USE IT OR LOSE IT - FROM ARCHIVES: 11 06 06
CURRENT
Do you know who the Sisters of Notre Dame nunneries in Minnesota are? In my humble opinion, they are an inspiration. They on average, actively live into their nineties. Many live over one hundred with very few cases of dementia and Alzheimer's. The nuns were featured in Life magazine in 1994 doing daily activities such as teaching, challenging each other with vocabulary quizzes, doing puzzles and debating.
Professor David Snowden of the University of Kentucky examined 100 brains donated at death by the nuns in Mankato and other School Sisters locations across the country. He found many more neural connections in them than the average regardless of age, giving them not only more thinking power but also the ability to reroute input when the brain is damaged by stroke or disease, counteracting the debilitating effects on the brain and keeping the nuns healthier and more active for years.
These women enter the nunnery from all over the country, yet they had one common factor, they had more connections in their brains than the average woman their age. It appears that their brains continued to develop with activity. “Use it or lose it” could be their motto.
MORAL OF THIS STORY: EXERCISE YOUR MIND EVERY DAY AS YOU SHOULD EXERCISE YOUR BODY.
New studies are proving that the brain does not deteriorate with age unless it is idle. The only portion of the brain that has been proven to deteriorate with age is the language section, meaning it is harder to learn foreign languages as we grow older.
In addition, the brain has amazing powers of regeneration. It was once believed that people had permanent damage after strokes. Medical researchers are finding miracle recoveries when working to activate the remaining healthy portions of the brain.
FUN FACT: Chocolate is good for you! When you eat dark chocolate, you activate the systems in your brain that pump dopamine, one of the important neuromodulators that support learning and memory.
BRAIN FITNESS TIPS:
| TIPS |
THE SCIENCE |
| Go on a guided tour of a museum or another site of interest. Pay very careful attention to what the tour guide says. When you get home, try to reconstruct the tour by writing an outline that includes everything you remember. |
Research into brain plasticity (the ability of the brain to change at any age) indicates that memory activities that engage all levels of brain operation—receiving, remembering and thinking—help to improve the function, and hinder the rate of decline in the brain. |
| Sit in a place outside your house, such as on a park bench or in a cafe. Stare straight ahead and don't move your eyes. Concentrate on everything you can see without moving your eyes, including in your peripheral vision. When you have finished, write a list of everything you saw. Then try again and see if you can add to your list! |
Scientists have shown that the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which is crucial to focus and memory, falls off with memory loss and is almost absent in Alzheimer's patients. This activity should help you reinvigorate the controlled release of acetylcholine in your brain through a useful visual memory task. |
Living longer doesn't determine the quality of your life. You have the choice of slowing or increasing your aging process by how you think and behave.
Every day you choose to think and act old or young. The energy you project has no age. You can still feel like a teenager or create like a young aspiring artist no matter what your birth certificate says. The secret is in daily practice. Keep your body and mind active and don't believe in those lies about aging. You might find yourself growing younger every day.
By: Dawn Dudgeon |
HEALTH & FITNESS -