In order to enjoy an active old age, “training” must start early, says psychiatrist Amalia Săndulescu. Avoiding the onset of other diseases will also delay cognitive decline.
Handwriting is good brain training PHOTO: Pixabay
The gradual decline in mental capacity, which, experts have noted, is occurring earlier and earlier in some people even before the age of 50, can be prevented. How? Adopting a balanced lifestyle, which protects us from diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, because these are risk factors.
Cognitive decline, i.e. the slow deterioration of the processes by which we think, remember, concentrate and make decisions, begins to set in long before the clinical signs are visible, explains psychiatrist Amalia Săndulescu. Most of us know that it occurs naturally with natural aging. However, there are other causes that we can control. It is about vascular factors – hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol; from lack of sleep; alcohol or drug abuse; of chronic stress, depression and anxiety, etc.
The good news is that this process of slow deterioration of mental capacity can be prevented or slowed by controlling the causes mentioned above.
What are the first signs and how do we protect ourselves?
“Generally, the first sign is short-term memory impairment. And that’s exactly how everyone says it – I go after an object and forget after I’ve left. Or I can’t remember the names of famous people, or names of actors, or names of singers. And these are the first signs,” stated Dr. Săndulescu.
If we have a family history of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, stroke, there are chances that the offspring will develop the same problems and the risk increases. Added to these are environmental factors, which leave a significant mark.
When it comes to environmental factors, our generation and our children’s generation are even more exposed than the previous ones. Screens are a huge source of worry.
“The exposure to screens, the fact that we no longer interact much with each other, we no longer develop our speech, reading. We read a lot on the phone, or we don’t even read anymore, we listen to audiobooks, and all of this at some point somehow induces a decline in us. Because at the moment we read, the nerve centers are anchored in an activity”, added the doctor.
What some of us also do less and less, and the latest studies have shown how much it protects us from this cognitive decline, is to write by hand.
“There are recent studies, directed in this area, which show that the executive function – which is also affected in the diseases we are talking about – can be preserved if handwriting is preserved. That is, to read a lot and at some point to consider what we read. Handwriting is one of the protective factors”. the doctor also mentioned.
Controlling physical diseases is another factor to consider in order to delay the decline of mental capacity.
“Unfortunately there is small vessel disease. There are inflammatory phenomena in the body caused by all kinds of metabolic imbalances that predispose to the formation of atheroma plaques on small vessels. And unfortunately, the brain has small vessels, many capillaries, arterioles. And they are the ones who suffer the earliest in these cholesterol deposits. And then, slowly, slowly, becoming obstructed, the small vessels become infarcted or cerebral circulation becomes difficult, and the phenomena of leukoaraiosis appear, we call them. That is, lesions that are both in the white matter, but also the cortical atrophy that occurs in the superficial cortical layers in the gray matter,” the doctor described why it is important to control cholesterol levels, for example.
Insulin resistance and diabetes also take a toll on mental health.
“This insulin resistance actually means a metabolic imbalance that generates and maintains an inflammatory process. And this means that an unbalanced diet, with a lot of carbohydrates, causes some inflammatory phenomena at the level of the vascular intima and precipitates the deposition of cholesterol on the vessels. Insulin resistance with dyslipidemia does nothing but speed up the onset of degenerative, cognitive diseases.” drew the attention of doctor Amalia Săndulescu.
There are things that happen gradually, even 10-15 years before the signs of cognitive disease appear, and then it is important to prevent insulin resistance by controlling the process with diet and exercise and healthy lifestyle habits.
Intellectual effort protects us from cognitive decline
Reading, crosswords, learning a foreign language, chess, puzzle, anything that forces the brain to adapt to new conditions at some point helps prevent cognitive degenerative diseases. There are things to think about and to do consciously, all the more so since recently the exposure to social networks, where everything happens fast forward, has shaped us in such a way that it is more and more difficult for us to focus our attention on one thing for a longer time.
A hobby identified as early as possible in life, to which we allocate time and resources, is a tremendous help when we retire from active life. The time of retirement is, moreover, a test for many people. For many, it is a moment of abandonment of all previous goals. From there to depression is a small step, and depression can be the onset of a degenerative disease.
“There are people who, at some point, lose this desire to be motivated by something specific. Generally, when they are in activity, they are anchored there. They have the opportunity to socialize. The fact that they leave home, that they go to a community that they know very well, where they have more or less the same customs, are things that motivate them and keep them anchored. When retirement occurs, their emotional state declines. The emotional state, at a given moment, does nothing but also precipitate the onset of degenerative diseases. In general, they kind of overlap. And it is important to identify this depressive state and know how to treat it. Depression can mask the onset. Most dementias begin as depressive episodes,” said the doctor.
To prevent all of this from happening, it’s important to find a purpose for your post-retirement well in advance, just as it’s important to take care of your physical health.
“Syou think – in retirement I would like to do this. And to really try to go to that area that also offers a reward. We need to find healthy, functional rewards. And to realize that, in fact, our retirement does not mean breaking the connection with the world, but means a new beginning. Let each stage of life come with its opportunities. To be able to identify them, to be consistent with our personality and our needs. And let’s fight with all our strength to achieve those goals and desires that we set before ourselves”, was Dr. Săndulescu’s advice.
Restful sleep, regular exercise and socializing
Another protective factor against degenerative diseases is sleep. A restful sleep of at least 6-7 hours a night allows the brain to get rid of all the products it has accumulated and the stress that can predispose to dementia.
Regular, moderate physical exercise, which can mean 10-15 minutes a day of brisk walking, helps the brain, as does socialization, which we must not give up under any circumstances. It is important to keep a circle of knowledge, a circle that allows us to keep the interaction and at some point forces us to get out of our environment and be able to connect with others.
