<story><title>How to Become a ‘Superager’</title><url>http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/31/opinion/sunday/how-to-become-a-superager.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>apsec112</author><text>&amp;quot;Many labs have observed that these critical brain regions increase in activity when people perform difficult tasks, whether the effort is physical or mental. You can therefore help keep these regions thick and healthy through vigorous exercise and bouts of strenuous mental effort.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Woah woah woah there. That doesn&amp;#x27;t follow at all. Even if you buy the &amp;quot;exercise model&amp;quot; - which can&amp;#x27;t possibly be tested by observing brain activity over minutes, since improvement would happen over weeks to months - that doesn&amp;#x27;t imply an ability to ward off old age over decades. In the case of literal muscle exercise, for example, playing pro sports will certainly strengthen your muscles now but likely cause long-term injuries. &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;journalistsresource.org&amp;#x2F;studies&amp;#x2F;society&amp;#x2F;public-health&amp;#x2F;sports-related-concussions-head-injuries-what-does-research-say&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;journalistsresource.org&amp;#x2F;studies&amp;#x2F;society&amp;#x2F;public-healt...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>a3n</author><text>&amp;gt; Woah woah woah there. That doesn&amp;#x27;t follow at all.&lt;p&gt;And the article acknowledges that it might not, while discussing as yet understudied observations.&lt;p&gt;In the sentence right before your quote: &amp;quot;We’re still studying this question, but our best answer at the moment is: work hard at something.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;While your comment is true (no established causation yet), this reminds me of the climate change debate. For the sake of argument, human carbon production may or may not contribute to global warming. For the sake of argument, global warming may or may not be happening, and may or may not be bad.&lt;p&gt;But the solution proposed to reduce global warming, &amp;quot;reduce pollution,&amp;quot; is good in and of itself. We&amp;#x27;re pretty sure pollution increases disease and death. It also looks bad and smells bad. How much is too much is debatable, but minimizing it as well as we practically can is a good thing. There are no mainstream proposals, as far as I know, to entirely eliminate pollution (as close as I can come to your equating exercise with professional sports), but dodging climate change has become a way to dodge responsibility for pollution.&lt;p&gt;Thinking is good. Thinking moderately harder is probably better. Getting up and going to the bathroom is good. Walking to the store is probably better.&lt;p&gt;If I happen to retain cognitive ability in later years, from exercise and thinking, great. But regardless, I&amp;#x27;ll do it because it&amp;#x27;s already good for me in other ways.</text></comment>
<story><title>How to Become a ‘Superager’</title><url>http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/31/opinion/sunday/how-to-become-a-superager.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>apsec112</author><text>&amp;quot;Many labs have observed that these critical brain regions increase in activity when people perform difficult tasks, whether the effort is physical or mental. You can therefore help keep these regions thick and healthy through vigorous exercise and bouts of strenuous mental effort.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Woah woah woah there. That doesn&amp;#x27;t follow at all. Even if you buy the &amp;quot;exercise model&amp;quot; - which can&amp;#x27;t possibly be tested by observing brain activity over minutes, since improvement would happen over weeks to months - that doesn&amp;#x27;t imply an ability to ward off old age over decades. In the case of literal muscle exercise, for example, playing pro sports will certainly strengthen your muscles now but likely cause long-term injuries. &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;journalistsresource.org&amp;#x2F;studies&amp;#x2F;society&amp;#x2F;public-health&amp;#x2F;sports-related-concussions-head-injuries-what-does-research-say&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;journalistsresource.org&amp;#x2F;studies&amp;#x2F;society&amp;#x2F;public-healt...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>smhost</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m sorry, can you clarify your point? What is the problem with the idea that difficult tasks (both mental and physical) help to prevent atrophy in a certain part of the brain?</text></comment>