Becca Levy, Professor of Epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health, subtitled her new book, Breaking the Age Code, with How Your Beliefs About Aging Determine How Long & How Well You Live (2022).
Based on years of research, Becca Levy presents a compelling case that the way we view the Aging Process affects how long and well we will live. My favorite chapter in Breaking the Age Code is “Longevity Advantage of 7.5 Years.” “Age beliefs stole or added almost 8 years to lives, conferring an even better survival advantage than low cholesterol or low blood pressure (both of which added an extra four years of life) or low body mass index (one extra year) or avoiding smoking (three extra years).” (p. 93)
Having positive views of aging and a willingness to manage the aging process extended lives and improved mood and satisfaction. When I’m at the Pool, I’ve encountered many people who are bitter about aging. They resent the limitations it has forced on them: low energy, increased injuries, and increased pain.
Becca Levy shows how many of the problems with aging can be dealt with. Engagement allows you to live longer and happier while resentment and hostility cuts years off your life. Becca Levy believes we’re on the cusp of a revolution in dealing with dementia, Alzheimer’s, and reversing various aging conditions. Dozens of drugs are in clinical trials and should be available in a few years to help us out if we can just hang on.
I liked the optimism of Becca Levy’s Breaking the Age Code. Help with aging is on the way! How are you dealing with aging? GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction: Ideas Bouncing Between the US and Japan 1
1 The Pictures in Our Head 9
2 Anatomy of a Senior Moment 25
3 Old and Fast 44
4 Brawny Brains: Genes Aren’t Destiny 58
5 Later-Life Mental Health Growth 73
6 Longevity Advantage of 7.5 Years 91
7 Stars Invisible by Day: Creativity and the Senses 110
8 Ageism: The Evil Octopus 130
9 Individual Age Liberation: How to Free Your Mind 155
10 Societal Age Liberation: A New Social Movement 172
Afterword: A Town Free of Ageism 192
Appendix 1 ABC Method to Bolster Positive Age Beliefs 205
Appendix 2 Ammunition to Debunk Negative Age Stereotypes 211
Appendix 3 A Gall to End Structural Ageism 215
Acknowledgments 227
When it comes to aging, given the alternative, I’d rather be getting old than not!
Deb, Becca Levy predicts the Quality of Life for Senior Citizens should improve as new technologies and drugs show up in a few years. I would love to have a robot assisting me as I get older!
I probably need to read this. With the plethora of disease and death in my cohorts, it is hard to be optimistic.
Patti, Becca Levy’s BREAKING THE AGE CODE offers hope for the next decade. My worst fear is getting dementia/Alzheimer’s like my mother did. Levy believes several drugs show promise in stopping and reversing these diseases.
Dementia on both sides of the family has left me feeling somewhat doomed since my 20s, and indeed both my parents died in the last decade, my mother with Alzheimer’s and my father with Lewy body and to some extent vascular dementia. Actual reversal of these would be welcome, and by the cures’ advent, we’ll get to see how much they are rationed to elites.
I was a bit bouyed (a word WordPress doesn’t care for) by this weekend’s episode of ON THE MEDIA, which is about the shaky foundations of the Body Mass Index and its (lack of) usefulness in predicting or aiding health benefits. Nonetheless, I’ve been slimming, and exercising a bit more of late, since I suspect It Can’t Hurt unless I Jim Fixx myself into a sudden grave. https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/episodes/on-the-media-the-f-word
Haven’t quite hit 60 yet, so I’m more middle-aging at the moment, still…we’ll see if I can avoid being the Utter Curmudgeon, given the general tenor of my previous half-century.
Todd, right now the leading cause of death for people 80 and older…is Alzheimer’s and dementia. I’m hoping we can “fix” that in the decade ahead…because I’ll be 80 in seven years! I’ve lost about 10 pounds over the past year, but I suspect Trulicity and Jardiance might be the reasons why I shed some weight. Can’t hurt…
Jardiance might’ve played a role for me, though I’ve been taking it for a year and have been dropping avoirdupois only in the last month or so.
Todd, could be a delayed effect of Jardiance. I’ve been on it since February.
I’m also making a point of eating a bit more sparingly.
