At what age do you become slow?

Think achy joints are the main reason we slow down as we get older? Blame the brain, too: The part in charge of motion may start a gradual downhill slide at age 40.

nbcnews.com - At age 40, both brain and body start to slow - NBC News

What food makes u look younger?

Extra virgin olive oil. Extra virgin olive oil is one of the healthiest oils on earth. ... Green tea. Green tea is high in antioxidants, which can...

Last updated Nov 13, 2022

What won't kick me out of ketosis?

String cheese and cashews. Pork rinds or homemade veggie chips. Beef jerky or salmon jerky. A handful of low-carb berries, like blueberries,...

Last updated Aug 18, 2018

Promotion

Think achy joints are the main reason we slow down as we get older? Blame the brain, too: The part in charge of motion may start a gradual downhill slide at age 40. How fast you can throw a ball or run or swerve a steering wheel depends on how speedily brain cells fire off commands to muscles. Fast firing depends on good insulation for your brain’s wiring. Now new research suggests that in middle age, even healthy people begin to lose some of that insulation in a motor-control part of the brain — at the same rate that their speed subtly slows. That helps explain why “it’s hard to be a world-class athlete after 40,” concludes Dr. George Bartzokis, a neurologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who led the work.

Exercise your brain

And while that may sound depressing, keep reading. The research points to yet another reason to stay physically and mentally active: An exercised brain may spot fraying insulation quicker and signal for repair cells to get to work. To Bartzokis, the brain is like the Internet. Speedy movement depends on bandwidth, which in the brain is myelin, a special sheet of fat that coats nerve fibers. Healthy myelin — good thick insulation wound tightly around those nerve fibers — allows prompt conduction of the electrical signals the brain uses to send commands. Higher-frequency electrical discharges, known as “actional potentials,” speed movement — any movement, from a basketball rebound to a finger tap. Consider someone like Michael Jordan. “The circuitry that made him a great basketball player was probably myelinated better than most other mortals,” Bartzokis notes.

But while myelin builds up during adolescence, when does production slow enough that we fall behind in the race to repair fraying, older insulation?

Enter the new research. First, Bartzokis recruited 72 healthy men, ages 23 to 80, to perform a simple test: How fast they tapped an index finger. Anyone can do this; it doesn’t depend on strength or fitness. Researchers counted how many taps the men made in 10 seconds, recording the two fastest of 10 attempts. Then, brain scans checked for myelin in need of repair in the region that orders a finger to tap. Strikingly, tapping speed and myelin health both peaked at age 39. Then both gradually declined with increasing age, the researchers reported last month in the journal Neurobiology of Aging.

Does tomato juice reduce cholesterol?

Tomato juice Tomatoes are rich in a compound called lycopene, which may improve lipid levels and reduce “bad” LDL cholesterol. In addition,...

Last updated Aug 24, 2018

What foods are not OK on keto?

Eating refined high carb foods like white bread, pasta, rice, and pastries could prevent a ketogenic state if you end up getting more than your...

Last updated Jul 21, 2019

Promotion

That doesn’t mean the rest of the brain is equally affected. Bartzokis has some evidence that myelin starts to fray a decade or so later in brain regions responsible for cognitive functions — higher-level thinking — than in motor-control areas. So back to his example of Jordan, who last played professionally at age 40: “Even he started getting older. That circuitry started breaking down a little,” contends Bartzokis. “He can become Michael Jordan the big-shot businessman ... but not be Michael Jordan the super-duper basketball player anymore.”

Fighting Alzheimer's

Bartzokis isn’t looking to build a better athlete. His ultimate goal is to fight Alzheimer’s disease. The connection: Building memories requires high-frequency electrical bursts, too, and Bartzokis’ earlier research suggests an Alzheimer’s-linked gene may thwart myelin repair. But the new research has broader implications because it sheds light on normal aging, says Dr. Zoe Arvanitakis, a neurologist at Chicago’s Rush University Medical Center. “We knew at some age you peak and there’s a sense it would disintegrate as you grow older. But we didn’t have a sense of where that age would be,” says Arvanitakis, who next wants to see if myelin and cognitive functions show a similar trajectory. Bartzokis’ research supports a recent report from German scientists, that with age comes a weakening of the system that’s supposed to repair broken myelin, adds Dr. Bradley Wise of the National Institute on Aging. “Any disruption in these neural circuits and networks will have problems for functioning,” says Wise, who says the two reports are spurring increased interest into myelin’s role in aging. Until recently, most myelin research has focused on multiple sclerosis, where myelin doesn’t gradually degrade but disappears.

While much more research is needed, Bartzokis has some practical advice:

nbcnews.com - At age 40, both brain and body start to slow - NBC News

Can dogs eat cheese?

Yes, dogs can eat cheese. In fact, cheese is often a great training tool, especially for puppies. But should dogs eat cheese? While some dogs can...

Last updated Sep 29, 2021

Is it better to eat tomato raw or cooked?

-- Cooking tomatoes -- such as in spaghetti sauce -- makes the fruit heart-healthier and boosts its cancer-fighting ability. All this, despite a...

Last updated Jul 12, 2020

Promotion

Is anything actually 0 calories?

The bottom line: Aside from water, no truly calorie-free food or drinks exist. Why do so many things say they have zero calories, then? The FDA...

Last updated Aug 30, 2022

Promotion

Is KFC low carb?

Though other chicken options at KFC may not be keto-friendly, the grilled chicken is. KFC Fried Chicken is not a healthy choice at all as it...

Last updated Jan 4, 2021