A new look at growing old

By Patricia Filip

OSU’s scientists search for secrets to healthy aging

“When I get older, losing my hair, many years from now,
Will you still be sending me a Valentine, birthday greetings, bottle of wine?
If I’d been out ’til quarter to three, would you lock the door?
Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m 64?”
— John Lennon and Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney will soon find answers to the questions he helped pose so lyrically more than 40 years ago. The aging rocker turns 64 this June.

As he and his contemporaries, the Rolling Stones, fill concert venues around the world, they lay waste to the notion that the only rocking a senior citizen can do is in a rocking chair. Despite a collective age of 62.5, the Stones at this year’s Super Bowl looked years younger — at least until the cameras zoomed in.

Perhaps it’s fitting that these cultural icons, big brothers to the baby boomers, set the stage for a year of birthday bashes. In 2006, the first surge of the baby boom generation turns 60. What’s more, the AARP is ready to welcome 4.3 million new members, as a wave of younger boomers hits 50.

“Oregon in particular is really poised for this demographic revolution because right now, in terms of proportion of older to younger adults, we’re 25th, right in the middle of all the states,” said Karen Hooker, director of OSU’s Center for Healthy Aging Research. “By 2025, less than 20 short years away, we’re projected to be fourth in the nation in terms of proportional results. It has been estimated that of all humans who have ever lived beyond 65, half are alive today.”

Hooker, who agreed to be interviewed for a recent Oregonian article about the impending flood of aging baby boomers, was distressed at the article’s title: “Boomers’ milestone; state’s mess.”

“I don’t like it because it’s what I call the ‘doom and gloom of the baby boom.’ I mean, oh no, there’s going to be all these old people and what are we going to do with them, as if it’s a huge awful thing. In reality, there’s a lot that older adults can bring to society. And we need to be better at tapping into all that older adults can offer.”

There’s no doubt the changing demographics will present opportunities and challenges. And Oregon State is well positioned to address the issues associated with this graying of America.

	Co-director Mike Pavol attaches reflective markers to a research subject in a study designed to better understand biomechanics of walking and how to prevent falls.
	After the reflective markers are attached, the room is darkened and the research subject is illuminated so a camera can record the subject’s walking pattern.
	Pavol studies patterns formed by the reflected markers and depicted as 3-D computer images.

For more than 30 years, OSU has had a comprehensive program on gerontology, offering undergraduate certificate programs, minors for graduate students, and outreach and extension activities for those not on campus. With the establishment more than a year ago of the Center for Healthy Aging Research, the university is able to build on historic strengths and marshal researchers from many different disciplines to examine issues in aging — from cellular to societal levels.

The Center for Healthy Aging Research is led by the College of Health and Human Sciences, with essential contributions from the Linus Pauling Institute, College of Engineering and College of Science. Four core components focus on diet and genes, bone health and exercise, psychosocial factors and optimal aging, and social and ethical issues in technologies for healthy aging.

Hooker said that what differentiates the center from others across the country is its multidisciplinary approach and its focus on prevention.

“We don’t have a medical school here, so we’re not emphasizing the curing of diseases. Our emphasis has to do with preventing diseases and optimizing aging by increasing a person’s quality of life.”

Let us now further explore the implications of an increasingly older society and what researchers at OSU are saying about the keys to healthy aging.

What about those boomers? Will they age differently than previous generations?

What does the future portend for George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Reggie Jackson and Cher, who all turn 60 later this year? Is 60 the new 50? Or will George W. and his cohorts find their senior years not much different than those experienced by their parents?

“Baby boomers are very interesting. On the one hand they have a lot of protective factors … better nutrition, better education … and they have much better access to medical care than any other prior generation, so this would suggest they are going to age better,” said Carolyn Aldwin, director of the Psychosocial Factors and Optimal Aging Core for the Center for Healthy Aging Research. “On the other hand, boomers have risk factors prior generations didn’t have.”

