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Older people have become younger
- not2b 6y agoI wouldn't be surprised if this is dependent on the country of origin. Some countries have seen large increases in life expectancy, others not so much (the US, though this depends on where, people in some states are much more active than those in other states) or are even seeing declines (Russia).
- ska 6y agoLife expectancy as usually reported is a mean, and is typically affected more by reduction in things like childhood and childbirth mortality than a meaningful shift in longevity.
- david-gpu 6y agoI believe life expectancy is a median. I.e. a life expectancy of 80 at birth means that half of them will die before that age. Also keep in mind that mortality increases exponentially with age.
- ska 6y agoIt is more often reported as a mean. Either way, it is important to know what is reported when doing comparisons.
- sbelskie 6y agoDoes the life expectancy for U.S. citizens in the top 50% or 25% tell the same story? Edit: of income I mean. Wealth is also maybe interesting
- Eric_WVGG 6y agoI wouldn't be surprised if it isn't. There was a consistent, world-wide correlation between violent crime and atmospheric lead caused by automobiles and industry, which tanked in the nineties. There's no way that the disappearance of worldwide, generational brain damage isn't a factor.
- titzer 6y agoTitle needs (in Finland).
- rblatz 6y agoLook at Paul Rudd today and Wilford Brimley in Cocoon, both the same age (51) For sure something is keeping people looking and acting younger.
- UncleOxidant 6y agoWilford Brimley was only fifty years old at the time of this film's production. He had to have his hair dyed gray in order to make him look geriatric. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088933/trivia https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088933/trivia
- brandonmenc 6y agoPaul Rudd had access to 4d3d3d3 which - sadly - was not available in Wilford Brimley's time.
- anticsapp 6y agoNow, Tayne I can get into.
- zxcmx 6y agoI think it's hard to judge with movie stars though because they are really not representative of the general population. There are particular selection pressures deciding who gets screen time, and the standards of today are not the standards of 40 years ago.
- monadic2 6y agoIt would not be uncommon to have plastic surgery, for instance.
- dogma1138 6y agoWilford was artificially aged for the film especially to be able to showcase the “improvements” it was easier to make an actor look older than younger. It also doesn’t help that he wasn’t exactly in good shape. It’s quite a bit about genetics and lifestyle look at Val Kilmer for example he aged quite terribly and he is only 2 years older than Tom Cruise but looks 2+ decades older.
- User23 6y agoThis brings to mind the hypothesis that extreme calorie restriction during youth extends lifespan. Finland 75-80 years ago was not a paradise of plentiful food, for that matter neither was most of Western Europe. I know the calorie restriction work has been replicated in the lab with animal models, but of course a human study would face most likely insurmountable ethical challenges.
- xupybd 6y agoYes but overtime access to food has increased. I would have expected the study to go the other way if your hypothesis is correct.
- nabla9 6y agoI'm almost certain that this is not true. At least results presented here don't support that theory. People who are now 75-80 had much better nutrition than generations before them. Life expectancy in Finland is projected to increase even more in the future. Calorie restriction starts to make sense only after adulthood. Prenatal, natal and child nutrition and calorie availability is probably the most important thing extending lifespan.
- User23 6y ago80 years ago was 1940. There was some widespread activity at the time that interfered with food availability.
- nabla9 6y agoExpected lifetime of those who were born during the war decreased relative to previous and following generations. Finland had a famine 1867-1868. After that expected lifetime started to increase. There was a dip in generations born around civil war and then again during the Winter War and WWII. After that life expectancy continued to increase. Source: Expected lifetime of population by year of birth. https://www.stat.fi/org/tilastokeskus/elinajanodote.html https://www.stat.fi/org/tilastokeskus/elinajanodote.html
- 6y ago
- drewcoo 6y agoIt ain't over till it's over. - Yogi Berra https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yogi_Berra#"Yogi-isms" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yogi_Berra#"Yogi-isms"
- hcrisp 6y agoI have grown old without having been young. - Victor Hugo
- dang 6y agoTom Waits said something similar. "I started as an old man" or something along those lines.
- andy_ppp 6y agoI wonder what causes this, my guess is probably many different factors; Finland social programs encouraging exercise, nutrition improved quite a lot, probably the Internet gave people access to new hobbies and interests. There are probably better in person socialising for old people than 30 years ago too.
- SoylentOrange 6y agoFTA: longer education, better nutrition, and access to better healthcare and hygiene
- Ciantic 6y ago> Internet gave people access to new hobbies and interests Given that the age group they are looking are already well in their 70s, they might not be heavy internet users. It's hard to tell from these studies that internet had any effect to their health. In fact, I think we have to wait another ~30 years to see when first internet natives become 70 year olds if it has any effect.
- nixpulvis 6y agoAs a guy in his late 20s who just finished grumbling at his TV whilst going through all the steps to reset it, I could have sworn this title was making something of the opposite claim. LOL
- esotericimpl 6y agoIt’s leaded gasoline. My parents generation were poisoned by it and is a significant reason for the dip in the critical thinking skills of this country.
- ekianjo 6y agoTwitter/Reddit does not seem to showcase the best case of critical thinking from younger generations either, so not sure if that is even a factor at all.
