Healthy Ageing

Despite the rapid gain in life expectancy in the last century, it is not clear if the added years consist of healthy years or years lived in poor health and disability.

Older people are not only at risk because they drink more often, but also because quantities of alcohol that may have been safer earlier in life have the potential to damage an older person’s health. 

You would be forgiven if you thought that yoga was only for younger, fit women and that it mainly consisted of bending your body into pretzel like poses. However the practice of yoga goes far beyond the physical poses (known as asanas), and yoga can be attainable by all. 

In 2001, an international Joint Expert Consultation of scientists working on behalf of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Health Organization defined probiotics as “live microorganisms which, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit on the host".

Is getting old about decline or about personal growth? John Gladdman, of Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, ruminates on the implications of increased life expectancy ahead of the talk he gave at the BGS Spring Meeting.

Adapting the home can vastly improve its comfort and usability for older people, ensuring they can carry out daily activities safely, comfortably and with dignity. Yet at least half a million people in England are living without the adaptations they need - and this is probably an underestimate.

Despite increasing lifespans, there is little evidence that older people today are living healthier than their predecessors did at the same age. This is a major cause of concern for many. Ruby Yu examines the findings of a long term study of frailty and old age in Hong Kong.

Despite geriatric medicine being one of the largest medical specialties in the UK, a majority of older people in hospital or community care aren't under the direct care of a geriatrician. There simply aren't enough of them to go around. Could Advanced Clinical or Nurse Practitioners support our growing number of frail patients?

Baroness Sally Greengross considers what the economic and societal effects of a global ageing society will be and says there's an increasing need for healthy older people to be employed into their seventies. She argues that the global phenomenon of ageing is not all bad news.