E<\/span>veryone would like to avoid disease and maintain their survival. How do we do that? It turns out that successful aging is related in large part to what we do and how we manage our activities so as to enhance our capacity for health as we get older.<\/p>\n I believe there are four factors that impact how you age. The four factors are cognitive, physical, psychological, and social reserve. These four multiple reserve factors are critical for maintaining better health as we grow older.<\/p>\n Aging is accompanied by challenges that are both physical and mental. Not only do we need to resist the development of disease, but we also need to enhance our capacity to deal with disease problems if they should develop.<\/p>\n The concept of reserves began in regard to battles in which some forces were held back for use later, after initiation of the combat. Similarly, our reserves are there for us to call upon when needed.<\/p>\n Cognitive reserve considers the health of the brain and its capacity to maintain function despite conditions that may cause problems. Physical reserve involves the health of all the body’s systems, including the heart, lungs, blood, gastrointestinal tract, and the bacteria that reside inside us. These systems all interact to help maintain our functional capacity throughout life.<\/p>\n Psychological reserve involves the ability to maintain healthy mental states despite stress and other difficulties which develop. Social reserve is reflected in our participation in networks and avoidance of isolation and loneliness.<\/p>\n Recent research has shown that the risk of getting Alzheimer’s disease has declined by about 20% in the past 20 years. This is most certainly not because of genes because genes are slow to change.<\/p>\n The factor responsible for the lowered incidence and prevalence of the disease is most likely because we are living healthier lives today than we were before. Hypertension is better controlled, and the risk of cardiovascular disease has declined.<\/p>\n Furthermore, many people are eating better than they were before as well. This decreasing risk of the disease is strong evidence that it matters how we live. As the great 19th-century Harvard psychologist William James said, \u201cAct as if whatever you do makes a difference. It does\u201d.<\/p>\n It is important for people to be physically and cognitively active throughout life. There is no age at which it’s too late to make desirable changes. Our ancestors lived lives filled with vigorous activities because these activities were necessary for survival. This time was the period in which our genes were selected because of their adaptive value. This means that we do not have genes that help us to prepare for a sedentary lifestyle.<\/p>\n Similarly, our ancestors had a much more diverse diet with less saturated fat than people consume today. It is likely that our ancestors were both more physically as well as cognitively active than we are today.<\/p>\n A cow has about five times more saturated fat than the meat eaten by our ancestors. It is desirable to have a diet rich in fiber, which is complex carbohydrates that cannot be metabolized by animals but is utilized by intestinal microbes, particularly bacteria that produced desirable products in our gut.<\/p>\n The consumption of fiber enhances the growth of bacteria in the gut, which helps to keep us healthy and helps to reduce inflammation throughout the body. A diet high in saturated fat fails to aid these desirable bacteria and enhances the growth of bacteria which leads to inflammation, heart disease, stroke, and cancer.<\/p>\n It is desirable to have a diverse assortment of plant-based foods, as well as a diverse program of physical activity. Psychological and social reserve can be enhanced through participation in groups, meditation, active learning, and understanding of what each person finds meaningful in their lives.<\/p>\n Many people from all walks of life consider aging to be something that happens to everyone. I believe they are mistaken.<\/p>\n We all know people who did not live long enough to become old. It is also true that declines with aging are not universal- some people can retain good function well into their 80s.<\/p>\n Rather than believing that aging is inevitable, it should be understood that aging represents an opportunity — an opportunity that is not available to many people. Aging represents an opportunity by which we can adjust our lifestyle factors to accomplish exceptional aging.<\/p>\n Neurologist shares ideas for successful aging<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":13354,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[165,167],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-winter-2023","category-winter-2023-features"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13289"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13582,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13289\/revisions\/13582"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Four Factors That Impact Aging<\/h3>\n
How Can the Reserves Be Enhanced and Why Do They Matter?<\/h3>\n
Importance of Physical and Cognitive Activity<\/h3>\n
The Importance of a Diverse Diet<\/h3>\n
A Key Question is \u201cIs Aging Inevitable?\u201d<\/h3>\n
Robert Friedland, MD<\/a>, is a neurologist and the Rudd-endowed professor of Neurology and Neurobiology at the University of Louisville School of Medicine in Kentucky. He is the author of Unaging: The Four Factors That Impact How You Age,<\/em><\/a> published by Cambridge University Press.<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"