Your World Expands ONLINE

In the year 600 A.D., the world average life expectancy was between 20 to 35 years, depending on where you lived. From the 1500s onward, till around the year 1800, life expectancy throughout Europe hovered between 30 and 40 years of age. Only 100 years ago, in 1919, life expectancy in the USA was 54 years. Currently it is 78 years in the USA, 80 years in the United Kingdom, 82 years in Canada. For the U.S., this is an increase of 44% in 100 years. There is no guarantee that an increase in that percentage range will continue over time. However, the current outlook is that life expectancy will continue to increase at least into the foreseeable future.

Although people live longer in 2019 and will be living longer yet in the near future, dementia and other mental diseases are making great inroads in that aging population. Alzheimer’s is one of the fastest growing epidemics in the United States, and elsewhere, affecting a growing part of that getting-older population, heavily impacting many long lives. The Alzheimer’s Association reports that the estimated progression rate of Alzheimer’s in the U.S. from 2000-2050 will increase by 193%, Plain dementia likewise.

What’s going on here? Why can’t the mind stay healthy as well as the body is able to last longer? Even thrive?

Well, it can, for Alzheimer’s as well as almost any form of dementia are not caused from the physical invasion of the brain by malevolent bacteria or the like, but are mere mental processes, or the lack thereof, which result in the brain getting calcified, Alzheimerized, or just losing its mental muscles altogether.

It’s these processes, which, however, are at the root of the problem, while really totally under one’s own control, even though one may never have exercised them or even known that we have them. If so, that then is part of the problem, for sure the beginning of the disease.

Therefore, if you want to be healthy, and have a healthy mind, it is essential to recognize that our brain is not a machine or computer which we inherited when we were born, and which will work as well as it can as long as it can. No. Our brain is alive. an organism, about 100 billion neurons that gather and transmit signals through around a trillion connections, “talking,” talking all the time, or not, if getting sick or getting otherwise impaired.

Normally, our brains are fully alive and plastic throughout. If you have any doubts about that, I recommend that you read the book “Soft-Wired” by Dr. Michael Merzenich - a world authority on brain plasticity - explaining how the brain rewires itself across the lifespan, and how you can take control of that process to improve your life. Amazon has it for you (free for Prime members): https://www.amazon.com/Soft-Wired-Science-Brain-Plasticity-Change-ebook/dp/B00EB48ZDU/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?keywords=“Soft-Wired”+by+Dr.+Michael+Merzenich&qid=1566802653&s=gateway&sr=8-1-fkmr0

Yes, that’s what you can do. Take control of that process and let your brain flourish. Also, that’s where ONLINE comes into the picture:

Regardless of your age, or particularly if you are advancing in age, don’t be scared by the technology of it. Using a computer, tablet, iPhone or Android is good for you, since with it you’ll be able to exercise your brain, work the processes that make it hum and blossom.

Most easily, ONLINE you can practice the mind exercises your brain needs to stay active and alive, such as produced by BrainHQ (https://www.brainhq.com), which will give you “proven brain exercises to build your cognitive resilience.”

Try it out and enjoy: