[HN Gopher] 'Superager' brains resist the march of time to have ...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       'Superager' brains resist the march of time to have memories like
       25-year-olds
        
       Author : lnyan
       Score  : 219 points
       Date   : 2021-07-11 03:12 UTC (19 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.sciencealert.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.sciencealert.com)
        
       | sinenomine wrote:
       | Healthy lifestyle and positive attitude are all well and good;
       | however, reporters tend to egregiously overstate their efficacy
       | in a bid to promote these virtues. In academic research, there is
       | a complementary flaw of insufficient controls for genetic
       | confounding, which massively inflates the apparent contribution
       | of individual choices, drawing attention away from the innate
       | causal factors underlying both the outcomes and the capacity to
       | effect them [1][2].
       | 
       | One particularly frustrating consequence of this pattern is that
       | we are most certainly overlooking and underfunding basic life
       | science research that could uncover precise biological mechanisms
       | producing positive outcomes, and instead chase after mere
       | correlates of their presence.
       | 
       | In this vein, it is sometimes claimed that human longevity is
       | only weakly heritable, which leads to excessive hope pinned on
       | trivial lifestyle changes. The folly of this is best illustrated
       | by the fact that even in this study superagers often neglect
       | basic rules of healthy lifestyle: 71% of them even smoke. In
       | fact, if we look at longevity in the sample consisting of people
       | who already have reached advanced age (thus excluding the noise
       | produced by infant mortality etc.), heritability estimate
       | increases significantly, the older the sample the greater[3].
       | 
       | >In contrast to the modest heritability estimate for continuous
       | age at death (16%), heritability of surviving past 65 years and
       | surviving past 85 years was substantial at 36% (p = 4.2 x 10 -10
       | ) and 40% (p = 9.0 x 10 -10 ), respectively. Thus, genetic
       | effects appear to be greater for survival to more advanced ages.
       | In the Framingham Heart Study cohorts, heritability appears to
       | increase with each 10-year increment in survived age (65 years,
       | 75 years, and 85 years) for men, but not women, again suggesting
       | that genetic effects on aging may be more substantial for men
       | than women (20).
       | 
       | It is highly likely and in fact supported by growing evidence[4]
       | that the pattern observed for longevity holds for cognitive aging
       | as well.
       | 
       | In my humble opinion, it is incumbent upon us to focus on
       | dissecting relevant heritable differences in biological
       | pathways[5][6][7] between the small minority of supercentenarians
       | (and, indeed, "superagers") and people with average
       | lifespans/healthspans, in order to design sound medical
       | treatments which could provide those benefits to the rest of us,
       | less genetically endowed.
       | 
       | 1. https://psyarxiv.com/j5x7g/
       | 
       | 2. https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2017-42708-001.pdf
       | 
       | 3. https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/gls089
       | 
       | 4. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23586942/
       | 
       | 5. https://www.pnas.org/content/106/8/2700
       | 
       | 6.
       | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fgene.2012.0027...
       | 
       | 7. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11357-006-9020-x
        
       | chadcmulligan wrote:
       | I'm close to 60, now around 50 I noticed things were going south
       | and I wasn't to happy about it. So I did some research and made
       | lifestyle changes - nothing startling, ate well and started an
       | exercise program. Now I feel like I'm 40 again.
       | 
       | I have some friends who I've known since high school, now some
       | have health issues and its how they respond seems to make a
       | difference. Some just take the pills the doctor gives them and
       | accept the ageing process and complain about things. Others, like
       | myself, fight tooth and nail to do whatever they can. Of course
       | you can only fight so much - the genetic hand you're dealt, but,
       | I believe your attitude to ageing is really a factor - if you
       | accept it, or fight it. Which sort of aligns with the personality
       | traits they observed. You're only as old as you feel as the
       | saying goes.
       | 
       | I know one lady for example who has had two cancers and was
       | forced to use a walker for a while but is going again, whereas
       | her husband was showing me all the pills he takes - due to being
       | overweight and eating poorly. He has accepted his fate, she has
       | fought against it.
        
         | hourislate wrote:
         | Isn't it surprising that just eating real food (clean diet),
         | not smoking or drinking and walking a little everyday can cut
         | all cause mortality like in half, leaving you younger,
         | healthier and more mentally engaged. Those changes in lifestyle
         | for some is hard work, not everyone is cut out for it. Shame
         | they don't think it's worth saving themselves and prefer the
         | taste of pills to healthy food. I sort of figure it's Natural
         | Selection at play, all these folks who choose to poison
         | themselves and embrace chronic illness as something that is
         | inevitable will eventually fall out of the Gene pool,
         | unfortunately the destruction they cause during and on the way
         | out costs all of us an enormous amount of resources.
        
           | JackFr wrote:
           | > I sort of figure it's Natural Selection at play, all these
           | folks who choose to poison themselves and embrace chronic
           | illness as something that is inevitable will eventually fall
           | out of the Gene pool, unfortunately the destruction they
           | cause during and on the way out costs all of us an enormous
           | amount of resources.
           | 
           | That's not how natural selection works. Men over the age of
           | 50 father less than %1 of babies, and it's lower than that
           | for women. So if a tendency to embrace chronic pathological
           | behaviors is genetic, the offspring will be born long before
           | the behavior catches up with them. Things get a little more
           | complicated because of the inter generational support
           | networks. The older generation does support their offspring,
           | but at eventually will need support, and take resources from
           | the breeding cohort. Which is the only cohort natural
           | selection cares about.
        
         | Waterluvian wrote:
         | Do you mind attempting to put into words what you mean by
         | things going south?
         | 
         | What does that feel like? How could you tell?
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | mordnis wrote:
         | I find it weird to say that not taking care of yorself is
         | accepting the ageing process. I like to think that doing
         | everything you can is the 'normal' behavior.
        
           | nickthemagicman wrote:
           | Just turned 40 and things I've noticed as I age are:
           | 
           | I can't pull all nighters anymore. My body literally starts
           | shutting down around 2:00 a.m.
           | 
           | My poop is less firm. I have to wipe a lot more.
           | 
           | Muscles take more time to stop being sore.
           | 
           | Other than that that's about it so far.
        
             | nkingsy wrote:
             | On the plus side I feel much more sustained focus in work
             | and enjoy endurance activities like mountain biking steep
             | hills that I used to have to suffer through.
             | 
             | I can practice piano for hours. Working on my bike I'll
             | have a hydraulic brake caliper fall apart in my hands in a
             | puddle of mineral oil, then just muddle my way through
             | until my mistake is fixed. I used to get so frustrated by
             | things.
        
             | dominotw wrote:
             | Biggest change i noticed is that i now recognize individual
             | body parts. rotator cuff, mcl, plantar, upper GI.
        
         | agumonkey wrote:
         | can you share your plan details ? I did clean my diet 85% but
         | I'm still looking for a PE plan.
        
