So you’re having more trouble remembering names? Do you ever find yourself standing in the garage, wondering what it was you went there to get?
Do you worry if your lapses in memory are due to normal aging, or could you be showing early symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease?
If you answer yes to these questions, join the crowd. Most of us when we reach a certain age begin to worry about brain health.
Now, if we would actually do something about it instead of simply worrying, we could help maintain our mental sharpness, and help keep ourselves in control too. Best of all, for many of us, it wouldn’t take that much more energy than we’re already expending on worry.
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The human brain is the most complex living structure known in the universe. Unfortunately, as we age (staring in our mid-20s!) we lose about 10 per cent of its three-pound mass, and most of us will begin to notice changes in cognitive function starting in mid-life.
It isn’t just the loss of cells. As we age, reduced blood flow to the brain, less efficient metabolism of glucose, and a loss of connections between the cells also hamper our cognitive skills, explains Dr. Fergus Craik, a research scientist at the Baycrest Rotman Research Institute in Toronto.
“In young people, the neurons in the brain are richly branched but in older people the connections have withered away and look more like a stunted tree,” explains Craik. As a result, we get slower at processing information, and it becomes harder and harder for us to block
out unwanted stimuli such as noise, leading to poorer concentration as we age.
The frontal lobe is especially affected, which is crucial since it’s the area of the brain responsible for organizing information. Damage is this region is why an older person may remember a person but not where they met them, says Dr. Myra Fernandes, a cognitive psychologist at the University of Waterloo. Other functions are affected too, she adds, such as reduction in cross-talk between the various parts of the brain as we age.
Fernandes is quick to point out that it’s not all bad news. Sensory areas of the brain — those parts responsible for vision and hearing — are not affected as much by aging, and procedural memory, such as the ability to drive a car or play a musical instrument, also tends to stay intact, as does our general world knowledge.
Alzheimer’s can accelerate and broaden the damage. (See GuideHealth, page 48) In people with Alzheimer’s, plaques form on the blood vessels in the temporal lobes at the sides of the brain. In healthy people, these plaques are removed by proteins but when these plaques accumulate we begin to see symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. The temporal lobes are critical for memory function, explains Fernandes. As the Alzheimer’s disease progresses, those affected will also experience deterioration of the frontal lobes which results in personality changes as well.
Although the risk of Alzheimer’s disease does increase with age, it is not considered a normal part of aging. Under the age of 65, only about two per cent of the population are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Between 65 and 75, that number climbs to about 10 per cent, and for those over the age of 85, half of us will be affected. Still, some people live to be a 100 and maintain their mental faculties their entire lives.
Genetics accounts for only a small percentage of Alzheimer’s cases so having a parent with the disease does not mean you will get it, although the genetic link is stronger for those who develop the disease before the age 65.
In other words, you should work on brain health whether your parents had Alzheimer’s or not.
The really good news is that there are lots of things you can do to keep your mental skills sharp and to possibly delay the onset of dementia. Recent research has even shown that brain exercise will help regenerate some neurons, says Craik.
To maintain your brain fitness, stay physically and mentally active. This will give you the biggest bang for the buck, says Fernandes. Brisk walking or performing any exercise that increases blood flow to the brain is good, she says.
Do crosswords, Soduko puzzles or other brain games to challenge your brain. Fernandes recommends spending about an hour a day on activities that are mentally challenging to get the full benefit. The earlier in life you start the better, she says.
Being bilingual is also beneficial. Studies have found that those who are actively bilingual and switch between languages on a daily basis have a delayed onset of Alzheimer’s symptoms.
