Succesful Aging

In our final post for the semester, I have a few questions for reflection:


1. What is your personal definition of succesful aging? How has this definition changed from the beginning of the semester?

2. What was one topic or fact that you found to be the most interesting throughout the semester?
 
3. What is one aspect of successful aging that you would like to continue learning about?

4. Has any of the information that we've discussed in class change your perspective about successful aging?  (i.e. Are there any behaviors that you will or will not do as a result of learning about aging?)

Thanks again everyone for participating in the class! It has been a great semester.

Aging News

 I am reposting the article I sent in an email- I will discuss conference information in class.


One article I recently read from University of So-Cal's gerontology website talked about how even though the average life span has increased, the number of years of living morbidity (disease, deteriorated function) free has actually lessened.  For example;  

 A male 20-year-old today can expect to spend 5.8 years over the rest of his life without basic mobility, compared to 3.8 years a decade ago — an additional two years unable to walk up 10 steps or sit for two hours. A female 20-year-old can expect 9.8 years without mobility, compared to 7.3 years a decade ago.


To me this is interesting because I think it impacts what we think about as "successful aging", as well as the influence of health care and aging. It doesn't speak to the idea that we are preventing diseases as much as we are treating them. This also raises an ethical question for myself.  Personally, I'd rather live quality years than quantity years. 

However, there are quite a few considerations to also keep in mind. For instance:  The increasing prevalence of disease may to some extent reflect better diagnostics, but what it most clearly reflects is increasing survival of people with disease,” Crimmins said. “The cost of maintaining and providing care for people with chronic conditions is an important part of determining the economic well-being of countries with established social security and government-provided health services.”

Financial Aging

One topic that we have not discussed in our seminar is the role of finances in aging.  Various research highlights the importance of socioeconomic status and its impact on our lifestyle and health. While we can't forecast every expense that will incur during our lifetime, and the amount that we will need to sustain our desired lifestyle, it is never too early to start thinking about saving!

This is a simple retirement calculator (simple, as in there are MANY factors in the equation...and I'm guessing not too many people have multiple investment options) to project how much you will need to save in order to retire at your desired age and income level. (When do you THINK you want to retire? How much money will you need?).  I'm assuming that since no one is currently a salaried worker, it might be more accurate to guess what your salary might be when you graduate, and then adjust your current age to how old you will be when you enter the work force.  Similarly, you can hypothesize if you will have a spouse to contribute. The default for "years in retirment" is set at 20.  Therefore, if you were to retire at age 65, you would only be covered until age 85.  Try plugging in the age that the longevity calculator estimated that you would live to, and then subtract the age at which you would like to retire from that number.

Feel free to try and plug different numbers in the equation to see how much of a difference variations in salaries might influence the amount that you will need to save for retirement.  Of course, this is a crude estimate and doesn't take into account what type of investments you might make, as well as how many children you might have and major medical expenses that might come up.


Are you surprised by the number?
Notice that the "default" for including social security benefits is "no". Several experts have recommended that individuals not to "count on" social security for retirment.

Human and Primates Aging not that different (Article on ISU homepage)

I just noticed an article on the ISU homepage featuring Dr. Bronikowski. 




Dr. Bronikowski: Human Monkey Aging Patterns Not as Different as Believed

Check it out :)

Centenarians

 After viewing the Georgia Centenarian Study, we've generated a lot of interesting questions and ideas!
 I wrote several questions on the board to help guide discussion; these critical thinking questions are related to areas of: content, self, world, and practice.

Content:

How does this information related or connect to other information that we've covered or you've read?

Self:

What impact does this information have on you?

World:

Who else needs to know this information? What are potential implications?

Practice:

What additional ideas does this information give you?

How can you use or apply this information?

Is there anything else you want to know?

 For this next blog- elaborate on several of these questions.  Feel free to repeat any comment that you discussed in class.
In addition, pose a question or a comment on at least 2 classmate's blogs. 



On a side note, I thought it was neat that one of the centenarians was writing a book about his family history.  How many of you have an older family member who has kept these records? Sometimes stories of  "the olden days" are passed orally through generations, but are not documented.  It would be a neat idea to start a collection if your family doesn't have one :) Lots of cool templates and apps exist to help you get started!

NY Times artice: Ecaudorean Villagers and a gene mutation related to longevity?

Interesting article in the New York times about a possible gene mutations found in an Ecuadorean Population: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/science/17longevity.html?_r=3&hp

This is related to what we've discussed in not only genetics- but what may be seen as a benefit/deficiency at one point in the life span may not be regarded as that later in the life span.

How long will you live?

While genetics have some influence on how long we will live, we realized from the video on epigenetics that even people with identical DNA can have different phenotypes (what we see), as well as  different health outcomes (i.e. cancer).  Longevity calculators take into account some gene-related factors and quite a few lifestyle factors.
The task for this week is to take an online quiz from AARP:
http://calculator.livingto100.com/calculator

You do not have to share your age of life expectancy, but I would like you to comment on whether or not your calculated age is what you expect to live.  Also, what do you think about the questions that they ask? Are there other things they should/shouldn't include?

Is Aging Genetic?

 I hope that everyone enjoyed our guest speaker, Dr. Bronikowski.  I thought her research on genes and exercise in mice was a great segue into what we will be discussing the next class: the role of genes in aging. 

There is no assigned reading for next class, but I would like each person to find an article (doesn't have to be from a peer-reviewed journal) that discusses the importance of genetics.  In your post I would also like you to discuss your own interpretations of the article, as well as your initial understanding on the importance of genes and aging.  (For example, do genes play a larger role than environmental influences? Are certain characteristics more influenced by genes?)


Tasks for this week:
1. Find a reading/article on the importance of genetics in aging.
2. Reflect upon the article that you found. How does the information fit with your own conceptions of genes and aging.
3. Comment on the readings/reflections of two other class members.

What processes cause aging?

The topic for this week, "What processes cause aging?" is very related to last week's question of "Why we age".  Essentially, they are two separate questions, but often go hand in hand.  While we didn't discuss every theory related to aging (there are hundreds!) the chapter presented some examples in addition to what your classmates also discussed or linked to in their own blogs. 

For this week, I have two tasks:

1. Read the blogs of your classmates. Either leave a comment or pose a question regarding something they linked to or discussed (this can be previous posts).

2. Create a short post mentioning something interesting you read about for this weeks readings.

 

Why Does Aging Happen

The reading for this week is the chapter "Why does aging happen?" from the book, "Why we age: What science is discovering through the body's journey through life".  The book takes categorizes thoughts into three causal theories of aging.  These include: "the good-of-the species theory, the rate-of-living theory and the evolutionary aging theory" (p. 55).  Do you agree with any of these theories?  Are there any other theories out there that you find interesting or have discussed in a class?

For your own blogging this week:
In your own words, how would you explain "Why we age?"

Can you give an example or provide a link to an interesting source that supports your explanation?

What is Healthy Aging?

Our first class discussion is regarding "What is Healthy Aging?"
What would you define as healthy aging?
At what point in the lifespan does aging happen?
How would you measure this?  Can it be applied to everyone?


Assignment:
1. Create your own blog.
2. Write a post on what your definition of healthy aging is.  Include examples of what is or isn't healthy aging.  Are there other definitions on the web that you found?
3. Add class members to your blog roll.

Welcome!

Welcome to the Spring 2011 Honors Seminar: Healthy Development and Aging (or HDA for short).

Each member of the seminar will be creating their own blog for individual posting, which will be noted on the "blog roll" section of this blog (right hand side).  I have mine set so that the most recently updated blog will show up on top. 

Feel free to add any additional postings or comments than what will be required.