Speaker: Professor Lewis A. Lipsitz, MD, Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School

As a result of improvements in sanitation, nutrition, maternal and child health, medical care, antibiotics and vaccines for infectious disease, the world’s population is rapidly aging. In America, approximately 10,000 people are turning 70 every day. This unprecedented demographic shift is presenting enormous global social, economic, political, and health care challenges that will require advances in research, training, and policy to adequately address. Major medical issues in older adults include memory loss, impaired mobility, falls, pain, disability, and frailty, most of which are neglected in medical training and poorly understood by medical providers. Fortunately, many of these conditions are preventable through life-style changes, smoking cessation, a Mediterranean diet, physical and mental exercise, social engagement, and the control of hypertension and other cardiovascular risk factors. This lecture will review what we can expect as we experience the aging process and how we can remain healthy and productive in our later years.