- meddlepal 6y agoIt turns out we're mostly all just morons.
- maxerickson 6y agoUse of leaded gasoline was very high when someone that is now 80 was a child and young adult (~1940 to phase out beginning in mid 70s). There were many more automobiles post WWII than in the era prior also. Better nutrition and medicine have to be a big piece of it.
- jameshart 6y agoSmoking, too. Not just that people smoked themselves, but 75 year olds in the 90s retired from smoking workplaces; restaurants had smoking areas; bars were smoking areas. You could smoke on planes until 1990.
- rfrey 6y agoI’m a gen-xer and when I was in my undergrad the lecture theatres had ashtrays beside all the seats. You couldn’t use them at that time, but I knew PhD students who said they were able to in their undergrad.
- Stratoscope 6y agoIndeed, I remember sitting in the non-smoking section of an airplane, one row behind the smoking section where everyone in that row was smoking. A lot of good that did me!
- crazygringo 6y agoPeople are shocked when they rewatch "The Golden Girls" from the 80's. Those actresses were all ~63 when it started (one was 53). But by today's standards, they look like they were all 70-80. It's remarkable what our current "norms" of fitness and nutrition have done. Or conversely, the toll (and associated clearly visible accelerated aging) that normalized heavy drinking and smoking took on older generations.
- adamnemecek 6y agoMaybe they were made to look that old. I have a hunch it's a lot harder to manage 80 year olds. They might struggle with remembering the script and such.
- ngold 6y agoWhat people tend to over look is how far a little makeup goes, when the audience is viewing the 12 to 19 inch, 360p display screen across the room.
- dehrmann 6y agoNit: NTSC is more like 480i.
- gscott 6y agoExcept for Betty White she is still acting, remembers her lines and is 98 years old. I bet a lifetime of memorizing helps. https://greekcitytimes.com/2020/05/15/betty-white-to-star-in-lifetime-christmas-movie/ https://greekcitytimes.com/2020/05/15/betty-white-to-star-in...
- andi999 6y agoYes, but you do not want to have to rely on this as a producer.
- nick-sf 6y agoThis is ageism.
- awillen 6y agoIf you're interested in changes to aging and the growing science behind it, I can't recommend Lifespan by David Sinclair highly enough.
- eruleman 6y agoWhat were your favorite parts of it?
- ubertoop 6y agoI'm halfway through this book and have found basically NOTHING that is actionable. Caloric restriction, and fasting, are already well known and are not revelations to be found in his book. Beyond those suggestions, nothing he talks about can the average person take do.
- awillen 6y agoThere's a few specific, actionable suggestions at the very end of the book - particularly a couple of pills he takes. But regardless, my interest is as much in the general progress that's being made and the speed at which it's accelerating. It left me feeling extremely optimistic about what the next 20-30 years is going to hold in terms of developments in anti-aging science. Unless we blow ourselves up in the near future.
- nradov 6y agoCaloric restriction (beyond staying at a healthy weight) has never been shown to actually extend the lifespan of humans, or any primate.
- lhl 6y agoWhile evidence is emerging, there are ongoing primate and human studies that suggest there is benefit to caloric restriction. This recent review is a good overview of current evidence, studies, and mechanisms: Balasubramanian, Priya, Porsha R. Howell, and Rozalyn M. Anderson. “Aging and Caloric Restriction Research: A Biological Perspective With Translational Potential.” EBioMedicine 21 (June 19, 2017): 37–44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2017.06.015 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2017.06.015. For primates, this is a good review: Mattison, Julie A., Ricki J. Colman, T. Mark Beasley, David B. Allison, Joseph W. Kemnitz, George S. Roth, Donald K. Ingram, Richard Weindruch, Rafael de Cabo, and Rozalyn M. Anderson. “Caloric Restriction Improves Health and Survival of Rhesus Monkeys.” Nature Communications 8, no. 1 (January 17, 2017): 14063. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms14063 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms14063. Abstract: Caloric restriction (CR) without malnutrition extends lifespan and delays the onset of age-related disorders in most species but its impact in nonhuman primates has been controversial. In the late 1980s two parallel studies were initiated to determine the effect of CR in rhesus monkeys. The University of Wisconsin study reported a significant positive impact of CR on survival, but the National Institute on Aging study detected no significant survival effect. Here we present a direct comparison of longitudinal data from both studies including survival, bodyweight, food intake, fasting glucose levels and age-related morbidity. We describe differences in study design that could contribute to differences in outcomes, and we report species specificity in the impact of CR in terms of optimal onset and diet. Taken together these data confirm that health benefits of CR are conserved in monkeys and suggest that CR mechanisms are likely translatable to human health. For human studies, here's a recent one: Redman, Leanne M., Steven R. Smith, Jeffrey H. Burton, Corby K. Martin, Dora Il’yasova, and Eric Ravussin. “Metabolic Slowing and Reduced Oxidative Damage with Sustained Caloric Restriction Support the Rate of Living and Oxidative Damage Theories of Aging.” Cell Metabolism 27, no. 4 (April 3, 2018): 805-815.e4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2018.02.019 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2018.02.019. "Findings from this 2-year CR trial in healthy, non-obese humans provide new evidence of persistent metabolic slowing accompanied by reduced oxidative stress, which supports the rate of living and oxidative damage theories of mammalian aging."