Obesity rates for baby boomers do not bode well, she said, with post-1960 rates tripling for women and doubling for men. Obesity is a risk factor for all sorts of disorders, including cardiovascular and cognitive diseases and diabetes.

	Karen Hooker, director of OSU’s Center for Healthy Aging Research, said what differentiates the center from others across the country is its multidisciplinary approach and focus on prevention.
	Carmen Steggell leads efforts to study social and ethical issues involved in technology designed to allow elders to remain independent.

“If you want to age yourself more quickly, diabetes is second only to crystal meth as the best way to do it,” said Aldwin.

Baby boomers are also the first generation to have fractured family relationships, she said, and studies have shown that people who are divorced tend to have higher morbidity and mortality rates than people who are not.

Aldwin also mentioned this is the first cohort that has grown up with a lot of environmental pollution, meaning that scientists still have no clue as to how such exposure is gong to affect the aging process.

“So my guess is that what’s going to happen is that we’re going to see an increasing disparity in health among the rich and the poor,” she said. “The upper middle class and wealthier baby boomers are going to exercise, not smoke, have access to excellent nutrition and heath care, and they may very well be quite healthy through their 80s. But folks who are in lower socioeconomic groups, who tend to have higher rates of obesity, are more likely to smoke, and have less access to medical care, may very well find they have a shortened lifespan.”

Hooker added she thinks baby boomers will age differently than their parents because of what social scientists call cohort differences. “Baby boomers will change the way we do aging, just like they changed a lot of things in society as they moved through.”

What are the financial implications of a graying society?

The graying of America may bring a bit of financial gloom, but Aldwin thinks impacts will be less severe here than in other countries.

Baby boomers may need to stay in the job market longer because of the rising age for Social Security eligibility and recent stock market declines, she said. This, in turn, will make it more difficult for younger workers to move up in a timely fashion.

“If you talk to the financial people, they expect to see the housing market start crashing as more baby boomers retire, cash in their houses and move to sunnier locales. Certainly Social Security is going to be stretched. Even so, the United States is probably the healthiest, fiscally, in this regard.”

She said that although Europe is in worse shape, the real crisis is going to occur in the developing countries.

“Right now there are about as many seniors in the developing world as there are in the developed world,” said Aldwin. “By the year 2020, however, there are going to be four times as many seniors in the developing world as there are at present.

“They don’t have Medicare. They don’t have Social Security. They are going to be hitting huge crises.”

Why should Generations X and Y care about aging issues?

Since eternal youth is not an option, OSU researchers say it is very important that aging be viewed as a lifelong process.

As Hooker tells her students, young adults are making decisions that are going to have profound implications for their later life. For example, she says, there’s a saying that osteoporosis is a pediatric disease with geriatric consequences. How much bone density people build up in their childhood and young adulthood affects whether or not they get osteoporosis later.

“When life expectancy was 40 or 45, basically you were going to grow up, have kids and die,” said Aldwin. “Now you’re going to grow up, have kids and then have to decide what to do with the other half of your life. We’re not prepared for it. So I’m trying to get students to think about things like that.”

Emotional stability, spirituality … what roles do they play?

When experts talk about aging gracefully, they always mention a somewhat hard-to-pin-down component — be it spirituality, wisdom or engagement with life.

Aldwin has been following a study of men in Boston under way since the early 1960s. While factors like smoking and exercise have been key to their health and longevity, researchers also found psychosocial factors to be important. She said study participants who were the most emotionally stable fared best in terms of disease incidence and mortality.

Other studies have shown spirituality to be helpful, particularly if it makes a person feel calm and supported, she said. Simply going to church may have a protective effect. Spirituality, however, can be detrimental if it causes hostility or if people who think of themselves as religious get into trouble and blame God.

Several OSU faculty are exploring this elusive concept. Associate professor Rick Levenson has been studying the construct of wisdom and whether wisdom is an essential component of aging optimally.

