Category: Ageing

Categories : Ageing NeurologyTags :

Essential Tremor Increases Cognitive Impairment Risks over Time

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Essential tremor, a nervous system disorder that causes rhythmic shaking, is one of the most common movement disorders. A new study published in the Annals of Neurology reveals details on the increased risk of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia that individuals with essential tremor may face.

The research represents the longest available longitudinal prospective study of rates of MCI and dementia in people with essential tremor. The study enrolled 222 patients, 177 of whom participated in periodic evaluations over an average follow-up of 5 years.

Investigators observed a cumulative prevalence of 26.6% and 18.5% for MCI and dementia, respectively. They also noted a cumulative incidence of 18.2% and 11.2% for MCI and dementia, respectively. Each year, 3.9% of patients with normal cognition “converted” to having MCI, and 12.2% of those with MCI “converted” to having dementia.

“We know from related research that the presence of cognitive impairment in patients with essential tremor has meaningful clinical consequences. For example, patients with essential tremor who are diagnosed with dementia are more likely to need to use a walker or wheelchair, to employ a home health aide, and to reside in non-independent living arrangements than are patients with essential tremor without dementia,” said corresponding author Elan D. Louis, MD, MS, of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. “With this in mind, the findings of the present study highlight the importance of cognitive screening and monitoring in patients with essential tremor. Early detection of impairment may provide opportunities for interventions that may slow further cognitive decline and improve the quality of life of patients and their families.”

Source: Wiley

Categories : Ageing NeurologyTags :

Do More Mentally Challenging Jobs Protect against Cognitive Decline?

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The harder your brain works at your job, the less likely you may be to have memory and thinking problems later in life, according to a new study published in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. This study does not prove that stimulating work prevents mild cognitive impairment. It only shows an association.

“We examined the demands of various jobs and found that cognitive stimulation at work during different stages in life – during your 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s – was linked to a reduced risk of mild cognitive impairment after the age of 70,” said study author Trine Holt Edwin, MD, PhD, of Oslo University Hospital in Norway.

“Our findings highlight the value of having a job that requires more complex thinking as a way to possibly maintain memory and thinking in old age.”

The study looked at 7000 people and 305 occupations in Norway. Researchers measured the degree of cognitive stimulation that participants experienced while on the job. They measured the degree of routine manual, routine cognitive, non-routine analytical, and non-routine interpersonal tasks, which are skill sets that different jobs demand.

Routine manual tasks demand speed, control over equipment, and often involve repetitive motions, typical of factory work. Routine cognitive tasks demand precision and accuracy of repetitive tasks, such as in bookkeeping and filing.

Non-routine analytical tasks involve analysing information, engaging in creative thinking and interpreting information for others. Non-routine interpersonal tasks include establishing and maintaining personal relationships, motivating others and coaching. Non-routine cognitive jobs include public relations and computer programming.

Researchers divided participants into four groups based on the degree of cognitive stimulation that they experienced in their jobs. The most common job for the group with the highest cognitive demands was teaching. The most common jobs for the group with the lowest cognitive demands were mail carriers and custodians.

After age 70, participants completed memory and thinking tests to assess whether they had mild cognitive impairment. Of those with the lowest cognitive demands, 42% were diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment, compared to 27% for those with the highest cognitive demands.

After adjustment for age, sex, education, income and lifestyle factors, the group with the lowest cognitive demands at work had a 66% higher risk of mild cognitive impairment compared to the group with the highest cognitive demands at work.

“These results indicate that both education and doing work that challenges your brain during your career play a crucial role in lowering the risk of cognitive impairment later in life,” Edwin said. “Further research is required to pinpoint the specific cognitively challenging occupational tasks that are most beneficial for maintaining thinking and memory skills.”

A limitation of the study was that even within identical job titles, individuals might perform different tasks and experience different cognitive demands.

Source: American Academy of Neurology

Categories : AgeingTags :

Genetic Predisposition for Muscle Strength may Predict Longer Lifespan

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A study conducted at the University of Jyväskylä showed that a genetic predisposition for higher muscle strength predicts a longer lifespan and a lower risk for developing common diseases. This study, published in The Journals of Gerontology: Series A, is the most comprehensive international study to date on hereditary muscle strength and its relationship to morbidity. The genome and health data of more than 340 000 Finns was used in the research.

