Aging Health

January’s Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences reports on an aging phenomenon that is so familiar that we have turned it into a cliche:  “You are only as old as you feel.” According to research from Purdue University, the cliche represents a real truth about aging health. “How old you are matters, but beyond that it’s your interpretation that has far-reaching implications for the process of aging,” said Markus H. Schafer, a doctoral student in sociology and gerontology who led the study. “So, if you feel old beyond your own chronological years you are probably going to experience a lot of the downsides that we associate with aging.”But if you are older and maintain a sense of being younger, then that gives you an edge in maintaining a lot of the abilities you prize.”

The data for the study about aging were collected in 1995 and 2005 as part of the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States.  About 500 people from ages 55-74 were surveyed.  In 1995, the participants were asked, “What age do you feel most of the time.”  On the average they described themselves as feeling  12 years younger than they actually were.  When the researchers interviewed them again in 2005 they concluded that the people who originally felt young for their age generally had more confidence about their mental abilities ten years later.  Even though chronological age was important subjective age actually had a stronger effect on aging health.

The researchers noted that the findings did not reveal which factor was the cause and which was the effect.  Do wellness and happiness improve cognitive abilities or does cognitive ability contribute to a feeling of wellness? According to the report, that question will be addressed by future research.  We will report it here when it is determined.

My primary objective in reviewing this study here is to reinforce a point I make frequently; our expectations and attitudes about aging have a major effect on our quality of life.  This effect begins quite early, generally as soon as we start thinking about getting older as a factor in our lives.  If we expect to live well, we tend to make plans that lead to living well.  If we expect to spend our senior years in the process of dying, we will make decisions that tend to minimize the opportunities to do otherwise.

If this “aging well” stuff was just “pie in the sky” I wouldn’t want any part in promoting it.  However, I can honestly say that I am pleasantly surprised at how much enjoyment I am getting out of these “post-retirement” years, and I planned very poorly for them.  As the old adage goes, “If I had known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.”  However, I consider myself very fortunate, because I have been placed in a position to see and understand what the world, especially the world of communications and technology, have to offer.  I am writing this because I am aware that many of my peers, and especially my parents’ peers, are trapped in the depressing expectations of the past.  I urge you to join me in the campaign to open the world back up to senior citizens.

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• Senior citizens driving, plus memory loss: what to do?
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