Aging Gracefully with Vitality & Mindfulness

Scientists around the world who are researching what the brain needs to age without a boat load of symptoms are convinced cognitive decline we call dementia is often reversible and preventable. How many times have you said or heard a friend remark, “Well that is because I am getting older?” Many in our culture believe as we get older our body is designed to get sicker.” What if that is not true?  After reading and studying people who live in Blue Zones- a select few areas around the world where people live a quality life and are socially active regularly over their age of 100, there is a lot of evidence that the quality of our age as we get older is related to many important variables beyond our age and genetics. Longevity is now a hot topic like the interest in how stress factors related to disease in the 1970s and 80s. 

Here are a few of the important variables scientists are studying with very promising results that allow people to get a sense of their “biological age” that is different than our “chronological age” ( what is on your driver’s license or passport). Just like we have learned there are markers that can guide us to look at the health of our heart and cardio vascular ( circulatory system ) to help us know whether the heart is functioning well long before we have symptoms, there are now indicators that can be tested to predict and evaluate our brain. Predisposing factors for brain decline that are becoming accepted in different areas of medicine include:

1. Trauma & Concussion

2. Toxins – Mercury, Aluminum and Mold

3. Insulin Resistance- Diabetes, Hypoglycemia

4. Nutrient Insufficiencies- B12, Folic Acid, Vit. D Omega 3s

5. Chronic Stress

6. Chronic Infections

7. Chronic Inflammation

Our capacity for healing is infinitely greater than most have been brought up to believe. Our body has extraordinary ability to repair and rebuild function. A word used to describe the brain’s amazing power to heal is “neuroplasticity.” Yes I know that is a mouthful. And our potential for our brain to “stretch” to learn and heal as we get older and have brain cells be more like plastic and less like concrete, may well become one our super powers in the future. Many believe we can forecast brain diseases and age related mental challenges in a way that will revolutionize how we Age Gracefully with Vitality and Mindfulness. 

Dr. Barry Taylor