Women and Cognitive Decline

Maybe it's because women tend to live longer than men so we see more elderly women.

Yes they do live longer and this gives us the reason why.

Cognitive capabilities go = worries dissipate.

Worries dissipate = less stress.

Less stress = longer life.

Well I can't speak for women but for myself I don't notice any decline because I have adapted to making notes on my iphone and use the internet as a memory refresher...so actually I'm improving as I age and adapt to more reliable methods, but to be fair I never had a great memory generally speaking anyway, it was very selective in nature and well I suppose it still is, like names for instance I never could remember names, but over the years have honed my skills at gleaning that information from the source when circumstances or societal situations put me in an awkward position, and I can mumble quite well....So thank you for the reminder and you may feel free to immediately forget this fleeting exchange of mental meanderings and vague references and carry with you only the suggestion that we can adapt with a little effort....

Yes a sound strategy...I always use the stairs, and even have a treadmill in front of the TV that gets used occasionally....usually to ease the guilt of watching it....haha, or is it as punishment?...anyway I think exercise plays a big role in maintaining a sharp mind....

I know, right?

For awhile when I was using those little paper wrist bands to write things on my health went to hell. Now it's "Get 3-inch, 10-32 S.S. screw from shop"

[go out to shop]

"Oh dear. I don't have a shop anymore. Sold that place 17 years ago."

Getting in a lot of walking this way.

In my case there is no cellar and no upstairs; its mostly between the house and garage, otherwise, ditto. ...or between the dining room where I work on my computer and the bedroom where some of my stuff is kept. It's at least ten feet from one to the other!

The other thing I've noticed is that I get distracted much more easily than used to be the case. As I head from the house out to the garage to get xxx, I notice yyy that really should be taken care of first, but before I can do yyy, I need to sharpen my zzz, etc. If I'm lucky, something (or my wife) will remind me that I came out to get xxx, before the day is over.

Both of these occurrences have become more frequent as I travel further into my 4th quarter century.

Growing old ain't for sissies!

Welcome to the club.

I have a T shirt that says, "I don't need Google. My wife knows everything".

But, at 65, she's not as sharp as she was 10 years ago. At 50, I'd have put her up against anybody in an IQ test. 142 in her prime.

We joke about our declining mental capacity, but it is real and we both realize it.

You know why men don't live as long as women, don't you?

Because they haven't learned how to lie well enough when the missus says" Dear, does this dress make me look fat?"

My favorite response was Al Bundy's, "No dear, your fat makes you look fat!"

Actually, the answer is because Men just don't want to live with some nagging woman that long!

My Grandma (Dad's side), when addressing any of us 7 grandkids by name, would go through a few or several names before she got it right. I tend to think that she held us all as equally loved as the reason for that.

I tend to remember WHAT I did better that WHEN I did it - except that sometimes I will think I didn't do something when I actually had!

Lyn's got it right! Growing old ain't for sissies!

I never lost my memory. We simply agreed to part ways.

Do not regret growing older. It is a privilege denied to many.

You've really got to be a major optimist, and I laud you for that. ...but I'll take full awareness and cognition over Alzheimers every day, in spite of the bad things happening.

Alzheimer's ! I was driving by a GM plant in Texas with my dad once and he remarked, after looking at the parking lot, those people must make good money. I asked "why dad" he responded "they are all driving brand new cars". At the end of his life his responses and memory were totally gone.

Having had 4 members of the family go the senile dementia alzheimer's rout I have seen nothing but distress, confusion, inability to learn, initially trying to hide memory loss, accusations of deception as a new reality is spun daily, declining health, anger, loss of emotional control, locked nursing homes.

No thank you, I hope to keep my marbles as long as possible and choose a massive heart attack with sudden death.

That has to be very hard to witness. My mom was going down that path, but fortunately, she never got to the deception, anger issues, etc. In the earlier days, she knew she was having problems and that caused frustration with herself. After she had a stroke last year, her mood strangely enough actually improved even as her physical health went down the tubes. She was a 'good' patient in the rehab and eventually nursing home. She started recovering physically after the stroke, but at some point she plateaued and seemed to give up with the onset of some cardiac issues. Mercifully, she passed on quickly and with little discomfort.

Perhaps it has to do with thought train difference between the genders. First I must confess a block on recalling names too, that has ALWAYS been there. Data about a person or event or a number is a different matter.

My wife has said for years that men think differently than women. She says men in general, but specifically me, are too one track minded. We get on something and want to take it to completion before attacking the next idea. This has to help men in recall of things. I can recall such things by replaying a situation in a specific location / time. Focus on the person and the surrounding settings and the data I wish to recall comes to me with this association. Now if she is correct, and women have a jumble in the brain going on all the time, the required data from such an association would be very difficult to sort out.

