Long Life Learning

POSTS

Far from driving you mad (April 2025)

Those of us who drive, can often be found telling tales of how frustrating driving can be on today’s busy roads and how the inconsiderate actions of other drivers can ‘drive us mad’. However, research shows that driving also taxes the brain in a way which helps to keep it healthy and that when you get behind the wheel of a car, you are already participating in a very healthy brain-workout!

When driving, both your occipital lobe and temporal lobes are taking in visual and auditory information arriving through your eyes and ears before being collected and integrated by the parietal lobe. This part of the brain is also crucial for judging spatial relationships, which is an important aspect of driving. However, this is not the end position - all that information is then coordinated and sent to the frontal lobe for interpretation and decision-making so we carry out actions to keep us safe and on track.

In this way, the brain is fully engaged and active which ensures it is not simply left idle. Driving also uses our ability to focus and this is critical for making good decisions quickly, connecting neural pathways, and growing new ‘grey matter’ which is responsible for memory, speech, coordination, and muscle control. Even in later life, research has shown that our brain cells can be increased. Whether it’s focusing on one task at a time, learning new skills or repeating particular actions over and over, we can train our brains for better performance and driving provides a good ‘work out’.

Finally, as well as improving cognitive functions, driving can also aid our wellbeing. One obvious benefit of driving a car is that it provides an innate feeling of freedom, which boosts wellbeing by enabling individuals to make their own decisions of when and where to travel – something that should not be underestimated. This is especially true if making such decisions is a way to tackle loneliness. Driving can open-up ways to social interaction enabling access to community activities and paying visits to friends and family. So driving can be maddening at times but it can also bolster intellectual and emotional functions and lift your mood at the same time.

Goal Setting for Older People (March 2025)

 Throughout most of life, setting goals is promoted as a valuable way to make progress not only in our work and careers, but also against personal ambitions we set ourselves. They are seen as ‘steps along the way’ and signposts showing the progress we have made. The reaching of each goal can instil in us a warm sense of achievement and wellbeing.

However, we do not read or hear as much about the setting of goals in later-life. It is as if all that someone could do has already been achieved or, perhaps, giving a sense that it is ‘too late to start now’. However, the benefits of goal setting are equally valuable to older people and should be both encouraged and supported throughout the life course.

There are many examples of people writing their first novel in later life. For example, Frank McCourt started writing at age 66 and won the Pulitzer Prize when he was in his sixties. It was for his book, Angela’s Ashes, which he published in 1996. It was based on his own impoverished childhood in Ireland and adult struggles in New York.

At the same time, Anna Mary Robertson Moses, better known by her nickname Grandma Moses, began her painting career at age 78. Painting was always a dream but her busy life as a wife, farm labourer and mother meant she didn’t have the chance to pursue her dream until later in life.

Indeed, Ray Kroc, who’s name is not universally known, found success in the fast-food industry when he was 59 years old. He bought his first McDonald’s restaurant from the McDonald brothers and went on to lead it into a global franchise and the world’s most successful fast-food corporation.

Goal setting for seniors can motivate individuals to lead the lives they really want. Most goals can be adapted to suit the individual’s needs and limitations by setting longer timescales, engaging more support or tapping into the expertise and experience of others. Setting targets can often help to break a challenge into manageable parts and help it to remain exciting and energy-giving.

Goals themselves can range from simply being able to walk or do other exercises more fulsomely to being better at communicating with family and friends. They can be used to enable someone to take the step to sign up to a local group or society o, perhaps, take a class on art or other subjects that bring that spark to a life. In fact, after retirement, and into later years, is actually a really great time to set personal goals because retirees are no longer bound by responsibilities like work and raising children as once they were. We should continue to want to make the most of the time and energy we have, and goal setting can certainly help.

It is helpful to start by focusing on one goal at a time and being very clear about what your purpose is and how working on it will enrich your life. However, it is also important for such goals to realistically match abilities - if a goal becomes too exaggerated it may lead to disappointment and discouragement. So start small and work up to more ambitious expectations. You never know just how far you might go !

Quizzing is a Puzzle (February 2025)

It is more self-evident than ever that as we get older, it becomes increasingly important to strengthen not only our bodies, but also our minds. For many, one easy way to accomplish this is by taking part in quizzes and playing trivia games. The benefits are quite easy to understand and are well supported by evidence.

For example, taking part in trivia games can be fun, and participation comes with mental and / or social benefits. This can be by playing solo internet trivia games or with one or two people at home tackling Trivial Pursuit or taking part in a trivia night at the pub. According to the Healthline website, trivia players experience a pleasant rush of dopamine when they know the answer to a question. This surge of feel-good chemicals in the brain is similar to the effect experienced while gambling. Unlike gambling, however, trivia doesn’t come with any negative consequences like addiction or getting into financial distress. 

Trivia is also seen as a ‘workout for the mind’ as it exercises the parts of the brain responsible for memory function, which, in turn, improves cognitive skills and problem-solving abilities. In fact, people who participate in mentally and socially stimulating activities enjoy greater cognitive function than those who don’t. Finally, some working in this field also suggest that getting together with friends in a relaxed environment is a great way to boost happiness and reduce stress. For adults in isolation, this is perhaps the most valuable element of trivia as it offers the opportunity to socialise with others.

However, recent involvement in this area has left me puzzled and led me to temper my wholehearted support for quizzing in later life. Firstly, older adults can feel stressed when they cannot remember an answer they once knew. They can be left with a feeling of being ‘less able’ than they used to be. Secondly comes a sense of underachievement, of not being able to reach heights they expected to reach even when the questions asked are well beyond what could reasonably be expected of them. Finally, there can be a sense of letting other people down in a team setting, which can be stressful for an individual and lead to them withdrawing from fully participating for fear of ‘showing themselves up’.

So, let us be mindful that later life is a country where we need to tread carefully. Yes, we should embrace quizzes to gain the benefits from them but ones, I suggest, that have three characteristics when involving those in later life. Firstly, leave plenty of thinking time before moving on to the next question. Secondly, ensure that the questions are appropriate for the age and experiences of the audience and finally, organise the quiz so that, perhaps, it does not single out individuals unnecessarily. In this way, the answer to the question are quizzes good for you in later life would undoubtably be ‘yes’ !

Adult education may lower the risk of dementia (January 2025)

I was pleased to read that research has identified that taking an adult education class could help lower the risk of developing dementia. It suggests that middle-aged and senior citizens in adult education have a 19% reduced chance of developing the condition within five years. Claims of the benefits of learning in later life are too often apocryphal so it is important to receive more substantive evidence.

The authors, Dr Hikaru Takeuchi and Dr Ryuta Kawashima, are both professors at the Institute of Development, Ageing and Cancer at Tohaku University and their research consisted of analysing data from 282,421 people in the UK Biobank, which holds genetic, health, and medical information from approximately half a million British volunteers. Each had enrolled between 2006 and 2010, when they were between 40 and 69, and had been followed up for an average of seven years at the time of the new study. The findings also suggest that people who took the classes kept up their fluid intelligence – the ability to reason quickly and to think abstractly – and non-verbal reasoning performance better than peers who did not.

Dr Hikaru Takeuchi stated that the research showed ‘that people who take adult education classes have a lower risk of developing dementia five years later. Adult education is likewise associated with better preservation of non-verbal reasoning with increasing age.’

Those enrolled in the study were given psychological and cognitive tests, for example for fluid intelligence, visuospatial memory and reaction time and according to the study published in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 1.1% of people in the sample developed dementia over the course of the study. It also found that people who were taking part in adult education, at enrolment, had this 19% lower risk of developing dementia than participants who did not.

Dr Kawashima said: ‘One possibility is that engaging in intellectual activities has positive results on the nervous system, which in turn may prevent dementia. However, Dr Kawashima also accepted that this research is an observational longitudinal study and so if a direct causal relationship exists between adult education and a lower risk of dementia, it could be in either direction. In other words,  those not suffering from some form of mental impairment are more likely to sign up for learning opportunities.

Listening to the Voices of Later-life Learners (December 2024)

Having worked in education throughout my career from teaching in primary and secondary schools to being a school inspector and eventually Director of Education for a large London borough, on retirement I sought to improve the quality of learning for adults in later life as I had done for young people in schools and colleges previously.

To do so, I carried out research under the guidance of the Institute of Education in London to find out what older learners themselves consider to be the type of learning they would want to experience. I found the process very enjoyable, the people taking part very open and the findings very instructive. So much so that I put the thoughts of these later-life learners into a book, shown above, with the intention to help all those involved in learning to improve. It has now been published.

In Quality Learning for Positive Ageing, the opinions of older adult learners have been valued and captured so anyone can readily understand the factors that contribute to ‘quality’ in later-life learning and how these relate to wellbeing, positive ageing, and gaining protection against cognitive decline. Through capturing and considering the viewpoints of learners, facilitators and learning organisations, the findings outlined 28 specific characteristics of quality that learners associate with informal learning and how it can be enhanced through the adoption of simple strategies. Key topics covered in the book include the implications of an increasing ageing population and barriers to older people learning as well as the cognitive, mental wellbeing, health, and social benefits of learning in later life.

The book is Illustrated throughout with vignettes of real later-life learners so that the text is both accessible and thought-provoking in highlighting what learners themselves say can maximise the benefits of learning in later life for every one of them. At the same time, the research identified how tutors or speakers can create learning opportunities that embody the characteristics of quality, and even how providers, such as SUES, can easily construct a learning environment that readily allows quality learning to flourish. Such provision happens in schools for children and universities for young adults. As the Forward of the book suggests, if the quality of learning is of such importance for those members of society, shouldn’t it be important for all ?

Celebrating the Past  - Looking to the Future (November 2024)

It was a pleasure to join in the 150-year celebrations at The Institute of Continuing Education at Madingley Hall, part of Cambridge University. It was there in 1873 that a journey leading to ‘a system of higher education in the various parts of the country’ began. The main proponent of such an initiative was James Stuart who led the university to carry out a two-year experiment focusing on delivering courses to adults – women and men – of the working and middle classes ‘who had left school’.

The first extension classes were delivered that same year in Derby, Leicester and Nottingham by tutors who, like Stuart, were fellows of Trinity College. Further societies were formed in London and Oxford over the following years and the model of university-led extension education subsequently spread across the world enabling life-wide open access for millions of adults at many of the world’s leading higher education establishments.

It is sobering to think that today only one university extension society remains, in Southport in North west England, very few universities have retained departments of continuing education and the levels of adult education provision in society has been drastically cut over recent years. The opportunities that once existed are simply not available to people today.

 If the flame lit by James Stuart, fellow educationalists and suffragists such as Anne Clough and Josephine Butler, all those years ago remains alight, it is only just. It is sobering to think that something they fought so hard to create and, cooperatively, to achieve, has been let go so readily and passively. Perhaps at this time of celebrating the past, we can consider how universities and other educational institutions might once again come together to create learning opportunities for those most in need in a way that would be worth celebrating in the future.

Incidental Learning – As Important as Education (October 2024)

An article by Adrian Childs in The Guardian discussed the issue of a new phenomenon in British pub life. It is that queuing at the bar has suddenly become prevalent. As this is still Great Britain we are talking about, then the queuing is orderly and generally good-natured; the issue is just that it has started at all.

Up to now, people went to the bar to get a drink, and waited their turn. They kept an eye on who was before them and who came after. They then helped the barmaid or barman to ensure people were served in their turn. At the same time, they struck up conversations and contributed to the light-hearted banter that arose. If someone did go out of turn, there was a collective approach to sorting out the situation until order returned.

It has been suggested that queuing started with the coronavirus pandemic when social distancing, and therefore queuing and being set apart from one another, became the norm. However, should we not be back to normal with the seeming chaos at the bar being politely policed by the community itself? Shouldn’t the rites and rituals being involved continue to be passed from one generation to another?

This gives rise to considering just how do such conventions get passed down – where does this ‘incidental learning’ happen and how do we know it still takes place? Perhaps the first indications are when it does not – when the cult of the individual overrides that of the community and the big, loud, rich or scheming get their own way at the bar as, some suggest, they seem to do more and more in life. Is ‘tradition’ becoming another victim of the changes in society.

Kund Illeris, in his book Adult education and adult learning in 2004, termed incidental learning ‘everyday learning’ and described it as ‘an accidental by-product of doing something else, including everyday living’. It might be suggested that society and communities will not fall apart if children and adults get less educated in subjects such as mathematics and rely more and more on calculators and other electronic aids. However, it may gradually fall apart if we do not value incidental learning and continue to enable new generations to learn in such a way about tolerance, community spirit and selflessness – even if only at the bar!

What is learning for ? (September 2024)

One politician was caused some controversy recently when he suggested over-50s should consider taking up food delivery work as a form of income following a visit to Deliveroo’s London headquarters. He went on to say that such flexible jobs provided ‘great opportunities’. Evidently, Deliveroo has already recorded a 62% increase in riders aged over 50 since 2021.

 His comments came after the release of statistics indicating that since the pandemic there has been a sharp rise in the number of economically inactive people; those who are neither working nor looking for work. This equates to about 8.6 million people in the UK – equivalent to one in five working adults – and more than 3.4 million of them are over 50 but under the retirement age.

The controversy has largely centred around a government minister promoting the ‘gig economy’ with its long hours, lack of a pension or holiday pay and no sick pay. As an educational gerontologist I am more concerned with how this approach reflects education and learning in our society and what it says about the direction of society as a whole.

According to independent research carried out by the Learning and Work Institute, the number of adult learners taking courses plummeted from 3.2 million in 2010 to 1.6 million in 2021. In other words, the number of adults participating in further education and skills training has halved (-48%) since the present government took office. According to the TUC, who commissioned this research, opportunities for those looking to retrain and reboot their careers have “dwindled massively” over the last 12 years and that learners from deprived areas have seen the biggest drop in participation over recent years.

Knowing the benefits of later-life learning, it is disappointing that ministers are not doing something to improve this situation rather than suggesting those in later life (over 50 years of age) should spend their time delivering food to others. This is a skill they had mastered while still at primary school so what is the purpose of education up to 16 ? With the drive to raise standards at school, and the level of qualifications across society as a whole, surely the emphasis should be on using this acquired knowledge either to work at a higher level or continue an involvement in skill development and learning. Where are the opportunities to use their talents, and not be ‘economically inactive’ ?

Clearly, those living in deprived areas are the ones who are probably going to be in the market for employment in later life and they are the ones not being engaged in learning and not benefitting from doing so. Instead of using their time to get small amounts of money, often below the minimum wage, and getting stressed by competing for delivery slots, learning and similar activities would reduce their dependence on health and social services as social prescribing by doctors testifies. The wages they may receive may reduce their government social security funding in the short term but it will have to put more funding in to health and social care in the long term.

So in a ‘modern’ society, let’s have a ‘modern’ solution of how to use the minds, skills and increased levels of ability of the over 50s – they should be spending the latter part of their lives adding value to themselves and to society - thriving, not just surviving.

When is Learning, Learning? (August 2024)

I was recently reading the Age UK website when it displayed an article both informing people about u3a (formally known as University of the Third Age) and extolling the benefits of it. It started off by stating that while ‘many organisations offer learning and development courses. u3a is uniquely for older people’. In doing so it clearly associated u3a with the process of learning while also ‘giving you the opportunity to meet and make new friends who share the same interests or lifestyle’.

It goes on the describe the way u3a works as a ‘network of learning groups aimed at encouraging older people to share their knowledge, skills and interests in a friendly environment’. It praises what u3a has to offer, being positive about the fact that ‘there are no exams and no homework, just regular lessons or study groups. It's learning for fun, not with the aim of gaining qualifications’. However, for a critical educational gerontologist such as I, such simple and poor thinking raises serious questions.

Just how are the u3a sessions ‘tailored uniquely for older people’ ?

Having been in many such sessions, the tutors are overwhelmingly without training in educational gerontology, and many have no teaching background at all. This is no problem per se, but it is certainly not a situation where the learning needs of older people, unlike those of children and young adults, are understood and addressed by the people leading the session. Even Age UK itself describes each group having only a ‘volunteer leader or co-ordinator who has a particular interest or expertise in the particular subject.’  - not only no background in pedagogy or andragogy but maybe not even expertise.

Is this really learning ?

According to Susan Ambrose and her colleagues in How Learning Works (2010), learning is “a process that leads to change, which occurs as a result of experience and increases the potential for improved performance and future learning” They go on to say that ‘such changes in the learner may happen at the level of knowledge, attitude or behaviour’. In u3a sessions, levels of knowledge, understanding and abilities are typically neither measured at the start nor at the end of periods of time, so change is unable to be measured. The extent to which any learning at all is occurring is doubtful especially where a lack of forms of assessment, such as exams, is praised.

Can learning involving assessment or homework not be fun ?

Scenarios where finding our what someone knows is seen as not only not worthwhile but not a ‘fun’ thing to do can, however, be challenged. I have just finished leading a course with a group of later-life learners who both attempted and enjoyed the homework I set between sessions. Not only did going over the answers at the start of the next sessions reintroduce and re-enforce previous learning, it provided an opportunity to laugh together at misunderstandings, which disarmed any notions of being a ‘failure’ by not knowing something.

What is really the cost ?

The ‘fees are often lower than those of most adult education courses’ because each u3a is run by volunteers. There are often no overheads either as sessions are held in cost-free places such as learners’ homes and events shy away from more costly learning forms such as science with the demands on materials and equipment. Learning in later life simply mirrors society currently where volunteers have replaced what was state supported endeavours from tending to parks, staffing hospices to leading learning. In such ways, without practitioners having appropriate qualifications, training and dedication, quality declines. So Age UK and other such organisations should be more circumspect before labelling organisations as ‘learning’ when seeking to advise the very cohort of society they are seeking to support.

Lessons in Learning (July 2024)

Writing some time ago in Forbes Magazine, Brandon Busteed commented on the good and bad news associated with Lifelong learning. He was asserting that ‘with rapidly changing technology, the speed at which businesses must operate to be competitive in a global economy and with human life expectancy rising steadily, it’s clear that lifelong learning will become essential for humans to remain relevant in the workplace’.

However he goes on to lament that there is little evidence that lifelong learning can be taught – certainly that any organisation has mastered if for their own workforce. This is despite continual learning being less of an option or aspiration but more of a necessity for all in the future. He references an IBM report that predicts more than 120 million people will need up-skilling or re-skilling in the three years following its publication and that the average length of training needed to close skills gaps will have increased from 3 days to 36 days in just five years hence.

As the life span of humans increases (projections from a 2015 United Nations report indicate that average lifespans in the U.S. will reach 95 years for females and 90 years for males in the U.S. by 2050) it will also become common for workers to retire in their 80’s, which involves extending their working years dramatically. It is clear that there is no clear plan to deal with this situation and marry the need for up-skilling with the longevity of the workforce. The words “lifelong learning” are among the most commonly used in many university and college mission statements but there is no measurement in place to judge just how the education they receive early in their adult life translate to continuous learning.

In fact, adjunct research suggests that learning is not the same for everyone in later life. Recent Gallup research on innate talent and strengths-based development, makes a strong case that some humans are born with “learner” talent. That is, learning comes more intuitively and naturally to them than it does to others. Other research has identified that post-graduate degree holders are the most likely to be involved in lifelong learning, perhaps because they have a predisposition for learning and have been involved in the process for longer as adults. Even bachelor’s degrees are not guarantees for becoming lifelong learners.

The solution is to put learning at the very heart of every aspect of a society from birth to death. Allowing people to drop out of learning early in life, allowing businesses to renege on their obligations to train their workforce and to put up barriers to continue or return to learning in later life by reducing opportunities or charging fees are counter-productive. We cannot allow the notion of a ‘few’ in society flourishing while the ‘many’ wither away being as true is as true in ‘education and learning’ as it is elsewhere. As we know those who learn and gain qualifications are more productive, more likely to contribute to society and communities they live in and lead healthier lives needing less state support, surely the case is overwhelming. We must foster a love of learning from the start so we all live well and achieve a happy end.

Alone not Lonely – how can learning help ? (June 2024)

In recent times, and especially since the worldwide Coronavirus pandemic, there has been a greater societal awareness of the scale of loneliness in communities and the disproportionate impact it has on the physical and mental health of the elderly. It has also been associated with depression; sleep problems, impaired cognition and mental health problems.

Most elderly people prefer to remain in their own homes as they age, but one of the risks of this can be a lack of social activity. By the time they are in their eighties, many elderly people are widows or widowers– and their social networks can often shrink for other reasons as well, from ageing siblings and friends who may have died to grown up children who may have moved away. Health problems that might make it difficult for them to go out and do the things they enjoy, such as dementia, can also compound someone’s loneliness and feelings of isolation.

As Age UK’s Charity Director, Caroline Abrahams, once said: “Loneliness blights the lives of over a million older people, with many going for weeks without any meaningful human contact. It is a serious condition, which can be enormously damaging, both mentally and physically. However, it’s time that people stopped thinking about loneliness as an inevitable part of ageing.” One of best ways to ensure that an elderly person has a connected life and learning can provide opportunities for people to come together. Having friendly faces around, and a consistent programme to follow, may make all the difference to a person who needs some support in maintaining an independent life.

Many organisations provide sessions where people in later life gather to listen to someone share their experience and expertise about a subject from art to science and from gardening to banjo playing. There is often a more social side too either formally or informally taking in rambling, theatre trips or simply coffee mornings. Regular contact and socialising are defences against loneliness and isolation and where physical visits are difficult to do regularly due to distance, then sessions over Zoom, for example, have been very beneficial. Introducing other video messaging forms, such as Skype, help people to keep connected, engaged and cognitively active, especially for the elderly.

Now we know a computer with a camera is a valuable bridge to anyone, it is imperative that such skills and opportunities are afforded to everyone. Surely it is worth ensuring all elderly people how to use a computer and access video messaging and how to gain the most from their mobile phones including elements such as WhatsApp. Loneliness is also costly whether it is the expense of prescribing drugs and medicines for those people suffering from depression due to loneliness and or the strain on the limited resources available through social services. Therefore it would be cost-effective for the government and other agencies to provide such learning opportunities - and do it now before it is too late both for society as a whole and for the individual people suffering today.

Laughter – Life’s Natural Medicine (May 2024)

It is often said that learning is fun but too often we can watch presentations or attend activities that don’t feel pleasurable and researching or reading to learn can be a downbeat and isolating activity. However, research has shown over recent years that it is not only fun to laugh, and laugh with others, but there are tangible physical, mental and social benefits too.

Adult life is more serious and therefore adults laugh a great deal less than children and older adults least of all. In doing so, those in later life simply miss out on the gains to be made from laughing and at a time when they would benefit most by improving their health. We all have the ability to laugh readily and frequently, which is a tremendous way of overcoming problems, strengthening relationships and feeling better. Best of all, the medicine of laughter is enjoyable, does not cost anything and is readily available to all.

When we laugh, the whole body relaxes by relieving tension and leaving muscles relaxed. It also boosts the body’s immune system by decreasing levels of stress hormones and increasing immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies making us more resistance to disease. Laughter goes on to trigger the release of endorphins, the body's natural feel-good chemicals, and also protects the heart by increasing blood flow, which can help protect against both heart attacks and associated heart problems. Laughing is good emotionally too. It drives away anger, puts problems into perspective and enables anyone to move on from confrontations without holding on to resentment.

Studies into laughter have shown how it can help people to stay mentally healthy by making them feel good and be positive even after the laughter stops. Humour cultivates a positive and optimistic view of life even in difficult situations and can even help overcome loss. Laughing with others is especially powerful as it is contagious - just hearing laughter positively affects the brain and prepares the listener to smile and join in the fun. Laughter, therefore, draws you closer to others and the more laughter you bring into your own life, the happier you and those around you will feel.

Research has highlighted that most laughter doesn't come from hearing jokes, but rather simply from spending time with friends and family. And it's this social aspect that plays such an important role in the health benefits of laughter. Finally, the ability to laugh, play, and have fun not only makes life more enjoyable but also helps you solve problems, connect with others, and think more creatively. People who bring humour and playfulness into their daily lives find that it refreshes them and all of their relationships too.

Perhaps the most compelling argument for laughter is that it may even help you to live longer. Research in Norway found that people with a strong sense of humour outlive those who don't laugh as much. So let us keep on learning throughout life but, just as importantly, let us also seek to do so with people and in situations that foster enjoyment and promote laughter. In this way, we will glean all the benefits available and look forward to the longest life possible.

Let’s Begin Again (April 2024)

Having grandchildren is quite inspirational. They come to things new, at the beginning, and you can enjoy the journey with them. In fact you can share some of the thrill and excitement of new learning when you tackle something you know nothing about together.

To young children, starting something new and tackling something they have never done before, brings excitement and verve; in adults such learning can all too often cause nervousness and worry. Interestingly that worry can come from a number of factors: a feel of failure, memories of difficulties trying previously or simply concern about what other people might think about what they do or produce.

Children, on the other hand, see the world with fresh eyes and are not burdened with preconceptions and past experiences – no standards against which to be judged (and found wanting) and are less guided by what they know to be true. They are more likely to ask questions unencumbered by a fear of looking foolish. Adults often think of not starting as they consider themselves coming to something they should have already learned or are now too old to be successful. Indeed, there is a certain comfort, or safety, in sticking with what we are already good at. However, Thomas Edison considered mistakes as opportunities to learn when he said that ‘Every mistake improves us in some way or the other. I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.’

Even children, after around the age of 12, begin to lose the ability to come at something anew with no baggage. Researchers suggest that as we age, people start relying more on ‘internal models of cognition and reasoning’ instead of just what they see and consequently ‘overthink things’. This is not necessarily a good thing. In their book leading for a Lifetime, Warren Bennis and Robert Thomas, identified successful leaders as sharing one over-riding quality – ‘neoteny’. This quality is defined as ‘the retention of youthful qualities by adults’. They go on to explain that this characteristic:

‘ … is more than retaining a youthful appearance …. but the retention of those wonderful qualities we associate with youth: curiosity, playfulness, eagerness, fearlessness, warmth, energy. In doing so they [successful leaders] remain open, willing to take risks, hungry for knowledge and experience, courageous and eager to see what the new day brings.’ The authors assert that neoteny is a metaphor for the quality – the gift – that keeps the fortunate of whatever age focused on all the marvellous undiscovered things to come.

 Indeed, such a quality has been recognised in successful people themselves. Walt Disney, for example, was both described as ‘innocence in action’ and considered himself someone who ‘still looks at the world with uncontaminated wonder’. At the same time, Henry Ford thought that  ‘anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.’ So in this spirit, let us carry on learning and in doing so learn as a child come to things fresh and get the rush of raw excitement that comes from simply beginning.

Inequalities in later life (March 2024)

A few years ago, a report from the Centre for Ageing Better (CAB) focused on ‘inequalities’ in later life. It started from the premise that

‘ … a good later life is something we should expect for everyone. It should not be conditional on where we live or how much money we have, nor should our gender, race, disability or sexuality determine the quality of our later life. And yet, for too many of us, the experience of later life is difficult and challenging. As a society, we are very far away from this aspiration.’

Indeed, within the findings from this research was that amongst people aged between 46 and 65 years old, those in the highest 20% income bracket have a household income about three times greater than the bottom 20%.

The report concluded that inequalities in later life can be the product of cumulative advantage or disadvantage over time. People born at a similar point in time may have very different outcomes in later life due to experiences over the life course including poor education. This can be compounded when people reach later life by factors such as reduced income in retirement and the impact of multiple long-term conditions. Looking at the life course is a useful lens through which to think about solutions, namely when and how to intervene to reduce inequalities in later life, say, through providing learning.

 Multiple factors, therefore, combine and overlap to influence individual and group experiences of later life. The Adult Participation in Learning Survey in 2022 shows that around two in five (42%) adults have taken part in learning in the last three years. This is a slight drop (-3 percentage points) compared to the previous year’s survey, but in line with rates seen in the early 2000s after recent years of much lower participation. Recent rises have been driven by more people learning informally including online, after Government cuts had led to falls in participation in courses.

However, the latest data showed that adults in lower socio-economic groups (DE) are twice as likely to not have participated in learning since leaving full-time education than those in higher socio-economic groups (AB). This ‘class penalty’ in learning has persisted since the survey started and shown little sign of narrowing. At the same time, the survey also showed that the gap between the highest and lowest performing geographical regions has widened. London has by far the highest rate of adult participation in learning at 56%, compared to 35% in South West England – a 21 percentage-point difference compared to a 17-percentage point difference in 2019.

It also went on to highlight that the Learning and Work Institute’s analysis of the current government’s financial strategy suggests investment in adult learning in England will be £1 billion lower in 2025 than in 2010. If we are committed to addressing equality in all aspects of life, surely we should also be concerned about inequalities in educational opportunities in general and in later life in particular. After all, what value is learning if it does not change us and, where possible, we do not act on what we have learned ?

First Know Thyself ! (February 2024)

Ageing can bring about changes in normal sleeping patterns – we can become sleepy earlier, wake up earlier, or experience less deep sleep. However, disturbed sleep, constantly waking up tired and symptoms of insomnia are not a normal part of ageing. Sleep is just as important to physical and emotional health to the aged as it is to the young.

A good night’s sleep improves concentration, aids memory formation, allows the body to repair cell damage that occurred during the day and refreshes the body’s immune system. This in turn helps to prevent disease. Older adults who don’t sleep well are more likely to suffer from depression, attention and memory problems, excessive daytime sleepiness and serious health problems. These problems include an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and weight problems.

However, how you feel in the morning is more important than a specific number of hours. Frequently waking up not feeling rested or feeling tired during the day, are the best indications that one’s not getting enough sleep. Simple tips can help you identify and overcome age-related sleep problems, get a good night’s rest, and improve waking life such as:

·                Stick to a sleep schedule or regular pattern

·                Pay attention to items you eat and drink

·                Do not go to bed hungry or too full

·                Create a restful environment by keeping your room cool, dark and quiet

·                Limit any daytime naps

·                Include some physical activity in your daily routine

·                Manage the worries in your life

·                Avoid alcohol before bedtime

However, the question is, where do those in later life go to learn about such simple, everyday matters ? How do they become informed so they can take steps that lead to healthier lives and reduce the need for support from medical or social care professionals ? What role should local and national institutions play in providing such accessible learning opportunities ? Later life learning is not just about art appreciation, wine tasting, history walks or art classes. It is about continuing to learn about ourselves, understand how we change as we age and know what we can do to improve the quality of the lives we have. Quality learning can improve so much more than just the brain.

Where are we now – where are we going ? (January 2024)

The 26th Learning and Work Institute’s Adult Participation in Learning Survey was released to coincide with Lifelong Learning Week. This particular survey is the longest running and most detailed way in which an understanding of adult learning is secured. As such, it deserves both detailed reading and responsible comment.

 First of all, after many years of raising concerns, this survey does provide some positive news. It outlines that just over two in five adults say they’ve taken part in learning over the last three years based on the survey’s broad definition of learning. This position reinforces the recovery in adult learning seen during and since the pandemic, albeit after years of decline.

 The previous decade (2010s) involved 10 years of declining Government funding and systemic cuts that led to falling participation in learning. However, and somewhat surprisingly to many, the pandemic ignited a renewed focus on, and interest in, lifelong learning boosted by people learning independently and often online. The decrease in opportunities for adults to gather together to learn coincided with increased participation in learning through the Internet generally or via Zoom more specifically. The survey suggests that such interest has now been sustained for a further year and is showing no signs of falling despite the return to a more normal way of life. For many adults, learning is now more accessible and more readily available.

 Despite this good news, the survey also highlights problems still needing attention. One is the continuing deficit in funding and other investment in adult education. Analysis by the Learning and Work Institute (LWI) highlights the fact that the adult skills budget in England will be £1 billion lower in 2025 than in 2010. This means that 63% fewer adults will be able to improve their literacy and numeracy each year, despite, the LWI suggest, one in five adults needing to do so. At the same time, the investment in education and training provided by or through employers is down 28% per person compared to 2005 and remains skewed toward the already highly qualified. Such a state of affairs significantly restricts both individual opportunity and general productivity and at a time when the skills base in the UK still lags behind many comparator countries.

 A further problem is that the persistent inequalities in learning participation, evident over many years, by age, socioeconomic group, and region persist. This is clearly a social justice issue and talent, evenly distributed across the country, is going to waste. As a result, there is a massive constraint on prosperity at the same time as people’s opportunities are limited based simply on who they are and where they are from.

 To end on a more optimistic note, Lifelong Learning Week itself has highlighted many good practices and personal success stories in both the adult education sphere and adult learning in general. It is to be hoped future Adult Participation in Learning Surveys continue to report increases in participation across the board.

First Know Yourself (December 2023)

 The aphorism ‘first know thyself’ is often attributed to ancient Greek philosophers but has direct relevance to people today in general and to would be learners in later life in particular. Many authors and researchers have written about the barriers to learning in older adults and a number have suggested how each might be overcome. However, this is a general treatise and it would be more helpful if individuals were to identify those barriers that are obstacles in their own lives and to look for bespoke ways to address them.

 The barriers are often categorised as external (or situational) or internal (or dispositional). The former are ones often seen as ‘beyond the individual’s control’ from the trials of ageing to lack of local opportunities while the latter ‘reflect personal attitudes’ including being anxious about participating or feeling negative about their own abilities to learn.

 However, Marina Falasca, through her research at Universidad Tecnológica Nacional in Argentine, is of the opinion that ‘despite these barriers, research has shown that adult learners of any age can learn and succeed in their pursuits if they are afforded the opportunity, assistance and support they need.’ She goes further to suggest that ‘in order for older educators to be successful in doing so, they should resort to strategies such as seeing support for learners as an entitlement, not an optional extra and to suit adults’ circumstances and schedules.’

 Tackling the personal attitudes of individuals towards participation in learning in later life, however, demands more from the individuals concerned and they first of all need to understand what are the external factors prevalent in their situation and what are those internal factors that they can control themselves. They may need some help in doing so, otherwise they would be learners already, and this is often best given by older learners who are, or have been, of the same mindsets but who have overcome their own ‘barriers’. In such a way the benefits of learning in later life can be gained by all and the experience of how to overcome obstacles to be beneficially shared with others.

 Organisations or individuals involved in providing learning opportunities should, perhaps, consider how they can best engage their learners to use their experiences to recruit other learners and help them to ‘know themselves’ better. in fact, learners themselves may be the best of the resources we have to do so.

Reasons to Be Cheerful (November 2023)

The Conversation is an independent source of news analysis and informed comment written by academic experts, working with professional journalists. The Conversation aims to provide the expert insight needed to better understand current affairs and the complex issues we face. A recent article focussed on adult education accepting that it has often been associated with evening classes for older people, such as the wonderful non-formal educational opportunities provided by organisations like U3A. Nevertheless, the article continued to recognise that there is huge value in learning at all stages of life, including for those in their twenties and thirties – for work, self development, health, happiness and participation in wider community life.

Colleges and universities provide opportunities that include short courses, evening classes, fully online distance-programmes and work-based learning. Adults can study for pleasure, to gain a professional development certificate, or to complete a full undergraduate or postgraduate degree, or even a PhD. As has been alluded to in previous blogs, research has demonstrated the positive impact of lifelong learning. Its transformative effects include developing critical and reflective skills, fostering a better understanding of our place in the world and our relationship to others, and developing a more secure and fulfilled sense of wellbeing.

The Conversation article went on to suggest four reasons to think about studying something new – even if you are at the start of your career.

1. The idea of a career has changed

Many of the jobs advertised today would not even have existed when today’s 30-year-olds were in school. While the idea of a “career for life” has not disappeared entirely, the rapid pace and scale of change means that we are more and more likely to move around considerably during a working lifetime. Stability, predictability and incremental progression have given way to careers that can be fractured, complex, messy and unpredictable. Lifelong learning provides a wide variety of in-work and out-of-work opportunities for people to develop their skills or learn new ones. It provides varied opportunities for adults who didn’t gain qualifications at school to re-enter formal education.

2. There are financial incentives

The current government’s plan to introduce a lifelong loan entitlement is just one way that future learners may be able to fund their study. Other options are already available, such as degree apprenticeships, which allow learners to study while employed. These relatively new courses with a salary, no course fees to pay and blocks of learning related to employment are proving understandably popular – especially in digital technologies, leadership, social work and engineering.

3. Learning has become much more flexible

The last few years have seen an increased emphasis on flexibility, enabling adult learners to fit study around their work and family commitments. The pandemic too has driven a rapid increase in the quality and quantity of wholly online courses. There is now a vast array of opportunities to study from home, either through a traditional university or through specialist online providers. Another avenue enables learners to gain micro-credentials, which allow them to complete short, specific, work-based courses on-line or in person – without the commitment of enrolling on a full three-year programme. Moreover, the credits achieved can normally count towards a degree for those that want to carry on studying.

4. It is good for your wellbeing

Adult learners bring life experiences and established perspectives with them when they start a course. Active, participatory and discursive learning environments enable them to draw on these experiences, contextualise and interrogate them, and learn from one another. Educational research has shown us that such transformational learning results in happier, healthier individuals, who have stronger social networks and enhanced family lives. These positive individual outcomes ripple throughout their families and friendship groups, and even across communities and society.

So The Conversation article presented not just four good reasons to continue learning but four reasons to be cheerful in doing so !

Let’s Talk about The Age-Friendly University Network (October 2023)

Last year was the tenth anniversary of the creation of the Age-Friendly University (AFU) network. This partnership consists of institutions of higher education around the globe that have endorsed the 10 AFU Principles and committed themselves to becoming more age-friendly in their programs and policies. The AFU Principles reflect the work of an international, interdisciplinary team that was convened by Professor Brían MacCraith, then President at Dublin City University (DCU), in 2012 to identify the distinctive contributions institutions of higher education can make in responding to the interests and needs of an ageing population.

 Associated institutions are provided with the opportunity to learn about emerging age-friendly efforts and to contribute to an educational movement of social, personal, and economic benefit to students of all ages and institutions of higher education alike. The AFU Network recognises that ‘the number of older adults is growing annually at unprecedented rates and significantly more individuals are experiencing increased longevity.’ It then suggests that institutions for higher education need to ‘respond to the educational needs and interests of this emerging age population’ by calling for new opportunities and innovative practices of teaching, research, and community engagement.

 It is pleasing to know that joining the AFU network of global partners offers institutions the opportunity to learn about emerging age-friendly efforts and to contribute to an educational movement of social, personal, and economic benefit to students of all ages and institutions of higher education alike. However, it is less pleasing to talk to a number of providers of later life learning recently and, indeed many learners themselves, who have no knowledge of this organisation or its work. Therefore, the likelihood of older adults not currently involved in learning (the majority) being positively influenced by institutions working to the laudable AFU Principles is very low indeed. What is needed, perhaps, is a bigger conversation about the benefits of learning in later life in general and the significant role universities and other institutions of higher education can play in particular. It is only when principles are turned into actions that their true benefit can be realised both by those giving and those receiving.

Robot Companions to Combat Loneliness (September 2023)

Loneliness remains a problem both emotionally and physically. This is particularly true for people in later life who are more likely than younger people to find themselves alone or isolated and have less psychological and physical resilience to cope well with the problems it can bring.

In the USA, officials in the state of New York are trialling a new approach by offering robot companions to more than 800 senior citizens in a bid to combat social isolation. The New York State Office for the Aging (NYSOFA) will work with local partners to identify older adults who would most benefit from the technology, which a voice-operated smart device known as ElliQ.

The device consists of an interactive robot paired with a tablet in order to ‘help foster independence and provide support for older adults," a NYSOFA official said. It is designed to carry out daily check-ins, suggest health and wellness tasks such as sleep relaxation and physical exercises, remind users to take their medication, and help them stay in touch with family and friends. Surprisingly, it can also "proactively suggests" activities and initiate conversations, using artificial intelligence (AI) to foster a sense of relationship.

NYSOFA Director Greg Olsen said:

‘Despite misconceptions and generalisations, older adults embrace new technology, especially when they see it is designed by older adults to meet their needs. For those who experience some form of isolation and wish to age in place, ElliQ is a powerful complement to traditional forms of social interaction and support from professional or family caregivers’.

Produced by Israel-based start-up Intuition Robotics, the ElliQ device is marketed by the company as a "sidekick for healthier, happier ageing". It was launched for commercial sale in March this year. In fact, researchers are increasingly turning to robots for solutions as cases of social isolation and loneliness rise among older populations. Such feelings are widespread, with some countries reporting that up to one in three older people feel lonely, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). In Europe, robots have already been trialled here in UK care homes in a bid to try and boost mental health and reduce loneliness.

Although any improvement in the lives of those feeling lonely and isolated is welcome, especially when it embraces new technologies, this approach does raise questions for society as a whole. It would take an enormous number of robots to tackle the requirements of all those in need and probably at quite an expense too. In these days of dwindling budgets and rising costs, will it happen or can we not create some low cost, easily managed solutions involving people in communities getting together to banish the scourge of loneliness as well ?

Let No-one be Left Behind (August 2023)

We often hear the phase ‘no child left behind’ as a way of encapsulating a society’s focus on the educational needs of every child being met so they can have the same life choices as their peers. However when it comes to older people, this altruistic approach is far from being evident.

In society as a whole we would hope that more people than ever are technologically literate and connected through a plethora of ‘smart’ devices on a daily basis. However, this may not be a totally accurate picture of what is happening with older people in the UK. In light of a new piece of research completed by Age UK at the tail end of last year, it would seem that there hasn’t been a dramatic revolution in online activity with the over-65s. Of those older people questioned who did use the Internet pre-pandemic, around 10% said they now use it less. What is more concerning, however, is that the report states 42% of this age group don’t use the Internet at all. In fact, according to an assertion by The Centre for Ageing Better, 5 million over-55s are not digitally literate and don’t use online services.

This should be a concern to us all as throughout the pandemic of 2020 and 2021, many businesses, public services and entertainment companies put their products, services, advice and procedures online. Increasingly, people’s social lives, leisure time, medical or health services and communication with loved ones have moved online. However, without the appropriate aptitudes in digital technology, how can older people access these services to overcome the challenges of entering a whole new digital world?

To cope with the demands of society today, older people need an array of digital skills simply to play a full part in the daily life of society. Lots of over-65s have plenty of digital literacy. They may have a smartphone, tablet or internet-based entertainment facilities in their home. However, there is a large proportion of this age group that is not completely familiar with all the necessary abilities to access everything required for a full life Helpfully, The Tech Partnership’s Basic Digital Framework outlines five key skills that enable people, and older people, to stay connected with the world:

1. Accessing Information - researching and saving information

2. Communication - creating messages and using email

3. Transacting - purchasing items and services online and baking too

4. Problem Solving - using services to gain information and solve problems

5. Creating - completing online application forms, or creating new content

As with many aspects of life, it is those less educated and financially secure who suffer the most from change as this report also highlighted that 40% of all low-digital, low-financial capability adults were aged over 60, shining a light on the real need for an increased digital awareness in this group. In some cases, public services and businesses have started to become more aware of the lack of inclusion for older people in the digital landscape. As a result, many charities and companies are offering accessible courses to teach seniors how to develop digital skills and apply these practically online. However, without a national approach, locally delivered and with appropriate practical and financial support, many people in later life will be left unskilled in this digital age. As a result, they will be more isolated, be in need of a greater range of support and be unable to play a significant part in the very society they helped to create. They will be ‘left behind’.

Volunteering and Volunteers (July 2023)

 It has long been recognised that being social is good for a person’s mental health and general wellbeing. This is particularly so in later life where the incidences of loneliness are increased and the consequences on health, including cognitive decline, are greater. At the same time volunteering is altruistic providing participants with a ‘feel good’ factor and giving rise to positive effects on self fulfilment, self-esteem and life satisfaction while helping those they are volunteering for: a win-win situation.

 However, to volunteer you have to have the availability, confidence and sometimes resources to be able to do so. Not all people in later life have the capacity needed and the volunteer pool is therefore self-selecting and unhelpfully small. Good causes have fewer volunteers to draw on and those older adults that might benefit most from volunteering do not do so.

 Interestingly, a new study from Belgium, Recruiting Older Volunteers (Sarah Drury, Dominique Verte, Tine Buffel, Liesbeth De Donder and Nico De Witte, 2022) draws attention to another significant factor standing in the way of volunteering – the environment. This study used data collected from the Belgian Ageing Studies and the findings stress the need for recognising the importance of ‘locality’ when recruiting older adults for volunteer activities.

Next to the number of older people that already participate in voluntary work, scholars have pointed out the importance of taking into account  ‘recruitment potential’, i.e. the number of older people that do not volunteer but are willing to do so. In Belgium, for instance, it is found that there is a considerable potential for recruiting older people into volunteering but the main reason why people don’t volunteer is because they haven’t been asked. Typically, over 80% of volunteers have been recruited through other members, as word-of-mouth appears to be one of the most effective recruitment campaigns - the most common one being neighbours telling neighbours.

 The results of this study demonstrate that older people, who indicate that they are willing to become a volunteer in the future, leave their home more often during the evening and feel more involved in their neighbourhood. Previous research shows that volunteering is a way for people to become integrated into their community but these findings suggest a reverse relation: people who feel involved in the neighbourhood will more likely declare that they want to become a volunteer. It is not merely the quantity or the satisfaction with contacts with neighbours, which are important, but the dynamics and social activities in the neighbourhood.

These results point towards the need for voluntary organisations and policies to invest not just in the individual resources of people but also into the social life in the neighbourhood. In later life, networks shrink, participation in society reduces and time spent outside of the home decreases. If more older people are to be exposed to the benefits of volunteering, their neighbourhoods have to be re-imagined so these people have places to leave their homes to go to and activities to participate in. In this way they will become participants in general before participating as volunteers.

When is entitlement really entitlement ? (June 2023)

 It is well known and understood that average life expectancy around the world is on the rise and in richer countries, such as the United kingdom, quite significantly where already more than eighty per cent of people reach the state pension age of sixty-six. It is also well understood that learning in later life brings many benefits to both the individual involved and to society as a whole. The question remains, however, about how society should adapt over the coming years to ensure increasing numbers of elderly people are reaping the benefits of continuous learning.

 The government has recently consulted on a Lifelong Loan Entitlement (LLE) and the responses closed this month. Under these proposals, people would be provided with a loan entitlement to the equivalent of four years of post-18 education to use over their lifetime. The intention is to give people the opportunity to study, train, re-train and up-skill throughout their lives, primarily to respond to changing skills needs and employment.

 Phoenix Insights, a new longevity think tank, commissioned Public First to conduct a survey of UK adults to find out what they thought of these proposals. In addition, they engaged with focus groups of people who may want, or need to, retrain because they were in a declining sector, or people who had already made a career move.

What they found was that although the public were broadly in favour of the core aim of the LLE there was strong apprehension towards the loan element involved and also its name. Those consulted often had negative views of the current loan scheme for higher education students with its tales of being debt ridden for many years after graduating. They were also were concerned about incurring debt in mid-life especially if that debt was likely to be passed on to their children.

Patrick Thomson, the Head of Research, Analysis and Policy at Phoenix Insights, summarised these concerns when he said:

 ‘Overall, the government’s proposals will be key for individuals living and working longer, for employers facing skills shortages, and an economy facing productivity challenges. However, more work needs to be done to make this a genuinely attractive and workable proposition for people, especially those in mid to late career, to take up the offer.’

Once again, a loan scheme attached to education is proving to be a barrier to access to learning and such a linkage can under-mind the cause of ‘entitlement’. There are countries in Europe where there is free access to life long learning or, where this is linked to employment opportunities, the costs become tax deductible for the business or individual concerned. In the UK we have yet to arrive at a structure that provides an effective method that addresses the issue of a rising average age to a real entitlement for such people to gain the many benefits of learning in later life.

How to keep your brain sharp in your 60s and beyond (May 2023)

If research has now shown that there is no reason to think that our mental performance should decline in midlife, we could ask the question, what are the best ways to maintain it? Fortunately, a recent publication, entitled Age Proof, has provided us with some answers.

As a professor of medical gerontology at Trinity College, Dublin, Professor Rose Anne Kenny has spent 35 years researching the scientific causes and consequences of ageing on the brain and her book is based on recent and relevant research information. She points out that previous studies on brain ageing have tended to compare one group of adults in their 20s with another group in their 60s or 70s. If those in their 70s performed worse than their younger counterparts, researchers would sometimes assume that mental performance steadily fell in the intervening years. However, a recent study from Heidelberg University instead looked at a spectrum of ages – and found that mental performance is far steadier than previously thought. It is also possible today’s 60-year-old is simply more mentally agile, on average, than somebody who was 60 in the 1970s or 1980s. Our exposure to technology has probably boosted our cognitive functions, as has the increasing popularity of puzzles and brain games. In Age Proof, Professor Kenny highlights three areas to focus on in order to keep minds sharp.

(1)       Exercise

One sure fire way to boost your brain health in later life, she says, is through exercise. We know that physical activity increases brain flow, which helps to wash toxins away from your brain. Exercise also releases a number of beneficial neurotransmitters and endorphins, like serotonin (known as the “happiness molecule”). All of these chemicals help our brain to concentrate and store memories. When researchers scan volunteers’ brains before and after the introduction of regular exercise, we see parts of the brain growing in size. In fact, the hippocampus region, responsible for memory, expands.

(2)       Diet

Foods like walnuts, ginger, and turmeric are potentially helpful “brain boosting” foods. Poor diet is linked strongly to weight gain and obesity, which causes chronic inflammation in the brain. Research suggests the best food for the brain comes from a Mediterranean diet of plant-based foods, including plenty of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, herbs, and spices.

There’s also some interesting newer research pointing to foods like walnuts, ginger, and turmeric as potentially helpful “brain boosting” foods. It’s thought that the antioxidant qualities of ginger reduce brain inflammation. Finally, even if you are overweight or obese, all hope is not lost. A high level of physical activity can seriously counteract the negative effects on the brain, even for those who remain technically overweight.

(3)       Social engagement

Meeting friends is a de-stressing ritual. When trying to boost your brain health, it’s difficult to overstate the importance of human contact. Meeting friends (or even just enjoying time with strangers) is a de-stressing ritual, sending our levels of cortisol (known as the “stress hormone”) down. At the same time, our body increases production of “feel-good” hormones, giving you the same feeling you might get after going for a vigorous jog. These hormones help soothe inflammation in our brain.

Professor Duffy highlights the research from Boston University focussing on the post-mortems of people whose brains showed evidence of structural change as a result of Alzheimer’s. Researchers divided them into two groups – those who suffered from long-term social isolation in their later years, and those who regularly had contact with others. All of the brains showed structural changes linked to Alzheimer’s but only in the brains of those who experienced isolation did those brain changes actually translate into symptoms of Alzheimer’s. The people who had regular contact with others managed to sail through with their mental performance intact, despite the changes in their brains. 

Highlighting Learning After 60 (April 2023)

A great many words have been written in recent times about the value of learning in later life. Many of them have been based on scientific findings but some are simply apocryphal. So I was pleased to read an article by Dr Dan Brennan on the COMPASS website, one which supports healthy ageing, that provided some details of recent and relevant research for those learning over the age of 60. It certainly debunked the myth that on reaching later life you are too old to learn new things.

Dr Brennan identified a study that looked at adults aged 58 to 86 who took three to five new classes for 3 months. They increased their mental abilities to the level of people 30 years younger after just a month and a half. This highlights the fact children and young people are not necessarily more capable of learning than older people, just that they are in education, which means they spend a lot of time regularly learning new things. By contrast, an associated survey of people over the age of 40 found that 50% do not learn anything new every week despite this research identifying that they are just as capable of learning.

It is true that some things come harder to our brains as we age but there are also things that older brains do better. As you age, your brain changes the way it works. It may not be as fast as it was, but often the more of our brain is used to accomplish certain tasks. Lower levels of testosterone in men and women, also means that older brains are better at impulse control so after midlife, mood swings are less likely to interfere with thinking and decision-making. 

In fact, the article goes on to suggest that as you get older, you get better in some abilities simply because you've had more experience. Here are some things that are suggested might improve with age: 

·     Verbal abilities as throughout life, people continue to expand their vocabulary and improve their ability to communicate, 

·     Inductive reasoning as older people are more likely to be less inclined to rush to judgment and so reach more balanced decisions,

·     Visual-spatial skills as the ability to judge where and how things move in space may well improve with experience and therefore age, 

·     Basic mathematics as people have simply had a lot more practice at it than someone younger. 

This research challenges the assumptions of many people, even some older people that learning cannot be done well in later life. So let’s move forward and enjoy the benefits of learning more; not only new facts but also considering new viewpoints, trying new things to do or exploring new ideas. After all, it turns out that those in later life are really rather good at it !

The Altruistic Nature of Older Learning (March 2023)

I was interested to read the paper from researchers at the Universities of Birmingham and Oxford that compared and contrasted the nature of learning of older learners with that of younger people. It concluded that although older adults may be slower to learn actions and behaviours that benefit themselves, they are just as capable as younger people of learning behaviours that benefit others. Younger people in contrast, tend to learn much faster when they are making choices that benefit themselves. 

The study, which was published last year in Nature Communications, focused on reinforcement learning, which is a type of learning in which we make decisions based on the positive outcomes from earlier choices. It allows us to adapt our choices to our environment by learning the associations between choices and their outcomes. Dr Patricia Lockwood, a senior author on the paper at the University of Birmingham’s School of Psychology and centre for Human Brain Health explained reinforcement learning as ‘ ... one of the key ways in which humans – as well as animals and even plants – learn from and adapt to their environment.  We need to make decisions and learn all the time based on the positive or negative feedback we receive. This allows us to optimise our choices to choose the best course of action in the future from many possible alternatives.’

The research identified that older adults are worse than younger adults at learning from positive feedback on their own behaviour. However, surprisingly, when making choices that give positive feedback, such as financial reward, to another person, older adults are just as good as younger adults. The results revealed that, on average, the older group learned to choose the most advantageous option more slowly than the younger group when their selections would only benefit themselves. However, when making choices on behalf of another person, older people learned equally as fast as the younger group. Across all age groups, the researchers found that learning was slowest when the points weren’t worth anything.

Dr Jo Cutler, lead author and also at the University of Birmingham, said: ‘We recognise that in general, cognitive processes and learning ability tend to get worse as people get older. So it’s really interesting to see that when making choices that will benefit others, older adults’ learning ability is preserved. By better understanding what motivates older people in this way, we can contribute to strategies that promote healthy ageing.’

Later Life Learning – A Necessity ! (February 2023)

One of the major questions most governments are grappling with at the moment is how their economies will pay for their ageing populations. This is due to the increase in numbers of older people (largely non-workers) and the decrease in the proportion of younger people (largely workers) in their populations. In fact, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), an international organisation that works to build better policies for better lives and whose member countries are amongst the most affluent, noted that in 2017 most of its member countries would have had more people leaving the labour market through retirement than entering work post full-time education.

One way of tackling this up-coming labour shortage is to enable older adults who wish to remain in employment to do so. However, research suggests that ageist stereotypes are presenting barriers to older adults both attaining and retaining employment. Myths such as slow work speed, low adaptability, or low skills take up, especially technological skills, are constantly believed even though evidence has debunked each one. One major myth is that older people are less productive – an untruth that is not helped by ‘celebrity employers’ such as Mark Zuckerberg publicly stating ‘young people are smarter’ without any hard evidence.

In fact in her book “Ageing Societies: Risk and Resilience” Sarah Harper states that:

“ …. between the ages of 20 and 70 there is – believe it or not – negligible decline in physical and mental activity. In general variations within age groups far exceed between age groups’

In fact research has also shown that another myth, that older workers take more sick leave, is also false. Younger workers take much more sick leave and older adults are increasingly healthier. Therefore an extension of working lives would address some of the challenges associated with ageing populations. However, before this can happen, according to Sarah Harper, ‘governments across high-income countries have to address considerable inequalities around health and education’.

Learning in later life, therefore, is not only good for the individual, it is good for the future of the whole country. It would seem to be well worth investing in the continuing education of older members of a society if that society is to have a future at all.

The Value of Learning about Later Life (January 2023)

 A university has recently carried out the first study to examine the brain function of grandmothers’ and has suggested they may be more emotionally connected to their grandchildren than they are to their own sons and daughters. Professor James Rilling, an anthropologist at Emory University in Atlanta and his colleagues, recruited 50 women with at least one biological grandchild aged between three and 12, and used functional magnetic resonance imaging to scan their brains as they looked at photos of that child, the child’s parents, and images of an unrelated child and adult.

“What really jumps out is the activation in areas of the brain associated with emotional empathy,” Rilling said. “That suggests that grandmothers are geared toward feeling what their grandchildren are feeling when they interact with them”

In contrast, when the grandmothers looked at images of their adult child, slightly different brain areas tended to be activated: those associated with cognitive empathy. This could indicate that they were trying to cognitively understand their adult child, rather than experiencing this more direct emotional connection.

“Emotional empathy is when you’re able to feel what someone else is feeling, but cognitive empathy is when you understand at a cognitive level what someone else is feeling and why,” Rilling said.

This could possibly help to explain the experience many grown-up children have of their parents often seeming more excited to see their grandchildren than them. Rilling previously performed a similar exercise with fathers as they looked at pictures of their children. The activation seen in the grandmothers’ emotion processing areas, and in those associated with reward and motivation, was stronger, on average, than the fathers’.

It is pleasing to read of research involving people in later life and to learn more and understand more about an important and increasingly long portion of people’s lives. The more that is revealed, greater the value of older people appears and, in this case, the special role grandmother’s play in the lives of their grandchildren. Such understanding should also give more confidence to older people highlighting what they can do and the value they bring to society. Learning in later life should always include learning about later life so that both individuals and society as a whole can to benefit from what is revealed.

Longevity and the Environment (December 2022) 

During COP26, the United Nations Climate Change conference, there was a significant focus on ways in which the planet and its environment are endangered by a significant number of factors. These range from greenhouse gases and other pollutants in the atmosphere to the pollution of the soil from agricultural and other chemicals to the destruction of wildlife habitats from plastics and other non-biodegradable materials. The overall starting consensus is that it is the actions of mankind that are negatively affecting the environment and it is only by stopping or changing what is currently being done that the Earth will both survive and then thrive.

 Within these overarching threats are some more specific ones such as the exhausting of fossil fuels, the continued dependence on nuclear energy and the increasing consumption of red meat. Each factor is exhaustively researched to identify just how much of a negative impact it has and how changing it can make a positive difference. However, one factor, the increasing life expectancy of the average human, is rarely raised as an issue. No-one would argue for reversing this trend but nevertheless it does have a negative impact that should be recognised especially as it is also one that could be reduced by changes in behaviour.

It is widely understood that since the dawn of Homo sapiens, the extinction of other species has increased at an unprecedented rate. Many scientists agree that extinction rates are from 100 to1000 times greater than they were before the human race existed. Identifying the specific factors driving these extinctions is fiendishly complicated, but a study by scientists from the University of California, Davis and the Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit in the last decade suggested that ’human life expectancy may, in part, be culpable’.

“Increased life expectancy means that people live longer and affect the planet longer; each year is another year of carbon footprint, ecological footprint, use of natural resources, etc.,“ the authors write. “The magnitude of this impact is increased as more people live longer.”

Therefore this gives even more reason why the older generations should play their part is both adopting good environmental behaviours and helping others to lobby against both people and practices that are harming the planet. Fortunately, research in 2009 by Fabio Mariari, highlighted the fact that ’a higher longevity makes people more sympathetic to future generations’ and revealed that those loving longer are willing to invest in environmental quality. This may be partly perhaps, because the better the environment the longer people would expect to live, but there is also an element of altruism too.

Perhaps if older people were educated to be more aware of the negative impact on the environment caused simply by enjoying the luxury of living longer, they would seek to learn how to be more proactive about supporting the environment and more vocal against those who are doing it harm. After all, as the famous quote now attributed to John Stuart Mill says “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” So being comfortable and doing nothing but surviving in old age should not be an option – those in later life are under an obligation to take positive action to support the environment for receiving the prize of a longer life.

Bring back National Service – for those in later life (November 2022)

Almost from when it was abolished in 1960, there have been regular cries for UK National Service to be restored. Those advocating it point to the fact that is engenders a sense of service in young people towards the country, provides an opportunity for them to give something back (for their education, perhaps) and also instils a discipline that would help to strengthen that in society as a whole. In addition, others argue, it mixes people up from different backgrounds and, in doing so, brings the country together in a way no other initiative can do.

Interestingly, the loudest voices often come from members of the older generations who promote these values the strongest. However, such values are just as important at any age and, perhaps, it is a time to consider the advantages of a form of ‘national service‘ for those in later life who have retired from any full-time work and have both the time and the opportunity to ‘give something back’. Of course, many older people already do so through voluntary work from helping in libraries and schools to being part of organisations fronting charity shops or collecting funds for those in need. However, a National Volunteering Service could do so much more.

First of all there would be an expectation on everyone to participate in some way rather than leave it to the few. In doing so, the mixing up of people from different backgrounds would be achieved and the isolation many older people feel could be tackled. There would be opportunities to use the skills they have acquired throughout life as well as chances to learn new skills, often presenting the challenge beneficial to older learners. There would be gains from conversation, the exchange of, possibly opposing, views and expressing opinions and emotions to people new to your close circle of friends and family. Finally, with such a large ‘workforce’, there would be a real shared sense of achievement leaving Councils and other supporting bodies with time to focus more on the tasks they are set up to carry out.

In fact such a service could, perhaps, be managed through local Councils giving people an involvement that has drifted over recent years. Councils could then allocate people to tackle local tasks that need doing rather than tasks the individuals feel they would like to do. In this way, the benefits to the local community could be both seen and enjoyed by the very people who use them daily. Unlike National Service for teenagers, involving older volunteers, living in their own homes as usual, would ensure the cost to the public purse would be quite small.

Finally, this approach would show the younger generations the value of those in later life and the key role they have in society. In fact, if a National Service was then brought back for young people, they could work with, and alongside, older people sharing experiences and cementing a whole community approach to improving the lives of others. We know from research the value to be gained by older people by giving to others, socialising, learning and being active physically. Therefore, any initiative providing all this for everyone would ensure the country spends less on sustaining its elderly population while receiving so much more back from them.

Keep Talking, Keep Living (October 2022)

Reflecting on the benefits of intergenerational living in last month’s post (Learning to Live Together), one of the upsides of doing so has been a focus of two recent articles in the Guardian newspaper. That is the good to be gained from social contact and the positive effect it has on both cognitive function and well-being. In one press release, an article by Angela Giuffrida (8 August), a spotlight was shone on the mountain village of Perdasdefogu in Sardinia where the relative abundance of centurians is proving interesting to both researchers and non-researchers alike. This is especially noticeable as such elderly people can, more often than not, recall their personal histories over the past century with remarkable lucidity.

Perdasdefogu is currently home to eight centenarians – four men and four women - in a population of 1,740. Ten more citizens could turn 100 within the next couple of years. In fact, Sardinia has been identified as one of five regions in the world that have high concentrations of centenarians. The village is unique in the sense that the number of centenarians in a town of its size is 13 times the national average

“There is of course the fresh air and the good food, but I believe one of the reasons for their longevity is their approach to stress,” said Luisa Salaris, a demographics professor at the University of Cagliari. “If there’s a problem, they solve it quickly.”

Perdasdefogu is remote and most of the population are elderly, but that doesn’t mean the town is not lively. It hosts several cultural events throughout the year, including a literary festival. “Another important factor is that Perdasdefogu conserves the sense of community. The elderly still live at home and not in care homes. Sociality is so important because if you have good social contacts, you remember, talk, and evaluate … you live well.”

Meanwhile, a second press report by Ashifa Kassam on the same day, focused on a Spanish village that is seeking UNESCO world heritage status for outdoor chats. In the evenings in the quiet town of Algar, near Cádiz, as the sweltering heat of the day eases off, chairs are hauled out to the street for an alfresco chat.

 “The aim is to protect the centuries-old custom from the encroaching threat of social media and television”, said José Carlos Sánchez, the mayor of Algar, a town of about 1,400 people. “It’s the opposite of social media – this is about face-to-face conversations.”

Sánchez, who regularly spends balmy summer evenings on the doorstep of his 82-year-old mother’s house, is quick to list the many benefits of what is known as charlas al fresco, from the energy savings gleaned from turning off the air conditioning for a few hours to the sense of community forged as neighbours share in the day’s gossip or comment on the latest news stories.

“The nightly chats also offer a sort of psychological release,” he says, “keeping loneliness at bay at a time when concerns around mental health are more overt, residents come out into the street and instead of feeling alone, they get support by sharing their stories or their problems with neighbours who try to help.”

At a time when dispersed families, devolved care for elderly relatives and elements such as gated communities or secure living are becoming more common, maybe it is time to consider the downsides of such movements, which can lead to isolation, and the upsides to remaining both connected and committed to one another. This is, at least, something to discuss - perhaps outside, in the street, with a neighbour and in doing so, receive the benefits that can arise by simply talking.

Learning to Live Together (September 2022)

 With the young unable to afford to leave home and the old at risk of isolation, more families are opting to live together. Research by the Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research indicates that the numbers have been rising for some time. Indeed, the Office of National Statistics suggest that the number of households with three generations living together had risen from 325,000 in 2001 to 419,000 in 2013.

 Other varieties of multigenerational family are more common. Some people live with their elderly parents while many more adult children are returning to the family home, if they ever left. The Resolution Foundation says about 20% of 25-34-year-olds live with their parents, compared with 16% in 1991. The total number of all multigenerational households in Britain is about 1.8 million.

Dr Gemma Burgess, acting director of the Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research, has interviewed dozens of multigenerational families. “What struck us the most was the high level of trust and the absolute lack of any financial or inheritance planning, or any legal structure for their living arrangements,” Burgess says. “People had invested their life savings in a house with their grown-up children and not had their names put on the deeds,”: ‘Oh, we trust them – it will be all right, they’ll look after us’.”

There are potential practical upsides. A family under one roof pays one set of bills for council tax, internet, water, electricity and gas. There are also complications – it’s harder to get the best mortgage deal if more than two people are listed on the property title deeds and many companies won’t lend to people over 70.

That hasn’t dulled the appetite of Americans or Canadians for living together. Canada has seen arise of about 40% of multigenerational households and in the USA, about 20% of the population  have multiple generations under one roof, according to the Pew Research Center.  Here, in the UK, ideas for intergenerational living are already being taken to a larger scale. For example, in Truro, Cornwall, a site on the city centre’s fringe is set to be developed with up to 500 homes and the new district will provide them with mixed tenure and extra care housing options. But at the same time it challenges some of the conventions around later living in Cornwall, where urban apartments and going out in the evenings to town centres are less common.

If we are to be successful in getting the most benefits from multigenerational living, it is clear that it is got to be planned, economically viable and supported by the local community.

Rhyming for a Reason (August 2022)

Learning into later life is often narrowing construed to mean listening – listening to speakers who impart their knowledge of a subject or describe their experiences. It is a very passive form of learning and in focussed on knowledge transfer from the knowing to the unknowing. However, research has always shown that ‘active’ learning is a more effective endeavour and that there are great benefits from enabling and encouraging older adults to participate using active methods. One such way of doing so is through poetry.

One description of poetry is that it ‘occurs when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words’. As everyone has emotions of some kind, thoughts can naturally follow and words can be used to bring them to life. Poetry writing at its best is a wonderfully creative art form, which can be taken up and practiced by people of all ages. Although intimidating to some, writing poems can actually be a fun, satisfying and beneficial experience.

Some of the benefits of writing poetry for seniors are mental as it can help to improve the writer’s memory by requiring levels of concentration not required elsewhere. It can also improve cognitive function as writing poetry requires thinking, reading and stringing together words in a variety of ways.

Poetry writing can also be helpful emotionally by providing opportunities for older adults to refresh experiences and understand their own emotions in a much better way. Writing poems about life experiences or memorable events allows seniors to cherish those moments from a different perspective, while also helping them to get in touch with their inner self.

Writing poetry also helps psychologically by reducing levels of stress and anxiety that are common problems among the elderly. Since, it allows them to freely express their thoughts and emotions, often in fun ways, writing poems can be one of the best ways for seniors to put things into perspective and also work on improving their futures. It can also give them a sense of purpose and fulfilment. Although retirement leaves older adults with a lot of free time, many people often struggle to do something productive during this period.

Finally immersion into the world of poetry can help socially. Isolation and feelings of loneliness are some of the main reasons why many seniors suffer from depression. An ideal way for seniors to improve their social interactions is to connect with like-minded individuals, which, in this case, would mean interacting with people who share the same passion for poetry writing. This aspect can also be enhanced by participation in online poetry sessions.

So poetry writing, as a unique art form, is not only open to those in later life but of great benefit – perhaps more so than at any other stage in the lifespan. The important things is to begin and consider that beginning as the first step down a new, creative and life-enhancing path.

The Elephant in the Zoom (July 2022)

Much has been written about a generation raised on black-and-white television being unable to cope with modern technology in general and the internet in particular. However, the lockdown caused by the pandemic has encouraged more older-adults to get more involved with their technology and to tackle the problems of isolation by embracing online social connection media such as Skype, whatsapp and, especially, Zoom. Indeed, Ofcom’s adults’ media literacy tracker 2020-2021 found that older people with limited digital skills had embraced new technology during lockdown, with 77% of those aged 65-plus using the internet at home, 55% using a smartphone and 59% having a social media profile. The study also found that older users aged 65-plus were just as likely as the average internet user to use a tablet to go online.

For many, the journey and the transition has been relatively easy and a valuable learning experience too. Some have begun to wonder why they had not got more involved in exploiting the assets of on-line communication before. Others have also questioned why they had such a negative view about themselves and their abilities while yet others have also begun to understand that if they want to have the best quality of life going forward, then they will need to keep embracing new developments and keep learning.

Organisations such as the U3A network have seen a remarkable uptake in members attending ‘Zoomed’ events and courses for older people since moving classes online from March 2020. It has certainly been possible for those where geographical distance or physical health have been barriers to participation to become engaged or, in many cases, re-engaged in learning. Many have been able to dip into activities that they otherwise would not have attended at a physical venue for a number of reasons from cost to lack of confidence. To this end, these Zoomers may well be at the start of a new way of living just as lockdown comes to end and the question arises about how best to build on these newly acquired skills and this new-found confidence.

This is particularly important in light of the recent study suggesting Zooming could help older people to avoid dementia. The researchers at the University of West London’s Geller Institute of Ageing and Memory and the University of Manchester found that older people who frequently use online communication alongside traditional social interactions in person or over the phone showed less of a decline in episodic memory – the ability to recollect meaningful events, the impairment of which is a sign of major forms of dementia. Examining the impact over 15 years, the study found that people using only traditional communications such as face-to-face meetings and telephone communications experienced steeper memory decline than participants who enriched their social activity online. Snorri Rafnsson, who led the study, said:

 “It is fair to say that all the Zooming that went on during lockdown might well have provided older people with a protective cushion against dementia,” he said. “I’m sure it did have a beneficial impact on older people.”

These findings are very positive for those in later life and support both the notion that learning is perfectly possible for those in the older age groups and that there are significant health benefits from doing so. At the same time, this new information raises the question about how such opportunities and benefits can it be extended to those not yet capable or confident of going online or those who simply do not have access to either the technology or the internet itself.

The Dangers in Sitting (June 2022)

Over recent years the increasingly sedentary lifestyle of people has led to a number of leading health experts to identify it as a danger to health. For many young people and adults, the average day involves a lot of time spent sitting at desks, in cars, at sporting events and especially on the couch with TV remotes, iPads or books. This is even more true of people in later life who have far less distractions from the comfort of sitting - so much so that some health professionals have declared that sitting is the new smoking, meaning that the dangers of spending too much time on our rears are having serious effects on overall health.

Researchers have found that prolonged sitting increases the risk of developing serious illnesses like various types of cancer, heart disease and type-2 diabetes with more research on the subject is being done every day. We know that good advice is for everyone including older adults to exercise every day but, in fact, sitting too much is dangerous even if you regularly exercise. Unless you have a job or activity that keeps you moving, most of your non-exercise time is likely spent sitting. That would make you an “active couch potato” with one 12-year research study of more than 17,000 Canadians, finding that the more time people spent sitting, the earlier they died - regardless of how much they exercised.

Much of the advice to counteract this is targeted at those sitting at work and especially in an office. This involves actions such a substituting a fitness ball for a standard office chair, using a desk peddler or standing up and pacing during meetings and telephone calls. However, standing all day also comes with its own drawbacks, especially for older people, such as increased risk of varicose veins and musculoskeletal disorders.

More general advice is needed for those people who are not of working age or at work and especially at a time where the pandemic has increased the amount of hours spent inside homes and therefore sitting. Such advice could simply aim to encourage people to take two breaks per hour from sitting, to take the stairs regularly, to arrange any get-togethers to include walking or to park away from your ultimate destination. What is really important is that those in later life, who are in the greatest danger of the perils of sitting, are informed about the problem, educated about possible solutions and enabled to make better choices and therefore adopt better practices. There are great health benefits for them in doing so and significant financial benefits for society as a whole.

Talking About Old-Age (May 2022)

A report by the Centre for Ageing Better (An Age Old Problem?) identified that the language used right across society related to older people reinforced negative attitudes that stoke intergenerational tensions, affect policy-making and ultimately could damage the country’s social fabric. The report analysed the way ageing and later life are spoken about in politics, the media, advertising and the charity sector and raised concerns around the treatment of older people, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis found that ageing is often associated with decline and ill health and that older people are commonly portrayed as frail, vulnerable and dependent. In fact, the top ten most frequently used words across society associated with old age include help, care, support, dementia and the NHS.

Such discourse mainly frames the ageing population as a costly ‘crisis’ emphasising the dependence of older people on state support. This vastly overlooks the vital contribution of people at older ages to society including caring for loved ones and providing support in communities. Indeed, in politics and the media, the report found that older people are often pitted against younger people in ‘boomer versus millennial’ narratives around competition for resources, with older age in such cases often being used as a proxy for wealth. The report warns that this hides the inequalities that exist within generations with older people treated as a homogenous group who are vulnerable, frail and a problem to be managed rather than citizens of equal value. Anna Dixon, Chief Executive at the Centre for Ageing Better, said:

“Open a newspaper on any day of the week and you’re likely to find articles which refer to the ‘crisis’ of an ageing population, ‘selfish’ boomers, or the ‘burden’ of older people on the NHS. Our new research highlights how pernicious these negative views of old age can be, with later life talked about most often in terms of decline, dependency and vulnerability across a range of sectors and representations of age in public life that are drawn from out-dated assumptions and negative stereotypes”.

The need for a greater understanding of critical educational gerontology has never been more needed and this needs to be brought about by political pressure, responsible reporting and increased opportunities for learning. One place to start is with the older generations taking responsibility, ensuring they themselves use positive language about ageing, take an active part in all aspects of society including later life learning and promote their contribution to making local and global communities better. There is no age limit on being a role model both to your peers and to the younger generations.

Ageism and the Environment (April 2022)

In the court of public opinion about the environment it is often expressed that that young people care more about protecting the environment than old people. It is recognised that support for protecting the environment is gradually increasing among older people but it is thought that this is probably because once young environmentalists are growing older and old anti-environmentalists are dying off.  In a Gallup poll about global warming in 2020, R.J. Reinhart reported that:

‘ … 70% of Americans age 18 to 34 worry about global warming … This compares with 62% of those 35 to 54 and 56% who are 55 or older’.

One difference perhaps is that that younger people have not only heard about the environment and climate change most of their lives, they have experienced the climate impacts that scientists at one time could only model and predict. Just as their parents and grandparents experienced thick smog and saw multiple oil spills, this younger generation is experiencing the impacts of carbon pollution that at one time could only be projected. The open road that made their parents view the automobile as a ‘freedom machine’ is now clogged with traffic and no longer seems new and exciting but a problem. We also live on a more crowded, polluted planet and even though air and water are cleaner in the West than, say, the middle of the last century, young people have little confidence that the world they are inheriting is sustainable.

Quite recently, Greta Thunberg a leading young environmentalist, said that

 “Young people are being let down by old people and those in power”.

 This was a sweeping generalisation and also suggested that most older people are also powerful. Clearly they aren’t and in reality large swaths of older people have neither money nor influence and indeed have been shown to support the very school climate strikes that Greta Thunberg established. In making such statements, however, there is a danger that young climate activists exhibit ageism – blaming old people for everything from the lack of jobs to rising house prices to the creation of food banks. The singer Billie Eilish said:

“Hopefully the adults and old people start listening to us [about climate change]. Old people are going to die and don’t care if we [the young] die”.

 This simply stereotypes old people as uncaring when the majority of parents and grandparents are deeply concerned about what they leave behind for their families. Indeed there are many older non-parents who chose not to have children because of their concern for the planet and overpopulation. Young climate activists themselves have direct experience of ageism having been chastised regularly by being told by their elders that they do not know what they are talking about. However, it would be wrong for them to be ageist themselves especially about generations who have grown up in times when they were not big consumers, were brought up on repairing and reusing and could not afford the polluting flights and journeys the young take for granted.

In reality it is not different generations that are the problem but the structures of power, influence and determination underpinning the drive for continual economic growth irrespective of the environmental consequences. In fact, if environmentalism is to stand any chance of being successful, it has to be through a multigenerational approach and intergenerational activism so we can make things better for us all both now and in the future.

Extending Opportunities for Learning (March 2022)

Quite recently I was asked to speak to the members of Southport University Extension Society (SUES) and was both pleased and proud to do so. I was pleased to do so because the members, almost all in later life, have a real enthusiasm for learning and always fully engage with it. I was also proud because Southport is one of the few remaining University Extension societies, which have a long and celebrated history of promoting community learning.

The idea that universities should reach out to the wider community can, of course, be traced back to the 19th century.  An awareness of the unacceptability of wide social differences, and of material and cultural poverty, was shown by social idealists such as Carlyle, Ruskin and Morris.  They believed that it was not enough to regard the miseries of the poor as just the natural order of things but something that could be tackled by practical action rather than revolutionary theory.

From the very beginning, the university in the city of Liverpool, pioneered the establishment and expansion of adult education and sought to provide educational opportunities to those who had been previously deprived. Although, the idea for University Extension lectures originated in Liverpool in the latter half of the 19th century (through the Liverpudlian, Anne Clough) it was in Oxford, in 1883, that a group of interested people met to discuss ways university men could contribute more to poorer sections of society.

The idea spread to other cities and by 1900 there were 33 in existence.  In addition universities sought ways to provide education for those who were not full-time students and In the course of time, these societies became more a vehicle for those who wanted to continue to learn in later life, often people with some background in higher education who wanted to maintain intellectual interests. Southport University Extension Society (SUES) was itself founded, in 1896, at the outset of the university extension movement when many towns in Britain had similar organisations. One by one most university extension societies have faded out, partly because other agencies offered alternative arrangements. For example, the Open University was founded to meet the needs of those requiring a more structured and certificated approach to learning beyond the normal university experience and organisations such as U3A provide learning that is more social and less academic in nature.  

SUES however has continued to thrive. Membership has increased and most recently, it has survived the coronavirus pandemic by continuing to produce learning opportunities on-line, open to all and, thanks to an endowment, at no cost. It is in good shape to face the future and to continue to provide a programme of activities that meet a local need.  At a time when national and local funds supporting learning in later life have significantly reduced opportunities to do so, it is pleasing to support an organisation that has maintained the tradition of making learning accessible to local communities for over 100 years. It can be accessed through www.southportues.com.

Binge Drinking in Later Life (February 2022)

According to a survey by the alcohol charity We Are With You, there has been a rise in high-risk alcohol consumption among over-50s amid restrictions imposed to control the spread of coronavirus. The Opinion Matters study of more than 1,150 people in the age group indicates that 24% are believed to be high risk or possibly dependent, which is up from 17% in 2016.

It also found that about 51% of those above 50 might be consuming alcohol at a level that could damage their health, with more than 4 million older people having in excess of four drinks in one sitting at least once a week. Frustrated at not being able to access in-person alcohol services, some of those already under treatment receive only a monthly phone call from a charity, which is not enough to help them kick the habit or remain on their recovery pathway. Others, recognising this downward spiral into increasing dependency on alcohol have been able to change their behaviour. One, for example, said:

“I began to question my lifestyle and choices, and with the help of my partner I was able to reduce my alcohol consumption. I began going to the gym and swimming again and trying to get back in the habit of regularly running”.

Julie Breslin, the head of the Drink Wise, Age Well programme at We Are With You, said, “Nearly 80% of over-50s we work with drink at home alone, hidden from view, It’s clear from these findings that the necessary coronavirus restrictions have are having a big impact on older adults’ mental health.

“Many older adults are unable to see their loved ones or friends and are drinking more as a way to cope with increased loneliness, isolation and anxiety. As people age their bodies find it harder to process alcohol, so the number of people over 50 who are binge drinking at the current time is really alarming.”

Ian Hamilton, an expert in addiction and mental health from the University of York, said the findings correlated with recent research and that over-50s appeared to be at greatest risk of alcoholism during the pandemic and subsequent lockdown. Such alcoholism can result in difficulty walking, blurred vision, slurred speech, slowed reaction times and impaired memory. Using imaging with computerised tomography, two studies compared brain shrinkage, a common indicator of brain damage, and reported that male and female alcoholics both showed significantly greater brain shrinkage than control subjects. Studies also showed that both men and women have similar learning and memory problems as a result of heavy drinking. The difference is that alcoholic women reported that they had been drinking excessively for only about half as long as the alcoholic men in these studies.

For decades scientists believed that the number of nerve cells in the adult brain was fixed early in life. In the 1960s, however, researchers found that new neurons are indeed generated in adulthood—a process called neurogenesis. However, studies with animals show that high doses of alcohol lead to a disruption in the growth of new brain cells; scientists believe it may be this lack of new growth that results in the long–term deficits found in key areas of the brain. It is self-evident that growing old and keeping healthy presents many challenges. More effort is needed to appreciate that it is not just those older people catching the coronavirus that are suffering as a result of the pandemic and the measures taken to alleviate it. However, much of this non-viral suffering occurs in isolation and is hidden but is no less traumatic. Hopefully, raising this issue may also raise the level of support to those people in later life who are not in hospitals or care homes, but are in peril.

Are you an Antidepressant ? (January 2022)

Last year the charity Mind, based in the UK, reported that one in four British people will experience a mental health problem each year. It also estimated that in England, one in six people report a common mental health problem, such as depression or anxiety, every week. People often treat the symptoms of these common disorders using antidepressants – a type of medication prescribed by a doctor to be taken regularly.

Indeed, when scientists from the University of East Anglia interviewed more than 15,000 over-65s in England and Wales over two decades as part of the Cognitive Function and Ageing Studies research, they found that the number of older people taking antidepressants has more than doubled in that 20 years. Data showed that just over 10 per cent of over 65s had been prescribed antidepressants between 2008 and 2011.  This is compared to just 4.2 per cent who were using them in the early 1990s. However, these drugs come with a long list of potential side-effects, including sickness, dizziness, weight gain, insomnia, serotonin syndrome and increased risk of developing diabetes.

Professor Carol Brayne, the study’s lead investigator and director of the Cambridge Institute of Public Health, said: “Our research has previously shown a dramatic age-for-age drop in dementia occurrence across generations. This new work reveals that depression has not shown the same reduction even in the presence of dramatically increased prescribing, itself not without concern given potential adverse effects we have also shown that are associated with polypharmacy.”

This has led to a variety of other remedies for depression and anxiety being increasingly recommended by healthcare professionals from general lifestyle advice and counselling through to more unique scientific innovations. Many doctors suggest to patients – either to complement another mental health treatment or to deal with more mild symptoms of depression – that they make changes to their general lifestyle before offering more bespoke courses of action. This could mean incorporating more healthy foods into their diet, and cutting out junk foods that are high in refined sugar and saturated fats. The NHS also says smoking, alcohol and drugs can make the symptoms of depression worse in the long run. Exercising multiple times per week – ideally for between 30 and 60 minutes most days – can alleviate symptoms as well, increasing the body’s production of natural antidepressants.

This appears to be good advice but what does it mean for those in later life ? Many older people have less disposable income and therefore eat less healthy food that can often be dearer, especially if they live on their own. At the same time, the consumption of alcohol is now higher in the over 65s than in other age groups while many in later life, through illness, ailments or simply old age, are not able to exercise to the extent that may make enough of a difference to offset depression.

However, perhaps the most accessible non-medical intervention is the use of ‘talking therapies’. With specialists this would probably involve cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) techniques, which attempt to help patients understand how they are feeling and how their thoughts may be affecting their actions in order to overcome negative thoughts. It usually involves a number of face-to-face therapy sessions over a period of weeks. However, with access to such specialists, and to hospitals and clinics, severely reduced during the pandemic, this programme is much less likely to be on offer. In fact, even face-to-face encounters with close family and supportive friends are restricted currently so where does that leave the many older people with depression facing circumstances more likely to make them depressed ?

Well it leaves them in need of someone to talk to and if that cannot be done face-to-face, then we must use other means. The internet, with its ready access to systems such as Skype or Zoom for example, can bring people together and in doing so brighten each others’ lives. If not that way, then simply by using our mobile or home phones we can offer a fresh, soothing and familiar voice. Finally, even those without a phone can be comforted by a card or letter dropping through their letterbox and lifting the spirits of those receiving it. At this difficult time, we have it in our power to help people in later life, many whom may be struggling. In fact, we could be just the antidepressant they need !

Later Life Roses (December 2021)

‘Bread and Roses’ has long been a statement designed to illustrate that bread, or food, alone is insufficient for people to fully embrace all that life has to offer. One possible initial source is a quote by the Roman physician and philosopher Galen of Pergamon. According to 15th-century writer Shems-ed-Deen Moḥammad en-Nowwájee, Galen said "He who has two cakes of bread, let him dispose of one of them for some flowers of narcissus; for bread is the food of the body, and the narcissus is the food of the soul”. The sentiment that the ‘poor’ were not only lacking in food for the body, but also flowers for the soul was a theme among reformers of the 20th century too.

Indeed, ‘Bread and Roses’ became the name of an associated poem and song originating from a speech given by the suffrage activist Helen Todd in 1910. The poem, by James Oppenheim, was first published in The American Magazine in December 1911 including the line “bread for all and roses too’. The poem has been translated into other languages and has been set to music by at least three composers. According to Ms Todd, ‘woman is the mothering element in the world and her vote will go toward helping forward the time when life's Bread, which is home, shelter and security, and the Roses of life, music, education, nature and books, shall be the heritage of every child that is born in the country’.

Since that time, Bread and Roses has become synonymous with the fact that life is more than just being alive; that there is a need for spiritual, social and cultural nourishment too. Perhaps it is time to re-examine what it means for people in later life. The worldwide coronavirus pandemic with its lockdown for the whole country and shielding for many vulnerable people (most in later life) has cut off many from life’s riches leaving only the basic necessities such as food and medicine. In fact even before the pandemic, in the UK, the closure of libraries and social, communal spaces, the loss of learning opportunities and the increasing costs of accessing, or travelling to, theatres and exhibitions has led to later life being more solitary and less colourful for increasing numbers of people in old age.

As the pandemic lifts and life returns to that ‘new normal’ we have been promised, might it also bring back the ‘roses’ to go with the ‘bread’ – the things that enrich later life, add value to people’s everyday existence and be a reward for the hard work and sacrifice many have given to family and others throughout their lifetimes.

Sacking Older Workers - a Step Backwards (November 2021)

Many changes have taken place in society as the coronavirus pandemic has taken hold. Many more changes will have to take place in the near future including getting people back into work that are currently unemployed. It will not be easy, especially as a third of UK firms have recently announced that they plan to cut jobs, not increase them, in the autumn.

However, calls once again for those in later life, over 50s, to retire to leave employment opportunities for those younger members of society are sadly misplaced. It took many years to end enforced retirement ages in the work -place and much research to identify the many benefits that older people gain from continuing to be part of society’s workforce. Indeed, the changes to state pension age rising up to 66 from October, one year for men but six years for some four million women, leaves many of the almost 3 million older people working, needing to work longer whether they would want to or not. It is well known that if older people lose their jobs, it is harder for them to get new work.

Most importantly there is also no evidence that if an older person leaves the job market, it provides a job for a younger person. A recent article by Dorothy Byrne, editor-at-large at Channel 4, referred to the programme in 1977, when the government introduced a job release scheme to incentivise older people to retire a year early to free up jobs for registered unemployed younger people. She quotes a study by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) that found it didn’t increase youth employment; the IFS report stated: “When looking at the entire 1968-2005 period, labour force participation of the old is  positively associated with employment of the young.”

Finally, what would such a move against older people say about how society has developed over recent years and how it treats those in later life. Too many people in their later years find themselves unoccupied, isolated, disconnected and become depressed and unwell as a result. They need to draw on support and costly interventions from social security, social services and medical practitioners. Therefore, it not only make moral sense to have older people active in the workforce, it makes sound economic sense too.

Older People – Look to the Future (October 2021)

In mid-July it was revealed that the birth-rate in England is falling rapidly. The Office for National Statistics reported a fall of 12.2% since 2012. That equates to a replacement rate of just 1.65 children per woman. This comes at a time when average life expectancy is rising as people are living much longer lives. Taken together, the data raises the questions of who will look after those older people in the future and who will do the jobs and produce the wealth needed to fund their pensions and the support services they require?

To some extent this is not an unusual situation as historically when times are hard people have fewer babies. Over the last decade of austerity, following the banking crises in 2008, wages have largely stagnated, work has been less secure and average personal debt has risen. Falling birth-rates have often been offset by immigration filling the missing cohorts necessary to keep society functioning as it needs to. However, this is never a long-term solution and governments have usually realised that they need to create a child-friendly life for families if young people are to become parents in the future.

Such social policies could include intensive, local pre-school support for every family involving mid-wives, health visitors, parenting classes, drop in playgroups and nurseries. They may involve subsidised childcare, tax allowances to boost family incomes and flexibility in the workplace from paternity leave to home working days. In such an environment starting a family would be a real choice, something to look forward to and even enjoy.

However, these policies do not directly affect older people and often this section of the electorate vote in governments on issues such as safety, health and secure pensions rather than child care, education and flexible working. However, perhaps those in later life need to better consider the future they are helping to create firstly in order to make sure they are well taken care of now and secondly to improve the lives of their grandchildren and generations to come. To do that they need to be more informed, wiling to engage in debate and live with both others and tomorrow in mind - not just themselves and not just today.

Empowering not just Supporting (September 2021)

A lot has been written about older people with respect to the coronavirus pandemic. Firstly, much of it has been about how vulnerable such a section of society is and how they should shield themselves by remaining in their homes. Secondly, we have been able to read of the work done by families, organisations and volunteers to support and provide for such people during ‘lockdown’. For this, many older people and their relatives have been extremely grateful.

However, from another point of view, a lot less information has been passed directly to older people on how to care for themselves. It is as if they all need support and even though some will need help in some areas, it does not make them incapable of knowing and learning how to best protect themselves. In fact, as they are most vulnerable should they not be the first to be informed and especially about how they should act differently on any advice given to the population in general ?

This approach is one adopted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) who published advice for this age group entitled ‘What can older people do to prepare for COVID-19 in their community?’. Helpful examples taken from this are:

·    Inform yourself of the special measures taken in your community as well as the services and the sources of reliable information that are available during the health emergency (e.g. home deliveries, psychosocial support, health ministry website, alternative access to your pension).

·    Create a list of the basic supplies that you will need for at least two weeks and try to get these delivered where possible (e.g. non-perishable food items, household products, batteries for assistive devices you may use, and prescription medicines).

    Alternatively, ask family members, caregivers, neighbours or community leaders to help with ordering and/or delivery of groceries or prescription medicines. Make sure that your mobile phone credit is topped up and identify a safe place to charge your phone regularly so that you can keep in contact with family and friends and reach emergency services if needed.  

·    Make a list of emergency numbers (e.g. COVID-19 local helpline, nearby hospital and health emergencies numbers, hotline for victims of abuse, psychosocial support hotline) and support contacts (e.g. family members and friends, main caregiver, community care worker, associations of older persons).

·    Discuss with your health-care worker how your health needs can be addressed during COVID-19. This may involve postponing non-urgent appointments, talking to your doctor or health-care worker by phone or video chat instead of in person and/or revising your vaccination schedule.

·    If you rely on the support provided by a caregiver, identify with him or her another person that you trust to support your daily living and care needs in case your caregiver is unable to continue to provide care.

·    If multiple people live in your home, if possible prepare a separate room or space in your home so that anyone showing symptoms compatible with COVID-19 can be isolated from others.

In not providing this information directly to those in later life, we are, unconsciously perhaps, downgrading their ability to learn and act for themselves. At the same time, by not empowering individual older people to act in this way, we may be guilty of treating all older people as a homogeneous group once again, which would be a most unwelcome step backwards.

Let’s Not Be Too ‘Normal’ (August 2021)

What a shock it was been to be ‘locked down’ for at least 10 weeks with most of normal life being put on hold. For those in the vulnerable category, and older age does generally make one more vulnerable to infection, it has been particularly difficult. Many in later life have often had to rely on other people to help while living with the fact that the virus is more of a threat to the elderly than to many others in society. Nevertheless, there are some positive and beneficial things that the lockdown has brought about that we may miss if and when they stop:

We have always been in our homes so the chances of missing a delivery have been next to none so no more ‘chase that parcel’,

We have witnessed cyclists actually using the roads and not the pavements as the traffic has been so light – long may it continue,

We have talked more with family members, long lost friends and community groups via technology, which has been real progress for many,

We all probably know our neighbours better now through Thursday night claps, just chatting over the fence or supporting others in need,

We have enjoyed peace and quiet with fewer cars and airplanes, closed building sites and no commuter’s or revellers’ background noise,

We have been able to reconnect with the environment by listening to birds singing, smelling the flowers and, almost, hearing plants growing,

We have had time to ourselves, precious moments, to stop, rethink and plan how life in the future may be more like what we’d want it to be,

We have seen the planet itself benefitting from the lockdown, locally, nationally and globally. Mother Nature has enjoyed our absence,

We have seen a focus on health whether it’s people simply taking greater care over hand washing or giving people space or leaving less litter,

We have turned to learning to enrich our days through television programmes, on-line learning, reading or greater interest in being informed.

It would be so beneficial if the positivity of the lockdown could be preserved in some form for each of us, and all of us, as life returns to normal. We are now more used to enjoying the simple things in life and, perhaps, understand better how valuable they are. It would be particularly welcoming to see the increased participation in some form of learning, especially from those in later life, continue so learners continue to reap the benefits it brings. Now that many have broken through the barrier of technology, and gained more confidence in themselves as learners, they may demand more of themselves and then more of the government to increase such learning opportunities.

My TV License is Due Again this Week ! (July 2021)

During lockdown I have received more emails than usual and more ‘odd’ ones than ever before. On the down side, apparently, my TV license is due to expire again. I have had this warning six times now, and if I don’t pay up on line, I may well have problems with the authorities and possibly no TV. However, on the up side, I have also won the lottery three times – congratulations to me – and have received two rebates from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) Service. Just when I was thinking that things could not get any better, I won a most-valued-customer prize from Sainsbury’s even though I have not been shopping there. In each case all I had to do was send off my bank details and I would not stand a chance of being prosecuted for having no TV license as well as raking in all the funds offered from my new-found ‘friends’.

Of course, all of these contacts were bogus, set out to frighten or entice me in equal measure to give my personal financial details to unknown on-line thieves. The logos, wording and language used make each request increasingly realistic and had I not been on my guard, I may have succumbed. As a person in later life, it makes me worry for all those even less aware than I and therefore more vulnerable to such scams for a variety of reasons.

Those people being targeted, more often than not vulnerable and older people, would benefit from a programme of education so that they can learn to have the skills and confidence to assess such emails and judge their validity. They could then also be part of a network to gain advice from peers. Such provision is advocated by many people and organisations including Long Life Learning. This organisation is founded on the principles of ‘critical educational gerontology’, which is not only concerned with learning in later life but also the ‘critical’ aspect of educational gerontology, which is concerned with the ‘purpose’ of later life learning. One principle it promotes is that later life learning should ‘empower’ older people by enabling then to have the resources to improve their lives, to have the knowledge to judge situations, including scammers, and have the (computer) skills to deal with the challenges everyday life throws up. This would also give them the confidence to be on-line and the motivation to want to make an effective stand against those who would try to exploit them.

