Positive thinking helps you age better? That’s the worst thing I’ve heard all month | Emma Beddington

There’s some bad news for me and my fellow Eeyore people (there always is): a positive mindset could help you age better. Research led by Professor Becca Levy of the Yale School of Public Health surveyed people aged over 65 about their attitudes towards aging, following them for up to 12 years, and found that those who held positive beliefs about aging were more likely to be among the 45% whose physical or cognitive function improved over the study period.

If you’re a glass-half-full type of person, you’re probably thinking that almost half of over-65s studied to improve their physical or cognitive performance over a period of years sounds like great news. As the research says: “If these results were extrapolated to the entire U.S. population, it would suggest that more than 26 million older adults are experiencing improvement in their functioning. » And yes, even I have to admit that it’s a heartwarming and stereotype-breaking surprise.

But it’s the positive thinkers – the ones who say “you’re as young as you feel”, “age is just a number” – who get the positive results that are disturbing. When someone raves about the power of positivity, I have a hard time suppressing an eye roll (come on, let’s see you cure toothache with good vibes), but now I’m going to have to accept that they’re probably right. Reading further, it turns out this isn’t entirely new: A previous study led by Levy found that having negative stereotypes about aging predicted biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease.

Does this mean that people like me, who always expect the worst, are actually at risk of bringing the worst upon ourselves, with our dark beliefs becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy? How depressing. As if having to “drink water” and “get up” to survive wasn’t bad enough, now I have to become an optimist if I want to age this well? Ugh.

Ah, well. I still have some time left before I hit 65 – enough time for longevity researchers to declare that a diet of daily sponge cake and complaining to like-minded friends is actually the secret to super-aging. Failing that, I can only hope that another force is as powerful as positivity: the grim determination to prove science wrong.