Tag: aging

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Beethoven Home

The home of Beethoven in Bonn is nicely preserved and full of objects related to his life and his creative work. For the musician and composer musical instruments have accompanied him throughout his life. The visit of his home of birth offers a chance to dive into the extraordinary accomplishments of this great figure of the late 18th and early 19th century. His 9th symphony is strong as ever and the European anthem has just more than 200 years since the first performance now. The visit of the museum is still the highlight of Bonn and the App of the Beethoven House offers unique insights into and listening of his manifold compositions. Handwritten notes and a pocketbook of preparations for the symphony demonstrate the all encompassing nature of music for Beethoven. From romantic letters to the romantic music pieces, the museum has it all. Even it is a rather tiny house from the outside the inner life is as huge as it can be. It is advisable to take at least half a day for the visit much more than you would usually take for visit of a museum. The link between the biographical information and listening to linked musical pieces with a chronological context are a unique experience. This spurs the interest to listen or listen again to some of the romantic masterpieces. The App is great also to listen directly to some of the music.

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Retirement Plans

There are debates about the best organization of retirement. The major fault lines lie between public pension systems and systems that are built based on mainly private provision. Retirement plans in either system are subject to constraints. The recent stock market turbulence has increased the amount of uncertainty people face who invested in 401K plans in the US. Some had to take an unannounced hit to their retirement savings due to the loss after Trump’s back and forth policies on tariffs (OECD Pension Outlook). High volatility of stock market prices creates an additional constraint that you are less inclined to retire when your retirement investments have overall a reduced value. You are a bit at the mercy of capital markets even in your retirement decision, irrespective of the difficulty to predict what your retirement funds will yield as returns. Quite an important lesson to keep in mind when comparing retirement systems in OECD countries. It has been all too easy to blame public pension systems for maybe lower short term interests on pension savings. Being subject to an American president concerning your retirement plans is probably not what many countries would like to have. Trump’s choices on tariffs may have consequences we did not expect to affect us so directly.

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Suicide Prevention

The annual mortality statistics and special reports on suicidal tendencies are a tough reading. OECD Statistics give a at least an approximate, comparative perspective. Reporting routines and medical confirmation of a suicide or suicidal behavior still vary quite a bit between countries. Nevertheless, the usually reported incidents per 100.000 persons remain rather abstract.
Absolute numbers speak a clear language. For example in Germany there were about 10.300 recorded suicides in 2023, France had to mourn about 9200 in 2022. To put the size of the problem in perspective it is helpful to know that in Germany all other not aging related causes of death like traffic accidents, drugs or murder make up for around 7.000 deaths per year. The targeting of resources and prevention efforts on these vulnerable people seems inevitable. However, we see only limited additional efforts to curb the problem.
A more detailed analysis of the frequencies reveals the gender and age differences. More men commit suicides and older (very old) people have higher risks. The oldest age group of men is most at risk.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic young women show rising trends in many countries again of suicidal attempts and self-inflicted wounds. Despite a continuing effort of research (Links) there is no single cause to explain the occurrences.
As a working hypothesis, which awaits empirical tests, I would look into societal factors that stigmatize persons who are made to believe or feel like they are beyond the normal spectrum of society. The lack of acceptance of diversity concerning gender, age, ethnicity, body shapes or mental states like anxiety. Poverty might cause immense distress and suffering. Large shifts in wealth in both directions cause additional risks.
It seems as if our minds and society are constantly in a kind of „regression towards the mean“ posing challenges to those furthest away from the average or perceived norms. Percentile ranks or percentile scores are commonly used to express a person’s position in a frequency distribution. For example you are better/lower than 90% of persons of your age group. Such statements might cause further distress for persons. However, summarising across several (psychological) measurements, they may yield encouraging indications as well. Actual and perceived positions in such percentile ranks add another “social risk” as perceived positions may govern behavior.

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Health data

2025 will be a crucial year for health data across the EU. Germany introduced the electronic patient card, which can store basic information to then access data in the health insurance cloud for medical doctors, hospitals and other related health services. Potentially this is a great step ahead as some tests do not have to be repeated if they had been completed recently before already.

In pseudomised form, research may draw samples from such databases to enhance our science based understanding of disease. The evaluation of public health interventions becomes easier and medium and long term efficiency of measures can be assessed in many instances.
The Belgian research using health data has met to discuss the potential and limitations to link health data to other data sources to allow more complete and more complex analyses of health and disease processes. Another extensive data source sits on our smartphone. Collection of steps walked, sleep patterns or heart beats give valuable insights into a person’s own contribution and care about personal health. Although data are frequently incomplete, researchers are used to estimate missing data on the basis of existing or comparable person’s data. The basis for improving health for all are quite promising, data handling and linking them will be a challenge to the competence of all stakeholders and everyone involved in better health. It will be stressful before it becomes a routine.

