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Researchers Restore Youthful Memory In Aging Mice
An anonymous reader writes "German neuroscientists made a breakthrough in 'age-related cognitive decline', a common condition that often begins in one's late 40s (especially declarative memory — the ability to recall facts and experiences). Their new study identifies a genetic 'switch' for the cluster of learning and memory genes that cause memory impairment in aging mice. By injecting an enzyme, the team 'flipped' the switch to its on position for older mice, giving them the memory and learning performance they'd enjoyed when they were young. Now the team ultimately hopes to recover seemingly lost long-term memory in human patients." The video, which explains the gene flipping mechanism, is worth a watch (2:18).
My grandmother slowly died of Alzheimer's and it could not have been a sadder thing to witness. Bias fully admitted, I can't help but say... Alzheimer's is the 7th leading cause of death and it afflicts 19% of people aged 75-84 and over 40% of people over 84. If we care about our elders and we care about the shoes we will one day fill, we should all help raise awareness and put our spare money and time to good use.
The toll of Alzheimer's on America is estimated at about $100 billion per year. If only we could convince Congress of the simple truth, that this sort of basic research will completely pay for itself in the long run and do wonders for humanity. Unfortunately, we can't depend on someone else to pay for this knowledge and progress. We must all pitch in what we can and help keep this sort of research as well funded as possible.
www.alz.org is a great organization if you have money to donate. Or you can easily start a "Memory Walk" team to go out for a charity walk to raise money and awareness. Plus, can't we all use a good excuse to enjoy a nice day in the sun and have fun with friends and family?
When I'm old I'll be able to recall how i misspent my youth. How depressing!
Of all the things I've lost; I miss my mind the most. - Mark Twain
I was looking forward to an old age filled with pleasant memories of my many moon landings, that time I helped a young Jewish girl hide from the Spaniards, my service in the Gulf of Afgiraq, and my sexual exploits with Morgan Fairchild. And now you're going to take that away from me?
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
While declarative memory does decline as one ages, only recall memory is affected while the ability to recognize does not significantly decline.
That is, people over 40 tend to decline in scores on fill-in-the-blank tests without a word bank (that require the taker to recall a specific answer) while staying about the same on multiple choice tests, where the answer must be recognized.
but I'll say it again: never before in our history has there been such a good time as now to be a mouse!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
That's my age. I do notice tt takes just a wee bit more effort to cram more stuff in my head than it used to. Other than that, I still enjoy my ability to recall ridicules bits of obscure minutia that when viewed in total aren't enough to get me a good job, but are just enough to be annoying.
Seriously, though. My ability to commit stuff to memory and recall it *IS* one of my marketable skills. And anything that can help prolong the decline is welcome news.
If you're that young and already having memory problems (assuming you don't have a brain tumor or something), it's lifestyle related. Get out and exercise, eat well, there's probably some nutrient you're missing. Eat lot's of broccoli. Sleep enough. Don't under-estimate the brain wasting effects of alcohol or cocaine. I don't know you so I can't say exactly what your personal problem is.
A lot of people, for example, don't eat enough vegetables. They'll eat a salad once a week or an apple every few days or something and hope that's good enough. It's not. You may not notice the effects right away, but over time they will add up as your body uses up its stored nutrients.
Same thing with sleep. When you are in college you can get away with binge drinking on the weekends and never sleeping (actually you'll notice the effects of that right away, but they might not be overwhelming), but after a few years you're going to need to take a break and rebuild your energy. A lot of people hit 28 and think they are getting old and tired, but the truth is old-age doesn't set in that early, they're just seeing the effects of not treating their body right. Do what you need to do to rebuild your energy (personally I suggest distance running, and this book is really great motivation, but do what works for you).
Qxe4
I'm hoping they can bring this to the public sooner rather than later. It's not funny when you can't remember stuff the way you used to, it's a little scary. I accept that it's part of getting older, but I don't accept it happily.
Best regards.
Well, illegal unless you live in Mendocino County...
Oh, now I know what switch instantly gets flipped to off when you first read slashdot...
That explains a lot...
wake up and hold your nose
I'm totally with you, esp. on the last point. My wife and I had a kid a year ago, and sleep hasn't been the same since. Over the same period of time, I've learned for the first time in my life what it means to have to be humble about my memory. Used to be near photographic. Now it's all a jumble. Shows you what 13 months of 5 hours a night of sleep (with the occasional additional nap to almost catch up) will do to you.
