Login | April 13, 2026
Getting better with age?
PETE GLADDEN
Published: April 13, 2026
It’s not that uncommon to hear seniors lament about how their mental and physical functions have declined as the years have passed by.
But how many times have you heard seniors say that they actually feel like they’re improving in those parameters as they’ve aged?
I bet not many!
Well, with that in mind here’s a rather interesting news piece.
There’s a quite recent Yale University study out which determined that there’s a significant group of seniors (in the study group) who believe they’ve experienced a measurable improvement in cognitive function, physical function, or both as they’ve aged.
And this begs the question(s): Have these Yale findings everything to do with mindset, or are these seniors really experiencing bonafide improvements in those areas…or could it be that mindset AND measurable improvements are inextricably intertwined?
The Study, “Aging Redefined: Cognitive and Physical Improvement with Positive Age Beliefs,” was just published in the March 4, 2026 edition of “Geriatrics.”
And in this study the researchers concluded that, “45.15% of persons [65 and older in the study] improved in cognitive and/or physical function over this period, and positive age beliefs predicted these two types of improvement, both with and without adjusting for relevant covariates. Our findings underscore the need to instill or magnify the positivity of age beliefs and to redefine aging so that it includes the possibility of improvement.”
Okay, so this study examined twelve year’s worth of information from a large study of older Americans (more than 11,000 participants), of which a significant percentage of those 65 and older displayed measurable gains in cognition, physical ability, or both during the study period.
Now the participant’s functions were measured before, during and after the twelve-year study period via a couple of tests.
The test for cognition was evaluated using a global assessment of mental functioning, and the test for physical ability was assessed by walking speed.
So roughly 32% of the over 65s displayed cognitive improvements, while 28% displayed physical improvements.
They also found that said improvements were closely associated with something else, something not really tangible and measurable - how these senior perceived the aging process in general.
Now according to the study’s lead author, Becca R. Levy, professor of social and behavioral sciences at the Yale School of Public Health, many seniors typically associate the aging process with an inevitable and gradual decline in physical and cognitive abilities.
Yet what they found in the study tends to contradict that generally accepted view.
What’s more, Dr. Levy believes that the Yale study results mesh well with the trove of parallel research projects, so much so that all of this gives more support to her “Stereotype embodiment theory.”
In this theory Levy suggests that all the age-related messaging we take in via the plethora of media sources can, over time and through repetition, actually impact the biological processes taking place in our bodies.
And that conclusion is based upon her earlier studies where she found that seniors who possessed negative views concerning the aging process were more likely to have poorer memory, slower walking speed, increased risk factors for heart disease, and biological markers associated with Alzheimers.
The Yale findings point to just the opposite effect, where Individuals who perceive positive consequences from aging are more likely to experience cognitive and physical improvements as they age.
And the study concludes with Levy saying, “Our findings suggest there is often a reserve capacity for improvement in later life, and because age beliefs are modifiable, this opens the door to interventions at both the individual and societal level.”
So might it be that the mind and body are so inseparably tethered together that merely believing it’s possible to feel better mentally and physically while getting older might actually engineer it into occurring?
Well, that possibility reminds me of a blurb I once read by author and human consciousness guru Dr. John Hagelin, a quantum physicist, science and public policy expert, educator and peace activist.
In that blurb Hagelin said, “Happier thoughts lead to essentially a happier biochemistry. A happier, healthier body. Negative thoughts and stress have been shown to seriously degrade the body and the functioning of the brain, because it's our thoughts and emotions that are continuously reassembling, reorganizing, re-creating our body.”