Category — Thinking young

Hold on…We can think ourselves young?

That’s right.  The theory is called, variously, “the psychology of the possible” or the “biology of hope” or the “biology of belief.”  The general hypothesis that our beliefs might be one of the most important determinants of health and longevity.

Yes, beliefs.  Beliefs about our own health, about our body’s reliance and strength (or lack thereof), about our ability to thrive, about what it means to age.  What we think will happen, what we believe will happen, what we expect to happen may, in fact, happen.  And by “fact,” I mean statistically valid, scientifically derived evidence.  That kind of fact.  Our minds are just that powerful.

Suppose, like just about everyone in our culture, you grow up believing Old is Bad.  Suppose, after years of hearing jokes about being over-the-hill at forty, after seeing thousands of commercials for Depends and Ensure and cellphones with three-inch-high numerals, after watching hundreds of movies and television shows with cranky, crabby, asexual older people, suppose you begin to conflate “old” with sick, debilitated and diminished? With forgetful, slow, weak, timid and stodgy? Those last five adjectives are the most common negative, “unthinkingly accepted” stereotypes of “old” in western cultures, according to one group of researchers.  What we have here, researchers in the biology of belief field say, is a self-fulfilling prophesy of decline.  You get what you expect.

On the other hand, the Abkhazians, one of the healthiest, most vibrant, longest lived communities on the planet, have no word in their language for “old people.”  They refer to the eldest among them as “long-living people.” Note how “long-living” expresses an action, something they are in the midst of doing, while “old” is a static state, a pronouncement.  Are Abkhazians healthy and vital in old age in part because their language (their culture) allows – expects – them to be?  An intriguing idea.

The evidence about perceptions of aging (another way of looking at expectations about growing older) and what does in fact happen is pretty startling.  A Yale study concluded that perceptions held by people about aging had more impact on how long they lived than did their blood pressure, cholesterol level or whether they were smokers.  Regardless of age, gender, socio-economic status, loneliness or – get this – the actual state of their health, the men and women with positive views on aging lived 7.5 years longer than those who bought into the negative stereotypes.

Conversely, another study found that older adults who perceived their health as poor were six times more likely to die (within the time frame studied, that is) than those who thought they were in good health – regardless of their actual health status. One explanation is that if you think of illness and decrepitude as an inevitable part of aging, you are less likely to do anything to prevent, counteract or treat it.  Another study at Yale found a strong link between positive self-perceptions of aging and what’s called functional health – the mechanical well-being of the body, the ability to move and perform desired tasks without pain or injury.

            Clearly the path toward an invigorated and meaningful mid-life and beyond requires us to do more than jump on the superfood-du-jour/ exercise-fad-of-the-month bandwagon.  It requires us to question our beliefs about aging.  It requires us to create our own biology of the possible.

Back in November, just before I left home for my shift at The Dining Room, an amazing restaurant-style facility that feeds 300+ homeless and hungry people every day, I posted a little essay on the health benefits of volunteering. The findings I wrote about – lower blood pressure, less depression, less incidence of heart disease – came from a round-up of recent research.

Now, as I rush to post this before I once again leave for my shift (which, I never get tired of saying, is the best, happiest, most soul-satisfying four hours I spend every week) I have more good news. It’s not exactly about health and the act of volunteering. It’s about the health and people who experience “high levels of well-being” (happiness) because they have found a deep sense of purpose and meaning in life. That category certainly includes those who volunteer, but you might get paid to do meaningful work. Or you might have reached satori.

Here’s the scoop from a recent UCLA study: Being happy affects your genes. Yes, definable, testable genetic effects. This is big.

Now it gets interesting. Researchers found that different types of happiness have surprising different effects on the human genome.

People who have high levels of what is called eudaimonic well-being — the kind of happiness that comes from having a deep sense of purpose— showed very favorable gene-expression profiles in their immune cells. They had low levels of inflammatory gene expression and strong expression of antiviral and antibody genes. You may remember from a past post how chronic, systemic inflammation is implicated in a host of so-called diseases of aging.

People who have relatively high levels of what’s called hedonic well-being (as in hedonist) – the kind of happiness that comes from self-gratification – show just the opposite. Their genes had adverse profiles involving high inflammation and low antiviral and antibody expression.

Researchers found that the meaningful lifers and the hedonists seemed (and said they were) equally happy. But the body, the wise, wise body, was able to distinguish between how they got so happy. That’s me talking. Here’s what the researchers said: “Their genomes were responding very differently even though their emotional states were similarly positive.”

I am beyond flabbergasted by this finding. It makes me very happy. But not as happy as I’m going to be when I get to the Dining Room, put on an apron and start serving.

Are you as weary, disgusted and pissed off as I am about the unrelentingly dismal messages we’re bombarded with that equate getting older with getting feeble – and feeble-minded.

I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up!

Really?  Okay, some older people do fall, and falling is not good.  And not a joke. But that weird, whiney, clueless and off-putting woman in the laughable commercial is a joke.  (Actually, I suspect that the actress is cheesing it up.  She knows the character she’s supposed to be playing is a joke.)  Yes, some older people fall in their bathrooms.  But some older people run 10Ks.  Or, geez, walk the damn dog twice a day.

