Brain Facts:
Aging
| Topic | Discussion | Resource |
| Aging | Age is such a potent maker that whatever happens to our minds and bodies in later life, we assume it to be the result of advancing years. If older people do anything the least bit unusual, we label it eccentricity or senility, even if they have been doing the same thing all their lives. Within such constricting mindset, tight as an undersized suit of armor, growth, flexibility, and new enterprise become impossible. Not only the quality but the length of our lives may be affected. | Ellen J Langer, Mindfulness |
Aging Effects |
“What we think happens is the signaling properties [transmission of messages] change in aging. Instead of saying you lose cells so there are fewer messages, we say: There’s probably the same number of messages, they just can’t get through.” |
James Joseph |
| Attitude | Although you can’t choose how long you will live, you do have responsibility for how well you will love. Part of that involves your attitude or response to life’s upsets and disappointments. Heredity is not as strong an influence on health as many believe. | O’Brien, Mary, MD. Successful Aging. CA:Biomed General. 2007 pp 7-8, 15 |
| Declining Brain Power | When older people can no longer remember names at a party, they tend to think that their brainpower is declining. But a growing number of studies suggest that this assumption is erroneous. Instead, the research finds, the aging brain is simply taking in more data and trying to sift through a clutter of information, often to its long-term benefit. | The studies are analyzed in a new edition of a neurology book, Progress in Brain Research. (Progress in Brain Research, Summary) |
Forgetfulness |
Problems associated with aging (e.g., forgetfulness, having trouble learning new things) tend to involve the cerebral cortex and the hippocampus. | Katz, Lawrence C., PhD and Manning Rubin. |
Blood Flow Changes |
PET scans do show that the rate of blood flow in the gray matter of the fontal cortex starts to lessen around age fifty, and that older brains must usually work harder in burning glucose to process information. There is a reduction in the efficiency of energy production in the mitochondria of the brain cells with age. |
Jean Carper |
Blood Flow Changes |
Generally the greater the blood flow and the more glucose consumed, the harder the brain is working. In some studies, scientists observe that an older brain must work harder than a younger brain to process or retrieve the same information. |
Jean Carper |
Brain Shrinkage |
“You need not fear that the rate of brain shrinkage will pick up as you get older if you remain in good health. Your brain at age eighty-five should be just as voluminous as it is at age sixty-five.” |
Jeffrey Kaye, MD |
| Characteristics —Mental Acuity |
Researchers are more optimistic than ever about the potential of the aging brain. For example, the brain can grow new nerve cells—neurogenesis. Studies of older people who have maintained mental acuity revealed common characteristics. They tended to be:
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Caryn-Rabin, Roni |
| Life Expectancy | Ignoring who you authentically are can literally be killing you. Forcing yourself to be someone you are not or stuffing down who you really are can shorten your life by perhaps as many as 14 years. | McGraw, Phillip C., PhD. Self Matters, Creating Your Life From the Inside Out. NY: Simon & Schuster Source, 2001 pp 17-18 |
| Life Expectancy —Male vs. Female |
Statistics show that the average life expectancy is 77 years for men and 83 years for women. | Roizen, Michael F., MD. Real Age: Are You As Young As You Can Be? NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 2001 p. 15 |
| Life Expectancy –Heredity |
Studies continue to show that for most people lifestyle choices and behaviors have far more impact on longevity and health than does heredity. | Roizen, Michael F., MD. Real Age: Are You As Young As You Can Be? NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 2001 p. xv |
| Longevity | Unless people sabotage the body’s natural process, several lines of evidence indicate the human body is programmed to last until age 110 or 120. | Bortz, Water M. II, MD. We Live Too Short and Die Too Long. NY: Select Books, 2007 |
| Longevity | Estimate by Beverly Winikoff, a physician and Rockerfeller University. Average life expectancy would increase by seven years if good nutrition, exercise, and good health habits (especially not smoking) were practiced. By comparison, average life expectancy would increase by only 2 years if all cancers could be cured overnight. | Ornstein, Robert, PhD, and Paul Ehrlich. New World New Mind. MA: Malor Books, 1989, 2000, pp 120-121 |
| Longevity | Studies at UCLA: People who are currently married have longer average life expectancies than those who are not. People who never marry are more likely than people who have been divorced, separated, or widowed to die prematurely. There may be some correlation between lifestyle and whether or not the person is married. | Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health |
MacArthur Study of Successfully Aging |
The MacArthur Study of Successful Aging found that people who are socially connected may survive up to 20 percent longer than those who live more isolated lives. |
Gary Small, MD |
MacArthur Study of Successfully Aging Socially Connected |
Staying connected reduces anxiety and lowers the amount of stress hormones released into the body. This is important because stress hormones are known to contribute to heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and many other age-related diseases. The MacArthur Study of Successful Aging found that long-standing emotional support was associated with significantly lower blood levels of cortisol and other stress hormones. Socially connected volunteers in that study also required less pain medication following surgery, recovered more quickly, and followed their doctor’s post-op advice more closely. |
Gary Small, MD |
Population |
Global population has soured more than twentyfold over the past two hundred years, reaching 6.6 billion. During the same two centuries, average life spans more than doubled, vaulting to more than seventy years. Current population projects say that the United States in 2040 will have 54 million people aged eighty-vie and older, up from 4.2 million today. Today, those over eighty-five represent only 2 percent of the population. By 2040 they may represent almost 20 percent. |
Zack Lynch |
| Plasticity —Learning |
As you age you can still increase the connections between the neurons – you never have to stop learning! | Hafen, Brent Q., et al. Mind/Body Health. MA: Simon & Schuster, 1996 p. 12 |
Serotonin |
Women synthesize brain serotonin at half the rate of men, which may help explain why women are more prone to depression. Serotonin circuits also grow weaker with age because neurons loose receptors needed to activate serotonin. |
Jean Carper |
Serotonin Receptors |
According to one study, the brains of sixty-five-year olds had 60 percent fewer serotonin receptors of a specific type than the brains of thirty-year-olds. |
Jean Carper |
| Slowing Aging | "Aging is an optional feature of life and it can be slowed," says de Grey, chief science officer for the California-based SENS Foundation. | Scientific American |
Successful Aging |
Studies on successful aging have shown that only one third of what predicts how well we age is controlled by genetics. Approximately two thirds is based on our personal lifestyle choices and, therefore, under our own control. |
Gary Small, MD |
| Use it or Lose it | It's well known that older people who stay mentally active are more resistant to cognitive decline and dementia. Many scientific studies have backed up this "use it or lose it" hypothesis. | Lawton, Graham. Is Going To the Brain Gym Worth it? New Scientist December 17, 2005 |
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