Prof Velandai Srikanth is at the peak of his career: director of the National Centre for Healthy Ageing, published in leading scientific journals, funded by major bodies. He also just turned 60, and someone immediately asked when he'd retire. Welcome to the stigma of ageing, which apparently starts the moment you hit the big six-oh.
As a geriatrician, Srikanth sees the full spectrum: from people who view ageing as a slow-motion trainwreck to those who treat the 'third age' like a second adolescence. A US study from Yale School of Public Health's Prof Becca Levy and Dr Martin Slade tracked 11,000 people aged 50 to 99 and found that those with positive attitudes didn't just maintain their walking speed, memory, and math skills over 12 years - many actually improved. Even Levy, who has spent a career studying this, was surprised.
Forty-four percent of participants showed improvements in walking speed and cognition over an average eight-year follow-up. Those who started with positive ageing beliefs were more likely to improve. Attitudes were measured via the Philadelphia Geriatric Center Morale Scale - questions like 'The older I get, the more useless I feel' - and by asking people to list five words associated with ageing. Americans mostly lead with negative beliefs but usually sneak a positive one in by number five.
Prof Julia Lappin from UNSW says there's growing evidence that a positive mindset at any life stage boosts health. It encourages behaviours like staying cognitively, physically, and socially active. And it helps if your neighbours are 93 and still walking to the beach daily - keeping up with the Joneses, geriatric edition.
Srikanth emphasises that 'age is not disease; age is just time.' Assuming ageing equals dementia is false. Prof Kaarin Anstey from UNSW's Ageing Futures Institute notes that a positive view means you're more likely to address health issues - like a sore hip - rather than dismissing them as inevitable. That might mean a physiotherapist or more exercise, but the attitude drives the action.
The real fight, however, is against society's ageism - what some call the last socially acceptable prejudice. Like assuming someone over 60 must be planning retirement despite being at their peak. Associate Prof Rod McKay from the University of Notre Dame points out that employers discriminating against older applicants may be missing people who not only perform well but can improve further.
Prof Brian Draper, a UNSW psychiatrist who describes himself as 'semi-retired,' notes that depression rates in Australia are lowest among 65- to 85-year-olds (though they rise after 85). 'The happiest time of life is as you get older,' he says. Retirement generally improves most life parameters. And while bodies do wear down, 'It can happen quite late in life, much later than most people realise.'