Category Archives: Healthy Aging

The Brain-Immune Connection

The Brain-Immune Connection: How Attention Impacts Neuroinflammation and Brain Aging

September 18, 2026

The Brain and the Immune System

The human brain is the seat of human function, the body’s control center, and the organ responsible for processing sensory information, coordinating actions, regulating automatic functions, and enabling cognition, language, and behavior. The brain is linked to movement, memory, emotions, and thoughts, as well as body temperature and involuntary processes like breathing and heart rate. Now, the link between the brain and the immune system is being more closely examined, as scientists explore whether focusing attention allows the brain to influence how the immune system responds to inflammation.

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XPRIZE Healthspan Finals

XPRIZE Healthspan Finals: The Latest in the Race to Extend Healthy Aging

September 4, 2026

Imagine reaching your 70s or 80s with the strength to keep moving, the clarity to stay engaged, and the independence to continue living life on your own terms. For too many people, the later decades of life are marked not by vitality, but by impaired muscle function, cognition, and immune function.

But what if we could change what it means to grow old? As populations age and age-related conditions continue to rise worldwide, improving healthspan has become one of the defining scientific and public health challenges of our time. It’s a challenge the $101 million XPRIZE Healthspan competition was created to address. As XPRIZE announces the 20 finalist teams advancing to the next stage of the competition, we’ll look at what XPRIZE means to the global race to transform how we age – and, more importantly, what the competition has decided to measure.

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