[cko]

Kind of off-topic, and I'm sure I'm not the only one thinking this, but is it common to have clarity of mind at age 92? Is it mostly genetic or is it more like "keep challenging your mind and get enough sleep"? Anyone have good links?

At 29, I'm (probably prematurely) worried about cognitive decline. I only started challenging really myself last year.

[kszx]

(1.) The plasticity of the brain changes, which means that it takes more time to learn new things and change your mind. Many other abilities remain at a high level.

(2.) You may look up a chart that plots dementia against age. Prevalence of dementia increases at an accelerating rate as you get older.

[ManuelKiessling]

I think one thing you can do is try to avoid a typical fallacy. My brother gave me a great example:

- When people get older (say around 30-40), they realize that they can no longer memorize stuff quite as good as in their twenties

- They start to write notes a lot more in order to make sure they don't forget stuff

- Now they get even worse at memorizing stuff, because they challenge their memory a lot less

[morlockhq]

There is some brain plasticity research that seems to indicate that the more you challenge your brain with new activities and problem sets, the more resilient it is against decline in old age.

Do you do a lot with your mind during the day? Take up wood working, knitting, or sewing as a hobby. Work with your hands.

Do a lot with your hands during the day? Do something that engages your mind more. Take up art, writing, etc.

Take dance lessons. If you are not a dancer already, learning to dance and then doing it has a lot of health benefits, social benefits (see below) and makes your mind work in different ways.

I highly recommend trying square dancing (as corny as it may sound). Square dancing is very intricate and requires careful attention to called queues in order to maintain a steady stream of dance transitions. It is the fastest way to get into "flow" that I have ever experienced and have heard of number of other writers and technical types that rely on flow express the same sentiment.

Learn, teach, and play more board games. Modern board games have a vast array of different mechanics and strategies in them offering lots of different problem spaces for your brain to tackle. There is also a good social aspect to them that is inter-generational (we have board game nights with ten year old kids regularly playing with retirees) and some decline in cognitive ability is linked to the lack of social engagement people experience as they age.

[robbiep]

Avoid vascular disease to avoid (most) dementias. Much of the rest appears to be up to zest for life Source: me (MD)