by Bob McCluskey on June 22, 2010
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.
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by Bob McCluskey on April 4, 2010
Aging Health
January’s Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences reports on an aging phenomenon that is so familiar that we have turned it into a cliche: “You are only as old as you feel.” According to research from Purdue University, the cliche represents a real truth about aging health. “How old you are matters, but beyond that it’s your interpretation that has far-reaching implications for the process of aging,” said Markus H. Schafer, a doctoral student in sociology and gerontology who led the study. “So, if you feel old beyond your own chronological years you are probably going to experience a lot of the downsides that we associate with aging.”But if you are older and maintain a sense of being younger, then that gives you an edge in maintaining a lot of the abilities you prize.”
The data for the study about aging were collected in 1995 and 2005 as part of the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States. About 500 people from ages 55-74 were surveyed. In 1995, the participants were asked, “What age do you feel most of the time.” On the average they described themselves as feeling 12 years younger than they actually were. When the researchers interviewed them again in 2005 they concluded that the people who originally felt young for their age generally had more confidence about their mental abilities ten years later. Even though chronological age was important subjective age actually had a stronger effect on aging health.
The researchers noted that the findings did not reveal which factor was the cause and which was the effect. Do wellness and happiness improve cognitive abilities or does cognitive ability contribute to a feeling of wellness? According to the report, that question will be addressed by future research. We will report it here when it is determined.
My primary objective in reviewing this study here is to reinforce a point I make frequently; our expectations and attitudes about aging have a major effect on our quality of life. This effect begins quite early, generally as soon as we start thinking about getting older as a factor in our lives. If we expect to live well, we tend to make plans that lead to living well. If we expect to spend our senior years in the process of dying, we will make decisions that tend to minimize the opportunities to do otherwise.
If this “aging well” stuff was just “pie in the sky” I wouldn’t want any part in promoting it. However, I can honestly say that I am pleasantly surprised at how much enjoyment I am getting out of these “post-retirement” years, and I planned very poorly for them. As the old adage goes, “If I had known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.” However, I consider myself very fortunate, because I have been placed in a position to see and understand what the world, especially the world of communications and technology, have to offer. I am writing this because I am aware that many of my peers, and especially my parents’ peers, are trapped in the depressing expectations of the past. I urge you to join me in the campaign to open the world back up to senior citizens.
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