Trying to stay forever young? It’s a popular goal: The anti-aging market, valued at $40 billion, is estimated to hit $60 billion by 2032. To stave off old age, people slather on wrinkle cream, pop supplements, and lift weights, among other interventions.
Though aging is often portrayed as a problem to fix, it’s more modifiable than you might think. According to the latest science, there’s no clear biological tipping point marking the transition from midlife to late life, says Eric Verdin, president and CEO of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in California.
“There’s an incredible amount of variability between different people,” says Verdin, who favors using someone’s biological age—which is how old your cells and tissues are—rather than their chronological age, which is the number of years you’ve been alive. (Read how inflammation impacts aging.)
That belief has started to upend the status quo: A recent study published in the journal Psychology and Aging shows that the age at which someone is considered old is shifting up.
Middle-aged and older adults nowadays feel younger than similar aged people did 10 to 20 years ago, according to the study led by Markus Wettstein, a researcher at Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany.
People are living longer, which partially explains this trend. But the findings may also reflect bleak views toward aging, particularly in the Western Hemisphere.
“People postpone old age as they do not want to enter this rather undesirable life phase,” Wettstein and his colleagues said in an email to National Geographic.
The history of old age
For much of human history, a person’s ability to complete tasks or contribute to their family and community shaped the perception of old age.
Throughout the Western Hemisphere in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, retirement marked when the focus shifted to an individual’s chronological age, not their abilities.
The average American retires at 62, which is around the time most officials and governments consider a person old. The range of 60 to 65 has remained relatively consistent over time, even as lifespans extended and humans experienced major social and economic changes.
Across the board, aging is the strongest risk factor for most non-communicable diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s. Most people will spend a significant fraction of their lives affected by conditions like these. By some estimates, nearly 95 percent of U.S. adults over 60 have at least one chronic condition, while nearly 80 percent have two or more. (Read how to take care of your brain as you age.)
Yet chronological age may not be a good indicator for defining old age, the new study says. Rather, individuals might enter old age at different times, according to their own perceptions.
And it’s true that no one wants to be old, especially as aging stereotypes have become more negative over the last 200 years—fueling what some call a worldwide crisis of ageism. Ageism, which can be as subtle as hiring a more youthful candidate or as blatant as disrespect, leads to social isolation, poor health, and even earlier death, according to the World Health Organization.
Becca Levy, a professor of epidemiology and psychology at Yale who was not involved in the new study, has spent much of her career untangling the downstream effects of age beliefs, which she detailed in her book, Breaking the Age Code.
“More negative age beliefs can lead to worse physical, mental, and cognitive health,” Levy says, whereas positive ones precipitate better health. One of Levy’s analyses estimates that a one-year cost of ageism in the United States totals $63 billion.
“Aging is colored by culture,” Verdin says. “In the Western world, youth is valued, but in Eastern cultures such as China and Korea, aging is associated with wisdom and is considered a virtue.”
When does old age begin?
Over the last century, scientific interest in aging has surged. Investors and government funders have poured billions into longevity research, leading to new insights into the aging process.
Cells can now be reprogrammed to restore youthful function. New drugs can eliminate senescent cells that drive inflammation. Dietary interventions such as intermittent fasting and caloric restriction have shown potential to extend life.
Despite this progress, scientists still quibble over what aging is and when it starts.
For one, there’s not a definitive way to measure it. Our bodies may age faster or slower depending on what has happened during our lives. Some major events, such as stressors or chronic illnesses, can make us age “faster,” thereby accelerating our biological age.
While certain physiological phenomena, like puberty and menopause, mark milestones along life’s path, old age isn’t defined by universal markers. Aging is a multifactorial process characterized by the accumulation of damage and degeneration across physiological pathways. This cascading deterioration eventually disrupts normal cell and tissue function.
In the last 30 years, scientists have searched for distinct metrics that accurately represent a person’s biological age. Certain factors like physical capability, lipid profiles, and DNA damage have been flagged as potential biomarkers. But currently, there is still no gold standard tool to assess healthy aging. (Learn how one pregnancy can add to a person’s biological age.)
“Aging is not something that happens abruptly,” Verdin says. “It’s a continuum, which makes it difficult to define.”
Investigating superagers
Still, everyone ages differently, and some live long and thrive. These so-called “superagers,” who remain relatively youthful and healthy long after age 70, have fascinated scientists.
By studying them, Verdin and other aging researchers hope to increase non-superagers’ healthspan, or the amount of time they live without chronic disease.
By 2050, 1 in 3 people in the world will be 60 years or older, a demographic shift that makes this research more pressing than ever.
“I hope our work will allow us to give people extra years of healthy life,” Verdin says, “and therefore change public perceptions and make people feel less negative about their own aging.”
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