Feel Young, Think Young!

Feeling younger may help older people retain cognitive abilities.
US News and World Report (3/5) reports that "if you feel old beyond your own chronological years, you are probably going to experience a lot of the downsides that we associate with aging," but "if you are older and maintain a sense of being younger, then that gives you an edge in maintaining a lot of the abilities you prize," according to Markus H. Schafer, co-author of a new study. During the study, researchers "compared people's chronological age and their subjective age to determine which one has a greater influence on cognitive abilities during older adulthood." They found that "people who felt young for their age were more likely to have greater confidence about their cognitive abilities a decade later," and while "chronological age was important...the subjective age had a stronger effect."