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Studies of gut bacteria are beginning to untangle how diet affects health in old age — but determining cause and effect is tricky. Almost everything about eating gets more difficult with age. Elderly people typically cannot taste or smell as well as they used to, decreasing the appeal of some foods. Dental issues or a dry mouth can impede chewing; loss of muscle tone in the pharynx can make swallowing difficult; constipation and the side effects of medication can make digestion uncomfortable; and decreased mobility makes a chore of grocery shopping or cooking complex meals. Little wonder that older people...

A generation of Americans who embraced communal living in the 1960s is again considering that concept and other ways to coexist as they near retirement. This time, they’ve traded peace signs for dollar signs. “By force of sheer volume, the (baby boomers) who in 1968 thought they would change the world by 2028 actually will,” said Andrew Carle, founding director of the Program in Senior Housing Administration at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. Over the next three decades, one in five U.S. citizens will turn 65 or older, Carle said. They’ll control more than half of the discretionary income,...

Genetics and healthy diets matter more for longevity. To those who enjoy the pleasures of the dining table, the news may come as a relief: drastically cutting back on calories does not seem to lengthen lifespan in primates. The verdict, from a 25-year study in rhesus monkeys fed 30% less than control animals, represents another setback for the notion that a simple, diet-triggered switch can slow ageing. Instead, the findings, published this week in Nature1, suggest that genetics and dietary composition matter more for longevity than a simple calorie count. “To think that a simple decrease in calories caused such...

Musical instrumental training...may reduce the effects of memory decline and cognitive aging. Musical activity was found to preserve cognition, including memory, as one ages. Cognitive benefits including memory were sustained for musicians between the ages of 60-80 if they played for at least 10 years throughout their life. But to obtain optimal results, individuals should start musical training before age nine, play at least 10 years or more and if possible, keep playing for as long as possible over the age of 60 Read more at: http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-music-big-brain-benefits-leisure.html#jCp

Research suggests that irises do not remain the same for life after all. Identifying people by scanning the irises of their eyes may not be as reliable as some governments and the public might think. That’s according to new research suggesting that irises, rather than being stable over a lifetime, are susceptible to ageing effects that steadily change their appearance over time. With iris recognition now being used at border control in countries such as the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom, this has huge implications, says Kevin Bowyer, a professor of computer science at the University of Notre...

More than 30 countries, mostly in Europe and East Asia, face rapidly ageing populations. The world’s richest nations are approaching a baby bust. It’s a bear market for newborns and the effects could spell economic and social dislocation in the next 20 years, according to some analysts. As demographers debate the dangers and benefits of the earth’s population reaching seven billion on October 31, advanced economies in Europe, East Asia and even the US are facing declining birth rates. With senior citizens making up a larger proportion of the population, countries are worried that there will be too many retirees...

Some bloggers are saying that the young Muamar Gadaffi, looked like the young Roberto de Niro. Here is a link: http://bongmendoza.wordpress.com/2011/02/21/our-leader-our-killer/young-and-dashing-gaddafi-2/ You can also scroll down on this bbc page, to see another photo, perhaps the best I have seen of the young gaddafi: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8225656.stm Another photo of Gadaffi as a young officer: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HqbJ7aNhlNI/TWKq5USrdiI/AAAAAAAARQo/1XPnSG9iI00/s1600/gaddafi_01.jpg Here he is with his Egyptian Father Figure, Nasser: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kVHpbSPNbj8/TWa5evGf0xI/AAAAAAAAAKQ/iVTIlyvKBwY/s1600/Nasser_Gaddafi_1969.jpg Those who know the html stuff of posting the pics can do so. I'd appreciate it.

SYDNEY — Australia on Monday unveiled a 43 million dollar (38 million US) plan to keep older people in the workforce, as it strives to ward off an economic slowdown expected as the growing population ages. Treasurer Wayne Swan said Australia's population was expected to rise by 14 million to 36 million by 2050 with a much higher proportion aged 65 or over, leaving fewer workers as health costs soar. "If we are going to get to the point where there is going to be 2.7 working Australians for every person aged over 65, not five as there currently are,...

