Louis Cozolino - Timeless: Nature’s Formula for Health and Longevity

I WOULD LIKE TO THANK DEBORAH MALMUD AND Andrea Costella of W. W. Norton Professional Books for their guidance, assistance, and support throughout this project. Thanks go to my friends at Pepperdine University, with a special acknowledgment to my colleagues Rachel Gradstein, Rebekka Helford, Rico Larroque, Rosalind Lee, Francesca Parker, Daniel Paraiso, Erin Santos, and Renee Sloan for their hard work, good humor, and forbearance. My respect and appreciation also go to my colleagues, friends, and wise elders Alex Caldwell, David Lechuga, Hans Miller, Cecile Schwedes, Ed Shafranske, Allan Schore, Daniel Siegel, and John Wynnmany thanks to you all.

If we take eternity to mean not infinite temporal duration but timelessness, then eternal life belongs to those who live in the present.

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Important Note: Timeless is intended to provide general information on the subject of health and well-being; it is not a substitute for medical or psychological treatment and may not be relied upon for purposes of diagnosing or treating any illness. Please seek out the care of a professional healthcare provider if you are pregnant, nursing, or experiencing symptoms of any potentially serious condition.

Copyright 2018, 2008 by Louis Cozolino

Previous edition published under the title
THE HEALTHY AGING BRAIN: Sustaining

Attachment, Attaining Wisdom

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For Sam

Its not how old you are but how you are old.

Jules Renard

I GREW UP BELIEVING THAT I WOULD BE AN ADULT the day I turned 18 and officially old on my 65th birthday. I suppose this is because I was told that I could drink alcohol at 18 and retire at 65. But why 65? Why not 60 or 70?

It turns out that during the 19th century, the Prussian General Otto von Bismarck was pressured to provide former military men with a pension. At first he refused, preferring to devote all of his resources to his military ambitions. Under continued pressure, Bismarck commissioned a study that found the average life span of retired soldiers to be 66 years. Armed with this information, he agreed to grant pensions at age 65, quieting his critics while controlling costs. This retirement age was adopted by industries across Europe and eventually spread to the United States. Turning 65 is but one way to think about aging. This book presents an alternative.

A RICH LIFE

I dont believe in aging. I believe in forever altering ones aspect to the sun.

Virginia Woolf

Madame Calment, the grandmother of France, died in 1997 at the age of 122. Over the years, her birthday became a citywide holiday in her hometown of Arles, with everyone turning out to honor their matriarch. Madame Calment was quite a character. From early childhood, she enjoyed playing a variety of sports, rode her bicycle for almost a century, and took up fencing at the age of 85. She personally credited drinking wine for her longevity and, despite her doctors warnings, she consumed two pounds of chocolate a week, smoked every day, and lived to attend her doctors funeral.

After 46 years of marriage, she and her husband Fernand had the misfortune of dining on some poorly preserved cherries. Fernand died, but Madame Calment lived on, and onso long, in fact, that all of her immediate family and her lifelong friends passed away, leaving her to wonder if she had been forgotten by the Good Lord. Despite her many losses, Madam Calment lived life to the fullest, enjoying people, laughter, and telling stories. She was quoted as having said, All my life Ive put olive oil on my skin and then just a puff of powder.... I could never wear mascara. I cried too often when I laughed. And my favorite: Ive never had but one wrinkle, and Im sitting on it.

While accounts vary, a popular story about Madame Calment tells of a deal she made during her 90th year. A local accountant half her age, Andre-Francois Raffray, agreed to pay her 2,500 francs a month in exchange for her home upon her death. After all, how much longer could a 90-year-old woman live? With no living heirs, this reverse mortgage seemed like a wise decision for both Madam Calment and Raffray. Unfortunately for the accountant, he continued to pay her every month for 31 years until his death in 1996. To add insult to injury, his heirs continued the payments until Madam Calments death. It is estimated that this deal netted her more than three times the value of her property.

Near the end of her life, Madame Calment, by then almost completely blinded by cataracts, was visited on her birthday by President Chirac. After being examined by the presidents personal doctor, she was told that a simple surgery could restore her sight. As a gift from France, she would be taken to Paris, have the procedure, and recover for as long as she would like at the presidents mansion. Without missing a beat, she replied, Thank you, Mr. President, but no, Ive seen enough. She was, according to Chirac, a little bit the grandmother to all of us.

Madame Calment is remarkable for both her longevity and spirit, making us wonder about the possible connection between how long we live and how well we live. Her life stands in stark contrast to many common assumptions and prejudices about aging. At age 65, she had only lived half her life. As longevity increases, how will we live in the decades past 60? What will our aging be like, and how do we keep our brains active and alive? Perhaps more importantly, how do we live our lives to optimize our later years? Before we begin our exploration, lets examine some of our assumptions.

WHAT IS AGING?

How old would you be if you didnt know how old you are?

Satchel Paige

We all share the experience of material things wearing out and eventually becoming obsolete. Our cars, clothes, and furniture start out as shiny new additions to our lives but gradually become tattered, fall out of fashion, and get moved to the garage before their final journey to the trash. These everyday experiences become unconscious metaphors that shape our understanding of our physical and social worlds. Our common sense then guides us to believe that humans start out as fresh and desirable, reach their peak in young adulthood, and gradually decline into obsolescence. The more we desire the new and dispose of the old, the more this becomes the way we think of one another and eventually ourselves.

It appears to me that consumer culture and our prejudices about aging are tightly interwoven. The media bombards us with messages of how bad it is to be slow, wrinkled, and out of shape. Older adults mostly appear in advertisements for arthritis, shingles, and erectile dysfunction when not being told they need life insurance to avoid being a burden to their children. Given our present cultural values, it becomes self-evident that aging is undesirable and something to be avoided at all costs. Thus, we spend more money on plastic surgery, beauty aids, and diets than we do caring for the elders we will someday become.

Few prejudices in current Western society are more powerful than those concerning aging. And although scientists strive for objectivity, they harbor the same prejudices and biases as everyone else, searching for what they unconsciously expect to find. Because so much of what was known about the aging brain came from the study of dementia, the assumption was that the story of aging is a tale of loss and decline.