Will You be a SuperAger with Me?

Will You be a SuperAger with Me?

To be young and free. To be vibrant and lively. To feel fully, and age gracefully.  These are some of our deepest desires as we look ahead. Our youth represents some of our best moments and most of us hopelessly wish we could freeze ourselves in this young, vibrant, full life we live now. Unfortunately, staying young forever is not possible. In our society, old age is associated with dependency, illness, and a slew of doctors’ visits. Lately, researchers have been studying SuperAgers. This group of men and women “age successfully”. Old age is associated with dementia and Alzheimer’s but this group of people seem to miraculously miss those illnesses. To combat this question, scientists study post-mortem brains as well as healthy seniors and compare their results to younger adults.

In class, we had the opportunity to listen to Dr. Tamar Gefen give a talk about the research she and her team conducted. Dr. Tamar and her fellow researchers studied a group of “SuperAgers”. This cohort of men and women are aged 80 and older “with episodic memory function at a level equal to, or better than, individuals 20-30 years younger” (Gefen et al.). In their study, Gefen and her team tested the memories of their subjects and saw that these participants performed at the same level as the cohort between the ages of 50 and 65. To take this a step farther, the scientists used MRI scans on both of the groups to find any differences in the brain matter. To their surprise, they found that the SuperAgers’ brains matched the thickness of the younger group. They also found that SuperAgers’ anterior cingulate was thicker than the younger participants. According to Dr. Gefen et al., this suggests that SuperAgers seem to have a better attention to detail which can be an explanation of why their memory is so successful.

The secret behind their good health? Well, an article by Kerry Sheridan, titled ‘Super-agers’ study may reveal secrets to staying young suggests that these men and women’s good mental health is an attribute to a number of factors such as good genes, environment, and socioeconomic status.

            In her article Sheridan talks about David Lowenstein, a neuropsychologist from the University of Miami. Loweonsein states that although studying Alzheimer’s disease is important and there needs to be more scientific discovery for that disease, “to unlock the mysteries of the brain, we also have to know why some people age successfully,” (Sheridan). Lowenstein believes that spending the time to research success stories on memory will help us better understand the human mind.  Science is at a loss for an explanation why one third of the autopsies on people 85 years old and over have signs of dementia yet show no symptoms when they were alive. This is rather puzzling considering the fact that these people biologically possessed symptoms of memory failure yet they experienced absolutely no side effects. Loewenstein and his team hope to find the answer to this question and more. 

            Loewenstein’s study includes 100 participants and of those 100 people, 40% live in a suburban retirement facility. Many of these seniors are highly active and hold jobs within their community. In the article we learn about Gwen North, an 85-year-old who runs the local thrift shop, working six days a week. Gwen and her husband are SuperAgers and together they are quite happy and upbeat in their neighborhood. In the article, it states that on top of having good genes, maintaining a healthy lifestyle attributes to a healthier mind, “work…may improve cognitive functioning” (Sheridan). Sheridan shows that because these seniors live in this community, they are able to lead healthy lives.

            On top of maintaining their healthy lifestyles, another significant factor to consider is that fact that many of these SuperAgers in Lowenstein’s study are “educated and white” (Sheridan). Because, they grew up in a privileged environment, they were able to save their earnings which helped them build a comfortable life in their old age. On the other hand, according to the article, it states that the African-American and Hispanic senior population faced “disproportionately higher rates of dementia than the country’s whites” (Sheridan). This statistic does not come as a shock. Unfortunately, people of color tend to fall low on the socioeconomic ladder. This means that minority groups face more problems regarding money, resources, and livelihood. This shows that mental health can be greatly affected by stressors induced early on in life such as financial burdens, job instability, and poor access to healthcare.

Building social connections, maintaining an active lifestyle, volunteering and working all help facilitate a healthy, functioning mind. Through Dr. Tamar Gefen’s talk and Kerry Sheridan’s article it is clear to see that there is a slew of factors that go into living a healthy life. With the continuation of studies from people like Dr. Tamar Gefen and David Loewenstein’s, maybe one day we will crack the code on aging with grace. Until then, our best bet to a healthy mind is making sure we lead stress-free, active lives.

**Works Cited**

Gefen, T., Peterson, M., Papastefan, S. T., Martersteck, A., Whitney, K., Rademaker, A., . . . Geula, C. (2015). Morphometric and Histologic Substrates of Cingulate Integrity in Elders with Exceptional Memory Capacity. Journal of Neuroscience, 35(4), 1781-1791. doi:10.1523/jneurosci.2998-14.2015

Sheridan, K. (2015). 'Super-agers' study may reveal secrets to staying young. Retrieved May 04, 2016, from http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-super-agers-study-may-reveal-secrets-to-staying-young-2015-11