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- A new study found that adults 65 and older can improve both their physical and cognitive function.
- People with a positive attitude toward aging were more likely to experience these health improvements.
- A rosier outlook on growing older makes you more likely to engage in habits that support health.
One of the most powerful influences on how well you age may be how you feel about it. A recent study that tracked thousands of older adults for over a decade suggests that physical and cognitive improvement is indeed possible with age—and one factor stood out in predicting who might boost functioning over time: mindset. Participants who held more positive views of aging were more likely to improve as they got older, researchers reported in the journal Geriatrics.
A Deeper Look at the Findings
Examples of people accomplishing remarkable feats later in life aren’t hard to find. The study points to Diana Nyad, who completed a 110-mile swim from Cuba to Florida at age 64, and Joseph Turner, who produced some of the most influential paintings later in his career.
The researchers wanted to know whether these kinds of stories are outliers—or part of a broader pattern, according to study author Martin Slade, MPH, PhD, a lecturer in occupational medicine at Yale School of Medicine. They also wondered whether attitude might help explain the difference.
To answer these questions, the team followed about 11,300 adults ages 65 and older from the Health and Retirement Study over 12 years. They assessed physical and cognitive health using measures like walking speed and cognitive tests, and asked participants about their beliefs around aging.
By the end of the study, 45.15% of participants showed improvement in cognitive function, physical function, or both. Notably, more positive beliefs around aging were associated with a higher likelihood of improvement.
“There are two take-away messages from the study,” Slade said. “First, that the cognition and physical health of older people can improve and, in fact, a significant portion of older people do improve. Second, that positive age beliefs increase the likelihood that an older person’s cognition and physical health will improve over time.”
The findings come with some caveats, though. Slade noted that the researchers didn’t measure muscle and brain neuron plasticity, making it difficult to know exactly what caused the improvements. And the study didn’t examine which specific behaviors might have resulted from participants’ beliefs, which could help explain the link, pointed out Rosanne M. Leipzig, MD, PhD, a geriatrician and professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.
Why Would a Positive Attitude Translate to Better Aging?
On a basic level, having a positive attitude means you’re more likely to try new things, experts said. “Aging beliefs are self-fulfilling prophecies,” Leipzig said. “What you do is related to what you expect.” In other words, if you don’t see age as a limitation, you’re probably more likely to sign up for a challenging dance class, make new friends, or travel—boosting your physical and mental fitness along the way.
It’s that physical movement that’s key, noted Nir Barzilai, MD, a professor of genetics and medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, director of the Institute for Aging Research, and co-founder and president of the Academy for Health and Lifespan Research. Having a positive attitude without positive habits may not make much of a difference, he added.
The same goes for a doom-and-gloom attitude about aging, which experts said often leads to fewer health-promoting activities. Leipzig has seen this pattern in his own patients. “In my practice, I have seen those with negative age beliefs withdraw, stop engaging, refuse to try adaptations like hearing aids or medical care that might help them have lives that are less isolated and more enjoyable,” he said.
Optimistic beliefs about aging may even change the brain’s structure, Slade added, increasing the rate at which neurons form new connections later in life. His previous research showed that negative aging beliefs can affect the brain, linking them to biomarkers associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
How to Have a Rosier Outlook on Aging
If you take anything away from this study, Barzilai said, it should be that the trajectory of aging is not set in stone. “There’s a flexibility [to it],” he added.
Having a positive outlook on your ability to get out into the world, challenge your brain, stay social, and move your body can influence how likely you are to keep doing these things—helping you adopt behaviors that may support a longer, healthier life, experts said.
So how do you flip a negative outlook into a more rosy one? What’s crucial, Leipzig said, is to try to view the last third of life as a time of possibility rather than inevitable decline. “It can be a time of continuing ability and even improvement for many people,” she noted. “Don’t sabotage yourself with your age beliefs.”
Barzilai, for his part, practices what he preaches. He recently moved with his wife from a suburban home to bustling Manhattan, where there’s more access to activity and culture. “I’m so busy, and Manhattan is so exciting,” he said.
