Sex, stress and decisions: 11 things that improve as we age

No it’s not all downhill after midlife. This is a list of the unexpected joys you have to look forward to with ageing.

Ageing is often associated with deterioration – of health, fitness, even mental outlook.

But not everything is doomed to get worse as the years go by. Here are some aspects of our health and fitness that get better from midlife onwards:

1) YOU ARE LESS LIKELY TO BE ANXIOUS

Older people tend to have lower levels of anxiety and the Mental Health Foundation says that, from a peak of 28 per cent of 16 to 29-year-olds, incidence of anxiety decreases steadily, with those aged 70 and over “the least likely group” to suffer.

You can look forward to not feeling so anxious.

In 2023 a brain-imaging study of healthy adults aged 21-85 in NeuroImage journal showed that two interconnected regions of the brain called the dorsal and rostral anterior cingulate cortex, which is involved in processing emotions, was less activated in older adults when they were shown images of faces with negative emotions.

According to the Yale University team that led the trial, it suggests that older adults develop ways of quickly processing negative emotions, which reduces anxiety levels.

2) YOU CAN BE PHYSICALLY STRONGER THAN EVER, EVEN AFTER 60

We all know by now that muscle mass declines with age on a trajectory that, unless addressed, leads to frailty. But however old you are, it is possible to become stronger than ever. For studies in Frontiers in Physiology, a group of researchers at the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland asked a group of 65 to 75-year-olds to embark on twice-weekly full-body resistance training designed to boost their muscular strength. After three months of supervised weights sessions, they were assigned to continue with the workouts once, twice or three times a week while a control group did nothing.

Getting older doesn't mean you have to get weaker, too.

Six months later even the once-a-week weightlifters had better strength as well as significant improvements in body composition (a higher muscle-to-fat ratio), cholesterol and blood sugar control. “It is never too late to weight train,” says Dalton Wong, the personal trainer. “If you have never done it before, it is possible to become stronger than you have been previously.”

3) WOMEN MAY GET FEWER MIGRAINES

Migraines are two to three times more prevalent in women than men, according to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, with incidence often peaking in midlife but dropping from 60 onwards.

Women who get migraines may stop as they age.

“Migraines can be related to certain triggers and may be exacerbated by hormone levels, the menstrual cycle and the menopause,” says Dr Dan Baumgardt, a GP and senior lecturer in the school of physiology, pharmacology and neuroscience at the University of Bristol.

“Often after the menopause, when oestrogen and progesterone levels have fallen and stabilised, sufferers see a positive change in the intensity and frequency of migraines. The same can also apply to cluster headaches [debilitating headaches that occur in cycles].”

4) YOUR BODY MIGHT BECOME BETTER AT HANDLING STRESS

Juggling jobs, families and financial pressures creates a high daily stress load in our twenties, thirties and forties, which decreases dramatically when these stressors reduce as we age. At the same time emotional resilience improves the older we get.

According to the Centre for Policy on Ageing, resilience in old age is defined as the ability to “bounce back” to a state of equilibrium that comes from learning how to cope with and overcome adversity long term. Several studies, including one from the University of Manchester, have shown that over-64s are at least as resilient, if not more so, than people under the age of 26. Physically our body’s ability to deal with stress might improve too. Psychologists at Ghent University and the University of Geneva found that during lab-based stress tests, a group of 65 to 84-year-olds not only reported feeling less stressed, but had lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol and a lower heart rate reaction than 18 to 30-year-olds.

5) YOUR BRAIN MIGHT BECOME SHARPER – DECLINE IS NOT INEVITABLE

A decline in brain function is not necessarily our destiny as we age, as neuroscientists reported in a study of 702 participants aged 58 to 98 published in Nature Human Behaviour.

They found that two key brain functions involved in decision-making, navigation and memory (orienting and executive inhibition) can improve as people get older.

When driving a car, for example, orienting comes into play when attention shifts to any unexpected movement, such as a pedestrian or bike.

Executive inhibition helps to block out distractions to stay focused on the road.

Joao Verissimo, an assistant professor at the University of Lisbon and lead author of the study, says that both brain functions are skills developed with lifelong practice and can become strong enough to outweigh any underlying cognitive decline.

You might get less distracted when you drive.

