How Are 'Super Agers' Protected From Alzheimer's and Mental Decline?

Medical Xpress reports that German researchers suspect that some seniors are resistant to dementia well into their 80s and longer due to a genetic disposition to warding off protein accumulation in the brain. Their study in JAMA Network Open detailed how their analysis of brain images of 94 participants 80 or older considered the volume of tau protein tangles and beta-amyloid protein plaques in their brains. Participants scoring highest on memory tests — "super agers" — had brain protein profiles similar to those of healthy people who were much younger. Meanwhile, subjects who were aging normally and scored lower on memory tests had more tangles than younger people, and those already diagnosed with mildly impaired thinking had a greater accrual of both tangles and plaques. A recent New York Times profile of a Colombian woman who was genetically predisposed for early-onset Alzheimer's disease, but who did not suffer from it, also noted that she carried another rare gene mutation that seemed to protect her from a similarly large buildup of tau tangles. Research Center Juelich's Merle Hoenig suggested lifestyle choices and genetic predisposition may be working in tandem to similarly protect super agers.