Yahoo – AFP,
Kerry Sheridan, 3 Nov 2015
Miami (AFP) - Mary Helen Abbott, 77, paints her lips bright pink, still smokes the occasional cigarette, keeps up on all the gossip at the retirement home and wears a short skirt to fitness class.
Regular
exercise and a Mediterranean diet are known to help foster healthy
aging (AFP
Photo/Federica Narancio)
|
Miami (AFP) - Mary Helen Abbott, 77, paints her lips bright pink, still smokes the occasional cigarette, keeps up on all the gossip at the retirement home and wears a short skirt to fitness class.
She giggles
as the aerobics instructor shouts -- "Swagger! Like you are going to meet
someone famous!" -- then she and a dozen seniors throw shoulders back,
lift their knees high and strut around the exercise studio.
Abbott is
what scientists refer to as a "super-ager," and she is taking part in
a $3.2 million study that aims to uncover the secrets to staying sharp and
healthy into old age.
While some
hunt for medications to treat or prevent dementia, others, like University of
Miami neuropsychologist David Loewenstein, are interested in why some people
are spared altogether.
"I
study Alzheimer's disease, but if we want to unlock the mysteries of the brain
we also have to know why some people age successfully," said Loewenstein.
The
five-year study funded by the National Institutes of Health is open to people
age 63 to 100 who have not been diagnosed with dementia, and who are either in
good mental shape or have early signs of memory failure, known as mild
cognitive decline.
Loewenstein
is particularly intrigued with how some people seem to be able to fend off
memory loss, whether by genetic, environmental or other means.
He cites
studies involving autopsies on people 85 and above -- a population in which
about one in three suffers from dementia.
Nearly
another third of this age group have post-mortems that reveal significant
hallmarks of dementia -- known as plaques and tangles in the brain -- but
seemed just fine while alive.
"How
can people function at these higher levels? Science has not been able to answer
that," said Loewenstein.
"And
that is what we are trying to figure out."
Staying
busy
Of the 100
people enrolled in Loewenstein's study so far, more than 40 live at East Ridge,
a retirement village that resembles a typical suburban neighborhood in south
Florida, with wild peacocks roaming beneath the palm trees, people driving
around the manicured grounds on golf carts, and rows of single-story homes
divided into multiple apartment units.
Such
tranquility does not come cheap. Residents must pay $111,000 up front, then a
monthly rent of $2,700 or more, depending on the size of their living space.
Soon after
arriving seven years ago, Gwen North, a retired kindergarten teacher who
appears decades younger than her age of 85, took on the responsibility of
running the thrift store.
"I
work probably six days a week," she said, happily.
At age 86,
her husband Art is known as the go-to-guy around town -- perpetually ready to
chat, share information, or fix electronics that have broken.
Art and
Gwen have already taken memory tests and are giving samples of their spinal
fluid so that it can be studied for the earliest biological markers of aging.
They have even arranged to donate their brains for further study after they
die.
'Exercise
in a pill'
So what has
kept them young?
"Staying
busy. And good genes," said Gwen.
"Just
working. And my wife," added Art.
It turns
out, there is scientific data to back up their claims.
"We
have known for a long time that people in the workforce are better than people
out of work," said Laura Carstensen, founding director of the Stanford
University Center on Longevity, addressing a forum on aging at the National
Academy of Medicine last month in Washington.
"Work
-- paid or unpaid -- may improve cognitive functioning."
Regular
exercise and a Mediterranean diet are also known to help foster healthy aging.
"Geriatricians
I know say that if we could put exercise in a pill form it would be the most sought-after
drug on the market," she said.
Social
connections
Abbott
confesses that prior to entering the retirement home, she was not doing so
well. After her husband died, she lost weight and felt lonely.
"One
of the big reasons I like being here is I got tired of eating by myself,"
said Abbott.
She clearly
thrives on social contact. Now, she plays golf every Monday and rides the bus
to church on weekends.
Abbott
leads the welcoming committee and knows everyone, from the gay couple who just
moved in, to the woman in her 90s who nearly died but is now lifting weights
again in exercise class, to the woman with the raven hair who had a tryst with
a doctor 20 years her senior, then married him, and has stayed married to him
for some 40 years.
She
recounts these vignettes without malice, exuding pure delight at knowing the
details of others' lives.
There's
some science behind this, too.
"Epidemiological
studies show that people with a lifetime of cognitively stimulating activities
and social connections are much less at risk for cognitive decline as they
age," said Loewenstein.
Economic
burden
Of course,
it is impossible to ignore the economics of healthy aging. Many of the
residents at East Ridge are educated and white. They saved their earnings,
invested well and benefited from the boom in real estate prices.
The poor
are often more prone to the ravages of aging. Research also shows that
African-Americans and Hispanics suffer disproportionately higher rates of
dementia than the country's whites.
With cases
of dementia in the United States set to triple, reaching 132 million by 2050,
some experts warn the disease could bankrupt major world economies and cripple
health systems.
But
Carstensen believes society could also benefit from a new perspective, one that
doesn't automatically conflate aging with illness.
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