[Note: This series of posts assumes general good health and makes no claims about extending lifespans.]
If you’re anything like me, ever since you turned about 50—or maybe 40—you’ve been walking around saying, “But I don’t feel that old!”
According to Dr. Becca Levy of the Yale School of Public Health and Yale University, maybe you’ve been right all along.
In her book Breaking the Age Code, Dr. Levy recounts that, while in graduate school, she won a National Science Foundation fellowship that allowed her to live in Japan for a semester. Her plan was to investigate the way Japanese people aged, and how differently they viewed aging compared to the U.S. and other countries. Why? Because data showed that the Japanese had the longest life spans in the world.
Many researchers attributed this fact to diet or genetics.
Dr. Levy wondered if something else was at play.
Her stay in Japan happened to include a national holiday called “Keiro No Hi,” which translates to “Respect for the Aged Day.” Walking through a park that morning, she saw crowds of active people in their seventies and eighties lifting weights and flaunting their well-toned bodies.
That was an image that stayed with me when I read Dr. Levy’s book. It was especially striking in comparison to what she began to notice when she returned home. As she wrote:
“In the U.S. it was a different cultural picture. ... Billboards for ‘age-defying’ skin treatments ... late night ads for local plastic surgeons ... the infantilizing greetings older people endured in restaurants [and other places] ... Everywhere I looked ... old age was treated as though it meant forgetfulness, weakness, and decline.”
Dr. Levy continued, “... It became clear to me that the culture we’re in impacts how we age.”
That’s quite a statement. Citing authoritative sources, she added these specifics:
“Older Japanese women are much less likely to experience hot flashes, as well as other symptoms of menopause, than women of the same age in the US and Canada [and] ... Japanese older men ... were found to have higher testosterone levels than their European counterparts.”
Those quotes barely hint at the depth and breadth of the evidence Dr. Levy presents. In fact, I found it all so convincing that, since reading her book, my own view of aging and ageism has shifted dramatically. Sure, I still have aches and pains and other relatively minor health issues. Yet I no longer anxiously assume that they mean inevitable deterioration. And, strangely enough, some of those nagging issues have been and continue to be measurably improving.
But I shouldn’t be surprised. Dr. Levy’s book documents how our beliefs about aging can actually, and quite literally, change the way we age. She asserts—and goes on to prove—that the negative age beliefs that dominate in the U.S. and many other countries significantly influence many health problems formerly considered to be entirely due to the aging process. These include such serious conditions as memory loss, hearing decline, and even cardiovascular events.
Again, to be clear, I have no vested interest whatsoever regarding the book or Dr. Levy’s work. I don’t know her personally and, in fact, had never heard of her before I picked up her book. She has, however, agreed to allow me to quote liberally from her work; I made that request for the simple reason that she is the authority and her work should be allowed to stand on its own merits.
According to Paul Irving, Chair of the Center for the Future of Aging, Dr. Becca Levy is recognized as one of the world’s most respected experts on aging and longevity. He said, “Her thought leadership and pioneering research will change many more hearts and minds. Levy’s book is a must read—an urgent and uplifting call to action and roadmap for a future of longer, healthier, and better lives.”
I am planning to make this a series of posts about Dr. Levy’s work, assuming the level of interest I’ve seen so far continues.
In the meantime, for those who don’t know me, I’m Robert S. (Rob) Gordon, author of the trailblazing book Brand Positioning With Power, available on Amazon. Experts say it “shows, in detail, why positioning is one of the most important elements of the marketing and branding process.” I’m also co-author of The Backstage Man, which has been called “. . . An apt doorway into a universe where true inspiration occurs at the cellular level of consciousness”—also available on Amazon.
