Society and Aging

10/31/2022

Scientists led by groups at EPFL and the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) explore the elaborate interplay between genes, s*x, growth, and age and how they influence variation in longevity.

Aging, senescence, and death are given as inevitable. Some people age faster, some suffer from age-related diseases, and some die younger than others. Robert Williams points out that "Finding common molecular denominators of aging differences is critical. Lifespan and health are under some level of genetic control that varies both within and between species. Once defined we can then intervene rationally."

The problem is that lifespan—the duration of time one lives—is one of the most complicated traits that one can study and is affected by genes and the environment as well as their complex interactions.

- Genetic determinants of longevity are specific to one s*x or only make a difference past a certain age.

- Genetics and early growth affect longevity

- The hunt for aging and longevity genes is real

- The future lies in healthspan research

This study is an important step in understanding the factors behind why some people live longer than others. However, Johan Auwerx, one of the lead authors of the study comments “This particular study is focused on longevity, yet what is arguably more important is how long health is maintained. This is referred to as ’healthspan‘, the period of life that is disease-free. Studies in animal models and ultimately in humans will need to assess how the health degrades in a longitudinal manner, and then search for the underlying causes. We are in the midst of such a healthspan study in our laboratory”. A main question remains: can one postpone many diseases at once by affecting aging globally? The results of this study will be a rich resource of aging genes that will hopefully guide the design of therapies that not only extend lifespan, but also healthspan.

10/30/2022

Capacity and limits of healthcare systems may vary from country to country however, access to reliable and affordable healthcare is a must.

Expected life span was a common measure to evaluate development level of countries. However, recent research show that, even though people live longer they suffer from chronic diseases for decades. Longer but low quality life is a place nobody wants to go.

A new term defines the concept better: Health span.

Expected health span is a more accurate approach to evaluate collective health and advancement level of a society as it actually measures the period an individual lives without serious health issues and actively.

COVID-19 has accelerated the process of innovation and adoption of telemedicine solutions. Remote doctor visits, video calls, remote monitoring technologies are here to stay. This is incredibly helpful for the individuals who have hardship about mobility financially and physically.

I am listing the topics to discuss under this main topic.

1- Insurance

2- 5G

3- Inequality

4- Public Finance and Social Protection

5- Gender Inequality

6- Global Health

7- Systematic Racism

8- COVID-19

9- Digital Communications

10- Economic Progress

11- Health and Healthcare

12- Agile Governance

10/27/2022

Conventionally, people used to get training and gain necessary skills for a specific job at early youth, land on a job work for a company during their work life time and get retired when it’s time.

Now, it is everything but that. As nature of economics and work life changed, adults at work life might easily find their current professional skills outdated and find themselves in an uncompetitive position in job markets. To prevent that, it is a common practice to get retraining and reskilling nowadays.

The world has become a place nobody has anticipated to be. Many individuals had dreamed of a comfortable retiree life. Unfortunately, right now many people who are close to retirement age do not feel ready or prepared for a retirement. Some individuals have sense of purpose in their jobs and want to stay in the workforce. Or some may have to leave working life because of unexpected health issues or life events.

In a decade or more, world will be a place, in which almost 30 percent of the people are over 65 years but still in the system of societies. And There will be huge systematic problems to be addressed by the communities as a whole. It would be a big mistake not to take seniors to account as part of the solutions to chronic problems and benefit them.

This is a very delicate issue and we need to ideate and do impact as much as we can. I am leaving the subtitles that will be discussed in detail below.

1- Corporate Governance

2- Insurance

3- Institutional Investors

4- Taxes

5- Public Finance and Social Protection

6- Gender Inequality

7- Education, Skills and Learning

8- Workforce and Employment

9- Global Health

10- Economic Progress

11- Entrepreneurship

10/27/2022

10/27/2022

In my opinion, humanity is giving a test in every front as technology advances. Longevity and aging in dignity is one of the things that innovation and technological improvements should be providing. I mean, If we cannot deliver proper and adequate care to elders while we have thousands of satellites traveling around the orbit, while we can land devices on the surface of Mars, there must be something wrong here.

Making sure the older or poorer part of the society is not left behind falls on us.

Remote monitoring systems can help seniors with a mobility limitations to get better examination and treatment.

Affordable and advanced wearables can help doctors to apply more preventive treatments.

Social technologies and virtual reality can mitigate loneliness which is first cause of depression.

Robotic solutions can help seniors to be more independent in many respect.

The futuristic ideas mentioned above are not impossible. They are costly to develop, it takes time to expand. But, with correct planning and effort, they can be delivered to every one in the society.

I am listing the sub titles of this issue that will be covered in detail in the future below. Please do not forget to subscribe to our newsletter.

1- Inequality

2- Diversity and Inclusion

3- Mental Health

4- Workforce and Employment

5- Innovation

6- Global Health

7- Mobility

8- Digital Communication

9- Artificial Intelligence

10- Biotechnology

11- Fourth Industrial Revolution

12- Agile Governance

13- Internet of Things

10/25/2022

Heart disease, diabetics even cancer. Almost every type of health issue is directly related to lifestyles we choose.