Todd, I’ve been avoiding sweets.
The good news is, science will discover a therapy that reduces or eliminates the risk of dementia in all of its various diagnoses. The bad news? It’ll cost an arm and a leg, and your insurance won’t cover it. I’m worried, anyway, about the future of medicine in a society where millions of people reject science-based medical guidance in favor of bizarre advice from Dr. Donald Trump and internet trolls.
Fred, I share your fears. Somehow, millions of people have turned against Science and Reason to embrace the Illogic and the Absurd.
To say nothing of would-be Sen. Oz. Bot a doctor and a quack, and probably the loser in Nov.
Todd, Dr. Oz certainly is well named.
How am I dealing with it? Denial. When I think about how old we all are, the numbers can be staggering, but when I think about how I feel on a day to day basis, I don’t feel old at all.
My parents made it to 87 and 89 respectively, and both were mentally sharp to the end. My father was in an Alzheimer research group, and he didn’t lose anything in the last ten years. I know it can happen to any of us, but I’m not worried about that.
Jeff, my mother died of Alzheimer’s so I’m concerned. But if Becca Levy is right, hope is on the horizon!
Yes, but for some people this research comes too late. The husband of one of my sisters just had to be moved to a nursing home because of his Alzheimer’s disease – she couldn’t manage it anymore even though she regularly had nurses to help her and care for him when she wanted to visit their children and grandchildren – which he didn’t recognize any more when they visited him.
Three years ago we met him in Budapest (he was 77 years old then) and one could talk to him, have interesting conversations (he had worked all around the world) but suddenly he had problems with simple things – like finding the toilet.
Btw did you know that in the last years average life expectancy in the USA sank? Probably not only because of Covid but the unhealthy lifestyle.
We have a “bad “joke about Alzheimer’s:
Every evening when I return home from my favourite bar in my hometown Tübingen I pass an old house which also had a bar/restaurant a long time ago, was later used as a “mensa” where students could eat and has a plaque outside:
Here lived Alois Alzheimer while studying in Tübingen in 1886/1887.
Who? Never heard his name!
And the connection is even deeper:
It also happened at a medical congress in Tübingen in the year 1906 where he presented his results – but nobody was interested!
Wiki has this:
Alzheimer discussed his findings on the brain pathology and symptoms of presenile dementia publicly on 3 November 1906, at the Tübingen meeting of the Southwest German Psychiatrists.[6] The attendees at this lecture seemed uninterested in what he had to say. The lecturer that followed Alzheimer was to speak on the topic of “compulsive masturbation”, which the audience of 88 individuals was so eagerly awaiting that they sent Alzheimer away without any questions or comments on his discovery of the pathology of a type of senile dementia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alois_Alzheimer
Wolf, Alzheimer’s patients need safety. They tend to wander around…and get lost easily. The loss of memory puts them at risk all the time.
“Well, we Know masturbation causes dementia!”
Unhealthy lifestyle not least in the ability to Still not afford necessary medical care, with our patchwork insurance system.
Todd, the Pandemic, drug overdoses, and suicides the U.S. life expectancy number declined.
Strangely, I don’t feel as old as I am. And I’ve lost over 40 lbs this year, and that has virtually removed the arthritis pain from my knee.
I’ve been keeping busy, mostly by being on the alumni foundation board of my high school, co chairing my 55th reunion committee, and coordinating our high school class’s lunch bunch (a monthly gathering, we’ve had no more than 12 people, but different ones come and go.)
Also doing a MAJOR cleanup of my house, finding treasures and trash. I have what I believe to be a complete set of michael innes pbs. Have no idea what to do with them. Sadly, only found a few coins, nothing like the stash of cash Beth & I found in 2008
Maggie, I’ll be happy to take those Michael Innes books off your hands! I’ll pay all expenses! And, you have a wonderful BOUCHERCON dinner waiting for you in Minneapolis compliments of Qualcomm!
I’ll probably get them off next week. This week is getting a bit crowded we have zoom meetings for the reunion & I go to my friends house for it. One of his dogs is giving birth any day now, so it might get interesting
Maggie, no rush. I’m about to reread THE BARBIE MURDERS you sent me!