I discovered George Osborne was younger than me. Only by two months. But still: younger George Osborne's Tory conference speech last week left me in a state of shredded despair. Not because of anything he said, but because I'd just discovered he's younger than me. Only by two months, but still: younger. In a correctly functioning universe, my advanced age would make me his superior. If I deliberately knocked a glass of milk on to the floor, he'd have to clean it up. He'd be on all fours, scrubbing desperately at the floorboards while I sat back in my chair,...

Los Angeles, CA (BANG) - Barbra Streisand doesn't recognize her "older" face when she looks in the mirror. The 67-year-old Hollywood actress is shocked every time she sees her aged reflection, because she still feels so young in her heart. She said: "It's a whole different problem now. You get older, and it's a bit of a shock. I still feel so young inside. And that's me in the mirror? Well, if you don't see it, I'm thrilled." However, the "Funny Girl" star always expected find the ageing process easier to deal with than some of her more glamorous peers,...

Beware what you wish for. Birth control was one of the resounding policy successes of the last quarter of the last century. In the early 1970s, women worldwide were bearing an average of 4.3 children; populations in some of the poorest countries were doubling at breakneck speed and demographers were predicting that the world would contain 16 billion or more people before the demographic express hit the buffers of famine and war. Alarmed, governments threw themselves into family planning — nowhere more strenuously than in China. In 1979 Deng Xiaoping unceremoniously binned Mao’s proclamation, “China’s strength is its countless people”,...

Getting old already? 27-year-old singer Beyonce Knowles is already past her mental peak according to new research According to scientists, our mental abilities begin to decline from the age of 27 after reaching a peak at 22. The researchers studied 2,000 men and women aged 18 to 60 over seven years. The people involved – who were mostly in good health and well-educated – had to solve visual puzzles, recall words and story details and spot patterns in letters and symbols. The first age at which performance was significantly lower than the peak scores was 27 – for three tests...

Scientists have stopped the ageing process in an entire organ for the first time, a study released today says. Published in today's online edition of Nature Medicine, researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University in New York City also say the older organs function as well as they did when the host animal was younger. The researchers, led by Associate Professor Ana Maria Cuervo, blocked the ageing process in mice livers by stopping the build-up of harmful proteins inside the organ's cells. As people age their cells become less efficient at getting rid of damaged protein...

Sedentary life 'speeds up ageing' There is now another good reason for regular exercise, say researchers Leading a sedentary lifestyle may make us genetically old before our time, a study suggests. A study of twins found those who were physically active during their leisure time appeared biologically younger than their sedentary peers. The researchers found key pieces of DNA called telomeres shortened more quickly in inactive people. It is thought that could signify faster cellular ageing. The King's College London study appears in Archives of Internal Medicine. An active lifestyle has been linked to lower rates of cardiovascular disease, type...

Regular exercise makes you 10 years younger By Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor Last Updated: 2:27am GMT 29/01/2008 Three hours of exercise a week can slow the ageing process and give you a body 10 years younger than a couch potato of the same age, say researchers. Fitness fans, such as Elle MacPherson, 44, have 'younger' bodies Scientists at King's College London measured the length of telomeres, which cap the chromosomes in cells and protect them from damage. These shorten with age, meaning more damage occurs. The team found that people who were active had longer telomeres than those of the...

<p>Sunbathing can slow the ageing process by up to five years, according to new research.</p> <p>Scientists have found that people who avoid the sun, or have inadequate vitamin D in their diet, are subject to genetic damage associated with ageing and age-related illnesses.</p>

'Silent' abnormalities lurk within ageing brains 21:00 31 October 2007 NewScientist.com news service Roxanne Khamsi One in eight people over 45 unknowingly has a brain abnormality such as weakened blood vessels, dead tissue or a tumour. That is the conclusion of a study of 2000 healthy participants, which found that a higher number than expected had an undiscovered brain lesion. The study by Aad van der Lugt at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam in the Netherlands and colleagues was designed to understand the risk factors for dementia in a population of seemingly healthy people aged 45 years and above....

