Gerontology

Gerontology (from Greek: γέρων, geron, "old man" and -λογία, -logy, "study of") is the study of the social, psychological and biological aspects of aging. It is distinguished from geriatrics, which is the branch of medicine that studies the disease of the elderly.

Gerontology includes these and other endeavors:

The multidisciplinary focus of gerontology means that there are a number of sub-fields, as well as associated fields such as psychology and sociology that also cross over into gerontology. However, that there is an overlap should not imply that they are the same. For example, a psychologist may specialize in early adults (and not be a gerontologist) or specialize in older adults (and be a gerontologist).

The field of gerontology was developed relatively late, and as such often lacks the structural and institutional support needed. (For example, relatively few universities offer a Ph.D. in gerontology.) However, the huge increase in the elderly population in the post-industrial Western nations has led to this becoming one of the most rapidly growing fields. Gerontology is currently a well-paying field for many in the West.

Contents

Biogerontology

Main articles: Life extension and Anti-aging movement

Biogerontology is the subfield of gerontology dedicated to studying the biological processes of aging. Some skeptics have worked to show that aging is a biological process that we are far from being able to control. Conservative biogerontologists who have only an intellectual interest in the aging process, like Leonard Hayflick, have predicted that the human life expectancy numbers will top out at about 85 (88 for females, 82 for males), although the consensus now is that the numbers will continue to rise.

Biomedical gerontology, also known as experimental gerontology and life extension, is a sub discipline of biogerontology that endeavors to slow, prevent, and even reverse aging in both humans and animals. Curing age-related diseases is one approach, and slowing down the underlying processes of aging is another. Most "life extensionists" believe the human life span can be altered within the next century, if not sooner. "Optimists" such as Aubrey DeGrey are of the opinion that the first person to reach one thousand years of age has already been born.

Some biogerontologists take an intermediate position, emphasizing the study of the aging process as a means of mitigating aging-associated diseases, while either denying that maximum life span can be altered or denying that it is desirable to try.

Notable biogerontologists

Notable biomedical gerontologists

Notable biogerotechnologists (business/applied)

Notable demographic gerontologists

Other notable non-biomedical biogerontologists

Medical gerontology

Main article: Geriatrics

Social gerontology

Social gerontology is a multi-disciplinary sub-field that specializes in studying or working with older adults.

Social gerontologists may have degrees or training in social work, nursing, psychology, sociology, demography, gerontology, or other social science disciplines. Social gerontologists are responsible for educating, researching, and advancing the broader causes of older people by giving informative presentations, publishing books and articles that pertain to the aging population, producing relevant films and television programs, and producing new graduates of these various disciplines in college and university settings.

Because issues of life span and life extension need numbers to quantify them, there is an overlap with demography. Those that study the demography of the human life span are different than those that study the social demographics of aging.

Social Work with Older Adults

Social work with older adults, known as geriatric social work, is considered to be both macro and micro practice with individuals over the age of 60 or 65, their families and communities, aging related policy, and aging research. Geriatric social workers typically provide counseling, direct services, care coordination, community planning, and advocacy in an array of organizations including in home, neighborhoods, hospitals, senior congregate living and nursing facilities.

Prevalence

Rapid aging populations are expected worldwide. In the United States, the “Baby Boomer” generation will begin to turn 65 in the year 2011, and the population is expected to double from 2000 by 2030. Those over the age of 85 are projected to increase from 5.3 million to 21 million by 2050 [7]. With the rapid growth of the population, social work education and training specialized in older adults and practitioners interested in working with older adults are increasingly in demand [8] [9]In the last decade geriatric social work education, practice, and research has received substantial support from foundations such as John. A Hartford Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Atlantic Philanthropies[10] but many challenges and horizons still remain.

Notable social and psychological gerontologists

History of gerontology

It may be said that the history of gerontology begins with agriculture; prior to this the hunter-gatherer societies that existed could only support a marginal existence: food supply was short; frequent movement a necessity. These and other reasons meant that extremely few reached 'old age'. However, it could be argued that in a society with a life expectancy of 14 (such as 10,000 BC), being '40' was 'old'.

