McMaster receives $12 million to study how we can keep our brains healthy as we age
A funding boost will help McMaster researchers study what factors affect the brain as people age.
A $12 million grant will go toward the new Healthy Brains, Healthy Aging Initiative to create data to help determine the link between lifestyle, microbiology and brain health.
We are really trying to understand what factors are linked to why some people have a healthy aging brain and others don't," said Parminder Raina, the study's lead and scientific director of the McMaster Institute for Research on Aging.
The six-year study is under the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA), of which Raina is lead principal investigator.
The baseline data could help researchers better understand precursors to, for example, dementia, and determine early interventions, he added.
There are tens of thousands of people living with dementia in the Hamilton region, which includes Niagara, Haldimand and Brant. That number is rising nationally, and the risk increases with age.
The research could also help develop future screening and prevention strategies for better brain health.
It's the first time a national Canadian study on aging is using both brain imaging and microbiome analyses to study cognitive aging over time, said a McMaster release.
The goal is to find out how different lifestyles and medical, environmental and other factors, affect brain health. The study will also look at changes to bacteria, specifically in the gut, which are linked to the brain. This part of the study will be led by Michael Surette, Canada Research Chair in Interdisciplinary Microbiome Research.
Six thousand CLSA participants will take part. More than 2,500 participants will get MRIs to study their brain structure and function as they age.
The Weston Family Foundation provided the funding as part of its support for research on healthy aging.
The CLSA is a national study hosted at McMaster that follows more than 50,000 participants for 20 years to determine why some people age healthier than others.
Maria Iqbal is a Hamilton-based reporter at The Spectator covering aging. Reach her via email: miqbal@thespec.com