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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?
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
Two old men were out walking with their wives. The first man says to the other man, "I had a great dinner last night at... what was that place? Uh, what's the name of that red flower?" The second man suggests, "Rose?" The first goes on, "That's it." He then calls over to his wife, "Hey, Rose! What's the name of that restaurant we went to last night?"
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
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?
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.