Former professional baseball pitcher Brandon McCarthy had a shower thought: did people age faster in the past? So, he did what you normally do in these situations. Ask Twitter about getting old in the past.
When you think about it, evolution is a very slow process and humans are more or less the same basic issue model that they’ve been for years, so it can’t be the case, right? However, people started replying to McCarthy with old photos of their parents where 20-year-old dads look like they’re about to retire. And that’s irrefutable evidence right there!
Continue scrolling and check out these vintage photos and the hilarious debate.
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However, if we got serious for a moment, we’d discover that different humans age differently, and that’s the way it has been. A study of nearly one thousand 38-year-olds revealed that while most had biological ages close to the number of birthdays they had notched up, others were in quite worse or better health.
Researchers used 18 physiological markers, including blood pressure, organ function, and metabolism, to evaluate the biological age of the participants. For some, the past dozen years had taken no obvious toll on their body’s biology.
Others, however, hadn’t been so lucky. A good many participants had biological ages in the 50s, and in one “extreme case” a person had a biological age of 61, meaning that for every birthday over the past dozen years, their body had aged 3 years, thus shortening the life span significantly.
“The overwhelming majority are biologically in their mid-40s or younger, but there are a handful of cases who are in pretty bad shape. In the future, we’ll come to learn about the different lives that fast and slow aging people have lived,” said Daniel Belsky at Duke University in North Carolina.
“Our goal was to see if we can measure aging in young people,” said Belsky. “It’s becoming increasingly clear that aging is really the cause of much of the disease and disability burden we face, but our existing science is based on aging in older people who already have a lot of age-related diseases.”
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Others thought this thread was perfect for making jokes:
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Smoking was the main thing, I think. When I first started working in the late 70s, it was still normal to smoke all day long at work. If you didn't smoke people thought you were some kind of health nut/weirdo. It's really hard to fathom now, but you could even smoke in hospitals and doctor's offices back then.
I think we also think a lot of them look old because their styles look like something an older person would wear. That's because people tend to stick with the style they had at 23 in the 1960s (for example) which we now associate with a person who's 70. Others in these examples just didn't have good dental care or luck with their hairlines. You'll find people today in their 50s, with no teeth, or balding who look way older too.
That's a great point, same thing I was going to say.
That was a big part of it. When I was a kid, high schoolers dressed "older" to look more mature and sophisticated. These days, 60-year-olds dress like they're 14.
And airplanes and buses and on and on.
Yeah
This isntbthe only factor. Every pic is individual. Im 40 look 25 smoked 20 years. Im not short either. People are starting to question me as human
My pediatrician smoked...IN THE EXAM ROOM.
It is hard to fathom. My grandmother smoked all the way through her pregnancies. I think they knew it wasn't good for you, but they just didn't care.
I'm as anti-smoking as anyone, but tbf, back in those days doctors were advertising and recommending smoking, until the 1950s. The full extent of the health risks were not fully understood or disseminated to the general public or taking seriously until the late 60s, early 70s.
No, they really didn't. But, what they fail to tell pregnant smokers today is that going cold turkey whilst pregnant is bad for your baby. Withdrawal is bad for the unborn baby and often that is forgotten..
They actually RECOMMENDED smoking to pregnant women. Mama got pregnant with me in 1969. Her first baby, my older sister, weighed 9 pounds 12 ounces, despite Mama gaining only the prescribed 16 pounds! She asked the doctor how to have a smaller baby this time - they told her to take up smoking. I'm ever so glad she didn't - I was born a month early at 7-4, and would have had far more health problems if she'd smoked.
Yes, that is the time when my father was born :)
This comment has been deleted.
I remember it well, really miss it! Lol!
Some of it is fashion and hair styles
Exactly -- the short, curled hair and the drawn on eyebrows were very aging for women -- prom pictures all look like 40 year old housewives dancing with teenage boys.
Yeah the 19 year old girl with the bob would look 19 with a modern haircut.
