Aging Brain

read more about this amazing patented product

Your Aging Brain

As we age, we can see our physical appearance changing—all we have to do is look in the mirror. However, it is not so apparent that our brains are also undergoing considerable changes. Scientific studies have shown that the size and structure of our brains are changing throughout life.1

First the bad news

If you could peek inside your brain, you would see how it is affected by the aging process. Here is what typically happens as our brains age:

• Volume decreases: Somewhere around your 20th birthday is your peak brain mass. After that your brain volume steadily declines until around age 50 when this process accelerates. It is thought that the loss of neural connections, rather than brain cells, accounts for this loss of volume.2
• Plasticity declines: Plasticity is defined as the brain’s ability to change its structure by forming new connections, deleting unused connections, and strengthening useful connections. Our plasticity typically declines as we age.
• Blood flow diminishes: Blood flow to the brain can decrease with age as a result of changes in arteries and cholesterol build-up (atherosclerosis). Decreased blood flow can rob the brain of much needed oxygen and nutrients.
• Plaque formation: Beta-amyloid plaque occurs in most people’s brains as they age. This plaque is what is thought to be responsible for the development of Alzheimer’s disease.
• Sleep quality deteriorates: Most people experience a decrease in sleep quality as they age. This lack of good sleep negatively affects mental functioning, including memory and cognitive skills.

Now the good news

Even though our brains are changing as we age, most older people feel that they are much smarter than when they were young (even if they lose their keys every day). Part of the reason for this is that we are always learning and that learning accumulates as we age. Yes, you are smarter than your 20-year-old son or granddaughter!

There are many positive changes that occur in the brain:

• Brain plasticity: While the trend in brain volume is downward, research demonstrates that neuroplasticity takes place well into old age. A German researcher named Janina Boyke taught elderly volunteers to juggle and noticed that their brain size increased.3 Your brain has the ability to continually grow and change as long as you continue to grow and change.4
• Problem solving: Older adults are typically better at managing money, relationships, and other problems that come up in life. The ability to problem-solve gets better as you age because you have more experience and become less emotionally tied to problems.
• Optimistic: People tend to get more optimistic as they age. When asked to record their emotional states randomly chosen each day for a week, older adults scored higher than younger adults on a test of optimism.5
• Priorities: As they age, people tend to prioritize other people more than they do jobs, money, or fame. Older adults tend to spend more time with a smaller, tighter circle of close friends and this is important because social engagement is critically important for maintaining healthy cognition.
• Knowledge increases: While you may be losing some of your cognitive skills as you age, your overall knowledge is always increasing. This means you have more tools to understand your lives and express yourself.
• Emotion: Older adults have better control over their emotions than they did when they were younger.

Your brain is going to go through a lot of changes as it ages. Many of those changes can be offset by focusing on your overall health and taking care of your brain with nutrition, exercise, and continuous learning.

---

1. Fjell AM, Walhovd KB, Fennema-Notestine C, et al. One-year brain atrophy evident in healthy aging. J Neurosci.
   2009 Dec 2;29(48):15223-31. PMID: 19955375.
2. Boyke J, Driemeyer J, Gaser C, Büchel C, May A. Training-induced brain structure changes in the elderly. J Neurosci. 2008 Jul 9;28(28):7031-5. PMID: 18614670.
3. Erickson KI, Voss MW, Prakash RS, Basak C, Szabo A, Chaddock L, Kim JS, Heo S,
   Alves H, White SM, Wojcicki TR, et al. Exercise training increases size of hippocampus and improves memory. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011 Feb 15;108(7):3017-22. PMID: 21282661.
4. Carstensen LL, Turan B, Scheibe S, et al. Emotional experience improves with age: evidence based on over 10 years of experience sampling. Psychol Aging. 2011 Mar;26(1):21-33. PMID: 20973600.