It's a norm that our body undergoes biological changes as we grow older, and this is also the case with our brain cells. Growth is a normal physiological process and a cycle that works in hand with development. The moment your body or brain stop growing, you start dying gradually.
The brain undergoes certain stages which include;
- The growth stage/phase
- The decline stage/phase
- The death stage/phase
From my previous article, i made it known that as you grow from childhood to your teen and adulthood, your brain keep developing till age 25 where it attains its peak of development where you're more smarter than ever and able to remember virtually most of the things that has happened in your past. After this moment, the brain start getting ready to undergo a gradual decline as its cells start begin to die while brain signalling through neurotransmitters start loosing its vigour.
To this effect, I'll like to elaborate briefly on this changes that happen in our brain nerve cells as we gradually age.
1. From Age 0 - 20s
Having passed through lots of terrains, learning processes, contests and challenges from the moment of your childhood and teenage years till adulthood, your brain attains its highest point or peak of growth and development at age 25. At this age, your brain attains its measure of highest weight ever at about 1.2 to 1.3kg. At this point, the brain becomes so smart in absorbing and processing information within splits of second. You're able to recall what you've read or a discussion over years back. Your brain cells becomes active while the nerves now have the potential to stretch to its full capacity. This moment is recorded as one of the best and the most sensitive moment of one's life, but after this moment, comes gradual brain cell degeneration leading to gradual loss of memory as adulthood sets in completely.
Despite these, studies from the University of California as shown that most teenages and young adults who are addicted to mobile devices and computer screens are unable to utilize their brain power which leads to gradual loss of memories in them. When the brain is not properly utilized, its cells degenerates and this may lead to a gradual permanent loss of memory or consciousness. So never underutilize the power of your brain. Use it today.
2. During your 30s
At this stage of your life, you still maintain a youthful facial look but the cognitive ability of your brain start declining so as your ability to gain remembrance of things far or around you. This decline is as a result of drop in the level of chemicals that relays messages between your brain cells. This results to a 2% shrink of your brain's ability at every 10years (i.e every decade) as cells responsible for regenerating new memories in the prefrontal cortex dies gradually. At this moment, most breast feeding mothers becomes absent-minded due to a high level of oxytocin hormonal secretion from their pituitary gland of their brain. Oxytocin is a hormone which controls the production of milk in pregnant and nursing mothers and the contraction of uterine walls. Study from Bradford University showed that most pregnant and nursing mothers are more forgetful than those not pregnant.
4. During your 40s
During this moment, you become a little more absent minded at seldom. Have you ever search for your eye glasses or spectacle not knowing you're already wearing it? Have you ever eaten at a restaurant to later find out that you forget your creditcard or money at home? Yes, this may seems embarrassing at times and its due to the level of brain degeneration that is accorded to you while you age. Studies as shown that most people at age 40 experience memory loss or decline at some points of their life and this is due to the fact that our brain hippocampus gradually shrinks from age 30 to our mid 60s and there is also a loss of connections between brain nerves that signals between cells to retrieve or process informations for use. At this point, checking your brain health may helps you build a healthy lifestyle without having the course to get worried of an Alzheimer's disease. So the brain tried to format some old memories to store new ones. Brain exercise such as chewing of gum may help to improve blood flow and oxygen to your brain at this stage, though it's not advisable for those diabetic due to the sugar contents of chewing gum.
It has be researched and discovered that a working memory have the capacity to store 7 informations which a computer system can do as well. Exercising your proofofbrain gives live to your brain cells while creating more nerve connections to boost your brain's efficiency.
5. During your 50s
At this stage being absent minded is almost becoming a routine than ever. You go to office and forget to hold your laptop. You go down the stairs to pick your shoes and later forget what you'd wanted to pick. Memory loss at this stage is more pronounced than it was in your 40s. One of the reason for this situation is because the area of the brain that holds memories (prefrontal cortex) is shrinking with age since the rate of blood flow to the brain has reduced due to the narrowing of the artery walls. Once blood flow is limited, the brain structure and function begins to degenerate.
However your ability to play a puzzle or store vocabularies over time can help the brain retain those words if constantly practiced. At 50s, men reach their highest performance of recalling ability, while women reach theirs in their early 60s. A study published in a Neurology journal in 2009 discovered that women recovers their memory after menopause when their hormones begin to settle. Menopause in women leads to their temporary decline in memorizing at around 51years and above as their estrogen level declines thus affecting their ability to concentrate and retain memories. Once these settles, they regain their memory back.
To be continued in part 2....
Disclaimer: This article is originally written by me and made available for use as reference.
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