Mind gains
My friend Joyce walks six miles a day, unless the weather is rotten: then she does just three or four. In the summer she likes to do a bit of tai chi in the park. She’s a voracious reader and contributes to various philosophical e-discussion groups. Joyce is in her 70s and is one of those people whose life, far from becoming empty in retirement, has filled almost to overflowing. Keen to speak to her for this piece, I found I had to leave several phone messages and send a number of e-mails: she is always busy.
I hope I am like Joyce when I reach her age: fit and, perhaps even more important, mentally sharp and lively. Thanks to medical science, we now expect our bodies to be reasonably preserved into our seventh and eighth decades. The new, tantalising, holy grail is to be able to preserve the health of our brains as well.
With life expectancy increasing, many fear an old age spent confused and bewildered, unable to recognise loved ones. The way in which dementia affected academic and author Iris Murdoch touched a nerve.
Neurones are business now. We are told that our offspring will be more intelligent if they listen to special recordings of Mozart for babies, study black and white flash cards or take fish oil supplements that can have near-miraculous effects on the brain. This weekend, the BBC1 is broadcasting Get Smarter in a Week, which promises to show us how a combination of puzzles, switching handedness and sensory deprivation (for example, showering with your eyes closed) can make you up to 40 per cent cleverer.
This might make for good television but how much can we really boost our brain’s functioning? Is it possible to prevent, slow or even stop illnesses such as dementia?
Ian Robertson, Professor of Psychology at Trinity College, Dublin, and author of Stay Sharp with the Mind Doctor (Vermilion, ￡8.99), believes it is. In a lecture to the British Association for the Advancement of Science’s Festival of Science in Dublin last year, he said that not only is it possible to slow the effects of age on the brain but that diet, exercise, mental stimulation, mental training and stress were all “key factors in determining whether your brain can stay healthy enough for you to enjoy life in the new prime between 50 and 80 . . . Hearts and livers can be repaired and transplanted, many cancers can be cured or tamed. With good food and the best therapies, the biggest remaining obstacle to long life is the fitness of the brain and mind.”
Researchers are hard at work studying the effects of the possible neurological anti-ageing treatments Robertson cites. But first there is some good news if you are highly educated and work in a stimulating job. There appears to be a relationship between education level and subsequent cognitive decline: “There is circumstantial evidence that levels of education are related to the richness of connections between brain cells
