The Kelsey Report

How to Hold On to Your Mind

 

You know what “older” means, right?

Over the age of 30.

If you’re 30 or older, this is for you.

Have you ever gone to retrieve something and at just about the moment you arrive to get whatever it was you wanted, you can’t remember what brought you there in the first place?

I found myself standing in front of an open refrigerator door the other night wondering, “Now, why am I here again? What was it I was looking for?”

Or you’re in the middle of a conversation with a friend about a movie you recently saw and you can’t quite remember the name of the actor…until the next day.

My wife, Elle, does a terrific job of mixing up actors’ name or the the names of other famous people like Nelson Rockefeller and Norman Rockwell. It’s the source of a lot of great laughs.

Now, there’s nothing unusual about any of this unless of course it happens with increasing frequency, you never do remember anything or you find yourself wandering down the street unable to find your house.

This fragmentation of your memory is considered “normal” for the aging process.

Hmmm…..

Sounds familiar.

Like creaky joints, a bulging middle, waning sexual desire, and a generally grumpy outlook.

There’s a growing interest in “brain training”, like Luminosity, to help your brain stay agile, nimble and quick just as physical training fights the creaky joints and things generally associated with “growing old”.

And in addition to mind games, keeping your brain “young” appears to be influenced by physical training.

Silent Brain Infarcts (SBI), or small strokes, are considered the hallmark of subclinical cerebrovascular disease. These small injuries to your brain eventually can lead to Alzheimer’s Disease or Organic Brain Syndrome or more generally, dementia.

But there’s some good news.

In a study published in Neurology, researchers found a strong correlation between moderate to intense exercise and a lower incidence of SBI. One of the authors of the study, Joshua Willey, MD, from Columbia University in New York, said in a news release,

“Encouraging older people to take part in moderate to intense exercise may be an important strategy for keeping their brains healthy.”

So that leads us to the next question.

What’s “moderate to intense” exercise mean to you (for my take on it)?

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Lacey says

I’ve got a half-cocked theory on a contributer to age related brain/memory fragmentation… based on nothing but observation and a wee bit of experience.

Emotionally unprocessed events/traumas are brain-zappers. (And we all have them…) Carrying them around and running from them uses up a lot of brain power. Add “normal” age related memory loss to 20-50+ years of brain-zap from carrying around psychological baggage and we’ve got an ugly scene for brain function. Heap an injury or illness on top all of this, or chronic pain, and the brain starts calling it quits.

The bright side of my theory is that regular brisk walks/jogs to a therapist’s office could radically improve the function of a lot of people’s brains. 🙂

    DD Kelsey says

    I think you have a valid point. And add to that a less than optimal diet and you have a recipe for early “brain fatigue”.

    Something else that has been shown to help is writing about the unprocessed “baggage”. Expression works.

    Thanks for your comments –

Jimtigerpt says

Funny thing about the heart rate monitor is that once you have been doing it enough and you know how you feel in the “zone”, I don’t need it most of the time because I know where I am based on how I feel and on my breathing. It’s good once in awhile to use the visual feedback from the monitor. I haven’t used in a few months. Guess that’s a good thing…..that is knowing your body through consistency of training. That’s was I strive for. Not always easy for sure.

Lacey says

DK, your Click Here isn’t clickable.

Jimtigerpt says

Moderate to intense to me is how I feel a few hours later and the next day. If I am really sore the next day and it stays with me for more than a few days, it’s intense. If it goes away relatively quick within 1 day, then moderate. I can usually tell about half way through the rounds how I am going to feel the next day. New elements usually get me more sore but I attribute that to motor learning. So I go by feel as much as my heart rate.

    DD Kelsey says

    Here’s my take – click here.

Lacey says

Moderate to intense: moderate is a 5-6, and intense is a 7+ on the exertion scale. Moderate is a run with my dog. Intense is HIIT and sprints. Intense usually means I can “feel it” the next day: a little tight in the muscles or even sore, or some what muscle fatigued. I don’t do intense more than 2x a week because then I don’t have the energy to do yard work, or chase the dogs.

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