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Cognitive reserve. Yeah, running a little low on that.

Dammit, I knew alcohol would be on the list! From a study in the Lancet (link goes to a pdf file, so don’t click unless you really want to read it). I think the study appeared in New Scientist, as well, but that’s behind a paywall.

I’m probably out of luck on the education thing, too.

By the way, this season of American Politics is wild. I’m glued to the edge of my seat. Better than that shit on Netflix (link goes to a Spectator article on Netflix, apparently the wokiest of the woke companies).

Comments


Comment from durnedyankee
Time: December 14, 2020, 10:05 pm

Ah, a less frightening version of medical fear porn.

(types, deletes, types, deletes)

I’ve about had it with “my betters” telling me what to do. Clearly I’m in a ‘mood’.
🙂


Comment from Some Vegetable
Time: December 14, 2020, 10:24 pm

I guess I’ve just lost my patience,
I don’t know where it went,
So I’m gonna drink my money,
*’*&”!!?! this new guy President
I got a brand new attitude and
I’m gonna wear it tonight,
I wanna get in trouble,
I wanna start a fight.

Na na na na na na na I wanna start a fight,
Na na na na na na na I wanna start a fight!

From: So What?
With apologies to Pink


Comment from ExpressoBold
Time: December 14, 2020, 10:25 pm

Cognitive reserve is the mind’s resistance to damage of the brain. – wikipedia

~
Literally, “mind over matter.”

Also, if you read far enough into it, “bigger and denser is better.”


Comment from Uncle Al
Time: December 14, 2020, 10:37 pm

“Maintain frequent social contact” — What if you are surrounded by stupid people? And what if stupidity is contagious?

“Attain high level of education” — I doubt they mean anything other than spending time in some officially designated “institution of learning”. See previous comment about social contact. Moreover, the “educators” give you failing grades if you are so bold as to actually, y’know, cognate.

“Avoid excessive alcohol” — I’m glad they said “excessive”. I reserve the right to decide for myself what that means. In fact, I believe it is good for general mental health to get a bit squiffy from time to time.

“Maintain frequent exercise” — I hold that lifting a glass from table to lip qualifies as a bicep curl, but you need lots of reps. Again, I reserve the right to decide, and I’ve decided that frequent exercise trumps alcohol restrictions!

Whew. All that typing has made me thirsty!


Comment from ExpressoBold
Time: December 14, 2020, 10:41 pm

Uncle Al, FTW !!!!!


Comment from Uncle Badger
Time: December 15, 2020, 1:04 am

OK, so let’s see how many fashionable notions we can chain together to blame for dementia.

The first time I ever even heard of the condition, the victim was one of most eminent professors in his field.

Science?… Science? Oh, yes… I remember science.


Comment from Teej
Time: December 15, 2020, 1:55 am

Yeaaaahhh— not giving up excessive drinking til Christmas.

I’ll decide which Christmas later.


Comment from Mitch
Time: December 15, 2020, 2:18 am

My father is going through this now. As his sole care-giver it’s tough to watch and I find myself getting depressed, drinking too much, not exercising as much and gaining weight. We have virtually no social contacts. :-/


Comment from Teej
Time: December 15, 2020, 2:25 am

Mitch, you have us! I’m not much but there’s good people on this site, and others.
I pray that God will give you strength to get through this. And also that He has really inventive punishments for the lockdown/distancing fascists.


Comment from bds
Time: December 15, 2020, 3:21 am

Totally off topic, and I don’t remember where I ran across this link today, but my immediate thought was that I needed to be sure to pass this along here: https://crimereads.com/your-guide-to-not-getting-murdered-in-a-quaint-english-village/


Comment from Uncle Al
Time: December 15, 2020, 4:53 am

@Mitch — I’m sorry to hear about you and your father. My brother-in-law is well along that path, and fortunately for my sister, we live only 15 minutes apart so I can spell her two or three afternoons each week so she can either run necessary errands, or just go some place quiet and read for a while. I sure hope you have someone who can let you do the same: four or five hours every couple of days can be a really big deal. It’s obvious to me that it is for my sister.


Comment from OldFert
Time: December 15, 2020, 5:35 am

@bds — that was a pretty good article/essay/warning.

@Uncle Badger — speaking of science…
All this talk about following “the science.”
Adherents of National Socialism considered it to be Scientific.
Soviet Communism was touted to be Scientific.
So, I’m somewhat skeptical of those who tout their political ruminations as being based on “science.”


Comment from durnedyankee
Time: December 15, 2020, 12:24 pm

Mitch – my mom. My sympathies, it’s hard to watch and go through, I wish I had a good answer, but alas.

Oh, and pretty much all the stuff in the boxes to avoid, she avoided, AND education? First one in the family with a college degree, finished the education she interrupted in 1945 to become an RN in the 1960’s. Well read, mentally and physically active.

What the rest of your wrote, imagine that instead of “types and deletes”, and it was a rant.

OldFert – Lysenko was a very very scientific kinda guy!
And didn’t that Hitler chap and his ‘science’ community come up with all kinds of scientific methods for identifying those of lesser race? Why, yes! They did!

And if you have MONEY, you’re almost a scientist and we should listen to you, ask Bill Gates!

Very sciencey those totalitarian bastards were. Our betters know what’s good for us! Now we should shut up, wear our masks, stay indoors, and if we’re good serfs, wait quietly for our food, water and meager allowance deliveries, perhaps they’ll let us have a nice secular but inclusive day off to spend with our families at solstice NEXT year.


Comment from durnedyankee
Time: December 15, 2020, 12:52 pm

Oh, for you other old timers, fond memories of yesteryear indicate Robert McNamara wants you to know the daily Covid body count, because in this ‘war’ you need to know we’re not winning in order for you to understand why it’s necessary for us to destroy the country in order to save it.

So we’re going to deploy another 200 million people to confinement in their own homes so we can win this war!


Comment from durnedyankee
Time: December 15, 2020, 1:12 pm

Heh! News you might have missed!
A WILD mink in Utah has tested positive for Covid-19!

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9052967/U-S-finds-case-coronavirus-wild-animal-Utah-mink.html

But we’re going to stop COVID by staying indoors and wearing masks! Yessereee!
SCIENCE!


Comment from Mitch
Time: December 15, 2020, 3:24 pm

@Teej, thanks.

@Uncle Al,

Unfortunately all our family is on the other side of the country and can’t get out here very often. Mom & Dad didn’t make any real friends later in life as they were content with each other. I got a brief break for a week a few months ago but that’s it since Mom passed away in the summer of 2019.


Comment from dissent
Time: December 15, 2020, 6:20 pm

Stopped reading NewScientist years ago when, like National Geographic, they started jumping up and down about every progressive hobby horse that poked its head above the pond scum.

Saved both money and time.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: December 15, 2020, 7:31 pm

Caring for a parent is rough duty, Mitch.

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