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Science Looks at Aging
| Article
# : |
11667 |
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Section : |
NATURAL SCIENCE
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| Issue
Date : |
9 / 1986 |
4,072 Words |
| Author
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Jeffrey P. Cohn
Jeffrey P. Cohn is a free-lance writer specializing in science
who often writes on medical or health-related subjects. He
resides in Washington. D.C. |
Tell adults over 35 that they look ten years younger than they are! They will almost certainly feel complimented and will probably thank you. Tell adults of any age that they look ten years older than they are! They will almost certainly resent your statement and quite possibly feel hurt and insulted. The desire to be and look young - and an aversion toward being or looking old - is deeply ingrained in Western society.
There is nothing new about this. The fifteenth century Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon spent a king's fortune in a vain search for a fountain of youth that would prevent aging. The Poet Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote more than a century ago. "Nature abhors the old, and aging is the only disease; all others run into this one." Emerson's renown as a bard aside, most physicians and research scientists who study aging today would probably disagree. They would differ with him because what is new about aging is the fact that the physical changes that accompany the process of growing old have become the subject of major modern research. Some of this research has radically altered some long established perceptions of aging. The research shows that old age is not a disease and that the disorders often associated with advanced age are due to diseases, not to aging.
"Previously, we accepted certain diseases as a natural consequence of getting old," says Richard Sprott, associated director for biomedical research at the U.S. government's National Institute on Aging (NIA) in Belthesda, Maryland, "Now we are learning to separate diseases and their consequences from true age-related changes. That affects the research and the treatments."
To a large extent, the burgeoning research interest in the aging process reflects changes in the U.S. population. Average life expectancy from birth has risen in the Untied States from 45 years in 1900 to 75 in 1983. Today, 27 million Americans are 65 or older. From a mere 4 percent of the U.S. population in 1900, older Americans now represent 12 percent. They outnumber teenagers in our society and their numbers are growing. By 2025, an estimated 39 million Americans will be over 65, some 14 percent of the population.
These mushrooming statistics have already exerted some significant social impacts. Nearly every family nowadays has one or more elderly members. The provision for suitable care of ailing elderly persons has grown into a major political issue - and into a crisis or near-crisis for many
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