Ageless brain - is it possible?

Just like your muscles, your brain needs regular exercise to stay healthy and fit as you age. Why?
As we age, we lose the elasticity of some muscles, and our brain can atrophy in a similar way. More specifically, your brain's "cognitive reserve"—or its ability to withstand neurological damage due to aging and other factors without visible signs of slowing or memory loss—wanes over the years. This can make it more difficult to complete mental tasks. But just as resistance training adds lean muscle mass to your body and helps you retain more muscle in your older years, researchers believe that following a healthy lifestyle and regular exercise can increase your brain's cognitive reserve.

The greater the cognitive reserve of your brain, the greater the “reserve” of thinking abilities you have. This reserve can protect your memory and perhaps even delay or prevent visible symptoms of age-related neurological changes, including the damage caused by Alzheimer's disease. In fact, in a study of deceased Catholic nuns aged 80 to 90, autopsies revealed pathological changes in the brain due to Alzheimer's disease, even though they had no visible symptoms before their death. "Living a lifestyle of meditation and constant study, eating low-fat foods and having strong social connections with other nuns created conditions that increased their cognitive reserve," says Robert Bender, MD, medical director of the Johnny Orr Memory Center. Johnny Orr and the Institute for Healthy Aging in Des Moines, Iowa. "This allows them to function very well despite clinical signs of Alzheimer's disease."

Restoring lost brain activity even in Alzheimer's patients - how possible is this? In addition to helping maintain your brain's strong cognitive capabilities as you age, new research suggests that lifestyle changes and training your brain may also help restore lost mental abilities. Previously, therapists believed that such loss was irreversible. In a six-month study, Dr. Bender and other researchers found that Alzheimer's patients regained significant amounts of brain activity after undergoing a program that included drug therapy, exercise, a low-fat diet, cognitive exercises, socialization and meditation. “We now know that the brain is plastic and elastic enough that we can truly make ourselves smarter,” says Bender. “Even in cases of Alzheimer's disease, some normal brain cells remain, and the research suggests that they can be stimulated to creating new connections."