This LLAW blog has a wide range of readers: subscribers range from age 23 to 94, but what is true for the youngest is true for the oldest—we all need a social network to live long and in good health, and the internet can be the vehicle that carries us there if our real-world network is insufficient.

Twenty- to 30somethings probably have a Facebook or MySpace (filled with ads now however) or Orkut page or at least MSN Messenger, so you know the potential of online connections. Now think about your older relatives or acquaintances who—for reasons of health or divorce or distant children, whatever—are more isolated. How about suggesting they consider online social networking, and then follow through to see that they really try it? There are new social networking sites for baby boomers and older, like eons.com. Many colleges have alumni networks, and Facebook’s growth is now greatest in the older crowd.

The big problem is getting some people to approach the computer, but you can start by pointing out that the computer is the most efficient and cheapest way to keep them up to date with family and friends. Mention that if they hope to see recent photos, those probably won’t arrive anymore in a photo album, and their only hope is to see them on the computer.

You can yourself tutor your computer-illiterate relative/friend, but this might be a big task, requiring lots of patience. Perhaps better if you research classes or tutors through the local “senior center” or community college (craigslist might be a little risky—you want these new, more vunerable users to be safe,  away from viruses, phishing, etc…).

While few 80somethings will end up online as wild and raw and funny as Margaret and Helen, you can still do a lot for others and yourself, fight the isolation that is too common in older folks, and along with that, cut the risk of a helpless, brain-weak relative in your future. Don’t wait.

Called My Family Health Portrait, you log in with your own medical data, and then enter as much as you know about your parents, siblings, aunts, and uncles. The information is not transmitted and you don’t have to use your real name. Plus the data is not stored online, so you have to print out the information to save it. You can bring an incomplete printout to your relatives to help fill in more details, and you end up with a very valuable family disease tree. You can share that with your entire family, and bring to your doctor for analysis (the site itself doesn’t analyze the data). In the future the site will enable data input into an Electronic Health Record if you desire.

The second site is PatientsLikeMe.com. The concept here is to form large online communities for people with very specific medical illnesses, ranging from the common (such as depression, anxiety, Parkinson’s disease) to the very rare (like Primary Lateral Sclerosis, Progressive Supranuclear Palsy). Once you join a specific community, one emphasis seems to be sharing new or experimental treatment experiences with others. You might learn about a new drug or clinical trial that your doctor may not have disclosed to you.

Unlike My Family Health Portrait above, PatientsLikeMe is a commercial site, and they collect personal information which is stored and transmitted. This site is definitely for-profit, and “About Us” lists several investment firm “partners”, along with a number of foundations and drug companies, who will use the collected data in marketing and other ways. So read the Privacy Policy carefully before you join. Realize that some postings and information on the site will not be accurate and could be influenced by financial concerns. That said, PatientsLikeMe may be valuable for people looking for the latest treatments available, particularly those with more uncommon diseases.

I was inspired by several recent reports showing that computer use by middle-aged and older people—either for general web searching or strategic video games—is good for the brain. It only makes sense, and hence the booming industry devoted to computer games and programs for baby boomers (and older) to keep brains young and flexible.

Think for a moment of those older folks you know who are truly computer-proficient. Most likely they also have active, flexible, competent minds and attitudes.

I’m not suggesting you buy some anti-aging brain program. Rather, for your relatives who already have a computer but don’t know its potential, show them how to really use it. Plenty of adults own computers, but their competence level is stuck at email. Maybe they manage some basic (aol usually) navigation, but using it as the wonderful people-connecting, information gathering, brain-expanding tool that it is, doesn’t happen. They may lack computer savviness, but often it’s a lack of confidence; some even think they might break something.

Now since you, dear blog reader, likely have a decent command of computers, I suggest the gift of your knowledge and time. Gift wrap a small card granting a couple hours of your undivided attention as computer tutor. Set a time and do it. Collect your patience, sit with them preferably at their own computer, and have them first demonstrate what they can do. Then, again patiently, help them expand.