She looks 19 to me. The hairstyle is old now but back then it was young and stylish, and her face is young.
And Botox ;)
How many people do you actually know, personally, that use Botox, though? I don't know anyone who does.
There is no way the mustache twins are 17, not by a long shot.
They probably lied about their age
To avoid the Vietnam draft, I suspect. That was the signature hair style back then for rock stars and hippie draft dodgers.
They lied about their age to 17-year-old girls.
The guy who posted it said later it's was a joke.
Thank you. It's just impossible that they're 17. And not just the facial hair and sun-damage. A 17 year old just doesn't have that bone structure.
My older brother looked like that at 18. Lots of hair including body hair. Today few young men have body hair and they look like 13 year olds. Act like it as well
They look like they're in the mid-twenties!
They look atleast 10 years older than my boyfriend who is 33 so I'm also suspicious about their age.
Smoking was the main thing, I think. When I first started working in the late 70s, it was still normal to smoke all day long at work. If you didn't smoke people thought you were some kind of health nut/weirdo. It's really hard to fathom now, but you could even smoke in hospitals and doctor's offices back then.
I think we also think a lot of them look old because their styles look like something an older person would wear. That's because people tend to stick with the style they had at 23 in the 1960s (for example) which we now associate with a person who's 70. Others in these examples just didn't have good dental care or luck with their hairlines. You'll find people today in their 50s, with no teeth, or balding who look way older too.
That's a great point, same thing I was going to say.
That was a big part of it. When I was a kid, high schoolers dressed "older" to look more mature and sophisticated. These days, 60-year-olds dress like they're 14.
And airplanes and buses and on and on.
Yeah
This isntbthe only factor. Every pic is individual. Im 40 look 25 smoked 20 years. Im not short either. People are starting to question me as human
My pediatrician smoked...IN THE EXAM ROOM.
It is hard to fathom. My grandmother smoked all the way through her pregnancies. I think they knew it wasn't good for you, but they just didn't care.
I'm as anti-smoking as anyone, but tbf, back in those days doctors were advertising and recommending smoking, until the 1950s. The full extent of the health risks were not fully understood or disseminated to the general public or taking seriously until the late 60s, early 70s.
No, they really didn't. But, what they fail to tell pregnant smokers today is that going cold turkey whilst pregnant is bad for your baby. Withdrawal is bad for the unborn baby and often that is forgotten..
They actually RECOMMENDED smoking to pregnant women. Mama got pregnant with me in 1969. Her first baby, my older sister, weighed 9 pounds 12 ounces, despite Mama gaining only the prescribed 16 pounds! She asked the doctor how to have a smaller baby this time - they told her to take up smoking. I'm ever so glad she didn't - I was born a month early at 7-4, and would have had far more health problems if she'd smoked.
Yes, that is the time when my father was born :)
This comment has been deleted.
I remember it well, really miss it! Lol!
Some of it is fashion and hair styles
Exactly -- the short, curled hair and the drawn on eyebrows were very aging for women -- prom pictures all look like 40 year old housewives dancing with teenage boys.
Yeah the 19 year old girl with the bob would look 19 with a modern haircut.
She looks 19 to me. The hairstyle is old now but back then it was young and stylish, and her face is young.
And Botox ;)
How many people do you actually know, personally, that use Botox, though? I don't know anyone who does.
There is no way the mustache twins are 17, not by a long shot.
They probably lied about their age
To avoid the Vietnam draft, I suspect. That was the signature hair style back then for rock stars and hippie draft dodgers.
They lied about their age to 17-year-old girls.
The guy who posted it said later it's was a joke.
Thank you. It's just impossible that they're 17. And not just the facial hair and sun-damage. A 17 year old just doesn't have that bone structure.
My older brother looked like that at 18. Lots of hair including body hair. Today few young men have body hair and they look like 13 year olds. Act like it as well
They look like they're in the mid-twenties!
They look atleast 10 years older than my boyfriend who is 33 so I'm also suspicious about their age.