Janko Nikolich-Žugich, MD, PhD, co-director of the University of Arizona Center on Aging and chair of the UA Department of Immunobiology, was featured in the February 2017 issue of Tucson Lifestyle magazine.
The "IN HEALTH" article is titled, “Immune Struck — As we age, our immunity to disease declines... What can be done to extend our healthspans,” and focuses on Dr. Nikolich-Žugich’s research on T-cells, their function in our immune system and how that changes as we age which leads to physical and mental manifestations associated with aging.
“We have managed to extend the lifespan quite a bit, but the healthspan, as we call it, is really the quality of life. It’s what everybody wants,” he’s quoted as saying.
Dr. Nikolich-Žugich’s spoke about similar issues in a January 2013 Tucson Lifestyle article, “Aging to Perfection.” In that piece, he spoke about investigating the insulin pathway and how our bodies absorb and manage nutrients being linked to how we age. The focus targets not just increasing longevity, but how to remain healthy and vital as we grow older.
Also in that issue (January 2013), Mindy Fain, MD, his partner as co-director of the UA Center on Aging and chief of the UA Division of Geriatric, General Internal Medicine and Palliative Medicine, was featured in an article, “Longevity: An Age-Old Question,” in which she says: 
“To help promote a long and healthy life, engage in regular physical exercise, practice good nutrition and remain socially and spiritually engaged, and exercise your brain.”
Both sequé into a January 2017 Tucson Lifestyle article that spotlights the work of Melanie Hingle, PhD, MPH, a registered dietitian and assistant professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, who spoke at the Dec. 13 Endocrinology Grand Rounds a family-focused, YMCA-based intervention to prevent type 2 diabetes in at-risk youth and also chaired the Feb. 22-24 “Feed Your Genome” UA Frontiers in Nutritional Sciences Conference hosted on campus.
Her article, “Navigating the Waistland” discusses how best to maintain a healthy weight and what’s effective and what’s hype with all the diet and exercise plans on the market today. To eat healthy, Dr. Hingle recommends consuming less processed foods. “It will have more nutrients and keep you feeling a bit more full… And it will offer more disease prevention components,” she’s quoted as saying.
ALSO SEE:
"‘Feeding Your Genome’ Just the Ticket for Nutritional Health, Feb. 22-24" | Posted Feb. 21, 2017
“Center on Aging Three in the News on Elder Abuse, Biological Sciences and Hearing Loss” | Posted Dec. 7, 2016
“Boosting Immunity in Older Adults: UA Health Sciences Immunologists Unmask New Infection-Fighting T Cells” | Posted June 13, 2016
“UA Study Changes Several Beliefs About the Immune System in Aging Adults” | Posted Feb. 21, 2014