Mild Memory Loss Is Not a Part of Normal Aging, New Research Finds

http://www.sciencemagnews.com/mild-memory-loss-is-not-a-part-of-normal-aging-new-research-finds.html

by cwan • 16 years ago

52 24 16 years ago

http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/view_news_item.cfm?news_id...

"The process of declaring parts of aging as a disease is driven by regulation: the FDA does not permit treatments for aging, only for named diseases. Since there is little funding for research that cannot be legally commercialized, the incentive is to carve off chunks of the process of aging and go through the process of having government employees add it to the list of diseases - which can take years and millions of dollars. Sarcopenia, for example, is still not recognized by the FDA, meaning that no potential treatment can be commercially developed in the US. Here is an example of this process at work for memory loss."

orangecat• 16 years ago

Freaking ridiculous. In a rational world, the question would be how many billions of dollars to allocate to anti-aging research. Instead, the government makes it actively illegal to try to mitigate the major cause of medical expenses and a huge contributor to decreased quality of life.

CWuestefeld• 16 years ago

A corollary to that longevitymeme quote is the politicization of research. For example, AIDS research gets funded at a disproportionate rate to the number of sufferers, presumably because they form an active voting constituency.

So I claim that the question is not "how many billions of dollars to allocate to anti-aging research".

The real question is how to get government and politics out of the system. They're the ones that are getting everything discombobulated.

Let people speak with their own actions (and wallets) about how much resource should be allocated to various areas of medical research.

ams6110• 16 years ago

Imagine a discovery would allow people to routinely live to 120 years, or more. The financial black hole that is social security NOW would suddenly spike to an even more frightening mass.

When government payments fund the livelihood of retired folks, there is a financial disincentive to fund "anti-aging" research.

joe_the_user2• 16 years ago

Excellent, excellent point. I'd give you more Karma if I could.

I would mention though, that the process of reclassifying conditions as diseases is also driven by the desire for commercialization itself.

Even if the FDA did permit treatment for aging, such treatment could be seen "bleeding edged" or "unnatural" and have a smaller audience. If a symptom of aging could be classified as a disease, a person will have not only the option to obtain treatment but the obligation.

"Bob, you have not been getting treatment for your winkle-itis, don't you think that's bit irresponsible?"

twymer• 16 years ago

Thanks, I'm now going to cringe every time I hear someone use "sorry I'm getting old" as an excuse for forgetting something.

geophile• 16 years ago

This article is the first thing I want to forget.

rmorrison• 16 years ago

My grandparents are old (mid to late 90s) and still have an incredible memory. I find their descriptions of the world they grew up in to be fascinating. Some examples:

* his amazement when he learned that somebody had received a radio signal that was bounced off of the moon

* he worked on a trans atlantic ship in his teenage years during prohibition, and had his first beer in Germany at the age of 16

* depression era job prospects

* walking home from a "picture" after his car was stolen, he and a few friends heard his horn (which was somehow identifiable). They were track runners, so they ran down the car and it turns out it was a young guy who had just borrowed it to go visit his girlfriend, and was on his way to return it.

* his godfather was a civil war vet

pyre2• 16 years ago

Those all seem like things that left a lasting impression on your grandparents (i.e. stronger memory). I wouldn't associate remembering those things with a lack of mild memory loss.

My grandfather could tell us all kinds of interesting tales in his old age, but then not remember what he ate for breakfast.

joshuacc• 16 years ago

I think he was citing those as examples of "fascinating," not saying they provide evidence of a good memory.

elai• 16 years ago

Can you remember what you ate for breakfast 5 months, 3 weeks and 2 days ago? Unless you have a small set of habitual foods for a good chunk of time, I bet you'd forget too.

softbuilder• 16 years ago

Is inability to focus on text due to 3 glaring Google Ad blocks a sign of aging?

osopoderoso• 16 years ago

The next research should be surprising: Increase of memory when ageing is only a question of finding a place to grow.

_delirium2• 16 years ago

I don't get what they mean by "not a part of normal aging" here. What definition of "normal" are they using? What is part of normal aging?

If it's something that happens almost universally to brain structure as a function of age, in what sense is it not normal? That doesn't mean we shouldn't still improve it / stave it off / etc., but I'd classify that more as, "we've found a way to stop the process by which elderly normally suffer reduction in memory function".

Sort of how you might say: rubber normally gets brittle as it ages, but with this new coating, that process is stalled. But that's different from saying: "hey, new discovery, rubber actually doesn't normally get brittle as it ages!" I was expecting something like that from the headline, so was expecting a study that found that e.g. memory loss among the elderly was much less common than popularly assumed.

Groxx• 16 years ago

Probably the important part:

>almost no gradual decline was seen in the absence of lesions.

Where lesions are specific damages to the brain, not aging.

Mild Memory Loss Is Not a Part of Normal Aging, New Research Finds

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