Even those who support later life learning can get enticed into believing that such learning is something learners should do just to entertain themselves or just to keep their minds ticking over or simply to be sociable. However, we must not forget that learning also has real and practical benefits for such learners, and by extension for society too, by empowering older people to have the knowledge and skills to take greater control of their lives and therefore be able play a fuller and more confident part in society.

The Lost Decade (June 2021)

The Learning and Work Institute’s adult participation survey published at the start of 2020 shows adult participation in education has fallen to a record low. The survey highlights the fact that the number of adult learners has plummeted by nearly 4 million since 2010 with just one adult in three (33 per cent) having taken part in learning in the last three years, the lowest figure ever recorded and a drop in participation rate of 10 percentage points. That is equivalent to 3.8 million fewer adults taking part in learning since the start of the decade.

This drop in participation is mirrored by the significant decline in investment over the last ten years. Indeed, between 2009-10 and 2018-19, government spending on adult education (excluding apprenticeships) fell by 47%. Employer investment in training in the UK is also low compared to other advanced economies. A further issue arises from the fact that in addition to the decline in participation, the survey shows deep inequalities in access to learning, with those who could most benefit from taking part, being least likely to do so. Adults in lower socio–economic groups (DE) are half as likely to take part in learning than those in higher socio–economic groups (AB). Adults who left school at 16 or younger are half as likely to take part in learning as those who stayed on in full time education until at least 21.  

This decline should be a real cause for concern given the many benefits of participating in lifelong learning. In future, increasing the number of adults accessing education and training will be vital both to boosting productivity and to supporting adults to adapt to rapid economic change as Matthew Fell, the chief policy director at CBI UK, said at the time of the launch: 

‘Adult learning is heading in the wrong direction at precisely the wrong time for our economy and our society. Technology is rapidly changing the world of work and driving up demand for new and higher skills.’

However, beyond the economic benefits, much evidence also shows that adults who take part in learning are more likely to have better health and wellbeing, and to be active in their communities. Mr Fell went on to say that:  

 ‘Lifelong learning will be one of the defining issues of our age – countries who get it right will have an exceptional competitive advantage’.

Those advantages are not just for the benefit of the country but so that all those individuals in early adulthood or later life can have a better quality of life too. Perhaps the increase in the number of adults taking part in learning, often on-line, during the ‘lockdown’ due to the coronavirus outbreak will persuade many of them to continue learning when the situation eases. This increased participation, and the benefits it brings, may also inspire the government to ensure that funding levels for this sector of society return to the levels before the ‘lost decade’.

Generations Together (May 2021)

As the coronavirus pandemic spreads across the globe, many people, especially those in later life, are asking themselves why it is that older people at more risk in succumbing to the ravages of COVID-19 than younger adults. Current estimates from Imperial College London are that the death rate is almost 10 times higher than average for those over 80, and much lower for those under 40. To put this into context, however, the UK government's chief medical advisor, Professor Chris Whitty, says even though the rates are higher for older people, "the great majority of older people will have a mild or moderate disease".

However, Paul Hunter, a professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia, says part of the reason is the illnesses we get as we get older and such illnesses cab be exacerbated by bad habits such as smoking. “Any additional damage to the lungs means we don’t have much in reserve to cope with a viral infection.” That’s borne out in reports that suggest many of the older people dying in Italy had co-morbidities such as high-blood pressure, cancer and diabetes.

Another part is that as we age, our immune systems weaken. This makes us more vulnerable to infections of all types and any sort of challenge to the body can do more damage. When the immune system gears up in older people, there is also a higher likelihood of a phenomenon called a ‘cytokine storm’. This is where the immune system overreacts and produces too many of the chemicals to fight an infection.

Hunter adds. “Older people take longer to produce good antibodies to viral infections than younger people,” he says, explaining that cells will try different configurations to fight a viral infection, before selecting and producing the one that works. “This process doesn’t happen as quickly in older people, and to a large extent, whether you live or die from COVID-19 depends on how quickly your body produces antibodies compared to how quickly the virus grows.” That’s why front-line health workers are at such risk, as they’re exposed to more of the virus, giving their bodies more to fight against.

It is clear that children and young adults are catching the disease too although fewer show symptoms and, in most cases, those symptoms are less severe and the infection rarely fatal. Hunter goes on to say, “If the severity of the disease in 20-year-olds was what it was like for everyone else, we wouldn’t be doing anything like what we are at the moment,” referring to prevention measures like social distancing and government lockdowns. However, it is vital that children and younger adults follow the prevention guidelines too so that they don’t put older adults, such as their grandparents at risk. Never before have the generations needed to learn about good hygiene and to work together in harmony.

Happy Birthday, Happy Brain (April 2021)

 It was interesting to read the advice from the British government (3rd March) as it unveiled an action plan to fight the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19). The 28-page document sets out a raft of contingency plans, central to which is advice on good personal hygiene. The report says there is a need to increase publicity about measures such as hand washing and ‘catch it, bin it, kill it’. Earlier, the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, had stressed this point by saying:

“Crucially, we must not forget what we can all do to fight this virus, which is to wash our hands with soap and hot water for the length of time it takes to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ twice. It’s simple advice, but it’s the single most important thing we can do.”

Those in later life, and especially those with underlying medical issues, will be paying particular attention to this. At the same time, perhaps there is even more we can do to do to help ourselves. Research has shown how learning a foreign language can help to strengthen the brain, even in later life, so why not learn to sing this celebratory verse in other languages? Here they are in German, French, Spanish and Italian, all sung to the Happy Birthday tune.

 German:                                                                 French:

 Zum Geburtstag viel Glück                                   Joyeux anniversaire
Zum Geburtstag viel Glück                                   Joyeux anniversaire
Zum Geburtstag alles Gute                                   Joyeux anniversaire (nom)

Zum Geburtstag viel Glück                                    Joyeux anniversaire

 Spanish:                                                                 Italian:

 Feliz cumpleaños a ti                                             Tanti auguri a te                  

Feliz cumpleaños a ti                                             Tanti auguri a te

Feliz cumpleaños querido/a (name)                   Tanti auguri a (name)

Feliz cumpleaños a ti                                             Tanti auguri a te

Can you remember them? How many can you learn? It may also be interesting to find out more about what is actually being sung and the various birthday customs of different countries. So even at such a difficult time, perhaps we can be proactive and look to gain, as later life learners, from research on learning foreign languages while following the government’s helpful guidelines promoting good health

Exercise: the Value for Older People and Society (March 2021)

Long Life Learning has regularly championed the value of exercise and especially for older people However, in an interesting article at the start of the year, Carys Jones, a researcher funded by through Health and Care Research Wales, identified how the benefits of older people going to exercise groups go beyond self-improvement and provide good value for society, too. She starts by indicating that less than two-thirds of UK adults reach the recommended physical activity levels of 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise a week. She also recognises that keeping active is especially important for older people because it can help reduce falls and improve independence and the ability to carry out everyday tasks. It also boosts mental wellbeing. 

It is well documented that older people are more vulnerable to loneliness and isolation and forming friendships and the social aspect of taking part in group exercise is a good way of protecting them from this. A study that followed older people in Taiwan over 18 years found that people who regularly took part in social activities were less likely to be depressed than those who did none. Having a strong social network can also decrease the risk of death.

Ms Jones’ research also found that exercise groups for older people are valuable not only to those who take part but also for the wider community. Through social prescribing, a way of linking people to non-clinical services that are available in their community, and using a social return on investment analysis, the project measured changes to their physical activity levels, health status, confidence and social connectivity of those taking part. The researchers also calculated potential savings to the NHS by collecting information on how the individuals’ number of GP visits changed after taking part in health activities. We also estimated the impact on local government by looking at patterns of leisure centre attendance, and explored how likely people were to take out memberships after finishing a 16-week programme.

The findings suggest that the value generated by health improvement activities outweighs the cost of running it, leading to a significant positive social return on investment. In the current climate of reduced health and social care budgets, it’s even more important to identify services that offer good value for money and benefit multiple people and organisations. This research suggests that investing in community assets that encourage older people to get active physically and socially are key to not only improving their wellbeing and also generating future savings for society by lowering demand for health and social care services.

The Bones of the Matter (February 2021)

Over recent years there has been much advice given on how much calcium should people of different ages and conditions take. Such per-day recommendations vary greatly and, in some situations, too much can actually be harmful. An update to such advice from the Harvard Medical School at the end of last year suggests that the minimum daily calcium requirements of 1,000 milligrams (mg) a day for women ages 50 and younger and 1,200 mg for women over 50 recommended by some practitioners may in fact be too high. Dr Walter Willett, chair of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, thinks we are likely to do just as well on half as much calcium. He says:

"Essentially, I think that adults do not need 1,200 mg of calcium a day. The World Health Organisation's recommendation of 500 mg is probably about right. The United Kingdom’s goal of 700 mg is fine, too as it allows some leeway." he says.

It is understandable as to why 1,200 mg of calcium per day may have been recommended as adequate calcium is necessary for good health generally, and not just because it's a major component of our bones. It also plays a vital role in keeping our organs and skeletal muscles working properly. As bone density drops when bone breakdown outpaces bone formation, scientists reasoned that maintaining an adequate level of calcium in the blood could keep the body from drawing it out of the bones. However, in the past two decades, several clinical trials, seeking to determine how calcium intake affects the risk of hip fractures, found that a high calcium intake—from either food or pills—doesn't reduce hip fracture risk. In fact, the studies also revealed a couple of downsides to high levels of calcium supplementation, but not to calcium obtained through a regular diet – one is an increased risk of kidney stones and the second is an increased risk of heart attack. 

Finally, it is understood that vitamin D is also essential for healthy bones. In fact, the daily vitamin D requirement was first introduced to help prevent rickets—a condition in which developing bones are soft and can become bowed—in children. Vitamin D is made in the skin through exposure to ultraviolet radiation in sunlight. However, the amount produced varies widely from person to person. People with darker skin produce less vitamin D than lighter-skinned people, and in all populations, the skin's ability to convert sunlight to vitamin D declines with age. So one thing the studies have taught us is that both calcium and vitamin D are essential in building bone. Dr Willett recommends going lower on calcium and higher on vitamin D than the higher guidelines suggest. So eat well, supplement wisely and get enough sunlight.

A Lesson from Brain Gym (January 2021)

 If there is one thing that those in later life are not short of, it’s advice. From what to eat, what to do or how to exercise, there are willing ‘experts’ to provide guidance and support. This can vary from being cost-free to being quite expensive and from useful to no use at all. However, it is not easy to tell the valuable from the inconsequential and the Brain Gym programme is, perhaps, one example.

 During the 1970s, Gail and Paul Dennison developed a set of physical exercises, which, they claimed, improved children's ability to learn and, importantly, were based in neuroscience. They labeled this approach "educational kinesthesiology" and, through training people in the methods, and selling licenses giving the right to use the ‘Brain Gym’ trademark, they established a profitable company. Many schools went on to pay the trained people to work in schools both training teachers and working with children.

 The Brain Gym programme encourages those involved to repeat certain simple movements such as making symbols in the air, crawling or yawning. In addition, the participants are encouraged to drink water. Such steps are intended to ‘repattern’ the brain and increase blood flow to it. However, a number of neuroscientists have called the science behind the programme into question. The actions it promotes suggesting that children should be properly hydrated to perform well, and that a bit of physical activity in the middle of a lesson may help to ‘wake children up’, are not questioned. It’s just that the neuroscience claimed to support, is not supported by some research scientists.

 Nevertheless, teachers will continue to use Brain Gym throughout the country because the children themselves say that it helps. In everyday life, for example, there are times when, whatever a doctor may think, they just have to trust how the patient feels. In later life we must be as clear as possible about whether an action, treatment or supplement we take up has ‘real’ science behind it, especially if it could lead to harm. However, if it is not harmful, and those participating think it is helping, who are we to disturb their wellbeing ?

Wisdom to Live Well and Live Longer By (December 2020)

 Susan Saunders and Annabel Streets used the stimulus of Susan’s mother being diagnosed with severe dementia and Annabel’s grandfather dying from cancer months after he retired to start researching the latest science on how to have a healthier, happier old age. This resulted in the establishing of the Age Well Project, which has now been published as a book, entitled The Age Well Project: Easy Ways to a Longer, Healthier, Happier Life, which compiles almost 100 shortcuts to health in both mid-life and later-life.

 The book outlines a series of suggestions not only on how to have a healthier, happier old age but also how such ideas could be applied earlier in life so that followers would be healthier and happier into their own old age. These ideas, all drawn from empirical research, start by suggesting each person should become an expert in our own health as knowing about illnesses in old age, the causes of mortality and ages at death of as many direct ancestors as possible. Doing so can enable each person to begin to devise more personalised ageing plans.

 In addition, the two authors outline significant ways to aid the ageing process. Some of these suggestions involve making changes to diet (such as embracing coffee, taking vitamin D and zinc supplements and eating more fibre) while other suggestions involve exercise (such as walking faster, building bone density and walking a dog). Many ideas involve life-style changes (such as fasting every day, taking a nap and avoiding blue light in the evenings) while still others suggest focusing on maintaining productive brain function into later life (such as reading books, working longer and keeping on learning). Finally some suggestions look to being content and happy as a way of enhancing well-being into later life including cultivating friendships, practicing meditation and cultivating optimism.

 The book is an enjoyable read and is full of evidence-based actions that any person could benefit from considering. Naturally, it is up to each individual to decide the ones that are most important for them to adopt compared to others. However, by doing so, each person is not only creating their own plan to take them into a happier and healthier later-life but, hopefully, into a longer life too.

Optimism – one key to a longer life (November 2020)

Recent research claims people who ‘look on the bright side’ stand a better chance of both living longer and reaching the age of 85 or older. For many years, people who ‘see the glass as half full rather than half empty’ have previously been found to have a lower risk of developing, and living with, heart conditions and premature death. The researchers of this new study now say it could also play a role in living a long life. Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Lewina Lee, the lead author of the study at Boston University School of Medicine, said that.

“A lot of evidence suggests that exceptional longevity is usually accompanied by a longer span of good health and living without disability, so our findings raise an exciting possibility that we may be able to promote healthy and resilient ageing by cultivating psychosocial assets such as optimism.”  

Lee and colleagues analysed data from two previous long-term research projects, one involving female nurses and the other focused on a cohort of men. The nurses were assessed for optimism in 2004, with participants having an average age of 70, and followed until 2014. For men, optimism was assessed in 1986, participants having an average age of 62, and deaths tracked until 2016.  Comparing lifespan for the most optimistic with the least, and taking into account factors including age, sex, race, education, depression and other health conditions present at the outset, the results showed the most optimistic group of women had a lifespan almost 15% longer than the least. Similar results were seen in men through a different measurement technique. When the team compared the fifth of men boasting the highest optimism scores with the least optimistic, they found the most positive men had lifespans almost 11% longer.

People who are more optimistic might also lead a healthier lifestyle; therefore the analysis went on to take into account factors including exercise levels, diet, smoking and how much alcohol participants drank. The resulting effects were smaller – although still pronounced – with the most optimistic groups of both men and women having longer lifespans than the least optimistic. Dr Catherine Hurt, an expert in health psychology at City, University of London, said the study highlighted the importance of psychological wellbeing alongside physical wellbeing for living a long and healthy life.

 “The results suggest that as well as educating and encouraging people to eat a balanced diet and exercise regularly to maximise longevity we should also be promoting psychological wellbeing and the importance of optimism,” she said.

Elderly more screen-obsessed than the young (October 2020)

A recent report in The Economist reported on a study by Nielsen, an American market-research firm, which sought to find out the levels of screen time for various age groups. Researchers reported that millennials look at their phones more than 150 times a day, half of them check their devices during the night and a third glance at them immediately after waking up. However, when all screens are accounted for, it is in fact older people who seem most addicted. According to the report, Americans aged 65 and over spend nearly ten hours a day consuming media on their televisions, computers and smartphones. That is 12% more than Americans aged 35 to 49, and a third more than those aged 18 to 34.

When these findings are considered alongside research that being sedentary, being isolated and not engaging in challenging cognitive functions are features that harm the well-being of those in later life, some concerns are raised. Indeed research by Dr. Loretta DiPietro (published in the Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences in 2017) stated that TV viewing is a very potent risk factor for disability in older age. She stated that watching TV for long periods (especially in the evening) has got to be one of the most dangerous things that older people can do because they are much more susceptible to the damages of physical inactivity.

How is it then that those in later life spend so much time ‘on screen’ ? Here in the UK, one answer may well be the reduction in the use of social space and community interactions that lead to drastic effects on people’s lives, especially the elderly. A recent article by Aditya Chalrabortty in The Guardian (14th August) suggests that we are right in the middle of an infrastructure breakdown citing more than 760 youth clubs shutting across the UK since 2012, a pub closing every 12 hours and nearly 130 libraries being scrapped last year alone. In fact, those libraries that survive in England have lopped off 230,000 opening hours. In addition, public parks are disappearing, playgrounds are being sold off and high streets are being deserted while, in too many communities, the ‘banks have cleared out, the church has gone and all that’s left of the last pub is an empty hulk’. Under such conditions the American sociologist Eric Klinenberg wrote:

 “People reduce the time they spend in public settings and hunker down in their safe houses. Social networks weaken. Crime rises. Older and sick people grow isolated. … Distrust rises and civic participation wanes.”

We know that such large amounts of screen time can have an adverse effect on people, especially those in later life who have reduced cognitive and social stimulae through features such as retirement and time spent on exercise due to ill health. However, if we reduce the opportunities and incentives for them to leave their houses and inhabit the social realm, we will be complicit in their actions as they remain too long on screen, unhealthily inactive and increasingly vulnerable.

Tickling your way to a healthier Later Life (September 2020)

During a recent small study in the School of Biomedical Sciences at Leeds University, researchers found that simply tickling the ear with a small electric current could rebalance the nervous system in people over the age of 55 and, in doing so, help them age more healthily. The scientists found that stimulation of the vagus nerve, which connects to the heart, lungs and gut, led to improvements in body, sleep and mood. They went on to claim that such a procedure could make a big difference to people's lives although more research is still needed.

The team concentrated on the ear because the ear is linked directly to the body's nervous system and one small branch of the vagus nerve can be stimulated through the skin in specific bits of the outer ear. This nerve transmits information from the brain to organs around the body, such as the heart and lungs. It is also fundamental to the body's autonomic nervous system that controls many of the body's functions, such as breathing, digestion, heart rate and blood pressure.

 As we get older, the balance of the body's nervous system can become impaired with the sympathetic branch, which helps the body prepare for high intensity "fight or flight" activity, beginning to dominate. Meanwhile, the parasympathetic branch, which is important for "rest and digest" activity, becomes less active. This makes people more prone to diseases, such as heart problems and hypertension, as well as depression and anxiety.

 During the research, 29 healthy volunteers aged 55 and over were subjected to electrical vagus nerve stimulation for 15 minutes a day for two weeks. The scientists found that the treatment led to an increase in parasympathetic activity and a decrease in sympathetic activity, helping to re-balance the body's nervous system. People who showed the greatest imbalance at the start of the study improved the most.

