Secret to a happy life
Actually, it doesn't feel like it's really a secret anymore. But now there's more science.
I’d like to propose a toast, and maybe say a little prayer, for 77 elderly people who agreed to donate their brains to science after they died. Because the fact that they chose to do so might lead to real benefits for the rest of society.
These 77 were part of a group of 290 people who have participated in the Northwestern University SuperAging Program since 2000 — a 25-year investigation into one of the most intriguing groups in neuroscience: men and women over 80 whose memories were as strong as people in their 50s and 60s.
A recent article published last August in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia summarizes what a quarter century of that research has actually found. The picture it paints of these brains is striking.
Meet the super-agers
Super-ager brains generate at least twice as many new neurons as typical older adults — a finding published earlier this year in Nature. Their cortex thins more slowly. In fact, some regions are actually thicker than in people decades younger.
They also have significantly larger entorhinal neurons — cells critical to memory formation — and four to five times more von Economo neurons than their typical peers.
Von Economo neurons are specialized cells linked to social behavior, awareness, and social processing. Super-agers have them in abundance. Most 80-year-olds don’t.
“It’s really what we’ve found in their brains that’s been so earth-shattering for us,” saidSandra Weintraub, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
The researchers also identified two distinct mechanisms that lead to super-aging.
“One is resistance: They don’t make the plaques and tangles,” Weintraub shared. “Two is resilience: They make them, but they don’t do anything to their brains.”
So what do these people actually do differently?
Super-agers don’t share a common exercise regimen. Their diets vary. Their approaches to sleep, work, and lifestyle differ considerably across the group.
The one thing they do have in common is that they are highly social, and they report strong interpersonal relationships.
The von Economo neurons — those specialized social-processing cells super-agers have in such abundance — may help explain why in that brains that stay sharpest into old age appear to be literally built for human connection.
Enter the Harvard research
The Harvard Study of Adult Development — the 88-year research project that has followed hundreds of men since 1938, including future President John F. Kennedy — reached essentially the same conclusion from a completely different direction.
Where Northwestern was looking at brain biology, Harvard was tracking life outcomes: health, happiness, and longevity.
After eight decades of data, the study’s director, Robert Waldinger, distilled it to one sentence: “Good relationships keep us happier and healthier. Period.”
People who are more isolated than they want to be see their health decline earlier, their brain functioning slip sooner, and their lives cut shorter.
You have limited control over your genes, your Alzheimer’s risk factors, or whether your brain generates von Economo neurons.
However, you have considerably more control over whether you invest in relationships — whether you stay connected, stay engaged, or stay present in the lives of people who matter to you.
“While we can’t guarantee that you’ll never get Alzheimer’s disease if you have a strong social network,” said Lee Lindquist, a Northwestern Medicine geriatrician, “it’s an important part of the lifestyle decisions we can make — like diet and exercise — that can contribute to living better, longer.”
Apropos of nothing, have you made plans with friends recently?
Other things worth knowing …
AP: Crews are erecting an octagon-shaped cage on the South Lawn that will host next month’s UFC bout, helping mark the nation’s 250th anniversary — and President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday. “I have never seen anybody want anything so much as people want those tickets,” Trump said recently of demand to attend the UFC fight, adding, “That’s gonna be something.”
NYT: A panel of federal judges rejected Alabama’s effort to use a new voting map for the November midterm elections, saying that the districts discriminated against Black people and could not be used so shortly before a vote. The state is likely to appeal the decision directly to the Supreme Court.
Washington Post: The Trump administration is planning a government-wide nondisclosure agreement barring federal workers from sharing a wide array of “confidential government information,” according to a draft notice posted to the Federal Register. Trump is famous for aggressively using NDAs across his corporate entities, political campaigns, and governmental administrations, requiring employees, contractors, and business partners to sign strict confidentiality contracts with severe financial penalties for breaches.
Politico: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney invoked the turmoil of Brexit in warning that Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s decision to allow a referendum on whether to attempt to withdraw the province from Canada was “a very dangerous bluff.” Carney: “I saw firsthand what happened in the United Kingdom ... They’re still 10 years later trying to undo what people didn’t think they were voting for, but what they ended up having.”
The Atlantic: The Olympics These Were Not: Athletes at the Enhanced Games were bigger — but not exactly better.
NY Post: A journalist who has reported extensively on Jeffrey Epstein’s notorious New Mexico ranch says she is “fleeing the country,” claiming she was the victim of a “directed energy weapons” attack over her coverage. The former newspaper reporter compared her condition to “Havana syndrome” — the controversial and still-disputed cluster of neurological complaints first reported by U.S. diplomats stationed in Cuba in 2016.
The Independent: America’s aging workforce: One in four workers is now older than 55.
Thanks for reading. I wrote about some of this at Inc.com. See you in the comments.
Unfortunately, I think a lot of dementia is related to genetics. My parents are both very social, involved in their church (the same one they were married in 66 years ago) and the volunteer fire department. They have a group they call their "Family of Friends" that they've been with since before they had kids. The friends who are still with us range in age from 82-94.
I think being social has kept them alive.
As for the dementia though, we've been watching my mother's decline for the last few years and it's heartbreaking. She's not used to being out of control of anything. We're now at the point where she believes conversations have taken place, only to find out they never happened. She called my sister mortified that she made a comment to her hairdresser, and in front of another client. What she thought she said was nothing terrible but she assumed it was misunderstood because they both looked at her weirdly. My sister called to smooth things over and the woman said, not only did the conversation never happen, there was no one else there when my mom left. Things like this are happening much too often.
I would love it if just having a very social life kept this creeping and debilitating illness at bay, but it seems there is a lot more involved. Seeing my dad deal with this new reality is extremely sad too.
“People who are more isolated than they want to be”
I always feel less than with these studies but as you state - …than they want to be. I like my alone time.
Good newsletter Bill, as always!