Men do not grow into being Mr Meldrew!

Well - not all of us anyway!

Researchers asked groups of 19 to 31-year-olds and 61 to 80-year-olds to view a series of photographs while analysing their brains’ activity.

Some of the images were of happy moments, such as a victorious skier, while others conveyed darker themes such as a wounded soldier.

The subjects were then asked to remember as many of the pictures as they could.

By studying their brain scans, the research team from the University of Auckland found that the old and young processed the happy images differently.

They found that in older people, there were stronger connections between regions of the brain that process emotions and those known to be important for forming memories. The trend was particularly strong for processing positive information.

Among the younger group, the link was found to be much weaker.

Meanwhile, ageing was found not to affect the connectivity between regions during memory formation of the negative photographs.

The results suggest that older people are much more likely to remember happy moments than their younger counterparts, the journal Cortex report.

I have already told my wife about this research but she is not totally convinced!

The happiest years?

This is the fascinating graph reported by

German and American scientists who analysed the results of a long-term British survey in which more than 21,000 men and women were regularly asked how happy they were with their lives.

They replied on a scale of one to seven, with one meaning they were not satisfied at all and seven indicating complete satisfaction.

Life satisfaction was rated about 5.5 when the subjects were in their late teens, on average.

This gradually dropped to about five when they turned 40. appiness hovered around this mark for the next few years, before taking an upturn around the age of 46.

And through their fifties and sixties they became more upbeat, with satisfaction peaking at a rating of 5.9 around 74. After that it drops off as more people become affected by health problems.

 

The researchers said it was possible that people become more appreciative of what they have as they get older. They may find a desire to make the most of their remaining years, they added.

Writing in the journal Social Indicators Research, they said: 'This awareness of impending mortality may lead older individuals to focus on ways to make their remaining experiences as enjoyable as possible.

'Compared to younger individuals, older people tend to place a greater emphasis on emotional aspects of social interactions and are likely to remember the emotional content of their experiences.'

But this happiness scale appears to be a peculiarly British phenomenon, the researchers from the German Institute for Economic Research found.

When they carried out a similar analysis of German men and women, they found that levels of satisfaction remained relatively stable throughout life.

The British figures chime with recent claims that the mid-life crisis is a thing of the past.

Improvements in healthcare, education and life expectancy mean 'wobbles' around the age of 40 are now less likely, psychologists claimed last month.

By that time, most will have married, bought a home and chosen a career. With those difficult decisions behind us, we are free to start enjoying life and learn from our mistakes.

Does all this chime true for you?

Men who believe ageing is linked to happiness binge drink

Young men who believe that ageing is associated with a decline in happiness are more likely to engage in risky health behaviours such as bingedrinking, according to a new study. Their negative view of the aging process may act as a disincentive to behave ‘sensibly’ and encourage them to make the most of the present in anticipation of ‘miserable’ old age, say researchers Dr. John Garry and Dr. Maria Lohan from Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland.

For the study, researchers analyzed data from face-to-face interviews with over 1,000 citizens of Northern Ireland aged over 15 years. The respondents were also asked to report how happy they currently felt, as well as to estimate how happy they expected to be at the age of 30 and 70. Those who were over 30 and/or 70 were asked to think back at how happy they were then. The researchers also asked them to indicate how happy the average person of their age at age 30 is and how happy at age 70.

Young people wrongly believed that ageing is associated with a decline in happiness. Indeed, young people estimated that happiness declined with age, whereas in actual fact there was no difference between the self-reported happiness levels of young people and old people. Just over half the respondents were categorized as binge drinkers – 59 percent of males and 45 percent of females. In particular, young men who were pessimistic about future happiness were more likely to binge-drink.

“Our findings confirm, in the case of binge drinking by men, that risky health behaviour in youth is associated with an underestimation of happiness in old age. It may be worthwhile to emphasize, to young men in particular, the positive impact on their lives of reducing alcohol and inform them about happiness in old age,” the authors said.

Its good to grumble

Well, this goes against much of what we tend to preach but we should at least examine the research from Australia which states that being grumpy makes us think more clearly

In contrast to those annoying happy types, miserable people are better at decision-making and less gullible.

While cheerfulness fosters creativity, gloominess breeds attentiveness and careful thinking, Professor Joe Forgas told Australian Science Magazine.

The University of New South Wales researcher says a grumpy person can cope with more demanding situations than a happy one because of the way the brain "promotes information processing strategies".

He asked volunteers to watch different films and dwell on positive or negative events in their life, designed to put them in either a good or bad mood.

Next he asked them to take part in a series of tasks, including judging the truth of urban myths and providing eyewitness accounts of events.

Those in a bad mood outperformed those who were jolly - they made fewer mistakes and were better communicators.

Professor Forgas said: "Whereas positive mood seems to promote creativity, flexibility, co-operation and reliance on mental shortcuts, negative moods trigger more attentive, careful thinking, paying greater attention to the external world."

The study also found that sad people were better at stating their case through written arguments, which Forgas said showed that a "mildly negative mood may actually promote a more concrete, accommodative and ultimately more successful communication style".

