In Sweden, where the term originated, mappies have their own magazine which defines them as older people "who have time and money and want to spend them".

Research just published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition compared one group of people in their late 60s to a group of 25-year-olds, with equal Numbers of men and women.

A new study published July 27 in the journal Nature shows the neural networks in the brains of the middle-aged and elderly have weaker connections and fire less robustly than in youthful ones.