One heartening reward of writing this weekly column is when readers make an effort to find out if I’m sick or having any problem whenever I miss sending my column occasionally. To Mrs. Adelaida Cantos of Multinational Village in Parañaque City and Mr. Nonoy Tagle of Caloocan City, thank you very much for your concern. I had an out-of-town commitment last week and there was no possibility for me to get to an Internet shop to write my piece.
I’m happy whenever I hear of senior citizens still remaining physically and mentally active. Mrs. Cantos, at age 74, is still as holistically active as women 20 years younger are. Being so is a good antidote not only for brittle bones and poorly conditioned cardiovascular systems, but also for brain function deterioration which can lead to dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.
This week, the Philippine Society of Hypertension conferred the “Highest Order of Merit”—the highest award it can ever give to any individual—to Dr. Ramon Abarquez Jr., who at 84, still actively lectures in medical conventions and guides junior cardiologists to come up with excellent researches.
Retiring is farthest in his mind. “For so long as there are doctors or lay people willing to listen to me when I lecture, then I won’t retire,” he said in his acceptance speech. It’s always an intellectual treat listening to his scholarly insights. The number of scientific journals he still reads to this day humbles younger cardiologists including myself, who can hardly manage to finish a full journal article of highly technical scientific research without falling asleep.
Truly an inspiration
It’s truly an inspiration to see octogenarians like Dr. Abarquez, who incidentally not only has perceptive insights on medical issues but on current political issues and other pressing concerns as well. He writes letters to the editor of this newspaper from time to time to share these insights.
No doubt, Dr. Abarquez has to thank his genes. For how else can one explain an 84 year old to have a full head of black hair without a single white lock? But I believe it’s also beyond genes. His case supports research findings that individuals who challenge their brains throughout their lifetimes—remaining mentally active by reading, writing, posing research questions, analyzing, solving crossword or Sudoku puzzles and playing games—are less likely to develop Alzheimer’s.
People like Dr. Abarquez, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, and the former Justice Serafin Cuevas are strong supporting evidence to this hypothesis.
In “mentally sedentary” individuals, protein deposits in the brain associated with Alzheimer’s have been noted. These are called beta-amyloid proteins. This has been shown to be an inevitable consequence of aging, too. But the rate at which these proteins develop can vary from one person to another, depending on his or her level of sustained mental activity.
Educated people who stay mentally active are able to build up brain reserves that allow them to stay intellectually sharp even if deposits of this harmful protein—as shown by mental imaging—start to accumulate in the brain.
Previous studies seemed to suggest that it’s never too late to rev up one’s brain by increasing one’s mental activity anytime. But a recently published study in the Archives of Neurology indicates that people who have been mentally active from as far back as childhood, has better chances of preventing accelerated deterioration of brain function and developing Alzheimer’s.
Old principle
This finding follows the old principle of use and disuse. The more one uses any part of the body, the less chances one will lose its function quickly. The less one uses any organ, the more chances that it would atrophy and deteriorate with disuse.
Elderly people who exercise less will likely experience some atrophy of the leg and arm muscles. The heart tends to become weaker and deconditioned with sedentary activity. The same thing happens to the brain. Retirees should therefore change their mindset that they deserve a mental break after all those years of hard work and should already be exempted from using their brains to read, think and analyze. They better think twice when they tend to think this way.
Alzheimer’s is one disease one should treat proactively. Despite all the advances in medical research, there are still no drugs that can prevent Alzheimer’s disease. The sad part is that there is good evidence that it actually starts around 15 years before memory problems set in. So when one already has frank symptoms of Alzheimer’s—lapses in memory, judgment and concentration—the disease could be advanced already.
Our country’s population and that of the world, too, is shifting from a young to an aging population, simply because our overall survival is improving and our average lifespan is getting longer. That means there will be more people predisposed to develop Alzheimer’s—quite scary as one reaches the golden age. But one sees people like Dr. Abarquez, Senator Enrile, Justice Cuevas and our avid reader of this column—Mrs. Cantos; and one realizes that one can still grow old gracefully and tastefully just like vintage wine.