Final Entry

1. What is your personal definition of successful aging? How has this definition changed from the beginning of the semester?
I would define successful aging as living as many years as possible in an enjoyable state of life.  I feel that if the majority of the years that you are alive are spent in a physically and mentally healthy state you have lived successfully.  I don't think my definition of successful aging has changed significantly, just been further strengthened.

2. What was one topic or fact that you found to be the most interesting throughout the semester?
I found it very interesting that although we think eating healthy is important and potentially necessary for aging successfully several centenarians didn't follow this 'rule'.
 
3. What is one aspect of successful aging that you would like to continue learning about?
I am still interested in determining if there are genes that affect longevity.  It is hard to determine if familial longevity is due to genes or environment.  It will be interesting to see what future studies reveal.

4. Has any of the information that we've discussed in class change your perspective about successful aging?  (i.e. Are there any behaviors that you will or will not do as a result of learning about aging?)
I have always know that being stressed is not a positive state of mind, but I am realizing just how detrimental it can be.  I will continue to try to improve at managing my stress.

I really enjoyed being able to participate in our class discussions and listen to everyone else's ideas.  Thanks guys, have a great summer!

Financial Aging

I was really surprised by the financial calculator.  I really hadn't given this topic much concern.  I hadn't thought about setting aside a significant amount of money each month for retirement.  Right now I am currently working on managing my finances for grad school and have been contrasting different loan options including varied interest and repayment times.  After graduating from grad school I intend to focus on repaying my loans, I hadn't considered needing to set money aside for retirement at the beginning of my career-however I can understand where this would be important.  If you set aside money early it can begin to accumulate interest and over time increase your investment.  I also remember hearing on the news recently that each child generally costs around 200,000 to raise-not including the cost of college.  I enjoy kids and I had anticipated saving money to begin a family, but I didn't realize how many different things would need my money at the same time. 

Throughout our discussions I feel that we have determined that it is beneficial for longevity to minimize stress and live a simple lifestyle.  However, I am confused at how to make this happen when we have so many stresses in our lives-including planning financially for the rest of our lives starting now.  Financial planning for the long term future is definitely an interesting aspect of aging that I had not seriously considered until now.

Centenarian Study

Throughout this seminar, I've been very intrigued by the different centenarians and the variety of lifestyles they've maintained.  I think especially of the woman that smoked cigarettes and drank alcohol regularly and others that ate a diet consisting of southern soul food-including fried chicken.  I think it is obvious that several factors influence the issue of aging, but I am even more perplexed and interested in finding just how they are intertwined.  We've seen examples where genetics and lifestyle choices seem to make a difference, but we've also witnessed exceptions.  Are these examples strictly exceptions, or is there more behind these cases?

In applying this information to my own life I have found myself thinking I should do this because it is 'good for me'.  After seeing the wide variety of healthy aging individuals that didn't necessarily follow these guidelines, I wonder if it's really that important that I follow them myself.  I think this drives my insatiable curiosity  to determine  what  has the largest influence on aging and aging well.  If we can find what causes us to age especially well or poorly perhaps we can emphasize following or avoiding these qualities.  I guess for now we will have to be content in continuing our search since no obvious break throughs  have been made thus far.

Life Expectancy

The age calculator determined my life expectancy to be in the upper 80s, I felt it was probably a fairly accurate estimation.  I would find it interesting to how many of these predicted years would yield a good quality of life instead of purely living though.  One of the criteria I was most surprised by was that flossing daily can add a year to your life.  I found it interesting that there was a link between "the inflammation of gum disease and heart disease".  This must be a very significant link to affect an entire year of someone's life.  One factor I thought might be misleading was the question about sweets.  I feel I eat small amounts of sweets frequently, although the amount was not taken into account in the questionnaire.  I also feel that I am under more stress and put in more hours studying-which I considered my job than I hope to be under when I enter the work force.  I also wonder how this life expectancy calculator would have measured some of the centenarians discussed in class since we've talked about their longevity and bad habits.-just an interesting thought.

