A FRIEND SAID he recoiled when a copy of Saga magazine (a British-based magazine for the over 50s) arrived in his post. As a joke, a family member bought him a subscription for his 50th birthday. He said, ‘It was the worst present, ever. I have always seen Saga as an ‘old peoples’ magazine appealing to a bunch of geriatrics less health-conscious and less adventurous than the people I know. It’s the kind of magazine that is not relevant to me, over 50, fit and getting on with life. People like me in their 40s, 50s, 60s see themselves as much younger, physically, much more youthful, and more able.’
He, like myself, see Super-A as getting ahead of the ageing game with fitness as the ultimate goal; ours is a demographic shift that will transform our world. Longer lifespans will be the most dramatic story of our age and will alter the balance of power between growing old and slowing the ageing process—forcing people to rethink the whole notion of ageing. Super-A’s have created an extended middle age — totally different from 30 years ago. Super-A’s are people who are biologically younger than their actual age and have a longer, healthier life expectancy. They are changing society’s view of what it means to be old.
They are no longer old just because they have reached age 65. Super-A’s have reframed ageing to focus on life expectancy, so there is less ageing going on. Life expectancy increased 20 times faster between 1970 and 2011 than it had done between 1841 and 1970. It’s now levelling off again in the UK and US, partly due to obesity. Society hasn’t caught up, and many employers remain reluctant to hire people over 50, assuming they are dull plodders.
On the islands of Ikaria in Greece and Okinawa in Japan, where people live exceptionally long lives with low levels of stroke and dementia, they continue to fish or look after grandchildren until they die. In the West, we create bingo games or coffee mornings to forestall loneliness — but we forget to help people feel needed. Super-A’s make the most effective trainers for more mature people; providing motivation, mentoring skills, empathy, and teaching abilities from experience.
Several studies worldwide have identified exercise as the single most powerful predictor of whether we will age well. Researchers at King’s College London who studied two groups of endurance cyclists — those aged 55 to 79, and those in their twenties — found the two groups had very similar immune systems, strength, and muscle mass. They could not tell how old the cyclists were by looking at the physiological data, only by their physical appearance. Further evidence comes from the amateur World Masters Games (for athletes over 30). The path of natural biological ageing is changing.
Sustained athletic performance improvements have led to questions – and answered many questions – about the path of real biological change. But for exercise to become a mandatory behaviour, it will need doctors to be able to prescribe fitness regimes as a form of preventative medicine, and for governments to vilify ‘junk food’ in the same way as tobacco. With help, there are many ways people can improve their odds of enjoying the time they have left.
We may not be able to outwit fate all togethe, but Super-A’s are immeasurably improving the quality of life and redefining our notion of “old”.
