Our Watch List captures a few growth domains of research and evidence we find highly promising - evidence that can help us focus our priorities for reasons not previously recognized.
At the time of writing, we anticipate growing heavy hitters for Agesmart Living are The Microbiome, The Mitochondria, Muscle (for more than looks and athletics), and Nutritional Psychiatry, supported by a foundation of Sleep and alignment with Circadian Biology.
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​​​Curious to know why? Want to share your opinion of what's watch-worthy? Read on.
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The Microbiome
The Microbiome: trillions of symbiotic microbes fundamental to our well being - metabolism, weight, mood, depression, anxiety, mitigating risk for heart attacks, stroke, dementia, and cancers. We've only just begun to learn what all they do for us. Most talk is about the gut biome but there's also discussion about the oral biome and it's impact on health - including brain health! There is much yet to be proven but signals from the research keep growing!
Mitchondria
Our Mito-C are best known as our body's life energy source. We now know issues with mitochondria are associated with everything from major depression to Alzheimer's, alcoholism, diabetes, obesity, and more.
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Scientists from diverse fields are investigating our Mito-C, their many functions, and how to keep them plentiful and working at their best as we age!
Muscle for Metabolism and More
Muscle is the largest, and arguably one of the most important organs in our body. It is essential for to managing blood glucose and metabolism support. Keeping our muscles engaged is also vital for our memory and cognition!
But it gets harder to keep and build muscle as we age. How do we offset this challenge? What movement should we focus on as we get older? While we have much to learn, we do have some pretty good insights and recommendations in this rapidly evolving understanding of the importance of muscle!
Nutritional Psychiatry
Leading institutions like Harvard and Stanford have departments dedicated to the sub-domain of Nutrional Psychiatry. We see compelling research for the role of nutrition in depression, ADHD, and other mind states. Dr. Chris Palmer's book "Brain Energy" offers a fascinating look into this emerging field. We are cautiously optimistic about the role of nutrition for new protocols that give us personal agency to better manage our mind-states.
Sleep & Memory, Alzheimer's or Other Dementias
Understanding the role of sleep for memory and dementia is growing every day. Sleep plays a critical role in creating and storing memory, mitigating inflammation in the brain, and enabling the newly discovered glymphatic system to cleanse the brain of amyloid and tao proteins - all important for preserving our cognition!
These are just a few examples of research new insights related to sleep. With every discovery, new questions are raised for investigation.
Circadian Biology - The Timing of Life
24x7 access to light, food, and activity has decoupled us from our natural circadian rhythm - our body's 24 hour day-night cycle that synchronizes the function of virtually every cell and organ in the body. Our cells are in chaos! While the evidence makes it clear we need to take this seriously, we have much room to refine and many details yet to figure out and prove. How can we best minimize the negative affects of shift work or life demands that prevent good circadian alignment? How much difference can age make to our needs and options? What choices can we make that will have the biggest impact on wellbeing?
Watch List Survey
Pick the Star Ranking that best describes what you think of the statements below.
5 Stars: Strongly Agree
4 Stars: Somewhat likely
3 Stars: No Opinion
2 Stars: Unlikely but possible
1 Star: Disagree