Researchers Find 70-Year-Olds Are Getting Smarter 115
Pickens writes "AlphaGalileo reports that researchers from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden have found in a forty-year study of 2,000 seniors that today's 70-year-olds do far better in intelligence tests than their predecessors, making it more difficult to detect dementia in its early stages. 'Using the test results, we've tried to identify people who are at risk of developing dementia,' says Dr. Simona Sacuiu. 'While this worked well for the group of 70-year-olds born in 1901-02, the same tests didn't offer any clues about who will develop dementia in the later generation of 70-year-olds born in 1930.' The 70-year-olds born in 1930 and examined in 2000 performed better in the intelligence tests than their predecessors born in 1901-02 and examined in 1971. 'The improvement can partly be explained by better pre- and neonatal care, better nutrition, higher quality of education, better treatment of high blood pressure and other vascular diseases, and not least the higher intellectual requirements of today's society, where access to advanced technology, television and the Internet has become part of everyday life,' says Sacuiu."
and get off my... (Score:5, Funny)
and get off my alopecurus pratensis!
Re:and get off my... (Score:5, Funny)
Man, I'd hate to have to mow your lawn [wikipedia.org]....
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ALL grass looks like that if you don't mow it.
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Even seventy year olds can maintain it with little effort. :)
Until the kudzu eats them, anyway.
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Most grasses used for lawns don't reach 3+ feet in height. Bermuda, fescue (the varieties that are used for lawns, anyway), St. Augustine grass, Kentucky bluegrass, etc. all top out at anywhere from four inches to about a foot and a half if left uncut. And although the stuff towards the taller end of that spectrum is tall enough to be a pain, it is at least feasible to mow it without a brush hog towed behind a tractor....
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Okay, I stand corrected. For one, the "viney" kind of grass (with rhizomes) tends to spread horizontal instead of grow vertical. I did used to mow nearly 3-foot grass as a teen. It was generally natural grass (or at least not deliberately planted). A lot of work, but it earned me some pocket change.
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You ain't seen nothing yet.
http://books.google.com/books?id=M2lbSTsbfGsC&pg=PA223&lpg=PA223&dq=Triodia+injuries&source=bl&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&sqi=2&q&f=false#v=onepage&q&f=false [google.com]
You are just lucky that you don't have to mow that. You can enjoy it if you go to some outbackish places in Australia. I was made painfully aware of that grass while walking through an old mining area in Western Australia. The open mine shafts can be ev
arbeit macht smart... (Score:3, Interesting)
it's well documented that staying active in the workforce is good for the brain, at least when compared to the sedentary tv-filled days of most retirees.
todays 70-year-olds are smarter.... because most of them can't afford to retire.
Re:arbeit macht smart... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:arbeit macht smart... (Score:5, Insightful)
Your logic is flawed.
Concern for caregivers/families != lack of concern for the patients.
Re:arbeit macht smart... (Score:4, Insightful)
No, the GP was right. You're missing that we specifically don't want to kill the Alzheimer's patients. Because we have concern for them.
Just because you want them to not be a great burden if you can help it doesn't mean you'll do anything to eliminate any burden.
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"This means Alzheimer's patients may be less of a burden to caregivers and loved ones."
Jesus, might as well just euthanize them if that's your attitude.
I don't think so. The end game is the same - your brain rots and you die - at about the same time in either case. In the more mentally stimulated case though the curve is flat with a steep decline at the end vs the idle brain where the decline is more steady.
Which would you prefer for the patient and the caregiver?
Re:arbeit macht smart... (Score:5, Insightful)
So which is better:
Patient A: 9 years dementia free, 1 year of dementia, death.
Patient B: 1 year dementia free, 9 years of dementia, death.
Or did you genuinely not understand the point being made?
Re:arbeit macht smart... (Score:4, Insightful)
"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the
intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well
preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways,
chocolate in one hand, champagne in the other, body
thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming
"WOO HOO what a ride!"
--Anon
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They are still "home" til very close to the end so that's pretty tough. You don't go from "Okay!" to "Gone".
My father was 'still home' for at least a few hours a day up until 2 months before he died from forgetting how to swallow.
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So you think that you understood? You are the one suggesting that killing someone before the end of their natural span can be considered the same as the other two cases. It can not. The article never suggested that it could and you alone have twisted what was said to try and make your point.
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applies to what I suggested, also.
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But the difference is that what you have suggested is not a good idea.
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Re:arbeit macht smart... (Score:5, Interesting)
Or is it? NPR recently ran a story [npr.org] reporting that "mentally stimulating lifestyles may speed up dementia once it hits in old age." It's not a long read but it's certainly relevent to the discussion. Maybe these 70-year olds are merely enjoying the delay effects described?