Baby boomers pay for six pack in a syringe By Philip Sherwell, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 1:00am BST 19/08/2007 With his six-pack stomach, bulging chest and bull-like shoulders, the muscleman in the newspaper advertisement displays the sort of rippling torso that adorns the cover of men's fitness journals. But there is one difference. From the neck up, Dr Jeffry S Life is a balding 67-year-old physician. His physique is the product not of a computer touch-up but a controversial American "ageing management" technique, that often includes a cocktail of human growth hormones and testosterone. Some 13,000 clients have so far...

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- My name is Kirk Douglas. You may know me. If you don't ... Google me. I was a movie star and I'm Michael Douglas' dad, Catherine Zeta-Jones' father-in-law, and the grandparents of their two children. Today I celebrate my 90th birthday. I have a message to convey to America's young people. A 90th birthday is special. In my case, this birthday is not only special but miraculous. I survived World War II, a helicopter crash, a stroke, and two new knees. It's a tradition that when a "birthday boy" stands over his cake he...

Clutching her Hermes holiday bag under her arm, Susan Barrington, a 52-year-old housewife from Buckinghamshire, can't help smiling as she leaves the exclusive clinic in London's Wimpole Street. She has been given the final go-ahead to travel abroad for a cutting edge nonsurgical treatment that promises to make her look ten years younger. She doesn't care if the treatment is expensive, involves babies and is so controversial that it is not allowed to be performed in this country - among her well-heeled friends, this is the ultimate new elixir of youth. The attractive brunette has opted for a controversial stem-...

Doctors said sexually transmitted diseases among senior citizens are running rampant at a popular Central Florida retirement community, according to a Local 6 News report. A gynecologist at The Villages community near Orlando, Fla., said she treats more cases of herpes and the human papilloma virus in the retirement community than she did in the city of Miami. "Yeah, they are very shocked (to hear the diagnosis)," gynecologist Dr. Colleen McQuade said. "I had a patient in her 80s." "More and more senior citizens are ending up in the gynecologist office, and their diagnosis is a sexually transmitted disease," Local...

Blocking a aberrant protein could keep cells pert and young. What makes us age? Researchers think cell nuclei may hold part of the answer. In the continued quest to pinpoint the molecules that turn us wrinkly and grey, some scientists are beginning to think that the walls of the cell nucleus might play an important role. A new study shows that cells from people over the age of 80 tend to have specific problems with the nucleus that young children's cells do not. The elderly nucleus loses its pert, rounded shape and becomes warped and wrinkled. The discovery supports the...

In 1998 a scientist at the California Institute of Technology discovered a gene that could extend the life of fruit flies by 30%. He dubbed it the Methuselah gene after the Biblical prophet who lived to 969. Now a self-taught gerontologist believes our mortality could one day be similarly extended. At a conference at Queen's College, Cambridge, this week, Aubrey de Grey, a 41-year-old Cambridge computer scientist, told a research audience that there was no reason why people should not live to 1,000. It sounds like science fiction, but for all that Dr de Grey has been dismissed as a...

Some scientists predict that today's children will be able to live for more than 1,000 years. Is immortality just around the corner? Bryan Appleyard peers into a hair-raising future without death Somewhere in the world today lives a child who will change everything. Imagine this child is called Sally. Today is her 11th birthday. She lives in Esher in Surrey. Her parents are happy and wealthy. All her grandparents are old, alive and well. I’ve given her this background for specific reasons. Sally is a girl because women live about five years longer than men. She is 11 because, at...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Memory blanks, losing train of thought, temporary confusion -- all are often chalked up to "senioritis" once people reach a certain age. But these symptoms can also be a warning sign of the seizure disorder epilepsy, experts said Friday. Although most people's image of epilepsy involves convulsions and other obvious symptoms, in older adults, seizures can take a quieter form, Dr. Eugene Ramsay of the University of Miami School of Medicine in Florida told Reuters Health. Instead, older adults can develop "staring spells," often mistaken for senior moments, in which they lose awareness of what's...