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Move Tech

First we teach robots how to move. Next, they teach us how to move and motivate us to do more. This is not only for the elderly persons to imitate the moves and talk to AI systems, but children too will have fun and learn new tricks from robots rather than old dogs. Learning languages with an AI system is well advanced. Soon we shall walk with our artificial friend around cities and have a perfect tourist guide with us. Imagine walking in the countryside with your robot explaining you the flowers and herbs next to you. These brave new worlds are not too far off and it is up to us to be open to accept or dismiss these applications. Coaches using ball throwing machines or robots have managed to lead pupils to higher levels of practice faster than others. Motivation through move technology has undeniable advantages.

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Aging Politicians

The process of aging is usually a process which is progressing slowly. For politicians this process seems to run in fast forward. The churning of people through careers as politicians is quite unpredictable despite the fact that a career track through youth organizations of political parties or non-governmental organizations is a fairly good predictor of prospects of a career within this party. As the political culture has become even more rough through the comments and criticism of official media and social media, the expectations to be available for comment and debate are almost instantaneous.
Burn-out and frustration are a more frequent occurrence. As such this is not surprising, but the young age of these occurrences are real concern. The profession of politicians bears many risks and even threats to their lives. Democracies rely heavily on politicians who master complex subjects and can communicate effectively about these topics.
Aging societies can no longer just claim that politicians should reflect the age structure of society. It remains a challenge to train and support young people for jobs in politics. It is also an issue to prepare for a sustainable career in politics and keep motivation high to go the extra mile in the interest of society as a whole.
(Image: Extract of Adolphe Menzel, Das Ballsouper, 1878, SPK Berlin)

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Own Insulin

People who suffer from type 1 diabetes do not produce enough insulin themselves. The World Health organization estimated that „in 2017 there were 9 million people with type 1 diabetes; the majority of them live in high-income countries“ (WHO 2023). The report on successful reprogramming of stem cells of a person to produce insulin again and subsequently transplanting these cells into the same person allowed to produce own insulin again for that same person (Mallapaty, 2024). The hope for millions of people with type 1 diabetes is high that eventually there will be a cure to the disease. Scientists caution that there are no data yet for how long the transplanted own stem cells will produce insulin. Hence, the hope is driving research forward on a promising way forward. The case of type 2 diabetes is very different as additionally the absorption of insulin in the body causes problems. We keep walking and building muscles to facilitate the insulin absorption in the body to guard against the onset of type 2 diabetes. Interaction of diabetes and aging is another topic that needs our attention as rapidly aging societies are at higher risks to face many more people with various forms of diabetes.

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Burden of Disease

For the planning of health and care systems it is important to measure the so-called burden of disease within societies or related to specific diseases or social groups. A large-scale analysis of several longitudinal data bases of the populations 50 years of age and older shows that we have underestimated the burden of disease to societies of psychiatric disorders, like depression, in most societies.
A meta-study and overview of previous studies showed already that depression (age 60+) is more common in lower-income countries (between 25 and 33% of 60+population age group). High income countries, studied by Wang et al. 2024 in The Lancet Healthy Longevity, have rates of depression well below these levels, but a link to socioeconomic status, inactivity and loneliness is still evidenced. A five-year follow-up of persons aged 50+ years shows that the probability to develop a depression (hazard rate) is twice as high for persons with low socioeconomic status, who were socially
inactive and lonely than for socially active, high socioeconomic status and did not feel lonely at the beginning of measurement. The conclusion of the research highlights the need to develop and implement integrated and simultaneous initiatives to addressed the growing burden of disease related to depression in older persons. (Image, Jules Desbois, “Misery” 1887-89, Musée Rodin, Paris)

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Stress Ageing

The relationship between stress and aging is a complex one. Stress is known to accelerate aging and aging caused different reactions to stress. In short causality does not run only in one direction. Additionally new research published in Nature Medicine 2024 demonstrates that different genetic preconditions determine different response patterns to stress and subsequent brain aging. From anecdotal experience we are well aware of different persons coping very differently with stressful situations. Mastering of various coping mechanisms may attenuate the stress experience but the impact on preserving our brain remains an open question. Various other forms of lifestyle conditions like drugs and smoking cause specific forms of brain damage as well. 2 separate forms of dementia can be identified from brain MRI-images as well. The brain is no longer the black box of missing information about what is going on in humans. Put to the right purposes this is good news. (Image: break dance shooting Paris St Denis 2024)

