Members of Long-Lived Families Exhibit Slower Cognitive Aging

Greater longevity tends to be accompanied by better late life health and a slower progression of measurable aspects of aging. Researchers are very interested in uncovering the genetic contribution to variations in the pace of aging in our species, but the harder they look, the more it appears that genetic differences provide only a small contribution at best. Variance in pace of aging must then largely result from better lifestyle choices and lesser exposure to damaging circumstances such as persistent infections. Even in the case of long-lived families, there is the argument that a slower pace of aging is far more a matter of culture, rather than of genetics. The Long Life Family Study (LLFS) has enrolled over 5,000 participants from almost 600 families and has been following them for the past 15 years. The study is unique in that it enrolls individuals belonging to families with clusters of long-lived relatives. Since 2006, the LLFS has recruited participants belonging to two groups: the long-lived siblings (also called the proband generation) and their children. Since they share lifestyle and environmental factors, the spouses of these two groups have also been enrolled in the LLFS as a referent group. To assess cognitive performance, the researchers administered a series of assessments to the study participants meant to test different domains of thinking, such as attention, executive function and memory, over two visits approximately eight years apart. Th...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs