Aging Without Old — This Old Brain

by Mike

Maybe a cliche’, maybe not. Neuroscientist Glenn Heideman says we have a lot more control than previously believed.

What was the paradigm that brought us to where we are now? The boomer generation was brought up with the aging process of our grandparents. Genetics and maybe a little environment determined the rate of aging. If my memory serves me correctly, my grandparents quickly declined into what I thought of as old and continued to decline at a steady, albeit slower rate. The determining factors were few.

The larger part of their model of aging was their own expectation of aging

The Story We Tell About Aging

Expectations had a lot to do with it. Not just their expectations, but those of everyone, including myself, around them. There was my parents, then there was old. And my parents didn’t appear to be to spry either. There was an acceptance of getting old. I don’t think that was a terrible thing; it was just the way it was. I also don’t think it was necessary.

Dr. Heideman and others have changed the name of the game. The old model that said 80% of how we age is genetic has more than turned around. He tells us that the reality is that 15% of aging is genetic and that up to 85% of it is left in our own hands
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