If you rely on what you see on TV, in films or in magazines, old age means frailty, infirmity and dementia. But if you talk to the people actually doing research on ageing, they'll tell you that popular culture has it all wrong. They're questioning every assumption about the effects of ageing on our
physical and mental health and finding some pretty surprising results.
Forget everything you ever thought you knew about ageing and memory, says Sonia J. Lupien, PhD, who directs the Center for Studies on Human Stress at McGill University in Canada. She has a rather surprising argument for why we falsely believe older people have worse memories and declining learning abilities. To her, it's because the studies on which we base this opinion are deeply flawed.
You have to consider how the studies are conducted, she says. People have to come to a university setting, typically in the afternoon, where they're tested by a young graduate student. The 'young' participants are typically university students who know where they're going on campus, feel comfortable being tested by someone close to their own age and prefer afternoon testing since they like to sleep late.
Testing for older people Now consider this from the perspective of one of the older participants. You have to drive to the university and find a parking space, or taking public transport, then navigate the campus until you find the right room. You're confronted with someone young enough to be your grandchild who asks extremely personal questions then puts you through the tests. You've probably been up since 6am, so afternoons may simply not be your best time. You probably prefer to take a nap
around 2pm rather than a test ( in fact, studies find memory is strongest in older people in the morning and in younger people in the afternoon).
The stress factor So if you're an older person, Dr Lupien says, the whole experience is really stressful. This is bad in two ways: first, the older you are, the more intensely your body reacts to stress; and second, stress and memory, as she and others have shown in dozens of studies, are like oil and water. The more acute stress you experience, the worse your memory.
Then there's the test itself. If you give older people words to memorise and tell them that you're evaluating their memory, they'll do poorly. If you give them the same words to memorise and tell them that you're evaluating the learning capacity of oler adults, they'll do much better.
Why? Because everyone - including that older participant - is conditioned to believe that memory gets worse with age. And you know the drill: if you think something is a certain way, then it will be. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Here's the important point: when researchers look more closely at the people taking the memory tests they find that those who are in good physical health, educated, employed an with a good income have memorisation skills just as strong as those of people who are 30 years younger.
Don't talk to me about any age-related impairment in memory until you take stress into account.' Dr Lupien says In fact, she's doing just that. In a major study funded by the Canadian Institutes Of Health Research, her 70-year-old research assistant asks the questions and conducts the memory
tests in the morning in an off-campus location that the older people (but not the younger participants) have already visited for a pre-study cocktail party. 'The young participants hate it,' Dr Lupien says with a grin.
AGEING TRUTHS, AGEING MYTHS
What other myths about the physical and mental effects of ageing exist? Here are some big ones.
Creaky, achy joints are an inherent part of ageing Hardly. A more accurate statement would be that creaky, achy joints are an inevitable part of not exercising. Researchers from the University of Kuopio in Finland studied 55 men and 226 women aged 55 to 75 undergoing knee operations for osteoarthritis, and calculated their lifetime of physical exercise, compared with 524 people selected at random from the local population. After taking account of factors such as age, weight, physical work stress and past knee injuries, they found that the higher someone's cumulative hours of exercise, the lower their risk of osteoarthritis of the knee severe enough to require surgery. 'Moderate recreational physical exercise is associated with a decrease in the risk of knee osteoarthritis,' they concluded.
Fragile bones and a bent posture are inevitable with age One thing you'll learn from reading this book: very little is inevitable with age except death. While osteoporosis is definitely a condition that's very preventable. For instance, a study of 424 female centenarians found that only 56 percent had osteoporosis, and their average age at diagnosis was 87. That's not bad, particularly considering that these women grew up long before we understood the benefits of diet and exercise on bone.
Your genes are the most important determinant in how well you'll age Ha! If that were the case, then identical twins would age identically. But they don't. A major study from European and American researchers evaluated the lifestyle habits and medical history of 40 pairs of identical twins aged 3 to 74. As the twins aged, the researchers found, not only had their health taken different paths, but their health taken different paths, but their genome changed from identical to one that showed several differences. Genetically speaking, the oldest pair of twins was the least alike.
How so? It all goes back to the 'nature vs. nurture' argument. You might be born with the healthiest set of genes nature can provide, but how you live your life (the nurture part)
determines how those genes behave over the next 90 years. It turns out that what you eat, how much physical activity you get, even your exposure to chemicals can change your genes through methylation - a process that plays an essential role in maintaining cellular function (changes in methylation patterns may contribute to the development of cancer).
You lose your creative potential as you age Don't tell that to Gene Cohen, MD, PhD, who directs the Center on Aging, Health and Humanities at George Washington University in Maryland. Dr Cohen, who is in his 60s, started a second career as a game-maker a few years ago. Such creativity offers tremendous benefits for older people, he's found. For the past decade, he and his colleagues have been studying the impact of art and music participation on older adults. In one study of 168 healthy older adults, those who joined a choral group were in better health, used less medication, were less lonely and had fewer falls after a year than a similar group of non-singers.
physical and mental health and finding some pretty surprising results.
