What You Can Do To Prevent Senility When You Get Old

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Thursday, May 15th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed

The reason ‘old sayings’ become ‘old sayings’ is because they’ve been proven to be universally true and because they’re true, they’ve been handed down and passed around for generations. One such old saying is “You learn something new every day”.

We should be thankful that scientists are among the leading advocates of learning something new every day. Case in point: We’ve always believed that our brain cells die and stop regenerating once we get old.

Scientists, wanting to learn something new, have come up with studies that show new brain cell growth in adults, particularly in the hippocampus area of the brain. This area is where learning happens and where we store memories. Another study proved that the number of brain cells can be the same when you are a teenager and when you reach old age.

The brain does shrink in size over time. After reaching full size at around age 20, it begins to shrink by about 1% every year. The decrease in size is not due to neuron (nerve cell) death, but rather to changes of the dendrites that branch out from the neurons and the synapses (the spaces between adjacent neurons) between them.

The main reason why our brain functions reduce as we get old is the change in the dendrites and their decrease in numbers. Dendrites are the once that connect neurons to each other, just like entrance ramps connecting surface roads to the interstate. If these entrance ramps are not in good condition, it will make it difficult for you to reach your destination.

When nerve impulses are also destroyed or are in poor condition, they similarly have a hard time continuing on their path and reach a ‘dead end’. The good news is that we don’t have to suffer from brain cell deterioration as we get older.

Disuse is often the cause of brain function and dendrites deterioration. Another old saying referring to this is, use it or lose it. This is true especially when it comes to our body. If neural pathways become inactive, their strength and function will gradually decrease until they can no longer function properly.

An example would be elderly people’s difficulty in sitting on the floor. The reason for this is that they stopped sitting on the floor at some point in their lives. Movements are made when the brain combines the electrical signals of many neurons and makes a muscle movement. If the movements needed to make one sit on the floor is not used, those pathways between neurons become too weak to carry the signal and the brain’s memory of how to sit on the floor is forgotten.

In order to promote neurogenesis (the making of new brain cells), it’s important to stay active, both mentally and physically. An interesting note is that stress inhibits the formation of new brain cells. Can you guess what enhances it? If you guessed physical exercise, you’re right.

Staying mentally active, through learning new things, doing crossword puzzles or brain teasers, and staying physically active, can keep your brain regenerating new cells and diminish your chances of suffering decreased brain function for the rest of your life.

About the Author: Christian Goodman is a well known researcher and the creator of the alternative health Blog. His various guides has already helped thousands of people who have hypertension, weight loss problems, TMJ, vertigo, and other diseases.

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