I get a low-rent magazine in the mail every month that goes to members of electrical coops.  In it this month was a full-page ad for a Walk-in Tub, a kind of vertical bathtub that actually looked pretty cool.  Here’s the copy:

Remember when…

Think about the things you loved to do that are difficult today – going for a walk or sitting comfortably while reading a book.  And remember the last time you got a great night’s sleep?

As we get older, health issues or everyday aches and pains and stress prevent us from enjoying life.  The next column offered a litany of  old people health “issues” – of all which, I just want to say, are preventable if one lives a counterclockwise life:  diabetes, lower back pain, insomnia, high blood pressure.

I am not being insensitive.  Really, I am not.  I am just saying:

You reap what you sow. (No, not always… but very often when it comes to health “issues” related to lifestyle choices.)

And, expectation leads to outcome.  I’ve written about this before, but it deserves repeating. If you expect aging to mean the diminution of, well, everything – energy, vitality, health, curiosity, the ability to “go for a walk and sit comfortably while reading a book”), then you actually (factually, scientifically) pre-dispose yourself to go down that road. If you accept all the awful stereotypes about what aging means, the ones popular culture surrounds us with, you become what you imagine you will become.  If you expect, instead, good health, useful work, engagement with the world, new adventures, you work to make that happen.

Because sure, we fall.  But absolutely, we can get up.

And then go to Pilates class.

“I am 84 yrs old, and still trying.”  That’s how Rhoda, a reader of this blog, began the comment she sent in last week.  “Still trying” hardly does justice to the active and engaged life this woman leads – not to mention her go-getter outlook.  She takes Pilates and yoga classes.  She weight trains and walks two or three miles several times a week.  She and her husband play nine holes of golf “every (non-raining) afternoon.”  She says she’s tried some of the fitness classes offered at the retirement community she calls home, but “they are too slow and easy for my taste.”

All I can say is:  You go, girl.

Well, that’s not all I can say.  I can also say:  This is what successful, high-level-wellness aging looks like.  Here is a model of counterclockwise behavior and attitude.  Yes, Rhoda is wonderfully active, but I would like to suggest that that’s not the secret to her success.  The secret is her refusal to buy into the negative stereotypes about aging.  The secret is her expectation of health.  The secret is her “I’m in control and I’m gonna make it happen” attitude.  She does not expect that getting older, that being 84, means frailty, fragility and dependence.  She does not expect to age poorly.  She expects to remain active.  And then she works to make that happen.

As many an interesting study (not to mention many a personally lived-in experience) will tell you:  Expectation often leads to outcome.

Here’s something to chew on:  The evidence linking a person’s expectations about growing older with what actually happens when that person grows older is…startling.  A Yale study concluded that the perceptions a person held about aging had more impact on how long (and well) he or she lived than the person’s blood pressure, cholesterol level or status as a smoker.  Regardless of age, gender, socio-economic status, loneliness or – get this – the actual state of their health, men and women with positive views about aging lived 7.5 years longer than those who bought into the negative stereotypes.

Another study found that older adults who perceived their health as poor were 6 times more likely to die (within the time frame of the study…we are all 100 percent likely to die) than those who thought they were in good health … regardless of their actual health status.  One plausible explanation:  If you think that illness and decrepitude are inevitable consequences of aging, you are less likely to do anything to prevent, counteract or treat them. You are less likely to believe you have any control over how, and how quickly, you age.

You are less likely to act like Rhoda.

Or like 83-year-old Bette Calman, the woman doing the headstand in the photograph.

For all of you – all two of you – who’ve been waiting since last Wednesday to find out if 1) I’m back on track, walking the anti-aging talk and/ or 2) I have in any meaningful way quelled the yappy little voice in my head that tells me what a bad person I am for not getting up from my computer every hour to do jumping jacks…here’s this week’s update:

*I set a one-hour timer on my computer to remind me it’s time to lift seat of pants from seat of chair (i.e., stability ball) and do something, anything, for three minutes.  Mostly I’ve been using this opportunity to chase my feline writing buddy around the house.  This silences yappy voice and entertains cat.  A two-fer.

*I have managed to eat lunch three out of seven days this past week, which is three more than the week before.  Paying attention to the protein thing.  Paying attention to the Eat Plants thing.  Attempting not to demonize fruit.  And oh, attempting to enjoy the meal.  There is that.

End of report.  Now onto what I really want to write about this week.  At a pre-publication event for the book last week, an audience member asked: “What are the worst things you can do to yourself, the things that actively accelerate aging?”  Great question.

First I’ll give you the standard answer:  If you carry around a lot of extra fat (especially around the middle), live a sedentary lifestyle and smoke cigarettes, you’ve just hit the trifecta.  But everyone knows that already, right?  If you lie out in the sun (or in a tanning bed), or stay outside without sunblock and a hat, you are actively and aggressively aging your skin, not just the top layers but the deep layers where the connective tissue lies. But everyone knows that, right?   There’s also been a torrent of stories lately about the weight-promoting, age-accelerating effects of getting too little sleep.  So I won’t hit that one again.

