July 17, 2024 – Changes may begin in middle age, but are frequently not visible until a long time later. After age 60, changes may speed up and grow to be obvious.
“As we age, our brains actually start to shrink and lose mass,” said Dr. Marc Milstein, a brain researcher in Los Angeles. The onset of this shrinkage in addition to the course can vary, said Milstein, who wrote The age-resistant brain.
“After age 40, our total brain volume can shrink by about 5% every 10 years,” he said. “Our brains have connections where our memories are stored, and as we age, we lose some of those connections. This can make it difficult to remember and learn new information.”
As scary as which will sound, “We can slow down this process,” Milstein said.
Those who appear to have slowed the method essentially the most are generally known as “super-agers” and are the main target of intensive research. But many other people who find themselves over 70 years old,th birthday, boast that they often impress their friends with their spectacular memory and other mental abilities.
“Typical” changes within the brain over time
With age, the hippocampus– crucial for the formation of recent memories and access to old ones – loses volume. When learning recent information, Milstein compares the hippocampus to a “waiting room” of the Brain“It’s one of the first places where information gets to.”
And the brain has to choose: Is this information value committing to long-term memory? As we age, our brain's ability to avoid distractions can negatively affect our ability to commit this information, Milstein said. That's why multitasking as we age could make learning recent information harder, he said. The prefrontal cortex – essential for managing emotions and stress – also shrinks.
These structural changes and shrinkage vary from individual to individual, says David B. Reuben, MD, professor of drugs and chief of geriatrics on the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. “How much it contributes to deterioration varies.”
In the late '70s and '80s, the speed of knowledge processing can decelerate, he said. He compares it to a pc that needs an update. “Before you update your computer, you get the same answers, but they're slower,” he said.
Memory lapses, or “tongue-tip syndrome” as Reuben calls it, can even occur and are normal. “You know you know, but you can't get the word or words out.” Then, sometime later, you may remember it, so that you chill out and think your memory is effective.
As we age, confusion over names can occur just because it did earlier in life, says Dr. Joe Verghese, a cognitive neurologist and director of the Division of Cognitive and Motor Aging at Montefiore Medical Center within the Bronx, New York.
If it's an isolated incident, it's not a red flag, he said. It's more more likely to occur in a stressful situation. But it could occur to anyone. “It's like an elderly mother calling her first son by the name of her second son,” said Verghese, who admitted he once called his son by his dog's name.
The reduction in brain volume can result in noticeable changes in pondering ability, Verghese said. But it's essential to notice that with normal aging, “the degree of shrinkage doesn't always correlate with cognitive performance or everyday functioning.” In other words, your brain might shrink noticeably, but you'll still get through most of your day just effective.
If brain scans resembling MRIs are repeated over time, shrinkage will likely be evident when comparing scans over time, Verghese said. In clinical practice, nonetheless, he said, he doesn’t perform serial MRIs to evaluate shrinkage. Instead, he relies on people's clinical status by assessing whether or not they walk, talk and think normally.
He is an authority on the connection between Gait and dementia, The study concludes that changes in gait might be used to predict mild mental disabilities and dementia.
“The way you walk is an important indicator of your health and how well you are doing both cognitively and physically,” Verghese said.
That's because walking involves processes from the brain to the nerve endings within the feet. When walking becomes stiff, it could indicate a variety of problems – from arthritis and the necessity for more movement to possible Parkinson's disease or other conditions. A stiff gait just isn’t normal, he said. “You should be able to walk freely. If you're not, there's a reason for that,” even though it is probably not treatable.
Enter the exceptions
Despite brain shrinkage, some people proceed to impress their friends with their memory skills later in life.
Sylvia Schmidt, 89, is a longtime member of a book club where most members are a minimum of 10 years younger. But she was the just one who noticed that that they had already read a book the leader had once chosen. Others initially argued together with her, said Schmidt, who lives in a senior living facility in Fullerton, California. But the leader picked out the book (As a driven leaf) and agreed together with her, and now all of them know higher. “They all say I have a phenomenal memory,” Schmidt said proudly.
Recently, she had a lengthy political discussion with one other resident who initially insisted that her account of an incident, including the date, was unsuitable. When his friend looked up the main points and located that Schmidt's version was correct, he modified his mind.
Perry Solomon, 79, of Santa Monica, Calif., is a consultant to small and medium-sized businesses. Recently, he was discussing travel problems along with his wife and will still describe intimately an incident that occurred during a family trip greater than 40 years ago.
“It was about how our passports were stolen when our daughters were sitting on our suitcases but were distracted [by a thief] on a sidewalk in Manhattan while we were checking out of the hotel,” Solomon said.
He also sits on the advisory boards of several firms and says he often hears from colleagues: “How the hell did you remember that?”
Reuben sees a patient in his geriatric practice who remains to be working at age 98. “His memory is better than mine,” Reuben said. Another patient, over 90, remains to be teaching on the university, his memory intact.
Enter the Super Ager Exceptions
These “super-agers” include Edith Smith, who, at 110 years old, is the oldest of over 100 participants within the Northwestern University program SuperAging program. Similar programs, also funded by the National Institutes of Health, are in place at other locations across the United States.
“There are many different definitions of successful cognitive aging,” says Dr. Tamar Gefen, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, who runs this system there. For the Northwestern program, “a super-ager is a person over 80 whose memory function is at the level of a 50-year-old or even better,” as determined through testing, she said.
Gefen is usually asked for a profile of a typical super-ager. She doesn't have one. “We have super-agers who smoke. We have super-agers who drink a six-pack. [although not every day]. We have super-agers who are depressed. Some have 8 years of schooling, others 20 years. We have super-agers who survived the Holocaust, who went through hell and back.”
Of course genetics play a task, she said. But that's not the whole lot.
“A few factors we have found through observation are that super-agers are more social, extroverted and [than usual]” said Gefen. However, she acknowledged that this may very well be because of sampling bias, as more extroverted individuals are more more likely to take part in studies.
That's to not say that the suggestions on the usual list of excellent brain health habits – exercise, cardiovascular health, good nutrition – aren't essential, Gefen said, citing an inventory published in The Lancet in 2020 of 12 potentially modifiable risk aspects for dementia (resembling hearing impairment, hypertension, depression and low social contact). Yet, she said, a few of her super-agers could have considered three of those aspects and ignored the opposite nine.
Research: What protects the brain?
Researchers are looking into how brain health might be protected in old age. The findings include:
Stay social: In a study of nearly 9,000 people aged 65 and over in Japan, all without dementia, the full brain volume within the group with the bottom incidence of Social contacts was lower within the hippocampus and other regions than within the group with the best frequency of social contact. Depression appeared to partially explain the association, the researchers said.
Exercise: Even moderate go, resembling walking fewer than 4,000 steps per day has been linked to increased brain volume and potential brain-protective effects, a study of greater than 10,000 people found. Ballroom dancing can improve Knowledge, Verghese and his colleagues found that it reduces the chance of Alzheimer's disease and is an efficient alternative to traditional exercise. As a part of the study, they sent 25 older adults to either treadmill training or ballroom dancing for six months.
Search for brand new information: “Remember to learn new information,” Milstein said. Try something fun and out of doors your comfort zone. “Take a new class. Find something new for yourself. You'll stimulate your brain to make new connections.”