On the Humanity Hiker Facebook page I share the articles I come across that correlate living well with brain health, while on this blog I focus on our own experiences. I came across a recent article that reported on a longitudinal study of super agers. I am summarizing the article on my blog for two reasons: 1) reach the people who are not on Facebook; and 2) filter out some of the sensationalism in the reporting.
The longitudinal study involved 74 super agers, ten of which were autopsied after death. The researchers concluded some factors affecting dementia are less important than others. Of particular note is that the ten super agers that were autopsied had those dreaded amyloid plaques that are the main focus of billions of dollars of research. Instead of plaques, diet or even smoking the researchers pointed to four other factors that were a more common denominator of super aging and good brain health: exercise, social interactions, being positive and remaining active (such as never retiring or getting involved in some type of purposeful activity if retired).
I may follow this post up with some further reflection on these factors. For now I will elaborate on exercise. Though this was cited as important, I got the sense that either this was not the most important or it just did not surprise the researchers as much. My sense from reading between the lines was that being positive was the single most important factor for aging well. However, in keeping with my usual activism for exercise, I will say that exercise impacts the other factors.
Speaking for myself, I know that regular exercise facilitates being positive, being social and being active, even if those other factors prove to be more valuable for aging. I also know that exercise mitigates other factors. For example, the researchers downplayed the importance of diet and smoking. Yet we know from many studies that both of these factors are important. The fact that their super agers had exercise in common probably means that they may not be adhering to the MIND diet, but neither is every meal a bacon cheeseburger and fries. Also, they do not distinguish between how many were former smokers or still smoked, but someone who exercises regularly is either a former smoker or, at the least, does not smoke packs a day.
