Advances in Aging: Science Vs. Spirituality
VIDEO (coming soon)
By 2050, the world’s “graying” population is forecasted to reach 1.5 billion people, more than triple what it is today. Preparing health providers and societies to meet the needs of the elderly is essential: training health professionals for aging and elderly care; preventing and managing age-associated chronic diseases; designing sustainable long-term care policies; and developing age-friendly services and environments. The preview of this highly visual upcoming feature documentary film follow stories from five continents and sheds new light on breakthrough research including the evolutionary reasons for longevity, preserved longevity genetic pathways and caloric restriction. It also explores the implications of extending the human life/health span on environmental resources, health care, economies, the shrinking workforce, generational succession, and more notably, life's purpose. This film, a production of the University of Miami’s Arnold Center for Confluent Media Studies, is supported by the Herbert W. Hoover Foundation, and is directed by award-winning filmmaker Ali Habashi.
 |
|
Panelists (L-R) Masami Takahashi, Assistant
|
A combination of science and spirituality from around the world may be key to the ongoing quest for longer life. That was the consensus of a psychologist, a biologist, a theologian and a filmmaker, all panelists at a session titled “The Silver Mirror—A Global Documentary Film Shedding New Light on Aging: Preview and Panel Discussion,” at the University of Miami Global Business Forum Jan. 12–14, 2011.
The session opened with a preview of The Silver Mirror, a documentary highlighting some of the challenges of an aging world, produced and directed by award-winning filmmaker Ali Habashi, director of the University of Miami Arnold Center for Confluent Media Studies, who moderated the session. The preview featured clips of scientists speaking about aging and lines of research that may someday treat or even “cure” it, likening the process to a disease. Among the tidbits: Rats live an average of three years, but squirrels (which one researcher called “basically a rat with a long tail”) live, on average, 25 years. Thus, researchers might learn more about aging and death through studies of rodents. The film also examined Switzerland’s assisted suicide law.
The panelists discussed their own research into the importance of both science and spirituality. Masami Takahashi, assistant professor of psychology at Northeastern Illinois University, presented a study suggesting that respecting elders’ place in society and keeping them involved in their communities may be one key to keeping people “with a youthful state of mind,” he said.
Noting specifically that the residents of Okinawa, Japan, live significantly longer, on average, than people in the rest of the world, Takahashi focused on what spirituality meant to them and how their spiritual traditions shaped their view of aging. He found that the islanders have unique traditions and beliefs that value their elderly population, giving them a cultural meaning and sense of purpose.
“Their lives are intertwined with a sense of spirituality that enhances the lives of older individuals,” Takahashi said. For example, the eldest woman in a household is tasked with performing certain rituals, including wandering the area to gather important herbs. These activities help keep her active while giving her a sense of purpose long after she has raised her children. Takashi also pointed out that the Okinawan culture integrates the elderly into daily life.
“In our culture, so many elders tend to be isolated in one way or another,” he said, noting that as Okinawa residents leave their own community and move away from Japan, their life expectancy declines.
This acceptance of their elders is in sharp contrast to American culture, which tends to value youth in a way that makes aging more difficult to bear, said Stephen Sapp, a professor of religious studies in UM’s College of Arts & Sciences.
“We place so much emphasis on youth. The things that we consider markers of aging well are those that we associate with youth,” he said. “As long as we continue to do that, we devalue aging.”
Sapp went on to suggest that resurrecting traditional religious beliefs in an afterlife might help some people approach aging and dying with less anxiety. “In a time when there was a much more widespread belief in an afterlife, people didn’t seem to have as much trouble dying as they do now,” he said. “As that view or acceptance has eroded, the feeling is, ‘This is all I have. I want to hang on to it.’”
On the other side of the spectrum, Carlos Moraes, professor of neurology and cell biology and anatomy at the Lois Pope LIFE Center at UM’s Miller School of Medicine, discussed anti-aging research including his study of the links between mitochondria and aging. He highlighted research on mice and primates showing that caloric restriction and a naturally occurring chemical found in red wine seem to slow physical decline by a number of measures.
