It's All Downhill

I am reading a book called "The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead" by David Shields, and it makes for grim reading.

Some highlights, if you can call them that.

At 19, your strength and coordination peak.

At 20, your body is at its most flexible, after which joint function steadily declines.

Your IQ is highest between ages 18 and 25 when the brain peaks in size and then starts shrinking, losing weight and filling with fluid.

At 30 you reach peak bone mass.

Creativity peaks in the 30s, then declines rapidly.

"At 50, everyone has the face they deserve." - George Orwell.

Reaction times slow by 20% from age 20 to 60.

There is some good news. When you're 45, your vocabulary (whatever that means) is three times as large as it is at 20. When you're 60, your brain possesses four times the information than it does at 20. Retrieving that information is another matter.

By the time you're in your 80s, you no longer need to wear deodorants, and at age 90, you grow increasingly less likely to develop cancer as the tissues of an old person don't serve the needs of aggressive, energy hungry tumours.

As depressing as all that is, the most worrying is this quote from Evelyn Waugh: "Old people are more interesting than young. One of the particular points of interest is to observe how after 50 they revert to the habits, mannerisms, and opinions of their parents, however wild they were in youth."

God help me.