WASHINGTON, Aug. 7, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The
Alliance for Aging Research and the Healthspan Campaign announce
the release of The Healthspan Imperative, a landmark new
short film. Narrated by television show host and best-selling
author Martha Stewart, it looks at
the challenges of the aging American population and the scientific
quest to increase our healthspan, the length of time we spend free
of the costly and harmful conditions of old age.
The U.S. population is getting older—and living longer. This is
expected to produce a "Silver Tsunami" of costly chronic diseases
and disabilities of aging. Finding a way to avert this impending
disaster will be this country's next great priority.
This film shares how experts are working toward discoveries that
could alter the aging process and postpone or even prevent chronic
diseases.
"The Healthspan Imperative explores one of our country's
biggest challenges," says Sue
Peschin, MHS, Alliance president and CEO. "Chronic diseases
of aging are a tremendous threat to not only our health care
system, but to the well-being of older adults and their family
caregivers. As this film shows, research into the underlying
biological process of aging has the potential to extend healthy
years of life, but only if we increase our federal investment. The
most effective strategy in 'bending the cost curve' in health care
will be preventing age-related chronic diseases in the first
place."
The Healthspan Imperative features interviews with:
- Nir Barzilai, M.D., Albert Einstein College of Medicine of
Yeshiva University
- Marie A. Bernard, M.D., National
Institute on Aging
- Laura Carstensen, Ph.D.,
Stanford Center on Longevity
- Dana Goldman, Ph.D.,
University of Southern California
- Brian Kennedy, Ph.D., Buck
Institute for Research on Aging
- James Kirkland, M.D., Ph.D.,
Mayo Clinic
- Rick I. Morimoto, Ph.D.,
Northwestern University
- S. Jay Olshansky, Ph.D.,
University of Illinois at Chicago
- Dan Perry, Alliance for Aging
Research
- Felipe Sierra, Ph.D., National
Institute on Aging
Funding was provided by Allianz, Battelle, The Retirement
Research Foundation, the Buck Institute for Research on Aging and
the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research.
A media kit is available here. A social media campaign using
#healthspan has also been launched. For more about the film, please
contact Noel Lloyd at
nlloyd@agingresearch.org or 202.370.7825.
About the Alliance for Aging Research
The Alliance for
Aging Research is the leading nonprofit organization dedicated to
accelerating the pace of scientific discoveries and their
application in order to vastly improve the universal human
experience of aging and health. Its Healthspan Campaign is a
coalition of organizations with a mission to help advocate for
research into the basic biology of aging through consensus
building, communications outreach and political strategy. For more
information, visit here.
Video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rGpJDyiUXs
SOURCE Alliance for Aging Research