"Use it or lose it" is not a new discovery.
Early Retirement May Speed Up Cognitive Decline: Study
31–40 of 292 posts
Re: Early Retirement May Speed Up Cognitive Decline: Study
#32Sitting around May Speed Up Cognitive Decline. Both my Grandfathers retired shortly before seventy. One sat down in his Chair and did not get up. He ignored his health, and passed within 10 years. The other is highly active in his community and church, still gardens, and travels constantly. He is in his mid 80s with no sign of slowing down. Barring a major health incident, he will live well into his 90s like his moth…
I don't mean to be rude, but your living grandfather is very fortunate. Your deceased grandfather lived an average lifespan for someone in most of the developed world. I don't know ... a great deal about the background of your anecdote, but I would hesitate to overextrapolate, though. Sometimes the lack of activity is the manifestation of the underlying health issue that contributes to mortality.
Its definitely anecdata. My surviving Grandfather has lost two wives (both active as he was) to cancer, so his life style alone does not confer longevity.
That does not mean the will to live is not real, and those without out it fade much faster.
Re: Early Retirement May Speed Up Cognitive Decline: Study
#33Excellent, something I definitely don't have to worry about.
Re: Early Retirement May Speed Up Cognitive Decline: Study
#34According to the study, it sounds like the cause is not early retirement, but a decrease in the amount of social and mental activities.
Those two things don't have to go hand in hand. Personally, I'm looking forward to retirement because it will afford me more time to engage in social and mental activities.
Re: Early Retirement May Speed Up Cognitive Decline: Study
#35Not only early retirement but any kind of retirement that gets the retiree in a mode that they don't have to try anymore will result in cognitive decline. I am seeing this in my dad who has been retired for ten years now. Throughout his work life he was a sharp hard working banker. Now he uses his age and retirement as an excuse for not trying. Just yesterday he wanted me to order something for him from Amazon. I tol…
To be fair, working with text is really hard on mobile and has regressed a long way from general purpose computers like the pc. To undo you have to shake the fucking thing, and text selection takes time and patience (if you can select the text at all!)
Shake to undo and also shake to report a problem and also shake to report abuse.
It does different things in different contexts. I can see how this could be confusing.
vs.
Right click > copy; right click > paste
ctrl / cmd -c; ctrl / cmd -v
Which, in my experience, are (almost?) universal.
If your a keyboard native like me, you probably find text entry and editing on mobile fucking sucks.
Re: Early Retirement May Speed Up Cognitive Decline: Study
#36Better headline: Cognitive Decline Prompts Earlier Retirement
Is there a reason you believe that the causality should be reversed? The article suggests they did tests post retirement and observed the rate of decline.
Re: Early Retirement May Speed Up Cognitive Decline: Study
#37I hope not, I recently retired. Still, the idea makes some sense. In retirement, I try to read one paper a day (usually deep learning, PGM, or classic AI), play at least one game of Go and Chess, do some recreational programming, and read. But, I don’t work into a state of brain-tiredness anymore like I used to at work.
Do you exercise? Lifting weights regularly (3 x week) and getting some light cardio every day will help keep your body strong into your retirement. It dramatically reduces the chance of getting injured by a fall and will keep you healthly and happy longer. I'm approaching 40 and have built it into my schedule after several years of doing little and I'm feeling great for it. Next year we're moving to a large house and…
I hike at least ten hours a week (I live in the mountains) and go to the gym once a week. Your advice is excellent. My Dad is in good shape at 98 and he does thirty minutes of Canadian Airforce Exercises early each morning (he started doing this in 1964).
Re: Early Retirement May Speed Up Cognitive Decline: Study
#38My experience with both my parents was "I retired and I don't want to use my brain anymore," and they have both definitely experienced decline since retirement. Some of my friends' parents, however, have adopted more of a "I'm retired and now I can dedicate all my brainpower to these special projects I've always wanted to focus my energy on." These people have mostly declined not at all or very little. I think the an…
> "I'm retired and now I can dedicate all my brainpower to these special projects I've always wanted to focus my energy on."
I'm not retired yet, but this is precisely what I'm looking forward to. The need to constantly generate an income is a time sink that really limits the ability to engage in far more interesting intellectual pursuits.
Re: Early Retirement May Speed Up Cognitive Decline: Study
#39Sitting around May Speed Up Cognitive Decline. Both my Grandfathers retired shortly before seventy. One sat down in his Chair and did not get up. He ignored his health, and passed within 10 years. The other is highly active in his community and church, still gardens, and travels constantly. He is in his mid 80s with no sign of slowing down. Barring a major health incident, he will live well into his 90s like his moth…
My dad always refers to his body in a similar manner to how one would refer to a car, I.E. “too much mileage on me”, “I walked a lot so now my knees are worn out”. I wonder if their generation has a more simplistic view of our bodies as mechanical things.
Re: Early Retirement May Speed Up Cognitive Decline: Study
#40My dad is a doctor in his 70s. He works 60 hour weeks (which he claims counts as retirement for doctors). He truly believes that true retirement is suicide. He wants to be found dead while doing rounds at the hospital.
A man once told me that he used to work very many hours, until one day when he came home and met his four year old daughter. The girl startled and ran to the kitchen: “Mummy! The man is here.”
Oh, man, that's heartbreaking.