2050: 1.1 Million Over 100 Years Old; Their Aging Brains

By Amy Sherman*
Mclatchy-Tribune News Service.

07-21-10

There was a recent article in my local paper about brain fitness and how to retain optimal brain function well into our senior years. As boomers, we are all concerned about moments of memory loss and wonder if we are experiencing dementia or other signs of cognitive impairment.

Chances are our memory loss is more about our ability to retrieve information and filter out unnecessary irrelevant material than it is about cognitive decline and illness. Because there's so much information bogging us down and distracting us, it becomes difficult to shut off the "noise" long enough to remember what we want to remember. That makes us feel forgetful and susceptible to those numerous senior moments.

However, we can't ignore that cognitive decline may happen, but we don't have to feel helpless to the aging process. Most researchers will agree that a challenged, stimulated brain will retain and regenerate brain cells and that translates into maintaining, restoring and revitalizing cognitive acuity well into the golden years of our lives.

Therefore, if you want to slow up the aging process, you may want to learn a new language, do crossword puzzles, play Sudoku or take piano lessons to reduce your risk of getting Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia.

Research is now taking aging a step further. Apparently, not only is it important to learn challenging new experiences, but it is important to do so in a social setting, connecting and interacting with others. The University of Southern California has been studying this concept with a group of seniors who are well into their 90s. The key to their brain health is their afternoon bridge game where they are required to maintain a strong focus by remembering the bidding, the dealt hands and the strategies of their partner.

These residents in Southern California are considered the most successful seniors in the world. In fact, this research is altering the way scientists are looking at the aging brain. While mental exercises and good diet can't hurt to keep you healthy and alert, it seems you need to be involved socially with others to maintain your cognitive alertness and acuity.

Successful aging is really based on lifelong choices, a good attitude and a keen sense of your life's purpose. The Census Bureau estimates that by 2050 there will be 1.1 million people 100 years old. Baby boomers who continue to train their brain on a regular basis are twice as likely to retain high cognitive function than someone who doesn't. This means that if you start now, you'll reap the rewards of a healthy, sharp, active brain for many fruitful years to come.

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*Amy Sherman is a licensed mental health counselor and trainer.

Antibiotics vs Probiotics: Who Wins?

This may surprise you, but antibiotics are not necessarily unnatural. In fact, most antibiotics are natural compounds produced by bacteria or fungi. These microorganisms produce antibiotics to protect themselves. Their tiny immune systems produce an arsenal of antibiotic biochemicals enabling them to expand their colonies within a hostile environment threatened by other microorganisms.

Why Are Natural Health Advocates Opposed To Antibiotics?

Antibiotic use goes back to the late 1920s and Dr. Alexander Fleming, who was looking for ways to kill the bacteria that infect cuts and wounds. One day he noticed that a particular mold from the genus Penicillium notatum was especially effective in killing bacteria. He isolated that substance and called it penicillin.

Prior to this, several researchers, including microbiologists Dr. Louis Pasteur and Dr. Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov, had come to understand that bacteria produced substances that killed other bacteria. In the early 1900s, Mechnikov focused on the bacteria species known as Lactobacillus bulgaricus. This bacterium had been cultured in dairy by the northern and eastern Europeans for centuries and seemed to promote health and prevent disease in those who drank the tangy fermented culture.

These bacteria came to be known as probiotics (pro = promoting, biotic = life).

In the decades following the discovery of penicillin, many other antibiotics were isolated from microorganisms and became the darlings of the then fledgling pharmaceutical industry. The ability of these antibiotics to knock out life-threatening infections was a blessing that the medical institution came to rely upon as its most effective treatment for many illnesses.

Probiotic research continued and slowly developed, but was neglected next to the excitement around antibiotics. However, probiotic research increasingly illustrated that the body's own microorganisms were responsible for much of the disease resistance and that various cultured foods had been effectively uses as medicines over thousands of years because of these probiotics.

So Why Are Probiotics Effective?

Probiotics secrete a variety of antibiotics that either repel or kill microorganisms that invade the body. In other words, the very antibiotics the pharmaceutical industry hype are simply the same types of secretions that our own body's probiotics produce.

Probiotic research has matured over the past 40 years, but has only recently become a mainstream focus. Many probiotic supplements and specially formulated foods are readily available.

Meanwhile, criticism around antibiotics has increased because over the years, they have been so widely used, that a number of bacteria species have become resistant to antibiotics. Bacteria are living creatures and can adapt and learn to survive in the face of adversity.

Probiotics, however, are also living creatures. As their opponents get used to one weapon, they will figure out a new weapon to launch against the invader.

Antibiotic Strategies

This is not to say that antibiotics are not great weapons against many infections when prescribed and used wisely. When our body's natural probiotics and immune system are not quite strong enough to take down a lethal bacterial infection, it only makes sense to launch an avalanche of microorganism produced antibiotics against the infective bacteria.

However, this strategy comes with complications. Antibiotics like penicillin will kill our body's probiotics as well. This is where trouble can start as it leaves us susceptible to other infections and unpleasant symptoms (like diarrhea).

Solution

We can take a good probiotic supplement, such as HealthPro Nutrient's Probiotic, between our antibiotic doses. A good probiotic will have a mixture of Lactobacillus and Bifodobacterium species. If we take the probiotic 2-3 hours before, and 2-3 hours after our antibiotic doses, the probiotics will provide the extra protection against opportunistic and antibiotic-resistant microorganisms.

Taking probiotics in between antibiotic doses has also shown to increase the effectiveness of the antibiotic. Because the probiotics secrete different types of antibiotics, this can "double up" the antibiotic effect of whatever type of infection we might have.

At the end of our antibiotic course, we should continue to take the probiotics for a period of at least 2-3 months to help stimulate a regrowth of our resident probiotic species. While supplements do not replace our resident strains, they promote an environment allowing our probiotics to slowly regrow in colony strength. After several months, our resident strains can hopefully stage a comeback to healthy levels. Periodic courses of probiotics are recommended to stimulate this process over time.

Health practitioners and naturopaths recommend 30-40 billion CFUs of probiotics per day for adults in these situations.

*Article written based on research by Naturopath, Casey Adams.