Brain Science:
Gupta Says: I will probably never retire. I wouldn’t know what to do with myself. I also know the consequences for people who retire early: an increased risk of developing dementia… When you do retire, don’t quit on life!
We are going to spend a few texts on the importance of “Discovery”. First let's start with when to retire or more importantly, when to keep working? Staying engaged in a job , especially one that is satisfying, tends to keep people physically active, socially connected, and mentally challenged, - all things known to protect cognition. So the truth is that work is something we need to protect brain health. As we age in the work environment it becomes important that we move our bodies and our minds. It is called active aging. Recruiting your muscles in exercise improves your overall health; using your brain in challenging ways improves overall brain health. As we age, to maintain our own brain health, we need to find mental activities that are joyful and stimulating. Look for purpose in your work, continue to learn, complete complex tasks, and discover. Your brain needs it!
Brain Facts:
· A study out of France of a half a million people showed that someone who retired at age 65 had a 15% lower risk of developing dementia compared to someone retiring at 60.
· The same study showed that after 60, that for each additional year of work, the risk of getting dementia is reduced by 3.2 %.
So What:
There is a big caveat here; notice we said work provides physical activity, social connection, and mental challenges. We should be looking to our own brains to provide for these in our work. That is not so easy. It is even more difficult now that so many people are working at home. For example, how do we maintain the level of social connection that we had going to the office if we are sitting at home. I guess we will have to use our brains and the creativity of our brains to figure that out.
So when is it time to retire? The answer then is a little simpler. It’s when the job can no longer provide Physical activity, social connection, and a mental challenge- all known to protect cognition.
Let me give you a little example I know about how to keep job brain health. “Teaching”… I used to say there were three stages to a teacher’s value. First is having and transmitting knowledge. This is the drawing from a teacher’s brain to impart subject matter knowledge to students. This is called knowing your subject matter and being able to translate that to a class of students. Second stage, (dependency) interacting with other teachers to help you see that there are kids out there in the classroom and how to handle them. The third step, (interdependent) is when a faculty person learns that with other faculty and especially students, they can discover ways to interact with individual students to really see them as complex, and subsequently they develop unique ways to get to them. ( So often, we see others as stereotyped and therefore this is what we should expect.)
My experience is that teachers drop out along the way. The job becomes harder and more mentally challenging at each step. But when the few get to that third stage, then you have someone who should work as long as they physically can. I know a lot of these people and most of them are great people after retirement. I contend it is because these people have learned to move their brain.
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