Aging Gracefully

 There is so much discussion around aging and so many people fear it and also look upon it as a negative.

Aging is inevitable and actually a privilege not granted to everyone. I love the following article written in the Daily Om regarding aging gracefully...

Aging Gracefully

As we cultivate our life, our beauty becomes as much about what we are creating and doing as it is about our appearance. We tend to associate youth with beauty, but the truth is that beauty transcends every age. Just as a deciduous tree is stunning in all its stages—from its full leafy green in the summer to its naked skeleton during winter and everything in between—human beings are beautiful throughout their life spans. The early years of our lives tend to be about learning and experiencing as much as we possibly can. We move through the world like sponges, absorbing the ideas of other people and the world. Like a tree in spring, we are waking up to the world. In this youthful phase of life, our physical strength, youth, and beauty help open doors and attract attention. Gradually, we begin to use the information we have gathered to form ideas and opinions of our own. As we cultivate our philosophy about life, our beauty becomes as much about what we are saying, doing, and creating as it is about our appearance. Like a tree in summer, we become full, expressive, beautiful, and productive. When the time comes for us to let go of the creations of our middle lives, we are like a tree in autumn dropping leaves, as we release our past attachments and preparing for a new phase of growth. The children move on, and careers shift or end. The lines on our faces, the stretch marks, and the grey hairs are beautiful testaments to the fullness of our experience. In the winter of our lives, we become stripped down to our essence like a tree. We may become more radiant than ever at this stage, because our inner light shines brighter through our eyes as time passes. Beauty at this age comes from the very core of our being—our essence. This essence is a reminder that there is nothing to fear in growing older and that there is a kind of beauty that comes only after one has spent many years on earth.

Multivitamins and cognitive aging.

 According to the COSMOS-Mind study <https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03035201> results presented at the 14th Clinical Trials on Alzheimer's Disease (CTAD) conference, November 10, 2021…

Taking a daily multivitamin for 3 years is associated with a 60% slowing of cognitive aging, with the effects especially pronounced in patients with cardiovascular (CVD) disease.

In addition to testing the effect of a daily multivitamin on cognition the COSMOS-Mind study also examined the effect of cocoa flavanols, but showed no beneficial effect.

The findings "may have important public health implications, particularly for brain health, given the accessibility of multivitamins and minerals, and their low cost and safety," said study investigator Laura D. Baker, PhD, professor, Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Placebo-Controlled Study

The study is a substudy of a large parent trial that compared the effects of cocoa extract (500 mg/day cocoa flavanols) and a standard multivitamin-mineral (MVM) to placebo on cardiovascular and cancer outcomes in more than 21,000 older participants.

COSMOS-Mind included 2262 adults aged 65 and over without dementia who underwent cognitive testing at baseline and annually for 3 years. The mean age at baseline was 73 years, and 40.4% were men. Most participants (88.7%) were non-Hispanic white and almost half (49.2%) had some post-college education.

All study groups were balanced with respect to demographics, CVD history, diabetes, depression, smoking status, alcohol intake, chocolate intake and prior multivitamin use. Baseline cognitive scores were also similar between study groups. Researchers had complete data on 77% of study participants.
The primary endpoint was the effect of cocoa extract (CE) vs placebo on Global Cognitive Function composite score. The secondary outcome was the effect of MVM vs placebo on global cognitive function.

Additional outcomes included the impact of supplements on executive function and memory and the treatment effects for prespecified subgroups, including subjects with a history of CVD.

Using a graph of change over time, Baker showed there was no effect of cocoa on global cognitive function (effect: 0.03; 95% CI, -0.02 to 0.08; P = .28). "We see the to-be-expected practice effects, but there's no separation between the active and placebo groups," she said.

It was a different story for MVM. Here, there was the same practice effect, but the graph showed the lines separated for global cognitive function composite score (effect: 0.07; 95% CI, 0.02 - 0.12; P = .007).

