As we leave middle age and enter into our senior years, many wonder or fear the physical and mental declines that hit so many older people. It seems inevitable that our bodies change, and we grow weaker, more frail and have more physical and health issues. Our minds also experience the ravages of age.

Which scares you more – losing your physical health or your mental health?

I’ve had physical issues ever since I tore up my knees and lower back when I was a teenager. I rode saddle broncs and bulls for three and half years. My knees have hurt 24/7 since I was 17 and I’m now 66. I’ve learned to live with pain but at least I’ve retained my mental facilities (although some may question that, if you know what I mean), so I have to say that losing my mental facilities frightens me more than losing my physical health.

Additionally, when I was in college, I worked as a night orderly on the intensive care ward in a nursing home and saw first hand a number of seniors who lost their mental abilities but not their physical health and those memories are still with me today.

So, what are your chances of developing some form of mental or cognitive impairment (dementia), once you turn 65? Is it something you wonder or are concerned about?

A new study indicates that both men and women reaching 65-years of age average over a dozen good years before they begin to show signs of failing cognitive health.

According to a report on the study:

“Most seniors don’t have cognitive impairment or dementia. Of Americans 65 and older, about 20 to 25 percent have mild cognitive impairment while about 10 percent have dementia, according to Dr. Kenneth Langa, an expert in the demography of aging and a professor of medicine at the University of Michigan. Risks rise with advanced age, and the portion of the population affected is significantly higher for people over 85.”

“Langa’s research shows that the prevalence of dementia has fallen in the U.S. — a trend observed in developed countries across the globe. A new study from researchers at the Rand Corp. and the National Bureau of Economic Research finds that 10.5 percent of U.S. adults age 65 and older had dementia in 2012, compared with 12 percent in 2000.”

“Because the population of older adults is expanding, the number of people affected by dementia is increasing nonetheless: an estimated 4.5 million in 2012, compared with 4.1 million in 2000.”

An interesting result of the study showed that 80% of college graduates experienced good cognitive health past the age of 65, while only 50% of those who never graduated from high school had good cognitive health later in life.

How does all this work out to age?

“In 2000, she found, a 65-year-old woman could expect to live 12.5 years with good cognition, four years with mild cognitive impairment and 2.6 years with dementia, on average. A decade later, in 2010, the period in good cognition had expanded to 14.1 years, with 3.9 years spent with mild cognitive impairment and 2.3 years spent with dementia.”

“For men, the 2010 figures are different: 12.5 years with good cognition after age 65 (compared with 10.7 in 2000); 3.7 years with mild cognitive impairment (the same as in 2000); and 1.4 years with dementia (compared with 1.8 years in 2010).”

Therefore, the odds are getting better for a longer mental life for many of us reaching our senior years, but eventually, time may well catch up with us. In the meantime, live long and enjoy what you’ve got while you’ve got it.