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Alzheimer Research

Alzheimer disease has reached unprecedented levels in line with population aging. The study by Martino-Adami et al. 2024 has raised the hope that more people can receive an early diagnosis of Alzheimer and potentially start treatments. The study used plasma biomarkers rather than much more expensive and rare MRI scans for diagnosis. The rather exceptional results allow even to test for severity of Alzheimer according to established evaluation measures. Additionally, the probability of an Alzheimer trajectory on a time scale is feasible. The authors suggest that the data and statistical methods applied allow to identify Alzheimer before the outbreak of impairments. The data sample stems from “patients of advanced age visiting primary care”. This remains a limitation for generalizations, but the hope that other studies test the same approach with samples from younger populations will spur additional investments into such research. The list of institutions and foundations that contributed to make this study possible is really long. Thanks go to all involved, researchers, donors as well as the reviewers and editors of the journal. (Image Paris Metro Help Column 2024)

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Generational differences

The study of generational differences has a long tradition in sociology. A recent study by Wysmulek et al. (Acta Sociologica 2024, 131pp). highlights changes in how youth values education, abilities and hard work. The study carried out with Polish data shows that it is not the straightforward historical grouping of birth cohorts that matters most, but the experience of living through a period of crisis or stability during the formation of so-called meritocratic beliefs. Once formed, these beliefs tend to persist for prolonged periods of time well into middle and late adulthood.

Many judgements about young people might suffer a substantial generational bias when viewed from another generation’s vantage point. Cross-generational differences in beliefs and behavior are dependent on homogeneous or heterogeneous experiences of the respective generations. Disrespect of such generational differences is bound to yield severe misunderstandings. Who told you that social life was easy anyway? (Image decorated piano in shopping mall, Berlin 2024)

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Live longer

It is an old dream of mankind to live longer and longer. The Covid-19 pandemic has taught us many lessons that there are powerfully viruses and their continued mutations which threaten this. Life expectancy declined slightly during the pandemic and we learned that long Covid is yet another threat to our life expectancy. Scientists have found other sources that are crucial for survival. Like sepsis, it is the constant inflammation processes in our bodies. Long working times, stressful commute to work and interrupted or shortened vacations all contribute to keep inflammation at higher levels than is healthy from a longevity perspective. The research note published in Nature on the inflammation enhancing protein IL-11 highlights the chain reaction process of inflammation causing cancer and autoimmune disorders and diseases. Hence, it is essential to watch the biomarkers of inflammation and probably adjust our lifestyles accordingly. The sources of inflammation are manifold, but the potential rewards to address the issue are huge as well. Among the easy to address sources is nutrition, exercise and working life. Changing just a little bit here and there can make already a change. Monitoring how you feel about such changes puts you on a learning curve for your own inflammation levels. Vacation times are also perfect for adaptive behavioral changes. We just need to keep trying.

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Barbie Chemical

Chemistry is sometimes perceived to be uninteresting, but only until you realize it might be beneficial to know more about some underlying chemical processes. The Royal Society of Chemistry has finally found a topic in chemistry to give chemistry a popular push. The Barbie hype is far from over as we all learned in the recent past. Now conservationists have found a topic with chemical processes involved to demonstrate the usefulness of chemistry knowledge for the conservation of your treasures or collections of plastic dolls or puppets in general. Most plastics PVC was not intended to last, but the deteriorated forms have a long lasting effect in form of PVAS or microplastics. So aging research has reached popular concerns like the aging of Barbie, who is believed to be “forever young”.

Vitrine La Ferté 2023
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Stroke

A stroke is a very serious medical incident. The NIH defines it in easy language as the the moment in which “blood flow to the brain is blocked or there is sudden bleeding in the brain“. Thanks to a European HORIZON project  forecasting models are produced to estimate the likely incidence until the year 2050 by age and gender within Europe. The good news is major regional imbalances of incidence and mortality have been reduced and will likely be reduced across Europe. The challenge remains the aging of societies which necessitates to address the issue of strokes in each single region of the European Union. We know that the shorter the time to treat a stroke immediately after its occurrence, the better the survival chances and the better the prognosis for (partial) recovery.
In the US the widespread use of blood thinners which tripled over 30 years has not lead to the reduction of intracerebral hemorrhage (Link to studies). High blood pressure and arhythmic heart beat are major causes of this often disabling medical event. The study by Wafa et al. (2024) uses age-pyramids to demonstrate the effect that as European societies are aging the incidence of intracerebral haemorrhage occurs with increasing age and even more so for women than men of 80 years and older.
Prevention of high blood pressure through walking or careful endurance exercise seems even more indicated for an aging society.
Image below from Wafa et al. (2024), The Lancet Regional Health, Europe.

