It has been a practice in India to retire people after the age of 58. In some cases, the age has been 60, 62, 65 or 70. Let us understand the science behind retirement.

• Retirement is based on the fact that after the age of 50, one starts developing age-related minimal cognitive impairment. One starts losing memory for immediate recall, recent memory, starts forgetting the names of common people and common places.
• Quite often, when one is speaking on a phone and his attention is diverted by someone, the person forgets what he was speaking.
• In this age, most people start entering the name of a person in the phone book by linking it to his profession, relation, job, etc.
• Most politicians will start relying on the PPT presentations or start reading their speech.
• Very few will continue oral extempore presentations. The situation is worse with vegetarians due to vitamin B₁₂ deficiency, which further impairs memory.
• Premature atherosclerosis, diabetes, hypertension, recurrent mini strokes also add to this insult.

 Therefore, the age of retirement should not be decided by chronological age but by the degree of age-related cognitive impairment present.

 All patients with age-related cognitive dysfunction should be evaluated and treated for reversible causes of cognitive impairment, including medication side effects, sleep disturbances, depression, vitamin B₁₂ deficiency, and hypothyroidism.

Dr KK Aggarwal

Padma Shri Awardee

President Confederation of Medical Associations in Asia and Oceania (CMAAO)

Group Editor-in-Chief IJCP Publications

President Heart Care Foundation of India

Past National President IMA