The World Is Growing Grayer
IN 1513, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León waded ashore on a stretch of unknown coast in North America. One report says that since the territory he found was covered with flowers, he named it Florida, meaning “Flowery” in Spanish. Finding a name was easy. Finding the object of his expedition—a spring of water with the power to restore youth to older people—proved to be impossible. After combing the land for months, the explorer ended his search for the legendary fountain of youth and sailed on.
Although fountains of youth remain as elusive today as in Ponce de León’s day, man seems to have discovered what author Betty Friedan called “the fountain of age.” She said this because of the dramatic increase in the number of old people around the globe. So many people are now reaching old age that the makeup of the world population is changing. The world is, in effect, graying.
“One of the Greatest Triumphs of Humanity”
Demographics tell the story. At the beginning of this century, even in the richest countries, life expectancy at birth was less than 50 years. Today, it has jumped to over 75. Likewise, in such developing countries as China, Honduras, Indonesia, and Vietnam, life expectancy at birth is 25 years longer than it was just four decades ago. Each month, one million people worldwide are reaching the age of 60. Surprisingly, not young people but those 80 years and older, the ‘oldest old,’ now form the fastest-growing population group on earth.
“The lengthening of life expectancy,” says demographer Eileen Crimmins in Science magazine, “has been one of the greatest triumphs of humanity.” The United Nations agrees, and to draw attention to this achievement, it has designated the year 1999 as the International Year of Older Persons.—See box on page 3.
Needed—A Change in Perception
This triumph, though, goes beyond a change in man’s life expectancy. It also includes a change in man’s perception of aging. True, the thought of getting old still fills many people with concern, even fear, because advanced age is usually associated with a frail body and a failing mind. However, researchers who study aging stress that getting old and getting sick are two different things. People differ considerably in the way they age. There is a difference, say researchers, between chronological age and biological age. (See the box “What Is Aging?”) In other words, getting older and going downhill do not necessarily go together.
In fact, as you age, you can take steps that improve the quality of your life. Granted, these measures will not make you younger, but they may allow you to stay healthy as you grow older. The next article considers some of these steps. Even if the subject of aging is presently not high on your list of important issues, you may want to read on, for before long it will be.
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THE INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF OLDER PERSONS
“Having turned 60 myself . . . , I am now counted among the statistics I cited earlier,” said UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan recently during the launching of the International Year of Older Persons. Mr. Annan has plenty of company. Researchers say that by the turn of this century, in many countries 1 out of every 5 people will be 60 or older. Some of them will be in need of care, but all of them will be in need of ways in which they can retain their independence, their dignity, and their productivity. To help policymakers meet the challenges created by this ‘demographic revolution’ and to get a better appreciation of “the value of old age in society,” the UN General Assembly decided in 1992 to designate 1999 as the International Year of Older Persons. “Towards a Society of All Ages” is the theme of this special year.
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Kofi Annan
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UN photo
UN/DPI photo by Milton Grant
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WHAT IS AGING?
“The biological crystal ball is very cloudy when we come to aging,” says one researcher. “No one fully understands it,” states another. Even so, gerontologists (scientists who study aging) have attempted to define it. Simply put, they say, aging is the chronological time that someone has existed. But aging is more than the passing of years. One does not normally speak of an aging child because aging has a connotation of deterioration of vitality. Aging is the toll that the passing years take on an individual. Some people seem young for their chronological age. This is implied, for example, when an individual is told that he doesn’t “look his age.” To distinguish between chronological and biological aging, researchers usually describe biological aging (aging accompanied by harmful physical changes) as senescence.
Professor of zoology Steven N. Austad describes senescence as “the progressive deterioration of virtually every bodily function over time.” And Dr. Richard L. Sprott, of the National Institute on Aging, says that aging “is the slow deterioration of those portions of our systems that allow us to respond adequately to stresses.” Most experts agree, though, that coming up with a clear definition of aging remains a challenge. Molecular biologist Dr. John Medina explains why: “From head to toe, from proteins to DNA, from birth to death, untold battalions of processes unfold to create the aging of a 60-trillion-celled human.” Small wonder that many researchers conclude that aging is “the most complex of all biological problems”!