"We see a positive effect of multivitamins for the active group relative to placebo, peaking at 2 years and then remaining stable over time," said Baker.
There were similar findings with MVM for the memory composite score, and the executive function composite score. "We have significance in all three, where the two lines do separate over and above the practice effects," said Baker.

New Evidence

Investigators found a baseline history of CVD, including transient ischemic attack, congestive heart failure, coronary artery bypass graft, percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty, and stent, but not myocardial infarction or stroke as these were excluded in the parent trial because they affected the response to multivitamins.

As expected, those with CVD had lower cognitive scores at baseline. "But after an initial bump due to practice effect, at year 1, the cardiovascular disease history folks continue to benefit from multivitamins, whereas those who got placebo multivitamins continue to decline over time," said Baker.

Based on information from a baseline scatter plot of cognitive function scores by age, the study's modeling estimated the multivitamin treatment effect had a positive benefit of .028 standard deviations (SD) per year.

"Daily multivitamin-mineral supplementation appears to slow cognitive aging by 60% or by 1.8 years," Baker added.

To date, the effect of MVM supplementation on cognition has been tested in only one large randomized clinical trial — the Physicians Health Study II. That study did not show an effect, but included only older male physicians — and cognitive testing began 2.5 years after randomization, said Baker.

"Our study provides new evidence that daily multivitamin supplementation may benefit cognitive function in older women and men, and the multivitamin effects may be more pronounced in participants with cardiovascular disease.”

For effects of multivitamins on Alzheimer's disease prevalence and progression, "stay tuned," Baker concluded.

Following the presentation, session co-chair Suzanne Schindler, MD, PhD, instructor, Department of Neurology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, said she and her colleagues "always check vitamin B12 levels" in patients with memory and cognitive difficulties and wondered if study subjects with a low level or deficiency of vitamin B12 benefited from the intervention.

"We are asking ourselves that as well," said Baker.

"Some of this is a work in progress," Baker added. "We still need to look at that more in-depth to understand whether it might be a mechanism for improvement. I think the results are still out on that topic.”

Source: 14th Clinical Trials on Alzheimer's Disease (CTAD) conference: Oral Communications (OC) #4. Presented November 10, 2021.

Brain Aging and Magnesium L-Threonate

 