           | chadcmulligan wrote:
           | Like I said, nothing startling. I do studio pilates a couple
           | of times a week, if you have aches and pains I really
           | recommend this - I don't have back pain anymore because of
           | this. I walk everywhere now, I used to drive everywhere, I
           | moved inner city near public transport. It seems very
           | personal though, I know some people that run a lot, not for
           | me, others do gym work or golf. It really depends on what
           | bits are hurting I feel. I do think we all need some sort of
           | strength training, and the research seems to back that up,
           | and Pilates is superb for that. I'd been very sedentary for a
           | number of years, and happened to go to someone that had done
           | a lot of rehab work, she was great. I tried a few people
           | though, so just find one that works for you.
           | 
           | Diet is mainly Mediterranean now - beans, lentils, veggies,
           | fish etc. occasional meat, but not much.
        
             | specialist wrote:
             | Yes and: Balance exercises.
             | 
             | I was active. Bike commute, some weights, jogging, hiking,
             | stretching.
             | 
             | I had to do some physical therapy (before and after
             | surgery). Part of their assessment is balance & stability.
             | 
             | I was shocked to learn I had none. Eg I couldn't hold onto
             | one foot and balance on the other leg.
             | 
             | Now I recommend everyone starts PT no later than 40 yo. If
             | only for assessment and tuning.
        
         | gogopuppygogo wrote:
         | My grandfather was a nuclear scientist who worked on the
         | Manhattan project. He ate right and exercised daily. He even
         | maintained the community parks as a volunteer fixing things
         | like tennis courts and fences.
         | 
         | He got Alzheimer's. It dragged out for over a decade killing
         | him slowly and hurting everyone who knew him.
         | 
         | My father decided he'd rather have a shorter but more quality
         | driven life after that experience. He's overweight, has a great
         | outlook on his life, and is a joy to be around.
         | 
         | Not everyone wants longevity.
        
           | anbende wrote:
           | Hi, psychologist here. Cognitive decline is not my specialty
           | but I've taken doctoral level courses in it.
           | 
           | The problem with the "shorter higher quality life" position
           | is that diet, exercise and health affect EVERYTHING. Exercise
           | and diet are majorly implicated in both physical health
           | decline and onset of dementia and Alzheimer's. In fact,
           | maintaining a healthy and active lifestyle is often found to
           | be the number one protective factor against cognitive
           | decline.
           | 
           | Unfortunately there's no health strategy that reliably
           | produces a shorter higher quality life. There's only
           | increasing health span through lifestyle.
           | 
           | Note: there are medical choices that increase lifespan but
           | not health - medication and surgery that prolong unhealth.
           | But that's a whole different game than healthy lifestyle.
        
             | zoomablemind wrote:
             | > ...The problem with the "shorter higher quality life"
             | position is that diet, exercise and health affect
             | EVERYTHING.
             | 
             | I would also include _sleep_ in this list.
             | 
             | With advancing age the amount and quality of sleep seems to
             | diminish. Maybe it's individual-specific and dependent on
             | the life-style, in any case undersleeping effects eventualy
             | catch on and affect the body and mind state.
        
             | samatman wrote:
             | I suspect the causality flows (mostly) in the other
             | direction for that correlation.
             | 
             | The set of healthy and active elderly people consists only
             | of those who _can_ be healthy and active, while the set of
             | sedentary  / overweight elderly contains both those who
             | choose not to be, and those who are kind of stuck with it
             | due to chronic illness. Which aren't sharp categorical
             | distinctions, mind you, but it virtually guarantees that
             | the latter set will have shorter lifespans and worse end of
             | life outcomes, even though plenty of nonagenarians are
             | overweight (though very few indeed are obese).
             | 
             | I stay in the game for what it brings me now. I can think
             | of little so grim as going to the gym with the goal of
             | living longer-- but that's my personlity, someone else
             | might find it motivating.
        
           | theshadowknows wrote:
           | My mother's dad died of stomach cancer, my mothers mom had a
           | brain tumor and died of organ failure, my mother was an
           | alcoholic and died of liver failure, my father was an
           | alcoholic and died from massive organ trauma (he made a
           | series of bad decisions in rapid succession), my father's dad
           | had multiple heart attacks and died of complications from
           | MDS, my father's mother is still alive. There's a history of
           | mental illness, cancer, diabetes, and overall poor health on
           | both sides of my family....
           | 
           | That said, I'm taking as good care of myself as I can without
           | going to the extreme. I don't want to deny my one short,
           | brief life the pleasures that are here to be experienced but
           | I also don't want to artificially shorten my (already stacked
           | against) life.
           | 
           | I have decided however that I won't be dying in pain in some
           | hospital if I can at all help it. I've watched it happen.
           | I'll either live somewhere that assisted is allowed, or I'll
           | FEED MYSELF TO SHARKS...something, anything, other than the
           | slow waste of a hospital.
        
             | specialist wrote:
             | I've also done some eldercare. I will be dying at home. All
             | relations know that under no circumstances will I end up in
             | a retirement home, or worse. That's a fate worse than
             | death.
             | 
             | I've asked my family doctor to help plan ahead. So that
             | it's my decision. Like getting a home euthanasia kit. Or
             | whatever.
        
               | nradov wrote:
               | All of that advance planning might go out the window if
               | you start to suffer from dementia and are judged to be
               | mentally incompetent. Those relations could end up
               | putting you into an elder care facility because you're
               | unable to care for yourself and they don't want to
               | facilitate your suicide. Most jurisdictions that allow
               | assisted suicide require the patient to be of sound mind.
        
             | monoideism wrote:
             | As someone (~50) who has spent much of the past 2 months
             | suffering in pain in some hospital, I endorse your
             | decision. Several hospital-issued medication issues there
             | that set me back.
             | 
             | I'm now at home, where I'm slowly healing just as well. As
             | long as I can eat and drink (and failure to be able to do
             | that is what sent me to hosp to begin with), I stay here.
             | 
             | I'm going to come out of this more healthy, I'm determined.
             | 
             | If you're younger (or older!), I strongly endorse avoiding
             | the pharma industry to the extent possible. The side
             | effects will almost aways catch up to you at some point,
             | usually during a crisis or other sickness. Work on your
             | weak spots "naturally" (eg, if you're anxious, _master_
             | meditation and physical workouts). If you're on a chronic
             | drug, always carefully re-evalulate risks /benefits at
             | least once a year, and find out if there are any new non-
             | pharma approaches.
             | 
             | With a very few exceptions, pharma is about temporarily
             | soothing symptoms while doing nothing for the underlying
             | disease.
        
               | bserge wrote:
               | I'd say don't underestimate and write off medication.
               | 
               | You can master the art of balancing medication intake to
               | fit your needs.
               | 
               | Sadly, the biggest roadblock in that case is having to
               | deal with doctors and pharmacists who just won't give you
               | what you need.
        