Muscle strength, especially hand grip strength, can indicate an individual’s physiological resources to protect against age-related diseases and disabilities, as well as their ability to cope with them. Age-related loss of muscle strength is individual and influenced not only by lifestyle but also by genetics.

The study revealed that individuals with a genetic predisposition for higher muscle strength have a slightly lower risk for common noncommunicable diseases and premature mortality. It did not however predict better survival after acute adverse health events compared to the time before illness onset.  

“It seems that a genetic predisposition for higher muscle strength reflects more on an individual’s intrinsic ability to resist and protect oneself against pathological changes that occur during aging than the ability to recover or completely bounce back after severe adversity,” says doctoral researcher Päivi Herranen from the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences. 

A unique study population  

Muscle strength is a multifactorial trait influenced by lifestyle and environmental factors but also by numerous genetic variants, each with a very small effect on muscle strength. In this study, the genetic predisposition for muscle strength was defined by constructing a polygenic score for muscle strength, which summarises the effects of hundreds of thousands of genetic variants into a single score. The polygenic score makes it possible to compare participants with an exceptionally high or low genetic predisposition for muscle strength, and to investigate associations with inherited muscle strength and other phenotypes, in this case, common diseases.  

“In this study, we were able to utilise both genetic information and health outcomes from over 340 000 Finnish men and women,” Herranen explains. “To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the association between a genetic predisposition for muscle strength and various diseases on this scale.” 

Further research on the effects of lifestyles is still needed 

Information about the genetic predisposition for muscle strength could be used alongside traditional risk assessment in identifying individuals who are at particularly high risk of common diseases and health adversities. However, further research on the topic is still needed. 

“Based on these results, we cannot say how lifestyle factors, such as physical activity, modify an individual’s intrinsic ability to resist diseases and whether their impact on health differs among individuals due to genetics,” Herranen notes. 

The study utilised the internationally unique FinnGen dataset, compiled through the collaboration of Finnish biobanks. The dataset consisted of 342 443 Finns who had given their consent and provided a biobank sample. The participants were aged 40 to 108 years, and 53% of them were women. The diagnoses selected for the study were based on the leading causes of death and the most significant noncommunicable diseases in Finland. Selected diagnoses included the most common cardiometabolic and pulmonary diseases, musculoskeletal and connective tissue diseases, falls and fractures, mental health and cognitive disorders, cancers, as well as overall mortality and mortality from cardiovascular diseases. 

Source: University of Jyväskylä

Categories : Ageing Obstetrics & GynaecologyTags :

Pregnancy may Add Months to a Woman’s Biological Age

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Pregnancy may carry a cost, according to a new study involving 1735 young people in the Philippines, and shows that women who reported having been pregnant looked biologically older than women who had never been pregnant, and women who had been pregnant more often looked biologically older than those who reported fewer pregnancies.

Notably, the number of pregnancies fathered was not associated with biological aging among same-aged cohort men, which implies that it is something about pregnancy or breastfeeding specifically that accelerates biological aging. The findings are published in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences.
 
This study, from the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, builds on epidemiological findings that high fertility can have negative side effects on women’s health and longevity. What was unknown, however, was whether the costs of reproduction were present earlier in life, before disease and age-related decline start to become apparent. Until now, one of the challenges has been quantifying biological aging among the young. This challenge was overcome by using a collection of new tools that use DNA methylation (DNAm) to study different facets of cellular aging, health, and mortality risk. These tools, called ‘epigenetic clocks’ allow researchers to study aging earlier in life, filling a key gap in the study of biological aging.
 
“Epigenetic clocks have revolutionised how we study biological aging across the lifecourse and open up new opportunities to study how and when long-term health costs of reproduction and other life events take hold”, said Calen Ryan, PhD, associate research scientist in the Columbia Aging Center, and lead author.
 
