If You Don ’t Use It, You’ll Lose It: 4 Tips for Aging Well

My grandfather was a true Yankee farmer. Taciturn and dignified, he rarely said a paragraph when a few words would do. Once, when I was in my mid-twenties and totally clueless about what it means to be dealing with old age, I found him sitting at the kitchen table translating poetry from German to English. Then in his late 70s, it had been over 50 years since he took basic German at the agricultural college he attended. I didn’t have any idea he knew even one German phrase. Yet there he was, diligently working out the poem, word by word by word. “Why don’t you just get an English translation?” I asked. He looked up briefly and growled, “If you don’t use it, you lose it.” “Oh,” was all I could think to say. Later my grandmother explained that he was fearful he was losing some of his memory. Characteristically, he decided to do something about it. He was using the task of translating the poem and the pleasure of conquering it to exercise his brain. Fast forward 50 years. Now in my 70s, I have a new appreciation for my grandfather’s concerns. Like many in my age group, I’ve watched a number of my friends slip into dementia. It starts with simple problems with memory and word-finding that we all have. (I know I’m not the only one to run through all my kids’ names before hitting on the right one.) But the symptoms of Alzheimers and the other dementias aren’t funny or brief. They result in increasing frustration and confusion for the patient and incr...
Source: World of Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Aging Health-related Memory and Perception Self-Help Cognitive Function Memory Loss Source Type: blogs