I took up knitting a few months ago. It wasn’t until I got started that I realised that this new hobby was going to have many more benefits than just producing a piece of knitting! My mum taught me to knit when I was a child, but I hadn’t done any for years. I decided to join a local group to get support in knitting my first jumper and soon realised that knitting had moved on since I was a child. Learning a new skill Before I even started knitting, I had to work out how much wool I needed for...

I’m often asked if Alzheimer’s is hereditary. In a nutshell, yes, but this doesn’t mean that if you carry the gene involved that it’s inevitable; far from it. The main gene involved in Alzheimer’s is the Apolipoprotein E gene, ApoE, for short. There are 3 types - 2, 3 and 4.  We all have a combination of ApoE 3 and 4 - ApoE3/3, ApoE3/4 or ApoE4/4.  The main one concerned in Alzheimer’s is the ApoE4.  For millions of years, we all carried two copies of ApoE4, but about 220,000 years ago, for...

5 ways to prevent cognitive decline in early retirement. It’s no coincidence that there can be an increase in cognitive decline after retirement. The brain is like a muscle, and we all know that if you want stronger and larger muscles, they need to be worked, and this requires regular exercise. If you stop going to the gym, the muscles start to shrink. It is the same with the brain, and is called neuroplasticity. What is neuroplasticity? It is the constant rewiring of the brain, the growing...