It's probably the case that the mental stimulation is having no effect on the disease itself, but is helping a lot with allowing the effects of the disease to be masked by the increased plasticity of the rest of the brain. In other words, you're going at the same time but you're suffering far less.
Re:arbeit macht smart... (Score:4, Insightful)
Maybe it's because today's 70-year-olds are more educated than their predecessors were. If we look at what time frames today's seniors verses yester-decade's seniors grew up in we'll find more of the older generation came from times when child labor was more common, education depreciated for the common man, and agriculture families were more common. Fewer kids stayed in school beyond what was required by law (if there were requirements in their state) so they were on average less educated.
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Re:arbeit macht smart... (Score:5, Informative)
"todays 70-year-olds are smarter.... because most of them can't afford to retire."
It's in Sweden, their geezers _can_ retire, no problem.
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In Korea, only old people... I forget.
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In Korea, only old people go to work because everyone else is too busy playing Starcraft.
Re:arbeit macht smart... (Score:4, Funny)
it's well documented that staying active in the workforce is good for the brain, at least when compared to the sedentary tv-filled days of most retirees.
Great! Now the French goverment have their motto!
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As IQ is an average, it could just mean the sub-twenties are slipping into the sub-100s and the seventies are seeming smarter in comparison. There are of course plenty of studies that show the elderly who use computers maintain higher intellectual skills as they age. The internet versus the idiot box, they call it an idiot box http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiot_box [wikipedia.org] for a reason, just look at the Fox not-News Channel the idiots channel, beckerheads one and all.
Re:arbeit macht smart... (Score:5, Informative)
"it's well documented that staying active in the workforce is good for the brain"
And this has to do with Sweden exactly, what?
Sweden, you know, is one of those old European countries USA people would tell as communist as old Soviet Union if some from its life style would be tried in America. Swedish oldies have no problem to retire and they do on average at 61 with all Swedish residents entitled to a state-financed guaranteed minimum pension from the age of 65, which is the standard retirement age over there.
"todays 70-year-olds are smarter.... because most of them can't afford to retire."
Again, USA is not the all and everything of the world.
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*sigh* or, y'know, the editor could have made sure important information like that was in the summary.
Wouldn't it be great if there was a flag and name of country next to each article so that the editors were required to check basic stuff like this out, and make it clear to readers?
Or you could just read the first line which states "...researchers from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden...". Unusually, the editors are not to blame this time, just poor reading comprehension by /.ers.
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Where?
Re:arbeit macht smart... (Score:5, Funny)
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Have you ever been inside a nursing home? Or in most retiree's living rooms?
A couple hours a day of some task CAN be beneficial compared to the tedium of most retirees lives.
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They have activities in nursing homes. Just many of the old guys can't perform any kind of activity any more.
Well... (Score:5, Funny)
...There predecessors are in their 80s and 90s now or dead. If a 70 year old isn't smarter than a dead person, then I don't understand science!
Re:Well... (Score:5, Funny)
...There predecessors are in their 80s and 90s now or dead. If a 70 year old isn't smarter than a dead person, then I don't understand science!
Clearly, you don't understand science.
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Or grammar...
Rgds
Damon
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Dammit, seniors! (Score:5, Funny)
...researchers from the Universiy of Gothenburg, Sweden have found in a forty year study of 2,000 seniors that today's 70-year-olds do far better in intelligence tests than their predecessors making it more difficult to detect dementia in its early stages.
Dammit, seniors! Get dumber so we can detect your dementia!
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Don't worry about it. With the educational system in the US being what it is, give it another 30-40 years and that same test will determine that like all the 70 year olds have dementia. Another 30-40 years after that the testing stuff will determine our shit is like tarded and all fucked up.
Idiocracy, here we come.
Re:Dammit, seniors! (Score:5, Insightful)
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I, for one, refuse to support dementia or cancer of any type, and you should too. Just say no to funding these awful things!
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Not to be rude, but at some level there's a limit to what can be funded. Perhaps more could be funded in total and there should be more dementia research funding over cancer research funding. But, I was always under the impression that cancer research got more attention because people were more concerned about children, teens, young adults, middle-aged adults, and pre-seniors all not dying of cancer than someone
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Oh, wait, that means I need to fund you.
But then that means it's not such a demented idea after all, and I don't need to fund you!
No, wait, that means .... Ow, my brain hurts. I'll just have to wait until I'm 70 to figure it out.
Re:Dammit, seniors! (Score:4, Interesting)
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Mastectomy works about 75% of the time for stage 1 breast cancer. The other 25% it doesn't work because the cancer metastasizes and spreads to the rest of the body, including the brain. This eventually kills the patient. Eventually may be a long time.
It took 10 years to kill my mother. The brain tumor was found because of dementia.
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If I built a fence around my lawn.. (Score:2)
You whippersnappers wouldn't be able to get on it in the first place!
* PROBLEM SOLVED *
You're welcome America.