- CyberDildonics 6y agoIf people in entertainment look younger, realize that plastic surgery, hair transplants, dental bonding and hormone replacement have all gotten much better, cheaper and more mainstream.
- strikelaserclaw 6y agoThis study was done in Finland folks not America. I don't think the same results would hold here for the average person, for the average person living here wrestling with a life time of obesity, debt and stress will make them functionally 100 at the age of 60
- Ensorceled 6y agoI have a large extended family and have a few dozen first cousins. There is a stark contrast between those of us who have stayed relatively thin and fit and those that have not, it's almost like two entirely different generations.
- jjeaff 6y agoI wouldn't be so quick to presume causality when it may just as well be correlation. In other words, California probably isn't a wealthy state because it is less obese than most other states. It probably less obese than other states because it is wealthy.
- nradov 6y agoObesity prevalence by country: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2228rank.html https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/... There are both rich and poor countries near the top of the list.
- prawn 6y agoReplying very late, but I've always found it interesting that in poorer countries, obesity can indicate wealth (you have money to overindulge) whereas in richer countries it's often the reverse (poorer people buying sugary/fast food, can't justify a gym membership, etc).
- bonzini 6y agoLooking younger does correlate with both wealth and health. But while wealth and obesity are only correlated, there's certainly a casual relationship from obesity to health, and therefore from obesity to looking older.
- ezoe 6y agoRemind me a Japanese Manga artist, Osamu Tezuka(1928-1989), His manga depict 60 years old as today's 80-90 years old.
- sriku 6y agoAn aside - I loved the simplicity of the "do you accept our cookies" banner - it just has two buttons "accept" and "decline". Every other design is evil.
- dexterdog 6y agoYou are the first person I've seen like any of those popups.
- Flowsion 6y agoI think he means how simply it is to 'decline'. Most websites will have an 'accept' and an extremely convoluted 'decline' or no 'decline' at all.
- sriku 6y agoRight.
- dexterdog 6y agoProbably because if they can't give you a cookie then they have to give you a cookie warning on every page you hit. That's fine for sites where you are just reading an article and then leaving. I really find the whole thing so annoying and wish sites would just ignore that rule or allow a default-on setting in the browser that lets the vast majority of people who don't care about cookies one way or the other just default it to accept.
- donor20 6y agothese banners are the BANE of the internet. Just block cookies yourself if you don't want them used. And if someone wants to track / fingerprint you their are myriad ways to do so. Why people love pushing these absolutely crazy interactions I don't get - it makes you realize how clueless and/or out of touch privacy advocates sometimes are. My city website has so many popups / popover you have to accept EVERY single time you visit it is not usable on mobile. Accept / decline I don't care on cookies. And many websites just bump you off the website if you don't accept. I'm serious - when you have ISPs selling your browsing history, addins and trackers and website profile tools live capturing your every mouse movement, are cookies the great evil of the internet that must drive a billion (?) click on "accept" every day? My own solution - allow for an "I accept cookies" header - you set it ONCE on your browser and people owe you $100 if they show you a cookie popup. Now THAT would be a law I could get behind!
- jmopp 6y agoMinor piece of anecdote: I have watched my great grandmother, my grandmother, and my mother age. They all look like they aged at different rates: my grandmother at 70 does not look as old as my great grandmother did at 70. My mother at 50 does not look as old as my grandmother did at 50.
- aaron695 6y agoChildhood nutrition. Prenatal - 2 years old. Finland has also come from a lower place than their neighbours so it's more pronounced. But childhood nutrition matters.
- Hates_ 6y agoThere was a great Twitter thread last year where it was asked if people in the past looked older when they were younger: https://twitter.com/BMcCarthy32/status/1210350854571585537 https://twitter.com/BMcCarthy32/status/1210350854571585537
- Markoff 6y ago75-80 years old people as they studied are really not that old to have significant issues with cognitive functions, of course physical functions get hit. My father who will be soon 70 is doing hiking in mountains pretty much all summer, while his mother when she was in her 80s took care about her house, garden and animals and only in the very end with tumor on brain experienced very fast decline. I'd say, just stay active, don't sit at home all the time, if you want to stay in good physical condition and socialize to keep good cognitive functions.
- wodenokoto 6y ago> The functional ability of older people is nowadays better when it is compared to that of people at the same age three decades ago. It better be. I expect the retirement age where I live to be over 70 by the time I retire (it is currently 68)
- baccheion 6y agoBased on another source, it's expected that people are generally trending from looking 10 years older in this generation to 15-25 years older. Melatonin (sustained-release) is the big secret weapon against aging, especially when started younger (right after growth years). And eating the last meal 3-4 hours before bed or earlier. And meeting all RDAs with just a variety of whole quality foods (most don't meet all RDAs, especially with just food). 1:1:1 calcium:phosphorus:magnesium.
- rladd 6y agoInteresting viewpoint on melatonin. Any references?