Health

FOR CENTURIES, humans have obsessively searched for the secrets to unlock immortality and longevity. China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, who ruled from 221 to 210 BCE, searched for an immortality elixir—even allegedly drinking poisonous mercury sulfide in this quest. More than a thousand years later, in 1513, Juan Ponce de León is said to have set out in search of the mythical Fountain of Youth. Other stories of rejuvenating waters or immortality elixirs persist through history, seeping into our media and the cultural zeitgeist. The secrets to living longer, though, are a bit more complicated. Despite many recent medical and scientific advances, we still don’t fully understand aging or how to stop it. While we’ve developed many ways to reverse aging in mice, there isn’t a single pill or cure-all…

UP UNTIL ABOUT 30,000 years ago, the average human life span was just 30 years. Accidents, infections, malnutrition, predators, and other perils prevented most human beings from reaching what we think of today as middle age. The gradual development of complex societies and farming practices helped more people live into their 40s, 50s, and beyond. But life spans were still short by today’s standards. As recently as the Middle Ages, up to 30 percent of people died in infancy or childhood. Not many made it past 70. Around the turn of the 19th century, the story of human longevity began to change. Advances in medical science, sanitation, and hygiene helped humans in industrialized countries throw off many of the old shackles that prevented them from reaching old age. “Some of the most…

THERE’S A POPULAR misconception that memory is like a file box in the brain—that we put away our recollections and then look them up when we need them. But that’s not quite how it works. Scientists suspect memories are stored in diffuse networks of neurons all over the brain; when you remember something, bits of the recollection, scattered around like puzzle pieces on the floor, are gathered up and put back together to make a complete picture. “I think of a memory as a particular firing pattern of brain nerve cells in a network,” says Ronald C. Petersen, MD, PhD, director of the Mayo Clinic Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. “If you’re trying to remember a meaningful childhood event, for example, you refire the pattern in the brain that happened when the…

LOOKING AT LIFE WITH a brighter viewpoint is a science-backed tool that can improve your mood, help you meet goals, and improve your health. And you don’t have to overhaul your personality to benefit: Even small differences in your attitude can deliver big payoffs, says Hilary Tindle, MD, the author of Up: How Positive Outlook Can Transform Our Health and Aging. What makes optimism so powerful is that it’s based in realism—it’s not about simply thinking things will be OK. “True optimists are pragmatic, perhaps because they scan the horizon to see what might go wrong and then work and plan around those potential pitfalls so things can go right,” Dr. Tindle says. In other words, optimists proactively work to make the positive happen. In return, they score some major health…

ABOUT A DECADE AGO, millennials—with not one deep wrinkle among them—started to show up at dermatologists’ offices for Botox and embrace the antiaging potions that were marketed to their mothers. These women, mostly in their early 20s, wanted to be proactive about aging. “We didn’t have a name for what they were doing, but now we call it prejuvenation,” says Ava Shamban, MD, a dermatologist in Beverly Hills. “The idea is that as soon as you start to notice signs of aging, such as fine lines or pigmentation issues, you begin treatment.” Fast-forward to today, and those eager patients seem to be on a unique aging trajectory. “They’re entering their late 30s now, but they aren’t experiencing the typical frown lines and crow’s-feet that we expect,” Dr. Shamban says. Turns…

Q: Sometimes I feel like my heart skips a beat. Should I be worried? A: Heart palpitations can range from merely annoying to serious. The feeling of your heart occasionally skipping in your chest is often just a blip in its rhythm, which can cause an “extra beat” that’s felt as a skipping, pounding, or fluttering. Some people feel this extra beat distinctly; others may not even notice it. Stress, caffeine, spicy foods, strenuous exercise, energy drinks, alcohol, and some medications can trigger palpitations, as can hormonal changes during pregnancy or menopause. In some cases, however, palpitations may be a sign of atrial fibrillation, a condition where the heart’s chambers beat out of coordination, causing a type of arrhythmia; they could also point to more serious heart issues, like heart disease.…