Magnesium L-Threonate and Brain Aging Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers discovered and patented magnesium L-threonate based on its unique ability to boost brain levels of magnesium. Rapid absorption and the ability to enter the brain enables this magnesium to structurally reverse certain aspects of brain aging.(1-4)  A 2016 human study published in the J Alzheimers Dis. 2016;49(4):971-90, demonstrated the benefits of magnesium L-threonate in adults with cognitive dysfunction, sleep disorders, and anxiety.(1) The most startling finding is a reversal of more than nine years in clinical measures of brain aging in people who supplemented with magnesium L-threonate.  Magnesium L-threonate is special because of the way it boosts brain magnesium levels when taken orally. This effect is due to its unique ability to cross the blood-brain barrier.(2) Research has shown that once magnesium L-threonate gets into the brain, it increases the density of synapses, which are the communication connections between brain cells.(1) This is critical because loss of synaptic density is associated with brain shrinkage and cognitive decline.(5,6) Published Human Data: Scientists at three independent institutions carried out a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial of magnesium L-threonate in older adults with cognitive impairment.(1) To participate in the study, candidates had to be between the ages of 50 and 70, and have self-reported complaints of memory problems, sleep disorders, and anxiety.(1) This study was based on the premise that sleep and anxiety disorders correlate with perceived memory loss.(7) Those who report mild cognitive impairment and who also have sleep and anxiety disorders are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s.(1,8-11) In this multi-center study, participants were randomly assigned to receive placebo or magnesium L-threonate in the dose of 1,500-2,000 mg. each day (depending on body weight) for 12 weeks. Baseline cognitive testing commenced before people started taking magnesium L-threonate or placebo. These cognitive tests were then repeated at six-week and 12-week points.(1) The following four separate tests were used to evaluate cognitive function: Executive function Working memory Attention Episodic memory (ability to recall fleeting events) Findings from this study revealed: Magnesium L-threonate improved body magnesium status. After 12 weeks researchers found significant increases in red blood-cell concentration and in urinary excretion of magnesium in the treated group.(1) Increased urinary excretion indicates that large amounts of magnesium have been absorbed, while increased levels in red blood cells show high circulating levels of magnesium in the body. Magnesium L-threonate improved cognitive abilities. Using a test of visual attention and task switching, researchers saw significant increases in performance speed for executive function and cognitive processing. These benefits appeared as early as week six on some of the tests.(1) Most tellingly, the overall composite scores for all tests of the magnesium L-threonate-supplemented group increased significantly compared with baseline scores and with those of placebo recipients at weeks six and 12. Magnesium L-threonate reduced fluctuation in cognitive ability. When cognitive functions are worse on some days than others, it is a warning sign of developing mild cognitive impairment.(12,13) In the present study, while placebo recipients showed considerable fluctuation in their cognitive scores, those in the magnesium L-threonate group had primarily positive changes.(1) Magnesium L-threonate reversed clinical measures of brain aging. This is a significant finding, which which is explained in more detail in the next section. Understanding Your Brain Age Brains do not functionally age at the same rate as whole-body chronological age. For example, a 60-year-old person can have a brain age of 70, meaning they are functioning at an “older” level.(1) This variance of brain aging is based on measurable performance and physiological parameters.(14-17) In the magnesium L-threonate study, the average chronological age of all subjects in the study was 57.8 years. Their average baseline “functional” brain age, however, was estimated to be 68.3 years. In other words, the study subjects were about 10 years older in terms of their cognitive function.(1) What the researchers found next was remarkable. The average functional brain age of subjects receiving magnesium L-threonate supplements decreased from an older 69.6 years at the start of the study, to 60.6 after just six weeks of treatment. That’s a nine-year reduction in brain age in a matter of weeks.(1) This improvement continued until week 12 with total reduction in brain age of 9.4 years. By the end of the study, cognitive abilities were brought almost back to normal for their younger chronological age in subjects who took magnesium L-threonate. In other words, magnesium L-threonate treatment was found to reverse these measured aspects of brain aging until it was nearly identical to their cognitively healthy peers.