The Perfect Topic for the Class of ’59 –- Longevity

Friday, August 26, 2011, Stanford University Alumni Center

Introducing the Stanford Center on Longevity

Mission: To foster innovations in science and technology, public policy and social norms that impact the challenges and opportunities of longer life spans and aging well.

Margaret Dyer-Chamberlain, Senior Research Scholar and Managing Director, provided an overview of the Center, saying that its focus is to ensure that added years serve as a gift, not a burden. The origins of the Center are interdisciplinary—psychology and neurology—and its research areas include the following:

·       Mind – Cognition and memory, decision making, emotional regulation and experience. Recent studies focus on estrogen and memory.

·       Mobility – Osteoarthritis, sedentary behavior

·       Financial Security – Education, planning, fraud. The Longevity Center offers a new Center on Financial Fraud.

·       Global Aging – Public discourse, research on economic and political considerations

·       Politics, Scholars & the Public: Health care reform, Medicare, healthy aging, and communities. Question: How do you measure what’s a healthy community?

Courses include an undergraduate longevity course, a first-year seminar, and an undergraduate student practicum.

Think about this: By the time today’s children grow old, living to 100 will be common.

Global Population Aging

Presenter Adele M. Hayutin, Ph.D., is a Senior Research Scholar and Director of the Center’s Global Aging Program. She indicates that aging is personal for all of us, and it’s also global. Knowing it’s unfolding differently around the world, Dr. Hayutin’s goal is to describe global changes and show us that the United States is younger than most advanced economies. For example, with correct information, we can adjust portfolios and advocate for changes.

A primary issue of population aging: The increase in the share of old people is more important than the number of old people. She notes that since we graduated (1959), Americans are living longer and we are having fewer children. These forces have major consequences, which she compares to the forces of two rivers clashing—where results may be tumultuous.

Worldwide, old people (65+) outnumber young people (0-14 years old) in more developed countries. If it’s not true today, it will be in 2030 and 2050. The working age population has skyrocketed. Western Europe and Japan have the highest percentages of old people (again, 65+). Most of Asia has a young population. Thirteen percent of the U.S. population is old. Twenty years from now, Africa will continue to have a young population, and this will be in sharp contrast to Asia.

Declining fertility and increasing longevity drive the age statistics. In Japan, the average age in 1952 was 22; in 2010, it was 45; in 2030, it will be 52. In the U.S., the average age in 1952 was 30; in 2010, it was 37; in 2030, it will be 40. This was demonstrated in graphs showing a pyramid shape for our ages (oldest population at the top) in 1952 to a projected cube in 2030.

Young countries face different challenges. When one considers that Pakistan’s average age was 14 in 1950, 21 in 2010, and will be 26 in 2030, Hayutin indicates that the Arab Spring was not surprising.

China now has too many bachelors, and that is considered a national security issue. So the country is easing its one-child policy. China will see a shrinking work force. Work forces are currently shrinking in the following countries: Italy, South Korea, Germany, Japan, and Russia.

Each country faces a different reality. How do we adapt? Increasing immigration and advancing the retirement age are possibilities.

Dr. Hayutin ended her talk by asking us to write to our Congress members, asking them what they are doing about our aging population.

Stanford Prevention Research Center

Sandra J. Winter, Ph.D., from the Healthy Aging Studies Group, Stanford Prevention Research Center, Student University School of Medicine, was the next presenter. The center has promoted research on healthy aging for over 30 years. She offered these facts about chronic disease:

·       Accounts for seven out of 10 deaths each year;

·       One out of two adults has a chronic condition;

·       Can result in daily activity limitations;

·       In 2003, cost the U.S. $1,323 billion.

Americans are living longer and have an increased risk of chronic disease. (Hypertension is the most common.)

Three common causes of physical problems are physical inactivity, smoking, and diet. We don’t always do what is good for us. We need new strategies. Here’s a start:

·       Advocacy – Neighborhood eating and activity advocacy teams like backyard gardens and cooking classes and potluck dinners provide improved nutrition with socialization. Seniors learn that things that are manmade (e.g., fast food restaurants, a lack of sidewalks in a community) provide risk.

·       Stanford Healthy Neighborhood Tool – The program provides tablet computers for seniors to carry and record pictures (potential risks) and sounds (their reactions).

·       Mobile Interventions for Lifestyles & Exercise at Stanford – This program provides apps (mTrack – a fancy pedometer, mSmiles, and mConnect) for seniors who already use smartphone technology.

The Healthy Aging Studies Group is most interested in reaching the underserved.  All of these strategies focus on getting people to walk more.

Contact Dr. Winter by e-mail.

Stanford Aging Research – A Whirlwind Sampler Tour

Presenter Ken Smith is a Senior Research Fellow and Director of Academic Research and Support at the Center. A former aerospace engineer, Smith now serves as a faculty liaison in the program. Here goes with the whirlwind tour!

·       The Future Self Project: How would you like to be a young person viewing an aged version of yourself? This computer program provides such a display and also provides an aged avatar with which the person can perform activities. After viewing themselves, participants answer questionnaires. And they increase their savings programs.

·       Tai Chi – Controlling the autonomous: This study demonstrated Tai Chi’s potential benefit to circulatory control.

·       White Matter Hyperintensities in the Brain: This study provided groundwork for future dementia studies by developing methods for tracking neural pathways.

·       Shoe for Osteoarthritis Sufferers: The Center designed a shoe for knee arthritis patients, and since Spring 2011 it’s being sold as the ABEO SMARTsystem at the Walking Company.

·       Sedentary Behavior in the Workplace: This is an upcoming pilot study in an insurance company’s call center. The long-term result might be a new health guideline.

·       Glenn Laboratory for the Biology of Aging: This lab was new in 2011. It is investigating the role of stem cells in the aging process. Discoveries in the mechanisms of aging may clarify age-related disease.

·       Biology of Aging – a molecular “odometer” for aging: The eventual impact may be its ability to predict remaining lifespan.

·       Center for the Prevention of Financial Fraud: With the elderly frequently being targeted in financial fraud, the hope is to set up a new network through which information can be shared nationwide. This will be discussed at a conference in Washington, DC, in November.

·       Healthcare Choices: Knowledge of personal cost needs to be included in public opinions on healthcare reform. Currently there is some support for this, but it is nuanced.

·       Interdisciplinary studies: Psychology, neurology, biology, medicine, law, business, political science, and computer science are coming together in the Center’s studies.

·       Self-Driving Automobiles: This study potentially impacts the major mismatch between housing build-out and the aging population.

Watch for the book Planning to Stay which will be published in 2012. Most people want to “age in place.” The book includes contributions from many experts, including former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros, Margaret Dyer-Chamberlain and Jane Hickey of the Center, and 24 other expert authors.

The Center has 10 full-time employees. Contact Smith by e-mail. He also invites us to consider providing funds for such projects at The Stanford Challenge.

The session ended with audience comments by Class of ‘59er Carroll Estes, Ph.D., who is a sociologist and gerontologist at the University of California, San Francisco. She has been a political sociologist for the last nine years, is president of the Gerontology Society of America, and is a member of other related groups. She is working with the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare—a political action committee (PAC). She has written two books on long-term care.

Carol described the CLASS Act, where Community Living Assistance with Support Services (CLASS) is based upon cash and counseling and would save the government $87 billion. The fatal flaw is that it doesn’t require 100% participation by Americans. If passed, the CLASS Act will belong to Health and Human Services (HHS).

Carol has participated in McArthur Foundation studies that have revealed that heredity is less important than environment in longevity. One take-away for the Class of ’59: Meaning-based activity is the most beneficial.