Odoribacteraceae
“In people over
the age of 100, an enrichment
in a distinct
set of gut microbes generate
unique bile
acids.”
Professor Kenya
Honda
New research on the gut microbiome of old folks in Japan was
reported in the latest issue of Nature Research. The scientists analyzed the gut bacteria of more
than 300 adults in Japan, including 160 over 100 years-old, 112 between
85 and 89, and 47 under 55 years-old. Principal investigator Honda and colleagues
found that bacterial isolates in fecal samples from centenarians were
often enriched with microbes capable of synthesizing potent bile acids that
were not present in the younger groups. Odoribacteraceae strains in particular came out as star
producers of isoallo-lithocholic acid (LCA). LCA is a potent
antimicrobial against gram-positive, multidrug-resistant strains such as Clostridioides
difficile and Enterococcus faecium.
The
conclusion of this study, per Prof. Honda: “There are centenarian-specific
members of the gut microbiota which, rather than representing a mere consequence of
aging, might actively contribute to resistance against pathogenic
infection and other environmental stressors.”
There
are a host of responses to this study.
Many readers had their own theories of aging well. One young lady declared that skinny was the
perfect answer, and her daily intake, delivered in anorectic detail, made me
cringe. Another woman, struggling with
C. diff unresponsive to various medications, took matters into her own
hands. She announced to her daughter
that she needed a stool sample from her. The daughter, first appalled, then
complied. The sample was inserted into one end or another (we got no info over
which), and mom felt increasingly normal in a gut sort of way within four days!
I’d like to get ahold of a distinct set of those Odori-bugs,
but alas, no search on Amazon or Google offered hope for bottles of such
supplements just yet.
______
Is it advancing age or the lack of everyday conversations
with multiple people? What, I ask myself
almost daily, is wrong with my word-finding ability? I have encouraged me (in that 2nd
person sort of judgmental voice) to think a moment before I just point to the
object or replace the unfound word with ‘thing’ or ‘stuff’. Pausing then brings on other speech disfluencies
wherein the use of filler words like ‘uh’ or ‘um’, or whole word repetitions
such as ‘we need…we need’, or interjections like ‘like’ disrupt not only one’s
flow of speech but also one’s thinking process.
Psychologists call such lapses tip-of-the-tongue (TOT)
states and emphasize that these TOTs do not necessarily indicate impending
dementia. That’s good news, but what does it indicate? Chances are good that those of us who are
seniors haven’t lost the concept of that which we cannot name. The authors of a book on aging and language
(1) call these aggravating TOT states ‘a glass half empty or a glass half
full.’ These failed retrievals could be
weakened neural connections in a tired old brain, or they might indicate such a
plethora of stored words from all those years of speaking and reading that it
becomes difficult to find the right word in short order.
A search on PubMed suggests multiple hypotheses about why
seniors have more TOTs than juniors. I
choose to go with the word-laden brain hypothesis, allowing us elders to
deliver astounding explanations of meaning even if the word in question remains
elusive.
But here’s an inscrutable cognitive glitch—yesterday I made
one entry in my journal, ‘GNL 18,19’. I
have absolutely no idea what that means.
Nootropes
Nootropes refer to drugs, supplements, herbs,
etc. that are believed to improve cognitive functions. Sometimes a lost word is not just a
word-finding problem (as mentioned in a previous newsletter) but an actual
aging-related loss of normal brain functioning.
I personally take four of them daily: bacopa monnieri, caffeine (in coffee form),
choline, and creatine. The problem, as
always with supplements, is there’s no way to know whether or not they actually
made a difference. Perhaps healthy
living and no nootropes at all would have sufficed. There are many lists available on the
internet touting the benefits of various brain boosters. Here’s a list that explains 14 possible
nootrope choices(1).
I recommended bacopa monnieri to a good
friend. Here’s her text:
I
started bacopa today.
The
pills are creepy and black but I feel good!
Except
I couldn’t remember the word bacopa so I guess it’s not helping that much.
1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3746283/
The landscaper team trooped through my front door, heading for the kitchen to discuss final plans for my ailing front yard. Straight ahead of the gang, oh lord, there was my bra hanging with perfect visibility from on the newel post of the stairway railing, beige material on black wrought iron. Obviously, no one mentioned it, but believe me, it was plain as day.
Why was it there? Three weeks prior, in anticipation of company coming, I moved it from the downstairs bathroom to base of stairway in preparation for a final journey upstairs to a drawer. A new use for newel posts, a lingering storage spot for lingerie!
This is more like a menopause morning than a moment.
I think of myself as a low level techno-babe in the sense that I not only have a Kindle, but I know how to borrow and download books from the library on the device. The only problem with this strategy is the fact that all the books which I've placed on hold tend to show up all at once.
One day last week, it was finally my turn for "The Signature of All Things". My Kindle, so long idle, needed charging prior to the download. I grabbed the charging cord from its usual spot where it was uncharacteristically placed, then headed off to the computer where I looked in on Facebook, read e-mail, studied Spanish, and browsed Amazon.
Oh right, I wanted to charge my Kindle which awaited my discovery in the third place I looked. Back to the computer, but no cord in sight. Walked around the house looking for the cord, had a hot flash after going up and down several flights of stairs in search of same, ended up cleaning off my desk upstairs, then off to the kitchen to make lunch. Remembered the missing cord, restarted the hunt looking in all the same places, and finally found it hiding in plain sight on a table next to my clean desk where I'd doubtless lost interest in it and left it while grabbing my Spanish book.
Back to the computer where there was no Kindle. Finally, after adding 14 flights of stairs to my daily total on my pedometer (did I mention I'm a techno-babe?), I was ready for the charge and the download.
And I didn't even like "The Signature of All Things".
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