Category: Ageing

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Choosing Safer Diabetes Medications for Older Adults

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Older adults with type 2 diabetes face a difficult trade-off: they are among the most vulnerable to medication-related harms yet are often underrepresented in the clinical trials that guide treatment decisions. A new study led by Yuan Lu, ScD, helps address this gap by providing large-scale, real-world evidence about the safety of commonly used diabetes medications.

Published in Nature Communications, the study analysed data from more than 1.8 million people aged 65 and older across the United States and Europe. The researchers compared four major classes of second-line antihyperglycaemic medications – typically prescribed when first-line therapy such as metformin is not sufficient – across 18 safety outcomes.

“Evidence from clinical trials often does not fully capture older adults,” says Lu, assistant professor of medicine (cardiovascular medicine) at Yale School of Medicine. “They are more likely to experience side effects due to frailty, multiple chronic conditions, and the use of several medications at the same time.”

Newer diabetes drugs show overall safety advantages

The study found a consistent pattern: newer classes of medications, including GLP-1 receptor agonists and SGLT2 inhibitors, were generally associated with lower risks of several important adverse outcomes compared to older drugs such as sulfonylureas and DPP-4 inhibitors.

Newer agents were linked to lower risks of hypoglycaemia, hyperkalaemia, and peripheral oedema – complications that can be especially dangerous in older adults. However, the findings also highlight important trade-offs. For example, SGLT2 inhibitors were associated with a higher risk of diabetic ketoacidosis, while GLP-1 receptor agonists were more likely to cause gastrointestinal side effects such as nausea and vomiting.

Rather than identifying a single “best” medication, Lu emphasises that the results support more informed, individualised decision-making. “Some patients may have a higher risk of hypoglycaemia, while others may be more susceptible to diabetic ketoacidosis,” she says. “These risks need to be considered together as part of an individual patient profile.”

Real-world data at a global scale

A key strength of the study is its scale and approach. The analysis drew on nine large databases and was conducted through the Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics (OHDSI), an international research network that enables standardized analyses across diverse health care systems.

By using harmonised real-world data and consistent analytic methods, the researchers were able to evaluate a broad range of safety outcomes in routine clinical practice – offering insights that complement and extend findings from randomised trials.

Supporting safer prescribing for an aging population

As the population ages and the use of newer diabetes medications continues to grow, understanding their safety profiles in older adults is increasingly important. The findings reinforce current guideline recommendations that often favour newer agents, while also underscoring the need to tailor treatment decisions to each patient’s risks and preferences.

Like all observational studies, the analysis cannot fully rule out unmeasured differences between patients. Still, the large, multinational design gives a more complete picture of medication safety in a population often underrepresented in clinical research.

Looking ahead, Lu and her colleagues hope to expand this work to examine the comparative safety of individual medications and to evaluate the safety of newer GLP-1 receptor agonists across a wider range of outcomes, including among people with obesity. “By providing more evidence in populations that clinicians see every day, our goal is to support safer, more informed care,” she says.

Source: Yale School of Medicine

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HEPA Air Purifiers May Boost Brain Power in Adults Over 40 – New Research

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Nicholas Pellegrino, University of Connecticut; Doug Brugge, University of Connecticut, and Misha Eliasziw, Tufts University

Using an in-home HEPA purifier for one month spurs a small but significant improvement in brain function in adults age 40 and older. That’s the result of a new study we co-authored in the journal Scientific Reports.

HEPA purifiers – HEPA stands for high efficiency particulate air – remove particulate matter from the air. Exposure to particulate matter has been connected to respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses as well as neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Environmental health researchers increasingly recommend that people use HEPA air purifiers in their homes to lower their exposure to particulate matter, but few studies have examined whether using them boosts mental function.

We analysed data from a study of 119 people ages 30 to 74 living in Somerville, Massachusetts. Somerville sits along Interstate 93 and Route 28, two major highways, resulting in relatively high levels of traffic-related air pollution. This makes it an especially good location for testing the health effects of air purifiers.