The CB App. What's your 20?
I'd just like to point out that this is a good article:
1. It's news for nerds.
2. It goes into some technical detail (molecules named)
3. It mentions both possible advantages and disadvantages of the approach.
4. It has both reasonable amounts of text and a decent video. (read:content)
Really, this is probably the kind of article people refer to when they're whining about other ones.
I'd love some feedback from the people who go on about kdawson only posting crap, too. Is this crap? Or maybe you prefer to cherry-pick the bad articles instead to hate on the hated editor of the month/year?
Languages have always interested me (it's what I do for a living these days), and every couple years I try to learn the basics of another language. I find that as long as I exercise the newly learned skill/material, I'm OK (such as reading newspapers in the other language, listening to broadcasts in that language, and finally speaking the language whenever I get the chance. I would imagine I'm using a different part of the brain for these activities, though.
I'm certainly no expert, nor do I claim to know anything of how the mind works for that matter, but I can't help but think that actually using skills learned later in life helps.
Some things are best left forgotten.
Unless they can do this selectively, I'll pass. One gets to a certain age...well, the baggage seems to fade away yet the really good stuff remains clear.
I think this is a good thing, and in my opinion quite possibly a natural function of the human mind--a defense mechanism, perhaps.
Silence, Pinky, or I shall have to hurt you.
Oh, I remember now...
lol someone got hit in the head with the dumb stick today and spewed out his wrath on Slashdot. Since when did you go from writing logical, reasonable posts to writing ad hominem crap? There are tons of studies that show that exercise is good for you, and that eating a healthy diet is good for you, and that sleeping well is good for you. Stop being lazy and asking for evidence when you can find it so easily yourself.
Qxe4
Nov 21 - I did a dumb thing today I forgot I wasnt in Miss Kinnians class at the adult center any more like I use to be. I went in and sat down in my old seat in the back of the room and she lookd at me funny and she said Charlie where have you been. So I said hello Miss Kinnian Im redy for my lessen today only I lossed the book we was using.
Actually it's co-orelation. Orelation is the raw material from which irony is made. That is, it's something which isn't quite irony, but out of which one could make irony. Co-orelation is when several people orelate together. :-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
Everything sounds great, except the bit about distance running. Running isn't really good for your body; it's really hard on your joints, especially if you run on concrete or asphalt (which just about everything in a metro area is covered with these days).
I recommend cycling instead. It's better exercise, uses at least as many calories (as long as you don't ride lazily), and doesn't cause joint injuries. It's also a lot better if you're flat-footed like me. It also gets you around a whole lot faster, and if you're really lucky in where you live and work, you might be able to use it for commuting instead of driving, so you can get your exercise as part of going to and from work.
Fuck me!
I'd rather not.
He may have a medical condition like early onset Alzheimers.
Indeed, I specifically excluded people in that type of category.
Try excercising if you're overweight and have some kind of physical injury. The trouble with unhealthy is that a couple of issues can then lead to a spiral. This idea that someone can click their fingers and excercise some will power to get healthy is a luxurious dellusion only healthy people with too much spare time can afford.
I didn't say it was easy, but if they can't find a way to exercise and lose weight, they are going to suffer the consequences. I mean, this is nature: nature doesn't care if it's hard. Hopefully for them they will be one of the lucky people who doesn't see any negative health effects even though they are overweight and treat their body badly. But it's not likely.
Incidentally, regarding the people who treat their bodies badly and still end up healthy, they usually have something else going on that balances it out. Like maybe they eat bacon every day, but they also eat spinach and get lots of exercise. Or maybe they party all night, but then balance it out by sleeping until the afternoon. It's rare to find people who truly abuse their bodies and don't end up paying for it.
Qxe4
Heck, while I'm at it, I found some studies for you. Here's a reference to a study that found exercise even keeps your telomeres in your cells longer. This one at Stanford that lasted 20 years found that running specifically helps keep you healthy, they said, "Elderly runners have fewer disabilities, a longer span of active life and are half as likely as aging nonrunners to die early deaths."
And then there's this one, a study of over 100,000 people that basically found the more you run each week, the less likely you are to develop high blood pressure, diabetes, or high cholesterol, although the study author thinks (for whatever it's worth) that a similar effect would be found for swimming or cycling or any other aerobic exercise.
So yeah, there's tons to back up what I said. You may disagree with those studies, and no science is perfect, but there's a good bunch of evidence.
Qxe4