The aging process is unique among health conditions in that the vast majority of us will get to experience it. In fact, the number of us who can look forward to living to a ripe old age has been steadily increasing over the entire past century, a trend which shows no sign of stopping. This is no doubt a source of some ambivalence for many people—we want to live long lives, but we're concerned about the health problems that have so often accompanied growing old. Fortunately, the grounds for those fears grow less and less each day, for the level of health enjoyed by seniors has also been steadily increasing.

     Both of these trends are due to the massive advances in every area of health sciences that have touched every aspect of our lives. However, for every problem that modern medicine has addressed, others have risen to prominence. Some of these used to not be such visible issues simply because few people lived long enough to experience them. Others are newly-discovered health issues requiring new research efforts for their solution. Further complicating matters is the fact that, even in seniors who are enjoying good levels of health and vitality, there is a tendency to have multiple ongoing health issues and chronic conditions, so that the challenge becomes treating all these conditions simultaneously without the treatments interfering with each other.

     The Alzheimer's and Aging Research Center is helping to meet these challenges in providing effective care for seniors. We support biomedical research directed towards further increasing our understanding the aging process, so that the upward trend in senior health and longevity can continue to grow, allowing seniors to live ever fuller and more enjoyable lives.

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