Yves Agid is professor emeritus of neurology and cellular biology at the University of Paris-VI. A member of the French Academy of Sciences, founding member of the French Brain and Spine Institute (ICM), he is a specialist in clinical and biological research into neurodegenerative diseases.
Getting older – should we really make a big deal out of it? Why not rather ask the right questions and learn how to approach the passing of time more serenely?
In his new book, Professor Yves Agid, a neurologist specializing in the aging of the brain and brain disorders, without sugarcoating, but also without exaggerating any dangers, offers to answer ten fundamental questions on aging:
It is normal to get older, but is it normal to age? What makes us seem old? How does one experience one’s own aging? Is the aging of brains uniform? Does one lose neurons when one ages? Is one “born old” or does one “wear out?” What is the difference between normal and abnormal aging? Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and other degenerative diseases of the nervous system: are there any solutions? Does one die from aging? Getting older: a weakening?
No, aging is not an illness, it is a period in life that, like all others, is made up of difficulties, but also has its own pleasures – one tends to forget that. And in this aging that involves us all, there is an organ that plays a particularly decisive role: our brain. Because, in the end, it is the brain that reveals our age and can make us seem old even at 30!