[Caelus9]

I’ve been thinking maybe part of it is just how much more we use our brains these days without even noticing. Like, my grandparents had tough lives, sure, but things were pretty routine. They did the same tasks every day, didn’t have to constantly adapt or juggle ten different things at once. Now? We’re switching between apps, replying to emails, figuring out random tech stuff, managing a million small decisions all day long. Even doing something simple like buying groceries online comes with dozens of tiny choices. So maybe it’s not just about avoiding brain damage maybe we’re giving our brains a constant workout without realizing it. Not saying we’re geniuses, but just being mentally active every day might help keep things sharp over time.

[nonameiguess]

I swear I'm not trying to throw a ton of shade here, but it's amusing this is the current top comment when the article says they studied people age 70 and older, which of course they did because those are the people likely enough to have dementia at all that you can do a meaningful comparison.

> “For example, in the US, among people aged 81 to 85, 25.1% of those born between 1890–1913 had dementia, compared to 15.5% of those born between 1939–1943,” said Lenzen, adding similar trends were seen in Europe and England, although less pronounced in the latter.

I don't think people born between 1939 and 1943 are less likely to have dementia because of all of the cognitive activity that went into replying to e-mails and choosing groceries online back in the 1970s.

[forbiddenvoid]

Definitely feels like that effect is more likely to be explained by the Great Depression and World War II than anything else.

[sigmoid10]

Bilingualism has been shown in studies to delay cognitive decay [1]. Nearly everyone outside of US/UK in the younger generation speaks at least two languages pretty well, while the older ones often don't.

[1] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4052164/

[_lvbh]

> Nearly everyone outside of US/UK in the younger generation speaks at least two languages pretty well, while the older ones often don't.

Interestingly, the opposite seems to have been happening in Malaysia. The older generation tend to be able to speak a ton of languages (Malay, English, Chinese, Cantonese, Hokkien, maybe more), my generation has mostly settled on just English. I have gone out of my way to learn Japanese but even then, I can only understand 4 languages and speak 2 vs the 5 languages my parents/grandparents are essentially native speakers of.

[garylkz]

If you force yourself to communicate in certain language, you more or less will be able to communicate with it sooner or later.

(Provided that you have basic understanding to the language)

[oldpersonintx2]

your grandparents probably read for entertainment instead of tiktok

your grandparents were more physically active - brain and body are connected

your grandparents didn't eat ultra processed food because it hadn't been invented yet...once again, brain and body are connected

[spacebanana7]

> your grandparents probably read for entertainment instead of tiktok

It's not trivial to say that our grandparents read more than us. Paper books, newspapers and magazines are less common but we have ebooks, substacks and online newspapers now.

> your grandparents were more physically active

Perhaps at work, but my access to exercise during leisure time is much greater.

> your grandparents didn't eat ultra processed food because it hadn't been invented yet

I don't have hard data on this, but I think it's fair to say their generation's overall exposure to toxins was much greater. DEET, smoking, leaded petrol, asbestos and coal power stations seem much worse than the occasional McFlurry.

[marcosdumay]

> I don't have hard data on this, but I think it's fair to say their generation's overall exposure to toxins was much greater.

Just another day my parents were annoyed remembering that the "big, bad government" banned a popular medicine from my grandfather's time. One that people used on cuts all the time.

Turns out the medicine was lead acetate.

[BenjiWiebe]

Are you sure it wasn't Mercurochrome you're thinking of? It's a mercury compound that was very commonly used to disinfect cuts and scrapes.

It was prepared from mercuric acetate and sodium dibromofluorescein.

Goulard's extract, containing lead subacetate, was used on cuts too, but from what I can tell it wasn't nearly as widespread/famous as Mercurochrome.

[marcosdumay]

No. Mercury acetate was banned way later (what makes sense because it wasn't the main ingredient on the finished product), that's probably why you know about it.

It was lead acetate, dissolved on water and a small bit of ethanol.

[hiddenfinance]

>I don't have hard data on this, but I think it's fair to say their generation's overall exposure to toxins was much greater. DEET, smoking, leaded petrol, asbestos and coal power stations seem much worse than the occasional McFlurry.

Don't forget petro wast such as plastic. It is amazing that we are still a live.

[wildrhythms]

>your grandparents probably read for entertainment instead of tiktok

This is a reach... Have you met old people? They vegetate in front of the TV channel surfing- their version of TikTok- never questioning the content or researching topics further on their own. And after 40 years of this activity still don't know how to operate the remote.

[lan321]

> your grandparents probably read for entertainment instead of tiktok

We still do? Tiktok/shorts are that on the toilet/in bed activity. I still spend I'd guess on average at least 8 hours a day reading. Not necessarily books but diverse articles, game guides, work stuff..

> your grandparents were more physically active - brain and body are connected

More physically active but not more active in skillful tasks. I've seen correlation between less/later dementia and things like playing musical instruments but I've not heard of construction workers being dementia resistant.

> your grandparents didn't eat ultra processed food because it hadn't been invented yet...once again, brain and body are connected

Mine ate whatever was available. Many unleavened flour+water flatbreads baked on the woodfire oven used for heating, rice and lots of lye in winter. Lots of fruits and veggies when available.

Now we mostly eat much better. You have every single fruit/vegetable/meat available 365 days a week, very clean food.. Only gotta stop yourself from overindulging.

We also have better medicine, better cleaning products, better understanding of what's toxic and bans based on that..

[Lovesong]

>your grandparents probably read for entertainment instead of tiktok

I strongly disagree. Reading books as activity, maybe. It depends on the person too. But reading itself? In this time and age, we are constantly reading, either in your phone ( even most tiktok videos these days have subs for everything ), browsing the web is a constant reading activity, work/email/essays/whatsapp/telegram, completely outweights the amount of text we read/write now comparing it with our older generation.

[nisegami]

>your grandparents probably read for entertainment instead of tiktok

I'm not actually sure my grandparents were able to read, let alone for entertainment. Not in the US fwiw.

[chatmasta]

That could easily go the other direction. We’re overloading our brains so much that eventually they’ll just shutdown.

[brianmcc]

It could but you need a body of evidence for it, plus credible pathways to explain it. So far the greater weight seems to be behind "use it or lose it".

[poulpy123]

Lmao doom scrolling and choice paralysis is not using you brain