Some of the stereotypes we have about the brain and aging are being dispelled by recent research. Here are some myths and new reality.

1. Myth: Once you’re born, all you can look forward to is a long and steady loss of brain cells.

REALITY: Stem cells in the brain can create new neurons, and idle neurons will extend their branches to carry signals to and from other neurons indefinitely, under the right conditions.

2. MYTH: We cant get smarter as we age.

REALITY: Mice in an enriched environment (new toys and playmates), increased 4000 new neurons in the hippocampus (crucial to memory and learning) compared to 2400 in the control group. Older mices brains also got bigger and better quickly! (Diamond and Rosenzweig, Elizabeth Gould, Princeton)

3. MYTH: Creativity diminishes with age.

REALITY: According to Ralph Warner, author of Get a Life: You Dont Need a Million to Retire Well, older artists often do well, commonly experiencing a sustained burst of exciting creativity after 65.

4. MYTH: There isnt much you can do to avoid Alzheimers.

REALITY: According to David Snowden, Ph.D., Aging with Grace, hardworking brains (the ones that keep learning new challenging things) do well because their stimulated cells branch frequently. This results in millions of new synapses so the brain actually becomes larger and a larger brain can cope better with the effects of brain diseases, like Alzheimers and strokes. Theoretically because it has more active tissue, and therefore a greater number of ways to work around diseased or damaged areas.

5. MYTH: What youve got, is all youll ever get.

REALITY: According to Paula Tallal, Rutgers neuroscientist, You create your brain from the input you get, i.e., intellectual stimulation strengthens the brain because in the normal course of living, our brains constantly reorganize themselves, which is called neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity accelerates with the amount and complexity of the new information our brains receive.

6. MYTH: As you age, its too hard to learn new things, so stick with what you already know.

REALITY: According to Arnold Scheibel, head of UCLAs Brain Research Institute, the brains axons and dendrites (which send and receive messages) grow fastest with new material. The important thing is to be actively involved in areas unfamiliar to you, say Golden and Tsiaras, in Building a Better Brain. Anything that is intellectually challenging can probably serve as a kind of stimulus for dendritic growth, which means it adds to the computational reserves in your brain. Sounds to me like building new hard drive, yes?

7. MYTH: Watching the Discovery Channel suffices for stimulation.

REALITY: Dr. Robert Friedland reports that adults over age 70 with brain-stimulating hobbies were two and a half times less likely to suffer from the effects of Alzheimers later in life than were those whose main leisure activity was watching TV.

8. MYTH: In order to stimulate and grow the brain, you must engage in formal schooling.

REALITY: According to Warner, traditional academic subjects arent the only answer. The key is to find something both new and challenging to you. Therefore, if youre an engineering professor, for instance, youre better off learning how to grow roses, write poetry, or fly a plane.

9. MYTH: I can ignore it for a while and it will still be there when I get back.

REALITY: According to neurologist Oliver Sacks, our bodys economy dictates that if neurons dedicated to perform a given skill are not being used, theyll either atrophy or be co-opted to some other function.

10. MYTH: Intellectual stimulation is enough.

REALITY: Aerobic exercise may be especially beneficial to brain function in aging people, because it tends to keep blood vessels in better shape (Marion Diamond). Mice that exercised regularly on a running wheel grew twice as many new brain cells (in the hippocampus) (Salk study).

So there you have it! Jog on out for those new toys and new playmates and get a better brain and a better life! And its never too late unless you dont start now.

1. Myth: Once you’re born, all you can look forward to is a long and steady loss of brain cells.

REALITY: Stem cells in the brain can create new neurons, and idle neurons will extend their branches to carry signals to and from other neurons indefinitely, under the right conditions.

2. MYTH: We cant get smarter as we age.

REALITY: Mice in an enriched environment (new toys and playmates), increased 4000 new neurons in the hippocampus (crucial to memory and learning) compared to 2400 in the control group. Older mices brains also got bigger and better quickly! (Diamond and Rosenzweig, Elizabeth Gould, Princeton)

3. MYTH: Creativity diminishes with age.

REALITY: According to Ralph Warner, author of Get a Life: You Dont Need a Million to Retire Well, older artists often do well, commonly experiencing a sustained burst of exciting creativity after 65.

4. MYTH: There isnt much you can do to avoid Alzheimers.

REALITY: According to David Snowden, Ph.D., Aging with Grace, hardworking brains (the ones that keep learning new challenging things) do well because their stimulated cells branch frequently. This results in millions of new synapses so the brain actually becomes larger and a larger brain can cope better with the effects of brain diseases, like Alzheimers and strokes. Theoretically because it has more active tissue, and therefore a greater number of ways to work around diseased or damaged areas.

5. MYTH: What youve got, is all youll ever get.

REALITY: According to Paula Tallal, Rutgers neuroscientist, You create your brain from the input you get, i.e., intellectual stimulation strengthens the brain because in the normal course of living, our brains constantly reorganize themselves, which is called neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity accelerates with the amount and complexity of the new information our brains receive.

6. MYTH: As you age, its too hard to learn new things, so stick with what you already know.

REALITY: According to Arnold Scheibel, head of UCLAs Brain Research Institute, the brains axons and dendrites (which send and receive messages) grow fastest with new material. The important thing is to be actively involved in areas unfamiliar to you, say Golden and Tsiaras, in Building a Better Brain. Anything that is intellectually challenging can probably serve as a kind of stimulus for dendritic growth, which means it adds to the computational reserves in your brain. Sounds to me like building new hard drive, yes?

