Successful Aging: A Neuroscientist Explores the Power and Potential of Our Lives

by Daniel J. Levitin

Novelist Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club) writes that “on a long enough time line, the survival rate for everyone will drop to zero.” Or, as economist John Maynard Keynes famously quipped, “In the long run we are all dead.” The ubiquity of death suggests to some that eventual death is foreordained at the cellular, and therefore genetic, level.

Blue Zones So-called blue zones made headlines in 2008 when demographers discovered the four places in the world that had the highest number of people over age one hundred: Nicoya, Costa Rica; Sardinia, Italy; Ikaria, Greece; and Okinawa, Japan (some lists add Del Mar, California). Most people living in the blue zones have the following in common: They are physically active, not through weight and endurance training, but through chores, gardening, and walking as an integrated part of their lives—they move a lot. Their lives have a sense of purpose by doing things they find meaningful. They have lower levels of stress and a slower pace. They have strong family and community ties. They follow a varied diet with a moderate caloric intake, but mostly based on plant sources and high-quality food.

It’s no coincidence that the first three syllables of NAD+, nicotinamide, sound like nicotine. NAD+ is a form of vitamin B3 and was one of the first vitamins ever discovered. Nicotine, the addictive substance found in tobacco, interferes with absorption of nicotinamide and B3 in the body because of the similarity between the two molecules. If you’ve heard that smoking compromises the immune system, this is one of the reasons why. Geneticist David Sinclair from Harvard is one of the leading players in this field.

the research has persuaded Sinclair to take an NAD+ supplement daily, 1,000 mg of an NMN formulation that is not yet commercially available. He also takes metformin, by the way, 1,000 mg per evening, and 500 mg of resveratrol (pterosilbene) every morning. My advice, based on what I’ve learned from the literature and from Sinclair himself, is to wait for the dust to settle on this whole NAD+ thing. If it becomes approved by the FDA as a drug, rather than a supplement, the purity will be tightly regulated, which it is not now—and it will have been shown to work in humans, not just mice.

Richard Overton, the oldest surviving World War II veteran (at the time of his death), who lived to be 112 and whose secret to a long life was cigars (twelve a day), whiskey, and coffee (with three teaspoons of sugar).

Stimulants—Adderall, Modafinil, Pitolisant, Ritalin, Nicotine

A 2019 study examined nearly seven hundred adults aged sixty and over in Singapore and found that participants who consumed more than two portions of mushrooms a week reduced their odds of having mild cognitive impairment by 50 percent, and this was independent of age, gender, education, cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, physical activities, and social activities.

What might be the brain basis for the positivity bias? Carstensen believes that it is caused by top-down (volitional) changes in motivated cognition that shift priorities toward emotionally satisfying goals. Indeed, two areas associated with selective attention and these kinds of motivated cognition are the ventral-medial region of the prefrontal cortex and the adjacent anterior cingulate cortex. These areas have been shown to be especially active in older adults, and this may be contributing to older adults’ positivity and well-being.

Social comparison theory states that our life satisfaction tends to be influenced not so much by what we have but by what we have in relation to others. That is, we look to see how others are living, such as whether they have shoes or have fewer aches and pains—and we judge ourselves in comparison.

Westerners tend to see happiness and misery as opposites, and life as a challenge to minimize the negative and accentuate the positive. Easterners tend to see happiness and misery as interrelated and mutually necessary, like the yin and yang in Chinese philosophy. Indeed, studies of thousands of people have found that members of holistic cultures aspire to less happiness, pleasure, freedom, health, self-esteem, and longevity than members of individualistic cultures, although their goals for society at large are the same. Russia—which has a sociological history of being somewhat between an individualistic and collectivist culture—fell on the side of the Eastern cultures when included in this study.

The clearest message we get from this 75 year study is this: good relationships keep us happy and healthier, period . . . social connections are really good for us . . . loneliness kills. People who are more socially connected to family, to friends and community, are happier, healthier, and they live longer. And loneliness turns out to be toxic. . . . High conflict marriages without much affection are very bad for our health—worse than getting divorced.

Men who had “warm” childhood relationships with their mothers earned an average of $87,000 more a year than men whose mothers were uncaring. (Wow! Thanks, Mom!)

warm childhood relations with fathers correlated with lower rates of adult anxiety, greater enjoyment of vacations, and increased “life satisfaction” at age seventy-five—whereas the warmth of childhood relationships with mothers had no significant bearing on life satisfaction at seventy-five.

What is the ideal age to retire? Never. Even if you’re physically impaired, it’s best to keep working,

taking classes online, such as from Coursera or Khan Academy (but be sure you interact with real, live people to discuss what you’ve learned; learning in isolation can only go so far in keeping your mind active);

Basically, plan ahead. When did Noah build the ark? Before the flood.

“Hatred corrodes the container in which it is carried.”

APPENDIX REJUVENATING YOUR BRAIN Don’t retire. Don’t stop being engaged with meaningful work. Look forward. Don’t look back. (Reminiscing doesn’t promote health.) Exercise. Get your heart rate going. Preferably in nature. Embrace a moderated lifestyle with healthy practices. Keep your social circle exciting and new. Spend time with people younger than you. See your doctor regularly, but not obsessively. Don’t think of yourself as old (other than taking prudent precautions). Appreciate your cognitive strengths—pattern recognition, crystallized intelligence, wisdom, accumulated knowledge. Promote cognitive health through experiential learning: traveling, spending time with grandchildren, and immersing yourself in new activities and situations. Do new things.