Breakthroughs in
ANTi-AGiNG
Research Helps Us Live Longer and Healthier
by lisa marshall
F
ive hundred years after explorer Ponce de
“What we have ment. One in eight seniors will suffer dementia.
Leon roamed the West Indies and Florida
learned in the
For decades, scientists assumed the brain was
in search of a vigor-restoring “fountain of
past few years
“hardwired” by around fifth grade, with a finite
youth,” we have yet to come up with a way to
is that you can
number of neural connections that inevitably at-
turn back time. But according to physicians and
rophy over time, stealing our cognitive sharpness.
researchers at the cutting edge of anti-aging
literally exercise
It turns out they were wrong.
research, we’re learning a lot about how to keep
your brain and
“What we have learned in the past few years
the signs of aging at bay.
add in new circuitry. is that you can literally exercise your brain and
“We’re seeing a ton of compelling research
You can rewire it.”
add in new circuitry. You can rewire it,” says Pro-
lately on how to slow down the clock and live
fessor Andrew Carle, director of the Program in
better and longer,” says Dr. Andrew Weil, an
~ Andrew Carle Assisted Living/Senior Housing Administration at
integrative physician and author of Healthy Aging:
George Mason University, in Fairfax, Virginia.
A Lifelong Guide to Your Well-Being. “Happily, most of us will
The concept, called neuroplasticity, has spawned a $265
not have to age the way our parents and grandparents did.”
million brain-game industry, according to consulting firm
In the past decade, breakthrough research has radically
SharpBrains. More than 700 senior housing facilities now
changed our understanding of why our brain, organs and skin
feature computer brain games, and “brain gyms” are pop-
age and what we can do, eat or apply to slow the process.
ping up in cities nationwide. Such games are typically either
Here’s a look at some of the latest science and the technolo-
downloadable programs for a home computer or a stand-
gies to grow out of it.
alone game console. They challenge hand-eye coordination,
auditory processing, memory and the ability to multitask.
Workouts for Typically, the program adapts as the user plays, throwing in
the Aging Brain
new challenges.
Perhaps the greatest fear of an aging Baby
Why not just read a book or do a crossword puzzle?
Boomer is not flabby abs or wrinkling
“These are already well-trodden neuronal pathways,” says
skin, but rather, the specter of a withering
California neuroscientist Henry Mahncke, Ph.D., vice presi-
brain. By age 40, reports the Alzheimer’s
dent of research for brain game pioneer Posit Science. “We
Association, two-thirds of us experience
know from brain imaging studies that if you have something
occasional lapses of memory. By age 65, that you are already good at and you do it, not much new
20 percent suffer mild cognitive impair- lights up in the brain.”
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