Harvard study that reversed aging proves the power of gene expression
Orange and yellow leaves flew by the car window, as the early hints of fall began to show.
It was 1981. Ellen Langer was in a van with one research assistant, and a dozen elderly men. All were in their 70s and 80s, bound for a special location at a large monastery to the north.
The older men chatted about everyday life. Some were married and all were retired. Many had health conditions, mobility issues, and used canes. Two hours later, they arrived at a massive monastery in rural New Hampshire. It was a sparsely populated town. The men knew they were there for a study with Professor Langer, but knew nothing else of the intention.
Langer was an esteemed Harvard professor and hoping to do another groundbreaking study on aging and its interplay with psychology. She would succeed and reveal an insight that lives on to this day.
At the start of their study, they tested each man's grip strength, balance, cognition, memory, and mobility.
Then, Ellen began their plan for the week. There were movie screenings of films from these men's youth that they all loved.
They were brought together for discussions and memories from their teenage years, things that brought them happiness, and also frustration. They talked about the first dates they went on. On another night, the men listened to a radio broadcast from 1959: the Preakness race which was won by Royal Orbit. Another night, they screened Anatomy of a Murder.
The entire week was focused on things that reminded them of being young — and it paid off.
Each day, the men gained more energy and strength. They were moving more, and on the 5th day, they were even playing touch football, despite many of them having limps at the start of the study. When the men were tested at the end of the study, Ellen Langer was stunned: they had massive improvements in their mobility, cognition, and memory, and even reported less pain.
Langer's research revealed the power of labels and identity on our gene expression. Because men tapped into environmental cues and memories that reminded them of being young, their bodies came to life with a youthful vitality they had long missed.
What's amazing is that the men not only felt younger, their bodies physically morphed to resemble younger bodies. Langer suggests that the labels we are given by doctors, especially when we are sick, have huge consequences on the way we feel and live.
Her study built on the insight that genes can be changed in the way they manifest. Your beliefs can cause your body to express them like hidden members of an orchestra waiting for their turn. Langer did other groundbreaking studies, including showing that giving nursing home patients plants to take care of improved their health and cognitive function and even led to greater longevity.
She showed how people performed far better in memory tests when they had duties requiring memorization. You tend to live in a passive state of identity that is defined by your age, status, health, self-beliefs, and more. You subconsciously think, 'I am old so I'm supposed to be tired and forgetful.' It elevates those exact symptoms. The practice of optimism and tricking your own mind can alter how you perform in subtle, important ways.
A perfect example of the power of belief is how drugs often struggle to make it through clinical trials because they can't outperform placebo alternatives. One man was rushed to the hospital in fear of having overdosed (intentionally), only to have his doctor show up and tell him he was part of a clinical trial and was taking placebos.
His vitals all resembled him having overdosed and the doctors at the ER even believed it. It was all sugar pills. Another man was taking new blood pressure meds that significantly helped his hypertension, only to find out they were placebo. Such placebo effects have even been proven when the person knows it's a placebo.
No, this doesn't mean you should avoid doctors' orders or try to think your way to good health — but there is value in acting in good faith and believing in the things you want to happen, and that could even remotely be true about yourself.
It has become a massive cliche in the self-help world to talk about the power of belief. It's better to think of this as eliciting a response from your body that is already waiting dormant.
Per Langer's research, if you adopt the mindset of your younger, more vibrant self, think back on the things that brought you so much joy, and attempt to live like a younger person (minus all the indulgence), you could potentially inject massive energy into your life.
It starts with a leap of faith to believe things to be true.
As I look back at my own life, I have never found success in anything where I spent my time doubting myself over and over. There were plenty of times I felt insecure, and still do, but it was always underpinned by a feeling of, 'I can do this.' Anytime I've been sick, the act of thinking about how sick I am has only made it worse. It is like watching a needle go into your arm. It always hurts far worse, because you feed into it.
The mind matters more than most people already appreciate. There's virtue in getting drunk on self-belief in a strategic way, and in choosing to feel healthy and vibrant, to go out and be happy and do things, to value your intelligence for what it truly is rather than sit around and compare it to what it isn't.
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