Old age begins at 27

[Analog]

Old age is often blamed for causing us to misplace car keys, forget a word or lose our train of thought.

But new research shows that many well-known effects of ageing may start decades before our twilight years.

According to scientists, our mental abilities begin to decline from the age of 27 after reaching a peak at 22.

The researchers studied 2,000 men and women aged 18 to 60 over seven years. The people involved ? who were mostly in good health and well-educated ? had to solve visual puzzles, recall words and story details and spot patterns in letters and symbols.

Similar tests are often used to diagnose mental disabilities and declines, including dementia.

The research at the University of Virginia, reported in the academic journal Neurobiology Of Aging, found that in nine out of 12 tests the average age at which the top performance was achieved was 22.

The first age at which performance was significantly lower than the peak scores was 27 ? for three tests of reasoning, speed of thought and spatial visualisation. Memory was shown to decline from the average age of 37. In the other tests, poorer results were shown by the age of 42.

Professor Timothy Salthouse said the results suggested that therapies designed to prevent or reverse age-related conditions may need to start earlier, long before people become pensioners.

He wrote: ?Results converge on a conclusion that some aspects of age-related cognitive decline begin in healthy, educated adults when they are in their 20s and 30s.?

There is some good news, though. The report states that abilities based on accumulated knowledge, such as performance on tests of vocabulary or general information, increase until at least the age of 60.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sci...laim-new-research.html

 

[Newbian]

So does this mean I can start saying things like "back in my day" now?

 

[eplebnista]

Originally posted by: Newbian
So does this mean I can start saying thing like "back in my day" now?

or when i was your age

 

[olds]

When I was you guy's age I had to walk barefoot 20 miles uphill each way to take these tests.

 

[Mojoed]

^ In the snow!

 

[Newbian]

Originally posted by: Mojoed
^ In the snow!

Against the wind.

 

[XZeroII]

Oh no! I'm 27! It's all downhill from here... (at least I'm no longer walking barefoot up hill in the snow in -20 degree weather against the wind).

 

[Nik]

I'm 27. Fuck.

 

[Jeff7]

Ah, so this is why work at the university seemed to get more and more difficult as time wore on - I started at around age 23, already on the way downhill.

 

[Phokus]

27 WTF?!?!?!??! FUUUUUUUUUUUUC

 

[lxskllr]

They should have given me the research money. I could have written a report up in a week, and saved them some time.

 

[jlee]

Damnit.

 

[Crono]

My math teacher in 11th grade was a statistician and he told us that he found that athletes, particularly baseball players (on average), peak at age 26.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I'm 22, so guess I'm at my peek performance.

I actually find myself saying "back in my day" when talking to people, funny thing is, it's usually people older then me. They give me this weird look.

I have crappy memory from the start so I can't blame old age on it. I can't remember anything short term, I have to write it down. I'd be screwed without a computer or pen and paper.

 

[Perknose]

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat
When I was you guy's age I had to walk barefoot 20 miles uphill each way to take these tests.

Oh, sure, olds, you guys had evolved feet and bipedal evolution and . . . tests. Pffffftttt. Bunch of lah-dee-dah lollygaggers!

Back in the day, when I was young, we had just crawled out of the primordial ooze of the primitive oceans and had to construct our own tests out of twigs and moss and stone. :roll:

 

[NikolaeVarius]

You Know, I remember having a discussion with some classmates over when a person gets "old". Most of the people said 35-40. I was the only one that say around 25-7, because at that point, it really looks like everyone goes downhill. Looks like i was right.

 

[SludgeFactory]

I wonder if this study would have been any different if it was done before we had electricity/TV/modern life consistently robbing so many people of 1-2 hours (or more) of sleep most nights. I'm pretty sure that kills ur brain.

 

[bdude]

Originally posted by: Perknose

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat
When I was you guy's age I had to walk barefoot 20 miles uphill each way to take these tests.

Oh, sure, olds, you guys had evolved feet and bipedal evolution and . . . tests. Pffffftttt. Bunch of lah-dee-dah lollygaggers!

Back in the day, when I was young, we had just crawled out of the primordial ooze of the primitive oceans and had to construct our own tests out of twigs and moss and stone. :roll:

Blah blah blah...
Back in my day we didn't even HAVE higher elements to make stuff out of. Hydrogen and Helium atoms were the best of what we had back in the good ole days. And we couldn't just hop skip over to the nearest gravitational well, we had to wait for the gravitons to coalesce. Sheesh, young'uns these days don't know how good they have it.

 

[MichaelD]

I was gonna post something sarcasitc, but then I started thinking about the topic and the conversation it spawned.

I'm 40. When I was a kid (say 6-10 years old), computers were not mainstream. Sure, I had an Atari 2600 but we had one black and white TV to which we hooked the Atari to thru an "antenna adaptor>" But Dad monopolized the TV to watch football. Brother and I played the Atari twice, three times/week for a couple hours, tops.

Other than that, we were OUTSIDE. Roughhousing, playing football (on the concrete, no pads...) "exploring" in the park or just plain sitting on parked cars or stoops (if you don't know what a "stoop" is, Google it...damn country boys...) and doing nothing. But we were out in the oxygen and sunlight...the brain wasn't stifiled.

I blame the deterioration of the brain on computers and our ever-growing reliance on them. Ironically, I now rely on computers for my livelihood and basically sit in front of one 16 hours/day b/t work and home.

 

[Special K]

Originally posted by: MichaelD
I was gonna post something sarcasitc, but then I started thinking about the topic and the conversation it spawned.

I'm 40. When I was a kid (say 6-10 years old), computers were not mainstream. Sure, I had an Atari 2600 but we had one black and white TV to which we hooked the Atari to thru an "antenna adaptor>" But Dad monopolized the TV to watch football. Brother and I played the Atari twice, three times/week for a couple hours, tops.

Other than that, we were OUTSIDE. Roughhousing, playing football (on the concrete, no pads...) "exploring" in the park or just plain sitting on parked cars or stoops (if you don't know what a "stoop" is, Google it...damn country boys...) and doing nothing. But we were out in the oxygen and sunlight...the brain wasn't stifiled.

I blame the deterioration of the brain on computers and our ever-growing reliance on them. Ironically, I now rely on computers for my livelihood and basically sit in front of one 16 hours/day b/t work and home.

Depending on what you are using the computer for, it could actually be more stimulating to your mind than playing outside.

I'm certainly not discouting the value of exercise and being outside, but I would think that using the computer for something productive might actually help the mind.

 

[sash1]

crap i'm gettin old!

 

[Imdmn04]

I think my memory was a lot better when I was 12 than my 20s.

I could recite a fucking chapter in a book word by word after just two or three scans.

Now I actually have to employ memory techniques to remember, back then, rote memorization was all that was needed.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Originally posted by: Imdmn04
I think my memory was a lot better when I was 12 than my 20s.

I could recite a fucking chapter in a book word by word after just two or three scans.

Now I actually have to employ memory techniques to remember, back then, rote memorization was all that was needed.

I remember being really good at memorizing lines for when I had to be in a play of some sort.

Now I can barely memorize a phone number that a customer gives to me over the phone if I don't write it down as the customer is saying it. My short term memory is teh suxor. Then again, I've always believed in only remembering HOW to get information, not the information itself. I look everything up.

 

[mugs]

Tell that to Martin Brodeur, who's still kicking ass at 37. Go Devils!

 

[Farang]

I'm at my peak now? This is very depressing.