“Our findings suggest that pregnancy speeds up biological aging, and that these effects are apparent in young, high-fertility women,” said Ryan. “Our results are also the first to follow the same women through time, linking changes in each woman’s pregnancy number to changes in her biological age.”
 
The relationship between pregnancy history and biological age persisted even after taking into account various other factors tied to biological aging, such as socioeconomic status, smoking, and genetic variation, but were not present among men from the same sample. This finding, noted Ryan, points to some aspect of bearing children – rather than sociocultural factors associated with early fertility or sexual activity – as a driver of biological aging.
 
Despite the striking nature of the findings, Ryan encourages readers to remember the context: “Many of the reported pregnancies in our baseline measure occurred during late adolescence, when women are still growing. We expect this kind of pregnancy to be particularly challenging for a growing mother, especially if her access to healthcare, resources, or other forms of support is limited.”
 
Ryan also acknowledged that there is more work to do, “We still have a lot to learn about the role of pregnancy and other aspects of reproduction in the aging process. We also do not know the extent to which accelerated epigenetic aging in these particular individuals will manifest as poor health or mortality decades later in life.”
 
Ryan said that our current understanding of epigenetic clocks and how they predict health and mortality comes largely from North America and Europe, but that the aging process can take slightly different forms in the Philippines and other places around the world.

“Ultimately I think our findings highlight the potential long-term impacts of pregnancy on women’s health, and the importance of taking care of new parents, especially young mothers.”

Source: Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health

Categories : Ageing Pain ManagementTags :

Earlier Retirement for People with Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain

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Frequent musculoskeletal pain is linked with an increased risk of exiting work and retiring earlier, according to a new study published this week in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Nils Niederstrasser of the University of Portsmouth, UK, and colleagues.

Previous studies have shown higher rates of absenteeism, reduced working capacity and reduced income for people with chronic musculoskeletal pain. The prevalence of people living with musculoskeletal pain increases with age, but few studies have specifically focused on the effects of chronic pain on the employment status of older populations.

In the new study, Niederstrasser and colleagues used data on 1156 individuals aged 50+ living in England and taking part in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Over the course of the 14-year data collection period, 1073 of the individuals retired.

The researchers found that people with more musculoskeletal pain complaints tended to retire earlier compared to pain-free participants (HR = 1.30, CI = 1.12–1.49). Participants suffering from musculoskeletal pain were also 1.25 times more likely to cease work sooner (CI = 1.10–1.43), whether or not they described themselves as retired. Other factors associated with earlier retirement age included higher work dissatisfaction and higher self-perceived social status. Frequent musculoskeletal pain remained a significant predictor of earlier retirement and risk of work cessation at earlier ages even when controlling for the influence of job satisfaction, depressive symptoms, self-perceived social status, sex, and working conditions.

The authors conclude that pain experiences can lead to poor work outcomes and point out that further research should establish the mechanisms and decision making involved in leaving the workforce for people with frequent musculoskeletal pain.  

The authors add: “It is remarkable that pain predicts earlier retirement and work cessation to a similar extent or even more strongly than other variables, such as job satisfaction or specific job demands. It shows just how much impact pain can have on all aspects of people’s lives.”

Categories : Ageing Medical Research & TechnologyTags :

Introducing Tardigrade Proteins into Human Cells can Slow Metabolism

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Scanning electron micrograph of an adult tardigrade. Source: Wikimedia Commons

University of Wyoming researchers have gained further insight into how tardigrades survive extreme conditions and shown that proteins from the microscopic creatures expressed in human cells can slow down molecular processes.

This makes the tardigrade proteins potential candidates in technologies centred on slowing the aging process and in long-term storage of human cells.

The new study, published in the journal Protein Science, examines the mechanisms used by tardigrades to enter and exit from suspended animation when faced by environmental stress.

Led by Senior Research Scientist Silvia Sanchez-Martinez in the lab of UW Department of Molecular Biology Assistant Professor Thomas Boothby, the research provides additional evidence that tardigrade proteins eventually could be used to make life-saving treatments available to people where refrigeration is not possible — and enhance storage of cell-based therapies, such as stem cells.