               | monoideism wrote:
               | That's how I felt in my 20s. What's above is my opinion
               | in my 50s, after multiple hospitalizations and serious
               | chronic illnesses.
               | 
               | Best option of all is to stay fit. Some of mine were out
               | of my control (genetics), but some were probably not. And
               | the extent to which the genetic ones expressed was
               | probably somewhat in my control.
        
               | angrais wrote:
               | The challenge with such recommendations is that the
               | reader must be able to understand which medicine can be
               | safely skipped. I do not believe most people can make
               | this choice safely.
               | 
               | For many conditions, such as arthritis, taking daily
               | medicine is required and skipping that would decrease
               | quality of life dramatically.
               | 
               | However, if you've a sore head then potentially skipping
               | some medicine is fine.
               | 
               | >> With a very few exceptions, pharma is about
               | temporarily soothing symptoms while doing nothing for the
               | underlying disease.
               | 
               | I think you're quite mistaken. Pharma is about improving
               | the quality of life and health outcomes for the patient.
               | Some diseases cannot be magically fixed with drugs, e.g.,
               | Parkinson's, etc.
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | monoideism wrote:
               | > such as arthritis
               | 
               | Which arthritis med, exactly? So many have been pulled
               | off the shelf by the FDA.
               | 
               | But Levadopa for Parkinson's (which I'm highly likely to
               | get if I live long enough), and its newer analogues, may
               | be one of the few worth the trade. Grandparents on both
               | sides w/Parkinson's.
               | 
               | 99% of the other drugs are not worth the tradeoffs, for
               | most people.
        
             | bserge wrote:
             | > or I'll FEED MYSELF TO SHARKS
             | 
             | Highly likely that you won't. Standing there, ready to go,
             | your survival instinct will go into overdrive and suddenly
             | living a bit longer regardless of the pain won't seem so
             | bad.
        
               | samatman wrote:
               | Yeah no one actually wants to be torn apart by wild
               | animals.
               | 
               | I thought that was a completely obvious stand-in for some
               | gentler not-medically-assisted suicide but nothing is
               | obvious here on Hacker News...
        
               | bserge wrote:
               | Oh, I thought it meant suicide by drowning (and becoming
               | fish food). Pretty high chance of success... if you can
               | take the leap. It's harder than you'd think.
        
               | samatman wrote:
               | My 'final resort' would involve a tank of nitrogen fwiw.
               | 
               | No part of my hindbrain is upset by switching breathing
               | gasses, and by all reports there is no more pleasant way
               | to check out.
        
               | bserge wrote:
               | Again, at the last moment, your primitive brain will
               | disagree. Better make sure you can't back out heh.
        
           | chadcmulligan wrote:
           | Yeah, I was replying to the 'superager' submission and my
           | observations in connection. People can do whatever they want,
           | particularly when you hit 60 :-).
        
         | scrose wrote:
         | If you're interested, you should check out 'Ortho Bionomy - A
         | path to self care' by Luann Overmyer. She touches a lot on what
         | you were just saying.
         | 
         | Often, people expect to do whatever they want and then go to
         | doctors to 'fix' them. It's good for doctors, but not so great
         | for you.
         | 
         | I just started getting into some of the self-care routines she
         | lists in her book after breaking my foot and having multiple
         | doctors recommend surgery to 'fix' things. Instead of going
         | down that route, I asked an Ortho-bionomist I know personally
         | to help me. In a single session, most of the swelling and limp
         | in my foot 'disappeared'. After sticking to the very simple
         | routines he suggested and that I read in the book(none
         | involving pills or icing it), my foot healed more in a week
         | than it did in the 2 months I sat around taking Tylenol and
         | just 'waiting' for someone to fix me.
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | spfzero wrote:
           | Doctors can't really expect all or even most of their
           | patients to take full responsibility for the hard work of
           | actually fixing something. They'll recommend the thing that
           | will work a little bit for everyone. They can't know that
           | you're one of the ones who will put in the extra effort.
           | 
           | At least that's the feeling I got from my GP when he
           | diagnosed me with high BP about a decade ago. He prescribed
           | some pills, I asked about lifestyle changes and what happens
           | when your body adjusts to the pills, can you just stop taking
           | them or is there a tolerance, etc.
           | 
           | He said something like "some people exercise, and maybe it
           | helps, but just take the pills."
           | 
           | I was willing to do whatever I had to do, because I saw high
           | BP as a dysfunction, and wanted to fix whatever the root
           | cause was. I don't want to be an unhealthy person taking
           | pills to help me live a longer unhealthy life, I wanted to be
           | healthy.
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | smeej wrote:
             | I've had trouble finding doctors who will even believe me
             | when I come in with conclusive test results.
             | 
             | For one condition, I came in with clear lab tests showing I
             | had brought all the relevant markers WELL within normal
             | range by dietary and lifestyle changes, and my doctor
             | insisted I should instead have _increased_ the medication I
             | had been able to wean off during the process.
             | 
             | She asked me, "Don't you think if diet and lifestyle change
             | worked, we would recommend that to everybody?"
             | 
             | I replied, "Absolutely not. Not a single person in your
             | industry benefits if everyone with this condition becomes
             | healthy. No medications are needed. No surgeons are needed.
             | Your whole career disappears. I think the entire industry
             | that trains and forms you depends on people like me staying
             | sick. If you can't at least question the incentives in your
             | industry with a critical eye, I have no interest in any
             | further advice from you."
             | 
             | Suffice it to say she doesn't work for me anymore.
        
               | blindmute wrote:
               | I don't know about your condition, but for obesity a lot
               | of doctors are not even recommending people to lose
               | weight anymore. The data shows that so few people
               | actually do it, permanently, that it's not even worth
               | bringing up. USA fat people are overall uninterested in
               | being thin.
        
               | spfzero wrote:
               | >"Don't you think if diet and lifestyle change worked, we
               | would recommend that to everybody?"
               | 
               | This is the crux, "worked" means a different thing to a
               | health care professional: to them it means when you tell
               | 100 people to do it, most of them get better. It has
               | nothing to do with root cause or mechanism of disease or
               | any of that.
               | 
               | They know if they tell 100 people to make the diet and
               | lifestyle changes necessary, only a few will get better
               | because most people didn't go through with it. Therefore
               | in the doctor's experience it "doesn't work".
               | 
               | Congrats by the way.
        
           | aesclepius wrote:
           | > Often, people expect to do whatever they want and then go
           | to doctors to 'fix' them. It's good for doctors, but not so
           | great for you.
           | 
           | Hackernews doesn't realize they are the 0.000001% of patients
           | we see. I'd love for all my patients to make the lifestyle,
           | diet and habit changes I recommend in addition to the
           | medications I prescribe. The reality is that users here do
           | not recognize the privilege they have in terms of money,
           | agency and knowledge. The vast majority of people I see are
           | barely scraping by and have very little time/effort/privilege
           | to make the changes I would like them to undergo.
        