Find topics that interest them and see that they can search and bookmark (you might bookmark LiveLongAgeWell, which has plenty of interesting, safe links on the sidebar). Or show them how to find recipes, or poetry, or sport scores, or shop, or pay bills. Demonstrate that many books can be found online, free.

Check their software versions and anti-virus software, and see they know how to update. Since there are online financial predators, check their firewalls. Teach them how to stay safe, not to click on suspicious links, and about phishing. If they are more adventuresome, demonstrate social networking—help them connect with lost friends. There is so much to learn that this gift can be renewed for many occasions over many years…You can’t do it all at once.

Not only will all this be good for the brain, but will help them keep current and yes, younger, as computer-competence becomes ever more necessary to connect with modern life.

Imagine if print newspapers and magazines go the way of film cameras, and most reading goes online—those who are computer-comfortable will be way ahead.  And for people who become disabled or home bound, those who can navigate a computer will still have much of the world available. So consider this gift, this year. I’ve done it. It can work for you as well as for your student, and might even make the two of you closer…Next post Monday…Happy Holidays!

The correct answer is 20, and that might cause you some concern, and indeed, until about ten years ago, most neuroscientists believed that once you entered young adulthood, your brain inevitably began going downhill, with no potential for new brain cell growth. But fortunately, it’s clear now that your brain, even though it does shrink in size over time, can retain most of its functional capacity, and even form new cells.

It turns out the shrinking brain issue is really not such a problem after all, because if we treat our brains right, the loss in brain volume can be compensated by new connections (called synapses) between brain cells, and in many cases these synapses—the connections—are more important than the number of brain cells. At least in some areas of the brain, new tissue can be formed. This ability of the brain to change and develop in positive ways is called brain plasticity (“plastic” as in the ability to re-shape itself as needed).

One of the best ways to age better is to encourage this brain plasticity, which is done by: 1) maximizing physical health; and 2) continuing to exercise our brains after age 20! You undoubtedly know the classic advice to “do crossword puzzles”, but there are so many other activities that you can do that are just as good. You can have a wonderfully functioning brain in your 80s without doing one crossword puzzle, ever.

But to keep a good brain, you need to exercise it or the new connections, the synapses, will not form well, and your brain will deteriorate just like muscles that sit unused. In LLAW, I will devote many posts regarding ways to keep our brains working well, and today I hope you read this Psychology Today blog post from Stanton Peele, Ph.D. Taking life seriously: How to preserve your mind, raise intellectual children, be a constructive citizen, and get laid more. He gives lots of ideas about how to stimulate your brain and improve your relationships at the same time.

Earlier this year (before I started this LLAW blog), two reputable research reports appeared regarding, first, how quitting smoking, and then how obesity could be “contagious”. Yes, a team of researchers—from Harvard and UC San Diego—concluded that you are significantly more likely to lose or gain weight or quit smoking if you become aware of friends or relatives who recently lost or gained weight, or quit smoking, even if they live across the country. Just knowing about others who have changed in these ways seems to profoundly influence your own behavior. The influence of your friends spreads almost like a social virus, in a seemingly contagious manner.

Just last week the same researchers showed a similar type of effect with happiness: if you become aware of friends or even neighbors (who aren’t friends but just acquaintances), then YOU are more likely to also become happier. The effect is greater if these people actually are your friends, and the closer they live to you the greater the effect. There seems to be a larger effect from people your own gender who become happy. More surprising is that they found even “third degree” friends had some influence on your own happiness, meaning if a friend of one of your friend’s friends switched to becoming happy for some reason, then their happiness in a small way rubbed off onto you. If true, this truly speaks of an amazing strength of social networks.

When these researchers earlier this year released their studies on contagious obesity and smoking behavior, other scientists seemed to be surprised, but generally supportive that it all made sense. But this current study on happiness—even though it came from good institutions—has raised more skepticism.  Some have said that perhaps there is something in the statistical analysis that has lead to erroneous conclusions, particularly since they concluded that if your next-door friend suddenly became happy, that the effect on you was greater than if your own spouse became happy.

