It can slowly drain the life force from your body over time. Or kill swiftly without warning. But you will never find it on a medical chart or see it listed on a death certificate. It's called stress. It exacts a tremendous toll on our lives. It saps our strength, robs our youth and makes us old before our time. We encounter it day in and day out, yet do little, if anything about it. It's no wonder. In today's 'pressure cooker society', the average lunch hour lasts about 11 minutes. Dinner is often consumed in less than 6 minutes (usually seated in front of the television). The average workday can last 10 hours or more. We seem to be living in a society where there's virtually no time for quality time. Strictly speaking, stress itself is not among the direct causes of ageing, yet it plays an extremely important role in the ageing process. It is a powerful force that serves as a catalyst in every known mechanism that causes us to age. Readers might be surprised to find out that this book has as much to do with ageing, life extension and specific measures we can take to postpone the inevitable as it does with stress. The fact is that stress and ageing are inextricably bound together.

It can be argued that ATP is the most important molecule in cells. Not only is ATP the key energy source for cells, but it is also the source of phosphate groups that are transferred to a variety of substrate proteins via the action of elaborate families of protein kinases. An equally elaborate array of protein phosphatases can remove phosphate groups from proteins. It is now well established that protein phosphorylation is a widely used mechanism for cells to selectively modulate the function of a variety of proteins including enzymes, ion channels and pumps and structural proteins. In this volume of ACAG leading experts describe the evidence that protein phosphorylation is altered in aging and age-related disease. Protein phosphorylation controls fundamental processes such as transcription and translation, regulation of the cell cycle, signalling within and between cells, cell motility, synaptic function and so on. Recent findings are revealing how phosphorylation dependent signalling cascades may control lifespan with a prime example being the insulin-signalling pathway first described in c-elegans and now emerging as an important regulator of lifespan of mammals also. Many of the functional changes that occur during aging such as impaired learning and memory and altered energy metabolism are controlled by protein phosphorylation and it is, therefore, important to understand how mechanisms of protein phosphorylation may either mediate aging or provide adaptive responses that allow successful disease-free aging. The authors in addition to considering the roles of protein phosphorylation in aging describe the evidence that abnormalities in protein phosphorylation contribute to the pathogenesis of major age-related diseases including diabetes, atherosclerosis and neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.

When confronted with a neurological or psychiatric disorder in an elderly individual, a clinician or researcher is likely to ask how the processes of ageing have influenced the aetiology and presentation of the disorder, and will impact on its efficient management. There are many urban myths about ageing, and some of these apply to the brain. The reviews included in this book are an attempt to flush out some of these myths, and arm the clinician and general researcher with the empirical facts that can be mustered to substantiate claims about ageing. There are many salient questions: is cognitive change to be expected in an elderly individual? Is this change progressive, relentless and unselective, or is it focal and constrained? Would every person who lived long enough develop Alzheimer s disease? Do our neurones die as we get old? What happens to the size of the brain and its metabolic activity? How do our hormones change with age? Can anti-oxidants slow or even stop the process of ageing? Are genes important in the ageing brain or is it all in the environment? How much of what we are is due to what we eat? The contributors to this book, each an expert in their field, have addressed some of these questions in a language simple enough for a general reader to understand.

The book also deals with some of the most prominent brain disorders of old age - Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, vascular dementia, and depression. The focus is on the impact of ageing on these disorders. The discussions lay out a broad map for the clinician dealing with neuropsychiatric disorders, and the future researcher of brain ageing. In a field in which the developments are too numerous for any one individual to keep pace with, this book presents up-to-date summaries that can be a useful starting point. The field of brain ageing abounds in tabloid science. This book counters this by providing a strong empirical grounding and considered synthesis of the research."