So do you sometimes feel that you would like to have an Eeyore day?

80 is the new 60!

The Academy of Medical Sciences has just published a report on ageing. It reveals that far from having lonely, decrepit existences, assailed by memory loss and physical infirmity, vast numbers of the elderly in the UK are living long, healthy, productive lives.

The stereotypical image of a nation in which rising numbers of pensioners are being kept alive by modern medicine – but are crippled by arthritis, heart disease and Alzheimer's, and live huddled and defenceless in old people's homes – is simply not true. "Healthy life expectancy is increasing at least as quickly as life expectancy," states the report.

Large numbers of elderly people are living healthy, happy and productive lives. "No one wants to live an extra 10 years if they have to spend them in a nursing home," said the head of the working group, Professor Linda Partridge, of University College London. "But that is not what is happening at present. People are living longer. At the same time, they also are living healthier, more productive lives."

This point is backed by a surprising body of statistics, she added. For example, it is known that the people of Britain are getting older and older, a trend which suggests a far higher proportion of the general population should now be living in old people's homes today than in the past. "But this is not the case," added Partridge. "The proportion is just the same as it was several decades ago." In other words, although there are more 80-year-olds today, the percentage affected by disability – requiring them to live in homes – is far lower than it was last century.

In fact, this improvement in disability has been surprisingly emphatic, according to gerontologist Professor Kay-Tee Khaw of Cambridge University, a member of the working group. "If you compare national surveys carried out between 1970 and 1990, you see the number of 85-year-olds who are disabled halved between 1971 and 1990."

In fact, medical interventions and lifestyle changes have both played crucial roles in bringing healthy old age to so many. Drugs that counter high blood pressure and cardiac complaints have produced startling reductions in deaths from heart disease, for example. Since the 1990s cardiac mortalities have dropped by 40% as a result.

At the same time, lifestyle changes are also making an impact: those who stop drinking excessively or smoking or who take exercise and eat lots of fruit and vegetables not only live longer but have less chance of suffering physical or mental disability in later life, added Khaw. "The association is clear."

This connection between factors such as diet and loss of mental function may seem unlikely but it is real, added Tallis. "Alzheimer's has a speedier, more pronounced progress on those who also suffer from cerebral vascular problems - and such conditions are associated with unhealthy lifestyles."

The result is emphatic, said Partridge. "Today's 60-year-olds have the lifestyles that 40-year-olds had a century ago. More importantly, we are now shaping up to a future in which 80-year-olds will live as 60-year-olds do today."

We emphasise this in our book so it is great to see up to date research making the same points.

A sign of hope?

Sent by one of the 50+ generation as a sign of hope. Click and see it through.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42E2fAWM6rA

Depression begins at 40!

Well - maybe a bit of an exaggeration but an international study of mental health and happiness shows that the risk of depression was lowest in younger and older people, with the middle-aged years associated with the highest risk for both men and women. Previous research has suggested that the risk of unhappiness and depression stays relatively constant throughout life.However, the latest finding - of a peak risk in middle age - was consistent around the globe, and in all types of people. In the UK 44 is the age that we are most likely to be depressed.

Researcher Professor Andrew Oswald, an economist at the University of Warwick, said: "It happens to men and women, to single and married people, to rich and poor, and to those with and without children."

He said the reason why middle age was a universally vulnerable time was unclear.Professor Oswald said for the average person, the dip in mental health and happiness comes on slowly, not suddenly in a single year.Only in their 50s do most people emerge from the low period.

"But encouragingly, by the time you are 70, if you are still physically fit then on average you are as happy and mentally healthy as a 20-year-old".

Happy retirement roadmap

A most valuable expanding resource is the great deal of evidence that is emerging from the world of Positive Psychology as to the elements of a ‘happy’ life. The chief proponents are offering us new insights into what sages, philosophers, gurus and grandparents have always told us, that happiness does not come from wealth or possessions, but from how we live our life. In his latest book Professor Ed Diener introduces the concept of ‘psychological wealth’. He defines happiness as ‘a subjective well-being’, an individual sense that one’s life is ‘good’. He goes on to establish that this sense of well-being, this ‘happy’ life, is not an end-state, not a destination we arrive and remain at, not a ‘place’, but rather a process of living with some key components in balance in our life. If we can live like this we are ‘psychologically wealthy’ and distinctly richer and happier than someone who is simply ‘financially wealthy’. Single component wealth does not result in a ‘happy’ life
So what are the components of ‘psychological wealth’ and the resulting happiness? Ed Diener’s extensive research suggests these are our positive attitudes towards life and the world around us, the quality of our relationships with family and friends, our health, our involvement in work that we find meaningful and aligned with our values, our spiritual development that commits us to causes that are greater than ourselves, our adequate material resources, a focus on the happiness of ‘now’ (‘smelling the roses’, seeing the positives now rather than aiming at some future happiness). Diener calls this happy state ‘having a balanced portfolio’ and he reminds us that ‘happiness takes work’.
The possibility of combining this awareness with the natural wisdom that comes with ageing gives the 50+'s a great platform for building happy, holistic, portfolio retirements.