As we’re gathering together with friends and relatives, it’s always interesting to see how much–or how little–we’ve all changed in a year’s time. Some are blossoming as others fade. Children grow like weeds, voices lower, voices richen, some fall silent.
As a child, I was always fascinated by the adults in my circle. I had an extremely elderly, matriarchal and imposing great-grandmother whose light faded noticeably from year to year, to the point that once I had graduated from bibs she was relegated to them. Although I was quite small, I remember seeing her fed at the table one year and in her sickbed the next and then she disappeared altogether.
Remembering her this year, I thought about how apparent the decline had been, how no one was surprised as she made her transition from ruler to ruled one.
And I wondered if any of us has the ability to see this decline in ourselves, so we can actually DO SOMETHING before it overtakes us.
In my opinion, yes we can. And it’s the same old answer: STAY PHYSICALLY ACTIVE.
Here is a terrific analysis of the issue from a July 2012 New York Times article by Pam Belluck: Footprints to Cognitive Decline and Alzheimer’s are Seen in Gait.
Pam Belluck (@PamBelluck) does a masterful job detailing some studies performed in Basel, Switzerland that yielded some surprisingly simple diagnostic tools that can help reveal impending cognitive decline. In my own opinion, I think this also reveals an opportunity to some to “reinforce their wiring.”
Read the article and you’ll see what I mean. Be sure to watch the attached short video clip that shows a woman walking, then walking while counting backward by two’s; a picture is worth a thousand words.
Enjoy the holidays (and especially that vital after-dinner walk)!