“Cognitive health is [your] ability to think clearly, learn, and remember,” explains Julie Rowin, M.D., FAAN, DABMA, integrative neurologist at Verde Valley Naturopathic Medicine.
This features a vary of vital mind features, equivalent to consideration, reasoning, response time, and reminiscence. It additionally contains your capability to course of info, navigate relationships, and develop plans and conclusions, provides Rowin.
However, as with all components of the physique, the mind (and due to this fact, cognitive well-being) naturally adjustments as you age. For starters, neurons (nerve cells) shrink over time, which reduces grey matter within the mind.
Gray matter is the tissue concerned in day by day cognitive functioning. Neurogenesis, or the manufacturing of latest nerve cells, additionally slows down later in life, which may in the end affect optimum cognition.
These adjustments are a traditional a part of getting older, that means everybody experiences them to some extent as they age. “Some older individuals may find that they’re not as fast as younger adults on tasks that require learning and memory,” Rowin explains.
Other cognitive features equivalent to consideration and decision-making may additionally shift with age.