Human Aging: From Cellular Mechanisms to Therapeutic Strategies offers an exhaustive picture of all the biological aspects of human aging by describing the key mechanisms associated with human aging and covering events that could disrupt the normal course of aging. Each chapter includes a summary of the salient points covered, along with futures prospects. The book provides readers with the information they need to gain or deepen the skills needed to evaluate the mechanisms of aging and age-related diseases and to monitor the effectiveness of therapies aimed at slowing aging. The book encourages PhD and Postdoc students, researchers, health professionals and others interested in the biology of aging to explore the fascinating and challenging questions about why and how we age as well as what can and cannot be done about it. - Concentrates on different processes, e.g., oxidative stress, cellular senescence and Inflammaging - Offers the ability to access cross-sectional knowledge more easily - Written by expert researchers in biogerontology who are actively involved in various fields within aging research

The Biology of Senescence

Recent studies show that more people than ever before are reaching old age in better health and enjoying that health for a longer time. This Handbook outlines the latest discoveries in the study of aging from bio-medicine, psychology, and socio-demography. It treats the study of aging as a multidisciplinary scientific subject, since it requires the interplay of broad disciplines, while offering high motivation, positive attitudes, and behaviors for aging well, and lifestyle changes that will help people to stay healthier across life span and in old age. Written by leading scholars from various academic disciplines, the chapters delve into the most topical aspects of aging today - including biological mechanisms of aging, aging with health, active and productive aging, aging with satisfaction, aging with respect, and aging with dignity. Aimed at health professionals as well as general readers, this Cambridge Handbook offers a new, positive approach to later life.

Neugarten, who explains and highlights Neugarten's contributions in light of the most recent research in the fields of gerontology and social policy. Carefully edited by Dail A. Neugarten, each chapter presents the reader with Bernice Neugarten's original formulations on topics such as age norms and age constraints, the changing meanings of age, and age-neutral social policy.

Presents the results of the MacArthur Foundation Study of Aging in America, which show how to maintain optimum physical and mental strength throughout later life.

A Unitarian Universalist minister and chaplain at a large senior residence community leads us on a journey through the stories and experiences of elders, offering insights into navigating this unique stage of life. Drawing on scores of personal interviews, this straightforward yet introspective volume of real-life accounts provides a felt sense of the challenges and blessings of aging. Unlike many books on the topic, In Later Years focuses particularly on older seniors--those in their late seventies, eighties, and nineties. Interviewees thoughtfully share their joys, regrets, accomplishments, and things left unfinished, while also considering the ways they cope with diminishing physical and mental abilities. Weaving these personal reflections and accounts together, Marshall explores questions of meaning and spirituality that ultimately reveal larger themes and hold up the opportunities for discovery, connection, and renewal available to us in advanced age. The book also serves as an invaluable resource for family members and caregivers, suggesting ways to understand and help with the issues that attend growing old. Detailed appendices provide tips and a simple curriculum for gathering and facilitating group discussions.

Possible new breakthroughs in understanding the aging mind that can be used to benefit older people are now emerging from research. This volume identifies the key scientific advances and the opportunities they bring. For example, science has learned that among older adults who do not suffer from Alzheimer's disease or other dementias, cognitive decline may depend less on loss of brain cells than on changes in the health of neurons and neural networks. Research on the processes that maintain neural health shows promise of revealing new ways to promote cognitive functioning in older people. Research is also showing how cognitive functioning depends on the conjunction of biology and culture. The ways older people adapt to changes in their nervous systems, and perhaps the changes themselves, are shaped by past life experiences, present living situations, changing motives, cultural expectations, and emerging technology, as well as by their physical health status and sensory-motor capabilities. Improved understanding of how physical and contextual factors interact can help explain why some cognitive functions are impaired in aging while others are spared and why cognitive capability is impaired in some older adults and spared in others. On the basis of these exciting findings, the report makes specific recommends that the U.S. government support three major new initiatives as the next steps for research.