Prostate Restored
Photo by Ника Алексеева Pexels Logo Photo: Ника Алексеева

What age is half your life?

They pass slowly at first, and then much more quickly. According to Kiener, if one dies at age 100, and you take into account that you don't remember much of your first three years, then the halfway point is at age 18. Let me repeat that: the halfway point is age 18. Which means childhood makes up half your life.

What happens if you take ashwagandha every day?
What happens if you take ashwagandha every day?

The long-term safety of ashwagandha is not known. Large doses of ashwagandha might cause stomach upset, diarrhea, and vomiting. Rarely, liver...

Read More »
What fruits should I avoid at night?
What fruits should I avoid at night?

The citrus in oranges, clementines, grapefruits, tangerines, lemons and kumquats will cause your stomach to produce excessive amounts of acid that...

Read More »

According to one theory, childhood makes up half your life

Maximilian Kiener

You may have less time left on earth than you think you do. As you get older, it feels like time flies by faster. A year feels like an eternity when you’re a kid, but the same 12 months go by much quicker as a grown-up. The reason being is the years make up a smaller portion of your life as you get older. To a four-year-old, one year is 25% of their life. To a fifty-year-old, the same time is 2%. This theory of time perception — that we view the same amount of time differently depending on our age — was put forth by French philosopher Paul Janet in the nineteenth century. Janet theorized that we experience time differently as we get older because time makes up a smaller portion of our life the older we get. A year makes up the entire experience of a one-year-old’s life, while the same 12 months make up 1% of a 100-year-old’s life. Put another way, while time actually moves forward in a linear way, we experience it logarithmically. Time goes by slow at first, and then speeds up.

Here’s my question: If that’s true about the moment-to-moment experience, how does that impact the entire experience? In other words, if you live to be 100, mathematically, the halfway point in your life would be age 50. But what is the halfway point in terms of how your life feels? If the years speed up as you get older, when you’re looking back on your life at age 100 (if you’re lucky enough to live that long), at what point would you say, “that year marked the halfway point of my life”?

I took a wild guess as to what the answer might be, and I thought it might be at some point in your 30s. As it turns out, I was off by a lot. It’s actually much earlier. If you want to find the “perceived” halfway point of someone’s life, there are a couple of ways to go about it, and a few of them can be found on the internet. For the visually minded, take a look at this interactive graphic. It was made by Austrian designer Maximilian Kiener in 2015. You scroll down and a bar graph shows the years beginning to pass by. As you do so, your age appears on top as well as the percentage each year of your life makes up. They pass slowly at first, and then much more quickly. According to Kiener, if one dies at age 100, and you take into account that you don’t remember much of your first three years, then the halfway point is at age 18.

Let me repeat that: the halfway point is age 18.

How long does it take for garlic to lower blood pressure fast?
How long does it take for garlic to lower blood pressure fast?

1. Raw garlic: Eating fresh, raw garlic is one among the herbal remedies for controlling high blood pressure. Chewing raw garlic will activate...

Read More »
What enhances absorption of turmeric?
What enhances absorption of turmeric?

Another way to increase the bioavailability of turmeric is to consume this spice with a source of fat (such as avocado, nut butters and nuts, fish,...

Read More »

Which means childhood makes up half your life.

(If the first three years did count, the halfway point would be much earlier, at age 7). For the more mathematically minded, there’s a calculus equation that models the perceived halfway point in one’s life, one of which can be found here. Without taking into account that one doesn’t remember the first three-ish years of their life, the halfway point in this equation is age 10. According to a commenter on the website, if you do account for the fact that the first three or so years don’t count, the halfway point is about age 17, if one’s life ends at age 80. At this point, you’re probably worried that time and your life are both slipping away from you. But worry not — there are a couple of counterarguments against the theory of childhood being the midpoint of one’s life. It was a friend of mine who first pointed out one of the counterarguments. She uses calculus as part of her job, and in her opinion, the calculus equation is just a lighthearted stab at a complex topic. Yes, the years pass by quicker as you age, but there are a lot of factors that go into how you perceive your life. Time goes by faster or slower depending on whether we’re doing something enjoyable or suffering through something horrible. It’s also the case that when we look back on our lives, we don’t necessarily remember how fast the time was passing. I have memories from childhood, when time seemingly stretches on forever, but I don’t remember how fast the time was going in the moment. I was thinking about my own perception of time. I’m 28, which means the halfway point of my life was age 14 — when I was a freshman in high school. This, to me, seems way too recent. It feels like my midpoint should be much earlier, like age 10 or so. My friend, also 28, told me that to her, 14 feels just about right. If anything, she feels like her halfway point came a bit later, like at age 17 or so. She said her 20s brought a lot of changes for her, while everything before that seems kind of a blur. It might be that change is a factor in how we perceive our time. My parents, both in their 60s, also felt that major changes separated the first half from the second half of their lives. My parents both experienced career changes in their late 40s — my dad retired from his job at an insurance company and took on a job at a nonprofit, while my mom became a board member on our local school board. They both felt like their late 40s marked the “halfway point” of their respective lives. It might be that big changes make you take stock of your life and divide them into clear periods of “before” and “after.”

How long does it take for zinc to work?
How long does it take for zinc to work?

It often takes 12 weeks before any improvement is seen. Long-term zinc supplementation requires 1–2 mg of copper per day to prevent copper deficiency.

Read More »
At what age do men start having prostate issues?
At what age do men start having prostate issues?

It's true that prostate problems are common after age 50. The good news is there are many things you can do. Dec 1, 2022

Read More »

It’s really only when we’re looking back when it seems like time has passed the fastest. It often seems like the past was just yesterday, but the future seems like it will stretch on forever. I was thinking about how 40 doesn’t seem as ancient as it used to — like it’s an age I will be one day. Then it occurred to me that I’ll be 40 in 12 years, and 12 years ago I was 16. That kind of scared me, that I am just as far removed from 40 as I am from 16. My entire life from now, I will be 56, which sounds way far off in the distant future to current-me, and I wonder how far away my current age will seem to me then. All this goes to show that the old saying is right: Life is short. It might be shorter than you think. We ought to take advantage of the time we have available to us now and live in the moment, because the time we have left on earth will be over before you know it.

What is the downside of turmeric?
What is the downside of turmeric?

Turmeric usually doesn't cause serious side effects. Some people can experience mild side effects such as stomach upset, nausea, dizziness, or...

Read More »
What are the 6 core values?
What are the 6 core values?

Preamble service. social justice. dignity and worth of the person. importance of human relationships. integrity. competence.

Read More »
How do men's bodies differ from women's?
How do men's bodies differ from women's?

The differences between the sexes in body composition are well known: males typically have proportionately more muscle mass, more bone mass, and a...

Read More »
Do your eyes hurt with high blood pressure?
Do your eyes hurt with high blood pressure?

Possible signs of this condition include eye swelling, reduced vision, double vision with headaches and bursting of a blood vessel. People with...

Read More »