Richard Hodes, M.D. is the director of the National Institute on Aging (NIA), one of the twenty-seven institutes and centers of the National Institutes of Health. The NIA and its researchers take an encompassing scientific approach to understanding the nature of aging and investigating how to extend the number of healthy active years humans can enjoy. Dr. Hodes discusses investigating the biological intricacies of growing older with Harvard Medicine Magazine editor Ann Marie Menting.

The current moment is unique in human history. Many societies are experiencing major changes in how people live, work and socialize. Fertility rates are low, and people have more flexibility in how they choose to live their lives. With basics taken care of, people can focus on higher order psychological needs – the scene is set for people to actively choose to focus on pets instead of children.

Chronic pain is both one of the world’s most costly medical problems, affecting one in every five people, and one of the most mysterious. In the past two decades, however, discoveries about the crucial role played by glia — a set of nervous system cells once thought to be mere supports for neurons — have rewritten chronic pain science. These findings have given patients and doctors a hard-science explanation that chronic pain previously lacked.

Major corporations are applying the lessons of cognitive neuroscience to get Americans buying. The science of neuromarketing is an offshoot of cognitive neuroscience. However, according to Christophe Morin, an adjunct professor at the Fielding Graduate University who has pioneered this approach to understanding consumer’s choices, neuromarketing “goes beyond what people can articulate.”

In a typical year in the United States, roughly 16 million adults suffer from a depression-related illness. Approximately one third of those who seek treatment won’t respond to verbal or conventional drug therapies. Magic mushroom therapy offers hope in some cases. Psilocybin is now undergoing clinical trials. If all goes well, treatments could be available by 2024.

The execution of any musical symphony is a difficult task, demanding significant skills from each musician. Perhaps the hardest task lies with the conductor who must orchestrate the musicians so the music comes alive cohesively and speaks to our deepest emotions. The human brain is like an orchestra: different regions perform different types of processing, much like the individual musicians.

Our sedentary tendencies may be robbing us of a key benefit of physical activity: the myriad repair mechanisms that heal the minor dings and tears of hunter-gatherer and farming lifestyles, a deficit that may be particularly damaging as we age. Professor Daniel Lieberman says that the difference in activity levels between Western adults and hunter-gatherers is significant throughout the lifespan and aging process.

Adding art therapy to standard drug treatment in Parkinson's disease not only improves severity of both motor and nonmotor symptoms, but also slows rates of disease progression. Researchers believe the positive effect of art therapy could be related to "activating the brain's reward neural network." This may be via improved visual attention which activate medial orbitofrontal cortex, ventral striatum, and other structures.

Health experts believe noise pollution is an important part of environmental health, like air pollution and water pollution. It’s not just about the risk of hearing loss. Extended exposure to loud noise levels can increase the risk of hypertension, high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, strokes, dementia and depression. Unlike many other injuries, hearing damage is irreparable. Loud noise can damage cells and membranes in the cochlea.

With the launch of any new therapeutic class of drugs comes an inevitable mix of hopeless romanticism and cautious optimism buttressed by an onslaught of opposing theoretical arguments promising either a silver bullet or a Pandora’s box. For those tracking the latest developments in the aging field (geroscience), this is where we find ourselves in the ongoing tale of the therapeutic class of drugs known as senolytics: The jury is still out.

Throughout the 21st century, employers and commercial real estate developers have tried to make workplaces more attractive by adding showy amenities, such as gyms, coffee bars, and beanbag chairs, that supposedly foster creativity and cooperation. As companies and their employees ponder what the post-pandemic office will be like, the cool new amenity won’t be a foosball table. It’ll be something we should have had all along – clean air.

There is no greater scientific mystery than the brain. It’s made mostly of water; much of the rest is largely fat. Yet this roughly three-pound mass of material produces our thoughts, memories, and emotions. Increasingly, scientists are beginning to unravel the complexities of how the human brain works. Here is MIT’s overview of cutting-edge brain research (and why it’s important).

Even though coffee is among the most consumed beverages in the world, little is known about the long-term impact of regular consumption on cardiovascular health. A new study from the European Society of Cardiology suggests that up to three cups of coffee per day is associated with a lower risk of stroke and fatal heart disease. The observed benefits might be partly explained by positive alterations in cardiac structure and function.

With more than 18 months of the pandemic behind us, researchers have been steadily gathering new and important insights into the effects of COVID-19 on the body and brain. These findings are raising concerns about the long-term impacts that the coronavirus might have on biological processes such as aging. Preliminary research finds that even mild cases of COVID-19 leave a mark on the brain – but it’s not yet clear how long it lasts.

For some lucky souls, optimism shows up uninvited and makes a nest. But hope requires that we make a nest for it, and put out some tasty birdseed too. Arthur C. Brooks makes the case that hope is better for happiness than optimism. Having hope is especially important as the world recovers from the pandemic. But how do we actually do that? We can start by imagining a better future, including details of the specific elements that will have improved.

