Letter from the Editor #25
Talking Oldster (and oldsters) with Lincoln Square's Susan J. Demas...A Yale study indicates it's possible to *improve* with age...My latest "comfort watches"...
Readers,
Yesterday I got to talk with Susan J. Demas on Lincoln Square’s “First Draft” show. It was a great conversation about Oldster Magazine and its missions; intergenerational conversation; and how seniors are affected by, and responding to, some of the current administration’s actions.
We also touched on my two interviews with University of Wisconsin, Madison policy expert Callie Frietag about changes to Social Security. It made me realized it’s probably time to reach out to Callie for an updated perspective. You can check out our earlier conversations here:
The Lincoln Square interview sent some more subscribers this way. Welcome! For those new to Oldster, this magazine operates exclusively on paid subscriptions—no ads, no sponsors—and pays essayists and interviewers. If you like what I’m doing here, it would be great to get your help keeping this going, if you’re able. 🙏
Check out the rest of this series here. P.S. Typos happen. Please forgive me if you find any!
A Yale study indicates it’s possible to improve with age...
If you’ve been reading Oldster a while you might recall that as I approached 60 last fall, I wrote now and then about freaking out over it. Despite all that I’ve learned through working on this magazine, a part of me had bought into dated narratives about aging. In large part I was concerned that as a non-parent and non-grandparent with not nearly enough saved for retirement, I was even more out of step with my peers than I’d been before, and that I didn’t know how to “live up to 60,” or “act my age.”
But I was also worried that my best life might be behind me. (Wrong. My life and career have only improved.) And even moreso about living with a body and brain that are increasingly subject to the ravages of time.
So it was nice to learn this week about a scientific counter-narrative to my thinking: Earlier this month, the Yale School of Public Health released a study called “Aging Redefined: Cognitive and Physical Improvement with Positive Age Beliefs.”
Yes, you read that right—improvement, not impairment. Also, our beliefs about aging apparently play a role in how we age. My own thinking was working against me.
The study—by Dr. Becca R. Levy, PhD; co-authored by Dr. Martin Slade, MPH, PhD; and published in the journal Geriatrics—contradicts the commonly held notion that it’s all downhill for our bodies and brains as we get older, and I am here for it.
Says Levy in a summary on the school’s site:
“Many people equate aging with an inevitable and continuous loss of physical and cognitive abilities,” said Dr. Levy, an international expert on psychosocial determinants of aging 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.”
A key finding of the study—which followed 11,000 subjects over 12 years—is that our attitudes about aging affect us physically and mentally, “that those with more positive age beliefs were significantly more likely to show improvements in both cognition and walking speed.” More from Levy:
“Our findings suggest there is often a reserve capacity for improvement in later life. And because age beliefs are modifiable, this opens the door to interventions at both the individual and societal level.”
Not to be “toxically positive” or pollyanaish about getting older—I mean, clearly there are undeniable ways in which aging takes a toll on us—but it gives me hope to know that there’s a scientifically proven mind-over-matter compontent. That we can improve our chances of living well later in life by believeing we can live well later in life.
Levy is the author of Breaking the Age Code: How Your Beliefs About Aging Determine How Long & Well You Live—a book I obviously need to get my hands on.
Are there ways in which you, and your life, have improved with age? Tell us…
My latest “comfort watches”…
I’ve written here before about some of the shows Brian and I watch at the end of each day—our “comfort watches” that help us decompress from living in these times—and also asked you for recommendations.
A big thank you to those who recommended Grantchester streaming on PBS Masterpiece. We ploughed right through it.
I did not anticipate becoming a fan of “cozy British murder mysteries,” what I’ve since learned is a pretty big and popular category. I mean, I’m escaping this murderous world with more murder?? But here we are.
After Grantchester we watched the six-episode Magpie Murders. Next up is the sequel, Moonflower Murders. And soon we’re going to need another comfort watch. Help?
Got any shows to recommend?
That’s all I’ve got today. Happy Passover, Easter, Eid al-Fitr—whatever you celebrate.
Thanks as always for reading, and for all your support. 🙏💝
-Sari
Other than death, I guess the only other solution to age-related discrimination is to get younger. Anyone with me? Let’s go! - Dwight Lee Wolter.
Endeavor is good British mystery series. It’s a prequel to Inspector Morse. Not quite as cozy as Grantchester but good characters and amazing acting. Between the two shows, my husband and I always joke that Oxford and Cambridge are the most dangerous places due to all the murders!