As a side note, perhaps people should have unique numbers, not names. I can still recall telephone numbers of relatives gone for more than 20 years, phone numbers from friends while I was in school, and the phone number of every job I've had in 45 years. Numbers are much easier to remember.

Just as there are differences between the genders (and I certainly agree with that), there are differences between individuals of the same gender as well.

I wish I had truly understood this during the time I was teaching! I'm not sure what I would have done differently, but there would have been differences that might have helped those individuals who don't follow the same thinking process I do, and therefore didn't do well in my classes.

My wife and I were discussing phone numbers just yesterday. She didn't remember a certain number, and I said "Why don't you have it stored in your phone?". She prefers not to have anything stored there... I have something around 2000 entries in my contact list, so probably over 3000 phone numbers. I've depended on the phone/computer for so long that I hardly remember any phone numbers now. I think I would need a second hand of fingers to count the ones I do remember...

Reality is, we have been trained by our gadgets and have no need to recall very much, except the cell phone, the laptop and to have them all charged up for instant use. But, as more and more information seems to be needed, we simply look up on Google searches and obtain our instant answers. So the brain does not need to stay stimulated in learning and retaining information. Only retain what is deemed essential to living.

We used to be selective on information retention and had people who were very clued up on certain details and aspects of jobs. Now technology allows everyone to be that expert at the swipe of a finger and click of a button. Perhaps people don't need to recall much these days and women have subconsciously realised this before hand.

"We used to be selective on information retention and had people who were very clued up on certain details and aspects of jobs. Now technology allows everyone to be that expert at the swipe of a finger and click of a button. "

We still do. They are the few of us online who have actually done work in the fields and areas our knowledge base covers and thusly have little trouble telling like from unlike in casual internet forum encounters, much to the embarrassment of those trying to look knowledgeable on a subject, that don't have any real degree of life experience in that area.

A mouse can pretend to be cat amongst other mice and get away with it but when a real cat shows up it's pretty obvious who's faking and who has the real claws and teeth and wont hesitate on tearing the imposters head off in front of everyone just for fun.

I would say that as of lately a good 10% or more of regular internet users are showing severe cognitive decline and are extremely defensive about it.

How many of us have had interactions with one or more internet members on any number of forums who has become increasingly hostile over their perceived facts yet have been and continue to be getting shown multiple times over that they their beliefs and reasonings are obviously and many time painfully wrong on the same subjects week after week only to obviously forget what they were told and start a new argument a a day or a week later over the exact same subject and stance as if its all brand new again?

Seems like pretty strong cases to suggest they are having severe cognitive issues and are in considerable denial over it as well.

I think the internet needs to have a virtual nursing home to send such people to where they can blissfully reargue their less than accurate views over and over with others who will happily counter argue the only to have both completely forget a few days later so they can start allover again.

Now that is a great new word you have invented. Are you holding the IP on this word;

REARGUE: the muck at the back.

Already exists as far as I know (spell and grammar check didn't flag or modify it so it has to be in their lists) but if not I declare it public domain from this day forth.

How many of us have had interactions with one or more internet members on any number of forums who has become increasingly hostile over their perceived facts yet have been and continue to be getting shown multiple times over that they their beliefs and reasonings are obviously and many time painfully wrong on the same subjects week after week only to obviously forget what they were told and start a new argument a a day or a week later over the exact same subject and stance as if its all brand new again?

I have been married 42 years! I don't think it is reserved to the internet.

I know it's not reserved to the internet but still seeing larger numbers of forum members I once respected and looked at to be reasonable sources and representations of experience and knowledge going off the deep end to the point they run their own forum standings of respect and credibility defending easily disprovable topics and whatnot is rather disheartening to me.

I can over look bad spelling and grammar slip ups and even the occasional linking to incorrect supporting information easily enough but when they start taking things to the point of irrational conjecture to try and make a point or out rightly attacking others for things they themselve regularly and boldly fail at, plus get called out on constantly, and can't seem to remember it having happened on the same subject a day or week ago I have to question if they have developed some sort of mental issues.

I love a good informative educational debate more than most but it's very frustrating and saddening to have an opponent who claims to have solid proof I am wrong about something I believe in show themselves to be little more than a trolling village idiot and general dumbass with near zero valid or credible information to back themselves up on the reality on the subject.

Especially so when everything else they have shown themselves to know outside subject gave me reasons respect and think of them as decent knowledgeable persons.

No - not cognitive decline - just old age. As we age we become increasingly sure we are right and the world is wrong. They are just becoming typical old curmudgeons. (Statler and Waldorf)

I think the internet needs to have a virtual nursing home to send such people to where they can blissfully re argue their less than accurate views over and over with others

I thought that was this forum?