             | 0xcde4c3db wrote:
             | My experience has been that doctors don't actually even
             | bother to recommend lifestyle change, they just vaguely
             | cast aspersions on my lifestyle based on my weight and
             | blood pressure, and that's the end of it.
        
               | nradov wrote:
               | Many doctors have given up on recommending lifestyle
               | changes to patients because compliance is so poor. They
               | see it as a waste of time and prefer to focus on
               | interventions that seem more effective.
               | 
               | If you want to make lifestyle changes then it might be
               | more useful to consult with a dietician, personal
               | trainer, or therapist instead of a physician.
        
               | 52-6F-62 wrote:
               | I've had both experiences.
               | 
               | Like anything, it's a complex of the doctor's
               | personality, personal motivations and their own
               | contentment or lack thereof and how it manifests in their
               | work.
               | 
               | One of the finest bedside manners and wholistic
               | approaches was a doctor I'd had growing up who moved up
               | here from Kingston, Jamaica. The life he had led up until
               | his career as a GP forced him to maintain a "big picture"
               | approach.
               | 
               | One of the worst bedside manners and considerations is a
               | doctor who I can't name or point to because he's one of
               | rather high standing in Toronto. A truly brilliant
               | physician and technologist. Awful manner, poor
               | communication. That's compounded in emotional effect as
               | it's your life on the line and not theirs.
               | 
               | People are complex and some doctors prioritize their work
               | with patients, others prioritize their research, others
               | their personal finances and so on.
               | 
               | If possible, it's best just to seek out help and insight
               | elsewhere. Sometimes that second opinion doesn't change
               | anything, other times it's fundamental.
        
               | [deleted]
        
           | aaronchall wrote:
           | What are these simple routines?
        
             | scrose wrote:
             | There are many little things that depend on what you're
             | trying to address.
             | 
             | In my case, a few of the most helpful things I do now are:
             | 
             | - Focused box breathing for ~5-10 minutes several times
             | throughout the day to relieve tension in my body. I find it
             | helpful to do this to figure out what I should try and
             | address next.
             | 
             | - Walking indoors in different 'patterns' to break my body
             | out of the limping pattern it found itself in after my
             | injury.
             | 
             | - Walking indoors as normally as possible with an
             | increasing cadence. Ie. I'll walk in a straight line
             | extremely slowly as normal as possible. If there's no pain,
             | I'll turn and walk faster.
             | 
             | - Contrast baths for my foot to properly circulate blood
             | flow in my foot and reduce inflammation.
             | 
             | There are plenty of other things, but I think I'd do very
             | little justice trying to write things out. I'm still
             | essentially just a patient and learning more about this as
             | well.
        
               | edge17 wrote:
               | What are contrast baths?
        
               | cconroy wrote:
               | Probably alternating cold/hot temperatures. Probably best
               | to sit in a dry sauna and jump into a cold (very) shower.
               | Nothing beats it. You should come out feeling refreshed,
               | if not sligthly euphoric.
        
             | plebianRube wrote:
             | You'll never guess what #1 is. Click here to find out!
        
               | faeyanpiraat wrote:
               | I clicked there but nothing happened.
        
               | dominojab wrote:
               | have you subscribed?
        
           | nradov wrote:
           | Icing, and cold therapy in general, has now been pretty well
           | debunked. People like it because it feels good but if
           | anything it probably inhibits healing for most
           | musculoskeletal injuries. The book "Good to Go" by Christie
           | Aschwanden contains an accessible summary of the current
           | research.
           | 
           | https://www.goodtogobook.com/
        
       | nobrains wrote:
       | From the other article[1] linked inside this one, the traits that
       | they suspect leads to this are:
       | 
       | - optimism
       | 
       | - resilience
       | 
       | - perseverance
       | 
       | - active lifestyles
       | 
       | - engaged lifestyles
       | 
       | - having pursuits (like travel, reading, positive social
       | relationships)
       | 
       | [1] https://www.sciencealert.com/less-than-5-superagers-what-
       | the...
        
         | jasode wrote:
         | _> , the traits that they suspect leads to this are_
         | 
         | No, you can't use the phrase _" leads to this"_. It misinforms
         | the reader because that's not exactly what the researchers
         | wrote. We need to be super pedantic about this because they
         | found _correlations_ of personality traits but did not make the
         | leap to say optimism, etc were the causes. For your linked
         | article:
         | 
         |  _> "The findings suggest that superagers have unique
         | personality profiles," Rogalski said, noting that they stood
         | out for their optimism, resilience, and perseverance - as well
         | as active and engaged lifestyles, marked by pursuits like
         | travel, reading, and positive social relationships._
         | 
         | There may be another hidden _confounding variable_ that leads
         | to both the optimism and the superager memory performance.
         | (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confounding)
         | 
         | E.g. the same researcher also wrote about rare Von Economo
         | neurons (VENs)[1] that exist in higher quantities in the
         | elderly that don't have early dementia and Alzheimers. They
         | don't know if those rare VENs are _present at birth_. This
         | means it could be an candidate confounding variable that causes
         | both the optimism /resilience and protection from dementia.
         | 
         | [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5801202/
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | yqx wrote:
           | There needn't even be a confounding variable, the direction
           | of causation may simply be reversed: not personality traits
           | -> superager, but superager -> personality traits.
           | 
           | Sounds quite plausible to me that having a good memory at old
           | age leads to a more active and engaged lifestyle leading to
           | happy people that appear less neurotic and more extrovert.
        
         | Roritharr wrote:
         | These kinds of studies should always come with a trigger
         | warning: "Be aware if you are emotionally distressed when your
         | belief in the Just-World-Fallacy is threatened."
         | 
         | Joking aside, having grown up relatively poor and feeling
         | compelled to put work success above everything else to ensure
         | economic stability for my kids these things really do
         | negatively shape my expectations for the second half my life.
         | Not sure what to do about that.
        
           | graeme wrote:
           | > Not sure what to do about that.
           | 
           | Biggest things you can do are the basics:
           | 
           | * Sleep as close to eight hours a night as you can
           | 
           | * Cook healthy food
           | 
           | * Maintain a low waist circumference and maintain muscle mass
           | 
           | * Have some combo of low intensity cardio (walking etc) and
           | higher intensity stuff. A 7 min strength training circuit is
           | good here
           | 
           | The basics are surprisingly hard, the majority of north
           | american adults flunk _all_ of these. From your description
           | you may be missing at least the majority.
           | 
           | That's ok, you have a clear priority in your life. The point
           | is, examine that list and your own life/work schedule, and
           | see if _one_ of those can be improved within your existing
           | framework.
           | 
           | Usually this is possible for _one_ of them and they actually
           | work together. Improving any of these gives your body its
           | best shot at maintaining itself over the long haul despite
           | work stress.
        