Change manifests itself in many forms and can affect our moods, resilience and relationships. We all wish to develop meaning and purpose, oftentimes to create an enduring legacy. We all know that change can be difficult, and to understand why this is, we need to explore how the human brain works, and in particular, the concept of neuroplasticity. Learn more about the science of change from Dr. Ronnie Stangler.

Discovered more than a decade ago, a remarkable compound shows promise in treating everything from Alzheimer’s to brain injuries—and it just might improve your cognitive abilities. Carmela Sidrauski believes the reason the molecule can do so much is that it plays an essential role in how the brain handles stress from physical injuries or neurological diseases.

CEOs work long hours, make high-stakes decisions such as initiating layoffs or plant closures, and face uncertainty in times of crisis. They also are closely monitored and criticized when their firms underperform. A new research paper co-authored by Wharton finance professor Marius Guenzel titled “CEO Stress, Aging and Death” looks at the impact such work-related stressors can have on CEOs and their lifespans and brain function.

Cutting 20 percent of sugar from packaged foods and 40 percent from beverages could prevent 2.48 million cardiovascular disease events, 490,000 cardiovascular deaths, and 750,000 diabetes cases in the U.S. over the lifetime of the adult population, reports a recent study. Implementing a national policy, however, will require government support to monitor companies as they work toward the targets and to publicly report on their progress.

We all have our go-to habits that make us feel good when life feels tough. Maybe it’s scrolling through your endless social media feeds when you’re feeling anxious or having a glass of wine at the end of a tough day. While these little treats may seem like no big deal, they’re actually keeping us in pain, argues Dr. Lembke in her new book Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence.

On September 24th, UsAgainstAlzheimer’s launched their new BrainStorm podcast. Their first episode features Dr. Rudy Tanzi, a recognized rockstar in Alzheimer’s who discovered the three genes associated with early-onset Alzheimer’s and is a staunch proponent of prevention. This episode emphasizes the importance of knowing all the signs and symptoms so we can get the right diagnosis and support.

Americans are slowly coming out of the pandemic, but as they reemerge, there’s still a lot of trauma to process. It’s not just our families, our communities, and our jobs that have changed; our brains have changed too. Now the question is, can our brains change back? And how can we help them do that? This article thoroughly addresses: how stress affects the brain; how our brains repair; and treatment options.

Neuroscience is not just a buzzword or megatrend. The field is exploding exponentially, offering us new tools and strategies to understand our innate physiology and optimize human performance. In the Huberman Lab’s first Neural Network newsletter, Dr. Andrew Huberman outlines twelve steps to better sleep. Dr. Huberman brilliantly blends formal lab science with actionable behavioral practices to show us how to elevate our mental and physical health to support positive, enduring change.

Do you believe in true love? Probably so: 94 percent of Americans say they do, according to one 2019 survey. Despite its popularity in stories and movies, “love at first sight” has little to do with reality. To many of those who believe in them, these widespread, almost magical notions of romance might be the essence of true love. Others might say that a more realistic approach to romance is better—that true love over the long haul is a combination of good luck, free will, and hard work.

Though scientists have been studying metabolism for at least a century, they have not been able to measure it precisely enough – in real-world conditions, in enough people, across a broad-enough age range – to see how it changes throughout the human life span. A recent paper by more than 80 co-authors revealed that much of what we thought we knew about metabolism was wrong and has powerful implications for chronic disease, aging and obesity.

Researchers have found that while levels of subjective wellbeing initially rise as free time increases, the trend does not necessarily hold for very high levels of leisure. “The sweet spot is a moderate amount of free time,” said Dr Marissa Sharif, a co-author of the study from the University of Pennsylvania. “We found that having too much time was associated with lower subjective wellbeing due to a lacking sense of productivity and purpose.”

Proteins are essential for body growth and muscle building. However, protein metabolism varies depending on the body’s internal biological clock. Therefore, it is important to know how distribution of protein intake over the day affects muscles. Researchers from Japan have now found that consumption of proteins at breakfast increases muscle size and function in mice and humans, shedding light on the concept of ‘Chrononutrition’ that deals with the timing of diets to ensure organ health.

Not only does thinking filter reality; it constructs it, inferring an outside world from ambiguous input. In ‘Being You’, Anil Seth, a neuroscientist at the University of Sussex, relates his explanation for how the “inner universe of subjective experience relates to, and can be explained in terms of, biological and physical processes unfolding in brains and bodies.” He contends that experiences of being emerge from the way the brain predicts and controls the internal state of the body.

Equine therapy, which involves interactions with horses in a controlled environment, reduces fear and other symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), new research suggests. Results from a study of about 60 military veterans who underwent weekly sessions of horse-assisted therapy showed "marked reductions" in clinician-rated and self-reported symptoms of PTSD and depression up to 3 months posttreatment.

Although mindfulness may indeed have psychological benefits, research has also revealed that in some circumstances it’s important to be mindless. That is, as we develop skill in complex tasks, we can perform them with increasing facility until attention seems to be unnecessary. In some situations, it’s important to not pay so much attention. Everyday examples range from riding a bike to chopping cucumbers to brushing your teeth.