The Rocking Seniors..

"Seniors are worth a fortune. They have silver in their hair, gold in their teeth, stones in their kidneys and gallbladder, lead in their feet, and gas in their stomach."
or
"You really know you're getting old when you bend over to tie your shoes, and you wonder what else you can do while you're down there."

That has been the standard prototype of a senior citizen. And for years together, as you finshed celebrating the golden anniversary of your birth, you stood at the top of the inverted parabola graph, looking down, smiling bravely, wondering how fast the slide was going to be.

No more.

Research has shown that , "learning" , which was thought to enhance the quality of ones brains (in the form of increasing brain cells and pathways), was not restricted to younger folks. Age really had nothing to do with it. You kept your brain active. Learning something new. And your brain would develop those new cells and pathways.

Concurrent with the generations that grew up believing you were supposed to slow down as seniors, there has been a great outsurge of things like Alzheimers and other brain related diseases. Which has , then prompted a lot of research.

Consider the cabbies of London. You hail a cab in London, and tell him the address. (Mind you, cars have GIS's and GPS's now, but I am talking of the times when people were supremely thrilled if the car roof could move and let the sun shine in, or if the car was a convertible. And that was all that was automatic about it...) Today , cabbies are required to spend a minimum of two years learning the meandering geography of London and its landmarks. At the end of it, they must pass a test, that indicates, that they can take a passenger to his destination, by the shoretest route, without consulting a street map, paper, electronic or otherwise.

Brain scans revealed that the more experienced cab drivers have significantly larger posterior "hippocampuses" than their less experienced colleagues. (Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, April 11, 2000 issue). What is the hippocampus ? The portion of the brain that helps those names get into memory in the first place, is this hippocampus . This part, the hippocampus, is the leader in all things requiring visual and spatial recall.

Turns out that stress, can cause this hippocampus to shrivel and underperform. And scientists have found that the more you use different visual and other stimulation to help you remember stuff, the better you can regenerate lost or about to be lost cells in the hippocampus.

So its finally a case of USE it or LOSE it .

Next time you walk into a room looking for something, and on entering, start wondering why you are actually there, dont be alarmed. Its not the beginning on Alzheimers; its just a senior moment.

So so when you retire, along with planning your pension, insurance, long term care finances, mortgages and other depressing things, start planning on what classes you need to take now that you have more time; remember how you loved to paint ? And dont forget how you swore you would learn German one day, after staring (with your mouth wide open) at one of those looong German words in the department store in Frankfurt. But , of course, learning bridge has always been a secret desire, you just never had the leisure to do so.

I know someone at the University, who, at 68, got undeniably attracted to swimming as a sport, consequent to taking his grandson there everyday for coaching. They had a SWIMMATHON, some kind of 12 hour, all day non stop swimming "fest". The authorities were most delighted to award a special prize to grandpa, who did his slow measured freestyle for four hours ! He was the only only one is his age group. Actually, a look at the people taking part in Masters Swimming , shows a lot of people doing this in their 80's , men and women, and seriously discussing timings. Attaboy grandma ...

There is someone else I know who is 90, just widowed a year or two ago. Her son used to be in the Peace Corps in the early 70's. She always had a sceret desire to travel. So at the age of 90, she did a 22 hour flight with her son to India, where he had originally stayed on work. She visited all the places where her son had worked, met all his friends, their parents, had several pictures taken, sampled interesting food, climbed hills to see where her son had helped in the restoration of monuments, discussed other peoples family problems with them :-) , all this without uttering a word about how hot it was, how her feet were killing her, how there was no airconditioning, "eeks" etc etc.

She was so invigourated with it all, she came back and wrote up a travelogue, which she mailed everyone at Christmas. Her children live in the same city, but she still lives and cooks by herself, has her own friends, attends music concerts, and gives her children panic attacks, everytime she gets on to the California freeways, sedately driving, confidence personified , in the rush hour commute......

Jim took to learning accupressure from a book. He was absolutely smitten with the "pressure points". It was all so non-invasive, he got books from the library, studied the various points and techniques, and managed to lessen , if not cure, his wife's shoulder pain by appropriate pressure point tactics. He is in great demand amongst his friends.

Come to think of it, when we attentively look at something and try to determine its significance, we may also be improving our visual memories. The adult brain's capacity to learn , is not limited to just memory and strengthening it. This remembering of things, must always be linked to some purpose, for our brains to be optimally used, irrespective of our age.

Combine this learning with judicious use of natural foods, regular moderate exercise, and very soon, you will have , what my teenage son would call a Rocking Senior ....