             | 0xcde4c3db wrote:
             | > Maintain a low waist circumference and maintain muscle
             | mass
             | 
             | Is there a reliable, proven (i.e. actual science, not
             | broscience) way to do both of these at the same time
             | without drugs in middle-age or elderly people? I was under
             | the impression that this was an unsoved problem because
             | many (if not most) people undergo age-related changes that
             | cause them to put on fat way more easily than muscle.
        
             | quattrofan wrote:
             | Maintain low muscle mass? Er no strength training has many
             | benefits including helping to maintain bone mass but also
             | losing muscle mass as we age leads to feebleness and all
             | the negative consequences of that. That doesn't mean
             | pumping iron and taking steroids but just maintaining a
             | decent level of strength.
        
               | xphx wrote:
               | >> Maintain (a low waist circumference) and (muscle mass)
        
               | mromanuk wrote:
               | The ambiguity of natural language, an hypothetical
               | natural language future compiler (grammar checker) could
               | get all these, Grammarly can't.
        
               | graeme wrote:
               | I can see how that was confusing so I changed the wording
               | to maintain a low waist circumference and maintain muscle
               | mass
        
             | kiba wrote:
             | Your advice on sleep should be modified to sleep to as
             | close to high quality as you can. Some people are going to
             | naturally sleep less and some more.
        
               | jcfrei wrote:
               | Some people also have a biphasic sleep pattern rather
               | than a monophasic one. For them sleeping 6 hours at night
               | and one in the afternoon might be better.
        
               | graeme wrote:
               | The gene allowing some people to sleep less is
               | exceedingly rare. The vast majority need between 7-8
               | hours sleep.
               | 
               | And for most people sleep quality improves as you sleep
               | longer. "Sleep only high quality" is not really
               | actionable advice unless someone is taking sleeping pills
               | or drinking before bed or actively doing something to
               | impair sleep quality.
        
               | formerly_proven wrote:
               | > actively doing something to impair sleep quality.
               | 
               | Like reading hacker news in the evening.
        
               | hindsightbias wrote:
               | We're overcompensating on the cognitive engagement part.
        
           | azhu wrote:
           | You have adapted your emotional processing towards the belief
           | that work/financial success supersedes all else. This belief,
           | and the set of beliefs underneath it, are reasonable, though
           | incomplete. Being completely adapted to an incomplete set of
           | beliefs is what leads to emotional/existential distress. Just
           | add to your belief set and adapt yourself to a more complete
           | set of beliefs.
        
           | hereme888 wrote:
           | Giving your all for the next generation is inspiring. Minimum
           | economic stability is so important, as is being healthy and
           | able to enjoy life with others. Don't really know what to
           | say, except I hope that over time you're able to stick to the
           | known foundations of body and mental health (that I know of):
           | good sleep, aerobic exercise, healthy diet, fulfilling
           | relationships.
        
         | puchatek wrote:
         | I was afraid it was gonna be stuff like that. High stress
         | levels are bad for forming memories.
        
       | hereme888 wrote:
       | Resisting brain shrinkage: reminds me of a somewhat different but
       | related report I heard in the past of a group of nuns who seemed
       | to age very well such that their cognitive functions remained
       | seemingly strong into old age. They donated their brains to
       | research, and upon study significant shrinkage was found similar
       | to some degree of Alzheimer's. I think the conclusion was that
       | because they kept themselves so active and busy, whatever
       | synaptic connections were necessary for their daily functioning
       | were kept strong, alongside important life memories. Another
       | strong case for how "retirement" is harmful.
       | 
       | Generally, the rate at which memory synapses weakens is similar
       | across the general population (stability of a memory synapse), so
       | for super-agers it is probably genetic.
       | 
       | I may not have a super-ager brain, but as a lifelong learner and
       | brain-health lover I've placed all my significant memories into a
       | spaced-repetition program I use for everything, and thus am able
       | to recall at will all sorts of important memories in life. I'm
       | keeping my important synapses strong.
       | 
       | There's another category besides super-agers: people with
       | hyperthymesia: "a condition that leads people to be able to
       | remember an abnormally large number of their life experiences in
       | vivid detail. It is extraordinarily rare, with only about 60
       | people in the world having been diagnosed with the condition as
       | of 2021." There's a documentary about these people. You ask them:
       | what important event happened in your life on January 7th, 1980,
       | and they can answer it accurately.
        
         | fouc wrote:
         | I'm curious how do you judge which memories are significant
         | enough to put in your spaced-repetition program?
        
           | hereme888 wrote:
           | It's usually something that brings up very positive emotions,
           | like childhood memories, wedding/honeymoon pictures, me at
           | various stages of life, important transition periods, people
           | I want to remember well, etc.
           | 
           | For the "negative", I've mostly resorted to journaling in
           | ways that help me self-discover and resolve the past, such as
           | SelfAuthoring.com exercises that I continually write and re-
           | write from time to time (I bought and copied the exercises to
           | my local drive).
        
         | mikewarot wrote:
         | Spaced repetition program - I think I have had one by accident,
         | organizing and tagging all the photos I've taken since 1997. If
         | I took a picture of it, I can likely tell you all about the
         | events surrounding it.
         | 
         | My wife tells me things we did, and there aren't photos of
         | those occasions, so I know I'm not remembering everything.
         | 
         | The photo albums our parents and grandparents had were spaced
         | repetition.
        
           | hereme888 wrote:
           | That's awesome. Good thoughts. The attention and strength of
           | emotions really do affect the strength of memory synapses,
           | and you got it so right in that the most common form of
           | spaced repetition is something we all experience: recalling
           | and thinking about memories, including re-opening photo
           | albums.
        
         | kiba wrote:
         | London taxi driver has enlarged hippocampus so it isn't
         | impossible to make changes that's big enough to have noticeable
         | impact on your brain structure.
         | 
         | I haven't seen anything that indicates that is also true for
         | episodic memory though.
        
         | jchanimal wrote:
         | Which spaced-repetition program?
        
           | hereme888 wrote:
           | SuperMemo.
           | 
           | Not advertising it, but I've found it's the best for my needs
           | despite the effort it takes to stick to it.
           | 
           | I would liken it to an average computer user making the
           | effort to learn and stick to Emacs because they really
           | believe it will pay off in the long term. And SuperMemo sure
           | has paid off for me.
        
       | morpheos137 wrote:
       | How were the individuals' baselines assessed? Some people have
       | exceptionally good memories. It would not be suprising if these
       | traits often persisted into old age in some of such individuals.
       | For example a person with a savant pmemory at 25 might have the
       | memory of an average 25 year when at 85. That would not suprise
       | me. That said memory is not all that it is cracked up to be. When
       | I was young I had an exceptional memory for facts. It hasn't
       | helped me too much in adult life due to other psychosocial
       | deficits and bad luck and evironment. There are different forms
       | of memory. My emotional and autobiographic memory is sometimes so
       | bad it is weird. Like many life events don't leave too strong an
       | impression.
        
