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The Importance of the Environment in Brain Aging: Be Happy, Live Longer!

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Brain Aging and Therapeutic Interventions

Abstract

The prevalence of age-related neurodegenerative disorders in the elderly has dramatically increased in parallel to life expectancy and social aging. This demands development of effective therapeutic/preventive interventions aimed to slow down the negative effects of aging and extend health-span. Here, we overview the mechanisms underlying brain aging in the context of the oxi-inflamm-aging theory, and discuss cutting edge promising findings opening up the possibility to reverse brain and physiological aging based on environmental enrichment. The enriched environment (EE) represents an experimental approach in animal models to an active social, mental and physical life-style in humans. Interaction with the EE provides the animals with a diversion from the monotonous and thus stressful cage life. Most important, maintenance of life-long “diversion” by means of EE extends lifespan in mice. This sighting confirms the great influence of life-style upon brain aging, and suggests that the “happier” we are, the longer we might live in good health.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (BFU2008–04336, BFU2011–30336) and Ministry of Health (RETICEF, RD06/0013/003), and Research Group of UCM (910379). The authors would like to thank the CAI of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and Electron Spin of the UCM, especially to Mª Encarnación Fernández and David Castejón for their technical support. Additional thanks to Nuria M. De Castro and Ianire Maté for helpful assistance, and José Regidor for technical advice.

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  1. Departamento de Fisiología (Fisiología Animal II), Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Complutense, 28040, Madrid, España

    Mónica De la Fuente & Lorena Arranz

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  1. Mónica De la Fuente
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  2. Lorena Arranz
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Correspondence to Mónica De la Fuente .

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  1. , Department of Zoology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, 221005, India

    Mahendra K. Thakur

  2. , Department of Molecular Biology, Aarhus University, Gustav Wieds Vej 10-C, Aarhus-C, 8000, Denmark

    Suresh I.S. Rattan

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De la Fuente, M., Arranz, L. (2012). The Importance of the Environment in Brain Aging: Be Happy, Live Longer!. In: Thakur, M., Rattan, S. (eds) Brain Aging and Therapeutic Interventions. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5237-5_6

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