Understanding How the Brain Ages
Headstrong - Fri, 20 Apr 2007
Aided by leading edge technology and urged on by the world's aging baby boomers, scientists and researchers are making headway learning how our brains age.
Neuroscientists now have a better understanding of the long-term risk factors associated with cognitive decline than ever before. This understanding may eventually lead to more effective treatments for some forms of dementia such as Alzheimer’s disease. But a cure is a long way off, if indeed there is one to be found.
Part of the problem is the structure and functions of the human brain itself. Quite simply it is the most complex system that we know of,either in nature or the human-created world. But one of the limiting factors that researchers face is a lack of data.Prior to the twentieth century life expectancy was low. Poor sanitation and little medical defence against a host of lethal and highly infectious diseases meant that many people died long before old age.
The medical revolution of the last century has seen life expectancy increase dramatically to around 75-80 years of age. This has meant that many more people are suffering degenerative diseases such as arthritis and dementia. So in effect the study of cognitive deterioration is a whole new branch of the neurosciences.
But some headway is being made, as the urgency to find solutions to the dementia epidemic is driven by the rapidly aging baby boomers,the earliest of which are now in their early sixties. Time is running out for them, and the race is on in earnest.
Obviously an intimate knowledge of how the brain functions is necessary to understand how it can go wrong. We cannot live without our brain – it drives our entire body, mind and, some would say, spirit or soul.This wonderful organ does everything from keeping our heart beating, and our lungs inhaling and exhaling, to memory and the very essence of who we are. The brain is responsible for the most wonderful human creativity and our most destructive impulses.
| “The study of cognitive deterioration is a whole new branch of the neurosciences” |
The human brain contains more than 100 billion cells, including neurons which send messages to and receive them from the rest of the body via the central nervous system, at a staggering speed of 200 miles per hour.Scientists are only just starting to understand the complex chemical and electrical processes involved. It is now known that if neurons remain disease-free they can function optimally for an entire lifespan.