Three Not-So-Bad Things on Aging and Longevity

1. Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack...

We weren’t very good at jumping rope when we were much younger, and considered it a triumph when we didn’t injure ourselves. So we are in awe of the 40+ Double Dutch Club, a rapidly expanding group of women ages 40+ coming together to burnish their double Dutch skills and build community. Since its founding in 2016, the 40+ Double Dutch Club has soared in popularity, with more than 100 chapters around the world, including in Germany, Israel and Canada, and with a Facebook group of fifty-five thousand active members and counting. For many, nostalgia attracts them: “Jumping double Dutch is something we did … all day, every day, until the streetlights came on,” founder Pamela Robinson describes in a recent Washington Post feature. “It was a simpler time, before we had husbands, kids, grandkids, bills.” Double dutch has deep significance for the Black community: although Dutch settlers brought the game to the US (hence the name), it was made popular by African-American girls in urban areas who had fewer opportunities to play sports. "Double Dutch is ‘Black Girl Magic,'" said National Double Dutch League President, Lauren Walker. “Double Dutch is cultured in history of an urban rhythm, ropes and rhyme, an activity that Black girls did in their youth and it has evolved.”

For many, the Double Dutch 40+ Club fosters connections with their communities while combating feelings of social isolation. The loneliness epidemic has taken an especially hard toll on communities of color— where one-third of U.S.adults age 45 and older report feeling lonely, the rates trend higher for older women and women of color. One 2020 study found that roughly a quarter of African Americans reported experiencing social isolation from family and/or friends—and that was based on data collected prior to the pandemic. In creating a space for predominantly Black women to convene, exercise and bond, the 40+ Double Dutch Club addresses social isolation while encouraging physical fitness. Now if they could only teach us the Side Swing Criss-Cross...

2. The next great Marvel movie.

Who doesn’t want to be a superager when they grow up? They are out there, people in their 80s and 90s whose cognitive functions match or exceed someone 20 or even 30 years younger. Superagers, it has long been known, are often characterized by larger hippocampal volume and slower rates of atrophy, and previous studies have suggested that dedication to lifelong learning, exercise, and social relationships are all factors in slowing brain atrophy.

But the values of those studies have been limited by the size of the cohorts. A new Spanish study published in The Lancet, however, describes itself as one of the largest, if not the largest, longitudinal study of superagers to date, and the researchers found a rather unusual set of distinguishing differences between the superagers and a control group of typical agers. What distinguished the groups? There were a number of factors but two stood out to us: learning mattered, but some learning more than others. Musical background was a major differentiator between groups, with superagers more likely to have a musical background than typical older adults. This is consistent with reports that early-life to mid-life formal musical training is associated with high functioning memory later in life.   

The researchers also found that good mental health is one of the superagers strongest traits. Anxiety and depression are not only factors that contribute to, but in the long term become symptoms of, dementia. Superagers evidence more mental resilience all throughout the lifecourse, underlining the importance of good mental health to healthy longevity.

3. And speaking of superheroes...

Texans are proud of saying “Don’t Mess with Texas” but Texans have nothing on the tough old ladies of the north woods of Maine. Case in point: 87-year old Marjorie Perkins. Last week, Majorie awoke to hear an intruder breaking into her home. Rather than cower, she “jump[ed] into her shoes” and proceeded to whack the intruder with a chair. The erstwhile burglar retreated, though not before complaining of hunger. Marjorie may be tough, but she is generous as well. Before chasing the man out of her house, she fed him two tangerines and two containers of Ensure—a high energy and nutritious meal for any miscreant. Local police arrested the young offender shortly thereafter.

This episode had a happy ending but the tough truth is that many seniors face similar attacks, and not many turn out well. In a 2018 report from the National Center for the Victims of Crime, researchers estimated that approximately 10% of older adults over age 60 experienced some form of elder abuse in the past year. In a 2012 study of elder abuse in Tennessee, one in every ten burglary victims were 65 years or older, while more than 46 percent of robbery offenses against the elderly occur at home. We don’t like to think of seniors as victims by any measure but we should acknowledge the heightened vulnerability to some classes of crimes, and make plans accordingly. Check out some resources to help prevent crime from taking place in your own home here—and don’t forget to stock up on Ensure.

Which Not-So-Bad Thing surprised you the most? Let us know in the comments!