People worldwide are living longer. In United States, the number of people aged 65 and older is projected to double from 46 million to more than 98 million by year 2060. It will be the first time in history that the number of older adults will outnumber children under age 5.
With such a demographic shift, it has become a major focus for governments, health care providers, and researchers to explore how to maintain the quality of life of older people. In general, staying healthy, active, and productive are important goals.
From a biological perspective, aging results from the accumulated damage and death of a wide variety of molecules and cells over time. This leads to a gradual decrease in physical and mental capacity, which can greatly impact the quality of life, with or without diagnosed diseases.
For physical health, over 90% of old people have at least one chronic disease such as cancer, stroke, or diabetes, plus visual and hearing impairments, pains, constipation, skin problems, and so on.
For cognitive and mental health, it is common that cognitive decline or impairment in older adults will cause memory and emotion regulation issues. Forgetfulness may interfere with taking care of some daily tasks. Irritability and mood changes may make it difficult to maintain a healthy inter-personal relationship and social life, which actually is very important to help old people stay healthy and happy. It’s a catch-22.
What can we do to maintain a good quality of life while aging? Of course a healthy life style, diet, exercise, sleep, and social life play a large part. On top of that, adopting innovative technologies to maintain a healthy state will be a smart move. After all we have entered the 21 century and there are amazing findings constantly in the life sciences that can be leveraged to achieve the goal of a more satisfying older life.
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