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June 29, 2007

Maintaining health as we age

Cynader offers recommendations for mental acuity to seniors.
FREEMAN PORITZ

According to one of this country's leading neurologists, "We are facing in Canada, and really throughout the industrialized western world, a demographic tsunami."

Speaking to the annual general meeting of the Jewish Seniors Alliance June 21, Dr. Max Cynader said, "In the next 25 years, a full quarter of our population will be seniors."

More than 150 people turned up for the AGM and to hear Cynader, director of the Brain Research Centre and professor of ophthalmology at the University of British Columbia, speak on the subject of the aging brain.

Cynader has been at the forefront of new approaches to the identification of genes and gene products associated with brain plasticity, and with various types of neurological injury.

He said that while it is, of course, a concept most relevant to seniors, the notion of the aging brain and the difficulties that come with aging should also be a concern for the younger generation. Everyone, he pointed out, ages eventually.

Addressing methods of dealing with three of the most common ailments that afflict seniors – Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and strokes – Cynader observed that, "Ten per cent of people over 65 years of age suffer from the disease [Alzheimer's]. And if you make it to 85, the odds are actually 40 per cent that you'll suffer from at least mild cognitive impairment, which is the first stage [of Alzheimer's]." However, he also added that scientists are continually researching new ways to effectively combat these common degenerative ailments.

Cynader noted, too, that exercise can help build and regenerate brain cells. "Exercise is good for you," he said. "Not only is it good for your body, but it's good for your brain. Up until recently, we thought you had all the brain cells as adults that you were ever going to have. But that's not true. You're still making new brain cells in parts of your brain. One part of your brain that's involved in memory formation is still making new brain cells – a few thousand every day. And another part of your brain that is involved in motor co-ordination skills is also making a few thousand every day."

Ben Dayson, a longtime member of the Vancouver Jewish community and the JSA, who recently celebrated his 100th birthday, had a question for Cynader. "Doctor," he said, "can you tell us one thing? My age is 100. One thing is that I can't sleep in bed, and I don't know what to do. I take up a chair and I fall asleep, I take a book and I fall asleep, I watch TV, I fall asleep. And I don't know what could be done. I could eat less, I could run around – that don't do any good. Why can't I fall asleep in bed?" "The answer," Cynader replied, "is whatever it is that you're doing, you're doing something right."

Summing up his address, Cynader had some suggestions on ways to live longer and more healthfully.

"You can eat less," he said. "You should improve your diet. Exercise. Be happy. Avoid stress. Do whatever it takes. And, of course, you want to stay cognitively, socially and emotionally connected. There is a challenging future ahead of us as our population ages, and we really are facing some serious issues as a society. But, if we think ahead and we do research, I think there's a real opportunity to confront these challenges and to make a real difference in dealing with them.

"I'm hoping for a world in which we avoid these degenerative disorders that I talked about earlier and in which, basically, by combining desk practices and exercise with modern neuropharmacology, we're going to come up with a situation where we can all live long and prosper."

Freeman Poritz
is a Vancouver freelance writer.

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