Measuring less than half a millimetre long, tardigrades can survive being completely dried out; being frozen to just above absolute zero; heated to more than 150°C; survive radiation of several thousand times a human’s lethal dose; and even survive the vacuum of outer space.

They survive by entering a state of suspended animation called biostasis, using proteins that form gels inside of cells and slow down life processes, according to the new UW-led research.

Co-authors of the study are from institutions including the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom, Washington University in St. Louis, the University of California-Merced, the University of Bologna in Italy and the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

Sanchez-Martinez, who came from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to join Boothby’s UW lab, was the lead author of the paper.

“Amazingly, when we introduce these proteins into human cells, they gel and slow down metabolism, just like in tardigrades,” Sanchez-Martinez says.

“Furthermore, just like tardigrades, when you put human cells that have these proteins into biostasis, they become more resistant to stresses, conferring some of the tardigrades’ abilities to the human cells.”

Importantly, the research shows that the whole process is reversible: “When the stress is relieved, the tardigrade gels dissolve, and the human cells return to their normal metabolism,” Boothby says.

“Our findings provide an avenue for pursuing technologies centred on the induction of biostasis in cells and even whole organisms to slow aging and enhance storage and stability,” the researchers concluded.

Previous research by Boothby’s team showed that natural and engineered versions of tardigrade proteins can be used to stabilize an important pharmaceutical used to treat people with hemophilia and other conditions without the need for refrigeration.

Tardigrades’ ability to survive being dried out has puzzled scientists, as the creatures do so in a manner that appears to differ from a number of other organisms with the ability to enter suspended animation.

Source: University of Wyoming

Categories : AgeingTags :

Want to Feel Young? Protect Your Sleep

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Researchers at Stockholm University have discovered that sleep affects how old you feel, with important health implications. The study is published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Feeling young is not just a matter of perception: it is actually related to objective health outcomes. Previous studies have shown that feeling younger than one’s actual age is associated with longer, healthier lives. There is even support for subjective age to predict actual brain age, with those feeling younger having younger brains.

“Given that sleep is essential for brain function and overall well-being, we decided to test whether sleep holds any secrets to preserving a youthful sense of age,” says Leonie Balter, researcher at the Department of Psychology, Stockholm University.

In the first study, 429 individuals aged 18 to 70 were asked how old they felt, how many days in the past month they had not gotten enough sleep, and how sleepy they were.

It turned out that for each night with insufficient sleep in the past month, participants felt on average 0.23 years older.

In a second study, the researchers tested whether it was indeed the lack of sleep causing participants to feel older. They conducted an experimental sleep restriction study involving 186 participants aged 18 to 46. Participants restricted their sleep to four hours a night for two nights and another time slept sufficiently for two nights, with nine hours in bed each night.

After sleep restriction, participants felt on average 4.4 years older compared to when having enjoyed sufficient sleep.

The effects of sleep on subjective age appeared to be related to how sleepy they felt. Feeling extremely alert was related to feeling 4 years younger than one’s actual age, while extreme sleepiness was related to feeling 6 years older than one’s actual age.

“This means that going from feeling alert to sleepy added a striking 10 years to how old one felt,” says Leonie Balter, and states that the implications for our daily lives are clear:

“Safeguarding our sleep is crucial for maintaining a youthful feeling. This, in turn, may promote a more active lifestyle and encourage behaviours that promote health, as both feeling young and alert are important for our motivation to be active.”

Source: Stockholm University

Categories : Ageing NeurologyTags :

Human Brains are Getting Larger, which may Protect against Dementia

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A new study by researchers at UC Davis Health found human brains are getting larger. Study participants born in the 1970s had 6.6% larger brain volumes and almost 15% larger brain surface area than those born in the 1930s. The researchers hypothesise that the increased brain size may lead to an increased brain reserve, potentially reducing the overall risk of age-related dementias.

The findings were published in JAMA Neurology.

“The decade someone is born appears to impact brain size and potentially long-term brain health,” said first author Charles DeCarli, a distinguished professor of neurology and director of the UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.

“Genetics plays a major role in determining brain size, but our findings indicate external influences – such as health, social, cultural and educational factors – may also play a role.”

