The Article “The Science of Aging Well” construes different mechanisms in which you can apply to your life in order to prevent age-related diseases, or in other words, to age gracefully. The article gives a rough estimation on how the elderly demographics will escalate within a few decades. “Globally, the 65 plus demographic is estimated to triple from 524 million in 2010 to about 1.5 billion by 2050”. Giving the reason to feel the need to inform us how to take better care of ourselves. Not just physically, but internally as well.
Firstly, the brain is mentioned, as it the central organ of the nervous system, making it the single handedly most important component of our bodies. The article discusses several factors in our everyday lives that may contribute to diseases which can put us at risk for memory loss as we grow older. “Dietary changes, brain stimulation, exercise, improved sleep and other methods can affect brain chemistry”. Fructose and Sucrose are the leading agents in diseases such as type 2 diabetes, which can put you at a risk of up to about 40 – 50 percent of developing Alzheimer’s. The article then proceeds to go into further detail about how damaging a poor diet can be for the brain. “Insulin is critical to cognitive health because it kicks off a biochemical cascade that protects brain cells, and when the cells become insulin-resistant, they may begin to falter”. When the fat cells grow larger, they become almost unresponsive to insulin. Depending on the severity of the hypertension, brain cells begin to decay, causing dementia. Dementia may then be diagnosed as Alzheimer’s.
Throughout the remainder of the article, the authors are consistent with mentioning how certain young mice proteins can benefit the human body for overall well aging. They don’t really give any information in how to prevent the decrease in eyesight, or hearing loss. Instead they list alternatives, such as artificial objects that can be implanted within the eye and inner ear. However, they do state that scientists continue to try and create medicines to aid in these inevitable changes.
As we all know, the best way to stay in good shape as we age, is based on our daily caloric intake, as well as which nutrients we are supplying our bodies with. The article then goes into detail about how our body changes drastically with each decade that passes after we hit the age of 30. It also states that, after this age, our social life is very important. Stating that “loners” are less likely to survive as long as those who are outgoing and sociable.
Discussion:
The position of this article is pro-issue. The issue being how there are certain ways in which we can tweak our lives as we are younger, so that with age we do not begin to “deteriorate”. The authors are for all of the new research being conducted in aiding in the prevention of bad aging. They use words such as “And having diabetes later in life jacks up your risk of Alzheimer’s disease”. Frowning upon the high intake of sugars, even stating that “overdosing” on sugar is not worth putting your brain’s health at risk. The article has somewhat of a guilting tone, in certain areas pertaining to heart and brain conditioning.
The Epigenetics Theory is the Study of heritable changes in gene activity that are not caused by changes in the DNA sequence but environmental Influences. In short, epigenetics is the study of long term changes in our chromosomes, not through genetic code, but through several factors in our lives. Epigenetics affects the way cells read our genes, something like an off/on switch. The genetic code looks at only one side of the chromosomes which are three dimensional figures. Epigenetics occurs in the other two dimensions that the genetic code does not observe. Epigenetics modification is caused by just about everything in our lives, depending on which genes are switch from on/off to healthy/unhealthy, it can sometimes play a role in chronic diseases affecting our health spans. The article ties with epigenetics because it is giving information on how to prevent the development of chronic diseases, as well as age-related ailments through environmental factors. If Epigenetics is the changes that occur in our DNA through environmental changes, then it ties to the article that is telling us to sleep more, eat better, and exercise. The article gives an image representing the seven pillars of aging, which includes epigenetics. “Some experts in the field of geroscience are uniting to develop preventive and therapeutic approaches to fight multiple diseases”. Scientists are trying to create methods to educate and aid people in elongating not only their lifespan but healthspan through steps they can take in their everyday lives, since epigenetics is everywhere, from our eating habits to the amount of sleep we get every night. The Aging Process is based on epigenetics is what the article is basically saying.
Nature vs Nurture is a highly debated controversy in psychology. This controversy is looking at whether human behavior is created from our genes, versus nurture which looks at biological factors, such as environment and experience. Are we shaped by what we go through or are we set out at birth? The article is consistent in mentioning that there are ways in which we can prolong our lives, which contradicts the idea that the aging process is biologically determined. The article discusses that; if we “don’t do this, then this will not happen to us”. Although death is inevitable, there are ways in which we can elongate our lifelines. If our lifelines were determined through genetics, we would not be able to have the ability to stay alive past a certain hereditary number of years. Although the authors claim “Science has proven that a few specific tactics can dramatically increase your life expectancy and reduce age associated diseases”, there are still many genetically passed diseases. These diseases are created through mutations in the genes, causing you to age in a mal-manner. For example diseases such as: cancer, high blood pressure, heart disease, arthritis, and diabetes can be hereditary. However, the article neglects mentioning that the prevention of these diseases may be inevitable. Instead, the article shows that it is the environment, our nutrition, and physical exercise that contribute to our aging process, which we can manipulate.
The Temperament theory is a concept that suggests that there are three different types of personalities. Temperament is described simply as a person’s nature. Temperament refers to the “hot/cold” behaviors one has. Many theorist believe that there are three types of temperament, easy, difficult, and slow to warm. In an easy temperament, the persons tends to be more sociable, have positive moods, are optimistic, and easily adaptable. On the contrary, we have the difficult persons, those who are stubborn, reluctant to begin new routines, dislikes change, as well as having frequent negative moods. Lastly, we have the slow to warm persons, these are the ones who have somewhat of a negative reaction quite often, and tend to be “inactive” or “uninvolved” in activities, show little display in adaptability. The temperament theory links to the article, where the article mentions how those who have easy temperaments have higher survival chances as opposed to their difficult counterparts. “An easy going temperament may also confer a survival advantage. Studies of centenarians have found they’re more laid back than the general population and show more optimism about the future. On the other hand, people with pessimistic tendencies are more susceptible to conditions like high blood pressure and depression”. Studies show that those who tend to be angry, face more life threatening diseases with age, opposed to those who have a positive outlook on life. The article proceeds to mention that highly sociable people have a fifty percent better chance at survival than loners. The author claims that being the “life of the party” is actually good for oneself, not failing to mention that being antisocial could be as deadly as smoking a pack of cigarettes each day. The article is using the temperament theory to explain that those who are difficult, lead harder lives, which creates stress and other forms of psychological issues. Someone who has these psychological issues is more likely to age in a mal-manner. Furthermore, those of easy temperaments, lead much more positive lives, diminishing the probability of having psychological issues, resulting in them aging at a much healthier rate.