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Aging Gracefully: It’s A Real Workout
The most depressing thing about getting older is that it seems to be a process of inevitable withering away of body and mind. No matter how much we rage against the dying of the light, we’ll forget where we put our car keys. But is our fate so fixed? Is the march of time always cruel? All signs point to: not really.
Consider Dara Torres, the 41-year-old U.S. swimmer who was nine years older than her oldest teammate in the Beijing Olympics. Or Madonna, who turned 50 this month but is preparing for another tour. John McCain, at 71, is attempting to become the oldest first-term president in American history. His run, along with the unretirement of 38-year-old NFL quarterback Brett Favre, is part of this recent parade of public age defiance.
More and more, people aren’t clinging to empty platitudes about age being just a number — they are ignoring age as a limiting factor entirely. Time, it turns out, is something you can bargain with.
IT TAKES WORK
New research demonstrates that Torres, Madonna, McCain and his mother, Roberta — who is campaigning for him at age 96 — are examples of a somewhat common phenomenon: It’s entirely possible to grow significantly older without getting much slower — as long as we put in the work.
The graying of the baby boomers has led the anti-aging industry to turn an inescapable biological process into a lucrative source of anxiety. The latest science suggests, however, that the best anti-aging treatment is what you already have in your head.
Last year, a large study led by researchers at Harvard University compared the brains of young adults and senior citizens.
As expected, they found consistent differences, the most significant in the “default network,” which is active when people turn their attention inward, as when they’re trying to remember a name.
CONNECTION CAN BREAK
Under normal circumstances, the default network ensures that the front of the brain, including areas of the prefrontal cortex, and the “back” of the brain, such as the cingulate cortex, work in perfect sync.
“Unfortunately, this connection seems to weaken with age, so that older people can end up with a rather disconnected brain,” says Jessica Andrews-Hanna, the study’s lead author.
But buried in the bad news are some optimistic data: Nearly half of the older subjects had default systems almost as synchronized as those of people in their 20s, a variation “evident both in the brain and in observed behavior,” Andrews-Hanna says.
How do some people maintain such a spry cortex?
Some scientists argue that the secret is cognitive exercise. “The brain is a learning machine, and like all machines, it needs to be continually maintained,” says Michael Merzenich, a professor emeritus at the University of California at San Francisco.
“If you stop exercising the brain — and this is what often happens during retirement — then you shouldn’t be surprised when it starts to die off.”
Merzenich’s software program, Posit Science Brain Fitness, has helped reverse the cognitive effects of aging in 93 percent of elderly subjects, according to a 2006 study. After a few months of intensive training, the brains of 75-year-olds had the memory function of people decades younger. Merzenich argues that even people genetically at low risk for wrinkles and memory loss need to exercise the mind to preserve their mental vigor.
RECONNECTING THE WIRES
The mind has one crucial advantage over the body: It can rewire itself. According to Denise Park, a neuroscientist in the Productive Aging Laboratory at the University of Texas at Dallas, the inevitable atrophy caused by aging means that older brains must continually find new ways to perform mental tasks.
The cortex deals with cell death by becoming more reliant on neural pathways that remain viable.
Several studies suggest such mental flexibility is largely an ancillary benefit of “sustained cognitive engagement,” or thinking intensely on a regular basis.
Not only does an active mind have more cortical matter to lose, but it also seems better able to adjust its activity in response to the insults of age. “The brain operates on a use-it-or-lose-it principle,” says Merzenich. “And the ability to cope with change seems to really be something you either use or lose.”
What this suggests is that if we put in the effort — and it takes lots of effort — our brain cells will find a way to stay fit.
Nobody ever said aging gracefully was easy.
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