Are These the Best Years of Your Life?

  The ups and downs of life may seem to have no predictable plan.But scientists now know there are very definite life patterns that almost all people share.Today,when we live 20 years longer than our great-grandparents,and when women mysteriously outlive men by seven years,it is clearer than ever that the "game of life " is really a game of trade-offs.As we age,we trade strength for ingenuity,speed for thoroughness,and passion for reason.These exchanges may not always seem fair,but at every age,there are some advantages.So it is reassuring to note that even if you've passed some of your "prime",you still have other prime years to experience in the future.Certain important primes seem to peak later in time.

   WHEN ARE YOU SMARTEST?From 18 to 25,according to IQ scores;but you are more experienced with increasing age.You're sharpest in your 20's;around 30,memory begins to decline,particularly your ability to perform mathematical computations."But your IQ for other tasks climbs,"says Berkeley psychologist Arthur Jensen.Your vocabulary at age 45,for exmple,is three times as great as when you graduated from college.At 60,your brain possesses almost four times as much information as it did at age 21.This trade-offs between sharpness and wisdow has led psychologist Dr.Leoppold Bellak to suggest that "maturity quotients"(MQs instead of IQs) be adopted for adults.

   WHEN ARE YOU HEALTHIEST?For men,from 15 to 25,"says New York internist Dr.Donald Tomkins."His muscles are firmest,his resistance to colds and infection is highest,and his body is most efficient in utilizing nutrients."Women,for reasons scientists do not understand,get a five-year bonus.Peak health begins to decline when the body process called anabolism(cell growth)is overtaken by the opposite process,catabolism(cell death)."Cells have been dying since birth,"says Tomkins,"but in our late 20's,they start dying faster than they are replaced."Also,muscle is replaced with fat.

   Women also get an additional bonus of good health later in life.The figures of National Institute of Health show that the onset of such"old age"diseases as arthritis,rheumatism and hear ailments denies the generally greater fitness of women:Life expectancy for men is now 68.3;for women 75.9.U.S.aging authority William Kannel says,"Older women with low blood pressure are practically important."However,psychologists believe that by entering the competitive job market in increasing numbers,women may eventually give up their statistical advantage.

   WHEN ARE YOU MOST LIKELY TO DEVELOP MENTAL DISORDERS?From 30 to 35.

   This surprisingly narrow peak is very real.The National Institute of Mental Health(NIMH)reports that more than half of the patients in mental hospital,male and female,are in this age group (men leading women by about 20%).

   But if we are most neurotic between 30 and 35,apparently we recover quickly.Admissions to mental hospitals drop sharply around age 40 and stay down until age 65.Yet,say psychologists,between 40 and 55,more people report they "feel\"on the verge of a nervous breakdown.Relatively few actually occur."We become veterans at coping,"says psychologist Marvin Karlins.

   Suicide,a measure of mental problems,peaks from 20 to 24 and then again around 70.Incidences of suicide are smallest among people with intact marriages,highest among the divorced.

    WHEN ARE YOU HAPPINESS?You have the best physical sense of yourself from 15 to 24;the best professtional sense from 40 to 49.Pessimism peaks between 30 to 39.San Diego State University psychologists Marilyn Borges and Linda Dutton found that before age 24,we believe that they're behind us.A National Health Survey agrees;After age 30,we"become more realistic and do not view happiness as a goal in itself.If we maintain our health,achieve professional and emotional goals,then happiness,we feel,we follow."

   The American Institute of Public Opinion says that the pessimism peak occurs when we realize that talent and determination aren't enough to guarantee success.Lady Luck must help.

   Also,youth's good physical sense of self apparently does little to foster happiness,"Parents who tell their teenage children these are the happiest years,"says Ligget,"coudn't be more wrong.Adolescence is very difficult.Only when you are 40 and looking back does youth look blissful."

   WHEN ARE YOU MOST CREATIVE?Generally between 30 to 39,but the peak varies with different professions.

   Mozart wrote a symphony and four sonatas by age eight,and Mendelssohn composed his best known work,A Midsummer Night's Dream,at 17.Psychologist H.C.Lehman presents the years for peak work in many fields.Though the peak in most fields comes early--most Nobel Prize winners did their top research in their late 20's and 30's--creative people continue to produce quality work throughout their lives.

   By viewing life's various peaks,we can easily get the feeling that we are part of a giant give-and -take plan.Though statistically the plan is there,we must remember that every peak has many exceptions.Says McLeish,"The human life journey cannot be charted by a single curving line."