Three Not-So-Bad Things on Aging and Longevity

1. From the Department of Older Adults Doing Remarkable Things.

We like telling stories of norm-defying achievements from older adults but truthfully, there are so many of these stories now, it’s hard sometimes to know whether something is truly worthy of note or just the new normal. Is Harrison Ford playing Indiana Jones again at age 80 really a story when we see similar things from Helen Mirren, Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Rita Moreno, Al Pacino, and Julie Andrews seemingly on a daily basis???

But we have no such editorial qualms about John Kander.?You may recognize his name from the iconic?musical duo, Kander and Ebb, but Kander is now well into his solo act. At age 96, Kander is busier than ever. His 16th Broadway musical, “New York, New York,” is set to open a week from today, and features both old and new music created by the composer.?Kander has been composing on and off Broadway for about 70 years, with now-classic works such as “Cabaret” (1966) and “Chicago” (1975) among some of his biggest accomplishments (“Chicago” is the longest-running American musical on Broadway—ever). Yet none of the accolades seem to matter much to Kander, who creates simply because it brings him joy, purpose and passion. “My fingers find something, as if they have little brains of their own,”?says Kander . “The keyboard is God: Something will happen. Or you tear it up. And start again.” For a visionary who continues to create well into his nineties and shows no signs of slowing down, we’re grateful that those once torn-up works have turned into some of our most nostalgic, resonant classics.??

So sorry Harrison, we’ll definitely be watching the new film and hoping that you don’t run up?against any snakes , but no Kander coverage for you until?Indiana Jones 12?hits the screens in 2039.

2. Mind Over (Brain) Matter.

As if you need another reason to have positive views on aging, here is another one, and it’s kind of mind-blowing.?A new study ?from the Yale School of Public Health has found that older adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) are 30% more likely to regain normal cognitive function if they have a positive view of aging.?The research team, headed by Rebecca Levy, also found that those with positive attitudes and beliefs about aging were likely to recover up to two years earlier than those with negative beliefs. This finding held true regardless of MCI severity.

MCI is a common form of memory loss among older adults. Roughly half of MCI sufferers are able to recover some lost cognition, but the timing and extent of recovery can differ markedly. Little has been known about what drives recovery, so the research team, influenced by previous work that found that positive aging attitudes reduce the stress of cognitive challenges and improve cognitive performance, wanted to test the impact of cultural norms and beliefs on MCI. The results appear to show that those with positive age beliefs are less likely to develop MCI in the first place and recover faster and better if they do develop it.?

3. Relax, Recoup, or Reward: The 3 Rs of Retirement.

If you are wondering why you and your spouse seemingly have such different ideas about retirement, good news of sorts: it’s not just you.?A series of studies—this 2023 study from TIAA Institute , and this 2018 study from MIT Agelab —have found that men and women have fundamentally different understandings about “life after career”. For men, according to their research, retirement is viewed principally as a reward after careers, a time to relax, rest and pursue hobbies. Women on the other hand increasingly see the “retirement years” as a new life stage, a period of freedom, personal growth and innovation. This in part reflects the fact that women often enter this period of life with better health and more years to live but also, according to the MIT researchers, reflects the fact that the careers of women are more frequently interrupted by caregiving for children and older relatives, causing them to step in and out of the workforce. As some of those caregiving responsibilities decline in later life, women are more likely to view later life as a time to pursue goals delayed. Because of this, women over the age of 50 are the backbone of the American volunteer sector and play an increasingly large (but still underappreciated) role in American entrepreneurship.??

What does this all mean? According to the MIT researchers, it means that families should spend more time acknowledging different goals and trying to align expectations. But we also suspect that women on this topic are harbingers of broader social change, and are reflecting how “retirement” will be viewed by most people?in the coming years.

Which Not-So-Bad thing surprised you the most? Let us know in the comments below!