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Work Satisfaction

There is an important distinction between job satisfaction and satisfaction with one’s work. Being satisfied with the work you have done or something you created or co-created has become almost a privilege. Production in capitalism has mostly different objectives like rent seeking rather than satisfaction with one’s work. Compromises between both are a major learning process about the functioning of labour markets. Remote work, for some, contributes a lot to more job satisfaction. For others a healthy work environment is the top priority. Many people however focus simply on pay packages and this is often out of sheer necessity to escape poverty eventually. Trades have a tradition to allow satisfaction with one’s work, more than most jobs in industry. Flat hierarchies and subordination to your own standards, rather than pressure from supervisors, are much more common. Recognition of your work adds to the pay you receive. Job turnover is related to job satisfaction but also to satisfaction or even identification with the product of your work.

There is more to work than pay. Recognition in form of winning a price in a competition may help to keep awareness high that pay is only one element of remuneration. “meilleur ouvrier de France“ is such a kind of recognition. It encourages people to try new things and test new ideas. This is a major source of satisfaction with one’s work. We might even feel sorry for someone shouting “I can get no satisfaction”. He probably has to try in a simpler or different fashion rather than to try harder. The city Dijon in Burgundy seems to have a pretty high number of people with high levels of work satisfaction and happy to show it.

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Health inequality

Almost all studies irrespective of the methods applied find that health is a matter of related to social inequality. The study by Lyons et al. (2023) in the Lancet demonstrates the same basic findings. This study uses the concept of multimorbidity and time until first and subsequent diagnosis as the measures of health. Mortality between different socioeconomic groups in Wales (UK) is largely confirmed. It is not only men beyond 70 years of age that face this unequal health trajectories, but already in the age group of 10- 20 years old teenagers the time until first diagnosis is different between the poor and wealthy neighbourhoods.
Differential health trajectories have a very early onset and seem to widen throughout the live course. The longitudinal nation-wide study in Wales allows to determine the impact of socioeconomic deprivation on health. The conclusions imply a combination of health and social policies to address health inequality. Clinical practice alone is unlikely to reverse the trends as onset of disease in form of first or subsequent diagnoses start from a very early age onwards in deprived areas.
Health as part of the curriculum in education systems is an obvious conclusion as well. This needs to take preventative approaches more seriously to give children and adolescents a more equal start into adulthood and professional working life. Education systems have to be reformed to become part of the solution rather than creating unhealthy trajectories themselves due to stress and unrealistic, unhealthy goal setting. Walking or cycling to school, more healthy school meals and learning about nutrition as well as processes of metabolism in the body should complement a more active school life-style. The dangers of developing ill health early seem to be greater nowadays than before. That is probably the most worrying news of the study. Sedentary life-styles seem to be a result of deprived neighbourhoods with less areas for comfortable, healthy walking or outdoor exercise.
It is an accumulation of effects due to neighbourhoods, commuting patterns and work-related health risk. Counties within regions grow more distant from each other as well as regions within countries. Youth is well aware of these health and social differentials. Eventually they will claim their “lives” or “equal chances” back again. Sociology has provided many clous to address these issues: Segregation or discrimination of groups of society, gentrification of neighbourhoods, intersectionality of health and social issues, to name just a few.
In order to target at-risk populations better and intervene with prevention rather than curative, we have to integrate social and health approaches much more than we used to do. The way forward is to improve the targeted, preventive approaches in order to improve the equality of chances to education, health and work.
(DOI: LINK to study)

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Altern

Wissenschaffende, wie Kunstschaffende, haben ihre Modelle. Meistens sind es abstrakte Gedankengebilde, gerne noch mit schönen mathematischen Formeln verziert. Prototypen haben ihren eigenen Charme. Forschung über das Altern hat es da nicht so leicht seine ästhetischen Modelle auszustellen. Dabei macht uns die Natur einiges vor, wie das geht. Neben dem Axolotl sind Würmer mit nachwachsenden Gliedmaßen vielversprechende Ansätze der Erneuerung im Alternsprozess. Jedes Frühjahr ist die alte Eiche eine inspirierende Quelle der Anpassungsfähigkeit. Hitze, Klimawandel, saurer Regen und Pilze hat sie jahrhundertelang bewältigt. Jedes Frühjahr freuen wir uns über die Zeichen von Vitalität und grüner Pracht. Wiedermal Schädlinge nach Trockenheit abgewehrt und Resilienz bewiesen. Wir möchten es nicht gerne hören. Sie wird uns wohl überleben, dank ihrer Kraft der Ruhe.