A 10-year-old boy playing a video game and a 40-year-old teacher solving The New York Times Sunday crossword puzzle (BTW, good luck!) are both stimulating their brains and pulling from valuable mental resources that rely on healthy brain function. When Aristotle wrote in Metaphysics and De Anima, he referred to it as nous, or part of the soul. Many philosophers and authors have dissected Aristotle’s writings, suggesting his philosophies of the mind infer the mind is essential to being a human. And is he not correct? What can we do without the mind? It is our source for reason, emotions and decision-making; it lends sensory abilities including sight, touch, smell, sound and taste. And, it is responsible for our motor skills, from walking to balance. The mind is the sun in a human’s solar system, i.e., it is the center.
Expectedly, aging is not looked at positively. Many consumers fear aging—from wrinkled and sagging skin to gray hair and crows feet. Just the word “aging" connotes negativity; but, worse than droopy skin is aging of the brain. According to the Natural Marketing Institute’s (NMI) 2008 Healthy Aging/Boomer Database™, 44 percent of the U.S. populations’ biggest fear is losing mental/brain capacity. Equally, U.S. adults fear being a burden on family and other loved ones (44 percent). Clearly, mental and cognitive degeneration is not only a concern, but a fear.
According to the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America, an estimated 5.1 million Americans may have Alzheimer’s disease, and its rate of incidence is increasing as the population ages. The Foundation does recognize Alzheimer’s is an aging aberration; nonetheless, the risk of developing it doubles every five years after turning 65, which is increasing year after year. The U.S. Census Bureau reported the number of people age 65 and older will more than double between 2010 and 2050 to 88.5 million, roughly 20 percent of the population. And, those 85 and older will rise threefold to 19 million.