Ageing Gracefully

Ageing Gracefully

“Lived happily ever after “ is stuff of  fairy tales, no doubt.  However,  advances in biomedical sciences have done exceedingly well to improve longevity.   Well,  as of now “ever” is timed and the maximum is capped at 122 years. Human  curiosity  to understand and  thereby suppress the onset of   senescence  has been   historical and  science  has always helped in clearing the path forward.  Imagine Cinderella to be  at the  over super ripe  age of  120.  She  would have excellent eyesight, thanks to the  jelly like  intraoccular  lens inserted after the  cataract surgery,   would most probably be agile enough with   brand new knee / hip joints,, a few transplanted  organs….etc….   Sure she will  still recognize her Prince charming, would remember the glass slippers that shaped her life,  but  would be unable  to remember why just then she summoned  her maid.  ( Well all these  are applicable to Prince too.)

Amour (Love)    a film  by director Michale Haneke could very well be the story of Cinderella and her Prince. The film, which won Palme d’ Or  at the 2012 Cannes Festival,  was screened during the  recent  international  film festival at  Bangalore.  It is the story of an elderly couple, Anne and Georges. Pathos of  unstoppable old age and  the accompanying  trauma which can’t be wished away .  

 6^th December issue of Nature   has a special section  , sponsored by Nestle,  on Ageing.   A cluster of nine articles spread over 25 pages  explore   multiple aspects of ageing.   Quite interesting is the COBRA ( short for , Cognition, Brain and Ageing ) project, which  aims to monitor the ageing process of senior citizens for at least a decade. .  Volunteers for the study are in the 60+ age group. The study is prompted by the undeniable demographic data.  50 years ago age versus   population   plot looked like an upside down ice cream  cone, but now it is more like an upside down  Chinese soup bowl.  Average age of the global population is increasing  and more specifically population density in the 60+ segment is increasing even faster.  Naturally, both science and society need to be conscious about this  fact and take measures to confront. Professor  Lars Backman who leads the COBRA program at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm   is confident, even if the path forward is arduous, the effort will be fruitful. His focus is “ Healthy Cognitive Ageing”  One of the key factors he is focusing on is  dopamine, a very important  neurotransmitter equally important in  physical   agility and learning. Dopamine level dip with age. He is asking the most important question:  Are there ways and means to push it up?  

Is old age inevitable ? Professor Caleb Finch Director of the Gerontology Research Institute at the University of Southern California  and his team are  enamored  with turtles and tortoises which  can live close to 200 years. Perhaps they might yield a clue?

The Centre for Eldercare and Rehabilitation Technology at the University of Missouri is focusing on user friendly gadgets  to assist  and enable  people to age gracefully, without having to compromise too much on the quality of life. Professor Eva Kahana  Director of the Elderly Care Research Center at the Case Western Reserve University would like to describe it rather as Ageing Proactively.

All said and done, perhaps  there is an age old recipe for longevity, and that is   starving ( or fasting, if you prefer it that way) .  Professor Luigi Fontana  is convinced that reducing  calorific  intake is the best way to interfere with ageing. This has been proved in laboratory animals.  Are we humans ready to retry this way  out  ?