         | barcoder wrote:
         | Interesting point that there are different forms of memory. A
         | certain smell can take me back to a kindergarten memory.
         | 
         | Music seems to be another form of memory that resists memory
         | loss even amongst Alzheimer patients.*
         | 
         | * https://www.dementiauk.org/music-therapy/
        
         | cleanpool wrote:
         | Hey man, you didn't have a means of contact in your profile but
         | I just wanted to say thank you.
         | 
         | Mods or voters, please let this comment remain unflagged so
         | morpheos137 can receive it. I have no other way to reach out to
         | him.
         | 
         | You commented to me recently re: self termination plans. You
         | told me that I'd be cleaning the gene pool by self-terminating.
         | 
         | Thanks for that. I've done a lot of reflection in the days
         | since then. You're right. I have decided to proceed with self-
         | termination and remove myself from the gene pool.
         | 
         | Don't feel bad. It's just your view, one that I now fully agree
         | with. Thank you again for helping me to make this decision.
         | 
         | Take care, and I hope you procreate widely with your superior,
         | healthy genes, ape.
        
         | tgv wrote:
         | I don't think there can be a baseline. They would have had to
         | scan a couple of hundred people 60 years ago to establish it.
         | 
         | Plus, the results are on a very small group. It's difficult for
         | me to imagine that fMRI can reliably show differences. And it's
         | also noticeable that they couch the effect in very vague terms:
         | "similar pattern", "more youthful". That's a lot of freedom to
         | interpret a few so much data.
         | 
         | That they've found a bio-marker sounds implausible to me: all
         | they've found is a correlation with a memory task that can't be
         | measured without applying that task.
        
         | easygenes wrote:
         | Yes, I know a person who is an adept computer scientist and
         | well regarded author, yet they are quite frustrated that they
         | have such a hard time remembering people by their voice and
         | face that only people they are constantly close with are
         | familiar.
        
           | nly wrote:
           | I can remember technical details from decades ago but often
           | forget that I've met people socially just a couple of years
           | ago.
           | 
           | Me and my partner just had a discussion this morning where
           | she claimed I had met one of her friends, and her friends
           | long term partner, in a bar. We apparently spent he whole
           | evening together chatting. I remember nothing of this evening
           | (and I wasn't drinking).
        
           | sharken wrote:
           | I also find that remembering peoples names take some time and
           | effort.
           | 
           | On the other hand i am quite good at relating bits of
           | information, which is useful for problem solving, e.g. where
           | was something similar seen before.
           | 
           | This relation ability also works for words, such as your use
           | of "adept". That relates to Battle Chess and then another old
           | game called "Archon II: Adept", which is a bit like chess.
           | 
           | Granted, it's not always useful things that come up this way.
           | 
           | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archon_II:_Adept
        
       | carlsborg wrote:
       | Some people have abs and muscle mass well into their 60s and 70s.
       | But that's because they go to the gym and train hard everyday.
       | 
       | Maybe it's the same with the brain.
        
         | nradov wrote:
         | It's certainly possible for elderly people to maintain a high
         | level of fitness through intense training. But some of them are
         | heavily geared. I see guys at the gym or at endurance races
         | where physique and performance are obviously not natural. And
         | I'm not judging them, maybe the tradeoffs are worthwhile?
        
         | kofejnik wrote:
         | Steroids
        
           | giantandroids wrote:
           | which is exactly what I will do at that age.
        
           | smileysteve wrote:
           | There are positive outcomes from creatine and l arginine
           | studies; but also some hormone stabilization post 35 too.
        
           | krono wrote:
           | Steroids to keep your body strong.
           | 
           | Antidepressants to keep your brain young.
           | 
           | Laxatives to more easily get rid of your fast food dung.
           | 
           | b-Blockers for making sure your blood pressure isn't wrong.
           | 
           | And of course deodorant: fresh as a daisy, even without a
           | shower because you were too lazy!
           | 
           | Pharmaceuticals, for when you just can't.
        
             | bserge wrote:
             | A hand/chest mounted device to conveniently inject those at
             | the right time would be great :D
        
           | bserge wrote:
           | Testosterone, yeah. Many say it's much better than wasting
           | away for a decade longer.
        
           | ceilingcorner wrote:
           | Where can I buy the brain steroids?
        
             | frozenport wrote:
             | Same place as the dick pills!
        
             | Yajirobe wrote:
             | Get prescribed Adderall
        
               | bserge wrote:
               | Good luck with that
        
       | mastrsushi wrote:
       | So they'll forever regret going to college?
        
       | giantg2 wrote:
       | Is it possible that they were even better when they were younger
       | and this is their aging process?
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | dnumjar wrote:
       | Cut them up! Cut them up!
        
       | onion2k wrote:
       | I don't have one of those. My memory is awful. Fortunately
       | though, realising this is what pushed me to get better at writing
       | documentation. I write it for my own benefit, and everyone else
       | on my team also benefits.
        
         | samus wrote:
         | The best time to test your documentation is when onboarding new
         | people. Unfortunately, this means that a concerted effort to
         | update and expand documentation should be made _before_ new
         | people start. Else, they will waste their and the team 's time
         | on things that don't require an external perspective to fix.
        
         | dspillett wrote:
         | Similar here. Though maybe we _do_ have one of those.
         | 
         | At 42 I have the memory of _me_ at 25. My memory was terrible
         | back then too.
        
           | criddell wrote:
           | Over the years, I have written in a journal from time-to-
           | time. When I go back and read what I have written, I'm
           | reminded of all kinds of things I had completely forgotten.
           | It makes me wish that I had established a strong habit of
           | writing every day or two when I was younger.
           | 
           | I still suck at it though. I haven't written anything since
           | the spring.
        
           | 123pie123 wrote:
           | >At 42 I have the memory of me at 25. My memory was terrible
           | back then too.
           | 
           | Same here, I've always had bad memory, I've learnt to live
           | with it better as I've got older.
           | 
           | I always (or mostly) think of my future self for current
           | actions, ie I try and predict what I would be thinking in the
           | future - eg If I put things down, I choose places where my
           | future self would guess to look. same for my documentation or
           | actions lists etc..
           | 
           | over time this makes things extremely efficient
        
           | RGamma wrote:
           | Did you find out why? Tried mitigation techniques?
           | 
           | My fact memory is working relatively well (passive
           | recall/recognition much better than active recall/production)
           | but my autobiographical memory is almost non-existent. It's
           | really bothering me.
           | 
           | I stopped consumption of disjointed media on social media-
           | like feeds (only exception: HN) because that was worsening it
           | to no one's surprise. Maybe a full digital detox to the
           | extent work allows is in order?
           | 
           | What else could I try?
        
             | wizzwizz4 wrote:
             | Writing an autobiography.
        
         | Damogran6 wrote:
         | At risk of a slight tangent, I look at the vast majority of the
         | documentation I wrote over the first 25-30 years of my career
         | and all of it is defunct, and largely unread.
        