We randomly assigned participants to one of two groups. One used a HEPA air purifier for one month and then a sham air purifier – which looked and acted like the real thing but did not contain the air-cleaning filter – for one month, with a monthlong break in between. The second group used the real and sham purifiers in reverse order.

After each month, participants took a test that measured different aspects of their mental capacity. The test probed people’s visual memory and motor speed skills by measuring how quickly they could draw lines between sequential numbers, and it tested executive function and mental flexibility by asking them to draw lines between alternating sequential numbers and letters.

We found that participants 40 years and older – about 42% of our sample – on average completed the section testing for mental flexibility and executive function 12% faster after using the HEPA purifier than after using the sham purifier. That was true even when we accounted for factors like differences in the amount of time participants spent indoors, with either filter, as well as how stressful they found the test.

This improvement may seem small, but it is similar to the cognitive benefits that people experience from increasing their daily exercise. While you may not experience a sudden increase in clarity from a 12% boost, preventing cognitive decline is vital for long-term well-being. Even small decreases in cognitive functioning may be associated with a higher risk of death.

Studies increasingly show that air pollution can be detrimental to brain health.

Why it matters

Air pollution can negatively affect mental function after just a few hours of exposure. Studies show that air purifiers are effective at reducing particulates, but it’s unclear whether these reductions can prevent cognitive harm from ongoing pollution sources like traffic. Research has been especially lacking in people living near major sources of air pollution, such as highways.

People living near highways or major roadways are exposed to more air pollution and also experience higher rates of air pollution-related diseases. These risks aren’t encountered by all Americans equally: People of color and low-income people are more likely to live near highways or areas with heavy traffic.

Our study shows that HEPA air purifiers may offer meaningful health benefits under these circumstances.

What still isn’t known

Research shows that air pollution begins to affect cognitive function especially strongly around age 40. These effects may become increasingly prominent as people age.

HEPA air purifiers may therefore be especially beneficial for older adults. Our study did not explore this possibility, as fewer than 10 of our 119 participants were over the age of 60.

Also, our participants only used a HEPA air purifier for one month. It’s possible that longer durations of air purification may sustain or even increase the improvement in cognitive function we observed in our study.

Finally, it is unclear exactly how air purifiers improve cognition. Some studies suggest that exposure to particulate matter reduces the amount of the brain’s white matter, which helps brain cells conduct electrical signals and maintains connections between brain regions. The brain regions most harmed by air pollution are the ones that control mental flexibility and executive function, the same domains in which we saw improvements in our study.

We plan to study whether reducing particulate matter by using air purifiers is indeed protecting the brain’s white matter, and whether it could reverse some cognitive decline. We will explore that possibility by studying how levels of molecules called metabolites, which cells produce as they do their jobs, change in response to breathing polluted air and air cleaned by a HEPA filter.

The Research Brief is a short take on interesting academic work.

Nicholas Pellegrino, Research Associate in Public Health Sciences, University of Connecticut; Doug Brugge, Professor of Public Health Science and Community Medicine, University of Connecticut, and Misha Eliasziw, Associate Professor of Biostatistics, Public Health and Community Medicine, Tufts University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Alzheimer’s Risk Gene APOE4 Silently Undermines Bone Quality in Women

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Buck Institute researchers discover a surprising connection between a major risk factor for Alzheimer’s

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Scientists at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, along with collaborators at UC San Francisco, have discovered that APOE4, the most common genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease, causes bone quality deficits specifically in female mice, through a mechanism that is invisible to standard imaging and can emerge as early as midlife.

The findings, published in Advanced Science, reveal an unexpected biological link between Alzheimer’s risk and skeletal health, and identify a new molecular pathway that could one day inform earlier diagnosis of cognitive decline or guide treatment for bone quality loss in women who carry the APOE4 gene.

“What makes this finding so striking is that bone quality is being compromised at a molecular level that a standard bone scan simply will not catch,” says Buck professor Birgit Schilling, PhD, a senior author of the study. “APOE4 is quietly disrupting the very cells responsible for keeping bone strong, and it is doing this specifically in females, which mirrors what we see with Alzheimer’s disease risk.”

