Healthy Aging Symposium

The goal of the "Healthy Aging" Symposium is to present and discuss the aging phenomena broadband aspects in the various relevant research area, towards joint efforts in national and international collaborations.

The elderly person undergoes several simultaneous processes: biological aging, affected by genetics and its random structural changes, adaption to the physical environment, increasing of morbidity load, mental adaption to bodily changes as well as changes in one's role in society. This series of changes occurs in parallel, in different rhythms, dictated by various parameters investigated and defined through ongoing research in different disciplines. Thus, aging is one of the most fascinating, complex and dynamic phenomena.

As the proportion and impact of elderly members in society surge, the need to understand the vast phenomena of aging in both their healthy and unhealthy manifestations is ever growing. The number of older people (over the age of 65) has increased in an unprecedented manner. Thus, since the middle of the last century, the proportional increase in the older population of Israel has been twofold the increase in the general population. Today, life expectancy for those who reached the age of 65 approximates 20 more years with a higher survival rate for women over men. Furthermore, the growth rate of those over 80 years of age (“the old-old”) in Israel is especially high compared to western countries.

These data highlight the imperative to promote a healthy trajectory of aging, which grants older people with a reasonable quality of life. The necessity of investigating the mechanisms of aging as well as of solving unique old-age problems is a multidisciplinary challenge, and involves a wide array of scientific pursuits.

This is the theme of this Symposium – a cross-disciplinary ongoing brainstorming for the best benefit of society.