Cognitive decline with age

The first thing to go is memory, and I dont remember the second one.
 
Dimming from your peak is a little scary. No need to worry about it, just compensate with technology and technique. ;)
 
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It's not surprising that there is a decline in most (all?) people. I thought it was already understood that memory and cognitive functions decline with age.

Perhaps one area to investigate is ensuring that minimum standards are still met. By this I mean there are some really good stick-n-rudder pilots out there. If they experience a decline in abilitities they could still be good pilots, meeting all reasonable standards for flying. So a decline in ability isn't necessarily a grounding action.

Another comment I'll make is that we can expect to see more and more people diagnosed with Alzheimer's as people live longer. I would love to see increased research and progress on preventing and curing Alzheimer's.
 
Bob Noel said:
Another comment I'll make is that we can expect to see more and more people diagnosed with Alzheimer's as people live longer. I would love to see increased research and progress on preventing and curing Alzheimer's.
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+1

They are doing some great work now and are getting close. Alzheimer's is a nasty disease.
 
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Geico266 said:
+1

They are doing some great work now and are getting close. Alzheimer's is a nasty disease.
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The only problem with curing disease is that nature has to provide ever increasing and nasty ways to kill us off. The fear of death is what ends up making mankind the mess that it is.
 
Well, I don't retain a long clearance in my head like I used to 50 years ago... So now I write it down... Those of us who have aged successfully simply allow for the shorter recall and the less than lightning reflexes... We are not fighter pilots, a half second slower is meaningless...
Stick and rudder, aka motor skills, seem more resistant to decline tending to remain relatively high even where there is visible loss in intellectual function... I remember one patient in particular who had declined to where she could not be allowed near the stove without supervision and who wandered at night, but who could still sit down at the piano (was in vaudeville) and bang out professional level rag time and boogie woogie tunes by the hour... She could not however learn any new music...

OTOH The local neurosurgeon who has a research clinic in his name is 82... He remains so intellectually quick that it is frightening...

denny-o
 
I remember from school years ago that our brain makes new axons and dendrites as it get used.... Maybe regular usage not just repeated known things but actually learning helps keep us sharper? Maybe that's partly why that neurosurgeon is still bright, he uses his noggin and is still learning.
I thought alzheimers was dementia at an earlyish age, presenile dementia as compared to senility which happens at advanced age. I guess it's all called alzheimers now.
 
Stick and rudder skills do seem to persist. I don't have the strength I used to, but the fine motor skills in catching a ball or racing a car don't seem to have declined.

The text in my current class on Crew Resource Management states that team skills and analytical skills are as important as stick and rudder (assuming base level of technical proficiency) in flying.

So it would be interesting to see how those other skills fare over age. It may be that a senior captains "decline" in cognitive abilities may be more than compensated by his better team skills and delegating duties to others who are better at those duties than he is.
 
Jeanie said:
Maybe regular usage not just repeated known things but actually learning helps keep us sharper?
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Maybe but I have observed that the desire to learn new things is one of the first things to go, maybe because it takes too much effort.
 
Geico266 said:
+1

They are doing some great work now and are getting close. Alzheimer's is a nasty disease.
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Alzheimer's is for sure a nasty disease. Unfortunately, medical research is NOT getting close to the answer. Unless you subscribe to the Thomas Edison school of medical research:

"Mr. Edison, how do you maintain your optimism after trying 1400 substances for light bulb filaments and they all failed"

"Now I know 1400 substances that won't work. 'scuse me, I have to get back to the lab".

There is no drug that will "cure" (reverse, or even permanently stop the progression of) Alzheimers. Sadly.

-Skip
 
Everskyward said:
Maybe but I have observed that the desire to learn new things is one of the first things to go, maybe because it takes too much effort.
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And yet I sit here with the catalog to the local college trying to decide what class I'll take this semester. At least until I find a job.
 
murphey said:
And yet I sit here with the catalog to the local college trying to decide what class I'll take this semester. At least until I find a job.
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Smile because obviously you are one of the lucky ones who are not on the road to dementia any time soon!
 
Jeanie said:
Maybe regular usage not just repeated known things but actually learning helps keep us sharper?
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There are hints/possibilities that staying physically and mentally active, being physically fit, eating well, etc etc may help delay or prevent dementia symptoms. But I'm not sure it's causal.

My mother always enjoyed doing crossword puzzles. She eventually stopped even trying to work on them. As my mother's Alzheimer's progressed, she would desperately try to remember things... and fail. Slowly the Alzheimer's robbed her of memories in a random fashion.
 
The biggest issue I see with older students (well past 70) is that they can be extremely "jabby" at the controls. It also doesn't take much to push them outside their element and when that happens they pretty much shutdown. Things have to be introduced very carefully as to avoid overloading them.

I've done a number of flight reviews for pilots also well past 70 and most of them are still pretty sharp as long as they've been flying for a long time. The same overload/shutdown thing happens but it's much harder to get them to that point because they have experience to fall back on.
 
I don't understand this thread.
 
Skip Miller said:
Alzheimer's is for sure a nasty disease. Unfortunately, medical research is NOT getting close to the answer. Unless you subscribe to the Thomas Edison school of medical research:

"Mr. Edison, how do you maintain your optimism after trying 1400 substances for light bulb filaments and they all failed"

"Now I know 1400 substances that won't work. 'scuse me, I have to get back to the lab".

There is no drug that will "cure" (reverse, or even permanently stop the progression of) Alzheimers. Sadly.

-Skip
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Gotta disagree Skip. They are getting close to understanding the causes and effective cures with new vaccine trials.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/health/2011-12/10/c_131298853.htm
 
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jesse said:
The biggest issue I see with older students (well past 70) is that they can be extremely "jabby" at the controls. It also doesn't take much to push them outside their element and when that happens they pretty much shutdown. Things have to be introduced very carefully as to avoid overloading them.

I've done a number of flight reviews for pilots also well past 70 and most of them are still pretty sharp as long as they've been flying for a long time. The same overload/shutdown thing happens but it's much harder to get them to that point because they have experience to fall back on.
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I can definitely see that being the case. Any particular examples that kind of surprised you, when they "shut down"?
 
I've been taking Gingko Viagra to counter this. It's so I can remember what the f--k I'm doing.
 
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