Why Some People Age Slower Than Others

Want to know why some literally age more slowly than others? So do researchers at the geriatric epidemiology section at the National Institute on Aging. As the New York Times reports in part three of a series on aging, some scientists have learned that, in many cases, a single factor — undetected cardiovascular disease — is a major reason people become frail. The piece also tells us that a second finding is just as surprising to skeptical scientists because it seemed to many like a wrongheaded cliché — you’re only as old as you think you are. Rigorous studies are now showing that seeing, or hearing, gloomy nostrums about what it is like to be old can make people walk more slowly, hear and remember less well, and even affect their cardiovascular systems. Positive images of aging have the opposite effects.
Read more in the Times about why some people manage to stay young, and some do not.