6) MUSCLE RECOVERY GETS FASTER

From our mid-thirties onwards we wage a battle against gradual age-related muscle loss, or sarcopenia, that only accelerates as we progress through the decades. But a team of British exercise scientists has overturned the widespread belief that older muscles are less resilient and slower to recuperate after a hard workout. Reporting recently in the Journal of Aging and Physical Activity, they showed how older muscles experience significantly less soreness and fewer biochemical signs of damage than more youthful counterparts. Contrary to expectation, results showed that post-workout soreness was consistently lower in the over-35s, with reductions of about 34 per cent after 48 hours and 62 per cent at 72 hours compared with those in the 18-25 age bracket.

Dr Lawrence Hayes, a lecturer in physiology at Lancaster University, measured creatine kinase (CK) levels, a marker of damage to muscle cells, in the blood of participants. Typically these can take one to three days to return to normal, and until now it was believed that the process took longer past middle age. Yet in this study CK levels taken approximately 24 hours after exercise were shown to be 28 per cent lower in older adults than in the under-25s. “We can now dispel some myths – so they won’t take longer to recover, won’t feel sorer and won’t lose function for longer than they did at a younger age,” Hayes says.

7) SEX IS MORE ENJOYABLE FROM THE MID-FIFTIES ONWARDS

The actor Emma Thompson, 66, recently said: “You need sex because it’s part of your health plan, if you like. It should really be on the NHS. It should. It’s so good for you.”

She should have added that sex is also more satisfying from our mid-fifties onwards.

Fifty-four per cent of men and 31 per cent of women over 70 in England are sexually active, with a third of these having frequent sex – at least twice a month – according to data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing published in the journal Archives of Sexual Behaviour.

It is also likely to be the best sex of their lives for many, with a study in Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics finding that both men and women reported higher satisfaction with sex as they aged.

There are 11 things that you can look forward to as you get older.

Elsewhere, psychologists at the University of California discovered that women aged 55 to 80-plus reported higher orgasm satisfaction, even if levels of physical arousal had declined. “Sex and masturbation are good for us and can indeed become more satisfying as we age,” says Joyce Harper, professor of reproductive science at University College London.

“We should make it a priority in our lives.”

8) YOUR MEMORY CAN IMPROVE WITH AGE

Our brains reach peak capacity in our twenties and from then on slowly get smaller, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that all aspects of memory will deteriorate. Researchers, including those reporting in Psychology of Ageing journal, have shown that while our episodic memory (recollection of past experiences) tends to decline with age, our semantic memory (the ability to recall facts and general knowledge) remains relatively stable – and can even get stronger. Examples of semantic memory include language, vocabulary and numbers. Your procedural memory, such as the ability to ride a bike or use a keyboard, also remains stable, according to research at the University of Illinois.

9) YOU WILL PROBABLY BE HAPPIER

Older people tend to be happier with their lot in life, according to a study of 1000 people led by Susan Charles, a professor of psychological science at the University of California, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Life in old age is often more stable, enabling us to focus more on the present and less on planning for the future, and people tend to feel more satisfied with their close friends and family members, Charles found in her research lasting over two decades.

You may feel happier and more content.

“This mindset is one possible explanation for high levels of wellbeing later in life,” she says. Another study of 1,546 adults aged 21-100 in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry showed that feelings of life satisfaction, wellbeing and happiness improved from 21 through to the nineties.

10) YOUR APPROACH TO EXERCISE IS BETTER

According to the most recent Sport England Active Lives Survey, activity levels for those aged 55-plus are the highest since records began a decade ago – and, what is more, it is those aged over 75 who are driving the upward trend. About 43 per cent of people aged over 75 are physically active, meaning they average 150 minutes of physical activity per week, compared to just 33.4 per cent during the year to November 2016. The proportion of 16 to 35-year olds who are active is 2.3 per cent down on 2015-16. “There has been a huge growth in activity levels for older adults,” says Nick Pontefract, chief strategy officer at Sport England. “This is helping to support people to live healthier and happier lives.”

People who are older are getting better at exercising.

11) YOU REALLY DO GET WISER WITH AGE

The adage that with age comes wisdom is true according to a growing body of researchers. One paper from the University of Michigan, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggested that over-60s were better able to resolve social conflicts largely because of their ability to emphasise different perspectives on issues, to compromise, and to recognise the limits of their knowledge.

This article originally appeared on The Times.

Originally published as Sex, stress and decisions: 11 things that improve as we age