Supplements - Don't do it ! (August 2020)

I was reading a recent article by Steven DeKosky, a professor of Neurology at the University of Florida (June 20, 2019), who was discussing the fact that Americans and others around the world have turned increasingly to dietary supplements in order to maintain or preserve their brain health. He was pointing out that a recent study convened by AARP (formerly the American Association of Retired People) had in fact found that although, in America, a quarter of adults over 50 take a supplement for brain-related health, they should spend their money elsewhere. The stark conclusion was that supplements don’t work. This is no small issue as expenditures on non-vitamin brain health supplements in America alone amounts to billions of dollars that could be put toward other expenses, including fresh vegetables and fruit that do make a difference.

A lot of citizens are unaware that such supplements are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as it does not treat supplements like prescription medications. Supplements are not tested for accuracy of their stated ingredients by independent laboratories, and they overwhelmingly do not have the legitimate scientific evidence that would demonstrate that they are effective. Instead, the FDA relies on the manufacturers to test for the supplements’ safety, not for their efficacy. They are not subject to rigorous clinical trials that apply to prescription drugs.

Ginkgo biloba, for example, is a very popular supplement that many believe will help with brain health. It doesn’t. The worry about the ability of modern medicine to address brain health and offset conditions such as dementia have led people to look for other ways to protect their brains. However, there is no scientifically proven way to prevent Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia. Yet supplements have become a profitable area for companies to engage in. In fact, the overwhelming evidence shows that if you eat a normal diet you do not need to take supplementary vitamins or minerals either.

To make things even more concerning, many of these supplements do not always contain the compounds advertised and some of the mixtures can contain small amounts of harmful ingredients that have gotten into the product somewhere along the gathering and manufacturing process. So for those in later life tempted by supplements the advice is to focus on a healthy diet, and perhaps use some of the money directed at supplements toward buying more green, leafy vegetables and the other food components that make up good nutrition.

Towards Living Forever (July 2020)

 Gerontologists focus their attention on strategies to improve the quality of later life and, in doing so, average life expectancy has been increasing steadily over many years in many countries. However, life extensionists, or immortalists, hope to live indefinitely, or to push average life expectancy up to well over 100 years. Some extensionists are themselves scientific researchers at the forefront of gerontology working to overcome technical and practical difficulties of living longer. Others have no formal scientific background but are no less strongly committed to finding ways to prolong life.

 To do so they themselves engage in a wide variety of techniques such as sleeping on electromagnetic mats, taking large numbers of pills and supplements or carrying out particular exercise routines. One such extensionist is American investor James Strole who established the Coalition for Radical Life Extension - a non-profit organisation with the objective to invigorate support for science of later life that may significantly prolong human life some day in the future. Such life extensionists are increasing in number and include many wealthy individuals who consider death to be undesirable and who wish to use their wealth and influence to seek longer and longer lives. Although death remains inevitable, resources are now being targeted at finding way to significant delay it and, potentially, to eradicate it all together.

 However, it is accepted that no one single longevity strategy exists but believers feel that the extreme practices they indulge in work and further innovations are coming. However, countering such optimism and reliance on life-preserving strategies is the fact that the oldest person to have lived, Jeanne Calment, reached 122 while smoking until she was 117. So until such breakthroughs exist, we should, perhaps, reply on the most proven successful life-extension methods; sleeping well, eating well, exercising regularly, reducing stress and relying on modern medicine. Such an approach has, after all, prolonged average lifespans significantly over the past 150 years.

The Power of a Little Work (June 2020)

Here at Long Life Learning, we have consistently extolled the benefits of those in later life remaining active – mentally, socially and physically. One area that all three components of a better life often come together is at work. Now new research has identified that the benefits of employment on mental health might be gained from just one day’s work a week. It has long been understood that unemployment has been linked to poorer mental health. Not only are the components above not been gleaned through lack of work, other benefits such as giving structure to daily life, forming strong social contacts and retaining a sense of identity are lost. These factors are also features of the life of many people as they move into retirement.

Writing in the journal Social Science and Medicine, Brendan Burchell, a co-author of the research from the University of Cambridge, describes how they came to their conclusions by analysing responses to a UK survey conducted every year. This research began in 2009, and since that time data has been gathered from more than 71,000 people aged from 16 to 64 who gave answers for two or more years. On analysis, the researchers identified a positive impact on mental health on moving from unemployment to a paid job, and that this boost is gained from working up to eight hours, or about one day, a week.

Interestingly, the researchers could identify no extra mental health benefit from working longer than these eight hours, which is particularly pertinent to those in later life who, for a number of reasons such as declining health or caring responsibilities or tax thresholds, would not want a full-time post. Naturally, the study has limitations, including that it does not prove that work fuels better mental health, only that they are linked. It also does not identify if unpaid voluntary work is as effective as paid employment at benefitting mental health. Nevertheless, maintaining a connection with society in this way into later life is now shown not just to be beneficial but also measurable.

Study in Later Life – for Society’s Sake (May 2020)

The banker Philip Augar, appointed by the government to lead a review of further and higher education in England, recently released his findings and they included ideas on how to reinvigorate lifelong learning. In doing so, he was at pains to point out that education beyond the age of 18 must not be solely about teenagers going on to university. However, he does so at a time when mature students are an increasingly rare species. A career change later in life is something that most working people can’t afford and, ironically, it’s those who most need to retrain (those with the least education, in low skilled jobs facing increasing technological change) who cannot afford to do so.

A number of commentators have pointed out that this review coincides with the 100th anniversary, in 1919, of the Ministry of Reconstruction’s adult education committee’s Report on Adult Education, arguing that a population educated throughout life was vital for the future of the country. The report set the groundwork for British adult education during the 20th century and in doing so it recognised that education doesn’t just change individuals’ lives, but society too. This contrasts markedly with the bare minimum provided now in Britain consisting mainly of basic literacy or numeracy for jobseekers and basic English courses for non-native speakers.

Research has already shown the value of learning for learning’s sake in a civilised society with people who take part in any kind of structured learning being more likely to volunteer, to show tolerance rather than racial prejudice and even to give up harmful habits such as smoking.  However, despite some 40% of people in England over 25 not having qualifications beyond GCSE, with many far below that level, the likelihood of a second chance is non-existent through the drastic reduction in locally provided opportunities. In his report, Philip Augar went on to propose a lifetime learning ‘loan’ for people who don’t already have degrees, which could be spent in fits and starts over the years on technical qualifications or further training rather than on university. He also advocates the restoration of the right for any adult who doesn’t already have A-levels or their equivalent to study for these free of charge. Not exactly radical but in this climate of austerity and cuts to education, he may as well be asking for the moon.

Even A Little Exercise Does You Good (April 2020)

 Vigorous exercise may be much harder to do for those in later life and, for some, it might just be impossible. However, a recent piece of research, set out in the journal Jama Network Open, has identified that even light activity, which could involve household chores, might help to keep the brain young. This research adds to a growing body of evidence that, when it comes to exercise, every little helps.

 The researchers worked out from, their research sample of volunteers, that  individuals’ brain volume, a measure linked to ageing, reduces by about 0.2% every year after the age of 60. Loss or shrinkage of brain tissue is linked to dementia, However, after taking into account factors including sex, smoking status and age, the team found that every extra hour of light physical activity per day was linked to 0.22% greater brain volume, equal to just over a year’s less brain ageing. Dr. Nicole Spartarno, first author of the study from Boston University, said “Our study results don’t discount moderate or vigorous physical activity as being important for healthy ageing. We are just adding to the science, suggesting that light-intensity physical activity might be important too, especially for the brain.”

 The UK chief medical officer will shortly be issuing advice, to mirror existing US guidelines, to say that light activity or very short bouts of exercise are beneficial to health – even if it is just a minute or two at a time – countering the previous view that there was a threshold that must be reached before there were significant benefits. Dr. Spartano went on to say that, even if true, that did not mean people should stop trying to break a sweat. “Higher levels of fitness are linked to longevity and a better quality of life in older age, not to mention being associated with lower rates of dementia.” Finally, Dr James Pickett, head of research at Alzheimer’s Society, was reported in The Guardian (19th April 2019) confirming that, in general, exercise reduces the risk of such conditions such as dementia. and he went on to say “Don’t worry if you’re not hill-running, but find something you enjoy and do it regularly, because we know that what’s good for the heart is good for the head.”

The Good Living Habit (March 2020)

 Only last year, researchers at Harvard University reported the outcomes from using lifestyle questionnaires and medical records from 123,000 volunteers to understand how much longer people lived if they followed a healthy diet, controlled their weight, took regular exercise, drank in moderation and did not smoke. It was only afterwards, when the scientists calculated average life expectancy, that they noticed a dramatic effect from the healthy habits. Compared with people who adopted none of them, men and women who adhered to all five saw their life expectancy at 50 rise from 26 to 38 years and 29 to 43 years respectively, or an extra 12 years for men and 14 for women!

 Meir Stampfer, a co-author on the study, and professor of epidemiology and nutrition, said that although it might have been expected that people who adopted these habits would live longer, the size of effect was a real surprise. In other words, people who stick to five healthy habits in adulthood can add more than a decade to their lives. The researchers performed the analysis in the hope of understanding why the US, which spends more on healthcare as a proportion of GDP than any other nation, ranks 31st in the world for life expectancy at birth. Only 8% of the general population follows all five healthy habits – a similar pattern to that of the UK population.

 The five healthy habits were defined as not smoking; having a body mass index between 18.5 and 25; taking at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise a day, having no more than one 150ml glass of wine a day for women, or two for men; and having a diet rich in items such as fruit, vegetables and whole grains and low in red meat, saturated fats and sugar. Men and women who had such healthy lives were 82% less likely to die of heart disease and 65% less likely to die of cancer compared with those with the least healthy lifestyles, over the roughly 30 years of the study.

 Given that the habits of a healthy lifestyle are well known, the mystery is why we are so bad at adopting them as habits. Professor Stampfer suggested that part of the problem is that many people struggle to give up habits such as smoking, and the continuous peddling of unhealthy food, as well as poor urban planning, can make it hard for people to exercise too. In other words, it requires both people taking some personal responsibility and society making it easier for people to do just that.

Solving the crossword puzzle conundrum (February 2020)

Looking along the packed shelves in bookshops recently, I was struck by the number and variety of books that offered ways to avert memory loss. Many of these were specifically aimed at ‘older people’ and most offered some form of challenge. These were usually in the form of puzzle-solving with the expressed value that tackling such challenges would help to avoid ‘mental decline’ and ‘keep the mind active’. They included tasks such as answering Mensa questions, addressing Sudoku-type problems and both word search and crossword-solving activities. Some even suggested that addressing ‘mental workout’ on a regular, usually daily, basis could offset dementia.

I have long been skeptical of such claims, as I could find no scientific evidence that such activity alone could have these desired, and desirable, effects. Now recent research from Scotland showed that although people who regularly do intellectual activities throughout life have higher mental abilities from which to decline than non-participants, they don’t decline any slower. This research was undertaken by research staff at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and the University of Aberdeen and published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) towards the end of last year. Using a control group of about 500 volunteers (all born in 1936 and who had taken part in a group intelligence test at the age of 11) they found that engagement in problem solving did not protect an individual from decline.

On the plus side, the researchers did find that engaging in intellectually stimulating activities on a regular basis was linked to level of mental ability in old age. And while some previous studies have found that cognitive training can improve some aspects of memory and thinking, particularly for people who are middle-aged or older, no studies have shown that brain training alone prevents dementia. Instead, as a report from the Global Council on Brain Health recommended, and what has been recommended by longlifelearning.co.uk over many years, is that people should take part in stimulating activities such as learning a new language or musical instrument or taking up knitting or cooking or gardening rather than just brain training to help their minds to continue to function well into later life. Such activity though should be accompanied by other life-style choices such as keeping physically fit (eating a healthy diet, not smoking, drinking in moderation and keeping within recommended weight limits), engaging in social activities and maintaining wellbeing by being involved in a volunteering or other altruistic activities. We now know what to do to keep our brains functioning well into later life and it requires much more effort than just doing the daily crossword puzzle.

Build That Body, Build That Life (January 2020)

Consistent reports from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) indicate the rapid ageing of the population in the UK, which mirrors the trend in the world as a whole. At the same time, as clearly stated on the National Health Service (nhs) website, frailty among this growing cohort of older adults is also growing. Frailty is often described as ‘a state of physiological vulnerability with diminished capacity to manage external stressors’. Such frailty can affect people’s ability to carry out everyday activities, can have a negative impact on quality of life and can increase the risk of other health problems including illnesses and falls. The website goes on to say that studies estimate frailty affects around half of people above the age of 80.

The question raised by such a situation is how to provide effective care and support once people have been identified. Now a study by researchers at the University of Dublin has been undertaken to answer this question by reviewing 46 individual studies on the effectiveness of different interventions for frailty. The studies were highly varied with interventions ranging from different forms of physical activity to medication, education and nutrition supplements. Published in the British Journal of General Practice, the findings showed conclusively just how much older people benefit from increased strength or resistance training by working their muscles and increasing their protein intake, even through drinking protein shakes. The benefits were so noticeable that they recommended that GPs should prescribe it. They go on to say that 20 to 25 minutes of activity, four days a week at home, with an emphasis on a high-protein diet, is probably ideal.

Such an approach was one advocated some time ago by Chris Crowley and Dr. Henry Lodge in their book Younger Next Year first published in 2004. They stressed the value to older people of carrying on with, or taking up, resistance training in later life.  However, they tried to put this advice in perspective for older people saying that although weights are satisfying, even mildly addictive for some, they are not fun for most people. Instead they advocated finding a strength sport that you like such as bicycling, skiing, tennis, squash or canoeing.

Throughout their book, Crowley and Lodge advocate both aerobic and strength-building exercise. Unfortunately, they say, only a minority of older Americans claim they do regular aerobic training and even less, only 10% of Americans at the time of writing, claim to be doing any form of strength training regularly. Their advice: carry out strength training two days a week throughout the life span and such an approach should have a positive effect on combating the onset of frailty. They summarise their advice by saying that ‘aerobic exercise saves your life: strength training makes it worth living’. Advice, you might say, well worth building on.

Learning Not Loneliness (December 2019)

A recent BBC survey on loneliness, carried out by Radio 4’s All in the Mind programme, asked about ways of combatting loneliness, which ‘had worked for you or people you know’. Two of the nine suggestions involved finding distracting activities or dedicating time to work, study or hobbies while some people suggested joining a social club or taking up new social activities. The reasoning being that if loneliness is caused by not meeting people in the community, this might help.

Much research over recent times has identified the cognitive, psychological and social benefits to be accrued from learning in later life and this survey suggests those suffering from the negative effects of loneliness could benefit too. Loneliness, of course, differs from being alone - people choose, and can often enjoy, time alone with themselves to act or to think while loneliness is an often unwanted condition affecting those who wish to be more social. It might be argued that not only does this survey support educational gerontology (learning in later life) but also gerontological education (learning how to understand and manage ageing). For example, the survey goes on to identify other suggestions to combat loneliness such as changing negative thinking to make it more positive as on measurement, lonely people were found to have social skills as good as everyone else’s but might need help to cope with the anxiety of situations. It also suggested such people should start a conversation with anyone as a significant first step. The idea of this isn’t to build a deep friendship but just to feel more connected to other humans. One other strongly supported idea to overcome loneliness was to look for the good in every person you meet as people who feel lonely have, on average, lower levels of trust in others.

However, there is a role for groups of such people to come together and to learn or re-learn how to act on such suggestions and perhaps gain the skills and confidence to do so. There is an assumption that we know how to cope with the often-novel situations many people find themselves as a result of ageing with loneliness, caused by loss of a partner or friends, the moving away of family or conditions negating participation ,such as ill-health, being just one of them. All these symptoms are more likely to affect those in later life more often and more strongly. So let’s not just promote learning in later life (educational gerontology) but also learning about ageing well (gerontological education) if older people are to participate fully in life and enjoy themselves doing so with others too.

Growing Brainier Every Day (November 2019)

According to the associate professor of neurobiology at Columbia University, Maura Boldrini, the lead author on a newly released study, healthy older people continue to produce new brain cells. These findings contradict other studies, including one published in March this year. The work of the researchers at Columbia involved carrying out autopsies on 28 healthy brains, which had been donated by people who had no neuropsychiatric disease or treatment affecting the brain. The identification of neurogenesis, the process by which neurons or nerve cells continue to be generated in the brain, as people get older means researchers are better able to understand why things can go wrong, like with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, as we age.

No previous study has looked at neurogenesis in humans who had no neuropsychiatric disease or treatment at time of death, and previous studies, carried out with mice, had shown that neurogenesis declines after middle age. Humans, however, have much more complex learning abilities and emotional responses than rodents, both of which may depend on neurogenesis. New neurons in the hippocampus part of the brain are necessary for memory and emotional responses to stress. Our brain keeps making new neurons throughout our lifespan, and this is unique to humans. These neurons might be important for humans to transmit complex information to future generations or integrating complex memories and information.

Professor Boldrini believes that previous negative studies have come about as a result of a few factors. One is the availability of only portions of the hippocampus, so the total number of cells could not be calculated accurately. Secondly, not knowing the subjects’ disease and treatment history, which affect neurogenesis, can make it difficult to evaluate results. Finally and positively, the research team concludes that with a healthy lifestyle, enriched environment, social interactions, and exercise, we can keep these neurons healthy and functioning and sustain healthy ageing. 

Habits of a Lifetime (October 2019)

According to a major study into the impact behaviour has on lifespan, people who stick to five healthy habits in adulthood can add more than a decade to their lives. Using lifestyle questionnaires and medical records, researchers at Harvard University worked with 123,000 volunteers to understand how much longer people lived if they followed a healthy diet, controlled their weight, took regular exercise, drank in moderation and did not smoke.

The scientists compared people who adopted the healthy habits to those who did not and noticed a dramatic difference in average life expectancy, Men and women who adhered to all five, compared with people who adopted none of the habits, saw their life expectancy at 50 rise from 26 to 38 years and from 29 to 43 years respectively. This equates to an extra 12 years for men and 14 years for women. The researchers were surprised how huge the effect was.

The researchers performed the analysis in the hope of understanding why the United States, a country that spends more on healthcare as a proportion of GDP than any other nation, ranks only 31st in the world for life expectancy at birth. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), life expectancy at birth in 2015 in the US was 76.9 and 81.6 years old for men and women respectively. The equivalent figures for Britain are very similar at 79.4 and 83 years old. The study, published in the journal Circulation, suggests poor lifestyle is a major factor that cuts American lives short. In fact, only 8% of the general population followed all five healthy habits.

The five healthy habits were defined as not smoking; having a body mass index between 18.5 and 25; taking at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise a day, having no more than one 150 ml glass of wine a day for women or two for men and having a diet rich in items such as fruit, vegetables and whole grains but low in red meat, saturated fats and sugar.

These findings are very welcome and point the way to having a longer life. What they do not do, however, is address the cognitive and psychological aspects that make life worth living. These five habits can all have a positive affect on helping to ensure the brain is less likely to loose its ‘power’ but activities such as learning can in fact help to strengthen brain power and, if ailments such as dementia arise, enable the brain to better resist their debilitating effects. At the same time, observing the five habits in isolation or living with negative feelings may not help people to live well and thrive. Therefore, the five habits may help people to live longer but without cognitive development through, say, learning and supportive health and wellbeing activities through, for example, social engagement, they may not be enough. After all, remaining alive is not the same thing as being able to enjoy living.