Obesity and sedentary lifestyle has become a rigid problem in developed countries. New solutions, products and programs are proposed everyday by private and public sector. Adverse consequences of sedentary lifestyle are being felt the most heavily in senior age.

Very simple exercise or physical activity added to daily routine can have incredibly positive and preventive impact on long term. As this is an obvious, different demographics, gender and age groups have different level of perspective on the issue.

To be able to spread true message, social factors should be primary focus to design and adopt new habits. Good habits -unfortunately- do not stick as long as they don’t become part a lifestyle.

We will discuss what the situation is and what the future looks like in the in detail. As always, below I am listing the subtitles to talk about.

1- Behavioral Sciences

2- Public Finance and Social Protection

3- Diversity and Inclusion

4- Workforce and Employment

5- Youth Perspective

6- Global Health

7- Mobility

8- Infrastructure

9- Health and Healthcare

10- Food Security

10/25/2022

At least 13 years of schooling is compulsory almost all around the world. After that, you can get high education which yields highly paying jobs.

High income provides good quality housing, healthy foods and high life standards. Also, thanks to the education received, individuals are able to find and evaluate information. They can teach themselves how to live healthier. They can manage to abandon harmful habits such as smoking, alcohol consumption or encourage themselves to exercise more often.

Longevity has indirect factors that needs to be curated and spread over people. Opportunity equality is a key concept to talk about. For those who haven’t got high education, there is strong necessity for continuing education so that they can manage to age in awareness.

Education is always one of the most crucial topic to cover/ Here as well, we are going to talk about many different aspect of longevity and education. I am leaving the list below.

By the way, I want to underline that we are still setting the stage for our long journey. I will start to share more detailed research results, statistics, facts and news about these sub categories after presenting these main topics.

1- Taxes

2- Public Finance and Social Protection

3- Values

4- Education, Skills and Learning

5- Workforce and Employment

6- Arts and Culture

7- Innovation

8- Youth Perspective

9- COVID-19

10- Digital Communication

11- Internet Governance

12- Economic Progress

13- The Digital Transformation of Business

14- Entrepreneurship

15- The Digital Economy

10/23/2022

City life gets faster and faster thanks to technological developments. In contrast to this, population gets older. As more proportion of the population is defined as `elder` more senior citizens will be living the city life. Obviously, elders have more different pace and limited abilities than a young adult.

Unfortunately, very few of the current city managers have invested or have been planning to invest to modify cities to turn them into elder friendly.
We will look into this topic in detail so that we can raise some awareness in the community. In my opinion, this is a very urgent matter since aging of population has been happening so fast and silently.

Below, I am leaving the list of issues to discuss in detail in coming days.

1- Inequality

2- Diversity and Inclusion

3- Mental Health

4- Workforce and Employment

5- Global Health

6- Biodiversity

7- Cities and Urbanization

8- Retail, Consumer Good and Lifestyle

9- Mobility

10- Real Estate

11- Air Pollution

12- Infrastructure

13- Systemic Racism

10/23/2022

Our next topic to cover will be a phenomenon existing for ages; Intergenerational relationships.

Even hundreds of years ago, Some authors wrote notes and diaries mentioning how immature is the new generation or worrying about handing the world to this childish new generation.

So every generation has a tendency to criticize the next and is afraid of next generation will fail to sustain. However, so far humanity somehow survived and even prospered.

We will cover very interesting issues under this topic. Each of them is more indispensable than one another Here is the list;

1- Values

2- Gender Inequality

3- Education, Skills and Learning

4- Diversity and Inclusion

5- Mental Health

6- Workforce and Employment

7- Arts and Culture

8- Innovation

9- Youth Perspective

10/21/2022

First major topic to talk about is financial security of ageing. This is one of the most overwhelming issue for every citizen in any country; making sure that we will have enough to cover most basic needs when we get too old to work.

We will discuss different sides of this topic. Here is the topics we will discuss under the umbrella term of financial security;

1- Institutional investors

2- Behavioral sciences

3- Taxes

4- Risk and resilience

5- Inequality

6- Banking and capital markets

7- Financial and monetary systems

8- Sustainable development

9- Public finance and social protection

10- Values

11- Human rights

12-Peace and resilience

10/20/2022

Looking at aging-longevity topic at a societal and individual level will be a challenging endeavor since there are many many more sub categories and topics to cover than you might think of.

Hence, sometimes I will dive into deeper topics and sometimes I will come back look at the picture from a broader perspective. So I will go back and forth time to time.

Below, I am listing you the main topics I will cover . These topics are derived from World Economic Forum website. I may add new topics down the road as I research.

1- Financial Security and Aging

2- Intergenerational Relationships

3- Longevity Ready Cities

4- Longevity and Education

5- Lifestyle, Fitness and Longevity

6- Technology, Innovation and Longevity

7- Working Longer

8- Health Care and Long Lives

I will benefit WEF resources a lot. Yet, what I actually aim here is to blend existing reports, trends, analyzes and turn them into daily digestible readings. By doing that, I want to inspire and inform community about aging- every aspect of it.