SMRT (Score:2, Interesting)
Well they must be getting smarter, they surely can't possibly get any dumber. Being against a public option yet if you try to take away their medicare there'll be hell to pay. I wonder how it is that the stupid seem to often outlive the intelligent.
Re:SMRT (Score:4, Interesting)
Well they must be getting smarter, they surely can't possibly get any dumber. Being against a public option yet if you try to take away their medicare there'll be hell to pay. I wonder how it is that the stupid seem to often outlive the intelligent.
Stress is a killer, dealing with all the stupid people weakens the smart people and they die sooner. Stupid people are happier and have less stress as they off load it to those smarter than them thus living longer (those that don't win Darwin awards early on). Stupidity has advantages, it is why it will always be with us.
This was known even to Kafka (Score:5, Insightful)
If you are locked up in a room, detached from communication with the outside world and people look at you as a piece of furniture, you expire faster.
Besides, same is true of all animals, not only 70 year old homo sapiens. Me and my neighbour got our dogs from the same litter almost 19 years ago.
He left his dog more or less on its own. It was a happy and long living pup, but died demented at an age of 15 and a half.
My dog (blame the SO as much as me) has had extensive health care -- supplements, regular checkups, and uses a DIY robo-wheel-chair for walks now, because the hind legs cannot support the weight anymore. It is still alive (almost 19 years old) and alert, although completely deaf and almost blind from the cataract.
So, yeah, medical care, attention and stimulation work.
What else is new?
I'll take the bait (Score:1)
> and uses a DIY robo-wheel-chair for walks now
Any chance you will (or already have) posted instructions or a description of this invention?
I was kind of hoping that by the time my dog will need it, there'd be an affordable exoskeleton available for this problem; on the other hand, given my dog's temperament, he'd be afraid of his own exoskeleton.
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Nothing fancy, unfortunately, it is a basic bot -- a frame with wheels, some motors attached and a few microcontrollers and sensors and an RC which I use to walk it. Not even sure there is enough value to post it separately.
I am not that original, or skillful, sadly.
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How alert can he really be if he's blind and deaf? And he can't walk under his own power? I had a golden retriever/german shepherd mix for 14 years, and at that point he had long out-lived every other dog in his litter. He started having seizures and one eventually caused him to go blind. I found out that my parents had to take him and put him down a week after thanksgiving, after my sister showed up at my dorm, forced a cigarette at me and told me she had bad news at like, 7 in the morning.
I don't know
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What a way to start smoking :(
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American Cocker Spaniel.
Why cruel? The dog tires easily and is only awake for a few hours every day now, but when she is, she behaves like she did when she was a puppy -- playing with us, enjoying being pet, scratched and fed stuff she likes, she still greets the family, likes her walks and the other dogs, she's not in pain or discomfort for now.
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Well, it just sounded to me like she wasn't really able to get anything more out of life herself and that she was basically having her life span artificially extended to suit the wishes of her human owners. As long as she's not in pain and is still able to get something out of life, then I won't judge. It does make me think about my own "end of life care" situation though, although I'm only 26 and (hopefully) that's a ways off.
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It does make me think about my own "end of life care" situation though, although I'm only 26 and (hopefully) that's a ways off.
No kidding, this whole article has made me think about that unpleasant prospect again; I'm 27. This has reinforced my position that unless there's a cure for dementia\Alzheimers' soon I need to write a living will so that people know that I don't want treatment, instead I want an assisted suicide whilst I can still remember my own name.
Stimulation (Score:5, Informative)
My dad retired from rockwell at 65 and I was worried for while because spent a couple of years cruising around the country with his girlfriend in their winnebago. Not very stimulating and a recipe for a second heart attack IMHO.
But now he is getting into U3A [griffith.edu.au] and spending seemingly half the week there. He is teaching courses, taking courses. Reorganising their local area network, installing servers, griping and moaning about this guy who built the sites databases in access, and generally having a fantastic time.
I just wish I could get him to walk or cycle to U3A rather than driving. Its only five km or so and he can't afford to have his heart seize up again.
I think there used to be this expectation that retirement was a time when you could catch up on all that TV you were missing and create the lawn. Baby boomers have different expectations and this may be helping their prospects.
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Lawn Stimulation (Score:1, Interesting)
That was about five years ago. They should do a follow up to see if it was as successful as they hoped.
tru dat, mang (Score:3, Interesting)
I've personally found that one of the biggest advantages of taking a course at a community college vs a big university is that there are more people 30+ years old. In every class, there is a time almost daily that one of these students has insight to offer that they've gained from the professional world (eg. working in the healthcare industry) or their personal lives (having kids makes you a valuable asset to any psychology class :-). There are a lot of things I'd never get to hear or understand if I was j
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That seems a little biased. A lot of people would find cruising around the country seeing new sights and exploring, all with their SO, to be quite stimulating. I assume he and his girlfriend get out of the Winnebago and take a look around once in a while. Others might find doing some
stupidity (Score:2, Insightful)
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Yeah, it upsets me that the seeming majority of people actually equate those. I think the problem arises from "intelligence" being vaguely defined in common usage. Does intelligence imply abstract reasoning? Creativity? Simply being quick with arithmetic? We could really use a bunch of new words to cover the differences between these abilities, which are all intellectual, but vastly different.
