www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/aging-gracefully-the-scientific-scoop/202507/youre-only-as-old-as-you-feel.

KEY POINTS

• Feeling younger is beneficial for your health.
• People who report feeling younger show less brain aging.
• Feeling older than your actual age is a predictor of future depression.

My dad will be celebrating his 80th birthday tomorrow, and he is living proof that age really is just a number. He’s not just surviving—he’s thriving. He still works full time running his small business, he lives independently, and travels internationally on a regular basis. He also looks at least 10 years younger than his birth certificate suggests (something he very much enjoys being reminded about).

I recently asked him how old he feels, and his response was “70.” That’s nearly a decade younger than his chronological age. While this was reassuring for me to hear, it turns out there’s science behind why this is a good thing.

How old you feel compared to your chronological age is referred to as subjective age, and this number can be lower, the same, or higher than your actual age. Psychologists have been studying subjective age for decades, and there is now a large body of research showing that it’s a surprisingly powerful predictor of physical and mental health, cognitive function, and longevity.

Feeling Older Comes With Mental and Physical Health Risks

In a study of more than 10,000 middle-aged and older adults, Stephan and colleagues (2021) found that individuals who felt older than their chronological age at baseline were at greater risk of developing cardiovascular conditions, including heart disease and stroke, over the subsequent nine years. This association was partially mediated by health-related factors such as smoking, obesity, hypertension, and depression, suggesting that these comorbidities may contribute both to disease risk and to an older subjective age. Subjective age has also been linked to increased mortality risk: In a sample of more than 6,000 participants, those who felt older than their actual age were more likely to die over the following eight years (Rippon & Steptoe, 2015).

Subjective age is also a predictor of mental health. Rippon and Steptoe (2018) found that people who felt older than their chronological age were more likely to experience symptoms of depression and declines in functional health four years later. Notably, these effects weren’t explained by gender, education, or even previous mental health—suggesting that feeling older than your chronological age is a unique risk factor for future depression.

Subjective Age Is Associated With Cognitive and Brain Health

Cognitive function and brain structure are also linked to how old we feel. Stephan and colleagues (2021) found that older adults who felt older than their actual age performed worse on tests of memory and executive functioneight years later—an effect that remained robust almost 20 years later. Corroborating these findings, a brain imaging study by Kwak et al. (2018) revealed that older adults who felt younger had larger volumes in areas of the frontal and temporal lobes—brain regions associated with language, social cognition, and executive control, which underpin our ability to make decisions, communicate, and interact effectively with others. These findings suggest that the subjective experience of aging is closely related to neurobiological aging processes.

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Luckily, most older adults report feeling younger than their actual age. According to Wahl and colleagues (2023), this “youthful bias” is the norm, not the exception. But for the minority who don’t—those who feel their age or older—the consequences can be serious, with consistently worse physical and psychological health outcomes.

Can You Change How Old You Feel?

The encouraging part is that subjective age isn’t fixed. Healthy lifestyle choices—regular exercise, balanced nutrition, not smoking, managing chronic conditions like high blood pressure, and staying socially connected—can all help you feel younger.

So, while we can’t turn back the clock, we may be able to slow it down by changing how we experience aging. As my dad shows every day, it’s possible to age without getting old.

Happy 80th birthday, Dad!

References

Stephan, Y., Sutin, A. R., Wurm, S., & Terracciano (2021). Subjective aging and incident cardiovascular disease. Journals of Gerontology, Series B, Psychological Sciences, 76(6), 910–919. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbaa106

Rippon, I., & Steptoe, A. (2015). Feeling old vs being old. Associations between self-perceived age and mortality. JAMA Internal Medicine, 175(2), 307–309. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2014.6580

Rippon, I., & Steptoe, A. (2018). Is the relationship between subjective age, depressive symptoms and activities of daily living bidirectional? Social Science & Medicine, 214, 41–48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.08.013

Stephan, Y., Sutin, A. R, Luchetti, M., Aschwanden, D., & Terracciano (2021). Subjective age and multiple cognitive domains in two longitudinal samples. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 150, e110616. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2021.110616

Kwak, S., Kim, H., Chey, J., & Youm, Y. (2018). Feeling how old I am: Subjective age is associated with estimated brain age. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 10, e168. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2018.00168

Wahl, H. W., Drewelies, J., Duezel, S., Lachman, M. E., Smith, J., Eibich, P., Steinhagen-Thiessen, E., Demuth, I., Lindenberger, U., Wagner, G. G., Ram, N., & Gerstorf, D. (2023). Subjective age and attitudes toward own aging across two decades of historical time. Psychology and Aging, 37(3), 413–429. https://doi.org/10.1037/pag0000649