Redefining the Ageing Process

Time Orders Old Age to Destroy Beauty, Pompeo Batoni, circa 1746 (Wikimedia Commons).

Longevity science and our yearning for extended, optimised lives is feeding a booming global industry. Researchers zap zombie cells in their labs. Biotech clinics offer epigenetic testing and cellular regeneration. Biohackers consume stacks of supplements, invest in wearables, measure their markers and boast of biological, rather than chronological, years of age. Not content with just slowing the ageing process, we’re striving to turn back the clock. Cellular reprogramming and rejuvenation is now a reality. There’s even talk of becoming immortal, augmented by AI.

Amidst this noise, and as a longevity buff (on a small budget) myself, I acknowledge a fundamental truth. We are dissatisfied with, and fearful of, our mortality. We’re seeking ever more sophisticated interventions for our human condition. We’re trying to buy more time.

But, whether we like it or not, the ageing process is with us, lurking in plain sight. Instead of fighting it, or fleeing it, we can face it head on. And then there’s something life-changing that we can do. Every one of us. Right now. And it costs nothing. It’s how we think about age. About being old. In early life, oldness is otherness. Our grandparents are old, then our parents. One day, we cross that inevitable threshold. We predict how it will feel.

Think of an old-aged person. Write down the first five words or phrases that spring to mind. This is an exercise used by epidemiologist and longevity expert Dr Becca Levy to reveal our perception of the norm.[1] It’s what we accept, and even expect: a stereotype of old age. If you believe you haven’t been conditioned with age-related stereotypes since childhood, think again.

In Western culture, our age beliefs are largely negative, internalised via multiple sources. From fairytales and cartoons to social constructs, medical preconceptions and media portrayals, there’s a cautionary narrative: age we don’t want to show, or dread to reach. Age that is ugly. Age that will inevitably let us down.

The word “old” has developed societal stigma. So it’s politely replaced with “older”, “elder”, or “senior”, but the connotations are often the same. Healthcare professionals predict our age-bound limitations; grey-haired seniors beam from advertisements for assisted living; pension providers warn us that one day we may need long-term care. And despite the drive toward healthy living, the global growth of our ageing population is projected as an economic burden.

Google’s AI Overview spouts: “An old-aged person, typically defined as 60 or 65+ years old, is in the final life stage, marked by significant physical, cognitive, and social changes. Often referred to as seniors or older adults, they frequently manage chronic conditions and life transitions like retirement, requiring specialised health, social care, and support to maintain independence.”

According to that quick-flash web dredge, I’m old-aged and on the road to decrepitude. It’s a surreal definition. Much is said of our bias toward others, but if we take that to describe what we are all gradually becoming, we’re unwittingly stereotyping ourselves. I’ve spoken to people who say they don’t want to live to a great old age, convinced by pessimistic reasoning. And even in my fifties, I used to joke that I was in the decade when everything goes downhill.

Surely we want to continue living, but we’re at odds with getting older. Dr Becca Levy’s research, spanning decades, has uncovered a powerful fact. Our internalised beliefs about ageing act like a mirror. Once embedded in our minds they create self-stereotypes, showing us, positively or negatively, how we should age, and these cultural stereotypes affect whole generations.

Early in her career, after a cross-cultural study of the impact of age beliefs on memory health, Dr Levy began to experiment with implicit priming. In a controlled setting, positive or negative words associated with old age were flashed subliminally at study participants. Those who had received positive words for just ten minutes showed improved memory skills after the test. Negative words gave poorer results.[2] This same technique was adopted by researchers across five continents, and all had similar outcomes.

Dr Levy matched age beliefs to participants over a study of thirty-eight years to show a 30 percent improvement in memory scores among people holding positive age expectations.[3] She tracked more than five thousand people over a four-year period, finding that even those with a genetic propensity for Alzheimer’s disease were 47 percent less likely to develop dementia when armed with a positive mindset.[4]

Dr Levy has found that, as well as memory performance, gait, balance, walking speed, and even will to live, can be improved with positive age stereotypes.[5] In one case study, functional improvement after one month of positive priming showed results that would be typically attained after six months of regular physical exercise.[6]

In a ten-year study, Dr Levy and her associate, geriatrician Tom Gill, worked with 598 individuals aged seventy or over. The participants were asked to express their views about ageing with five words or phrases, and assessed every month. Those who held positive age beliefs showed a 44 percent greater likelihood of recovery from disability than those who clung to negative stereotypes.[7]

Over another thirty-year study period, data revealed that persistent negative age beliefs correlated with a 44 percent increase of cortisol, the stress hormone, and positive beliefs with a 10 percent decline.[8] And one of Dr Levy’s most stirring discoveries was a study spanning twenty-two and a half years, indicating that participants with positive age beliefs were living seven and a half years longer than those with negative views.[9]

And there’s the proof. Not only is our health and longevity influenced by what we eat, and how we move and rest, but also how we think. And if our thoughts are not serving us well, we can correct them. We are at liberty to redefine our future selves.

