DR MICHAEL MOSLEY: Why isn’t a bus ticket the only advantage of getting old! –

There’s a lot of things that get worse as we get older, from eyesight to responsiveness, but I’m happy to say there are things that get better as well.

And from the Rolling Stones (Mick Jagger, 78) who will embark on a new world tour next week, to 63-year-old Anneka Rice, who represents a resumption of the action role, there are still many older folks showing what is possible. . It will be included in a new version of Challenge Anneka.

But there are also scientifically proven reasons to celebrate aging.

heal allergies

I was so sensitive to grass pollen that I thought it was impossible to walk the fields without taking antihistamines this time of year.

But as I got older (now 65), my hay fever got so much better that I can now go out into the fields without medication or sneezing.

And that seems to be true for many people with allergies.

A few years ago, researchers from Lund University Hospital in Sweden followed more than 4,000 people aged 20 to 59 who suffered from allergic rhinitis (inflammation in the nose caused by pollen, dust or fungus).

Over the eight-year study period, one-fifth of them stopped having an allergic attack as the older participants aged.

No one knows why some allergies improve with age, but the immune system can become less strong with age, so your immune response to certain allergens also decreases.

you sweat less

Also what struck me is that I’m sweating less than before. This is because with age, our sweat glands (or eccrine glands) shrink and become less active.

This was first reported in a 1987 study at Pennsylvania State University in the United States that asked older (52 to 62 years old) and younger (20 to 30 years old) children to walk briskly on a treadmill in a warm, dry environment. shown. .

Older women likewise worked hard but sweated much less, which the researchers noted was an “age-related structural change in eccrine glands or surrounding skin cells.”

So one of the benefits of aging is shirts that sweat less. Also, as we know, it is the reaction of bacteria with sweat that causes body odor, so you need less deodorant.

But remember, we sweat for a reason – it helps keep us cool, so you’re more likely to overheat if you’re over 50.

Also what struck me is that I’m sweating less than before. This is because with age, our sweat glands (or eccrine glands) shrink and become less active.

Lighter hangovers

There’s another reason why I’m happy at 65: I have a lot less hangovers.

Of course, that’s because I drink less. Still, a recent Dutch study published in the medical journal Alcohol and Alcoholism found that older people report less severe hangovers, despite drinking as much as younger ones.

Based on the hangover experiences of 761 people ages 18 to 94, the researchers concluded, unsurprisingly, that the amount people drink is the best indicator of who will suffer the most. But they also found that “even after controlling for the amount of alcohol consumed, hangover severity decreased with age.” This may be due to us becoming more tolerant to the effects of alcohol, but researchers suggest it may be due to the increased pain tolerance of the elderly, at least for short-term pain.

Brain imaging studies show that older people have reduced connectivity in pain-sensitive areas of the brain, which may help with hangovers, but unfortunately we also have less activity in brain areas that help shut down chronic pain long-term.

less migraines

Migraine, another type of headache, also becomes less common as you age.

A few years ago, the Gothenburg Migraine Clinic in Sweden published a study of patients with an average age of 55 over a 12-year period. During this time, 29% of migraine patients stopped having migraine attacks, while the rest experienced less frequent and milder attacks.

This is because our brains shrink as we age, and the loss of certain signaling pathways can also reduce the risk of migraine attacks.

Happier. † † and friendlier

How satisfied are you with your life? It is based on questionnaires that ask students to evaluate themselves with questions such as: and ‘how happy did you feel yesterday?’ — When 0 is “not at all happy” and 10 is “very happy”? – it is clear that happiness and satisfaction with life follow a U-shaped curve.

Most people report being happy enough in their youth, then it goes downhill until we hit bottom at age 50.

After that, we generally begin to be happier and more satisfied with life until we reach old age where things slow down. This pattern probably reflects the fact that when we’re young we believe anything is possible, but as we get older we realize that many of our dreams don’t come true.

In the late 1950s, we realized that true happiness comes from friends and family, and not necessarily from professional success or making more money.

This may also explain why studies have reported that older people are less stressed and try to dwell less on the negative aspects of life.

They also become more empathetic. In a study published in 2019, Michigan State University researchers found that empathy, the ability to understand the thoughts and feelings of others, increases with age, especially after age 40.

So, along with the free bus tickets, these are just some of the benefits of getting older. But if you want to age well, you have to work on it.

This means walking a lot to strengthen the heart and lungs; some resistance exercises (push-ups and squats) to protect muscles and bones; Follow the Mediterranean diet and take up new hobbies as it’s a proven way to keep your brain fit.

And the sooner you start, the better. As US President Theodore Roosevelt once said, “Old age is like everything else.

“You have to start young to be successful.”

About ten days after I first contracted Covid, my wife Clare and I have fully recovered. What worried me the most was the prolongation of Covid, so it was reassuring to see a large recent study showing that vaccines (we were vaccinated three times) alone did not increase the risk of hospitalization and death by more than 80%. . infected, but it also halves your chances of having Covid for a long time.

Being a little boring isn’t so bad…

I’m an introvert and a bit of a geek, and I’m afraid I seem pretty boring, especially in social situations.

That’s why I read with interest a recent study from the University of Exeter on people’s beliefs about who is boring and who isn’t.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, accountants and those in tax or data entry positions were seen as the most boring jobs: being a journalist, a healthcare professional, or working in the “performing arts” was far more exciting.

The “boring” hobbies were sleeping, watching TV, and watching birds; They all raised their thumbs while reading, walking the dog, and playing.

This may seem like another somewhat interesting study that confirms widely held beliefs, but the psychologist Dr. Wijnand Van Tilburg says such negative stereotypes can be destructive.

She points out that seeing someone as boring “can lead to social exclusion and more loneliness, which can have a negative impact on their lives.”

Many people who seem boring at first are probably just shy or introverted. So give them the benefit of the doubt.

The final frontier of selfies

These days, people take and post photos of just about everything, so it was almost inevitable that someone would take a photo of poop.

But this has nothing to do with the Instagram trend, it has everything to help patients share information with their doctors.

When we were in medical school, we were introduced to the Bristol Stool Scale from type 1 (“individual hard lumps like nuts”) to type 7 (“all liquid”). Knowing its shape, shape, and texture can help diagnose digestive problems.

But now, researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in the US have developed a phone app to analyze images of stool, and research shows the app is as good as “well-trained gastroenterologists” at evaluating samples. I can’t wait to give it a chance.