www. Char l es tonPhys i c i ans . com | www.Hea l thL i nksChar l es ton . com | 75 This is especially true for seniors who worry about staying mentally healthy in their retirement years. Linda Young, owner-operator of Young Travel and Cruises, a boutique travel agency in Greenville, represents America’s rapidly growing senior population. She also loves to travel and enthuses: “From my own experiences, I think travel stimulates the brain, just as much or even more than it did when I was very young. At 78, I have found recent travel to be no more difficult than it had been before. In more than 35 years, our agency has had many senior travelers, and I have never had one tell me they should have stayed home because it was too difficult.” Young’s words are especially encouraging as our rapidly aging American population wonders how to fend off Alzheimer’s disease and other age-related dementias. Furthermore, science agrees with her. In his book “Soft-Wired: How the New Science of Brain Plasticity Can Change Your Life,” American neuroscientist Dr. Michael Merzenich maintains that the more novel experiences the brain has, especially during the aging process, the more resistant it becomes to “cognitive decay.”
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