Physicians have long observed that people with Alzheimer’s disease suffer bone fractures at higher rates, and that a diagnosis of osteoporosis in women is actually the earliest known predictor for Alzheimer’s. But the underlying mechanism connecting brain and bone health has remained elusive.

To investigate this connection, researchers, led by research scientist and co-first author of the paper Charles Schurman, PhD, first performed a proteomic analysis of aged mouse bone, a comprehensive survey of all the proteins present in the tissue. “The team discovered that bone, and particularly osteocytes, the long-lived cells embedded within it, is unusually rich in proteins associated with neurological disease, including apolipoprotein E [APOE] and amyloid precursor protein,” says Schurman. “Notably, APOE expression in osteocytes was twice as high in aged female mice as in young or male mice.”

The team then turned to a humanised mouse model carrying either APOE2 (associated with reduced Alzheimer’s risk), APOE3 (considered neutral), or APOE4 (the risk variant), and analysed bone and hippocampal tissue from the same animals. APOE4 produced strong, sex-specific effects on both the bone transcriptome and proteome; researchers found the protein-level disruption in bone was actually more pronounced than the corresponding changes in the hippocampus.

Despite the protein level disruption, cortical bone structure appeared normal under imaging. Researchers found that bone quality deficits arose not from changes in bone shape or density, but from APOE4’s suppression of perilacunar/canalicular remodelling, the process by which osteocytes actively maintain the microscopic channels that keep bone mechanically resilient. When this maintenance breaks down, bone quality deteriorates even when it looks intact.

“These results suggest that osteocytes could serve as early biological sentinels for age-related cognitive decline in women carrying APOE4,” says professor Lisa Ellerby, PhD, also a senior author of the paper. The Ellerby lab studies genetic risk factors for Alzheimer’s.  “We think that targeting osteocyte function may open a new front in preserving bone quality in this population.”

Researchers say there is a larger takeaway from this research that links brain and bone science.  “While we think this work is relevant for human patients with Alzheimer’s disease or with osteoporosis, this study also highlights the need for researchers to consider the human body as an entire system without isolating organs and diseases from each other,” says Ellerby.

Source: Buck Institute for Research on Aging

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Physical Activity and Appropriate Sleep Linked to Subsequent Lower Dementia Risk

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Meta-analysis including millions of middle-aged to older adults supports recommended activity and sleep duration to reduce dementia risk

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Regular physical activity and getting the recommended amount of sleep may reduce dementia risk later in life, according to a new study by Akinkunle Oye-Somefun and colleagues of York University, Canada, published April 8, 2026 in the open-access journal PLOS One.

An estimated 55 million people live with dementia worldwide, and both its prevalence and cost are expected to increase, with global costs projected to reach $2 trillion dollars by 2030. Current treatments for preventing or treating dementia have limited efficacy; therefore, public health efforts have also aimed at healthy lifestyle factors to reduce the risk of dementia before symptoms occur. Healthy behaviours such as regular physical activity and good sleep hygiene are known to support cognitive health; however, there remains a need to better understand their relationship to dementia.

In this systematic review and meta-analysis, researchers analysed data from 69 prospective cohort studies representing millions of community-dwelling adults aged 35+, to see if there was a link between the development of dementia and three lifestyle behaviours: physical activity, sedentary behaviour, and sleep duration. Each of the observational studies recorded behaviours of cognitively healthy participants, then followed up at a later timepoint to report subsequent rates of dementia.

Overall, the meta-analysis found that regular physical activity, less sedentary time, and appropriate nightly sleep (7–8 h) were associated with a lower subsequent risk of dementia. Regular physical activity was associated with an average 25% lower risk of dementia among the 49 studies analysed; however, the researchers note that there was considerable heterogeneity between the studies.

Too little sleep (< 7 h) or too much sleep (> 8 h) was associated with an 18% and 28% higher subsequent risk of dementia, respectively, compared to optimal nightly sleep of 7–8 hours, though there was again considerable heterogeneity among the 17 studies analysed. Prolonged sitting (> 8 hours per day) was associated with a 27% higher risk of dementia among the three relevant studies analysed.

