Successful Aging

1. What is your personal definition of succesful aging? How has this definition changed from the beginning of the semester?

-My personal definition of successful aging is being satisfied both physically and mentally with oneself. Being satisfied includes not only the mental and physical aspects but also social class, economic status, family, friends, relationship status, physical appearance, ability to exercise, etc.

-My definition has changed since the beginning of the semester by at first my own personal definition of successful aging was really short and vague and now it is more detailed and takes into account different factors.

2. What was one topic or fact that you found to be the most interesting throughout the semester?

-My favorite class and the things I found most interesting was today in class when Dr. Peter Martin came in and spoke to our class. I found his presentation very intriguing, relevant, informative, and I learned a lot from it.  
3. What is one aspect of successful aging that you would like to continue learning about?

-I would like to learn more about the genetics aspect of successful aging.

4. Has any of the information that we've discussed in class change your perspective about successful aging?  (i.e. Are there any behaviors that you will or will not do as a result of learning about aging?)

-Yeah a lot of things we discussed in class have definitely made me think twice about my own lifestyle and habits. But what I keep telling myself is aging and dying are both inevitable so I'm not going to go crazy or go ridiculously out of my way if it means giving up more important things.

What's in the news?

I found a rather different article from WebMD that was published last month on March 8th. Researchers conducted a survey that included six different categories: life evaluation, emotional health, work environment, physical health, healthy behaviors, and basic access. 352, 840 adults from all 50 states and Washington D.C. were randomly interviewed in 2010. The questions they were asked were of a wide range. Interviewees were asked about their current situations and then 5 years from then. In the survey a score of 100 represents ideal conditions of well-being and as a nation we scored a 66.8.

Top Ranks: 

1) Hawaii                  71

2) Wyoming              69.2

3) North Dakota       68.4

4)Alaska                   68.3

5) Colorado              68

6) Minnesota             68

Bottom Ranks:

46) Alabama             63.7

47) Arkansas            63.7

48) Mississippi          63

49) Kentucky            61.9

50) West Virginia      61.7

I found the results of this survey to be very interesting how they compared overall well-being to geographic region within the United States. I thought this article coincided with what we have been talking about lately and a little bit to the Blue Zones video as well.

http://www.webmd.com/healthy-aging/news/20110308/survey-reveals-the-nations-happiest-states

Financial Aging

The thing that surprised me about the financial aging calculator are all the different possibilities for our futures. We don't know as of right now what job we will be doing for sure, how much money we will be making, and whether or not we'll have a spouse income and even further than that what their income will be. I think right now we are too young to get a pretty close figure because there are so many different variables; I mean the calculator can give us a ballpark but that's about it. Things change, people change so I think it will be interesting to see where we actually end up. We are all very young still and have plenty of time to figure things out before retirement.

Centenarians

I honestly think the Centenarian group as a whole is a very interesting and intriguing group of people. They might possess and help us uncover the answer(s) to the burning question what causes aging? A lot of their attitudes and personalities really stuck out to me. Their mental sharpness at over 100 years old was absolutely amazing to me. A few of my relatives have lived into their early to mid 90s so I find it very interesting and in watching the Centenarian video was thinking if my relatives are/were like that as well. I personally think more Centenarian studies should be conducted for comparison and to flat out just gather as much information as we possibly can about this group. I think this information is relevant to everyone on this planet because we all inevitably age. A lot of people just go through life ignoring this principal however but if we actually take a more in depth look at it and figure it out I think more people would be at ease about this concept.

Life Expectancy

I honestly was very surprised at the age the Life Expectancy calculator kicked out for me. It was much higher than what I thought it was going to be. As long as I'm a healthy individual to that age, I will be happy to live that long.

I am satisfied with the age the calculator gave me but I'm afraid there are many more factors that should be included in the calculation. I feel as though if I answered those questions even ten years from now my answers would have changed as things in my life change and my family members age as well. They took into account a lot of things each of us have control over which is very important but the one other factor we should look at to give us a more accurate calculation is doing some kind of gene analysis. Also, I think they should have added in a question about the luck factor; it's a random question but I think it may be a valid one.

Genetics of Aging

http://www.riverdeep.net/current/2002/09/091602t_oldflies.jhtml

My article reinforces what Dr. Bronikowski started talking to us about last week. Researchers found an altered gene that had effectively doubled the life span of flies. However, not only did it double their life span the flies stayed middle age and active for most of their life. A single mutation prevented individual fly cells from using too many calories which caused an increased life span and is what Dr. Bronikowski studied and talked about as well. Aging occurs on the cellular level and each cell has its own built in clock that says how many times it is able to divide. Researchers also know this 'clock' is predetermined for each cell. Aging can be linked to degradation of the telomeres in our DNA and as a cell is continually dividing the strands get shorter and shorter. Cancer cells are the only cells that have been able to overcome this internal cellular clock. I found this article very interesting as it is helping us understand more about aging and putting us one step closer to figuring out the why question of aging.

What processes cause aging?

The one thing that caught my attention right away from the processes that cause aging reading was the paragraph about how some sort of damage is only caused to certain species of animals as compared to damage caused to all animals. As humans age they often develop heart problems as can pigs and some pigeons. Whereas horses tend to die from twisted intestines. Dogs and men often develop prostate cancer something that is never found in mice or rats. Alzheimer's disease is commonly seen in monkeys and humans. I thought this point was very interesting and was never something I really thought about or took into consideration. I do agree with this paragraph and think that each species has its own way or ways of aging to ensure death.

Why We Age?

At this point in time we have no idea 'why' we age? There are many theories and ideas as to why we do but no one has come up with the correct answer and been able to prove it. I don't think there is one distinct reason for why we age; I think there are multiple. Mostly I think aging has to do with our genetic make-up and genes because if you think about it everyone has their own unique individual life span and no two people are exactly the same. As aging occurs I think various things happen that help prepare us for death, such as aging physically, mentally, emotionally, etc. I believe humans and all other species age and die for both reproductive and population advantages. If we all lived forever our genes would eventually be old, mutated, and outdated. Before the death of an individual occurs their genes can be recycled within their offspring. Also, I think death is nature's way of controlling the population of a species because it is unavoidable.

http://www.thetech.org/genetics/news.php?id=10