I recently listened to a longevity scientist say: “If you want to be seventy years old and be in good enough health to play with your grandkids…” suggesting that the primary fitness motivator for a seventy-year-old is being able to play with their grandchildren. Shouldn’t the motivation run deeper? Maybe we aren’t grandparents. Maybe we want to be healthy - or even extraordinary - because life is a gift, and we owe it to ourselves.

Technology is rapidly advancing, and will likely grant us more years than we ever thought possible. Human sentience may extend in other forms. But in this moment, the continuous present, we can direct how we think, and how we choose to travel through time. We should be proud of the age we are, and unafraid of being judged. When we change, we break societal convention. On our quest for long and healthy lives, it’s important to remember that self-belief costs nothing, and serves us best of all.

Notes:

1. Levy, Dr Becca, Breaking the Age Code, Vermilion, 2022, ‘The Pictures in Our Head’, p.9.

2. Ibid., ‘Anatomy of a Senior Moment’, p. 34-35; Levy, B. (1996) ‘Improving memory in old age through implicit self-stereotyping’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Dec; 71(6):1092-107, PMID: 8979380.

3. Ibid., ‘Anatomy of a Senior Moment’, p.37; Levy, B.R., Zonderman, A.B., Slade, M.D., Ferrucci L. ‘Memory shaped by age stereotypes over time’. Journals of Gerontology, Series B, Psychological Sciences & Social Sciences. 2012 Jul; 67(4):432-6. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbr120. Epub 2011 Nov 4. PMID: 22056832; PMCID: PMC3391075.

4. Ibid., ‘Brawny Brains: Genes Aren’t Destiny’, p.63; Levy, B.R., Slade, M.D., Pietrzak, R.H., Ferrucci, L. ‘Positive age beliefs protect against dementia even among elders with high-risk gene’. PLoS One. 2018 Feb 7;13(2):e0191004. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0191004. PMID: 29414991; PMCID: PMC5802444.

5. Ibid., ‘Introduction’, p.6.

6. Ibid., ‘Old and Fast’, p.48; McAuley, E., Wójcicki, T.R., Gothe, N.P., Mailey, E.L., Szabo, A.N., Fanning, J., Olson, E.A., Phillips, S.M., Motl, R.W., Mullen, S.P. ‘Effects of a DVD-delivered exercise intervention on physical function in older adults’. Journals of Gerontology, Series A, Biological Sciences & Medical Sciences. 2013 Sep; 68(9):1076-82. doi: 10.1093/gerona/glt014. Epub 2013 Feb 11. PMID: 23401566; PMCID: PMC3738028.

7. Ibid., ‘Old and Fast’, p.55-56; Levy, B.R., Slade, M.D., Murphy, T.E., Gill, T.M. ‘Association between positive age stereotypes and recovery from disability in older persons’. JAMA. 2012 Nov 21;308(19):1972-3. doi: 10.1001/jama.2012.14541. PMID: 23168819; PMCID: PMC3614078.

8. Ibid., ‘Later-Life Mental Health Growth’, p.76-77; Levy, B., Moffat, S., Resnick, S., Slade, M., Ferrucci, L. ‘Cumulative stress buffer: Positive aging self-stereotypes predict lower cortisol across 30 years’. Innov Aging. 2017 Jun 30;1(Suppl 1):1260–1. doi: 10.1093/geroni/igx004.4589. PMCID: PMC6183792.

9. Ibid., ‘Longevity Advantage of 7.5 Years’, p.93; Levy, B.R., Slade, M.D., Kunkel, S.R., Kasl, S.V. ‘Longevity increased by positive self-perceptions of aging’. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology. 2002 Aug; 83(2):261-70. doi: 10.1037//0022-3514.83.2.261. PMID: 12150226.