Controversial theorist Aubrey de Grey insists that we are within reach of an engineered cure for aging. Are you prepared to live forever? On this glorious spring day in Cambridge, England, the heraldic flags are flying from the stone towers, and I feel like I could be in the 17th century—or, as I pop into the Eagle Pub to meet University of Cambridge longevity theorist Aubrey de Grey, the 1950s. It was in this pub, after all, that James Watson and Francis Crick met regularly for lunch while they were divining the structure of DNA and where, in February 1953,...

A few months ago, as I trudged down the stairs of my office building, deep in my thoughts, I noticed a dark-haired woman waving to me from the window of her car. She looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn't place her. Like quite a few others, she had slipped out of my mental Rolodex. In my brain, the synaptic traces that connected us had frayed. Yet again, I had misplaced an entire human being. ''So wonderful to see you,'' she said, inquiring by name after every member of my family, including the two dogs. Apparently she was not a casual...

Life expectancy is increasing in the developed world. But Cambridge University geneticist Aubrey de Grey believes it will soon extend dramatically to 1,000. Here, he explains why. Ageing is a physical phenomenon happening to our bodies, so at some point in the future, as medicine becomes more and more powerful, we will inevitably be able to address ageing just as effectively as we address many diseases today. I claim that we are close to that point because of the SENS (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence) project to prevent and cure ageing. It is not just an idea: it's a very...

Life expectancy is increasing in the developed world. But Cambridge University geneticist Aubrey de Grey believes it will soon extend dramatically to 1,000. Here, he explains why. Ageing is a physical phenomenon happening to our bodies, so at some point in the future, as medicine becomes more and more powerful, we will inevitably be able to address ageing just as effectively as we address many diseases today. I claim that we are close to that point because of the SENS (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence) project to prevent and cure ageing. It is not just an idea: it's a very...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - US researchers studying the brains of people 26 to 106 years of age have found evidence that brain function starts to slow around age 40. In science journal Nature, Dr. Bruce A. Yankner, from Harvard Medical School (news - web sites) in Boston, and colleagues report that they've identified a set of genes in the brain that show reduced activity after age 40. These genes, they note, play key roles in a variety of cell functions. According to the team, DNA damage begins to accumulate in these genes. This damage could affect vital brain activities,...

Every species seems to come and go. Some last longer than others, but nothing lasts forever. Humans are a relatively recent phenomenon, jumping out of trees and striding across the land around 200 000 years ago. Will we persist for many millions of years to come, or are we headed for an evolutionary makeover, or even extinction? According to Reinhard Stindl, of the Institute of Medical Biology in Vienna, the answer to this question could lie at the tips of our chromosomes. In a controversial new theory he suggests that all eukaryotic species (everything except bacteria and algae) have an...

It must be every drinker's dream and it has now become a reality, at least if you believe the manufacturer. The new beer is said to strengthen the immune system Keep young and beautiful by drinking beer - that is what Bavarian entrepreneur Helmut Fricher is promising. Anti-ageing beer was presented to the world at a German agricultural fair this week - a drink which the brewer says will bring body and soul into harmony. But the new wonder drink may fall foul of Germany's oldest valid law, the Beer Purity Regulation. The anti-ageing beer that Mr Fricher presented to...

It must be every drinker's dream and it has now become a reality, at least if you believe the manufacturer. The new beer is said to strengthen the immune system Keep young and beautiful by drinking beer - that is what Bavarian entrepreneur Helmut Fricher is promising. Anti-ageing beer was presented to the world at a German agricultural fair this week - a drink which the brewer says will bring body and soul into harmony. But the new wonder drink may fall foul of Germany's oldest law, the Beer Purity Regulation. The anti-ageing beer that Mr Fricher presented to the...

Second World Assembly on Ageing Madrid, Spain 8 -12 April 2002 Second World Assembly on Ageing "If history serves as a guide, the Plan of Action will shape the content of national, regional and international policies on ageing in the decades to come."—Ambassador Felipe Paolillo, Chairman of the Preparatory Committee for the Second World Assembly on AgeingThe twentieth century witnessed a historical lengthening of the human life span. Over the last 50 years, life expectancy at birth has climbed globally by about 20 years to reach 66 years, thanks to advancements in medical knowledge and technology. Already about one...