         | whatshisface wrote:
         | I'm so bad that I write documentation... during coding
         | interviews. It's worked so far.
        
       | antisocial wrote:
       | Cannot recommend this podcast enough -
       | https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2D2CMWXMOVWx7giW1n3LIg
       | 
       | You may find actionable protocols that greatly improve your
       | quality of life and prepare you for aging.
        
         | antisocial wrote:
         | The Huberman Lab Podcast discusses neuroscience--how our brain
         | and its connections with the organs of our body controls our
         | perceptions, our behaviors, and our health. The podcast also
         | discusses tools for measuring and changing how our nervous
         | system works.
         | 
         | Dr. Andrew Huberman is a tenured Professor of Neurobiology and
         | Ophthalmology at Stanford University School of Medicine. His
         | laboratory studies neural regeneration, neuroplasticity, and
         | brain states such as stress, focus, fear, and optimal
         | performance. For more than 20 years, Dr. Huberman has
         | consistently published original research findings and review
         | articles in top-level peer-reviewed journals, including Nature,
         | Cell, Neuron, and Current Biology. He is a regular member of
         | several National Institutes of Health review panels and a
         | Fellow of the McKnight Foundation and the Pew Charitable
         | Trusts. Dr. Huberman regularly consults for technology
         | development companies, professional athletic organizations, and
         | various units of the United States and Canadian Special
         | Operations. His bulldog's name is Costello.
        
       | submeta wrote:
       | One thing that helps keep the brain fresh: Meeting and talking to
       | younger people. And intelligent people. Former'll keep you
       | mentally fresh, latter will challenge your thinking.
        
       | jb775 wrote:
       | > 71 percent of superagers smoke
       | 
       | Possibly something with how nicotine/tobacco interacts with the
       | brain?
        
         | axismundi wrote:
         | It works on the acetylcholine system, and is implicated in
         | cognitive enhancement.
        
           | danwills wrote:
           | Yes! nicotine by itself at normal dosage is a fairly mild
           | nootropic (with cognitive 'benefits') similar in ways to
           | caffiene or theobromine (in chocolate).. I don't think anyone
           | should have to explain why they might use any of these things
           | as part of their daily life. (Apologies! I'm just
           | automatically defensive about this coz I live in Australia
           | where the law is still "a bit slow" (ie still quite
           | backwards) regarding nicotine).
           | 
           | Nicotine currently has a very negative reputation globally
           | because of humanity's recent past emphatuation with igniting
           | and inhaling tobacco smoke, (which certainly can cause lung-
           | trouble!) but I think the general stigma is currently too
           | strong around nicotine itself.. it's just not that potent
           | (psychoactiveness-wise), nor has much if any overdose-
           | potential, nor toxicity (compared to other common things
           | even!) "So what" if ppl want to ingest it, I say!
           | 
           | And surely no surprise at all to see that people with the
           | best-functioning brains in old age were still seeking out
           | these nootropic levers! I'd bet they probably also had
           | ethanol, tea, coffee, chocolate, etc (etc!) too.. (whichever
           | ones worked for them) to keep things interesting!
           | 
           | Maybe consciousness has some kind of self-existence validity-
           | check built into it, the output of which fundamentally
           | affects the physical outcome, beyond lifestyle, or genes?
        
             | reducesuffering wrote:
             | So are you vaping or using nicotine spray purely for
             | nootropic reasons?
        
             | steffan wrote:
             | Other potential benefits notwithstanding, nicotine is most
             | definitely toxic:
             | 
             | https://fscimage.fishersci.com/msds/96314.htm
             | 
             | https://www.acmt.net/Nicotine.html
        
             | Koshkin wrote:
             | > _emphatuation_
             | 
             | Emphatic infatuation?
        
         | yipbub wrote:
         | Where'd you find this? The study?
         | 
         | I ctrl+f'ed a bunch of the links and I didn't see the word
         | smoke.
        
           | jb775 wrote:
           | A reference from the article:
           | https://www.sciencealert.com/less-than-5-superagers-what-
           | the...
        
           | virgulino wrote:
           | https://www.sciencealert.com/less-than-5-superagers-what-
           | the...
        
           | RandomThrow321 wrote:
           | It's in one of the linked articles. It also mentions alcohol
           | consumption.
           | 
           | https://www.sciencealert.com/less-than-5-superagers-what-
           | the...
        
         | powerapple wrote:
         | That's probably is just the percentage of smokers at their
         | time. Smoking is getting less popular now, I remember when I
         | was small, many people smoke.
        
           | ip26 wrote:
           | While that's an important angle, the highest it ever got in
           | the US was ~45%
        
           | meowface wrote:
           | Bayes strikes again.
        
           | crooked-v wrote:
           | Also see how maps of "X by population" are actually mostly
           | just population maps.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | pizzaknife wrote:
       | I have the mentality of a 13yr old, does that count?
        
       | Tade0 wrote:
       | My grandfather apparently is such a person. Currently 94 and as
       | lucid as he was 25 years ago and with an amazing memory at that,
       | which he shows off by reciting poetry he learned in the course of
       | the last 85 years or so.
       | 
       | Even if I inherited this trait and lived that long, I doubt I
       | would be able to repeat this - he's been very active throughout
       | his whole life and neither drinks nor smokes.
        
         | andai wrote:
         | The article linked to another one with more detail:
         | 
         | > Superagers are more likely to be extroverts and less likely
         | to be neurotic than others, and it looks like their active
         | lifestyles aren't necessarily healthy in other ways. In at
         | least one study, 71 percent of superagers smoked, while 83
         | percent drank alcohol regularly.
         | 
         | https://www.sciencealert.com/less-than-5-superagers-what-the...
        
       | Damogran6 wrote:
       | I've had some short term memory issues (I'm 51) that seem to,
       | more than not, be attributed to working from home during COVID.
       | As we're coming out of it, I see it gradually diminishing with
       | the hopes of doing new things, getting out of the house, and
       | doing 'a little more now rather than waiting for an eventuality
       | that might never happen.'
       | 
       | I think it's a combination of a lack of stimuli, anxiety with
       | work (I'm far from alone in our local employment where folks are
       | underutilized and 'waiting to proceed', and a rut between the
       | bed, the couch and the home office. I was (and am) getting
       | exercise, but there needs to be more than that to continue to be
       | mentally happy.
       | 
       | I think some of it was a psychological over-attribution to normal
       | forgetfulness...people forget things...older people can
       | proportionally forget more things...it's not [necessarily] early
       | onset dementia, not during a pandemic.
        
         | vsareto wrote:
         | Does opening windows help at all? If so, might be the air in
         | your home also contributing
        
           | Damogran6 wrote:
           | Quite possibly. There were some contributing factors (massive
           | change in senior leadership, followed by an immediate re-org
           | that stretched out over months where a majority of staff
           | didn't know their roles) that make it hard to put my thumb on
           | any one contributing factor.
           | 
           | But a small environment, with no long-term goals + the sheer
           | terror of a pandemic and unstable government fed by the media
           | machine...isn't healthy.
        
