Making Our Minds Last a Lifetime

Despite the fact that chances of completely age-proofing our brains are quite slim, the emergent anti-aging research communicates the message that our grey matter may be far more flexible than we thought. So not everyone, no matter how old he or she is, has to confront the decay of the mind. The brain, often referred to as the three-pound universe, is thickly laced with many billions of neurons just as the galaxy has stars, and is thus deemed as the most powerful and mysterious organ, the seat of the self. Hence, it is totally understandable why the mere notion of an aging, failing brain and the prospect of memory loss, confusion as well as the collapse of our personality could appear so terrifying to humankind. Author of The American Geriatrics Society’s Complete Guide to Aging and Health, Mark Williams, M.D., comments: ‘The fear of dementia is stronger than the fear of death itself.’ However, it is utterly groundless speculation that human beings are bound to suffer from brain degeneration sooner or later. ‘Its design features are such that it should continue to function for a lifetime,’ says Zaven Khachaturian, Ph.D., director of the Alzheimer’s Association’s Ronald and Nancy Reagan Research Institute. ‘There’s no reason to suppose it to degenerate with age, even though many of us are living longer lives now.’ In fact, scientists’ view of the brain’s potential is rapidly changing, according to Stanford University neuro-scientist Robert Sapolsky, Ph.D., ‘Thirty-five years ago we thought of Alzheimer’s disease as a dramatic version of normal aging. Now we realise it’s a disease with distinct pathology. But there is no sign of any mental decline seen in some people’s lifetime, which leads us into the brand new research on what is happening to them.’ Head of the Department of Neurology at the University of Iowa and author of Descartes’ Error, Antonio Damasio, M.D., Ph.D., makes a similar discovery, ‘it’s still highly possible for older people to have extremely rich and healthy mental lives.’

After testing the seniors successively in 1988 and 1991, scientists have noted that four factors play vital roles in maintaining their mental fitness: degrees of education, physical or mental work, lung function and perceived self-efficacy. According to Marilyn Albert, Ph.D., from Harvard Medical School, and colleagues from Yale, Duke and Brandeis Universities and the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, all of the four factors contribute to the alterations in the way our brains work. Meanwhile, Albert also establishes a hypothesis that regular physical activities may stimulate blood flow to the brain and facilitate nerve growth, both of which create more densely branched neurons, rendering the neurons stronger and more capable of resisting diseases. Such a benefit is also achievable through doing moderate aerobic exercise, including long brisk walks and frequent stair-climbing.

It seems that the more education people receive, the better their brains function. Those who have been to a college and challenged themselves with relatively demanding academic study actually have secured themselves a chance to accelerate the growth of neurons in their brains. Furthermore, inherent intelli-gence may act as a special form of protection to our brains. It may be a reliable guess that smart people are born with a larger number of neurons, which in turn provides them with a greater reserve of neurons to fall back on if some begin to fail. ‘If you have a lot of neurons and keep them busy, you may be able to tolerate more damage to your brain before it shows,’ says Peter Davies, M.D., of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, New York. Another contributing factor that may help our brains later in life is early linguistic ability. The New England Journal of Medicine recently conducted an investiga-tion over 93 elderly nuns, and their autobiographies, written 60 years earlier when they just entered the convent, were carefully examined. It turned out that the nuns whose essays were characterised by greater complexity and dense with ideas retained their quick thinking even in their eighties and nineties.

Lastly, personality seems to be given much prominence in protecting our mental prowess. A sense of self-efficacy may effectively guard our brain, buffering it from the negative impact of stress. Albert claims there’s evidence that the elevated level of stress hormones may harm brain cells and cause the hippocam-pus – a small seahorse-shaped organ and a crucial moderator of memory – to atrophy. A sense that we can efficiently chart our own course in the world may retard the release of stress hormones and protect us as we age. ‘It’s not a matter of whether you experience stress or not,’ Albert concludes, ‘it’s your attitude toward it.’ Stress can be reduced by meditating on a regular basis, which may defend the brain as well. Meditations may activate the brain’s pineal gland, responsible for producing the antioxidant hormone melatonin, to help regulate sleep patterns and possibly hinder the aging process. As revealed by the studies at the University of Massachusetts Medical Centre and the University of Western Ontario, a higher level of melatonin was obtainable to people who did regular meditations than those who took 5-milligram supplements. Another study by Maharishi International University, Harvard University and the University of Maryland noticed that three months of meditation had brought conspicuous improve-ments to the psychological well-being of seniors.

It has been confirmed by animal studies that both mental and physical activities serve as stimuli to brain fitness. At the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology in Urbana, Illinois, psycholo-gist William Greenough, Ph.D., made some rats play with many toys. These rodents developed about 25 percent more connections between their neurons than did those without any mentally stimulating recre-ation. Besides, some rats, exercising a lot on a treadmill, developed more capillaries in specific parts of their brains than their sedentary counterparts were. This then enhanced the blood flow to their brains, which, Greenough remarked, suggested a clear message that taking many different movements could be quite helpful.

Scientists are not alone in demonstrating great interest in the anti-aging issue. Walk into any health food store, and you will find various nutritional formulas – with names like Brainstorm and Smart ALEC – that claim to sharpen the brainpower. The book Smart Drugs & Nutrients, co-authored by Ward Dean, M.D. and John Morgenthaler, was self-published in 1990 with a sales volume of 120,000 copies worldwide. This anti-aging fever also gave rise to an underground network in which people replenished their own brain chemistry with nutrients and drugs, some of which were traded from Europe and Mexico. Sales of Ginkgo Biloba Extract – an extract from the leaves of the 200-million-year-old ginkgo tree, which has been shown in published studies to be able to increase oxygen in the brain and ameliorate symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease – are up by 22 percent in the last six months alone, according to Paddy Spence, president of SPINS, a San Francisco-based market research firm. ‘Indeed, products that preserve and increase mental performance are a small but emerging segment of the health care industry,’ says Linda Gilbert, president of HealthFocus, a company that researches consumer health trends. Although some neurology scientists such as Khachaturian compare using these products to the superstition of tossing salt over your shoulder to get rid of bad luck, the general public keeps wolfing down the supple-ments that promise to promote cognition.

Questions 27 – 30

Choose FOUR letters, A–G.

Write the correct letters in boxes 27–30 on your answer sheet.

Questions 31 – 32

Choose TWO letters, A–E.

Write the correct letters in boxes 31 and 32 on your answer sheet.

• 31-32.Which TWO of the following statements are true about meditation?

Questions 33 – 40

Look at the following opinions or deeds (Questions 33–40) and the list of people below.

Match each opinion or deed with the correct person, A–G.

Write the correct letter, A–G, in boxes 33–40 on your answer sheet.

NB You may use any letter more than once.

List of People

A Zaven Khachaturian

B William Greenough

C Marilyn Albert

D Robert Sapolsky

E Linda Gilbert

F Peter Davies

G Paddy Spence

• 33.Alzheimer’s is probably a kind of physical problem instead of an aging process.
• 34.With more neurons to keep working, the brain might be able to withstand more damage.
• 35.Daily exercise encourages blood flow to the brain and strengthens its ability of anti-disease.
• 36.Significant retailing growth of Ginkgo products have been shown.
• 37.More correlations between neurons are found among stimulated animals.
• 38.There is little scientific evidence for the effectiveness of taking brain-boostingsupplements.
• 39.Heightened levels of stress may damage brain cells and cause a certain part of the brain to deteriorate.
• 40.Products that remain and upgrade mental competence are still a newly devel- oping sector.

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