Question
I’m 70 years old, and my memory just isn’t what it was. I see news stories about procedures to enhance memory, like injecting young blood or stimulating the brain with electrical currents. Is any of this true?
Oh Believe it or not, it could possibly occur. But don't hold your breath waiting for this research to provide a treatment that can enable you to and me. What you see within the news is an element of a growing body of research on aging. We've talked about this before (see “Can we slow down the aging process?” in May 2021 Letter of health). We used to think that old age is inevitable like death. But growing evidence indicates that it could someday be possible to slow, if not reverse, the aging process.
This can be true of the aging brain. Between the ages of fifty and 60, various facets of considering (including memory) begin to fade. Less than 10 years ago, experiments showed that when blood from young mice was injected into old mice, the old mice's memory improved. And a study published online on May 11, 2022, in the celebrated scientific journal The nature It showed that when spinal fluid (the fluid that bathes the brain) from young mice was injected into the brains of old mice, it also improved memory. More importantly, these studies have identified specific molecules within the blood and spinal fluid that seem like chargeable for improving memory, knowledge that might someday result in drugs that May prevent or reverse memory loss.
For a long time, scientists have also been attempting to improve memory by exposing the brain to electrical currents, with very mixed results. Studies have focused on each working memory and long-term memory. Working memories are temporarily stored in a single a part of our brain after we experience an event, after which transferred to a different a part of the brain for long-term storage.
In contrast to past mixed results, a study in humans (not mice) was published online on August 22, 2022. Nature Neuroscience Specific forms of electrical stimulation have been reported in specific areas of the brain. The stimulation lasted for 20 minutes every single day for 4 days, and improved working memory and long-term memory for a minimum of a month. Electrical stimulation involved no surgery and no pain. These encouraging results should be replicated by other scientists, studying other people, before they may be considered true. If they’re confirmed, it stays to be determined how long the advantages last and whether there are any negative effects.
So, like I said, don't hold your breath. But I believe science is finally starting to grasp the aging process well enough to supply hope that we may someday give you the option to slow it down — even the consequences of aging on the brain.
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