I realized I’d hit an age milestone when one of my Inc.com colleagues reacted with empathy to the news that I had to have a minor medical procedure, and I replied like this:
Hey, it’s better than the alternative!
Honestly, I laughed more and harder than it was probably worth when I caught myself. But most of us eventually reach the point where we realize we’re fighting a bit of a battle against the sands of time.
That’s why my eyes nearly popped out of their 50-year-old sockets when I came across a major new study from Canada that suggests that even older adults whose health has declined have a really good chance of bouncing all the way back to optimal well-being within — if they can set the conditions.
Not what I had expected
Researchers at the University of Toronto analyzed data from 8,332 Canadians over age 60 who initially reported being in poor health, and then checked back in with them 36 months later.
They found that nearly one in four of them were able to recover completely in every measurable way.
“That is not what I had expected,” Esme Fuller-Thomson, a professor at the University of Tornoto who co-led the research told The Washington Post.
She worked with Mabel Ho, a recent doctoral graduate at the University of Toronto, and their definition of “optimal well-being” they used wasn’t just about being disease-free.
Instead, it included things like:
- having good social support,
- having high levels of physical health,
- having robust mental health, happiness, and life satisfaction, and
- being free of limitations in daily activities, disabling pain, severe mental illness, or cognitive decline.
Nearly 25 percent of the people who started out in poor health had regained that optimal well-being within three years.
Mental health was the key
The study found that people who had good mental health at the beginning were nearly five times more likely to achieve optimal well-being three years later compared to those who didn’t.
Theory; If you’re blessed with good mental health, you’re much more likely to find the motivation to do the other things that are important for improving your health.
Thus, the researchers emphasize that addressing psychological and emotional needs should often come first, especially if you’re dealing with loneliness or social isolation. And you don’t have to become a different person to make this work.
“I don’t want the message to be that you have to be a raging extrovert to age well,” Fuller-Thomson explained. “Social connection is how you define it. So if you have one or two dear friends that are all you need in life, but they are wonderful, that’s really important.”
Other factors that matter
Beyond mental health, the study found several other lifestyle factors that predicted whether someone could bounce back to optimal well-being. None of them will shock you, but it’s powerful to see them backed up by data from thousands of people:
- Don’t smoke (or quit if you do)
- Maintain a healthy weight (not obese)
- Stay physically active
- Get good sleep (tackle sleeping problems)
- Manage chronic conditions like diabetes, arthritis, and osteoporosis
The study also found that being younger than 70, being married, and having income above the poverty line all increased the odds of bouncing back.
One important caveat: This study was done in Canada, which has a very different medical and health insurance system than the United States. The researchers acknowledge that the findings might not fully apply in places where people have differing levels of access to healthcare.
Never too late
As Ho put it: “It’s never too early to engage into an active and healthy lifestyle. Eat well, exercise, sleep well, and that would be something that we can all prepare for our own aging.”
Fuller-Thomson added: “I mean, these are all the things your mom told you.”
The study included some inspiring examples, like 91-year-old Florene Shuber, who started working with a trainer at age 82 after she kept falling. Now she says she feels younger and stronger than she did a decade ago.
“You can improve. I see it in myself, for sure,” Shuber said. “But you have to be consistent with it.”
Anyway, I’m a lot younger than Shuber — heck, a lot younger than she was when she started working out. But I can also remember when the age I am now seemed like the distant future.
Maybe we can’t quite turn back the hands of the clock, but we can definitely get healthier and stronger.
As Fuller-Thomson put it: “Too often, the focus in aging research … is on decline and disability. Our findings disrupt that narrative.”
All together now: “Hey, it’s better than the alternative!”
The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.
Bill Murphy Jr.
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