Day Seventy-One: maintain your brain

After much rooting around today, I finally located this fascinating little story on CNN. It documents some of the findings from a study of Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia, which has already been going for 20 years and will continue a while yet. What makes this study so unusual is that all the subjects are nuns. 677 initially enrolled in the study. Just 61 are still alive - all of whom now appear to be in their 90s ... and very lucid. In addition to undergoing regular interviewing and testing over the last two decades, all the nuns agreed to donate their brains to the study upon their death. And because their lifestyles are so uniform, it has been relatively easy to distinguish contributors to the onset of dementia - and, indeed, things one can do to delay or prevent it. These include staying intellectually active and - all readers of this blog will be pleased to note - maintaining a positive and optimistic outlook! So, get reading and keep smiling. You'll be glad you did when you're 96...