75-year study reveals brain changes between generations

The researchers used brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRIs) from participants in the Framingham Heart Study (FHS). The community-based study was launched in 1948 in Framingham, Massachusetts, to analyse patterns of cardiovascular and other diseases.

The original cohort consisted of 5209 men and women between the ages of 30 and 62. The research has continued for 75 years and now includes second and third generations of participants.

The MRIs were conducted between 1999 and 2019 with FHS participants born during the 1930s through the 1970s.

The brain study consisted of 3226 participants (53% female, 47% male) with an average age of about 57 at the time of the MRI.

The research led by UC Davis compared the MRIs of people born in the 1930s to those born in the 1970s.

It found gradual but consistent increases in several brain structures.

For example, a measure that looked at brain volume (intracranial volume) showed steady increases decade by decade.

For participants born in the 1930s, the average volume was 1234mL, but for those born in the 1970s, the volume was 1321 mL, or about 6.6% greater volume.

Cortical surface area showed an even greater increase over the decades.

Participants born in the 1970s had an average surface area of 2104cm2 compared to 2056cm2 for participants born in the 1930s — almost a 15% increase in volume.

The researchers found brain structures such as white matter, gray matter and hippocampus (a brain region involved in learning and memory) also increased in size when comparing participants born in the 1930s to those born in the 1970s.

Larger brains may mean lower incidence of dementia

Although the numbers are rising with America’s aging population, the incidence of Alzheimer’s – the percentage of the population affected by the disease – is decreasing.

A previous study found a 20% reduction in the incidence of dementia per decade since the 1970s.

Improved brain health and size may be one reason why.

“Larger brain structures like those observed in our study may reflect improved brain development and improved brain health,” DeCarli said.

“A larger brain structure represents a larger brain reserve and may buffer the late-life effects of age-related brain diseases like Alzheimer’s and related dementias.”

One of the study’s strengths is the design of the FHS study, which allows the researchers to examine brain imaging of three generations of participants with birthdates spanning almost 80 years.

A limitation is that non-Hispanic white participants make up the majority of the FHS cohort, which is not representative of the U.S. population.

Source: University of California – Davis Health

Categories : Ageing Diet and NutritionTags :

Molecule Present in both the Body and Coffee Improves Muscle Function in Ageing

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A research consortium led by Nestlé Research in Switzerland and the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine) made a recent discovery that the natural molecule trigonelline – present in coffee, fenugreek, and also in the human body – can help to improve muscle health and function. The researchers published their findings in Nature Metabolism.

In an international collaboration among the University of Southampton, University of Melbourne, University of Tehran, University of South Alabama, University of Toyama and University of Copenhagen, the work builds on a previous collaborative study that described novel mechanisms of human sarcopenia.

Sarcopenia is a condition where cellular changes that happen during ageing gradually weaken the muscles in the body and lead to accelerated loss of muscle mass, strength and reduced physical independence.

One important problem during sarcopenia is that the cellular cofactor NAD+ declines during ageing, while mitochondria, the energy powerhouses in our cells, produce less energy.

The study team discovered that levels of trigonelline were lower in older people with sarcopenia.

Providing this molecule in pre-clinical models resulted in increased levels of NAD+, increased mitochondrial activity and contributed to the maintenance of muscle function during ageing.

NAD+ levels can be enhanced with different dietary precursors like the essential amino acid L-tryptophan (L-Trp), and vitamin B3 forms such as nicotinic acid (NA), nicotinamide (NAM), nicotinamide riboside (NR) and nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN).

Assistant Professor Vincenzo Sorrentino from the Healthy Longevity Translational Research Programme at NUS Medicine added, “Our findings expand the current understanding of NAD+ metabolism with the discovery of trigonelline as a novel NAD+ precursor and increase the potential of establishing interventions with NAD+-producing vitamins for both healthy longevity and age-associated diseases applications.”

Nutrition and physical activity are important lifestyle recommendations to maintain healthy muscles during ageing. “We were excited to discover through collaborative research that a natural molecule from food cross-talks with cellular hallmarks of ageing. The benefits of trigonelline on cellular metabolism and muscle health during ageing opens promising translational applications,” said Jerome Feige, Head of the Physical Health department at Nestlé Research.

