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528 Chama, N.E., Albuquerque, NM 87108 http://www.cbass.com |
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Think Yourself Young The revelation that we can think ourselves young began to take shape with a study called to our attention by our longtime friend Wade Smith, MD. Researchers led by Kara N. Fitzgerald, Institute for Functional Medicine, Federal Way, Washington, USA, found diet, exercise, and relaxation techniques to be associated with a 3.23 year decrease in DNA age compared with controls. So, healthy living may literally make us younger. Not just feel younger, actually be younger. My book Challenge Yourself stresses the importance of competing with yourself. Psychologists call this mastery orientation. Focus on personal mastery and your own improvement. The fact that your age group peers are looking old and soft, doesn’t mean you have to follow in their footsteps. Healthy living—and expectations—can keep you younger and more fit. You can think and keep yourself younger. Perhaps I was onto something more than I knew. Searching for commentary brought us to a January 2, 2022, article in The Guardian by David Robson discussing research findings that a positive attitude on aging can lead to a longer, healthier life, while negative beliefs can have life shortening effects. I’m going to cherry-pick from Mr. Robson’s piece and then provide a link to the entire article for more details. (That's only the beginning.) * * * The first hints that our thoughts and expectations could either accelerate or decelerate the ageing process came from a remarkable experiment by the psychologist Ellen Langer at Harvard University. As enticing as her findings might seem, Langer’s study was based on a very small sample size. Becca Levy, at the Yale School of Public Health, has been leading the way to provide confirmation. In one of her earliest – and most eye-catching – papers, she examined data from the Ohio Longitudinal Study of Aging and Retirement that interviewed and followed more than 1,000 participants since 1975. The participants were asked to rate their agreement with the statement: “As you get older, you are less useful.” Levy found that the average person with a more positive attitude lived on for 22.6 years after the study commenced, while the average person with a negative view of ageing survived for just 15 years. “If a previously unidentified virus was found to diminish life expectancy by over seven years, considerable effort would probably be devoted to identifying the cause and implementing a remedy,” Levy and her colleagues wrote. “In the present case, one of the likely causes is known: societally sanctioned denigration of the aged.” And there’s more. The most recent findings suggest that age beliefs may play a key role in the development of Alzheimer’s disease. Tracking 4,765 participants over four years, researchers found that positive expectations of ageing halved the risk of developing the disease, compared to those who saw old age as an inevitable period of decline. How could this be? Behaviour is undoubtedly important. If you associate age with frailty and disability, you may be less likely to exercise as you get older and that lack of activity is certainly going to increase your predisposition to many illnesses, including heart disease and Alzheimer’s. Once again, there’s more. Our age beliefs can also have a direct effect on our physiology. If you believe that you are frail and helpless, small difficulties will start to feel more threatening. Over the long term, this heightened stress response increases levels of the hormone cortisol and bodily inflammation, which could both raise the risk of ill health. The consequences can be seen where our genetic blueprint is stored. Telomeres tend to shorten as we age and this reduces their protective abilities and can cause the cell to malfunction. In people with negative age beliefs, that process seems to be accelerated. In those with the positive attitudes, it is much slower - their cells look younger. For many scientists, the link between age beliefs and long-term health and longevity is practically beyond doubt. “It’s now very well established,” says Dr. David Weiss, who studies the psychology of ageing at Martin-Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg in Germany. And it has critical implications for people of all generations. In the meantime, we can rethink our perceptions of our own ageing. Various studies show that our mindset is responsive to change. By learning to reject fatalistic beliefs and appreciate some of the positive changes that come with age, we may avoid the amplified stress responses that arise from exposure to negative stereotypes and we may be more motivated to exercise our bodies and minds and to embrace new challenges. * * * David Robson sums up in his eye-opening paper: People who see the ageing process as a potential for personal growth tend to enjoy much better health into their 70s, 80s and 90s than people who associate ageing with helplessness and decline, differences that are reflected in their cells’ biological ageing and their overall life span. For many