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On one side of my family retirement for my grandparents meant long days vegetating in front of the television with little dogs to pet. Church on Sundays were r
by 2845197541 9y ago
On one side of my family retirement for my grandparents meant long days vegetating in front of the television with little dogs to pet. Church on Sundays were really their only time out. This brought dementia by age 80 and a host of other issues and they are on their way out. On the other side my grandfather plays basketball, golfs, runs, reads a book every few days, even drinks at a bar. No dementia. Sharp as a tack. Dare I say... no church.
- barking 9y agochurch attendence may lead to dementia, suggests study.
- 2845197541 9y agoI couldn't help it.
- jgrahamc 9y agoI wish you had refrained. It really detracted from the rest of what you had to say.
- flintchip 9y agoGod forbid someone tells a joke.
- abrookewood 9y agoYeah .. they're not really appreciated on HN. I'm guessing because they want to avoid the whole Reddit-style comment chain of meta-jokes, one liners etc. It's a little disappointing, but if you want a laugh, there are plenty of other places to find them. If it keeps HN a place for more serious discussion, then I'm fine with it.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- ck425 9y agoIt's only anecdotal but I've seen the same (church aside). My very bright, well to do Grandparents are mostly house bound now and have gotten far slower the less active they've gotten. On the other hand my other grandmother is still the exact same as she was 20 years ago and she's constantly out and about and going on holidays/trips regularly.
- FLUX-YOU 9y agoHow rich is the latter compared to the former?
- ck425 9y agoOther than property price the latter is reasonably poor, very working class, whereas the latter are upper-middle class and very well off.
- Angostura 9y agoThere's a correlation problem here though. Maybe they have become less active as they have become slower
- imesh 9y agoBoth my grandfathers where professors who kept working up until their irrespective colleges forced them retire due to their alzheimers. One ran marathons up until his 70s and the other one did moderate exercise. Both did everything you are supposed to do, both got alzheimers. 80 isn't going to be a party no matter how healthy you are, it's 80.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- grecy 9y agoThe guy who ran my white water raft guide course was 74. He did a backflip out of the raft in a 3+ rapid, into a glacier melt river North of 60. He laughed when I was given control of the raft for the first time and I flipped it with him and five others in it within 30 seconds. I'm willing to bet he will still be having a ball at age 80.
- ekianjo 9y agoin your 70s you age much faster than you think. 5 years do a lot more damage than you expect from 75 to 80.
- icantdrive55 9y agoI get what you're saying. I would be happy to hit eighty sitting on a couch. It seems where I live, in the Bay Area, the men seem lucky to live to 65, even the ones that exercise. I don't know why. I sometimes think it's our stressful lifestyle, and not going to church? I bet your grandparents live in the Mid-West? I spent a month in Joplin Missouri, and was astonished to see so many people over 80 doing just everything. This one guy was over 90, and still driving his car to see his girlfriend in Florida. The first time I met him, he was working on my buddy's air conditioning, in a shack in his back yard. That shop was sweltering. He shook my hand, and he saw me look at his chest scar. "That's my second. I told the doc to out in a zipper." I'm too depressed to look up stats. My neighbors are dropping like flies. It's just weird. They are all high income too?
- zeroer 9y agoMen in San Francisco live 2 years longer than the national average. http://sf.curbed.com/2016/4/12/11415526/san-francisco-san-jose-life-expectancy-stanford http://sf.curbed.com/2016/4/12/11415526/san-francisco-san-jo...
- pjc50 9y agoMy grandmother lived to the age of 103. While she didn't do anything you'd normally label "exercise", she certainly did a lot of cleaning - and up until her 80s would routinely light a coal fire in the hearth, as her house did not have central heating.
- throwaway109482 9y ago> This brought dementia by age 80 and a host of other issues As someone who suffers an immune disease that simultaneously makes me unable to do strenuous exercise, and is also independently associated with "a host of other issues", comments like this actually make me quite angry. How can you possibly claim this demonstrates cause and effect?
- puddlypanda123 9y agoWhy does it make you angry?
- lotsofpulp 9y agoWhy shouldn't it, assuming you're trying to conduct serious discourse? I find it to be a huge issue in my life, trying to communicate with people who make unverifiable or false claims is a huge waste of time, not to mention that somehow those falsehoods will be carried on from person to person.
- ekianjo 9y agothere is no very strong link between lack of activity and dementia though. Anecdotal evidence is just that.
- brianwawok 9y agoThis is not true at all. Google exercise and dementia. Hundreds of studies. It's the single beat cure.
- ams6110 9y agoGoogle search != scientific evidence.
- brianwawok 9y agoScientific papers found via a google search == scientific evidence Come on people
- obstacle1 9y agoParent isn't claiming that the Google search is itself evidence. The scientific studies that are returned by a Google search are the evidence. The search is a means of obtaining the evidence.
- soundwave106 9y agoScholar Google search == scientific evidence (usually :) ). First link from a query of "exercise dementia": "Exercise Is Associated with Reduced Risk for Incident Dementia among Persons 65 Years of Age and Older" (http://annals.org/aim/article/719427/exercise-associated-reduced-risk-incident-dementia-among-persons-65-years http://annals.org/aim/article/719427/exercise-associated-red...) Second link: "The effects of exercise training on elderly persons with cognitive impairment and dementia: A meta-analysis" (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003999304003971 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003999304...) (Conclusion: "Exercise training increases fitness, physical function, cognitive function, and positive behavior in people with dementia and related cognitive impairments.") Overall the balance of the articles seem to indicate positive effects for exercise in both preventing dementia and even improving the prospects of people with dementia. This does not mean exercise is a "magic bullet" to completely preventing or curing dementia, but it seems like exercise helps.
- toomanybeersies 9y agoAs a counterpoint, my (surviving) grandparents have had exactly the same lifestyle since retirement (TV all day) and are in their 80's. My grandmother is relatively fit, looks the same as she did 10 years ago. My grandfather is currently in hospital with his 3rd stroke, dementia, and diabetes. Age just hits some people harder than others.
- itchyouch 9y agoWhile genetics plays a large part, I think nutrient density of foods paired with activity is the thing to look at. The body is a big ball of chemical reactions and having limiting reagents in crucial biological processes would be obvious in causing issues.