Young Blood for Old Brains and the Quest to Slow Brain Aging?
This was interesting. Here’s a chart from the presentation that show the change in blood markers during aging to reveal the pace of change (aging?) over time. It seems to say that aging occurs quickly between 20-35 yo, picks up a little in middle age, and then skyrockets after 70 yo. This was not my understanding previously.
But if you reach 90, it slows down again! 
Thats really interesting. So perhaps taking longevity drugs during certain periods of time would have an outsized effect in overall aging. For example between ages 25 to 35, 60 to 65, and then 75 on…
This might be a way to maximize the benefit from longevity drugs (or longevity treatments like plasmapheresis and young blood factors), while minimizing the cost and side effects…
I agree. As I have pondered this data I have come to understand that the early aging is dramatic because it is on a base of zero age. All increases are huge relative increases. This makes sense.
The middle age stability is harder to understand but perhaps it is related to a large base of age with large increases (not large relative changes) plus a reaction by the person to aging. This is when I started to take care of myself. Slept more, drank less, ate better quality food, etc.
The late in life aging also makes sense but is worse than I expected. On a large base of age, it would take gigantic increases in age to show such huge relative increases. This is when the wheels fall off. The body cannot repair itself anymore (an exaggeration).
So, what if I had started being careful with my health in my 20s and 30s? Surely I would have entered midlife at a lower age. I am confident that the key to life extension (with what is available to me now) is to avoid the onset of chronic disease which is a marker of the failure (breakdown) of one or more key systems in the body. Once a system is broken, the negative feedback makes it hard to get out of the hole. Hard but not impossible? And what about declining biomarker…signaling the decline in function but not failure (yet) of systems. Can we claw back to healthy function? This is where I am now. Hanging off the edge of a cliff, trying not to let go.
The above chart had me wondering what correlates show a similar pattern with age.
Rapamycin protects against memory/cognition decline in mice
“Taken together, these findings clearly indicate that when given to 2-month-old mice throughout their life, rapamycin slows the development of age-associated memory deficits. In contrast, when given to 15-month-old mice, rapamycin does not reverse the already existing age-dependent cognitive deficits.” Life-long rapamycin administration ameliorates age-dependent cognitive deficits by reducing IL-1β and enhancing NMDA signaling - PMC.
Rapa is known to reduce brain cytokines and other inflammatory markers.
And the chart for brain inflammatory markers by age shows the sudden surge around 60+
And shows slightly higher levels in 30s vs 40s
It would be exciting if rapamycin could slow down brain shrinkage.
Some papers suggest that shrinkage is not inevitable.
Beginning in the 30s or 40s, the total size of the brain shrinks.
Shrinkage accelerates around the age of 60.
Shrinkage isn’t uniform; some areas shrink quicker than others.
The frontal lobes and hippocampus typically decrease more than other locations. These areas play a crucial role in cognitive functions.
https://sci-hub.se/10.1515/revneuro.2010.21.3.187
https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.03.020
