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Old age is not a reason to be sad. Dear friends, today I want to talk to you about aging. Surely this topic concerns all of you, all of us at some stage of life. I recently read an article in the Epoch magazine under the long title Can our ideas about aging determine how long we will live? The article is scientific. It was written by my colleague Rakavet Tavor, who runs a page in the Epoch magazine. Rakavet talks about the research of Professor Becky Levy, who was able to thoroughly study the aging process. She also visited Japan, the country with the longest life expectancy in the world. During her doctoral studies in psychology at Harvard University, Becky Levy won a scholarship that allowed her to study for a whole semester in Tokyo. It was very important for her to find in Japanese culture what could help people in the Western world to learn about the aging process. She probably learned the most important thing there, the attitude towards the elderly. It was not like in the United States. Becky Levy learned that in Japan there is a national holiday of honoring the elderly. Many of the elderly and seniors are considered famous in Japan, but they are not the real stars, I omit the word rock, which are constantly shown on TV shows. These discoveries made her think. Is it possible that our attitude to old age affects the biology of the aging process? What she observed around her at home is fear of old age. Rare elderly people feel more or less calm in old age, but in general, old age does not please people, and its rapprochement is depressing. I see a similar picture in Israel. In Japan, on the contrary, old age is accepted and recognized traditionally. Thanks to such a tradition, the life expectancy there is longer than anywhere else. After returning to the United States, and fortunately for Becky, she meets a study conducted in 1975 by a group of scientists from the University of Miami in the city of Oxford in the northeast of the United States. The researchers, led by Professor Robert Edgeley, surveyed the adult population of the city. They contacted all residents over the age of 50 and accompanied them for the next 20 years, tracking all the changes that naturally occurred during these years of life. Becky Levy and her group were particularly interested in the part of the study where Professor Edgeley asked the respondents how they experience the aging process they go through. The respondents were offered to evaluate their condition by saying, or vice versa. Today I am as happy as I was when I was young. From the answers of the elderly, Levy was able to determine which of them had a positive view, and which was negative. Levy turned to the data of the National Death Index, the Ministry of Health and Social Services of the American government, and extracted data on the death of the participants in the study of Professor Edgeley. She received data on the death of 660 subjects. Thus, Levy was able to link the representation of the person experiencing his old age with their data on the age of death. It turned out that the beliefs of the respondents about their old age influenced the duration of their life. Those who at a younger age had positive beliefs about old age lived on average 7.5 years longer than those who had negative beliefs. In 2002, Professor Levy studied the data of the study conducted in the same city as Oxford and found that positive thinking has a long-term effect on physical activity during the period of aging. During the 20 years of observation, researchers asked about their ability to perform various physical activities, such as climbing and going down the stairs on their own, walking at a distance of about 800 meters, and working from home, such as washing floors or cleaning the snow in the yard. The respondents also reported about leaving the house for public events and about their work full working day. Thus, the Levy team was able to find out about the speed of physical aging of the respondents over many years. The results were unexpected. The speed of aging of people with negative beliefs about old age was more than twice as fast compared to the speed of aging of people with positive beliefs. An American nun named Madonna Buder, at the age of 50, with all the conditions and expectations, decided to start a career as a triathlon athlete. At the age of 55, she took part in the Iron Man competitions for the first time in her life and has since participated in more than 300 triathlon competitions, including 45 Iron Man competitions. Later, she was nicknamed the Iron Nun. At the age of 82, she broke the world record. She is the oldest person ever to complete the entire distance of the competition. When Professor Levy met Madonna Buder, she asked her to list the first associations that come to mind when she thinks about an elderly person. Buder quickly replied, wisdom, pleasure and opportunities. Buder also said that she learned her firm belief in the multiplicity of human possibilities from her grandmother. The study confirms Buder's belief in the possibilities of man, showing that our beliefs not only affect physiological processes in old age, but also have a similar effect on our cognitive state throughout life. In 2016, a group of researchers from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, studied how the idea of ​​aging affects cognitive functions, especially speech and memory. They used data from approximately 6,000 Irish people aged 50 years and older. The subject was offered a test in which they were asked to name as many animals as possible in one minute. Two years later, the researchers repeated the test. It turned out that the speech ability of those who at the beginning of the study presented a positive belief in old age even improved. In the second test, the participants with positive beliefs on average managed to name more species of animals. For people with negative beliefs about old age, the test result turned out to be much worse. Irish researchers wanted to understand what is the most significant element of positive beliefs that led to an improvement in the speech ability of the subjects. Is this related to the expectation of a person of processes to which he or she will soon be subjected, degradation of all functions, and so on? Maybe this is related to the feeling of control of a person over the process of aging. Maybe it is related to the awareness of the process of aging. When the researchers analyzed the influence of each of these factors, they found that the feeling of control of a person over the process of aging is the most important component. In other words, the one who believes that he controls his mind, body and soul will