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While it may not be possible to completely age-proof our brains, a
brave new world of anti-aging research shows that our gray matter may be
far more flexible than we thought. So no one, no matter how old, has to
lose their mind. The brain has often been called the three-pound universe.
It’s our most powerful and mysterious organ, the seat of the self, laced with
as many billions of neurons as the galaxy has stars. No wonder the mere
notion of an aging, failing brain—and the prospect of memory loss,
confusion, and the unraveling of our personality—is so terrifying. As Mark
Williams, M.D., author of The American Geriatrics Society’s Complete Guide
to Aging and Health, says, “The fear of dementia is stronger than the fear
of death itself.” Yet the degeneration of the brain is far from inevitable.
” Its design features are such that
it should continue to function for a lifetime,” says Zaven Khachaturian,
Ph.D., director of the Alzheimer1s Association1s Ronald and Nancy Reagan
Research Institute. “There’s no reason to expect it to deteriorate with
age, even though many of us are living longer lives.” In fact, scientists ‘
view of the brain1s potential is rapidly changing, according to Stanford
University neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky, Ph.D.
“Thirty-five years ago we thought Alzheimer1 s disease was a dramatic
version of normal aging. Now we realize it1s a disease with a distinct
pathology. In fact, some people simply don’t experience any mental decline,
so we’ve begun to study them.” Antonio Damasio, M.D., Ph.D., head of the
Department of Neurology at the University of Iowa and author of Descartes’
Error, concurs. “Older people can continue to have extremely rich and
healthy mental lives.’
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The seniors
were tested in 1988 and again in 1991. Four factors were found to be
related to their mental fitness: levels of education and physical activity,
lung function, and feelings of self-efficacy “Each of these elements alters
the way our brain functions,“ says Marilyn Albert, Ph.D. , of Harvard
Medical School, and colleagues from Yale, Duke, and Brandeis Universities
and the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, who hypothesizes that regular
exercise may actually stimulate blood flow to the brain and nerve growth,
both of which create more densely branched neurons, rendering the neurons
stronger and better able to resist disease. Moderate aerobic exercise,
including long brisk walks and frequently climbing stairs, will accomplish
this.
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Education also seems to
enhance brain function. People who have challenged themselves with at least
a college education may actually stimulate the neurons in their brains.
Moreover, native intelligence may protect our brains. It’s possible that
smart people begin life with a greater number of neurons, and therefore
have a greater reserve to fall back on if some begin to fail. “If you have
a lot of neurons and keep them busy, you may be able to tolerate more
damage to your brain before it shows,” says Peter Davies, M.D., of the
Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York. Early
linguistic ability also seems to help our brains later in life. A recent
study in the New England Journal of Medicine looked at 93 elderly nuns and
examined the autobiographies they had written 60 years earlier, just as
they were joining a convent. The nuns whose essays were complex and dense
with ideas remained sharp into their eighties and nineties.
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Finally,
personality seems to play an important role in protecting our mental
prowess. A sense of self-efficacy may protect our brain, buffeting it from
the harmful effects of stress. According to Albert, there’ s evidence that
elevated levels of stress hormones may harm brain cells and cause the
hippocampus—a small seahorse-shaped organ that1s a crucial moderator of
memory—to atrophy. A sense that we can effectively chart our own course in
the world may retard the release of stress hormones and protect us as we
age. “It’ s not a matter of whether you experience stress or not, ” Albert
concludes, “it’s your attitude toward it. ” Reducing stress by meditating
on a regular basis may buffer the brain as well. It also increases the
activity of the brain’ s pineal gland, the source of the antioxidant
hormone melatonin, which regulates sleep and may retard the aging process.
Studies at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center and the
University of Western Ontario found that people who meditated regularly had
higher levels of melatonin than those who took 5-milligram supplements
Another study, conducted jointly by Maharishi International University,
Harvard University, and the University of Maryland, found that seniors who
meditated for three months experienced dramatic improvements in their
psychological well-being, compared to their non-meditative peers.
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Animal studies confirm that
both mental and physical activity boost brain fitness. At the Beckman
Institute for Advanced Science and Technology in Urbana, Illinois,
psychologist William Greenough, Ph. D., let some rats play with a profusion
of toys. These rodents developed about 25 percent more connections between
their neurons than did rats that didn’t get any mentally stimulating
recreation. In addition, rats that exercised on a treadmill developed more
capillaries in specific parts of their brains than did their sedentary
counterparts. This increased the blood flow to their brains. “Clearly the
message is to do as many different flyings as possible,” Greenough says.
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It’s not just
scientists who are catching the anti-aging fever. Walk into any health food
store, and you111 find nutritional formulas —with names like Brainstorm and
Smart ALEC—that claim to sharpen mental ability. The book Smart Drugs &
Nutrients, by Ward Dean, M.D., and John Morgenthaler, was self-published in
1990 and has sold over 120,000 copies worldwide. It has also spawned an
underground network of people tweaking their own brain chemistry with
nutrients and drugs—the latter sometimes obtained from Europe and Mexico.
Sales of ginkgo —an extract from the leaves of the 200-million-year-old
ginkgo tree, which has been shown in published studies to increase oxygen
in the brain and ameliorate symptoms of Alzheimer‘ s disease—are up by 22
percent in the last six months alone, according to Paddy Spence, president
of SPINS, a San Francisco-based market research firm. Indeed, products that
increase and preserve mental performance are a small but emerging segment
of the supplements industry, says Linda Gilbert, president of Health Focus,
a company that researches consumer health trends. While neuroscientists
like Khachaturian liken the use of these products to the superstition of
tossing salt over your shoulder, the public is nevertheless gobbling up
nutrients that promise cognitive enhancement.
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Questions 27-30
Choose the Four correct letters among
A-G.
Write your answers in boxes 27-30 on
your answer sheet.
Which of the FOUR situations or
conditions assisting the Brains’ function?
A. Preventive treatment against Alzheimer’s disease
B. Doing active aerobic exercise and frequently climbing stairs
C. High levels of education
D. Early verbal or language competence training
E. Having more supplements such as ginkgo tree
F. Participate in more physical activity involving in stimulating
tasks
G. Personality and feelings of self-fulfillment
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Questions 31-38
Use the information in the passage to
match the people (listed A-G) with opinions or deeds below.
Write the appropriate letters A-G in boxes
32-39 on your answer sheet.
NB you may use any latter more than
once
A. Zaven
Khachaturian
B. William
Greenough
C. Marilyn
Albert
D. Robert
Sapolsky
E. Linda
Gilbert
F. Peter
Davies
G. Paddy
Spence
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31
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Alzheimer’s was probably a kind of disease rather than a normal
aging process.
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32
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Keeping neurons busy, people may be able to endure more harm to your
brain
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33
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Regular
exercises boost blood flow to the brain and increase anti-disease
disability.
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34
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Significant increase of Sales of ginkgo has been shown.
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35
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More links
between their neurons are found among stimulated animals.
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36
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Effectiveness of the use of brains supplements products can be of
little scientific proof.
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37
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Heightened
levels of stress may damage brain cells and cause part of brain to
deteriorate.
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38
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Products that upgrade and preserve mental competence are still a
newly developing industry.
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Questions 39
Choose the correct letters among A-D.
Write your answers in box 39 on your
answer sheet.
39
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According to
the passage, what is the most appropriate title for this passage?
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A
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Making our
minds last a lifetime
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B
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amazing pills of the ginkgo
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C
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how to stay
healthy in your old hood
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D
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more able a brain and neurons
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