Brain – Forever Young
It is a common belief that our brain also gets old as we get older. In fact the sign of old age is being senile, unable to learn or accept change and cope with the demands of the environment. However, medical science is not able to support this belief. Earlier the scientists did find a correlation between increasing age and the symptoms of being senile. They did found evidence of physical deterioration in aged brains. When we closely look at the ‘sample’ being chosen for the study, it was the most easily accessible specimen .. people from old age homes. The senility was the reason these people were admitted in the old age homes in the first place. Moreover, these homes themselves caused considerable reduction in the stimulus that keeps the brain’s circuits shooting sparks. To make any general statement about the healthy ageing from the specimen taken from these old age homes like clocking the speed of a panther in a cage and assuming that it matched the speed of panthers in the wild.
Modern studies show that almost all degeneration of mental faculties is caused due to disease and NOT from ageing process. If we are able to stop the disease, we stop the degeneration of mental faculties, old age notwithstanding ! In normal healthy people, most of the brain cells can last for long long time … may be 200 years. The physical body may not be able to sustain till that age and therefore the healthy brain has no vehicle to ride on.
It is true that we do lose some brain cells. From our first year after birth till we reach puberty, we lose 30 to 50 % of the synapses in the cerebral cortex. In young adulthood, this loss is slowed down to about 100,000 neurons per day. This rate of loss may accelerate after age sixty and may affect crucial areas for learning and memory. However, this is not all. Let us not jump to conclusion about the phantom of old age from above ‘statistics’. We need to put it into proper perspective.
In terms of the ‘weight’ of the brain, this loss is merely 10 % of the brain weight during the whole life span of 10 to 90 years. There is no definitive conclusive proof about the correlation between brain size, cell number and I.Q.
We need to look at the cell loss not as a sign of ‘weakening’ but more as a ‘refinement’. The cells die away because they are no more ‘required’. If we have more ‘demands’ on the brain cells – by having creative joyful stimulus as done in Sri Anand Yoga – then these brain cells will live on.
Due to the tendency to get into ‘comfort zones’ as a person becomes older, the brain cells become redundant. This results in less flow of blood to the brain, consequent less supply of nutrients, less branches that link one cell to another, clumping and tangling of nerve cells etc.
Interestingly, during the same period, one type of neuron increases it abundance. This neuron is rich with an enzyme which helps brain cells communicate helps in having higher thought processes.
In Sri Anand Yoga we effectively make use of this knowledge by having a joyful and creative life offering plentiful opportunities to brain cells to be ‘in demand’ and therefore, to be forever young and energetic and healthy.
How this is done is explained separately in this blog.
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