A new study out this week in PNAS may help us understand how aging affects the female brain differently than the male brain, especially in the 60-70 year olds. Here’s the bottom line: 60-70 year old males tend to have more gene changes in their brains and my become affected by brain aging sooner than females. They also found that aging of the male brain was characterized by global decreased catabolic and anabolic capacity, while increased immune activation was a prominent feature of aging in both sexes. Females tend to respond with greater inflammatory activation in the female brain.

An interesting study in this week’s American Academy of Neurology chronicled 121 people age 60 and older who underwent treadmill fitness tests and brain scans to measure white matter, gray matter and total brain volume. The site requires membership to view the original report, but the bottom line was: “People with early Alzheimer’s disease who were less physically fit had four times more brain shrinkage when compared to normal older adults than those who were more physically fit, suggesting less brain shrinkage.”