The study is consistent with and expands on previous research, using a large, diverse population with long follow-up times. While the study design cannot show any causative link between physical activity, sleep and dementia, the findings suggest an association between adherence to recommended physical activity and sleep levels in middle- and older-age adults and lowered dementia risk later in life.

The authors add: “Dementia develops over decades, and our findings suggest that everyday behaviours such as physical activity, time spent sitting, and sleep duration may be linked to dementia risk. Understanding how each of these behaviours relates to risk over time may help researchers identify opportunities to support brain health across the life course.”

“Separately, one aspect I personally found most interesting while conducting the study was the relatively limited evidence base on sedentary behaviour. Despite growing recognition that prolonged sitting is distinct from physical inactivity, we found only a small number of cohort studies examining its relationship with dementia risk. This highlights an important gap for future research.”

Provided by PLOS

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Can Optimism Protect Against Dementia?

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Higher optimism is associated with a lower risk of developing dementia, according to a new study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. 

In the analysis of data from the Health and Retirement Study, a nationally representative sample of older US adults, optimism was assessed using the validated Life Orientation Test-Revised in 9071 cognitively healthy individuals within 2 years of obtaining each person’s first measure of cognitive function. Dementia was assessed during up to 14 years of follow-up. 

A 1-standard deviation increase in optimism was associated with a 15% lower risk of developing dementia, after adjusting for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, depression, and major health conditions. 

“Identifying optimism as a protective psychosocial factor highlights the potential value of optimism in supporting healthy aging,” the authors wrote. 

Source: Wiley

Categories : Ageing ExerciseTags :

An Active Middle Age Cuts Women’s Risk of Premature Death in Half

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Australian study tracking more than 11 000 women found that meeting exercise guidelines during midlife had strong benefits for mortality

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Women who consistently met physical activity guidelines throughout middle age had half the risk of dying from any cause compared to women who remained inactive, according to a new paper publishing March 26th in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine by Binh Nguyen of the University of Sydney, Australia, and colleagues.

Physical activity is known to provide numerous health benefits and to reduce the risk of chronic diseases and premature mortality. However, most prior studies have measured physical activity at only a single point in time, which fails to capture how activity levels change over time.

In the new study, researchers used data from 11 169 women born between 1946 and 1951 who enrolled in the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health. Participants were surveyed nine times between 1996 and 2019, approximately every three years. Data was collected on how often the women met the World Health Organization’s recommendation of at least 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) per week.

The researchers found that consistently meeting MVPA recommendations throughout midlife was associated with a relative risk of all-cause mortality that was half that of those who consistently did not meet the recommendations (relative risk: 0.50). In absolute terms, the incidence of death was 5.3% among women who consistently met guidelines versus 10.4% among those who consistently did not. The magnitude of effect appeared similar or even stronger for cardiovascular disease and cancer mortality, though greater uncertainty in those estimates made the findings less conclusive, possibly because fewer deaths from those causes were observed. The evidence for benefits of starting to meet recommendations later in midlife – at age 55, 60, or 65 – rather than throughout all of midlife was also uncertain and inconclusive.

The study was limited by the fact that physical activity was self-reported and that the study sample may not be representative of all mid-aged Australian women.

“This study supports the growing evidence that maintaining an active lifestyle in midlife provides health benefits,” the authors say. “Women should be encouraged to meet physical activity recommendations throughout mid-age to derive these benefits.”

Nguyen adds, “Staying active throughout midlife can make a real difference for women’s long-term health. Our study shows that maintaining recommended levels of physical activity over multiple years helps protect against early death.” 

Provided by PLOS

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Popular Anti-ageing Compound Causes Callosal Brain Damage

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Part of the brain disappears in mice treated with dasatinib and quercetin

The image shows a section of the brain of a mouse treated with dasatinib and quercetin. The bluish area is the corpus collosum. The dotted outline shows the part of the corpus collosum that is affected by the medication. (Image courtesy of Crocker Lab/UConn School of Medicine)

A two-drug combination frequently used in anti-ageing research causes brain damage in mice, University of Connecticut researchers report in the March 16 issue of PNAS. The findings should make doctors cautious about prescribing the drug combo prophylactically, but also suggest new ways to understand multiple sclerosis.

