Dr. Brad Gibson's Point of View on Science, Aging, and Yoga

by Nina

The only time Brad let me take his picture

I’ve just completed my California book tour. It was so rewarding to meet and talk with some of our readers! But one thing I noticed was that I did need to explain to every audience who Brad Gibson was and why he was with me.

As a medical researcher who studied aging for 16 years (he’s now working on drug discovery for serious diseases—here's hoping!), Brad helped me write the first chapter of our book Yoga for Healthy Aging: A Guide to LIfelong Well-Being especially the section that discusses what aging is. He also reviewed the entire book. But more than that—and I’ve learned most people don’t realize this—he was one of the three original founders of this blog. 

Yes, back in September of 2011, our staff consisted of me, Baxter, and Brad. And during that first year he wrote many articles for us combining his expertise in the area of basic research on aging with his interest in yoga as a solution for fostering healthy aging. Although Brad eventually stopped writing posts, he continued (and still continues to this day) to support the blog by providing behind-the-scenes scientific consulting. Whenever I have scientific questions or concerns about whether a certain statement or even an entire post is scientifically sound, I always pass it by him. (Of course, I’m referring only to posts that contain scientific statements, not all our posts, because, of course, many are about things that have nothing to do with science per se.)

So today for those of you who might be curious about Brad’s early contributions to the blog, I thought I’d give an overview of the articles he contributed. Check out the list because you may find that he has addresses certain topics you've been wondering about, such as caloric restriction, telomeres, nutrition for healthy aging, and what we really know about aging.

Full Disclosure In this post, Brad tells the story of how he, who resisted yoga for many years, became convinced about its effectiveness for fostering healthy aging.

Can We Delay Aging? In this post, Brad discusses the difference between extending our life spans and extended our health spans, and discusses whether “compression of morbidity” is actually possible. He also describes what the new field of geroscience is all about.

Can Meditation Delay Aging? Brad helped me write this post about meditation and telomeres. I have to say that we get questions about telomeres all the time because people have heard a lot about telomeres and aging, even though it’s just one theory out of many of what causes aging.

Stressed Mind, Stressed Cells? In this post Brad discusses a talk he attended by Dr. Elissa Epel about the possible relationship between stress and telomeres.

Science, Aging, and Yoga In this post, Brad answers the question of how would one go about investigating the effects of yoga on aging scientifically.

Clarification: Aging, Yoga, and Science In this post, Brad continues to address the question of how one would go about investigating the effects of yoga on aging.

What is a Yoga Practice? In this post, Brad discusses the problem of doing scientific studies on “yoga” without specifying which style of yoga you are studying and including details about what the practices included.

Okay, Back to Aging In this post, Brad discusses cell senescence, which could be one of causes of aging.

Probability, Aging, and a Pain in the Neck In this post, Brad discusses what probability is and what the relationship between aging and probability is.

Caloric Restriction and Yoga Brad helped me write this article about caloric restriction and longevity, another topic we often get asked about. Brad is a skeptic.

Caloric Restriction Comment and Response This is Brad’s correspondence with a reader who responded to our article on caloric restriction.

Nutrition Confusion Brad helped me write this article about confusion in the medical world over what a healthy diet is.

Confusion about Nutrition Confusion Brad helped me write this article about a reader’s confusion over our post on confusion about nutrition.

An N of One and An N of All: Personalized Medicine and Personalized Yoga In this post, Brad discusses the difference between studying and treating people in a standardized way versus personalizing their treatments 

Osteoporosis, Balance and Yoga In this post, Brad talks about what he learned about osteoporosis and the dangers of falling from Dr. Clifford Rosen. Yes, yoga can help.

Successful Aging and the Thinking-Moving-Feeling Triad  In this post, Brad wrote about the work of Dr. Dilip Jeste from UCSD, who gave a lecture on the meaning of successful aging and who asked why almost no one asks patients directly to assess their views of their own aging experience.

Does Yoga Wreck Your Body? A Scientist’s Perspective This is  Brad’s response to William Broad’s infamous New York Times article. Spoiler alert: Brad thought the article was very shoddy journalism.

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For information about Nina's upcoming book signings and other activities, see Nina's Workshops, Book Signings, and Books.