Here’s what I want to say:  One of the worst things you can do, one of the most powerful ways you can catapult yourself down the aging path is attitude.  If you think you are the person to whom things happen and not the person who makes things happen, if you see yourself as object rather than subject (for you grammarians out there), if you have low self-esteem rather than high self-efficacy (for all you self-help readers out there), you cease to be the engine of your own life.  I don’t think there is quicker way to age.

Obstacles become bad things inflicted upon you rather than, maybe, challenges that can test you, make you stronger.  Change becomes a negative, something foisted upon you, rather than an opportunity (maybe forced, maybe not all that welcome) to grow.  Staying excited, curious, resilient, flexible – that’s the way to stay youthful.  When you are the author of your own life, you get to create the plot.

I would be remiss if I didn’t remind you here that my new book, Counterclockwise: My Year Year of Hypnosis, Hormones, Dark Choicolate and Other Adventures in the World of Anti-Aging, is due out, officially, June 4, and available online right now.

Is New World capitalism the ultimate ager.

I’ve been thinking about that these past few weeks as I’ve spent time in three great – and very different — European cities: gracious, sparkling clean Vienna; medieval, beatnik Prague and bustling poseur Paris.  In my counterclockwise report last week, I talked about Europeans’ walking habits (versus our vehicular addiction) and how they ate their biggest meal mid-day (versus our enormous dinners followed by hours of screen-staring, junk-snacking couch time).

But the longer I stay here in the Old World, the more I see fascinating and complicating contradictions. Take McDonald’s, for example, the epitome of junk-food-fast-food America.  These three European cities all have multiple McDonalds (rebranded as McCafe in Vienna and Prague), and they are packed.  (I know. I frequented a number of them to use their super-fast internet connection.

But here are two differences that might make a difference: 1. No drive-through…therefore no mindless face-stuffing while operating a highly prized vehicle.  2. No rushing in general.  The food category might be fast food, but the diners appeared to take their time.

As I stood in a corner checking email, facebook and the weather forecast, Skpying with family anddoing business for twenty minutes at a time, I noted how slowly people were eating their burgers, how much time they spent talking and nibbling and sipping rather than gobbling and gulping.  Eating was a lengthy social event not a calorie-consuming contest as it sometimes appears to be in the U.S. – and especially at places like McD’s.

Here’s another bit of weirdness:  Austria, the Czech Republic and France all have higher – much higher – rates of cigarette smoking than we do.  In the U.S., we’re down to 20 percent these days (yay!).  The three countries I’ve been visiting are all in the mid- to high 30 percent range.  It seems even higher.  It seems like everyone smokes here.  So I looked up lung cancer death rates.  We’re #9.  Austria, with 75 percent more smokers, is #45 for lung cancer deaths.  France, with close to double the percentage of smokers, is #23.  (Incidentally, France ranks #7 in life expectancy.  The U.S. is a proud #40.)  What gives?

Probably national health care has something to do with this.  But I think something bigger and harder to define might be going on — attitude toward life.  Which brings me to:  Is rampant consumer capitalism the ultimate quick-ager?

If you want more all the time, if you’re always striving for bigger and better, you put yourself in a state of chronic stress which basically bathes you in cortisol.  Overexposure to cortisol and other stress hormones is implicated in heart disease, depression, obesity, sleep and digestive problems and lowered immune response. It is, in other words, chronic stress — the way many of us live in the U.S. — is a major ager and major promoter of disease.

My friend (and sister-in-law) Morgaine Hager, a naturopath, mentioned the stress-cortisol-aging connection in a comment last week.  I think she’s right.

Old people.  Fat people.  You may have noticed that these are the last remaining groups in our culture that it is still possible to insult and disparage with impunity.  Fat acceptance advocates and BBW (big beautiful women) sites are fighting the good fight – but pretty much losing.  Older people – in this post Gray Panthers world (remember them?) – are not even trying.  That’s because – and listen to this closely – unlike virtually every other group that is the butt of slurs and slights, old people buy into and generally accept the negative stereotypes about themselves.  In fact, they think worse of themselves than others think of them, which is apparently a unique finding in the world of social psychology.

Our culture tells old people that they are superfluous, useless and clogging up the works. Their best days – physically, intellectually, creatively, sexually, you name it – are over.  The message is loud and clear, and it is internalized.  It is what old people tell themselves.  It is what they learn to believe.  And in believing it, they become it.  Expectation leads to outcome.

Now comes the disturbing news, via a new study by Carolyn Black Becker at Trinity University, of a link between fat talk and old talk – two powerful, hurtful, ego-deflating variations of negative self-talk.  Fat talk, as any woman knows, is that cruel stuff we tell ourselves that we’d never put up with from anyone else.  It’s the rant in front the mirror, especially the dressing room mirror, especially the dressing room mirror when we’re trying on bathing suits.  It turns out that for women with negative body images (seriously, do you know anyone not included in this category?), fat talk diminishes a bit as they age – but is replaced by old talk. “I look fat” is replaced by “I look old.”

So we never stop beating ourselves up?