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I am no so sure about that, the brain is a complex organ, it might be possible that if you store more info (knowledge) you also get more intelligent. The brain is not like a memory chip where you store and remove data without actually changing the hardware, the simple fact of memorizing stuff for example changes your brain. Also, memorizing is not a passive activity, usually you (and your brain) are actively involved in the process.
Also, talking from the other side of the equation about intelligence, it's p
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And this can be demonstrated by dimensional analysis!
Same test for both groups (Score:2, Interesting)
From a quick glance in the article, I couldn't find whether or not the test was the same for the 70 year-olds born in 1900 and in 1930. Classic intelligence tests (IQ tests) need to be 'normalized' every few years, because the general populace is getting smarter. If they used the same test, this is not at all surprising. It would hold for a much wider range of ages
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I'm here, too (Score:1, Interesting)
80 is the new 60. At this point in life, many of us revert to the "and 1/2" definition favored by 5 year-olds. I'm 77 and three quarters.
I believe that physical, emotional and mental activity prolong life.
Length of life is not as important as quality of life. A factor that's helping me have both is the exceptional preventive health care I get from the US Veteran's Administration. Fifteen years ago, they diagnosed and cured my prostate cancer before it got into my system. They caught my diabetes early, befo
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80 is the new 60. At this point in life, many of us revert to the "and 1/2" definition favored by 5 year-olds. I'm 77 and three quarters.
That's the dementia starting.
I told you... (Score:2, Insightful)
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A man who doesn't know how many houses he owns? [politico.com] I'd say that's a first sign of dementia if I ever saw one!
Re:I told you... (Score:4, Insightful)
John McCain's problem wasn't his age: His problem was that he openly embraced the crazy side of his party (with Sarah Palin as just the tip of that iceberg).
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Then there's the matter of testing Sarah when she is 70...
Neuroscience has changed (Score:1, Informative)
We used to think people had all the neurons they were going to have by their early twenties. It was all downhill from there. We now know that we can grow new neurons. We also know that the brain can wire around damage.
We now know that the brain is a lot like a muscle. Exercise builds the brain just like it does muscles. Seniors don't have to be feeble. The reason most seniors are feeble is that they quit exercising. Seniors who exercise physically aren't feeble physically. Seniors who exercise their
Flynn Effect (Score:1)
Err, not quite so true in the UK (Score:1)
Poster Geezer For This (Score:4, Interesting)
My masters adviser was a guy named John Fenn. He's now 93 and still quite active in academia today.
When he was about 70 Yale University tried to forcibly retire the guy. The laugh about this is that about this time he started a course of research into characterization of protein molecules that led to a Nobel Prize, awarded in 2002. Because of the retirement flap he left Yale and is now at Virginia Commonwealth.
So was he smart at age 70? Duh.
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A one percentile example anecdote does not prove the rule, but it _is_ pleasant to read about - precisely because it is so uncommon.
Thank you Nintendo (Score:2)
All age groups scoring higher on IQ tests? (Score:2)
I have read that every 20 or 25 years or so the IQ tests have to be re-calibrated to make them harder. This is because of the Flynn effect.
The average IQ scores rise 3 points per decade or 10 points per generation.
One explanation I have heard is that the tests measure how abstract your thinking is and each generation has more and more developed abstract thinking.
So this result should have been expected.
My poor mom is 71 and has dementia. When you loved ones get this, you lose them a little at a time inste
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> My poor mom is 71 and has dementia. When you loved ones get this, you lose them a little at a time instead of all at once. She used to read voraciously and carry on intellectual conversations. Now that is all gone. She taught me to think for myself.
She's not at a so advanced age. I'm sorry to hear this. I've seen a documentary from Japan where they took seniors through several kinds of brain stimulating activities and had they don those hats with sensors to monitor neuron activity before/after all acti
Chronic lead poisoning? (Score:1)
Redundant au max (Score:1)
If we know our children are getting smarter quicker because of the constant blasting of technology around them, they know how to program the pvr at 5...etc...of course once they get to 70, they will be smarter then last generations 70 year olds.
It is the same with technology, our curve will adapt to match that of technology, we have no choice, because technology is designed by us for us, and mass produced for the population we have, they say in another 10 years everyone will have their own cell phone....if
Wheew, I am safe... Born in 1941 (Score:1)