How ageism can impact your healthy lifestyle

Jokes about “senior moments” may seem harmless, but such negative stereotypes and ageist attitudes are stressful to the people they’re aimed at. Combating ageism, however, may help you stay healthier longer.

In this article:

• How does ageism affect your health?
• How to combat ageism

You might find yourself chuckling uncomfortably when your grown daughter says your penchant for losing your glasses is just part of the “joy of aging.” Or when a friend teases you, saying that “your advanced age” is the reason you sometimes can’t remember why you got up to walk into the other room. And then, of course, there are endless jibes about the ill effects of advanced age from talk show hosts and all over social media.

“These stereotypes are funny, they’re self-deprecating, but they may have serious consequences for health,” says Julie Ober Allen, PhD, assistant professor at the University of Oklahoma and co-author of a recent study in JAMA Network Open. The study shows that more than 90 percent of older people report having experienced ageism on a regular basis. In fact, according to Alana Officer, the unit head for Demographic Change and Healthy Aging at the World Health Organization (WHO), 50 percent of the world’s population has moderate to high levels of ageist attitudes against older people.

What exactly is ageism? According to the WHO, ageism is prejudice and discrimination towards others — and even ourselves — based on age. Ageism may adversely affect people’s status at the workplace, in health care policies and with interpersonal interactions.

How does ageism affect your health?

“When you hear those types of comments over and over and over again, from health care providers, from service providers, from friends and family and even from yourself, it can become a major source of stress,” Ober Allen says. “Over time, it may start to wear the body down. And that really increases people’s risk for a variety of adverse health outcomes, both physical and mental.”

We absorb these ageist stereotypes sometimes as early as three years old, according to research, and by the time we are old ourselves, may accept them as truth. These negative beliefs “can become scripts we begin acting out,” says Becca Levy, PhD, a Yale University professor of public health and psychology and author of Breaking the Age Code: How Your Beliefs About Aging Determine How Long and Well You Live.

Levy identifies three pathways for ageism’s effect on health.

Biological

Levy’s research has found that negative health beliefs are correlated with higher levels of cortisol and C-reactive protein in the blood, which may be indicators of stress, she says. Increased stress can lead to inflammation, which is linked to heart disease and stroke.

Behavioral

If you take in the negative age belief from our society — that aging is a time of decline and think there’s nothing you can do to combat this — then you’re less likely to be proactive, Levy says. That might include abandoning good health practices, like getting exercise and eating a nutritious diet, and may lead you to believe that medication or other medical advice will make no difference.

Psychological

Your self-esteem takes a hit after repeatedly hearing messages that suggest you can’t contribute to society, and that, according to Levy’s research, can lead to depression and other mental health problems. Her research has also found that negative stereotypes may adversely affect memory and cognition.

Positive beliefs about aging can improve your health and may even help buffer you against diseases like dementia.

How to combat ageism

So how can you combat the negative beliefs associated with ageism when they are so pervasive? Levy suggests the ABC approach to improve your beliefs about aging and, ultimately, your health:

1. Be AWARE of these negative messages and the power that they have. Notice when you hear them in conversation or on TV or when you read them in a publication.
2. BLAME ageism not aging. If you misplaced your keys, ageism suggests it’s because you’re old and forgetful. But you might have misplaced your keys when you were in your thirties, too. Your absentmindedness may be a symptom of a distracted moment in your day not of aging, Levy says.
3. CHALLENGE the stereotypes. Levy’s research has found that older people who actively confront ageism are less likely to develop depression and anxiety. It may seem awkward to point out ageism when someone levels it at you, but it’s important to fight back against this practice. If you don’t, you can begin to “think yourself old,” says Barbara Waxman, MS, MPA, PCC, a life-stage coach, gerontologist and member of the Stanford Center on Longevity Advisory Council.

“We no longer have to be defined by a chronological number,” Waxman says. “We’ve added roughly 30 years to life expectancy over the past 120 years. Those years don’t show up as more years of being frail; they show up as years in the middle of our lives. We’ve expanded not just our life expectancy but our health span, too.”

And that way, those of us who are older can be the ones who get the last laugh.

*This content is for informational purposes only and is not medical advice. Consult with your health care provider before taking any vitamins or supplements, and prior to beginning or changing any health care practices.