And they were also told why 70 can be the new 50.<\/p>\n
Neuroscientist Prof Ian Robertson, Prof Emeritus of Psychology in Trinity College, said our mindset and how we view ageing can have a profound effect on how we function as we enter our fifties and beyond.<\/p>\n
He told the annual general meeting of the Irish College of General Practitioners in Dublin about data gained by TILDA, the Trinity College tracking survey on ageing.<\/p>\n
It found that \u201cpeople who had negative expectations on ageing walked significantly slower two years later\u201d versus those who had a positive view.<\/p>\n
It showed significant reduction in cognitive flexibility – affecting their thinking – and they had a slight decrease in social activity.<\/p>\n
A 35 year old who has back pain sees it as reversible but a 75 year old can view it as due to their age.<\/p>\n
He said he is not \u2018Pollyanna\u2019 about ageing but a lot depends on a person\u2019s own attitude.<\/p>\n
People who are older can think forgetting a person\u2019s name is an early sign of dementia but people in their 30s would not be bothered, he added.<\/p>\n
“If you start worrying about your memory and thinking about your memory \u2013 it is equivalent to thinking about your feet as you walk downstairs and that produces anxiety,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Anxiety affects memory biologically and psychologically, using up more memory space.<\/p>\n
The reality is that although the prevalence of dementia in Ireland is increasing due a greater number of people living longer the incidence has not, he told the gathering of family doctors.<\/p>\n
He said it is very important we examine our own personal view on ageing and the mental models we have.<\/p>\n
If you are 60 years old today you are less likely to develop dementia that a counterpart twenty years ago, Prof Robertson added.<\/p>\n
One study of 41 countries by the International Monetary Fund found the cognitive performance of a 70 year old in 2020 is the same as that of a 53 year old in 2000.<\/p>\n
Early retirement may be the norm in countries like Italy and France but it may not be healthy, he added.<\/p>\n
Retirees may be playing boules and sitting coffee in the piazza in Italy but their memory function can be significantly lower than 65 year olds in Florida or in Ireland.<\/p>\n
There are two key drivers in managing getting old – \u201ceffort and purpose\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said if people are still working they must make the effort to get up and get going rather than stay in bed.<\/p>\n
It is not all about work and it may involve making effort to help others or even sorting out a community committee they are part of.<\/p>\n
Doing something with effort is intrinsically more rewarding than doing something without effort.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must ensure we don\u2019t become lazy – it is too easy to become lazy,\u201d Prof Robertson said.<\/p>\n
He added that the other driver is purpose and this is linked to effort.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must not confuse disease with age. It is not a disease,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"And they were also told why 70 can be the new 50. Neuroscientist Prof Ian Robertson, Prof Emeritus…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418297,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[103,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-418296","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}