What does “normal aging” mean? Do we all age the same way?

Here is ques­tion 12 of 25 from Brain Fit­ness 101: Answers to Your Top 25 Ques­tions. To down­load the com­plete ver­sion, please click here.

Ques­tion:
What does “normal aging” mean? Do we all age the same way?

Key Points:

• Age-relat­ed cog­ni­tive decline typ­i­cal­ly starts at about 40 when your brain pro­cess­ing speed slows down.
• At the same time, old­er adults have gen­er­al­ly acquired more knowl­edge and wis­dom, but may still have dif­fi­cul­ties mem­o­riz­ing spe­cif­ic information.
• The more edu­ca­tion peo­ple have and the more their minds are chal­lenged through­out life­time, the less they suf­fer from age-relat­ed decline.

Answer:

Gen­er­al­ly, get­ting old­er both reduces your atten­tion­al capac­i­ty and the capac­i­ty for learn­ing new infor­ma­tion, and increas­es your brain pro­cess­ing require­ments. Basi­cal­ly, it takes more and more inhi­bi­tion skills to tune out dis­trac­tions and stay focused. Indi­vid­u­als will vary in how and when they feel these decreas­es, but they will even­tu­al­ly occur.

For­tu­nate­ly, a great deal of research has shown that prac­tic­ing cog­ni­tive skills encour­ages their preser­va­tion and devel­op­ment at all ages. Research into cog­ni­tive reserves found that the more edu­ca­tion peo­ple had and the more their minds were occu­pied, the less they suf­fered from age-relat­ed decline. Peo­ple who remain intel­lec­tu­al­ly active and engage in hob­bies reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s dis­ease and oth­er demen­tias by one third. All of these facts show that cog­ni­tive train­ing — exer­cis­ing your brain — helps pro­tect your brain against decline in mem­o­ry, con­cen­tra­tion, and infor­ma­tion processing.

So, plan your brain fit­ness pro­gram now. It’s nev­er too late or too early.

Fur­ther Reading:

• Amer­i­can Soci­ety on Aging
• Nation­al Insti­tute on Aging
• Healthy Seniors
• Nation­al Coun­cil on Aging
• Dia­mond, Mar­i­an C. Suc­cess­ful Aging of the Healthy Brain. Con­fer­ence of the Amer­i­can Soci­ety on Aging and The Nation­al Coun­cil on the Aging, March 10, 2001; New Orleans, LA; First Joint Conference.
• Dur­ga J, van Box­tel MP, Schouten EG, Kok FJ, Jolles J, Katan MB, Ver­hoef P. Effect of 3‑year folic acid sup­ple­men­ta­tion on cog­ni­tive func­tion in old­er adults in the FACIT tri­al: a ran­domised, dou­ble blind, con­trolled tri­al. Lancet. 2007;369:208–16.
• Gold­berg, Elkhonon. 2005. The Wis­dom Para­dox: How Your Mind Can Grow Stronger As Your Brain Grows Old­er New York City: Gotham Books. ISBN: 1592401104.
• Scarmeas N, Stern Y. Cog­ni­tive reserve and lifestyle. J Clin Exp Neu­ropsy­chol. 2003;25:625–33.
• Willis SL, Tennst­edt SL, Mar­siske M, et al. Long-term effects of cog­ni­tive train­ing on every­day func­tion­al out­comes in old­er adults. JAMA. 2006;296:2805–14.
• Wolin­sky FD, Unverza­gt FW, Smith DM, Jones R, Stod­dard A, Tennst­edt SL. The ACTIVE Cog­ni­tive Train­ing Tri­al and Health-Relat­ed Qual­i­ty of Life: Pro­tec­tion That Lasts for 5 Years. J Geron­tol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2006;61:1324–9.