Things changed with the coming of agriculture. A more stable food supply and the lack of frequent movement meant that humans could now survive longer, and beginning perhaps around 4000 BC, a regular segment of the population began to attain 'old age' in places such as Mesopotamia and the Indus river valleys. Agriculture didn't simply bring a steady food supply; it also suddenly made older persons an economic benefit instead of a burden. Older persons could stay and watch the farm (or children); make pottery or jewelry, and perform social functions, such as story-telling (oral tradition, religion, etc). and teaching the younger generation techniques for farming, tool-making, etc.

After this change, the views of elder persons in societies waxed and waned, but generally the proportion of the population over 50 or 60 remained small. Note that in ancient Egypt, Pharaoh Pepi II was said to have lived to 100 years old. Certainly Ramses II lived to about 90; modern scientific testing of his mummy supports the written record. Ancient Greeks valued old persons for their wisdom (some reaching 80, 90, or 100 years old), while old age was devalued in Roman times.

In the medieval Islamic world, elderly people were valued by Muslim physicians. Avicenna's The Canon of Medicine (1025) was the first book to offer instruction for the care of the aged, foreshadowing modern gerontology and geriatrics. In a chapter entitled "Regimen of Old Age", Avicenna was concerned with how "old folk need plenty of sleep", how their bodies should be anointed with oil, and recommended exercises such as walking or horse-riding. Thesis III of the Canon discussed the diet suitable for old people, and dedicated several sections to elderly patients who become constipated.[12]

The Canon of Medicine recognized four periods of life: the period of growth, prime of life, period of elderly decline (from forty to sixty), and decrepit age. He states that during the last period, "there is hardness of their bones, roughness of the skin, and the long time since they produced semen, blood and vaporal breath". However, he agreed with Galen that the earth element is more prominent in the aged and decrepit than in other periods. Avicenna did not agree with the concept of infirmity, however, stating: "There is no need to assert that there are three states of the human body—sickness, health and a state which is neither health nor disease. The first two cover everything."[12]

The famous Arabic physician, Ibn Al-Jazzar Al-Qayrawani (Algizar, circa 898-980), also wrote a special book on the medicine and health of the elderly, entitled Kitab Tibb al-Machayikh[13] or Teb al-Mashaikh wa hefz sehatahom.[14] He also wrote a book on sleep disorders and another one on forgetfulness and how to strengthen memory, entitled Kitab al-Nissian wa Toroq Taqwiati Adhakira,[15][16][17] and a treatise on causes of mortality entitled Rissala Fi Asbab al-Wafah.[18] Another Arabic physician in the 9th century, Ishaq ibn Hunayn (died 910), the son of Hunayn Ibn Ishaq, wrote a Treatise on Drugs for Forgetfulness (Risalah al-Shafiyah fi adwiyat al-nisyan).[19]

In medieval Europe on the other hand, during its Dark Ages, negative opinions of the elderly prevailed. However, with the coming of the Renaissance old age returned to favor in Europe, as persons such as Michelangelo and Andrea Doria exemplified the ideals of living long, active, productive lives.

While the number of aged humans, and the maximum ages lived to, tended to increase in every century since the 1300s, society tended to consider caring for an elderly relative as a family issue. It was not until the coming of the Industrial Revolution with its techniques of mass production that ideas shifted in favor of a societal care-system. Care homes for the aged emerged in the 1800s. Note that some early pioneers, such as Michel Eugène Chevreul, who himself lived to be 102 in the 1880s, believed that aging itself should be a science to be studied. The word 'Gerontology' was coined circa 1903[20] by Elie Metchnikoff.

It was not until the 1940s, however, that pioneers like James Birren began organizing 'gerontology' into its own field. Recognizing that there were experts in many fields all dealing with the elderly, it became apparent that a group like the Gerontological Society of America was needed (founded in 1945). Two decades later, James Birren was appointed as the founding director of the first academic research center devoted exclusively to the study of aging, the Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center at the University of Southern California.[21] In 1975, the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology became the first academic gerontology department, with Birren as its founding dean.

