What Does Peak Performance Aging Look Like? Is Cognitive Aging Really a Fact of Life?

Peak performance aging is a radical concept that throws a pie in the face of traditional aging. The traditional theory of aging is that there is little that we can do to stop the slide. 

We’ve all heard accepted-aging statements: “Well, there’s nothing you can do about it. I guess we’re just getting old.” “Can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” “Aches and pains are all part of getting old.” “Aging comes for us all.” 

One leading thinker, Steven Kotler, a noted expert in the field of peak performance begs to differ.

“Aging is a fact of life, but old is all a mindset.”

A NY Times bestselling author, journalist and flow researcher, Kotler explains further about the myth of uncontrollable aging in his research and his recent book, Gnar Country: Growing Old, Staying Rad.

“Ageism is the most socially acceptable stereotype¹ in the world,” he said. “But it has radical consequences.”  He further explains, aging is a mindset,”A proper mindset towards aging is also a growth mindset. If you have a fixed mindset around aging, everything about lifelong learning is going to be worthless.”

When psychologist Mihaly Cskiszentmihalyi coined the term Flow in the 70s to explain the peak performance zone he discovered people could tap into, he discovered a unique psychological state like any other and inadvertently helped catalyze the positive psychology movement. 

When it comes to aging, the latest research indicates that not only is regularly activating flow state a key factor in long-term life satisfaction, it is also neuro-protective against cognitive decline (see George Valliant’s research at Harvard-citations will be on our blog). 

You may be wondering what all this may have to do with Jinfiniti, and we’ll get to that in a second. 

But first, here are a few things that happen when your body is in Flow State: 

1. All six positive neurochemical cocktails are released.
2. Life satisfaction goes up. 
3. Cognitive decline slows and even reverses. 

The long slow route theory of aging states that skills decline as you age, therefore cognitive decline is inevitable. But new research that supports peak performance aging flys in the face of that with practical guidance on how to achieve peak performance aging. 

To avoid cognitive decline, the research says that you need to:  

1. Solve the crisis of identity by the time you’re 30.
   
   
2. Have match/fit quality by the time you’re in your 40s.
   
   
3. In your 50s, you need to combat two things:
   
   
   1. Risk aversion. If you are risk averse, you are fearful which releases norephedrine, which then blocks . You need challenging, creative social experiences and should remain open, curious and explorative. 
      
      
   2. Physical fragility. According to Kotler, you do this through “challenging social activities that involve deliberate dynamic play in novel outdoor environments.” To protect against cognitive decline, you need neurogenesis, the birth of new neurons. You have 700 new neurons being made daily, with the majority of them being made in the hippocampus. 

So why is this important? In the hippocampus, your brain remembers novel outdoor experience as that is what your brain has been trained to do for thousands of years. 

What does a positive, even a growth mindset around aging look like?

Six neurochemical cocktails released in flow:

1. DOPAMINE

Drives desire, excitement, enthusiasm, sexual desire, curiosity, to test your limits

2. NOREPINEPHRINE

Brain’s version of adrenaline. Produces a huge increase in energy and alertness. When you’re obsessed with an idea, can’t stop thinking about the person you just met, then it’s activated

3. OXYTOCIN

Produces love, trust, friendship. It’s pro social. Underpins everything from long term bliss to cooperative businesses and relationships.

4. SEROTONIN

Calming, peaceful. Gives a mood lift. Shows up post meal with the desire to take a nap. Important for satisfaction and contentment

5 & 6. ENDORPHINS & ANANDAMIDE

Heavy duty stress & pain relievers. Replaces the weight of the day with euphoric happiness.

Kotler identifies five categories of functional fitness that need to be trained² and maintained: strength, stamina, agility, balance and flexibility.

“These are all use it or lose it skills, if we want to retain our physical abilities late in life³,” he said.

He noted a study about aging conducted by Yale professor Becca Levy⁴ that proved there was a significant correlation in how people thought about aging and viewed themselves when exposed to negative stereotypes.

“This could be people saying, ‘You’re too old for this s- -t,’ or you telling yourself ‘You’re too old for this s- -t,’” he explained. “By the time they were 60, we see a 30% greater memory decline in people who have been exposed to negative stereotypes around aging. Literally, we’re killing each other with these ideas.”

So here’s how peak performance aging ties into what we’re about at Jinfiniti:

If you are suffering in one of the vital biomarkers that can precipitate and accelerate aging, then it dramatically diminishes your potential longevity and healthspan.

Just this week, I met a 35-year-old with significant health issues whom we may be able to help pre-empt by testing and more precisely diagnosing while also optimizing NAD levels, so it can happen at almost any age.

NAD deficiency affects your energy, which in turn, affects your drive and motivation to engage in peak-performance, anti-aging related activities. The sooner you start ensuring your NAD is optimized, the sooner you throttle back aging, thereby extending your healthspan immediately. 

If you happen to be 50+ years old, your NAD levels are likely not optimal unless you’ve been taking our Vitality ↑® NAD+ Booster for quite some time. According to extensive research, the average healthy 50-year-old has already lost 50% of their NAD levels. 

Here at Jinfiniti, our flagship NAD supplement, the Accuri® Vitality ↑® NAD+ Booster, is a patent-pending formulation that has been extensively tested in clinical studies by  hundreds of clinics and by thousands of consumers. It allows optimization of NAD in approximately 90% of users, a figure incomparable to any other NAD supplementation on the market. 

No other molecule comes close to helping your cells function optimally as much as NAD. 

This means that pain, inflammation, fatigue, brain function (obstacles to Flow State & peak performance aging) all decrease while mental clarity, stamina, recovery, energy, and youthfulness (ingredients of Flow State) all increase when NAD is optimized.

Hence why NAD optimization plays an inextricable link in achieving peak performance aging at the molecular level.

Whether you’re a pro athlete or you’re working in the corporate world, building a business, or raising a family, taking care of your cellular vitality is paramount to how you feel, how you perform but also how and whether or not you age.

That’s why NAD is  arguably the foundational molecule for all of life. Plus, if you are over 40 years old your NAD levels are essentially guaranteed to be deficient. So get one of our NAD tests and a bottle of Vitality ↑® NAD+ Booster to tune up your NAD levels. Better, yet, our NAD starter kit is a terrific value as it’s 2 tests and 2 Vitality ↑® NAD+ Boosters, so within two months we can verify that your NAD levels are up to optimal levels.

Lastly, if you’re interested in going deeper on health-related content, here are a few of our recent posts that you may want to read:

1. Andrew Huberman is Wrong About NAD, NAD+ precursor & Longevity
2. What Does Peak Performance Look Like? 
3. 9 Powerful Benefits of Optimizing Your NAD
4. Why Optimized, Precision Medicine is the Future

Citations:

• Peak Performance Aging: Growing Old, Staying Rad with Steven Kotler
• The Rules for Sustaining Peak Performance as We Age.
• The Keys to Achieving Peak Performance and Longevity.
• Aging is a Mindset (BMJ)
• Thinking Positive About Aging Extends Longevity
  

Referenced Sources:

1. https://nypost.com/2023/02/20/im-63-but-have-a-biological-age-of-43-heres-how-i-do-it/ ↩︎
2. https://nypost.com/2017/01/19/you-office-job-is-literally-aging-you/ ↩︎
3. https://nypost.com/2022/03/02/aging-faster-in-adulthood-linked-to-health-conditions-in-adolescence/ ↩︎
4. https://medicine.yale.edu/news-article/harmful-effects-of-ageism-on-older-persons-health-found-in-45-countries/ ↩︎