As we grow old, we find it very important to know every little thing about how the brain works, particularly how it loses brain cells. Primarily because, we fear that someday, we will lose our memories and give in to the ever popular Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease is terrible, just thinking about it is enough to make a senior cringe. I have witnessed seniors in very advanced age whose brains are no longer capable of functioning but the body refuses to break and I must admit, they really are a sad story to tell.
What’s really fascinating is that, no matter how persistent researchers are to be able to solve this mystery once and for all, the only thing they were able to ascertain is that when Alzheimer’s disease is present, there will be plaques in the brain. One can determine the extent of the disease just by looking at how these plaques multiply or grow. In other words, we can only go as far as determining if Alzheimer’s disease is present when a senior dies but there is no surefire way to prevent them since we don’t have a single clue how it really begins or what triggers it. This is exactly what the medical community is trying to pursue.
Averagely, by the time we reach the age 65, our brain cells start declining in numbers. Some say, the brain shrinks although there is no existing scientific basis so far. Normally, during these times, seniors may experience frustrating “senior moments” and start improvising just to help them remember things. It was said that the brain works like a computer system. You are most likely to remember the things that your brains currently or usually use. Others just get dumped somewhere. Sleeping, on the other hand, is your brain’s time to “reboot and defrag”, assigning things to where they should belong. Just like your computer, it has an expiration date, such that when it reaches its maximum level of use, it should go. Unfortunately, we don’t have brain upgrades as of the moment so we just have to deal with what we have now.
Perhaps it was also the idea behind a study made to distinguish the effect of our lifestyle to our brain cells later in life. According to this study, a person who doesn’t subject himself to mental stress on a regular basis showed slower rate in terms of declining brain cells. Moreover, those people who are physically active but have calm minds react similarly. On the other hand, people who always worry and are prone to depression produces high levels of cortisol which is a suspected substance that shrinks the brain. See full report here:  Personality and lifestyle in relation to dementia incidence