How’s this for a self-fulfilling prophecy: If you believe your body and mind will deteriorate as you get older, you may experience more symptoms of your body breaking down.
A recent study reveals that older adults who have a dreary outlook about aging tend to claim poor physical health symptoms more often on days they are experiencing stress compared to less stressful days. However, older people with a more positive perspective about aging seem to have a buffer when it comes to day-to-day stress. They report fewer health symptoms on days they are experiencing stress than usual.
As reported on healthday.com, the lead researcher of the study, Dakota Witzel, said the tie between perceived stress and health is known. But what is newly discovered is how having a more positive outlook about aging can impact the physical symptoms you experience from daily stress.
What this indicates is that people may want to reframe for themselves how they think about aging. To learn more about the study, which was published in Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences, and about how to shift how you perceive physical symptoms, you can read the full healthday.com article here.
Read more:
Canada Needs a National Aging Strategy