I suspect it will take a couple years for the various social scientists to argue all this out. Typically what happens when a study is controversial is that either another group of scientists will be able to repeat the first study and confirm the findings, or will conclude with their new research that the first study was wrong, or only partially right.

In the meantime however, we might take the conclusions of this happiness study at face value, and to maximize our own happiness, try to form bonds with people, or at least become aware of others who are doing positive things with their lives. It just might just rub off on us.

Even before the Pilgrims arrived in 1620, North American Indians regarded cranberries as medicine. Later, sailors brought sacks of the vitamin C rich berries on voyages to prevent scurvy. And for generations, American folklore has regarded cranberry juice as prevention from urinary tract infections. Only recently has this been proven and the mechanism discovered: chemical tannins in cranberries called proanthocyanidins prevent the E. coli bacteria from adhering to the lining of the urinary tract, and if the bacteria doesn’t attach, they don’t infect.

Another area where cranberries act as a “natural Teflon” is in the mouth. The main cause of cavities is the bacteria Streptococcus mutans, and cranberries block this bacteria from attaching to the tooth surface and forming the “biofilm” necessary to make cavities and plaque. Blueberries have some anti-cavity activity also, but cranberries are much more potent.

More significant, cranberries are amazing little gems in the anti-oxidant world. On the scale of anti-oxidant activity of all foods, cranberries are almost at the very top, above chocolate, blueberries, red wine, coffee, and broccoli. Cranberries are simply one of the best foods we have, and there is a host of research that—like coffee but without the negatives—they can significantly raise our HDL (good) cholesterol levels. Cranberries are also beneficial for our stomach and gastrointestinal tract (again preventing adherence of various bacteria), and there is growing lab data that they might inhibit various cancers, particularly breast, brain, lung, skin, and prostate.

To prove these anti-cancer benefits in humans, more research is needed. Cranberries though are so wonderful that within the next few months I’ll revisit them and discuss the best ways to enjoy them (emphasizing limiting the sugar that often goes with cranberries).  But for now, just enjoy the cranberry sauce, and think that these little berries will be countering some of the bad heart effects of the gravy.

Finally, another thought on the healthiest part of the Thanksgiving meal. Perhaps it’s really none of the foods at all, but rather the human connection we can make with the others at the table. Please consider that connection, that communion, and give thanks for that.  Connecting well with others is probably better than all the anti-oxidants in the world as a way to age well. So to all, especially my regular readers and subscribers, I thank you for reading, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

A recent study from UCLA examined two different groups of middle-aged and older adults, aged 55 to 76.  One group was already Internet “savvy”, and the other group was not. The researchers had the two groups perform Google-type search activity while they were put through an MRI brain scan that measured their real-time brain function. The group that was already Internet savvy showed twice as much activity in parts of the brain responsible for complex reasoning and decision-making. The conclusion was that if you use the Internet regularly for searching tasks (as opposed to downloading music or watching videos for example), your brain may become more open to further stimulation.  And again, for our brains, the more stimulation the better.

This study was small and far from perfect, and over the next few years there will be many more studies of how computers affect our brains. Perhaps computer use over time actually rewires our brains to become more efficient. In the meantime though, you might use this study to encourage older family members and friends who perhaps could use more brain stimulation, to really push themselves to use their computers.

I suspect many people, despite being inundated with usually depressing news, are strangely drawn to it, at times nearly addicted to the constant feed, 24/7  available. While energy becomes more expensive, information becomes cheaper; it’s easy to get addicted to it, and I suspect a near constant flow of volatile and often negative news might not be a positive factor for our aging well.

Next time you find yourself glued to, for example, the Dow, and it’s making you a little sick but you can’t pull yourself away, shut it off. Do something else. Take a walk, watch YouTube, work, call a loved one, drink tea, listen to music. The earth will continue to rotate and the news will continue the same whether or not you are watching.

Then consider the times you are lucky enough to be talking with a loved one, yet you are also multi-tasking some trivial news feed, turn off the one that is not vital, and tune into your partner. The more you connect with what’s truly important, the happier you should be.

Next week we’ll cover less-weighty topics such as ways to improve your looks…and a podcast! Have a great weekend!