Study Shows Our Brains Begin Decline in Our 40s

A new study suggests our brains begin to slip as early as our 40s.

In widely distributed article in today’s USAToday shows mental decline – memory, reasoning and comprehension – begins at 45 to 49, and not in our 60s as we all have long believed.

The study began in 1985 and involved 5,200 male and 2,200 female British civil servants between the ages of 45 and 70. They were periodically tested for memory, vocabulary, hearing and vision. Everyone in the group experienced a drop in cognition over the years. Men 45 to 49 saw a nearly 4 percent drop (compared to 10 percent in those 65-70) and women the same age suffered a 5 percent memory and reasoning loss (7 percent for the older group).

This study also confirms that we’ve probably always had minor memory issues that weren’t as big a deal until Alzheimer’s experts lowered the diagnosis threshold. What should we do? Same thing we do for any other organ: keep the brain healthy. Eat and exercise in healthful ways and engage the brain daily by learning something new and doing mental exercises and cognitive therapy to retain memories and feed your thoughts.

The Glenner Alzheimer’s Family Centers have materials on early memory loss at our corporate office in Hillcrest (3702 Fourth Avenue). Stop by to look in our Reagan Library next time you’re in town.

Article: Mental decline can start at 45, study says