Anti-Ageism Bear

Stop thinking of yourself as old!

I live with my husband and his parents who are both over sixty-five, my siblings are in their late fifties and early sixties, and I’m a heck of a lot closer to fifty than I am to forty: the topic of aging comes up often in my life. Lately, I’ve noticed that my parents are healthier, and more vital, engaged, and active than people who are ten years younger. I won't say how old they are, because I'm a gentleman, but I will say that on a survey they have to check the box that reads seventy-five, and then there is no number after the dash.

While I'm grateful to share their genetics, there's always something I can still learn from Mom and Dad. The chief differences I've noticed are that they are active, they eat well (home cooked, real food) and I almost never hear them refer to themselves as old. Sure, they have some health issues, and they spend some time in the doctor’s office, but, when the subject of age comes up, I only hear them speak of how they must do things differently now, never how they cannot do something because of their age. It's just not an impediment, even on the occasion that it does present itself as an obstacle.

I was curious to see if there was something to the old saying “you’re as old as you think you are.” So, armed with nothing more and an index finger and internet access, I dove in. And guess what? Several well respected studies have been done on the subject and it turns out your attitude about aging significantly affects your mental, physical, and cognitive health and longevity. In other words, if you buy into the ageist crap society is dishing out, it's curtains for all those great things you're going to do "once you retire."

               “He who is of a calm and happy nature will hardly feel the pressure of age, but to him who is of the opposite disposition, youth and age are equally a burden.” Plato

Researchers in US and UK have found that older individuals with more positive self-perceptions of aging lived seven and a half years longer than those with less positive self-perceptions of aging. This advantage remained constant after gender, socioeconomic status, and functional health were included as covariates. So why should you care? The participants in one study were surveyed at age forty, and subjected to metabolic, cognitive, and health screening yearly starting at the age of seventy-three. For those not so good that math, their prejudices about aging when they were forty had an effect on how well they aged twenty-three years later.

In the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging [BLSA] participants who had strong negative prejudices about aging at forty, showed a marked decrease in the volume of their Hippocampus when they were scanned at sixty-eight years of age. Loss of volume in the hippocampus is indicative of dementia, Alzheimer's, and major depressive disorders. Those with a negative perception of aging, who strongly agreed with statements like "older people are absent minded," and "older people have trouble learning new things," had three times greater loss in hippocampus volume than their more positive thinking cohorts. That is equivalent to nine years of volume loss over the course of three years of the participant’s life span.

               “Here’s a secret I never have told. Maybe you’ll understand why. I believe if I refuse to grow old, I can stay young until I die.” Pippin – No Time at All

Of course, the issue isn’t as simple as practicing a positive or negative attitude. There are elements to aging which we cannot control, but here again your psychological make-up determines how you react to illness and loss of function. One of the cofactors is how frequently a participant experiences negative self-perceptions surrounding aging. Those who were chronically aware of aging, and its perceived negative effects, fair far worse than those who were only cyclically aware of the same themes.

The real consequences of our prejudices and self-perceptions surrounding aging is that these things underpin the choices we make. Whether, for instance, we remain physically active, participate in social groups, eat well, and continue to learn throughout our life is determined by our perception of aging and its meaning. If we internalize the idea that aging means we lose physical strength, we are less likely to workout. If we preconceive that aging means a loss of memory, we don’t develop tools to help us keep our independence or engage in practices that help us retain our memory. It’s all related to something called Leventhal’s Self-Regulation Model which was originally applied to impulse control, management of short term desires, managing cognitive bias, goal attainment and (psychological) illness behaviors. It works by guiding thoughts, behaviors, and feelings to reach a specified goal: basically, your perception or “self-perception” of your ability to attain a specified goal is indicative of your chances of achieving that goal. Leventhal originally studied people’s perception of illness as a stressor on health, future studies such as the BLSA focus on prejudices of age as a stressor on longevity. Repeatedly these studies found that your thoughts predetermined your actions which had direct effects on your health, wellbeing and longevity. Not surprisingly, whether participants viewed the negative effects of aging as inevitable or something they could influence had an effect on their behavior and therefore produced better results in metabolic and cognitive testing. In other words, just holding to the belief that they could have an effect on their health and wellbeing as they aged directly translated to participants being healthier, more able, and happier.

Four metrics emerged from the research that were indicative of achieving an advanced age, with good physical and mental health. They were: continued physical activity, positive mental outlook, continued learning and memory development, and – bad news introverts – regular participation in social groups. Physical activity and diet played the most primary role of the four metrics, but participants with physical limitations who engaged in learning new things and regularly challenged their mental faculties with puzzles, crosswords, Sudoku, card games, performed significantly better in cognitive tests than those who were, for lack of a better term, physically and intellectually sedentary. The participants who stood out most among their peers, had a positive outlook, and regularly participated in activities that fulfilled the remaining three categories including those with physical limitations who, “did as much as they could.”

"Aging is not lost youth but a new stage of opportunity and strength." Betty Friedan

The worldwide population of individuals over the age of sixty is rising, from 8% in 1950 to 10% in 2000, and is estimated to reach 21% by 2050. I plan to be in my eighties by then. I hope by that time we are all able to ditch the stigma of ageism and recognize it as an exciting new stage in our development, not without its difficulties and challenges but because of them, and, because of the self-acceptance, honesty, strength, and wisdom we develop with each passing year. I hope, by then, that I am able to face my own aging with kindness, laughter, and gratitude.