All posts tagged: ageing

Ronaldo, other ageing stars push limits to make history at World Cup 2026 | World Cup 2026 News

Ronaldo, other ageing stars push limits to make history at World Cup 2026 | World Cup 2026 News

Published by Sam Flores

After playing at Qatar 2022 at age 35, US national team defender Tim Ream thought it was “pretty unlikely” he could play in another World Cup. But he decided he would at least try to stay in the game as long as possible. “Because for me, it’s about pushing boundaries, pushing myself, pushing the limits of what I can physically and emotionally handle,” he told Al Jazeera. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list Last week, Ream was named as the US’s captain for the upcoming football tournament in North America and, at 38, is the oldest ever outfield player in a US World Cup squad. “To be given the honour and the opportunity to wear the captain’s armband in a home World Cup is incredible,” he said. Ream, who played for Bolton Wanderers and Fulham in the Premier League and is now at Major League Soccer (MLS) side Charlotte FC, is one of several outfield players in their late 30s and beyond at the 2026 World Cup; including Portugal superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, 41, …

Active Grandparenting Could Slow Brain Ageing

Active Grandparenting Could Slow Brain Ageing

Published by Sam Flores

Not all of our dementia risk is in our control. But The Lancet’s standing commission on dementia previously found that 45% of factors that can increase our likelihood of developing the condition are “potentially modifiable”. This includes things like not smoking, exercising more often, and controlling high blood pressure. But these might not be the only ways to lower our risk of cognitive decline, sometimes seen as a precursor to dementia. According to research published in Psychology and Ageing, being an active grandparent might slow brain ageing. “Grandparents who provide care for their grandchildren tend to show better cognitive functioning than those who do not” This paper looked at 2,887 grandparents aged 50+ (their average age was 67) who took part in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Researchers asked participants to fill in questionnaires and take cognitive tests three times in the period from 2016-2022. Questions centred on how active grandparents were in their grandchildren’s lives, including by watching them overnight, caring for them while ill, helping them with homework, playing with them, prepping …

Feeling Older Than You Are May Harm Your Sleep And Health

Feeling Older Than You Are May Harm Your Sleep And Health

Published by Sam Flores

You probably already know that good sleep is key to healthy ageing. Researchers have previously linked 6.4 to 7.8 hours’ sleep a night to increased longevity and a lower risk of disease. And new research has suggested that the relationship could go both ways: feeling older might affect our shut-eye, too, which may have knock-on effects on our health. A paper published in Sleep said that “how old you feel is an important predictor of sleep and health across the lifespan”. What did the study find? The research, which involved 3,177 adults with an average age of almost 43, completed surveys which asked them about their subjective age (how old they felt) and chronological age (how old they really were). They were also asked about their sleep quality, including insomnia severity, sleep health, sleep regularity, and sleep-related impairments, as well as whether they had depression or anxiety. They provided self-reported physical health information, too. Researchers calculated the “age discrepancy” of individuals, or the gap between their real age and how old they felt, as well. …

Why you need to future proof your brain in middle age and how to start

Why you need to future proof your brain in middle age and how to start

Published by skeptic

To chart how our brains change over the course of our lives, neuroscientists have focused largely on beginnings and endings: the rapid development and pruning of neural connections in childhood and adolescence, and the degeneration associated with old age. “We kind of skipped over middle age,” says Sebastian Dohm-Hansen, a bioinformatician at University College Cork in Ireland. There are good reasons for that, not least that changes in brain structure and function are easier to spot with neuroimaging when they are at their most extreme. In the case of cognitive decline and dementia, “a lot of what we care about presents most dramatically after the age of 60”, says Dohm-Hansen. But over the past few years, researchers have started to look more closely at the middle-aged brain, identifying a series of subtle but significant changes between the ages of 40 and 65 that mark it out as a vital time to identify problems that won’t manifest until later in life. “Think of midlife as the top of an inverted U-curve,” says Ahmad Hariri, a professor of neuroscience at Duke University …

Hearing loss is bad for the whole body – but new treatments are coming

Hearing loss is bad for the whole body – but new treatments are coming

Published by skeptic

CARL COURT/AFP via Getty Images I’m sitting in a soundproof booth at an audiologist’s office, wearing headphones and straining to hear some faint electronic noises. When I think I’ve heard one, I press a button. It’s really hard. Was that real or did I imagine it? Oh god, I’m going to fail… I’m here because my partner thinks I’m losing my hearing. Apparently I’m always saying “Huh?” when she’s talking to me. I wouldn’t be surprised if I am. Deafness runs in my family and I have probably been to too many loud concerts and spent too much time listening to music via headphones. If I am losing my hearing, I might well lose a lot more besides, including my mental health, my heart health and even my life. Once regarded as a mere inconvenience of getting older, hearing loss is now being recognised as a major public health issue, according to otologist Justin Golub at Columbia University in New York. It is strongly linked to issues from dementia to cardiovascular disease. Fortunately, there are ways to restore the hearing of those who are losing it. There are also promising new-generation drug therapies in the pipeline for a condition that, up …

