The Aging Brain
Age may be just a number, but a recent study published in the British Medical Journal says that our mental capacity starts to decline as early as age 45. Previous studies on cognition focused on the changes to the brain after age 60. But changes in memory and cognition that lead to a high risk of dementia usually starts in a person's 40s.
The fact that signs of dementia appear earlier than once thought could open the door to more will challenges based on lack of testamentary capacity.
The good news is that healthy lifestyle choices today such as exercise and good cardiovascular health may help prevent loss of cognition tomorrow. "We, and others, have shown healthy lifestyles and good cardiovascular health to be important for cognitive outcomes," says lead author Archana Singh-Manoux, Ph.D., research director at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research, in Paris. "The fact that cognition declines early implies that midlife levels of these factors -- health behaviors and cardiovascular risk factors and disease -- might be important for cognitive outcomes later in life." So here is yet another reason to keep your healthy New Years' resolutions.
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