Life Extenders Do It Longer: Sex and Aging II

The prescription drug Deaner® and the nutrients choline and lecithin increase brain levels of acetylcholine, which also may stimulate sexual activity. Such sexual stimulation is rarely seen in people in their teens or 20s but is a fairly common reaction to these substances after the age of 40. Acetylcholine is also a chemical transmitter that […]

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Sleep and Aging II

Serotonin is a neurotransmitter which has important inhibitory functions in the brain, to prevent excess nervous stimulation at night so that sleep can occur. It is also a growth hormone releaser. Old people do not make as much serotonin as younger people. This is an important part of aging problems in sleep patterns. What can […]

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Depression, Helplessness, and Aging IV

A deficiency of acetylcholine, another neurotransmitter, can also lead to depression. Deaner®, a prescription drug, increases acetylcholine levels in the brain. It is both an active analogue and a precursor of acetylcholine and is effective in many old people as an antidepressive—it reduces apathy and increases motivation, as well as improving memory and learning in […]

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Revitalizing Your Brain Power III

As noted in the preceding chapter, choline bitartrate, the most common type of choline sold at health food stores, can cause diarrhea. If you do use it, you may be able to avoid diarrhea by beginning at a low dose and increasing the amount gradually. Choline chloride (also called choline hydrochloride) does not have this […]

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Revitalizing Your Brain Power II

For each neurochemical there is an optimal amount which differs for every individual. Above or below this amount, mental function will not improve markedly or will even decrease. Drug effects may be subtle at first, requiring a period of learning for full realization of its benefits. The schematic diagram here shows how neurotransmitters carry messages […]

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Revitalizing Your Brain Power I

The mind so strongly depends on temperament and the disposition of bodily organs, that if it is possible to find some means which will make men generally more wise and more clever than they have been till now, I believe that it is in medicine one should seek it. . . . It is true […]

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Some Immediate Benefits of Life Extension Measures II

Let’s think about the effects of aging on OUR APPEARANCE. Under natural conditions, the skin shows age in a variety of unattractive ways, including wrinkling and loss of resiliency, both due to the damage mechanism called crosslinking. Cross-linking is the process in which proteins are linked together by bonds which prevent them from functioning properly. […]

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The Decline of Your Brain’s Chemical Messengers VI

Old people often suffer from a deficiency of serotonin, an important inhibitory neurotransmitter that initiates sleep. Inhibitory neurotransmitters reduce neuron activity, in contrast to the above-mentioned neurotransmitters, which usually increase activity. Sleep disorders are common in old age, including difficulties in falling and staying asleep. Irritability and bedtime flights of ideas may occur. Tryptophan, an […]

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The Decline of Your Brain’s Chemical Messengers V

A very dramatic story about the effects of L-Dopa on twenty patients with severe Parkinson’s disease is contained in Oliver W. Sack’s book Awakenings. Between 1916 and 1927, nearly five million people fell victim to encephalitis lethargica (sleeping sickness). A third of those affected died either in a coma or in a profound state of […]

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The Decline of Your Brain’s Chemical Messengers I

In senile degeneration the nerve-cells are surrounded by neuronophages which absorb their contents and bring about more or less complete atrophy. —Elie Metchnikoff, The Prolongation of Life (1908) Mind, mind alone, Is light, and hope, and life, and power! —Ebenezer Elliott (1833) Your brain works because your-nerves talk to each other with chemicals called neurotransmitters […]

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