Forget everything you ever thought you knew about ageing and memory, says Sonia J. Lupien, PhD, who directs the Center for Studies on Human Stress at McGill University in Canada. She has a rather surprising argument for why we falsely believe older people have worse memories and declining learning abilities. To her, it's because the studies on which we base this opinion are deeply flawed.
You have to consider how the studies are conducted, she says. People have to come to a university setting, typically in the afternoon, where they're tested by a young graduate student. The 'young' participants are typically university students who know where they're going on campus, feel comfortable being tested by someone close to their own age and prefer afternoon testing since they like to sleep late.
Testing for older people Now consider this from the perspective of one of the older participants. You have to drive to the university and find a parking space, or taking public transport, then navigate the campus until you find the right room. You're confronted with someone young enough to be your grandchild who asks extremely personal questions then puts you through the tests. You've probably been up since 6am, so afternoons may simply not be your best time. You probably prefer to take a nap
around 2pm rather than a test ( in fact, studies find memory is strongest in older people in the morning and in younger people in the afternoon).
The stress factor So if you're an older person, Dr Lupien says, the whole experience is really stressful. This is bad in two ways: first, the older you are, the more intensely your body reacts to stress; and second, stress and memory, as she and others have shown in dozens of studies, are like oil and water. The more acute stress you experience, the worse your memory.
Then there's the test itself. If you give older people words to memorise and tell them that you're evaluating their memory, they'll do poorly. If you give them the same words to memorise and tell them that you're evaluating the learning capacity of oler adults, they'll do much better.
Why? Because everyone - including that older participant - is conditioned to believe that memory gets worse with age. And you know the drill: if you think something is a certain way, then it will be. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Here's the important point: when researchers look more closely at the people taking the memory tests they find that those who are in good physical health, educated, employed an with a good income have memorisation skills just as strong as those of people who are 30 years younger.
Don't talk to me about any age-related impairment in memory until you take stress into account.' Dr Lupien says In fact, she's doing just that. In a major study funded by the Canadian Institutes Of Health Research, her 70-year-old research assistant asks the questions and conducts the memory
tests in the morning in an off-campus location that the older people (but not the younger participants) have already visited for a pre-study cocktail party. 'The young participants hate it,' Dr Lupien says with a grin.
AGEING TRUTHS, AGEING MYTHS
What other myths about the physical and mental effects of ageing exist? Here are some big ones.
Creaky, achy joints are an inherent part of ageing Hardly. A more accurate statement would be that creaky, achy joints are an inevitable part of not exercising. Researchers from the University of Kuopio in Finland studied 55 men and 226 women aged 55 to 75 undergoing knee operations for osteoarthritis, and calculated their lifetime of physical exercise, compared with 524 people selected at random from the local population. After taking account of factors such as age, weight, physical work stress and past knee injuries, they found that the higher someone's cumulative hours of exercise, the lower their risk of osteoarthritis of the knee severe enough to require surgery. 'Moderate recreational physical exercise is associated with a decrease in the risk of knee osteoarthritis,' they concluded.
Fragile bones and a bent posture are inevitable with age One thing you'll learn from reading this book: very little is inevitable with age except death. While osteoporosis is definitely a condition that's very preventable. For instance, a study of 424 female centenarians found that only 56 percent had osteoporosis, and their average age at diagnosis was 87. That's not bad, particularly considering that these women grew up long before we understood the benefits of diet and exercise on bone.
Your genes are the most important determinant in how well you'll age Ha! If that were the case, then identical twins would age identically. But they don't. A major study from European and American researchers evaluated the lifestyle habits and medical history of 40 pairs of identical twins aged 3 to 74. As the twins aged, the researchers found, not only had their health taken different paths, but their health taken different paths, but their genome changed from identical to one that showed several differences. Genetically speaking, the oldest pair of twins was the least alike.
How so? It all goes back to the 'nature vs. nurture' argument. You might be born with the healthiest set of genes nature can provide, but how you live your life (the nurture part)
 |
| Growing old doesn't cause you to have less energy, achy joints or more frail bones. The culprit is simply not exercising. |
You lose your creative potential as you age Don't tell that to Gene Cohen, MD, PhD, who directs the Center on Aging, Health and Humanities at George Washington University in Maryland. Dr Cohen, who is in his 60s, started a second career as a game-maker a few years ago. Such creativity offers tremendous benefits for older people, he's found. For the past decade, he and his colleagues have been studying the impact of art and music participation on older adults. In one study of 168 healthy older adults, those who joined a choral group were in better health, used less medication, were less lonely and had fewer falls after a year than a similar group of non-singers.
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