An innovative collaboration between research groups in Beijing,  China and Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada is leading to a better understanding of the state of the aging population in China. Led in Canada by Dr. Kenneth Rockwood of the Geriatric Medicine Research Unit (GMRU) and in China by Dr. Xianghua Fang at the Beijing Institute of Geriatrics, a [...]

New research published this week in Psychological Science has shown that while older brains have more difficulty filtering out extraneous information than younger brains, they appear to make great use of this information. Karen Campbell, a PhD student in psychology at the University of Toronto, working with the Rotman Institute, says “We found that older [...]

The Silver Economy Summit will take place this year in Halifax, Nova Scotia, May 13-14. Presented by the Nova Scotia Department of Seniors, the Summit “will gather international, national and provincial perspectives on the economic and societal changes that arise from an aging population. Join 350 Summit delegates from a wide variety of social and [...]

Three American scientists Elizabeth Blackburn (University of California, San Fransisco) , Carol Greider (Johns Hopkins University) and Jack Szostak (Harvard Medical School), have been awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine for their discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase. In short: “Telomeres are the tails of chromosomes; they are an [...]

The University of British Columbia’s  Interprofessional Continuing Education  Department (IPCE) has published advance notice of their second annual Conference on Positive Aging, which will be held in Vancouver, BC on November 26-27, 2010. “The aim of the 2nd national conference on positive aging is to bring together an interdisciplinary audience of health professionals and researchers [...]

A recent article in the Globe and Mail highlights how retirement has changed for Canadians. People are working longer, saving less and having to forgo dreams of extended leisure. The article points out that 60% of the Canadian work force does not have  a pension plan. And the effects are not just financial: “It’s also [...]

A new study published October 01 in the medical journal The Lancet suggests that 50% of babies born since 2000 in the United States will likely live to 100, following a pattern noted in the `1840′s for life spans to increase in wealthy western nations: Kaare Christensen, of the Danish Aging Research Center at the [...]