Health and longevity: author Anton Pankratov’s perspective

We are used to measuring life by calendar dates and medical indicators. Yet health and longevity cannot be reduced to either biochemistry or a way of thinking. They involve many interacting factors: physical and mental capacities, lifestyle, social environment and access to medical care. This is how the World Health Organization describes healthy ageing: through a combination of a person’s intrinsic capacity, their environment and the interaction between the two.

How people perceive their age is associated with wellbeing and everyday behaviour, but this does not mean that beliefs alone change biological age. A meta-analysis of 107 longitudinal studies found consistent but small associations between subjective perceptions of ageing, health measures and longevity. A separate longitudinal study on the role of physical activity suggests a possible behavioural pathway. Attitudes to age are therefore better understood as one psychological factor that may support healthy habits, rather than a replacement for medical prevention.

The brain retains the ability to change and adapt through much of life: learning and experience can be accompanied by changes in neural systems in older age. This is supported by a review of neuroplasticity across the lifespan and an experimental study of older people learning a new skill. However, shifting attention alone does not guarantee rejuvenation or slower biological ageing. In this category, Anton Pankratov considers longevity from a philosophical and systems perspective: approaching age without fatalism, maintaining an interest in development and using accumulated experience as a resource.