Nutrition

Note: This study is complete. The information on this page is provided for historical purposes only. The page is not being updated.

At 60 years and counting the National Institute on Aging's Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA) is one of the longest-running studies in the world. The study was the first to ask a most basic question: What is normal aging?

There is still much to learn, but so far two major conclusions can be drawn from BLSA data. First, "normal" aging cannot be distinguished from disease. Although people's bodies change and can in some ways decline over time, these changes do not inevitably lead to diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, or dementia.

The Clinical & Translational Neuroscience Section (CTNS), within the Laboratory of Behavioral Neuroscience at NIA, researches the biologic basis for how Alzheimer’s disease develops in humans. The findings from some of their research studies can be found by selecting the tabs below.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) risk genes and measures of brain function, pathology, and the age-at-onset (AAO) of AD