Art Linkletter on aging

On my previous post I said I might have to remain "Link Less" if I could not figure out how to add links to this blog. This reminded me of Art Linkletter who had a tv show years ago "Kids say the darndest things". I went to Google and found this USA Today article about Art Linkletter at the age of 90.

Linkletter says the darndest things about aging
By Adele Slaughter, Spotlight Health, with medical adviser Stephen A. Shoop, M.D.
Over the past 60 years, Art Linkletter told us that kids say the darndest things. Now the Emmy award-winning performer is speaking up about aging and keeping your brain healthy.

Art Linkletter advocates keeping mental fitness a priority later in life.


"We know that the brain continues to grow just like everything else in the body, if it is used," says the 90-year-old Linkletter. "That is why I am so active and have espoused the cause of lifelong learning — not necessarily a formal education — but whether you do a crossword puzzle or you collect peanuts from Madagascar, do something that keeps your brain active."

To that end, Linkletter gives over 70 lectures every year, and even has booked a lecture on his birthday in 2012 when he will turn 100.

"I go out speaking mostly to large audiences of seniors, without notes, for an hour to an hour and a half on different scientific subjects," says Linkletter. " 'Old' often means a sinking back into oneself because you don't hear as well, and you don't talk to anybody, and so you regress. And while that is not brain death, it is brain disuse and misuse."

Finding ways to keep the brain healthy longer is a growing concern because people are living longer, and there is no current way to replace or repair damaged brain tissue.

"Art Linkletter is a very interesting guy," says Gary Small, professor of psychiatry at UCLA. "First of all, he probably has some good aging genes, and he's an amazing man and has been active and involved throughout his life. At 90, he's incredibly sharp. He's someone who 'lives better longer,' which is the motto of the UCLA Center on Aging."

Go to the link in the title above and read the rest of this good advice.