We are all mortal: in the cells of every person from birth, the mechanism of self-destruction, better known to us as aging. Approximately 20-25 years the process is started, and it is still possible to stop it only in our utopian dreams.

Nevertheless, it has long been known and described many ways to slow this mechanism: you need to do mental and physical work, eat right, do not smoke and do not drink alcohol. Such recommendations may seem childishly naive, but studies suggest that the rate of aging of an organism is only 20% dependent on genetic factors, and the remaining 80% are the consequences of our way of life.

The brain as an element of the human body begins to change with age too. Aging affects it at all levels - from the molecular to the morphological. So, after 40 years, the brain every decade loses about 5% of its weight. In the elderly, the number of neurons in the brain decreases and, accordingly, the amount of gray matter, which in turn leads to a decrease in cognitive functions-worsening attention, hearing, vision, and visual-spatial perception. The biggest problems begin with memory, especially with short-term. Elderly people are much more susceptible to various types of dementia, such as Alzheimer's: in the US, this disease affects 5.

5 million people, with 5.3 million of them over the age of 65.

Scientists still know very little about how the brain responds to aging. Several years ago it became known that with age people have improved bilateral relationship between the hemispheres of the brain, despite the reduction in the size of the body as a whole. True, the researchers for a long time did not deal with this phenomenon and could not establish whether it positively or negatively affects the brain.