progress in a cognitive relationship, despite his age, while the one who feels insecure or feels that his abilities are decreasing will not only not progress, but his state will deteriorate relatively quickly. Professor Levy wanted to check whether different beliefs can affect the risk of dementia or Alzheimer's disease. It is known that in the case of dementia and Alzheimer's disease, a genetic component plays a role, which occurs in different variants. Most of us have this gene in a version known as Epsilon-3, which does not affect the risk of dementia at all. However, the variant known as Epsilon-4 occurs in about 15% of the population and increases the risk of dementia. Levy wanted to check whether the idea of ​​aging can prevent diseases among carriers of a dangerous gene. She conducted a study in 2018, in which 4,750 people aged 60 and older took part, the state of health of which was assessed during the four-year period. At the beginning of the study, all participants talked about their idea of ​​aging. They took a sample of saliva for the Epsilon-3 and Epsilon-4 genes. Of all those tested, those who had a positive conviction of aging, dementia developed at 2.6%, those who had a negative conviction at 4.6%. Among the carriers of the Epsilon-4 version, who had a positive conviction, about 2.7% fell ill, and among the carriers of the same dangerous version with a negative conviction, about 6.1%. Professor Levy writes in her book the violation of the age code. Although biology predisposed these people to dementia, many of them did not develop this disease, and partly this is probably due to the protection provided by their positive convictions about their age. That is, it can be concluded that the convictions of a person affect the depth of their cells. In her book, Becca Levy lists 14 false misconceptions that make life difficult for a person. The misconception that our memory with age is necessarily deteriorating. Professor Levy writes Many people think that our memory inevitably deteriorates. But the point is not that at later stages of life, memory deteriorates. We know that there are many different types of memory, and some of them remain stable. For example, procedural memory, which is reflected in the ability to ride a bicycle or perform other actions. And some even improve in old age. For example, in many elderly people, the vocabulary reserve continues to grow. We also know that there are many elderly people who have excellent memory. In addition to memory, Professor Levy describes in detail in the book many cognitive functions that improve over the years. For example, the ability to perceive different points of view at the same time. The ability to resolve interpersonal conflicts. And the ability to think about thoughts, which is metacognition. In her book, she presents research that refutes misconceptions associated with reducing cognitive functions in adults, as well as the mistaken opinion that they are unable to learn anew. The conclusions are decisive. Elderly people can not only acquire new complex skills, but it is also desirable for them to do so, because training processes of this type strengthen and develop the brain. Elderly people with positive ideas about old age, who challenge and return to studying the French language they learned in high school or go to study new dance movements, will see an accelerated growth of neurons in their brain, says Professor Levy. The flexibility of the brain allows it to continue to grow even in old age. Neurons can form new connections between themselves and age. Another important misconception is associated with the mental state of adults. It is believed that many of them suffer from mental disorders that are not treated. In fact, with this belief, Becky Levy came to this field of research. In this field of research, she writes, When I just finished college, I really wanted to work in a psychiatric hospital in Boston, but the only available vacancy was the geriatric department. I was very disappointed, I thought that I would never want such a job, that it would be a very depressing job, because elderly people will probably suffer a lot and there will be no way to help them. Nevertheless, Becky Levy decided to try to work in the department for two weeks, and to her surprise, she really enjoyed working there. She writes, I saw many patients whose condition improved and they reintegrated into society. One of the most common stereotypes about aging, both among the general public and in the medical community, is that mental health problems, especially depression, are common among elderly people and that this is a normal part of the aging process. But the research actually shows that if you look at different age groups and the frequency of depression or anxiety in each of them, you will see that among the older age groups the risk is lower. Of course, there are quite a few such cases, but the risk is relatively small. For example, a group of researchers from the University of California in 2017 discovered that, contrary to the physical and mental functions that tend to gradually degrade, starting from the age of 20, when it comes to mental health, there is actually a tendency to constantly improve mental health over the next few years of age. Professor Levy wants to raise awareness about these qualities, which are improving over the years and which really protect the mental health of adults. She writes, for example, they have a relatively good ability to resolve disputes, to find solutions in major conflicts, for example, political, because in old age, wisdom grows. The ability to analyze the course of life and the ability to analyze what is happening to them appears. They are able to clearly see different stages of their lives and learn from them. So there are many skills that improve in old age and can help us. Another important misconception that Professor Levy mentions in her book is the idea that adults are not able to recover from physical injuries. The study she conducted in 2012 showed that in the case of rehabilitation after injury, positive old-age beliefs can definitely help. Among about 600 subjects aged 70 and older, whom she observed for 10 years, the probability of complete recovery from injuries was 44% higher among those who had positive beliefs compared to those who had negative beliefs. The conclusion is that our concepts have a huge impact on our mental and physical health. Note, not a small impact, but a huge one. We are surrounded by negative information about the deterioration of everything and everyone. Negative information is flowing. And what can we do about it all? Professor Becca Levy says not to accept it. And I agree with her decision. I wholeheartedly agree.