Are you one of those who believe that mental efficiency declines with age?
As a matter of fact, it doesn’t. There is no age limit for exercising the brain nor do the exercises have any side effects. In fact, the more mental exercising one does, the better are the chances of keeping an active memory tills a ripe old age.
The Good news:
The decline in specific mental abilities, beloved to be associated with ageing such as memory loss, sluggish thinking and blocks in problem solving , are not inevitable, if the brain is frequently excited by new challenges. In a matter study by the NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH in Philadelphia, men tested at age 81 where compared with performance on the same tests they had taken at ages 75 and 70. Researchers reported that the “pattern of decline” of cognitive capabilities generally associated with advanced ageing” was “neither extensive nor consistent”. Other major studies on ageing over the past 52 years (Seaborg and colleagues in Sweden, Duke University, and the National Institute on Ageing). Support the findings that “mental (and physical) declined with ageing is not inevitable”. Yet we have all seen elderly people who unmistakably experience mental decline, as they grow older. What can be done to preserve (and enhance) mental fitness, as we grow older?
Use It or Lose It?
Not surprisingly, the same advice that we follow to achieve physical fitness applies to mental fitness – “ use it or lose it”. Just as daily weight repetitions in the gym or jogging strengthen certain muscle groups mental exercises will strengthen and enhance cognitive functions over them.
Monique Le Poncin, founder of the French National Institute for research on the prevention of cerebral ageing, has written a fascinating book called “brain fitness. By identifying the various mental abilities in the human repertoire – perception, long and short term memory and visuo – spatial memory structuralization, logic and verbal abilities – le poncin has “prescribed” an exercise regimen designated to strengthen those areas that tend to become week over the life span. She advocates a technique of cerebral activation, which she calls “brain fitness”.
