
Attitudes matter in an aging world - imharvey
https://agewell.orbmedia.org/
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adrianN
Perhaps people who have a good attitude about old age are more likely to have
had the experience of healthy parents and grandparents and thus are more
likely to have genes that lead to a long healthspan.

~~~
Ntrails
My attitude to getting old is extremely tightly linked to my expectation of it
following the shape that my father's later life did.

I've seen what is likely coming, and the only changes which matter are to
lifestyle - not attitude.

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janwillemb
"people who have a positive attitude about getting older, live longer"

The conclusion might as well be the other way round: people who have health
problems when getting older are more likely to have a negative attitude about
getting older and will probably die at a younger age than people without
health issues.

~~~
Angostura
Except there's no suggestion that the people who were thinking negatively
about old age actually had worse health at that stage.

The headline is rather misleading, the study suggested that where older people
are more respected in a society, they tend to live longer.

~~~
tw1010
But what if countries with a better attitude towards the elderly are also
correlated with a higher likelihood of being ok with their taxes going to
health care for the old? It doesn't necessarily have to do with respect.

~~~
Angostura
What, places like Pakistan, you mean?

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newnewpdro
I wish more people would continue living youthfully into adulthood, and
continue to do so for as long as possible, with the limits of old age being an
emergent phenomenon forced onto them rather than something they unwittingly
eagerly pursued through laziness and boredom.

If you ride a bicycle every day, barring some injury forcing a prolonged
break, you'll continue to be able to deep into old age. Anything we practice
regularly we retain the ability to do. "Use it or lose it."

My fellow Americans in general tend to cease most physical activity once they
get a driver's license. From that point on, it's a life of sitting in chairs
of various forms, day in, day out. The body adapts to this, and by their 30s
it's already non-trivial just to sit on the floor and get back up unassisted.

Don't stop playing outside, riding bicycles, running, frolicking, all the
behaviors of youth - don't stop just because you're an "adult". Do this all,
do it as much as possible, all of your life, until you're physically unable.
This, in my opinion, is the dominant factor in aging well.

~~~
kaybe
I wish there were more free playgrounds that can also be used by adults,
spread around like the ones for kids. I also like ropeways, climbing high,
swings etc. Instead adults get boring repetive-movement fitness equipment.

~~~
draugadrotten
> I wish there were more free playgrounds that can also be used by adults,
> spread around like the ones for kids. I also like ropeways, climbing high,
> swings etc.

It's not a major investment on your part. Buy a few ropes, a swing and make
your own in your garden or a nearby forest.

If you live in a location which prevents you from living a healthy life,
perhaps you should think about moving.

~~~
kaybe
Hm, good point. The idea was to have it accessible for everyone, not just me,
and to get bigger and nicer stuff. Some equipment on kids' can actually be
used by all of the heaviest adults, but it's not allowed. Build it a bit more
stable, maybe bigger and just allow it..

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Madmallard
Healthier people have better attitudes.

~~~
s-shellfish
That's circular.

~~~
RegBarclay
Positive feedback cycle?

~~~
s-shellfish
It's still a divide, social attitudes can shape behavior and health just as
much.

Honestly, I don't know how to be positive about this. Some people experience
events in life that are beyond their control, that shape their attitudes.
Those attitudes may be judged by a 'healthy attitude' population as 'unhealthy
attitudes'.

This ostracizes a portion of the population and can lead to a negative
feedback cycle for an individual, because they literally can't learn how to
have a 'healthy attitude'. The best they can do likely, is be neutral (i.e.
compromise).

Empathy and awareness are 'healthy' too, even if for the moment, it affects
that positive feedback loop you've got in your mind. It's the minutia that
don't matter, and when it comes to judgement of attitudes, it's honestly
extremely difficult to differentiate between overall trends and insignificant
correlative details in practice.

The person with the 'unhealthy attitude' may just be wearing a mask of someone
they were heavily influenced by, and they may simply not have the resources or
the 'luck' to have encountered learning otherwise. All of this can be
incredibly draining and isn't your duty or obligation to 'correct', but I
think that's where acceptance and tolerance come in.

My point is not everyone has to have the same style mind in order to be
considered 'healthy'. People can survive (quite contently) without constantly
thinking positive and having to outwardly serve as proxies to reinforce
attitudes so we can all convince ourselves 'we are happy and healthy and the
future will be swell'. You need all types of people in life to have the world
function and improve.

Honestly sometimes I think some people can become terrified to be anything
besides positive, and that limits their freedom of speech and ability to grow.

~~~
loco5niner
> Some people experience events in life that are beyond their control, that
> shape their attitudes.

I would say, rather, that peoples attitudes shape their responses to events in
life that are beyond their control.

~~~
s-shellfish
I think that's an attitude that's based on how one sees one's sense of self.
If you have to function primarily by basically, being reminded of yourself
through people who act like you used to, then you don't have the same
perception of what a self is, or what an attitude is. Because you see how
attitudes build through attitudes beyond your control.

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kerrsclyde
I think one of the best ways to maintain youth and health in your advancing
years is to continue to work.

~~~
gaius
_maintain youth and health in your advancing years is to continue to work._

Define “work”. Manual labour? Sitting in an office? Both have negative health
impacts. The sort of work that prolongs quality of life is only a subset of
the work there is economic demand for. A job which is active but not
strenuous, basically. Most jobs are either physically hard work or mainly
sedentary, with not much in between.

~~~
barrkel
Work: a purpose for being, and making you feel socially useful.

~~~
TeMPOraL
Where do you get that these days? It's increasingly hard to find it on the job
market.

~~~
tonyedgecombe
In an industry averse to employing older workers it’s probably a mistake to
rely on your employer to provide meaning to your life.

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randyrand
Correlation =/= causation. Can't be said often enough.

~~~
onion2k
Sometimes correlation isn't causation, but if we just say "correlation =/=
causation" every time something happens we'll never discover anything. If two
things are correlated it's _at least_ worth investigating further, and _quite
often_ turns out to be a causal link.

~~~
adrianN
I'm reasonably sure that the set of things that are correlated is much, much
larger than the set of things that have a causal relationship. Check for
example [http://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-
correlations](http://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations)

~~~
onion2k
The number of things that _aren 't_ correlated is waaaaaaay bigger. It's still
worth investigating when there's a _possible_ link.

