Old age begins at 27: Scientists reveal new research into
ageing
Old age is often blamed for causing us to misplace car
keys, forget a word or lose our train of thought.
But new research shows that many well-known effects of
ageing may start decades before our twilight years.
According to scientists, our mental abilities begin to
decline from the age of 27 after reaching a peak at 22.
The researchers studied 2,000 men and women aged 18 to 60
over seven years. The people involved – who were mostly in good health and
well-educated – had to solve visual puzzles, recall words and story details and
spot patterns in letters and symbols.
Similar tests are often used to diagnose mental
disabilities and declines, including dementia.
The research at the University of Virginia, reported in
the academic journal Neurobiology Of Aging, found that in nine out of 12 tests
the average age at which the top performance was achieved was 22.
The first age at which performance was significantly
lower than the peak scores was 27 – for three tests of reasoning, speed of
thought and spatial visualization. Memory was shown to decline from the average
age of 37. In the other tests, poorer results were shown by the age of 42.
Professor Timothy Salt house said the results suggested
that therapies designed to prevent or reverse age-related conditions may need
to start earlier, long before people become pensioners.
He wrote: ‘Results converge on a conclusion that some
aspects of age-related cognitive decline begin in healthy, educated adults when
they are in their 20s and 30s.’
There is some good news, though. The report states that
abilities based on accumulated knowledge, such as performance on tests of vocabulary
or general information, increase until at least the age of 60.
No comments:
Post a Comment