Lifestyle key to staying sharp in old age

Published on Thursday 19 January 2012 00:00

LIFESTYLE factors can explain why some people stay sharper in old age, according to Scottish scientists.

A study by researchers at the universities of Aberdeen and Edinburgh, as well as in Queensland, Australia, found genetic factors may account for about a quarter of the changes in a person’s intelligence between childhood and later life.

But it is environmental factors, such as education, occupation and diet, that have the most impact on how the brain ages,.

Many of the genes that affect intelligence in childhood also influence intelligence in old age, according to the study published in the journal Nature. But the largest influence was probably environmental.

Professor Ian Deary, of Edinburgh’s Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, said: “Among the factors are education, occupation, relative deprivation/affluence, diet, physical and social activities, smoking and others.”

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C Jones

Friday, January 20, 2012 at 05:38 PM

It is likely that most of the diseases which present in old age are not due to age per se but to a lifetime of poor nutrition.

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Hector the Lessor

Thursday, January 19, 2012 at 01:46 AM

I gather that the "others" refers to drinking, dancing and going with wild women.

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