Take a Weight off your Mind (September 2019)

 Recent medical research has shown that as we mature our brains operate a more organised system of networks with improved communication between different regions of the brain. Those regions deep in the brain are fully operational significantly earlier than the more sophisticated centres such as the prefrontal cortex. Consequently there is an uneven balance, tilting behaviour more towards immediate reward and risk as the still underactive prefrontal cortex will not apply the ‘brake’ to the immediate reactive ‘go’ signal firing off in more primitive areas.

This behaviour is evident in children and teenagers where the brain is still ‘maturing’ but, according to Susan Greenfield, in her book A Day in the Life of the Brain, it can persist into adulthood too. It has long been a characteristic of schizophrenic patients who never appear to lose aspects of the immediate brain. Both childhood and schizophrenia, then, conjure up a sense of living in the moment rather than a more thoughtful and proactive take on life.

However, according to Professor Greenfield, there is a third and unexpected group of people with an underactive prefrontal cortex who are characteristically reckless; those with a relatively high body mass index (BMI), namely the obese. For the significantly overweight, the press of the here-and-now environment is once again, as with children and schizophrenics, unusually paramount. After all, such people know the long-term consequences of eating unhealthily yet the immediate pleasure of the taste wins out over everything else and they choose to do so anyway.

It is interesting to think of how this new information could shine a spotlight on the behaviours of adults in, for example, voting patters. Is it possible that the significantly overweight would opt for choices offered for immediate gain, real or imaginary, over those offering benefits only in the long-term? Could this be characterised as making choices for their own immediate gratification over the future benefits for others or society as a whole? After voting has taken place, the results are often analysed to identify which groups of people, females, the rich, the elderly etc., have voted in which direction or another. Perhaps, we should do this by weight, as the consequence of such votes can be ‘heavy’.

Homework is for Adults ! (August 2019)

A recent announcement by Jane Austen College in Norwich that it was stopping setting homework for their pupils raised quite a few eyebrows, especially in certain sections of the press. After all, this was a ‘flagship’ Free School with a strong work ethic and not a failing school that could not get their pupils to do the homework to start with. The reason given was that the pupils already worked hard enough, that such work should be covered in extended school time and that evenings should be spent with family.

There is much to admire in this stance. Anyone who has ever been to school will have found that homework merely reinforces what the teacher already knows the pupils in their classes can and cannot do. Far better to have additional time in schools (Prep, perhaps?) where the teacher can work more individually with pupils than to set them off to face the unequal resources in their homes and the uneven support available from parents and others. Such work is then judged in isolation afterwards – whoever has actually done it !

This also set my mind to thinking about later life learners. In schools, teachers have the benefit of seeing their pupils everyday and, in most subjects, a few times per week. There is plenty of time for reinforcement and the correction of errors. Older learners, and especially those in informal learning, turn up to sessions once a week (if they can) for about and hour or two. They then have to remember the following week what they had done before and, if possible, enhance their learning further at a time when short-term memory can wane.

What is needed is some task to do between sessions that can provide the repetition we know aids memory, reminds each of the learners about the language and thinking involved and, if done with other learners or family members, can better embed such learning in their minds. Children don’t need homework to learn in their regular, structured and supported school careers. However, older people need such help to get the best out of learning in later life. So let’s not waste homework on children; homework is for adults !

Murder May Save Your Life! (July 2019)

 Those old board games, lying and collecting dust on the top of the wardrobe or under the stairs, could in fact bring remarkable benefits. Not only are such games very entertaining, especially when played with others, they also offer a lot more than just entertainment. In fact they can impact on a player’s mental and physical health and their wellbeing whatever age they are.

 First of all, board games are good for maintaining and improving mental health. Playing games help to use and develop important cognitive skills including memory and analysis. The analytical part of the brain, the hippocampus, is particularly exercised during decision-making. At the same time, board games help the brain to build and retain cognitive associations, which are very beneficial in old age. Keeping your mind engaged in this way, even focusing on manipulating small playing pieces, means players are exercising it and making it stronger. Such a stronger brain has a lower risk of losing its power. Research has also shown that participants who regularly play games have speeded up responses compared to those that don’t.

Playing board games, as with many hobbies, is fun to do and can help to reduce stress. Taking part helps players to unwind and to relax especially where the focus is more on taking part than winning at all costs. Such enjoyment often involves laughing, which itself helps to increase the body’s supply of endorphins - chemicals that promote the feeling of happiness.  They also help muscles to relax and blood to circulate resulting in the lowering of blood pressure. It is well known that high blood pressure is associated with greater risk of artery damage, heart disease and strokes.

Finally, board games such as Monopoly, chess, Game of Life or draughts, provide ideal opportunities to connect with family members or friends. They are social occasions, helping to build bonds, especially with children and grandchildren, and strengthening relationships at a variety of levels. Board games are particularly good at helping children to develop logic and reasoning skills and improve critical thinking too. The laughter and enjoyment taking place can help to boost a person’s immune system helping brain cells to live longer and be more able to fight disease. Therefore, playing board games such as Cluedo, the game of mystery and ‘murder’, is not only an enjoyable thing to do, it could help to prolong your life!

Enough is Enough (June 2019)

The ‘Paradise Papers’ are a huge leak of financial documents that throw light on the top end of the world of offshore finance. They mainly come from Appleby, a law firm with outposts in Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands, the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey, who provide the structures to help clients to legally reduce their tax bills. The documents reveal the lengths that some people go to in order to avoid paying tax. Whatever the rights and wrongs, legally and morally, of such actions what is clear is that it is those people who already have a great deal of wealth who are seeking to retain more. In doing so, however, they deny governments of funds to support everyone in their societies including the poorest.

One way of ensuring that those in need in the world receive the ‘service’ they require, a basic tenant of Rotary ethos, is for individuals not to grasp too much for themselves. The Swedes appreciate such a concept and, in fact, have a word for it. It is ‘lagom’. Kathleen Bryson, an evolutionary anthropologist at University College London, described the Swedish 'lagom' as a state of having 'not too much of one-or-the-other, but more a Goldilocks 'just right'.' Elliot Stocks, the co-editor and creative director of Bristol-based magazine Lagom told the publication that 'Lagom is an overarching concept behind your life in general. Rather than fitting a bit of lagom into your day, it's more about your approach to your life as a whole,' he added.

Over the last six months, the search engine Google has seen a steady increase in the number of UK searches for the term 'lagom' and, unsurprisingly, the word has inspired several consumer companies to jump on the terminology to make life easier, more enjoyable and inexpensive. For example, Swedish furniture store IKEA has created its own project ‘Live Lagom’ to teach people how to make life more sustainable. IKEA products are designed and produced to help them conserve energy, save water, reduce waste, and live a healthier lifestyle – all in keeping with the concept of 'lagom'.

For many years, and for many people now in later life, the driving force has been to accumulate money and possessions for themselves without necessarily caring about the consequences that doing so may have for others. This new movement of valuing sufficiency itself so there is enough for all chimes with the ancient Greek phrase ‘moderation is best’. It may just be that those people named in the Paradise Papers have more wealth but by not embracing the ‘lagom’ way of living, they may not have the ‘best’ life.

Have a hobby – it can add years to your life (May 2019)

It was pleasing to read that recent research has found that simply having a ‘sense of purpose’ as you get older can help you live a longer and healthier life. It has been well know that keeping fit, eating well and avoiding smoking are all helpful in having a longer life but experts have now shown that just by living a purposeful life – whether it is helping others or having an absorbing hobby – are just as important. People with the greatest sense of wellbeing after the age of 65 are almost a third less likely to die in the next eight and a half years. This means they will live on average two years longer than those who feel they have no satisfaction or companionship in their life.

Professor Andrew Steptoe, Director of the University College London Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care, who led the research said: “A healthy lifestyle is important, as are relationships with family and friends. Finding things to do that give a sense of purpose is also important. They don’t have to be very grand aims, but might include things like gardening and hobbies, or helping out a neighbour.

The study, looking at thousands of people with an average age of 65, was conducted by researchers from UCL, and US universities was part of a special series on ageing published in the Lancet. After eight and a half years, nine per cent of people in the highest wellbeing category had died compared with 29 per cent in the lowest category. Once all other factors were taken into account, people with the highest wellbeing were 30 per cent less likely to die.

So simply being a member of altruistic organisations such as Rotary, with its friendship groups, opportunities to learn new things and chances to volunteer to help others, are not only good for those we serve but good for ourselves too.

 Writing Better (April 2019)

For a long time I have been interested in graphology – how a person’s handwriting can tell you a lot about their personality and character. It is based on the premise that as the brain guides the hand, so your handwriting becomes a ‘picture’ of your ‘complete self’ - the person behind the pen. Therefore, graphology uses the analysis of handwriting to identify the traits, talents and the emotional energy of the writer.

The earliest example of systematic writing is the Sumerian pictographic system found on clay tablets around 3200 BC. At the same time the Egyptian system of hieroglyphics began as a pictographic script and evolved into a system of syllabic writing. The Greeks and then the Romans adopted the Greek alphabet and developed Latin writing and cursive or informal handwriting.

At the end of the eighth century, Emperor Charlemagne decreed that all writings in his empire were to be written in a standard handwriting and a cursive form eventually developed. By the eighteenth century, schools were established to teach penmanship especially in England and the United States. Writing systems developed in China and Japan too with letters that represent more characters and are visually far more complex

Recently, research using advanced tools such as magnetic resonance imaging have identified that the simple, and underused, art of handwriting benefits motor skills and the ability to compose ideas. Researchers are finding that writing by hand is more than just a way to communicate. The practice helps with learning letters and shapes and can improve idea composition and expression. Some physicians say handwriting could be a good cognitive exercise for those in later life to keep their minds sharp as they age. Studies suggest there's real value in learning and maintaining this ancient skill, even as we increasingly communicate electronically via keyboards big and small. Indeed, technology often gets blamed for handwriting's demise but in an interesting twist, new software for touch-screen devices, such as the IPad, is starting to reinvigorate the practice.

Virginia Berninger, a professor of educational psychology at the University of Washington, says handwriting differs from typing because it requires executing sequential strokes to form a letter, whereas keyboarding involves selecting a whole letter by touching a key. She says pictures of the brain have illustrated that sequential finger movements activated massive regions involved in thinking, language and working memory—the system for temporarily storing and managing information. So writing of all kinds can be good for you, handwriting is even better and it also provides a way of revealing more about you – whether you mean to or not.

 Volunteering - the Icing and the Cake (March 2019)

 Much good work is done in the world, and many people helped, by those who volunteer. From the eradication of polio through the raising of funds to the keeping of local hospices operational, volunteers can do everything from adding value to saving lives. It is a way of people helping others, whether directly or indirectly, and displaying the best of humanity locally and wider. It really does add the rich icing to the fabric of society’s cake.

Research has also shown that there are significant benefits to those who volunteer too. Often the main benefit that volunteers claim is the satisfaction and rewarding feeling that they receive from helping someone in need. This can really enhance their feelings and wellbeing. Some volunteers can also gain a specific experience and skill set that can help them to remain mentally active in later life. For younger people, such experiences and new skills can be an asset when seeking employment or further learning opportunities.

Academic studies have also concluded that, on some level, certain voluntary work can help promote an individual's physical and mental health, especially for the more elderly generations. Feeling useful and having a productive role in society can often offset the negative feelings that can come with retirement from work or the loss of caring duties, either for a family or for others in need. Finally, conducting voluntary work often broadens a person’s horizons too and helps them to grow in both social intelligence and awareness. 

Therefore, volunteering can enhance society on so many levels, benefitting both the people being helped and the volunteers themselves. As long as the individual enjoys the volunteering, voluntary work can be considered a win--win scenario. However, increasingly in schools, hospitals or parks, volunteering is replacing paid work – being the cake rather than the icing. In such cases, without the volunteers, such services would hardly function or would disappear altogether. For example, since 2010, in England, almost 8,000 library jobs have disappeared – about a quarter of the total – and over 400 libraries have been closed or plan to close. Another 234 libraries have been transferred to community groups or other external organisations to run. Some 15,500 volunteers have been recruited to replace these paid staff. Renowned author Philip Pullman (The Dark Materials) articulated the concerns of many saying: “I am in favour of volunteering, but relying on volunteers to provide a service that ought to be statutory is not a good policy.”

Therefore, it is clear that there is much good that comes from volunteering both for those in need and those volunteering to help. It has become a significant and welcome part of the fabric of British life. This is especially true for those in later life who volunteer in great numbers and benefit greatly as a result. However, in doing so, it is worth asking the question whether that participation enhances the provision or whether it replaces it altogether. It may not matter in the short term, when people’s needs are most urgent, but it may be significant in the longer term, Volunteering is already shaping the way many communities and societies work and not always for the better.

 Work Yourself Fit (February 2019)

As people get older it is harder to run marathons and race up and down the swimming lanes. However, we do know that exercise helps older people to keep healthy and keep unhelpful weight at bay. For many, such exercise itself is simply not enjoyable and for others not possible. However, such strenuous pastimes are not the only way to keep fit and burn calories. Housekeeping and gardening can also help you keep off the pounds. Here are some calorie-burning home and garden chores, with estimated hourly calorie-burn rates for an average person. They are only estimates, of course, as each person dusts, cleans or mows at a different pace and burns a different number of calories.

Digging and raking leaves not only burn a lot of calories but also can help tone muscles in arms and legs. Indeed, 30 minutes of digging in the garden can burn about 315 calories, the same amount burned by 45 minutes of bicycling on a flat surface. Weeding for 30 minutes can burn 115 calories, the same amount burned in 15 minutes of weight training. Raking leaves for 30 minutes can burn 225 calories with the resistance offered by leaves making this task a type of weight training. Simply washing your own car, or helping others to wash theirs, works our abdominal muscles and every 30 minutes of car washing can burn 143 calories.

Housework also helps to burn calories. For example, scrubbing the bath or bathroom tiles for 30 minutes can burn 200 calories and carrying shopping bags for 30 minutes can burn 190 calories, more if the bags are particularly heavy. Making beds for 30 minutes can burn 130 calories, the same number used if you jogged on a treadmill for 15 minutes. Cleaning windows for 30 minutes can burn 125 calories, the same number used in 20 minutes of power yoga while vacuuming for 30 minutes can burn about 90 calories, the same amount burned in 15 minutes of kick-boxing. Finally, simply climbing stairs for 30 minutes can burn about a significant 285 calories.

The calories burned while you're doing household chores can really add up in terms of calories burned. So if you don't have time to pump weights at the gym, or attend Pilates classes, or even have the inclination to do so, then substitute them with everyday household tasks or jobs in the garden. As people get older, there is a natural inclination to employ someone else to do such tasks but there are significant benefits from do such work yourself if you can. It can stretch and tone your muscles and can burn up to 315 calories an hour - that's more than twice as many as we would burn up sitting in front of the television.

 Talking too quietly about libraries (January 2019)

The report produced following the national review of public libraries conducted by William Sieghart on behalf of the government makes interesting reading for later life learners. The outcomes have been widely welcomed and it is hard to argue with too much of what it says and suggests. However, the question is, will the proposed changes make things better for those in later life?

While not acting against the current cuts to public sector funding, it commits itself to a thriving service and suggests it remains in the hands of local authorities as now rather than as a national service as in many countries. It does, however, propose greater collaboration and co-operation between them although this would be on a voluntary basis. It passionately states that, “the library does more than simply loan books. It underpins every community.” with which most people would whole-heartedly agree. However, it does little to suggest how that situation might be preserved or enhanced in the future.

The report goes on to stress the need for digital upgrades in libraries including installing wifi, involving ebooks and elending and training staff in their use. Although vital, some commentators have seen this as a way of saving money on books and other types of resources and some fear it might mitigate the need to visit libraries in person. The report also looks at communities, charities and not-for-profit companies as future leaders of libraries and praises the use of volunteers. It does so, however, in a balanced way and recognises the question of the long-term viability of using such organisations and people.

Much of the media led with the suggestion of putting in coffee bars but this is only one small aspect albeit one to consider. We already have many coffee bars – what we lack are places for people in later life to go to learn. In fact, overall, there is a lack of emphasis on learning. If learning is thought of as just reading books, then books are plentiful being either cheap in charity shops or free through other organisations. It is learning that will sustain wellbeing and mental capacity into later life and this is best done communally, thoughtfully and actively. So let’s start with libraries as the ‘centre for learning for all’ with all staff trained in effective learning techniques across the age range; and if that involves reading books or drinking coffee as well, that’s’ fine.

It’s not an ‘age thing’ (December 2018)

When in office, it was reported that the then Shadow Chancellor, Ed Balls, was red-faced after forgetting the name of a Labour Party business supporter in an interview with BBC Newsnight. "His surname has just gone from my head, which is a bit annoying,” he said at the time. He described Bill Thomas, the person who aided the drawing up of the party's small business policies, as simply "Bill" and when pressed could not give his surname.

This is understandable as everyone forgets things from time to time, at any age, and especially in relatively stressful situations such as an interview. I remember thinking at the time that what is not understandable, nor forgivable, is that a day later Mr. Balls tweeted to excuse his memory slip by stating, "It's an age thing!"

This is exactly the ill-informed and lazy approach to later life, and those in it, that leads to such stereotyping of older people. It would not, perhaps have been ‘acceptable’ for Mr. Balls to say he was ‘stressed’ or ‘overworked’ or ‘tired’ as these may be construed as signs of weakness. However, he sights getting older when there is no evidence that unless you are suffering from specific conditions or illnesses that you should not retain a good memory.

For Mr. Balls to state such a thing at the tender age of 47 is inexcusable. What does it say about his understanding of the ageing process and especially about those still working or holding positions of responsibility way beyond his comparatively young age? His remarks may not been meant to be taken too seriously but words spoken in such a way often reveal underlying prejudices and can have more serious consequences.

I suggest he is honest with himself and others about the effects on memory of the workload associated with his life and position and has a serious discussion about work-life balance and reasonable expectations. He should also apologise to those ‘of an age’ for being condescending and instead celebrate the great contribution they make. Really, it’s an honesty thing !

 It IS Brain Science (November 2018)

A century ago, scientists were only really able to study the brain when it was non-living. In other words when it had been removed following a post-mortem. However, scientific progress has been rapid since that time and many great discoveries and inventions have happened, especially in the last 50 years. Now we have developed a range of instruments and techniques to enable us to study the human brain when it, and the body it’s in, are both living.

Most of these tools are based on the principle that brain cells transmit information in the form of ‘electrical impulses’. When they ‘fire’ they send a signal that can be detected and recorded as images. The first use of such techniques occurred using probes on the brains of volunteers undergoing open skull surgery to cure epilepsy. This is possible because the brain contains no pain receptors and so the patient can be kept awake feeling no pain. It was found that stimulating small regions of the brain affected different senses and actions and even the recalling of vivid memories from childhood.

However, more non-invasive ways of evaluating brain activity have now been created. One way is using the knowledge that the electrical impulses, as they move in brain cells, generate magnetic fields. These can be measured outside the head and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scanners use magnetism to look at the different magnetic properties of various parts of the brain. Other techniques use radioactive ‘tracers’, which are chemicals injected into the bloodstream. As the radioactive blood travels around the brain it emits positrons, invisible radioactive emissions, which PET (positron emission tomography) scanners outside the head can detect. In the last 15 years techniques have also been developed to measure the amount of oxygen regions of brain cells are using as they function (using functional MRI scanners) and for the first time scientists can actually see the brain at work.

It sounds complicated but for those people who’s brains need attention, and for all of us who may need such instruments in the future, it is fortunate and reassuring to live in a time of such human ingenuity and scientific discovery.