I am recently thinking a lot about this decline too specially because I'm seeing it in my own family with rapid decline and it is very sad to see. They don't realize. They make the usual jokes about age and such but I'm sure they are not very aware of the extent of the problem. Even simple problems become huge. And it reminds me that while I still feel great I have only a small number of good years left and that is counting that I would not get any other illness.

Make the most of your youth. It goes fast later.

When I was a young lawyer I represented my dad on real estate deals. He had been going deaf for years, but refused to acknowledge it. Once we were at a closing when the party on the other side of the transaction took my dad aside and, in a low voice, asked for a concession my father would never grant. Rather than say "I can't hear you" , he smiled and said sure." I had to step in to correct the misunderstanding. It was embarrassing for him, but not embarrassing enough for him to get a hearing aid.

I hope I learned the lesson he never did.

It is scary.

The cognitive strain of grad school definitely affected my memory, which I jokingly refer to as grad school giving me brain damage.