Doc Says Medical Research Supports Value of Studying Scripture
by Mary Rettig and Jenni Parker
April 7, 2005
(AgapePress) - A recent study from the University of Toronto shows that senior citizens who received more education while they were young are more likely to retain brain function in their later years. According to a report in the medical journal Neuropsychology, this tendency may be associated with greater activity in the frontal lobe of the brain.According to a Reuters Health report, Dr. Cheryl L. Grady from University of Toronto, Ontario, said that higher education and factors associated with it, including better health, hobbies, varieties of leisure activity, all "probably influence cognitive function and brain activity." Researchers believe that, in an elderly individual who has had more education, the frontal cortex is engaged as "an alternative network" that aids in cognitive processes.
The researchers used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans taken during memory tasks performed by 14 young adults (ages 18 to 30) and 19 older adults (age 65 or older) to examine the influence of age on the relationship between education and brain activity. The study found that the higher the education level of the subject, the more neuron connections were developed in the brain, resulting in the memory functioning at a high level.
Dr. Grady concludes from the research that the aging process is "quite variable" and not associated with general decline in cognitive function. She says seniors with more education are more likely to be characterized by what she calls "successful aging," which appears to be related to how effectively they use their frontal lobes.
Dr. Robert Rogan of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMDA) says this research provides encouragement for people to get more education while they are young. He says the study shows that the benefits of college and other advanced study go well beyond retirement by improving brain function in older people -- even those who suffer from various forms of cognitive disease.
The Toronto study suggests that better educated seniors appear to "use the frontal areas of their brain more to kind of add an extra boost to their memory and their functioning," Rogan explains, "so that even people with Alzheimer's disease with higher levels of education will function as well as people with less disease and lower levels of education."
The CMDA spokesman feels that, from a Christian perspective, these findings could be viewed as an exhortation to work at learning and reflecting on truth through the study of God's Word and to stretch the brain throughout life by memorizing scripture. In fact, he says, "I think the more we study the Bible and God's Word, the more we're going to also increase our brain's neural circuits so that we function better as we get older too."
Although Rogan admits his interpretation of the research results and their implications is influenced by his Christian worldview, he says it definitely appears to fit the facts. As to the question of whether studying the Bible while young helps preserve brain functioning in one's latter years, the doctor's own positive conclusion is "probably a biased answer," he says, "but it seems to certainly go along with some of the studies about memorizing scripture and functioning better in life."
Rogan, who practices psychiatry in West Virginia, says he has noticed in his work that people who come from a Christian background "have a strength with which to do better ultimately." He believes that strength that comes from their faith enables them "to continue to do better" than those who do not have a foundation in Christ.