Why We Should Walk Downhill More Often As We Age

Why We Should Walk Downhill More Often As We Age

Published by Sam Flores

Whether it’s Japanese walking, “Jeffing” or the run-walk-run method, and even “retro walking” to help my knees, it’s safe to say I’m fond of a good stroll. But on a recent hilly Northumberland hike, I noticed my legs felt more strained than usual: my muscles felt a little tenser, and my knees had worked harder. This seemed most extreme after the downhill part of the walk, a change other walkers noticed too. So, I asked experts ob-gyn Dr Suzanne Bartlett Hackenmiller, Chief Medical Advisor at AllTrails, and Fatema Contractor, osteopath and director at The Health Suite in Leicester, whether that post-descent twinge was a good or bad thing. The view on top of a hill Which are the main muscles used in downhill walking? Turns out the difference wasn’t just in my head – “we can often feel different muscles working” during a downhill walk,” Contractor said. Dr Hackenmiller explained that the main muscles worked during a downhill walk include the: These are key for stability, strength, and balance. “Walking downhill gives our muscles an …

From silver travel to gig carers, how 6 changemakers in Asia are reimagining what it means to age

From silver travel to gig carers, how 6 changemakers in Asia are reimagining what it means to age

Published by Sam Flores

“I used to think ageing was something helpless,” said Wang Jing, a volunteer at Seagull Comprehensive Elderly Service Centre. “But after working with these aunties, I’ve witnessed a different kind of retirement living. It’s made me look forward to my retirement with more hope.” EQUIPPING CARERS BETTER In India, one startup is already nurturing a new generation of professional geriatric carers — a crucial workforce for the country’s population of more than 150 million seniors, who largely prefer to age at home. Many of these aspiring carers are young migrants from villages and small towns, drawn to cities in search of opportunity. Once hired, they are expected to adjust quickly to unfamiliar households and deliver efficient care. “This job requires a tremendous emotional equilibrium,” said Ramakrishna Velamuri, the dean of Mahindra University’s School of Management. “To expect that from such young workers is quite unrealistic.” That realisation inspired Anant Kumar and Priya Anant to leave their healthcare jobs and establish Life Circle Health Services, a Hyderabad-based eldercare company that equips trainees with practical and emotional …

How ageing on Earth mimics the effects of space travel

How ageing on Earth mimics the effects of space travel

Published by skeptic

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly spent 340 days in space on one mission NASA One of the most famous thought experiments in physics is the twin paradox, first proposed by Albert Einstein in his 1905 paper on special relativity, and later expanded on by physicist Paul Langevin. It goes something like this. An astronaut leaves Earth and spends a few months travelling through space at almost the speed of light. He has a twin brother who stays on Earth. When the astronaut returns, he finds that his brother has aged decades while he is still young. I don’t claim to understand why this would happen, but it has something to do with the relative passage of time experienced by a fast-moving traveller compared with someone on Earth. Or something. It doesn’t really matter: this is a column about ageing. It is impossible to travel at such speeds, so the twin paradox will remain a thought experiment for the foreseeable future. But something quite similar actually happens in the real world, only in this case, it is …

The mysterious reason why women get hotter from age 18 to 42

The mysterious reason why women get hotter from age 18 to 42

Published by skeptic

Hot flushes are associated with the menopause, but women actually get progressively hotter from the start of adulthood to midlife Dmitry Marchenko/Alamy Resting body temperature rises a little bit each year in women from the age of 18 to 42, for reasons that are still being figured out. The finding opens up the possibility of using temperature-sensing wearables to track ageing and detect perimenopause or potential health problems. “We think there is a lot of information about health in the temperature signal,” says Marie Gombert-Labedens at SRI International, a research institute headquartered in California. “We hope this facilitates investigations to identify novel markers of conditions – it may be an untapped resource of information about our health.” Gombert-Labedens and her colleagues analysed data from a 1990s study that asked more than 750 women aged 18 to 42 to measure their oral or rectal temperature with a thermometer every day when they first woke up. The readings showed that, on average, body temperature was lower during the first half of the participants’ menstrual cycles and higher during the …