7. MYTH: Watching the Discovery Channel suffices for stimulation.

REALITY: Dr. Robert Friedland reports that adults over age 70 with brain-stimulating hobbies were two and a half times less likely to suffer from the effects of Alzheimers later in life than were those whose main leisure activity was watching TV.

8. MYTH: In order to stimulate and grow the brain, you must engage in formal schooling.

REALITY: According to Warner, traditional academic subjects arent the only answer. The key is to find something both new and challenging to you. Therefore, if youre an engineering professor, for instance, youre better off learning how to grow roses, write poetry, or fly a plane.

9. MYTH: I can ignore it for a while and it will still be there when I get back.

REALITY: According to neurologist Oliver Sacks, our bodys economy dictates that if neurons dedicated to perform a given skill are not being used, theyll either atrophy or be co-opted to some other function.

10. MYTH: Intellectual stimulation is enough.

REALITY: Aerobic exercise may be especially beneficial to brain function in aging people, because it tends to keep blood vessels in better shape (Marion Diamond). Mice that exercised regularly on a running wheel grew twice as many new brain cells (in the hippocampus) (Salk study).

So there you have it! Jog on out for those new toys and new playmates and get a better brain and a better life! And its never too late unless you dont start now.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hello, I have to leave my mini pin home alone some times during the day and I don’t want her to get bored. All the toys I’ve bought her she’s chewed and broken in pieces, she even chews the desk, drags her (dirty) newspaper on her small cushion which then sticks of piss and has got poo on it. Of course I clean that over and over again, it’s stressful… So I want something that she could play with to keep her busy and having fun whilst I’m not around. I want something that doesn’t break, is easily accessible, practical and entertaining for my mini pin. She likes eating, if that helps. ) Thank you!
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Open Question: Questions on keeping corn snakes as pets?
I have a few questions on keeping Corn Snakes as pets; – How big does a tank for a newly-hatched corn snake need to be? I have a 40 gallon tank, maybe one that’s bigger. – Where can I buy the food for it? And is there anything else besides mice that I can feed it? – Are there any enrichment toys/things they like to use? – How warm does their tank/enclosure need to be? – Is there anything I should be prepared for? – How long do they live? – Does Pets at Home stock food for corn snakes? Thanks. Oh, and are there any illnesses that they get which I should be prepared for?
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Open Question: can you help me proof read this?
Oh! What a tangled web we weave, when we first deceive. Have you ever lie to someone? Have you ever created a lie to trick someone or to cover up something? Then as you create this lie, it becomes more and more complicated, because every true story you tell has to revolve around this lie. Otherwise people will figure out the lie. Well I got myself in tangled web of lies when I first deceived. It started from deceiving to my friends, down to my parents. I went down a cave so deep that I couldn t even see the light at the end of it. It was not a good experience and a life learned lesson. It may sometimes be easier to tell a white lie, than to be honest. But be warned, it comes with a dangerous price. The first time I deceived, I was eleven years old. I was the new kid in the block. I was so happy, when we moved to a new huge house. It was a rich neighborhood. I made many new friends, paul Abdul, and brian. They were all good friends other than that fact; my neighbors had it all, anything that a kid can dream of, the new bikes, the new games station and toys. All I had was a library in my basement and a desktop computer that I was limited doing things on. I was jealous and angry at the same time. Due to the fact, that my parents could afford things I wanted, but never would buy it for me. One day, my friends and I were chatting about the things we had. There and then, I told my first lie that I had a brand new game. I thought of it as a white lie and it wasn t a big deal and it would vanish. But I never thought it would come and blow up in my face Before I knew it, they all wanted to come over my house and play it and some of them wanted to barrow it. I didn t know what to do, so I told them my older brother was playing it. Throughout the day, one of my friends Paul, asked my older brother David if he could play the new game, But my brother told him that I didn t have it. Later at dinner time, my brother asked me, why do you have your friend s game? And why did you lie to them? Then my parents asked me why were you playing games? Due to, there is a policy which states no playing games in Johnson’s house. Then I got grounded for something that I didn t do. The next day, at the bus stop, Paul asked me in front of all my friends, that my brother didn t have the game nor did you. So why did you lie about it? I replied to Paul that the reason he told you that is because he didn t want you to play it. It made sense to everyone so they dropped the subject. However, Paul didn t believe me. When I arrived at school, the news was out to my friends that I had a new game. All my classmates asked me about the game and how it was? I hesitated, and made up anything that first came to my mind. After, all the lies I told them, I finally got caught. It was one of the classmates who had the game. He told everyone that I was lying. The game is nothing like that. I put my head down on the table for the rest of the class; I was so embarrassed to look at them. Finally, I got home from a tough day at school. I thought I could just relax and watch TV but I was dead wrong. My mother had already prepared a list of chores. I looked at the list and almost fainted. The list just keeps on going, from washing the dishes, to vacuuming the floors, to even the bathrooms. I was half way done, and then my mom told to come to the living room. My mother said to me, now you understand why I grounded you. I replied, yes and I ll never play games again. As the day ended, I thought to myself, is it worth it, to tell a white lie. So why did I deceived? I think it is just an act of natural. Sometimes people cozen try to cover up something. But it gets people into trouble and can lead to unpredictable situations. Where you have to lie again fell free to add in some really good vocabs and cool words thanks you and tell me what level would you rate this? college highschool 9th grade 12 grade and it has to be 1000 words i reach to 850 so tell me your ideas
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