University of Newcastle Centre for Brain Ageing & Vitality supported by BBSRC, EPSRC, ESRC and MRC

In the UK there is a major change in the age of the population - we are all living much longer. Unfortunately old age is often associated with poor health. We still do not understand why this. What we want to understand is why the brain ages and how exercise and diet are helpful to healthy ageing of the brain and body. As we get older the thing we often fear is getting dementia, Parkinson’s disease or other age related diseases. Whilst these diseases can also strike relatively young people, the majority of people with these diseases are elderly. What is it about our brains as they age that means that we are at much greater risk of these diseases? Lots of different work has shown that exercise is good for us, but this is particularly true the older we get. It is really important to know how much exercise we should take to keep our muscles strong and make sure we keep mobile as we get older. There are similar findings with different diets, some seem to be much healthier than others – but what are the most important ingredients? The new MRC Centre for Brain Ageing and Vitality in Newcastle is going to try and answer these questions about our ageing brain and our lifestyle.