But despite research and promise, Sapp worries that pure science cannot address a deeper problem many have with aging, arguing that spirituality can bring a different view to the process of aging and dying.
“Elderly and dying people have needs beyond the physical,” he said. “Modern science can offer us the means to live longer lives, but with all its successes and advances, it is powerless to offer us a meaning to live for.”
The Silver Mirror — A Global Documentary Film Shedding New Light on Aging: Preview and Panel Discussion
Advances in Aging: Science Vs. Spirituality
A combination of science and spirituality from around the world may be key to the ongoing quest for longer life. That was the consensus of a psychologist, a biologist, a theologian and a filmmaker, all panelists at a session titled “The Silver Mirror—A Global Documentary Film Shedding New Light on Aging: Preview and Panel Discussion,” at the University of Miami Global Business Forum Jan. 12–14, 2011.
The session opened with a preview of The Silver Mirror, a documentary highlighting some of the challenges of an aging world, produced and directed by award-winning filmmaker Ali Habashi, director of the University of Miami Arnold Center for Confluent Media Studies, who moderated the session. The preview featured clips of scientists speaking about aging and lines of research that may someday treat or even “cure” it, likening the process to a disease. Among the tidbits: Rats live an average of three years, but squirrels (which one researcher called “basically a rat with a long tail”) live, on average, 25 years. Thus, researchers might learn more about aging and death through studies of rodents. The film also examined Switzerland’s assisted suicide law.
The panelists discussed their own research into the importance of both science and spirituality. Masami Takahashi, assistant professor of psychology at Northeastern Illinois University, presented a study suggesting that respecting elders’ place in society and keeping them involved in their communities may be one key to keeping people “with a youthful state of mind,” he said.
Noting specifically that the residents of Okinawa, Japan, live significantly longer, on average, than people in the rest of the world, Takahashi focused on what spirituality meant to them and how their spiritual traditions shaped their view of aging. He found that the islanders have unique traditions and beliefs that value their elderly population, giving them a cultural meaning and sense of purpose.
“Their lives are intertwined with a sense of spirituality that enhances the lives of older individuals,” Takahashi said. For example, the eldest woman in a household is tasked with performing certain rituals, including wandering the area to gather important herbs. These activities help keep her active while giving her a sense of purpose long after she has raised her children. Takashi also pointed out that the Okinawan culture integrates the elderly into daily life.
“In our culture, so many elders tend to be isolated in one way or another,” he said, noting that as Okinawa residents leave their own community and move away from Japan, their life expectancy declines.
This acceptance of their elders is in sharp contrast to American culture, which tends to value youth in a way that makes aging more difficult to bear, said Stephen Sapp, a professor of religious studies in UM’s College of Arts & Sciences.
“We place so much emphasis on youth. The things that we consider markers of aging well are those that we associate with youth,” he said. “As long as we continue to do that, we devalue aging.”
Sapp went on to suggest that resurrecting traditional religious beliefs in an afterlife might help some people approach aging and dying with less anxiety. “In a time when there was a much more widespread belief in an afterlife, people didn’t seem to have as much trouble dying as they do now,” he said. “As that view or acceptance has eroded, the feeling is, ‘This is all I have. I want to hang on to it.’”
On the other side of the spectrum, Carlos Moraes, professor of neurology and cell biology and anatomy at the Lois Pope LIFE Center at UM’s Miller School of Medicine, discussed anti-aging research including his study of the links between mitochondria and aging. He highlighted research on mice and primates showing that caloric restriction and a naturally occurring chemical found in red wine seem to slow physical decline by a number of measures.
But despite research and promise, Sapp worries that pure science cannot address a deeper problem many have with aging, arguing that spirituality can bring a different view to the process of aging and dying.
“Elderly and dying people have needs beyond the physical,” he said. “Modern science can offer us the means to live longer lives, but with all its successes and advances, it is powerless to offer us a meaning to live for.”
