of maple trees have crashed together in one space, whipped by an F5 tornado.
These are the structures that change so flexibly when the brain learns something new. These are the structures that become damaged as we age. However, there’s another fascinating reason that the damage of aging is incredibly individual.
The brain doesn’t just react to changes in the outside environment. Remarkably, the brain can respond to changes it observes happening to itself. How does it do that? We’ve no idea. We do know that if it senses the changes are likely to be negative, it can create work-arounds to fix the problem.
Cells erode, lose connections, or simply stop functioning. These alterations could easily lead to behavioral changes, but they don’t always. The reason is that the brain kicks into compensatory overdrive and reroutes itself according to a new plan.
The major culprit in aging is a hot topic. Some scientists speculate about immune system deficiency (the immunologic theory). Others blame dysfunctional energy systems (the free radical hypothesis; mitochondrial theory). Others point to systemic inflammation. Who is correct? The answer is all of them. Or none of them. Each hypothesis has been found to explain only certain aspects of aging. The sum total is that many systems get hit as we grow old, but which ones sign off first is individually experienced.
There are nearly as many ways to transit through the aging process as there are people on the planet. It’s a theme as familiar as shopping for jeans: one size does not fit all. Discernible generalizable patterns do exist, and studying the brain is a great way to see some of them. But to get an accurate view, we’re going to have to gaze at an occasionally cloudy statistical mirror. It’s okay. We’ll still look fabulous. We’ll just be a little older.
Our goal is to learn how to create lifestyles that will continually grease the biological gears controlling how long we live. And how well we live. Fortunately for us, geroscience is well funded. Scientists have discovered many cool things we can do as our brains age. All of these discoveries over the years add up to one thing: science is literally changing our minds about the optimal care and feeding of the brain. All of it is captivating. A great deal of it is unexpected. One of the most delightful is the subject of our first chapter. It’s the jovial power of having lots of friends.
SUMMARY
• Geroscience is the field of inquiry dedicated to studying how we age, what causes us to age, and how we can reduce the corrosive effects of aging.
• Aging is mostly due to the breakdown of our biological maintenance departments, our body’s increasing inability to repair the day-to-day wear and tear adequately.
• Today, we humans are living much longer than we have for the majority of our existence. We are the only species capable of living past our prime.
• The human brain is so adaptable that it reacts to changes not only in its environment but also within itself. Your aging brain is capable of compensating for breakdowns in its own systems as you get older.
brain rule
Be a friend to others, and let others be a friend to you
My favorite kind of pain is in my stomach when my friends make me laugh too hard.
—Anonymous
At some point, you have to realize that some people can stay in your heart but not in your life.
—Sandi Lynn, author of Forever Black
HERE’S A SENTENCE YOU probably don’t want to hear from Dad an hour after your wedding: “I’ll tell you what. If it lasts more than a year, I’ll give you a hundred bucks.”
Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened to Karl Gfatter, a story he enthusiastically relates in a nursing home, wheelchair bound now, his loving bride at his side. And Dad had to pay up, probably many times over, for Karl and Elizabeth have stayed together for more than seven decades. Karl related this comment to the local media, who dropped by as he and Elizabeth were celebrating a recommitment ceremony in honor of their seventy-fifth wedding anniversary. They were surrounded by residents, staff, clergy. And rice. Plus lots of joy, smiles, and even some tears, creating the feeling you’d just walked onto the set of It’s a Wonderful Life. Both were radiant, bright as buttons. “We eloped because they didn’t want us to get married yet. They said we were too young!” Elizabeth laughed.
What Karl and Elizabeth may not know is that having a long marriage—and a room full of friends—is helping to keep their brains young. Friendships, and the social activities that surround them, are the major focus of this chapter. We’ll discuss the cognitive power of maintaining friendships over many years, along with the opposite: loneliness. Then we’ll dance our way toward a surprisingly beneficial brain booster.
Socializing: vitamins for the brain
You’d have a hard time finding someone more socially active—and intellectually lively—than wealthy heiress and arts patron Brooke Astor. By the year 2000, she was New York royalty, married to a man whose father actually died on the Titanic. Along with three of her closest friends—fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert, former opera singer Kitty Carlisle, and fashion designer Pauline Trigère—Brooke tore through a social schedule that required four changes of clothing a day. Lunch at a downtown café, then a board meeting at the Museum of Modern Art (she was a trustee), an evening concert at Carnegie, followed by a benefit dinner, ending with late drinks, returning home in a comet tail of paparazzi flashbulbs.
Brooke kept a social schedule that could leave a twentysomething personal secretary exhausted. And did—which is in great contrast to the physical ages of the women in this smart, lively quartet. Kitty, the youngest of the bunch, turned ninety that year. Pauline was ninety-one; Eleanor, ninety-six. Brooke was ninety-eight years old.
Did their age, social activity, and intellectual vigor have anything to do with one another? The answer, to the acclaim of elderly partygoers everywhere, is yes. Social interactions are like vitamins and minerals for aging brains, with ridiculously powerful implications. Even socializing over the Internet provides benefits.
The studies are anchored in the safe harbor of peer-reviewed research. The first set of studies established a solid correlation between social interactions and cognition. Researcher Bryan James, an epidemiologist with the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center, assessed the typical cognitive function and social interactivity of 1,140 seniors without dementia. He scored their social interactivity, then measured their rate of global cognitive decline over a twelve-year period. For the group that socialized the most, the rate of cognitive decline was 70 percent less than for those who socialized the least.
Other researchers focused on specific types of cognition and found virtually the same thing. One famous study looked at rates of memory decline in social isolates versus social butterflies, examining a staggering 16,600 people over six years. Memory decline of the Brooke Astors was half that of the shut-ins. A flurry of other findings confirmed a robust correlation between social interactions and cognitive health.
Even better, the next set of studies looked at causation, not just correlation. They measured people’s baseline cognition, introduced some form of socialization, then remeasured cognition. One intervention showed a cognitive boost in processing speed and working memory with as little as ten minutes of social interaction. Like a public television fund-raiser, data linking socialization with brain power turns out to be remarkably persistent.
The interactions don’t have to be within a long-term relationship, and they don’t necessarily refer to the number of friends one has. Researchers who study this stuff use words like “positive social interactions” (generally