Re: Once a man; twice a child!

Paul <pgrieg@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Remember that the old adage 'use it or lose it' applies to all the
organs, including the one between our ears.

Ultimately 'using it' is no solution - we're all brain dead eventually.
And 'using it' is no certain defence against senility, as Iris Murdoch
demonstrated.

Not exactly true, recent research has indicated that people who are
mentally active (the study used university graduates who worked with
their minds) still got Alzheimers but symptoms didn't manifest until
significantly later than in other Alzheimers patients. However time to
death from onset of symptoms was much shorter in the educated sample.
Post mortem analysis showed their brains to be riddled with plaques.

The hypothesis is that keeping an active used mind gives you the
flexibility to route around problems that others cannot. Eventually the
damage is too great and overwhelms to greater flexibility which is why
the denouement is much steeper. So 'using it' will not stave off the
inevitable but it will give you more useful years and less debilitation.
I don't fancy a long denouement, so retirement might be a good time to
finally learn Russian and get properly to grips with French.

Da svidanya
Peter
--
Add my middle initial to email me. It has become attached to a country
.