Flexing the brain
 
Mental fitness, bolstered by brain science, will be the newest trend. Published: The Vancouver Sun,: January 6, 2001, Op-ed column By Deborah Jones My New Year's resolutions are almost on track. I've signed up for a new gym membership, under the tutelage of a kinesiologist. I've cut out doughnuts. I've cleaned my desk. I still have to figure out my mental fitness regime. Mental fitness regime? It's the latest trend, don't you know. No, I'm not referring to mental fitness to stand trial on criminal charges, but to an emerging health movement. It's a result of three developments: remarkable scientific progress in brain research in the 1990s; the aging of our population; and the emphasis on health and fitness spearheaded by a generation unwilling to accept mortality -- or the physical and mental decrepitude thought to come with aging -- anytime soon. Personally, I'll go a long way to avoid decrepitude. The mere word gives me the creeps. Fortunately, it looks like my quest to fight aging, at least for a while, will not not be in vain. Researchers are discovering the keys to keeping mentally fit. Soon, Simon Fraser University gerontologist Sandra Cusack tells me, we'll know enough to be able to design a personalized "fitness" regime for each individual to keep the brain healthy, much as health providers routinely prescribe physical training for endurance, strength and flexibility. It's still too early to expect your GP to recommend a brain fitness program. Generally, mental health practitioners are still more concerned with traditional psychology and psychiatry than mental gymnastics. But one day soon I'm hoping to have the option to hire a personal trainer to sharpen my mental fitness, sign up for classes, accompany a televised instructor leading mental exercises or at least buy useful self-help books on mental fitness. My inspiration is a group of senior citizens in New Westminster, working with Cusack and her SFU colleague, Wendy Thompson, who are leading the way in mental fitness worldwide. For six years, they've attended a mental fitness program at the Century House seniors' centre, part of a research program that they'll present this summer at the World Congress on Aging in Vancouver. "To be mentally fit is to be using your mind and your brain in the same way as if you are physically fit," says participant Pauline Mowat, 82. "To be mentally fit is to be alert. Personally, what I have found from it is the joy of life, it's not a labour. That's what I've got out of these classes, is to enjoy life." Being enjoyably alert sounds pretty good to me. If I can have a lucid mind and embark on new activities at 82, I'll be content. Alas, a general public course along the lines of the SFU program doesn't yet exist. Until it does, here's some advice from the SFU participants: Continue education throughout life, stimulate the mind by playing difficult games, seek ways to be creative and tackle a new challenge each day, such as a crossword or learning a new language. "Increased self esteem and confidence translates into other areas, including the physical," says Cusack. "People who challenge themselves mentally, and succeed, have increased confidence in their ability to overcome things like serious operations or physical ailments. With most of the people that we work with and study, visits to the doctor become much less frequent." Cusack's mental fitness research began when she and her colleagues "looked at this business of people always talking about, `He's losing it, she's losing it.' We said, `Okay, this is important to everybody, and if we're concerned about it, what is it we need to do not to have these worries?' " They were spurred on by research on rat brains that indicates even an elderly brain can, with the right stimulation, grow more of the connections called dendrites, which are part of neural pathways. Cusack and Thompson's research began with a grant from the Vancouver Foundation and an ad in a New Westminster newspaper asking for participants. Fifty people responded, says Cusack, who expected 20. When asked to leave, 37 refused outright, so the program continued with nearly twice the numbers it was designed for. For six years, the group has held monthly sessions involving brain warm-ups with quizzes, lectures on various topics, presentations, exercises and homework assignments. If stuff like homework in your golden ears isn't quite your cup of tea, consider the benefits. The group has identified seven qualities of mental fitness: being able to set goals; think critically and examine beliefs and attitudes; think creatively; continue to learn; being able to remember; speaking your mind; and - - perhaps most importantly -- having a positive mental attitude, which includes openness, a willingness to take risks, mental flexibility and a willingness to look at different perspectives. "So many people of our age have been told that we're bound to get dementia," says Mowat. "In class, we've learned to look at that as a disease that we don't need to get just because we're getting old. We can stay alert. "The brain is not a muscle, it's an organ. I look at it as a musical organ, an instrument really, that takes practice to keep up the quality and the tune of it," says Mowat. "I really think that's most encouraging, and that fitness, in consequence increases the repertoire of the player." Another participant in the seniors' study, 86-year-old Barbara Guttmann-Gee, knows well the benefits of keeping her brain active. After retirement from clerical work, she enrolled in distance education courses and later at SFU, earning first a bachelors degree then, at age 81, completing a Masters thesis about older women returning to school. "Education keeps the brain alert, even if the old chassis starts to fall to pieces," says Guttmann-Gee. It's early days yet for mental fitness. Still, the concept is already embraced by health-conscious people, New Age practitioners - - and, of course, companies looking to make a buck off a new fad. A search of the World Wide Web shows half a million web sites mentioning mental fitness or touting products. "The renewed art of positive thinking helps convert victims into victors," trumpets one. Another sells "mind machine" tapes for biofeedback. One company offers tools that "Train Your Brain." Cusack warns that, so far, nobody can authoritatively prescribe a mental fitness regime. Still, I figure it can't hurt to exercise my brain and I have no intentions of waiting until old age, even if I have to do homework. "No pain, no gain," right? And if that's not positive enough advice for a mentally fit person, I'll buy into that other slogan -- "Use it, or lose it." Copyright Deborah Jones 2001 About this website: Text and photos by Deborah Jones except where otherwise noted. Please contact me for reprint rights. All material copyrighted ../About.htmlshapeimage_1_link_0
Use it or lose it: seniors engage in mental gymnastics
Home    Report    Think    Explore    Essay    Play    About