Want to stay sharp? Start Now!
By Marilyn Elias | Aug 18, 2005
A USA TODAY excerpt

Population studies show that 50% of people older than 85 have Alzheimer's disease, according to Rush University Medical Center epidemiologist Denis Evans. About 76 million baby boomers are now headed there!

Animal studies and rapidly growing human evidence suggest that adults might be able to delay or prevent severe cognitive decline, says Molly Wagster, who directs research on normal brain aging at the National Institute on Aging. "There are no guarantees yet, but it's really looking like some of these things could work."

"We've been surprised to find out how malleable the brain is," says psychologist Randy Buckner of Washington University in St. Louis . The evidence that mentally challenging lives and certain types of stimulation boost brainpower comes from large, worldwide samples of people who have been followed over time.

"What we have is … worth paying attention to now," says neurologist David Bennett of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago . "Don't wait till you're 80." His long-running study of Catholic nuns, priests and brothers shows that the more formal education a person has, the more amyloid plaques -- clumped protein fragments typical of Alzheimer's -- it takes to produce a given level of memory impairment.

Adults who lead stimulating lives may develop more neurons, more connections between neurons or more efficiency in using their brain cells so they need fewer, Bennett says. They also may create needed detours around brain blockages in response to the demands of daily life, much in the way a commuter is able to find quicker routes home.

Bennett's team is now counting neurons and the links between neurons in brains of deceased study participants to shed more light on what's happening. Mental and social stimulation is not the whole story in preserving brain function. There's evidence that aerobic exercise is beneficial.

Walking 45 minutes three times a week for six months significantly improved mental ability of older adults with no dementia; a randomly selected control group that did stretching and toning had no change, says study leader Arthur Kramer, a psychologist at the University of Illinois .

Brain scans taken before and after show growth in two regions of the walkers' brains that typically shrink with aging and work less efficiently. "They looked two to three years younger in brain volume after six months," Kramer says.

Add diet to the mix -- antioxidant-rich foods apparently help. But a stimulating environment combined with antioxidants works even better.

Even as many pine for their youthful brains, they may not be needed to function well at 70. Brain scan studies show that mentally sharp older people more often recruit different areas of their brains than younger adults to do the same mental task, says cognitive neuroscientist Roberto Cabeza of Duke University .

"The older brain can reorganize to cope with changes," he says.

Never too late?

It's not even hopeless for sedentary people in their 70s. University of Illinois psychologist Denise Park conducted an eight-week program teaching digital photography or quilting to elderly adults. On completion, they improved significantly on mental ability tests, compared with a control group that did nothing new. The potential for preventing or delaying dementia by building brain reserve earlier in life is tantalizing, Park says.

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