HOPE Foundation Newsletter March 2012

Posted by on 3 March 2012

I have finally got around to reading Nelson Mandela’s autobiography: Long Walk to Freedom. It is a gripping account of the struggle by indigenous Africans in South Africa for political freedom in their own country. Mandela was 76 years old when he finally assumed the mantle of president. Now in his 90s he’s still going strong – but not as president of course.

This led me to think about other famous figures who have achieved in their latter years. A few examples: Winston Churchill, Charles De Gaul and Golda Meir. Victor Hugo, Michelangelo and Verdi were still extremely productive in their 80s. Verdi was in fact so active and clear minded at 80, conducting rehearsals 6 to 8 hours a day that his doctors were astonished. One of them wrote: “The anomaly is so extraordinary that it may well throw the ideas of those who have done research on the subject into confusion.” What were those ideas? In the words of the famous physician Dr. William Osler of Johns Hopkins University, they included ”the loss of mental elasticity that makes men over 40 so slow to receive new truths” thus rendering people over 40 “comparatively useless” and those over 60 “entirely dispensable.”

I’m sure we have all heard variations on that theme. A few years ago, a columnist in the Listener advocated compulsory euthanasia at 65. And he wasn’t joking. Recently a well-known Auckland socialite interviewed in the Herald advocated a similar scheme although admittedly her target age was 100. This is ageism at its most pernicious and most ignorant.

Contrary to public opinion, the Scientific American reports that there is an “avalanche” of new research that shows that the human brain’s performance actually improves as we go through middle life, and that peak performance may actually be reached at or after 60. This has enormous implications for employment, self-esteem, how people structure their lives. And it is another example of how good research can overthrow ideas that people have held for decades. (Another example is the myth that brain cells cannot replicate after injury.) It surely is an excellent reason to continue supporting or, if you are not a current supporter, throwing your support in behind the HOPE Foundation for Research of Ageing.

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