What is Age Related Cognitive Decline ?

There’s lots of discussion about a certain candidate’s cognitive abilities lately and I previously discussed them in my post https://drjonsicu.com/biden-i-dont-think-he-can-pull-this-off/ You might want to go back and read that. So what’s likely going on here? I think we are witnessing Age Related Cognitive Decline. The primary difference between age-related memory loss and dementia is that the former isn’t disabling. The memory lapses have little impact on your daily performance and ability to do what you want to do. Dementia, on the other hand, is marked by a persistent, disabling decline in two or more intellectual abilities such as memory, language, judgment, and abstract thinking. Here are some scholarly citations about “when” ARCD is likely to begin .

• “Cognitive decline may begin after midlife, but most often occurs at higher ages (70 or higher).” (Aartsen, et al., 2002)
• “…relatively little decline in performance occurs until people are about 50 years old.” (Albert & Heaton, 1988).
• “…cognitive abilities generally remain stable throughout adult life until around age sixty.” (Plassman, et al., 1995)
• “…no or little drop in performance before age 55…” (Ronnlund, et al., 2005)
• “…most abilities tend to peak in early midlife, plateau until the late fifties or sixties, and then show decline, initially at a slow pace, but accelerating as the late seventies are reached.” (Schaie, 1989).

So what are we seeing? I believe ARCD. At 77 nearly EVERYONE has it to some degree. After sitting home for 5 months MOST of us have probably had some decline in our “sharpness”. With the current world situation…….Covid, Russia, China, North Korea, Iran….don’t you really think we need something more than a “surrogate” President? Aren’t you disturbed by the fact that over 67% of Democrats don’t think their candidate will finish his 4 year term? As much as you hate Trump, the country was NOT being “permanently destroyed” during the last 3 years…..and Covid was NOT his fault either. The Democrats like to keep saying “he did nothing” hoping if they say it often enough it will become true. That’s propaganda at it’s best. My other favorite is that Biden simply has a “stuttering” problem. Go back and watch videos from only 4 years ago and he sounds perfect and I wished he were running for President at the time. Here’s a video from THIS year:

And here’s a video of Joe from JUST 4 YEARS ago! Fluent, relaxed, completing full sentences and not a stutter to be heard!!

So there you have it……come to your own conclusions. This is wrong on a lot of levels. Joe….go play with your grandchildren at this point in your life. (BTW in the Cardi B “interview” he couldn’t remember how many grandchildren he has!). As Barack Obama said “Joe….you don’t have to do this”.