Why to Be Optimistic About Aging
New research from Yale University says that not only is that picture incomplete, but it may be actively working against us.
A study published in the journal Geriatrics found that nearly half of adults aged 65 and older showed measurable improvement in cognitive function, physical function, or both over a follow-up period of up to 12 years. The researchers followed more than 11,000 participants and tracked two things: memory and thinking ability, and walking speed.
About 32% improved cognitively, and 28% improved physically. These weren’t outliers or exceptional cases. They were ordinary older adults, spread across the full population.
“Many people equate aging with an inevitable and continuous loss of physical and cognitive abilities,” said lead author Becca Levy, a professor at the Yale School of Public Health. “What we found is that improvement in later life is not rare, it’s common, and it should be included in our understanding of the aging process.”
Your beliefs about aging may shape your experience of it
Here’s where it gets even more interesting. The Yale researchers didn’t just document who improved, they also looked at why. And one of the strongest predictors wasn’t age, health status, or education. It was how people thought about aging before the study even began.
Participants with more positive age beliefs were significantly more likely to show improvements in both cognition and walking speed, even after accounting for factors such as age, sex, education, chronic disease, and depression.
Earlier research has linked negative age beliefs to poorer memory, slower walking speed, higher cardiovascular risk, and biomarkers associated with Alzheimer’s disease. The flip side, this new study suggests, is that more positive beliefs are associated with real, measurable gains.
In other words… what you expect from aging may help determine what you get!
The good news is that changing our beliefs about aging is possible—no matter your age, income, or health status. Here are some ways to start nudging your thoughts about aging in a more positive direction.
Notice the narrative you’re consuming. Pay attention to how aging is portrayed in the media, humor, and advertising you encounter. When you catch yourself laughing at a “senior moment” joke or nodding along to the idea that everything falls apart after 60, pause and question it.
Seek out counterexamples. Find older adults who are thriving. Visit the website of the National Senior Games. Read memoirs by people who came into their own later in life. Look for communities, clubs, or classes where older adults are active and engaged.
Reframe your own milestones. When you notice something that feels like decline, resist the impulse to catastrophize. Accept that setbacks may happen, but they don’t define your future.
Talk back to the birthday card culture. The jokes about “over the hill” and “another year older, another year closer to the end” are so normalized we barely register them. But they land somewhere. You’re allowed to opt out. Aging is, in fact, a privilege not afforded to all.
Stay invested in the future. Make plans. Learn something new. Sign up for something that starts in six months. The Yale findings suggest there is often a reserve capacity for improvement in later life. The people most likely to tap into it are the ones who believe it’s there.
Aging is real, and it does bring changes, some more challenging than others. But the Yale research is a useful reminder that the story we tell ourselves about what those changes mean matters more than most of us realize. Getting older doesn’t have to be a story of loss. For a lot of people, it turns out, it’s a story of growth.