SENIOR MOMENTS

FLAVONOIDS CHEMICALS THAT GIVE PLANTS THEIR BRIGHT COLORS MAY BE ANSWER

Forgetfulness is commonly encountered among senior people. It’s often jokingly called a “senior moment.” As assumed, it is not prelude to feared dementia. It usually happens when we are in hurry, when we are multitasking and not paying enough attention to the task at hand.

Dementia concern should only be raised when somebody has trouble remembering recent events, remembering things from one second to the next, getting lost in a familiar place or mixing people with each other. Today, Dementia could easily be diagnosed with modern imaging studies of the brain with the aid of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.

I like playing golf. One day, I was in a hurry when I went to the golf course. I parked my car, checked in with the pro-shop, rented an electric cart and went to the starter. The starter who was a senior citizen himself, looked at me and said, “Sir where is your golf bag?” I smiled, and said, “Oh! it must be a senior moment, I left it in my car.” He said, “I know, I know. My wife often tells me, I should write it down. Maybe you should do the same.” We both laughed.

A new and one of the largest and longest (over 20-year duration) observational study appeared in the Journal Neurology that included the dietary analysis 49,693 women and 51,529 men, whose average age was over 70 for twenty years. Researchers found that the higher the flavonoids intakes in their diet, the lower was the rate of forgetfulness.

They concluded that starting early in life with a flavonoid rich diet full of fresh vegetables and fruits may be very important for brain health and the prevention of forgetfulness.