“She said, ‘aging is a normal part of our biological systems. Nobody can change that basic medical fact.’”
The other day, we heard seven-year-old Milek Andrey in conversations with his grandfather, where the former said he could not locate the pair of scissors he was using to make 12 months of a Gregorian calendar.
“I guess I’m really old,” he told his grandfather, whose sense of humor is often heard in the echoes of his grandson’s easy, if quick, crosstalk.
A day earlier, we heard the line “senior moments” from friends when they forgot something which they think they should have not—underlining an instance of momentary forgetfulness or confusion attributed to the aging process.
We are as well aware of an instance when a friend from an old broadcast newsroom castigated his wife of nearly 50 years for forgetting her purse he said contained their elderly IDs when they started placing their lunch order at a mall restaurant.
They had to return home, all of 10 kilometers one way, to locate their IDs to avail themselves of 20 percent discount at the shopping zone in the metropolis—only to discover the IDs were in fact in the husband’s clutch bag all along.
Last weekend, in one of our free space, off the deadline writing speeches for other people, we had the opportunity to read what appeared to be a well-researched material which initially gave us the time to appreciate the brain of an elderly person.
The article said the director of the George Washington University School of Medicine argues the brain of an older person is much more practical than is generally believed.
At this age, the interaction of the right and left hemispheres of the brain becomes harmonious, which expands a person’s creative possibilities.
This is why among people over 60 you can find many personalities who have just started their creative activities.
The article added: “Of course, the brain is not as fast as it was in youth. However, it becomes more flexible. As a result, with age we are more likely to make the right decisions and we are less exposed to negative emotions.
“The peak of human intellectual activity occurs around the age of 70, when the brain begins to function fully.
“Over time, the amount of myelin in the brain increases, a substance that facilitates the rapid passage of signals between neurons. As a result, intellectual capacity increases by 300 percent over the average.”
It is interesting to note that after the age of 60, a person can use two hemispheres at the same time.
This allows a person to solve much more complex problems.
Professor Monchi Uri, from the University of Montreal, believes the brain of the elderly chooses the path that consumes the least energy, eliminates the unnecessary and leaves only the appropriate options to solve the problem.
A study was conducted in which different age groups participated. The young people were very confused when they passed the tests, while the over 60s made the right decisions.
We took note of the material’s bulletin on the characteristics of an older person’s brain.
We read the lines:
1. The neurons in the brain do not die, as everyone around you says. The links between them simply disappear if you don’t engage in mental work.
2. Distraction and forgetfulness occur because of an overabundance of information. Therefore, you don’t need to concentrate all your life on useless trifles.
3. From the age of 60 onwards, a person does not use one hemisphere at a time, like young people, but both when making decisions.
4. Conclusion: if a person leads a healthy life, moves, has a viable physical activity and has a full mental activity, intellectual capacities do not decrease with age, they simply grow, reaching a peak at the age of 80-90.
So don’t be afraid of old age. Strive to develop intellectually.
Our Pavlovian reaction was to start a conversation with our daughter Hermione Mary Anne, a doctor of medicine and a certified clinical research professional, who quickly but prudently offered her thoughts based on her experiences with the geriatric and elderly population.
After a few paragraphs from her father, she straight off said the article is very general, and added “The brain has a multi-faceted cognitive ability: memory, spatial orientation, abstraction, orientation to space, time, person…calculation, language, etc.
“These areas of cognition may decline over time after the brain reaches maturity and a decline in some areas may not be pathological; it becomes pathological only when it significantly disturbs and affects activities of daily living.” Full text at www.manilastandard.net
We pricked up our ears as she continued, “High level of education may mask age-related cognitive decline especially in high functioning individuals.
“Pathological cognitive decline (regardless of age) will shine through or would remain noticeable despite the person”s effort to mask it.” Her lines were persuasive, particularly when she said “Aging is a normal part of our biological systems. Nobody can change that basic medical fact.
“Take note, in the brain’s list of cognitive function, wisdom and empathy are not measurable by scientific means. We can predict wisdom when one seems intelligent, but it is not an assurance.
“Wisdom and empathy and love and compassion are not all domains of the brain.”
As our daughter’s phrasal verbs were slowly sinking in, we remembered that Plato argued the mind and body are fundamentally different because the mind is rational.
This means that examining the mind can lead to truth.
In contrast to this, we cannot believe anything we experience via the senses, which are part of the body, because they can be tricked.
Empirical studies have suggested that older people are better than younger ones in terms of control over emotion, knowing themselves better, making better decisions that require experience, and having more compassion and empathy towards others.
We will remember these. No “senior moments.”