom, from decline.?
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Brendan C. Clarke - CogniFit Video-coaching and Mindfulness