In just a few days it will be 2009. Some of you readers (and hey, thanks for being here, by the way) have been making (and often breaking) New Years resolutions for 60 years or more. They always seem like such a good idea at the beginning but then turn out to be such a drag when we have to actually live them.
I don’t know about you, but for me the really hard ones are about keeping fit. You know, exercising every day and those sort? (there will be a slight pause here while I do my 50 ‘stepper’ steps that I promised myself I would do at the beginning of every task sitting at the keyboard)(a good idea, but easily forgotten … and that’s what I am writing about today).
OK, back. Yes I did my 50 steps. Good for the lungs, good for the cardiovascular and good for the brain because it boosts up the arterial flow, But what about exercises for the brain itself … is there anything I should be doing which will help prevent the thing I fear most? Alzheimer’s or just the general non-specific slow down of mental ability that seems to accompany aging. Truth be known I worry about this often … it’s a much bigger fear to me than heart attack, stroke or even the “Big C”. If one of those three comes after me and catches up, I’m a goner. We all die from something. But if my body stays relatively healthy and my brain goes away? I’d seriously consider suicide then, if I could remember how to accomplish it.
Turns out that my incessant ‘playing’ online may well be one of the best things I (or you) can do to help delay or avoid completely the living death of a body and not knowing why I have it.
Here’s a very interesting article that enthralls me and presents a lot of hope for future research and answers to the affliction that awaits so many of us:
Workout for brain just a few clicks away
By Julie Steenhuysen
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Searching the Internet may help middle-aged and older adults keep their memories sharp, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.Researchers at the University of California Los Angeles studied people doing Web searches while their brain activity was recorded with functional magnetic resonance imaging scans.
"What we saw was people who had Internet experience used more of their brain during the search," Dr. Gary Small, a UCLA expert on aging, said in a telephone interview. "This suggests that just searching on the Internet may train the brain — that it may keep it active and healthy," said Small, whose research appears in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.
Many studies have found that challenging mental activities such as puzzles can help preserve brain function, but few have looked at what role the Internet might play. "This is the first time anyone has simulated an Internet search task while scanning the brain," Small said.
His team studied 24 normal volunteers between the ages of 55 and 76. Half were experienced at searching the Internet and the other half had no Web experience. Otherwise, the groups were similar in age, gender and education.
Both groups were asked to do Internet searches and book reading tasks while their brain activity was monitored.
"We found that in reading the book task, the visual cortex — the part of the brain that controls reading and language — was activated," Small said. "In doing the Internet search task, there was much greater activity, but only in the Internet-savvy group."
He said it appears that people who are familiar with the Internet can engage in a much deeper level of brain activity.
"There is something about Internet searching where we can gauge it to a level that we find challenging," Small said.In the aging brain, atrophy and reduced cell activity can take a toll on cognitive function. Activities that keep the brain engaged can preserve brain health and thinking ability. Small thinks learning to do Internet searches may be one of those activities. "It tells us we probably can teach an old brain new Internet tricks," he said…. (my emphasis)
Pretty interesting stuff, no? I thought of digging this article up and finally writing about it while I was working on my last post where I talked about our 93 year-old uncle teaching his 60 year-old children and his 40 year-old grandchildren the value of the Web and the value of staying active.
Retirement is so much more than obsessing and worrying about money … or health insurance. I have a tough job relating to many of my same-age fellow Americans because these twin bugaboos are all they seem to think about, from waking up until sleep. We are all of us going to live from this moment until our time comes, whenever that may be. To a very great extent, what happens between now and then … how you live that time out … is very much up to you.
