With age comes wisdom? Maybe not

Discussion in 'Biology & Genetics' started by S.A.M., Nov 5, 2008.

  1. S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

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    Think achy joints are the main reason we slow down as we get older? Blame the brain, too: The part in charge of motion may start a gradual downhill slide at age 40. How fast you can throw a ball or run or swerve a steering wheel depends on how speedily brain cells fire off commands to muscles. Fast firing depends on good insulation for your brain's wiring.

    Now new research suggests that in middle age, even healthy people begin to lose some of that insulation in a motor-control part of the brain - at the same rate that their speed subtly slows.

    That helps explain why "it's hard to be a world-class athlete after 40," concludes Dr. George Bartzokis, a neurologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who led the work.

    "We knew at some age you peak and there's a sense it would disintegrate as you grow older. But we didn't have a sense of where that age would be," says Arvanitakis, who next wants to see if myelin and cognitive functions show a similar trajectory.

    Bartzokis' research supports a recent report from German scientists, that with age comes a weakening of the system that's supposed to repair broken myelin, adds Dr. Bradley Wise of the National Institute on Aging.

    "Any disruption in these neural circuits and networks will have problems for functioning," says Wise, who says the two reports are spurring increased interest into myelin's role in aging. Until recently, most myelin research has focused on multiple sclerosis, where myelin doesn't gradually degrade but disappears.


    http://www.physorg.com/news144948216.html
     
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  3. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    I'll get you , you young whipper snapper!!:itold:
     
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  5. sniffy Banned Banned

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    What has the ability to run fast got to do with the begetting of wisdom?
     
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  7. Enmos Valued Senior Member

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    How else are you going to get the wisdom ?
     
  8. Simon Anders Valued Senior Member

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    I'm with sniffy. We gots more memory and we gots more interconnections between brain cells the older we get. When is peak nerve firing speed

    at 17?
    23?

    Our wisest people are therefore 17 or 23 or whenever we peak.

    In a flood or an avalanche I can equate wisdom with reaction time. Of course it depends what you do with your reaction time. Deciding to grab some chips before you run out the door and thus get swept away, none of us geezers in our slow wheelchairs are gonna make that bozo mistake.
     
  9. sniffy Banned Banned

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    Well I suppose wisdom needs some defining then because a quickness of reaction is not required in every situation. Sometimes time and reflection are needed...

    A kneejerk reaction is great...if you are a kick boxer.
     
  10. Simon Anders Valued Senior Member

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    and a trained one. And if you are a kick boxer, how wise could you possibly be. People are going to kick you in your brain cells,

    a lot.

    And you chose this activity.
     
  11. visceral_instinct Monkey see, monkey denigrate Valued Senior Member

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    Age definitely does NOT equal wisdom.

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  12. Roman Banned Banned

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    Did you even read your article sam, or are you using some bizarre definition of wisdom that we're unfamiliar with?
     
  13. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    With great age comes ....death!

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  14. Diode-Man Awesome User Title Registered Senior Member

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    Which is why I believe strategy video games like Warcraft III and Starcraft make the brain:

    1) Think of more things at once
    2) Think of more things faster (both of these make the brain work better for future use)
    3) Prevent Alzheimer's
     
  15. Harro Registered Senior Member

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    I watched a documentary where it was presented that the ageing process could be due to the Cells DNA being copied and thus over time copying of copies leads to errors in the DNA code.

    For example photo copy a picture and photo copying each successive copy leads to an inferior and more inferior quality of the image.

    Would it be possible for medical or biological scientists to discover a method of storing a master copy of your genic code. Where by being able to administer periodic injections of copies from this master DNA so as to negate the ageing process and live much longer life spans?
     

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