Highlights from our 'Growing Older, Better' Parliamentary Launch on 15th October 2019. Our new report highlights physiology’s role in meeting the UK Government’s healthy ageing mission
Transcript:
One of the most astonishing statistics I’ve heard is that in the last 30 years, life expectancy has risen by five hours a day, but I’m not sure that I can say the same that we are living healthier lives for that length of time, so that’s why the launch of this report is so important – how can we address that challenge?
I think in the UK there is a very, very vibrant atmosphere of funding. There’s also a very good linkage between the different funders, but I think what is needed is exactly what we heard today – just think of it as a holistic problem, not look at ageing when people start ageing, we have to look at ageing right from birth because that is when ageing starts
So I think that in terms of the ageing population, this is going to be something that will be a major health challenge for us, as we know, the ageing population they will have lots of comorbidities that we’ll need t be able to cope with as doctors working across the board
So I suppose what I will take back to my constituency, and back to Parliament is that there is a real desire to understand how ageing works, what are the mechanisms of ageing – leading to disease and perhaps physical deterioration? I think physiology has an important role to play in addressing these challenges, it’s offering leadership by the publishing of this report. But the understanding of how our bodies work in all the various different ways is going to be key to this.
Ageing isn’t a disease, ageing is a process. What physiology can do is actually look at the mechanisms underlying that process, and if we can understand those mechanisms, then we can build on that to develop strategies for better ageing.
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