Recommendation #3 - Superager
Channel your inner Betty White
7 BRAIN Tips for a Healthier, Happier Life
Recommendation #3: Channel your inner Betty White
This is one of my favorite tips. Do you remember Betty White? She almost made it to 100 years – and, most impressive, she was active, working, and smiling to the end. She is what is now being called a SuperAger.
A SuperAger is defined as someone older than 80 whose memory is as good, if not better, than much younger people.
What keeps our memory sharp? A lot has to do with cultivating a lifestyle that strengthens resilience through exercise, food, positive social connections (the word “positive” is key), and doing unfamiliar, hard things.
This is why lifelong learning is so important. When you go beyond your comfort zone to learn and do new things, you are going to create new memory paths. Crossword puzzles may be fun and comforting, but retrieving old information is not the same as forming and calling upon new memories in order to expand your capabilities.
I recently listened to a webinar with distinguished neuroscientist Mike Merzenich of Posit Science (I subscribe to his BrainHQ), who explained this in a way that makes a lot of sense.
Richard Sima’s original article with much more detail is available only to subscribers @https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/09/29/train-brain-for-hard-things
Since The WP costs only $4 a month, you might want to subscribe. I like to support good journalism.
Lynne
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I watched a pretty sad Frontline about nursing homes in which the residents led regular lives for the time and most of their bodies were frail and their minds not alert. There is a lot of complex biology here with both genetics and environment playing roles in this progression. But Betty White is a great example of how aging can be. We talked about this over the summer that longevity and active brains are enhanced by lifelong brain training on new topics.