SINGAPORE, 10 September 2003 — Asia is facing serious problems from the growing proportion of the elderly among its people and needs to keep them healthy and productive beyond the usual retirement age, an international expert said yesterday.
The American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine’s chairman Robert Goldman said the issue of a graying population has to be addressed swiftly by the region as it is no longer restricted to a few developed countries.
“Japan has got tons of old people ... all throughout Asia, Singapore, Korea, Taiwan.... I think you’ve got a real issue here,” Goldman told AFP on the sidelines of a regional conference on anti-aging medicine.
More needs to be done to draw public and scientific awareness about the growing problem, he said.
“That’s why in certain countries like Singapore, they are really trying to address it and come up with some answers because they know it’s going to be out of control in a bit,” Goldman said.
Anti-ageing medicine is not a “magic pill” but a multi-disciplinary medical field that deals with the early detection, prevention, treatment and reversal of age-related diseases, he added.
Over 700 delegates from more than 10 countries, including the United States, Britain and China, are meeting in Singapore for four days to share knowledge and discuss the latest innovations to cope with ageing and related diseases.
Goldman feels the long-term solution to a rapidly ageing population is to try to keep people healthy longer and to encourage multiple careers so as to tap into the wisdom and intelligence of the elderly.
“You maybe retire for while, then you start a new career. You go through the educational process so you are having two or three careers during your lifetime instead of just one so you are taking all this great knowledge and you are sharing it,” he said.
There is enormous business potential from elderly people who are healthy and functional, the expert said.
Also, over the next 50 years, life expectancy could rise to 120 to 150 years with advances such as stem cell development, a fairly new scientific field, which uses cells to regenerate human tissue and cure diseases that afflict the elderly.“What’s old today is ancient previously, and what’s old today will be considered young tomorrow,” he said.
citing an average lifespan of about 26 years-old 200 years ago which had only advanced into the mid-forties a century ago.
“Science and technology has advanced to where we can even consider it (living for 120 to 150 years) ... we can really make a difference here,” Goldman said.
“We have the most motivated and proactive patient population in the history of this planet that doesn’t want just to take ageing lying down. They want to live a long, healthy, productive and active lifestyle, and they don’t consider themselves old.”