It’s science: We get happier with age

By Nadine Bells
Good News, March 29, 2011

Seniors relax by the sea in Andernos, Southwestern France
Despite what we might assume about the aging process and the misery anticipated with creaking bones and thinning hair, scientists are reassuring us that we actually grow happier with age.

Lewis Wolpert, 81-year-old emeritus professor of biology at University College London, tracks the happiness life cycle in his book "You're Looking Very Well." He found that those in their teens and twenties were "averagely happy," a state that declines in family-raising and career-building years.

And then things get better:

"But then, from the mid-forties, people tend to become ever more cheerful and optimistic, perhaps reaching a maximum in their late seventies or eighties."

Why the happiness upswing?

There are numerous factors associated with old-age happiness. University College London professor Andrew Steptoe points out that good health and financial security are very important and that greater opportunities and health are benefits to today's seniors that weren't as prevalent in previous decades.

And "good health" doesn't have to mean perfect health. Professor John Bond at Newcastle University points out that advances in medicine combined with healthy relationships can contribute to extended happiness.

He tells the Daily Mail, "Even people with serious degenerative illnesses like Alzheimer's can retain their well-being for a long time if they have good relationships with the people around them."

"In the end, it's your friends and family that count most."

It's been mentioned before that the aging brain can actually improve in the areas of language and decision-making skills. This carries over into how older adults choose to use their time; according to an "emotional selectivity" theory, older adults are determined to make the most of their time, focusing on doing the things they enjoy and rejecting things that don't contribute to happiness.

Loneliness and affluence appear to be major factors. In a study of 341,000 people by the National Academy of Sciences in America, differences between genders and income brackets proved most significant:

"More affluent individuals have fewer depressive symptoms, greater life satisfaction, better quality of life and lower levels of loneliness," the study concludes.

Stay connected, stay healthy and save for the future. The best is yet to come.

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