Understanding The Older Person's Brain

Brains of older people are slow because they know so much. People do not decline mentally with age, it just takes them longer to recall facts because they have more information in their brains. Much like a computer struggles as the hard drive gets full, so, too, do humans take longer to access information when their brains are full.

Also, older people often go to another room to get something and when they get there, they stand there wondering what they came for. It is NOT a memory problem, it is nature's way of making older people do more exercise.

Misplacing things is also very useful. Finding spectacles, car keys, dentures and other essentials is excellent physical therapy. It also helps with cognitive exercise as one thinks, then retraces their steps to locate the missing object.

Older people may appear to struggling with issues of the mind, but understanding what is going on is an important step to relating to older folk.