Ginko + Rats + Looking Back at 99

From the PositScience Newsletter, 16 Dec 08:

Ginko biloba supplements do NOT help prevent Alzheimer's Disease, according to a double-blind study of 3,000 older adults. In fact, there were NO differences in the rates of dementia among the participants taking ginko and those taking the placebo... save your money! Americans spent more than $100 million on Ginko supplements last year.

Also in the PositScience Newsletter, a blurb about rats and cell phones. To determine if microwave radiation from cell phone usage effects the brain, scientists exposed rats for two hours weekly. The results? The rats using cell phones performed worse on memory tests than rats not using cell phones... strange but true! To receive a copy of the PositScience Brain Fitness News, contact newsletter@positsci.org


I have never cut and paste for a blog posting- but this was just too great to keep all to myself. Director of Academic Affairs at AARP, Dr. Harry "Rick" Moody, included this memoir in his monthly newsletter for aging professionals. Thank you Nyles, Wendy, and Rick!

"LIFE HUMBLES YOU" by Nyles Gunderson, Age 99

"When you're young, you don't realize what you're up against. You think all those grown-ups sure have compromised. They definitely don't know how to live right. You swear there's no way you'll ever be like that. No way. Then it starts. You run into some bad luck. Even good luck can get you stuck in a certain direction. The years go by. You find things out. Some of your best-laid plans go bust. Pretty soon, there comes a day when some young guy with a chip on his shoulder gives you that look. He's swearing to himself never to be like you. You see it in his eyes. That's how it goes. He won't understand till his time comes."

(From Wendy Lustbader, WHAT'S WORTH KNOWING, Tarcher, 2001).