The questionnaire tended to under-estimate VO2 max somewhat in the fittest volunteers and to overestimate it in the least fit. When the researchers compared the VO2 max scores derived from the questionnaires to those from the treadmill tests, they found that the results obtained from the questionnaires closely approximated the treadmill results for about 60% of people. The researchers tested their method by asking 5,000 people to fill out the questionnaire and then take a treadmill test. A few years ago, Norwegian researchers came up with an algorithm to estimate VO2 max based on a person's answers to a few questions about his or her health and exercise habits. Because treadmill tests are expensive, they usually aren't given to people who don't have symptoms of cardiovascular disease. Measuring VO2 max requires a person to run on a treadmill in a medical facility while hooked up to monitoring equipment. Andrew Taylor, director of the Cardio-vascular Research Laboratory at -Harvard-affiliated Spaulding Rehabili-tation Network. "Some studies have indicated that people in their 80s who exercised at high intensity for 20 to 45 minutes a day have an aerobic capacity of people 30 years younger," says Dr. On average, people lose 10% of their aerobic capacity every decade after age 30. Like cognitive super-agers, physical super-agers have scores that rival those of women decades younger, especially on measures of aerobic capacity - the amount of oxygen you can take in and distribute to your tissues in a minute, expressed as maximal oxygen consumption, or VO2 max. Super-agers keep moving out of their comfort zones to gain new areas of expertise. Lisa Barrett, speculates that super-agers may share a willingness to endure discomfort to master a new skill, like playing a musical instrument or speaking a new language. "They may approach these tasks as a challenge they can succeed at, in contrast to typical older adults who may give up." What sets them apart might be that they view problem-solving differently, Dr. The thicker these regions of brain are, the better a person's performance on tests of memory and attention, such as the word memorization test.Īlthough super-agers' brains show less cell loss than those of their contemporaries, their IQs and educational levels are similar. They are also responsible for regulating internal organs and coordinating sensory input into a cohesive experience. These particular brain regions are involved in many functions, including emotion, language, and stress. The researchers found that some areas of the brain appeared thinner - an indication of cell loss - in the older people who had normal test scores, but not in those who scored as well as younger participants. The participants also underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging, which provides images of the brain at work. While 23 of the older participants recalled nine or fewer words, a score considered average for their age group, 17 seniors - the super-agers - could remember 14 words or more, a score similar to that of the younger participants. Twenty minutes later, they were asked to recall as many of the words as possible. In one study, 81 healthy adults - 40 of whom were 60 to 80 years old and 41 of whom were 18 to 35 - were read a list of 16 nouns six times. Their results suggest that embracing new mental challenges may be the key to preserving both brain tissue and brain function. Bradford Dickerson, a neurologist at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital and his colleagues have been studying super-agers for several years. The term refers to people in their 70s and 80s who have the mental or physical capability of their decades-younger counterparts. But in the last few years, medical science has identified a new group we can aspire to join - the super-agers. Research suggests that moving out of your comfort zone is the key to staying mentally and physically young.įinding role models who are older than we are gets more difficult as we age.