Source: National University of Singapore, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine

Categories : AgeingTags :

More Schooling is Linked to Slowed Aging and Increased Longevity

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Participants in the Framingham Heart Study who achieved higher levels of education tended to age more slowly and went on to live longer lives as compared to those who did not achieve upward educational mobility, according to a new study at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and The Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center. Upward educational mobility was significantly associated with a slower pace of aging and lower risk of death. The results are published online in JAMA Network Open.

The Framingham Heart Study is an ongoing observational study first initiated in 1948 that currently spans three generations.

The Columbia analysis is the first to connect educational mobility with pace of biological aging and mortality. “We’ve known for a long time that people who have higher levels of education tend to live longer lives. But there are a bunch of challenges in figuring out how that happens and, critically, whether interventions to promote educational attainment will contribute to healthy longevity,” said Daniel Belsky, PhD, associate professor of Epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School and the Aging Center and senior author of the paper.

To measure pace of aging, the researchers applied an algorithm known as the DunedinPACE epigenetic clock to genomic data collected by the Framingham Heart Study. The latest findings showed that, according to the yardstick of the DunedinPACE epigenetic clock, two years of additional schooling translated to a two- to three percent slower pace of aging. This slowing in the pace of aging corresponds to a roughly 10 percent reduction in risk of mortality in the Framingham Heart Study, according to previous research by Belsky on the association of DunedinPACE with risk of death.

DunedinPACE was developed by the Columbia researchers and colleagues and reported in January 2022. Based on an analysis of chemical tags on the DNA contained in white blood cells, or DNA methylation marks, DunedinPACE is named after the Dunedin Study birth cohort used to develop it. DunedinPACE (stands for Pace of Aging Computed from the Epigenome), is measured from a blood test and functions like a speedometer for the aging process, measuring how fast or slow a person’s body is changing as they grow older.

Biological aging refers to the accumulation of molecular changes that progressively undermine the integrity and resilience capacity of our cells, tissues and organs as we grow older.

The Columbia researchers used data from 14 106 Framingham Heart Study spanning three generations to link children’s educational attainment data with that of their parents. They then used data from a subset of participants who provided blood samples during data collection to calculate the pace of biological aging using the DunedinPACE epigenetic clock. In primary analysis, the researchers tested associations between educational mobility, aging, and mortality in a subset of 3101 participants for whom educational mobility and pace of aging measures could be calculated.

For 2437 participants with a sibling, the researchers also tested whether differences in educational attainment between siblings was associated with a difference in the pace of aging.

“A key confound in studies like these is that people with different levels of education tend to come from families with different educational backgrounds and different levels of other resources,” explained Gloria Graf, a PhD candidate in the Department of Epidemiology supervised by Belsky, and first author of the study. “To address these confounds, we focused on educational mobility, how much more (or less) education a person completed relative to their parents, and sibling differences in educational attainment – how much more (or less) education a person completed relative to their siblings. These study designs control for differences between families and allow us to isolate the effects of education.”

By combining these study designs with the new DunedinPACE epigenetic clock, the researchers were able to test how education affects the pace of aging. Then, by linking the education and pace of aging data with longitudinal records of how long participants lived, the team was able to determine if a slower pace of aging accounted for increased longevity in people with more education.

“Our findings support the hypothesis that interventions to promote educational attainment will slow the pace of biological aging and promote longevity,” noted Graf. “Ultimately, experimental evidence is needed to confirm our findings,” added Belsky. “Epigenetic clocks like DunedinPace have potential to enhance such experimental studies by providing an outcome that can reflect impacts of education on healthy aging well before the onset of disease and disability in later life.”

“We found that upward educational mobility was associated both with a slower pace of aging and decreased risk of death,” said Graf. “In fact, up to half of the educational gradient in mortality we observed was explained by healthier aging trajectories among better-educated participants.” This pattern of association was similar across generations and held within family sibling comparisons: siblings with higher educational mobility tended to have a slower pace of aging as compared with their less educated siblings.

Source: Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health