The secret: Work out, let go and kick dirt

"People in their 80s have much better sex than people in their 60s or 70s." I was in a sort of academic meeting when one member happily announced that, saying that he had read that a scientific study had just found that out. Most in the group who call themselves "seniors" welcomed the finding, saying it was certainly exciting to look forward to that. Then I said, shunning political correctness, "In their 80s? With the probability of Alzheimer’s, could it be that they just think they are having sex?" Then someone retorted by saying, "That’s even better, you get the high without having to work for it!" Then the women in the group started wondering if it is nature’s way of giving more time for men to grow up to be able to, among other things, finally distinguish geography from mere "location." Hope springs eternal.

"Obsolagnium" is the word that Jane Brody used in her April 10 New York Times Personal Health article. It apparently means "waning sexual desire resulting from age." It sounds like that chemical used to kill termites. She explained that it is not age per se that makes sexual desire wane, but the things associated with aging like physical ailments, personal memory baggage that stretch and stress you for a lifetime, and self-image. If these were true, then the important keys then to looking forward to our 80s are to keep healthy, remember enough yet not everything and engage in a healthy dose of self-love.

I would like to focus on "remembering" since recent studies I have come across have found out interesting things about this tricky thing called memory. I was not being insensitive when I brought up the risk of Alzheimer’s as we grow older. It is a very real thing that we face since Alzheimer’s disease is a form of dementia and dementia is highly associated with aging. Alzheimer’s unleashes plaques and tangles that cause the light to go out in the vast networks of the brain, affecting memory, judgment and our ability to learn. Science have found out that there seems to be a very good case of it being genetic (so that you are more likely than those who do not have the gene to get it) but does not rule out other causes. 

That is why scientists have been chasing ways on how to combat the loss of memory and one way seems to be if we grow new brain cells (neurons) in one of the major brain parts called the hippocampus known to house long-term memory. They were led to it by previous studies that showed that mice that exercised were able to grow new neurons. They found this out by dissecting the brains of the said mice, which for obvious reasons, we cannot do on humans. So researchers led by Dr. Scott A. Small, an associate professor of neurology at the Columbia University Medical Center, decided to look instead at changes in the brains of volunteers who worked out on exercise equipment. Their study was published online last March 20 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). For three months, they hooked on the exercising volunteers’ brains to a brain-scanning machine — MRI — and saw that indeed blood flow increased to the hippocampus. Then, they also made the subjects take a memory test in which those who exercised scored significantly better. So, given this finding, is it certain then that exercise grows neurons that will help us remember better?

Not so fast. Another study in the same journal a few weeks later, by researchers from the same institution, have found out that if they suppress the growth of new neurons in the hippocampus, the brain is able to learn new things better. They did this on mice in the study also published on PNAS last April 10. The mice were made to locate food within areas in a maze. Those whose neuron growth was suppressed made better choices and found the food faster. It is as if short-term memory or "working memory" which is the slate you write on to remember an appointment or an errand, needs room. The catch is, it seems you can only have that room if you do not hold on to too many things in your long-term memory which neurologically speaking means you do not grow neurons in the hippocampus itself.

I think this makes the case for the wisdom of letting go and passing on. Maybe there are things that you have been holding on for too long. These could be memories that should have really fallen by the wayside of stubborn conscious memory, like leaves that should have naturally exited from their finished seasons. Maybe you can let go without losing them by passing them on through a written story or a chest of treasures you can leave for others to discover. It is always good to travel light.

And guess what, when you have tried all else and things are still looking bleak, you could go play dirty...er, I mean with dirt. I know this will probably be among the strangest things you have heard of but a common and harmless soil bacteria called Mycobacterium vaccae has been tested by scientists a few years ago thinking that it could help treat cancer. However, an unexpected result occurred: while the bacteria did not treat cancer and prolong life, it improved the disposition of the patients and even decreased their pain. In the current study led by Chris Lowry of the University of Bristol in England, recently published online in the journal Neuroscience and also reported in Livescience by Ker Than last April 11, they found that mice that were previously exposed to M. vaccae had more vitality and determination to live when placed in a beaker filled with water. The scientists are still not sure how exactly the bacteria do this to depressed mice and humans but they have a suspicion. They think that M. vaccae are somehow stimulating immune cells to grow cytokines which relay signals to the brain, which in turn is stimulated to release serotonin, a chemical that is known to regulate moods. These bacteria are also suspected to be also behind the theory that the more you played with dirt when you were a kid, the stronger your immune system is.

I still have not found the study that people in their 80s have much better sex than people a decade or two younger but I have found studies that could help us foil the known problems that could keep people who will reach that age from enjoying sex and life. Maybe we could have it all before we kick the bucket with that inexplicable smile of bliss on our wrinkled faces.

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