Midlife is a busy time—and it comes with plenty of stress. You likely have mounting responsibilities at work, kids that need your attention, parents that may need more care, increasing financial obligations, etc. When you add an aging mind and body on top of all that, it’s a lot to take on. Now, a new study suggests that how quickly you age during midlife can predict memory lapses a decade later.
To probe the relationship between biological aging and memory, researchers from Penn State University collected blood samples from 232 adults who were in their 40s during the 2000s. They tested the samples using two molecular clocks to determine biological age, as well as a third clock to measure the rate they were aging. This clock, called DunedinPACE, was developed by following a cohort of 1,000 people beginning in the 1970s and tracking changes in 19 biomarkers related to organ integrity every year since.
Read more: “Memory Decline Starts Earlier Than You Might Think”
“Many of these tests are like your car’s odometer—they tell you how far you’ve gone in terms of age and how much aging-related change has accumulated,” study author David Almeida explained in a statement. “In this study, the useful measure turned out to be more like a car’s speedometer—a measure of how fast your body is aging during midlife.”
Around 10 years later, the researchers followed up with the group in a series of eight phone interviews, to find out how their memories were holding up. The participants were asked how often they experienced two different kinds of memory lapses: retrospective lapses (forgetting something in the past, like where they put their keys) and prospective lapses (forgetting to do something they planned to do, like take medication), as well as how often these glitches interfered with their lives.
“Though they may seem similar, prospective memory lapses are both less common and can be more serious than retrospective lapses,” Almeida said. “Misplacing your car keys can be irritating, but it’s often less harmful than missing doses of needed medication or accidentally skipping doctor’s appointments.”
When they looked for correlations between memory lapses and biological age, however, they didn’t find any. Instead they discovered that those who aged at a more rapid pace during middle age were 18 percent more likely to experience a prospective memory lapse. That means rapid agers may forget something on five more days each month, compared to their peers. And it could be a warning of things to come. According to past research, frequent prospective memory lapses may be associated with dementia later on.
Of course, that doesn’t mean you’re automatically doomed if you flake on a doctor’s appointment. Instead, the researchers say, it’s important to be mindful of any cognitive changes during this busy period. They also stress that you shouldn’t be shy about bringing up at your next doctor’s appointment.
“There are a lot of different physical causes of cognitive decline— from circulation issues to lack of sleep—but there are also a lot of effective solutions,” Almeida said. “If we catch problems early, we can enhance the quality of our lives, possibly for decades.”
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