“When you administer this cocktail to an animal, young or old, the myelin is damaged, which makes it disappear. Even worse in the young animals” than in the aged ones, says UConn School of Medicine immunologist Stephen Crocker.

Myelin is the insulation around the nerves. When it disappears, nerves don’t work as well, and people can develop numbness, pain, and lose the ability to walk. They can also have problems thinking and remembering. Missing myelin is the primary cause of multiple sclerosis. And Crocker and his colleagues saw it happen to mice when treated with dasatinib+quercetin (D+Q) at doses often used to treat ageing-related inflammation and metabolic disorders.

D+Q is a popular combination of medicines in anti-ageing research. Many studies have shown it works to eliminate aged cells that contribute to inflammation and other age-related symptoms. It is being tested for a range of diseases, from type II diabetes to Alzheimer’s. People in the anti-ageing scene sometimes even use it off-label, though the medical community discourages this. Very few studies have looked at its effect on the brain.

Evan Lombardo ’23 (CLAS), currently a Dartmouth neuroscience graduate student, and Robert Pijewski ’21 PhD, now at Anna Maria College, were working in Crocker’s lab when they wondered if it was possible to rejuvenate the brains of people with multiple sclerosis, and potentially heal their symptoms, using D+Q. They tried it on mice, both young (6 to 9 months) and old (22 months), as well as on brain cells cultured in a dish in the lab. The brain cells were oligodendrocytes, the cells that are supposed to grow and maintain myelin.

The results were dramatic. Healthy mice have myelin surrounding the axons (nerve cells) in the brain. It looks like dark rings around the lighter axon (see figure 1, the left panel.) But the mice treated with D+Q had much less myelin around their axons after the treatment, and the damage was worse in the younger mice. The corpus callosum, a region that connects the cerebral cortex to other parts of the brain and is associated with a range of important functions, also disappeared in mice treated with D+Q. This is known to happen sometimes to people who received chemotherapy, and causes the symptoms sometimes referred to as “chemo brain.”

When the researchers looked closely at the damaged brain tissue, they found clues as to why the myelin had disappeared. The myelinating cells – oligodendrocytes – hadn’t died. They’d regressed into a juvenile form of themselves. And the metabolism of the cells was abnormal, too.

“We suspect the drugs are choking off energy the cells need, and the cells respond by reducing complexity, reverting to a younger state, but less functional,” Crocker says.

Interestingly, these cells that have reverted look very much like a distinct population of cells found in people with multiple sclerosis. It suggests that in multiple sclerosis, myelinating cells might come under stress and revert to a younger stage. It also means those cells might be able to recover. And that is what the researchers are working on now.

“If we can mimic this, we have an amazing opportunity to see if the cells can recover and repair the brain,” Crocker says.

Source: University of Connecticut

Categories : Ageing DermatologyTags :

Why Grey Hair Happens – and How Science May Soon Turn Back the Clock

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From genetics to stress myths, researchers reveal what really drives greying and the breakthroughs pointing to natural colour restoration

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Grey hair is more than a cosmetic concern – it drives a booming industry, influences how people are perceived, and can affect confidence. Globally, the hair colour market was valued at nearly USD 28 billion in 2025, with over half of purchases linked specifically to concealing greys. In South Africa, spending on hair colourants is projected to grow from roughly USD 172 million in 2021 to over USD 228 million by 2028, highlighting the demand for solutions that go beyond temporary cover-ups.

By age 50, roughly 50-70% of adults have visible grey hair, while premature greying can appear in some as early as the 20s. The psychological weight is clear: studies indicate grey hair can make people appear 20-30% older, influencing workplace perception, social interactions, and self-esteem. Studies show faces with grey hair are consistently perceived as more subdued than the same faces without greys, confirming that hair colour alone can shape social impressions.