       | masterbit wrote:
       | As this comes out very late in their life, seems not be able to
       | influence the natural selection process in human evolution.
        
         | amitport wrote:
         | So, maybe natural selection works like this:
         | 
         | Smarter elders -> more successful tribe (more food, more
         | territory, better group-fitness!)
        
       | agumonkey wrote:
       | What about emotions ? My brain can function but a great deal of
       | it less colorful than 20 somethings, which in the end feels a bit
       | moot.
        
       | rootsudo wrote:
       | Blood transfusions really do seem more and more viable, if you
       | don't mind finding young blood (literally) and doing weekly, or
       | monthly transfusions.
        
         | bitwize wrote:
         | Oh, sure, because if you hang around here and are any good at
         | programming, surely you can afford your own blood boy. Right.
        
         | whatshisface wrote:
         | How is this article related to blood transfusions?
        
           | joshuaissac wrote:
           | Young blood transfusions are hypothesised to slow down and
           | reverse aging of the brain.
           | 
           | https://www.simonsfoundation.org/2020/11/10/searching-for-
           | th...
        
             | [deleted]
        
       | breck wrote:
       | Anyone know if psychedelics have been tried as a treatment for
       | Alzheimer's? Those seem like a fountain of youth, in a way, in
       | the brain.
        
         | kortex wrote:
         | There's some interesting prospectives if you just search for
         | 'psychedelics alzheimers'. Not a lot of direct research
         | unfortunately, due to legality/stigma (which fortunately is
         | ameliorating in recent years).
         | 
         | However, it's reasonable to believe it can help. Dosing of
         | LSD/psilocybin (in rats) in moderation has shown to increase
         | synaptogenesis, prospective and retrospective learning, BDNF
         | expression (in some regions), and other related effects.
         | 
         | The currently most scientifically supported benefits revolve
         | around anxiety and depression. Psychedelics have a robust
         | effect against stress, anxiety, depression, and related
         | neuroses. We know these neuroses have detrimental effects on
         | cognition and life quality. Lowering stress levels in aging
         | folks is likely neurobeneficial in general.
         | 
         | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnsyn.2020.0003...
        
       | ipiz0618 wrote:
       | I recently watched a video about Martha Argerich [1], one of the
       | most virtuosic pianists when she was young, still performing
       | entire concertos from memory in her 80s. She had cancer _twice_ ,
       | recovered, and remains a top performer in classical music. It's
       | amazing how some people could retain so much of their brain's
       | function as they age, while others start to degenerate in their
       | early 30s.
       | 
       | [1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYkQleTcck8
        
       | theshadowknows wrote:
       | I need to work on my memory and brain health overall because it
       | acts sporadically. I can remember my first memory...I was maybe 2
       | or 3 and I was playing with blocks on the floor of our living
       | room and I thought to myself "have I ever talked before?" and
       | then I thought "I should ask mom, but it would be weird to talk
       | while also asking if I've ever done it before.."..it's a very
       | confusing memory...
       | 
       | But half the time my short term memory is nearly useless so I
       | have to write everything down. So much static from my internal
       | monologs, constantly talking over each other. It's exhausting
       | sometimes. So I just write down everything..what I'm about to do,
       | what I was just doing, what I just thought to do next week...all
       | goes in the notebook.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | beautifulfreak wrote:
       | Mindcrowd is one organization exploring memory "to advance
       | Alzheimer's research". Older participants with high scores on its
       | online memory test are sent a blood sample kit for DNA profiling.
       | https://mindcrowd.org
        
       | Helmut10001 wrote:
       | The sister of my grandmother is like this. Travelled the world,
       | stuck in San Francisco at some time, now 97 years old. She is
       | connected via tablet, computer, smartphone, and we discuss world
       | politics every week. She frequently changes her point of view
       | based on new information, which is incredible to me. She is able
       | to reflect, question herself and others and it is entirely beyond
       | me how her brain can work like this with her age.
        
       | irrational wrote:
       | My 98 year old grandmother is still as sharp as a tack. She can
       | remember specific dates that things happened nearly a century
       | ago. I can barely remember what I did yesterday.
        
         | bryanrasmussen wrote:
         | as you age your long term memory tends to stay functioning, it
         | is the short term memory formation that has problems.
        
           | dzhiurgis wrote:
           | Also prioritisation. Maybe you don't remember yesterday
           | because it wasn't important.
        
       | hbogert wrote:
       | like 25-year olds? Give me my memory which I had when I was 3-8
       | years old, I can still 'taste' the sunshine through green
       | sunscreens we had in elementary school. The faces of teachers and
       | fellow scholars so vivid.
       | 
       | Anybody else have that experience that once you're 20+, your
       | brain is full and only x-amount of stuff is retained per day. I
       | sometimes don't remember what I had for dinner the day before,
       | but I remember some esoteric option to a one-time used
       | application on the commandline from 2 weeks ago. Scary, because
       | it makes me look ultra-dumb for everyday stuff which I have to do
       | in a normal house-hold.
        
         | ragesh wrote:
         | This happens to me, too. At some level, I think it's a function
         | of my mind deciding to only retain what's novel and filter out
         | the day-to-day noise. Perhaps my dinner from two days ago was
         | simply not remarkable enough to remember. But the 8 year old me
         | probably found every day to be a new and wondrous experience.
        
         | daniellarusso wrote:
         | I kind of think that is your subconscious not needing to put a
         | bunch of effort into 'storing' recent meals versus prioritizing
         | 'memorizing' tools you have used and how to use them.
         | 
         | I have vivid memories from preschool, but, ask me what happened
         | last week, and I will need to check my bash history. j/k
        
         | mlboss wrote:
         | What you experienced in your younger days is totally possible
         | at anytime of your life. You just need to quite down the
         | thinking mind.
         | 
         | Mind has a habit of either ruminating about the past or
         | imagining the future. Once you quiet it down the NOW appears
         | with all its shininess and vivid colors. Meditation helps a
         | lot. I had a realization 10 years back and after it I can
         | switch my brain to NOW anytime.
         | 
         | Meditation is a good way to achieve it. I got this ability
         | after reading "Power of Now" by Echary Tolle.
        
       | bitwize wrote:
       | I have anecdata to suggest that brains are like muscles. If you
       | work them, they'll stay in good shape for longer.
       | 
       | Relative #1 started having "senior moments" a while back but then
       | he got an engineering contract job. Once he was engaged with his
       | life's work again, the "senior moments" went away and he was
       | sharp as ever.
       | 
       | Relative #2 retired from work and just started puttering around
       | the house, then went into a deep depression and is now in the
       | early stages of dementia. Without a "life's work" or even a hobby
       | she's passionate about to keep her mind engaged, her memory is in
       | gradual but noticeable decline.
        
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