Global Aging and Longevity Science
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Colin Farrelly |
TEDxQueensU
• February 2019
By 2050 there will be over 2 billion persons over the age of 60. Colin Farrelly is a political philosopher who has published 2 books and over 30 academic journal articles on the ethical and social significance of the “genetic revolution”. Farrelly characterizes the story of the aging of the human species as the story of the 3 “S’s”- (1) Success, (2) Significant Challenge and (3) Science. First, global aging is a SUCCESS story. Historically, life expectancy at birth for humanity did not exceed age 30, due to high rates of early and mid-life mortality. Life really was, as Thomas Hobbes eloquently phrased things, “nasty, brutish and short”. Today life expectancy is age 72, and will rise to 81 by the year 2100. The second story of global aging is the SIGNIFICANT CHALLENGE of promoting health in a world where the chronic diseases of late life are prevalent. As we get older our risks for multi-morbidity increase. Never before in our history has the inborn aging process itself posed a significant health threat to human populations. The third, and final, chapter in the story of global aging is the story of the SCIENCE and innovation needed to ensure we increase the human healthspan and compress the period of frailty, disability and disease at the end of life. This is most likely to come from an applied gerontological intervention that targets the most significant risk factor for all chronic diseases- aging itself.
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