The
old rusty Nail
A JOURNAL FOR OLD PEOPLE
THE OLD BRAIN
Russell Burton; an Old Person
I came across a couple of articles on the aging brain; one
with bad news and the other with good news.
I should have known that the one with bad news was not going to be jolly
when I read the title, ‘BRUTAL TRUTHS; About the Aging Brain’ in the October
2012 Discover magazine. Then shown in
gory detail were six ‘scans of a mind in decline’.
Well having an inquiring mind even at age 80 I decided to
read the bad new; and it was bad news!
We don’t stand a chance as four major quality of life issues will go
down the toilet: (1) Senses – yes all of them but smell is the most affected,
(2) Short-term memory – well we know that, (3) Knowledge – my god learning
peaks in our teens, and finally (4) Intelligence – especially the ability to
reason. Then in his conclusion he gave
me the double whammy with the supposed fact that at age 85 half of us will have
Alzheimer’s disease. And, if we live to the ripe of age of 110, we all will
have it. His final sentence says it like it is?
‘These are the brutal truths we must face…’
To begin with I doubt that his age 110 comes from real
data. He’s just extending his equation
model beyond the real data – you know extrapolation and that can be dangerous.
As a side note, I wish someone with a simpler name than
Alzheimer could have discovered the tangled cells and amyloidal deposits in the
brain. You know like Bill’s or Bob’s
disease. I suppose even a young person
could struggle with the spelling of Alzheimer, much less a poor old man like me
with a shrunken brain.
Obviously, the author Robert Epstein is a fairly young man
for an old brain, according to him, couldn’t understand much less write about
these brutal truths if he were old. You know I shouldn’t read these kinds of
articles for instantly I believe that I am losing my mind. Before I read this thing, I thought my mind
was pretty good. I still can do a difficult
Sudoku and writing these columns show that I must have some brain left and it
is still functioning somewhat. And, last year I published a 80,000 word mystery
novel named Mary. Incidentally, you can buy that novel written
by an 80 year old on your Kindle for $5.99.
Of course Epstein notes that our old brain has gotten smaller
(we all know that) but he describes its relative size with little empathy
saying that we have a brain the size of a 2-year old! And, our output of
dopamine, causes brain signals to function, at 80 is about 40% gone! Amazing,
that I am doing so well if nearly half of my brain function has been lost to
posterity. But, he says it like he
thinks it is and holds back nothing, ‘… it’s remarkable that old people can do
so well’. Hey, we are remarkable people
and many of us are doing well without much brain left; with no thanks to
Epstein.
I would think that he might have some respect for old people
just in case an old person like me might read it. Oh, I guess he believes that even if an old
person did read it he or she wouldn’t understand or certainly not remember it.
Suddenly, a small article nestled in the brutal truth column,
jumped up at me with the title ‘How Some Brains stay Razor Sharp’. Well, there is some ray of hope for the
author notes that 25% of old people that ‘function perfectly normally’ had
Alzheimer’s disease at autopsy. Still,
the conclusion is not all that hopeful, ‘Through some combination of luck, good
genes, and a healthy lifestyle, it is possible, it seems, for a fortunate few
to stay razor sharp well into old age’.
The author could have left out such phrases as ‘it is possible, it
seems’ and ‘fortunate few’ just in case an old person read it. The article also
noted that a high-level of education was helpful in warding off forms of
dementia that for some reason was not included in the conclusion.
I do have some experience with old-age dementia as my father
in his early 80s developed some mental challenges. He was a very smart man but mentally very
lazy. When he retired from government
service at age 55 he didn’t use his brain ever again. But, you know his long-term memory was still
great. He was fabulous at spelling. I could never stump him. Even late in life with some dementia I asked
him to spell a word and immediately he gave me the correct answer. Once I asked him to repeat it but he couldn’t
for it was now in his short-term memory where it got lost.
Aha, then in the July/August 2012 Smithsonian magazine comes the good news, ‘Wise Up’ with the
subtitle ‘Forget about senior moments.
The good news is that researcher’s are discovering some surprising
advantages of growing old’. Hey, we are better at ‘cognitive taxing jobs’ and ‘managing
emotions’. We are happier with less
anger and stress than when we were young. Old people noted that they wished
that they had learned how to enjoy life sooner and the last five to ten years
of their lives were the happiest.
The article concluded, ‘We have a seriously negative
stereotype of the 70s and beyond’. ‘And, that stereotype is typically
incorrect’. Well, the 70s to which he alluded
to is not an old age.
A quote from Abraham Lincoln appropriately starts this
article, ‘I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was
yesterday’.
Well, there we have it old people. Either we are close to being mentally
disabled or life doesn’t get any better. I think both authors fell in love with
their data just a little too much and in opposite directions. And, both authors
are certainly not old. If they were old I bet they would have slanted their
articles a bit differently.
I for one am finding that quality of life in the 70s was
better than in the 80s and I have just begun old age. And, my mind is not as sharp as it was but it
still works as one author put it ‘functions perfectly normally’ – whatever that
means.
So, we do the best we can with what we’ve got. I still believe that good physical and mental
exercises help us navigate the mental pitfalls of being old.
You know, I’m still finding it difficult to function well
mentally after reading the bad news article.
Oh, I will be okay in the morning, although I will still remember it and
get a little scared. But, how can this
be the case, at my age I’m not supposed to be able to remember it! I guess the
take-away message is we are really happy people we just can’t remember it.
