No abstract

Our susceptibility to disease increases as we grow older. Robert Butler and colleagues argue that interventions to slow down ageing could therefore have much greater benefit than those targeted at individual disease

The aging of humanity is about to experience a radical change as the demographic transformation to an older world is approaching its final stage. In recent decades, scientists have learned enough about the biological aging processes that many believe it will become possible to slow aging in humans. We contend that the social, economic, and health benefits that would result from such advances may be thought of as "longevity dividends," and that they should be aggressively pursued as the new approach to health promotion and disease prevention in the 21st century. The time has arrived for governments and national and international healthcare organizations to make research into healthy aging a major research priority. KEYWORDS: aging; interventions; mortalityAging for both populations and individuals is on the verge of a new era. Humans are approaching old age in unprecedented numbers as a result of large baby-boom cohorts born in the middle of the 20th century that are approaching traditional retirement ages. Increases in the prevalence of age-related disease, frailty, and disability are visible harbingers of the potential costs and social burdens arising from this historic demographic shift. Advances in the scientific knowledge of aging, however, have now created new opportunities that may allow us and those that follow to live healthier and longer lives than our predecessors. We have reached a historical moment as scientists learn enough about aging to allow us to postpone a wide range of fatal and disabling diseases expressed throughout the life span, the result of which would be health and economic benefits for current and all future generations.

Geriatricians and others must embrace the emerging field of geroscience. Until recently geroscience research was pursued in laboratory animals, but now this field requires specialized expertise in the care of vulnerable older patients with multiple chronic diseases and geriatric syndromes, the population likely to benefit the most from emerging therapies. While chronological aging measures the inevitable passage of clock time that occurs equally for everyone, biological aging varies among individuals, and importantly, it is modifiable. Advances in our understanding of biological aging, the discovery of strategies for modifying its rate, and an appreciation of aging as a shared risk factor for chronic diseases have jointly led to the Geroscience Hypothesis. This hypothesis states that interventions modifying aging biology can slow its progression—resulting in the delay or prevention of the onset of multiple diseases and disorders. Here we wish to report on the Third Geroscience Summit held at National Institutes of Health on November 4–5, 2019, which highlighted the importance of engaging other disciplines including clinicians. Involvement by scientists with expertise in clinical trials, health outcomes research, behavioral and social sciences, health policy, and economics is urgently needed to translate geroscience discoveries from the bench to clinical care and health policy. Adding to the urgency of broadening this geroscience coalition is the emergence of biological aging as one the most important modifiable factors of COVID‐19, combined with the inability of our society to once again recognize and confront aging as a priority and opportunity when facing these types of public health emergencies.

No abstract