Mar 12, 2026
3 min read
A significant minority of people over 65 experience cognitive and physical improvements—especially among those with "age-positive" beliefs.
Scientists reveal the secret to changing cognition and weight loss in old age
A large minority of people age 65 and older experience cognitive and physical improvements, especially among those with "age-positive" beliefs.
Some decline in mind and body is part of life in old age, but it may not be a linear path from the vigor of youth to the fading of old age, and new research shows that mental and physical decline can still be reversed in the over-65s.
The secret elixir, according to researchers at Yale University, is an "idea" about the issue of aging, which led the group to seek the need for "old age correction" to change social expectations of later life.
The research team analyzed data from more than 11,000 older Americans over a decade, tracking how people change not just from year to year, but over decades.
They tracked two key markers of aging: general cognitive performance and walking speed, the latter of which is often described by geriatricians as the "sixth vital sign" because of its strong association with predicting disability, hospitalization and even death.
The results challenge the familiar story of steady, inevitable deterioration.During a follow-up of up to 12 years, 45 percent of the participants improved in at least one of two areas.Cognitive gains were surprisingly common—about 32 percent improved their scores—while 28 percent physically became faster on their feet.
According to the team, many of these improvements were not simply statistical errors, but exceeded thresholds considered clinically significant.
And when the researchers included those whose cognitive abilities were simply stable rather than deteriorating, the picture became even clearer, with more than half of older adults defying the stereotype of inevitable cognitive decline.
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They also noted that, according to the World Health Organization's own guidelines, the best way to measure cognitive and physical abilities in later life is to classify patients as showing or not showing decline.The organization therefore "does not allow for the possibility of improvement" in the elderly.
"The current study suggests that the prevailing narrative of aging as a time of inevitable and global decline needs to be revised," the team said.
“In addition, the current study shows for the first time that participants who acquired more positive aging beliefs were more likely to show improvements in both cognitive and physical performance.”
"Many people equate aging with the inevitable and ongoing loss of physical and cognitive abilities," said Dr. Becca Levy, lead author of the study and an international expert on the psychosocial determinants of aging health.
"We found that improvements in later life are not rare but common and should be incorporated into our understanding of the aging process."
He noted that if the general statistics are taken as an average, it shows that there is cognitive and mental decline in people aged 65 and over.However, when you look at the data, people in this age group are seeing significant gains.
"What's amazing is that these benefits disappear when you look at the average," Dr Levy said.
"If you average them all together, you see a decline. But when you look at individual trajectories, you get a very different story. A significant percentage of the older participants we studied improved."
He added that "because age beliefs can be changed, it opens the door for intervention at both the individual and societal levels."
The study was published in the journal Geriatrics.
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