Category Archives: Ageing

We are old and in love, but she left me after my cancer diagnosis | Dear Mariella

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We might assume better treatment from maturing adults but at least she was decisive, says Mariella Frostrup

The dilemma In the summer I met a wonderful woman online. She is kind, clever, good looking and many other positive things. We clicked from the outset and became lovers after a couple of months. We have a combined age of 127, but we both said the sex was the best we’ve ever enjoyed. She told me she loved me – and it was reciprocated. We live 100 miles apart, but that suited our busy lifestyles.

Everything was wonderful and we seemed to be very much on the same wavelength until November, when I was diagnosed with bladder cancer. The treatment is extensive, but hasn’t yet started. She broke up with me over Christmas. She still professes love for me (though we haven’t been in contact for a few weeks), but says she is too busy with work, family and friends to commit to me, and that I would become too needy of her and her time. I don’t agree that I would, but I can see why she might say that. I have recently retired. I miss her terribly and don’t know how to deal with it.

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African killifish may hold key to stopping ageing in humans

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Turquoise killifish is able to suspend its development for longer than its average lifespan

The curious ability of the African turquoise killifish to press pause on its development could have intriguing implications for human ageing, say researchers.

Certain creatures, including the killifish, can put themselves into suspended animation as an embryo – a trait known as diapause. The phenomenon is thought to have evolved in response to pressures such as seasonal changes in the environment – for example ponds drying up – or sudden challenges that pose a risk to the creatures. In other words, diapause allows the animal to put its development or birth on ice until conditions improve.

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Families sending relatives with dementia to Thailand for care

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British people with disease sent abroad over inadequate and expensive care at home

British families are sending elderly relatives with dementia overseas to Thailand in a small but growing trend.

Researchers visiting private care homes in Chiang Mai have found eight homes where guests from the UK are living thousands of miles away from their families, because suitable care in their home country was impossible to find or afford.

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The science of senolytics: how a new pill could spell the end of ageing

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A simple treatment to stave off the health problems of old age could be available in five to 12 years. Here’s how it would work

The science of extending life is a subject of morbid fascination, conjuring the image of old billionaires being cryogenically frozen. But imagine if, instead of a pill you could take to live for ever, there was a pill that could push back the ageing process – a medicine that could stave off the fragility, osteoarthritis, memory loss, macular degeneration and cancers that plague old age.

It could happen, with the science of senolytics: an emerging – and highly anticipated – area of anti-ageing medicine. Many of the world’s top gerontologists have already demonstrated the possibilities in animals and are now beginning human clinical trials, with promising results. If the studies continue to be as successful as hoped, those who are currently middle-aged could become the first generation of oldies who are youthful for longer – with a little medical help.

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Breast cancer risk from using HRT is ‘twice what was thought’

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Study prompts medicines regulator to advise all women using HRT to remain vigilant

The risk of breast cancer from using hormone replacement therapy is double what was previously thought, according to a major piece of research, which confirms that HRT is a direct cause of the cancer.

The findings of the definitive study will cause concern among the 1 million women in the UK and millions more around the world who are using HRT. It finds that the longer women take it, the greater their risk, with the possibility that just one year is risk-free. It also finds that the risk does not go away as soon as women stop taking it, as had been previously assumed.

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Housework could keep brain young, research suggests

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Even light exertions can slow down ageing of the brain, activity-tracker data indicates

Even light activity such as household chores might help to keep the brain young, researchers say, adding to a growing body of evidence that, when it comes to exercise, every little helps.

The findings mirror upcoming guidance from the UK chief medical officers, and existing US guidelines, which say light activity or very short bouts of exercise are beneficial to health – even if it is just a minute or two at a time – countering the previous view that there was a threshold that must be reached before there were significant benefits.

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Woman stands in German council election aged 100

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Lisel Heise runs for local grassroots group after realising her age ‘gives me the chance to say something’

For most people, reaching 100 would be reason enough to put one’s feet up and take things easy, but Lisel Heise has other ideas.

The German centenarian, a former sports teacher, has started a new chapter in her life by standing for election to the council in her home town of Kirchheimbolanden.

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Scientists reverse memory decline using electrical pulses

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Working memory of older group temporarily improves to match younger group in study

A decline in memory as a result of ageing can be temporarily reversed using a harmless form of electrical brain stimulation, scientists have found.

The findings help explain why certain cognitive skills decline significantly with age and raise the prospect of new treatments.

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Infusions of young blood not proven ‘safe or effective’, US government warns

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FDA warning is blow to anti-age treatment fad that claims it could improve strength and memory and even combat Alzheimer’s

The US government has warned that older people should not be paying to have their veins filled with the blood of young people, in a blow for what was becoming a fad anti-aging treatment.

In a statement on Tuesday the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said infusions of plasma from young donors into older clients “should not be assumed to be safe or effective”, and said it was “concerned that some patients are being preyed upon by unscrupulous actors” charging thousands of dollars for transfusions.

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New drug raises hopes of reversing memory loss in old age

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Toronto researchers believe the drug can also help those with depression, schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s

An experimental drug that bolsters ailing brain cells has raised hopes of a treatment for memory loss, poor decision making and other mental impairments that often strike in old age.

The drug could be taken as a daily pill by over-55s if clinical trials, which are expected to start within two years, show that the medicine is safe and effective at preventing memory lapses.

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