I earned my PhD at age 50, after earning three other degrees and what amounts to eight minors along the way. About the only subjects I did not study at universities were economics, politics and cultural anthropology. Those were the subjects I researched and wrote a book about (Systems out of Balance) as soon as my schooling days were over. People joke about me being a professional student, but little do they know I merely was keeping my brain healthy.
I recently posted an article on my Facebook page about a study comparing a variety of activities on mental health. The winner? Those activities involving learning a new skill. Not faring so well? People doing easy puzzles and brain games. This study confirms the message in a letter crafted by 70 scientists from Stanford’s Center on Longevity and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. Their objective was to debunk the claims of the multimillion dollar brain game industry. Doing brain games may make you better at doing brain games, but they don’t necessarily increase your overallbrain health. They recommended learning something new that you enjoy.
In the aforementioned study, learning digital photography and Photoshop came in first. Quilting was mentioned as well. If you learn something requiring finger dexterity you provide both maximum brain stretching and exercising (my terms). If you engage both in exercise and learning something new you help your brain grow new tissue and make new connections between neurons.
Unfortunately, Cindy is too advanced in her Alzheimer’s to easily engage in new learning; the mind to body communication falters, as does her attention span. I struggle now to find activities for which she actually can show improvement. As for me? My regimen of learning new things includes finger dexterity (drawing for this year), an instrument (piano) and the ongoing research of someone who never stopped being a professional student.