Centenarians-The Role of Genetics

I read the article Centenarians-The Role of Genetics, by Robert W. Griffith MD : http://www.healthandage.com/professional/Centenarians-The-Role-of-Genetics

As they studied centenarians they decided that lifestyle choices couldn’t be the cause because other people have made similar choices and lived an average life span.  They also found it difficult to believe that there were specific long life genes because they didn’t feel that the genes care about longevity they instead care about successful procreation.  They did seem to find evidence for what they called the Hayflick phenomenon.  This idea encapsulates the idea that cells have a limited number of times they can divide-called cell senescence.  They observed younger cell nuclei making more divisions before ceasing than older cell nuclei, supporting this conclusion.

They also found that many of the centenarians they studied had a high functioning sibling that was 90 or older.  However, they ran into problems including these siblings in their study since they were not centenarians at the time.  They did find, “a photo of a 108-year-old man blowing out the candles on his birthday cake. And right beside him, looking on, was his 103-year-old sister. … We rushed off to recruit the two healthy centenarians for the Sibling Pair Study... As we arranged to meet with him and his sister, he asked whether we might want to meet his other sister, who was 97. We were astonished...Imagine our reaction when they told us it was too bad we hadn't arrived two years earlier when their 101- and 102-year-old sisters were still alive.”

Although we are still unable to determine the specific genes that code for longevity, it is hard to deny that there is some genetic component.

I agree that there seems to be some genetic component with longevity, but I am still curious as to how all of the components fit together.  I think it is really interesting that they have moved to sibling studies and would be very interested in their findings.  This is especially due to the possibility of environmental similarities if they are all siblings.  However, in a sibling study it would be interesting to compare all of the different sets of siblings to each other because surely not all the sibling pairs would have the same environmental aspects.  I do think it is hard to deny that longevity runs in families.  I also thought the mention of the Hayflick phenomenon was interesting, we've definitely discussed that one in class.  I thought it was an interesting article, and I would be interested to see the conclusions of their study. 

What processes cause aging?

I found both the oxidative and browning theories to be very thought provoking.  I became especially interested in the idea of oxidation and how breathing and metabolism was essential blamed for our aging and therefore death.  I find it ironic that we die without oxygen or food, although we die with it as well.  I suppose this could be related to water as well.  Not enough: you die from dehydration, too much: you die from drowning.  Although the difference in this situation is the quantity.  If you consume 'the right' amount of water throughout your life time you continue living whereas if you consume 'the right' amount of oxygen or food you are still in the process of dying because of it.

I also thought the idea of comparing the organism's size and life expectancy was intriguing.  I had always understood that there is a balance between progeny size and complexity.  For example bugs lay many eggs at a time, they aren't too complex(compared to humans), and they reach reproductive maturity relatively quickly.  With humans a single birth is considered normal, humans are fairly complex, and it takes a long time for human babies to reach maturity.  While this concept had previously been explained to me as a mechanism to maintain a relatively stable population size, I hadn't thought of it as the amount of time an organism could ward of the effects of oxidization and metabolism.

Why We Age

I thought the reading brought up a really interesting idea about the cause of aging.  As we have been defining aging in class we have mentioned that everyone is continually aging, and that it looks different for each individual.  However, as we have reviewed several characteristics of aging we haven't really uncovered the reason behind aging.  The author mentioned "the good-of-the-species theory" which some people feel is the cause of aging.  This theory is utilized frequently in research, take fruit flies for example.  They have a short life span and reproduce many offspring quickly, enabling them to adapt to their environment quickly.  These aspects of their life cycle are beneficial in creating a well adapted species to their environment in a relatively quick time frame.  In the wild it is beneficial for the aging population to die in order to enable the younger generation to utilize the available resources.  Although their life cycle may promote quick generations times and adaptation, this does not describe the reason we age, it describes why it is beneficial.  I would have to agree with the author that "the good-of-the-species theory" does not address the question of why we age.  After contemplating this idea I am not sure there is a  black and white answer of why we age.  In my opinion it is similar to the question why do humans exist.  Although these are intriguing questions, I am not confident a concrete answer can be found.