Feeling young could slow aging of the brain: study

Seoul, July 5: In addition to improving your physical and mental health, feeling younger can also slow down the aging rate of the brain, finds a study.

The results showed that older people who feel younger than their age show fewer signs of cerebral aging, compared to those who feel their age or older than their age.

"We tend to view aging as a fixed process, where our body and mind change regularly, but the pbading years affect everyone differently, our subjective age also varies from person to person. Jeanyung Chey of the Seoul National University in South Korea

For the study, published in the journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, the team included a small number of elderly participants 59-84 years, and performed MRI brain scans to examine gray matter volumes in various regions of the brain.

The results showed that people who felt younger than their age were more likely to be diagnosed with the disease. have a better score on a memory test, felt that their health was better and were less likely to report depressive symptoms.

They also showed an increase in the volume of m gray area in key regions of the brain.

"We found that people who feel younger have the structural features of a younger brain," Chey said.

"Importantly, this difference remains robust even when other possible factors, including personality, subjective health, depressive symptoms or cognitive functions, are taken into account."

The researchers hypothesized that the aging process in their brain, as their loss of gray matter can make cognitive tasks more difficult.

One possibility is that those who feel younger are more likely to lead a physically and mentally active life that could improve brain health. However, for those who feel older, the opposite might be true.

The study suggests that older people who feel older than their age should consider taking care of the health of their brains.