A trajectory of decline in normal aging and in Alzheimer’s Disease
Okinawa: What explains the extraordinary longevity of older Okinawans?
Should we be ingesting Omega-3 regularly to preserve brain health?
What about Vitamin B12?
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUtkA41A6a8
Aubrey de Grey, PhD, is a widely-known (and controversial) bio-gerontologist who has been working to develop a true cure for human aging. Will he achieve his goal? Who knows? Many of his ideas are compelling. This video covers his views about several “biological” reasons why we age. In this video, he gives no suggestions about what to do, but understanding how and why aging happens is an important first step towards knowing what to do about it.
http://www.videojug.com/interview/the-seven-deadly-causes-of-aging-2
How long we live is not always be explained by genes.
Related posts:
Does Alzheimer’s actually cause death or is it just a symptom of more systematic problems with the brain? If it does cause death, as this graph seem to show, why is that? It seems that a loss of memory wouldn’t bring about death – just as losing one’s eyesight doesn’t bring about death.
Darren, this is an exceedingly good question. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is one of the most recent identifiers that doctors have been using on death certificates to indicate cause of death. And, for many reasons, this makes a lot of sense. Many people do not realize that Alzheimer’s disease can kill. According to the National Institute of Health, Alzheimer’s disease or AD was first identified as the underlying cause of over 20,000 deaths in 1995; it has since been elevated to the sixth leading cause of death in the United States, especially in individuals over 65 years of age. With over 5.3 million people suffering from AD in the United States alone, it is important to understand exactly how the disease can cause death in those afflicted by it. The way this occurs is that the degradation of brain processes in AD may, by chance, hit an area of brain function essential to organ or vital function for life, like respiration. When this happens, death immediately occurs. In the past, death due to respiration could be attributed to other causes, but now AD is implicated in these deaths. So, if a person has AD and then all of a sudden stops breathing, this could be due to a faulty connection of brain transmission to the areas responsible for respiration, for example, the medulla oblongata in the brain stem, and death will immediately occur. So, in a nutshell, AD could be at the root of death for rspiratory reasons for death. This is why it is VERY important to keep a close eye on your loved ones with AD.
Regarding the Okinawa video. Very interesting. It is intuitive that their diet is contributing to their improved health but other factors may also be contributing to the positive aging. They appear to be physically active, growing their own food, playing games, and being outdoors. They don’t appear to be smokers and drinkers, nor do they appear to live highly competitive stressful lives. I’m assuming Okinawa has clean air, clean water, and is fairly free from a lot of the pollutants associated with highly industrial communities. And equally important is living conditions relatively free of biological toxins, good sanitation and clean and properly prepared foods But whats interesting is the lower incidence of diseases and the increased level of hormones. Factors that one would initially assume have more genetic causes than environmental causes. Can the diet alone explain it or is there a genetic answer? Either way it would be interesting to see some research performed among these people that is designed to help isolate variables that can or cannot be directly linked to positive aging.
Mike, these are some very good thoughts. For more information about the Okinawa Aging Study I would refer you to the following webpage:
http://www.okicent.org/index.html
Here is a very informative reference. It is actually quite readable and you can obtain it in the public domain through google scholar.
Willcox, C. et al. (2009). Journal of the American College of Nutrition, Vol. 28, No. 4_Supplement_1, 500S-516S. The Okinawan Diet: Health Implications of a Low-Calorie, Nutrient-Dense, Antioxidant-Rich Dietary Pattern Low in Glycemic Load.
The issue of environmental toxins versus biological toxins is a good one and deserves some careful research. The Dutch have developed a theory of “biological life events” which purports that the cummulative effects of adverse events is what impacts aging versus any single event or exposure per se. This idea, however, has not been systematically tested.
best wishes,,,,bob