Is it possible for an 80-year-old brain to look like a 50-year-old brain? And if so, how? One researcher at Northwestern University was determined to find out. Neuroscientist Emily Rogalski from Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine began recruiting volunteers age 80 and up from the Chicago area to test their memories. Why do some… Read more »

A new study published this week by researchers at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) shows that keeping the mind active, exercising and having a good social life boost a major molecular mechanism in the brain that can delay the onset of dementia. Given that Engage As You Age is in the business of keeping… Read more »

Hány nyelven beszél? That’s Hungarian for “How many languages do you speak?” Turns out that if the answer is at least two, your chances of developing Alzheimer’s disease will be delayed an average of five years. Being bilingual is just one way people develop a “cognitive reserve,” which can prevent or delay dementia and Alzheimer’s… Read more »

Do you eat fish, chicken or nuts? If so, a recent study in Neurology should be of interest to you. The study found that the more Omega-3 fatty acids someone eats the lower their blood beta-amyloid levels. This is good news for those that eat a lot of Omega-3 fatty acids as previous studies have… Read more »

One million Americans are living with the AIDS virus, and the federal government annually spends $3 billion on research. Five million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s or dementia and the number is on track to double by 2050; yet the U.S. government spends just $450 million on the disease. President Obama and the Department of… Read more »

Actually NPR’s series is not on its death bed but this will be the last day you can catch the series live on the air. Don’t fret because you can find the pod-casts for this week long series (Oct. 17-Oct. 25) that explores aging and the end of life on NPR’s website.  Many of us… Read more »

You don’t have to be a teenager to enjoy Facebook! Seniors, even those over 100 (!),  are learning how to use Facebook and other social networks to maintain relationships with family and friends. Seniors and Facebook don’t go together like peanut butter and jelly just yet but that is certainly starting to change. Many seniors… Read more »

A third of people over the age of 60 have lost their ability to hear due to a decrease in being able to discriminate acoustic information from the environment! This powerful statistic comes from a study conducted by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. A different 2011 study found that being a… Read more »

“Social isolation is equivalent to the health effects of smoking 15 cigarettes a day or consuming more than six alcoholic drinks daily,” says Univeristy of Adelaide Professor Andrew Beer. Because of this, Beer has begun a research study to find out how to end social isolation of seniors. Beer is determined to combat the pernicious… Read more »

Caregivers and their relatives who suffer from mild to moderate dementia often have different perceptions about the amount and quality of care given and received, so says a study by researchers at Penn State and the Benjamin Rose Institute on Aging. A major source of those differences? Caregivers do not understand the things that are… Read more »