“Many popular beliefs about greying hair are misleading,” says Dr Kashmal Kalan, Medical Director at Alvi Armani. “Stress does not turn hair grey overnight, plucking one strand won’t trigger several more, and no supplement or home remedy has been proven to restore pigment reliably. The reality is far more biological – genetics and pigment cell behaviour are the keys we are finally beginning to understand.”

At the heart of greying are melanocyte stem cells (McSCs) within hair follicles. In youth, these cells migrate and maintain melanin production, the pigment responsible for hair colour. With age, many become inactive or “trapped,” interrupting pigment delivery and causing grey strands. In mouse models, freeing these cells restored pigment production in roughly half of cases – a major step toward therapies that could reawaken natural colour without dyes.

Emerging research aims to tackle the root cause rather than just the appearance of grey hair. Scientists are exploring topical agents that target dormant pigment cells, metabolic modulators that influence follicle behaviour, and activation therapies designed to revive pigment production. These innovations could allow hair to regain its natural shade – not just cover it – while supporting overall follicle health.

“We are witnessing science that was once purely theoretical become reality,” says Dr Sunaina Paima, aesthetic and hair-restoration physician at Alvi Armani Johannesburg. “For patients, this could mean seeing grey strands regain their original shade naturally – a moment the hair science world has long dreamed of. The potential impact on confidence and self-esteem is enormous, because this isn’t just about covering colour, it’s about restoring it at a biological level.”

While most pigment-restoring therapies remain in development, advances in genetics, dermatology, and biotechnology are converging at unprecedented speed. “For decades, grey hair was seen as an irreversible hallmark of ageing,” adds Dr Kalan. “Today, that assumption is being seriously challenged. We’re on the brink of options that rejuvenate hair from the inside out, not just cosmetically.”

These breakthroughs signal a new era in hair science: ageing hair may no longer be inevitable or purely cosmetic, but a biological process that can be understood, guided, and ultimately restored.

Categories : Ageing Diet and NutritionTags :

Trial Results Show Daily Multivitamin Use May Slow Biological Ageing

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An analysis led by Mass General Brigham investigators found slower aging in older adults after two years of a daily multivitamin, with greater benefits for those who began the trial with accelerated biological age.

‘Biological age’, age on a cellular level, can differ from chronological age. Using data from a large randomised clinical trial of older adults, researchers at Mass General Brigham evaluated the effects of taking a daily multivitamin over the course of two years on five measures of biological ageing and found a slowing equivalent to about four months of ageing. The benefits were increased in those who were biologically older than their actual age at the start of the trial. Their results are published in Nature Medicine.

“There is a lot of interest today in identifying ways to not just live longer, but to live better,” said senior author Howard Sesso, ScD, MPH, associate director of the Division of Preventive Medicine in the Mass General Brigham Department of Medicine. “It was exciting to see the benefits of a multivitamin linked with markers of biological ageing. This study opens the door to learning more about accessible, safe interventions that contribute to healthier, higher-quality ageing.”

Epigenetic clocks estimate biological ageing based specific sites in our DNA that regulate gene expression (known as DNA methylation) and change naturally as we get older, helping track mortality and the pace of ageing. This study, which uses data from the well-established COcoa Supplement Multivitamins Outcomes Study (COSMOS), analysed DNA methylation data from blood samples of 958 randomly selected healthy participants with an average chronological age of 70.

The study participants were randomised to take a daily cocoa extract and multivitamin; daily cocoa extract and placebo; placebo and multivitamin; or placebos only. Samples were analysed for changes in five epigenetic clocks from the start of the trial and at the end of the first and second years. Compared to the placebo only group, people in the multivitamin group had slowing in all five epigenetic clocks, including statistically significant slowing seen in the two clocks that are predictive of mortality. The changes equated to about four months less biological ageing over the course of two years. Additionally, people who were biologically older than their actual age at the start of the trial benefited the most.

