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Scientists may have found mechanism behind cognitive decline in aging

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Re: Scientists may have found mechanism behind cognitive decline in aging

#221

Post by naasking »

swalsh wrote: post #16

I've noticed a cognitive decline in myself the past couple years. I'm in my mid 30's though so I assume it's more related to long covid. One of the biggest side effects of long covid for me was horrible insomnia, which was killer. The insomnia is mostly gone, but I'm still not my previous cognitive self. It's terrifying to be honest.

Poor sleep causes significant cognitive impairments in memory, processing speed, etc. Restoring good sleep usually restores most cognitive function, depending on the extent of the sleep deficit. Get a sleep watch or device to track both duration and depth of sleep.

Re: Scientists may have found mechanism behind cognitive decline in aging

#223

Post by naasking »

ajkjk wrote: post #149
swalsh wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My kids have started taking swim lessons at the Y, so i've been sneaking up stairs to run a mile during their lesson. I've thought about strength training etc, but I have no idea what i'm doing on those machines. Can't say I feel any different, but it is enjoyable.

Pretty much anything that makes your muscles feel sore and doesn't cause injury is worth doing. IMO: most of what makes fit people fit is becoming aware of their body in detail: how to use muscles, how they work, what they feel like, what they should feel like when they're working together -- all of this builds a foundation where, if they lost their fitness, they would just get it back again. So if you don't know wha…

> doesn't cause injury is worth doing.

Not causing injuries is the hardest part.

You can start with bodyweight though. Pushups, pull-ups, etc. I recommend the YouTube channel FitnessFAQs or Calisthenicmovement for a good start there. No nonsense, direct guides with discussion of technique and injury avoidance.

Re: Scientists may have found mechanism behind cognitive decline in aging

#224

Post by jwells89 »

matwood wrote: post #85
swalsh wrote: post #16

I've noticed a cognitive decline in myself the past couple years. I'm in my mid 30's though so I assume it's more related to long covid. One of the biggest side effects of long covid for me was horrible insomnia, which was killer. The insomnia is mostly gone, but I'm still not my previous cognitive self. It's terrifying to be honest.

> I've noticed a cognitive decline in myself the past couple years. How have you measured? I know people do decline cognitively in old age, but 30s is still young. I wonder if people only think they were sharper when younger. I knew much less in my 20s and made tons of mistakes. The mind has a peculiar way of highlighting good memories and downplaying the bad. The person I was in my 20s would not be able to do my cur…

My 30s self also runs circles around my 20s self when it comes to work (writing code), but I’m confident that’s thanks to the knowledge, experience, and wisdom that’s accumulated in that time.

If it were somehow possible to grant my 20s self these advantages, he’d run circles around me. Not just because he’s cognitively faster, but because he’s able to work for longer periods without feeling fatigued and can focus more deeply thanks to having fewer mental background tasks constantly running and not yet feeling the various time-related pressures that come with age.

Giving my teenage self current knowledge would also be interesting. Even though people aren’t cognitively complete yet at that point, at that age I had the ability to get lost in a project on a dime which was was amazing.

Re: Scientists may have found mechanism behind cognitive decline in aging

#225

Post by criddell »

copperx wrote: post #99
criddell wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might want to research Nicotinamide Riboside. I started taking it to see if it would help with painful inflammation in my hands, wrists, and knees and noticed that when I take it, not only is inflammation improved, but my sleep improved (I track with an Oura ring) and I can concentrate for longer periods of time. Might all be placebo effect, but I’m okay with that. My doctor seems to think that’s probably the cas…

It is a shame that NR is quite an expensive placebo, though. I've found similar results, but I have zero faith in it being some sort of anti aging agent in humans.

I think it is costing me less than $2 / day. In the world of supplements, it's not that much.

Re: Scientists may have found mechanism behind cognitive decline in aging

#226

Post by JPLeRouzic »

mpalmer wrote: post #163
malauxyeux wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We can all prompt ChatGPT. I'm largely blind to this. If they're not wordy and overly polite, pasted ChatGPT answers just don't appear on my radar. Can someone help me out? What points to this answer in particular being from ChatGPT?

Brief summarization that seems redundant to the topic because it's the model priming itself to generate a response in the requested form, which is usually a: 3-10 item list which mentions certain phrases related to the prompt every time ("nitric oxide" here). Disclaimer about accuracy/expertise.

So actually, it's a well formed answer?

Re: Scientists may have found mechanism behind cognitive decline in aging

#227

Post by haldujai »

ekianjo wrote: post #39
Aaargh20318 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Due to the way medication is developed, we basically only end up with medicine that works on humans + at least one other species. I wonder how many medications we have missed out on that would have worked on humans but never got to the human trial stage because it doesn’t work in any of the animal models we use.

Aspirin is famous for having teratogenic effects on rabbits and would never have been approved for humans if it were to be tested nowadays

Why? Plenty of teratogenic drugs are approved and in routine use in non-pregnant patients.

Re: Scientists may have found mechanism behind cognitive decline in aging

#228

Post by acters »

throw__away7391 wrote: post #211
acters wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In another comment I spoke about how many more people are able to reach 60+ years of age, and that the amount of people living longer have exponentially grown. Our world population reaching another billions milestone at faster timeframes. Scarily, life expectancy was always at around 20-30 years for a large portion of history for humans.(most who reached 15 years of age were capable of living to 50 years albeit they…

So by your logic we should be trying to reduce human life expectancy?! But honestly I really don't think these arguments are motivated by/a consequence of real belief in them, it's more a kind of cope with the current situation that we've become acclimated to, something in the vein of "if god intended men to fly they'd have wings".

It is ignorant to not plan on methods of habilitating more people. There is an unsolved problem of space constraints and transportation costs of essentials and optional resources. Reducing life expectancy and population will not solve these fundamental issues. If these two constraints are able to be solved sufficiently enough, then people will be able to live in larger swaths of land or in outer/near orbit space or within the oceans. It all depends on how we progress from here. Right now we are having the same issues that plagued the neolithic era. Our increase in population and life expectancy will end up hurting us because of the unsolved logistical issues.

Re: Scientists may have found mechanism behind cognitive decline in aging

#229

Post by zug_zug »

No offense to everybody upvoting this type of thing, but claims like this seem to outweigh any actual tangible result by 100 or 1000 to 1.

I think it's a better use of everybody time to say "Well, let's just wait until it's replicated in humans until we share articles"

Re: Scientists may have found mechanism behind cognitive decline in aging

#230

Post by hollerith »

zug_zug wrote: post #229

No offense to everybody upvoting this type of thing, but claims like this seem to outweigh any actual tangible result by 100 or 1000 to 1. I think it's a better use of everybody time to say "Well, let's just wait until it's replicated in humans until we share articles"

Agree.

Also, cognitive decline has been studied intensively enough that if there were a single mechanism responsible for most human instances of it, the science around that single mechanism would've been settled by now. Instead what we seems to have is a disease where toxins, chronic infections by bacteria, viruses and fungi, cardiovascular health, genetic variability (e.g., apoE4) and metabolic-lifestyle factors like insulin resistance and lack of sufficient exercise are all important.

But HN likes to upvote these announcements written by PR departments at universities.

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