Aging: The Owner's Manual
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About this ebook
Cutting-edge, user-friendly, and comprehensive: the revolutionary guide to the brain, now fully revised and updated
At birth each of us is given the most powerful and complex tool of all time: the human brain. And yet, as we well know, it doesn't come with an owner's manual—until now. In this unsurpassed resource, Dr. Pierce J. Howard and his team distill the very latest research and clearly explain the practical, real-world applications to our daily lives. Drawing from the frontiers of psychology, neurobiology, and cognitive science, yet organized and written for maximum usability, The Owner's Manual for the Brain, Fourth Edition, is your comprehensive guide to optimum mental performance and well-being. It should be on every thinking person's bookshelf.
- What are the ingredients of happiness?
- Which are the best remedies for headaches and migraines?
- How can we master creativity, focus, decision making, and willpower?
- What are the best brain foods?
- How is it possible to boost memory and intelligence?
- What is the secret to getting a good night's sleep?
- How can you positively manage depression, anxiety, addiction, and other disorders?
- What is the impact of nutrition, stress, and exercise on the brain?
- Is personality hard-wired or fluid?
- What are the best strategies when recovering from trauma and loss?
- How do moods and emotions interact?
- What is the ideal learning environment for children?
- How do love, humor, music, friendship, and nature contribute to well-being?
- Are there ways of reducing negative traits such as aggression, short-temperedness, or irritability?
- What is the recommended treatment for concussions?
- Can you delay or prevent Alzheimer's and dementia?
- What are the most important ingredients to a successful marriage and family?
- What do the world's most effective managers know about leadership, motivation, and persuasion?
- Plus 1,000s more topics!
Pierce Howard
Pierce J. Howard, Ph.D., is director of research and development for the Center for Applied Cognitive Studies in Charlotte, North Carolina. Since the first edition of The Owner's Manual for the Brain was published in 1994, Dr. Howard has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show and conducted countless seminars around the world. He is a member of the American Psychological Association, the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, and the International Test Commission.
Read more from Pierce Howard
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Book preview
Aging - Pierce Howard
Contents
A Note to the Reader
Finishing Well: Use It or Lose It
1 General Effects of Aging
2 Old Age and Mental Ability
3 Control, Social Capital, and Optimism
4 Diet and Aging
5 Exercise and Aging
6 Combining Diet and Exercise
7 Night Vision
8 Memory and Aging
9 Driving over 65 (Years, Not Miles per Hour!)
10 Sex and Longevity
11 Sleep and Aging
A Final Word on Aging Gracefully
The Author
Credits
Copyright
About the Publisher
A Note to the Reader
Please note that all topic numbers and cross-references refer to those in the larger work.
Finishing Well
Although not all of us will be blessed with the opportunity to experience the perspective of old age, certainly all of us have an interest in knowing what research in cognitive science has discovered about the effect of aging on mental structure and ability. This chapter focuses on findings that can help us to age with maximum effectiveness and to better understand those who are preceding us into the Golden Years.
First, one note. Much of what we know about adult development is coming out of the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, in which 2,400 volunteers of all ages travel annually (at their own expense) to Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center for three days of examination. Begun in 1958, it is the longest-running study of its kind. In the first 20 years, only white men were studied, with women and African Americans added to the study in 1978. African Americans are still underrepresented at 13 percent (compared with the target of 20 percent). The study continues to recruit volunteers in specific age, race, and sex categories. If you are interested in joining, call 800-225-2572. Among their findings: personality doesn’t change essentially from age 30 on, vocabulary continues to grow into later life, problem-solving and reasoning skills continue into old age, and people age at different rates.
Parallel to the Baltimore study (which emphasizes personality), the Seattle Longitudinal Study emphasizes mental ability over the life span. The director is Warner Schaie (a professor at Pennsylvania State University). Here are some of their major findings (Schaie, 1996, pp. 12–15):
1. There is no uniform pattern of age-related changes across all intellectual abilities.
Different abilities decline at different times for different sexes for different reasons.
2. The primary factors that prevent decline in mental ability are
(a) absence of cardiovascular and other chronic diseases;
(b) a favorable environment mediated by high socioeconomic status;
(c) involvement in a complex and intellectually stimulating environment;
(d) flexible personality style at midlife;
(e) maintenance of high levels of perceptual processing