Older is wiser

[skb]

It's long been believed that advancing age leads to broad declines in our mental abilities. Now, new research from Georgetown University Medical Center offers surprisingly good news by countering this view.

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[bigskygal]

Definitely will read this tomorrow! Too tired now...

[walkerwally1]

I think that I am fortunate that I see no sign of Alzheimer's and there is none that I know of in my family.  Other than that I seem to be pretty good with my mental abilities for an old soul.  I think that by keeping active with things that challenge me like working on computers and such and even playing games like solitaire and trying to solve the daily challenge helps.  I might be wrong but it seems to help.  I am a careful driver and have never had an accident or even a small dent and I think years of driving helps.  I hope that continues. 

[bigskygal]

Yes Wally, in that respect you are very lucky! I have numerous family members on my dad's side, including him, that have suffered from Alzheimers. His death was so early (1979) that they didn't even call it that then. His dx was "Alcoholic Brain" I guess because he was a raging alcoholic so they blamed it on that. My cousin on dad's side had early onset Alzheimers and an aunt also had it.  Dad's family were all heavy drinkers too. My mother was adopted and I have no birth family info on her, so that side is an unknown. 

Giving up alcohol was probably a very good choice for me. I have no issues and the Gastro also had a long conversation with me and at the end said , "obviously there is nothing wrong with your cognition or memory." He was testing me I think! 

I've never had a car accident I also am a very careful driver. I do a lot of reading and some puzzles and try to keep up as much as my inherent abilities allow...(ie I have never been good at numbers and techie stuff but have some gorgeous Chinese brush paintings and detailed cross stitched things on the walls I have done. That is where my talents fall instead of tech stuff). I think just doing things and learning some new things as we age, help keep us going strong. Yeah, I have my senior moments..."what did I come into this room for?" stuff. But all in all besides the genetics which I can't control, I feel I am doing just fine.

[skb]

I might be wrong but it seems to help.

You are not wrong and it definitely helps when you do these little things to keep the grey cells buzzing.

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[walkerwally1]

I think the walking into a room and wondering what you came in there for is pretty normal and not a sign of mental decline.  Often when we go to another room to do something we are probably thinking about something else and that has taken our attention.  I have done it but not very often.  I do have some aids like my pill box so I can check to make sure I took my pills.  Without it I would wonder sometimes if I took them.  That is something you tend to do automatically then later are not sure you did it. 
There is a RN at the medical clinic where my PCP is that is part of a program for seniors that I think is covered by Medicare and she checks in with me once a month on the phone and has a routine set of questions to go over to see how you have been doing.  Part of that is to give you a set of three things, words, to remember than later asks you to repeat them.  A simple task that is to check for mental acuity.  She also acts as a liaison that will help with any problems you have like getting an appointment or really anything with the system.  She has helped me with some of the red tape problems I have encountered before and it was taken care of fast.  Because this medical clinic is part of the hospital it is involved with all of the hospital jumble.

[skb]

Often when we go to another room to do something we are probably thinking about something else and that has taken our attention. 

Exactly my thoughts. If your attention gets diverted to something else and you forget the original task, that should be OK. If you forget it for no reason, like a blank mind, that could (I'm not saying that it is) be a problem.