Posted on 01/22/2018 9:33:34 AM PST by Olog-hai
Workers looking forward to enjoying a long and leisurely retirement after years of toil may need to think again.
New research shows that brain function declines rapidly as soon as people stop work and put their feet up.
A major British study which tracked 3,400 retired civil servants found that short-term memory declines nearly 40 percent faster once employees become pensioners.
It appears that the lack of regular stimulation takes a heavy toll on cognitive function and speeds up memory loss and dementia, researchers warned.
Professor Cary Cooper, an expert in organizational psychology at Manchester Business School, said the study confirmed previous research suggesting that if people don’t use it, they lose it. “It makes it more likely that dementia will set in earlier,” he said. …
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
I will never retire. If they try to plant me, I’ll be banging on the coffin lid to let me out so I can make the project due date.
Huh, what?
I was going to say that I am not retired either and i....
I dunno. I forgot.
Never mind.
Oh, hello young man. What are you selling today.
Jello.
Not if your golfing.
I was going to post something...but I forgot what it was.
Father retired from profession at 65 and then volunteered the next 24 years with a local detention center to help inmates with drug and alcohol problems. Retirement can open opportunity to help others you never would have had in your regular job!
I always think of Bear Bryant dropping dead a month after he retired from coaching.
I’ve always been under the impression that brain function declines rapidly as soon as people start working as civil servants.
Anyway, talk about a tainted sample population.
It appears that the lack of regular stimulation (sleeping on the job) takes a heavy toll on (what little) cognitive function (they had) and speeds up memory loss and dementia, researchers warned.
A number of the guys winter in Florida and they play all winter down there too......
With winter here in Michigan, I'm now playing volleyball.....
In my last years of employment, I never expected to be as active as I am today..............
“Retirement” is NOT the cause.
Individual decisions on how you spend your time is the factor.
I continue to take and teach Catholic Adult education.
Actively manage our retirement accounts.
Active in County politics.
Continue self-defense training.
Maintain our 5 acres.
I forgot what he just said. :-)
So that explains it.
I think that has a lot to do with it. I am not retired, but I must say that I often "veg out" on the weekends. My job is stressful, so I deliberately try to stay away from stress on my days off - at least when I am not catching up with projects around the house that I have to put off for the weekend. I daresay I use less brain functions on the days of relaxation.
Retirement?
I’m going to have to work on the day I die.
Like most of God’s gifts to us, if we don’t use them properly, we lose them.
My wife reads 5-6 library books a week. I read one or two a month from our local library. I use Kindle a lot for new books and to re read old books. I just finished Killing England by Bore. I would give it a high 4 out of 5.
I get 95% of my news from Free Republic and 5% from the Fox News site, which allows me to avoid their fake news.
My wife reads our local news paper to catch up what has/is and will be happening. She flags something I might be interested in.
We split the daily crossword puzzles and collaborate on the tougher ones.
She has played bridge with the same group for about 3 decades. We play bridge with a church couple once a month. I started a small men’s bridge group about 2 years ago, and we play some semi serious bridge twice a month. We are pushing 80 or past it.
She moderates a small bible study group once a week at our church, with mainly women her age.
So when you retire, if you use it, you probably will not lose it.
My Mother and her sisters all lived to be about 90. They played bridge and did cross word puzzles until they left this orb. They walked and did their shopping and had valid drivers’s licenses and vehicles until they passed on.
We cut our Comcast cable last June. Besides saving about $150/month we basically only watch a few CBS show and zero ABC/NBC/Fox shows and zero news from any tv channel. We watch the shows we like, when we want, via on demand via Sling and Amazon Prime Fire TV.
The tv comes on about an hour before dinner and is turned off about 9. We go to bed without any news and check the Wunderground weather site in the winter to see if there is a freeze warning. So we miss all of the shootings, bombings, robberies, high speed chase and other rotten behavior.
My wife texts her friends, family here and across the globe and gets texts from them. She and I get emails from a few friends and relatives. I text a few relatives and friends to stay in touch. The age spread is 16 to 80+.
My wife is both a gourmet cook and a superb cook for great meals for us. She is constantly emailed or texted for her recipes and how to’s.
I think a lot also depends on the quality of the gray matter one starts out with.
Intelligent, sensible people just seem to know how to keep themselves going.
And crossword puzzles, novels, and FR help keep the brain healthy...especially FR
2) My 71 y/o father retired secondary to a business failure at 62. Hated every second of retirement. He now works 6 days a week driving for the post office. He looks 10 years younger than he did when he was retired.
As you can see it all depends on the person.
My Dad was an architect and every one of his working partners died within a year of their retirement. Two within six months. None of them had any hobbies nor anything they wanted to do. Working was their life.
My Dad was able to retire at the age of 57. He hunted, fished, chopped fire wood, worked on the house, and did all sorts of other things. He and my Mom would drive across the US to see their children and grandchildren. They were happy and so active they always said they were just as busy, or more so, than when they worked but now they were doing what they really wanted to do.
My Dad had a very fast bout with Alzheimer's and died at the age of 85. My Mom gave up after my Dad died and she passed six years later. The only reason it took that long was due to her extremely good health prior to my Father's passing.
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