In the 1950s to the 1970s, the field was mainly social and concerned with issues such as nursing homes and health care. However, research by Leonard Hayflick in the 1960s (showing that a cell line culture will only divide about 50 times) helped lead to a separate branch, biogerontology. It became apparent that simply 'treating' aging wasn't enough. Finding out about the aging process, and what could be done about it, became an issue.

The biogerontological field was also bolstered when research by Cynthia Kenyon and others demonstrated that life extension was possible in lower life forms such as fruit flies, worms, and yeast. So far, however, nothing more than incremental (marginal) increases in life span have been seen in any mammalian species.

Today, social gerontology remains the largest sector of the field, but the biogerontological side is seen as being the 'hot' side.[22]

Academic resources

See also

  • Aging and memory
  • Alliance for Aging Research
  • American Aging Association
  • Buck Institute for Age Research
  • Elderly care
  • Geriatrics
  • Gerontology Research Group
  • Institute for Geriatric Social Work
  • Leonard Davis School of Gerontology
  • Life Extension
  • List of life extension topics
  • Medical Mobile and Columba
  • Methuselah Mouse Prize
  • National Institute on Aging
  • Nurses' Health Study
  • Oldest people
  • Reliability theory of aging and longevity
  • Retirement
  • Senescence
  • Silver Alert
  • Telemedicine
  • The Gerontological Society of America

References

  1. ↑ de Grey, Aubrey; & Rae, Michael (September 2007). Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs that Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press. pp. 416. ISBN 0312367066. 
  2. ↑ Guarente L, Picard F (February 2005). "Calorie restriction—the SIR2 connection". Cell 120 (4): 473–82. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2005.01.029. PMID 15734680. 
  3. ↑ 1. Kaeberlein, M., M. McVey, and L. Guarente, The SIR2/3/4 complex and SIR2 alone promote longevity in Saccharomyces cerevisiae by two different mechanisms. Genes Dev, 1999. 13(19): p. 2570-80.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Kaeberlein M, Powers RW, Steffen KK, et al (November 2005). "Regulation of yeast replicative life span by TOR and Sch9 in response to nutrients". Science 310 (5751): 1193–6. doi:10.1126/science.1115535. PMID 16293764. 
  5. ↑ Kaeberlein M, Kirkland KT, Fields S, Kennedy BK (September 2004). "Sir2-independent life span extension by calorie restriction in yeast". PLoS Biol. 2 (9): E296. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0020296. PMID 15328540. 
  6. ↑ Howitz KT, Bitterman KJ, Cohen HY, et al (September 2003). "Small molecule activators of sirtuins extend Saccharomyces cerevisiae lifespan". Nature 425 (6954): 191–6. doi:10.1038/nature01960. PMID 12939617. 
  7. ↑ Aging Stats: http://www.agingstats.gov/agingstatsdotnet/Main_Site/Data/2008_Documents/Population.aspx
  8. ↑ Institute for Geriatric Social Work, Boston University http://www.bu.edu/igsw/who-we-are/
  9. ↑ Geriatric Social Work Initiative: http://www.gswi.org/
  10. ↑ Not Just Another Population: https://www.familiesinsociety.org/new/SpecialIssue/OlderAdults/86_3/PDFs/Ed_Austi.pdf
  11. ↑ SpringerLink - Journal Article
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Howell, Trevor H. (1987). "Avicenna and His Regimen of Old Age". Age and Ageing 16 (1): 58–59. doi:10.1093/ageing/16.1.58. PMID 3551552. 
  13. ↑ Al Jazzar
  14. ↑ Vesalius Official journal of the International Society for the History of Medicine
  15. ↑ Algizar a web page in french
  16. ↑ Ibn Jazzar
  17. ↑ [Geritt Bos, Ibn al-Jazzar, Risala fi l-isyan (Treatise on forgetfulness), London, 1995 ]
  18. ↑ Al Jazzar
  19. ↑ Islamic culture and medical arts
  20. ↑ Online Etymology Dictionary
  21. ↑ USC Andrus Gerontology Center
  22. ↑ Effros RB (April 2005). "Roy Walford and the immunologic theory of aging". Immun Ageing 2 (1): 7. doi:10.1186/1742-4933-2-7. PMID 15850487. 

External links