more details, here’s the link I promised: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/jan/02/can-you-think-yourself-young-ageing-psychology?utm_source=pocket-newtab My Take By all means, think yourself young. I am a believer. The ever-young Jack LaLanne (1914-2011) believed that the body is a slave to the brain: https://www.cbass.com/JackLaLanneDies.htm Nevertheless, thinking alone is not likely to produce the best possible results. Sedentary living is a downer; it builds on itself. As Professor Waneen Spirduso and her co-authors wrote in their textbook Physical Dimensions of Aging: “A vicious cycle develops. As people age, they become less active. The less active they are, the less physical ability and endurance they have. The less physical ability they have, the less inclined they are to be physically active. And the less active they are, the more physical capacity they lose.” * * * As Mr. Robson suggests, those who think themselves young are more likely to be physically active. Expect - and work for - the best, and that’s probably what you’ll get. Professor Joseph F. Signorile, tells how beneficial exercise can be in his ground breaking book Bending the Aging Curve (2011). He includes many tables and graphs, but the one that sums up the message best is a graph showing the neuromuscular aging curves for the untrained person, for the person who starts exercising at about 40, and finally the trajectory of men and women who have been exercising their entire life. The differences are stunning. The capacity of exercise to bend the aging curve is truly remarkable. The loss of neuromuscular function for untrained individuals begins in earnest at about 40 and drops more and more rapidly with each passing decade; the decline is exponential. The person who begins exercising at 40 shows a relatively flat curve until about 60, and then begins a slow decline. The lifelong exerciser, however, soars above the others at every decade of life. The regular exerciser will have a curve that begins at a much higher level than the other two—and stays there. The inevitable decline that does occur leaves the 75-year-old lifelong exerciser at a level equivalent to an untrained person at 20. At 90, the lifelong trainer is at a level equivalent to an untrained person 30 years younger.
These photos of Clarence at 60 and at 80 illustrate the flat curve of a person who starts exercising early and never stops. Photos by Pat Berrett and Carol * * * If you haven’t been exercising, start now. Do it in a thoughtful way, of course. Start slowly and progress gradually in ways you enjoy and are willing to keep doing. If you’re a lifetime trainer, keep thinking and doing. That’s what I have done. Our Training Pictorial tracks my results from 15 to 84, apparently a first: https://www.cbass.com/PICTORAL.HTM Prof. Signorile suggests that decline for the lifetime trainer begins at 75 and at 90 leaves him or her at a level equivalent to an untrained person 30 years younger. That being the expectation, we began reporting my condition annually starting at 76. The annual reports from 76 to 84 are in our Fitness Personalities category: https://www.cbass.com/personalities.htm My progress as shown on our Pictorial and in the detailed reports appear to confirm Professor Signorile’s findings on the power of exercise to level the aging curve. The first significant bumps in the road are related in the latest report at 84, including the adjustments in my training. https://www.cbass.com/clarencebass84.html My training continues to evolve, challenging all parts of my body, without putting me in a wheelchair. Here’s what I’m thinking and doing: Two Main Workouts I train my whole body every 5 days, alternating exercises and rep range. For example I train my upper back with seated rows one workout and pulldowns the next. I do 20 reps in one workout and 10 the other. I do slow-motion bodyweight bench squats in both workouts. I do my Morning Motion routine—moving every part of my body—on most off days. I use resistance bands in parts of this low-intensity routine. I also do slow and careful walking and steady stair climbing. Anything more stirs up my lower back. This weekly program challenges all parts of my body and I believe provides a high level of fitness. Keep in mind that muscles talk to every organ in the body: https://www.cbass.com/muscletalkmounts.html
This bare bones description is intentional. Rather than detailing every aspect of my training, I prefer to outline what I'm doing and encourage people to plan their own routine. See the Ownership Principle explaining why we do better planning our own training: https://www.cbass.com/SELECTIO.HTM
Think—and exercise—to keep yourself young. Research says that your results can be miraculous. Go for it! February 1, 2022 Comment on this article: FEEDBACK Ripped Enterprises, P.O. Box 51236, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87181-1236 Home | Products Index | Ripped Bks | Lean Adv. Bks | Lean For Life | Recommended Bks | |Consultations | Posing Suits | Tapes | To Order | Feedback] Copyright © 2022 Clarence and Carol Bass. All rights reserved.
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