Your Aging Brain

By Susan McPherson, Ph.D., ABPP, L.P.

Worried about the consequences of aging? You’re not alone. As the baby boomer population continues to grow older, today in America more and more people are interested in what happens to their brains as they age.

Many things are considered normal consequences of aging. A 20 year old may walk into a room, forget why he did, and pass it off as nothing.  When a 60 year old does the same thing, she may become worried. Occasionally forgetting the name of an acquaintance, missing an appointment because you didn’t check your calendar, or losing track of your keys are all normal things. Occasionally losing track of a sentence or forgetting the right descriptive word is also normal.

Having problems putting sentences together on a regular basis and forgetting common nouns are not normal. Neither is forgetting recently learned information, where you’re asking the same questions repeatedly and not remembering the answer. Getting lost in your neighborhood or not remembering how to conduct simple, everyday tasks are also red flags.

While your biggest risk for developing Alzheimer’s is advanced age, there are things you can do to possibly prevent the onset of the disease.

Learn something new. Teach yourself a new language or learn a new game. While we can’t rebuild neurons that are lost, by learning we can build bridges between the existing neurons to make more connections between them.

Playing board games may also prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s. But make sure the games you are playing require some thinking. Battle Ship, for example, is an excellent board game because it uses both deductive and inductive reasoning. Boggle, Chess, Sequence, or Connect 4 are also great.

If you’re going to watch TV, watch educational programs. These will help you learn something or require you to think.

Social activity also helps keep your memory fit. Consider joining a dance class or other group of interest. Not only will it help with your mood, but conversations also stimulate your brain.

There are several memory techniques available to help you remember what you don’t want to forget.  Visualization is also a good memory technique to use and involves seeing what you hope to remember. For example, if you need to walk into a room to get batteries for your camera, before entering the room, visualize yourself getting the batteries and putting them into your camera.

No matter what your age, continually strive learn new things. The best way to learn something is to get it into your brain in as many ways as possible. Learning through hearing and seeing, for example, is more effective than learning solely through hearing. And remember: in the fight against Alzheimer’s, you can teach an old dog new tricks.

Susan McPherson, Ph.D., ABPP, L.P., is an associate professor of neurology at the University of Minnesota Medical School and the Neuropsychologist for the N. Bud Grossman Center for Memory Research and care.