“We plan to do follow-up research to determine if the slowing of biological ageing – observed through these five epigenetic clocks, and additional or new ones – persists after the trial ends,” said co-author and collaborator Yanbin Dong, MD, PhD, director of Georgia Prention Institute, Medical College of Georgia at Augusta Univeristy.

Further studies are also needed to determine how improvements in biological aging may explain reductions in clinical outcomes. The COSMOS team plans to investigate how the effects of a daily multivitamin on biological aging may extend to different outcomes they have seen evidence of benefits for, such as improvements in cognition and reductions in cancer and cataracts.

“A lot of people take a multivitamin without necessarily knowing any benefits from taking it, so the more we can learn about its potential health benefits, the better,” said Sesso. “Within COSMOS, we are fortunate and excited to build upon a rich resource of biomarker data to test how two interventions may improve biological aging and reduce age-related clinical outcomes.”

Source: Mass General Brigham

Categories : AgeingTags :

Study Challenges Notion that Ageing Means Decline – Many Older Adults Improve over Time

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Ageing in later life is often portrayed as a steady slide toward physical and cognitive decline. But a new study by scientists at Yale University suggests an alternate narrative – that older individuals can and do improve over time and their mindset toward ageing plays a major part in their success.

Analysing more than a decade of data from a large, nationally representative study of older Americans, lead author Becca R. Levy, a professor of social and behavioural sciences at the Yale School of Public Health (YSPH), found that nearly half of adults aged 65 and older showed measurable improvement in cognitive function, physical function, or both, over time.

The improvements were not limited to a small group of exceptional individuals and, notably, were linked to a powerful but often overlooked factor: how people think about ageing itself.

“Many people equate ageing with an inevitable and continuous loss of physical and cognitive abilities,” said Levy, an international expert on psychosocial determinants of ageing 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 ageing process.”

The findings are published in the journal Geriatrics.

For the study, the researchers followed more than 11 000 participants in the Health and Retirement Study, a federally supported longitudinal survey of older Americans. The research team tracked changes in cognition using a global performance assessment, and physical function using walking speed — often described by geriatricians as a “vital sign” because of its strong links to disability, hospitalisation, and mortality.

Over a follow-up period of up to 12 years, 45% of participants improved in at least one of the two domains, according to the study. About 32% improved cognitively, 28% improved physically, and many experienced gains that exceeded thresholds considered clinically meaningful. When participants whose cognitive scores remained stable over that period (rather than declining) were included, more than half defied the stereotype of inevitable deterioration in cognition.

“What’s striking is that these gains disappear when you only look at averages,” said Levy, author of the book “Breaking the Age Code: How Your Beliefs About Aging Determine How Long & How Well You Live.” “If you average everyone together, you see decline. But when you look at individual trajectories, you uncover a very different story. A meaningful percentage of the older participants that we studied got better.”

The authors also examined potential reasons for why some people improve and some do not. They hypothesized that an important factor could be participants’ baseline age beliefs — or, specifically, whether they had assimilated more positive or more negative views about ageing by the start of the study. In support of this hypothesis, they found that those 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, depression, and length of follow-up.

The findings build on Levy’s stereotype embodiment theory, which posits that age stereotypes absorbed from culture – through a range of domains including social media and advertisements – eventually become self-relevant and biologically consequential. Levy’s prior studies have found negative age beliefs predict poorer memory, slower walking speed, higher cardiovascular risk, and biomarkers associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

The current study shows that those who have assimilated more positive age beliefs often show improvement, Levy said.

“Our findings suggest there is often a reserve capacity for improvement in later life,” she said. “And because age beliefs are modifiable, this opens the door to interventions at both the individual and societal level.”

The improvements were not limited to people who started out with impairments. Even among participants who had normal cognitive or physical function at baseline, a substantial proportion improved over time. That challenges the assumption that later-life gains reflect only people getting better after being sick or rebounding from earlier setbacks, the authors said.

The authors hope their findings will reverse the popular perception that continuous decline is inevitable and encourage policy makers to increase their support for preventive care, rehabilitation, and other health-promoting programs for older persons that draw on their potential resilience.

Source: EurekAlert!