{"id":8286,"date":"2011-02-21T05:56:48","date_gmt":"2011-02-21T13:56:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gasdetection.com\/?page_id=8286"},"modified":"2021-08-29T14:51:25","modified_gmt":"2021-08-29T21:51:25","slug":"can-maintain-even-improve-cognitive-fitness-age","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.gasdetection.com\/interscan-in-the-news\/magazine-articles\/can-maintain-even-improve-cognitive-fitness-age\/","title":{"rendered":"You Can Maintain–And Even Improve–Your Cognitive Fitness As You Age"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Health<\/a><\/p>\n

February 21, 2011<\/p>\n

You Can Maintain\u2014And Even Improve\u2014Your Cognitive Fitness As You Age<\/p>\n\"Cognitive\n

By\u00a0 Michael D. Shaw<\/p>\n

To their credit, many Baby Boomers\u2014members of the cohort born between 1946 and 1964\u2014seem to be following Dylan Thomas, and are not going “gentle into that good night.” A sizable number of Boomers frequent health clubs, take supplements, are wary of heavy pharmaceuticals, and carefully scrutinize what they eat.<\/p>\n

And now, as they age, they are turning their attention to cognitive fitness, as well.<\/p>\n

“Cognitive fitness” can be defined as an evaluation of the overall functioning of mental processes such as comprehension, decision-making, problem-solving, and learning. Of special interest are the capacities of abstraction, generalization, and meta-reasoning\u2014which all aid in the ability to assess situations, solve problems creatively, and act decisively.<\/p>\n

Or, to quote cognitive fitness gurus Roderick Gilkey and Clint Kilts\u2014from their breakthrough article in Harvard Business Review<\/em>\u2014”Cognitive fitness is a state of optimized ability to remember, learn, plan, and adapt that is enhanced by certain attitudes, lifestyle choices, and exercises. The more cognitively fit you are, the better you will be able to make decisions, solve problems, and deal with stress and change.”<\/p>\n

Up until recently, measurement of cognitive fitness focused mostly on its temporary impairment caused by stress and lack of sleep, and how that might affect such individuals as astronauts, pilots, air traffic controllers, truck drivers, shift workers, and mountain climbers. In fact, NASA funded the development of a software package called the MiniCog Rapid Assessment Battery (MRAB).<\/p>\n

The original hand-held MRAB enabled someone to test his own alertness quickly and easily. Based on the results, users might realize they should take a nap or drink coffee instead of proceeding with any sort of risky or complex activity. Los Angeles based Criteria Corporation has expanded on the basic MRAB concept to build a business that concentrates on web-based employee testing services.<\/p>\n

OK, but what about us older folks?<\/p>\n

The good news is that much of the conventional wisdom has been proven wrong. A proliferation of neuroscience research in the 1990s indicates that the brain does not necessarily diminish with age. Neither do our neurons have to die off as we get older.<\/p>\n

Gilkey and Kilts note that “[A] number of regions of the brain important to functions such as motor behavior and memory can actually expand their complement of neurons as we age.”<\/p>\n

They go on to emphasize that such neurogenesis is “profoundly affected by the way you live your life,” and offer some strategies that can benefit older adults.<\/p>\n