(1) Overall, the results of this clinical trial are potentially game-changing for the aging population. The study found that magnesium L-threonate significantly improved cognitive performance on several standardized tests, while reducing the fluctuations in performance that are a warning of developing cognitive impairment in the future. It also showed a reversal of the brain age of magnesium L-threonate-supplemented subjects by nearly a decade. How Magnesium L-Threonate Regenerates Aging Brains The study detailed above shows that magnesium L-threonate improved cognitive function in aging adults, and helped “rejuvenate” their brains towards normal function for their age. The key takeaway of this study is that achieving higher brain levels of magnesium results in a younger brain. References Liu G, Weinger JG, Lu ZL, et al. Efficacy and Safety of MMFS-01, a Synapse Density Enhancer, for Treating Cognitive Impairment in Older Adults: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial. J Alzheimers Dis. 2016;49(4):971-90. Slutsky I, Abumaria N, Wu LJ, et al. Enhancement of learning and memory by elevating brain magnesium. Neuron. 2010;65(2):165-77. Abumaria N, Yin B, Zhang L, et al. Effects of elevation of brain magnesium on fear conditioning, fear extinction, and synaptic plasticity in the infralimbic prefrontal cortex and lateral amygdala. J Neurosci. 2011;31(42):14871-81. Li W, Yu J, Liu Y, et al. 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Prefrontal atrophy, disrupted NREM slow waves and impaired hippocampal-dependent memory in aging. Nat Neurosci. 2013;16(3):357-64. Apostolova LG, Di LJ, Duffy EL, et al. Risk factors for behavioral abnormalities in mild cognitive impairment and mild Alzheimer’s disease. Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord. 2014;37(5-6):315-26. Kaduszkiewicz H, Eisele M, Wiese B, et al. Prognosis of mild cognitive impairment in general practice: results of the German AgeCoDe study. Ann Fam Med. 2014;12(2):158-65. Palop JJ, Chin J, Mucke L. A network dysfunction perspective on neurodegenerative diseases. Nature. 2006;443(7113):768-73. Cole JH, Leech R, Sharp DJ. Prediction of brain age suggests accelerated atrophy after traumatic brain injury. Ann Neurol.2015;77(4):571-81. Liem F, Varoquaux G, Kynast J, et al. Predicting brain-age from multimodal imaging data captures cognitive impairment. Neuroimage. 2017;148:179-88. Lin L, Jin C, Fu Z, et al. Predicting healthy older adult’s brain age based on structural connectivity networks using artificial neural networks. Comput Methods Programs Biomed. 2016;125:8-17. Luders E, Cherbuin N, Gaser C. Estimating brain age using high-resolution pattern recognition: Younger brains in long-term meditation practitioners. Neuroimage. 2016;134:508-13. Slutsky I, Sadeghpour S, Li B, et al. Enhancement of synaptic plasticity through chronically reduced Ca2+ flux during uncorrelated activity. Neuron. 2004;44(5):835-49. Zhou H, Liu G. Regulation of density of functional presynaptic terminals by local energy supply. Mol Brain. 2015;8:42. Scheff SW, Price DA. Alzheimer’s disease-related alterations in synaptic density: neocortex and hippocampus. J Alzheimers Dis. 2006;9(3 Suppl):101-15. Anaya-Martinez V, Gutierrez-Valdez AL, Ordonez-Librado JL, et al. The presence of perforated synapses in the striatum after dopamine depletion, is this a sign of maladaptive brain plasticity? Microscopy (Oxf). 2014;63(6):427-35. Bhatt DH, Zhang S, Gan WB. Dendritic spine dynamics. Annu Rev Physiol. 2009;71:261-82. Lovden M, Wenger E, Martensson J, et al. Structural brain plasticity in adult learning and development. Neurosci Biobehav Rev.2013;37(9 Pt B):2296-310. Sale A, Berardi N, Maffei L. Environment and brain plasticity: towards an endogenous pharmacotherapy. Physiol Rev. 2014;94(1):189-234. Kim YJ, McFarlane C, Warner DS, et al. The effects of plasma and brain magnesium concentrations on lidocaine-induced seizures in the rat. Anesth Analg. 1996;83(6):1223-8. McKee JA, Brewer RP, Macy GE, et al. Analysis of the brain bioavailability of peripherally administered magnesium sulfate: A study in humans with acute brain injury undergoing prolonged induced hypermagnesemia. Crit Care Med. 2005;33(3):661-6. Abumaria N, Luo L, Ahn M, et al. Magnesium supplement enhances spatial-context pattern separation and prevents fear overgeneralization. Behav Pharmacol. 2013;24(4):255-63. Schiller D, Delgado MR. Overlapping neural systems mediating extinction, reversal and regulation of fear. Trends Cogn Sci.2010;14(6):268-76.   Magtein® Magnesium L-Threonate | Support for Cognitive Health and Brain Function* Magtein® (magnesium L-threonate) is a unique, patented form of magnesium resulting from 10 years of research at MIT. It is the only form of magnesium shown to cross the blood-brain barrier, effectively increasing magnesium concentration in the brain.*     Clinical applications of Magtein®: Supports healthy synaptic density and function* Supports a healthy stress response, and a healthy mood* Supports cognitive health, focus, and attention* Unlike other brain boosting supplements, which often overstimulate the brain, Magtein® works by nourishing the synapses with magnesium, which helps keep them healthy without overstimulation. The nourishing effects of Magtein® can help your brain think clearly and maintain resiliency.*