Hooker’s research shows the importance of strong social relationships and participation in activities that make a person feel productive or useful.

How can we help fend off the aging process?

Asked to come up with tips for healthy aging, OSU researchers stressed the oft-heard recommendations of healthy diet, exercise, not smoking and maintaining optimal weight.

Future recommendations (based on research under way) may include more specific nutritional strategies — including foods or dietary supplements that may actually slow or prevent age-dependent declines at the cellular level.

Scientists in the Diet, Genes, and Aging Research Core, led by director Tory Hagen, hope that by better understanding the biological mechanisms underlying the aging process, they can identify specific strategies for decreasing the vulnerability of older adults to age-related diseases, including atherosclerosis, diabetes, stroke, congestive heart failure, kidney disease and cancer.

Among other projects, researchers are testing compounds that improve the mitochondrial function of cells, exploring how chronic inflammation relates to aging and disease, studying genes regulating the biorhythms of aging and investigating cognitive decline and how it can be prevented.

Will technology allow us to age in place?

Shoe sensors that indicate gait changes and help prevent falls. Toilets fitted with chemical tests that detect high blood sugar. Bed sensors that determine sleep quality or weight changes. Socks that signal swelling legs.

With these and other examples, there’s no question that technology has the potential to partially take the place of human beings in monitoring and caring for the aging population.

Many advanced technologies can enable elders to remain independent or quasi-independent for much longer than traditional approaches, said Carmen Steggell, ’92, director of the Social and Ethical Issues in Technology for Healthy Aging Core. And researchers from her core group are working with private industry and the College of Engineering to study some of these technologies.

“The problem, however, is to figure out what things can be done with technology and what things should be done with technology,” she said. “Engineers can figure out all the ways that technology can be used, but it takes the social scientist to figure out which of the things that are possible are good.”

She cites ethical and social issues including questions about privacy, ease of use and user control.

Steggell is enthusiastic about discussions under way for a demonstration house, Home for Life, to be built by a couple in Newport. The couple will live in the home and at some point donate it to OSU.

“We will use it both as a demonstration to other people as to what they can do to their own homes and as a living laboratory to help determine which technologies work and which don’t,” she said.

Students are already helping in the design of the home, giving them opportunities to see how their theoretical learning can be applied.

What can be done to prevent falls among the elderly and maintain bone health?

Every year, one in three older adults living in a group facility suffers at least one fall, with more than 10 percent of these falls resulting in serious injury or death. Hip fractures are among the most debilitating and costly consequences of falls, associated with a 12-20 percent increase in the death rate, and nearly 140,000 nursing home admissions each year.

It’s not surprising that the Center for Healthy Aging Research has chosen to make bone health and exercise one of its key areas of emphasis.

Maintaining bone density and reducing the frequency of falls are much easier than trying to replace bone once it’s lost, said Russell Turner, co-director of the Bone Health, Exercise and Function in Aging Core.

“I don’t think there’s a magic bullet for dealing with any age-related condition,” he said. “We have to approach it from many different angles and in small increments.”

Turner, whose personal research interests include osteoporosis and bone health, advises good diet, including adequate amounts of calcium and vitamin D, and moderate exercise. Also critical, he said, is talking to a physician about the effects of prescription drugs on bone. Often a drug may be beneficial for one organ or system, but detrimental to others. He also recommends bone scans for women at age 40 to determine risk of osteoporosis.

He and his research team are looking at alcohol’s effects on bone health, with preliminary findings indicating alcohol abuse detrimental, but moderate consumption possibly beneficial. They also are studying effects of obesity and weight loss on the musculoskeletal system.

Mike Pavol, the core’s other co-director, is leading efforts to study the biomechanics of falling to learn how to help people prevent falls and thereby reduce the frequency of fractures. Current research includes studies aimed at identifying whether older adults can be trained to regain balance after slipping, determining those at greatest risk for “side” falls, and preventing osteoporosis in older age by using jumping exercises to increase bone density during childhood. OSU