Senior memory loss study
A recent study indicates that both computer use and exercise can help prevent senior memory loss. The study was done at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. 926 people from age 70 to age 90 completed questionnaires that measured their cognitive activities and their physical exercise for the previous year. 817 of the people who participated in the study were determined to be cognitively normal. 109 of them had some cognitive impairment.
- The results of the study indicated that people who used computers were 44% less likely to have cognitive impairment than people who did not use computers.
- Those who participated in some moderate exercise were 36% less likely to be cognitively impaired than participants who did not exercise.
These are significant differences but my first reaction when I read these results were that they are pretty much what I would have expected; both physical and mental exercise help to minimize memory loss. However, when I read more carefully, I noticed that the joint effect of the two activities showed more cognitive improvement than would have been predicted from just adding the two effects together. In other words, exercise and computer use seem to reinforce each other’s effects.
Dementia is personal
This is important to me because I find that as I grow older I tend to focus more and more of my energy on my computer activities and less on exercise. I suppose it is human nature to gravitate toward the interests we enjoy most and away from those we don’t care for. My particular excuse for spending a lot of time on the computer is that it is good for my mind. It would be easy to use this study as one more reason to devote more and more time to the computer. After all, the study says that computer use has more beneficial effect on cognitive health than physical exercise.
However, to be honest, I have to recognize that the study also tells me that my computer time will have even more beneficial effect if I supplement it with some exercise. Those seniors who like exercise need to understand that some computer use will boost the effects of physical activity, as well.
Fight senior memory loss with a comprehensive approach
Our increasing knowledge about how we function continues to point to a single critical fact: we are complicated, highly interactive creatures and cannot deal with our various physical, mental, emotional and spiritual components in isolation. None of them functions alone. They are highly interdependent.
As we age two factors combine to threaten our ability and willingness to engage in comprehensive self-care: our energy output decreases and our discretion over how we use our energy increases. It is just easier to spend our time and energy on the things we like to do the most. This is both a benefit and curse to seniors. To maximize the benefits and minimize the curse we must actively balance our lives so that each of our precious faculties takes care of the others.
