Ma BELL

Science is frustrating, I mean fascinating! What did I say? Wow, age is catching up as words are getting confiscating, I mean confusing! But it appears the “Bell Curve” has come of age also, providing solid indications that we can fool our brains into stalling off the aging process – especially with brain functionality. And when a “brain” can be fooled, it may allow for the our body mechanics to delay signs of being “worn-out”. Fooling around is all it takes! See, the “Bell Curve” - well shaped like the “Liberty Bell” without a crack - it starts with an up hill battle, birth through adulthood then straddles a “plateau” for awhile until it commences with a downhill struggle, sometimes a spiraling from retirement to death do us part. Now sometimes the down-side slope is steeper then the up-side of things, and we can use our “brain” to restructure that difference, to mirror our youthfulness through re-dimensioning that dementia - basically enjoying youth on both sides of the ding-dong equation. It's not exactly the same “youthfulness”, but can offset the challenges of aging. There will come a day wherein we will use the “Grey Matter” to ward off the need for mechanical body part replacements – by training what matters without “Mother's Little Helper & that Leopard Skin Pill-Box Hat”. And if you eat an apple a day, no need for Viagra! Now likewise with most scientific discoveries, sometimes a “fluke” comes front and center and indicates we were looking for answers in the wrong place, or we find something of interest not on the exploratory “scalpel” agenda. Like looking for Congress to get something accomplished, we are looking in the wrong place so turn our attention towards the Oval Office or for some, 1440 Transylvania Avenue. Now a recent report from a study funded by a “private” entity to access the effects of aging on the brain showed some promising signs that we have built in mechanisms that can be used to offset the side effects of aging. As “dimensional dementia” was starting to strangle the aging population and with more and more “baby boomers” heading in that direction, we were talking a pandemic as this ailment seems to hit innocent bystanders, affecting many Americans up in age that showed no previous signs of deteriorating conditions – so we needed not only an answer but a solution! A computer model at a leading university of higher yearning for greater earnings indicated that if enough “boomers” suffered from this “dimensional dementia”, and the fact we refuse to give up that driving habit gone bad even when we can't see, it showed that “gridlock” could cause traffic jams long enough wherein our vehicles would become temporary homes – nowhere to go based on “brain-lock” and encouraged by road-rage catapulted by impatience! Honestly, this model indicated that a “round-about” could get jammed, with road-raged drivers getting upset, leaving their vehicles and then loosing their belongings - “Where's my car”? OK, it was only a model programmed by some young punks playing out their game fantasies and no respect towards the elderly! But it did indicate as time goes by – where was I? Now in this study that shows promise of a solution that needs no “pharmaceutical” interference, it was conducted at a “HOOD” senior citizens center. A “Subject of Interest” was this stubborn old coot that refused to be part of the study – even though the enticement as a guinea pig meant an extra piece of cake at dinner time. So those that volunteered, well they were subjected to playing different games that engaged the “brain” with some semblance of “mathematical” arguments, simple logic tasks, as it was thought that “dementia” was triggered by the brain going into hibernation due lack of such – not shutting down, just retreating as with age some functionality was no longer put to use. I guess we do indeed train our brains, and when something is no longer used, the brain doesn't say the hell with that task make room for new stuff it just skips a few neuronic beats. But this stubborn man who refused to be part of the “game” playing challenges, he was used as a placebo-worrier, in efforts to gauge the others with respect to increased reasoning ability – and it was hoped augmented through decreased “dimensional dementia” symptoms. But for some reason and of heightened interest to the testing agents, the stubborn old coot showed signs of improvement above and beyond the rest of the patients under test? And what gained the fascination of the scientists involved in this study, this man liked watching old fashion cartoons and shows that were of vogue when he was growing up – during his “Bell Curve” up-side of life! And that is wherein the “Bell Curve” theory started to find an interest and acceptance – yes like a re-make of a movie. If we begin to re-watch stuff that entertained us during our youth, it triggers a reversal process – yes tricks the brain like we are on the beginning of that “Bell Curve” of learning. A “been there done that” enlightenment. And since the stuff we watched in our youth was “memorized”, it causes a reversal like process phenomenon – yes it reverses the process of loosing memory functionality by reinforcing a “Re-dimensioning” of the brain. It wakes up the hibernating “dimensional” attributes that were programmed many years ago – stimulating things once again. It basically wakes the “brain” up, and makes the “Grey Matter” machine happy! And this fostered a scientific interest consistent with the fact that even though we are 3-dimensional creatures, and that the “brain” may have multi-dimensional capabilities – the higher degree of dimensions found a greater threat of dementia causing a disability. So even though at an appropriate age we start down the “down-hill” side of that proverbial statistical curve, by engaging the brain with stuff already engraved many years ago, it has a tendency to lift or tilt the curve, skew it away from the normal distribution that has a tendency to prevail as a reasoning disability. So some members of the study team were curious and started experimenting to see if this theory held merit, as we can always go back to what may have excited that brain pattern recognition during youth – the time capsule allows us that benefit. So I tried it, by watching some of the shows of my youth. It was at first a little difficult to comprehend and my wife thought I was nuts and needed the grand kids around, but low and behold, there was some rather peculiar chemistry being provoked by this agitation. But after a while, when enough tube time had gone by, it was rather soothing to the mind. With very little effort to engage the thought process, remembering this and that scene, like the brain knew what was next, smooth sailing it was. It was not a task of learning new things, just reinforcing things of the past – maybe with humans there is a limitation to “teaching a dog new tricks”! But there was definitely some chemistry going on that needs an explanation from the scientific community. Yet imagine if a study was clear and convincing that a show like Sesame Street was all that was needed, to ward off aging to some extent? Of course it would never be accepted, the same reason an “Apple a Day” is no longer accepted by the medical journals, as it does indeed provide benefits beyond one's expectations – and it tastes good! In all honesty, we may have built in mechanisms that say “NO MORE” drugs, but that also interferes in the 3-dimensionless medical and pharmaceutical investments – your pre-meditated sickness, those prescriptions and your carelessness to swallow before reading all that fine print! So, an apple and some Big Bird, wow how patient!