Volunteering in late life may protect the brain, research finds
Posted by CNN on July 25, 2023
When Celia Barberena retired from a decades-long career in higher education in 2012, she was again presented with the dilemma of what she wanted to do with her life. Some see retirement as a time for waking up late and not feeling any pressure. But Barberena wanted a challenge, something to which she could dedicate her energy — so at 67, she decided that challenge was volunteering.
“If you don’t have stress, good stress, then you decline,” Barberena, a Latina woman living in Pacific Grove, California, said. “You have to have some place where you go think and connect and produce.”
In addition to helping her continue to dedicate her life to helping her community, volunteering also helps keep her mind sharp, Barberena believes. New research backs her up: Volunteering has been linked with better scores on tests of cognitive function, according to research presented Thursday at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Amsterdam.
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