Many people believe that as they age it is irremediable that people ‘lose their minds’ in the sense of seeing mental capacities such as memory, orientation or the ability to reason significantly deteriorate.
It is true that as we get older our brain also ages and this usually leads to changes at a cognitive level such as being slower when processing information or even being less flexible to changes and unforeseen events. However, all this does not mean that all the elderly will develop a progressive deterioration of their mental abilities.
So the question that must be asked is who is most at risk for significant cognitive impairment? Well, although we are talking about probabilities and not certainties, it seems that there are certain risk factors and also others that protect us from cognitive deterioration back in the 85th year.
Dr. Rosebud O. Roberts, from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and a team of researchers conducted a study involving 256 people over the age of 85 who underwent monthly cognitive evaluations over 15 months. In addition, at the beginning of the study, information was collected on the lifestyle they had led and the diseases they suffered.
The results have recently been published in the scientific journal Neurology (2015) and allow us to get an idea of which aspects of life and health are relevant as predictors of this cognitive decline beyond that expected by age.
Among the risk factors we found that having the E4 allele of the APOE gene (traditionally related to Alzheimer’s disease), having hypertension towards middle age, being depressed, having vascular diseases and other chronic pathologies were factors that were positively associated with a diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment, regardless of age, sex and educational level.
On the other hand, among the protective factors the authors mention participating in social and artistic activities or doing crafts both in middle age and in old age, and curiously, using the computer in old age was shown to be important as a protector against mild cognitive impairment.
This study is interesting. Obviously there are aspects that we cannot control, such as the genes we come with, but of course there are other factors that depend a lot on us, such as our habits and customs.
In this sense, the authors explain that preventive strategies against cognitive decline should be put into practice from middle age and maintained until old age to achieve a better effect.
Marisa Fernández, Senior Neuropsychologist, Unobrain
