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[Greiger]

Don't worry just leave a message beside your bed to visit this forum every day.  We'll make sure you remember who you are*!

_{^{*One day you may be king of a micronatiion, next day you may be a world class athlete, next you may be a retired ex-president...  At any rate you'd have a blast!}}

[Reudh]

I've got about 40 years before my mind is gone.  My family histories make it a certainty, unless medical breakthroughs happen.

Depending on which side I take after, I've got just over 50 years, (I'm 21 now), or will remain compus mentus until the day I die.

[Reudh]

My maternal great-grandfather who died at 92 was completely lucid until he had his last stroke.

On the other hand, my paternal great-grandmother died at 91, and had been almost completely gone since her early 70s.

[Vector]

If I work harder on my blood pressure, I should actually be okay through my mid-nineties.  Otherwise, I've got a maternal grandmother with dementia due to said issues (which gave her lots and lots of strokes), and a grandfather who had Parkinson's (most likely post-Polio syndrome, though).

[The Scout]

My insomnia has gotten worst to the point I've had very little sleep in two months. I'm losing my mind.

[Dutchling]

Books are still not free.

[FearfulJesuit]

I've probably got until 80 at least. It's kind of hard to tell, since my paternal grandmother was a fairly sharp cookie whose dementia set in in her late 50s from all the booze.

[Fniff]

My father's side may have some risk, but I haven't seen much of a history of dementia from my mother's side. The only person I know of who had it was my grandmother who had a stroke and died. She only got it at the very end of her life, at the very least in her 80s. So, very low risk.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

My family on both sides tend to live into their 90's, with a sharp decline into Alzheimers near the end. I expect medical science to deal with this by the time I am 90. Hell, I expect medical science to deal with this by the time my grandfather is 90.

I'm pretty optimistic about my chances, especially since all my grandparents are still alive, with my father's parents both having survived severe problems and recovered fully.

[Greiger]

Huh tried to see if there was any history of that kind of thing in my family.  My mom's side I'm in good shape, but it turns out my father was adopted by my grandparents, and knows absolutely nothing about his real parents.

I did not know that about him.

[Lord Shonus]

The only recurring disease in my family is early-onset artrhitis. There's also been quite a bit of Everything Cancer, but that may be because most of my predecessors smoked like chimneys.

[Solifuge]

Huh tried to see if there was any history of that kind of thing in my family.  My mom's side I'm in good shape, but it turns out my father was adopted by my grandparents, and knows absolutely nothing about his real parents.

I did not know that about him.

Oh man, we can be Our-Dads-were-adopted-and-left-us-with-no-knowledge-of-their-family-medical-history bros!

I used to think my health was absolutely fantastic. I rarely got sick, had no conditions but the depression thing (which I took care of on my own), and didn't even have allergies. My biological grandparents have been are nearing their 90s and are still pretty active, but these days their health isn't what it was. Grandpa had a series of strokes that lead to language issues that make his mental condition tough to diagnose, but he and grandma were dealing with mild dementia before that. And in the last year, my Dad and kid brother started having insanely-high blood pressure issues (3x what's considered life-threatening) at almost the same time... brother due to a life of caffeine, and Dad due to something that can't be identified. One of the mysteries of his genes maybe.

Toward the end of high school, I started passing out when I overexerted myself, specifically while it was warm out. Pretty sure it's tied to a high internal temperature and/or blood-pressure, since my metabolism makes me naturally run pretty warm, and my blood pressure feels high (even though I'm still in the middle of Healthy BP, according to current wisdom). It only rarely happens in public, but I'm worried I won't always be able to find a lamppost to lean non-nonchalantly against while I lose consciousness.

In the last year, more health stuff has been revealing itself. I've started getting weird nerve-issues in my right eye, and a chronic headache behind said eye that doesn't respond to pain-killers (migrane or otherwise), and seems to spike when I've not been eating. Eye's been intermittently bloodshot, swollen, and mild-to-moderately headachey for months now, to the point that my last visit to get new glasses resulted in a freaked out optomitrist who wanted me to go to a neurologist right away. Which I could never afford, because Preventative Medicine is not a word in the US, and I recently stopped having health insurance.

I think I need to move to Canada, prison, or somewhere else with public healthcare. Anyone with me?

[Nadaka]

Just become a senator, great medical coverage.

[Pnx]

Just spent 3 hours helping someone prepare for a final tomorrow. I think they're still horribly under prepared. 

[Frumple]

Just... if you haven't already, make sure to emphasize to them to relax. Fear (Stress, anxiety, etc.) literally is the mind-killer. All other things being equal, if you go into a test relaxed you will do better on the test than if you go in stressed.

It's like the difference between your muscles before and after you stretch out before doing something strenuous. If you don't stretch, you tense up easily and run the risk of cramps. If you do, your body works more smoothly and things that would have been difficult become notably easier. By and large, the brain works very similarly. A relaxed and attentive brain will function much more smoothly than a stressed and distracted (by worry, tension, etc.) one.

It's definitely one of the things I stress when people ask for test taking tips. Do. Not. Panic. Even if you're unprepared, do not worry (everything else aside, it's just a test. Not the end of the world. A set back at the most.). Flat out guarantee that if you prepare to the extent you're able, review lightly a bit before the test, and then walk into it and through it relaxed, you will perform better than under nearly any other circumstances. The biggest trick to good test taking is to chill.

I've seen literally no other factor that has as much influence, none. I have actually seen cases where people of roughly equal intelligence and vastly different preparedness walk into a test, the prepared one stressed and the unprepared one relaxed, and the latter outperform the former greatly. I have seen many cases where people of notably disparate intelligence and preparedness walk into the test, and the prepared and more capable one come in stressed and their less prepared and capable counterpart come in relaxed, and the latter outperform the former. It makes an absolutely tremendous difference.